Monks and Friars and Nuns in Sixteenth Century Yorkshire

edited by Claire Cross and Noreen Vickers (1995)

Yorkshire in the early sixteenth century contained thirty-five abbeys and priories, nineteen friaries, two major monastic hospitals and twenty-one nunneries in addition to the double house of Watton. Around 1530 these foundations accommodated well over a thousand monks, canons, friars and nuns; that is about a ninth of all the religious in England and Wales.

Building on foundations laid by J.W. Clay and J.S. Purvis earlier in the twentieth century, the editors have scoured both national and local archives for relevant information for this edition.

Dates of ordinations of male religious are given from 1480 until the Dissolution. Further information is supplied from pension lists, dispensations or surrender deeds. Details of the subsequent careers of the former monks, canons, friars and nuns have been gathered from government and church records, and many aspects of their lives not previously assembled in this way have been revealed from wills and probate registers.