Rufford Abbey - The Monastic Foundation

The Monastic Foundation

The abbey itself was founded by Gilbert de Gant, on 12 July 1147, and populated with Cistercian monks from Rievaulx Abbey in Yorkshire.

The English Pope, Adrian IV gave the blessing for the abbey in 1156, following which the abbey's lands expanded and the villagers of Cratley, Grimston and Rufford, Inkersall were evicted. A new village of Wellow, just outside the estate housed some of the displaced people.

The Valor Ecclesiasticus of 1534 gives the gross income of the abbey as £254 6s. 8d. (£100,000 as of 2013),and the clear annual value as £176 11s. 6d. (£70,000 as of 2013).

Abbot Doncaster obtained a pension of £25 a year, on the dissolution of the house in 1536 among the lesser monasteries, but it was voided on his speedy appointment to the rectory of Rotherham on 2 July 1536.

Abbots of Rufford

• Philip de Kyme, temp. Stephen
• Edward, 1203
• Geoffrey, circa temp. John, 1218, &c.
• Thomas
• Simon, circa 1232
• G—, circa 1239
• Geoffrey, circa 1252
• William, circa 1259
• Henry, 1278
• Thomas de Stayngreve, circa 1283
• Henry, circa 1288
• Henry de Tring, circa 1315
• Elias Lyvet (Levett), circa 1332
• Robert de Mapelbek, 1352
• Thomas, 1366
• John de Harlesay, 1372
• John de Farnsfeld, 1394
• Thomas Sewally, circa 1400
• Robert de Welles, 1421
• Robert Warthill, died 1456
• William Cresswell, 1456
• John Pomfrat, died 1462
• John Lilly, 1462
• John Greyne, 1465
• Roland Bliton, 1516
• Thomas Doncaster, last abbot