DUGDALE’S MONASTICON ANGLICANUM.

ACCOUNT OF RUSHEN ABBEY—ISLE OF MAN.

Extracted from Dugdale’s Monasticon Anglicanum, edited by CALEY, ELLIS, and BANDINEL, 1846 ; to which are added, in an Appendix, translations of the Synodal Statutes of Bishops Simon, Mark, and Russell, with those of Bishop Wilson.

Monasticon Anglicanum : a History of the Abbeys and other Monasteries, Hospitals, Frieries, and Cathedral and Collegiate Churches, with their dependencies in England and Wales. By Sir William Dugdale and Roger Dodsworth. London, 1655-6 1-73. Folio— 3 volumes—Plates.

THE first edition of this work, which contains chiefly the foundation-charters of the monasteries at their first erection. An abridged edition, in English, by Captain John Stevens— London 1718-22-23—folio—three volumes. A new edition, with a large accession of materials, by John Caley, F.R.S., Sir Henry Ellis, F.R. S., and the Rev. B. Bandinel, D.D.— London, 1817-30 — folio —eight volumes — with numerous plates by John Coney. A new edition by the same in 1846, in eight volumes, folio. From this edition, pp. 250-257, vol. V., the present reprint is made, to which are added translations of the Synodal Statutes of Bishop Simon (AD. 1229), Bishop Mark (A.D. 1291), with Bishop Russell’s additions (A.D. 1350), by Dr. Oliver, as printed in his Monumenta, vol iii. (Manx Society, vol. ix., 1862). The Translation of the Charter of the Bishopric of Man in 1505, with a Compotus of the Demesne Lands of Rushen Abbey, AD. 1539, is printed in the third volume of Dr. Oliver’s Monumenta.

RUSSIN OR RYSHEN ABBEY, IN THE ISLE OF MAN.

OUR notices of Russin Abbey are few and scanty. Gibson, in his edition of Camden, says it was otherwise called Bally Sally Abbey.*

Tanner informs us that " a religious foundation is said to have been begun here, A.D. 1098, by Mac Manis, governor of the Isle ; but Olave, King of Man, giving some possessions here to the abbey of Furness, in Lancashire, t Ivo or Evan, abbot there, built a Cistercian abbey here, AD. 1134, to the honour of the Blessed Virgin, and made it subordinate to Furness. A.D. 1192 the monks removed to Duffglass or Douglass, where they continued four years, and then returned to Russin, :1: and flourished there till some time after the sup-pression of such houses in England ; the Reformation here being not so early as in England, and this being the latest dissolved monastery in these kingdoms."

William of Worcester makes the following mention of Russen in his Itinerary, as published by Nasmith, p. 312

" Castrum monasterii de Russyn cum iij monachis. Monasterium de Russyn scitum est in le south eest part insulæ."

In a " History of the Jsle of Man " (4to, Manchester, 1783), subjoined to Memoirs of the House of Stanley, are a few particulars respecting this abbey, which is said to have consisted of an abbot and twelve monks, who at first were meanly endowed, and lived mostly by their labour ; but in process of time they had good revenues. It is added that in the records thereof it is found that John Fargher was Abbot of Rushen and deputy-governor ; and in a piece of timber, in Kirk Arbory, which separates the church from the chancel, that Thomas Radcliffe was abbot. These abbots were barons of the island, held courts for their temporalities in their own names, might demand a prisoner from the King’s Court, if their own tenant, and try him by a jury of their own tenants, as the steward of the abbey-lands may do at this day. The chapel was the largest place of worship in the island except the cathedral

 * Cam. Brit. edit. 1722, p. 1448.

+ These were before given to the abbot and convent of Rievaulx, but they did not build upon it (Mon. Angi., former edit. torn. i. p. 710).

1: Thus far the testimonies of fact will be found in the excerpts from the Chronicles of the Isle of Mam, in the Appendix, Num. I. The boundaries of the lands noticed by Tanner will be found in the Appendix, Num. II.

RUSSINENSIS ABBATIA IN INSULA MANNIÆ CELLA FURNESIENSIS CŒNOBII.*

NUM. I.

[Ex chronicis de Insula Manniæ in Bibi. Cottoniana sub effigie Julii, A. vii.]t

Anno Domini M.C.XIL fundata est abbatia sanctæ Mariæ Saviniensis.

Eodem anno fundata est abbatia sanctæ Mariæ de Fumes.

Anno Domini MCXXXIII. fundata est abbatia sanctæ Mariæ Rievallis.

Anno Domini M.c.Xxxuij. fundata est abbatia sanctæ Mariæ de Caldra.

Eodem anno fundata est abbatia de Russin (in Insuha Manniæ).

Amino Domini M.C.XXXIX. fundata est abbatia Sanctæ Mamiæ de Meilros (in Scotia).

* Cam. Brit. ut supra, pp. 1448, 1449.

1’ Printed in Oliver’s Monumenta, vol. i. pp. 144, 146 ; Manx Society, vol. iv. 1860.

TBC