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Doncaster Parish Church at the time of William Farndale
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The original possibly twelfth century building burnt down on the last day of February 1853. This fire resulted in the loss of the medieval library which was above the south porch. The current Doncaster Minster is therefore an impressive Victorian structure built after 1853. In order to enter the world of William Farndale, Chaplain of Doncaster Parish Church by 1355 and Vicar of Doncaster Parish Church from 8 January 1396 to 31 August 1403, we need to understand the earlier church.
Origin of the Church
Roman site
Doncaster grew up on the site of a Roman fort of the first century CE, at a crossing of the River Don later known as Danum. The Roman fort is thought to have been on the site of the present St George's Minster, beside the River Don.
Saxons etc
Doncaster is generally identified with Cair Daun listed as one of 28 British cities in the 9th-century History of the Britons by Nennius. It was certainly an Anglo-Saxon burh, and in that period received its present name: Don (Old English: Donne) from the settlement and river and caster (ceaster) from an Old English version of the Latin castra (military camp or fort).
Normans
Shortly after the Norman Conquest, Nigel Fossard refortified the town and built Conisbrough Castle. By the time of Domesday Book, Hexthorpe in the wapentake of Strafforth was said to have a church and two mills. The historian David Hey says these facilities represent the settlement at Doncaster. He also suggests that the street name Frenchgate indicates that Fossard invited fellow Normans to trade in the town. Doncaster was ceded to Scotland in the Treaty of Durham and never formally returned to England!
Rev Jackson’s book (see below) tells us: “At the Conquest there was a Church and a single Priest , whose nomination lay with the Fossards, feudal Lords of the town. In the reign of William Rufus, Nigel Fossard , leaning with the special favour of those times towards the establishment of monastic houses, made to the newly founded Abbey of St. Mary's, near the walls of York, a donation which is thus described in his charter.”
With the 13th century, Doncaster matured into a busy town. In 1194 King Richard I granted it national recognition with a town charter. It suffered a disastrous fire in 1204, from which it slowly recovered. At the time, buildings were built of wood, and open fireplaces used for cooking and heating.
St Mary Magdalene
In 1248, a charter was granted for Doncaster Market to be held in the area surrounding the Church of St Mary Magdalene, which was built in Norman times. St Mary Magdalene Church was the original Parish Church of Doncaster. However after the fire of Doncaster, it was burnt down and St George’s became the parish church.
St George’s
The ecclesiastica taxatio listed
the parish churches of England and Wales in 1291 to 1292 and listed St George’s
at Doncaster, whose patronage was to the Benedictine St Mary’s Abbey at York,
assessed for tax at £93 6s 8d.
The main source for St George’s Parish Church is the History of St George’s Church, Doncaster, Destroyed by Fire, February 28, 1853, by the Rev J E Jackson.
Rev Jackson suggested “according to Leland, an eye-witness about A.D. 1510, the late Parish Church stood upon area and within the walls (some of their foundations then remaining) of the ancient Castle of Doncaster. Whether the Castle, whilst used as such, had contained any spot of consecrated ground ; whether that ground had been occupied by a parish church or only a chapel; at what time the whole area of the Castle became consecrated and parochial ; and in what style any first churches may have been built, are points that will receive from this Volume little or no aid to solution.”
From excavations after the fire in 1853, Jackson concluded that if the church had been of Norman origin, it would have lasted scarcely a hundred years as the fire of Easter 1204 consumed the town of Doncaster so if it had existed it must have been destroyed.
Rev Jackson suggested that the original church “had been in its previous (we dare not say original) state, essentially and throughout of the order known as “ First Pointed ," or Early- English. The period usually allowed for that style is about 118 years, from 1 Richard I to 35 Edward I.” So this suggests the origin of the parish church to have been 1189 to 1307.
He then says “we are not wholly without grounds for suggesting the names of one or two principal promoters”:
· “The cost of the chancel would be provided by the owners of the Rectorial property, then the Abbot and Convent of St. Mary's at York. Under such influence, that part might be expected to correspond (as from the pattern remaining in the old side -windows appears to have been the case) with the more enriched variety of this style, of which that Abbey was itself an exquisite specimen”. Note the connection of the Stutevilles to the Convent of St Mary at York in the early history of Farndale.
· “Amongst contributors to the rest of the Church, without ranging vaguely beyond the bounds of reasonable conjecture, one may perhaps be identified in the person of Robert de Turnham , a Crusader under Richard I., distinguished by special notice in metrical chronicles of the day.” “He was, in fact ( by marriage with the heiress of the Fossards) , Lord of Doncaster, and actual owner of the estates now possessed by the Corporation.” “he was contemporary with, and must have been a sufferer in property by, the Fire of A.D. 1204, is certain ; for he did not die until six years after it, in A.D. 1210.”
As to a description of the church of William Farndale’s day:
· “the width of the Nave (50 feet)”
· “The form , that of the Latin Cross, having Nave and Chancel; with Transepts (North and South ), to each of which was appended on their eastern side a small aisle or chapel.”
· “At the west end … it is not unlikely that there may once have been a Norman Door.”
· “The nave was formed by two large arcades, each consisting of five obtusely - pointed arches rising upon massive octangular pillars. The capitals and mouldings were without ornament, and of the earliest period of this order of architecture, dating probably from about A.D. 1190 to A.D. 1200.”
· “Above these large arches (between them and the roof) there was originally a range of low windows (forming the Clerestory)”
· “Behind them, and within the thickness of the Church wall, ran a narrow gallery known as the “ Triforium ” passage”
· “Four massive piers at the cross were ready to support some kind of steeple”
This is his ground plan for the older church:
“Of the exterior, an outline, to a certain extent conjectural, but representing what the Church is most likely to have been about the year 1300, is given below:”
So this seems to be the best representation of the church in the time of William Farndale.
Rev Jackson went on to explain that “yet, within little more than two centuries, we shall find that almost every other part of it had been once more renewed”. He ponders why it was necessary to carry out such extensive renovation so soon. However this would seem to take us beyond the time of William Farndale. There are however some observations which help:
· “The first and almost the only monument of any quality or consequence in Doncaster Church was of the year 1465.” (ie after William Farndale)
· However “the cross slabs discovered (chiefly ) about the Foundation of the South Transept, besides those above mentioned in the roof of the Crypt, are indeed of the thirteenth century” (ie before William Farndale)
· And “some of the ' inscriptions copied by De la Pryme (as will be seen on referring to them in a later page) bear dates between A.D. 1330-1413” (ie during William Farndale’s time.
· “These would have been in or belonging to the Church before it was altered : but no memorial of any kind better than a simple gravestone appears until the Church had been made almost new again.”
Jackson surmised there may have been another fire at some point.
He thinks that “About A.D. 1392, the large Perpendicular window was inserted in the West Front. That this was done, the rest of the Church being still Early, is clear from an arrangement made for continuing the Triforium Gallery across the new window by a double row of mullions in the lower tier, between which it was conducted . The date of this insertion is supplied by the will of one Robert Usher, of East Retford, who, in this year, bequeathed “ 5 marks towards the construction of a window at the western end of the Church of St. George, at Doncaster.” I At this period, therefore, the Nave would be lighted by the large window at the end and the small narrow lights of the clerestory at the sides.” So this was four years before William became the Vicar, while he was presumably still the chaplain.
Jackson thought the renovated Church might have ended up looking something like this, but this would have been after William’s time, unless the surmised fire or some of the reconstruction had started when William was the vicar. It was probably a bit later though.
The Rectory of Doncaster
Jackson wrote: “in A.D. 1303 , the Monks of St. Mary's … discovered that for two Rectors to divide the profits between them , leaving only a small pension to the Abbey, could never have been the meaning of Nigel Fossard. So having succeeded in convincing Archbishop Corbridge, and the other ecclesiastical authorities in such cases appealed to, that the Latin of Fossard's charter ought to be differently translated, they obtained leave to appropriate the Rectory to themselves. The act of appropriation does not appear to have taken effect for about 17 years ; as the institution of Rectors continued to 1318 , and it was not until 1320-1 that the Royal Patent was granted, and that Archbishop Melton confirmed the proceedings. The two Rectors at that time were Roger and William de Staines. The former probably died about that time; as we find only the latter pensioned off, with the liberal allowance of 80 marks per annum for his life. From this time all the tithe, both great and small (“ totam ” in Fossard's charter) flowed to the treasury of St. Mary's at York ; and one clergyman, under the title of Perpetual Vicar, was appointed to be the resident guardian of parochial duties. One of the two Rectory houses, “ with the whole place,” was assigned to the Vicar, with the annual stipend of 50 marks (331. 6s. 8d . ), to be paid hiin by the Abbey. With the amount of this provision, considering the times, no fault was to be found ; nor would his successors in the Vicarage have had any reason to complain, if the stipend had been proportionately increased according to the change in the value of money : but in this material point the endowment was neglected. Whilst the Abbey and all succeeding owners of the Tithe altered the amount of their receipts, no change was for a very long time made in the original figures of the Vicar's stipend. Besides this money payment, the Ordination awarded to him , “ his vigils for his labour, with the penny offered at funerals and the penny at the Church door for marriages : " in other words , certain perquisites resembling modern " surplice fees. ” He was to be exempt from payment of tithe upon his own cattle , but was burdened with one - fourth part of the charges upon the Rectory. Archbishop Melton, in giving his sanction to this arrangement, stipulated with the Monks for two pensions out of the Rectorial tithes: one of 10l. a-year to himself and his successors in the see of York ,' the other of five marks a-year (31. 6s. 8d .), to be distributed amongst the poor ” of Doncaster for ever.” The period of the Rectors continued until 1320 when Walter de Thornton was appointed as the first Priest/Vicar.
Jackson listed the clergy of St George’s including William Farndale:
He also listed the chaplains, which include William Farndale’ for 1369 to 1370, but he concedes in the notes that his list is no doubt capable of additions, and we have other evidence if William’s chaplaincy in 1355 so he was presumably chaplain for a longer period than shown below.
Lovershall
There is also a bit about Lovershall (where William Farndale purchased land) in Jackson’s book:
CHAPELRY OF LOVERSAL
By the Chapelry of Loversal , so constantly mentioned, is meant, in fact, the tithes of the parish of Loversal ( a township of Doncaster ). For the ministerial duty the Vicar of Doncaster is responsible. Upon the subject of the small endowment of this Chapelry there is in Archbishop Sharp's MSS the following memorandum:
The Chapel of Loversal is parochial. The Curate thereof (who is at present Mr. Pegge, Vicar of Wadworth) is paid 41. by the Vicar of D. And Sir John Worsman " (Wolstenholme, the last of his family who was owner of Loversal, and who died 1716) useth to give 4l This is all the profits, except Church yard and Surplice Fees.
The 1853 fire
The destruction of the medieval church by fire on the night of 28 February 1853 was a great calamity. Nevertheless, within seven days, a rebuilding committee had been formed and raised over £11,000. The new building, to the designs of George Gilbert Scott, took four year’s to build. Great celebrations accompanied the consecration of the building by the Archbishop of York on 14 October 1858.
In 2004 the church was designated as the Minster and Parish Church of St George by the Bishop of Sheffield.
http://www.doncasterminster.co.uk/