Abbeylands' Rents 1740

Rushen Abbey owned considerable property in several parishes - it also maintained its own courts to administer their tennants and properties with setting quests etc appointed for each major group of properties. At the Dissolution of the Monasteries in England in 1537 Rushen Abbey being a daughter house of Furness was also dissolved (though the legality of this dissolution is strongly questioned) - the land eventually passed to the Stanley Lords however the rentals remained seperate from the Lords Rental as noted in Lib Assed.

The rentals and court affairs are found in the Liber Monasteriorum (Lib Mon) or Account Book of Rushen Abbey which exists from 1579, 3 books of which were filmed and are available on Mormon Microfilm, however the book covering 1740 through to mid 19th Century was not filmed and must be consulted at the Manx Museum - there are very few lists of properties and rentals between 1537 and 1740 though the Lib Mon records each change to a tenancy (and an index to these changes may be found in each volume).Some earlier rental lists exist from around the time of the Dissolution (1537) - the 1703 Composition book included a list of Abbeyland properties in a seperate section.

The 1740 book has, bound at the start, a list of tenants and properties similar to that found in Lib Assed - lists were prepared for periods 1740-1750, 1750-1764, 1764-1784, 1784-1796 - the first of these lists is here though split between parishes.




Any comments, errors or omissions gratefully received The Editor HTML Transcription © F.Coakley , 2009