Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 8.djvu/407

 s. viii. NOV. 16, 1901.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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monastery of St. Alban's by Robert de Albini and Cicely his mother (Dugdale's 1 Monasticon,' vol. iii. p. 274).

But although the name of Bellus Locus for the site of a religious foundation was first associated with the Benedictine Order, its use was not confined to the Benedictines and Cistercians. In the beginning of the twelfth century Eustace, Lord of Fiennes, built the abbey of Bellus Locus near Ambletusa, in the diocese of Boulogne, for the Augustinian Order ('Gallia Christiana,' second edition, tome x. 1614); and Augus tinian monasteries bearing the name of Bellus Locus were established in 1124 at Le Mans, and about 1170 at Dinan in Brittany, in the diocese of St. Malo (' Gallia Christiana,' second edition, k>me xiv. 512, 1031). The Premonstratensians had a monastery called Bellus Locus in the diocese of Troyes, which was founded originally for the Augustinians, and is said to have received its name " quod in amcena et suavi temperie cosli solique ac jucundissimo fundo fuerit constructum," and which about 1140 accepted the Premonstra- tensian rule ('Gallia Christiana,' first edition, tome iv. p. 155 ; second edition, tome xii. 614).

In 1200 a priory of regular canons called Bellus Locus was founded in the diocese of Rouen by John de Preaux (' Gallia Chris- tiana,' second edition, tome xi. 57) ; in 1224 the nunnery of S. Maria de Bello Loco, near Douai, in the diocese of Arras, was placed under the rule of St. Augustine (' Gallia Christiana,' second edition, tome iii. 448) ; and in 1250 or thereabouts the nunnery of Bellus Locus of the Order of St. John of Jerusalem, in the diocese of Cahors, was constituted an abbey ('Gallia Christiana,' second edition, tome i. 194).

Religious foundations in Flanders and Hainault bearing the name of Bellus Locus or Beaulieu will be found mentioned in 'Table Chronologique des Chartes et Diplomes Imprimes concernant 1'Histoire de la Belgique,' tome ii. pp. 469, 662; tome iii. pp. 374, 500, 609, 629 ; and tome vi. pp. 570, 571.

Reference may also be made to the priory of Beaulieu in the diocese of Lincoln, mentioned under the date of July, 1349, in ' Calendar of Papal Registers ' (Papal Letters), vol. iii. p. 326 ; and to the priory of Beaulieu in the county of Inverness, mentioned in ' Calendar of Papal Registers ' (Petitions), vol. i. pp. 596-7, in a petition of 1411. At a place called Bewley, in the parish of Kilmolash and county of Waterford, there are the remains of a monastic building, but to what order it

belonged is uncertain (' State of the County and City of Waterford,' by Charles Smith, p. 75 ; Archdale's 'Monasticon Hibern.,' p. 685). According to Mr. Charles Smith, writing in 1746, tradition represented it to be one of the Templars' houses.

The name Bellus Locus, or Beaulieu, was sometimes given to monastic or ecclesiastical possessions other than the sites of religious houses. About the year 1264 Hugh de Derling- ton, prior of the Benedictine convent of Dur- ham, appears to have erected a manor house on lands of the convent in the parish of Billing- ham and given it the name of Beaulieu (' History of Robert de Graystanes,' Surtees Society's Publications, vol. ix. p. 46). This manor house served at times as a court-house for the prior when disputes requiring his intervention arose in Billingham (Surtees's 'History of Durham,' vol. iii. p. 144). Con- nected with the manor was a grange or farm- house, and the division of the parish of Billingham in which the manor house was situate came to be called in modern times Newtown-Bewley, while the division con- taining the grange was called Cowpen-Bewley (Surtees's ' History of Durham,' vol. iii. p. 150).

Beaulieu, now known as Bewdley, in Worcestershire, was at one time a manor belonging to the Benedictine priory of St. Mary's, Worcester ('Calendar of Close Rolls, Edward III., 1337-9,' p. 194), and no doubt was given its name by its monastic owners.

Bewley Castle, near Appleby in West- moreland, was one of the early residences of the Bishop of Carlisle, and is called Bellus Locus in the * Taxatio Vicarise Ecclesiae Sancti Michaelis de Appleby' of 1256 (Dugdale's ' Monasticon,' vol. iii. pp. 586-7 ; J. E. Pres- cott's ' Register of the Priory of Wetherall,' p. 61), and in a deed of 4 February, 1266 (Pres- cott's ' Register of the Priory of Wetherall,' p. 73). There seems to be no foundation for the statement in Dugdale's ' Baronage.' vol. i. p. 455, and Nicolson and Burn's ' Antiquities of Westmoreland and Cumberland,' vol. i. p. 456, that Bewley or Buley Castle was built by or belonged to John de Builly (Pres- cott's ' Register of the Priory of Wetherall,' p. 62, in notis), the name of whose family, it may be mentioned, was always latinized as " de Buliaco." It appears to me that a much more natural origin for the name of the castle may be suggested. Hugh, the third Bishop of Carlisle, had been Abbot of Beau- lieu in Hampshire ('Annales Waverlienses '; 'Historise Anglicanse Scriptores,' vol. ii. p. 188 ; Prescott's 'Register of the Priory of Wetherall,' p. 50, in notis), and on being