Source 5: Abbot of St Mary's York

This document is a map from 1407 and records a final agreement in a long-running land dispute between the Duchy of Lancaster, a powerful land-owning family and the abbot of St Mary’s Abbey in York. Catalogue ref: MPC 1/56. 

The dispute concerned whom had the right to cut peat to sell for fuel and use different areas of the moor.  

The map was meant to be put on a table so the people involved in the argument could see it. That’s why the words North, South, East and West are written in different directions. In the middle of the map in red it says ‘Inclesmore’, which was the old name for this piece of land. The large stone cross drawn on the map and labelled ‘Stone cros’ (a) is to mark the edge of the land that the abbey was allowed to keep sheep on. The two small stone crosses on the left side of the map (b) drawn on the path mark the land that the abbot and the Duchy shared to cut peat in. The section of land between these two crosses was split into one-third for the Duchy and two-thirds for the abbey. The National Archives also has a simplified version of the map, which was copied into the Duchy’s book of agreements alongside the relevant court cases in case arguments broke out again.