Archives and Special Collections: Subject guides - Religious Archives

Selby Abbey

Selby Abbey was a wealthy, independent Benedictine house located about 22 kilometres south of York. Founded in the 11th century it housed circa 30 monks and was dissolved in 1540. Two thirds of the extant account rolls for Selby Abbey are in the Londesborough estate papers at DDLO/20 as follows: bursar (1431-1532, intermittent); pittancer (1403-1517, intermittent); abbot's proctor (1397-1398); kitchener (1412-1414, 1438-1439, 1475-1476); sacristan (1413-1414, 1494-1538, intermittent); extern cellarer (1391-1402, 1413-1414, 1489-1490); granger (1349-1350, 1404-1405, 1413-1432, 1474-1475, 1490-1491); infirmarer (1399-1403); chaplain to the abbot (1413-1414); almoner and keeper of the chantry (1434-1435); cellarer (1479-1480). The remaining third is on permanent loan from Westminster Diocesan Archives [DWE] and comprises some earlier accounts for the bursar (1398-1399, 1416-1417, 1531); the pittancer (1362, 1412-1413, 1446-1447, 1453-1459, 1496-1497); the kitchener (1416-1417); a few extra accounts for the abbot's proctor (1377-1378); the sacristan (1522-1523) and the extern cellarer (1492-1493). There are also a few supplemental accounts for the keeper of the gatehouse (1413-1414, 1421-1425); for the refectorian (1421-1424, 1436-1437, 1459-1460) and the sacrist (1446-1447) (most translated and printed in John Tillotson, Monastery and society in the late middle ages: selected account rolls from Selby Abbey, Yorkshire, 1398-1537 [1988]).