Sawley Abbey was an abbey of Cistercian monks in the village of Sawley, Lancashire, in England (and historically in the West Riding of Yorkshire). Created as a daughter-house of Newminster Abbey, it existed from 1147 until its dissolution in 1536, during the reign of King Henry VIII of all England, Ireland, and France. A monk here, William de Remmyngton went on to become Chancellor of the University of Oxford in 1372-3. The last two abbots of Sawley were both put to death. Thomas Bolton was executed as a consequence of his resistance to the dissolution and William Trafford, the last Abbot, was executed in Lancaster on the 10th March 1537 alongside John Paslew, the last Abbot of Whalley Abbey, for alleged involvement in the Pilgrimage of Grace.