Page:History of the Fylde of Lancashire (IA historyoffyldeof00portiala).pdf/305

 matter to the arbitration of Robert de Pikeringe, Elbor. Official," who decided that the abbot and convent of Whalley, formerly of Stanlawe, should receive in perpetuity the major tithes of every and all their lands within the boundaries of Staining, Hardhorn, and Newton, whether the harvests were cultivated by the monks themselves or by their tenants; but the minor tithes, personal and obligatory, whether of the abbey tenants or of the secular servants, were adjudged to the vicar of the church of Poulton and the prior and monks of Lancaster. The abbot of Whalley was also directed to pay to the prior of Lancaster at the parish church of Poulton an annual sum of eighteen marks, as an acknowledgment, half at the festival of St. Martin and the remainder at Pentecost. The Coucher Book contains several deeds of arrangement touching marsh-land in the vicinity of Staining. Cecilia de Laton, widow, gave to the abbot and convent of Stanlawe, all her marsh between certain land of Staining and a long ditch, so that the latter might mark the division between Staining and Little Layton, the witnesses to the transfer being William de Carleton, William de Syngleton, and Alan, his son, William de Merton, and Richard de Thornton; Cecilia de Laton also quitclaimed to the same monastery all her right to the mediety of a marsh between "Mattainsmure" and Little Carleton. William le Boteler exchanged with the Stanlawe brotherhood all the marsh between the ditch above mentioned and the land of Staining for a similar tract beyond the trench towards Great Layton, stipulating that if at any time a fishery should be established in the ditch, which was doubtless both wide and deep, the monks and he, or his heirs, should participate equally in the benefits accruing from it. Theobald Walter granted power to the abbot of Stanlawe to make use of his mere of Marton for the purpose of conducting therefrom a stream to turn the mill at Staining, belonging to the monastery, care being taken that the fish in the said mere were not injured or diminished. Within the grange of Staining a chantry was in existence, and its services were presided over by two resident priests, whose duty it also was to superintend the property held by the convent of Stanlawe, and subsequently by the abbey of Whalley, in the neighbourhood.

The following is a list of the conventual possessions and rentals in Staining at the date of the Reformation:—The house of