Foundation
Founded in the 1150’s, Monk Bretton Priory belonged to the powerful French order of Cluny. Its monks followed the 6th-century Rule of St Benedict.
Sometime between 1090 and 1098 Robert de Laci, who ran his lordship from Pontefract Castle, set up a priory of Cluniac monks at Pontefract. Those monks came from the great Cluniac motherhouse, La Charité-sur-Loire, in France. Robert’s family was rewarded for this gift with daily prayers to save their immortal souls, said by the monks at of St Johns, Pontefract.
Ailric of Cawthorne was a local, English landowner under de Laci lordship. He also made gifts to St John’s. Later, Ailric’s grandson, Adam Fitz Swain, set up his own Cluniac priory here at ‘Lund’ (or Bretton), staffed by monks from St Johns. Its foundation can be dated to 1153-54.
Gerald Alliot at Barnsley Archives records this time-line to show that ‘Barnsley manor and grange’ meant land that was given to Cluniac monks at Monk Bretton Priory.
An ownership time line:
- Robert Capricuria wed sister of Ilbert de Laci of Pontefract and gave Barnsley to I. de Laci
- de Laci founded St John’s Cluniac priory at Ponte 1090-98
- de Laci’s land lord, Ailric of Cawthorne, Barnsley became a benefactor to St John’s
- Adam fitz Swæn of Cawthorne (under Robert de Laci) gave St John’s our MBP site in 1153-54
- “Barnsley” market charter granted to Cluniacs in 1249, for Monk Bretton
- MBP manor and grange became crown property after 1538
- King William III sold same manor and grange to W. Bentinck of Holland 1690
- Bentincks became Earls of Portland
- Bentincks sold manor to T. Osbourne, Duke of Leeds in 1735
Contact Details
Friends of Monk Bretton Priory
PO BOX 1000
Barnsley
S70 1AA