The Cistercians Monks of
Rufford Abbey received Grants and
Charters of Regalian right which was the right to receive the income from the estates of a vacant
bishopric or
abbey within its own boundaries of the Liberty of Rufford. The Cistercian monks who lived at
Rufford Abbey received many
grants and
charters and
letters patent of
prerogative and
extraterritoriality and of confirmation of manors and land and
franchises from kings and queens, dukes and earls, barons, lords and knights. Early in the reign of
Henry III (1216–72), Hugh, son of Richard De Caunton, gave the Cistercians a small parcel of land and confirmed a slightly larger grant by his father, Robert De Caus. Thomas De Muskham
waived in the abbey's favour his right to 6s. of yearly
rent. In 1250
William De Besthorpe, gave the third part of his property here. In 1287, at the
inquisition post-mortem of
Robert de Everingham, Lord of
Laxton, gave to the Cistercians who lived at Rufford Abbey half a
Knight's fee from his
barony in Kirketon, possible
Kirton,
Walesby,
Willoughby and
Besthorpe, which was worth £10 yearly, all of which the Abbey got the King to confirm. It also secured confirmation of the privileges it had obtained for itself and its
tenants, including exemption from secular exactions on all that was bought or sold by them or was conveyed for or by them by land or water, and the right of
free warren for the monks throughout their
Manors and lordship. The Cistercians Monks of Rufford Abbey held a weekly market and fair and had the right to cut and sell trees from the
Sherwood Forest in Nottinghamshire,
England. In 1359 they received over £400 from sales of timber.
King Henry II granted the monks licence to take ‘whatever was needful for their own use from the
forest, to keep a
forester, as in the time of his
grandfather Henry I. The
Valor Ecclesiasticus of 1534 provide gross income of the Abbey of £254 6s. 8d. and the clear annual value as £176 11s. 6d. The
temporalities were spread over a large area, including the
parishes of
Babworth,
Blidworth,
Boughton,
Bothamsall,
Bilsthorpe,
Edwinstowe,
Egmanton,
Eakring,
Farnsfield,
Kirton, and
Coddington,
East Retford,
Holme,
Kelham,
Kneesall, i.e.
Kersall and
Ompton,
Kirklington,
Kirton,
Littleborough,
Maplebeck,
Nottingham,
Ollerton,
Rufford,
Southwell,
Staythorpe,
Tuxford,
Walesby,
Warsop,
Welham,
Wellow,
Willoughby, and
Winkburn, in Nottinghamshire.
Abney,
Brampton,
Brackenfield,
Chesterfield,
Palterton, and
Shirebrook, in
Derbyshire;
Alkborough and
Barton upon Humber, in
Lincolnshire; and
Rotherham and
Penistone, in
Yorkshire. These
villages were known as the Liberty of Rufford. ==References==