The History of Doncaster to 1500

The History of pre industrial Doncaster from its Roman inception as Danum to the end of the sixteenth century

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The Crossing Place on the Don

The Deanery of Doncaster is one of three historic divisions of the old West Riding of Yorkshire. This is an area rich in coal and iron. Modern Doncaster is strongly characterised by its industrial past. In the fourteenth century, though Doncaster was a very different place.

It was the place of a significant Roman Fort. After the Norman Conquest, Nigel Fossard had built a Norman Castle. By the thirteenth century, Doncaster was a busy town. In 1194 Richard I had given the town recognition by bestowing a town charter. There was a disastrous fire in 1204 (fires seem to feature heavily in Doncaster’s history) from which the town slowly recovered.

In 1248, a charter was granted for Doncaster Market to be held in the area surrounding the Church of St Mary Magdalene, which had been built in Norman times. In time the parish church was transferred to the church of the old Norman castle, the castle which by then was in ruin. The new parish church was the original Church of St George. During the fourteenth century, large numbers of friars arrived in Doncaster who were known for their religious enthusiasm and preaching. In 1307 the Franciscan friars (Greyfriars) arrived, as did Carmelites (Whitefriars) in the mid fourteenth century. Other major medieval features included the Hospital of St Nicholas and the leper colony of the Hospital of St James, a moot hall, a grammar school and a five-arched stone town bridge with a chapel dedicated to Our Lady of the Bridge.

Doncaster 1857

Doncaster’s origins are rooted in the need for a crossing of the Don at this place. The sixteenth century historian, John Leland, wrote I marked that the North parte of Dancaster tonne standith as an isle: for Dun river at the West side of the towne castith oute an arme, and sone after at the Este side of the town cummith into the principal streame of Dun again. The fluvial islands probably attracted early settlement and the islands might have been the home of the ferry man. The island and the relatively low banks might have been the best place for a road to cross in time.

The Don was the approximate southern boundary of the Celtic Brigantes, dividing them from the Coritani to the south. At the crossing place of the Don where Doncaster now stands, the Brigantes may have had a small settlement.

Danum

From 43 CE, Roman influence had transformed the culture of people in southern and eastern Britain. The emperor Claudius commanded a force of some 40,000 men, even supported by elephants. They were grouped into four legions supported by auxiliaries.

The Romans built an alliance with the Brigantes’ Queen, Cartimandua, and established a defensive line along the line of the Don. The Romans built a series of advanced forts at Derby, Templeborough and Castleford. The rectangular fort at Templeborough stood on the south bank of the Don, about twelve miles southwest of the site of modern Doncaster, where Rotherham now stands. 800 soldiers of the 4th Cohort of Gauls were stationed there.

When Cartimandua had a relationship with her armour Bearer, Vellocatus, Cartimandua’s husband, Venutius began a civil war against her in 57 CE but Cartimandua was protected by the Roman Ninth Legion. In 69 CE, during a period of instability under Emperor Nero, Venutius attacked again and Cartimandua fled leaving Venutius in control of the region and in conflict with Rome.

At Templeborough the timber fort was replaced with a new sandstone fort.

In 71 CE the newly appointed Roman Governor, Petillius Ceralius marched north to occupy Brigantes and Parisii territory. The Ninth Legion marched north from Lincoln into the new northern territories and erected a large camp near where Malton, northeast of York, stands today. A significant military camp was founded by the Romans as Eboracum (modern day York) in 71 CE.

The passage over the Don at the Doncaster site would require protection. This was also the site of the limit of inland navigation for coastal vessels. The place of the modern St George’s Minster was favourable for a Roman castrum. The establishment of a castrum and a company of soldiers was an inducement to settlers.

A fort at Danum, on the site of modern Doncaster, was established soon after 70 CE and occupied a large footprint of some nine and a half acres, with timber buildings and a cobbled road. This original fort was abandoned at the time of the building of Hadrian’s Wall in 122 CE and rebuilt on a smaller scale from 160 CE, then stretching to about six acres protected by an 8 foot thick stone wall.

Danum fell at the southern edge of the Roman province of Maxima Caersariensis, "The Caesarian province of Maximus", also known as Britannia Maxima.

Strictly Danum was the Roman name for the river and the Roman’s referred to the place itself as Castrum ad Danum. To the south side of the river at Roman Danum emerged new building works, based on the favoured plan of two streets intersecting at right angles. The two streets divided the town into four quarters, together with the island in the Don. In one quarter was the castrum and its praetorium (headquarters) and in another quarter there would have been a market. There were two gates, the Sepulchre Gate and Baxter Gate. Excavations in 1976 revealed that the civilian settlement was of considerable scale.

Remains of the Roman castrum in the grounds of the modern minster

The Doncaster altar, which can be seen today at the Doncaster library, was found at the Sepulchre Gate and was inscribed To the Mother Goddess. Nonnius Antonius has freely and deservedly fulfilled his vow. There have also been finds of a coin hoard and pottery and glass.

Danum was built at the place where Icknield, or Ricknield, Street, which ran from Bourton to Eboracum, crossed the Don. The Romans adapted much of this road from an ancient route. The main road from Lincoln approached Danum from the south with a minor crossing at Rossington Bridge, just south of Doncaster, in the approximate area of Loversall. There is considerable evidence of Iron Age and Roman field systems in this area. The road then continued to cross the Don at Danum. From Danum the road then continued joining the line of the modern A1 and passing near to Campsall, through the forest of Barnsdale.

Four miles south of Doncaster and in the vicinity of the fort at Rossington Bridge, the rich farm lands encouraged wealthy Roman Britons to build their villa at Stancil, which was later the place of a medieval village. A wide range of vessels have been found in this area which evidence trade as far north as lowland Scotland.

In Roman Doncaster, the present market-place was in all probability used then for the same purpose that it is now. It would also contain, as most Roman market-places did, the public Temple.

The Roman fort was regarrisoned and was occupied until at least 390 CE, towards the end of the Roman period. There seem to have been town defences by the end of the Roman era.

Anglo Saxon Doncaster

By the sixth century CE, the River Don was the boundary between Deirans, and later the Northumbrians, and the Mercians to the south. The old Roman roads continued in use, but settlements tended to develop in more secluded places, some distance away from the roads.

When Augustine came to Britain, he does not appear to have attempted to bring his mission to Northumbria. However Edwin King of Northumbria (586 to 633 CE) married the daughter of Ethelbert, the converted King of Kent and it was agreed that she should freely exercise her religion. She was accompanied by a zealous pupil of Augustine, Paulinus, and this provided the basis for Edwin’s conversion. Edwin of Northumbria was baptised in York about 15 years after the death of Augustine. From that time, Paulinus was increasingly employed in conversion across the region of Northumbria.

Bede described that Paulinus instructed crowds in Bernicia and in Deira during his conversion missions. He often followed river courses and baptised along the river Swale, where it flows beside the town of Catterick and also in Cambodonum, where there was also a royal dwelling. At Cambodonum he built a church which was afterwards burnt down, together with the whole of the buildings, by the heathen who slew Edwin (this was when Penda defeated Edwin at Hatfield in 633 CE). In its place later kings built a dwelling for themselves in the region known as Loidis. This altar escaped from the fire because it was of stone, and is still preserved in the monastery of the most reverend abbot and priest Thrythwulf, which is in the forest of Elmet.

Loidis is modern Leeds. Cambodonum has been interpreted as various locations in the West Riding, but it probably derives from “Field of the Don” and is more likely a reference to Doncaster.

So, it is likely that a church was erected in the place of modern Doncaster at this time. If this is correct, then Paulinus also tells us that Edwin had a royal residence (villa regia) at Campodonum. The praetorium of the Roman castrum might have been an ideal site for an occasional royal residence. Bede’s record also suggests that the church at Doncaster was burnt down by Penda after the Battle of Hatfield Chase in 633 CE.

Bede’s record also suggests that a second Christian church, after the church at York in 627 CE, was built in Doncaster under Paulinus’ supervision.

In 633 CE, Edwin was killed by the pagan Penda of Mercia and Cadwallon from North Wales at the heath field on Hatfield Chase, ten kilometres northeast of Doncaster. It appears that Penda immediately attacked Doncaster and destroyed the church, and probably the royal residence, as we don’t hear of Northumbrian kings returning. However the altar was preserved in a monastery in the wood at Elmet, around modern Leeds. There is a debate as to whether the site of the battle was in fact in Nottinghamshire where a mass grave was found, but the marshy land of Hatfield Chas is still generally regarded as the site of the battle.

After the battle whilst King Oswald revived Christian Northumbria two years later, this part of the Kingdom was ruled over by the Mercians until Penda was killed in 654 CE when it reverted to Northumbrian rule.

Celtic Christianity was much weaker in South Yorkshire, so it did not fall so clearly into the debate that led to the Synod of Whitby between Roman and Celtic traditions.

In 764 CE the chronicler Symeon of Durham in his Historia Regum groups referred to a number of places including York, London and Doncaster, repentino igne vastatae, destroyed by a sudden fire.

Multae urbes, monsteriaque, atque villae, per diversa loca necnon et regna, repentino igne vastatae sunt; verbi gratia, Stirburgwenta civitas, Homunic, Lundonia civitas, Eboraca civitas, Donacester, aliaque multa loca illa plaga concepit.

“Many cities, towns, and villages, in different places, as well as kingdoms, were destroyed by a sudden fire; for example, the city of Stirburgwent, Homunich, the city of London, the city of York, Doncaster, and many other places were conceived by that plague.”

There is evidence of fire in the area of the Roman castrum, but these marks may have been the result of the devastation by Penda.

Scandinavian Doncaster

The earliest recorded Viking raid in Britain was the attack on Lindisfarne in AD 793. The early Scandinavian raiders generally picked largely undefended, wealthy targets such remote monasteries. The Norse raiders quickly learned that ecclesiastical centres provided easy and plump reward.

Alfred of Beverly recorded the destruction of the monastery at the mouth of the Don, which may have been a reference to Doncaster. Monasterium ad ostium Doni amnis precaverunt, sed non impune, “They prayed to the monastery at the mouth of the river Don, but not with impunity”.

This was a time when Alcuin of York, in the Kingdom of Charlemagne, was despairing of the fate of his homeland.

By 833 CE the Danes were dominating the lands around the Humber estuary. King Ecgbert of Wessex had some success in resisting the Danes and appears to have had some success in a battle at Doncaster. The story of this encounter was told in the thirteenth century in a rhyme by Peter Langtoft, an Augustine canon and chronicler from the village of Langtoft in the East Riding of Yorkshire.

What did king Egbriht? Without any summons. And withouten asking of Erles or barons … Right unto Doncastre ye Danes gan him chase … At Donkastre mot men se manyon to batale ride …

The substantial Great Heathen Army landed in East Anglia on the east coast of England in 865 CE, but soon turned northwards.

In 866 CE, when Northumbria was internally divided, the Danes captured York. The Danes changed the Old English name for York from Eoforwic to Jorvik. They destroyed most of the early monasteries in the region. Some of the minster churches survived the plundering.

The Late Anlo-Saxon-Scandinavian Period

In time, the Danish leaders were themselves converted to Christianity. Jorvik became the capital of the Anglo-Saxon-Scandinavian lands and it would reach a population of 10,000. Jorvik became an important economic and trade centre for the Danes. Jorvik perhaps prospered from its trade with Scandinavia.

The Danish suppression of South Yorkshire seems to have been led by Guthrum from the East Midlands. A number of settlements in the lower Don valley have Scandinavian names.

Modern Doncaster is generally identified with Cair Daun listed as one of thirty three British cities in the Ninth century History of the Britons traditionally ascribed to Nennius.

It was certainly an Anglo-Saxon burh, and in the late Anglo Saxon Scandinavian period, it received its modern name. Don, Old English Donne, derives from the settlement and river and caster (ceaster) from an Old English version of the Latin castra, a military camp or fort.

The area of modern Doncaster was likely not to have been open land, but forested until it started to be cleared in the late Saxon period. The forests of this area have been described as the Great Brigantian Forest. At some stage, perhaps from late Saxon times, areas were cleared for settlement in the process called assarting. The growth of population and villages, including Campsall and Loversall, by the time of Edward the Confessor suggest that assarting had been pursued on a significant scale by that time.

Rev Joseph Hunter in South Yorkshire, The History and Topography of the Deanery of Doncaster, 1828, lists 170 vills of human settlement by the late Saxon period. He suggested that settlements might have grown at places where there was a need to cross a watercourse, but often may have been the inclination of a family to settle on land, which later grew into a larger habitation. This informal process was soon replaced by recognition of rights of occupancy from the lands of the elite class who owned large estates. It became no longer open to every citizen to clear woodland for his own use, but by the Doomsday record, a right had been recognised in overlordship.

The Saxon lords came to surround themselves with dependents who held portions of land from him, in return for rendering services. This is reflected in culture. Particularly in the story of Beowulf, which provided an encouragement to live within the protection of the elite class, as protection against the perils of unsettled places.

It was Conisbrough, within the modern city of Doncaster, which appeared as the dominant estate in Anglo-Saxon and Scandinavian South Yorkshire. It was mentioned in the 1003 will of Wulfric Spott, a wealthy Mercian nobleman who founded Burton Abbey. By the Conquest it was owned directly by King Harold. It was then the centre of a large former royal estate which reached to Hatfield Chase. Conigsborough was head of an extensive fee. The Saxon lords of Doncaster, Laughton and Hallam also had many dependencies. It was also an early ecclesiastical centre.

Dadesley (now Tickhill) and Doncaster both emerged as burgesses. Other small centres were emerging including Campsall, which was valued at £5 in a census of Edward the Confessor, being one of the larger settlements.

The larger seats of population came to be governed under the authority of a bors holder who was elected at a general assembly. Townships were grouped in tens under a hundreder, a superior officer who held courts. These hundreds came to be called wapentakes in the areas to the north. Doncaster and Loversall fell within the Wapentake of Strafford. Campsall fell within the Wapentake of Osgodcross.

Just before the Conquest, the area was probably still covered in native forest, but which was not dense, so that sheep and oxen rove among the trees. Islands of land were cultivated, varying from 200 to 2,000 acres, where agriculture was undertaken and sometimes these settlements had mills, and Christian places of worship. Doncaster and Tickhill, and perhaps Rotherham, had by this time become small towns.

The lands of Doncaster were held by Tostig (Tosti), of Godwin descent, who rebelled against his brother Harold, and died alongside the Dane Harold Hardrada at the Battle of Stamford Bridge. He was a man of blood, and perished by the sword at the battle of Stamford Bridge just before the Conquest.

Norman Conquest

In 1066 the Danes, led by the Norwegian King Harold Hardrada, sailed up the Ouse, with support from Tostig Godwinson and after the Battle of Fulford, when they defeated Morcar and Edwin, they seized York.

King Harold of England then marched his army north to York in four days to take the invaders by surprise. The rebels were defeated at the Battle of Stamford Bridge, about 60 kilometres northeast of Doncaster, in which Harold Hardrada and Tostig were killed.

The trouble of course was that Harold then had to march his exhausted army south again, to confront the second threat from William of Normandy, near Hastings, and in that episode, he didn’t do so well.

After the successful Norman invasion of England in 1066, the north was not immediately subdued under Norman rule. However the harrying of the north meant that most of England was under the Norman thumb by 1086, which was the date when the Domesday Book recorded the extent of Norman domination two decades after the invasion.

As well as recording the comprehensive regime change, the Domesday Book also evidences the administrative efficiency of the new overlords. A millennium later, that efficiency provides us with the tools with which to have eyes on the historical events of our very distant past. The Domesday Book, written in Latin, recorded every important place in the country - what was there, who owned it prior to the conquest, and to whom it was transferred after the Conquest. It established the taxable values of all the boroughs and manors across the nation. The record was held in two large books, which are still held by the National Archives and accessible at Domesday Online. The surveyors visited 13,000 villages over the course of about a year. The whole landed property of England then totalled a value of £37,000, which puts subsequent inflationary increases into some perspective.

Thereafter the area, along with the nation of which it was a part, fell under the Norman Yoke.

By the Norman Conquest, 28 townships in what is now South Yorkshire belonged to the Lord of Conisbrough. William the Conqueror gave the whole lordship of Conigsbrough to William de Warenne. Shortly after the Norman Conquest, Nigel Fossard refortified the town and built Conisbrough Castle.

Joseph Hunter tells us that the wider lands of the Deanery of Doncaster were distributed in very unequal parts to twelve persons, including Nigel Fossard and William de Warren, William de Perci, Ilbert de Laci and others.

By the time of Domesday Book, Hexthorpe in the wapentake of Strafforth was said to have a church and two mills.

In Estorp, Earl Tosti had one manor of three carucates for geld and four ploughs may be there. Nigel has [it] of Count Robert. In the demesne, one plough and three villanes and three bordars with two ploughs. A church is there, and a priest having five bordars and one plough and two mills of thirty two shillings [annual value]. Four acres of meadow. Wood, pasturable, one leuga and a half in length and one leuga in breadth. The whole manor, two leugae and a half in length and one leuga and a half in breadth. T.R.E., it was woth eighteen pounds, now twelve pounds. To this manor belongs this soke – Donecastre (Doncaster) two carucates, in Wermesford (Warmsworth) one carucate, in Ballebi (Balby) two carucates, in Geureshale (Loversall) two carucates, Oustrefeld (Austerfield) two carucates and Alcheslei (Auckley) two carucates. Together fifteen carucates for geld, where eighteen ploughs may be. Now [there is] in the demesne one plough and twenty four villanes and thirty seven bordars and forty sokemen. These have twenty seven ploughs, wood, pasturable in places, in places unprofitable.

These settlements referred to in the Domesday Book, described the area of modern Doncaster. The street name Frenchgate suggests that Fossard invited fellow Normans to trade in the town.

Estorp (Hexthorpe) is a small village now part of Doncaster and at the time about a mile downstream from the main town. It comprised three caracutes of land. More extensive holdings were appended to Estorp, which included Doncaster and Loversall and other places. Doncaster comprised two caracutes which have been assessed by historians as about 200 acres of arable land; two mills; and forty soke men, villeins and borderers who cultivated the soil. There was no doubt a church there. The value of the soke at the time of the Conquest was £18 but only £12 by the time of the survey, which suggests the devastation of the harrying of the North. The lands had been held by Tostig before the conquest, but passed after the Conquest to Robert, the Earl of Mortain, who was King William’s half brother. An interest in the lands was also held by Richard the Deaf.

The focus moved away from Hexthorpe as a centre after the Conquest.

A sokeman belonged to a class of tenants, found chiefly in the eastern counties, especially the Danelaw, occupying an intermediate position between the free tenants and the bond tenants, in that they owned and paid taxes on their land themselves. Forming between 30% and 50% of the countryside, they could buy and sell their land, but owed service to their lord's soke, court, or jurisdiction.

The carucate was a medieval unit of land area approximating the land a plough team of eight oxen could till in a single annual season.

Tickhill, ten kilometres south of Doncaster, was referred to as Dadsley in the Domesday Book. Its ownership passed from Also, son of Karski to Roger the Bully and it comprised 54 villagers, 12 smallholders, 1 priest, 1 man at arms and 31 burgesses, with 8 ploughlands, 7 Lord’s plough teams and 26.5 men’s plough teams. It had two acres of meadow, woodland, 3 mills and a church. It was valued at £14. Dadsley was an Anglo Saxon settlement meaning Daedi’s clearing.

The Feudal Landholders after the Conquest

Robert, Count of Mortain in Normandy and Earl of Cornwall in England was handsomely rewarded for his service at Hastings. Robert's contribution to the success of the invasion was clearly regarded as highly significant by the Conqueror, who awarded him a large share of the spoils. He received 797 manors. In 1088, he joined with his brother Odo in revolt against their nephew William Rufus. William Rufus returned the Earldom of Kent to Odo but it wasn’t long before his uncle was plotting to make Rufus’s elder brother, Robert Curthose, King of England as well as Duke of Normandy. Rufus attacked Tonbridge castle where Odo was based. When the castle fell Odo fled to Robert in Pevensey. The plan was that Robert Curthose’s fleet would arrive there, just as William the Conqueror’s had done in 1066. Instead, Pevensey fell to William after a siege that lasted six weeks. William Rufus pardoned his uncle Robert and reinstated him to his titles and lands. Robert died in Normandy in 1095.

Nigel Fossard held lands from the Earl of Mortain. He was one of the principal under-tenants of Count Robert, of whom he held some 91 manors, a substantial portion of the Mortain lands. Hexthorpe was his chief holding in Yorkshire. It is very likely that on the forfeiture of Count Robert’s estates, Nigel was made a tenant in capite, that is, he held his lands directly from the King.

Nigel Fossard therefore came to possess the lands formerly held by Tostig, including the feudal superiority of Doncaster. Fossard had a house at Doncaster, but his principal residence was at Mulgrave Castle. His descendants held Doncaster until the reign of Henry VI, though not directly through the male line after William Fossard.

He gave extensive property to the church. Included in his gifts to the Abbot and Convent of St Mary, York, was the gift of the church of Doncaster and neighbourhood. He was succeeded by his son Adam, who founded the priory of Hode, now Hood Grange.

Robert Fossard, who succeeded Adam, paid a fine of 500 marks to the King to repossess the Lordship of Doncaster, which he had parted to the King to hold in demesne for twenty years. The reason for the surrender to the King and the high price for the repossession is not known. It is possible that Robert had not paid the whole of the fee due to the King when he succeeded to his patrimonial inheritance, hence the lease and release. It is possible that the King just needed to raise funds.

William Fossard succeeded Robert. He was the last of the Fossards in the male line. He was one of the northern barons who fought against the Scots in the Battle of the Standard. In 1142 he was with Stephen’s forces against the Empress Maude at the Battle of Lincoln and was taken prisoner. From time to time he paid scuttage, a tax paid in lieu of military service by those who held land by Knights service, of £12, £21 and a further sum of £31 10s, the last amount was levied upon him because he was not in the Irish Wars. He was exempted from contributing for the redemption of King Richard I. He left a daughter, Joan, who was married to Robert de Turnham.

Robert de Turnham had two sons, Robert and Stephen. It was Robert the Younger who married Joan Fossard. Robert the Younger was a crusader. He appeared to be with the King in the Holy Land, and was entrusted to bring the King’s harness back to England. For the services on that journey he was discharged from the payment of scuttage levied for the Kings ransom. Being in the King’s confidence he managed to obtain from the king a charter confirming to the burgesses of Doncaster whatever ancient privileges they then possessed. He obtained a grant of two more days to be added to the fair that had anciently been kept at his manor of Doncaster in County Ebor, on the eve and day of St James the apostle. At his death in 1199, the yearly value of the lands held by him in right of Joan, his wife, was entered at £411 9s 2d.

He left a daughter, Isabell, who became a ward of the King. She married Peter de Mauley, a Poictevin.

A long line of Peter de Mauleys, claiming descent from Nigel Fossard, successively held the Lordship of Doncaster. The first of these is said to have committed an infamous crime at the instigation of King John. On the death of King Richard, his brother John, knowing that he could not succeed him by reason that Arthur, son of Geoffry of Brittany, was alive, got Arthur into his power and implored Peter de Mauley, his esquire, to murder him and in reward gave him the heir of the barony of Mulgref. There are some doubts about this allegation. If Mauley really did commit the act at the instigation of John, and was led to expect that he would receive the King’s ward to marry with the free enjoyment of her lands, he was disappointed. Peter de Mauley paid a fine of 7000 marks for entrance to the inheritance of the daughter of Robert de Turnham. He gave the body of his wife to be buried at the Abbey of Meux, Holderness, endowing the Abbey with a rent of Sixty shillings per year. He died before 1241. In 1247 the King took the homage of his heir, Peter, for all his father’s lands. Some six years later this Peter de Mauley obtained a charter of Free Warren in his demesne lands, which included Doncaster. He died in 1279.

The next Peter de Mauley paid £100 relief for all lands held of the King in capite of the inheritance of William Fossard. From a document from 1279 we catch a glimpse of a part of the Mauley holdings for which this relief was paid. He married Joan, the daughter of Peter Brus of Skelton.

There followed another six Peter de Mauleys.

Alongside the Mauleys, other descendants of Nigel Fossard had interests in Doncaster.

The landowners enjoyed significant revenues from rents, fines, reliefs, benevolences, maritages (the fee paid by a vassal following the feudal lord’s decision on a marriage), wardships and opportunities for escheat (the reversion of land when owners died without heirs). They were also relieved of many of the costs of running modern estates, because they were owed duties of service. The value of these estates is best seen not in monetary terms, but in the works they were able to undertake. The castles at Coningsborough and Tickhill were obviously works of significant labour. The growth of monasteries also reflected the power held by the nobility, including the costs of building churches.

The growth of Doncaster

The Roman fort at Danum was had been replaced by an Anglo Saxon burh or fortified settlement, before a Norman castle was built at Doncaster. The Doncaster castle has long disappeared. The motte of the Norman Castle has been located to be under the east end of St George’s Minster.

There was significant building of monasteries and parish churches during this period.

The building of churches was attractive as this enabled the lords to extract tithes from distant churches to which it had been paid and settle it on churches of their choosing, perhaps closer to their own residence. During this period churches were built at places including Coningsborough, Campsall, and Doncaster. Joseph Hunter lists 60 places where Churches were built.

Most of these churches had one officiating minister at their foundation, the persona or rector. The churches were often placed under the patronage of monastic institutions.

Early in the reign of William II (William Rufus), in about 1088, Nigel Fossard was amongst the benefactors who founded the abbey of St Mary in York. Fossard gave the church of Doncaster to the new abbey as well as lands in the area.

The church at Doncaster was distinguished from others by being given the title of dean.

Certain of these churches were parish churches in form, but were also referred to as chapels, which meant that they were given rights of baptism, nuptial benediction and of sepulture, but were not able to participate in tithes from the lands around them. These churches included St Mary Magdalene at Doncaster and the chapel at Loversall.

At Doncaster there was a college, for the residence of chantry priests, so that they need not mingle with the public. This was built near the parish church and the priests officiated in the parish church and at St Mary Magdalene chapel, living a collegiate life as it was felt inappropriate for their social character to mix too freely with the people of the town.

A borough was created at Doncaster after the soke had been granted directly to Nigel Fossard on the banishment of William’s half brother Robert, Count of Mortain.

Doncaster was ceded to Scotland in the Treaty of Durham and never formally returned to England. The first treaty of Durham was a peace treaty concluded between kings Stephen of England and David I of Scotland on 5 February 1136. In January 1136, during the first months of the reign of Stephen, David I crossed the border and reached Durham. He took Carlisle, Wark, Alnwick, Norham and Newcastle-upon-Tyne. On 5 February 1136, Stephen reached Durham with an imposing troop of Flemish mercenaries, and the Scottish king was obliged to negotiate. Stephen recovered Wark, Alnwick, Norham and Newcastle, and let David I retain Carlisle and a great part of Cumberland and Lancashire, alongside Doncaster.

In February 1136, Henry, prince of Scotland, did homage to Stephen for Doncaster and the honour of Huntingdon.

Tickhill acquired markets and fairs long before the system of royal licences started in the late twelfth century. The town grew rapidly.

The story of Doncaster is not only told through the history of the noble families. The burgesses and inhabitants of the town followed the 40 soke men referred to in Domesday book, and came to enjoy increasing privileges. The earliest record might be the Pipe Roll of the third regnal year of Henry II, 1156, when Adam Fitz Swein was discharged of £60 due for the rent of Doncaster. Adam Fitz Swein owed £45 of rent for Doncaster and £15 had been paid for a quarter part of the year. It appears therefore that the burgesses held Doncaster from the King for a rent of £60 per annum and an individual was appointed to account for it.

In 1157, Malcolm, King of Scotland, did homage to Henry II for Cumberland, in Doncaster.

In 1163, Malcolm of Scotland was again in Doncaster to do homage and fell dangerously ill there.

In 1191, during Richard I’s absence on crusade, John seized the castles of Tickhill and Nottingham.

However by 1194 Richard I had given the town recognition by bestowing a town charter. The charter was the first article of the Miller’s Appendix and declared that the King had granted to the burgesses of Doncaster the soke and town of Doncaster to hold by the ancient rent and 25 marks of silver more to be paid into the exchequer with all liberties and free customs. The burgesses paid 50 marks to the king for the charter. It seems that the burgesses must have gained something more tangible from the charter, though it is not clear exactly what. Amongst the privileges gained was the right to hold a fair and market held at St James’ Tide.

The Charter at Doncaster Library

Doncaster had by this time become the dominant settlement in the region. Its position on the great road from London to York, and en route to the Scottish border, made it a place where strangers rested.

The area around Doncaster appears to have enjoyed relative peace after Norman rule had been established. Conisbrough Castle never endured a siege and Pontefract Castle, which was seen as the key of the North, was not attacked until the English Civil War.

Conisbrough Castle

In the time of the Fossards, Doncaster had consisted of a few public buildings of stone, amidst a town of wooden houses. The original public building was the castle which stood at the location of the present Doncaster Minster. John Leland (1503 to 1552) in his Itinery later recorded: The Church stands in the very area where ons the castelle of the towne stoode, long sins clene decayed. The dikes partely yet be scene, and the foundation of partte of the waulles. The Wall of the Castle is mentioned in a grant of 1416.

Beside the parish church was the church or chapel of St Mary Magdalene, which was founded before the year of King John. There were hospitals of St James, with a chapel annexed, and St Nicholas, which had lands at Loversall, which would have provided some relief to the poor and the aged. There were also public mills on the Don. This was the town as it must have appeared before the great fire of 1204.

There was a chapel of our lady at the bridge.

When John seized the throne in 1199, he acquired Tickhill and during his reign he spent over £300 strengthening its defences.

There was a disastrous fire in 1204 which appears to have completely destroyed the town, from which the town slowly recovered.

The revival of the town after the fire is first recorded in a warrant of King John addressed to the bailiffs of Peter de Mauley, who had married Isabella de Turnham, the heiress of Doncaster. The bailiff was instructed to enclose the town along the course of a ditch and to fortify the bridge. This appears in the Close Rolls. It appears therefore that Doncaster was protected by a ditch and possibly a mound and Leland later indicates that Doncaster did not become a walled town. Doncaster continued to comprise mainly wooden buildings at least until the time of Henry VIII. Only the public buildings were of stone.

By 1215 the whole town was enclosed by an earthen rampart and ditch, which was filled with water from the Cheswold, the original course of the Don. By this time it had four substantial stone gates as entrances at St Mary’s Bridge, St Sepulchre Gate, Hall Gate and Sun Bar.

In 1248, a charter was granted for Doncaster Market to be held in the area surrounding the Church of St Mary Magdalene, which had been built in Norman times.

The burgesses grew their wealth and significance during this period. A principal class of merchants appeared and the Don was gradually made navigable. Many merchants’ marks were made on the old parish church and the richness of its development evidences the increasing opulence of the merchant class.

Doncaster became the most prosperous medieval town in South Yorkshire.

Urban expansion in the early medieval period was accompanied by an increase in the size of the rural population and colonisation of new lands.

The Survey of the County of York in 1277 by John de Kirkby known as Kirkby’s Inquest, (the Nomina Villarum for Yorkshire) was taken in the fifth reign of Edward I, and it described the ownership of the main settlements of the Wapentake of Strafford.

Early during the reign of Edward II from 1282, there was a feud between the Earl of Warren at Coningsborough and the Earl of Lancaster at Pontefract. The Earl of Lancaster called his followers together at Doncaster and attacked Tickhill Castle, but the enterprise came to nothing.

Nomina Villarum (“Names of Towns”) was a survey carried out in 1316 and included a list of all cities, boroughs and townships in England and the Lords of them.

In these Inquisitions Nonarum during the reign of Edward III, eight merchants were said to be residing in Doncaster, which was more than in other similar towns. At Tickhill there were seven merchants so this was an area of commercial significance. There is rare evidence of summons being sent to Doncaster and Tickhill directing them to send burgesses to Parliament.

In late 1321 Thomas, Earl of Lancaster, the great baron at Pontefract, opposed royal authority and called on many barons to meet at Doncaster. On 12 November 1321 the King forbade this meeting on penalty of forfeiture of their lands. An open rebellion ensued, joined by Lord Mowbray. On 18 March 1322 the King was in Doncaster and the Battle of Boroughbridge was fought on 17 March 1322 when the rebels were defeated and Thomas was executed at Pontefract

In 1334 the inhabitants of Doncaster contributed £17 in taxes, compared with £12 10s 0d in Tickhill and £7 3s 4d from Sheffield. Doncaster owed its wealth mainly to its weekly markets and its annual fairs, which had become nationally famous. There was a huge market place in the south east corner of the medieval town, and as was common, it was an extension of the churchyard.

By this time, Doncaster had two churches. St George’s was still within the bounds of the castle, and St Mary Magdalene stood at the market place. It is now generally accepted that St Mary Magdalene was the original parish church. However as the castle fell into disuse, and pressure for space at the market had increased, the old church was abandoned in favour of St George’s. St Mary Magdalene was reduced to the status of a chapel, and later a chantry. After the Reformation it became a town hall and school.

St Mary Magdalene, from Rev Jackson’s Book

The Friars make Doncaster a literary centre

During the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, large numbers of friars arrived in Doncaster who were known for their religious enthusiasm and preaching. In 1307 the Franciscan friars (Greyfriars) arrived, as did Carmelites (Whitefriars) in the mid fourteenth century.

The friars were itinerant and applied themselves to instruction and religious edification. There was a house of Augustinian friars at Tickhill and houses of Franciscans and Carmelites at Doncaster. To the public buildings there were added the houses of the Carmelite and Franciscan friars.

The friars brought literary knowledge and were centres of literature in the middle ages. The establishment of the two societies of friars and their educational achievements further enhanced the growth of the town as a place of significance.

The Franciscans or Grey Frairs were divided into seven wards or custodies in England. The Custody of York included Doncaster.

These Friars Minors established themselves on the island formed by the rivers Cheswold and Don, at the bottom of French or Francis gate, at the north end of the bridge known as the Friars' Bridge, some time in the thirteenth century. On 1 September 1290 Pope Nicholas IV granted an indulgence to those who visited their church. Archbishop Romanus in 1291 encouraged the friars to preach the Crusade at Doncaster, Blyth in Nottinghamshire, and Retford.

Edward I gave the friars 10s, through Friar Edmund de Norbury, on the occasion of his visit to Doncaster on 12 November 1299. In January 1300 he gave them 20s for two days' food and 6s 8d for damages to their house when he was at Doncaster, through Friar de Portynden. On 8 June 1300 his son Edward gave them 10s and in January 1301 he gave them 10s for the exequies of Joan, nurse of Thomas of Brotherton. The friars at this time numbered thirty.

In 1316 Sir Peter de Mauley, lord of the town of Doncaster, granted the Friars Minors a plot of land adjacent to their dwelling-place.

In 1332 Thomas de Saundeby, the warden, and Friar Nicholas de Dighton, along with Thomas de Moubray, William de Halton, and John de Brynsale, were sued by John de Malghum for having seized and imprisoned him. In 1335 the King pardoned them for acquiring in mortmain without licence in the time of former kings various plots in Doncaster, then enclosed with a wall and dyke, whereon they had built a church and houses. Between 1328 and 1337 the number of the friars varied between eighteen and twenty-seven, as is evidenced by the royal alms granted to them by the hand of Friars John de Bilton, Nicholas de Wermersworth, and others.

Sir Hugh de Hastings, in 1347, left the friars 100s, 20 quarters of corn and 10 quarters of barley. Their friar, Hugh de Warmesby, was authorized in 1348 to act as confessor to Lady Margery de Hastings, Sir Hugh's widow, and her family. Her son Hugh was buried in the church of St. Francis at Doncaster in 1367. Another Sir Hugh Hastings in 1482 left a serge of wax to be burned here in honour of the Holy Rood, and a quarter of wheat yearly for three years.

Roger de Bangwell, rector of Dronfield, gave 20s to the convent and 12d to each friar in 1366. Thomas Lord Furnival of Sheffield in 1333, and Sir Peter de Mauley in 1381, were buried in the church. Sir Peter left his best beast of burden as mortuary payment and 100s to the convent.

Friar Thomas Kirkham was admitted as Director of Divinity of Oxford in July 1527, his fee being reduced to £4 because he is very poor. in November he was relieved of many of his Oxford duties because he was warden of the Grey Friars of Doncaster and could not continually reside in Oxford. Thomas Strey, a lawyer of Doncaster, left 20 marks to the convent in 1530 and 26s 8d to buy the warden a coat.

During the Dissolution of the monasteries, the house was quietly surrendered 20 November 1538 by the warden and nine friars, three of them novices, to Sir George Lawson and his fellows, which were thankfully received.

A manuscript of the chronicle of Martin of Troppau formerly belonging to the friary was in the possession of Ralph Thoresby in 1712.

The Carmelites or White Friars arrived in Doncaster in the mid fourteenth century.

The Carmelite friary, which Leland described as a right goodly house in the middle of the town was founded in 1350 by John son of Henry Nicbrothere of Eyum with Maud his wife and Richard Euwere of Doncaster, who gave the friars a messuage and 6 acres of land. The priors of the order asked permission of the Archbishop of York to have the place consecrated in 1351. The earliest recorded bequest to them was made by William Nelson of Appleby, vicar of Doncaster, in 1360.

In 1366 Roger de Bangwell, formerly rector of Dronfield, made his will in the house of these friars, in whose church he wished to be buried. A provincial chapter was held at this friary in 1376. The friars in 1397 received a royal pardon, after paying 20s, for acquiring without licence several small plots, worth 12s 6d a year, for the enlargement of the entrance and exit of their church. Two friars of the house, John Slaydburn and John Belton, were appointed papal chaplains in 1398 and 1402.

It is said that John of Gaunt was one of the founders, and his son Henry of Bolingbroke on his journey from Ravenspur in July 1399 lodged at the friary. Edward IV was entertained at the friary in 1470, Henry VII in 1486, and the Princess Margaret Tudor in 1503. In 1472 Edward IV conferred the privileges of a corporation on the convent, which is of the foundation of the king's progenitors and of the king's patronage, and he licensed the friars to acquire lands to the yearly value of £20. At the beginning of the sixteenth century the Earl of Northumberland claimed the title of founder of the house.

Several members of the Carmelite friary attained some distinction as writers. The House of the Carmelites was a college of learned men. They included John Marrey or John Marr, who later went to Oxford and died in 1407; John Colley who flourished in about 1440; John Sutton, provincial prior in 1468; and Henry Parker, who got into trouble by preaching on the poverty of Christ and His apostles and attacking the secular clergy at Paul's Cross in 1464. Henry Parker is probably the author of the dialogue entitled Dives et Pauper which was printed both by Pynson and by Wynkyn de Worde at the end of the fifteenth century. John Breknoke, keeper of the Dragon Inn at Doncaster, left the friars some books in 1505.

On 15 July 1524 William Nicholson of Townsburgh attempted to cross the Don with an iron-bound wain in which were Robert Leche and his wife and their two children. They were overwhelmed by the stream and they called for the help of our Lady of Doncaster. It was reported that with her help, they were able to reach the shore. They came to the White Friars and returned thanks on St. Mary Magdalen's Day, when this gracious miracle was rung and sung in the presence of 300 people and more.

On the eve of the Dissolution of the monasteries, the Carmelite house was internally divided. The well known John Bale, in about 1530, was a friar at Doncaster, and perhaps its prior. He taught William Broman that Christ would dwell in no church made of lime and stone by man's hands, but only in heaven above and in man's heart on earth.

During the Pilgrimage of Grace, the White Friars Priory was used as a head quarters while negotiating with Robert Aske at Doncaster. The prior, Lawrence Coke, supported the rebellion. He was imprisoned in the Tower and in Newgate, condemned by Act of Attainder a few days before Cromwell's fall, but pardoned on 2 October 1540. It is not clear whether the pardon was issued in time to save him from execution.

The house was surrendered by Edward Stubbis, the prior, and seven friars, on 13 November 1538 to Hugh Wyrrall and Tristram Teshe, who made a book of the property and notified to Cromwell that the tenements in Doncaster were in some decay, and that the image of our Lady had already been taken away by the archbishop's order. A magnificent plate, 5 ounces of gilt plate, 109½ ounces of parcel gilt, and 48½ ounces of white plate, was sent to the royal jewel house. The net profit from the sale of the goods seems to have been £21 18s. 4d. The site with dovecot and other houses, a garden and orchard all surrounded by a stone wall and containing 2½ acres, was let to Wyrrall for 10s a year.

The tenements in Doncaster included an inn called Le Lyon in Hallgate, already let by the prior to Alan Malster for forty-one years at 40s a year in 18 August 1538, a messuage in Selpulchre Gate similarly leased on 2 September 1538 to Emmota Parsonson for 12s., and various tenements, shops, and cottages, the whole property bringing in £10 17s 4d a year.

Towards the end of the fourteenth century, Edmund Duke of York attempted to raise Stainford (Stainforth), further down the Don into commercial importance.

Fifteenth and sixteenth century Doncaster

In 1398, Henry Bolingbroke (soon to be Henry IV) swore at Doncaster that he came only to recover lands of inheritance as Duke of Lancaster, during his dispute with Richard II. Bolingbroke landed at Ravenspurn with 100 men at arms. They reached Pickering Castle and stayed there for two days before marching south. He then marched via Pontefract to Doncaster, where he lodged with the Carmelites. By this time it is said that he commanded 30,000 men. While there he took the oath, which he was later said to have broken. By 13 October 1399, having imprisoned Richard II, who died in prison probably of starvation, Henry was crowned Henry IV.

During the War of the Roses (1455 to 1487), Doncaster was a place through which the contending armies passed and repassed.

The Yorkist Edward IV granted a further charter to the burgesses recognising their rights and privileges. They were empowered to choose a mayor annually and two sergeants at mace, to have a common seal and to hear pleas of trespass, debt and other matters in the Guild Hall.

In 1470 there was an attempt to seize the throne from King Edward after the Battle of Stamford, when the King came to Doncaster.

The consequence of the dissolution of the monasteries in 1536 was the transfer of significant wealth and power from ecclesiastical to private lay proprietors of manors, lands and estates. Part of these lands fell directly into control of previous owners of feudal interests, but often the new owners were new people who would themselves become founders of considerable families. A new order of gentry replaced many of the old feudal interests. The depreciation of money also had the effect of favouring a new guard. Joseph Hunter listed the new gentry families. They included Thomas Wray of Adwick in the Liberty of Tickhill and William Fletcher of Campsall.

The churches were generally respected. The chapel of St Mary Magdeleine in Doncaster fell at this time. The fall of the Carmelite house at Doncaster likely diffused their significant literary accomplishments.

The Pilgrimage of Grace was a backlash to the Reformation and the insurgents took Pontefract Castle and gathered in significant numbers at Scawsby Lees near Doncaster. The sudden rising of the Don prevented a bloody engagement. However the movement soon spread into the northern part of Lancashire. In the course of October the commons of Cartmel restored the canons to the priory. The prior, however, more prudent or less staunch than his brethren, stole away and joined the king's forces at Preston. This was before he heard of the general pardon and promise of a northern Parliament granted to the rebels at Doncaster on 27 October. The royal stronghold at Tickhill prevented the rebels from marching south and the revolt petered out after an uneasy truce was signed at Doncaster.

Eleven people died on the plague in 1563 and Doncaster seems to have suffered badly from plague in 1582 and 1583. There appears to have been a Pesthouse to which people infected were interred.

There was a rebellion by the Earls of Westmoreland and Northumberland in 1569 and Doncaster was secured by Lord Darcy.

The Doncaster Chronicle of 1582 provides some record of events, for instance that there were 30 marriages at the church in Doncaster from September 1582 to September 1583.

During the period of threat from the Spanish Armada in 1588, the Earl of Huntingdon was at Doncaster raising and training soldiers.

Return to the Contents Page

or

Go Straight to Chapter 11 – the Vicar of Doncaster

or

Read about the Parish Church of St George at Doncaster

Meet William Farndale, the Vicar of Doncaster and his brother Nicholaus de Farndale and his wife Alicia

You can also read more about Doncaster:

Doncaster History.

South Yorkshire, the History and Topography of the Deanery of Doncaster in the Diocese and County of York by Rev Joseph Hunter, 1828. A download copy of this book is available from Yorkshire CD Books.

The Making of South Yorkshire, David Hey, 1979

A History of Yorkshire, “County of the Broad Acres”, 2005, David Hey

A History of Yorkshire, F B Singleton and S Rawnsley, 1988

A History of Yorkshire, Michael Pocock, 1978

There are separate Doncaster and Doncaster Parish Church webpages with research notes and a chronology.