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Fountains Abbey: History
Fountains Abbey: Buildings
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A peripatetic lifestyle: the abbot of Fountains and his chief officials (5/10)
Contemporary sources underline the immense amount of travelling undertaken by the abbot of Fountains, and also the leading monastic officials (obedientiaries) who conducted the abbey’s business. Their duties might take them to Fountains’ granges and estates, the markets and law-courts. In 1457 Abbot John Greenwell made eighteen journeys, which included visits to the earl of Northumberland at Topcliffe and the bishop of Exeter at Middleham and Bishopsthorpe, as well as two daughter-houses, Woburn and Meaux, for the installation of new abbots there; he also attended baptisms and travelled to Oxford, where the Order had a college (St Bernard’s), to make provision for study. Thomas Swinton was an important office-bearer at Fountains (although it is not known which post he occupied), and was frequently away from the abbey conducting business. His ‘Memorandum Book’, which is preserved in the British Library, reveals that he would ride to Scarborough or Hull to make purchases for the community, visit Craven to check the flocks and cattle, and attend court at Ripon and York. Swinton’s entries for 1455 show that during Lent of that year, he and his companions observed the Lenten fast when they were staying at York and dined on fish, with salt or mustard, and perhaps also spices, figs and raisins. Amounts and costs of their business expenses are carefully recorded.(108) |