The revenues and financial administration of the bishopric of Durham 1457-79

Abstract

For the period 1457-79 so many financial documents have survived that it is possible to examine the financialAdministration of the bishopric in more detail than G.T. Lapsley or R.L. Storey have done. Attention is drawn to the political 'background of the period, and in particular, to the careers of the bishops for the time under study: Laurence Booth being remarkable for his change of allegiance from Queen Margaret to Edward IV; while William Dudley owed his advancement to support of the Yorkists. The thesis is organised around the surviving account rolls. Within the Palatinate the various financial officials were dependent on the receiver-general in Durham Castle. The study opens with an examination of the account rolls of the ministers responsible for the land: the coroners, the collectors and the bailiffs. Attention is then turned to the accounts of the master forester, then to those of the coal and lead mines. Next comes the accounts of the sheriffs and escheators, then those of the clerks of the works, and the instaurers. While the officials of the Yorkshire estates - of Allerton, Howden and Crayke - were not subordinate to the receiver-general, at times they did make payments to him, and therefore they are included before the major section on the receiver-general. The holders of the various/ various offices are discussed within the appropriate sections. The study is concluded with an examination of the financial position of the bishopric at this time; the financial effects of the incoming bishops; of the confiscation of the temporalities by Edward IV; the changing trends in the financial state of the bishopric; and the effects of the political disturbances. Finally, an attempt is made to calculate the disposable income of the bishop and to compare it to the incomes of other leading men in the kingdom.