COCKERSAND-ABBEY, a liberty (extra-parochial),
in the hundred of LONSDALE, south of the sands, county
palatine of LANCASTER, 7 miles (S. W. by S.) from Lancaster.
This was originally a hermitage, then an hospital
dedicated to St. Mary, for a prior and several infirm brethren:
it -was endowed by William of Lancaster, in the
time of Henry III., and was subordinate to the abbey
of Leicester; but about the year 1196 it was changed
into an abbey of Premo'nstratensian canons: by favour
of the crown it survived, for a short time, the general
dissolution, when it consisted of twenty-one religious
and fifty-seven servants, and was valued at £282. 7. 7.
per annum: the principal relic is an octagonal chapterhouse.