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The Rufford Charters were grants of land and grants of Regalian rights over land, which created an extra-parochial liberty,[ clarification needed ] known as the Liberty of Rufford in the County of Nottinghamshire in England. It is defined as an area in which regalian rights were exercised by the Cistercian monks of Rufford Abbey.
A charter is a grant of authority or rights, stating that the granter formally recognizes the prerogative of the recipient to exercise the rights specified. It is implicit that the grantor retains superiority (or sovereignty), and that the grantee admits a limited (or inferior) status within the relationship, and it is within that sense that charters were historically granted, and that sense is retained in modern usage of the term. Also, a charter can give royal permission to start a colony or a Liberty. Regalian right was the right of a monarch to receive the income from the estates of a vacant Bishopric or Abbey. [1]
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.
Fountains Abbey is one of the largest and best preserved ruined Cistercian monasteries in England. It is located approximately 3 miles (5 km) south-west of Ripon in North Yorkshire, near to the village of Aldfield. Founded in 1132, the abbey operated for 407 years, becoming one of the wealthiest monasteries in England until its dissolution, by order of Henry VIII, in 1539.
Rievaulx Abbeyree-VOH was a Cistercian abbey in Rievaulx, situated near Helmsley in the North York Moors National Park, North Yorkshire, England. It was one of the great abbeys in England until it was seized under Henry VIII of England in 1538 during the dissolution of the monasteries. The wider site was awarded Scheduled Ancient Monument status in 1915 and the abbey was brought into the care of the Ministry of Works in 1917. The striking ruins of its main buildings are a tourist attraction, owned and maintained by English Heritage.
Worksop is a market town in Nottinghamshire in the East Midlands of England and the administrative centre of the Bassetlaw district. It is located 19 miles (31 km) east-south-east of Sheffield, close to Nottinghamshire's borders with South Yorkshire and Derbyshire, on the River Ryton and not far from the northern edge of Sherwood Forest. It is known as the "Gateway to The Dukeries", because of its proximity to former Ducal estates such as Clumber House, Thoresby Hall, Welbeck Abbey and Worksop Manor, as well as estates such as Rufford Abbey and Hodsock Priory.
The Dukeries is an area of the county of Nottinghamshire so called because it contained four ducal seats. It is south of Worksop, which has been called its "gateway". The area was included within the ancient Sherwood Forest. The ducal seats were:
Wellow is a village in Nottinghamshire, England. According to the 2001 census it had a population of 444, increasing to 470 at the 2011 census.
Bassetlaw was a wapentake in the English county of Nottinghamshire. The wapentake covered an area in the north of the county, roughly equivalent to the modern Bassetlaw local government district. The wapentake was divided into the divisions of Hatfield, North Clay and South Clay.
Rufford Abbey is a country estate in Rufford, Nottinghamshire, England, 2 miles (4 km) south of Ollerton. Originally a Cistercian abbey, it was converted to a country house in the 16th century after the Dissolution of the Monasteries. Part of the house was demolished in the 20th century, but the remains, standing in 150 acres of park and woodland, are open to the public as Rufford Country Park. Part of the park is a Local Nature Reserve.
Kingswood Abbey was a Cistercian abbey, located in the village of Kingswood near Wotton-under-Edge, Gloucestershire, England. The abbey was demolished during the Dissolution of the Monasteries, and all that remains is the gatehouse, a Grade 1 listed building. Through the gatehouse arch are a few houses and the small village primary school of Kingswood.
Revesby Abbey was a Cistercian monastery near the village of Revesby in Lincolnshire, England. The abbey was founded in 1143 by William de Roumare, Earl of Lincoln, and the first monks came from Rievaulx Abbey.
Sir Geoffrey de Luterel I, was a courtier and confidant of King John, whom he served as a minister.
The Abbey of Strata Marcella was a medieval Cistercian monastery situated at Ystrad Marchell on the west bank of the River Severn near Welshpool, Powys, Wales.
Jura regalia is a medieval legal term which denoted rights that belonged exclusively to the king, either as essential to his sovereignty, such as royal authority; or accidental, such as hunting, fishing and mining rights. Many sovereigns in the Middle Ages and in later times claimed the right to seize the revenues of vacant episcopal sees or abbeys, claiming a Regalian right. In some countries, especially in France where it was known as droit de régale, jura regalia came to be applied almost exclusively to that assumed right. A liberty was an area where the regalian right did not apply.
Cratley is a lost village in Nottinghamshire, England. It may have been located close to North Laithes Farm at Kneesall although an alternative site east of Laund Wood has been suggested. Another name's for the settlement is Cratela, or Creilage. Two field names on the Estate Map of the Liberty of Rufford i.e. in 1637 are given as East and West Credlin.
William Levett was lord of the manor of the South Yorkshire village of Hooton Levitt, a village named in part for his ancestors, and became the owner of the patronage of Roche Abbey on marriage to the granddaughter of the Abbey's cofounder Richard FitzTurgis, a Norman baron who co-founded Roche with the great-nephew of one of England's most powerful Norman barons, Roger de Busli.
The Liberty of Rufford was an extra-parochial liberty in the County of Nottinghamshire.
Shireoaks Hall is a grade II* listed 17th-century country house in the hamlet of Shireoaks, 2+1⁄4 miles (3.6 km) north-west of Worksop, Nottinghamshire, UK.
Jordan Foliot was son of Richard Foliot (-1290), Knight of Jordan Castle, and Margery de Stuteville daughter of William de Stuteville and Margaret de Say. Richard had the Rights of Stallage of the Market and Fair on St. Swithuns day valued at 40s yearly in Wellow.
http://www.nottinghamshire.gov.uk/archives