Full text of "The Victoria history of the county of Suffolk"

I I I I I II I II II I

3 1822 00040 7908

LIBRARY

WNIVERSITY OF
CALIFORNIA
SAN DIESO

UNIVEUSI" Of CAlirOBNU S»N °j"jj .

822 00040 7908

Oversize

v. 2-

{The Uictoria 1bistov\> of tbe
Counties of Enolanb

EDITED BY WILLIAM PAGE, F.S.A.

A HISTORY OF

SUFFOLK

VOLUME II

The publisher regrats that a few pages of this
scarce copy are slightly soiled as it had to be made
up frcm old sheet stock.

THE

VICTORIA HISTORY

OF THE COUNTIES
OF ENGLAND

SUFFOLK

LONDON

ARCHIBALD CONSTABLE

AND COMPANY LIMITED

This History is issued to Subscribers only
By Archibald Constable & Company Limited
and printed by Eyre & Spottiswoode
H.M. Printers of London

INSCRIBED

TO THE MEMORY OF

HER LATE MAJESTY

QUEEN VICTORIA

WHO GRACIOUSLY GAVE

THE TITLE TO AND

ACCEPTED THE

DEDICATION OF

THIS HISTORY

■*

THE

/ICTORIA HISTORY

OF THE COUNTY OF

SUFFOLK

EDITED BY

WILLIAM PAGE, F.S.A.

VOLUME TWO

LONDON
ARCHIBALD CONSTABLE

AND COMPANY LIMITED

1907

CONTENTS OF VOLUME TWO

Dedication ....
Contents ....

List of Illustrations .
Editorial Note
Ecclesiastical History
Religious Houses : —

Introduction .

Abbey of Bury St. Edmunds

Prior)' of Eye .

Priory of Dunwich .

Priory of Edwardstone

Priory of Hoxne

Priory of Rumburgh

Priory of Snape

Priory of Felixstowe .

Priory of Bungay

Prior)' of Redlingrield

Priory of St. George, Thetford

Prior)' of Mendham .

Priory of Wangford .

Abbey of Sibton

Priory of Alnesbourn

Prior)' of Blythburgh

Prior)' of Bricett

Priory of Butley

Priory of Chipley

Priory of Dodnash .

Priory of Herringfleet

Priory of St. Peter and St. Paul
Ipswich

Priory of the Holy Trinity, Ips
wich

Prior)' of Ixworth

Priory of Kersey

Priory of Letheringham

Priory of the Holy Sepulchre
Thetford .

Priory of Woodbridge

Priory of Campsey .

Priory of Flixton

Abbey of Leiston

Knights Templars of Dunwich

Preceptor)' of Battisford

Dominican Friars of Dunwich

By the Riv. J. C. Cox, LL.D., F.S.A.

PACE
V

xiii

53
56

72
76
76
76
-"
79
So
81
83
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86

>•
89
9'
9'
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■ 00

102

103
105

I0 ~

108

109

1 1 1

1 12

"5
1 1 -
120
120
121

CONTENTS OF VOLUME TWO

Religious Houses (continued) —

Dominican Friars of Ipswich

Dominican Friars of Sudbury .

Franciscan Friars of Bury St.
Edmunds ....

Franciscan Friars of Dunwich

Grey Friars of Ipswich

Austin Friars of Clare

Austin Friars of Gorleston

Austin Friars of Orford

Carmelite Friars of Ipswich

Abbey of Bruisyard .

Hospital of Beccles

Hospital of Domus Dei, Bury
St. Edmund*

Hospital of St. Nicholas, Bury
St. Edmunds

Hospital of St. Peter, Bury St
Edmunds ....

Hospital of St. Petronilla, Bury
St. Edmunds

Hospital of St. Saviour, Bury
St. Edmunds

Hospital of St. James, Dunwich .

Hospital of the Holy Trinity,
Dunwich ....
Hospital of Eye
Leper House of Gorleston

Leper Hospitals of St. Mary Mag-
dalen and St. James, Ipswich .

Hospital of St. Leonard, Ipswich

Hospitals of Orford .

1 lospital of Domus Dei, Thetford

Hospital of St. John, Thetford .

Hospital of Sibton .

Hospital of St. Leonard, Sudbury

College of Jesus, Bury St. Edmunds

College of Denston .

Cardinal's College, Ipswich

College of Mcttingham

College of Stoke by Clare .

College of Sudbury .

College of Wingfield

Priory of Blakenham

Priory of Greeting St. Mary

Priory of Creeting St. Olave

Priory of Stoke by Clare .

Hospital of Gre.it Thurlow

Hospital of Sudbury

Political History . . .

By the Rev. J. C. Cox, LL.I)., F.S.A.

By Miss Mary Croom Brown (Oxford Hon
School of Mo.lcrn History)

122
123

124

125
126

127
129
130
130

'31
132

133

•34

134

•35

'35
'37

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138

■38

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•39

•39
140
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142
'44
•45
•5°
•52
152
•53
•53
•54
•55
'55

'57

CONTENTS OF VOLUME TWO

Maritime History ....
Industries .....

Introduction ....

Woollen Cloth —The Old Draperies

The New Draperies, Woolcomb-
ing and Spinning .

Sailcloth and other Hempen
Fabrics ....

Silk Throwing and Silk Weaving

Mixed Textiles (Drabbet, Horse-
hair, Cocoa-nut Fibre) and
Ready-made Clothing

Stay and Corset Making

Lowestoft China

Agricultural Implements, Milling
Machinery, Locomotives, &c.

Fertilizers

Gun-Cotton

Xylonite .

Malting .

Printing .

Fisheries

Schools .

Introduction, Dunwich, Thet- A
ford, Bury St. Edmunds, Ips- >
wich and Elementary Schools )

The remaining Schools
Sport Ancient and Modern

Hunting

Staghounds
Harriers

Coursing

Shooting

Wild-fowling

Angling

Racing .

Golf

Camp Ball

Athletics
Agriculture
Forestry

By M. Oppenheim .

By George Unwin, M.A.

By Miss E. M. Hewitt

By A. F. Leach, M.A., F.S.A.

By Miss E. P. Steele Hutton, M.A. (St. Andrews)
Edited by E. D. Cuming
By Edward Huddleston
By E. D. Cuming

By H. Ledger

By Nicholas Everitt

By Ccthbert Bradley

By F. E. R. Fryer

By E. D. Cuming

By J. Y.. Fowler Dixon

By Herman Biddell

By the Rev. J. C. Cox, LL.D., F.S.A

199

2 +7

26:

271

2 "t
276

*77

281
2S5
286
28-
288
28S
289
301

357

360
361
361
36+
37 «

375

380

383
38+
38+
385
403

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

pa^e
The Banks of the Waveney . . By William Hyde .... Frontispiece

Ecclesiastical Map of Suffolk .......... faing 5'

Monastic Seals of Suffolk —

Plate I .......... full-page piate, lacing J2

Plate II . . . . . . . . . . . „ „ ,, i - •

Plate III .......... . „ „ „ 126

XIII

EDITORIAL NOTE

The Editor wishes to express his thanks to all those who have
assisted in the compilation of this volume, but particularly tc
Mr. \V. T. Bensly, LL.D., F.S.A., for kindly affording access to the
episcopal registers under his charge at Norwich, and to Mr. Vincent
B. Redstone, F.R.Hist.S., for much information and assistance for the
article on the Suffolk Schools.

A HISTORY OF
SUFFOLK

ECCLESIASTICAL
HISTORY

IN this sketch of the ecclesiastical history of the county of Suffolk, it
must be remembered that the general story of the successive bishops of
East Anglia, from the time when, under the Normans, the see was
transferred to Norwich, belongs far more to the ' Northfolk ' than the
' Southfolk,' and will therefore be more properly considered in the volumes
that deal with Norfolk. 1

The kingdom of East Anglia corresponded in its origin to the Norfolk
and Suffolk of later days, together with that part of Cambridgeshire which
lies to the east of the great Devil's Dyke at Newmarket, as well as parts of
the fen country up to Peterborough.

Bede tells us that JEWz, king of the South Saxons, about 490, was the
first overlord of the East Angles, and that their next ruler was Ceawlin, king
of the West Saxons, about 500. To Ceawlin succeeded Ethelbert of Kent,
the first Christian overlord of East Anglia. When Ethelbert died, ' twenty-
one years after he had received the Faith,' the overlordship passed into the
hands of Redwald, who played such an important part in the history of
Northumbria, and who had ruled in East Anglia, subservient to Ethelbert,
during the latter's lifetime. Edwin of Northumbria took refuge at the court
of Redwald, which was probably then stationed at Rendlesham in Suffolk,
and it was when he was in exile in this county that Edwin, according to Bede's
interesting and detailed narrative, experienced a singular vision which was the
eventual means of bringing him to the Christian faith. Through Redwald's
assistance, Edwin, in 617, recovered his Northumbrian throne. When Edwin
became a Christian, at a later date, Redwald was dead, and had been succeeded
by his son Eorpwald, who had had in his youth a curious experience of semi-
Christianity. His father, during one of his visits to Kent, had been baptized ;
but on his return his wife raised strong objections to his change of belief,
with the result that, at the East Anglian court in Suffolk, Redwald had, from
that time till the day of his death, ' in one and the same temple an altar for
Christian sacrifice, and a little altar for the victims offered to demons.' Ald-
wulf, who became king of the East Angles in 663, personally assured Bede
that this temple of his great-uncle, with its Christian and Pagan altars side
by side, was standing in his days, and that he had seen it when a boy.
Through Edwin's influence, Eorpwald was led to abandon all share in
idolatrous superstitions, and his whole province is said to have embraced, at

1 Many incidents ofecclesiastic.il history will also be found in the subsequent accounts of the religious
houses, particularly of St. Edmunds, and are not here repeated.

2 I I

A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK

least nominally, Christian tenets. Eorpwald's baptism, according to the Anglo-
Saxon Chronicle, took place in 632, which was Edwin's last year. 1

Soon after Eorpwald's conversion, he was slain by a pagan, Richbert,
and for three years the hastily renounced idolatry was resumed. But after
this brief interval there came a happy change, a genuine Christianity dawned
over the land of the East Angles. Eorpwald's brother Sigebert, who had
been in exile in Gaul, had become a Christian during his banishment, and he
determined, on succeeding to the kingdom, that the true faith should be pro-
claimed to his people. Bede pronounces a brief but high eulogium on the new
ruler, styling Sigebert 'a most Christian and most learned man.' 2 Just about
the time of Sigebert's accession to the East Anglian throne, either in 630 or
63 i, 3 there landed in England a Burgundian missionary bishop, Felix by name,
eager to take part in the evangelization of the dark places of Britain. He
made his way to Honorius, archbishop of Canterbury, and showed him his
desire, whereupon, in Bede's words, ' Honorius sent him to deliver the Word
of Life to the nations of the Angles.' *

Sigebert gave a warm welcome to the Burgundian bishop, and placed
the episcopal see at the city of ' Domnoc,' later known as Dunwich. It
would seem that at that time the Southfolk of the East Anglian kingdom
were more important than the Northfolk, and Dunwich — the old Roman
town of Sitomagus — was an important seaport, and the centre of some small
trade and commerce. At Dunwich Sigebert proceeded to erect a cathedral
church for his bishop, as well as a palace for himself. Here it may be well
to remark very briefly that Dunwich flourished as a city for several centuries ;
churches, religious houses, and important buildings multiplied, though by
no means to the extent indicated in romantic and fabulous tradition. But
by degrees the steady roll of the northern sea on England's shore gained the
mastery over the great protecting headland that jutted out just north of South-
wold, and Dunwich began to crumble before the advancing waves. The old
harbour and 400 houses were swept away in the days of Edward III, and
church after church disappeared, the sites of four being covered by the water
between 1535 and 1600. At the present time the last of the ancient parish
churches is crumbling on the edge of the cliff, each successive storm flinging
more of the old fabric down upon the beach.

Bishop Felix met with wonderful success in spreading the knowledge of
the faith throughout Sigebert's kingdom ; pagan unhappiness and wickedness
giving place, as Bede asserts in two glowing passages, to Christian happiness and
virtue, as though by the very sacrament of his name. Nor was he content
with merely preaching the Word through his own lips and those of his
clergy. Himself a learned man, he desired to establish true learning, and

1 Bede, Eccl. Hist. bk. ii, ch. 5 — 1 4. ; Bp. Browne, Conversion of the Heptarchy, 68-73.
' Bede, Eccl. Hist. bk. ii, ch. 15.

3 The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle says that it was in 636 that ' Bishop Felix preached the faith of Christ to
the East Angles.'

4 It is asserted in Hook's Archbishops and in various other church histories that Honorius consecrated Felix
bishop of Dunwich in 630. Even Bishop Stubbs, in both editions of his Registrum Sacr. Angl. p. 4, briefly
states this as a fact, giving Bede, ii, 15, as his reference. But Bede, as the bishop of Bristol points out {Con-
version of the Heptarchy, 74-76), states that Bishop Felix had been born and 'ordained' in Burgundy, and
' ordained' is the word generally used by Bede as indicating the consecration of a bishop. Thus on the death
of Felix, Honorius ' ordained ' Thomas his deacon in his place (iii, 20), and Augustine ' ordained ' Laurentius
to the episcopate (ii, 4).

ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY

gave cordial support in this respect to his sovereign. Bede states that Sige-
bert, desiring to imitate the good institutions he had seen in France, set up a
school for youth to be instructed in literature, and was ' assisted therein by
Bishop Felix, who furnished him with masters and teachers after the manner
of that country.' 1 Bishop Felix ruled as bishop of Dunwich with unvaried
success, during much civil disorder, for seventeen years, during which period
Suffolk was of far more importance in the establishment of Christianity than
the Norfolk division of the kingdom.

After a few years, Sigebert, tired of the turmoil of kingly rule, put off
his crown, committed the kingdom to his kinsman Ecgric, and ' went himself
into a monastery which he had built, and having received the tonsure, applied
himself rather to gain a heavenly throne.' 2 This place of retreat was called
1 Bedericsworth,' which afterwards became so celebrated under its changed
name of St. Edmundbury.

The fame of the good and learned bishop of East Anglia spread far and
wide, and, whilst Sigebert was still on the throne, a holy man of Ireland called
Fursey was attracted to this diocese, bringing with him a little company
consisting of his two brothers, Fullan and Ultan, and two priests named
Gobban and Dicul. This small community resolved to assist in the evangel-
izing of East Anglia, and ere long established themselves at a wild and desolate
spot called ' Cnobbesburgh,' now known as Burgh Castle, a little to the south
of Yarmouth and some twenty-five miles north of Dunwich. 3 Here, as at
Dunwich, was the site of an important Roman station, and doubtless in both
cases the material of the extensive fortifications and the massive walls would
be used in the erection of a Christian settlement. Thus Suffolk, within a
few years after the arrival of Felix at Dunwich, possessed two other Christian
settlements, namely at Burgh Castle and Bury St. Edmunds ; for it must be
remembered that a monastery of those days meant an establishment of vowed
missionaries, who did their best to christianize the district around them.

On the death of Bishop Felix, Archbishop Honorius consecrated his
deacon Thomas as the second bishop of Dunwich. He held the see but five
years, and on his death in 652, Bertgils, surnamed Boniface, of the province
of Kent, was appointed in his stead. 4

In the year 655 Penda, the headstrong pagan king of Mercia, made an
inroad on the Anglian kingdom, then under the rule of King Anna. There
was a great battle at Bulcamp near Blythburgh, where Anna and his son
Firmin fell by the sword, together with the greater part of his forces, and
heathendom again raised its head in the land. 6

But though Anna left no son to succeed him, he was, according to Bede,
' the parent of good children and was happy in a good and holy progeny.'

1 Bede, bk. iii, ch. 18. Later writers have differed as to whether this great school, employing many
masters and teachers, was established at Dunwich or at Saham Tony in Norfolk. William of Malmesbury was
probably right in saying that Sigebert and Felix ' instituted schools of learning in different places.' Gesta
Regum (Rolls Ser.), i, 97. ' Bede, bk. iii, ch. 18.

3 Ibid. ch. 19. There is much in this long chapter about the visions and sanctity of St. Fursey. 'An
ancient brother of our monastery,' says Bede, ' is still living, who is wont to declare that a very sincere and
religious man told him that he had seen Fursey himself in the province of the East Angles, and heard these
visions from his mouth.' ' Ibid. ch. 20.

' There is much divergence in the account of the strife between Penda and Anna given by Bede, William
of Malmesbury, and others ; but the statement in the text seems the most probable. See paper by Dr. Jessopp
on Blythburgh, Stiff. Arch. Inst. Proc. iv, 225-43.

A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK

Four daughters survived him, each of them renowned for devout Christian
lives. Sexburga, the eldest, married Erconbert, king of Kent. On the
death of her husband of the plague in 664 she became for a time regent of
the kingdom, but resigning these duties she eventually joined her more cele-
brated sister Etheldreda, who had founded the renowned monastery of Ely
among the swamps of the Anglian borderland. A third daughter, Ethelburga,
left England for a conventual life on the Continent, and died abbess of Brie;
whilst the fourth daughter, Witberga, passed her days in retirement at
East Dereham.

A connexion of Anna's was a yet more celebrated Christian lady, and
perhaps the most distinguished of all those holy women of Suffolk who did
so much for the civilizing of England in the seventh century. After the
battle of Bulcamp, Anna's brother Ethelhere became king of the East Angles.
His wife Hereswith was a Christian princess of no small repute, but her sister
Hilda won yet higher religious renown outside Anglia as the great founder
of Whitby Abbey in Northumbria.

Nor is this the full tale of the saintly women of the highest birth who
went forth from Dunwich as a purifying salt in an age of much corruption
and lingering paganism. Aldwulf, the son of Ethelhere and Hereswith,
reigned long and prosperously as the Christian king of the East Angles. 1 On
his death in 713 he left but three surviving daughters. Each of these in their
devotion to religion adopted the cloistered life. Eadburgh became abbess of
the important Mercian monastery of Repton, whilst Ethelburga and Hwaet-
burga, the other daughters, were successive abbesses of Hackness, a religious
house which was second only in repute to Whitby in the land of North-
umbria. 2

In the midst of the long reign of Aldwulf, when Bisi, the fourth bishop
of Dunwich, was growing too old and infirm to undertake long journeys over
his extensive diocese, there was a division of the see. In 673 Archbishop
Theodore's principle of multiplying bishoprics came into operation in East
Anglia. Aldwulf gave his consent to the retirement of the aged Bisi, and
Theodore in his room consecrated two bishops, the one to rule as formerly
from Dunwich, but only over Suffolk, and the other apparently intended to
preside over Norfolk from the new centre of Elmham. Baduvine became
bishop of Elmham, and ./Ecci of Dunwich. 3

1 His name appears among the signatories to the Council of Hatfield in 688. Hadden and Stubbs,
Councils, iii, 141.

3 See the long chapter, of singular beauty, in Montalembert's Monks of the West, entitled ' The Anglo-
Saxon Nuns' (Auth. Trans.), v, 215-361.

3 There are in East Anglia two Elmhams, North Elmham and South Elmham. The former of these is
near the centre of Norfolk, whilst the latter is the name for a group of seven Suffolk villages, distinguished by
the saints' names of their respective churches, which lie some fifteen miles to the north-west of Dunwich. Bede
when he mentions that see does not distinguish it by either 'North' or 'South' : but it was long tacitly
assumed that North Elmham was the centre of the new see. That Archbishop Theodore and King Aldwulf
when subdividing the kingdom into two dioceses should fix the seat of the new see within a few miles of the
old one at Dunwich seems almost incredible. The chief reason why a few able men have been led of late
years to argue in favour of South Elmham is because of the presence at South Elmham St. George of certain
remarkable remains long known as the Old Minster. These will be subsequently described in detail ; suffice it
here to state that a space of 3J acres called the minster yard is enclosed within a bank and moat, and contains
considerable ruins. The bishops of Norwich also retained an episcopal residence at South Elmham down to
the days of Henry VIII. It is quite clear that there was an important Christian settlement at South Elmham
in early days, which was the mother church or minster of the immediate district ; but archaeology also shows
that North Elmham was of much former importance, for there too is a mound and fosse and remains of ancient

ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY

Of the future history of the see of Dunwich but little is known. It
•came to an end with the incursion of the Danes. There were eleven bishops
of Dunwich after ./Ecci, whose names were /Escwulf, Eadulf (signature 747),
Cuthwine, Aldberht, Ecglaf, Heardred (signatures 781-89), Aelhun (790-3),
Tidferth (798-816), Waeremund (signature 824), Wilred (signatures 825-45),
and TEthelwulf. 1

For about a hundred and fifty years after Archbishop Theodore, the
signatures of the bishops of the two East Anglian sees are appended to the
various acts of the national synods ; but after the death of Humbert of
Elmham (870) and /Ethelwulf of Dunwich, in the ninth century, the name of
no East Anglian bishop occurs for about a hundred years. The reason is not
far to seek ; the province was overrun with the hordes of heathen Northmen
or Danes who landed in constantly increasing numbers on the long line of
seaboard, finding their chief spoils in Christian churches and monasteries. At
last, in 861, 'a great heathen army came to the land of the English nation,
and took up their winter quarters among the East Angles, and there they
were housed ; and the East Angles made peace with them.' 2 This was the
date of their first definite settlement. When the winter of 866-7 had
passed away, the Danes in great multitudes left their quarters in Suffolk and
Norfolk, and for three years cruelly ravaged Yorkshire, Northumberland, and
Nottinghamshire. In 870 they returned to East Anglia, making Thetford
their head quarters for the winter. 3 During the absence of their army for
those three years, the courage of the men of East Anglia had revived.
Edmund, their king, full of Christian ardour, rallied them to resist the
heathen marauders and strike a blow for freedom. A great battle was fought
near the town that afterwards bore the martyr's name ; but the English were
■defeated and their king taken prisoner. Hingwar and the other Danish chief-
tains would have spared Edmund's life had he but consented to be their
tributary prince and abjured his baptism. The king, on the contrary, refused
to reign under Hingwar unless the latter first embraced Christianity. A cruel
scourging followed this refusal ; he was bound to a tree and met with a
lingering death as a target for Danish arrows, according to the well-known
and oft-illustrated story of his martyrdom. 4

After they had slain St. Edmund, the chroniclers all agree that the
Danes, recognizing the religious nature of the uprising against their cruel
rule, fell with renewed force on the remaining churches and monasteries or

walls. As supporters of the North Elmham site it will suffice to mention Camden and Spelman of earlier writers
and Dr. Jessopp and the Bishop of Bristol among modern ecclesiologists. See also Bright, Early Engl. Ck. 250.
The arguments in favour of South Elmham being the seat of the bishopric were set forth in a paper by the
late Mr. Harrod in 1874, Suff. Arch. Inst. Proc. iv, 7-13 ; a previous paper in the same volume gives a plan
and description of the moated site by Mr. Woodward.

1 The spelling adopted by Dr. Stubbs in his Reg. Sacr. Angl. (230-1) is the one used in the text. For
the attendance at synods and for the signatures of these early bishops of Dunwich and Elmham see Hadden
and Stubbs, Councils and Eccl. Doc. vol. ii, passim.

* Ang. Sax. Chron. (Rolls Ser.), i, 137. s Ibid.

* The legendary lives of St. Edmund and the contradictions of annalists make the truth connected with
Edmund's actions and death difficult to elucidate. But the bare facts cited above seem undoubtedly true. As
to his martyrdom there were two different early versions, which have been termed the clerical and the secular.
According to the first of these, as described by Abbo, Florence, and Malmesbury, Edmund when attacked by
the Danes made no resistance, and was led as a lamb to the slaughter. According to the other and better
■established version, supported by the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, Asser, and Ethelward, Edmund and his men
fought stoutly against the Danes. As to the various lives of St. Edmund, see Arnold, Memorials of St. Edmund's
Abbey (Rolls Ser.), 3 vols. (1890-6), particularly the introduction to vol. i.

A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK

residences of the clergy, determined if possible to stamp out the faith through-
out the whole of that region. Then arose Alfred, and when at last peace was
signed between the English monarch and Guthrum the Dane, it was arranged
that the latter should leave Wessex, but should be permitted to retain East
Anglia and other northern territory. It was also stipulated that Guthrum
should accept Christianity as the religion of his people. Guthrum was
accordingly baptized, Alfred standing as his godfather, and took the new
name of Athelstan. For ten years he ruled in East Anglia, abiding there,
and died in 890. For at least thirty years after his death the province was
entirely under Danish rule ; but the chroniclers are almost silent as to its
internal condition, and the extent to which Christianity was maintained is a
matter of conjecture.

Dunwich is not heard of again as the seat of a bishopric ; probably the
incursions of the sea had already begun to deprive it of some of its import-
ance. Elmham, on the contrary, in the centre of Norfolk, seems to have
been recognized as a more suitable station for a bishop than any place on the
coast line, and when bishops of East Anglia begin again to be named they
are invariably, for more than a century, bishops of Elmham. 1

The Danes had been brought into subjection by Alfred's son, Edward
the Elder, in 921, and East Anglia again came under English rule. 2 After
the Danish suppression a strong revival of monastic life under the Benedictine
rule passed over England. 3 But monastic fervour was suffered to receive another
severe check from Danish incursions. In 991 and again in 993 Ipswich
was ravaged, and a tribute exacted on account of the great terror of the wild
Northmen which existed on the coast line. In 1 004 King Sweyn sailed up the
Yare, burned Norwich and Thetford, and made much desolation with fire and
sword throughout many parts of Suffolk and Norfolk. The churches and
monasteries were spoiled, and many monks carried off into captivity. In
10 10 the Northmen came in yet larger numbers, landing this time at Ipswich,
and harrying a still wider extent of East Anglia.' 1

On Sweyn's death in 10 14 his son Canute succeeded, and within three
years found himself master of England. Canute in his turn became a patron
of the Benedictine order, and in the year that he became overlord of East
Anglia and the rest of the kingdom founded in the midst of the Norfolk Broads
the abbey of St. Benet of Holme. It was from Holme a few years later that
a colony of monks proceeded to found the ever-famous Suffolk abbey of
St. Edmunds.

With regard to the action and influence and lives of the later bishops of
Elmham, such as Stigand and his brother iEthelmaer, any discussion of their
lives comes more appropriately under the story of the church in the county

1 There is record of twelve bishops of Elmham, after the break from the Danish invasion up to the trans-
ference of the see to Thetford : — Eadulf (signatures 956-64), ^Elfric, Theodred (signature 975), Theodred
(signature 995), ^Elfstan (995-1001), jElfgar (1001-102 1), ^Elfwine (1016, last signature 1022), ^Elfric
(died 1038), ^Elfric (consecrated 1038), Stigand (1043-6), ^Ethelmaer (1047, last signature 1055), and
Herfast (consecrated 1070).

3 Ang. Sax. Chron. (Rolls Ser.), i, 195.

3 One of its chief supporters in this district, during the tenth century, was jEthelwine, to whom from his
devoutness the patriarchal title of the 'Friend of God ' was applied. He was alderman of East Anglia, and
founder of the abbey of Ramsey in the Huntingdon swamps, where he was buried in 992. Hist. Rames.
(Chron. and Mem. Ser.), pp. 12, 31, 100, 103, &c. ; Vita Oswaldi (Chron. and Mem. Ser.), i, passim.

' Hen. Hunt. Hist. (Rolls Ser.), 175-8 ; Matt. Paris, Chron. Majora (Rolls Ser.), i, 481-2 ; Ang. Sax.
Chron. (Rolls Ser.), i, 264.

ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY

of Norfolk. Suffice it here to say that the Conqueror imposed his own
chaplain, Herfast, an Italian, on the see of East Anglia in the year 1070.

Before proceeding with the religious history of Suffolk in post-Conquest
days, it may be well to offer a short digression as to the church dedications
of the county that bear on local Christianity ere the days of the Norman
settlement.

Upwards of fifty ancient churches in England are dedicated to the well-
loved king of East Anglia, whose memory is so imperishably associated with
the second town of Suffolk, Bury St. Edmunds. The little chapel at Hoxne
that sprang up over the spot in the woods where the Danes had flung aside
the mutilated body, and where it was first buried, was naturally placed under
the invocation of St. Edmund, King and Martyr ; but it has long since dis-
appeared. Five Suffolk churches retain the dedication in his honour, namely
Assington, Bromeswell, Fritton, Kessingland, and Southwold ; whilst old
inventories and wills show that side altars and images in honour of this royal
saint were of frequent occurrence in numerous other churches. 1

The purely Saxon name of Botolph 2 is commemorated in the invocations
of a variety of early churches in East Anglia. The true story of this seventh-
century saint, a hermit, abbot, and bishop according to somewhat conflicting
statements, is difficult to elucidate ; but the tradition that identifies Ikanho —
the dismal spot surrounded by swamps where St. Botolph first built a monas-
tery — with the village of Iken, on the south side of the estuary of the Aide,
seems almost certainly correct, for it coincides, with much nicety, with the
details given of his first settlement. 3 The church of Iken still bears the name
of St. Botolph. The Bury St. Edmunds tradition of him, current as early as
the eleventh century, termed St. Botolph a bishop, and stated that he was
first buried at Grundisburgh, a few miles north of Ipswich, ere his remains
were conveyed to St. Edmunds.* Immediately north of Grundisburgh is the
village of Burgh, whilst Culpho is the adjoining parish on the south ; both
these churches are still dedicated in honour of St. Botolph. The name of the
saint is also apparently embedded in the place-name Botesdale, on the northern
confines of the county, where St. Botolph at one time probably tarried ; the
dedication of the ancient chapel of Botesdale, as well as of the mother church
of Redgrave, are also to the honour of this saint. North Cove, near Beccles,
is another Suffolk parish church of the like dedication, and the Domesday
Survey gives a church of St. Botolph at Ipswich.

St. Ethelbert (known also as Albert or Albright) was a murdered East
Anglian king, who must not be confused with his more celebrated but
uncanonized royal namesake Ethelbert of Kent. Ethelbert left Suffolk for
Herefordshire in May, 794, on a visit to the court of King Offa, where he
was treacherously done to death on 20 May, 794. The cathedral church of
Hereford, where he was buried, is still dedicated to his memory. Fourteen
other churches are dedicated to this East Anglian king, seven of which are in
Norfolk and four in Suffolk ; the latter are in the parishes of Fakenham, 6

1 Norfolk retains fifteen parish church dedications to St. Edmund.

1 Though St. Botolph finds no place in the Sarum calendar, the York calendar held him in honour on
17 June.

3 Foster, Studies in Church Dedications, ii, 54.

* Arnold, Mem. of St. Edmunds Bury I, lxii, 361.

5 Erroneously described, of late years, as dedicated to St. Etheldreda.

A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK

Herringswell, Hessett, and Tannington. There was also an important gild
of St. Ethelbert in connexion with the abbey church of St. Edmunds.

St. Olave or St. Olaf, an eleventh-century martyred king of Norway,
who used to be commemorated in the now destroyed church of one of the
Creetings, which is still known as Creeting St. Olave, is one of the two
Scandinavian saint names (the other being St. Magnus) brought into these
islands by the Danes, while French influence is shown at Euston and Forn-
ham by the invocation of St. Genevieve, who built the famous church of
St. Denis at Paris, and at Stonham Aspall by the commemoration of
St. Lambert, who is thus honoured at only one other place in England, so far
as is known, namely at Burneston in Yorkshire.

Herfast was the last bishop of Elmham and ' the first foreigner who had
ever presided over an East Anglian see.' 1 In 1078 Herfast transferred the
seat of his bishopric from Elmham to Thetford, as a convenient borderland
town between Norfolk and Suffolk. 8

To Herfast, as a stranger to East Anglia, the claim of chartered exemption
from diocesan jurisdiction made by the abbey of St. Edmunds over their liberty,
which included a third of Suffolk, was amazing and evil. He at once set
himself to defeat, if possible, this opposition to his authority, and insisted on
visiting the abbey. But Baldwin, the abbot of St. Edmunds, was a man of
blameless life and high repute. His fame as a physician was so great that
he had been sent by Edward the Confessor to cure Abbot Lefstan, his prede-
cessor, of his sickness. Moreover Baldwin was well known on the Continent,
and had been ordained priest by that remarkable man Pope Alexander II.
Both parties appealed to the king, but William was at that moment (1073)
crossing the seas in connexion with the revolt of Maine, and commissioned
Archbishop Lanfranc to arbitrate. Meanwhile Herfast, in his impatience,
excommunicated certain of the abbot's contumacious priests, whilst Lanfranc
was on his journey to East Anglia. The archbishop had got as far as Frec-
kenham in Suffolk, where Siward bishop of Rochester had a manor-house,
when he was attacked with sickness, and Abbot Baldwin was summoned to his
bedside in the capacity of a physician. On his recovery, Lanfranc proceeded
to Bury, and gave a decision which was pleasing to neither side, though
apparently more favourable to the abbot than to the bishop. Thereupon the
case was transferred to Rome, and in November, 1074, Gregory VII, who
had just succeeded to the papacy, wrote strongly to Lanfranc in favour of the
abbot, stating that if Herfast was still dissatisfied both parties must appear
personally at Rome. Upon receipt of this letter Lanfranc gave his final
award entirely in favour of the abbot, a decision which Herfast resisted with
much wrath, using personal violence to the messenger who brought him the
archbishop's letter. 3

William de Beaufeu, the successor to Herfast, was consecrated by Lan-
franc at Canterbury in 1086. It was in the first year of his episcopacy that
the Domesday Survey of East Anglia was compiled. This survey is fully
discussed elsewhere, but brief reference must also be made to it in this place,
as the information contained in it with reference to the church is excep-
tionally full. The church entries extend from No. xiii to xxiv inclusive.

1 Dioc. Hist. Norwich, 36. ' Malmesbury, De Geitis Pontif. Angl. (Rolls Ser.), 150.

5 Ibid. 156 ; Lanfranc, Epistolae, Nos. jacii-v.

ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY

It is not a little significant, in the light of the contemporary controversy
between abbot and bishop, to find that the abbot of St. Edmunds comes
first. The next three are Lanfranc the archbishop, the bishop of Bayeux,
and the abbot of Ramsey. The lands of William bishop of Thetford
come fifth in the ecclesiastical list. These are followed by the bishop of
Rochester, with the manor of Freckenham, and the abbot of Ely, with
his great possessions, whilst two alien proprietors, Gilbert, bishop of
Evreux, with two manors, and the single manor of the abbot of Bernay,
together with the small holding of the Cambridgeshire abbey of Chatteris,
complete the list.

The abbey of St. Edmunds, who also held largely in Norfolk and Essex,
and to a smaller extent in Oxfordshire, Cambridgeshire, Bedfordshire, and
Northamptonshire, is the only one recorded in the whole of Domesday as
possessing about three hundred manors ; even the abbot of Ely, including
possessions outside the liberty of St. Etheldreda in Suffolk, in the counties
of Norfolk, Essex, Cambridge, Lincoln, Hertford, and Huntingdon, held
only just one hundred.

That the survey nowhere professes to include all or indeed any churches
is now so well known that it scarcely needs even the briefest reassertion.
Even in the case of Suffolk, notwithstanding the extraordinary number of
churches that the East Anglian commissioners saw fit to include, the list is
not complete. One instance will suffice to establish this. There was a
church at Harpole, a hamlet of Wickham Market, which had twenty acres
of land ;' but there is no mention of it in Domesday. The actual number of
Suffolk churches entered in the survey is constantly stated to be 364, as
most writers are generally content to quote from Sir Henry Ellis, without
testing his figures. 2 The fact is that, large as is this amount, the figures
require to be considerably increased. It is difficult to give the exact numbers,
for parts or fractions of a church are entered from time to time, implying
that a manor or hamlet shared with one or more of its neighbours in the
possession of a church, or that different tenants held shares of the same
church. Thus Offton, Undley, and Wantisden are entered as having half a
church ; Parham a fourth part ; Westley a third part ; Sapiston and Saxham
two parts ; and Wantisden two parts in one place, and a fourth in two other
places. The returns are by no means always so perfect as to enable us to
add up the fractions to complete the church, as in the case of Wantisden.
In some cases the entry is simply pars ecclesie. But if all the churches are
added up, and the fractional parts estimated to make whole churches so far
as is possible, the total reaches 398.

Two chapels also receive special mention, so that the number of places
of Christian worship recorded reaches the round number of 400. Moreover
the two cases of chapels that obtained entry were placed on the record for
special financial reasons. It is therefore fair to assume that there were
various other chapels then extant which were non-parochial and escaped
mention. In one case we know that a chapel then standing escaped entry ;
for there is no record of the chapel of St. Botolph at Burgh near Woodbridge,

1 lnq. ETiensis, fol. zlb.

' Ellis, Introd. to Domesday, i, 287 ; this statement originally appeared in the introduction to the large
folio edition of the Survey issued in 1S13, but is repeated in the two vol. 8vo. revised edition issued in 1S33.
292

A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK

where the relics of St. Edmund rested until their translation in 1095 to the
great abbey.

The entry on the survey relative to one of these two chapels, that of
Thorney, occurs on the first folio of the king's lands, and is sufficiently
remarkable to be here translated : —

Hugh de Montford has twenty-three acres of this carucate, and claims it as pertaining
to a certain chapel, which four brothers, Hugh's freemen, erected on their own land near
the cemetery of the mother church. And they were inhabitants {manentes) of the parish of
the mother church (and built it), because it could not include the whole parish. The
mother church always had the moiety of the burial fees, and had by purchase the fourth part
of other alms which might be offered. And whether or not this chapel has been dedicated
the Hundred doth not know. 1

The other chapel was at Wisset ; it was in connexion with the church
and served for twelve monks. 2

The glebes which attached to almost the whole of these numerous
Suffolk churches differed very widely in extent. In one or two cases, as at
Dunwich, the church is recorded without any mention of land pertaining to
it. But such cases were clearly rare, for now and again the scribe entered as
something noteworthy, as in the instances of Cornard and Dagworth, that the
church was landless {sine terra). The amount varied from half an acre at
Keworth, and one acre at Hinderclay, to fifty acres at Thorpe Morieux, sixty
at Framlingham, and eighty-four at Barking. The average amount of glebe
attached to the numerous churches of the Liberty of St. Edmund works out
at about sixteen acres each, and this seems to have been nearly the average
throughout the county.

The astonishingly large number of churches that Suffolk possessed at the
beginning of the Norman occupation — they were fully a hundred in excess of
those recorded in Norfolk, notwithstanding that county's greater area and
larger population — bears striking witness to the reality and extent of the
Christian faith of the times in this much ravaged district. It is not a little
remarkable that there should be this vast number of places of worship when
they had been so frequently destroyed and sacked by the piratical Danes
within the memory of not a few. Doubtless the churches were almost
entirely of wood, and timber was abundant ; but their erection and furnishing,
apart from the sustenance of the priests, meant in every instance no small
outlay of time and means. Their number is the more astonishing, when
thought is taken as to the population of the period.

The detailed estimate made by Sir Henry Ellis of the population of
Suffolk as recorded in the Domesday Survey reaches the total of 20,49 1. 3
Taking this total and the number of the churches in round figures, the result
is reached that Suffolk possessed a church for every fifty inhabitants before
the close of the Conqueror's reign. There can be little doubt that Suffolk
was then ahead of all other parts of England — possibly even of Christendom
itself — and it is equally certain that the result was in no small measure due to
the earnest labours of the monks of St. Edmund and St. Etheldreda, who in
their respective liberties and outlying manors had immediate influence over
more than two-thirds of the county's area.

1 Dom. Bk. fol. 28i3. ' Ibid. 292^.

* Ellis, Introd. to Domesday, ii, 488-93.

ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY

Before the consideration of the ecclesiastical side of Suffolk Domesday is
left, a few words must be said with regard to the special entries relative to
the two towns of Bury and Ipswich.

The great importance of St. Edmund's Abbey is shown by the details
given of the household. It is the only case in the whole survey where the
number of retainers and servants of a monastery is recorded. There is
unfortunately no enumeration of the actual monks. The priests, deacons, and
clerks attached to the abbey numbered thirty, and the servants seventy-five.
The nonne et pauperes 1 who received regular rations from the abbey numbered
thirty-eight. There were also thirteen indwellers, who seem to have been
engaged in trades for those in the house, twenty-seven bordarii and thirty-four
milites, yielding a total of 207. The survey also supplies details with regard
to the retainers and servants in the time of the Confessor, but entered in such
a way that any exact comparison between the two periods is not possible.
At the earlier date there were 108 homagers living ad victum monachorum ;
the total entered under the monastery was then 310. The houses on the
abbey property amounted to 342. 2

The ecclesiastical entries with regard to the ancient borough of Ipswich
are also exceptionally full and interesting. The town had 538 burgesses in
the Confessor's days. It was singularly well supplied with churches. Eight
are mentioned in Domesday — namely, two dedicated to the honour of the
Blessed Virgin, the church of the Holy Trinity, and the churches of St.
Michael, St. Botolph, St. Lawrence, St. Peter, and St. Stephen. Three of
these churches belonged to priests, but the others were in lay patronage.
Culling, a burgess, held one of the St. Mary's ; Lefflet, a freewoman, had
St. Lawrence ; Roger de Ramis held the church of St. George, with four
burgesses and six wasted houses ; Alwin the son of Rolf, a burgess, held
the church of St. Julian ; and five burgesses belonged to the church of
St. Peter. So abundant was the church accommodation of Ipswich that only
one new parish church, that of St. Matthew, sprang up between the Conquest
and the Reformation. 3

The chief religious event in the diocese during the five years of the
episcopate of William de Beaufeu was the founding of the great Cluniac
priory of Castle Acre, and there is little to record concerning Suffolk. On
William's death in 1091, the ambitious Herbert de Losinga, abbot of
Ramsey, became bishop. Bishop Herbert is generally spoken of as rising to
this position through unblushing simony ; but after all there is something to
be said for the gentle way in which the fact of purchase is set forth by
Dr. Stubbs. That great historian represents the abbot as coming forward as
a candidate for the vacant office who was willing and able to pay such fees
for entering upon the ecclesiastical fief as the king thought proper to demand.*
William Rufus was so absolutely unscrupulous in his dealings with the
highest church preferments that it was possibly better for East Anglia that

1 These nuns may have been those of Lyng (Norf.) who were transferred to ThetforJ in 1160. The
ThetforJ nuns, as is afterwards stated in detail, received their weekly supply of food and drink from the monks
of St. Edmunds.

J Ellis, Introd. to Domesday (1833), ii, 4.8 8 ; De Grey Birch, Domesday Book, £11.

3 Cutts, Parish Priests and their People, 506-7. All the parish churches of Ipswich became eventually
appropriated to one or other of the two Austin priories founded here at the end of the twelfth century.

4 Stubbs, Const. Hist, i, 299.

A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK

the abbot should purchase the episcopate, rather than that it should be kept
vacant by the crown for the appropriation of the income, as was the case at
this period with the archbishopric of Canterbury for four years and the
bishopric of Chichester for three years.

Bishop Herbert brought about the transference of the East Anglian see
from Thetford to Norwich, which was rapidly becoming an important
commercial centre, in 1094, and became the munificent founder of the
cathedral church and Benedictine priory of that city. His life and times
were in many ways eventful, but their story far more concerns the county of
Norfolk, than that of Suffolk. His attempts to destroy the exempt jurisdiction
of the abbey of St. Edmunds were as futile as those of Bishop Herfast. 1
During this episcopate, which ended by the death of the bishop in 11 19,
Suffolk saw the rise of various small religious houses, the priories of Hoxne
(a cell of Norwich), Blythburgh, Eye, Herringfleet, and Ixworth.

The particular incident that affected Suffolk during the episcopate of
Bishop Everard (1 121-48) was the dividing of the archdeaconry of Suffolk,
which had hitherto been conterminous with the county, into two parts.
Richard was the last archdeacon of the whole county. Upon his being
appointed to a French bishopric, Bishop Everard took the opportunity or
apportioning the county between two archdeacons, the one retaining the
title of Suffolk, and the other receiving his name from Sudbury in the
south of the county. Walkelin, a nephew of Bishop Everard, was appointed
archdeacon of Suffolk in 1127, and William Fitz-Humphrey archdeacon of
Sudbury about the same time. 2

During the next episcopate, that of William Turbe (1146-74), the
staunch supporter of Thomas of Canterbury, the nunnery of Bungay
was founded; whilst Bishop John of Oxford (1 175-1200) distin-
guished himself in Suffolk by rebuilding the Austin priory and church of
the Holy Trinity, Ipswich. Bishop John de Grey was the diocesan (1200-
12 14) during all but the final stage of the disastrous rule of King John ; but
throughout this period it was Abbot Sampson of St. Edmunds and not the
bishop of Norwich who was the great champion of the Church in East
Anglia.

The diocese might almost as well have been without bishops during the rule
of Pandulf Masca the papal legate and the non-resident Thomas de Blunville,
whilst William de Raleigh (1239-44) was speedily translated to Winchester.
Episcopal functions must have been almost entirely discharged by suffragans
during the first half of the thirteenth century. It was, however, during this
period that the mendicant friars reached England, and brought about a
marked revival in religion. Both Dominicans and Franciscans were strongly
•established at Norwich during the episcopate of Thomas de Blunville
(1223-36) and they doubtless crossed the county frontier into Suffolk. None,
however, of the friars took up their residence in Suffolk until somewhat later
in the century and chiefly in the reign of Edward I. Their first establish-
ment was the important house of Austin friars at Clare, founded in 1248.
The respective dates of their introduction elsewhere in the county are subse-
quently discussed, suffice it here to say that eventually the Dominicans had

1 See Goulbourn and Symonds, Life, Letters, and Sermons of Herbert de Losinga (1878), 2 vols.
' Le Neve, Fasti ii, 486-90.

ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY

houses at Dunwich, Ipswich, and Sudbury ; the Franciscans at Bury (removed
to Babwell), Dunwich, and Ipswich ; the Austins at Orford and Little
Yarmouth ; and the Carmelites at Ipswich.

After a long period of gloom, the diocese at last obtained, through the
free election of the monks of Norwich, in Walter Calthorpe (1245—57) a
bishop of a very different type. ' A man of unblemished character, a
graduate of the University of Paris, a scion of an old Norfolk house whose
ancestors had enjoyed large possessions in East Anglia, and a friend of Bishop
Grosseteste and of the Franciscans.' ' His episcopate is memorable for the
valuation of all the benefices of the diocese, which was drawn up for the
assessment of the tenths due from the clergy. It was compiled in 1256, and
is known as the Norwich Taxation. At the beginning of the Liber Albus of
the monks of St. Edmund is a tabulated copy of Bishop Calthorpe's taxation
of his whole diocese, beautifully written and rubricated on thirty-four folios. 2
The distinguishing feature between the portions relative to Norfolk and
Suffolk is that the latter has an extra column on the left hand of the
page, wherein another valuation headed ' Snaylwell ' is also set forth in a
later hand.

The archdeaconry of Sudbury with its eight deaneries is the first to
be entered. In the deanery of Stow were thirteen parishes ; four of these
had duly endowed vicarages, Stow St. Peter, Stow St. Mary, Haughley with
the chapel of Shelland, and Newton. In the deanery of Thedwastre were
twenty-five parishes ; only one vicarage, that of Woolpit, is named. The
deanery of Blackburne contained thirty-five parishes, without any mention of
a vicarage. The deanery of Hartismere had thirty-two parishes, and again,
though there are many ' portions ' assigned to religious houses, there is no
vicarage. In Fordham deanery (a portion of which was in Cambridgeshire)
there were twenty-eight parishes ; seven of these had vicars, namely, Ditton,
Ixning, Mildenhall, Soham, Fordham, Chippenham, and Kirtling, but only the
first three are in Suffolk. In Thingoe deanery were nineteen parishes and no
vicarage. Sudbury deanery included forty-nine parishes ; out of this large
number there were nine vicarages, namely, Preston, Stoke, Wissington,
Cornard Magna, Edwardstone, Waldingfield Parva, Glemsford, Eleigh
■Combusta, and Bures. Clare deanery contained twenty-nine parishes, four of
which, Gazely, Clare, Redington, and Poslingford, had vicarages.

The archdeaconry of Suffolk was divided into thirteen deaneries. The
deanery of Bosmere had twenty-five parishes, the deanery of Claydon fourteen,
Hoxne twenty-four, Lothingland twenty-five, Wilford seventeen, Orford
twenty-one, Loes seventeen, Samford twenty-seven, Ipswich twelve, Wang-
ford twenty-two, Dunwich forty-eight, Carlford eighteen, and Colneys thir-
teen. There is not a single case of a vicarage mentioned in the Suffolk
archdeaconry ; but as there is only one instance of a ' portion ' entered, when
it is well known that there were many portions or pensions to religious
houses, it is clear that this record (or copy of a record), compiled on less
definite principles than that of Sudbury, cannot be relied upon to prove the
absence of any vicarages in these thirteen deaneries.

The total number of parishes in the two archdeaconries in the 1256
taxation roll is 488 ; but from these thirteen have to be deducted, which

1 Norwich Dioc. Hist. 90. * Harl. MS. 1005, fol. 1-34.

A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK

were in the Cambridgeshire half of Fordham deanery. Against these we have
to reckon the nine churches of the South Elmham peculiar, which are not
given in the Norwich Taxation, though they appear separately at the end of
the Snaylwell list, 1 and were entered as a deanery in 1291. It therefore
follows that the full number of Suffolk parishes given in 1256 was 484."

This Valor shows that the portions or pensions taken out of many of the
churches exceeded that which was retained by the rector. Thus in Stow
deanery, the rector of Wetherden had nine marks, but the portion assigned
to the priory of Blackborough was ten marks, and the schoolmaster of
St. Edmunds also drew 40J. ; the rector of Harleston in the same deanery
drew ten marks, but the monks of Stoke had thirty marks from that church.

The parallel ' Snaylwell ' 3 valuation is clearly of a later date, and of the
next century ; it corresponds fairly closely in the value assigned to the general
benefices with the 1256 Valor. But there is a considerable rise in the worth
of the vicarages. Taking as an example the value of the four vicarages of
the first recorded deanery, that of Stow, the following is the result : —

Vicarages, Stow Deanery

1256 'Snaylwell'
Stow St. Peter . . 2 marks 7 marks

Stow St. Mary . . 301. 6d. 5 „

Haughley . . . 30J. od. 6£ „

Newton . . . 401. od. 5 „

In i 29 1 came the general valuation of the church property of England,
usually known as that of Pope Nicholas. 4 It is of some interest to compare
the entries for this diocese with those of Bishop Calthorpe.

In the course of the fifty odd years that had elapsed since the taking of
the Norwich Taxation, there had been a distinct increase in the definitely
ordained vicarages. The additional vicarages of Sudbury archdeaconry were :
In Thedwastre deanery, Barton and Pakenham ; in Fordham deanery (Suffolk
portion), Mowton ; in Sudbury deanery, Assington, Lawshall, and Acton ;
in Hartismere deanery, Eye, Mendlesham, and Wytham ; or nine in all.
The vicarages of Suffolk archdeaconry were not named in 1256. They
numbered twenty-two in 1291, and were as follows: In Bosmere deanery,
Coddenham and Battisford ; in Claydon deanery, Debenham; in Hoxne
deanery, Fressingfield and Hoxne ; in Lothingland deanery, Lowestoft and
Gorleston ; in Carlford deanery, Rushmere ; in Wangford deanery, Ilket-
shall St. Margaret, Bungay, and Mettingham ; in Dunwich deanery, Cratfield,
Chediston, Darsham, Bramfield, Yoxford, Benacre, Reydon, and North Hales;
in Orford deanery, Bruisyard and Aldeburgh ; in Colneys deanery, Walton ;
and none in the deaneries of Loes, Samford, Wilford, and Ipswich. The
majority of these twenty-two vicarages were founded before 1256 ; but in
various instances they were ordained in the second half of the thirteenth
century.

1 South Elmham, ab antique, was not a deanery. The six South Elmham churches, with Sancroft,
Homersfield, and Flixton, were exempted from both synodals and procurations.

' In all printed references to the Norwich Taxation that we have seen the number has been given as
over 500.

5 Snailwell is the name of a small parish in the Cambridgeshire portion of the deanery of Fordham.
Probably the commissioner or official who drew up this Valor used this place-name as a surname. John de
Snaylwell was sacrist of St. Edmunds in the middle of the fourteenth century.

4 Pope Nich. Tax. (Rec. Com.), 115-23.

ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY

Fifteen chapelries obtain distinct mention in the Pope Nicholas Taxation.

The number of portions or pensions paid from the rectories to religious
houses materially increased between 1256 and 1291. In some parishes these
pensions were exceptionally numerous. Thus the church of Sibton, whose
advowson was in the hands of the abbot of Sibton, found pensions for the
three priories of St. Faith's, Romburgh, and Eye ; whilst the church of Pos-
lingworth, in the gift of the prior of Dunmow, contributed to the priories of
Chipley, Stoke, and Tunbridge.

The spiritualities of the two archdeaconries were at this time worth
£6,825 9 s - 10 ^- a year; whilst the temporalities pertaining to various
religious houses attained to the annual value of £3,487 Ss. 2i^- x

It may be well here to follow up the question of the appropriation of so
many rectories to the religious houses. A small proportion of the churches
of England were in the hands of the monasteries as early as the twelfth
century. As a rule such churches adjoined the religious house, or were
within a reasonable walking distance. Monks were strictly prohibited from
serving a parochial cure, save under a rarely-granted dispensation. There was
a little more laxity with regard to Austin canons, but they could only officiate
as vicars by the distinct permission of the bishop. The Premonstratensian
canons were the only religious order who possessed the privilege of serving
their own churches, and then only as duly instituted vicars, and under special
responsibilities to their own chapter. Occasionally the previously existing
parish church became, so far as the quire was concerned, the conventual
church of a religious foundation, the nave being reserved for parochial
purposes. This was the case with the small Austin priory of Bricett, founded
in 1 1 10, when the church of Great Bricett became absorbed in the foundation
and continued in that position, being served by the canons. In other cases
where the parish church was within reasonable distance of the monastery to
which it had been appropriated, part of the arrangement for a vicar was that
he should have a corrody in the house, sometimes of board only, and at other
times of both board and lodging, although the vicar was not himself under
vows. Thus at Sibton, in this county, the custom prevailed down to the
Dissolution, of both the vicar and the parochial chaplain being provided with
food and lodging at the Cistercian abbey, which was but a few hundred yards
distant from the parish church.

The evil habit, however, began to prevail during the twelfth century of
monasteries providing poorly paid chaplains, removable at will, to serve the

1 The remarkable way in which so large a part of Suffolk was distributed among religious foundations comes
out very clearly in this taxation. An exceptionally large number of monasteries whose head quarters were out-
side the county drew a more or less considerable part of their annual revenues from Suffolk. Of these the
following is a list, the figures in brackets giving the number of the different parishes wherein they held
property : — St. Albans abbey (i), Amberge abbey, Normandy (2), Anglesey priory (1), Aumerle abbey, Nor-
mandy (3), Barnwell priory (2), Beeston priory (3), Beaulieu abbey (1), Boxley abbey (1), Broomhill
priory (2), Bromholm priory (16), Buckenham priory (1), Burton Lazars hospital (1), Canterbury priory (6),
Carrow priory (2), Castleacre priory (2), Chatteris abbey (1), Coggeshall abbey (1), Colchester abbey (10),
Colchester priory (2), Colne priory (3), Dereham abbey (3), Dunmow priory (3), Ely priory (27), Fordham
priory (3), Hatfield priory (2), Hockesley priory (1), Horsham priory (3), Holme abbey (1), Ickling
priory (5), Langley abbey (13), Leighs priory (14), Lesnes priory (2), Mailing abbey (1), Mencheneleye (2),
Missenden abbey (1), St. Neots priory (1), Norwich priory (13), St. Osyth abbey (14), Pentney priory (1),
Prittlcwell priory (1), Ramsey abbey (2), Rochester priory (1), Royston priory (3), Spinney priory (1), Triet-
ford Cluniac priory (14), Thetford Austin priory (5), Titley abbey (6), Tunbridge priory (1), Walsingham
priory (1), Wardon abbey (4), Wickes priory (6), Woburn abbey (1), Wormegay priory (2), Wymondham
priory (1).

A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK

cure of those churches whose tithes had been assigned to them. Against this
abuse the bishops strongly protested, as it resulted in the withdrawal of such
parishes from episcopal control. To guard against this, the custom of
ordaining vicarages was established — that is, making the appointment of such
chaplains permanent and subject to episcopal institution, together with the
assigning to them of a definite income, drawn mainly, as a rule, from the
smaller tithes, such as hay and wool, as distinct from those of grain. The
formal ordering of vicarages began to come into force in the second half of
the twelfth centurv, and was enjoined by the third Lateran Council of 1 179.
Many of the monasteries resisted these attempts to control their actions, with
the result that the fourth Lateran Council of 12 15 insisted on vicarages in
cases of appropriation in more stringent terms. A few of the more powerful
monasteries still held out, but Bishop Hugh of Lincoln brought a test case
against the powerful priory of Dunstable and won, in the papal court in 12 19.
Four years later the Council of Oxford gave further strength to this decision,
and from that date there were but a few isolated attempts to avoid the
provision of permanent endowed vicarages in all appropriated parishes.

A return was made for the diocese of Norwich in 4 Henry V of
churches appropriated to the nunneries, and to some of the other minor
houses, with the date of the appropriation. 1 In this return, so far as Suffolk
is concerned, two appropriations, namely, those of the churches of Wattisham
and Finborough Parva to Bricett Priory, are entered as having ordained
vicarages ' before the Lateran Council,' meaning by that apparently the fourth
Lateran of 121 5. Another group are entered as having their vicarages
formally arranged ' at the time of the Lateran Council,' or in the years
121 5— 16. In this group are the Suffolk churches of Holton to Rumburgh
Priory, and Ilketshall St. Andrew, Ilketshall St. Mary, Ilketshall St. Lawrence,
Nettingham, and Bungay St. Thomas, all pertaining to the nunnery of
Bungay. Amongst other appropriations with vicarages assigned, during the
thirteenth century, of which we are able to give the exact date, those of
South Elmham St. Michael, in 1241, Alnesbourne in 1246, Flitcham in
1 25 1, and Bredfield in 1259 may be mentioned.

Throughout the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, appropriations and
the ordination of vicarages steadily increased. Where the episcopal or papal
documents permitting the appropriations are preserved, it is almost if not
quite invariably stated that permission was granted owing to the stress of
circumstances that had impoverished the religious house. This was particu-
larly the case at the time of the Black Death (1349), when the depreciation
in the value of monastic and other lands was specially grievous. Among
the Suffolk appropriations sanctioned at that date were the churches of
Levington to Redlingfield Priory, of Flixton to the priory of that name, and
of Great Redisham to the priory of Bungay.

This appropriation of benefices to the religious houses is sometimes
spoken of as an act of ' shameful spoliation ' 2 of the country clergy ; but it
is at least doubtful whether the condition of those parishes that had resident

1 Norw. Epis. Reg. viii, 125—9. The return was probably intended to be complete, and was either
never finished or never entered in the register. The abbey of St. Edmunds would almost certainly decline to
make any such return through the diocesan.

' Dioc. Hist, of Norwich, 1 44.-5, &c.

ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY

vicars was not generally superior to those that had rectors, for the two cen-
turies preceding the dissolution of the monasteries. In every set of diocesan
institution books of this period, where it has been tested — and it is certainly
the case with those of Norwich diocese — the scandal of admitting to bene-
fices men who were not qualified to fulfil the duties of the sacred office,
occurred in the cases of rectories and only in the very rarest instances with
vicarages. 1 It was the rule rather than the exception with many, if not most,
of the wealthier rectories of mediaeval Suffolk, to find rectors who were mere
boys or continuing in minor orders, and frequently absent altogether from
their supposed cures. It is safe to say that for one absentee or pluralist vicar,
there would be several rectors. The monasteries, at all events, often made
some effort to supply the parishes, whose great tithes they absorbed, with
men of earnest lives ; and the bishops had advantages over such appointments
in various ways that they could not put into operation against powerful
lay patrons. Moreover the assignment of some portion of the church's
income to the poor of the parish, as enjoined both by canon and statute
laws, was insisted on by the bishops in the formal ordination of vicarages.

It should also be borne in mind, in order to get a true grasp of the
rectory and vicarage problem, that the appropriation of the great tithes only
occurred where the income of the church was fairly large, and that the
amount allotted to the vicar in such a parish was often more than that held
by the rectors of small parishes or those with much fen land and but little
corn. This was specially the case in Suffolk. It scarcely matters into which
deanery we look, instances at once occur. Take the example of but two
deaneries chosen absolutely at hazard. In Sudbury archdeaconry, in the
deanery of Sudbury, Acton vicarage was worth £g 6s. Sd. a year ; but in
the same deanery were the following rectories, Cornard Parva £8 2 S . 8$d.,
Groton, £8 is. 8d., Somerton £6 1 6x. 8d., and Preston £5 6s. o\d. In
Suffolk archdeaconry, in the deanery of Bosmere, Bramford vicarage was
worth £13 2 s - 9^' whilst in the same deanery there were seven rectories of
less value. 2

There are two of those exceptional cases in Suffolk wherein duly
ordained vicarages reverted to the position of rectories. The church of
Burgh was appropriated to the small priory of Herringfleet in 1390. But
the prior and convent only retained the rectory for a few years ; in 1403
they resigned it to the bishop of Norwich, reserving to themselves a small
pension. 3 The church of Redenhall, which had been formally appropriated
by Bungay nunnery in 1346 and a vicarage endowed, was disappropriated in
14 41, and a pension of 40/. assigned to the priory.*

This question of the vicarages is essentially one of East Anglia, for the
proportion of benefices in that district that became appropriated to the
monasteries was much larger than in many other parts of England, particularly
in the south and west of the kingdom.

In round numbers, half of the Suffolk benefices had become vicarages
by the time the new Valor was taken in the reign of Henry VIII. 6 It is

' Dr. Cutts, in Parish Priests and tkiir People (l 890), pp. 324-9, says this evil ' was specially the case with
the rectories "... and ' a large proportion of the rectories were served by such men,' i.e. in minor orders.

* Bacon, Liber Regis, 723-5, 767-73. ' Norw. Epis. Reg. vi, 340. « Ibid, x, 4.8.

6 This was also the case in Sussex, but in Winchester diocese the rectories were 2S9 to 95 vicarages, in
London 731 to 201, and in Exeter 524 to 185.

2 17 3

A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK

interesting to note that at that time the total of the benefices, 485, almost
exactly corresponded with the number in the Norwich Taxation of 1256.
Some chapelries of the earlier date had meanwhile attained to the honour of
being separate parishes ; but this slight increase was counterbalanced by the
amalgamation of others.

Reverting to the general ecclesiastical history of the county, it is to be
noted that Suffolk shared to the full in the troubles and tumults of the reign of
Henry III, when under the episcopal rule of Simon de Wauton (1258-66).
Bishop Simon, in 1261, took the side of the king against the barons
and was bold enough to publish the papal absolution of Henry III from
keeping the oath he had sworn in 1258 as to carrying out certain reforms.
This action of the bishop excited great indignation in East Anglia. Civil
war broke out, and the irony of events caused Bishop Simon to seek safety
for a time in the abbey of St. Edmunds, as the only place in his diocese
where he felt he could be secure from popular fury. 1 On the death of
Simon in January, 1266-7, tne mon ks of Norwich obtained a free election,
and in the same month chose their prior, Roger de Skerning. There was
grievous civil strife at the beginning of Bishop Roger's episcopate. Many of
the local followers of Simon de Montfort, who had been dispossessed of their
property after the battle of Evesham, took refuge within the precincts of the
abbey of St. Edmunds, from whence they were driven out by the royalists,
and both abbey and town fined for their support of the insurgents. But these
disturbances, which were not quelled until July, 1267, pertain more to
political than ecclesiastical history.

It was during the episcopate of William de Middleton (1278-80) that
Friar John Peckham, the energetic archbishop of Canterbury, came into East
Anglia during the visitation tour of his province. He began to visit the
religious houses of Norfolk towards the end of November, 1280, and was in
that county throughout December and the greater part of January. In
February and March, 1280— 1, the archbishop was in Suffolk, and we know
from the dating of his letters that he was at the priory of Blythburgh, and
also tarried at Framlingham and Freckenham. 2 In the first week of Lent,
Peckham held an ordination for candidates from his own diocese at Sudbury. 3
The archbishop, in his strenuous life, kept a general control over the Southern
Province, outside the lines of metropolitical visitation. In January, 1282,
he issued his mandate to the official of the archdeacon of Sudbury, directing
him to cite the abbot and convent of St. Edmunds, concerning their tenure
of the appropriated churches of Mildenhall, Barton, Pakenham, and Bret-
tenham, to appear before him on the first Monday in Lent wherever he
might happen to be in his own diocese. The mandate states that his
previous summons for an earlier date had been contumaciously neglected.
We find from a later letter of Peckham, written to his proctors at Rome,
that the abbot and convent again failed to appear and refused to allow any
inspection of their documents, and that they had appealed to the pope in
justification of their refusal.*

In July of the same year Peckham wrote to the Bishop of Norwich with
reference to a dispute about the Suffolk rectories of Risby and Redgrave, to

1 Bart, de Cotton, Hist. Angl. (Rolls Ser.), 139.

1 Reg. Epis. Peckham (Rolls Ser.), i, 178-90. 3 Ibid, i, 173. ' Ibid, i, 267-8, 307.

ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY

the effect that their sequestration must be committed to the Archdeacon of
Sudbury. 1 Ralph de Fernham, at that time holding this archdeaconry, was
a friend of Peckham's, and acted on several occasions on the archbishop's
behalf. 2

In addition to the extraordinary ecclesiastical rule over the greater part
of the hundreds of Suffolk, eight and a half of which were in the liberty of
St. Edmund, and five and a half in the liberty of St. Etheldreda or Ely
Priory, the number of manors or townships held by the church throughout
the county was remarkably large. In 1316 a return was made by order of
the Parliament at Lincoln, in connexion with the raising of military levies,
of all the rural townships throughout the kingdom, giving in each case the
name of the lord. The return for Suffolk shows that upwards of a hundred
of these townships, out of a total of 453, or about a fourth of the whole,
were in the hands of the church. 3

The Black Death of 1349 laid grievous hold on Suffolk. The diocesan
institution book of this period tells the story of this awful visitation with grim
brevity. During the five years previous to the outbreak, the annual average
of the institutions to all kinds of benefices throughout the diocese was eighty-
one. In a single year these institutions increased by more than tenfold.
From 25 March, 1349, to the same date, 1350, the recorded institutions
amounted to 831. The terrible death-rate among the clergy, both religious
and secular, goes far to prove that the accounts of the devastation as given by
the old chroniclers are not one whit exaggerated.

No notice is of course taken of the general deaths in monasteries in the
institution books, but the vacancies among the superiors of these houses
under diocesan visitation are recorded. Those religious houses of Suffolk
whose superiors required episcopal institution numbered fifteen, and of these
eight died in the fateful year, namely the heads of the priories of Alnesbourne,
Bungay, Chipley, Flitcham, Redlingfield, Snape, Thetford (St. Sepulchre's),
and Woodbridge. In one instance, that of Snape, the office of prior was
twice vacant during the twelvemonth. 4

The action of William Bateman, bishop of Norwich (1344—58), during
this grievous strain, is in every way to his credit ; he proved himself to be a
true shepherd of his flock. When the outbreak began in the spring of 1349
the bishop was beyond the seas, conducting negotiations for the conclusion of
peace between France and England. He returned early in June to find his
brother, Sir Bartholomew Bateman of Gillingham, dead of the plague, and

1 Reg. Epis. Peckham (Rolls Ser.), i, 381. 'Ibid. 8, 63, 186.

3 The following were the proportions of the Suffolk townships held by religious and secular ecclesiastics: —
Abbot of St. Edmunds, fifty-two ; prior of Ely, ten ; bishop of Ely, six ; bishop of Norwich, prior of
Thetford, and prior of Butley, three each ; prior of Norwich, prior of Canterbury, prior of Leigh, abbot of
Colchester, prior of Snapes, and abbot of St. Osyth, two each ; abbot of Ramsey, prior of Royston, bishop
of Chester, bishop of Rochester, prioress of Redlingfield, prior of St. Peter's, Ipswich, prior of Creeting,
prior of Wilmington, abbess of Mailings, abbot of Leiston, prior of Eye, prior of Bromholme, prior of St.
John of Jerusalem, prior of Stokes, abbot of ' Becherlewyne ' and abbot of 'Abcmarsia' one each. There are
various copies of this return, which was so important for the calling out of a military array. It has been twice
printed, namely in Parliamentary IVrits, ii, 34, 301, and in Feudal Aids, i, No. 241. But these are defective
in places, and so far as Suffolk is concerned omit the liberty of St. Etheldreda, that is the hundreds of
Carlseford, Colncis, Loes, Plomcsgate, Thredling, and Wilford. These hundreds, however, fortunately appear
in an old copy of the return in possession of Sir VV. R. Gowers, F.R.S., which has been recently printed
by theSa^ Arch. Inst, xi, 173-99.

4 None. Epis. Reg. iv, 91-123.

A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK

the whole diocese in its grasp. During the rest of the time of the visitation
Bishop Bateman never left his diocese for a day. In the single month of
July he personally instituted 207 persons. Till the 9th of the month he was
at Norwich, the plague making awful havoc all around him. On the 10th
he moved to Hoxne, and there in a single day instituted twenty persons ;
from this time till the pestilence abated he moved about from place to place,
rarely staying more than a fortnight in any one house, and followed every-
where by troops of clergy, who came to be admitted to the livings of such
as had died. 1

The bishop, in the midst of this fateful year, sought the guidance of the
pope as to the supply of clergy. By bull of 13 October, Clement VI, seeing
that so many parishes were bereft of ministers, authorized the bishop to
ordain sixty young men who might be two years under the canonical age
for the priesthood ; provided always that they were proved fit after due
examination, and that they had in all cases completed their twenty-first year. 2

Bishop Bateman's register for this period has far fewer instances of the
institution of clergy to benefices in minor orders than was the case in the
great neighbouring diocese of Lincoln. Such instances as do occur are
almost entirely confined to those livings that were in the gift of the crown,
of the nobility, or of the great landed proprietors. Dr. Jessopp is also
undoubtedly right in stating that this register makes it quite plain that
' the laity of East Anglia were not ashamed to make merchandise of their
patronage.'

It was during the episcopate of Henry Spenser (1 370-1406), known as
'the soldier-bishop,' that the agrarian rebellion of 1381 broke out, in which
that great Suffolk ecclesiastic, Archbishop Simon of Sudbury, suffered at the
hands of the mob. Spenser, in person, fell upon the Suffolk insurgents with
prompt fierceness near Newmarket ; but the story of this formidable uprising
in East Anglia belongs to another part of this history.

It was in the days, too, of Bishop Spenser that this diocese gained the
unenviable notoriety of being the first to bring about the death of an
Englishman for preaching heresy. But the tale of William Sawtre, a
chaplain of St. Margaret's, Lynn, who solemnly abjured his errors before the
bishop at Elmham in 1399, and on repeating them in London diocese two
years later was burnt to death, pertains to Norfolk rather than to Suffolk. 3

Lollardism, which was a strange combination of extreme socialistic
views with opposition to most of the received religious tenets of Christendom,
increased much during the reign of Henry IV. It is to the credit of the
bishops that they generally hesitated to take action against heretics, knowing
that death by the flames would be the eventual penalty of obstinacy. Whilst

1 D'toc. Hist, of Norui. 1 20-1.

' Dr. Jessopp remarks that it is much to the credit of Bishop Bateman that, so far from availing himself to
the utmost of the papal dispensation, he exercised this exceptional privilege with scrupulous reserve, for only
five instances occur in his register of candidates under the usual canonical age of twenty-three being admitted
to a cure of souls. This evidence is, however, decidedly doubtful, for it is quite possible that such exceptions
were not always recorded when both the bishop and his scribe, in those times of stress, were continually
moving from place to place.

3 The Act De herctico comburendo was passed by all estates of the realm in 1401 ; it provided that the
bishop was to arrest, imprison, and bring heretics to trial at his courts. Should they refuse to recant, or
relapse after recantation, they were to be handed over to the sheriff or mayor to be burnt alive. Sawtre was
its first victim. It has been well remarked that in no country save Great Britain was a special law necessary
for the execution of heretics ; the mere will of the government was elsewhere sufficient.

ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY

Henry IV was on the throne, there was only one other victim in addition to
Sawtre, namely Bradby, a tailor of Worcester diocese. During the successive
episcopates of Tottington and Courtenay (1407-16) there seems to have
been no Lollard persecution in the diocese of Norwich. On the accession of
Henry V, Lollardism, under Sir John Oldcastle, assumed a more distinctly
political character, and a still more severe Act to check its progress was passed
by the laity in Parliament in 1414. 1 Under this law the king's justices were
empowered to search out offenders, ' to arrest and deliver them to the ordinary
for trial,' who on conviction handed them back to the secular power for
execution. It was under this Act, passed in defence of the government and
providing for the execution of heretics, as ' traitors to the king,' that all the
burnings of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries took place.

It is, however, only fair to remember that in 141 6 Convocation, under
Archbishop Chicheley, provided that heretics were to be inquired after by the
bishops or their officials in each rural deanery twice a year. But there is no
available evidence of any serious prosecution of heretics having been initiated
by the ecclesiastical authorities under these ordinances of Convocation. 2

Under the episcopate of John Wakering (1416-25) some severity seems
to have been shown towards the Lollards of Suffolk and Norfolk, but none
were put to death. 3 Of the persecution in the days of his successor, Bishop
Alnwick (1426-36), Foxe gives more particular accounts. On 6 July, 1428,
a special commission was issued for apprehending Lollards in the eastern
counties to John Exeter and to Jacolit Germain, the keeper of Colchester
Castle. The valley of the Waveney, at the junction of the two counties of
Norfolk and Suffolk, had become a hotbed of Lollardism, of which Loddon
and Gillingham in the former county, and Beccles and Bungay in the latter,
were the chief centres. Their ringleader was one William White, an
ex-priest, who had been censured before the Convocation at St. Paul's in 1422
for preaching at Tenterden, Kent, without sufficient licence and for teaching
heretical doctrine. Two years later he had made a solemn abjuration of his
heresies before Archbishop Chicheley at Canterbury, and had sworn on the
Gospels never to teach or preach any more. But ere long he was busily at
work in Suffolk and Norfolk, making Bergholt in the former county his chief
residence. He ceased to wear the priestly habit, suffered his tonsure to grow,
and married one Joan, who shared his views. White was summoned to
appear before a council in London in July to answer for his relapse, but
refused to obey ; he was then arrested and taken before Bishop Alnwick
and William Bernham his chancellor, John Exeter acting as registrar of the
court. The bishop summoned a diocesan synod on 13 September, 1428, in
the chapel of his palace at Norwich. William Worsted, prior of Norwich,
Thomas Walden and John Lowe, the respective provincials of the Carmelite
and Austin Friars, several other friars of the four great mendicant orders, and
various secular clergy were present, and before them White was brought in
chains. He was examined under a variety of heads as to his teaching and
preaching on the eucharist, baptism, confession, the unlawfulness of church
property, and the mendicant orders, as well as to his former abjuration, his

1 2 Hen. V, cap. 7. ' Hook, Archbishops of Canterbury, v, 56-7.

5 ' The documents ' of Wakering's time ' which Foxe refers to and dresses up in his usual extravagant
manner have perished ' {None. Dioc. Hist. 144).

A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK

subsequent preaching in Norwich diocese, and his alleged marriage. To most
of these articles he confessed. The twelfth article, which he denied, asserted
that on the last Easter Day he had, within his house at Bergholt, inducted a
lay disciple named John Scutte to discharge the office of a priest ; and that
Scutte broke bread, gave thanks and distributed to White and his concubine
and to three others, directing them to receive and partake of it in memory
of Christ's Passion. It was testified inter alia that White had said ' that such
as wear cords or be anointed or shorn are the lance knights and soldiers of
Lucifer ; and that they all, because their lamps are not burning, shall be shut
out when the Lord Christ shall come.'

White was convicted on thirty articles, and sentenced to be burned as a
lapsed heretic who had preached in Norwich diocese the doctrines which he
had on oath renounced. Between 1428 and 1 43 1 Foxe, who seems to have
had access to Exeter's register of the heresy courts, mentions that 120 were
brought before the bishop or his chancellor on charges of Lollardy or heresy.
Among those whose residence is given, six were from Beccles, two from
Aldeburgh, one from Bungay, one from Eye, and one from Shipmeadow.
The offenders were mostly of the working classes, but one was a beneficed
clerk, John Cappes, vicar of Tunstead. They were charged with such
offences as holding heretical views as to the mass, baptism, marriage, and the
payment of tithes, and with saying that the pope was anti-Christ, and that
every true man was a priest. In the great majority of cases these poor people
not unnaturally shrank from the terrible consequences of contumacy, and
made submission, formally abjuring their views after a most solemn fashion.
They all seem to have suffered a certain period of imprisonment, for on arrest
they were committed to prison, usually at either the castle of Framlingham
or the castle of Norwich, until the ecclesiastical court was held. In what
were considered bad cases a period of imprisonment was ordered after
confession and abjuration. The one severe case cited by Foxe is that of
John Skilley, miller of Flixton, who was brought before the bishop on
14 March, 1428-9. He was condemned to seven years' imprisonment in
the Premonstratensian abbey of Langley, fasting on bread and water on the
Fridays, and at the end of that time he was to put in four appearances at the
cathedral church with the other penitentiaries, namely on the two ensuing Ash
Wednesdays and the two Maundy Thursdays. But no one save that lapsed
heretic, the ex-priest White, was condemned to the stake. 1

Public declaration of their recanting, accompanied by whippings in the
church and market-place, were the usual fate of the penitents. Thus
Norman Pie and John Mendham of Aldburgh were condemned to make
their abjuration openly and to do penance in their own parish church on six
several Sundays, being whipped on each occasion before the solemn procession ;
they were also to have three whippings on three several market-days in the
market-place of Harleston. The penitents on these occasions were to have
bare necks, heads, legs, and feet, and to be clad only in shirts and breeches ;
they were also to carry a half-pound wax taper in their hands, and to present
the tapers on the last Sunday at high mass unto the high altar.

The provocative and grossly irreverent action of some of the Lollards,
in going out of their way to insult the religion of others, naturally provoked

1 Foxe interprets some sentences of branding as being ' put to death and burned.'

ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY

severity. Thus Nicholas Conon, of Eye, was charged, in 143 1, with having
on Easter Day, when all the parishioners were in procession, mocked and
derided the congregation, going about the church the other way. Nicholas
not only acknowledged that the charge was true, but affirmed that in so
doing he did well. He was also charged with having, on Corpus Christi
Day, at the elevation of the host, when all were devoutly kneeling, gone
behind a pillar with his face from the altar and mocked. A third accusation
was to the effect that on All Hallows Day, when many parishioners carrying
lighted torches proceeded to the high altar and knelt there in devotion,
Nicholas Conon, carrying a torch, went up to the high altar, but stood there
with his back to the altar whilst the priest was celebrating mass. To these
two other charges he not only pleaded guilty, but again told the court that
he had done well. 1

A return was ordered to be made, by a parliament of Richard II which
sat at Cambridge in the autumn of 1388, of all the gilds and brotherhoods
of the kingdom, with details as to their foundation, statutes, and properties.
The gild certificates pertaining to Suffolk which are now extant are thirty-
nine in number and are comparatively brief, save that in three cases, all of
Burv St. Edmunds, the statutes and ordinances are set forth in full. 2 Almost
all these gilds, besides providing lights before particular images or the rood,
were also expected, according to their rules, to contribute towards the general
repairs of the church, as is usually expressly stated. Thus the gild of
St. Andrew, Cavenham, is entered as having at the last Eastertide con-
tributed ten shillings pro securam trabis in eadem ecclesia. The members
for the most part attended mass and feasted together at certain festivals,
and attended the funerals of the brethren or sisters, usually contributing
to the expenses.

There is an interesting entry in the register of Bishop Alnwick relative
to the admission of a hermit at the old Suffolk borough of Sudbury. The
entry is in English, and records a petition from John Hurt the mavor and
ten other parishioners of St. Gregory's, dated 28 January, 1433-4. A
previous application for the admission of one Richard Appleby of Sudbury
to a hermit's position had failed, but the mayor and leading parishioners
begged the bishop to reconsider the case. They stated that Richard was
* a man as to owre conscience knowne a true member of holy cherche and a
gode hostly levere ' (honest liver) ; that it was better to live in a solitary place,
where virtues might increase, and vices be exiled ; that they had examined
him, with the aid of the church-reeves and others ; that Richard was
desirous of living with John Levyington in his hermitage, made at the cost

1 Shirley, TascuR Zizanwrum, lxx, 417, 432 ; Foxe, Acts and Monuments (cd. Tounsend), iii, 587-99.

8 These three are the Gild of St. Botolph in St. James's church, founded time without memory ; the Gild
of St. Nicholas in the church of St. Mary, founded in 1282 (the ordinancesof the Gild of St. Nicholas have
been printed in full, with a translation, by Mr. V. B. Redstone, Proc. Suff. Arch. Inst, xii, 14-22) ; and the
Fraternity of Corpus Christi of St. Mary's church, founded in I 317. Short particulars arc given of fifteen
other gilds, all of the abbey town, which will be found in the topographical section of this history. The
others whose certificates temp. Richard II remain, were : Barton, Gilds of the Assumption and of St. John
Baptist ; Bcccles, Fraternity of Corpus Christi and Gild of Holy Trinity ; Cavenham, Gilds of St. Andrew,
St. Mary, and of the Holy Trinity ; Gazeley, Gilds of All Saints, St. James, and St. Margaret ; Herringwell,
Gilds of St. Ethelbert and St. Peter ; Icklingham, Fraternity of the Holy Cross and Gild of St. James ;
Kensford, Gild of St. John Baptist ; Kettlebaston, Fraternity for lights and repairs ; Monks Eleigh, Fraternity
for lights ; Stradishall, Fraternity of St. Margaret ; and Tuddenham, Gilds of St. John Baptist and Holy
Trinity.

A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK

of the parish of St. Gregory in the churchyard, to dwell together ; and they
begged the bishop to admit him ' to abide your bedesman. 1

The mediaeval hermit differed from the anchorite or absolute recluse in
having certain practical work, assigned to him, hence the interest that the
town authorities took in such appointments. The bridge hermit not only
received alms for the sustenance of the structure, but usually kept the causey
in repair. Possibly the Sudbury hermit or hermits kept the churchyard and
its walks in order.

Bishop Alnwick, during his ten years' episcopate over Norwich diocese
(1426-36), was frequently in residence at Hoxne. Among ordinations that
were held in Suffolk churches were those at Lavenham on 18 May, 1428,
at the conventual church of the Franciscans of Babwell, near Bury St. Edmunds,
on 19 December, 1433, and at the parish church of Hoxne on 18 Sep-
tember, 1434. 2

On Alnwick's translation to Lincoln in 1436, Thomas Brown, bishop
of Rochester, was translated to Norwich. It is obvious from his register
that he passed most of his time within the diocese, 3 and more in Suffolk than
in Norfolk, for his favourite residence was at the episcopal manor-house of
Hoxne ; there he died on 6 December, 1445.

It seems to matter but little what English county is under survey, the
record of its ecclesiastical history is almost uniformly dull during the last half
of the fifteenth century. It was the lull before the gusts and storms of
theological passion that blew so fiercely in the century that followed. Of
Bishop Goldwell's (1472—99) faithfulness in his monastic visitations there
is much evidence, which is sufficiently cited under the different religious
houses. Something, too, may be gleaned of the character and learning of
the East Anglian clergy from their wills, wherein frequent mention is made
of their books, whilst the continuous occurrence of their names as trustees
in the settlement of landed estates shows that they were generally trusted by
men of position.

It was certainly no time of deadness in the outward manifestation of the
Church's faith. The wealthier burgesses and successful wool merchants
rejoiced to spend their riches in the reconstruction of their parish churches
on a grand scale, and to overcome the niggardliness of nature, that had denied
to Suffolk a single stone quarry, by the exercise of a masterly ingenuity in
the production of splendid effects by a combination of flints and pebbles,
gathered from their own shores and fields, with the smooth textured freestone
carried at no small expense from lands beyond the seas. As Dr. Raven
happily expresses it, ' while the din of arms was resounding in other counties,
the click of the trowel was rather the prevalent note in Suffolk.'* In no
other county of broad England could so grand a quartet of noble fifteenth-

1 Norw. Epis. Reg. ix, 1 1 2. The episcopal registers of both Ely and Salisbury give a variety of
interesting particulars as to the form used by a bishop or his commissary on admitting a hermit to his dwelling
and blessing his habit ; also as to the solemn declaration made by a hermit of leading a life of chastity
' according to the rule of St. Paul, the first hermit,' and of reciting certain prayers, etc. The case of two
hermits living together is exceptional, but there is an instance in 1493, of two being admitted at Cambridge
on the same day. See a paper by Rev. C. Kerry on ' Hermits' Fords and Bridge Chapels,' Dcrb. Arch. "Jour.

xiv, 34-71-

8 Norw. Epis. Reg. ix, 123, 139, 141.

3 Ibid. x. The ordination lists of this episcopate are complete ; the deacons numbered 495, and the
priests 476. ' Raven, Pop. Hist. ofSuff. 133.

ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY

century churches be found, clustered together within a very short distance of
each other, as those of Southwold, Covehithe, Blythburgh, and Walberswick
— each of them the work of the actual inhabitants who were profiting largely
by the trade of their little ports. Or, if we go further inland, where, save in
Suffolk or Norfolk, can such pre-eminently noble parish churches be named,
erected at this particular period, as those of Lavenham and Long Melford ?
The monks of Bury, retaining their vigour to the last, might re-erect, at about
the same time, the fine fabrics of the churches of St. Mary and St. James, for
the use of the townsmen, but placed jealously within their own precinct walls ;
nevertheless, they were easily surpassed by the fervour of zeal of the unvowed
laity. Church towers, often stately and magnificent, like those of Laxfield,
Eye, or Bungay St. Mary, sprang up all over the county ; or, where the
parish was too small and poor to run to such an expense, they could at least
add an extra stage to the old round tower of early Norman days.

Nor was it only in stately fabrics that the churchmen of Suffolk made
manifest the generosity of their religious faith. Towers were not raised for
mere idle show, but all were speedily furnished with rings of tunable bells,
cast for the most part in the county were they swung. The whole air of
Suffolk in the days of the Seventh Henry, above that of any other district of
the kingdom, must have been saturated with the brazen melody of its four
hundred belfries, calling men from earthly toil to spiritual worship as the
Sundays and Holy Days came round in their endless cycles. 1 To escape such
music anywhere in the county would have been an impossibility, for the
churches were well planted as well as numerous throughout its bounds.

When, too, the particular details of church after church come to be
enumerated in the topographical section of this work, it will be found, from
the remnants still extant, after three centuries of wanton destruction or
criminal neglect, that the timber in which Suffolk abounded was wrought
almost everywhere during the fifteenth century into glorious roofs, or carved
with masterly skill into stalls and seats or pulpits, and above all into screen-
work ; that the sculptor's best art was lavished on the baptismal fonts and
their pediments ; and that figure and pattern-painting, as well as gessowork
and gilding, often of consummate beauty, were employed to add to the dignity
and worth of the interiors of remote village sanctuaries, as well as of the
churches in the small market towns where comparative wealth could far
more easily be attained.

Among the unhappily few instances in which parish books of a pre-
Reformation age remain within this county, as at Cratfield and Huntingheld,
plain evidence is forthcoming that the villagers depended to no small extent
on those popular local gatherings termed church-ales 2 to find some of the
funds necessary to maintain the beauty of the sanctuary.

In the remote village of Cratfield five church-ales occurred in 1490 ;
three of them were strictly parochial, and were held on Passion Sunday,
Pentecost, and All Saints' Day ; the other two were of exceptional occurrence,
being part of the Trental arrangements of deceased parishioners. The profits
on four of these church-ales were js. 4*/., 9*., gs. 8</., and ys. 8c/., respectively ;

1 For the highly exceptional number of the bells of this county see Raven, Church Bells ofSuffl By the
middle of the fifteenth century there was a flourishing bell-foundry at Bur)'.

' Reproduced, to some extent, in the modern Church Bazaar, with its refreshment-stalls and tea-rooms.
2 25 4

A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK

the fifth is not entered. Such amounts, when it is recollected that the pur-
chasing value of money was then at least tenfold of its present power, were
by no means to be despised, for the whole items of the general church
expenses for that year only amounted to i zs. \d} The church-ale money
seems to have been saved up for particular purposes. Thus at Cratfield in
1493, one Thomas Bolbre received £2 1 y. \d. for ' peyntyng of ye image
of Our Lady,' and the further sum of 8s. for ' ye peyntyng of ye tabernacull
of Seynt Edmond.' In the following year Bolbre received the additional
large sum of jQj for painting the tabernacle of Our Lady, and again, in 1498,
for painting the image and the tabernacle of St. Edmund. 2

There is no scholar of the present day who can in any way equal
Dr. Jessopp in his intimate knowledge of the ecclesiastical affairs of East
Anglia, or in the fullness of his research into all the documentary evidence
that bears upon the history. His opinion, therefore, as to the church life of
Suffolk and Norfolk during the century that closed under the prolonged rule
of Bishop Goldwell may be quoted with confidence.

On the whole, the impression left upon me by the examination of all the evidence
that has come to hand is that the condition of the diocese of Norwich in the fifteenth
century reflects credit upon the bishops of the see and the clergy over whom they ruled. 3

With the dawn of the troublous sixteenth century began the long rule
of Bishop Nykke or Nix, who died at Norwich in 1535-6, on the eve of the
monastic overthrow ; he seems, however, to have made but little impression
on the times in which he lived. Suffolk must have known something of
him personally, for like several of his predecessors, he preferred the episcopal
residence at Hoxne to the palace at Norwich.

This bishop is said by Foxe to have been active in the violent suppression
of heresy in the northern part of his diocese, in the earlier days of his rule ;
but the circumstantial statements by Foxe as to the burnings of particular
individuals in 1507, 15 10, and 151 1 are not to be credited.* Well sub-
stantiated fierce persecution broke out under Nykke's episcopate, but at a
much later date.

There was a singular riot at Bungay in the year 151 5, on the Friday
after Corpus Christi Day. A complaint was forwarded to Cardinal Wolsey,
himself a native of Ipswich, by several of the leading inhabitants of the town,
stating that on the day mentioned Richard Warton, Thomas Woodcock,
John Woodcock, and other evil-advised persons ' arrayed as rioters ' broke and
threw down five pageants, namely, Heaven pageant, the pageant of all the
World, Paradise pageant, Bethlehem pageant, and Hell pageant, which were
ever wont to be carried about the town on that day in honour of the Blessed
Sacrament. The excuse made by the defendants looks as if this riot was a
piece of disorderly mischief rather than a religious disturbance. They
pleaded that the pageants were very old and ancient, and they promised to
assist the proprietors to make new ones in their place. 6

In the days of Wolsey a small knot of young Cambridge men who had
come under the influence of Tyndale formed themselves into a society called

1 The various gilds that were found in every parish often reduced the general charges for church
expenses to a minimum, for they usually made themselves responsible for particular lights, and not infrequently
handed over their balance for ordinary church repairs. J Holland, Cratfield Parish Papers, 21, 22, 29.

3 Norw. Dioe. Hist. 156. * Ibid. 157. 'This burning can have been no more than branding.'

6 Star Chamber Proc. Henry VIII, vii, 94.

ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY

the Christian Brotherhood. They were chiefly East Anglians, and on their
dispersal from Cambridge in 1525, Thomas Bilney, a fellow of Trinity Hall,
and Thomas Arthur, a fellow of St. John's, betook themselves to Norwich
diocese, and became itinerant preachers of the new doctrines in Norfolk, and
Suffolk. Bilney was the most able and by far the most aggressive of the
two. Foxe gives a curious account of a vehement dispute between Thomas
Bilney and Friar Bruisyard in St. George's Chapel, Ipswich. 1 Bilney gained
many adherents to his Zwinglian views, among them being Anthony Yaxley,
of Rickenhall in this county, who formally recanted before Bishop Nykke at
Hoxne, on 27 January, 1525-6. 2 Eventually Bilney and Arthur were
brought before a great assembly of bishops, divines, and lawyers, under the
presidency of Cardinal Wolsey, on 27 November, 1527, and formally charged
with heresy. Both the offenders solemnly recanted. Penance was assigned to
Arthur, and he was confined for some time at Walsingham. Bilney, after
carrying a faggot in procession at St. Paul's, was kept in prison for a year,
and on his release returned to Cambridge. Repenting of his abjuration, he
left Cambridge after eighteen months' sojourn, and betook himself again to
preaching and the dissemination of Zwinglian literature from the continental
presses. On 3 March, 1 5 3 1 , he was apprehended in London, and sent down
to Norwich for trial, when he was degraded from his orders, condemned as a
relapsed and obstinate heretic, and burnt at the stake on 19 August. 3

It is estimated that during the reign of Henry VIII at least thirty
persons were tried and burnt as heretics for holding Zwinglian and Lutheran
views, and for ' depraving the Eucharist,' whilst a far larger number saved
themselves by recantation. 4 No small share of those who lost their lives
in this persecution were burnt in this county, or were immediately connected
with Suffolk.

Notwithstanding their stringent rules, heresy found its way into the
religious houses. William Blomfield, a monk of St. Edmunds, abjured in
1529. Richard Bayfield, chamberlain of that abbey, came under the influence
of Dr. Barnes the ex-Austin prior, a well-known reformer. Barnes made
him a present of a Latin New Testament, and from others he received
Tyndale's Testament 5 in English, and other of Tyndale's condemned books.
On Bayfield's heresy being detected ' hee was cast into the prison of his
house, there sore whipped, with a gagge in his mouth, and then stocked, and
so continued,' says Foxe, ' in the same torment three quarters of a yeare.'
He was released through Barnes's influence, and after visiting Cambridge was
apprehended in London, abjured, recanted his abjuration and then perished
at the stake. 6 Three Austin friars of Clare abjured in 1532. Some years
later according to Foxe, * one Puttedew was condemned to the fire about the
parts of Suffolk,' and William Leiton, an ex-Benedictine monk of Eye,
suffered a like death about 1537 'for speaking against a certain Idoll which
was accustomed to be carried about the Processions ' there, and for his views

1 Foxe, Acts and Monts. (Townscnd), iv, 628-30. ' East Count. Collectanea, i, 42.

3 See Foxe, Acts and Monts. (Townscnd), iv, 619-56, for the general story of Bilney and his associates.

4 Wakeman, Hist. ofCk. of Eng. 256.

5 It is but fair to remember that not only did Tyndale's version show a strong Zwinglian bias, but he
prefixed to each part as it issued from the press violent attacks on the Church and its system. The bias of the
translation is obvious to any scholar, thus Ecclesia is turned into 'congregation' instead of ' church.' See
Sir Thomas More, English it'orks, 419, &c. c Foxe, iv, 680-3.

A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK

on the Eucharist. 1 A ghastly scene is also recorded of the martyrdom of one
Peke, of Earl Stonham, at Ipswich. 2 In the days of Bishop William Rugg
(1536-50), the ex-abbot of Holme, persecutions continued by the immediate
and direct instigation of the king. Two men of Mendlesham, Kerley and
Clarke, were burnt in 1546, the one at Ipswich and the other at Bury ; their
chief offence was the denial of Transubstantiation. 3

Bishop Nykke died on 14 January, 1536; but his successor, Bishop Rugg,
was not consecrated until 1 1 June of the same year. Henry VIII employed
the interval in stripping the old East Anglian see of all its possessions,
including the very ancient Suffolk property and favourite residence at Hoxne.
The original revenues of the abbey of Holme and the priory of Hickling were
assigned for the upkeep of the see ; but probably the king had some thoughts
of re-arranging and possibly dividing the bishopric of Norwich, as on
19 March, whilst the see was vacant, he caused Thomas Manning, prior
of the Austin house of Butley, to be consecrated bishop of Ipswich, and John
Salisbury, prior of Horsham St. Faiths, to be at the same time consecrated,
by Cranmer at Lambeth, bishop of Thetford. 4 There is no record, however,
of Manning having ever acted as a suffragan in this diocese ; Salisbury
became bishop of Sodor and Man in 1 57 1 .

The story of the dissolution of the monasteries, with which the name
of Henry VIII will for ever be associated, is told with some degree of
particularity under the respective religious houses, and need not here be
repeated. Between 1536 and 1539 Suffolk was swept clean of all the
religious orders. Probably no other county felt the change more keenly
from a social and economic standpoint than was the case with Suffolk ; the
vast amount of alms so constantly distributed at some thirty convent gates
instantly ceased; the great tithes of upwards of 150 parishes passed from
religious control into the hands of the purely selfish lay impropriators, and
the monastic lords of the manor and landowners gave place in every direction
to the sterner rule of suddenly aggrandized civilians. There was deep
discontent, but every outward expression of it was crushed with the most
rigorous severity.

The spoils taken from the monasteries were, however, soon dissipated.
In 1544 Henry VIII had to apply to Parliament to discharge his debts, and
in 1545 he turned his eyes again to the spoiling of a variety of institutions
administered by the church. An Act was passed for vesting in the crown
all free chapels, chantries, colleges, hospitals, brotherhoods, and gilds of an
ecclesiastical nature.

When Edward VI came to the throne there were still remaining
unspoiled six collegiate churches (including that of Stoke, which was the
richest of all such establishments in England), nineteen hospitals or lazar-
houses, as well as a great variety of chantries and gilds. The Suppression
Act of 1547 was on almost the same lines as the lapsed one of Henry VIII ;
but it went a step or two farther, for it was therein provided that in addition
to colleges, chantries, and gilds, all lands or rent-charges providing for obits

1 Foxe, v, 254. ' Ibid. * Ibid. 530-3.

4 Epis. Reg. Cant. Cranmer, fol. 187-8. Both of these suffragan titles have recently been revived.
Arthur Thomas Lloyd was consecrated bishop of Thetford in 1 894 ; and George Cormac Fisher was
translated from the suffragan bishopric of Southampton to that of Ipswich in 1899.

ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY

and anniversaries (which may be briefly described as temporary or occasional
chantries), as well as for church lights or lamps, were to be crown property.

Commissioners had been sent round under Henry VIII's Act to take
inventories of colleges and chantries and to schedule their property. A fresh
set of commissioners was now dispatched to each county on a like errand.
' The certificatt or declaration of all such and so many chauntreys, hospitales,
colleges, lyvinges of stipendiary priests, free chapels, fraternyties, brother-
hoods, guyldes, lands appointed for the finding of obits, anniversaries, lights
and lamps,' for the county of Suffolk, was issued on 13 February, 1547-8,
by Sir Roger Townsend and four other commissioners. It contains
221 separate entries. 1

It is quite obvious that in Suffolk, as well as in most other counties of
which full certificates are extant, the commissioners, though appointed bv the
crown, had the courage strongly to deprecate the sweeping away of chantry
priests or stipendiaries, at all events in the more populous places. Thus at
Lavenham, where there were 2,000 inhabitants, they state that the curate of
the parish could not possibly serve the cure without the help of the priest of
St. Peter's gild. At Mildenhall —

A large populus towne having in yt a greate number of housling people and sundrie
hamletts dyvers of them being chappies distante from the parishe Chirche oone mile or twoo
whear the seide (chantry) preiste dyd synge mas sundrie festivall dayes and other holy dayes
and also helpe the Curatte to minister the Sacraments, who withoute helpe werre not able
to discharge the Cuer.

At Nayland, where the housling folk numbered 560 ; at Beccles with 800
communicants ; and at Woodbridge with a like number, the commissioners
pointed out that the cure could not possibly be duly administered without
the assistance of the respective chantry priests. A like statement is also
made with regard to Long Melford.

At Bury St. Edmunds, after an enumeration of the various chantries
and gilds in the town, the commissioners proceeded to state that there were
3,000 housling people as well as a great number of youths, adding —

It has no schole or other lyke devise in the town or within 20 myles, nor hospital of
the poor except those above named (all of which had been already granted by Edward VI
to laymen), whose revenue the people petition may be formed into a foundation for the
relief of the poor and for education.

The stipendiary priests of these certificates differed from the chantry
priests in being supported only for a definite number of years by rent-
charges, varying in duration from a few years to ninety-nine years.

There is some confusion in these entries between the chantry and
stipendiary priests, but eleven of each class are named. Their general duty
and work is several times referred to, even in the parishes that were not very
populous. Thus at Framlingham the duty of the stipendiary is described as
' to praye for all Christian soules and to ayde the Curate and to help the
Inhabitants towards the payment of the Taxe.' The chantry priest at Our
Lady's altar was 'well learned and teachith children,' and those of Lavenham,
Clare, and Long Melford are also entered as schoolmasters.

1 Chantry Cert. (P. R. O.), No. 45. The parts of these certificates that refer to colleges and hospitals
are referred to in the subsequent account of the particular religious houses.

A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK

The entries as to free chapels — that is chapels not subject to the diocesan
or to the incumbent of the parish — are also instructive as showing that their
suppression and that of their ministers did a grievous wrong to the due
administration of religious worship. Now and again the suppression of a
free chapel might do no particular harm when it was near to or adjoining
the parish church. Thus the Lady chapel at the east end of Long Melford
church was technically a free chapel, and there were several cases in which a
free chapel is entered which was but a quarter of a mile from the parish
church. But it must be recollected that suppression in all these cases
involved the disendowment of the minister, and the priests who served such
chapels were, like the chantry priests, as a rule the assistant clergy of the
parochial incumbent. Thus at Kersey, where there was a free chapel a
quarter of a mile from the church, the priest ' always used to helpe the
Curatt synge devine service uppon the holy dayes in the parisshe Chirche of
Carseye.' In other cases chapels at some distance from their parish church,
and serving as chapels of ease for hamlets, were ruthlessly closed, and the
lead of their roofs, the iron and glass of their windows, as well as the bells
and church furniture sold. This was the case with the free chapel of
Chilton, a hamlet of Clare, whose priest held service there once a week, and
for the rest of the time sang in the parish church. Still worse was the
instance at Botesdale, a hamlet about a mile and a half from the parish
church of Redgrave ; the commissioners stated that it was an ancient chapel
originally built by the inhabitants for their own use, and that there were
forty-six householders and 160 housling folk in the street or hamlet. A
third instance is that of the free chapel in Leiston parish, built for the ease
of the people ' on the sea banckes, where the inhabitants be alwayes ready to
kepe watche and warde for the defence and saftie of the same Towne and
countrye.'

This Suffolk certificate as to chantries, free chapels, &c. is remarkable
as showing in what a large number of cases those who held the advowsons
or who were the chief men in the parish or district had become a law unto
themselves, and had anticipated the action of the crown by nominating
laymen to hold these ecclesiastical positions or coolly retaining the incomes
in their own hands. Most of the county certificates show one or two
cases of this kind, but we are not aware of another county so prolific in
such instances as Suffolk.

In the case of Palgrave free chapel, distant half a mile from the church,,
the commissioners found that the building was decayed and the incumbent a
layman. The free chapel of St. Margaret in Tattingstone was held by 'John
Fytzhew gent, a layman.' The free chapel of Nayland had been dissolved
in the time of Henry VIII, and granted to Richard Holden. The free
chapel of Cowling, which was distant a mile from the parish church, had a
layman custos ; and the free chapel of Lindsey was in like plight.

The chantry of Haverhill had been dissolved in 1542, and granted by
letters patent to Lord Russell. The Duke of Norfolk had suppressed the
chantry at Framlingham, and appointed no incumbent for three years. The
chantry of Huntingfield, worth £y a year, had no incumbent, for ' one
Nicholas Arowsmyth taketh it to his own use by virtue of a deed feoffment
20 May, 23 Henry VIII.' The Bedingfield chantry in Greswell church,

ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY

worth £10 a. year, had been taken and retained by Sir Edward Bedingfield
in the reign of Henry VIII. Two chantries in Dennington church had
been dissolved in 1546 and given to Richard Fulmerston, whilst the
chantries of Brundish and Kedington had also fallen into lay hands.

Two cases of the absorption of incomes assigned to stipendiary
(chantry) priests for ninety-nine years in neighbouring parishes, are also of
interest as showing the fairly good use to which the money was put. The
commissioners found that the income of the foundation at Southwold had
been already converted to the use of the town ; they bore testimony that it
was but a poor town owing to sea encroachments, and that the money was
used to maintain 'jetties and peyres.' At Covehithe they found no stipendiary
incumbent, for the income had been assigned to the vicar, as the vicarage
was not worth eight marks a year ; it was a poor and populous town, with
sixteen score housling people.

By far the greater part of the 270 separate entries on the Suffolk
certificate of the commissioners relate to the small endowments, usually of
the nature of a rent-charge, that provided for an ' obit ' or anniversary of
some departed person on the recurrence of the burial day. The ordinary
notion is that these obits were simply absorbed by the celebrant of the mass.
But this is a complete mistake, for such bequests provided largely for the
poor, so that by their suppression a far more grievous wrong was done to the
indigent and aged than to the parish priest. Suffolk affords a great number
of instances, according to this certificate, wherein the proportion of an obit
assigned to the poor far excelled the pittance received by the priest.

In addition to the annual value of the endowments secured by the
Suffolk commissioners for the crown by the suppression of the chantries,
hospitals, gilds, &c, a considerable amount of other spoils was secured.
They obtained 165 ounces of silver-gilt plate, 142 i ounces of parcel gilt, and
284 ounces of white or silver plate. Other ornaments and utensils were
valued at £85 gs. yd. A stock of money to the value of £52 6j. 8d. was
actually confiscated from the sums in hand belonging to those church benefit
societies, the gilds. Unmolten lead on the roofs of chapels was estimated to
weigh 62 fother, and bell-metal 8,005 cwt - 2 ^li.

There was a fairly generous pension scheme assigned to the priests of
these suppressed institutions who did not hold any other preferment. On
20 June, 1548, Sir Walter Mildmay, knt., and Robert Kelwaye, esq., were
commissioned to issue letters patent, under the great seal of the Court of
Augmentations, to ' the Incumbents and Mynysters of dyverse late Colledges,
Chauntries, and free Chappelles, and to Stipendarie priestes ' of the county of
Suffolk. Two days later the patents were granted. 1

There were many abuses in connexion with the pensions granted at this
time, but more particularly with those granted to the dispossessed members of
the religious houses ejected during the previous reign. Necessity compelled
some to part with their pension patents for ready money, and in other cases the
pension distributors were exacting illegal fees. An Act was passed in 1 549
to regulate these matters, and to compel the restitution of patents held by
those to whom they had not been granted. 3 This Act remained to a consider-

1 Accts. Exch. Q. R. bdle. Ixxvi, 1 . ' 2 & 3 Edw. VI, cap. 7.

A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK

able extent a dead letter, until in 1552 commissioners were appointed for
holding investigations in each county. For carrying out the purposes of this
Pension Act, Sir William Drury, Sir Thomas Jermyne, and Sir William
Walgrave, knts., Clement Higham, esq., and John Holt and Christopher
Payton, gentlemen, were appointed as commissioners for Suffolk on
16 September, 1552.

The late priors of Woodbridge and Eye, the late abbot of Leiston, and
the prioress of Redlingfield, appeared personally before the commissioners,
testifying that they were in receipt of their respective pensions, which they
had ' neyther solde nor assignede.' Twenty-five monks of Bury St. Edmunds
appeared and testified in like manner. Thomas Cole, an ex-monk, swore
that eight or nine years past he had assigned his annuity to Ambrose
Jermyne, in consideration that Ambrose obtained for him the benefice of
Flempton in the gift of Thomas Lucas. Thomas Rowte, another former
monk, produced an indenture dated 1 March, 1545, to the effect that he sold
and assigned his letters patent of annuity to Ralph Cokkerell for £26 1 3J. \d.,
whereof he swore that he only received £19. Evidence was given of the
death of one monk. The master and three fellows of Wingfield College, and
twelve members of Stoke College, also appeared and testified to due receipt of
pensions. Twenty-six chantry or stipendiary priests likewise appeared and
testified. Fifteen lay annuitants appeared, but one (Edward Reve) stated that
he had sold his letters patent of annuity in 1543 for £20 to John Holt,
gentleman.

The commissioners returned the names of two of the college of Wingfield,
three of Butley Priory, nine lay annuitants, and nine chantry priests, who did
not appear before them, and as to whom they had not received ' any presente
instrucyons where they remayne or abyde.' l

The full pension list of 1 555— 6, generally known as Cardinal Pole's
Pension list, 2 giving details of all fees, annuities, and pensions, then paid to
the religious and others of the dissolved monasteries, and to the priests of
suppressed chantries, shows that the sum of £625 4.C 6d. was the amount
distributed to the various pensioners of the county of Suffolk. George
Carlton, the ex-abbot of Leiston, was in receipt of £20 a year ; William
Parker, ex-prior of Eye, £18; Edward Maltyward, ex-prior of Bury St.
Edmunds, £20, and twenty-six monks of that abbey of £iJJ 6s. 8d. ; and
Grace Sampson, ex-prioress of Redlingfield, £13 6s. Sd. Lay annuitants of
the old religious houses, who were chiefly semi-fraudulently put on the list by
the confiscation commissioners on the eve of the dissolution, were then in
receipt of £129 16s. \d. a year.

The remainder of the total sum went in pensions to the dispossessed
prebendaries and vicars of the collegiate churches of Wingfield and Stoke ; to
the ex-chantry priests of Barham, Beccles, Bury (2), Denton, Eyke, Ipswich
(2), Melford, Mildenhall, Nacton, Orford, Palgrave, Polstead, Shotley, Stow-
market, and Tattingstone (2) ; to the chaplains of the suppressed free chapels
of Clare, Cowling, Lindsey, and Ufford ; to the ex-grammar schoolmasters of
Lavenham, Melford, and Stoke College ; and to the stipendiary priest of
the church of Botesdale.

1 Accts. Exch. Q. R. bdle. Lovi, 21. ■ B.M. Add. MSS. 8102.

ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY

The uncertainty as to the eventual outcome of the clash of conflicting
religious opinions, and the not unnatural expectation that the spoiling of the
religious houses would be followed by the spoiling of the churches, led to a
large amount of appropriation and embezzlement of church goods during the
closing months of the reign of Henry VIII. In a few counties, such as
Suffolk, where foreign-bred Protestantism was obtaining a considerable hold,
the churchwardens and parishioners agreed to the sale of much of their church
ornaments and valuables, appropriating the money for a variety of purposes.
They apparently foresaw what was coming, and wisely thought that if such
things were to go, the value had better be used for local than imperial
purposes.

In 1547 commissioners were appointed to draw up inventories of church
goods, more especially, as stated, that the goods might be preserved for the
churches and not disposed of; but in reality as a preparatory step to their
wholesale seizure by the crown. There was, however, just a certain amount
of sincerity in the preamble to the commissioners, for in several cases where
church goods had been embezzled by individuals, restitution in kindormonev
was enforced from the offenders.

Suffolk affords an instance of this private embezzlement by a man of
position. Philip Woolverstone, esq., of Woolverstone, took from that church
and sold two bells and two vestments which were declared to be worth
£2.0, and he was called upon to pay over that sum to the Court of Augmen-
tations. But a certificate was afterwards handed in, sealed by eleven of
the parishioners, to the effect that ' the grettyst bell was no more of
wayte than one man myght cary yn hys Armes,' and they both were not
worth above £5. As to the vestments, one was of old white silk with a
red cross of Bruges satin, and the other of old crimson velvet, both of
small value. Moreover, Mr. Woolverstone took them supposing the church
to be his own chapel. 1

There are extant an exceptional number of the original returns from
Suffolk made by the parish authorities to the inquiries of 1547. 2 Thev
show the considerable prevalence of the desire of the parishioners to profit
by sales of their own, and in most of the cases the sale had evidently been of
quite recent occurrence.

At Aldeburgh the parish had realized the large sum of £40 (£400 of
our money) by the sale of a cross, a pair of chalices, a pair of censers, two
candlesticks, a pax, and a pyx, all of silver. With this money they stated
that they had purchased ' powder and shot for the realm,' as well as ordnance,
bows, and harness. The small parish of Ashfield certified that they had sold
church goods worth 40/., which they had spent on the setting forth of soldiers.
The churchwardens of Barking, with the consent of the whole parish, had sold
a cross, three pairs of chalices, two pyxes, a pair of censers, a ship, and two
paxes for the large sum of £54. With part of the proceeds they had bought
a pair of organs, which cost (in addition to the pair of old organs) £14.
Beccles had sold silver to the yet larger amount of ^59' using the money on
building their fine detached steeple. Also in 1 Edward VI they sold more

1 Q. R. Ch. Goods 4*.

' Aug. Off. Misc. Bks. cccccix. These returns, numbering 1 76, are made on paper, and have been
mounted in book form.

2 33 5

A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK

silver to the value of £40, using the proceeds for the repair of the church, for
the great bridge, and more especially ' for the edifyinge buyldynge and
fynyshinge of our steple.' In a different hand is added, as a kind of after-
thought, ' and for setting forth of Soldiers to serve the Kings majesty in his
affaires.'

These 1547 certificates enable us to say that the churches of Suffolk
were quite exceptionally well supplied with church goods, more especially
plate.

It was, however, after all, only a minority of the churches of Suffolk
that had thus stripped themselves of the best of their church goods ; that
which remained, in this and other counties, was looked upon with covetous
eyes by the insatiable council. On 3 March, 1551, they decreed 'That for
as muche as the King's Majestic had neede presently of a Masse of Mooney
therefore commissions should be addressed into all shires of Englande to take
into the Kinges handes such church plate as remayneth to be emploied unto
his Highness use.' 1 There was, however, some delay in issuing these
commissions. The one for Suffolk, dated 16 May, 1552, was addressed to
Nicholas Hare, knt., Henry Dale, knt., the bailiffs of Ipswich, Lyonell
Talmache, Edward Grymston, and William Forster, esquires. The book
containing the returns of the commissioners covers the whole county, and
includes 514 churches. 2 At the beginning are full entries of all the church
goods of the Ipswich churches at considerable length.

The other inventories have not been preserved, but the rest of the
book is taken up with the record of the miserable remnant of the goods
that the commissioners were directed to leave behind them. They were
instructed to sell everything save one chalice (the term chalice included
a paten) or two for a great church, as well as great bells and ' saunce '
bells. It was also understood that a surplice and a minimum of altar linen
was to be retained in each church, but this is not specified in the Suffolk
returns. 3 Among the churches to which two chalices were assigned were
those of Coddenham, Covehithe, Barking, Eye, Snape, Mildenhall, Sudbury,
and Woodbridge.

When Mary came to the throne the change among the beneficed clergy
was considerable. Large numbers were deprived, the reason in almost every
case being on account of marriage, and not, as has sometimes been alleged,
because of any supposed lack of validity in ordination by Edwardian bishops.
Convocation in 1547 under Edward VI sanctioned the marriage of priests,
and at the beginning of 1549 an Act of Parliament gave civil authority to
such unions. Many of the clergy availed themselves of this permission, but
the general Statute of Repeals under Mary revoked this licence, and clerical
marriage was no longer sanctioned by church or state. The revived obliga-
tion to celibacy came into force on 20 December, 1553, but before this
Convocation had inhibited married priests from ministering or saying mass.
It was not, however, until the spring of 1554 that formal deprivations for
marriage were put in force. The entries relative to deprivation in Norwich

1 Acts of P. C. 1550-2, p. 228.

* Aug. Off. Bks. cccccix. At the beginning is affixed the original commission.

3 The county commission in certain hundreds, notably in Essex, left a vestment or a cope, or both, for all
the churches, and occasionally other plate beside the chalice ; but in such instances they were exceeding their
instructions.

ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY

diocese, beginning in March, 1553—4, are more complete than for any other
diocese, and work out at about one in five of the whole clergy. 1

One of the most interesting cases of Suffolk, deprivations on account of
marriage is that of the well-known parson of Hadleigh, Rowland Taylor, who
was a considerable pluralist. He was not only rector of Hadleigh, but also
archdeacon of Cornwall, prebendary of Hereford, and canon of Rochester.
On being summoned to account for his alleged marriage, Taylor had to admit
that he had been married after an irregular fashion twenty- nine years before
to one Margaret, at the house of John Tyndale, merchant tailor of London,
not in the face of the church, but in the presence of one Benet, a priest, and
of Tyndale and his wife. By this union he had had nine children, of whom
five survived. He had received minor orders at Norwich, was ordained
deacon by Bishop Holbeach, then suffragan of Bristol, in 1539, and priest by
Ingworth, bishop of Dover, in 1543. He was a married man with wife
and family at the time of his ordination both as deacon and priest, such
ordinations being then uncanonical and illegal. 2

Suffolk had no small share in the shocking persecutions of Mary's brief
reign. The most eminent of the victims was Dr. Rowland Taylor, who was
burnt on 8 February, 1555, which was the same day as the martyrdom of
Bishop Hooper of Gloucester. 3 In the following year three men were burnt
as heretics at Beccles, one at Whiston, and two at Debenham.* Another
notable Suffolk martyr of this period was John Noyes, shoemaker of Laxfield,
whose story is told at considerable length by Foxe. He was burnt at Laxfield
on 22 September, 1557. 5 Suffolk attained to a gruesome notoriety during
the Marian persecution ; it is said, according to Foxe's estimate, that no
fewer than thirty-six persons were burnt to death during her reign within the
limits of the county. 6

John Hopton, confessor to Queen Mary, and bishop of Norwich during
her reign, died about the same time as his royal mistress, in the month of
November, 1558. Elizabeth chose to keep the see vacant for nearly two
years after her accession, and eventually promoted John Parkhurst, who had
been in exile at Zurich, to the bishopric.

1 Frere, Marian Reaction, 49, 51, 53. The list of the deprived clergy of this diocese gives 243 beneficed
and 100 unbeneficed ; but the institution book gives only 172 as the number of deprivations. The balance
are probably entered as merely ' vacant ' ; not a few of the married and puritanically disposed clergy fled to
the Continent at the beginning of the reign.

- Reg. D. and C. of Canterbury, cited in Frere, Marian Reaction, 65-6.

3 Foxe, Acts and Monts. (Townsend), viii, 676-703. In the church of Hadleigh is a brass tablet to the
martyr's memory, on which is engraved a rhymed doggerel epitaph. The last four lines run : —

O Taillor were thie myghtie fame

Uprightly here inrolde,
Thie deedes deserve that thie good name
Were syphered here in golde.
Tho?e, however, who were responsible for erecting this monument did not even go to the expense of a piece of
brass to his memory. The plate turns out (from the reverse) to be a portion of a fine fifteenth-century brass
to a former merchant of the town, which must have been torn off from his grave, and then re-used from motives
of economy.

On Aldham Common the site of the burning is marked by a rough unhewn stone, about two feet long
and a foot high, on which are rudely cut the words : —

1555. D. Taylor in defending that was good,
At this place left his blode.
' Ibid, viii, 145. 5 Ibid, viii, 424-7.

6 Raven, Hist, of Suffolk, 1 69. This is probably a considerable exaggeration ; see the list of 'such as were
burned for religion' in Mary's reign in Strype's Memorials (iii, pt. 2, pp. 554—6), where twenty -one are
assigned to Suffolk.

A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK

No sooner was Elizabeth established on the throne than Cecil and her
other advisers successfully urged the carrying out of a general visitation of
the diocese to secure the signatures of the clergy to the Acts of Supremacy
and Uniformity. The visitors were mainly drawn from more or less promi-
nent statesmen, but were associated with certain leading divines. The dioceses
of Norwich, Ely, and London were combined for the purposes of this visi-
tation. The letters patent appointing the visitors were issued about 24 June,
1554. The first named of the visitors was Sir Nicholas Bacon, lord keeper
of the Great Seal, and the second was the Duke of Norfolk, who was lord
lieutenant of both Suffolk and Norfolk ; these were followed by a variety of
lords, knights, and esquires, seventeen in number, with John Salome as
' lawyer,' and Dr. Robert Home (afterwards bishop of Winchester) and
Dr. Thomas Huyck as preaching divines. The visitation of Norwich diocese,
in which there were then between six and seven hundred clergy, occupied
most of September ; the signatures obtained were rather over five hundred,
showing a more ready acceptance of the settlement in this diocese than in
several of the others. Sessions of the visitors were held, so far as Suffolk was
concerned, at Beccles, Blythburgh, Bury, and Ipswich, as well as at Thetford
on the confines of the county. 1

It is not a little singular that among the comparatively few Suffolk
incumbents who were deprived of their benefices between 1558 and 1564 —
only seven all told — were three who originally signed their acceptance of the
changed state of matters ecclesiastical, but who could not apparently be
trusted. These were Oliver Haver, rector of Burgh ; R. Appletoft, vicar of
Offton and Little Bricett ; and James Stanley, vicar of Washbrook.

Between 1564 and 1570 eleven more Suffolk incumbents were deprived. 2
It cannot be said with certainty that all those removed from their benefices
between 1558 and 1570 were ejected for nonconformity, but this was
probably the case. At all events, the number of the Suffolk incumbents who
were punished for non-compliance with the Elizabethan changes did not
amount to a score out of some five hundred benefices. 3

Among head masters deprived at the beginning of Elizabeth's reign on
account of their adherence to the unreformed faith was John Fenn, master of
Bury St. Edmunds school. 4

In no diocese at the beginning of Elizabeth's reign was the change in
chief spiritual ruler so strongly marked. Hopton was a bitter and aggressive
Catholic, whilst his successor Parkhurst upheld almost equally strong Puritan
views. The prolonged interregnum between the death of Hopton in Novem-
ber, 1558, and the consecration of Parkhurst in September, 1560, had

1 The actual signatures of the Norwich visitation are preserved at Lambeth. The majority do not append
the name of their benefice, so that it is not possible to give the exact numbers of those clergy of Suffolk who
were prompt to accept the new settlement. The place-names of Suffolk following signatures are in excess of
those for Norfolk, and include the parishes of Acton, Aldeburgh, Aldringham, Beccles, Bramfield, Debenham,
Fakenham, Felixstowe, Flempton, Fressingfield, Freston, Glenham, Gorleston, Henley, Henstead, Hoxne,
Huntingfield, Knoddishall, Lavenham, Linstead, Lowestoft, Marlesford, Mendham, Mickford, Needham
Market, Offton, Peasenhall, Pettistree, Rattlesden, Reyden, Rushmere, Southwold, Stonham Aspall, Swefling,
Sternfield, Thurston, Uggeshall, Wangford, Washbrook, Westleton, Wickham Market, Whiston, Woodbridge,
and Worlingham. In several of these cases the clergy are described as curates, and in one instance (Southwold)
as schoolmaster. Cart. Miscell. xiii, pr. 2.

- For list of the deprived in Norwich diocese, see Gee, Elizabethan Clergy, 281-2, 290-1.

3 In a large number of cases two or more benefices were held by the same incumbent.

* Gee, Elizabethan Clergy, 234.

ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY

produced bad results. In 1561 there were actually 136 parishes in the
archdeaconry of Suffolk without a resident ordained minister. Queen
Elizabeth visited Ipswich in July, 1561.

Here, says Strype, her Majesty took a great dislike to the imprudent behaviour of many
of the ministers and readers, there being many weak ones amongst them, and little or no
order observed in the public service, and few or none wearing the surplice. And the
bishop of Norwich was thought remiss, and that he winked at schismatics. But more
particularly was she offended with the clergy's marriage ; and that in cathedrall colleges
there were so many wives and widows and children seen, which she said was contrary to
the interest of the founders, and so much tending to the interruption of the studies of those
who are placed there. Therefore she issued an order to all dignitaries, dated August 9th
at Ipswich, to forbid all women to the lodgings of cathedralls or colleges, and that upon pain
of losing their ecclesiastical promotions. 1

But there were more complaints against Bishop Parkhurst than his
strong Puritan sympathies. The historian of the diocese charges him with
being ' a man of expensive habits .... and showing a bad example in
making merchandise of the Church of God,' nor were the subsequent
Elizabethan prelates much better. 2

There was not near so much trouble with the recusants, or zealous
adherents to the unreformed faith, in Suffolk as in some counties ; but the
persecution of the secret itinerant priests, and the severe harassing of the
estates and goods of the recusants continued throughout Elizabeth's reign.

Henry Cumberford, precentor of Lichfield and rector of Norbury,
Staffordshire, who was one of the first clergy to be deprived of his benefices
on the accession of Elizabeth, was a native of Suffolk. In a list drawn up
early in this reign (probably in 1562) of ' Recusants which are abroad and
bound to certain places ' Cumberford's name occurs ; a marginal note
describes him as 'learned, but wilful and meet to be considered.' He was
bound over to remain in the county of Suffolk, but with liberty to travel
twice a year into Staffordshire, six weeks being allowed at each time of
his travel. 3 At this time (1562) Dr. Harpsfield, the deprived dean of
Norwich, was one of fourteen ' prisoners for religion since the first year of
the reign of Queen Elizabeth ' confined in the Fleet. 4 Cumberford seems to
have been one of the numerous religious prisoners either in the Fleet or the
Tower, and released with others on finding sureties as to residence. Eventu-
ally Cumberford resumed the active but secret exercise of his priesthood,
and was several times imprisoned. He died a prisoner in Hull Castle
in 1590, after having spent sixteen years in gaol for his religion during
Elizabeth's reign. 5

Legislation immediately after Elizabeth's accession provided for a fine
of I2</. on all absentees from the parish church on Sundays and holy days.
In 1 58 1 this punishment was much intensified, for it was then laid down
that the immense fine of £20 a month was to be imposed on all recusants,
and that those who could not pay the fine within three months were to
be imprisoned. Further legislation gave the crown the power of seizing
two-thirds of the offender's lands and all his goods in default of payment.
From time to time these forfeitures were rigidly enforced in Suffolk and

1 Collier, Eccl. Hist, vi, 226. ' fessopp, Dioc. Hist, of Norwich, 173-5.

* S.P. Dom. Eliz. Add. xi, 45. ' H.irl. MS. 360, fol. 7.

s Foley, Records, iii, 219, 221, 245, 803 ; Morris, Troubles, 3rd ser. 300.

A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK

elsewhere. Occasionally, when it seemed as if the collection of these fines
would reduce many to beggary whose enforced contributions were so profit-
able to the state, milder measures were taken. Thus on 23 April, 1586,
a letter was forwarded from Ipswich by the justices of Suffolk to Walsing-
ham, saying that they

had called before them all the Recusants whose names in a schedule we received inclosed
in your lordship's letters to whom we imparted the contents thereof, advising them to con-
sider of her Majesty's gracious favour extended towards them and measuring the benefit
which thereby they are to receive to make offer by writing severally under their hands what
rensonable portion they can be contented yearly of their own disposition to pay unto her
Majesty, receipt to be eased of the Common danger of Law for their recusancy, whose
several offers under their own hands, which herewith we send unto your lordship, may
particularly appear.

Then follow the offers : —

William Yaxlee estimates his income at £220 per annum, and offers
£40 per annum ; £280 has already been levied on his lands, and he has
contributed £50 to setting out of horses for Her Majesty's service. Walter
Norton of Chedeston, gent., having lands to the value of _£ 100, offers £20
yearly. Henry Everard, £100 a year, offers £10. Richard Martyn of
Welford, gent., offers £6 a year. Edward Sulyarde, with yearly revenue of
£440, has already paid a year's income for recusancy, and has furnished a
horse £25, offers £40 per annum. John Bedingfeld, £40 per annum, offers
jTio. Margaret Danyell of Acton, a widow, offers £20. Edward Rook-
wood offers £30. These are followed by nine other smaller offers. 1

The Recusant Rolls for Suffolk at the Public Record Office begin in
1593. The first of these supplies lists of amounts owing from farmers of the
two-thirds of estates of recusants, farmed out to grooms of the chamber,
gentlemen of the chapel, and other of the minor court officials, and not
infrequently to the tenants of the owner.

Among the Roman Catholic gentry of the county in this roll the
Rookwoods of Stanningfield and of Euston are very prominent ; they are
entered as indebted for sums from £260 to £280.

About ninety recusants altogether, mostly yeomen and spinsters, or
engaged in humble occupations such as tailors, are entered as owing jT8o to
£120 of the £20 a month penalty. 2

The condition of the church fabrics of the county in Elizabeth's reign,
when all religion seemed to be at a very low ebb, went from bad to worse.
' Certificates of all the ruines and decayes of all the Ruinated churches and
chauncells of the dioc. Norwich ' were returned to Bishop Redman in 1602.
The return for the archdeaconry of Suffolk schedules the ruinous state of the
chancels of Ashfield, Bramfield, Brandeston, Culpho, Eyke, Fakenham, Flixton,
Freston, Gunton, Higham, Ipswich St. Stephen, Ipswich St. Margaret,
Kessingland, Lowestoft, Offton, Pakefield, Shipmeadow, Shottisham, Snape,
Thorpe (Ashfield), Wherstead, Wilby, Wingfield, and Wissett. In most cases
the ruinous condition had prevailed for several years. In all instances, save
three, chancels were in the hands of lay proprietors, whose names are set
forth. 3

1 S.P. Dom. Eliz. clxxxviii, 38.

' Recusant R. Suff. i, 34, Eliz. The receipts from recusant fines throughout the country from 1593 to
1602 brought over £120,000 to the crown.
3 East Anglian N. and Q. i, 340-1.

ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY

In June, 1603, a circular letter was addressed by Archbishop Whitgift
to his suffragans of the southern province, requesting information as to the
number of communicants and recusants in the parishes of their respective
dioceses, together with the names of such clergy as had two benefices, the
number of impropriations and vicarages, and the values and the patrons of the
various livings. The original returns are to be found in the Harleian collec-
tion of the British Museum. 1

The returns for the county of Suffolk, as sent in to the Bishop of
Norwich by the archdeacons of Sudbury and Suffolk, differ in style. The
former is somewhat more detailed, and comprises an explicit answer to all the
queries from each parish, three or four being entered in a small hand on each
folio. The return from the Suffolk archdeaconry is more condensed, and
assumes a tabulated form for each deanery. 2

The answers do not cover quite the whole of the county, for the plan
adopted was for the archdeacon to summon the parsons, vicars, or curates of
the different parishes of each deanery to some appointed place, and there to
receive their respective replies. In a few cases, as in three of the Ipswich
parishes, no one appeared to make any reply, and the returns for such parishes
were left blank. Occasionally there was a good excuse for non-appearance.
Thus in the Dunwich deanery under ' Reydon cum capella de Southwold ' it
is entered : ' The parson did not appear by reason the Sicknes was veri
dangerous in the towne.'

The numbers of those ' who do not receive ' are entered separately from
the avowed recusants, who were all probably confessed Romanists. The pro-
portion of both these classes is a good deal smaller than in some counties.
In the archdeaconry of Sudbury 3 the recusants of the deanery of Thingoe
numbered 22 ; in Blackburne, 5 ; in Fordham, 4; in Hartismere and Stow, 4 ;
in Clare, 1 ; in Sudbury, 35 ; and in the town of Bury, 19; giving a total
of 132 for the archdeaconry. Those who did not receive the communion,
though coming to the church services, numbered 89 in the same district.

The archdeaconry of Suffolk had fewer of both these classes.* Of
recusants there were in the deanery of Lothingland, 6 ; in Wangford, 4 ; in
Dunwich, 5 ; in Orford, 5 ; in Wilford and Loes, 14 men in the castle of
Framlingham, and one other ; in Carlford and Colneys, 4 ; in Ipswich, 4 ;
in Samford, 8 ; in Bosmere and Claydon, 1 1 ; and in Hoxne, 2. The total,
therefore, of recorded recusants for the whole county was 190 ; whilst the
full total of those who did not receive throughout Suffolk was 122.

The totals of communicants usually entered in round numbers, doubtless
include all parishioners over sixteen years, save those already enumerated ; for
the unhappy rule prevailed of their being compelled under heavy penalties
to be at least occasional communicants. The returns afford, therefore, a good
criterion of the whole population, and may be taken as a rough kind of census.
The total of communicants in both archdeaconries amounted to 67, 993. 5

1 Harl. MS. 595, No. ii.

'In the Suff. Arch. Inst. Proe. for 1883 (vi, 361-400) the return for the SufF. archdeaconry is printed ;
the return for Sudbury archdeaconry appeared in 1 90 1 (xi, 1-46).

3 Harl. MS. 595, fol. 95-119. 'Ibid. 167-93.

4 In order to get the total population, about forty per hundred have to be added to those who were over
sixteen. After making allowance for several omitted parishes this would bring the population of Suffolk to
about 100,000 at the beginning of the seventeenth century.

A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK

The recusants of Suffolk continued to have hard times during the reigns
of the first two Stuarts. The execution of Ambrose Rookwood belongs more
to political than religious history. During the comparatively mild episco-
pates of the four bishops who held the East Anglian diocese from 1603—32
' sectaries ' multiplied and many irregular clergy were ordained, whose only
title was the chaplaincy of an often nominal employer. Such clergy escaped
all episcopal jurisdiction, and, as 'lecturers,' usually propagated views that
were quite out of harmony with the doctrines of the Church of England.

In May, 1632, Bishop Corbett was translated from Oxford to Norwich.
The next year Laud, the uncompromising opponent of Puritanism, became
primate. In Dr. Corbett he found considerable support. The lecturers at
Bury St. Edmunds and at Ipswich were silenced. The bishop in his answers
to Laud's inquiries congratulated himself that he had made ' two wandering
preachers run out of his diocese ; ' nevertheless, he added, ' lectures abound
in Suffolk, and many set up by private gentlemen even without so much as
the knowledge of the ordinary.' !

Bishop Corbett died in July, 1635, and was succeeded by Dr. Matthew
Wren, a distinguished Cambridge scholar, who held this see for three years
until his translation to Ely. He at once held a visitation of his diocese,
following the exact lines laid down by his primate, and so sternly suppressing
the sectaries that many fled over the seas. 2

In the year that Wren left this diocese, the archdeacon of Suffolk, who
was evidently in accord with both Wren and Laud, held his visitation.
' Articles to be Enquired of in the Ordinary Visitation of the Right
Wirshipfull Doctor Pearson, Archdeacon of Suffolke ' were issued and
printed in 1638. 3 They follow for the most part, with some variants, the
customary form of such articles in the reign of Charles I, but are of greater
length and detail than several other examples. Thus the archdeacon inquired
whether the

Blessed Sacrament hath beene delivered unto any or received by any of the Communi-
cants within youre Parish that did unreverently either sit or stand or leane, or that did not
devoutly and humbly kneele upon their knees, in plaine and open view without collusion or
hypocrisie.

They had also to answer whether any of the inhabitants of their company
ever ' bring their Hawkes into the Church or usually suffer their dogges of
any kinde to come with them thither.' Chapter four of the articles, with
its five items, is entirely concerned with the steeple and the bells. The
particulars as to daily service and saints' day services, with due tolling of
bell, the use of the Athanasian Creed on all appointed days, the Commination
Service, and the Litany every Wednesday and Friday, are most explicit. So
too with regard to not preaching in the surplice, or the improper use of 'any
Bason or paile or other Vessel set into the Font ' at baptism.

A book of presentments in the Dean's Court of Booking from 1637—41,
termed Liber Actorum, is extant, which supplies many instances of the juris-
diction then exercised over the morals of the parishioners of this peculiar,

1 Norw. Dioc. Hist. 187-8.

■ Perry, Hist, of Ch. of Eng. ii, App. B, where the ' particulars, orders, directions, and remembrances ' of
Wren's primary visitation are set forth at length.
3 Press Mark, B.M. 5155, c 23.

ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY

corresponding to similar action in the archidiaconal courts for other parishes.
The presentments include various ones relative to incontinence, among which
occur cases of pre-nuptial fornication ; for absence from church on Sundays
and holy days, and neglecting to receive the Communion, and for irreverence
in church, omitting to stand or kneel in accordance with the rubric, and not
bowing the head at the name of Jesus. In a few cases the offenders were
excommunicated, and in cases of incontinence penance in a white sheet in
the parish church was the usual result. 1

One of the best and most able of the Puritan divines of East Anglia
was Samuel Ward, a native of Haverhill. He was for many years ' town
preacher ' at Ipswich by the appointment of the corporation, who paid him
a salary of £180 a year. He was licensed by Bishop Jegon (1603-18) as a
preacher throughout his diocese ; but in Bishop Wren's time he was
convicted of various acts of nonconformity, suspended, enjoined a public
recantation, and on his refusal lodged in prison. When in gaol, he wrote
a preface to a volume of his sermons, wherein he bravely and with some
humour described his imprisonment as ' a little leisure occasioned against my
will.' He died in 1640, just at the beginning of the grievous ferment in
church and state. 2

The Long Parliament, which began to sit in November, 1640, at once
addressed itself to matters ecclesiastical ; Episcopacy was speedily abolished,
and ere long even the private use of the Prayer Book was made penal and
the directory of Public Worship imposed in its place. Meanwhile the
universally respected divine, Joseph Hall, was translated from Exeter to
Norwich as bishop ; he was received with a certain amount of respect when
he entered Norwich, in the spring of 1642, but in the following year he was
ejected and the episcopal estates were sequestered.

'The removing of scandalous ministers in the seven associated counties'
of the east of England was intrusted to the Earl of Manchester, who on
12 March, 1642—3 appointed a committee of ten to deal with the matter in
Suffolk. 3

The ejections in Suffolk were carried out with exceptional harshness.
A fifth part of the sequestered incomes or estates of the clergy who adhered
to episcopal rule — for their private estates, if they possessed any, were also
seized — might, at the option of the Earl of Manchester, be assigned to their
wives and children ; but this seems to have been seldom carried out. Several
of these Suffolk clergy, suddenly reduced to beggary, turned schoolmasters.
Such were Lionel Gatford, ejected from Dennington, Nathaniel Goodwin
from Cransford, and Thomas Tyllot from Depden ; but this form of earning
an income was soon stopped, for a further ordinance was issued forbidding

1 Proc. Suff. Inst, of Arch, iii, 7 1-2. 'Raven, Hist. of Suff. 204-5.

'This ordinance of the Lords and Commons was ordered to be printed on 22 Jan. 1642-3. Dr. Tanner
drew up a list of Suffolk ministers who were ejected in 1643-4, appending the dates and brief particulars to
each. The total is sixty-five ; it included the incumbents of Acton, Ashbocking, Bardficld, Barnham, Bealings,
Bawdsey, Bedingfield, Benhall, Blyford, Blakenham, Bredfield, Brettenham, CharsficlJ, Chattisham, Chels-
worth, Cornard, Cheveley, Copdock, Corton, Depden, Debcnham, Eyke, Finborough Magna, Felixstowe,
Flowton, Finningham, Friston, Grundisburgh, Hadlcigh, Hargrave, Haskcton, Hcpworth, Hemingstone,
Hollesley, Hoxne, Kettlebaston, Kcttleburgh, Lawshall, Melton, Moulton, Mildcnhall, Monks Elcigh, Preston,
Ringshall, Sancroft, Shimpling, Soham, Sothcrton, Snape, Stradbroke, Stradishall, Trimlcy St. Mary, Tunstall,
Uggcshall, Walton, Waldingfield, Wenhaston, Westhorp, Weston, Wickcn, Winston, Wixoe, Woolpit, and
Worlingworth. Many others were added to this list at later dates. Suff. Arch. Inst. Proc. ix, 307-9.

2 41 6

A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK

the teaching of a private school by any sequestered minister. It is said that
Aggas, the rector of Rushbrook, got his living by the fiddle. According to
the historian of the ejection, one at least of the dispossessed ministers profited
in bodily health from the treatment he received. James Buck, the ex-vicar
of Stradbroke, was committed to Ipswich gaol, when a martyr to the gout,
and when his physicians did not believe he had more than two years' life in
him; but a diet of bread and water for two months effected a cure, the gout
never returned and he lived to the age of four-score. 1

However sorrowful many of these cases must have been, it is better to
reserve our chief pity for those episcopally ordained clergy who were content
to remain in their cures and teach doctrines diametrically opposed to those
they were solemnly pledged to uphold. It was amongst the ejected that a
certain semi-secret supply of church ministrations was maintained, in spite
of all penalties. Thus Lawrence Bretton, the ejected rector of Hitcham,
removed to his birthplace at Hadleigh, where he continued to use privately
the daily service of the Church, and to ' administer the Blessed Sacrament on
the three great festivals of the year to such loyalists as resorted to him,'
and Lionel Playters, when turned out of the rectory of Uggeshall, continued
the exercise of his ministry. 2

Nor was the vehemence of the East Anglian Puritans confined to action
against clerical ministrations ; it blazed forth with peculiar virulence against
the places of worship.

The county of Suffolk, so celebrated for the beautiful carving and furni-
ture of its churches, had the unenviable fame of giving birth to that unhappy
destroyer of so much that was worthy of God's sanctuaries, the uncompro-
mising iconoclast, William Dowsing. It was in August, 1 64 1 , that an
order was first published by the Commons ' for the taking away all scandalous
Pictures out of Churches.' 3 At the instance and under the direction of the
Earl of Manchester, General of the Associated Eastern Counties, Dowsing
received his appointment as Parliamentary Visitor of the Suffolk Churches
dated 19 December, 1643. In this commission, under Manchester's signa-
ture, it is stated that many crucifixes, crosses, images of the Trinity and the
Virgin Mary, and pictures of saints and superstitious inscriptions still re-
mained in many churches and chapels of the Associated Counties, and that
William Dowsing, gent., was empowered to remove or deface all such, and
to require assistance from mayors, sheriffs, bailiffs, constables, headboroughs,
and ' all other officers and loveinge subjects.' He also had the power assigned
him, which he freely exercised, of appointing deputies to carry out the work.
Dowsing and his associates far exceeded even the wide terms of the com-
mission, working the most wanton and wicked mischief wherever they went,
and clearly making plunder and illegal exactions a regular part of their pro-
ceedings. Memorial brasses, many of post-Reformation date, were torn up
and sold, and payments actually insisted on from the churchwardens for the
destructive work in which they had been engaged.

There is no reason to doubt that the work of destruction was carried
out in all the Associated Counties, which included Suffolk, Norfolk, Lincoln,

1 See Walker, Sufferings of the Clergy, passim. The accounts of the sufferings entailed by several of'the
Suffolk ejections are peculiarly heartrending.

* Ibid. pt. ii, 209, pp. 177, 335. 3 Ibid. p. 178.

ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY

Essex, Huntingdon, Cambridge, and Hertford. It is known that the furious
zeal of Dowsing in person was exercised at Cambridge, not only in the college
chapels but even (quite illegally) in the schools, halls, libraries, and chambers
of the university. But so far as Suffolk is concerned, the man left behind
him a journal of his own performances in which he clearly gloried. His
work in this county, recorded in the journal, extended from 6 January,
1643— 4 to 1 October, 1644. During that period upwards of one hundred
and fifty places were visited in less than fifty days. The journal is obviously
incomplete, and only records the deeds done in about a third of the old
churches. Future references will be made to this destructive work under
particular parishes ; here it will suffice to cite some of the wanton mischief
wrought by Jessop, one of Dowsing's deputies, in the church of Gorleston,
as a sample of their operations : —

In the chancel, as it is called, we took up twenty brazen superstitious inscriptions,
ora pro nobis, etc. ; broke twelve apostles carved in wood, and cherubims, and a lamb with
a cross ; and took up four superstitious inscriptions in brass, in the north chancel, jfesu filii
Dei Miscre mei, etc., broke in pieces the rails, and broke down twenty-two popish pictures
of angels and saints. We did deface the font and a cross on the font. We took up
thirteen superstitious brasses. Ordered Moses with his rod and Aaron with his mitre to be
taken down. Ordered eighteen angels off the roof and cherubims to be taken down, and
nineteen pictures in the windows. The organ I broke ; and we brake seven popish pictures
in the chancel window, one of Christ, another of St. Andrew, another of St. James, etc.
We ordered the steps [up to the altar] to be levelled by the parson of the town ; and brake
the popish inscription My flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed. I gave orders to
break in pieces the carved work, which I have seen done . . . and eighteen Jesuses
written in capital letters, which we gave orders to do out. A picture of St. George and
many others which I remember not, with divers pictures in the windows which we could
not reach, neither would they help us to raise ladders; so we left a warrant with the
constable to do it in fourteen days. . . . We rent in pieces a hood and surplices and
brake I.H.S. the Jesuits badge in the chancel windows. . . . We brake down a cross
on the steeple, and three stone crosses in the chancel, and a stone cross in the porch. 1

William Dowsing was a member of a prosperous yeoman family at
Saxfield, Suffolk, where he was baptized on 2 May, 1596, and buried on
22 March, 1679.

By order of the Commons, on 5 November, 1645, Suffolk was divided
into fourteen classical presbyteries, with ministers and others nominated by
the county committee in accordance with the Speaker's direction. The
divisions were (1) the Hundred of Samford, with the town of Polstead,
meeting at East Bergholt ; (2) the town of Ipswich and its liberties, with
the Hundred of Colneys and Carlford, meeting at Ipswich ; (3) the Hundreds
of Loes, Wilford, and Thredling, meeting at Wickham Market ; (4) the
Hundred of Plumsgate, with Aldburgh and Orford, and certain parishes in
the Hundred of Blything, meeting at Saxmundham ; (5) the rest of the
Hundred of Blything, with Dunwich and Southwold, meeting at Hales-
worth ; (6) the Hundreds of Wangford, Mutford, and Lothingland, meeting
at Beccles ; (7) the Hundreds of Bosmere and Claydon and Stow, meeting
at Coddenham ; (8) the Hundred of Hoxne, meeting at Stradbroke ; (9)
the Hundred of Hartismere, meeting at Eye; (10) the Hundred of Black-
burne, meeting at Ixworth ; (11) the Hundreds of Thingoe, Lackford, and

1 Two or three editions of the Journal have been printed. The fullest and best account of Dowsing,
with the journal of his Suffolk work, is that by Rev. C. H. E. White, Suff. Arch. Inst. Proc. vi, 236-90.

A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK

Thedwastre, with Bury St. Edmunds, meeting at Bury; (12) the Hundred
of Cosford with certain parishes of Babergh Hundred, meeting at Bilston ;
(13) the rest of the Hundred of Babergh, with Sudbury, meeting at Laven-
ham ; and (14) the Hundred of Risbridge, meeting at Clare.

It soon, however, becomes quite clear that though Presbyterianism
predominated in many parts of the county, this elaborate scheme for regu-
lating religious worship, with its stern form of discipline, existed chiefly on
paper. The ' sectaries ' had succeeded in upsetting for a time church
government, but their attempts to build up any generally accepted substitute
in its place were complete failures. The Independents or Congregationalists
began to make headway, and in many parishes there was a resolute under-
current in favour of the old episcopacy.

The melancholy petition of the ministers of the counties of Suffolk
and Essex concerning church government was presented to the Houses of
Parliament on 29 May, 1646. It was ordered by the Lords to be printed,
together with the respective answers of both Lords and Commons;' it
appeared in a small quarto form of eight pages on 1 June, 1646. 1 The
petition took a singularly gloomy view of the state of religion and morals,
notwithstanding the abolishment of episcopacy and the stripping of the
churches.

The pressing miseries of the orthodox and well-affected ministers and people in the
county cry aloud to your honours for a settling of church government according to the
Word. From the want of this it is that the name of the most high God is blasphemed,
his precious truths corrupted ; his Word despised, his ministers discouraged, his ordinances
vilified. Hence it is that schisme, heresie, ignorance, prophanenesse, and atheisme flow
in upon us, seducers multiply, grow daring and insolent, pernicious books poyson many
souls, piety and learning decay apace, very many congregations ly waste without pastours,
the Sacrament of Baptisme by many neglected and by many reiterated, the Lord's Supper
generally disused or exceedingly prophaned, confusion and ruine threatening us in all our
quarters.

The petitioners therefore prayed for the establishment by civil sanction
of a form of church government ' according to the Word of God, and the
example of the best reformed churches,' and that all schismatics, heretics,
and soul-subverting books be effectually suppressed.

To this petition the names of 163 Suffolk ministers were attached, or
less than a third of the whole number, supposing each parish had a minister.
Those who signed probably represented the full number of Suffolk ministers
sincerely attached to a Presbyterian form of worship. Parliament replied
to this petition in a few set phrases of thanks, and stated that the objects
the petitioners had in view were under their consideration. The only
apparent result was the printing, under the signature of Manchester, in the
following April of elaborate lists of ministers and elders nominated for each
of the fourteen classic divisions.

In pursuance of various ordinances of the Parliament a complete survey
of all benefices was made in 1650 by special commissioners. Most of these
surveys are preserved at Lambeth Library, where they are bound up in
twenty-one large folio volumes. The returns for Suffolk contain a variety

1 B. M. King's Pamphlets, E. 339.
44

ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY

of statistical and interesting information for the whole county, arranged in
hundreds. 1

The period of the Commonwealth is sometimes represented as a period
of religious toleration, but such a view is entirely erroneous. The three
denominations of Presbyterians, Congregationalists, and Baptists were
tolerant to each other, save in the strength of verbal criticism ; but with

1 Lambeth, Commonwealth Surveys, xiii. The following is an abstract of the returns of the various
benefices in Blythiug Hundred (508-79) as an example of the rest. The commission, which met at Hales-
worth on 15 October, 1650, took evidence on oath as to all benefices, donations, and impropriations, etc.,
within the Hundred of Blything : —

Parish Patron

Halesvvorth R Lady Allington ....

Bamburgh V Co-heirs of Lord Banning

(Impr. j£l26).

Wissett V The State

Chediston Stephen Blomfield (Impr.

£«)•

Holton R State

Spexhall R State

Cratfield John Lanye (Impr. £<)o) .

Huntingfield Sir Robert Cooke .

Value

Minister

John Swayne. ' A godly and a painfull

preaching minister.'

Benjamy Fairefax. ' A painfull preach-

ing minister.'

5°

Thomas Neave.

Linstead Magna, Linstead Parva V. State Impr. as Francis

Edwards, the Impr. is
a ' recusant convict.'

Cookley R Sir Robert Cooke .

Yoxford V. ' A great towne and Philip Bedingfield, 'Impr.
hath a great store of inhabitants.' £j°-

Sibton V Edward Barker (Impr.

£4°)-

Peasenhall Impr. chapel, a member \ icar of Sibton. ... 20

of Sibton.
Heveningham R State 52

30 John Swayne.
100 Samuel Kells, 'a preaching minister.'

40 Gabriel Elands.
100 Edward Stubbes, 'a constant preacher
of the Word of God.'

20 Thomas Smithe, ' a preaching minister.'

4.0 Samuel Manning, • a preaching minister.'
33 Lawrence Easter.

44 Nicholas Steenes, ' a preaching minis-
ter.'

Ubbeston V Roger Cooke (Impr. £10)

Bramfield V Elizabeth Brooke (Impr.

£3°).
Wenhaston V. Mention made of Lady Brooke's two daugh-
the 'decayed chappell ' of Mells ters (Impr. £27).

BlyfordV Henry North (Impr. £32)

Thorington R John Brooke ....

Blythburgh V John Brooke (Impr. £4.0)

Walberswick V John Brooke (Impr. .£22)

Darsham V Philip Bedingfield (Impr.

£30).

Theberton R State

3°
20

Westleton V Robert Riddington (Impr.

£45).

MiddletonV. ' The two churches JohnWoodcocke and others

of Middleton and Fordley, (Impr. £40).

standing in one churchyard were

united by the late Bishop of

Norwich.'

Fordley R John Woodcocke . . .

Leiston V The Company of Haber-
dashers (Impr. £50)

48
8

Samuel Habergham, * an able preaching

minister.'
Symon Sumpter, vicar, sequestered.

Richard Heath serves the cure.
Bartholomew Allerton.

1 Desboreux JefFeryes, a preaching
minister, supplyes the Cure once a
daye, and hath for his paynes twentye
pounds a yeare.' Vicarage sequestered.

13 Desborough JefFeryes, once a day.

40 John Chunne.

35 Mr. Glynne.

20 Stephen Fenn.

34 Edmund Barker. The cure neglected
by the incumbent's absence, who
has removed 1 3 miles distant.

55 John Cory. Former incumbent se-
questered.
Snevth David.

Now no minister.

40 Now no minister.

40 Samuel Savage, curate, Impr.' Pays him

Tenn shillings a Sabbath for his

Sallarye.'

A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK

these exceptions toleration was unknown. The times were cruelly hard for
Anglicans and Romanists, as well as for Quakers and Unitarians.

In Suffolk, as elsewhere, the Quakers were most severely treated. It
should, however, always be remembered that the early Quakers were in many
respects the exact opposite of the peaceable folk who now bear the name.
The curious consciences of George Fox and his immediate followers found
a virtue in doing their best to upset the worship of others. When the
matter is inquired into there is hardly a county of England where this was
not their line of action in the Commonwealth days, and it is small wonder
that such conduct provoked much resentment, and brought them within the
action of the law. Their own historian affords ample evidence of this, 1 and

Parish

Patron

Aldringham with Thorpe V. A Elope Harvey (Impr. £24)

church and a chapel.
Knodishall cum-Buxlow R. ■ Bux- Sir Arthur Jennye . . .

low church decayed and ruinated

tyme out of minde.'
Dunwich V. All Saints. 'An- William Page (Impr. £22)

other church which is now

fallen into decay, and out of

use and fit to be taken down.'
Southwold. ' Impr. chappell an- Sir John Rous (Impr.

ciently belonging to the vicarage £ 20 )-

of Reydon.' 'A mile from the

decayed chapel of Easton.'

Raydon V Sir John Rous (Impr.

i>8).
Easton Bavents Jeffrey Howland .

Westhall V. Late dean and chapter of

Ipswich (Impr. X22).

Sotherton R Sir John Rous

Brampton R Heirs of Thomas Leman .

Uggeshall R Sir W. Playters. . . .

Stoven V Bartholomew Ashdowne

(Impr. £25).

Wangford-cum-Henham V. 'The Sir John Rous (Impr.

chapel at Henham was anciently X 22 )-

used for divine worship.'

Wrentham R Robert Bronsten .

Frostenden R William Glover.

Henstead. ' The church of Hen- Heirs of William Sidnor

stead some eight years since was

burnt downe and nothing left

butt the stone walls, which are

able to beare a new roofe.'

Southcove R State

Benacre R Henry North . . .

North Hales alius Cove Hithe V. Jeffrey Howland .

' Besse, Sufferings of the Quakers, 2 vols. fol. (1753).

Value

Minister

Now no minister.

George Jennye, ' an able preaching
minister.'

22 William Browne.

10 Thomas Spurdeons, ' an able minister.'

1 7 Thomas Warnc.

10 Thomas West. 'Hath not preached
there these foure yeares, there being
neyther church nor chappell.'

60 John Goldsmith.

38 Samuel Smithson.

50 Now no minister.

55 Henry Young, 'a painfull preaching
minister.' Lvonell Playters, late
incumbent, sequestered.
John Colbache, ' a Preaching minister,'
used to have ^5 a year, now the
impropriator allows 40;. a year for a
sermon once a month.
Mr. Shepheard, curate. For preaching
twice a day he has his diet, house-
keeping, and j£20.

60 'Mr. John Phillips, an antient and
reverend preaching minister is the
incumbent, and supplies the cure
every Lord's day, with the assistance
of Mr. William Amys, sonne to the
late reverend Doctor Amys.'

45 Thomas Plye.

70 Edward Witing sequestered. ' John
Allen a preaching minister put in by
the Parliament.'

31 Walter Manning,' apreachingminister.'
62 William Suttlary, ' a reverend preaching

minister.'
18 Thomas West.

The part relative to Suffolk is i, 657-87.

ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY

the corroboration of it in set terms is to be found wherever the sessional
papers of that period are extant.

In 1655, one Richard Clayton, with two other Quakers, affixed to the
'steeple-house' 1 door of Bures a document full of the strongest abuse of
ministers of religion, couched in Biblical language. Clayton was taken
before a magistrate, whipped, and sent out of the town as a vagrant, whilst
his companions, who offered some resistance, were committed to Bury gaol.
At the sessions the two latter were fined twenty nobles each as, says Besse,
' disturbers of magistrates and ministers,' with imprisonment till the fine was
paid. In gaol they experienced the harshest treatment, being herded with
felons and sleeping on rye straw. The gaoler treated them after a brutal
fashion, because they, being water drinkers, would not purchase ' strong
liquors,' on whose sale he made much profit.

About the same time William Seaman, of Mendlesham, was committed
to Ipswich gaol for speaking to a ' priest ' in church, as the Quaker historian
puts it.

The Restoration made no improvement in the position of the Quakers,
but indirectly increased their troubles. The oath of allegiance was imposed
on all, and their scruples as to oaths, and not any objection to the revival of
the monarchy, caused the committal of increased numbers to prison. In
1660 there were thirty-three of the Friends in gaol at Bury, nine at Blyth-
burgh, thirteen at Melton, and twenty-three at Ipswich. The majority were
indicted for refusing to take the oath of allegiance, one for refusing to
swear at a court leet, and others for non-attendance at church. Their
refusal to pay tithes, both under the Commonwealth and the Monarchy,
brought about considerable distraining of goods.

They had a brief respite in 1672 ; for at that date, during the short-
lived indulgence of Charles II, ' the peaceable people called Quakers,' as thev
termed themselves in a petition, were all released from the Suffolk gaols and
elsewhere, under a special royal warrant. 2 But the continuance of their
objection to paying tithes and 'steeple-house rates ' soon brought them again
into gaol. When the proclamation of James II, of 8 April, 1685, made
another gaol deliverance, seventy-four Quakers obtained their freedom from
Suffolk gaols, namely thirty-one from Ipswich county prison, thirteen from
Ipswich town prison, thirteen from Bury, nine from Melton, and eight
from Sudbury.

After the Restoration, Dr. Edward Reynolds was appointed bishop of
Norwich ; he was consecrated on 6 January, 1661. He had been for manv
years identified with Presbyterian theology, but his change of faith seems
to have been genuine. He made a conscientious, earnest bishop, whilst his
earlier belief made his action towards the nonconformists conciliatory
throughout. Hence the harshness of the Conventicle Act and the Five-Mile
Act was much mitigated in East Anglia. When the time came, on St.
Bartholomew's Day in 1662, for the removal from their benefices of those
Commonwealth ministers who refused to accept episcopal ordination, sixty-
seven ministers were ejected from their cures in the widespread diocese of

1 According to the Quaker nomenclature a church was always termed a ' steeple-house,' and a minister of
any kind, even if Independent, Presbyterian or Baptist, was known as a * priest.'
' S. P. Dom. Entry Rook xxxiv, 171.

A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK

Norwich ; but nine of them afterwards conformed. Eleven of the number
were holding livings the incumbents of which had been dispossessed about
1644 and were still surviving. Thus the real number cast out for conscience'
sake in the diocese was only forty-seven. About half of that total were
Suffolk, incumbents ; it thus follows that the number of ejected nonconformists
was about a quarter of the number of ejected churchmen. 1

In 1672 Charles II and his council, being desirous to conciliate the dis-
senters, put forth a declaration of indulgence wherein it was stated that
although no persons save conformists were eligible for office, the penal laws
against nonconformists and recusants were to be suspended, but that none
should meet for religious worship at any place until that place of meeting
and the teacher had been duly licensed. Popish recusants were not to be
allowed public places of worship, but they might assemble under certain con-
ditions in private houses.

The licences that were applied for under this short-lived indulgence
give a good idea of the strength of dissent in different counties and localities.
There were thirty-nine licences applied for and granted for buildings for
Presbyterian worship or for the residence of a Presbyterian minister, thirty-
one for Congregationalists, one for Baptists, and four cases in which the
particular sect was not defined. The exact number of Presbyterian ministers
licensed for Suffolk was twenty-eight ; there were only ten for Norfolk.
The licensed Congregational ministers for this county were twenty-three —
a number exactly paralleled by Norfolk, and only exceeded amongst all the
counties by London. 2

These licences almost invariably name a particular house for the
assembling of the sectaries — there was no time to erect meeting-houses.
At Beccles, however, in May, 1672, 'the Church of Christ' in that town
petitioned the king to allow them to assemble in the guildhall, and to have
Robert Otty licensed as their teacher. They enclosed a certificate of the
trustees of the hall and of the chief officers of the town consenting to the
use of the building by Mr. Otty's congregation. The petition was granted. 3

Another granted petition of some interest was one signed by twenty-one
nonconformists of Wrentham and neighbourhood expressing thankfulness
for the indulgence, and praying for licence for a house in Wrentham for
their worship and for Mr. Ames as their teacher. They promised not to
teach any doctrines tending to sedition. 4

1 Walker give the names of 214 ejected churchmen in the diocese, but Dr. Jessopp {Dioe. Hist. 206)
believes they numbered 250. The proportion in Suffolk could not have been under 100.

* Cal. S. P. Dom. 3 vols, from Dec. 1 671 to Dec. 1673 passim. In the introduction to the 3rd vol.
Mr. Daniel has supplied useful summary tables arranged according to counties. The following are the places
licensed for Suffolk : — Presbyterian : Aldeburgh, Assington, Barking, Battisford, Bury, Clare, Coombes, Cow-
ling, Creeting, East Bergholt, Geesings in Wickham, Great Cornard, Hadleigh, Haughley, Haverhill, Hessett,
Higham, Hundon, Hunston, Ipswich, Kelshall, Little Waldingfield, Nayland, Nedging, Needham Market,
Ousden, Ovington, Rattlesden, Rede, Rendham, Southwold, Spexhall, Stowmarket, Sudbury, Walpole,
Walsham-le-Willows, Wattisfield, West Creeting, and Wrentham. Congregational: Ashfield, Beccles, Bury,
Cookley, Debenham, Denham, Dunwich, Eye, Framlingham, Fremlingfield, Gislingham, Hopton, Ipswich,
Ke--s.ngland, Knodishall, Lowestoft, Midileton, Peasenhall, Rattlesden, Rickinghall, bibton, Sileham, Spexhall,
Sudbury, Swelling, Walpole, Waybread, Westerton, Winkfield, Winston, and Woodbridge. Congregational and
Baptist: Bungay. Undefined: Brockford, Bury, Stowmarket, and Wetheringsett.

3 S. P. Dom. Chas. II, cccxxi, No. 72.

* Ibid, cccxx, No. 284. Interesting particulars are known with regard to this congregation at Wrentham
and Mr. Ames. At Walpole an old house, which was gutted in the seventeenth century to serve as a meeting-
house, is still used by the Congregationalists. See subsequent accounts of these parishes.

ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY

This mildly tolerant indulgence was, however, only in force for a few
months. Parliament revoked it in 1673, and passed the Sacramental Test
Act. Toleration for Protestant nonconformity did not come until 1689.

Anthony Sparrow succeeded to the bishopric of Norwich in 1676, on
the death of Bishop Reynolds. He was a native of Depden in Suffolk, in
which parish he resided after his ejection in 1644 from the rectory of
Hawkedon, and from his fellowship at Queen's College, Cambridge. He
had the boldness to publish his famous Rationall upon the Book of Common Prayer
in 1657, at a time when its use was prohibited under heavy penalties. On
his death in 1685, Bishop Lloyd was translated from Peterborough to this
diocese.

The accession of William of Orange to the English throne in 1688
occasioned a most serious loss to the church of England. Archbishop
Sancroft, a native of Suffolk, eight other bishops (including Lloyd of Norwich),
upwards of four hundred and fifty of the clergy, as well as some of the more
distinguished of the laity, conscientiously objected to taking any new oath of
allegiance, as they had already taken an oath of allegiance to James II and
his heirs from which they had not been dispensed. Among the nonjurors
were many men of the deepest piety and learning; but the Whigs pressed
the advantage they had gained, and insisted on tendering the new oath to
men like Sancroft, Ken, and Lloyd, who had resisted James's despotism, and
who had indeed paved the way for the revolution of 1688.

Twenty-three of the clergy of Suffolk followed their archbishop and
bishop in preferring to lose their cures and emoluments rather than take the
new oath. 1 Two others at first refused, but afterwards complied.

It is impossible not to feel much admiration for men who, rather
than do violence to their conscientious scruples, went forth from their
benefices ' into the cold shade of neglect and even of want.' Archbishop
Sancroft, on his ejection from Lambeth, retired to his birthplace at Fressing-
field, passing the rest of his life in quiet retirement. Many in his own
county had much sympathy both with the deposed archbishop and his
views, particularly among the Tory gentlemen. There is an extant letter
addressed to him by Mr. Glover, of Frostenden, asking Sancroft to
confirm his daughter in his private chapel at Fressingfield, as he could
not bear the thought of her being confirmed by the intruding bishop
of Norwich. 2

The pious archbishop died on 24 November, 1693. He was buried in
Fressingfield churchyard, where a humbly worded epitaph, written by him-
self, records his career. It thus ends : — ' The Lord gave and the Lord hath
taken away (as the Lord pleaseth so come things to pass) ; Blessed be the
name of the Lord.'

1 Overton, Nonjurors (1902), 471-96. They were Anger, curate of Botesdale ; Edward Beeston, rector
of Sproughton and Melton ; Matthew Bisbie, rector of Long Melford ; Anthony Bokenham, rector of
Helmingham ; Cole, rector of Chelsworth ; Sam. Edwards, vicar of Eye ; Fisher, curate of Washbrook ;
W. GifFord, rector of Great Bradley ; Mich. Gilbert, curate of Spexh.ill ; George Gripps, rector of Brockley ;
W. Kerrington, curate of Depden ; Ric. Lake, curate of Parham ; Jonathan More, schoolmaster of Long
Melford; Stephen Newson, rector of Hawkedon ; J. Owen, rector of Tuddenham ; W. Phillips, curate of
Long Melford ; E. Prettv, rector of Little Cornard ; Richardson, curate of Great Thurlow ; T. Rogerson,
rector of Ampton ; T. Ross, rector of Rede ; Abraham Salter, vicar of Edwardsiowe ; Charles Turnbull,
rector of Hadleigh ; and Giles Willcox, curate of Bungay.

' Tanner, MSS. Bodl. cited in Raven, Hist. ofSuff. 231.

2 49 7

A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK

The ecclesiastical history of Suffolk, like the rest of East Anglia, was
singularly uneventful throughout both the seventeenth and eighteenth cen-
turies. The bishops seemed unable to resist the more wealthy attractions of
other sees, particularly of the much smaller but much more lucrative one of
Ely, and were constantly being translated. Out of the thirteen seventeenth-
century bishops of Norwich, eight left for other sees after a brief experience
of East Anglia.

' In Anne's reign,' says Dr. Raven, ' Sacheverell had many Suffolk ad-
mirers, especially Leman of Charsfield, who had perpetuated the name of
that turbulent divine on one of the church bells, cast in 17 io. 1

Defoe's account of a journey he made through the eastern counties in
1722 gives an interesting picture of Suffolk in the time of George I. He
spent a Sunday at Southwold, and found a congregation of only twenty-seven,
in addition to the parson and the clerk, though he thought that the building
was capable of holding five or six thousand people ; but the meeting-house
of the dissenters was full to the very doors. 2

The Methodist movement that stirred the country so deeply in the
south and west in the second half of the eighteenth century made but little
impression in East Anglia. John Wesley, the great itinerant evangelist, was
always lamenting the sluggishness of the societies he founded at Norwich and
Yarmouth. He never tarried in Suffolk during his earlier circuits, and at
later dates he was seldom found anywhere in the county save in those parts
that bordered on Norfolk. In October, 1764, he proceeded for the first
time from Yarmouth to Lowestoft; he remarks in his journal, 'a wilder con-
gregation I have never seen, but the bridle was in their teeth.' On his next
visit to the same place, three years later, he preached in the open air, though
it was the month of February, for the house would not contain a fourth of
the people who had assembled. On 9 November, 1776, the evangelist opened
a new preaching house at Lowestoft, which he describes as ' a lighthouse
building filled with deeply attentive hearers.' Wesley paid several other
visits to Lowestoft up to the year 1790, on two occasions going to North-
cove. In 1779 he enters 'a great awakening ' at Lowestoft; in 178 1 'much
life and much love'; and in 1782 'most comforting place in the whole
circuit.'

In 1776 Wesley preached at Beccles and noted in his journal that 'a
duller place I have seldom seen. The people of the town were neither pleased
nor vexed, as caring for none of these things ; yet fifty or sixty came into the
house either to hear or see.'

In 1790 the aged Wesley, then in his eighty-eighth year, paid his last
visit to the eastern counties. Setting out early on Wednesday, 13 October,
from Colchester, he found no post-horses at Copdock, and so was obliged to
go round by Ipswich and wait there half an hour ; nevertheless he got to
Norwich between two and three. This seems to have been his only visit to
Ipswich. On the following Friday he went to Lowestoft, where he was
cheered by finding ' a steady, loving, well-instructed society.'

On Wednesday the 20th of the same month Wesley was at Diss in the
morning. It was but rarely that his brother clergy had the courage to admit

1 Hist. o/Suff. 232.

7 Defoe, Particular and Diverting Account of whatever is Curious and worth Observation (1724).

bpwestoft

NORTH
SEA

Aldeburgh

Suffolk was under the juris-
diction ol iwo Arcade i<

AKCHDtACONRY OF SUfFOLK —

The Deanery of Bosmere
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Archdeaconry of Sudbury—
The Deanery of BUckburne
Clare
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„ Hartismere

Stow
„ Sudbury

„ Thedwastre

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Archdeaconry of Norfolk-
Thc Dcancty of Thctford
Jutisdiciioo of Canterbury

Reference
RELIGIOUS HOUSES

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AUSTIN CANONS

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Ecclesiastical Map

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S UFFOLK.

Showing Ancient Rural Deaneries and Religious Houses.

according to the Valor Ecclesiasticus of 1535.
Scale of Miles.

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PREMONSTRATENSIAN
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KNIGHTS TEMPLARS

KNIGHTS HOSPITALLERS
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FRIARIES

$4. Duiwitb, Dominican
35. Ipswich.

36 Sudbury,

37 Bury Si. Edmunds,

38. Dunwith, Franciscan

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HOUSE OF MINORESSES
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HOSPITALS
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47. Bury Si Edmundi,

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A ncii deacons, v or Nonroui-
The Deanery of Ttielford
Juiiidjcliouot Canterbury

EZ1

ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY

him to their pulpits; but on the bishop (George Home, 1790—2), who was
in the neighbourhood, being appealed to if he had any objection to Wesley
using the church, the reply was: 'Mr. Wesley is a regularly ordained
minister of the Church of England, and if Mr. Manning has no objection to
his preaching in his church, I can have none.' After preaching in Diss
church in the morning, the aged evangelist proceeded to Bury St. Edmunds,
where he preached that evening and the next ; but the journal does not say
whether he was allowed to use either of the churches.

Neither the Evangelical movement at the beginning of the last century,
nor the Oxford movement of its centre, produced any particularly apparent
or striking result in Suffolk, nor was any specially prominent leader of either
of these revivals — the one the corollary of the other — connected for long with
the county. Nevertheless both movements have doubtless had their decided
weight in Suffolk and have tended to bring about marvellous improvements
in most parishes, not only in the condition of the churches and the come-
liness of worship, but also in an increase of congregations and of devout
communicants.

Mention, however, must not be omitted of the fact that to Suffolk belongs
the honour of being the birthplace of the great Tractarian movement. Hugh
James Rose, a distinguished Cambridge scholar, was appointed rector of
Hadleigh and joint dean of Bocking by Archbishop Howley in 1830, but
his health obliged him to resign this preferment and leave Suffolk towards
the close of 1833. The design of the publication of a series of pamphlets
on the position and true teaching of the Church of England from a High
Church point of view was first discussed in the common room of Oriel College,
Oxford ; but it was at Hadleigh, in the historic library of the fine old brick
tower of the rectory or deanery immediately to the west of the church, under
the presidency of Mr. Rose, whose abilities and learning as editor of the
British Magazine were acknowledged on all sides, that the project of issuing
the 'Tracts for the Times' was thoroughly debated and the project crystal-
lized. In July, 1833, Mr. William Palmer, Mr. Froude, and Mr. Arthur
Perceval visited Mr. Rose for the express purpose of these deliberations.

The conference at Hadleigh, which continued for nearly a week, concluded, says
Mr. Palmer, without any specific arrangements being entered into, though all concerned
agreed as to the necessity of some mode of combined action, and the expediency of circu-
lating tracts or publications intended to inculcate sound and enlightened principles of attach-
ment to the Church. 1

APPENDIX

ECCLESIJSTICJL DIVISION OF THE COUNTY

The county of Suffolk was originally wholly in the diocese of East Anglia, which had, as we
have seen, its first seat at Dunwich. In the seventh century the diocese was divided, Norfolk
having its own bishops with the see centre at North Elmham, whilst Suffolk retained Dunwich as
the episcopal seat of that county. These two East Anglian sees were reunited in the ninth century,
when Suffolk lost its episcopal dignity, Elmham, and afterwards Thetford for a brief period, giving
the name to the wide East Anglian diocese. Soon after the beginning of the Norman rule, the
seat of the bishopric was transferred to Norwich.

For seven and a half centuries the whole of Suffolk remained under the control of the Bishop
of Norwich. A small portion of Cambridgeshire (thirteen parishes), on the Newmarket verge of

1 Narrative of Events connected with the publ. of Tracts for the Times (1843), by Rev. W. Palmer, 6.

A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK

the county, was also under the rule of the same bishop, and formed part of the Suffolk rural deanery
of Fordham.

It is not possible to give any particular date for the subdivision of Suffolk into deaneries, but it
was probably an accomplished fact when the county was divided in 1 1 26 into two archdeaconries,
namely those of Suffolk and Sudbury. The Norwich Taxation Roll of 1256 shows that the Suffolk
archdeaconry then embraced the thirteen rural deaneries of Bosmere, Carlford, Claydon, Colneys,
Dunwich, Hoxne, Ipswich, Loes, Lothingland, Orford, Samford, Wangford, and Wilford ; whilst
eight deaneries formed the archdeaconry of Sudbury, namely Blackburne, Clare, Fordham, Hartis-
mere, Stow, Sudbury, Thedwastre, and Thingoe.

The only change that appears in the 1 291 taxation is that South Elmham, a hitherto exempt
jurisdiction, had become a recognized deanery of Suffolk archdeaconry.

These arrangements held good at the time of the Valor of 1535, and for just three centuries
beyond ; for it was not until the general upheaval of old diocesan arrangements by the Ecclesi-
astical Commissioners in 1835-6 that any change was made. At that time the archdeaconry of
Sudbury was annexed to the small diocese of Ely, with the not inconsiderable exceptions of the
deaneries of Hartismere, Stow, and Sudbury, which were added to the archdeaconry of Suffolk. 1

By this division of Suffolk between two dioceses there were left in the diocese of Norwich and
archdeaconry of Suffolk 348 cures, namely 198 rectories, 135 vicarages or perpetual curacies, and
15 chapelries; whilst in the diocese of Ely and archdeaconry of Sudbury there were (in Suffolk)
174 cures, namely 126 rectories, 37 vicarages or perpetual curacies, and 11 chapelries. 2

The Clergy List of i860 shows that there were then two rural deans appointed for each of the
deaneries of Bosmere, Carlford, Dunwich, Hartismere, Lothingland, Orford, and Wilford, implying
their subdivision. At the present time (1906) the archdeaconry of Suffolk contains eighteen
deaneries, all the old names and boundaries being maintained, but with the subdivisions they are : —
Bosmere, Carlford, Claydon, Colneys, Dunwich North, Dunwich South, Hartismere North, Hartis-
mere South, Hoxne, Ipswich, Loes, Lothingland, Orford, Samford, South Elmham, Stow, Wangford,
and Wilford.

The changes in the deanery designations and boundaries of the archdeaconry of Sudbury are
much greater. The Cambridgeshire deanery of Camps, which was added to the archdeaconry at
the time of the diocesan change, was transferred to the archdeaconry of Ely before 1880. Sudbury
archdeaconry now consists exclusively of Suffolk parishes and is divided into the eleven deaneries of
Blackburne, Clare, Fordham, Hadleigh, Horningsheath, Lavenham, Mildenhall, Sudbury, Thed-
wastre, Thingoe, and Thurlow.

There used to be four peculiars in Suffolk that were exempt from both diocesan and archidia-
conal visitation. These were the rectories of Hadleigh, Monks Eleigh, and Moulton in the juris-
diction of Canterbury ; and of Freckenham in the jurisdiction of Rochester. There is a movement
now (1906) on foot for securing, by a readjustment of dioceses, a bishop to be spiritual overlord for
the whole of Suffolk. Should this be accomplished there will be a reversion to the ancient arrange-
ment of the seventh century.

1 6 & 7 Will. IV, cap. 77 ; Phillimore, Ecc. law, i, 25. ' Suckling, Hist. ofSuff. i, 15.

THE RELIGIOUS HOUSES
OF SUFFOLK

INTRODUCTION

The Religious Houses of Suffolk were considerable in number, and in a
few cases of no small importance.

So far as the Benedictine or Black monks are concerned, the great
abbey of St. Edmunds was one of the most important and wealthy houses of
the order either in the British Isles or in continental Christendom. The
amount of original information that is extant with regard to this foundation
is quite unusual, and the little use that has hitherto been made of a great
deal of this material is remarkable.

The other houses of Black monks in the county were of comparatively
small size and importance, and were, one and all, originally cells of some
larger establishment outside Suffolk. The largest of these was the priory of
Eye (with its cell of Dunwich) ; it was in the first instance an alien cell of
the abbey of Bernay, but it became naturalized in 1385. Felixstowe was a
cell of the cathedral priory of Rochester, and Edwardstone of the abbey of
Abingdon, Hoxne of the cathedral priory of Norwich, and Sudbury of
Westminster Abbey. Snape Priory was subject to the abbey of Col-
chester ; its attempt in 1400 to secure its independence eventually failed.
Rumburgh was a cell of St. Mary's, York ; its priors, though removable at
the pleasure of the York abbot and changed with great frequency, were
always presented to the bishop before taking office ; there were no fewer
than forty priors between 1308 and the dissolution, their average rule
being only for five years.

There were two houses of Benedictine nuns, namely those of Redling-
field and Bungay, the latter of which was continuously supplied by daughters
of the local gentry.

The Cluniac monks had two small houses, Mendham Priory, which
was a subordinate cell of Castle Acre, and Wangford, a cell of Thetford
Priory, which was naturalized in 1393.

The other great reformed branch of the Benedictines, the White monks,
or Cistercians, had a comparatively small abbey at Sibton, of some local
importance.

The Austin canons had a large number of priories in this county, as well as
in Norfolk, which were mostly quite small. Such were the priories of Alnes-
bourn, Bricett, Chipley, Dodnash, Herringfleet, Kersey, and Woodbridge.
Butley was an Austin house of some wealth and importance, whose mem-

A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK

bers were usually recruited from the gentlefolk. Ipswich had two Austin
priories within its walls, dedicated respectively to the Holy Trinity and to
SS. Peter and Paul ; between them they held the advowsons of almost all
the churches in Ipswich and its suburbs, and were otherwise of no small
influence in the administration of the affairs of the town.

Ixworth was next in importance to Butley among these priories, both
in numbers and name ; sixteen canons, in addition to the prior, signed the
acceptance of royal supremacy in 1534. The priories of Blythburgh and
Letheringham were also Austin foundations ; the former a cell of St. Osyth,
Essex, and the latter a cell of St. Peter, Ipswich.

The Austin nuns had two foundations, Campsey and Flixton. The
former was an establishment of renown, the sisters always being ladies of
birth, daughters of the old landed gentry of Norwich diocese ; it seems to
have been always free from the slightest taint of scandal, although it was
unique among all English nunneries in having a small college of secular
priests within the precinct walls.

The Premonstratensian or White canons held the abbey of Leiston, in
the extreme south of the hundred of Blything ; the site was changed in 1363.

The Knights Templars had an early foundation at ill-fated Dunwich,
the church of which was known as ' the Temple ' long after their suppression.
The Suffolk commandery of the Knights Hospitallers was at Battisford,
whence annual contributions were sought throughout the whole county.

Suffolk was well supplied with the mendicant orders. There were
three houses of Dominican friars, namely at Dunwich, Ipswich, and Sudbury.
There were also three houses of Franciscan friars, namely at Dunwich,
Ipswich, and Babwell near Bury St. Edmunds. The Austin friars had also
three priories in Suffolk, at Orford, Gorleston or South Yarmouth, and at
Clare in close connexion with the castle. This foundation at Clare seems
to have been the most important house of their order in England. The
Carmelites had a single house at Ipswich.

At Bruisyard, founded on the site of a former college in 1366, was an
establishment of Nuns Minoresses, or poor sisters of St. Clare, under the rule
of an abbess. There were only four houses of this Franciscan order in
England, namely the head house at the Minories without Aldgate in the
city of London, this Suffolk abbey, and the Cambridgeshire houses of
Dennev and Waterbeach.

With regard to alien priories, in addition to Eye and Stoke-by-Clare,
whose denization saved them from extinction, and the semi-alien Cluniac cell
of Wangford, there were in Suffolk three small cells of foreign Benedictine
abbeys, which fell at the time of the general suppression of the alien houses.
These were Blakenham, pertaining to the great abbey of Bee, Creeting
St. Mary to the abbey of Bernay, and Creeting St. Olave to the abbey of
Grestein.

The hospitals of the county — for such establishments ought always to
be included in lists of religious houses, as they were under the rule of those
who led vowed lives, and usually of the Austin profession — were fairly
numerous. They were to be found at Bury (5), Ipswich (3), Dunwich (2),
Orford (2), Beccles, Eye, Gorleston, Sibton and Sudbury. Out of these
seventeen, no fewer than eleven were founded for the use of lepers.

RELIGIOUS HOUSES

The examples of colleges or collegiate churches in Suffolk are not many,
but they were fairly representative of different classes of such foundations for
the promotion of a common life amongst those serving a particular church.
The oldest of these was that of Mettingham Castle, which had been
originally established in 1350 at Raveningham, in Norfolk, by Sir John de
Norwich; his grandson, about 1387, moved these secular canons and the
rest of the establishment to Mettingham. The college of Bruisyard, estab-
lished in 1334 and removed here after an existence of seven vears at
Campsey, had but a short life, being suppressed in favour of a nunnery in
1356. The college at Wingfield was founded in 1362 ; and that of Sudbury
was founded by Simon of Sudbury, archbishop of Canterbury, and his
brother in 1374. Stoke-by-Clare, originally a Benedictine cell, was changed
into an establishment of secular canons with vicars, clerks, and choristers in
141 5. Jesus College, Bury St. Edmunds, was founded in the time of
Edward IV, for the common life of certain chantry priests ; and Denston
College was a like foundation about the same time, but on a smaller scale.
The ill-fated Cardinal's College, Ipswich, 1522, fell at the time of its
founder's downfall, ere it was completed.

As to the colleges, it is usual for many writers on monastic sub-
jects to point with no little approval to the founding of collegiate estab-
lishments instead of monasteries, seeing therein a love of education and
culture rather than of cloistered life. But a closer study of these colleges in
any given area would probably lead to a revision of such opinions ; certainly
in Suffolk the life and work of the monasteries would compare favourably
with that of the colleges. The promotion of learning was little advanced by
these collegiate establishments, and certainly the monasteries were doing
something in that direction. The later administration of Sudbury College
was most wasteful, and the funds squandered by non-resident secular canons
at the wealthy college of Stoke-by-Clare could not possibly have been thus
misused when in Benedictine hands.

Perhaps other bishops, besides Bishops Goldwell and Nykke, kept special
registers of monastic visitations, but none are extant save those of these two
prelates, whose visitations from 1492 to 1532 are among the Bodleian
manuscripts. Their visitation records were printed by the Camden Society
in 1884, under the editorship of Dr. Jessopp. To that volume the ensuing
notices of the particular religious houses are much indebted.

After studying, with as much closeness and frankness as is possible, the
records of the latter days of the religious houses of East Anglia and their
suppression, we find the opinion at which other investigators have recently
arrived become more and more strengthened, namely that the condition of
England's monasteries was better, and the general fulfilment of the solemn
obligations more faithfully observed, in the last fifty years of their life than
at the end of the thirteenth and beginning of the fourteenth centuries.

The record of the exceedingly faithful and severe visitations of the White
canons of Leiston Abbey shows that the extra-diocesan visitations of religious
houses of those of their own order could be thorough and genuine, and sternlv
punitive in cases of offence. Nor, so far as we are aware, is there anv
reason to suspect that visitations of both Benedictines and Austins, by their
own duly authorized visitors, to which even the ' exempt ' abbey of St. Edmunds

A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK

had to submit, were on less scrupulous lines. Such visitations were made
every three years, whereas those made by the diocesan were, as a rule, only
undertaken every six years.

The amount of material that has had to be digested before producing
the following brief sketches of the different houses has, in some cases, been
exceptionally large. The extant records of St. Edmunds are almost over-
powering in their number, whilst the chartularies or registers of the houses
of Eye, Sibton, Blythburgh, Campsey, and Leiston, with Clare Friary and
Stoke-by-Clare Priory, are considerable in extent. The endeavour has been
made in each case to point out to the student the source or sources of
further information. 1

HOUSES OF BENEDICTINE MONKS

i. THE ABBEY OF BURY
ST. EDMUNDS 2

In the year 903, or somewhat later, the relics

1 The lists of superiors, though much fuller than
any hitherto attempted, are not to be considered as
exhaustive in all cases.

* Several particulars with regard to the more general
details of the history of this great abbey have already
appeared in the sketch of the Ecclesiastical History of
Suffolk, and are not here repeated. The MS. sources
of information with regard to this great Benedictine
house are a good deal more numerous than those that
are extant for any other English religious foundation.

But, first of all, mention must be made of the
Memorials of St. Edmund's Abbey (Rolls Ser.), in 3 vols.,
1 890-6, edited by Thomas Arnold. The MSS. there
printed are: Volume i (a),' The Passion of St. Edmund '
by Abbo of Fleury, c. 1000 ; (b) 'The Miracles of
St. Edmund' by Archdeacon Herman, c. 1095 ; (c)
'The Infancy of St. Edmund 'by Geoffrey de Fontibus,
c. 1 150 ; (d) 'The Miracles of St. Edmund' by Abbot
Samson, c. 1190; and (e) Jocelyn's Chronicle,
1182-121 1.

Volume ii contains : (a) An anonymous chronicle,
breaking off 1 2 1 2 ; (b) three narratives of the elections
of abbots in 121 5, 1257, and 1302 respectively; (c)
a French metrical biography of St. Edmund by Denis
Piramus ; (d) an account of the expulsion of the
Grey Friars from Bury in 1257 and 1263 ; (e) the
story of the Great Riots of 1327 ; and (f) Building
Acts of the Sacrists from 1065 to 1200.

Volume iii contains : (a) ' The Chronicle of Bury,
1020—134.6 ' ; (b) the Collectanea of Andrew Aston,
hosteller of Bury, made in 1426 ; (c) Excerpts from
Cambridge MSS. 1351 to 1462; (d) the Curteys
Registers, 1 429 to 1446; (e) the destruction of the
church by fire, 1465 ; (f) a short general chronicle
from the Conquest to 147 1 ; and (g) a variety of
valuable excerpts in an appendix.

The introduction supplies full particulars as to the
MSS. cited.

MSS. in British Museum

I. Harl. MS. 3977 is the 'Liber Consuetudinarius '

of the abbey, c. 1 300, with a few later additions. It

deals with the reception of novices, the professions of

the monks, the different penances, the duties of the

of the martyred king, St. Edmund, were trans-
lated from the comparatively obscure wooden

obedientiaries, and various matters pertaining rather
to a chartulary than a custumary. There are also
certain folios of general chronicles. Many of the facts
contained in it, which have hitherto been ignored by
writers on this monastery, are given in the account in
the text. The heads of the forty-six chapters of this
custumary are given in a note in Dugdale's Mon. iii,
1 16-17.

II. Harl. MS. 1005 is a thick vellum quarto
entitled ' Liber Albus,' in different hands, of nearly
300 folios. The contents are most varied ; but its
chief importance lies in the fact that it is to a great
extent a custumary of the abbey, for so many details
and ordinances relative to its minor working are
scattered throughout the folios. These are chiefly to
be found on fol. 49-64, 69, 84^, 88^-92^, 95-109,
117, 192-213.

III. Harl. MS. 645, termed ' Registrum Kempe,'
contains 261 large parchment folios. The contents
are singularly varied, and are set forth in some detail
in the old catalogue of the Harl. MSS. (vol. i, 396).

IV. Harl. MS. 447 is a book of general annals,
written in this monastery about 1300 ; it begins with
the creation and ends in 1 212. It contains a few
special facts as to the history of the abbey.

V. Harl. MS. 1332 is another parchment volume
of general annals, with a few local details, written
rather earlier than the last ; it is imperfect, and ends
in 1093.

VI. Add. MS. 14847 is the ' Registrum Album ' of
the monastery, written c. 1 300, with a few additions by
a slightly later hand. This chartulary of 95 folios con-
tains copies of several Anglo-Saxon documents in the
orthography of the thirteenth century.

VII. Harl. MS. 230 is the register of Abbot
Thomas of Tottington (1302-12) and of Abbot
Richard of Draughton (13 1 2-35).

VIII. Add. MS. 14850 is a large chartulary of 107
folios (xv cent, or xvi cent.) containing many rentals,
custumaries, and charters from registers of abbots from
1279 to 1 3 12 ; rentals, surveys of several manors, and
plan of the water-pipes of the monastery.

IX. Harl. MS. 743 is an interesting collection of
charters, ordinances, &c, pertaining to the abbey
compiled by John Lakynghethe, a fourteenth-century

RELIGIOUS HOUSES

chapel of Hoxne to Beodricsworth, afterwards
known as Bury St. Edmunds. 1

The first church in which the body of
St. Edmund was placed when it was removed

monk of St. Edmunds, and generally called by his
name. This contains 280 folios. A full calendar of
the contents, arranged alphabetically, occupies the
first fifty folios. This is followed by a dated list of
the successive abbots, with brief remarks as to their
acts, from Uvius, the first abbot (1020), down to
John of Brinkley, who died in I 379.

X. Add. MS. 1 4849 supplies extents and custumaries
taken in 1357 and 1387; and various statutes and
letters of Edward III.

XI. Lansd. MS. 416, called ' Ikworth,' is a register
of the rents pertaining to the office of infirmarian,
arranged in alphabetical order by Thomas Ikworth,
infirmarian, in 1425, on 87 folios.

XII. Tiberius B. ix, of the Cotton MSS. is much
damaged by fire. From folio I to 203 is a register of
the abbey during the rule of two successive abbots,
William of Cratfield and William of Exeter, who ruled
from 1390 to 1429.

XIII. A. xii, of the Cotton MSS. contains the
' Registrum Hostilari.ie,' a collection of documents put
together by Andrew Aston, hosteller, in 1426. The
contents are printed, as already stated, ^ in Arnold's
Memorials.

XIV. Add. MS. 14848 is the 'Registrum Curteys '
or register of the acts of William Curteys, abbot 1429-
46.

XV. Add. MS. 1096 is the ' Registrum Curteys II,'
a very large volume of 221 folios. The more important
letters are in Arnold's Memorials, iii, 241—79.

XVI. Harl. MS. 638, known as 'Registrum Werke-
ton,' is a fifteenth-century chartulary of 270 folios.
Among the more important contents, in addition to the
chartulary proper, may be mentioned (1) the process
against the Friars Minors and their expulsion from the
town of St. Edmunds in 1293 (printed by Arnold,
op. cit. ii, 263-85) ; (2) a taxation roll of the pos-
sessions of the abbey in the archdeaconries of Sudbury
and Suffolk in 1200 ; (3) charters, temp. Richard II,
relative to the hospital of Domus Dei ; (4) a con-
vention, of 49 Edward III, between the abbots of
St. Edmunds and Malmesbury as to the use of
quadam camera boncsta in Kewell Street, Oxford, for
the use of students from St. Edmunds.

XVII. Harl. MS. 58 is in the main a register of
the rents due to the sacrist, drawn up in the year
1433, when John Cranewys was sacrist. It also
includes the various dues {relevid) in the town of
St. Edmunds paid yearly to the sacrist under the term
Hadgovell, which began in the year 1354.

XVIII. Harl. MS. 27 is a register known as
' Registrum Croftis,' consisting of 178 folios, in fifteenth-
century hands. It relates to the property of the
pittancer.

XIX. Harl. MS. 312 is a collection of transcripts,
but there is nothing that is not found elsewhere.

XX. Add. MS. 31970 is a portion of a register of
charters, rentals, and other evidences.

XXI. Harl. MS. 308 contains a collection of leases
granted by the abbey from 9th to 3 1st of Henry VIII.

MSS. in Cambridge University Library
There are six registers of Bury St. Edmunds in

from the decent tomb (competent: mausoleo) at
Hoxne was a large church made of wood with
much skill by the people of the district of all
ranks. 2 Edmund son of Edward the Elder
granted in 945 the lands round Beodricsworth to
the family 3 of the monastery. At that time the

this library. They formerly belonged to the Bacons,
to whom the abbey was granted :

I. F.2, 29 is the ' Registrum Rubeum I,' 87 folios ;
it deals with the privileges, disputes, and agreements
of the reign of Henry IV.

II. Ff.4, 35 is the ' Registrum Rubeum II ' ; a con-
tinuation of the preceding one, with some additions
of the next reign.

III. Ff.2, 33 is the ' Registrum Sacristae,' compiled
by R. de Denham, who was sacrist temp. Edward II. In
this volume are transcripts of 48 Saxon charters.

IV. Ee.3, 36 is the 'Album Registrum Vestiarii,'
326 folios ; the work of Walter de Pyncebek, monk of
St. Edmunds, begun in the year 1333 ; it is chiefly
occupied with a register of all the pleadings, &c.
between the town of Bury St. Edmunds and the
abbey.

V. Gg.4, 4 is the first part of the ' Registrum
Alphabeticum Cellararii.'

VI. Mm. 4, 19 is the 'Registrum Nigrum,' of
different hands, and of 241 folios. It is a chartulary
of royal grants and papal confirmations, as well as
of general benefactions and privileges.

Some of the salient points from these Cambridge
registers are given in Arnold's Memorials, iii, 1 77-2 16.

MSS. in Various Places

A. Public Record Office. Duchy of Lane. Records,
xi, 5. This is a 'Registrum Cellararii ' of 152 folios,
containing pleas of Edward I and II, bounds and
rentals of Mildenhall, &c, and transcripts of all
charters relative to the cellarer's office up to 1256.

B. Barton Hall, Suffolk (Sir E. Bunbury). ' Regis-
trum Cellararii II.' This is the second part of the
alphabetical chartulary, the first part of which is in
the Univ. Lib. Camb.

C. Public Library at Douai. Cod. 5 5 3 is the Liber
Cenobii S. Edmundi, e. 1424. The 72 folios of this
register are occupied with a list of benefactors, and
the rules of the Officium Coquinariae, the last compiled
by Andrew Aston, who also compiled Claud. A. xii,
of the British Museum. See Dr. James's treatise on
the Library and Church of St. Edmunds (Camb. Antiq.
Soc. 1895), pp. 180-2.

D. Bodleian Library, MS. 240. This is a great
codex of 898 pages, in late fourteenth-century hands.
A note at the beginning styles it ' Liber Monachorum
Sancti Edmundi,' and gives 1377 as the date of its
beginning. Dr. Horsman has given a summary of the
contents of this book in the preface to his Nov. Leg.
Angl. i (1901). The chief contents relating to Bur)- are
a very full life of St. Edmund, and an account of the
monastic discipline for the novices of the house.
Excerpts are given in Arnold's Memorials, i, 358-77 ;
ii, 362-8.

1 The date 903 is assigned to this translation in the
Curteys Register (pt. 1, fol. 211), and it is the most
likely of the early authorities to be correct.

* Abbo, ' Life ' (Jesus Coll. Oxf. MSS.) ; Arnold,
Mem. (Rolls Scr.), i, 19.

3 'Familie monasterii,' Chart. Edmund II ; Arnold
(op. cit.), i, 340.

57 8

A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK

household or college of clerks, to whom the duty
of guarding the shrine was assigned, consisted of
six persons, four priests and two deacons. Her-
man supplies their names. 1

In the year I OIO Ailwin, the chief guardian
of the shrine, hearing that the Danes had landed,
took up the body of the saint, and passing through
Essex in search of a place of greater security
eventually reached London, where the relics
remained for three years. On the return of
tranquillity, notwithstanding the opposition of
the Bishop of London and his flock (who are
said to have been miraculously baffled), Ailwin
returned with the relics to their former resting-
place."

In 1020 iElfwine, bishop of Elmham, formerly
a monk of Ely, removed the seculars in charge
of the shrine, and twenty monks, headed by
Uvius, prior of Holme, were installed at Beodrics-
worth. Uvius was consecrated the first abbot
of Bury St. Edmunds by the Bishop of London,
and a new stone church was begun by the order
of Cnut. 3 In 1020 Cnut granted an ample
charter of endowment and liberties. The
fundus or farm of St. Edmunds was to be for
ever in the hands of the Benedictine monks
of the abbey, and they were to be exempt
from episcopal jurisdiction. At any time when
the English might be called upon to pay
danegeld for the support of the Danish fleet
and army of occupation, the tenants of the
abbey were to be taxed at a like rate for the
benefit of the monastery. Regal rights in
their fisheries were made over to the monks,
and by the same charter there were assigned,
as a gift from Queen Emma, four thousand
eels yearly from Lakenheath. Finally, full juris-
diction in all their townships was granted to
the abbot. 4

The first stone church was consecrated by
./Ethelnoth, archbishop of Canterbury, on 1 8 Oc-
tober, 1032, and dedicated to the honour of
Christ, St. Mary and St. Edmund. 6

In 1035 Hardicanute confirmed and extended
the privileges of the monks of St. Edmunds,
imposing the impossible fine of thirty talents of
gold on anyone found guilty of infringing the
franchises of the abbey. 6 Edward the Confessor
first visited St. Edmunds in 1044, and of his great
devotion granted to the abbey the manor of
Mildenhall, full freedom to elect their own abbot,
and jurisdiction over eight and a half hundreds ;

1 Herman, ' De Miraculis S. Edm.' (Tib. B. ii) ;
Arnold (op. cit.), i, 30.

2 Herman, loc. cit. ; Arnold, Mem. (Rolls Ser.), i,
4.2-5.

3 Arnold, Mem. i, p. xxvii ; Clarke, Chron. ofjocelyn,
259.

4 Dugdale, Mott. iii, I 37-8.

5 Arnold, Mem. i, pp. xxvii, 348 ; Matt. Westm.
Hist. Flares sub ann.

6 Nov. Leg. Angl. ii, 607.

that is to say, over about a third of the wide-
spread county of Suffolk. 7

In the same year Uvius died, and was succeeded
as abbot by Leofstan, one of the monks who had
accompanied Uvius from Holme.

The rule of Leofstan (1044-65) nearly coin-
cided with the reign of the Confessor. It is said
by Herman to have been a period of sloth and
torpor at the abbey, from which the monks were
roused by the entreaties and reproaches of
iElfgeth, a Winchester woman, who had been
cured of a congenital dumbness at the shrine.
At her instigation, the resting-place of the saint
was restored. On the death of Leofstan in
1065, the influence of the Confessor caused the
choice of the monks to fall on the king's French
physician, Baldwin, a monk of St. Denis, a native
of Chartres. The Confessor in that year granted
a mint to the abbey. 8 This seems to be the first
time that Beodricsworth was styled St. Edmunds-
bury or Bury St. Edmunds (Seynt Edmunds Bin'). 9

In 1 07 1 Abbot Baldwin visited Rome, where
Pope Alexander II received him with peculiar
honour, and gave him a crozier, a ring, and a
precious altar of porphyry. His chief object in
undertaking the journey was to oppose the claim
of Herfast, bishop of Thetford, to remove the
seat of the East Anglian bishopric to Bury St.
Edmunds. In this he was successful, the pope
taking the monks of St. Edmund under the
special protection of the holy see, and forbidding
that a bishop's see should ever be there estab-
lished. William the Conqueror also granted a
charter to the like effect, and confirmed their
exemption from episcopal jurisdiction. 10

Towards the end of his abbacy Baldwin found
the wealth of the house, through fresh bene-

r Dugdale, Mon. iii, 100, 138. These eight hun-
dreds were those of Thingoe, Thedwastre, Blackburne,
Bradbourn, Bradmere, Lackford, Risbridge, and Ba-
bergh ; the half-hundred was that of Exning.

6 This privilege of a moneyer was confirmed by the
Conqueror, William II, Henry I, Richard I, John, and
Henry III. The presentation and admission on oath
of moneyers and assayers during the reigns of Henry III
and the first three Edwards occur frequently in the
Registers 'Kempe' and 'Werketone' (Harl. MSS. 638,
645 ). During the Great Riot of I 327 the townsmen
carried off all things pertaining to the abbey mint.
On 22 January, 1327-8, the king ordered a new die
and assay for the mint to be made in the place of those
which had been taken and destroyed by the mob
(Harl. MSS. 645, fol. 134). The sacrist's register,
temp. Edward II, names the following mint officials :
' Monetaries, Cambiator, duo Custodes, duo Assaia-
tores, et Custos Cunei.' The abbots retained their
privilege of coining until the reign of Edward III.
Other particulars relative to the St. Edmunds mint
are given in Battely, 134-43. See also Ruding,
Annals of the Coinage of Britain (1840), ii, 218-20 ;
and Andrew, Numismatic Hist, of Henry I, 385-92.

9 Battely, Antiq. S. Edmundi Burgi, 134.

10 The texts of both bull and charter are given in
Arnold's Memorials, i, 344, 347.

RELIGIOUS HOUSES

factions and the growth of the town, increasing
so rapidly that he felt justified in rebuilding the
church on a nobler scale. 1 The stone was pro-
cured from the fine quarries of Barnacle, North-
amptonshire, which belonged to the abbot of
Peterborough, through the direct mandate of the
Conqueror, who also ordered that the usual tolls
should be remitted for its conveyance. 2 At length
the noble church built by Abbot Baldwin and his
sacrists, Thurstan and Tolineus, was finished,
and on 29 April, 1095, the body of St. Edmund
was translated with much pomp to its shrine,
Walkelin, bishop of Winchester, being the pre-
siding prelate.

Baldwin died in 1097, and Rufus, following
his usual policy of ecclesiastical pillage, prolonged
the vacancy for a considerable time. When
Henry I came to the throne, he gave the abbacy
in 1 100 to Robert, one of the illegitimate sons
of Hugh Lupus, earl of Chester. Two years
later this Robert was deposed, because he had
accepted the office without the consent or the
election of the monks.

Robert II, a monk of Westminster, was elected
fifth abbot in 1 102 ; but there was a delay of
five years — namely, till 15 August, 1 107 — ere
he was consecrated by St. Anselm. He only
lived a few weeks after his benediction, for his
death occurred on 16 September of the same
year. 3

After an interregnum of seven years — namely,
in 1 1 1 4 — Albold, prior of St. Nicasius at Meaux,
was elected sixth abbot ; he died in 1119, when
there was again a vacancy of nearly two years,
till in 1 1 21 Anselm, abbot of St. Saba at Rome,
and nephew of Archbishop Anselm, accepted the
abbacy. In his days — namely, in 1 132 — Henry I
made a pilgrimage to the shrine of St. Edmund,
in accordance with a vow made during a storm
at sea. About the year 1 135, Abbot Anselm,
in lieu of making a pilgrimage to St. James of
Compostella, built the fine church of St. James
within the abbey precincts ; it was consecrated
by the Archbishop of Canterbury. At the same
time Henry I granted him the privilege of a
prolonged fair at St. Edmunds — namely, on the
festival of St. James, and on three days before
and two days after. 4

Abbot Anselm died in 1 146, when Ording, the
prior of the house, was elected eighth abbot.
Four years later a fire occurred which destroyed
almost the whole of the conventual buildings,
including the chapter-house. The rebuilding

1 The Domesday returns as to the wealth of the
abbey will be found in that section. The annual
value of the town ' ubi quiescit humatus S. Ead-
mundus rex et martyr gloriosus ' was double that of
its value under the Confessor.

2 ' Reg. Nigrum ' and ' Reg. Sacr.' cited by Battely,
49-50.

5 These dates are usually given wrong ; as to the
two Roberts, see Arnold's Memorials, i, p. xxxvi.
* Battely, op. cit. 69.

was accomplished by Helyas, the sacrist, Ording's
nephew. This Ording, who was abbot until
1 1 5 6, was a homo illiteratus, according to Jocelyn's
chronicle, but ruled wisely and obtained an
extension of privileges from Stephen. On his
death, Hugh, prior of Westminster, was chosen
ninth abbot in January, 1 1 56-7, receiving bene-
diction at Colchester from Theobald, archbishop
of Canterbury. It is said that on that occasion
the primate strove to exact future submission to
the see of Canterbury. In 1161 a bull of Pope
Alexander II sanctioned an appeal to the holy see
in certain important matters, 5 and eleven years
later the same pope issued a further bull exempt-
ing the abbey from the visitation of the archbishop
of the province, even though coming as legatus
natus."

Hugh's somewhat lax rule, on which Jocelyn
descants at the beginning of his chronicle, came
to an end in 11 80 in the twenty-third year of
his abbacy. He was making a pilgrimage to
St. Thomas of Canterbury, when he fell from
his horse at Rochester on 9 September and
severely injured his knee. He was brought back
to St. Edmunds in a horse-litter, but died on
15 November.

A year and three months elapsed before royal
assent could be obtained to proceed with a new
election, and when the king's letters at last
arrived it was laid down that the prior and twelve
of the convent were to appear before him to make
choice of an abbot. When the chapter met they
charged the prior, at the peril of his soul, con-
scientiously to choose twelve to accompany him,
from whose life and conversation it might be
depended that they would not swerve from the
right. The prior thereupon nominated six from
one side of the choir and six from the other,
his choice ' by the dictation of the Holy Ghost '
being commended by all. The chapter, how-
ever, were not disposed to leave the matter
entirely in the hands of the thirteen ; they chose
six other of their number of the best reputation,
who went apart, and, with their hands on the
Gospels, selected three men of the convent most
fit to be abbot. The names of the three were
committed to writing, sealed up and given to
those who were to go before the king. If thev
found they were to have free election of one of
their own house, then they were to break the
seal and present the three names to the king for
his election. They were further instructed, in
case of necessity, to accept anyone of their own
convent nominated by the king, but to return to
consult the chapter if the king named an out-

6 Arnold's Mem. iii, 78-80, gives the full text of
this bull.

6 Shortly afterwards, in Archbishop Richard's time,
the abbey was exempted from the visitation of even a
legate a latere. On the visitation exemptions of the
abbey see Rokewood's edition of Joielyn , i Chronicle
(1840), 108-9.

A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK

sider. The deputation came before the king at
Waltham, one of the Hampshire manors of the
Bishop of Winchester, on 21 February, 11 82,
when they were told to nominate three members
of their convent. Retiring, they broke the seal
of the writing and found, to their surprise, the
names of Samson the sub-sacrist, Roger the
cellarer, and Hugh the third prior, entered in
that order, those of higher standing being ignored.
Their oath forbade them to alter the names, but
they changed the order, according to convent
precedency, and placed Samson last. Jocelyn
enters into full detail as to what subsequently
happened before the king, and the nomination of
others, but eventually the deputation agreed upon
Samson as their first choice, the king concurred,
and the Bishop of Winchester gave Samson the
episcopal benediction at Merewell on 28 Feb-
ruary. 1

On Palm Sunday, 21 March, Samson was
solemnly received by the convent, and homage
was done to him on the fourth day of Easter by
barons, knights, and freemen. For the thirty
years of his rule, Abbot Samson proved himself
to be a superior of unflinching integrity and of
exceptional business capacities. Jocelyn's narra-
tive comes to an end nine years before Samson's
death ; up to that date the information as to his
rule is exceptionally full. The following is a
very brief abstract of the more important events
of his reign. Samson was appointed a judge in
the ecclesiastical courts by Pope Lucius III in
1 1 82, and obtained the privilege of giving
the episcopal benediction, in 1 187, from Pope
Urban III; in 1 1 84 he was appointed by the
holy see one of three arbitrators in a dispute
between the Archbishop of Canterbury and the
monks of Christ Church, in 1200 between the
archbishop and the canons of Lambeth, and in
1 20 1 one of the three commissioners sent by
the pope to Worcester to inquire into the mi-
racles of St. Wulfstan ; in 1203 he was ap-
pointed by the pope on a commission concerning
the dispensation of Crusaders from their vows,
and was summoned over sea to advise the king
on this question. He restored the church of
Woolpit to the monastery (11 83), founded
St. Saviour's Hospital (1 184-5), effected the
entire discharge of the abbey's debts (1194),
took the cellarer's department into his own
hands (1196), and transferred the shrine of
St. Edmund to the high altar, viewing the body

1 Jocelyn, Chron. cap. 3. Jocelyn's delightful
chronicle, which reveals the inner monastic life of the
twelfth century in so intimate a manner, occupies 43
folios of the Liber Albus(Harl. MS. 1005, fol. 121—63).
It was edited by Mr. Rokewode for the Camden
Society in 1840. Carlyle made it famous in Past and
Present (1843), giving it unqualified praise. Sir
Ernest Clarke edited the chronicle anew in 1903,
with many good notes and a table of dates of events
pertaining to abbey affairs ; this admirable edition
has been of much service in preparing this sketch.

(1190). In 1 181 Henry II was at Bury, and
Samson was refused permission to accompany
him to the Crusades. He took active part in
the collection of money for the ransom of
Richard I, in 1 1 93, when a gold chalice given
to the abbey by Henry II was ceded for that
purpose, and visited the king in his German
prison, taking with him many gifts. The king,
on his return to England in March, 1194,
after an absence of four and a quarter years,
proceeded at once to make a thanksgiving visit
to St. Edmunds. The death of Richard was a
great loss to Samson and the abbey. John,
immediately after his coronation in May, 1 199,
visited Bury, but caused great disappointment by
his excessive meanness.

We indeed, says Jocelyn, believed that he was
come to make offering of some great matter ; but all
he offered was one silken cloth, which his servants
had borrowed from our sacrist, and to this day have
not paid for. He availed himself of the hospitality
of St. Edmund, which was attended with enormous
expense, and upon his departure bestowed nothing at
all, either of honour or profit upon the saint, save
13*/. sterling, which he offered at his mass, on the
day of his departure.

King John again visited Bury on 21 December,
1203, when he made no personal offering, but
granted the abbey 10 marks annually from the
exchequer, persuading the convent to return him
for life certain valuable jewels which his mother,
Queen Eleanor, had given to St. Edmund. 2

Abbot Samson died, at the ripe age of seventy-
seven, at twilight ('inter lupum et canem') on
30 December, 121 1. It was the fourth year of
the Interdict, and even an abbot could only be
buried in silence and in unconsecrated ground,
and the sorrowing monks had to cover over his
remains in a little meadow hard by. The
Interdict was removed in July, 1 2 14, and the
remains of Samson were exhumed and reinterred
in the chapter-house on 12 August of that year. 3

The tyrannical John gave a deaf ear to the
requests of the monks for a free election, and
finding it to his advantage to keep the office
vacant, strenuously insisted on royal prerogative.
In July, 12 13, he gave a half consent to an
election, and the monks chose Hugh Northwold ;
but the king refused confirmation. In Novem-
ber, 1214, the king even lectured the monks in
their own chapter-house as to his rights in the
matter. The convent appealed to Rome, and
the papal commissioners finally gave judgement
in Hugh's favour in March, 1215 ; the king's
reluctant approval to this appointment was
wrung from him in Staines meadow on 9 June
of the same year. 4

Meanwhile the abbey had played a most
important part in the national resistance to the

2 Rokewode, Chron. of Jocelyn, 154.
•Arnold, Mem. ii, 19, 20, 62, 85.
4 Ibid, ii, pp. xv, 95—6.

RELIGIOUS HOUSES

despotism of John. The earls and barons met
at Bury on 20 November, 1214, assembling in
the great conventual church ; Archbishop
Langton read to them Henry I's charter, and
each swore on the high altar to make war on
John unless he granted them the liberties therein
contained. 1 As a result of this Magna Charta
was sealed on 1 5 June following.

In 1224 Abbot Hugh II appeared instate at
the royal camp before Bedford Castle, attended by
the knights holding manors under St. Edmund.
Abbot Hugh, whom Matthew Paris describes as
' flos magistrorum monachorum, abbas abbatum,
et episcopus episcoporum,' was unanimously
chosen bishop by the monks of Ely in 1229;
he died in 1254. 2

On 20 November, 1229, Richard, abbot of
Burton, formerly a monk of St. Edmunds, was
installed twelfth abbot, it being St. Edmund's
Day. 3 Abbot Richard only ruled for some
five years ; for on his return from the court of
Pope Gregory in 1 234, whither he had gone in
a matter of appeal, he was attacked in Septem-
ber with mortal illness and died at Pontigny.
His body was embalmed and brought back to
St. Edmunds for interment in the chapter-house.
It was not until 27 September, 1235, that
another election was held, when the choice of
the monks fell on their prior, Henry of Rush-
brook, as their thirteenth abbot. In the year of
his election, Henry III granted to Abbot Henry
two fairs at Bury and a market at his manor of
Melford. Among those excused from attendance
at the council of Lyons in 1245 was Abbot
Henry, owing to an attack of the gout {morbo
podagrico laborantem).* In the same year, at the
request of the convent, Henry III gave the name
of Edmund to his newly born son, who became
the founder of the house of Lancaster. 6 A bull
was issued by Innocent III in July, 1248, pre-
scribing the solemn celebration of the feast of
the translation of St. Edmund to be observed on
29 April. 6

Abbot Henry died in 1248, and was succeeded
in the same year by Edmund Walpole, LL.D.,
who had only worn the monk's habit for two
years. Abbot Edmund and his two predecessors
all received episcopal benediction at the hands of
good Bishop Hugh of Ely, their former abbot.

In March, 1249-50, Henry III took the
cross at the hands of the Archbishop of Canter-
bury ; whereupon Abbot Walpole did the same,
exposing himself, as Matthew Paris says, to

1 Roger of Wendover, Floret (Rolls Ser.), iii, 293-4.
'Matt. Paris, Hist. Maj. (ed. 1640), 891-2.

3 The memorandum as to his election (Bodleian
Chart. Suff. No. 37) is printed in Hearne, Chron. of
Dunstable, ii, 837.

4 Matt. Paris, Chron. Maj. (Rolls Ser.), iv, 413.
'' The text of this letter is given in Arnold's Mem.

iii, 28.

1 Nov. Leg. Angl. ii, 574.

general derision and setting a pernicious example
to monks, for such a vow was inconsistent with
the vow of the monastic order. 7 Revised statutes
for the governance of this abbey were approved
in 1256 by Pope Alexander IV ; they provided,
inter alia, for four church watchers, night and
day, two for the shrine of St. Edmund, and two
for the church treasure and clock. On the last
day of this year Abbot Edmund died.

His successor, Simon of Luton, the prior, was
elected fifteenth abbot on 15 January, 1256-7.
He was exempted from going in person to Rome
to procure papal confirmation ; but the securing
of the confirmation by Alexander IV cost the
vast sum of 2,000 marks, and was not obtained
until October. The story of the expulsion of
the Grey Friars from Bury during this abbacy is
told in the account of the friary, which thev
were permitted to establish at Babwell. At
Easter, 1264, a serious conflict arose between
the monastery and the town burgesses, which
resulted in the infliction of a fine on the latter.
Henry III during the troublous years at the close
of his reign was at the abbey of St. Edmund's
on several occasions. Tarrying here on his way
back from Norwich in the autumn of 1272 he
was taken seriously ill, and according to some
accounts breathed his last in the abbey on
16 November. On 17 April, Edward I and
his queen came to St. Edmund's on a pilgrimage
to the shrine, to fulfil a vow they had made
when in the Holy Land. Abbot Simon died in
April, 1279, and was buried in the Lady chapel
of his own recent building.

John of Northwold, the hosteller, was elected
sixteenth abbot by his brethren on 6 May, 1279.
His journey to Rome and fees to procure con-
firmation cost 1 175 marks. On his return he
was solemnly received on 28 December in the
abbey church, which he ruled for twenty-two
years.

The crown, in June, 1285, granted to the
abbey the fines for trespasses against the assize
of weights and measures whenever the king's
ministers made a view thereof; the said fines to
be collected by the abbey and applied to the
decoration of the tomb of St. Edmund. 8 This
grant was extended in January, 1296, when
Edward I was visiting the abbey. He then
granted that, whenever the king's ministers of
the markets passed through the town to view
measures and to do other things pertaining to
their office, the abbot and convent and their
successors were to have all amercements and
profits of bread and ale, &c. The ministers
were to furnish the sacristan of the abbey with
schedules of all such fines, &c, which were to
be collected by the abbey's officials and applied
to the decoration of the saint's tomb and shrine. 9

7 Matt. Paris, Chron. Maj. (Rolls Ser.), v, 101.

8 Pat. 13 Edw. I, m. 13.

9 Ibid. 24 Edw. I, m. 18.

A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK

One of the recurring disputes between the
monastery and the town at its gates came to a
head in 1 292, when a royal commission of
inquiry was appointed, by which it was arranged
that the burgesses were to present annually at
Michaelmas an allowance for confirmation by
the abbot ; and the alderman was to present
four persons to the sacrist as keepers of the four
gates of the town. The fifth or last gate was
to remain in the custody of the abbey. The
commissioners stated that this had been the
custom since the days of the Confessor. 1

In consideration of a fine made by Abbot
John, in June, 1300, the crown sanctioned the
assignment by the abbot and convent, to two
chaplains celebrating in the chapel recently
built in the abbey churchyard and called ' La
Charnere,' of the yearly produce of twenty-
seven acres of land sown with wheat, being
the produce of one acre in as many vills
of their demesne lands, which produce had
hitherto been assigned to the abbot's crozier-
bearers for performing that office. 2 The char-
nel in the abbey churchyard had been founded
in order to avoid the scandal of the bones of
the departed lying about in the over-used burial-
ground.

In May, 1304, the king pardoned the abbey
of all their debts to the crown, in consideration
of their remission to the king of a thousand
marks, borrowed of them from the tenths of the
Holy Land on the clergy, which had been de-
posited in the abbey's custody in the pope's
name. During the same month, Edward I,
' out of devotion to St. Edmund,' granted that
the prior and convent should, during future
\ oidances, have the custody of all temporalities,
saving knights' fees and advowsons. But for
this privilege the abbey had to pay the stiff
fine of 1,200 marks if the voidance lasted a year
or less, and if longer at the proportionate rate
of 100 marks a month. 3

In May Edward I granted the murage and
pavage dues of the town on goods coming into
the town of Bury St. Edmunds to the abbot
and convent for three years. 4 In August of the
same year a commission of three justices was
appointed in the matter of the rebellion of the
town against the general administration of the
abbot as lord of the town. The charge against
sixty-two of the townsmen, who are named,
and others was of a comprehensive character,
accusing them of conspiring together by oaths of
confederacy and resisting every detail of the
abbey's rule, usurping the administration of
justice and collecting tolls and other dues granted
by charter to the convent. 8

Abbot Thomas died on 7 January, 131 1— 12

1 Cole MS. xiv, fol. 51.

2 Pat. 28 Edw. I, m. 13.

3 Ibid. 32 Edw. I, m. 18.

1 Ibid. m. 2. 5 Ibid. m. 8 d.

and the election of Richard, the third prior, was
confirmed in April, 1 31 2, by Pope Clement V.
This confirmation states that Richard had been
elected by the sacrist, cellarer, infirmarian, and
chamberlain, and by four other monks whose
names are cited. 6 In June of the following year
the pope sanctioned the appropriation of the
church of Harlow, value 20 marks, to take effect
on the death or resignation of the rector, a per-
petual vicar being assigned. 7

In 1327, the long simmering disputes between
the town and the abbey came to a head with
grievous results, involving the plunder of the
abbey and its estates, and the seizing of the abbot
and his deportation to Diest in Brabant. These
disturbances were long known as the Great
Riot. Long statements on both sides appear in
Arnold's Memorials, as already set forth. In
this summary it seems best to take the state-
ments from the official entries on the patent
rolls. On 14 May, 1327, mandates were de-
livered by the king and council to the authorities
of both abbey and town, under forfeiture of all
they could forfeit, prohibiting the assembling of
armed men. 8 Nevertheless the riots continued,
and on 20 May, 1327, Edward III appointed
John de Tendering and Ralph de Bocking,
during pleasure, to the custody of the abbey and
town of St. Edmunds, which the king had
taken under his immediate protection in conse-
quence of the grave dissensions. Power was
given to the two wardens to arrest inferior
offenders, but not to remove officers and ministers
of either abbey or town as long as they were
obedient. 9 In July the king associated two
other warders, Robert Walkefare and John
Claver, with John and Ralph. 10 A further
step was taken in the interest of the monks, on
16 October of the same year, when the crown
appointed John Howard, during pleasure, to the
custody of the abbey, with power to protect it
and defend its possessions, to arrest those who
had injured it, and to apply its revenues, saving
the necessary provision for its governance, to-
wards the payment of its debts and its relief; n
but this appointment was revoked on 10 Novem-
ber. 12 This revocation was doubtless brought
about by the very serious and extensive character
of the revolt against the abbey's authority be-
coming better known to the authorities. By
the end of October commission was granted to
the Earl of Norfolk, Thomas Bardolf and others
to take, if necessary, the posse comitatus of both
Norfolk and Suffolk, to arrest those besieging
the abbey, and to imprison others guilty of
criminal acts in these affrays. 13 At the same
time four justices were appointed to hold a special

6 Cal. Pap. Reg, ii, 1 1 1. ? Ibid. 115.

8 Pat. 1 Edw. Ill, pt. ii, m. 22 d.

9 Ibid. m. 20. 10 Ibid. m. 5 d.
" Ibid. pt. iii, m. 14.

"Ibid. m. 12. 13 Ibid. mm. 13^, 8 </.

RELIGIOUS HOUSES

assize l at St. Edmunds, on the complaint of the
abbot, who gave in the names of about 300
alleged offenders out of a great multitude, in-
cluding three rectors, nineteen chaplains or
assistant parochial clergy, a merchant, six drapers,
four mercers, two butchers, a tailor, and two
taverners. Among the particular offences speci-
fied are beating and wounding the abbey's ser-
vants and imprisoning them till they paid fines ;
mowing the abbey's meadows, felling the trees,
and fishing the fish-ponds ; preventing the
holding of courts and collecting rents and tolls
and other customs ; cutting off the abbey's
water-conduit ; breaking down the fish-ponds at
Babwell ; throwing down the houses of the
abbey in the town ; carrying away the timber,
and burning the abbot's manor houses at Barton,
Pakenham, Rougham, 'Eldhawe/Horningsheath,
Newton, Whepstead, Westley, Risby, Ingham,
Fornham, ' Redewell,' and ' Haberdon,' with
their granges and corn ; carrying away 100 horses,
120 oxen, 200 cows, 300 bullocks, 10,000
sheep and 300 swine, worth £6,000 ; and
besieging the abbey with an armed force and
great multitude ; breaking the gates and doors
and windows of the abbey ; entering the con-
ventual buildings and assaulting the servants ;
breaking open chests, coffers and closets and
carrying off gold and silver chalices and other
plate, books, vestments, and utensils, and
money to the value of £1,000, as well as
divers writings ; imprisoning Peter de Clapton,
the prior, and twelve monks in a house in the
town ; taking the said prior and monks to
the chapter-house and forcing them to seal a
document setting forth that the abbot and con-
vent were indebted to Oliver Kemp and five
other townsmen in the sum of £10,000 ; and
imprisoning the abbot and using his seal as well
as the corporate seal to documents obtained by
duress, the contents of which neither he nor the
monks saw or heard. On 5 November, 1328, a
commission was issued to the Bishop of Ely and
two others to compose the differences between
the abbey and the townsmen. An agreement as
to the matters in dispute between the abbey and
the town was finally drawn up at Bury, in the
presence of the king, at Trinity, 1 33 1, to the
effect that in consideration of the remission of
the huge fine of £140,000 imposed on the
defendants, they should pay the abbey the sum
of 2,000 marks during the next twenty years, in
sums of 50 marks at a time. 2 The great seal
was affixed to this covenant, and the defendants
were conditionally discharged. 3

Licence was granted in August, 1330, for the
abbey to appropriate the churches of Rougham and
Thurstan of their advowson, in consideration of
the grievous losses they had sustained at the hands

1 Assize R. 853.

3 Pat. 3 Edw. Ill, pt. i, m. 35.

3 Had. MS. 65+, fol. 141.

of the men of St. Edmunds, and because, at the
king's request, they had pardoned a great part
of the sum recovered by them as damages. 4 As
a further compensation from the crown for their
losses, the king in the following month granted
free warren in all demesnes of the abbey, a
weekly market at Melford, and an annual fair
of nine days at the same place.

The riotous attacks on the abbey and its
possessions in 1327 took place at the time when
it was known that the king and his forces were
in Scotland. When Edward III was at York,
on 23 October, 1334, preparatory to another
expedition into Scotland, protection was granted
by the king and council to the abbey owing to
the increasing hostility of the townsmen, and for
fear another attempt should be made at the
abbey's overthrow when the forces were across
the border. 5

Abbot Richard died on 5 May, 1335. The
king's licence for a new election was speedily
obtained, and the new abbot, William of
Bernham, the sub-prior, was hastily chosen on
25 May, in order to forestall the expected inter-
ference of the pope. Abbot William proceeded
to Rome for confirmation, and on 29 October,
1 335, received the mandate of Benedict XII to
betake himself to the abbey to which he had
been appointed, having received benediction
from Anibald, bishop of Tusculum. 6 He ruled
for nearly twenty-six years.

A peculiar privilege was granted by Edward III,
for life, to Abbot William in 1338, namely that
the chancellor was to issue the writ De excom-
municato capiendo in the case of persons excom-
municated by the abbot at his signification and
request, as he did in like cases at the request of
archbishops and bishops. 7

Five of the king's justices being directed to
hold a session at Bury St. Edmunds in 1 34 1,
for hearing and determining complaints as to
oppressions by ministers in the county of Suffolk,
the abbey protested that this was an infringement
of their chartered rights against the holding of
any secular courts in the town. Edward III
thereupon (out of the affection which the king
bore for the glorious martyr, St. Edmund the
King) granted a charter to the effect that this
session was not to prejudice as a precedent the
liberties of the abbot and convent. 8

A dispute arose in 1345 between the abbey
and William Bateman, bishop of Norwich, the
latter making strenuous efforts to obtain a
reversion of the abbey's exemption from diocesan
control ; but the effort completely failed. 9 A
mandate was issued in 1349 by Pope Clement III

4 Pat. 4 Edw. Ill, pt. i, m. 7.
s Ibid. 8 Edw. Ill, pt. ii, m. 18.

6 Cal. Pap. Reg. ii, 529.

7 Pat. 12 Edw. Ill, pt. ii, m. 29.

8 Ibid. 15 Edw. Ill, pt. i, m. 24.

9 Yates, Hilt, of Bury St. Edmundi, 109.

A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK

to the Bishops of London and Chichester touching
the complaint of the Bishop of Norwich, whose
citation the abbey of St. Edmund's refused to
obey, sending Sir Richard Freysel, knight, to the
king's chancellor, pleading that by royal letters
they were exempt from episcopal jurisdiction,
and asking for letters prohibiting their diocesan
from making any such attempts. Thereupon
the bishop excommunicated Richard, who re-
turned to the chancellor pleading that this had
been done in contempt of the king's majesty,
and that the bishop, the prior of Kersey, and
other beneficed clergy in the dioceses of Norwich
and York had published the excommunication.
Thereupon he obtained letters citing the bishop
and his commissaries before the king's justices,
before whom exception was taken that the jus-
tices could not and ought not to take cognisance
of excommunication, and that appeal lay with
the archbishop. Nevertheless the justices
ordered the imprisonment of the commissaries,
and James, rector of Wrabness, Essex, one of those
who had published the excommunication, was
put in the abbot's prison at St. Edmunds. The
prior of Kersey and Hamo, rector of Bunny, lay
in hiding, and Simon, rector of Wickhambrook,
Suffolk, got away privily to the apostolic see.
The justices, the king being abroad, ordered all
the goods of the bishop to be seized and to
remain in the king's hands until the excom-
munication vows were revoked and satisfaction
made to Richard, who made the huge claim of
£10,000 damages. Letters were sent to the
sheriffs of four counties where the episcopal estates
lay ordering the seizing of all temporalities of
the see, and the bishop, fearing he would be
taken, betook himself, with his household, to his
cathedral church and shut himself up therein.
The pope ordered that, if these things were so,
the abbot and Richard were to be cited to appear
before the pope within three months to receive
what justice requires for their excesses and sins. 1

In April, 1350, the pope sent a mandate to
the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Bishops of
Exeter and Chichester, enjoining the public
excommunication of all who hindered the Bishop
of Norwich from prosecuting his cause, which
had been going on for five years at the Roman
court, against the abbot and convent of St.
Edmunds, who claim exemption from episcopal
jurisdiction, certain persons having obtained
letters from King Edward ordering the bishop
to prosecute the cause before him and his council,
and not in the Roman court. 2 In the following
July a further mandate was sent to the same
papal commissioners ordering the public excom-
munication of all the abettors of Richard
Freysel. 3

Abbot William died on the last day of
February, 136 1-2, and Henry de Hunstanton

1 Cal. Pap. Reg. iii, 304-5,
•Ibid. 388.

Ibid. 391-2.

was elected his successor in the following month ;
but proceeding to Avignon in the summer, to
obtain papal confirmation, Henry fell a victim
to the plague which was raging in that province,
dying on 24 July, in a village two miles distant
from that city. Pope Innocent VI seized this
opportunity of appointing a successor, and made
John of Brinkley, a monk of Bury, abbot on
4 August. Edward III gave his consent on
12 November, and on the 1 6th of that month
the new abbot was duly installed at St. Edmunds.
His was a comparatively uneventful abbacy, but
he was a learned man, and for ten years was
president of the provincial chapter of English
Benedictines. The last recorded miracle of St.
Edmund occurred in 1375, when Symon Brown,
nearly lost at sea, vowed to St. Edmund and was
saved. 4

On 6 January, 1379, the prior and convent
obtained licence to elect a successor to Abbot
John, deceased, and on 28 January notification
was dispatched to Pope Urban of the royal assent
to the election of John de Timworth, sub-prior
of that house, to be abbot. In August of the
same year there is a further entry relative to the
election on the Patent Rolls, namely, orders for
the arrest of Edmund Bromefeld, a monk, who
was scheming to annul the election of Tym-
worth as abbot, although it had received the
royal assent, and who had procured a papal
provision thereof for himself besides divers
bulls, 5 and on 14 October, 1379, the Earls of
March and Suffolk, with the sheriff of Suffolk,
were appointed to arrest Edmund Bromefeld,
who, notwithstanding the Statute of Provisors
of 25 Edward III, had procured provision
of the abbey from the Roman court, and
had taken possession of the abbey by the aid of
John Medenham and fourteen other monks of
the abbey, and by the aid of various clerks and
laymen. All the abettors of the monk Edmund
were also to be arrested for this contempt of the
crown. 6

This controversy, caused by the appointment
of Edmund Bromefeld to the abbacy by Urban VI,
dragged on for five years ; but the pope's nomi-
nee never obtained more than a partial and
very short-lived recognition at St. Edmunds.
Nevertheless, without the papal confirmation
John Tymworth was not technically abbot
until 4 June, 1384, when the pope at last
gave way. 7

Whilst this dispute was in progress, namely in
1381, Jack Straw's rebellion broke out in East
Anglia, when John of Cambridge, the prior, and

* Nov. Leg. Angl. ii, 678.

'Pat. 2 Ric. II, pt. i, m. 10 ; pt. ii, m. 38 ;
3 Ric. II. pt. i, m. 33^.

6 Pat. 3 Ric. II, pt. i, m. 22 d.

7 The list of abbots in Lakinghethe Register enters
after the death of John de Brinkley, ' Abbatia vacavit
per sexennium.'

RELIGIOUS HOUSES

Sir John Cavendish, chief justice, were among
those murdered at Bury by the mob, who plun-
dered the abbey to the extent of j£i,ooo. For
this outrage the town was outlawed and fined
2,000 marks. 1

An indult was granted by Boniface IV, in
1398, in order to relieve the abbey of the perils
and expenses of the journey to Rome, that the
convent might upon voidance freely elect their
abbots, who thus elected should be eo ipso true
abbots, and be so regarded and administer the
monastery without any confirmation of the said
see. Further, the abbots might receive bene-
diction at the hands of any Catholic bishop of
their choice. In compensation for first-fruits,
common and minute services, &c, heretofore
paid to the pope and various papal officials, the
abbey was to pay to the collector in England
twenty marks yearly at Michaelmas. If in any
year such payment be not made within two
months of the lapse of the year, then this indult
was to be void. 2

In 1383 Richard II and Anne of Bohemia
paid a ten days' visit to Bury, putting the abbey
to an expense of 800 marks. Archbishop
Arundel paid a visit to the monastery in the
year 1400, arriving from Norwich at the con-
clusion of a visitation of that diocese and Ely.
The manner of his reception and entertainment
are set forth with some detail by one of the
monastic scribes, to serve, as he states, for the
use of posterity if the house should again be
visited by an archbishop. He was received with
the greatest respect and sumptuously entertained,
but every care was taken to show that his re-
ception was one of courtesy and due to his high
office, and that he was nowise to construe
their hospitality as the least recognition of him
as a ' visitor.' There was no solemn procession
to meet him at the abbey gates, but the abbot,
cellarer, sacrist, and other officials met the arch-
bishop on the road between Thetford and
Ingham, and conducted him to Bury. On
reaching the abbey he was taken into the church
through the cemetery and not through the great
west gates, nor were the bells rung. The prior
and convent met him in the nave. On the
morrow, the abbot and his retinue escorted the
archbishop on his road southward as far as
Frisby. 3

During the rule of William of Exeter, the
twenty-third abbot (1415-29), the building of
the present church of St. Mary, on the site of
an older church, was undertaken in the south-
west corner of the abbey cemetery ; and under
William Curteys (1429-46) the western tower
of the abbey church fell, but immediate steps
were taken to erect it afresh. 4 In 1427, Thomas

1 Walsingham, Hist. Angl. (Rolls Ser.), 276-7.

2 Cal. Pap. Reg. v, 152.

3 Harl. MS. 1005, fol. 40, 41.
' Add. MS. 48468, fol. 1043.

Beaufort, second son of John of Gaunt, was
buried in the great conventual church. 6

Henry VI paid a long visit to the abbey, his
sojourn extending from Christmas, 1433, to St.
George's Day (23 April), 1434. The monastery,
during this visit, presented him with a grandly
illuminated 'Life of St. Edmund' by John
Lydgate, which now forms one of the treasures
of the British Museum. 6 It is supposed that
this visit was chiefly due to the pleasure taken
by Henry and his court in the loyal ballads of
the abbey's famous poet-monk, presented to the
king in 1429, and again when he passed through
London on his return from France in 1433.
Of this visit Lydgate has much to say in his
metrical life of St. Edmund, of which this is the
opening stanza : —

When sixte Henry in his estat roial

With his sceptre of Yngland and of France

Heeld at Bury the feste pryncipal

Of Cristemasse with fulest habundance,

And after that list to have plesance,

As his consail gan for him provide,

There in his place til hesterne for to abide.

When the news of the royal visit reached the
abbot he at once set eighty masons and artificers
at work to enlarge and beautify the abbot's
lodgings. He invited and obtained the cordial
co-operation of the town in the royal reception.
Five hundred townsmen turned out to meet the
young king, headed by their aldermen and chief
burgesses in scarlet, whilst the Bishop of Norwich
and the abbot (so often rivals if not actively
hostile) united in giving him holy water as
he dismounted from his palfrev. Of this
visit Abbot Curteys has left many particulars in
his register. 7 There, too, are the various letters
from the king to the abbot, whom he evidently
regarded as a tried and trusted friend. He con-
sulted him freely in his anxiety about the
progress of the French arms, asked his help in
making due preparation for the reception of the
French princess he was about to marry, and in

6 The coffin was discovered and reinterred in
1772.

6 Harl. MS. 2278.

7 This abbot's register (Add. MS. 14848) con-
tains several entries of local events not elsewhere
chronicled. The exact hours of the fall of the
southern side of the great western tower on 18 De-
cember, 1430, and of the fall of the eastern side of
the same on 30 December, are set forth (fol. 104^).

Abbot Curteys, in January, 1429-30, entered into
an agreement with John Housell, goldsmith of Lon-
don, to make him a pastoral staff, weighing 12 lb.
<)\ oz., to have on one side at the top the image of
the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin, and on the
other the Salutation of the same, and in the circum-
ference of the same part twelve tabernacles with as
many apostles, and in the curve of the staff a taber-
nacle with the image of St. Edmund of the best
workmanship. The whole to be of silver-gilt, and
finished before the ensuing All Saints' Day, when pay-
ment of £40 was to be made to Housell (fol. 78).

A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK

a letter shortly before the abbot's death (17 Sep-
tember 1446), urged him to be present at the
laying of the foundation-stone of King's College,
Cambridge, on the ensuing Michaelmas Day, as
he (Henry) was unable to be present. 1

Amongst these entries is the record of a great
storm on the evening of 27 January, 1439. It
did much damage, particularly to the bell tower,
especially in the windows and glazing. A
memorable incident was the extinguishing of
every light and lamp throughout the conventual
buildings and church save that only which burnt
perpetually before the Blessed Sacrament ; from
that light all the others were subsequently re-
kindled. This storm was followed, on 29 May
of the same year, by a great flood ; the waters
rose so high that they were deep enough for
a boat in St. James's Church, in the nave of the
great conventual church, and in the Lady chapel
of the crypt (fol. 341).

The abbacy of William Babington (1446-53)
was signalized by the holding of a Parliament at
Bury. It assembled in the great refectory hall
of the abbey on 10 February, 1446-7. Hum-
phrey duke of Gloucester attended, and found
lodgings at St. Saviour's Hospital. There he
was arrested on a charge of high treason and
kept under guard ; a few days later the duke
was found dead in his bed without any exterior
mark of violence ; the death was attributed to
apoplexy, but popular opinion considered that he
had been privately murdered. In the following
November the king granted to the abbey an
ample charter of all their privileges. 2 This was
followed, two years later, by a royal charter
which freed the abbey of all aids to the king, in
consideration of paying a fixed sum of forty
marks a year.

The chief event during the rule of Abbot John
Bohun (1453-69) was the complete gutting of
the conventual church by fire on 20 January,
1464-5, involving the fall of the central tower.
The shrine of St. Edmund, though begirt with
flames, remained uninjured. The catastrophe
was caused by the carelessness of plumbers en-
gaged in repairing the roof. 3

John Reeve of Melford (sometimes called John
Melford), the thirty-second and last abbot of
St. Edmunds, was elected in April, 15 13. He
was admitted to the king's privy council in 1520,
and in 1 53 1 he was placed on the commission of
the peace for Suffolk. The unscrupulous Crom-
well first appears on the scene in connexion
with this abbey in November, 1532, when he
wrote to the abbot desiring to obtain the lease
for sixty years of the farm of Harlowbury in
Essex, the previous lease of which had nearly

1 Add. MS. 7096, passim ; Arnold, Mem. iii,
241-79.

' Arnold, Mem. iii, 357.

3 Cott. MS. Claud. A. xii, 189^-91^; Arnold,
Mem. iii, 283-7.

expired. He asked for an answer by the bearer,
and assuming it would be favourable, had already
agreed with the then holder for the remainder of
his lease. If the request was granted he would
do whatever he could for the monastery.' 1

Legh and Ap Rice were the two deputy
visitors appointed by Cromwell to visit the abbey
of St. Edmunds in November, 1535. With
regard to this, Ap Rice wrote at once to his
' mastership ' 6 stating that they had failed to
establish anything against the abbot save that he
was much at his country houses or granges, and
was said to be fond of dice and cards, and did
not preach. ' Also he seemeth to be addict to
the maintaining of such superstitious ceremonies
as hath been used here tofore ' . . . ' Touching
the convent, we could get little or no report
among them, although we did use much diligence
in our examinations, with some other arguments
gathered their examinations.' This being the
case, the commissioners chose to conclude ' that
they had confederated and compacted before our
coming that they should disclose nothing.' When
with all their ingenuity and promptings to scandal,
nothing evil could be discovered, it was coolly
assumed that there was a lying conspiracy. The
commissioners made exactly similar statements
with regard to the seventeen monks of Thetford
and the eighteen canons of Ixworth in this dis-
trict, when they could find nothing against them. 6
The visitors reported that the convent numbered
sixty-two monks, three of whom were at Oxford.
Their injunctions here, as elsewhere, ordered
that all religious under twenty-four years of age
as well as those who had taken vows under
twenty were to be dismissed. This reduced the
number by eight. Another injunction insisted
upon the actual confinement to the precincts of
all the religious from the superior downwards.

This letter was dispatched to Cromwell on
5 November, and on the following day the abbot
wrote to him as visitor in chief, begging a licence,
notwithstanding the injunctions left by the late
visitors, to go abroad (that is outside the precincts)
with a chaplain or two on the business of the
monastery. 7

Knowing well the style of argument that
would appeal to Cromwell in the obtaining
of any favour, the abbot and convent granted
to him, and his son Gregory, on 26 Novem-
ber, in the chapter-house, an annual pension of
j£io from the manor of Harlow. 8 But this
amount did not satisfy his avarice, and in
December one of his agents, Sir Thomas Russhe,

*L. and P. Hen. Fill, v, 1573.
s Cott. MS. Cleop. E, iv, 1 20.

6 The actual Comperta show that Ringstead the
prior and eight others were said to be ' defaulted ' for
incontinency, and it was alleged that one had confessed
to adultery. L. and P. Hen. fill, x, 364.

7 L. and P. Hen. VIII, ix, 781.

8 Had. MS. 308, fol. 89.

RELIGIOUS HOUSES

called on the abbot to beg him to grant Crom-
well and his son a larger sum, which he promised
to do. 1

One of the last favours received by Abbot
John was a crown licence in August, 1536, per-
mitting any of his servants, during his life, to
shoot with a cross bow at all manner of deer and
wild fowl in his parks and grounds, notwith-
standing the Act 25 Henry VIII. 2

Early in 1538, the agents for spoiling the
greater monasteries (in this case Williams,
Pollard, Parys, and Smyth) visited St. Edmunds.
Writing to Cromwell, from Bury, they tell the
Lord Privy Seal that they found a rich shrine
which was very cumbrous to deface ; that they had
stripped the monastery of over 5,000 marks in
gold and silver, besides a rich cross bestudded
with emeralds and other stones of great value ; but
that they had left the church and convent well
furnished with silver plate. 3

On 4 November, 1539, this famous abbey
was surrendered. The surrender is signed by
Abbot John Reeve, Prior Thomas Ringstede
[alias Dennis), and by forty-two other monks. 4

Pensions were assigned, on the same day, of
^30 to the prior, of £20 to the sacrist, and of
sums varying from ^13 bs. Sd., to £6 1 31. 4^.,
to thirty-eight other monks. 5

Sir Richard Rich and other commissioners
who had received the surrender wrote to the
king on 7 November, saying they had not yet
assigned the ex-abbot any pension, but suggested
as he had been ' very conformable and is aged,'
and as the yearly revenues of his house would be
4,000 marks, that he should have 500 marks a
year and a house. They had taken into custody
for the king the plate and best ornaments, and
sold the rest. The lead and bells were worth
4,500 marks. They desired to know whether
they were to deface the church and other edifices
of the house. 6 On 1 1 November, the abnor-
mally large pension of ^333 6s. 8d. was allotted
to the abbot. 7 He lived, however, only a few

1 L. and P. Hen. Fill, ix, 978.
' Pat. 28 Hen. VIII, pt. ii, m. 3.

3 Cott. MS. Cleop. E, iv, 229. The actual amount
of which the abbey was robbed on this occasion was
1,553 oz. of gold plate, 6,853 oz. of gilt plate,
933 oz. of parcel gilt, and 190 oz. of white or silver
plate. On 2 December, 1539, after the surrender,
150 oz. of gilt plate, 145 oz. of parcel gilt, and
2,162 oz. of white plate were added to the previous
spoils, besides a pair of birrall candlesticks, handed to
the king, and a jewelled mitre. (Clarke, Jocelyn's
Chron. notes, 275).

* Rymer, Foedcra, xiv, 687.

4 L. and P. Hen. Fill, xiv (2), 462.

6 Ibid. 475. The answer as to the 'defacing'
must have been in the affirmative, for within a few
weeks of the surrender the whole of the lead had
been stripped from the church and monastery, and
valued at £3,302. Aug. Off. Mins. Accts. 30-1
Hen. VIII, 226, m. 1 1 a'.

7 Misc. Bks. (Aug. Off.), ccxxxiv, fol. 3 U.

months after the dissolution of his house.
Weighed down, as it is said, with sorrow and
disappointment at the complete degradation of
his order, he died on 31 March, 1540, in a
small private house at the top of Crown Street,
Bury St. Edmunds, never having drawn a penny
of his pension. He was buried in the chancel of
St. Mary's Church, with a pathetic Latin epitaph
on the brass over his remains. The brasses
were torn from his grave in 1643, and in 171 7
the slab was broken up and the remains removed
to make way for the burial of a ship's purser
named Sutton. 8

Having thus followed in outline the general
history of the abbey through its succession of
rulers, it may be well to give some fuller
particulars as to the amount of property that it
had to administer, which was chiefly in the
nature of temporalities within the hundreds over
which it exercised such full powers of local
government.

In Abbot Samson's days (1182-1211) a large
number of churches, chiefly in the eight and a
half hundreds of the liberty of St. Edmunds,
were in the gift of the whole convent, as set forth
in detail in Jocelyn's Chronicle. 9 Thirty-four
are named as pertaining to the abbot, and thirty-
two to the chapter. But there were at that time
very few appropriations, and only a small number
of pensions or portions from the rectories. In-
deed Jocelyn expressly states that 'after all these
churches scarcely brought any gain or profit to
the convent.' Nevertheless the holding of these
numerous advowsons tended to augment con-
siderably the abbey's dignity and influence.

The various officials or obedientiaries of St.
Edmunds, in common with every large Bene-
dictine house, had certain tithes, lands, or rents
allotted to them which they had to administer
for the good of their particular office, and for
which they had to return annual accounts. At
St. Edmunds there was such an unusual amount
of definite application of early grants to specific
purposes that it led to much confusion, and it
was considered expedient to apply for legal sanc-
tion to a re-allotment of the monastic property
in the time of Abbot John of Northwold. Ac-
cordingly in 1 28 1, a general redistribution
scheme between the abbot and the different
obedientiaries was sanctioned by Edward I, and
a single long charter covering the whole ground
was granted in return for the handsome fee of
/l,000. To the abbot was assigned the hidage
or tax on every hide of land, the foddercorn or
ancient feudal right of providing the lord with
horse-fodder, and every kind of court fee and
manorial due throughout the whole of the great
liberty of St. Edmunds. The award then pro-
ceeded to set out the specific manors, lands,
tithes, rents, &c, that were allotted to (i)the

s Weever, Funeral Monuments, 751 ; Parker, Long
Melford, 314. ' Cap. vii.

A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK

cellarer, (2) the sacrist, (3) the chamberlain,
(4) the almoner, (5) the pittancer, (6) the infir-
marian, (7) the hosteller, and (8; the precentor. 1

The remarkable wealth of St. Edmunds comes
out in a striking form in the very numerous
entries in the general taxation roll of 1 29 1. An
exceptional feature of the income of this house
is the comparative smallness of its spiritualities ;
this abbey had then far less appropriations than
any other considerable religious foundation.
Contrariwise the temporalities were much in
excess of any other foundation, apart from the
fees pertaining to the abbot as lord of the various
hundred courts which were not inconsiderable.
Thus the hundred of Lackford produced £4.,
and that of Blackburne £14. per annum. 2

As to spiritualities, the appropriated rectory of
Mildenhall supplied the abbey with an income
of £30, and there was a portion of 1 3*. \d. from
the church of Horningsheath.

Other spiritualities were assigned to particular
obedientiaries. The important rectories of St.
Mary and St. James, Bury St. Edmunds, were
divided between the sacrist and the almoner ;
the former receiving from these two churches
£44 i~$s. \d., and the latter, £26 135.4^. The
church of Woolpit was divided (after an endow-
ment of £6 1 31. ^.d. had been arranged for the
vicar) between the infirmarian and the pittancer,
who each received £6, whilst the hosteller had
also an annual portion of £1 6s. 8d. The
chamberlain received the annual income of
^33 6s. 8d. from the appropriated church of
Brook, and also a portion of £4 from Rougham
church. It will thus be seen that the spiritu-
alities of the monastery at this date brought in
an income of £152 13;. \d.

No two of the great Benedictine abbeys were
at all alike in the amounts assigned by grants to
the different obedientiaries, and consequently in
the relative financial importance of the particular
offices. Naturally in the early days, when
grants were made to the monks, it was always
common to give lands or rents that were ear-
marked for the actual sustenance of the religious
in the way of food. The cellarer's income was
therefore usually of considerable importance, but
in no other case had this official anything like so
assured an income to administer as was the
case at Bury. The following were the amounts
definitely assigned to different officials by grants
in 1291, exclusive of the spiritualities already

1 Registrum Cellarii, Duchy of Lane. Rec. (P.R.O.),
xi, 5, fol. 84. In this register, which chiefly relates
to the cellarer, his property and administration, there
is a list of the sacrists, from the days of Abbot Baldwin
onwards, with an account of the work they accom-
plished.

' Pope Nich. Tax. (Rec. Com.) 15, \6b, 54, 54^,
$U, 67b, 74b, 84, 93*, 95, 96, 97, 99, 99^, 100b,
101, 101b, lozb, 104, 104^, 105, 105^, loSb, 110b,

I 1 4^, liqb, I20, 120b, 121, 123^, 126, 127^, I30,

130*, 131, 131b, 132, 132^, 133, 133^, 270.

cited. Cellarer £390 16s. 6\d., sacrist
^134 3;. n\d., chamberlain £69 12s. $^d.,
almoner £11 195. o\d., pittancer £1 1 i\s.n\d.,
infirmarian £6 17s. id., hosteller £2 17s., sub-
sacrist £1 15*. 8d., sub-cellarer l6x., and pre-
centor 1 31. \d. A large portion of the remainder
of the income was assigned to the office of the
abbot, and the rest to the convent at large.
By far the greater part of the income was
derived from Suffolk parishes ; the largest sum
(^99 14*. lO^d.) came from the temporalities
of Mildenhall ; £103 7*- was contributed by
Norfolk parishes ; £$ I if. lod. came out of the
diocese of Ely, and £4 19;. lod. from Lincoln
diocese.

The complete return of 1291 thus shows
that the temporalities of the abbey towards the
end of the thirteenth century were worth
^774 16s., yielding a total income, with the
spiritualities added, and an additional £40 per
annum for offerings at the shrine of St. Edmund,
of nearly £1,000 a year, or about £20,000 at
the present value of money.

There are many particulars extant with regard
to the various obedientiaries throughout the
fifteenth century, particularly as to the pittancer.
The special register or chartulary of the pittancer,
which contains all the evidences relative to the
property assigned to that office, shows that
it was endowed with the church of Woolpit
and much temporal property at Bury, Mendham,
Clopton, and Woolpit, bringing in an income of
£17 17s. id. 3 There is also in the same register
a taxation roll giving the value of the whole pro-
perty of the abbey according to its special
appropriation. 4 To the abbot was assigned
£798 18;. 2d., whilst the amounts allotted to
the cellarer, sacristan, treasurer, chamberlain and
almoner, infirmarian, hosteller, feretrar, vestarian,
sub-sacrist, sub-cellarer, and precentor, brought
the total up to £2,030 7s. li^d.

The full returns of the valor of 1535 are of
much interest, though space can only be found
here for the more salient points.

The abbot drew from the various hundred
courts £83 OS. 6\d. ; from the temporalities of
Suffolk (the largest amount being £117 17s. $.d.
from Melford) £549 7s. 8$d. ; from the tem-
poralities of Norfolk £102 is. \\d. ; from the
temporalities of Essex £82 i8j. \d. ; and from
spiritualities (the rectory of Thurston and a por-
tion from Fressingfield) £14 6s. 8^., giving
him a total income of £843 in. ^\d. Out of
this, however, large returns had to be made to
bailiffs, &c, as well as distributions to the poor
of £36 3/. 4-d. The cellarer drew the great
income of £821 13*. 8d. from the temporalities
of Suffolk (the largest contribution being £163
from Mildenhall), and when to this were added
temporalities from Norfolk, Northampton, and

s Harl. MSS. 27, Registrum Croftis, fol. 123.
* Ibid. fol. 164-74.

RELIGIOUS HOUSES

Hertfordshire, and the rectory of Mildenhall,
his gross income came to £903 12s. 2d. From
this great deductions had to be made, including
£191 1 9*. id. for the poor, so that the cellarer's
clear income was brought down to £629 1 6*. yd.

The gross total of the abbey's income,
irrespective of its cells, was £2,336 i6j. lid.
The deductions, however, were so considerable
that the clear value was only returned at
£1,656 Js. 3 U. 1

There was no other of our large English
abbeys that expended by grants or charters so
large a share of its income on distribution to the
poor. In the case of St. Edmunds it amounted
to £398 15*. n^d. a year; and this was alto-
gether apart from the daily distribution of broken
meat, the occasional doles of old clothes,
the long sustained alms on the death of a monk,
the Christmas gifts, &c, and, above all, the enter-
tainment of all comers in the guest-houses, from
royalty to the poorest tramp. The sum just
named is simply that which they were compelled
to distribute even under the laxest adminis-
tration.

It has been stated with emphasis that Bury
St. Edmunds was by far the wealthiest Benedic-
tine abbey in England. This is, however, by
no means the case, the houses of Westminster,
Glastonbury, St. Albans, and Christ Church,
Canterbury, all possessing larger incomes.

It remains to put on record some of the more
salient points relative to the inner life and work-
ing of the monastery.

As to the numbers of this great household :
in the second half of the thirteenth century
there were 80 monks, 21 chaplains, and
III servants living in curia, apart from a con-
siderable number of officials and hinds of the
home-farms, who drew their rations from the
abbey. 2 The number of the monks had dropped
to about sixty at the time of the first visitation
of Henry VIIFs commissioners, and his policy
had driven out about a third of that number
before the surrender.

Many of the entries in the custumary of the
abbey, temp. Edward I, are full of interest. 3
After reciting the very severe discipline de gravi
culpa, and the lighter punishment de levi culpa,
the custumary proceeds to deal with de trunculo,
which appears to have been a third grade of yet
lighter punishment. The delinquent was re-
quired to sit super trunculum, i.e. on a low trunk
or chest, which stood in the midst of the chap-

1 Valor Eccl. (Rec. Com.), iii, 459-65.

'Harl. MS. 6+5, fol. 196.

5 Ibid. 3977. Much of it has common features
with the custumaries of other large Benedictine
houses, such as those of Westminster and Canter-
bury, which have been printed by the Henry Brad-
shaw Society. To such details, regulating the chap-
ter, dormitory, or refectory, blood-letting, &c, or to
the general duties of the obedientaries, we do not here
draw attention.

ter-house, between the lectern and the foot of
the abbot's seat. There he had to remain
whenever the convent assembled in chapter.
Full details are also set forth as to the penitential
positions to be taken up by the de trunculo offen-
der when in choir and refectory. There was
also a fourth grade of discipline de minoribus
penitentiis. A delinquent of this class had
various minor but not degrading duties assigned
him, such as carrying the lamp before the con-
vent, collecting the scraps from the refectory,
&c. Nor was he severely restricted in diet ; it
was permitted to him if ailing to drink beer of
the second quality ' propter stomachi infirmita-
cionem et capitis debilitatem.' 4

Entry is made of the weekly wages (9*. I \d.)
due to the servants of the church. The chap-
lain in charge of the vestments had two servants
receiving \2d. ; the sub-sacrist's boy (yd.; the
cressetarius, who looked after the cressets, 8d.,
but the cerarius only \d.; two steyrarii (?) 1 2d.;
a carpenter, \7.\d.\ a plumber, \2d., and his
servant, 6d.; a janitor of the church, with his
dog, yd.; a janitor of the west door, 2d. ; a
warden of the green gate {custos viridi hostii), bd.;
and a carter {carractarius), 8 id. A memorandum
adds that the carter received from Easter to
Michaelmas l^d. ad nonchenches* the woodman
8d., and the two steyrarii 3^. each week during
the like period. 6

A list of the monastic servants for the year
1284 shows that the cellarer's department had
forty-eight servants of different grades, such as
the porter of the great gate, and the hall
steward, whose names are set forth, and those of
humbler degree who only appear as messor, tres
pistons, or mundator curi. Twenty-four servants
were under the sacrist ; seven under the cham-
berlain, including a tailor and a shoemaker ; six
under the infirmarian ; nine under the almoner ;
and seven under the hosteller or guest-master.
This list takes no account of those of the abbot's
household. 7

A list of the chaplains of the monastery,
drawn up early in the reign of Edward I, gives
the names of three chaplains of the church of
St. Mary, three of the church of St. James, one
general chaplain, and one each of the chapels of
St. Robert, St. Margaret, St. John of the
Mount {de Monte), the Round Chapel, St. Denis,
St. John at the Well {ad fontes), St. Katharine,
St. Faith, the Great Rood, St. John at the Gate,
St. Michael, the chapel of the Brazen Cross {ad
crucem aream), the hospital of St. Saviour, and the
Domus Dei. This gives a total of twenty-one
chaplains supported by the abbey. 8

The distribution of bread of different kinds to
the household is set forth with much nicety in the
custumary. The total of the day's baking amounted

4 Ibid. fol. 5-7.
6 Ibid. fol. 93.

' Ibid. fol. 2 + 2.

5 Possibly a 3 o'clock lunch.
' Ibid. fol. 2373.

A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK

to 94 loaves, in addition to the bread for the abbot's
household, for the monks' refectory, for the
infirmary, and for the guest-houses. The daily
allowance of beer to the household servants
amounted to 82 gallons (/agcnae), whilst 96 gallons
were dispatched once a week to the nuns of
Thetford.

That lordly fish, usually reserved for royalty,
the sturgeon, graced the monastic table on the
anniversary of Richard I, the Transfiguration, the
Nativity of the Blessed Virgin, the feast of All
Saints, the feast of St. Nicholas, and the anniver-
sary of Abbot Samson. On the feast of
St. Denis, fine bread, butter, and cheese, were
provided. A pittance of wine was provided for
the convent at Easter, Ascension, Whitsuntide,
Christmas, the feasts of St. John Baptist,
SS. Peter and Paul, St. Botolph, Relics, St.
Edmund, and the Assumption. On the feast
of Relics a choice was given of 'must' (unfer-
mented wine) or wine.

The pittances of this abbey for the convent
were numerous ; a list given in the custumary
enumerates eighty-two. Thirty-one of these
were on anniversaries, 1 chiefly of their own
abbots or other distinguished men of the house ;
the remainder were on church festivals. The
pittance in some cases was so small that it could
not have made any appreciable difference to the
diet except of a few ; thus there was a pittance
of a mark on the anniversary of Isabel, mother
of Abbot Henry ; and the like amount on the
anniversary of Abbot Edmund. In several cases
where the addition to the usual diet is stated, it
will be seen that the extra food was of a trifling
character. Pancakes and white bread were the
additions at the Epiphany, the Purification, the
feasts of St. John Baptist, SS. Peter and Paul, &c.
On Easter Monday, the octave of Easter,
Michaelmas, Martinmas, the Translation of
St. Benedict, &c, and on a few anniversaries,
onions were supplied. On Easter Day, Whit-
sunday, the feast of St. Edmund and Christmas
Day, apples and pears, as well as pancakes, were
placed on the tables. ' Ringes,' which were
probably round cakes, were supplied on the

1 At the beginning of Registrum Ikworth, which
relates to the infirmary, is a capitular instrument, dated
1257, establishing an anniversary for Stephen the
physician {medicus) and infirmarian of the house.
The document speaks in the highest terms of the
manner in which Brother Stephen had fulfilled the
various offices in the monastery to which he had been
called, but more especially of his devotion and zeal in
the office of infirmarian, particularly at the time of
the sweating sickness. It was therefore resolved to
perpetuate his memory by establishing an anniversary
of his death on St. Mark's Day, when the full office
for the dead was to be said for him and for his father
and mother. A rental of 22/. was assigned for a
pittance for the refreshment of the convent on that
day, out of property in Kyrkgatestrete and Mayd-
waterstrete in St. Edmunds. Lansd. MSS. 416,
fol. 4.

anniversary of Richard I, the Transfiguration,
the anniversary of Abbot Hugh, the feast of
Relics, and the feast of St. Thomas ; and wafers
and biscuits on the feast of St. Nicholas. 3
On forty days in the year, being the
chief feasts, such as Christmas, Circumcision,
Epiphany, &o, the servants of the church
had their meals in the refectory. Particular
details are given as to the Maundy gifts and
observances, including the payment of id. each
by certain of the upper servants, termed ' glove-
silver.'

Among the special privileges of the abbey of
St. Edmunds were the powers bestowed upon
the abbot of conferring minor orders on those of
his own house and the right to call in any bishop
of the Church Catholic to admit monks to the
higher orders within the abbey precincts. Orders
were celebrated in the chancel of the church of
St. Mary in the precincts on the vigil of the
Holy Trinity, 1 40 1, by Bishop Thomas
Aladensis, 3 when three deacons and four priests
were ordained, all monks of the house. At the
September Embertide in the same year Bishop
Thomas again held an ordination in the like
place, ordaining four sub-deacons and three
priests. 4

Moreover, the abbot's privilege went much
further than the giving authority to bishops to
hold special ordinations for his monks. He
could commission the ordaining, through his
own letters dimissory, of any fit candidates for
holy orders within the liberties of St. Edmunds,
whether religious or secular. Thus in 1 410
and 1419, Abbot William of Exeter, writing
from his manor of Elmswell, commissioned John,
archbishop of Smyrna, 5 through letters dimissory
by papal indult, to ordain certain priests who
were not connected with the monastery. 6 The
register of Abbot Curteys (1429—46) has many
of these ordination entries. 7 On the Nativity
of the Blessed Virgin (8 September) 1435, Abbot
Curteys personally ordained four of the monks
from exorcist to acolyte. Again, in the fol-
lowing year six monks were ordained deacons,
in the chapel of St. Stephen, by the bishop of
Emly. 8

'Ibid. fol. 25.

3 Aladensis-Killala, an Irish diocese. This was
Thomas Howell, bishop of Killala ; he was suffragan
of Ely from 1389 until his death in 1404 ; he was
also suffragan of the Isle of Wight for William of
Wykeham.

4 Cott. MS. Tib. B. ix, fols. 140^, 148.

6 John Leicester, archbishop of Smyrna, a Carme-
lite, acted as suffragan of Norwich from 1393 to
1423.

6 Cott. MS. Tib. B. ix, fol. 144^.

7 Add. MS. 14848, fols. 76b, 78, 87. Robert
Windel, bishop of Emly, in Ireland, acted occasion-
ally as suffragan of Norwich, Salisbury, and Worcester
about this period.

8 Ibid. fol. 143^ \6ib.

RELIGIOUS HOUSES

There was an old religious saying to the effect
that a monastery without a library was as a castle
without an armoury. In this respect St. Edmunds
was exceptionally well armed, even in early
days. The library consisted of upwards of
2,000 volumes, and was widely famed. A large
number of them have been identified among the
manuscript treasures of the British Museum, and
of the University and College libraries of Cam-
bridge and Oxford. Abbot Curteys built a
special library for the accommodation of the books
in 1430, and drew up regulations for their use.

It was for a long period, more particularly in
the fifteenth century, considered a high honour
to be made an associate of this celebrated monas-
tery. During the time of Abbot Curteys
(1429-46) admissions to the chapter fraternity
were granted to John Brodwell, doctor of laws ;
William Paston, justice of the King's Bench ;
Thomas Haseley, king's coroner ; William
Brewster, king's clerk ; Richard Beauchamp,
Earl Warwick, with Isabel his wife, Henry and
Anne his children ; Henry, Cardinal St. Euse-
bius ; Eleanor, duchess of Gloucester ; William
Clopton, esquire, of Melford ; Elizabeth Veer,
countess of Oxford ; and William Pole, earl of
Suffolk, and Alice his wife. 2 When Henry VI
and his court bade farewell to St. Edmunds on
St. George's Day, 1434, the Duke of Gloucester
and all the leading courtiers were admitted to all
the spiritual privileges of the monks as sharers in
their prayers and deeds. Last of all the king
himself passed into the chapter-house, where he
was enrolled as one of the holy community of
associates, the abbot greeting him with the
fraternal kiss. 3

It must not be imagined that this powerful
house of Benedictine monks was free from all
outside visitation because of its being exempt
from diocesan or archiepiscopal jurisdiction.
The abbey was just as much subject to the
general provincial chapter of the Benedictines
as the humblest priory of the order. The
general chapter met every three years, and one
of its most important duties was the appointment
of visitors. There are several references to these
periodic inspections in the St. Edmund registers.
Thus in 1393, on the feast of St. Barnabas, this
abbey was visited by the abbot of St. Benet of
Holme, the appointed visitor (as it is stated) of
the general chapter. He did not visit in person,
but appointed the prior and another learned
monk of his house (quendam alium scolare) to act
on his behalf. 4

1 See a scholarly and exhaustive paper on the Library
of St. Edmunds, by Dr. Montague James, president of
King's College, printed by the Camb. Antiq. Soc. in
1895.

'Add. MS. 14848, fols. 21, 53, 103, 157, 312,

5 Arnold, Mem. iii, p. xxxii.
' Cott. MS. Tib. B. ix, fol. 35*.

Moreover, the most distinguished of the four-
teenth-century superiors of St. Edmunds, Abbot
Curteys (1429-46), was himself appointed visitor
of all the Benedictine houses of East Anglia by
the general chapter of the order held at North-
ampton in 1 43 1. In the following year Abbot
Curteys gave formal notice of holding visitations
of such important houses as the abbeys of Holme,
Colchester, and Thorney, and even of the
cathedral priories of Norwich and Ely. These
visitations were not carried out by the abbot in
person, but he commissioned his fellow-monks
John Craneways and Thomas Derham to repre-
sent him. 5 It must have been singularly trying
to the Bishop of Norwich, between whom and
the abbot of St. Edmunds an almost permanently
jealous feud existed, to find his rival holding a
visitation of the cathedral priory at the very gates
of his palace !

The ' Chronica Buriensis,' of the Cambridge
Public Library, contains a sad account of the
charges made against the monks of Bury in the
fourteenth century. Many of them, it was said,
were living in the surrounding villages away
from the monastery, wearing the dress of lay-
men. It was alleged against them in 1345 that
they were engaged in abductions, fightings, riots,
and other unlawful practices, besides having
many illegitimate children. The abbot, William
de Bernham, was plainly accused of connivance at
these disorders, and cited to appear before the
bishop. There can be no manner of doubt that
these complaints, even if they had some real basis,
were greatly exaggerated. When the charges
were formulated on Bishop Bateman's behalf, it
was with the avowed intention of securing to
himself the visitation of Bury, and his agents
were naturally inclined to make out as black a
case as possible. Moreover, the only authority
for this grievous censure is the chronicle first cited,
whose writer proceeds to state that it was a gross
libel full of malignant falsehoods. True the
writer was a monk, but he was a monk of
Holme and not of St. Edmunds. At all events,
the bishop's attempt to upset the abbey's exempt
jurisdiction completely failed both in secular and
ecclesiastical courts.

Mr. Arnold assumes that Abbot Bernham was
a careless administrator, and that discipline was
generally slack under his rule. 6 During the fif-
teenth and sixteenth centuries, however, he states
that ' nothing from any quarter turns up to their
(the monks') discredit.' 7 With this opinion our
own perfectly independent and unbiased investi-
gation coincides. Legh and Ap Rice's compertii,
which have been already discussed, are in reality
strong confirmation of this favourable judgement.
The monks of St. Edmunds, whatever may have
been their failings in the more remote past,

5 Add. MS. 14848, fols. 84-;.

6 Arnold, Mem. iii, pp. x, xiii, XV, 65-8.

7 Ibid. p. xxxv.

A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK

appear to have been well discharging their re-
ligious and social duties at the very time of their
forcible dispersion.

Abbots of Bury St. Edmunds 1

Uvius, 1020-44

Leofstan, 1044-65

Baldwin, 1065-97

Robert I, 1 100-2

Robert II, 1 102-7

Albold, 1 1 14-19

Anselm, 1 121-46

Ording, 1146-56

Hugh I, 1 157-80

Samson, 1 182-12 1 1

Hugh II, 1215-29

Richard, 1229-34

Henry of Rushbrook, 1235-48

Edmund of Walpole, 1248-56

Simon of Luton, 1257-79

John of Northwold, 1279-1301

Thomas of Tottington, 1302-12

Richard of Draughton, 1312-35

William of Bernham, 1335-61

Henry of Hunstanton, 1 36 1

John of Brinkley, 1361—79

John of Timworth, 1379-89

William of Cratfield, 1390-141 5

William of Exeter, 1415-29

William Curteys, 1429-46

William Babington, 1446-53

John Bohun, 1453-69

Robert Ixworth, 1469-74

Richard Hengham, 1474-79

Thomas Rattlesden, 1479-97

William Cadenham, 1 497—1 513

John Reeve, 1513-39

The first seal (twelfth century) of the abbey
is a pointed oval bearing St. Edmund seated on a
throne with a curved footboard crowned, with
sceptre in right hand and orb in left. Legend : —

SIGILLUM SANCTO EAD

CIS

IRIS.

A large fourteenth-century seal shows the
abbey church of elaborate design, with two small
circular openings with busts in the upper part.
The lower part has three niches ; in the impres-
sion (Cott. Ch. xxi, 7) the centre is wanting, but
there is a crowned king on each side. Legend : —

SIGILL . . . CONVENTUS. ECCLES .... MUNDI .
REGIS. ET MARTIR.

The reverse bears a cross of St. Andrew, in
base the Martyrdom of St. Edmund, a wolf
guarding the head ; above, the Almighty holding
a crown between two angels ; on the cross two
angels receiving the martyr's soul in a cloth.

1 This list of abbots is taken in the main from that
given in Lakynhethe's Register (Harl. MS. 743),
but it has been collated with several other lists, and the
dates slightly amended.

' Engraved in Yates, Hist. pt. i, 37. B. M. Cast,
Loci, 90.

Legend : —

TELIS : CONFODITUR : EADMUNDUS ". ET : ENSE :

FERITUR
BESTIA : QUEM : MUNIT : DEUS : LUME :

CELESTIB ' 3

A beautiful privy seal of the thirteenth cen-
tury bears the martyrdom of St. Edmund. The
king is represented tied to a tree and pierced with
many arrows ; on the left are three archers, and
on the right two archers shooting at the king.
In the base, under an arch, is the decapitation of
the saint by a swordsman, and on the right a
wolf bearing away the head. Legend : —

SIGNUM : SECRETUM. CAPL'l \ AEDMUNDI !

REGIS : ET : MARTIRIS.

The reverse bears St. Edmund crowned and
seated on a throne between two bishops, each
holding a crozier. Legend : —

ed : rex :

pontificatus 4

AGMINE : STIRPATUS I SEDET

. 4

Impressions of the seals of Abbots Samson,
Richard de Insula, Simon de Luton, and John
Reeve are also extant.

2. THE PRIORY OF EYE

The Benedictine priory of Eye, dedicated in
honour of St. Peter, was founded by Robert
Malet, in the time of the Conqueror, as a cell to
the abbey of Bernay. The very liberal foundation
charter gave to the monks of Eye a portion of the
founder's burgage in the town of Eye, together
with the tithe of the market, and the church,
all the churches which then existed or might
subsequently be erected in the town of Dunwich,
the tithes of that town, and a three days' fair on
the feast of St. Lawrence, and also the schools
(scolas) of Dunwich ; the churches of Bading-
ham, ' Benseya,' Benhall, Burgh, Bedfield,
Brundish, Denston, ' Helegleya,' ' Helegistow,'
Laxfield, Mells, Playford, ' Pelecoth,' Sedge-
brook, Stradbroke, Stoke, Sutton St. Margaret,
Tattingstone, Thorndon, Thornham, Welbourn,
and Wingfield ; tithes and portions in several
other parishes ; the vills of Stoke and Badfield ;
land in Badingham, Fressingfield, &c. ; and
several mills and fisheries. After specifying his
own donations at length, the founder confirmed
various other donations made to the priory by
his barons and other persons holding under him
by military service. Among these gifts were
two parts of his tithe in Huntingfield, Linstead
and ' Benges,' by Roger de Huntingfield ; the
church of St. Botolph, Iken, and two parts of
his tithe in ' Clakesthorp ' and ' Glenham,' by
William de Roville ; the church and vill of
Brome, by Hugh de Avilers ; half the church
of Gislingham, by Godard de Gislingham and

* Dugdale, Mon. iii, pi. 17.
4 Yates, Hist, v, pi. 37.

E., Prior of Snape, c. 1200

John, Pr:or of Mendham, 1307

^-A

Abbey of Riky Sr. Edmunds

A x 1

Abbey or Bi-ry St. Edmonds [flbvtru) *■•" °» BtRV Sr - Edmunds (ft

Suffolk Mon vstic Se/ , Pi iti I

RELIGIOUS HOUSES

his wife ; the church of Braiseworth, by
Geoffrey de Braiseworth, &c, &c. In further
augmentation the founder gave the church of
Yaxley, with all the churches and tithes of the
house of Eye, together with the privilege of a
four - days' fair at Eye. This charter was
solemnly offered on the high altar of the church
of Eye. Beatrice, sister of the founder, added
to all this, by an independent charter, the gift
of the hamlet (villula) of Redlingfield.

King Stephen in 1 138 granted to the monks
a full charter of confirmation ; among the wit-
nesses were his son Eustace and his queen
Matilda. William, earl of Boulogne, son of
Stephen, granted confirmation of the priory's
possessions at Stoke and Occold, and the priory
also received a confirmatory grant from Thomas
a Becket, as archbishop of Canterbury. 1

The exceptionally large church patronage
held by this priory aroused particular attention at
Rome ; various popes desiring to secure some of
its preferments for their friends or favourites.
As early as 125 1 the pope (Innocent IV) issued
his mandate making provision in favour of Giles,
a scholar, son of Lanfranc Rossi, of Genoa, of
a benefice of the prior and convent of Eye,
worth thirty or forty marks. In July, 1264,
Pope Urban IV directed the Bishop of Norwich
to make provision to Master Walter of Lincoln,
a poor clerk, of some church in the gift of the
prior and convent of Eye, usually assigned to
secular clerks, his fitness as to learning and his
life and conversation having been inquired into
by the bishop. The bishop was also instructed
to enforce residence. 2

The taxation roll of 1291 abounds in refer-
ences to the possessions of the priory of Eye. 3
The value of the spiritualities amounted to
^58 145. ; the appropriated rectory of Eye
was worth ^33 6s. 8d. a year, All Saints',
Dunwich, ^10 131. 4-d., and Play ford £8 ; and
there were appropriations of pensions and por-
tions from twenty-six other churches. The

1 These five charters are cited at length in Dug-
dale's Mon. iii, 404-6. Bishop Tanner quotes from
two chartularies of Eye, the whereabouts of which
are not now known. Fortunately, however, in the
collections of Sir Symonds D'Ewes there are tran-
scripts or abstracts of the contents of both. The
volume containing them is Harl. MS. 639 ; fols.
58-68 give the abstracts from the chartulary known as
' Malet,' and fols. 68-71 of that known as 'Danoun.'
The first of these gives full copies of the five charters
that appear in the Mon. and of various compositions
as to tithes, and of charters of Kings Richard I,
John, and Henry III, and of Popes Adrian and
Innocent III, and Richard, king of the Romans ;
there is nothing later than Henry Ill's reign.
'Danoun' is shorter, and is chiefly concerned with
the rentals and custumaries of different manors.

' Cal. Pap. Reg. i, 273, 414.

3 Pope Nieh. Tax (Rec. Com.), 606, 62, 80,
84^, 115*, 116, n63, 117*, 118, n8£, 123, 123*,
125^, 127, 127^, 128A, 129*, 130*.

temporalities, from twenty different manors
or parishes, amounted to the annual value
of £65 10s. <)\d., giving a full total of
£124 4 j. g}d.

The full accounts of the manor of Eye for
1297-8, when it was in the hands of the crown
owing to the war with France, are extant.
They show that the total receipts from rents,
manorial court dues, &c. amounted to ^54 5;. 5^.,
whilst the expenses were £4. is. $\d.

The accounts for the same year of other
property of the priory, paid to the receivers or
crown bailiffs, show that the tithes of the chapel
of Badingham and of the churches of St.
Leonard and All Saints, Dunwich, together with
certain rents, amounted to ^33 in. io\d. ;
the sale of corn realized £39 8j. 3^. These
items, with certain smaller amounts, produced
a total of ^73 131. i^d. But the outgoings
were £49 2s. ^d. ; of this sum £37 8j. b\d.
were spent on the sustenance of the nine monks
of the priory. The clear total handed to the
crown that year from the priory seems to have
been £74 14s. ^d.*

An extent of the possessions of Eye taken
in 1370, during the war of Edward III
with France, gives its total annual value as
£123 in. Sd. s

The Valor of 1535 gives (112 191. 5^.
as the clear annual value of the temporalities from
the manors of Eye, Stoke, 'Acolt,' Laxfield,
Bedfield, and Fressingfield. As to the spirituali-
ties, the churches of Laxfield, Yaxley, All
Saints, Dunwich, and Playford in Suffolk, and
Barchly and Sedgebrook in Lincoln, were ap-
propriated to the priory. They also received
portions or pensions from twenty-three Suffolk
churches, with one from Essex, two from Lin-
coln, and two from Norfolk, yielding a total
income in spiritualities of ^71 I0>. 2d. But
the outgoings from this part of their income
were so considerable, including £14. 1 2s. ^d.
given to the poor, that the clear value was
only £23 Js. 4^d. t leaving a total income of

£161 2s. 3 y.*~

The income of the monks, on the eve of
dissolution, would certainly have been higher,
had it not been for their serious losses at Dun-
wich from the incursions of the sea. There
was only one church at Dunwich, dedicated to
St. Felix, in the days of the Confessor, but two
more were built in the reign of the Conqueror,
and several others shortly afterwards, so that
there were churches of St. Felix, St. Leonard,
St. John Baptist, St. Martin, St. Nicholas, St.
Peter, St. Michael, St. Bartholomew, All Saints,
and the Templars' church of St. Mary, by the

4 Mins. Accts. bdle. 996, No. 12. Certain of the
spiritualities escaped record in these accounts.

4 Add. MS. 6164, fol. 424; Dugdale, Mon. iii.
407-S, where it is set forth in full.

6 Valor Eccl. (Rec. Com.), iii, 476-7.

73 10

A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK

beginning of the thirteenth century. St. Felix
and the cell of the priory of Eye (which is
noticed independently) were among the first to
perish, and these were followed, at about 1300,
by the loss of St. Leonard's church. 1 About
1 33 1, the sea swallowed up the churches of
St. Bartholomew and St. Michael. 3 The last
institution to St. Martin's was in 1335, and to
St. Nicholas's in 1352. St. John Baptist's church
was taken down to save the materials from the
sea in 1540. St. Peter's was not pulled down
till 1702.' The ruins of All Saints' are now
gradually disappearing over the cliff.

In 1 29 1 the taxation roll shows that their
total income from Dunwich was ^40 2s. 2d. at
that date. In 1535 they had no income in
temporalities from Dunwich, and merely received
jTio 1 3*. \d. from the rectory of All Saints, a
portion of 13J. \d. from the church of St. John,
and a general pension from the remains of other
parishes of 26*. Sd.

In April, 1296, the king, when at Berwick-
on-Tweed, instructed the treasurer and barons
of the Exchequer to cause the custody of the
priory of Eye to be restored to Edmund earl of
Cornwall, to be held by writ of Exchequer,
securing the right of the king and others ; for
the king had learnt from an inquisition that
Edmund took the custody of the priory into his
hands on Thursday before Palm Sunday, 1294,
as true patron and advocate (advocatus) thereof,
by reason of the death of Richard the late
prior ; and that Richard, Edmund's father, had
always had the custody in times of voidance ;
and that on the eve of St. Andrew, 1295,
Richard Oysel, by reason of the king's orders
to take into the king's hands (on account of the
war) the alien houses in Norfolk and Suffolk,
ejected the earl and his men from the priory
and barns and outer manors. 4

On the death of Prior Nicholas Ivelyn, in
1 3 13, a dispute again arose as to the charge of
the priory during the vacancy. The king's
escheator and his bailiffs of the honour of Eye
seized into the king's hands the priory with its
appurtenances. The alleged reason for this
action was that the advowson had fallen in by
the death of Margaret, late the wife of Edmund
earl of Cornwall, who held it in dower by
grant of her husband of the king's inheritance.
But the sub-prior and convent represented that
Eye Priory was founded by Robert Malet as a
cell of the abbey of Bernay in Normandy, and
that neither the founder nor his heirs, nor
Henry III, into whose hands the priory fell as
an escheat by forfeiture, nor the earls of Corn-
wall, who afterwards held the advowson as a gift

1 Gardner, Hist, of Dunwich (1754), passim.

* Harl. MS. 639, fol. 71, where it is said that
the fruits of these two parish churches had been
worth £40 to the monks.

5 Gardner, passim. ' Close, 24 Edw. I, m. 8.

of Henry III, were accustomed to receive any-
thing out of the priory at time of voidance, but
only to appoint a warden or janitor for the gates
of the house, who had during voidance merely a
competent sustenance as a token of their dominion.
A commission was appointed on 17 July to
inquire as to this, and on 10 August the tem-
poralities were restored to Durand Frowe, who
had been preferred by the abbot of Bernay to be
prior of Eye. 5 In October, 13 13, the king's
licence was obtained for the appropriation of the
church of Laxfield, the advowson of which was
already held of the priory ; for this licence a
fine of j£20 was paid by the prior. 6 The
appropriation of Laxfield was not, however,
carried out until 10 January, 1326. Ten days
later grant was made by Edward II assuring the
priory of the payment as before to them of the
pensions out of the churches of Thorndon and
Mells, the advowsons of which they had quit-
claimed to the king. 7

The farm of £94 ioj. due from the alien
priory of Eye was assigned by Edward III,
in 1347, to the king's scholars at Cambridge,
during the war. 8

At the special request of the queen, their
patron, and on payment of a fine of £60, the
alien prior and convent of Eye were, in 1385,
granted a charter of denization. The priors
were henceforth to be Englishmen. No subsidy
was hereafter to be exacted from them as aliens,
but the priory was in all respects to be like that
of Thetford. It was stated that at this time,
through ill-government, the priory had become
so impoverished that it could hardly maintain a
prior and three or four monks. Certain persons
had, however, promised to relieve and repair it
when nationalized. 9

The visitations of this house during the latter
part of its existence are much to its credit.
Archdeacon Goldwell, as commissary of his
brother the bishop, visited this priory in February,
1494, when Richard Norwich the prior and
nine monks were present. It was found that
no reform was needed. 10 The next recorded
visitation was in August, 15 14, when Bishop
Nykke visited in person. Three of the eight
monks who were examined testified omnia bene.
The rest made various complaints, the nature of
which appears in the bishop's injunctions. The
bishop ordered the prior to procure the return
of the books lent to Doctor White before
Christmas, and to exhibit a true inventory and
statement of accounts before the Michaelmas
synod ; he also ordered that Margery, the washer-
woman, was not for the future to enter the

5 Pat. 7 Edw. II, pt. i, mm. 16, lyd.

6 Ibid. m. 8.

7 Ibid. 19 Edw. II, pt. 1, m. 6.

8 Ibid. 20 Edw. Ill, pt. iii, m. 9.
3 Ibid. 8 Ric. II, pt. i, m. 3.

10 Jessopp, Visit. 40.

RELIGIOUS HOUSES

priory precincts. The visitation was adjourned
until Michaelmas. 1

The suffragan Bishop of Chalcedon and other
commissaries visited in August, 1520. Richard
Bettys, the prior, expressed himself as in every
way satisfied ; but the eight monks all gave
utterance to their suspicions of the prior's
dealings with one Margery Verre or Veer. It
was also complained that the prior had presented
no accounts since the first year of his appoint-
ment, and that he had sold certain silver bowls.
The commissaries were evidently not satisfied,
for the visitation was adjourned until Christmas. 2

The visitation of July, 1526, by Bishop
Nykke in person, when John Eia was prior, was
quite satisfactory. The nine monks, as well as
the prior, were severally examined by the bishop ;
none of them knew of anything needing reform,
save the negligent keeping of the common seal,
which was mentioned by the subchanter. The
bishop ordered a chest to be prepared with three
locks and keys, and dissolved the visitation. 3

The last recorded visitation was also personally
conducted by Bishop Nykke in July, 1532.
William Hadley, the prior, presented his accounts
showing a balance in hand of 495. 5§d. It
appeared that the common seal was still kept in
a coffer with only one key. Complaint was
made that they had two ordinals, one old and
one new, and that there were erasures in both
leading to confusion and dispute. Eight monks
were examined in addition to the prior. A page
is left in the register for Reformanda, but it has
never been filled up. 4

The acknowledgement of the king's supremacy
was signed in the chapter-house by William the
prior, William Norwich the sub-prior, and six
others, on 20 October, 1 534.'

The Suffolk commissioners visited this priory
on 26 August, 1536, and drew up a complete
inventory of goods and chattels. The furniture
of the high altar and quire was of trifling value,
the only item of moment being ' one payer of
old organs ner to the Qwyer Iytell worth, at xs.'
There were small ' tables ' of alabaster both in
the lady chapel and the chapel of St. Nicholas.
In the vestry was silver to the value of
^13 4*. 6d., including three chalices and a pair
of censers. In addition to a variety of vest-
ments were ' iii Iytell boxes of sylver with
relyques, vj.' ' an arme of tymber garnysshed
with sylver called Saint Blasis arme, at vij. viiid.,'
and 'a Iytell piece of timber with a piece of a
rybbe in it, at xd.' 'An old masse boke called
the redde boke of Eye garnysshed with a Iytell
sylver on the one side, the residewe Iytell worth,
xxd.,' refers to the book of St. Felix from the
destroyed cell of Dunwich ; the 20d. would be

1 Jessopp, Visit. 140-2.

'Ibid. 183-5.

3 Ibid. 221-3.

4 Rymer, Foedera, xiv, 515.

* Ibid. 294-6.

the value of a silver boss or corner, the residue
in reality was simply priceless. 6

The contents of the 'Queen's chamber' were
valued at "]s. id., the 'paynted chamber' 5/.,
the 'inner chamber' 3;. 4^., and the ' grene
chamber' I Of. \Q>d. In the pantry were some
silver spoons, a goblet, a salt, and four masers
with silver bands. The simple contents of the
kitchen, bakehouse, brewery and parlour are also
set forth, as well as cattle worth £6 19*. 8d.,
and ^10 as the value of the ' Corne growynge
opon the demaynes.' The total came to
£45 lys. iod. 7

The formal suppression of the house took
place on 12 February, 1 536—7,® and on 7 April,
1537, the slte °f tne priory and the whole of
its possessions were granted to Charles duke of
Suffolk. 9

A pension of £18 was granted to William
Parker, the prior. 10

Priors of Eye

Hubert, temp. William the Conqueror and

Henry I u
Gauselins, temp. Henry I ls
Osbert, temp. Henry II 13
Roger, died 2 id. April 14
Godwinus, died 5 id. April
Silvester Bolton, died 16 kal. Mart
William de Sancto Petro, died 2 id. December
John Belyng, died 13 kal. January
Wakelin, temp. John 15
Roger, occurs 1202, 1215, 1228, 1232,

1235 1S
Richard Jacob, occurs 1237 17
William Puleyn, occurs 1242, 1244, 1255,

1276, 1282 18
Nicholas Ivelyn, appointed 1300 19
Durand Frowe, appointed 1313 20
Robert Morpayn, appointed 1323 s1
Michael Renard, died 1380 w

6 See account of Dunwich Priory.
' Suff. Arch. Inst. Proc. viii, 105-8.
8 L. and P. Hen. Fill, xii (1), 510.

' Ibid. 1 103 (11). ,0 Ibid, xiii (1), 1520.

11 Chartul. Danoun, 49, 675.

" Ibid. 67b ; Malet, 22.

13 Chartul. Malet, lib ; Danoun, 6jb.

" These next five priors occur in a list in the
Danoun chartulary, with the days of their obits, but no
year. Reg. Eye, fol. 23. This is a register of Eye in
the possession of the Marquis of Cornwallis. Of
this register Mr. Davy made an abstract in 1814
(Add. MS. 19089, pp. 196-344) ; Chartul.
Danoun, fol. 66b.

15 Reg. Eye, fols. 39, 70. " Ibid. fols. 50, 51.

" Chartul. Danoun, 66b.

"Ibid. fols. 30, 47, 55 ; Chartul. Malet, 50^:
Danoun, 67.

19 Norwich Epis. Reg. i, 16.

*> Pat. 7 Edw. II, pt. i, m. 8.

" Norwich Epis. Reg. i, 102 ; Pat. 17 Edw. II,
pt. ii, ra. 27.

Norw. Epis. Reg. vi, 71.

John de Farnham, appointed 1380 l
Thomas de Falcenham, appointed 1 39 1 2
Silvester Bolton, appointed 1 43 1 3
John Eye, appointed 1433*
Thomas Cambrigg, appointed 1440 6
Thomas Norwych, appointed 1462 6
Augustine Sceltone, occurs 1 487 7
Richard Norwich, occurs 1492 8
Richard Bettys, occurs 1520 9
John Eia, occurs 1526 10
William Hadley, occurs 1532 ll
William Parker, surrendered 1536-7"

The first seal of the priory represents St. Peter,
full length, in the right hand two keys, and in
the left an open book. Over his shoulders are a
crescent and a star. Legend : —

A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK

t sigill'

NTUS. SAN

3. THE PRIORY OF DUNWICH

In early days the monastery of Eye, to which
all the churches of Dunwich had been assigned
by the Conquerer, possessed a cell or small priory
in that town. It was swallowed up by the sea
about the time of Edward I. Leland states that
the monks of Eye, in his days, possessed an
ancient textus or book of the Gospels, brought
from this cell, called in later days, ' The Red
Book of Eye,' which had belonged to St. Felix. 14

Gardner, writing in 1 754, makes mention of
what was probably the last trace of this cell.
Common or Covent Garden, abutting on Sea-
Field, was a plot of ground whereon grew large
crops of thyme, &c, which created in many people
a belief that it was a garden for the service of the
whole town. But the name rather implies the
foundation of some convent thereabouts. Also
mention is made of a cell of monks at Dunwich
subordinate to Eye, destroyed some ages past, so
possibly it was a curtilage appertaining to the
religious house. And as the sea made encroach-
ments thereupon many human bones were dis-
covered, whereby part thereof manifestly appeared
to have been a place of sepulture, which was
washed away in the winter Ann. Dom. 1740. 15

1 Norwich Epis. Reg. vi, 71.
1 Ibid, vi, 158.

3 Ibid, ix, 51.

4 Ibid, x, 36.

6 Ibid, xi, 134.

7 Harl. MS. 639, fol. 64*.

8 Cott. MS. xxvii, fol. 90^.

9 Jessopp, Visit. 183.
11 Ibid. 295.

" Pensioned ; L. and P. Hen. Fill, xii (1), 510.
u B.M. Cast lxxi, p. 109 ; Dugdale, Mm. iii,
pt. xix, fig. 5, from Harl. Chart. 44, D. 42.

14 Leland, Collectanea, iv, 26.

15 Gardner, Hist, of Dunwich, 62. For further parti-
culars see under ' Priory of Eye.'

* Ibid, ix, 68.

Ibid.

4. THE PRIORY OF EDWARD-
STONE

The story of the small short-lived priory of
Edwardstone can soon be told. Hubert de Mon-
chesney, lord of the manor, gave the church of
Edwardstone, in the year 1 1 14, with all its
appurtenances, to the abbot and monks of Abing-
don, Berks. In the following year this grant
was confirmed by Henry I, in whose charter
mention is also made of two parts of the tithes of
'Stanetona' and ' Stanesteda,'of thetithesof mills
and underwood, and of pannage for pigs, &c.
A further confirmation was granted by the Arch-
bishop of Canterbury. 16

Hence it came to pass that two or more Bene-
dictine monks were placed at Edwardstone to
hold it as a priory or cell of Abingdon. This
arrangement, however, only lasted until 1 160.
In that year Hugh de Monchesney, the son of
the founder, with the assent of his own son and
heir Stephen, allowed the removal of these
two monks, at the wish of Abbot Wathelin,
to the larger priory or cell of Colne in Essex. 17
Colne itself became an independent priory in
1311.

5. THE PRIORY OF HOXNE

A small religious house existed at Hoxne in
pre-Norman times, dedicated in honour of St.
Athelbright ; it is mentioned in the will of
Bishop Theodred II, in 962. Probably it formed
part of the bishop's manor of Hoxne, for Bishop
Herbert, of Norwich, founded here a cell in
1101, in connexion with the great Benedictine
cathedral priory, which Ralph, the sewer, rebuilt
from the ground. 13

Bishop Herbert's charter granted the parish
church of St. Peter, Hoxne, and the chapel of
St. Edmund, king and martyr, to the monks of
Norwich, and the cell and priory were removed
to the immediate vicinity of the historic chapel
under Bishop de Blunville, who was conse-
crated in 1226. Bishop Roger de Skarning in
1267 consecrated a churchyard for the priory.
The house consisted of a prior, removable at will
by the prior and convent of Norwich, and seven
or eight monks. The monks kept a school for
the children of the parish, and supported or
boarded two of the scholars. 19

16 Abingdon Chartul. (Cott. MS. Claud. B, vi),
fol. 137.

17 Dugdale, Mon. iv, 96, 10 1.
13 Proc. Stiff. Arch. Inst, vii, 41.

19 Blomefield, Hist. o/Norf. iii, 607-10. Blomefield
had access to a chartulary of Hoxne, which was then
(1743) in the hands of Mr. Martin of Dalgrave, and
from which he took his information as to the succession
of the priors and the gifts of benefactors. This
chartulary cannot now be traced.

RELIGIOUS HOUSES

Blomefield names various benefactions. The
chief of these was the manor, with the chapel
of Ringshall, granted to this priory by the mother
house in 1294. Luke, the parish chaplain of
Ringshall, made a return on oath that the chapel
was a free chapel belonging to the prior of
Norwich, who assigned it to his cell of St.
Edmund at Hoxne ; that it was endowed with
thirty-two acres of land, and two parts of all the
tithe corn and hay of the ancient demesnes of
Sir Richard de la Rokele and Robert de la
Wythakysham and their tenants in Ringshall ;
and that the tithes were then of the value of 30J.
per annum.

In 131 3 Robert Guer, chaplain, had the whole
of the endowments of Ringshall assigned him for
life, paying 30;. a year to Hoxne priory, serving
the chapel thrice a week, and keeping the houses
in repair.

Gilbert, bishop of Orkney, as suffragan of
Norwich, granted a forty days' indulgence to all
persons making a pilgrimage to the image of
St. Edmund in the priory chapel of Hoxne,
and making offerings for the repairs of the
chapel.

Although Hoxne priory was allowed to hold
property granted to it independently of the
mother house of Norwich, the priors of Hoxne
were bound to make annual returns to Norwich
of their accounts. Among the obedientiary rolls
preserved in the cathedral there are a large
number of the annual accounts of this cell.
They extend from 1395 to 1399, and from
1407 to 1 410 ; and there are thirty others at
irregular intervals, the last one being for the
year 1534.

In the time of Henry VI the annual value of
the lands and rents of this cell was returned at
^27. The commissioners of the Valor of 1535
made no return of the priory of Hoxne, content-
ing themselves with stating that it was a cell of
Norwich under Nicholas Thurkill, the prior, and
that the accounts would be included in those of
the cathedral priory. 1

This priory obtains occasional mention in
wills. In 1375 John Elys, rector of Occold
Magna, left 3*. \d. to the repairs of the chapel
of St. Edmund, and a rood of meadow-land near
Hoxne Bridge in perpetual alms. Bishop
Brown of Norwich, by will of 1445, gave forty
marks to the reconstruction of the chapel. 2

William Castleton, the last prior and first dean
of Norwich, in view of the coming dissolution,
alienated the property of the cell to Sir Richard
Gresham, recalling the monks to Norwich. For
this act he was pardoned by the king on
1 April, 1538 ; the patent sanctioning this
transfer declared the clear annual value of the
cell to be £18 is. 3

1 fa/or Eccl, (Rec. Com.), iii, 461.

' Proc. Stiff. Arch. Inst, vii, 42.

1 L. and P. Hen. Fill, xiii (1), 652.

Priors of Hoxne 4

Hervey

Richard de Hoxne

Roger

William de Acle

John de Shamelisford

Geoffrey de Norwich, 141 1

Nicholas de Kelfield, 1424

John Eglington, 1430

William Mettingham, c. 1428

John Elmham, c. 1438

John Eston, 1441

John Eshgate, 1452

Robert Gatelee, 1453

John Eston (again), 1453

Robert Bretenham, c. 1460

Simon Folcard, c. 1473

Nicholas Berdney, c. 20 Edw. IV, 1 480

Robert Swaffham, removed 1492

John Attleburgh, 1492

Thomas Pellis, 1509

Stephen Darsham, 1523

Nicholas Thurkill, 1535

6. THE PRIORY OF RUMBURGH

The priory of Rumburgh was founded between
1064 and 1070 by Ethelmar, bishop of Elmham,
and Thurstan, abbot of St. Benet at Holme, and
supplied with a few monks, with Brother Blakere
at their head, from that Benedictine foundation. 5
These monks are named in the Domesday Survey
as being then twelve in number.

Some time in the reign of Henry I, either
Stephen, the second earl of Richmond and Bre-
tagne, or his son Alan, the third earl, gave this
priory as a cell to the abbey of St. Mary, York. 6
In the charters relative to this gift the priory
church of St. Michael's, Rumburgh, is described
as in possession of the churches of Wisset, Spex-
hall, Holton, and South Cove, with other lands,
tithes, and woods ; to these the earl added the
Norfolk churches of Banham and Wilby with
all their appurtenances. It was definitely laid
down in Earl Alan's charter that the prior and
monks of Rumburgh were to be appointed by
the abbot and convent of York, and were to be
removable at will.

' This list is the one drawn up by Blomefield (iii,
609-10) from the lost chartulary, &c. ; he was not
able to fix the dates or order of the first five.

1 Cott. MS. Galba, E. ii, fol. 59 (Reg. of
St. Bcnet's).

6 In Bishop Everard's charter the foundation is
ascribed to Earl Alan, but in a charter of Geoffrey
bishop of Ely, to Earl Stephen. Both charters are
given in Dugdale, Mon. iii, 612. There is a sm.-.ll
roll of charters relating to this cell at the British
Museum (L. F. C. ix, 9) ; they are eleven in number,
and include that of Stephen earl of Richmond,
several episcopal confirmations, and references to the
church of Banham.

A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK

This injunction was always observed down to
the dissolution. The abbot appointed the prior
of this cell, which was jointly dedicated in honour
of St. Michael and St. Felix, and removed him at
will. The unusual practice in such a case was
also invariably observed of presenting each suc-
cessive prior to the Bishop of Norwich for his
sanction, although the priory could not be con-
sidered a benefice. Owing to the frequent
recall of these priors, the number recorded in the
diocesan institution books is abnormally large.

The taxation roll of 1 29 1 shows that the
income of the priory was then £35 5s. I if//.
Of this sum £10 12s. I if//, was from lands or
rents in different parishes, whilst the spiritualities
that made up the remainder were portions from
the rectories of 'Canburgh,' North Tuddenham,
Barnham, Swaffham, Chediston, Sibton, Spex-
hall, South Cove, Wicks, and Ryburgh, in
Norwich diocese ; and from those of Bassing-
burne, Little Abington, and Lynton, in Ely
diocese. 1

An attempt was made by the Earl of Rich-
mond, in 1 1 99, on the appointment of John de
Acaster to be prior of Rumburgh, to claim the
position of patron to that cell. But on an in-
quisition being held, the jury returned that the
lords of Richmond never had custody nor seisin
of the cell of Rumburgh during vacancies. 2

Rumburgh was one of those small priories
included for suppression, in favour of Cardinal
Wolsey's great college at Ipswich, in the bull of
Clement VII, dated 14 May, 1528. 3

On 11 September, 1525, Dr. Stephen Gar-
diner, at the commission of Cardinal Wolsey,
and under his seal, arrived at Rumburgh, and
there in the convent declared to the prior and
monks, with the authority of the pope and the
king, the suppression of the house, assigned the
goods both movable and immovable to Wolsey's
college at Ipswich, and ordered that the religious
should enter other monasteries of the same order.
Thomas Cromwell and others were present as
witnesses. 4 On the news reaching York,
Edmund, abbot of St. Mary's, wrote, on 24 Sep-
tember, complaining that among the goods taken
away from Rumburgh by the commission were
certain muniments belonging to the monastery of
York, which had lately been sent there for re-
ference in a dispute between the abbey and men
of worship in Cambridgeshire. He also begged
that the priory might be allowed to remain a
member of their monastery as it had been for
three centuries. The rents of the cell were
little more than £30 a year, and the abbot and
his brethren were quite willing to give instead
300 marks to the college. 6

1 PopeNich. Tax. (Rec. Com.), 85/5, 87, 117, \iU,
119, 121, 126, 126^, 127, 131, 266^, 267, 267^.
'Harl. MS. 236, fol. 55.

3 Rymer, Toedera, xiv, 240.

1 L. andP. Hen. Fill, iv, 4755.

4 Cott. MS. Cleop. E. iv, 46.

However, in March, 1528-9, the abbey felt
compelled to execute a formal release and quit-
claim of the priory of Rumburgh to the car-
dinal's college. 6

On the cardinal's downfall, Rumburgh priory
and its property reverted to the crown and was
granted to Robert Downes, who had licence, on
1 April, 1 53 1, to alienate it to Thomas, duke
of Norfolk. 7

A survey of the site of the monastery taken
soon after its suppression, wherein the dimen-
sions of the different buildings are set out, states
that ' there ys a seynt in the churche of Rum-
burgh called Seynt Bory, to the which there is
moche offeryng uppon Michelmasday of money
and cheses.' 8

Priors of Rumburgh '

Blakere, c. 1070 10

John de Acaster, 1199 11

William de Tolberton, 1308 ls

Matthew de Ebor, 131 1 13

James de Morlound, 1316 H

William de Touthorp, 1319 16

Geoffrey de Rudston, 1322 le

Adam de Sancto Botulpho, 1331 "

William de Newton, 1331 ls

John de Maghenby, 1332 19

Roger de Aslakby, recalled 1343 s0

John de Manneby (? Maghenby again), 1347 !1

Alexander de Wath, resigned 1347 22

Richard de Burton, 1347 23

John de Gayton, recalled, 1357 M

John de Martone, 1357 25

Richard de Appilton, 1361 26

Thomas Lastels, 1370 27

John de Garton, 1373 28

Nicholas Kelfeld, recalled 1392 "

Thomas de Helmeslay, 1392 M

William de Dalton, 1394 31

John Selby, 1405 32

William Hewyk, 1407 33

Thomas Ampulforth, 1412 34

Thomas Staveley, 1 4 1 7 3S

Thomas Gasgy 11, 1426 K

I L. and P. Hen. Vlll, iv, 5353 (5), 5354.

7 Pat. 23 Hen. VIII, pt. i, m. 17.

8 Dugdale, Mm. v, 615. Possibly St. Birinus, of
Dorchester.

9 The dates are those of appointment unless other-
wise stated.

10 Cott. MS. Galba, E. ii, fol. 59.

II Harl. MS. 236, fol. 55.

" Norw. Epis. Reg. i, 28. ■ Ibid, i, 44.

" Ibid, i, 66. 15 Ibid, i, 78. " Ibid, i, 95.

17 Ibid, ii, 41. 18 Ibid, ii, 46. 19 Ibid, ii, 49.

20 Ibid, iii, 72. " Ibid. M Ibid, iv, 66.

83 Ibid. " Ibid, v, 22. " Ibid.

* Ibid, v, 49. B Ibid, vi, 8. w Ibid, vi, 2 1 .

29 Ibid, vi, 168. "Ibid. ■ Ibid, vi, 192.

32 Ibid, vi, 329. a Ibid, vii, 5. u Ibid, vii, 54.

34 Ibid, viii, 22. x Ibid, ix, 15.

RELIGIOUS HOUSES

William Esyngwold, 1428 l
Thomas Goldesburgh, 1439 2
Thomas Bothe, 1448 3
Hugh Belton, recalled 1464 4
John Ward, 1464 5
John Brown, 1478 8
Richard Mowbray, 1483 7
Walter Hotham, 1 484 s
John Lovell, 1492 '
Walter Hotham (again), 1492 "
Thomas Burton, 1495 u
William Skelton, 1497 12
Richard Wood, 1498 13
John Lcdell, 1507 u
Launcelot Wharton, 1523"
John Halton, 1525 18

7. THE PRIORY OF SNAPE

About the year 1 155 William Martel, in
conjunction with Albreda his wife, and Geoffrey
their son, gave the manors of Snape and Alde-
burgh to the abbot and convent of the Benedic-
tine house of St. John, Colchester. The
founders intended that a prior and monks should
be established at Snape subject to St. John's,
Colchester, and this was speedily accomplished.
The priory, by the foundation charter, was to
pay the abbey annually half a mark of silver as
an acknowledgement of its submission. The
monks of Snape were to say two masses every
week, one of the Holy Spirit and the other of
our Lady, for the weal of William and Albreda,
and after their death masses for the departed.
The abbot of Colchester was to visit the cell
twice a year, with twelve horses, and to tarry
for four days. 17

In 1 1 63 Pope Alexander III confirmed to
the prior and brethren of St. Mary, Snape, the
churches of Freston and Bedingfield. 18

The taxation roll of 1291 shows that there
were then appropriated to this priory the churches
of Snape, Bedingfield, Freston, and Aldeburgh
with its chapel, producing an incomeof ^23 6s. 8d.
The lands, rents, and mill brought in ^21 12s. id.
a year, and other temporalities j£n l<)s. "]\d. ;
so that the total annual income was £$6 ' 8f. 4-^d. 1 *

Upon complaint made by Isabel, countess of
Suffolk and patroness of the abbey, to Boni-

1 Norw. Epis. Reg. ix, 32.

' Ibid, x, 29. 3 Ibid, xi, 14. ' Ibid, xi, I46.

5 Ibid. 'Ibid, xii, 6 1. ; Ibid, xii, 99.

8 Ibid, xii, 104. ' Ibid, xii, 156.

10 Ibid, xii, 162. " Ibid, xii, 180.

" Tanner, Norw. MSS. " Ibid.

" Ibid. 15 Ibid.

16 Norw. Epis. Reg. xiv, 199.

" Foundation Charter cited in an Inspeximus
Charter, Pat. 51 Edw. Ill, m. 36.
a Dugdale, Mon. iv, 458.

" Pope Nich. Tax. (Rec. Com.), 116, 1191J, 125^,
126, 127, lz-]b, 133.

face IX, that the abbot and convent of Colchester
did not maintain a sufficient number of religious
at Snape, according to the founder's directions,
the pope, by bull dated 10 January, 1399-1400,
made this priory independent and exempt from
all control by the Colchester abbey. 30 But whilst
this matter was still in hand, the abbey of Col-
chester had sufficient influence to stir up the
crown against this papal action. On 3 May,
1400, commission was issued to John Arnold,
serjeant-at-arms, to arrest John Mersey (monk of
St. John's, Colchester, aiid prior of Snape), which
Henry IV claimed as of the king's patronage, as
Mersey had obtained divers exemptions and privi-
leges prejudicial to the abbey from the court of
Rome, and was proposing to cross the seas to
obtain further privileges. He was to be brought
before the king in chancery, and to find security
that he would not leave the kingdom without
the royal licence, or obtain anything prejudicial
to the abbey in the court of Rome. 21 On
16 July, Mersey was still at large, for the com-
mission to arrest him was renewed and its execu-
tion entrusted to four serjeants-at-arms.* 2 The
upshot of the dispute was favourable to the abbey ;
but the final agreement was not reached **
until 1443.

Pope Sixtus IV, in 1472, confirmed the priory
in its possession and privileges, but with no state-
ment as to independence. 24

Archdeacon Nicholas Goldwell visited this
priory, as commissary of his brother the bishop
on 20 January, 1492—3 ; Prior Francis pro-
duced his accounts, and the commissary found
nothing worthy of reformation. 25 There is record
of another visitation of this small house in July,
1520 ; the visitor reported that everything was
praiseworthy considering the number of the re-
ligious and the income of the priory ; the prior
was ordered to provide another brother, and to
exhibit an inventory of the condition of the
house at the synod to be held at Ipswich at the
ensuing Michaelmas. 38

This priory was one of those numerous small
religious houses of East Anglia for whose sup-
pression, in favour of a great college at Ipswich,
Cardinal Wolsey obtained bulls in 1527-8. It
was at that time valued in spiritualities at ^20
per annum, and in temporalities at ^79 is. ii^i.,
yielding a total income of £99 is. 1 ihds 7

After Wolsey's attainder, the site and posses-
sions of this priory were granted to Thomas,
duke of Norfolk, on 17 July, 1532. 28

50 Rymer, Foedera, viii, 121.
" Pat. I Hen. IV, pt. vi, m. 4 d.
" Ibid. pt. viii, m. 28 d.
" Hist. MSS. Com. Rep. viii, 625.
" Rymer, Foedera, xi, 750.
,s Jessopp, Visit. 37. * Ibid. 177.

" See the subsequent account of Cardinal's College,
Ipswich.
38 Pat. 24 Hen. VIII, pt. ii, m. 9.

A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK

Priors of Snape

John Colcestre, 1 307 1

Gilbert, occurs 1 3 1 1 2

Thomas de Neylond, 1327 3

Simon de Elyton, 1349 4

John de Colne, 1349 5

Robert (.'Richard) de Colne, 1360 6

Richard de Bury, 1372 7

John de Grensted, 1385 8

John de Mersey, 1394 9

John Wetheryngsete, died 1439 10

John Norwych, 1439 n

William Cambrigge, mentioned 1 44 1 u

Henry Thurton, resigned 1 489"

John Barney, 1489 14

Thomas Mondeley, 1 491 16

Francis, occurs 1493 16

Richard Bells, 1504 17

Richard Stratford, 1 5 14 18

Richard Parker, 1526 19

A seal of a prior of this house c. 1200 is
appended to two charters at the British Museum.
It represents a prior standing, holding a book in
his hands. Legend :

-f SIGILLUM PRIORIS DE SNAPE. 20

8. PRIORY OF FELIXSTOWE

Roger Bigod, in the reign of William Rufus,
gave the church of St. Felix at Walton to the
monastery of St. Andrew, Rochester. Some
monks from that priory soon established a cell at
Walton, 21 to which the founder gave the manor
of Felixstowe, and the churches of Walton and
Felixstowe. 22

There was a grant, c. 1 170-80, to the monks
of St. Felix by Robert de Burneville, of his man
Eluric Pepin with his children, which was con-
firmed by William de Burneville. 23

The taxation of 129 1 shows that this priory
had then an income of £6 1 2s. l^d. from lands
and rents in eight different parishes. 24

In 1291 there was a commission from Thomas
the prior and the chapter of Rochester to John,

1 Norw. Epis. Reg. i, 26.

' Westm. Mun. (Dugdale, Mon. vi, 557).

* Norw. Epis. Reg. ii, 18. * Ibid, iv, 93.

4 Ibid, iv, 113. 6 Ibid, v, 49. ' Ibid, vi, 72.

"Ibid, vi, 113. 9 Ibid, vi, 196. '"Ibid, x, 29.

11 Ibid. " De Banc. R. 21 Hen. VI, m. 321.

15 Norw. Epis. Reg. xii, 140.

"Ibid. "Ibid, xii, 154.

16 Jessopp, Visit, v, 37. " Norw. Epis. Reg. xiii, 44.
19 Ibid, xiv, 117. 19 Ipswich College Chart.

w Harl. Chart. 431, 18 ; 441, 26.

" Leland, Itin. viii, 66 ; Tanner, Notitia, SufF. xlv.

"Taylor, In J. Mon. 83.

" Bodl. Chart. SufF. 239, 240, Chart. 241-3. In
this collection there are also some small grants to the
church of St. Felix.

" Pope Nick Tax. (Rec. Com.), 124, 125, 128.

warden of the cell of St. Felix, Walton, and
others, as to the election of a bishop of
Rochester. 25

A roll of 1499, when William Waterford
was warden of the cell of St. Felix, gives a full
account of the year's receipts and outlay. The
rents and court fees amounted to j£io i6j. lO^d.,
and tithe portions from three parishes to 12s.
The sale of corn brought in ^13 12s. 2d., and
the farming of pasture and mills and certain
other details brought the total receipts to
j£33 9*. \o\d. Among the smaller payments
of the outgoings are 20c/. to the friars of Ips-
wich towards building their church, 2d. for
cleaning the churchyard, and bd. for oil for the
church lamp. The chief payments were for
repairs to the conventual and farm buildings and
mills, and for wages of the servants. Among the
gifts and rewards were 8^. at Christmas to a harp-
player, three bushels of wheat and three of barley
to the three orders of friars at Ipswich, one bushel
of each to the friars of Orford, and half a bushel
of wheat to the anchorite of Orford. There
were also various donations of corn to the lights,
&c, of the churches of Walton and Felixstowe.
The last entry under this head is the gift to
Thrum's wife of a bushel of both wheat and bar-
ley, inasmuch as her house was burnt, and her
husband and two children burnt by the fire. 26

This priory was suppressed in 1538 towards
the founding of Cardinal's College, Ipswich,
under the bull of Clement VII. 27 On 29 August,
1528, Thomas duke of Norfolk wrote to
Wolsey, asking if ' the house of Fylstowe ' of
his foundation is really going to be suppressed for
the college, and if in that case it would be left
in fee farm for him and his heirs. 28

Eventually on 9 September in the ' priory of
Felixstowe alias Fylstowe,' before Stephen Gar-
diner, LL.D., archdeacon of Worcester, and
Rowland Lee, canon of Lichfield, sitting as
judges, there was presented a commission of
Cardinal Wolsey, the effect of which Gardiner
declared to the prior and two other monks, by
which with the authority of the pope, and the
consent of the founder's kin, he proceeded to the
suppression of the monastery, applied the goods
both movable and immovable to the college at
Ipswich, and ordered the prior and his monks to
enter other monasteries of the same order. The
prior and monks being asked what monastery
they would choose, they begged time for con-
sideration, which was allowed them till the
arrival of the legate at London. Thomas
Cromwell was one of the witnesses. 29

The formal grant of the site of Felixstowe
priory, with its appurtenances, was made to

,5 Bodl. Chart. SufF. 1304.

K Set forth at length in Dugdale, Mon. iii, 563-5.

17 Rymer, Foedera, xiv, 24.0.

" L. and P. Hen. Fill, iv, pt. ii, 4673.

■ Ibid. 4755-

RELIGIOUS HOUSES

Wolsey on 30 December, 1528. On the
following day the cardinal's agent entered into
the barn of corn at Felixstowe, and met with no
resistance. 1 On 6 January, 1528-9, the Duke
of Norfolk made a formal grant of Felixstowe
to the cardinal. An unsigned memorandum
sent to Cromwell about that date of 'certain
utensils that I saw at Filstou,' mentions in the
hall, old hangings of little value, stained, of the
life of Job. The contents were very poor
according to this summary ; for instance, in the
cellar, • nothing ' ; in the chamber over the
parlour, a small bedstead, and a ' noghty lok ' ;
'all the locks about the house been nought.' 2

William Capon, the dean of Wolsey's Ips-
wich College, writing to the cardinal on 12 April,

1529, mentions a visit from the Duke of Nor-
folk, who was at first very rough with him as
he had been informed that the house at Felix-
stowe was spoiled, and lead and stone conveyed
away ; but he was able to assure him that this
was not the case.

On the speedy ending of Ipswich College,
owing to the fall of Wolsey, the crown granted
this priory and its appurtenances to the Duke of
Norfolk.

Wardens or Priors of Felixstowe

Robert de Suthflete, prior of Rochester, 1352'
John Hertley, prior of Rochester, 1 361 7
Richard Pecham, 1496 8
William Waterford, occurs 1499

HOUSES OF BENEDICTINE NUNS

9. THE PRIORY OF BUNGAY

About the year 1 160 Roger de Glanville and
the Countess Gundreda, his wife, founded the
priory of Bungay, in honour of the Blessed
Virgin and the Holy Cross, for nuns of the
Benedictine order. The first endowment con-
sisted of benefices, lands, and rents, the greater
part of which had been part of the dower of
Gundreda on her marriage, and included the four
churches of All Saints, Mettingham, Ilketshall
St. Margaret, Ilketshall St. Andrew, and Ilket-
shall St. Laurence. 3 An elaborate charter of
confirmation by Henry III in 1235 marks a
great variety of other benefactions chiefly of small
plots of land, made since the foundation, including
the church of St. Mary Roughton, by Roger
de Glanville, and the mill of Wainford by Roger
Bigod, earl of Norfolk. 4

It is not a little remarkable that there is no
mention of the possessions of the nuns of St. Cross,
Bungay, throughout the taxation roll of Pope
Nicholas in 1291. We can only conclude that
the house obtained at that date the rare privilege
of exemption from such taxing.

On the complaint of the prioress of St. Cross,
Bungay, a commission of inquiry was issued in
February, 1299, as to Robert, prior of Coxford,
with various men, carrying away her goods at
Roughton and Thorpe Market, county Norfolk,
and assaulting her men. 6 On the other hand, in
May, 1 30 1, a commission was appointed on the
complaint of the abbot of Barlings, that Joan,
prioress of Bungay, Simon, parson of the church
of St. John by Mettingham, and many others,

1 L. and P. Hen. Fill, iv, 5075, 5077.

' Ibid. 5144, 5145.

3 A confirmation charter of Henry II, cited in
inspection charter 3 Edw. Ill, No. 48.

1 Chart. R. 19 Hen. Ill, m. 13. Cited in Dug-
dale, Mon. iv, 338-9.

5 Pat. 27 Edw. I, mm. 37</. 25 d.

had carried away the abbey's goods at Bungay
and other places.'

The prioress obtained licence in 1 31 8 to appro-
priate the church of St. John Baptist, Ilketshall,
which was of their own advowson, 10 and in con-
sideration of their poverty the prioress and
convent obtained licence, without fine, in 1 32 7,
to acquire in mortmain land and rent to the
yearly value of ^IO. 11 Edward de Montacute
and Alice his wife assigned the advowson of the
church of Redenhall to the priory of Bungay in
1346, together with licence for its appropriation. 11
In 1441 this church was disappropriated, a pen-
sion of 40*. being reserved for the nunnery. 13

In 1 41 6 a list was drawn up of all the churches
of Norwich diocese appropriated to nunneries, with
the date of the appropriation. Under Bungay
priory appear the names of the four churches
originally given by the founder, as well as Bungay
St. Thomas and Roughton, and the date assigned
to the appropriation of these six and the establish-
ment of vicarages is temp. Lat. Conc. u To these
six the list adds Redenhall, giving 1349 as the
year of the ordaining of a vicarage. 15

The Valor of 1535 gives the clear annual
value of the temporalities, which were chiefly in
Suffolk, as £28 is. 8J(/. The clear value of the
spiritualities came to £33 10s. O^d., giving a
total income of £61 in. <)\d. The spiritualities
included the appropriated churches of St. Mary

6 Angl. Sacr. i, 394. ' Ibid.

8 Cole MS. xxvii, 691 b.
' Pat. 31 Edw. I, m. 24 d.

10 Ibid. 1 1 Edw. II, pt. ii, m. 27.

11 Ibid. I Edw. Ill, pt. iii, m. 16.

" Ibid. 20 Edw. Ill, pt. i, m. 6 ; Now. Epis. Reg.
iv, fol. 27, 28.

,s Norw. Epis. Reg. x, fol. 48.

" The fourth Lateran Council, 1 2 1 5, insisted on the
proper founding of vicarages in the case of appropria-
tions.

" Norw. Epis. Reg. viii, fol. 28.

8l II

A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK

and St. Thomas, Bungay ; St. John, St. Laurence,
St. Andrew, and St. Margaret, Ilketshall ; Met-
tingham and Roughton, Norfolk ; and portions
of ios. and 40/. respectively, from Morton and
Redenhall. 1

The advowson or patronage of this priory, im-
plying the assent of the patron (usually formal)
to the prioress chosen by the chapter, and certain
rights during a vacancy, belonged in the reign of
Edward I to Roger Bigod, earl of Norfolk.
William de UfFord, earl of Suffolk, died seised of
it in 138 1 ; and John, duke of Norfolk, in 1 432,
as pertaining to the manor of Ilketshall. 2

The visitations of Bishops Goldwell and Nykke
were entirely to the credit of this nunnery.
The numbers of the religious of this house were
considerably less towards the close of its history
than had been the case in the thirteenth century.
In 1287 there were a prioress and fifteen nuns, 3
but probably Bungay, like many other religious
houses, never recovered from the pauperizing
effects of the Black Death, as when Nicholas
Goldwell visited Bungay on 31 January, 1493,
as commissary for his brother the bishop, besides
Elizabeth Stephynson, the prioress, nine sisters
were resident. Nothing was then found worthy
of reformation.* Bishop Nykke visited this priory
in August, 1514 ; the register page beyond re-
cording the visit is blank. 5 The next visitation
entry was of that made by two of the bishop's
commissaries in August, 1520 ; the prioress,
Elizabeth Stephynson, did not appear on account
of infirmity, as well as another of the sisters ;
seven other nuns replied both as to the state of
the house and the essentials of religion, omnia bene. 6
At the visitation of 1526 Maria Loveday, the
prioress, stated that everything was praiseworthy
both in spiritualities and temporalities, and in this
estimate the visitor and seven nuns concurred. 7
Equally satisfactory was the visitation of 1532,
when Cecilia Falstolf was prioress ; there was
nothing to reform. 8

This priory came, of course, under the Act of
1536 for the suppression of the smaller houses.
The exact date on which it was dissolved is not
known. In April of that year a memorandum in
the hand of the Duke of Norfolk was forwarded
to Cromwell, wherein he stated that he had
obtained possession of Bungay, worth £60
last St. Andrewtide. The nuns seem to have
forestalled forcible action and deserted the house,
knowing what was in store for them, for at that
date the duke found 'not one nun left therein.'
He stated that he had previously shown the king
that the nuns would not abide, so ' the house

1 Valor Eccl. (Rec. Com.), iii, 430-1.

2 Inq. p. m. 35 Edw. I, No. 46 ; 5 Ric. II, No. 5 7 ;
1 1 Hen. VI, No. 43.

3 Tanner, Not. Mon. Suff. viii.
' Jessopp, Visit. 39-40.

5 Ibid. 144. "Ibid. 189.

7 Ibid. 261. 9 Ibid. 318.

being void, I, as founder, 9 lawfully entered there-
unto.' I0

On 18 December, 1537, Thomas, duke of
Norfolk, obtained a grant of the site of this
priory, with the whole of its property and advow-
son, from the crown at the modest rental of
£6 41. 3</., about a tenth of its annual value."

Prioresses of Bungay

Mary de Huntingfield, 1220 12

Alice, occurs 1228 13

Mary, occurs 1270 u

Sara de Strafford, 1 29 1 u

Joan, occurs 1301 la

Elizabeth Folyoth, 1306 17

Mary de Felbrigge, 1 308 13

Mary de Castello, died 1335 "

Katharine Fastolf, 1335 2IJ

Ellen Becclesworth, resigned 1380 21

Katharine de Montacute, 1380 22

Margaret Smalbergh, 1395 23

Margaret Park, 1 3 g 9 24

Sara Richeres, 1 407 25

Margaret Takell, 1433 s6

Emmota Roughed, 1439 27

Ellen Tolle, occurs 145 I 23

Emma, occurs 1455 29

Anne Rothenhall, occurs 1459 3 °

Margaret Dalenger, 1465 31

Elizabeth Stephynson, 1490 32

Maria Loveday, occurs 1526 33

Cecilia Falstolf, occurs 1532 34

The conventual seal of the priory of Holy
Cross, Bungay, was engraved in the Gentleman's
Magazine of May, 18 10, from an impression
attached to a deed of 1360. The design is our
Lord on the cross, with a man kneeling on each
side at the base. Legend :

-)- s' . S'CIMONIALIA' . DOMUS -f- s' . CRUCIS
DE BUNGEYA

The matrices of the seals of two early prioresses
are also extant ; in each case the design is

patron.

10 L. and P. Hen. VIII, x, 599, 1236

11 Ibid, xii (2), 131 1.
" B.M. Topham Chart. 1 3
13 Feet of F. Suff. Add. MS
11 Ibid.

16 Pat. 3 1 Edw. I, m. 24 d.
"Add. MS. 19m, fol. 15
15 Ibid.
,0 Ibid.
" Ibid.

191 1 1, fol. 158.
u Ibid.

19 Norw. Epis. Reg. ii, 76.
" Ibid, vi, 73.
» Ibid, vi, 217.
" Ibid, vii, 6.
7 Ibid, x, 3 1.

" Ibid, vi, 256.

86 Ibid, ix, 67.

13 Add. MSS. 141 1 1, fol. 158.

89 Ibid. 3U Ibid.

31 Norw. Epis. Reg. xi, 151.

33 Ibid, xii, 145. " Jessopp, Visit. 260

" Ibid. 318.

RELIGIOUS HOUSES

suggested by the name of the prioress. On the
one, circa 1200, appears the Blessed Virgin,
crowned and seated under a trefoiled arch, with
the Holy Child on left knee. In the base, under
a pointed arch, is the half-length kneeling figure
of the prioress. Legend :

-f- SIGILL' . MARIE . d' . HUNTINGEFELD. 1

On the other, circa 1300, appears the figure of
St. John Baptist, right hand raised in benediction,
in the left hand the Agnus Dei on a plaque. In
the base, half-length of prioress kneeling. Le-
gend :

-)- s\ JOHANNE. PRIORISSE. DE. BUGEIA 2

10. THE PRIORY OF REDLINGFIELD

The foundation charter of this priory of
Benedictine nuns, dated 1120, shows that it
was founded by Manasses count of Guisnes and
Emma his wife, who was the daughter and
heiress of William de Arras, lord of Redlingfield.
It was endowed with the manor of Redlingfield
and all its members and all such customs as
William de Arras held. 3

The assignment of the parish church of Red-
lingfield to the priory is an exceptionally early
instance of appropriation. In the official list of
appropriated churches of this diocese drawn up
in 1416, it was stated that the nuns of Redling-
field had held this church to their own use
{in proprios usus) from the year 1 1 20. 4

Redlingfield is one of the very few religious
houses omitted from the taxation roll of 1291 ;
it was probably exempted on the ground of
exceptional poverty. In 1343, it was stated
that the prioress held part of the tithes of corn,
wool, and lambs of Redlingfield worth two
marks a year, and also forty acres of land
worth 145. 4</. 5

The prioress and convent obtained licence, in
1344, to acquire land or rents to the annual
value of ^10 under the privy seal. 6 It was
not, however, until 1 381 that grants were
obtained covered by this licence ; in that year
Sir William de Kerdiston assigned to the priory
a third part of the manors of Hickling and
Rishangles, of the yearly value of £y 135. \d.,
in full satisfaction of the licence of 1344. 7 A
further licence to this priory, described as of the
patronage of Queen Anne, was granted in 1383
to obtain property to the value of £20 a year, 8
and other small grants were subsequently made. 9

1 B.M. Cast lxxi, 88. ' Ibid. Ixxi, 85.

3 This charter is cited in an Inspeximus Charter of
1 285, Chart. R. 1 3 Edvv. I, m. 16, No. 51.

4 Norw. Epis. Reg. viii, fol. 125.
4 Inq. Nonarum (Rec. Com.), 69.
6 Pat. 18 Edw. Ill, pt. i, m. 1.

' Ibid. 4 Ric. II, pt. ii, m. 27.
* Ibid. 6 Ric. II. pt. iii, m. 16.
8 Ibid. 14 Ric. II, pt. ii, m. 46 ; Ibid. 19 Edw. IV,
m. 2?.

The Valor of 1535 shows that the clear
annual value of this priory was at that time
j£8i 25. S^d. The temporalities in Suffolk and
Norfolk, chiefly from lands and rents at Redling-
field, Rishangles, and Thorndon, amounted to
j£68 iOi. lie/. The spiritualities consisted of
portions of the churches of Redlingfield, Wal-
pole, Melton, and Levington, amounting to
£12 lis. bd. The daily dole of pence, bread,
beef, and herrings, according to ancient use, and
certain alms to aged poor at Easter and Lent
cost the nuns ,£9.'°

The foundation charter states that the house
was dedicated to God and St. Andrew, but the
Valor of 1535 gives the joint invocation of the
Blessed Virgin and St. Andrew. In 141 8 the
Bishop of Norwich transferred the feast of the
conventual and parish church of Redlingfield
from 24 December to 24 September. u The
cause assigned for this change was that there
ought to be an abstinence from work on the day
of the dedication feast, but that immediately
before Christmas there were so many worldly
occupations and social duties pressing on both
the nuns and the parishioners that the day could
not be duly observed. The reason given by the
bishop for selecting 24 September was that on
that date the feast of the dedication of Norwich
Cathedral was observed.

More than one scandal came to light in
connexion with the episcopal visitations of this
nunnery ; but it is satisfactory to find that
the house had recovered its good tone when
the last of the series was held. The sad
irregularities disclosed in 1427 supply another
proof of the evil result of the rule of an un-
principled superior ; the result shows the genuine
character of such investigation. An inquiry
was held on 9 September, 1427, in this convent
by Dr. Ringstede, dean of the collegiate church
of St. Mary-in-the-Fields, Norwich, as com-
missary of the bishop, concerning alleged excesses
and dilapidations. Isabel Hermyte (prioress),
Alice Lampit (sub-prioress), five professed sisters,
and two novices, assembled in the chapter-house,
when the deputy visitor read his commission first
in Latin, and then in the vulgar tongue, in order
that it might be the better understood by the
nuns. The prioress confessed that on 25 Januarv,
1425, she had promised on oath to observe all
the injunctions then made ; she admitted that
since that date she had never been to confession,
nor had she observed Sundays or double principal
feasts as ordained. The prioress further admitted
for herself and for Joan Tates, a novice, that
they had not slept in the dormitory with the
other nuns, but in a private chamber contrary to
injunctions ; that there ought to be thirteen
nuns, but there were only nine ; that there
ought to be three chaplains, but there was only

10 Valor Eccl. (Rec. Com.), iii, 4.78.

11 Norw. Epis. Reg. viii, fol. 231 b.

A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK

one ; that she had laid violent hands on Agnes
Brakle on St. Luke's Day ; that she had been
alone with Thomas Langelond, bailiff, in private
and suspicious places, such as a small hall with
windows closed, and sub heggerowes ; that no
annual account had been rendered ; that obits had
been neglected ; that goods had been alienated,
and trees cut down and sold without knowledge
or consent of the convent ; and that she was
not religious or honest in conversation. On
Joan Tates being questioned as to incontinence,
she said that it was provoked by the bad example
of the prioress.

The inquiry was adjourned to 1 1 September,
when the prioress, to avoid great scandal, made
her resignation in a written document witnessed
by all the nuns. The commissary's secretary
set down the details of this solemn scene, with
curious particularity, describing even the difference
in dress between the professed sisters and the
novices. Dr. Ringstede considered that all the
religious were to blame, and ordered the whole
convent to fast on bread and beer on Fridays.
Joan Tates having confessed to incontinence,
was to go in front of the solemn procession of
the convent next Sunday, wearing no veil and
clad in white flannel. The full form of resig-
nation and confession of the prioress was entered
in the diocesan register, and she was sent in
banishment to the priory of Wykes. 1

Bishop Nykke personally visited Redlingfield
on 7 August, 1 5 14, when certain minor irregu-
larities were brought to light. The prioress
complained of the disobedience of some of the
sisters. Several of the nuns complained that
the sub-prioress was cruel and too severe in
discipline, even to the often drawing of blood.
It was objected by others that no statement of
accounts had been rendered for some years ;
that there were no curtains between the beds in
the dormitory ; that boys slept in the dormitory ;
that they had no proper infirmary ; and that the
refectory was unused for meals, being put to
other purposes. The visitor ordered the prioress
to exhibit an inventory of the valuables, of the
cattle, and of all movables before the feast of
All Saints, and a statement of accounts at
Michaelmas, I 5 1 5. The refectory and infirmary
were to be put to their proper uses, and a
warden of the infirmary appointed. The sub-
prioress was to correct and punish with discretion
and not cruelly. Curtains were to be provided
between the beds, and boys were not to sleep in
the dormitory. 2

The suffragan Bishop of Chalcedon and Dr.

1 Norw. Epis. Reg. ix, fol. 104.-6. This is the
only religious house scandal that we have noticed in
the whole of the diocesan registers at Norwich.

' Jessopp, Visit. 1 3 8-40. By the boys, as may be
gathered from other nunnery visitations, were meant
the little boys who occasionally accompanied their
sisters as boarding scholars.

Cappe visited this priory, as commissaries of
Bishop Nykke, in August, 1 520. Margery
Cokrose, the prioress, and nine other nuns were
all examined, with the result that not a single
complaint nor any remissness was brought to
light ; a full inventory of all the goods was
exhibited, and the annual account would be
presented at Michaelmas. 3 There was an
equally satisfactory visitation in July, 1526,
when there was nothing to redress ; the visitation
was attended by Grace Sansome {alias Sampson),
prioress, and by five professed sisters and three
novices. 4 The last visitation of this house,
undertaken by Bishop Nykke, with Miles Spenser
as auditor and principal official, was held on
5 July, 1532, when the same prioress and nine
other nuns testified ; all returned satisfactory
answers, and the bishop could find nothing
needing reformation.

This house coming under the Suppression Act
of the smaller monasteries of 1536, the Suffolk
commissioners visited Redlingfield on 26 August
to draw up an inventory. The ornaments of
the altar were only valued at Js. 8d. A pair of
organs and four books in the quire were esti-
mated at 5$. The contents of the vestry 8s. \d.,
including a silver chalice, many old altar cloths
and linen cloths, and a pair of censers and a ship
of latten. The contents of the Lady chapel
only added 8d. to the total. The hall, parlour,
chambers, &c, were but poorly furnished. The
only substantial items were the cattle jTii 141.,
and the corn £11 i6x. The total of the
inventory was ^130 7;. n^d. 6

Grace Sampson, the prioress, on the day before
the taking of this inventory, deposed to Sir
Anthony Wingfield and the other commissioners
that the house had seven religious and twenty-
three servants, of whom two were priests, four
women servants, and seventeen hinds.

The priory was surrendered on 10 February,
1536-7, when each nun received the trifling sum
of 23;. 4-d.y the two priests 25;. each, and
thirteen other servants sums varying from 15;.
to 2s. 6d. The nuns were turned out penniless
save for their 'rewards.' The prioress obtained
no reward, but then she had been well pensioned
on the preceding 20 January at twenty marks
a year. 6

The house and site of the dissolved monastery,
with the whole of its property, were granted on
25 March, 1537, to Sir Edmund Bedingfield
and Grace his wife. 7 Sir Edmund was a large
purchaser of the church furniture from the
inventory of 10 February. The lead and bells
were valued at ^90. 8

•Ibid. 182-3. « Ibid. 224.

* Proc. Suf. Arch. Inst, viii, 95-8.

6 L. and P. Hen. Fill, xii, pt. i, 388, 510 ; Misc.
Bks. (Aug. Off.), ccxxxii, fol. 40^.

7 Pat. 28 Hen. VII, pt. iv, m. 6.
1 L. and P. Hen. Fill, xii, pt. i, 388 (iii, iv).

RELIGIOUS HOUSES

Prioresses of Redlingfield

Emma (probably daughter of the founder),
c. 1 1 20 1

Alice Davolers, temp. Henry III 2

Margery, 1303-14 3

Agnes de Stuston, 1 3 1 4 4

Julia de Weylond, 1331 s

Alice Wynter de Oxford, 1 349 ^

Eleanor de Bockynge, 1394 7

Ellen Hakon, died 1416"

Margaret Hemenhale, 1416 9

Elizabeth Clopton, died 141 9 10

Isabel Hermyte, 1419 11

Alice Lampit, 1427 1J

Alice Brakle, 1459 13

Margaret, died 1482 I4

Alice Legatte, 1482 15

Margery Cokrose, 1520 le

Grace Sampson, 1524 17

There is a poor impression of the twelfth-
century seal of this house attached to a charter.
It is a pointed oval, and represents the Blessed
Virgin with the Holy Child on her knees.
The only word of the legend remaining is
Radeling. 18

11. THE PRIORY OF ST. GEORGE,
THETFORD

There was an old religious house on the Suf-
folk side of Thetford founded by Uvius, the first
abbot of Bury St. Edmunds in the days of Cnut.
It was said to have been founded in memory of
the English and Danes who fell in a great battle
near by between King Edmund and the Danish
leaders Ubba and Hingwar. It was served by
canons who officiated in the church of St. George
as a cell of St. Edmunds. About the year 1 160,
in the days of Abbot Hu»h, Toleard and An-
drew, the two surviving religious of this cell,
depressed with poverty, visited the abbot and ex-
pressed their strong desire to withdraw. At
their suggestion the abbot and convent of St.
Edmunds resolved to admit to the Thetford
house certain Benedictine nuns who were then
living at Ling, Norfolk. The bishop of Nor-
wich, the archdeacon of Canterbury, and the
sheriffs of Norfolk and Suffolk gave these ladies
and their prioress Cecilia an excellent character,
and the change was solemnly effected.

I Add. MS. 19099, fol. joi. ' Ibid.

3 Ibid. 19090, fol. 70 ; Pat. 7 Edvv. II, pt. ii,
m. 19.

4 Ibid. m. 18. i Norw. Epis. Reg. ii, 43.

6 Ibid, iv, 93. : Ibid, vi, 195.

8 Ibid, viii, 22. ' Ibid. l0 Ibid, viii, 46.

II Ibid. " Ibid, ix, 27. u Ibid, xi, 112.
14 Ibid, xii, 97. " Ibid.

16 Ibid, xiv, 60. ■ Ibid, xiv, 190.

18 Add. Chart. 10640.

The abbot assigned to these nuns, at the time
of the transfer, the Thetford parish churches of
St. Benedict and All Saints, his rights in Favertin
Fields, and whatever else belonged to the abbey
of Bury within the limits of Thetford. As an
acknowledgement of this, the nuns were to pay
yearly 41. to the abbey infirmary. The prioress
undertook to be in all respects faithful and obe-
dient to the abbot."

Maud, countess of Norfolk and Warrenne gave
to these nuns in her widowhood a rent of three
marks out of her mill at Cesterford, Essex, to-
wards their clothing. 20

Pope Nicholas's taxation gave the annual
value of the temporalities of this house as
£72 9 j. 4rf. sl

The 1535 Valor gave the spiritualities in Nor-
folk as £4. 15s. id., and those in Suffolk at
£13 16s. 8d., the temporalities in the two coun-
ties as £31 141. 1 i\d. ; but from this sum there
were various deductions, the largest of which
was £5 6s. 8d. to their chaplain, so that the clear
annual value only amounted to £40 I If. 2hd.,-''
which was a great drop from the earlier valua-
tion. The reason for this depreciation becomes
clear from the statement made by Martin with
regard to the taxing of the religious houses in
the reign of Henry VI. At that time the nuns
of Thetford were excused ; their petition for
relief stated that their revenues both in Norfolk
and Suffolk were much decreased by recent mor-
tality and had so continued since 1349, and that
their possessions in Cranwich deanery had suffered
much from inundations. 23

In 1 2 14 the abbey of Bury granted the nuns
seven loaves and 2d. in money, to be given them
every Sunday by their almoner for the corrody
of Margaret Nonne. 24

From the first establishment of the nuns at
Thetford, the cumbersome plan had been adopted
of sending weekly supplies from Bury St. Ed-
munds (a distance of about twelve miles) not only
of bread and beer but even of cooked meat
[ferculd). The thirteenth-century custumary of
the abbey states that thirty-five loaves and ninety-
six gallons of beer were sent weekly to Thet-
ford. 25 Owing to the not infrequent robberies
and assaults on the servants and wagons of the
convent conveying this weekly dole on a long
journey, and to the occasional unsatisfactory state
of the provisions on arrival, it was agreed in 1 369
that henceforth, instead of forwarding bread,
beer, and dressed provisions, the abbey should

19 Dugdale, Mon. iv, 477-8, where the original ac-
count of the foundation is set forth at length, from
Harl. MS. 743, fol. 219.

w Maddox, Hist, of Essex, 33.

" Taxatio (Rec. Com.), 109.

" Valor Eccl. (Rec. Com.), iii, 314.

" Martin, Hist, of Thetford, 106.

" Ibid. 101.

" Harl. MS. 3977, fol. 25.

A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK

grant annually ten quarters of corn, twenty
quarters of barley, and 62s. in money. 1

One of the few early notices preserved of this
priory tells how in 1305 William de Fornham,
clerk, Walter de Trofton and John Cat, chap-
lains, one night after dark climbed over the
priory wall and went into a house in the court-
yard to talk with one Joan de Fuldon, a servant,
and how, when the light shining under the door
had attracted the notice of some of the nuns, the
ray clerks rose up and fled back over the wall
the way they came. 2

There was a long lawsuit in 1438 between
Alice Wesenham, prioress, and Robert Popy,
rector of Ling. When the nuns first removed
from Ling they held a messuage where they
dwelt, close to the chapel of St. Edmund in
Ling, together with 60 acres of land and 30 of
meadow adjoining, and rents of 51. 9/1. and two
hens. From that date for a long period they
had received the profits ; and out of them had
paid a chaplain at Ling, who was sometimes
called the prior of St. Edmund's chapel. But
for some years past the prioress had let all to the
rector of Ling, who undertook to serve the
L'hapel, and the dispute arose as to the amount of
rent and the rights of the prioress. Eventually
it was decided that the king should license the
prioress to convey the chapel and all the premises
to the rector and his successors for ever, they
paying to the prioress a clear annual pension of
four marks. 3

The nunnery was visited in November, 1492,
by Archdeacon Goldwell, as commissary of his
brother the bishop. Joan Eyton the prioress,
six professed nuns, and four novices were sever-
ally and privately examined. The visitor found
nothing needing reformation. 4

The only suggestion made by the visitor in
1 5 14 after examining the prioress and eight
nuns was that the books required repairing.
Two of the nuns expressed a fear that the
prioress was about to receive as nuns certain un-
learned and even deformed persons, particularly

one Dorothy Sturghs, who was both deaf and
deformed. 5

The visitation of 1520, undertaken by the
bishop in person, simply resulted in an entry that
the nunnery was very poor; there was clearly
nothing amiss. 6 Nor was there anything to
correct at the visitation of 1526, when there
were six professed nuns and four novices, in
addition to the prioress, in attendance. 7

The last visitation, held in July, 1532, was
attended by the prioress and nine nuns. The
state of the house and the observance of religion
required no reformation. There was, however,
an irregularity pertaining to a corrody, for one
Thomas Forster, gentleman, was receiving sup-
port for himself, his wife, three children, and a
maid. The infant daughter of John Jerves was
in the priory, and he was paying nothing for its
support. Silence was scarcely observed as well
as it ought to be in the refectory. 8

The house was dissolved in February, 1537. 9
Elizabeth Hothe, the prioress, obtained a pen-
sion of £5 ; 10 this pension the prioress was still
enjoying at the age of 100 in the year 1553,
when she was living 'as a good and catholich
woman,' in the parish of St. James, Norwich. 11

Prioresses of St. George, Thetford

Cecilia, 12 c. 1 160
Agnes, 13 occurs 1253
Ellen de Berdesette, 14 elected 1310
Margaret Bretom, 15 elected 1329
Beatrix de Lystone, 16 elected 1330
Danetta de Wakethorp, 1 ' elected 1339
Margaret Campleon, ls elected 1396
Margaret Chykering, 19 elected 14 1 8
Alice Wesenham, 20 elected 1420
Margaret Copynger, 21 elected 1466
Joan Eyton, 22 elected 1477
Elizabeth Mounteneye, 23 elected 1498
Sarah Frost, 24 elected 1 5 1 9
Elizabeth Hothe, 25 or Both, 26 occurs 1535, last
prioress 25

HOUSES OF CLUNIAC MONKS

12. THE PRIORY OF MENDHAM

There are two charters of William de Hunt-
ingfield, the founder of Mendham Priory, in the
chartulary of Castle Acre. By the first of these
he gave to the Cluniac monks of Castle Acre the
isle of St. Mary of Mendham, with ' Ulordage,'
and the granges there, together with certain land
in 'Crodustune' on condition that as many
brethren as might be requisite for ruling the

1 Martin, Hist, of Thetford, 102-3.

* Assize R. 1234, m. 26.
3 Ibid.

* Jessopp, Noru: Visit. 33.

island should be placed there, and their number
afterwards increased until a secular convent of

6 Ibid. 11

Ibid.

243.

5 Ibid. 90-1.

■ Ibid. 303-4. *L.andP. Hen. VIII, x'u, pt. i, 510.

10 Ibid, xiii (1), 576.

11 Blomefield, Hist. ofNotf. ii, 92.
'- Harl. MS. 743, fol. 219.

13 Martin, Hist, of Thetford, 106.
" Norw. Epis. Reg. i, 39.

18 Ibid, ii, 33. ' 6 Ibid, ii, 36. 1? Ibid, iii, 39.
ls Ibid, vi, 223. w Ibid, viii, 36. *° Ibid, viii, 57.
" Ibid, xi, 158. "Ibid, xii, 55.

23 Ibid, xii, 203. " Ibid, xiv, 153.

" L. and P. Hen. VIII, xiii, pt. i, 576.
26 Valor Eccl. (Rec. Com.), iii, 313.

RELIGIOUS HOUSES

monks was properly established. The cell of the
island of Mendham was to show such subjection
to St. Mary of Castle Acre, as Castle Acre did to
the priory of St. Pancras, Lewes, and as Lewes did
to the mother house of Cluni ; and it was to pay
half a mark yearly to Castle Acre, as an acknow-
ledgement of submission. By his second charter
the founder described more in detail his gifts of
land ; and at the same time he confirmed the
gifts of Roger de Hammesirl, William the son
of Hoscetel, and Sigar, and provided that the
bequests of these three should only be used to-
wards providing the monks with a church of
stone. 1 The exact date of these charters is not
known; but the founder died in 1 155, and his
wife Sibyl in 1 186. 2

Roger de Huntingfield, the son of the founder,
who died in 1204, materially increased the en-
dowments of Mendham. He gave to the monks
the church of St. Margaret, Linstead, a moiety
of the church of St. Peter, Linstead, and all his
right in the church of Mendham. The convent
of Mendham was by this time complete ; and
Roger appointed John de Lindsey the first prior.
An agreement was at the same time entered into
between Hugh, prior of Castle Acre, and his
convent and Roger de Huntingfield, that the
prior of Mendham was not to be deposed, save
for disobedience, incontinence, or dilapidation
of the house, and that such deposition was not to
take place without the advice of the monks of
Mendham and the patron. It was also agreed
that the convent of Mendham was to consist of
at least eight monks, four of whom were to be
sent from Castle Acre. Any man betaking him-
self to Mendham through fear of death was to be
received ; but no one in health to be admitted
without the consent of the prior of Acre. If the
house at Mendham so increased as to sustain its
whole congregation, they were to be at liberty
to receive any according to their own discretion. 3

The taxation of 1 291 showed that Mendham
priory had an income of £19 1 8s. 6^d. Of this
sum, £1 1 came from a portion of the rectory of
Fressingfield, and the remainder in lands or rents
from ten parishes in Suffolk and Norfolk. 4

During the wars with France Mendham was
treated as an alien priory ; but in 1337 Edward
III ordered the restoration to the prior of Mend-
ham of the priory with all its lands, benefices,
goods and chattels (in like manner as with Castle
Acre, of which Mendham was a cell), as the
prior and all his monks were Englishmen, and
the priory was founded by an Englishman,
and sent no ' apport ' or contribution across
the seas. 6

1 Cited in Dugdale, ilf«. v, 58.
' Harl. MS. 972, fol. 113.
s Charters cited, Dugdale, Mon. v, 58-9.
4 Pope N'uh. Tax. (Rec. Com.), yzb, 94J, 104,
104^, 105, 107, 115^, Il8£, 126^, izjb.
4 Close, 1 1 Edw. Ill, pt. ii, m. 39.

The visitors from Cluni reported of Mendham,
about 1405, that it was a cell subordinate to
Castle Acre. The brethren then numbered nine;
there were three daily masses, two sung and one
said. 6

A writ was issued in November, 1534, to the
sheriff of Suffolk to the effect that Sir Humphrey
Wingfield, kt., and others had recovered in the
king's court the manors of Mendham and Kings-
shall, with other rents and lands against Thomas,
prior of Mendham. 7

There is no entry with regard to this priory in
the Valor of 1535.

This house and its revenues were given by
Henry VIII, together with the possessions of
several dissolved priories to the short-lived Bene-
dictine abbey of Bisham, Berks, established in
1537. In the following year, when this abbey
was suppressed, the Mendham possessions were
granted by the crown to Charles duke of Suffolk.

Priors of Mendham

John de Lindsey, c. 1170 8
John, occurs 1 239 s
Simon, occurs 1250'°
John, occurs 1307 u
Nicholas Cressi, died 1336 l2
John de Walton, 1340 13
Henry de Berlegh, 1342 "
William, 1353 u
John de Tornston 16
Robert, 1400 ir
John Betelee, 1420 w
Thomas Rede, 1449 "
Thomas Pitte, 1487 L>0
Thomas Bullock, I 50 1 "'
Simon, 1523 a
Thomas, 1 534 33

An impression of the seal of John, prior of
this house, a.d. 1307, shows the Blesred Virgin
seated on a throne, under a canopy supported on
slender shafts, with the Holy Child on the left
knee. In the base, under a trefoiled arch, a
shield of arms, on a fesse three plates, for William
de Huntingfield the founder. Legend : —

s FRIS JOHIS

. MENDHAM. 24

6 Duckett, Visitations and Chapters-General of Order
of C/uny, 40.

7 Ibid. 229.

9 Dugdale, Mon. v, 59.

9 Blomefield, Hist, of Sorf iii, 254, from Mendham
Ct. R.
u Ibid.

11 Maddox, Form. Angf. 360.
" Blomefield, Hist. ofNorf iii, 254.

15 Ibid. M Ibid. ,s Ibid.

16 Ibid. " Ibid. " [bid.
" Ibid. * Ibid. » Ibid. " Ibid.
" Bodl. Chart. Suff. 229.

"Dugdale, Mon. v, 57 ; B.M. Cast lxxii, 8.

A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK

13. THE PRIORY OF WANGFORD

A small priory of Cluniac monks was founded
at VVangford, as a cell of the important priory of
Thetford, before the year 1 160. There is some
confusion as to the founder and the precise date ;
but from early deeds cited by Gardner it would
appear that Weever's statement as to the founder
being ' one Ansered of France ' is correct. Sir
Geraline de Vernuns gave to God and the church
of St. Peter, Wangford, and the monks there
serving God, whatever his father Anteredus had
granted them, namely the church of Reydon with
the chapel of Rissemere (afterwards Southwold),
the water-mill and dam at Reydon, and an acre
of land near the dam for its repair. The wit-
nesses show that this deed was circa 1 200.
Another somewhat conflicting early charter by
Richard FitzWilliam confirms to God and St.
Mary and the monks of Thetford the gifts of his
grandfather Dodo and his father William, of the
church of St. Peter, Wangford, and the chapel
of St. Mary, Rissemere. 1

The taxation of 1 291 shows that the bene-
factions to the priory had been fairly numerous.
The prior held lands and rents in Wangford
and adjacent parishes of the annual value of
£12 ij. iij</., and also a mill at 'Surgueland,'
worth 20j. a year. The spiritualities included
Reydon with its chapel, and Stoven, and these
appropriations were worth £22 a year. The
total income of the priory, exclusive of the
tithes of Wangford itself, was thus ^35 is. 11W. 2
An extent of the lands, tenements, churches,
rents, and other temporalities pertaining to the
priory of Wangford, taken by order of the crown
in 1370, 3 shows a slight increase of about £8,
but the Valor of 1535 showed a considerable drop
in the value of the temporalities, which only
brought in a clear annual sum of £5 $s. ~jd. ; the
spiritualities, however, brought the total clear in-
come up to £30 gs. ^d. The prior then held the
rectories of Wangford, Reydon cum Southwold,
Covehithe (North Hales), and Stoven, with portions
from the churches of Stoven and Easton Bavents. 4

The prior of Wangford was appointed by the
pope in 1226, to be a joint papal commissioner
with the great abbot of Westminster and the
archdeacon of Sudbury in an important dispute
as to the tithes of the church of Walpole. 5

The hundred jury of 1275 declared that
William Giffard, the sheriff, had taken Reginald,
prior of Wangford, by violence from the court of
Master Philip of Wangford, contrary to peace,
had imprisoned him for a week in the castle of

1 Gardner, Hist, of Dumcich, &c, 254; Weever,
Funeral Monuments, 762 ; Leland, Coll. i, 162 ;
Tanner, Notitia, Suff. xliv.

'Pope Nicb. Tax. (Rec. Com.), 104.3, 1 14^, 119,
1 26, 126^, 127.

3 Add. MS. 6164, fol. 422.

4 Valor End. (Rec. Com.), iii, 438.
4 Cat. Pap. Reg. i, 113-14.

Norwich, and did not release him until he had
paid an unjust fine of seven marks. 8

The Cluniac houses were all reckoned as alien
during the wars with France, and were taken
into the hands of the crown. In October, 1307,
Edward II appointed John de Benstede and
William Inge to the custody of the lands and
possessions of the priory of Thetford, with its
cells of Wangford and Horkesley, to apply the
rents and issues to the discharge of the debts of
the house, reserving a reasonable sustenance for
the religious of the mother house and its cells. 7
In the December of the following year protec-
tion was granted for one year to Martin, prior of
Wangford, who was going beyond the seas on
the king's service, 8 and in 1 3 10, Prior Martin
had renewed protection granted him, as he was
staying beyond the seas on the king's service. 9

Edward III in 1327 granted to the prior of
Wangford, amongst a large number of priors of
alien houses, the right to resume control over his
possessions, which had been taken from him by
the late king during the wars with France, saving
the advowsons of benefices, and saving also the
apport or tribute to the parent house of Cluni. 10

Edward III took the priory of Wangford again
into his hands by reason of the war with France,
and committed the custody of it to William de
Cusance, king's clerk and treasurer, to whom, in
February, 1342, the £30 rents of this priory were
assigned, in recompense for the losses he had
sustained during the war. 11

In November, 1393, the prior of Wangford
paid 100 marks to the crown, and obtained from
Richard II a full grant of denization, in considera-
tion of the poverty of the priory lately committed
to his (the prior's) custody at the yearly rent of
j£io, and of its being ruled henceforth by true-
born Englishmen, and that the prior had paid no
yearly pension to the king's enemies as other
alien priors had. 18

Walter, prior of Wangford, about 1 402, sued
the pope for the appropriation of the vicarage of
North Hales (Covehithe) to that priory, without
the knowledge or consent of the prior and con-
vent of Thetford, in whose name the suit ought
to have been made, and the pope 'so far as was
in him,' appropriated the vicarage to Wangford.
The vicarage was at that time void by the resigna-
tion of one Peter Braunche, and after that resigna-
tion Henry IV presented a clerk because the priory
of Wangford had no royal licence for the appro-
priation, but on 18 June, 1402, the king granted
that the clerk presented was to hold the vicarage
of North Hales for this turn, but that afterwards

' Hund. R. (Rec. Com.), ii, 149.
7 Pat. I Edw. II, pt. i, m. 18.
f Ibid. 2 Edw. II, pt. i, m. 17.
' Ibid. 3 Edw. II, m. 5.

10 Close, 1 Edw. Ill, pt. i, m. 22.

11 Pat. 16 Edw. Ill, pt. i, m. 38.
" Ibid. 17 Ric. II, pt. i, m. 13.

RELIGIOUS HOUSES

Thetford priory was to hold the advowson and
patronage as before, as Thetford was able to
show that Wangford was only a cell, and the
prior removable at will. 1

The report of the visitors from Cluni as to
their houses of English foundation, drawn up
about 1405, stated that Wangford priory, a cell
of Thetford, had two daily masses, both with
song ; the number of the brethren was fixed by
some at five, and by others at only four. 2

Thomas duke of Norfolk, writing to Crom-
well in March 1537, stated that the small cell
of Wangford had gone to ruin by the misuse of
those to whom it had been committed, and the
prior of Thetford had thought good to call home
his monks and let the cell to farm. He had
offered to lease it to the treasurer of the duke's
household, provided he could do so lawfully and
with Cromwell's favour. 3 In the following April,
William, prior of Thetford, wrote to Cromwell,

who had written to the prior for the assignment
of Wangford cell to one Mr. Felston, begging
the visitor general to take no displeasure, for he
and his brethren had already granted a lease to
Mr. Rouse, treasurer of the Duke of Norfolk,
their patron. 6

The surrender of Wangford was included in
that of Thetford, which was signed on 16 Feb-
ruary, 1539-40, as related under Thetford. 8

The site of this priory and all its possessions
were assigned to the Duke of Norfolk on 9 July,
1540. 7

Priors of Wangford

John, occurs 1218 8
William, occurs 1249 °
Reginald, occurs 1275 10
Martin, occurs 1308 u
Walter, occurs 1402 12
John, occurs 1536 13

HOUSE OF CISTERCIAN MONKS

14. THE ABBEY OF SIBTON 4

The Cistercian abbey of the Blessed Virgin of
Sibton was founded by William Cheney, some-
times called William Fitz Robert, and was

1 Pat. 3 Hen. IV, pt. ii, m. 12.

' Duckett, Vis. of Engl. Clun. Found. 41.

■ L. and P. Hen. VIII, xii (1), 71 1.

'A register book (Add. MS. 341560) giving an
extent of lands, &c., of this abbey, of early fourteenth
century date, was purchased by the British Museum
in 1894 of the late Rev. C. R. Manning. It consists
of 1 39 vellum folios.

The most important MS. relative to this abbey is
the chartulary or register (Arundel 221) formerly in
the Earl of Arundel's collection, afterwards in the
library of the Royal Society, but transferred to the
British Museum in 1831. It was drawn up towards
the end of the fourteenth century, and contains 153
parchment folios.

From fol. 32 to fol. 143 is a chartulary proper ;
the charter transcripts are followed by a series of papal
bulls granted to the abbey of Sibton, twenty-two in
number, ranging from Alexander III, 1 1 60, to
Innocent IV, I 254.

The earlier part of the volume contains a variety
of entries, such as copies of Magna Charta and the
Forest Charter, the names of the kings of England
down to Edward III, list of the towns in Blything
hundred, and various picas and inquisitions relative
to the abbey in the reigns of Edward III and
Richard II.

Of this chartulary there are several transcripts. A
portion, on paper in an Elizabethan hand, appears in
Cott. MS. Vitel. fol. xii. Add. MS. 8172 (vol. v. of
Jermyn's Suffolk Collections) is entirely occupied with
Sibton parish, and most of it with transcripts of the
abbey charters and evidences. Add. MS. 19082 (part
of Davy's Suffolk Collections) concerns Sibton from
fol. 1 to 249, mainly about the abbey. Most of
Davy's transcripts correspond with Arundel 221, but
others, with some variants, are taken from a chartu-

2 89

colonized by an abbot and twelve monks from
the abbey of Warden in Bedfordshire.

The advowson of the church of Westleton
was given to the abbey in 1272, u and it was ap-
propriated in 1332. 15

The taxation roll of 1 291 shows that this
abbey held lands or rents in ten parishes of the
city of Norwich, and in twelve parishes of the
county of Norfolk, which brought in an income
of £29 js. $\d. There were also considerable
temporalities in upwards of twenty-five Suffolk
parishes, yielding £103 8s. 6$d. The spirituali-
ties consisted of the rectory of Sibton with the
chapel of Peasenhall, and portions from four
other churches, producing £1 1 75. \d. The
total income of the abbey was thus ^144 3*. 4^. 16

lary and two bursar's account books of the fifteenth
century, then in possession of the Bishop of Salisbury.
Rawlinson MS. B. 419, of the Bodleian, is a tran-
script of Arundel 221. A further chartulary, cited by
Jermyn and Davy, in the possession of Mr. Scrivener
of Sibton, appears also to correspond with the Arundel
register. Other miscellaneous extracts are to be found
in the Dodsworth MSS. of the Bodleian, and in the
Harley Collection (2044 and 2101) of the British
Museum.

4 L. and P. Hen. VIII, xii, pt. i, 836.

6 Rymcr, Fcedera, xiv, 666.

7 Pat. 32 Hen. VIII, pt. iv, m. 3.
' Add. MS. 19803, fol. 66. » Ibid. 67*.

10 Hund. R. (Rec. Com.), ii, 149.

11 Pat. 2 Edw. II, pt. i, m. 7.
" Pat. 3 Hen. IV, pt. ii, m. 12.
13 L. and P. Hen. VIII, x, 1257 (2).
" Feet of F. Suff. 1 Edw. I, No. 83.
" Pat. 5 Edw. Ill.m. 5.
>6 Pope Hub. Tax. (Rec. Com.), 91, 95^, 99^, 103,

103/S, 104, 1043, 105, 108, 115, n8£, 125, 125^,
126, 126^, 127, 127^, 12S, 128^, 130, 1326.

A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK

The Valor of 1535 gave the clear annual
value as £250 15*. J^d. The spiritualities,
which then produced £41 19*., consisted of the
rectories of Sibton-cum-Peasenhall, Westleton,
Rcndham, and Tunstall, Norfolk, with a portion
from Cransford. 1 The churches of Tunstall and
Cransford had been appropriated in the reign of
Edward I, and were confirmed to the abbey by
his successor.'-'

In 13 16 Robert Petit was sent by Edward II
to receive the allowance previously enjoyed by
William de Wendelesburgh. 3

The abbot and convent, at the supplication of
Ralph, son of the Earl of Stafford, were licensed
in 1385 to acquire lands in mortmain not ex-
ceeding the yearly value of £io. 4

The accounts of John de Merton, bursar of
the abbey from 1362 to 1372, yield various
interesting particulars. 5 For the first of these
years the total receipts amounted to £162 5s. lod.
The visitor of the order for that year was the
abbot of Warden. The total expense of the
visitation was £4 "js. 3d. Bread, beer, wine,
fish, and horse-meat for the abbot and his train
to Bury St. Edmunds cost 1 31. 8§d. ; from
thence to Eye, 23^/. ; from Eye to Woodbridge,
and returning to Ipswich, 2od. ; and for tarrying
a night at Ipswich and returning, 12s. 6hd. The
remainder was spent on entertaining at the
abbey the abbot and his two monks, together
with his two squires and three servants.

The receipts for 1363-4 were £185 15*. lid.,
and the expenses ^183 I cm. i^d. The repairs
for this year to the monastic buildings are interest-
ing ; they included 3s. \d. for 200 tiles for
mending the furnace of the bakehouse, 8s. for six
weeks' work in dressing and carving stones for
the monks' lavatory (cisterna), and 14.S. 3d. for
seven lime trees for the new chamber of the
abbot. In the following year three windows of
the abbot's new lodging were glazed. The
receipts that year came to ^204 4*. nf</., and
the expenses to £199 12s. id.

In 1365-6 the receipts rose to ^241 12s. id.,
but the expenses increased to ^262 is. n^d.
The last year of these accounts, 137 1-2, the
receipts were ^204 i6j. 5|^., and the outgoings
^213 1 os. io\d.

A detailed list of payments to the abbey
sacrists in 1369-70 shows that the full number
of the servants for this year was forty-four, and
the expenditure in money ^23 14s. I id.

The abbot of Warden filled the obligation im-
posed on him by the Cistercian statutes of visiting
the daughter house of Sibton year by year. The
average cost of this visit to the Suffolk abbey
was ^3 ios. No Cistercian abbey was ever

1 Valor Eccl. (Rec. Com.), iii, 434-6.
* Pat. 1 3 Edw. II, m. 9.

3 Close, 10 Edw. II. m. 24^.

4 Pat. 8 Ric. II, pt. ii, m. 8.

'Add. MS. 34560, (bis. 65-137. See first note.

visited by the diocesan, and there are therefore
only few references to Sibton in the Norwich
registers. But in 1426 a bull of Pope Martin
authorizing Robert Aldeby, abbot of Sibton, to
hold a benefice, was transcribed in the bishop's
register. 8

Henry, abbot of Sibton, was summoned to
attend convocation in 15 29/

An undated memorandum among the State
Papers, but clearly of the year 1536, gives the
names of the religious of this house, namely,
William Elatbury, abbot ; Robert Sabyn {alias
Bongay), prior ; and six other monks. It is
noted that the vicar-general was to be asked to
commission some person to take the abbot's re-
signation, with capacity to change his habit, and
to take two benefices with cure without residence,
and a licence for the same from the chancellor.
The abbot was willing to purchase these privi-
leges. Also for the monks, save Prior Sabyn and
another of the name of John Fawkon, all desired
' capacities,' and to take a benefice each with
cure. 8

The value of this house being well over ^200
a year, it would not have fallen for another two
years ; but the recently-appointed abbot, William
Flatbury, had apparently been put in through the
influence of the Duke of Norfolk, and with the
connivance of Cromwell, on purpose to bring
about a speedy surrender. At all events the
abbot and convent sold their house and posses-
sions to Thomas, duke of Norfolk, some time in
1536, and this action was confirmed by Act of
Parliament in 1 539- 9 In the duke's annual
receipts for I 538 entry is made of 'Sipton ^200,
whereof to the quondam (abbot) and other monks

£l

> 10

It therefore appears that all the monks

of this house obtained a pension.

The impression of the fourteenth-century
seal attached to a charter of 1406 shows the
Blessed Virgin under a pinnacled and crocketed
niche; on each side is a flowering branch, as
well as a star on one side and a crescent on the
other ; in the base under an arch is a lion's face,
a possible allusion to the arms of the founder's
family. Legend : —

COM ET

SIBETON .

CONV
11

Abbots of Sibton

Constantine 12
Laurence, c. 1200 13
Alexander de Walpole u

6 Norw. Epis. Reg. ix, fol. 23.

7 L. and P. Hen. Fill, v, 6047.

8 Ibid, x, 1247.

9 31 Hen. VIII, cap. 13.

10 L. and P. Hen. Fill, xiii, pt. ii, 121 5.
" Harl. Chart. 83, D. 1.
"Add. MS. 8172, fol. 173.
13 Ibid. ; Harl. Chart. 44 I, 25.

Ibid.

RELIGIOUS HOUSES

Ralph, occurs 1253 '
Richard, occurs I 269 s
Walter, occurs 1 289 3
John, occurs 1303 '
Eustache, occurs 1313 s

Ralph, occurs 1334 13
Walter, appointed 1375 M
Robert Aldeby, occurs 1426"
Henry, occurs 1529 16
William Flatbury, occurs 1536 17

HOUSES OF AUSTIN CANONS

15. THE PRIORY OF ALNESBOURN

At Alnesbourn or Albourn, near the river
between St. Clement's, Ipswich and Nacton, in
the ancient parish of Hallowtree, was one of the
smallest of the several small Austin priories of
Suffolk. This house, dedicated in honour of
the Blessed Virgin, was probably founded by
Albert de Neville ; at all events he endowed the
priory early in the thirteenth century, with the
manor that bore his name in the parish of Hethill,
and also with the advowson of Carlton St. Mary. 6
It is stated in a certificate of the year as to the
diminution of the profits of the churches of Alnes-
bourn and Carlton St. Mary that those two
rectories were appropriated to this priory in the
year 1247. 7

The taxation roll of 1 29 1 gives a total annual
value of £~i is. l\d. to the temporalities of this
priory, all in the county of Suffolk ; the largest
item was for rents and lands in Hallowtree
valued at £2 lis. gd. a year; there were
also small rents from the Ipswich parishes of
St. Clement, St. Matthew, St. Nicholas, and
St. Margaret. 8

Robert de Belstede and Robert de Thweyte
obtained licence in 1301 to alienate to the
priory the advowson of the church of Halghtree
or Hallowtree, with two acres of land in that
town, 9 and in 1334 licence was granted for
the appropriation of the church. 10

Before 1324 the priory of Alnesbourn held
the church of St. Mary, Carlton, county Nor-
folk, appropriated to them. It was served by a
stipendiary chaplain, but was conveyed in 1324
by the priory to the master and brethren of St.
Giles' Hospital, Norwich. 11

In 1 39 1 Robert Bretenham, prior of Alnesbourn,
held Neville's manor, Hethill, as half a fee, and paid
^[5 for a relief as his predecessors had done, and
was taxed at ^3 55. $d. for his temporalities. 12
This manor was sold in 1424 by the priory to

1 Chart. R. 37 Hen. Ill, m. 9.

' Add. MS. 19082, fol. 49. * Ibid. fol. 42.

4 Ibid. 8172, fol. 173. Mbid.

6 Blomefield, Hist. ofNorf ii, 98, 107.

; Norw. Epis. Reg. viii, fol. I 30.

* Pope Nich. Tax (Rec. Com.), 124^, 125, 128,
129, 129^.

s Pat. 30 Edw. I, m. 36.
"> Ibid. 9 Edw. Ill, pt'. i, m. 28.
" Blomefield, Hist. ofNorf. v, 98.
" Ibid, ii, 107.

John duke of Norfolk, Walter bishop of Nor-
wich, and others, and by them conveyed to the
hospital of St. Giles, Norwich. 18

Soon after this date, the exact year has not
been ascertained, the priory of Alnesbourn
ceased to have an independent existence, and
was united to the Austin house of Woodbridge. 19

The Valor of 1535 gives the annual value of
this priory, under the heading of Woodbridge
Priory, as £j 13;. lid. 20

Priors of Alnesbourn

Robert, occurs 1286 21

Walter de Cretynge, appointed 1311 s9

John de Stoke, died 1345 13

John de Fynyngham, appointed 1345 " 4

Robert Snyt, appointed 1350 25

John de Louder, appointed 1350 26

Robert Bretenham, occurs 1 391 w

Richard Susanne, appointed 1392 28

John Tumour, occurs 1424 M

16. THE PRIORY OF BLYTH-
BURGH 30

The real founders of the priory of the Blessed
Virgin were the abbot and canons of the im-

" Close, 8 Edw. Ill, m. 1 7 d.

u Norw. Epis. Reg. vi, 43.

14 Ibid, ix, 32.

,6 L. and P. Hen. Fill, iv, pt. iii, 6047.

" Add. MS. 19083, fol. 18.

18 Blomefield. Hist. o/Norf. ii, 107.

19 Dugdale, Mon. vi, 583, 601.

" Valor Eccl. (Rec. Com.), iii, 422.

" Bodl. Chart. Suff. 187.

" Norw. Epis. Reg. i, 45.

"Ibid, iv, 51. "Ibid.

" Ibid, iv, 123. lc Ibid, iv, 124.

}? Blomefield, Hist. ofNorf. ii, 105.

,f Norw. Epis. Reg. vi, 1 70.

" Blomefield, Hist. o/Norf. ii, 107.

50 A chartulary of Blythburgh priory, in private hands,
contains sixty-two folios ; the date of the writing is
r. 1 100. The greater part of the transcribed
deeds are undated, and of the twelfth and thir-
teenth centuries ; they relate to grants, chiefly of
trifling properties.

The following are among the more important
documents : —

Grant by Henry I to the canons of St. Osyth, of
the church of Blythburgh. (fols. 3, 7^).

Charter of Henry II, between 1 164-70, confirming

9 1

A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK

portant Austin house of St. Osyth, Essex.
Henry I bestowed on that abbey the tithes ot
the widespread parish of Blythburgh, and here,
aided by the support of the Claverings, the lords
of the manor, a priory or dependent cell of St.
Osyth was established at an early date. 1

Blythburgh is an instance of one of those
important cells which had a double life, being
partly independent of the mother house, but in
the maixi, dependent. The priory presented
to several neighbouring benefices and to one in
Norfolk, and it also possessed a good deal of
property both in spiritualities and temporalities

to the abbot and convent of St. Osyth the right of
placing a prior in the church of Blythburgh, granted
to them by King Henry, his grandfather, (fol. yb.)

Bull of Innocent III (1198-1216) to Ralph abbot
of St. Osyth, confirming to him and his canons the
church of Blythburgh. (fol. 9^.)

Confirmation by William de Kerdiston of the
church of Claxton, &c. (fol. 12.)

Grants by Richard, son of William son of Duet,
of the church of Blythburgh. Confirmation of the
same by Ralph de Criketot and by Hubert de
Criketot, Ralph's son. Grant by William bishop of
Norwich (1 146-75) of the church of Blythburgh to
the canons of Blythburgh on petition of Ralph de
Criketot, lord of that place ; and certificate of the
archdeacon of Suffolk that he was present when the
bishop instituted the canons to the church of Blyth-
burgh. (fols. 16, 1 6b.)

Grant to Blythburgh by Eudo son of Ogar of the
church of Bramfield, with confirmation by William
bishop of Norwich, and by John and Thomas, arch-
bishops of Canterbury, (fols. 19, 19^.)

Grant by Richard de Clippesby of the church of
Clippesby, and by Roger de Claxton, with confirma-
tion by John bishop of Norwich and his archdeacons
(1 175-1206). (fols. 25^, 26.)

Confirmation by Archbishop Peckham of the rights
of the priory in the churches of St. Mary and the
Holy Trinity at Blythburgh with the chapels of Wal-
berswick, Bramfield, Clopton, Blyford, and a
moiety of Wenhaston (1281). (fol. 25.)

Grant by Geoffrey de Beletone, rector of the
church of St. John's, Dunwich, of the advowson of
the church of Thorington, with a piece of land.
(fol. 54*0

Agreement in 1278 between Robert FitzRoger,
knt., and the prior and convent of Blythburgh, by
which the former releases the latter from the old
custom of providing a feast at Christmas for his men
and serfs at Walberswick, on condition of providing a
resident chaplain to celebrate mass in Walberswick
chapel daily, instead of thrice a week, four of the
weekly masses being for the benefit of the said Robert
and Margery his wife. (fol. 62^.)

A report as to this volume, with an analysis of its
chief contents, appeared in the Hist. MSS. Com. Rep.
x, 4.51-7. It was at that time in the hands of the
Rev. F. S. Hill, rector of Thorington ; but is now
owned by Mr. F. A. Crisp, F.S.A., who has kindly
allowed it to be inspected by the writer.

1 Gardner, Hist, of Dunivich, Blythburgh and South-
wold, 128 ; Suckling, Hist, of Suff. ii, 143 ; V. C. H.
Essex, ii.

uncontrolled by St. Osyth's ; moreover it was
subject to the visitation of the diocesan, the
Bishop of Norwich. But, although it was thus to
a certain extent conventual, the most important
function of a chapter or conventual gathering
was the choice of a superior on the occurrence
of a vacancy, and in this respect Blythburgh
was voiceless. The appointment of the prior
always rested with the abbot and convent of St.
Osyth's, though in the formal presentation to the
bishop, the lord of Blythburgh, as lay patron of
the priory, was always associated with the abbot. 2
Moreover the prior and his two canons were
always expected to attend the visitations of
St. Osyth whenever they were held by the Bishops
of London or their commissaries; they also took
part in the election of an abbot over the mother
house.

The elaborate charter of confirmation granted
to the priory by Richard I recites all their bene-
factions up to that date. It makes no reference
to the mother house of St. Osyth's. 3

The Taxation Roll of Pope Nicholas (1291),
about a century later, shows that the priory had
gained several small benefactions during that
period. The house held lands or rents in about
forty Suffolk parishes, as well as in Great Yar-
mouth, yielding an annual total of ^36 31. i\d.
Of this sum ^20 19s. 6\d. came from Blyth-
burgh and Walberswick. In addition to this
there were the then appropriated churches of
Bramfield, Wenhaston, and Blyford, which
yielded collectively ^23 6s. 4-d.* Moreover the
appropriate tithes of Blythburgh-cum-Walbers-
wick were omitted in that list, but shortly
afterwards taxed as of the annual worth of
£28 6j. 8d. ; 6 so that by the end of the thir-
teenth century the priory was worth the fairly
large annual sum of j£88 6s. ihd., though the
total would be considerably reduced by a variety
of outgoings.

John Fovas, vicar of Claxton, and Henry
Brid of Halesworth had licence in 1345 to
alienate to the priory 61 acres of land and
3 acres of pasture in Spexhall, Westhall, Thornton,
and Blythburgh, towards the support of a chap-
lain to celebrate weekly in the priory church for
the souls of Henry de Harnhull, and his father,
mother, and ancestors. 6 The priory obtained
licence in 1347 to appropriate the church of
Thorington, which was of its advowson. 7

' Thus the Norwich visitation books show that the
Claverings, Audleys, UfFords, and Lords Dacres were
successively patrons.

3 This charter is cited in full by Dugdale (Mon. vi,
588-9), and by Suckling {Hist, of Suff'. ii, 145-6).

4 Pope Nich.Tax. (Rec. Com.), 97^, 113, nib,
126, 126^, 127, 1273, nib, 132.

5 Chartul. fol. lb. In this place two small por-
tions or pensions are also named from the rectories of
Stoven and Walpole, amounting to 11/. 3d.

6 Pat. 19 Edw. Ill, pt. ii, m. 9.

7 Ibid. 21 Edw. Ill, pt. iv, m. 6.

RELIGIOUS HOUSES

The value of the property pertaining to the
priory suffered severely from the Black Death of
1349, and never recovered from the deterioration
that then ensued. There was also much loss
experienced from the sea encroachments at
Dunwich and on the coast line of Blythburgh
parish.

The Valor of 1535 gives the annual value of
the temporalities as ^28 131. 4^., but the out-
goings brought the clear value down to
£l% 14s. \d. The spiritualities or tithes of
the parishes of Blythburgh-cum-Walberswick,
Bramfield, Thorington, and Blyford were then
worth ^28 a year; but from this deductions of
over £6 had to be made for pensions to the
abbot of St. Osyth and the prior of St. Bartho-
lomew, Smithfield, as well as for procurations
and synodals. The clear total value of the
priory was thus reduced to ^48 8s. lod.

The office of prior, notwithstanding its de-
pendent position on St. Osyth, was esteemed a
position of some importance. Thus in 1217,
Pope Honorius III considered the prior of Blyth-
burgh to be a sufficiently noteworthy person
to be associated with the abbots of Sibton
and Leiston in a commission appointed to
report as to the conduct of Peter, archdeacon of
Lincoln. 1

Whatever may have been the number of the
canons of this house prior to the Black Death,
they do not seem to have ever exceeded a total
of four, including the superior, at subsequent
dates. In 1473 there were three canons and a
prior ; for in that year John Woley of Blyth-
burgh left 40J. to the prior and convent, viz.,
20s. to the prior, and 6s. 8d. to each canon. 2

The injunctions consequent on a visitation in
1308 enjoined on the abbot and convent of
St. Osyth to be careful in the election of canons
suitable to be sent to Blythburgh. 3 In 13 17,
when the commissary of the dean and chapter of
St. Paul's was holding a visitation at St. Osyth,
sede vacante, certain irregularities at the cell of
Blythburgh were condemned. 4 The prior of
Blythburgh and his canons attended at the elec-
tion of an abbot of St. Osyth by scrutiny in
1427, when four were present from Blyth-
burgh. 6

The several sixteenth-century diocesan visita-
tions of this priory show that the number of the
religious was then four. The house was in debt,
and the old chapter-house had disappeared.

Blythburgh was visited by the suffragan Bishop
of Chalcedon and other commissaries of the
diocesan in 1520, when the prior and brethren
assembled in a certain chapel of the conventual
church which they used as a chapter-house.

1 Cat. Pap. Reg. i, 47.

' Gardner, Hist, of Dunwich, 13 'c. 129.

3 Lond. Epis. Reg. Baldock, fol. 912.

4 Ibid. Newport, fol. 7.

5 Ibid. Grey, fol. 64.

They were severally examined as to the state of
the house and the essentials of religion, and their
answers were in every way satisfactory. 6

Bishop Nykke visited in person in June, 1526.
Prior John Righton, Thomas Chapet, sub-prior,
and three other canons attended. All made
satisfactory replies save Robert Francis, who
said they had given up the singing of mass, and
complained that the prior was too lenient in
correction towards those he favoured, but cruel
and severe towards those whom he disliked. 7
The bishop again visited Blythburgh in July,
1532, when Prior Righton stated that the house
was in debt to the amount of £30, of which
£10 was due to the bishop. The three brethren,
on examination, stated that they knew of nothing
worthy of reformation. 8

Between the two visits of Bishop Nykke this
priory narrowly escaped dissolution. It was
included in the bull of Pope Clement, granted
to Cardinal Wolsey in 1528, among minor
houses to be suppressed in favour of his pro-
posed college at Ipswich, which was never
carried out. 9

On 6 October, 1534, the priory's acceptance
of the supremacy of Henry VIII was signed by
John Righton the prior, and by John Baker,
George Thurstan, and Robert Sprot, the three
canons.

Although strictly speaking Blythburgh priory,
as a cell of St. Osyth's, did not come under the
act for the suppression of the smaller monasteries,
it was placed in that category, and the suppres-
sion was carried out on 12 February, 1 5 3 7 . w
In the previous August an inventory of the
priory's goods had been drawn up by the three
suppression commissioners for Suffolk. The
priory was in a somewhat poor plight even for a
small house; the total value was only ^8 is. 8d.,
including 40J. for five horses and an old cart.
All the vestments in the vestry were valued at
361. 6d. There were two silver chalices with
patens and a cross of copper gilt. The contents
of the house were apportioned between the
kitchen, pantry, hall, and parlour, and there is
certainly no sign of luxurious living. 11

On 29 February, 1537, a pension of £6 was
assigned to John Righton the ex-prior ; and the
three canons were turned out penniless. 11

The house, site, and all the possessions of the
priory were originally granted by the crown to
Walter VVadelond, of Needham Market, for
twenty-one years, at a rental of £59 9s., and in
November, 1548, the reversion was granted to
Sir Arthur Hopton. u

6 Jessopp, Visit. 177. 7 Ibid. 216.

8 Ibid. 284-5. ' Rymcr, Foedera, xiv, 240-1.

10 L. and P. Hen. Fill, xii, pt. i, 5 10.

11 This inventory is set forth in full in the proceed-
ings of the Suff. Arch. Inst, viii, 99-100.

" Misc. Bks. (Aug. Oft"), ccxxxii, fol. 40.
"I. and. P. Hen. fill, xiii, pt. ii, 967 (20).

A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK

Priors of Blythburgh

Nicholas '

Thomas 3

Osbert 3

Roger 4

Richard 6

Elias 6

Wyth 7

Guy, occurs 1200, &c. 8

William, occurs 1260, &c. 9

Adam, occurs 1290 and 1294 10

Alexander de Donewych, appointed 1310' 1

Nicholas de Daggeworth, appointed 1332 12

John de Norton, appointed 1 361 13

Walter de Stanstede, appointed 137 1 M

John de Alveley, appointed 1374 15

William de Wykeham, appointed 1382 16

Lawrence de Brysete, 1395 17

John Hydyngham (Hethyngham), appointed

1395 18
John Lacy, appointed 141 8 19
Thomas Hadley, resigned 1427 2I)
Roger Okham, appointed 1427 21
William Kent, appointed 1 43 1 '"
John Sompton, died 1483 " 3
John Newton, appointed 1483 -*
John Brandon, appointed 1497"''
John Marham, appointed 1500 - 6
Robert Park, appointed 1506 27
John Righton, appointed 1521 28

An impression of the common seal of the
priory is attached to the acknowledgement of the
supremacy at the Public Record Office. It is
of large oval shape, and bears the Blessed Virgin,
with sceptre in right hand, and Holy Child on
left knee, with the legend : —

SIGIIXUM . SANCTE

MARIE

BLIEBURGH

17. THE PRIORY OF BRICETT

Ralph FitzBrian and Emma his wife, about
the year 11 10, founded a priory for Austin

1 Blyth. Chartul. fol. 8b. Nicholas and the six
following priors are mentioned in undated grants, &c,
of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries.

2 Ibid. fol. U, 36. 3 Ibid. fol. 3 9 J, 48.
'Ibid. 29. Mbid. 30. 6 Ibid. 60b.
'• Ibid. 62. 8 Ibid. fol. 30, 31, 61.
"Ibid. fol. Sb, 13, 2o£, 24, 52.

'"Ibid. fol. 2, 9, 2o£, 61.

"Norw. Epis. Reg. i, 40; Blyth. Chartul. fol. 13,
24, 30*, 31.
"Norw. Epis. Reg. ii, 54.

13 Ibid, v, 52 ; Blyth. Chartul. fol. \^b.

14 Norw. Epis. Reg. vi, 10. "Ibid, vi, 28.
"Ibid, vi, 85. "Ibid, vi, 202.

,6 Ibid. vi, 217 ; Blyth. Chartul. fol. \ib.

19 Norw. Epis. Reg. viii, -\- . *° Ibid, ix, 27.

"Ibid. "Ibid, ix, 49. " Ibid, xii, 99.

"Ibid. "Ibid, xii, 195. 26 Ibid.

37 Ibid, xiii, 70. "Ibid, xiv, 170.

canons at Bricett, which was dedicated to the
honour of St. Leonard. The foundation charter
endowed the priory with the tithes of Bricett
andof'Losa' with its chapel, a moiety of the
church of ' Stepla,' and the church of Stangate,
Essex, in addition to various plots of land in the
vicinity. The founder also gave to the canons
a large garden on the south of the monastery
and a smaller one on the east, and he ordained
that whenever he was in Suffolk the canons were
to act as his chaplains and to receive a tithe of
his bread and beer. 29

These gifts, with slight additions, were con-
firmed to the canons both by the son and
grandson of the founder and by Sir Almaric
Peche, who married the great granddaughter
and heiress. In 1250, Walter bishop of Nor-
wich, with the assent of the prior and convent,
licensed a chantry in the chapel of Sir Almaric
and his lady, within the court of their house, on
condition that the chantry chaplain, at his first
coming, should swear, in the presence of the
prior, to restore to the mother church of Bricett
every kind of offering made in the chapel,
without any deduction, on the day or the day
after the offering was made ; and also that no
parishioner should be admitted to the sacrament
of penance or any other sacrament by the chap-
lain, save in peril of death. It was also stipulated
that Almaric and his wife and household and
their heirs should attend the mother church at
Christmas, Easter, Pentecost, the Assumption,
and St. Leonard's Day, and make the accustomed
offerings at high mass. 30

Although the founder had enjoined that the
canons of this house were to be under the special
protection of the Bishop of Norwich, and that
the prior was to have the power of appointing
and removing canons, the priory of Bricett was
claimed, early in the thirteenth century, as
pertaining to the monastery of Nobiliac, in the
diocese of Limoges and the duchy of Berry. 31
This claim was resisted, but in 1295 an agree-
ment was arrived at favourable to the foreign
house, whereby Bricett became an alien priory ;
this composition was renewed and confirmed by
the Bishop of Norwich in the chapter-house of
Bricett, on 16 July, 1310. 32

The taxation roll of 1291 gives the annual
value of the temporalities of Bricett priory in
various Suffolk parishes and in Pentlow, Essex,
as £13 1 8j. o|d. Under spiritualities there was
the church of Wattisham with an income of
£5 6s. Sd. and portions from Castle Acre of
£1 1 3*. 4^., and from Wenham of 6s. 33

25 Foundation Charter among King's Coll. Camb.
muniments. Cited in Dugdale, Mem. vi, 174.

30 Ibid. 174-5.

31 Prynne, Pap. Usurp, iii, 682, 707.
32 Bodl. Chart. SufF. 188.

33 Pope Nich. Tax. (Rec. Com.), \jb, 115, n 7 b,

122, I24, 12 8, \zib, 129^, 130^, 131, I 31^, 132, 133.

RELIGIOUS HOUSES

In a long list of royal protections to religious
houses in 1295, in return for bestowing on the
king a tithe of their income, the priory of Bricett
is described as a cell to the priory of ' Noblac in
Lymoches.' '

In 1325 Thomas Durant and Margaret his
wife obtained licence to enfeoff John de Bohun
of a fourth part of the manor of Great Bricett,
together with the advowson of the priory of
St. Leonard of the same town. 2

Licence was granted in 1331 for the aliena-
tion by Thomas le Archer, rector of Elmsett,
and Richard his brother, to the prior and canons
of Bricett of three parts of the manor of Great
Bricett, of the yearly value of £"] ? The fourth
part of the manor of Great Bricett of the annual
value of 361. 8d. was assigned to the priory in
1346 by Richard Hacoun and Anne his wife. 4
In the same year John Bardoun and Isabel his
wife released to the prior and canons of
St. Leonard's all their right and claim in the
manor of Great Bricett. 6

The prior, with a great number of other
priors of alien houses and cells, was summoned
to appear before the council at Westminster, on
the morrow of Midsummer, 1346, 'to speak
with them on things that shall be set forth to
them,' upon pain of forfeiture and the loss of
the priory, lands, and goods. 6

On the general suppression of the alien
priories, Bricett came into the hands of the
crown. In 1444 Henry VI granted the whole
of the possessions to the college of SS. Mary
and Nicholas (afterwards King's), Cambridge. 7
This grant was confirmed by the same king in
1452," and it was again renewed by Edward IV
in the first year of his reign, namely on 24 Feb-
ruary, 1 462.'

In a book of surveys of the University of
Cambridge, 1545-6, the annual value of the
priory or manor of Bricett is set down under the
possessions of King's College at ^33 us. 8d. M

Priors of Bricett

William Randulf, appointed 1312 11
John de Essex, appointed 1337 '"'
Alan de Codenham, appointed 1372 13
Nicholas Barne, appointed 1399 u

1 Pat. 24 Edvv. I, m. 21.
8 Ibid. 18 Edw. Ill, pt. ii, m. 37.
3 Ibid. 5 Edw. Ill, pt. ii, m. 26.
* Ibid. 20 Edw. Ill, pt. i, m. 4.
'Close, 20 Edw. Ill, pt. i, m. 23 a.

6 Ibid. 21 Edw. Ill, pt. i, m. 6 J.

7 Pari. R. (Rec. Com.), v. 93.

8 Pat. 31 Hen. VI, pt. i, m. 20.

9 Ibid. 1 Edw. IV, pt. iii, m. 23.

10 Dugd.ile, Mon. vi, 175.

11 Norw. Epis. Reg. i, 46.

"Ibid, iii, 5. "Ibid, vi, 14.

" Ibid, vi, 256.

18. THE PRIORY OF BUTLEY

This important priory of Austin canons was
founded in honour of our Lady, in the year
1 171, by Sir Ralph de Glanville, justiciary of
England. It was founded upon lands called
Brockhouse, which Ralph held by his wife
Bertha, daughter of Theobald de Valoins, lord of
Parkham. A chief part of the founder's original
benefaction consisted of the churches of Butley,
Farnham, Bawdsey, Wantisden, Capel, and
Benhall. 15

Henry II, at the request of the founder, gave
the rectory of Burston, Norfolk, to the canons ;
but they subsequently resigned the appropriation
and appointed a rector, securing a pension of
4OJ. 16 It was further endowed, in the same
reign, with the rectory of Winfarthing, Norfolk,
but in this case the advowson and appropriation
were lost in 1425 17 . In 1209 the two moieties
of the advowson of Gissing, Norfolk, were
granted to the priory, and the appropriation was
sanctioned in 1 27 I. The advowson and appro-
priation of the church of Kilverstone, Norfolk,
together with a fold-course and common of pas-
ture in that parish were granted to the prior in
1217. 18

The Norfolk parish of Dickleburgh possessed
four rectories ; sanction to appropriate one of
these portions was granted by the bishop in
1 180. The abbot of St. Edmunds drew pensions
from two of the other portions. But in 1454,
with the consent of all parties, the four portions
were consolidated, each rector covenanting to
pay a yearly pension of 3s. \d. to the priory of
Butley. 19

There was hardly a religious house in the
kingdom, save some of the largest Benedictine
abbeys, that had so much church patronage, or
such a wealth of appropriations in its hands as
was eventually the case with the priory of Butley.
In the year 1235, William D'Auberville, grand-
son of Maud, eldest daughter of Ralph de Glan-
ville, the founder, gave to the priory his third "° of
the churches of Chedgrave, Somerton, Upton,
Wantisden, Capel, Benhall, Bawdsey, and Fin-
borough, with a moiety of the church of Glem-
ham Parva. In 127 1 Lady Cassandra Baynard
gave her share of the church of Chedgrave ; and
other shares of several churches subsequently fell
to the canons. 21

The prior and convent of Norwich confirmed
in 1249 tne church of Little Worlingham St.

15 The foundation charter is among the MSS. of
C. C. C. Camb., and is cited in full in Dugdalc,
Mon. vi, 380.

16 Biomeficld, Hut. ofSorf. i, 125.

17 Ibid, i, 181.

18 Ibid, i, 5 + 3.

19 Ibid, i, 191-3.

80 The founder's property had been divided between
his three daughters and heire-ses.
" Add. MS. (Davy), 19100, 19096.

A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK

Peter to the monastery of Butley, which had
been appropriated to this house by William de
Suffield, bishop of Norwich. 1 An undated con-
firmation by Norwich priory, c. 1266, also con-
firmed the appropriation to Butley of the church
of Gissing. 2

The taxation of 1291 shows that the priory
then held the appropriation of fifteen churches,
yielding a total income of £i2j 6s. 8d. ; the
most wealthy of these were Debenham, ^30 ;
Upton, £16 135. 4</. ; Ashfield-cum-Thorp,
j£i3 6s. 8d. ; and West Somerton, £12. The
temporalities in about sixty Suffolk parishes, and
in a few parishes of Norfolk and Lincoln pro-
duced £68 <)s. 8d., and give a total annual income
from all sources, at that date, of ^195 1 6s. ^.d. 3
By far the largest holding of the priory, under
temporalities, was at West Somerton, Norfolk,
whence their income amounted to ^37 3*. \\d.

There were several minor bequests in the
fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. An important
but temporary addition was made to the priory's
income by Henry VIII, in 1508, when the cell
of Snape, which till then had belonged to
St. John's, Colchester, was given to the Butley
canons, together with the manors of Snape,
Scottow, ' Tastard,' Bedingfield, Aldeburgh, and
Friston. The Colchester monks, however,
showed themselves, not unnaturally, very trouble-
some over this transfer, and the prior of Butley
resigned it in 1509. 4

When the Valor of 1535 was drawn up it
was found that this priory had an income con-
siderably exceeding ^3,000 of our money. The
clear annual value of the temporalities amounted
to j£2io ~js. l\d. Among the deductions was
the sum of £8 165. 8d. paid in pence to the poor
of Chesilford at the chief festivals, out of the
rentals of that manor. The spiritualities pro-
duced a further clear income of j£io8 gs. "^d.,
leaving a total net income of ^318 ljs. 2$d. b
The priory had lost in recent years, through
various causes, two or three of its appropriated
churches ; those that it still retained were Butley,
Capel, Gedgrave chapel, Wantisden, Glemham
Magna, Kesgrave, Shelley, Redisham, Willing-
ham Magna and Parva, Ramsholt, Ashfield-cum-
Thorp, Aspall, Fornham, Harleston, Kylmton,
Weybread, Debenham, Finborough, Benhall,
Bawdsey, in Suffolk ; West Somerton, Gissing,
Upton, and Bylaugh, in Norfolk ; Byker, in
Lincoln ; St. Stephen Coleman, City of London ;
and Debenham, Essex — twenty-seven in all.

The leper hospital of West Somerton, Nor-
folk, was in the charge of the prior of Butley in

1 Bodl. Chart. SufF. 190. ' Ibid. 191.

3 Pope Nich. Tax (Rec. Com.), 19, 24^, 74,78^,

79- 8 3<*» 97*, i°4*> '°5> "3. H5*, i'7» 119. I2 3,
129/$, 13 iJ, 133^.

' Dugdale, Mon. vi, 38 1, where Henry VII's

charter of transfer is cited in full.

1 Valor. Eccl. (Rec. Com.), 418-22.

the time of Edward I. A commission was
issued to William de Ormesby and William de
Sutton in February, 1299, touching the persons
who entered the West Somerton lazar-house — in
the custody of the prior of Butley, by the king's
orders — and carried away the corn and goods and
the muniments of the hospital. 6 In October of
the following year the crown granted to the
prior of Butley, keeper of the leper-house of
West Somerton, in consideration of a fine of
IOO marks, to hold the hospital quit of any
account, as his predecessors used to do, but
subject, like other hospitals of the king's advow-
son, to be visited by the chancellor or his
deputies to correct defects. 7

An inquisition held on 14 November found
that Ralph Glanville, whose heir the king was,
granted to the prior and convent of Butley the
custody of the hospital of West Somerton, on
condition that they maintained in it thirteen
lepers, with a chaplain to celebrate daily there
and a clerk, praying for the souls of Ralph and
his father and mother ; that the prior for twenty
years past had ceased the maintenance of nine
of the lepers and of the chaplain and the clerk ;
that for twelve years the prior had withdrawn
from the four lepers who were there on that
date seven gallons of ale a week, worth id.
each ; and that the hospital was worth ten marks
annually. Thereupon the hospital was taken
into the king's hands. In November 1399 the
priory informed Henry IV that the hospital at
the time of its first endowment was worth ^60
a year, and that as it was now worth only
10 marks it could not possibly discharge its first
obligations ; and that the place where the hos-
pital formerly stood was desolate. Whereupon
Henry IV discharged the priory of all its hospital
obligations, on condition that two canons of the
priory celebrated daily for the good estate of the
king, and for the souls of his progenitors and
predecessors, and for the souls of Ralph, the
founder, and his father and mother. 8

Much light is thrown upon the inner working
of a fairly large house of Austin canons, towards
the close of the monastic system, by the visita-
tions of Bishops Goldwell and Nykke, of which
unusually full records remain. 9 It is evident that
here, as elsewhere, the tone of a house depended
much upon the character of the superior.

Bishop Goldwell visited this priory on 10 July,
1494, when the prior (Thomas Framlinghr.m)
and thirteen canons were examined. Another
canon was absent. The report stated that the
brethren who had granted 13*. $d. of their
stipends to the prior for the needs of the house,
sought restitution ; that the prior punishes at his

1 Pat. 27 Edw. I, m. 37a'.

7 Ibid. 28 Edw. I, m. 3.

8 Ibid. 1 Hen. IV, pt. iii, m. 10.

8 Bodl. Tanner MSS. 108, 132, 210 (ed. Dr.
Jessopp for Camd. Soc. in 1884).

RELIGIOUS HOUSES

own pleasure, without the consent of the seniors
(against the custom of religion) ; that utensils
pertaining to the infirmary ought to be restored
to their proper use ; that the prior should assign
to each canon a certain chamber, but that he
takes them away for a light breach of discipline ;
that many gentlefolk, particularly relatives of the
prior, frequent the house to its great detriment ;
that there is no schoolmaster for the teaching
of grammar ; and that the prior does not exhibit
any statement of account, nor has he any
cellarer or other official who knows the state of
the house and could act in case of his sickness.
The bishop stated, before leaving, that he did not
find much worthy of reformation, and therefore
dissolved the visitation, promising to forward
certain injunctions. 1

Bishop Nykke visited in July, 1 5 14. Prior
Augustine Rivers said that there was an old debt
of £~]0, as well as one incurred by himself and
due to the bishop of ^20. He said that all
things were laudable so far as the income of the
house permitted ; but that the buildings and
manor houses were out of repair. William
VVoodbridge, the sub-prior, said that three masses
were said daily, and that both day and night
hours were duly observed ; also that the brethren
were obedient and continent, and that all other
things were well. John Thetford, having a
bachelor's degree, said that he knew but little of
the state of the house as he was absent at the
university, but he knew nothing but what was
creditable of his brethren. He considered that
Thomas Orford was a good grammarian and
given to letters, and his friends wished him to go
to the university at their expense. Richard
Wilton, cellarer, spoke warmly of the prior's
industry, both in the spiritual and temporal
interests of the house so far as income would
permit, but that he was overburdened with the
dilapidations of the buildings, granges, and manor
houses. Seven of the canons simply testified
omnia bene. John Norwich said that the ser-
vice books were sadly worn. James Hillington
considered that the sub-prior and some of the
older canons were negligent in attending divine
offices. Thomas Sudbury complained of the
language of Reginald Westerfield towards the
younger canons ; in this he was supported by
another canon who had heard Westerfield call
the juniors ' horesons.'

The bishop, in his consequent injunctions,
cautioned Westerfield against the use of oppro-
brious terms, and ordered the prior to permit both
Thetford and Orford to go to the university. 2

The priory was visited in July, 1520, by the
suffragan Bishop of Chalcedon and three other
commissaries of the diocesan. Prior Rivers was
able to say that the debt was reduced to 40/.

1 Bodl. Tanner MSS. 53-5 (ed. Dr. Jessopp for
Cimd. Soc. in 1884).
* Ibid. 1 3 1-3.

William Woodbridgc, the sub-prior, said that
everything was well and industriously observed,
and one other canon was equally content. The
rest had various complaints, but of no very
serious character. Their nature can be gathered
from the subsequent injunctions, which ordered
that a suitable place should be at once provided
for the infirm ; that a sufficiency of food should
be daily provided in the refectory ; that the quire
books should be properly repaired before Christ-
mas ; that an inventory should be exhibited at
the next Michaelmas synod ; and that the bre-
thren should observe silence in the refectory,
dormitory, and cloister. 3

At the visitation of 1526 the same prior and
sub-prior again gave good testimony and knew of
nothing worthy of reform. Five of the fourteen
other canons were equally satisfied. The only
complaint was that they had no scholar at the
university. John Debenham, who suffered
severely from gout [podagra cruciatus), sought to
be excused from matins during the winter.
Thomas Orford (vexatus morbo gallorum) exhibited
a dispensation to retire from the religious life
granted him by the Lord Cardinal (Wolsey).
The sacrist stated that the main sewer could not
be flooded. The sub-sacrist complained that the
prior scolded the brethren before laymen, and
that the roof of the church admitted rain. The
third prior said that the seniors confessed to
whom they liked, that the quire books were
insufficient, that due food for the infirm was not
provided, that they had no porter, and that the
roof of the church was defective. These and
other minor irregularities were duly dealt with
in the injunctions. 4

The last visitation of Butley priory before the
dissolution was held on 21 June, 1532, by Bishop
Nykke, and entered at great length in his visita-
tion register. The sub-prior gave a good report
and spoke of the wise administrative powers of
the prior ( politicus et circumsp.-ctus). The precentor
and sacrist said that the prior kept everything
pertaining to the different offices of the house in
his own hands, and a like complaint was made
by others. The third prior reported that neither
doctor nor surgeon were provided for the infirm;
that the quire books had not been repaired ;
that junior candidates seeking holy orders were
sent on foot, instead of on horseback ; that the
prior made no annual account in spite of the
bishop's injunctions ; that the presbytery of the
church and both the porches were out of repair ;
and that the food was too sparse, with a too-
great frequency of salt fish. The refectorian
complained that the refectory was too cold in the
winter, from which cause the brethren suffered
from the gout and severe colds {alias gelidas in-
firmitates) ; that there was not a sufficiency of
food ; that certain pewter cups for the use of the
infirm had been removed by the sub-prior ; and

Ibid.

177-9-

Ibid. 216-20.
'3

A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK

that no statement of accounts had been rendered
by the prior for thirty years. Among the com-
plaints of other canons (in all sixteen were
examined) were the badness of the food and the
dirty methods of serving it ; the faulty nature of
the prior's accounts ; the lack of due provisions
for the sick ; the poor quality of the beer ; and
the lack of necessary garments for the novices.

This visitation also brought to light a grave
case of fraudulent letters to obtain orders.
Thomas Woodbridge, one of the canons, pro-
ceeded to Norwich and received priest's orders
without the licence or knowledge of the prior,
presenting letters forged in the prior's name.
Thomas Ipswich confessed that he had written
these letters for Woodbridge last Whitsuntide.

The reformanda of the bishop, consequent on
this visitation, ordered that a master was to be
provided for instructing the novices and boys in
' priksong ' and grammar ; that one canon
should be sent to the university ; that an annual
statement of accounts was to be presented in the
chapter-house before three or four of the older
brethren ; that a proper place was to be assigned
for an infirmary, with a sufficiency of healthy
food and drink and of medical and surgical assist-
ance for the infirm ; that the prior was to pay
each novice 7.0s. for clothing according to old
custom ; that horses and a servant be provided
for canons when they seek orders ; that the
presbytery be at once repaired ; that one brother
be sacrist and another precentor ; that the same
drink be supplied to the brethren as to the prior ;
that warning be given to the servants as to being
insolent ; that the roof and walls of the chapter-
house be repaired ; and that the refectory be
supplied with footboards and backs to the benches
to lessen the cold in winter. The visitation was
adjourned until the ensuing feast of the Purifica-
tion to see if the various reformations were
carried out. 1

John Thetford, prior of the Holy Sepulchre,
Thetford, was a benefactor to Butley priory
about 1534. He gave them two chalices, one
for the chapel of All Saints and another for the
chapel of St. Sigismond. He also gave them a
relic of special value, namely the comb of
St. Thomas of Canterbury and a silver box of
small relics. 2

Thomas Manning alias Sudbury, who had
been elected prior in 1528, was appointed suffra-
gan Bishop of Ipswich in March 1536, having
been nominated along with George, abbot of
Leiston, by the Bishop of Norwich. 3 In Decem-
ber 1536 the new suffragan bishop got into
trouble with Cromwell over some alleged com-
plicity in the escape of a canon of Butley
imprisoned on a charge of treason, whereupon
he dispatched his servant to the Lord Principal,

1 Jcssopp, Visit. 285-9.

' Add. MS. I9o;o, fol. 216.

' L. and P. Hen. nil, x, 597 (2).

two days after Christmas, with two fat swans,
three pheasant cocks, three pheasant hens, and
one dozen partridges : — the weather had been so
open and rainy that he could get no wild fowl.
In his letter he told Cromwell that divers were
busy to get him to resign his house, but that with
the king's favour he would never surrender it. 4

However, the prior-bishop found it impossible
to resist — all pensions would have been forfeited if
he had remained obstinate — and on I March,
1538, Manning and eight of the canons signed
the surrender. 5 A list of the household drawn
up at the same time shows that there were then
twelve canons, two chaplains, an under-steward,
twelve men-servants, including a barber, a master
of the children, seven children kept of alms to
learning, three scullions, a slaughterman, two
sheep reeves, two horse-keepers, a church clerk,
a cooper, five wardens of the boats — ferry and
river — a smith, two warreners, three bakers and
brewers, two maltsters, a porter, a gardener, six
women in laundry and dairy, twelve husband-
men, five carters, three shepherds, two wood-
makers, a swineherd, two plough- and cart-wrights,
two for making candles and keeping the fish-
house, and two impotent beadsmen. 6

This list shows that the canons retained up to
the end, in their own hands, the direct control of
the adjacent lands, treating them as a ' home
farm.' Moreover, it is quite clear that they not
only kept school for others besides their own
novices, but that they had also a certain num-
ber of poor boarding scholars.

Prior Manning does not appear to have had
any direct pension granted him, but shortly after
the dissolution of his house he was appointed
warden of Mettingham College, and was also
granted for life (with reversion to the Duke of
Suffolk) considerable manors and lands that had
belonged to the monasteries of Monks Kirby,
Warwickshire, and Axholme, Lincolnshire. 7

The site of the priory, with adjacent lands,
was granted to William Naunton, treasurer of
the Duke of Suffolk's household, in July 1538,
on a twenty-one years' lease. 8

Priors of Butley

Gilbert, 1171 s

William, elected by priory 1 195 10

Robert, 1213 u

Adam, 1234 12

Peter, 125 1 13

4 Ibid, xi, 1337, 1357.

' Dep. Keeper's Rep. viii, App. ii, 13.

6 L. and P. Hen. nil, viii, pt. i, 394.

7 Ibid, xiv (1), 651 ; xiv, pt. ii, 442.
" Ibid, xiv (1), 603.

9 Appointed by the founder ; Proc. Stiff. Arch. Inst.
iv, 406, 408.

'" Ibid. 412, taken from a chartulary in private
hands.

11 Ibid. " Ibid. " Ibid.

RELIGIOUS HOUSES

Walter, 1263 '

Robert, 1268 2

Richard de Yaxley, 1303 3

Nicholas de Wittelsham, 1307 4

Richard de Hoxne, 1309 5

William de Geytone, 1311 s

Alexander de Stratford, 1 332'

Matthew de Pakenham, 1334 8

Alexander de Drenkiston, 1353 9

John Baxter, resigned 1374 10

William de Haleworth, 1374 n

William Randeworth, 1410 12

William Poley, 1444 13

Thomas Frankingham, 1483 14

Robert Beeches, 1497 15

Edmund Lydefield (bishop of Chalcedon),

1504 16
Robert Brommer, 1508 17
William Woodbridge, 1509 18
Augustine Rivers, 1509 ls
Thomas Manning alias Sudbury, suffragan

bishop of Ipswich, 1528

The pointed oval fourteenth-century seal of
this house bears the Blessed Virgin seated be-
neath an elaborately carved niche with sceptre
in right hand, having birds billing in the foliage
at the top, and with the Holy Child on the left
knee. Outside the niche, on each side, is a palm
branch. Under an arch in the base is the kneel-
ing figure of a prior. Legend :

:s\ c'e. ecce. sc'. marie, de. buttele. 20

19. THE PRIORY OF CHIPLEY

Neither the date of the foundation nor the
name of the founder of this small priory of
Austin canons, dedicated to the honour of the
Blessed Virgin, is known.

The earliest known records pertaining to it
are of the year 1235, relative to lands at Clopton
and Denardiston. 21

The taxation roll of 1 291 gives diverse
entries of its small possessions, which then

1 Proc. Stiff. Arch. Inst, iv, 412, taken from a char-
tularv in private hands.

-' Ibid.

3 Norw. Epis. Reg. i, 12. This and the following
are dates of election.

' Ibid. 25. 5 Ibid, i, 33. 6 Ibid, i, 46.

7 Ibid, ii, 51. " Ibid, ii, 58. "Ibid, iv, 48.

" Ibid, vi, 36. "Ibid. "Ibid vii, 27.

"Ibid, x, 55. " Ibid, xii, 99.

15 Add. MS. 19000, fol. 216.

" ; Tanner, Norw. MSS.

17 L. and P. Hen. Fill, i, 233 ; Proc. Suff Arch.
Inst, iv, 413. This prior committed suicide at
Ipswich.

" L. and P. Hen. VIII, ii, 325, 746. Royal assent
in July, but cancelled by the bishop in December.

1 Norw. Epis. Reg. xiv, 90.

*> B.M. Cast, lxxi, 99.

*' Feet of F. Suff. 19 Hen III, Nos. 83, 175

reached a total annual income of £4. igs. ^d. ;
including 20J. of spiritualities out of Posling-
ford church, £3 4*. of lands, meadows, and
pasture at Stoke, and 15s. ^d. of smaller tempor-
alities at Stansfield, Poslingford, and Gelham
Parva (Essex). 22

Licence was granted in 1343 to Roger Nor-
maund to alienate to this priory the manor of
Chipley, knights' fees and the advowson of the
church excepted, to find two canons to celebrate
daily in the priory church for the souls of Roger
and Joan his wife, when they shall depart this
life, and for his ancestors and heirs. 23 Roger
Normaund or Norman died seised of the advow-
son or patronage of this priory in 1363. ** From
this it seems probable that an ancestor of
Norman was the founder.

The buildings being in a ruinous condition,
and the income not exceeding ,£ig, the Bishop
of Norwich consented in 1455 to the annexing
of this little priory to the collegiate church of
Stoke-next-Clare, who had become its patrons. 24

When the Valor of 1535 was drawn up the
college of Stoke held temporalities in Chipley to
the annual value of £14 13;. 4^.; and there was
also a small pension accruing from the church
of Poslingford and the chapel of Chipley. 26

Priors of Chipley

John de Cavendish, died 1333 2;
Richard de Norwich, elected 1333 M
David de Thornham, elected 1349 29
Reginald de Rushworth, elected 1350 30
Thomas de Hippesworth, resigned 1370 31
Richard Man, elected 1370 32
Thomas Hepeworth, elected 1395 33

The pointed oval thirteenth-century seal of
this priory bears the Blessed Virgin, half length,
with the Holy Child on the left arm ; in base,
under a trefoiled arch is the kneeling prior.
Legend :

s' : prioris : de : chippeleia m

20. THE PRIORY OF DODNASH

Information respecting the small Austin priory
of the Blessed Virgin at Dodnash is somewhat
scanty. Neither the time of the foundation nor
the name of the founder is known, but it was.

" Pope Nich. Tax. (Rec. Com.), 17, 121, n\b, 132.

" Pat. 17 Edw. Ill, pt. ii, m. 15.

" Inq. p.m. 36 Edw. Ill, pt. ii, No. 7.

* Norw. Epis. Reg. xi, 36.

16 Valor Eccl. (Rec. Com.), iii, 469-70.

" Norw. Epis. Reg. ii, 62.

Ibid
" Ibid, vi, 3. M Ibid.
" B.M. Cast, lxxi, 102

Ibid, iv, 120 *° Ibid, iv, 129.
"Ibid, vi, 210.

A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK

probably founded by an ancestor of the earl and
dukes of Norfolk, as they held the patronage of
the priory for many generations.

The priory held lands in Bentley, 1 Chelmon-
diston, 2 and Bergholt, 3 in the thirteenth century,
and in 1327 the prior of Dodnash obtained free
warren over his lands in Bentley, Falkenham,
and Bergholt. 4

Licence was obtained in January 1 331 by the
prior and convent to acquire lands or rents in
mortmain to the yearly value of ^IO. 5 In
April of the same year John de Goldyngham,
under the foregoing licence, was allowed to
alienate to the priory, property in Bentley, Berg-
holt, Capel, Brantham, and Tattingstone, of the
yearly value of ^5. b

The endowment of the priory in 1485 in-
cluded the tithe of barley in Falkenham, 320
acres of land in Hemingstone, Coddenham, etc.,
280 acres of land in Burstall, Bramford, etc.,
a messuage and 39 acres of land in Bergholt, free
warren in the three places already named, and rents
and lands in fifteen Suffolk parishes. 7 The total
clear annual value of the priory was declared at
£44 1 85. S^d., when it was suppressed by Car-
dinal Wolsey, in 1525, among the group of
smaller houses whose endowments were intended
to be used in the founding of his colleges of
Ipswich and Oxford. The priory of St. Mary
Dodnash was surrendered by Prior Thomas on
1 February 1524-5, in the presence of Thomas
Cromwell and other members of Wolsey's com-
mission. 8

On the downfall of Wolsey the priory site
and lands were assigned, on I April 153 1, to
Lionel Tolemache, his heirs and assigns. 9

Priors of Dodnash

John de Goddesford, resigned 1346 10
Adam Newman, elected 1346 n
Thomas de Thornham, resigned 1383 n
John Capel, elected 1406 13
Robert Newbone, resigned 1438 u
Michel de Colchester, elected 1438 15
Richard Whytyng, elected 1444 1G
Thomas, resigned 1525 17

1 Feet of F. Suff. 19 Hen. Ill, No. 77.
' Hund. R. (Rec. Com.), ii, 177, 190.
3 Feet of F. SufF. 1 5 Edw. I, No. 99.
•Chart. R. 1 Edw. Ill, No. 11.

5 Pat. 4 Edw. Ill, pt. ii, m. 10.

6 Ibid. 5 Edw. Ill, pt. i, m. 18.

7 Esch. Enr. Accts. SufF. 3 Rio III, No. 156.

9 L. and P. Hen. Vlll, iv, pt. i, 1 137, 1832;
pt. ii, 3538.

9 Pat. 22 Hen. VIII, pt. i, m. 17.
10 Norw. Epis. Reg. iv, 54.
" Ibid. a Ibid, vi, 90.

13 Ibid, iv, 332. " Ibid, x, 19.

"Ibid. ,6 Ibid, x, 55.

17 L. and. P. Hen. Fill, iv, pt. i, 1 137.

21. THE PRIORY OF HERRINGFLEET

The priory of St. Olave, Herringfleet, was
founded for Austin canons by Roger FitzOsbert,
near the ancient ferry across the River Waveney
about the beginning of the reign of Henry III.
The founder assigned to the monastery 40 acres
of land in Tibcnham ; he did not die until 1 239,
and willed that his body should be buried in the
priory church. Peter, the founder's son, gave to
the canons the advowson of Witlingham. Both
Peter and his wife Beatrice, who died re-
spectively in 1275 and 1278, were also buried in
the canons' church. 18

In 13 14 John son of Sir Ralph Nunoion, knt.,
granted the patronage of the priory of St. Olave
to Peter Gernegan, 19 and in 1410 the advowson
was granted to Margaret, wife of John Ger-
negan. 20 There are various other grants relative
to the transference of this priory patronage
to Sir John Hevyngham, knt., in the reign
of Henry VI, 21 but in 1 49 1 the patronage
was restored to the family of Gernegan by Sir
John Hevyngham, Sir Henry Bryan, and
others. 22

The churches of Herringfleet and Hales, Nor-
folk, were appropriated to St. Olave's at an early
date. St. Peter's, Burgh, was appropriated by
leave of the bishop about 1390, but in 1403 the
appropriation was resigned, a small pension being
reserved to the priory. 23

The taxation of 1 29 1 shows that the priory
then held the rectories of Herringfleet and Hales,
and a pension from the church of Bonewell,
yielding a total in spiritualities of ^14 13;. 4^.
The temporalities in Suffolk and Norfolk at the
same time brought in £12 141. o^ 7 ., giving a
total income of £26 175. 4jf/. 21

According to the Valor of 1535 the gross
receipts from the temporalities were j£i 5 13;. 8id.
but the clear value was only £13 31. lid. The
spiritualities included the rectories of Her-
ringfleet and Hales, together with a pension
from the church of Burgh, yielding a clear an-
nual value of £5 ii. l\d. There are evidently
some omissions from the details of this return, as
the net income is returned at £49 IK, 7a'. 35

Licence was granted in 1 37 7 by the crown,
on payment of ten marks, to Edmund de Carl-
ton, chaplain, and four others, to alienate to the
priory of St. Olave property in Ashby and
Herringfleet, for finding a lamp to be kept

19 Suckling, Hist, o*' Stiff, i, 15 ; Dugdale, Mon. vi,
660.
19 Boil. Chart. SufF. 1036.
" Ibid. 1079.

81 Ibid. 1086, I 102, 1 105, 1 106, 1 1 13.
" Ibid. 1 1 34.

33 Norw. Epis. Reg. vi, 340.

34 Pope Hub. Tax. (Rec. Com.), 83^ 84, 93, <)-b,
103, 103^, 104, 104^ 1073, 113, 1166, 124, 126,
126^, 127.

35 Valor Eccl. (Rec. Com.), iii, 412.

100

RELIGIOUS HOUSES

burning before the high altar in the priory
church, and for performing the offices of the
dead at the anniversaries of the five donors. 1

The priory of St. Olave was visited by Arch-
deacon Goldwell on 30 January 1493, as com-
missary for his brother the bishop. Thomas
Bagot the prior and five canons were severally
examined, with the result that William Cokke
was pronounced to be quarrelsome, and the
prior reported for not showing the accounts of
the house to the canons. The canons com-
plained that they were scarcely able to live. 2

The next recorded visitation was held in
July, 1 514, by Bishop Nykke. Prior William
Dale stated that he rendered an account yearly
to the senior canons ; that the canons were
obedient ; and that he had recently purchased
certain lands of the annual value of^io 14.S. iod.,
and paid for them. Robert Starys, the sub-prior,
said that they did not rise for mattins at mid-
night, but at 5 o'clock ; that they did not sing
the offices save on festivals and Sundays ; and
that their number was incomplete because of the
insufficiency of income. The six other canons
gave unqualified praise to the condition of the
house. The bishop enjoined on the prior and
canons that they were to furnish him with a
sufficient dispensation from the apostolic see for
not observing the rule of rising at midnight for
mattins, and ordered the canons to observe
(entire) silence in cloister and quire on all
Fridays."

The next recorded visitation was held by the
suffragan Bishop of Chalcedon in July, 1520. It
was attended by Prior Dale and five canons.
The prior was ordered to produce a statement of
accounts and an inventory at the Michaelmas
synod. The testimony of the canons was unani-
mous as to the good religious conditions of the
house. 4

The visitation of June, 1526, attended by the
same prior and five canons, was entirely satis-
factory. 5 Prior Dale and the like number of
canons appeared at the last visitation of Bishop
Nykke, in June, 1532, when the statements were
unanimously good, and the visitor reported that
there was nothing to amend. 6

The Suffolk commissioners appointed to take
the inventories of the smaller monasteries visited
St. Olave's on 26 August, 1536. In the quire of
the church they found a silver pvx, two silver
chalices, a copper cross, two candlesticks of latten
on the high altar, an alabaster ' table,' and a
linen altar-cloth worth ^4 is. iod. Other
plate included a pair of censers with a ship of
silver. There were but few vestments. The
furniture of the various chambers, the hall, the
parlour, pantry and kitchen was but ordinary.

1 Pat. 1 Ric. II, pt. i, m.
* Jessopp, Visit. 38-9.
3 Ibid. 129-31.
'Ibid. 216.

The cattle and implements of husbandry were
valued at £12 If., and the corn at £11 13/. \d.
The total of the inventory only amounted to
£27 OS. 9 d. 7

This house was suppressed among the smaller
monasteries on 3 February, 1536-7. 8 On the
8th of the ensuing March a pension of ten marks
was granted to William Dale, the last prior ; 9
evidently no credence was given to the coarse
report made against him by Legh and Leyton in
their notorious comperta of a few months' earlier
date. 10

The site of the priory and its possessions were
assigned to Henry Jernyngham on 1 March,
I537-8- 11

Priors of Herringfleet

William, 12 occurs 1273

Benedict, 13 occurs 130 1

Thomas de Norwich, 14 elected 1308

William Dale, 15 occurs 1309

John de Norwich alias Tybenham, 16 elected

•329
Philip de Porynglond, 17 elected 1 34 1
John de Porynglond, 18 died 1354
John de Surlyngham, 19 elected 1354
Roger de Haddiscoe, 2J occurs 1370
William de Holton, 21 resigned 137 1
Henry de Brom, 22 elected 1 37 1
John de Hanewell, 23 elected 139 1
John Wyloughby, 24 elected 1 402
William Dald, 25 occurs 1403
John Welles, 20 elected 1430
Thomas Bagot, 27 elected 1480
William Dale, 28 occurs 15 14, last prior

The thirteenth-century seal of this house
represents St. Olave, king and martyr, crowned
and seated on a throne, with an axe in the right
hand and an orbs mundi in the left. Legend —

MUNE . EC
LINGEFLE ,

AVI
RI .

DE
* 29

HER-

4 Ibid. 177.

6 Ibid. 284.

7 Proc. Suff. Arch. Inst, viii, 85-7.

8 L. and P. Hen. Fill, xii, pt. i, 510.

9 Misc. Bks. (Aug. Oft".), ccxxxii, fol. 49^.

10 L. and P. Hen. Fill, x, 364.

" Misc. Bks. (Aug. Off.), ccx, fol. 23*.

11 Suckling, Hist, of Suff. i, 15.

13 BlomefielJ, Hist. ofNorf. ix, 417.

14 Now. Epis. Reg. i, 31.

15 Add. MS. 19098, fol. 1 ; 8.

16 Norw. Epis. Reg. ii, 29.

17 Ibid, iii, 45. u Ibid. iv. 155.

19 Ibid. *> Add. MS. 19098, fol. 158.

*' Norw. Epis. Reg. vi, 9. " Ibid.

" Ibid, vi, 164. " Ibid, vi, 288.

* Bodl. Chart. Suff. 203.

96 Norw. Epis. Reg. ix, 40. " Ibid, xii, 78.

98 Jessopp, Visit. 1 30.

99 B. M. Can, lxxi, u + .

IOI

A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK

22. THE PRIORY OF ST. PETER AND
ST. PAUL, IPSWICH

The priory of St. Peter and St. Paul was
established in the parish of St. Peter, Ipswich, for
Austin canons about the end of the reign of
Henry II. It is said to have been founded by
the ancestors of Thomas Lacy and Alice his
wife j 1 but the crown claimed the patronage as
early as the reign of Henry III, and continued
to issue a congi d'e/ire on vacancies down to its
suppression.

Very little is known of its early history.

The gift of Letheringham, early in the
thirteenth century, and the establishment of a
small cell of this house, is described under
Letheringham priory.

From the taxation roll of 1291 we find that
it was then in possession of a considerable in-
come. It held the appropriation of the Ipswich
churches of St. Peter, St. Nicholas, and
St. Clement, and also the rectories of Creting-
ham and Wherstead, and a portion of Swineland ;
the annual total of the spiritualities was ^36 10;.
The temporalities in lands and rents, chiefly
in Ipswich and the suburbs, amounted to
^45 ijs. $d. a year, giving a total income of
^82 Jt. Sd. 2

A grant was made 15 February, 1289, to the
sub-prior and convent of the church of SS. Peter
and Paul, for a fine of ^10, of the custody of
their house during voidance. John de Ipswich,
a canon of the church, had brought word to
Westminster in the previous week of the resig-
nation of William de Secheford, their prior.
Licence was obtained for a new election, and
the assent of the crown to the election of John
de St. Nicholas was forwarded to the bishop on
5 May. 3

Licence was obtained by the prior in 1303 to
enclose, with the assent of Hugh Haraud, a void
plot of land, six perches long by three broad, a
little distance from the priory, together with an
adjoining road, to build on the same lor the
enlargement of the priory, on condition that a
like road was made on their own adjacent
ground. 4 The priory obtained licence in 1320
to acquire lands in mortmain to the annual
value of £10; in the same year they had bene-
factions to the annual value of 41*. 4^. a year. s
In 1329 the priory obtained further grants,
under this licence, of the annual value of 5 5 J. 6

Robert Bishop, at the request of Edward I, had
obtained sustenance for life at this priory ; and

1 Weever, Funeral Monuments, 752 ; Tanner,
Notitic, Stiff, xxviii, 2.

- Pope Nich. Tax. (Rec. Com.), 115^, 117, 119^,
124, 129^, 133.

3 Pat. 17 Edw. I, m. 21, 20, 18.

1 Ibid. 3 1 Edw. I, m. 20.

1 Ibid. 13 Edw. II, m. 14; 14 Edw. II, pt. i,
m. 4.

' Ibid. 3 Edw. Ill, pt. i, m. 14.

on his death Edward II had made a like grant to
Gerard de Cessons of sustenance fit for a man of
gentle birth, adding that Nicholaa, Gerard's
wife, should receive the same for her life if she
survived her husband. Edward III, in 1330,
granted to the priory that, after the death of
their pensioners Gerard and Nicholaa, the house
should not be further burdened by the crown
after that fashion. 7

Thomas de Lacy and Alice his wife obtained
licence in 1344 to alienate to this priory land at
Duxford, Cambridgeshire, and the advowson of
the church of St. John Baptist of that town, for
the celebration in that church of masses for their
souls and their ancestors ; the licence also
authorized the appropriation of Duxford church
to the priory. 8

The priory paid in 1392 for licence to accept,
from Roger de Wolferston and others, consider-
able benefactions in lands at Thurlston and
other places, to find a canon-regular to celebrate
daily in their church for the souls of Thomas
Harold and John de Claydon. 9

Archdeacon Goldwell visited this priory as
commissary of his brother the bishop in January,
1493, but no particulars were recorded in the
register. 10 The next recorded visitation is that
by the vicar-general on behalf of Bishop Nykke,
in August, 15 14. Prior Godwyn presented his
accounts from the time of his appointment, but
not as an inventory ; he complained that the
brethren did not duly rise for mattins. John
Laurence, who was serving the church of
St. Nicholas, Ipswich, said that the brethren
were disobedient in not rising for mattins.
Geoffrey Barnes, who served the church of
St. Peter, considered that everything was well
and laudably done. William Browne com-
plained that the foundation of a chantry within
the church of St. Peter was not observed, that
the brethren did not have their usual pension and
that there was no schoolmaster. There were
other complaints as to the absence of a school-
master, and as to comparatively small matters,
such as no lunch (jentacula) in the morning.
Nine canons were examined, in addition to the
prior. The injunctions of the vicar-general
ordered the canons to rise for mattins and to be
obedient to the prior, and the prior to provide a
chest with jthree locks for the custody of the seal
before Michaelmas, and a teacher in grammar for
the canons. 11

A visitation was held on 2 August, 1520, by
the Bishop of Chalcedon and Dr. Cappe, as the
diocesan's commissaries, but no particulars are
recorded. 12 The next visitation was held by
Bishop Nykke in July, 1526. William Brown,

7 Pat. 4 Edw. Ill, pt. i, m. 30.
6 Ibid. 18 Edw. Ill, pt. i, m, 9.
9 Ibid. 16 Ric. II, pt. i, m. 32.
'" Jessopp, Visit. 35.

" ibid. 137-8.

"Ibid. 181.

RELIGIOUS HOUSES

the prior, four canons, and two novices were
examined, all of whom reported omnia bene.
The bishop found nothing worthy of reforma-
tion, but he enjoined the providing of a preceptor
to teach the novices in grammar. 1

When Wolsey formed his design in 1527 for
the establishment of Cardinal's College, Ipswich,
this priory was one of the small monasteries
marked out for suppression for that purpose.
Pope Clement issued a special bull sanctioning
the dissolution of this house in May, 1528, in
favour of the college. Therein it is described as
holding the Ipswich churches of St. Peter and
St. Nicholas, St. Clement and St. Mary-at-
Quay, and also the parish churches of Wherstead
and Cretingham. 2

On the disgrace of Wolsey, the Cardinal's
College came to an end, and the king granted
the site of this monastery of six acres, which
ssrved as the deanery of the short-lived college,
to Thomas Alvard, one of the gentlemen ushers
of the king's chamber. 3

Priors of St. Peter and St. Paul, Ipswich

Gilbert, 4 elected 1225
Nicholas de Ipswich, 5 1252
William de Secheford, 6 resigned 1289
John de St. Nicholas, 7 elected 1289
Henry de Burstall, 8 elected 1304
Henry de Kurseya, 9 elected 1 3 1 1
Clement de Ipswich, 10 elected 1343
William de Ipswich, 11 died 1 38 1
John de Monewedon, 11 1 38 1
John de Ipswich, 12 elected 141 9
Geoffrey Stoke, 13 elected 1444
Geoffrey Grene, 14 died 1476
John York, 15 electe 1 1476-96
Thomas Godewyn, lu occurs 1 5 1 4
William Brown, 17 occurs 1526

The late twelfth-century seal of this priory is
of much interest. It shows the priory church
from the south with central tower and spire,
nave, chancel, and south transept ; over the roof,

' Jessopp, Visit. 22 1.

2 Rymcr, Foedera, xiv, 241-2 ; L. and P.
Hen. Fill, iv, 4229, 4259 (2).

:i L. and P. Hen. Vlll, v, 392 (9).

4 Pat. 9 Hen. Ill, m. 5.

1 Ibid. 36 Hen. Ill, m. II.

,; Ibid. 17 Edw. I, m. 2 1.

7 Ibid. m. 20, 10.

s Ibid. 32 Edw. I, m. 15, 9, 5.

a Norvv. Epis. Reg. i, 43 ; Pat. 5 Edw. II, pt. i,
m. 13, 11, 10.

Pat. 17 Edw. Ill, pt. ii, m. 26.

' Norw. Epis. Reg. vi, 7
25,31.

- Norw. Epis. Reg. viii, 5
:l Ibid, x, 54.
' Pat. 16 Edw. IV, pt
' Ibid. m. 15.
7 Ibid. 221.

Pat. 5 Ric. II, pt. i,

11, m. 19.

18 Jessopp, Visit. 137.

each side of the tower, are circular panels con-
taining respectively the half-length figures of
St. Peter with key and St. Paul with book.
Legend : —

SIGILLUM ECCLE SCOR' PETRI ET PAUL' DE
CIPESWIC. 18

A small oval counterseal, probably the signet
of the thirteenth-century prior, has the bust of an
emperor with antique crown, from an ancient
intaglio gem. Legend : —

MITTENTIS : CAPITI

CREDIT SICUTEI.

23. THE PRIORY OF THE HOLY
TRINITY, IPSWICH

An Ipswich church of the Holy Trinity is
named in Domesday Book ; but the foundation
of Austin canons under that dedication was not
established until the time of Henrv II. The date
of the first building is 1 1 7 7. ' Normanius
Gastrode fil. Egnostri ' was the first founder,
according to Leland ; 20 at any rate Norman is
shown by the charter of King John to have
been one of the chief benefactors and a canon of
the house. 21 This charter shows that the priory
held, at the beginning of the thirteenth centurv,
the Ipswich churches of the Holy Trinity,
St. Laurence, St. Mary-le-Towers, St. Mary-at-
Elms, St. Michael, and St. Saviour, and the
churches of ' Wilangeda,' Henham, Layham,
Foxhall, and Preston, and moieties of the
churches of Tuddenham and Mendham ; and
lands in Nacton, Helmingham, Hemingstone,
Bramford, Delf, Coddenham, Tunstall, Tudden-
ham, &c.

At an early date this monastery is said to have
suffered from fire; it was rebuilt in 1 194 bv
John de Oxford, bishop of Norwich. He placed
there seven canons under a prior, but as endow-
ments increased, the number was at one time
raised to twenty. Richard I gave the patron-
age of the house at the time of its re-opening into
the hands of the bishop. 22

The Taxation Roll of the temporalities of this
priory in 1 291 shows that its lands and rents,
which were chiefly in the town and immediate
neighbourhood of Ipswich, produced an annual
income of ^47 14J. gd. The spiritualities
reached the much larger annual value of
j£88 145. 4.(1. It would appear from this
return that the canons then held the rectories of
St. Laurence, St. Margaret, St. Mary-at-Tower,
and St. Marv-at-Elms, Ipswich, and the country

18 Engraved in Wodderspoon's Ipswich, App. 303 ;
and in Brit. Arch. Assoc. Journ. ii, 268. B.M. Cast,
D.C., C. 6.

" Attached to a charter of 1282, B.M. Cat. of Seals,

594-

"" Leland, Coll. i, 62.
-' Chart. R. 5 John, m. 16, 125.
"' Angl. Sacr. i, 409 ; Dugdale, Mm. vi, 447 ;
Wodderspoon, Ipswich, 200-2.

10^

A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK

churches of Tuddenham, Foxhall, Rushmere,
Bentley, Caldwell, and Preston, together with
considerable proportions of three other rectories. 1
But possibly there was some error in these
entries, as it seems scarcely likely that the
priory would have lost so many appropriations
between this date and the time of Henry VIII,
when the Valor of 1535 gave the clear value of
the temporalities of the house as £69 14s. 8^.,
but showed the spiritualities reduced to the
rectories of Mend ham, Rushmere, St. Laurence's
Norwich, and Tuddenham, with a portion in
Morning Thorpe, of the clear value of
£18 12*. id. Thus the total net income was
assessed at £82 6j. yd. 2

The prior and convent of the Holy Trinity
obtained licence, in 1327, to acquire in mort-
main lands or rents to the yearly value of £10.
In 1335 a variety of small plots of land and rents
were alienated to the canons at Preston, Rush-
mere, Bentley, and in Ipswich and the suburbs,
to the annual value of i6j. 2d. under cover of
the 1327 licence. 3 On payment of £20 the
priory obtained leave in 1392 to accept the
alienation to them, by Roger de Wolferston and
others, of land and meadow in Ipswich and
Rushmere ; to find five tapers to burn daily at
the Lady mass in the conventual church, and one
lamp to burn continually day and night in the
Lady chapel. 4

In 1393 the royal pardon was granted to John
Bendel, a canon of this house, for causing the
death of Godfrey Neketon, cook. 5

Trinity priory was visited by Archdeacon
Goldwell, as commissary of his brother the bishop,
on 22 January, 1493, when Prior Richard and
six canons were present. Nothing was found
worthy of reformation. 6 The next recorded
visitation was held by Bishop Nykke in August,
1 5 14, when eight canons were examined.
Almost the only complaint, against which the
bishop directed an injunction, was the insolence
of some of the servants. The words that two
of the servants addressed to certain of the canons
are set forth in English : ' Yf soo be that ye
medyll with me I shall gyff the such a strippe
that thou shallt not recover yt a twelvemonyth
after.' 7

At the visitation held by Bishop Nykke in
June, 1526, Prior Thomas Whighte complained
of the disobedience of John Carver, but other-
wise all was good. Of the four canons examined,
two testified omnia bene ; but Thomas Edgore
said that the prior did not render annual accounts,

1 Pope Nich. Tax. (Rec. Com.), 84, 114^, 115,
117^, 119*, 122, 124, 129*, 133.
* Valor Eccl. (Rec. Com.), iii, 423.

3 Pat. 1 Edw. Ill, pt. ii, m. 23 ; 9 Edw. Ill, pt. i.
m. 10.

4 Ibid. 16 Ric. II, pt. i, 36.
s Ibid. pt. iii, m. II.

6 Jessopp, Visit. 34. ' Ibid. 135-6.

and John Shribbs complained that daily chapters
were not held, and there was no correction of
excess in the chapter. The latter also stated
that the canons confessed to whom they liked,
and that they went out of the priory precincts
without asking leave of the prior. The bishop's
injunction ordered Carver to be obedient to the
prior under pain of imprisonment, the holding
of a chapter according to rule, the making of an
annual account before two of the canons, the
appointment of a confessor, the better observance
of silence, and the non-departure of the brothers
from the precincts save by leave of the superior. 8
The last visitation was in June 1532, when five
canons were examined besides Prior Whighte. It
was complained that the food and cooking were
bad, the cook dirty, and no annual account
rendered. The bishop issued injunctions as to
each of these defects. 9

The priory fell with the lesser monasteries
which were condemned in 1536. On 24 August
of that year the commissioners drew up an in-
ventory of its goods and chattels. The con-
ventual church, which was popular with the
townsfolk of Ipswich, was well furnished. The
plate included two cruets, a censer with ship,
three chalices, and a cross, all of silver-gilt or
parcel-gilt ; the cross was valued at £5. In the
quire were a great and a lesser pair of standards of
latten, 'a deske of latten to rede the Gospell at,*
and a pair of organs. There were another pair of
organs and a small pair of latten standards in the
Lady chapel. The supply of vestments in the
vestry was ample. In the pantry there was a
salt, two standing cups, ' a lytell cruse,' and six
spoons all of silver. The furniture of the hall,
parlour, and chambers was simple and of little
value. The cattle and corn, which were jointly
valued at £42 8s. 8d., declared at £86 5J. 10

The actual suppression of the house took place
on 9 February, 1536-7. 11 On 20 February
John Thetford (alias Colyn), the last prior, was
assigned a pension of £i$. 12 The site and lands
were shortly afterwards granted to Sir Humphrey
Wingfield and Sir Thomas Rushe. 13

Priors m of Holy Trinity, Ipswich

Alan, 15 occurs 1 180

William, 10 occurs 1239

William de Colneys, 1 ' occurs 1248

8 Ibid. 220-1. s Ibid. 293-4.

10 Proc. Suff. Arch. Inst, viii, 91-4.
" L. and P. Hen. VIII, xii, pt. i, 510.

12 Misc. Bks. (Aug. Off.), ccxxxii, fol. 48.

13 Ibid, ccix, fol. 40^.

14 Several of the names of priors assigned to Holy-
Trinity priory in the lists of Dugdale and Wodder-
spoon are really priors of St. Peter's, Ipswich ; but
one or two canons seem to have held in turn the office
of superior at each priory.

15 Wodderspoon, Ifstvich, 302. ,6 Ibid.
"Harl. MS. 6957, fol. 98.

RELIGIOUS HOUSES

Nicholas de Ipswich 1

William de Secheford 2

John de St. Nicholas 3

John de Kentford, 4 1324

Thomas de Thornham, 5 1383

John Pyke, 8 1390

John Gylmyn, 7 1 4 1 1

John Mauncer, 8 1 41 7

John Pyke, 9 1424

Thomas Hadley, 10 died 1437

John Bestman, 11 1437

Thomas Gundolf, 12 1 470

Richard Forth, 13 1479

Robert, 14 occurs 1 5 1 3

Thomas Whighte, 15 occurs 1526

John Thetford 16 (alias Colyn), occurs 1535

The priory of Holy Trinity was sometimes
known as Christ Church ; it bore this name as
early as the days of Richard II. 17 A circular seal
of this house shows Our Lord seated, with
crucifix nimbus, right hand raised in blessing,
left hand resting on a book. The seven candle-
sticks are shown, four on one side and three on
the other. The whole is enclosed in a quatre-
foil, outside which are the Evangelistic symbols.
Legend : —

SIGILL

CUMMUNE :
GIPEWICENSIS

SCA
18

XPI

24. THE PRIORY OF IXWORTH

The priory of St. Mary, Ixworth, was first
founded for Austin canons about the year 1 1 00,
by Gilbert Blundus or Blunt. The buildings
and chapel, which were erected near the parish
church, were ere long destroyed during an out-
burst of civil war ; whereupon William, the son of
the founder, rebuilt the priory on a different site. 19

The exact endowment bestowed on the priory
by the founder is not known. In 1228 Ralph
de Montchesny gave the advowson of the Norfolk
church of Melton Parva to this priory ; 20 the
advowson of Hunston was given in 1235, 21 and
that of Sapiston in 1272. " 2

1 Harl. MS. 6957, fol. 107.

! Ibid. 6958, fol. 88. 3 Ibid.
4 Norw. Epis. Reg. i, 105-6. These are dates of
election.

i Ibid, vi, 90. 6 Ibid, vi, 149.

7 Ibid, vii, 46. 8 Ibid, viii, 25.

9 Ibid, viii, 80. 10 Ibid, x, 12.
"Ibid. ,2 Ibid, xi, 174.

13 Ibid, xii, 71. " Wodderspoon, Ipswich, 302.

'' Jessopp, Visit. 220. 16 Valor Eccl. (Rec. Com.).

17 Hist. MSS. Com. Rep. ix, 245-7.

18 Engraved for Wodderspoon's Ipswich, opp. p. 300.
In the B. M. Catalogue of Seals this seal is termed the
second seal of St. Peter's priory.

19 De Fundatione et progenie fundatoris. Kniveton
MSS. cited in Dugdale, Mon. vi, 311.

10 Feet of F. Norf. 12 Hen. Ill, 56.
" Ibid. SufF. 19 Hen. Ill, 56.

" Ibid. 1 Edw. I, 39.

2 I

The taxation roll of 1291 shows that the
priory was by that date well supplied with appro-
priated churches. The rectories of Ixworth,
Thorp, Walsham, 'Lynterton,' Badwell, 'Bykyn-
hall,' and ' Aysforth ' belonged to the prior}',
and they also held portions of two other churches ;
the total income from spiritualities was £70 16s.
The temporalities in twelve different parishes
brought in £11 is. n^d., 23 so that the total
annual income was £81 ljs. n^d.

There was a further accession of endowment
in 1362, when half the manor of Ixworth was
bestowed on the canons, as well as three messuages
and 360 acres in Hunston, Langham, &c. 24 In
1377 the convent obtained the alienation to them,
by Richard de Pakenham and others, of a moiety
of the manor of Ixworth, for finding two canons,
in addition to the established number, to perform
divine service in the priory church for the good
estate of the king and of his soul after death,
and for the soul of the late king, of William
Crikecot, and of others. 20 Richard II, in 1384,
granted the priory a market and two fairs at
Ixworth. 26

The Valor of 1535 shows that the gross
income was ,£204 95. $\d. ; but there were large
deductions, including ,£20 155. definitely assigned
to the poor, so that the net value was brought
down to j£i68 191. "j\d. The temporalities
produced ^152 "js. T^d. a year. The spiritu-
alities at that time consisted of the rectories of
Ixworth, Badwell with Ashfield, Sapiston, Den-
ham, and Melton Parva, with the altarage of Wal-
sham (£6 8s. $d.) and portions from three other
churches; the total amounted to ^52 is. i\d. 37

A commission was issued in October, 1283,
to two justices to inquire into the charge pre-
ferred against William, prior of Ixworth, John,
the cellarer of Ixworth, and a large number of
persons of Ipswich and the district, of assaulting
Ralph de Bonevill, the Serjeant of Otto de
Grandison and Peter de Chaumpvent at Ixworth,
and committing depredations on their goods
whilst Otto and Peter were with the king in
Wales. 28

Nicholas Gold well, as commissary for his
brother the bishop, visited Ixworth in February,
1492—3, when Prior Godwin Bury and fourteen
canons (of whom four were not yet professed)
were privately and separately examined, with the
result that no reform was needed. 29

Bishop Nykke visited in June, 15 14, when
John Gerves, the prior, stated that all the brethren

" Pope Nieb. Tax. (Rec. Com.), 96, 97, 101, loib,
lzob, 121, 127, 1273, 130, 131, 132, 132*, 133.

21 Pat. 25 Edw. Ill, pt. ii, m. 18; Inq. p.m.
25 Edw. III.

- Pit. 1 Ric. II, pt. i. m. 5.

K Chart. R. 7 and 8 Ric. II. No. 14.

" Valor Eccl. (Rec. Com.), iii, 4S2-5.

,s Pat. 2 Edw. I, m. 2.

" Jessopp. Visit. 44-5.
05 14

A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK

were obedient and maintained a religious life ;
that divine worship and the essentials of religion
were laudably observed ; that there was no debt
on the house ; that the various manorial buildings
were in good repair, save those of Saxton, which
had been entirely destroyed by fire in 1510.

He also stated that many buildings within the
priory were in ruinous condition, through the
fault of his predecessors, being prostrate at the
time of his institution. The only complaints of
Nicholas Wallington, the sub-prior, were a de-
ficiency in lights and lamps in the church through
the fault of the sacrist, and that the clock neither
went nor struck. Simon Hirt said that the office
of chamberlain was filled by John Bache, a lay-
man, contrary to religion, and that the brethren
had no common tailor to make their garments.
Adam Pondc also objected to a lay chamberlain,
and that the door of the buttery was so placed
that the brethren had to stand in the rain when
they wished to drink. William Reynberd said
that four lights which ought to burn before
the image of the Blessed Virgin and four
other lights before the image of St. John
Baptist were not found. In all twelve canons
were examined in addition to the prior, five
of whom testified omnia bene. The bishop
ordered the prior to find the accustomed lights at
the proper season, so soon as the repairs of the
churcli and the glazing of the windows were
finished ; to have the clock repaired ; and to
supply a tailor as in times past. 1

Ixworth priory was visited by the suffragan
Bishop of Chalcedon and Robert Dikar, as com-
missaries of the diocesan, in June, 1520. Prior
John Gerves and fourteen canons unanimously
reported omnia bene, and the bishop could find
nothing worthy of reformation. 2 The next
recorded visitation was held in July, 1526, when
sixteen canons were examined, in addition to
Prior Gerves. Six said omnia bene and the rest
had comparatively small complaints to make,
such as the absence of a convent tailor, the
insolence of the butler, and the letting of farms
without the consent of the chapter. The in-
junctions consequent on this visitation ordered
that particular inventories of the goods belonging
to each office should be prepared ; that no letting
of farms or manors should be undertaken without
the consent of the majority of the chapter ; and
that a suitable infirmary should be speedily
provided. 3

At the last visitation, in July, 1532, Prior
Gerves and fifteen canons were unanimous in
replying omnia bene, save that Simon Fisher,
master of the novices, said that no convent tailor
was provided as was customary. The bishop
could find nothing worthy of reformation. 4

On 22 October, 1534, Prior John Gerves,
Sub-prior William Reynberd, and fifteen other

Jessopp, Visit. 83-5.
Ibid. 240-1.

2 Ibid. 149-50.
* Ibid. 302.

canons, signed their acknowledgement of the
royal supremacy. 6

Prior Gerves died a few months before the
overthrow of the house. Sir Edward Chamber-
lain, writing to Cromwell on 1 3 January, 1 535-6,
told him of the death, adding that he was
founder (i.e. patron) of the priory, and that it
appeared from his ancestor's grants that the con-
vent ought to proceed to an election immediately
with his consent. He begged Cromwell, as
visitor-general of monasteries, to sanction this
precedure. 8 The result was the election of
William Blome.

The notorious comperta of Leyton and Legh,
drawn up in this year, state that one of the
Ixworth canons acknowledged to a form of
incontinence. But the commissioners could
wring out very little from these canons, and
coolly add : 'there is also suspicion of confedera-
tion, for though eighteen in number, they have
confessed nothing.' 7

The net income of this house being under
^200 it came within the meshes of the first
Suppression Act. On 28 August, 1536, the
Suffolk commissioners visited the priory for the
purpose of drawing up an inventory. The
church and vestry were well furnished with
ornaments, plate, and vestments. The most
valuable item at the high altar was 'a lectern of
latten prayscd at xs.' There were tables of
alabaster at the various altars, and two pairs of
organs, one little and the other great. The
plate in the vestry, including three pairs of
chalices, a cross, and two cruets, all of silver,
was valued at ^27 19;. icW. The furniture
of the conventual buildings was simple and
of little worth. The cattle were valued at
/~32 i6.(. 8a 1 ., and the corn growing on the
demesnes at £44 51. The hay was another
important item, so that the total came to
^117 9*. $d. The inventory is signed by
William Blome, the new prior. 8

The actual suppression did not take place
until February, 1 536-7,' when Prior Blome
obtained a pension of £20 a year, 10 but the rest
of the canons had to betake themselves to the
larger houses of the order or to go out penniless.

The site of the priory and most of its
possessions were granted on 20 July, 1538, to
Richard Codington and Elizabeth his wife. 11

Priors of Ixworth

William de Ixworth, 12 died 1338
Roger de Kyrkested, 13 1338

'■ Dej>. Keeper's Rep. vii, App. ii, 289.
8 L. and P. Hen. Fill, x, 89. 7 Ibid. 364.

* Proc. Stiff. Arch. hist, viii, 109-12.
' L. and P. Hen. I'll I. xiii, pt. i, 510.
'" Misc. Bks. (Aug. Oft".), ccxxxii, fol. 31.
11 Pat. 30 Hen. VIII, pt. iii, m. 21.
'-' Nonv. Epis. Reg. iii, p. 2. " Ibid.

106

RELIGIOUS HOUSES

Nicholas de Monesle, 1 1362
John de Hereford, 2 1389
John de Welles, 3 1395
Thomas Lakvnghithe, 4 1430
Reginald Tylney, 4 1439
William Dense,'' 1467
John Ive, 7 1484
Godwin Bury,* occurs 1493
Richard Gotts, 8 1 504
John Gerves, 10 occurs I 5 14, died 1536 n
William Blome, 12 elected 1536, surrendered
same year

The first seal of this priory is a small pointed
oval bearing the Blessed Virgin seated on a throne
with the Holy Child on the left knee and a
sceptre in the right hand. There is hardly any
of the lettering remaining in either of the two
impressions at the British Museum. 13

The second (fifteenth-century seal) is very
elaborate. It bears the Assumption of the
Virgin in a vesica of clouds uplifted by four
angels. Above is the Trinity (three half-
length crowned persons side by side) in the
clouds. On the left of the Virgin is a bishop
with mitre and staff, and on the right a saint with
nimbus and a long cross. Below are the arms
of Montchesny, benefactor, and of Blount,
founder. Legend : —

sigillD : commune : cove' : bte : marie :
de : ixworthe u

25. THE PRIORY OF KERSEY

Neither the date of the foundation nor the
name of the founder of this small priory of
Austin canons, dedicated to the honour of the
Blessed Virgin and St. Anthony, is known.
The earliest record of it occurs in I 2 1 9 in con-
nexion with lands in Semer. 15

Among the muniments of King's College,
Cambridge, are several charters showing that
Thomas de Burgh and his wife Nesta were the
chief early benefactors of this house. Thomas
de Burgh granted them all his patrimony in the
town of Lindsey. By another charter, Thomas
and Nesta his wife granted three acres of arable
land in Groton. His widow Nesta de Cockfield
made several considerable grants to the canons

' Norvv. Epis. Reg. vi, 86.

s Ibid. 4.0. 'Ibid. 198.

4 Ibid, ix, 43. 6 Ibid, x, 23.

6 Ibid, xi, 166. 7 Ibid, xii, 109.

s Jcssopp, Visit. 44. * Norw. Epis. Reg. xiii, 33.
10 Jessopp, Visit. 84.
•' L. and P. Hen. VIII, x, 89.
12 Misc. Bks. (Aug. Off.), ccxxxii, fol. 31.
" Harl. Chart. 44 E. 50 and 51.
" Engraved, Proc. Stiff. Arch. Inst, i, p. 86 ; B. Mus.
Cast, lxxii, 3.
15 Feet of F. Suff. 3 Hen. Ill, No. 29.

of Kersey. By the first she granted them the
mother church of Kersey, with all its appurte-
nances, eight acres adjoining the cemetery on the
south, the two and a half acres on which the
house was founded, a messuage where the hospital
(domus hospitalis) stood, &c. By the same charter
she granted the tithes of her mills at Cockfield,
Lindsey, and Kersey, to sustain the light of this
chapel. Nesta took for her second husband John
deBeauchamp; they jointly, in 1240, confirmed
and increased the grants to the priory of lands
and pasture in Lindsey and Kersey, and con-
firmed to them the church of Kersey. After
Nesta was widowed for the second time she
gave the canons the church of Lindsey in order
that they might better relieve the poor who
flocked there once every week. In her last charter
she desired that her body might be buried in the
conventual church, and gave the canons further
lands, with customary service, in Lindsey and
Kersey. 16

The taxation roll of 1291 gives the annual
value of the priory as ^33 6s. ~d. ; the spiritu-
alities were the rectory of Lindsey £6 13;. 3^/.,
and a portion of is. from Pentlow church,
Essex ; the remainder was in lands and rents,
chiefly at Kersey and Lindsey, and at Benfleet,
Essex, with a mill and fisheries at Boxford.
The priory only held the advowson of the church
of Kersey. 17

John del Brok obtained licence, under fine of
five marks, to alienate in 1338 to the prior and
convent property in Kersev and adjoining
parishes to find a chaplain to celebrate daily for
the souls of his ancestors. 18

In 1347 the prior of Kersey, out of com-
passion for the leanness of the priorv, whose
possessions did not suffice for the support of the
prior and canons, was excused his portion of the
tenths granted the king by the province of Can-
terbury for the four terms that had passed and
for the coming year. 19

The advowson or patronage of the priory went
with the manor of Kersev, and was granted, in
1 33 1, by the trustees of Edmund, late earl of
Kent, to Thomas de Weston to hold for life,
being subsequently held, in the same reign, by
Thomas de Holand and Joan his wife ; in the
time of Richard II by Thomas de Holand and
Alice his wife ; and in the time of Henrv IV by
Elizabeth, wife of John, late earl of Kent.
The next patron was Sir Hcnrv de Grey, Lord
Powys, and in 1444 he obtained permission to
grant it to the college of St. Mary and St.
Nicholas (afterwards King's), Cambridge." '

16 These six charters, from King's Coll. Camb., are
cited in Dugdale, Man. vi, pp. 592-^.

17 Pope Nick. Tax. (Rec. Com.), \6b, \U, 24^ io + 3,
107^, 122, 125, 1283, 129^, 1 32^, 133.

18 Pat. 12 Edw. Ill, pt. i, m. 37.

19 Ibid. pt. ii, m. 2.

M Copingcr, Hist, of Suff. iii, 395-7.

107

A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK

Priors of Kersey

Richard VValeys, died 133 I l
Robert de Akenham, elected 1331 s
John Calle, resigned 1387 3
John de Polstede, elected 1387 4
John Buche, elected 1394 5
John Dewche, elected 141 1 6
Nicholas Bungaye, resigned 1422 7
Richard Fyn, elected 1422 8
John Duch, elected 1431 9
William Woodbridge, elected 1432 10

The twelfth-century seal is a pointed oval,
bearing a bust of the Blessed Virgin, crowned,
in clouds ; below is the head of St. Anthony ;
between them is a sun and crescent moon.
Legend : —

SIGILL' SCE MARIE ET SCI ANTONII DE KERSEIA

26. THE PRIORY OF LETHER-
INGHAM

There is not much to be learnt about the
small priory of Austin canons at Letheringham,
dedicated to the honour of the Blessed Virgin.
It was a cell of the priory of St. Peter's, Ipswich,
served by three or four canons, over whom was a
prior who was appointed from time to time by the
mother house ; but the prior held the office for life,
the appointment being confirmed by the bishop.

William de Bovile, apparently towards the
close of the twelfth century, gave his tithes at
Letheringham to the monastery of St. Peter's,
Ipswich, whereupon they established here a
priory. The Boviles held the manor of Lether-
ingham with the advowson of the priory for
many generations until 1348, when the lordship
and advowson passed to Sir John de Ufford, in
trust, for the use of Margery, daughter and
heiress of Sir John Bovile. Margery married for
her second husband Thomas Wingfield, and
hence the Wingfields held this property until
long after the dissolution. 11

The taxation roll of 1291 shows that the total
income of this priory was then ^12 11/. o^d.,
^8 being the value of the appropriated church of
Charsfield, and the greater part of the remaining
income from temporalities coming from lands at
Letheringham. 12

A two-days' fair on the vigil and Assumption
of the Blessed Virgin was granted to the priory
in 1297 to b e ne '^ at Letheringham. 13

1 Norw. Epis. Reg. ii, 45. * Ibid.

3 Ibid, vi, 126. * Ibid. 5 Ibid, vi, 307.

6 Ibid, vii, 46. 7 Ibid, viii, 76. 8 Ibid.

9 Ibid, ix, 49. 10 Ibid. 60.

11 Tanner, Notitia, Suff. xxxi ; Page, Hist, of Suff. i,
1 16-17. Leland says the founder was Sir John de
Bovile {Coll. i, 62).

'•' Pope Nick. Tax (Rec. Com.), 27^, 117, 124, 1 24^,
125^, 126, 128, 128^.
13 Chart. 25 Edw. I, No. 19.

John, duke of Norfolk, and Katharine his wife,
gave the advowson of the church of Hoo to this
priory in 1475, and in 1482 the canons obtained
licence to appropriate it. 14

The Valor of 1535 gives the total clear annual
value of this priory as ^26 1 8*. ^d. ; the tem-
poralities amounted to £,"] 1 6*. <)d., and the
spiritualities (including the rectories of Lether-
ingham, Charsfield, and Hoo) to £19 IS. Sd. li

The Suffolk commissioners for appraising the
value of the goods and chattels of the condemned
smaller monasteries visited Letheringham on
24 August, 1536. The whole was valued at
£l 2s. iod.™

The actual date of the suppression of the house
was 7 February, 1 536-7. u

William Basse, the prior, was assigned a pen-
sion of ^5. 18

On 20 October, 1539, a grant was made to
Sir Anthony Wingfield of the site and possessions
of the priory, with the rectories of Letheringham,
Charsfield, and certain tithes in Asketon. 19

Priors of Letheringham

Richard de Hecham, 20 1307

Richard de Sancto Edmundo, 21 13 16

William de Bhi Thornham (sic), 22 1357

Stephen Capel, 23 resigned 1399

John Bresete, 24 1 399

Thomas de Hadley, 2 ' 1407

William Woodbridge, 26 1420

William Keche, 27 resigned, 1443

William Noel, 28 1443

Robert Kenynghall, 29 1462

John May, 30 1473

Henry Wortham, 31 died 1497

Robert Hadley, 32 1497

William Basse, 33 1506

William Clopton, 31 15 10

William Basse, 35 occurs 1535

There is a fine fragment of the oval seal of
this house attached to a charter of 1495 ; it bears
the Blessed Virgin seated in a carved niche.
Legend : —

ll : coe : poris : et

con

Reg

Tanner, Notitia, SufF. xxxi, citing Norw. Epis.

. xii.

Valor Eccl. (Rec. Com.), iii, 423-4.
1 Proc. Suff. Arch. Inst, viii, 101.

Gairdner, Hist, of Church of Engl, in 1 (sth Cent. 421.
1 Misc. Bks. (Aug. Off.), ccxxxii, fol. 58.
1 Ibid, ccxi, fol. i,b.
' Norw. Epis. Reg. i, 26. Dates of election.

Ibid, i, 65.

Ibid.

Ibid, x, 48.
1 Ibid, xi, 133.

Ibid.

Tanner, Norw. MSS.

Valor Eccl. (Rec. Com.), iii
1 Add. Chart. 15755.

Ibid, v, 19.
!S Ibid, vii, 4.

29 Ibid, x, 48.

30 Ibid, xii, 1
33 Ibid, xiv, 13.

' Ibid, vi, 245.
6 Ibid, viii, 55.

Tbid.xii, 198.

108

)

HERRINGrLEET PrIORV

Priory of SS. Peter and Pall, Ipswich

& -1

B'-TLEY Priory

Ixworth Priory

ICllSKl Priory

Suffolk Monastic Seals, Pl\ti II

RELIGIOUS HOUSES

27. THE PRIORY OF THE HOLY
SEPULCHRE, THETFORD

Thetford was in the hands of Stephen in
1 139. Soon after this date the king gave all the
lands and advowsons on the Suffolk side of the
river, both within and without the borough,
to William de Warenne, the third earl of
Warenne and Surrey. Immediately after he
had received this grant, the earl founded a
monastery on that side of Thetford for canons
of the order of St. Sepulchre, of the Austin rule,
which order had been introduced into England
about 1 1 20. By the foundation charter the
earl bestowed on the canons the church of St.
Sepulchre, with a quadrigate of land in the ad-
joining fields, together with all the lands,
churches, tithes, and manorial rights in Thetford
that he had obtained from the king. He further
granted them two yearly fairs, namely at the
Invention (3 May) and the Exaltation of the
Holy Cross (14 September). The earl was at
this time about to set forth on a crusade, and
the concluding sentences of the charter solemnly
commend the maintenance of his new founda-
tion to his brother palmers, to the burgesses, and
to all his faithful friends. It was witnessed by
his brothers Ralph and Reginald. 1

Hamelin, Earl Warenne, who married Isabel,
the founder's daughter and heir, confirmed this
grant, and also gave them a third fair on the
festival of the Holy Sepulchre, 205. in rent, and
the tithes of two mills. He died in 1202.
William, Earl Warenne, Hamelin's son, gave
the canons sixty acres of lands, and I Of. rent out
of his mill at Brendmilne. Henry II also gave
sixty acres of demesne lands of Thetford to the
priory.

Early in the reign of Henry III Sir Geoffrey
de Furneaux, lord of Middle Harling, died, and
was buried in the priory church by the side of
his wife Amy. He gave the canons, for this
privilege of sepulture among them, the ninth
sheaf of all his demesnes in Bircham (Cambridge-
shire) and Middle Harling, together with a
messuage and twelve acres of land. About 1250
Alice, wife of Sir Michael Furneaux, a grandson
of Sir Geoffrey, was also buried in this church,
as well as many subsequent members of the
family.

In 1272 William Nunne of Thetford
granted to Prior Ralph and the canons a
messuage in the town towards procuring habits
for the canons, and Thomas de Burgh in 1274
granted the ninth sheaf of his demesne lands in

1 There is no known chartulary of this priory.
The charter is recited in a confirmation charter of
John, Earl Warenne, given in Dugdale, Mon. ii, 574,
'Ex autogr. in bibl. Deuvcsiana, a. 1620.' Martin's
Hist, of Thetford (1779), 174-95, hasa painstaking ac-
count of this house ; the statements in this sketch are
chiefly taken therefrom where no other reference is
given.

Somerton, Suffolk, and Burgh in Cambridge-
shire, in exchange for the advowson of Somerton.

The taxation of 1 29 1 showed that this priory
was of the annual value of £20 Of. \\d. ; it
then held possessions in fourteen Norfolk and
five Suffolk parishes, in addition to small incomes
from the dioceses of Ely and London.

The hospital of God's House, Thetford, was
definitely settled on the priory in the year 1347.

In 1 33 1 Edward III licensed the appropriation
to the priory of the church of Grcsham, the
advowson of which had been granted by John,
Earl Warenne, in 1 28 1, but the Bishop of
Norwich refused his consent. In 1339 the
prior and canons appealed to Rome, and Pope
Boniface granted them leave to appropriate the
revenues on the next vacancy, provided they
served it by one of their own canons and paid
all episcopal dues. The bishop would not, how-
ever, give his consent without the formal
ordination of a vicarage.

A survey of this house, taken on 20 December,
1338, shows that the priory held the Thetford
churches of SS. Cuthbert, Andrew, Giles,
Edmund, Lawrence, and the Holy Trinity, the
last two being served by the canons. They also
held 293 acres of meadow and arable land in
the neighbourhood of Thetford, of the united
value of £10 I2f. oW. They had liberty of one
foldcourse in the field of Westwick, wherein
they might feed 500 sheep, and might remove
those sheep to B rend for change of pasture when
the shepherd pleased and had convenience
for washing them ; also another foldcourse for
320 sheep, and various other pasturage rights
for cattle and swine. The total annual value
of the priory at the time of this survey was
£62 9 f.

In 1 394 Abbot Cratford, of Bury St. Edmunds,
licensed the prior to purchase the tenement
called Playforth in Barnham, with its services,
rents, foldcourse for 400 sheep, and 133 acres of
arable land worth id. an acre, of Master Walter
of Elveden, who held it of the fee of St. Edmund.
For this the prior was to pay a yearly rent to the
abbey of 22f., and 2d. on the election of a new
abbot. 2 In 1442 the Earl of Suflolk obtained
licence to alienate to the priory 240 acres of
arable land, 600 of pasture and heath for fold-
courses in Croxton, and a messuage and garden
in Thetford, to found a chantry in the con-
ventual church. The prior sued John Legat,
rector of Tuddenham, in 1464, for an annual
pension of £6 from that church, which he had
detained for two years ; the prior recovered it by
proving that he was always taxed at I2f. tenths
for the portion.

When the Valor of 1535 was drawn up the
clear annual income was only £39 6f. Sd.
This was a great falling-off from the total of
1338; several items of revenue were much

• Cott. MS. Tib. B. ix, fol. 30.

109

A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK

reduced, for instance the pension of £6 a year
from Tuddenham church stood only at 401. in
the last Valor.

The priory was visited by Archdeacon Gold-
well, on behalf of the bishop, on 12 November,
1492. Prior Reginald and seven canons were
present ; the visitor found that no reform was
needed. 1

Bishop Nyklce visited the house on 21 June,
1 5 14. The record of this visit is incomplete.
The prior, Thomas Vicar, said that Canon
William Brigges, then at Snoring, was an apos-
tate and of evil life. Richard Skete complained
that no one had been appointed sacrist, that the
beer was of poor quality, that the prior had re-
turned no account since his appointment, that
Stephen Horham, the prior's servant in charge
of the dairy, had the spending of the profits of
seven or eight cows, that Stephen was married,
and he had suspicions as to his wife, and that
Stephen had laid violent hands on him. Richard
Downham made some like complaints, and also
spoke of the bad repair of the buildings and nave
of the church, and that there were not sufficient
vessels in the kitchen, and that spoons and other
silver plate had been pledged. William Kings-
mill made like complaints, and said that the
prior, whom he considered remiss but not crimi-
nal in his conduct, had presented no accounts for
seven years. The depositions of Robert Barne-
ham and Thomas Herd were to much the same
effect. 2

At Bishop Nykke's visitation of June, 1520,
only the prior, John Thetford, and three canons
were present. The prior stated that the priory
buildings were in sad decay, and that the income
was not sufficient for their support. Richard
Noris said that Thomas Lowthe, the predecessor
of the present prior, had taken with him a breviary
belonging to the house. 3

At the visitation of July, 1526, the prior and
five canons were present. Prior Thetford com-
plained of the unpunctuality of the canons at
high mass on Sundays and the principal feasts.
Nicholas Skete thought the beer was too sweet
and weak. 4

The last visitation was held in July, 1532,
when the prior and three canons were severally
examined, and all testified omnia bene so far as
the condition of the house permitted. There
were also three novices who were professed by
the bishop. The bishop enjoined on the prior
to see that the newly professed were instructed
in grammar. 5

Prior John Thetford and six canons sub-
scribed to the royal supremacy in their chapter-
house on 26 August, 1534. In that year Prior
Thetford, who had been a canon of Butley, gave
to the church of that monastery two chalices,

Jessopp, None. Visit. (Cam. Soc), 32.
Ibid. 88-q. s Ibid.

Ibid. 242-3.

Ibid.

!55-
303.

one for the chapel of All Saints and the other
for the chapel of St. Sigismund ; also two relics,
with a silver pix for relics, and a comb of
St. Thomas of Canterbury. He resigned the
priory of Thetford about the close of 1534, and
became prior of Holy Trinity, Ipswich.

Legh and Ap Rice, the notorious visitors of
Cromwell, visited this priory towards the end of
1535. According to their comperta Prior Clerk
confessed incontinency to these men and his
desire to marry ; they also reported badly of three
others. 6

The county commissioners for suppression of
this house in 1536 reported that it was of the
clear annual value of £44 12s. \od. ; that the
lead and bells were worth £80, and the
movable goods £29 8s. ~jd. ; and that the debts
owing amounted to £] is. "]\d. The house
was 'very Ruvnousande in Decaye.' They found
only one religious person there, 'of slendre
Reporte who requirythe to have a dispensacione
to goo to the Worlde.' The persons who had
their living at the house were sixteen — namely,
two priests, two hinds, four children, and eight
waiting servants. 7

Prior Clerk obtained a pension of ten marks. 8

The house, site, and possessions were granted
in 1537 to Sir Richard Fulmerston.

Priors of Thetford

Richard, 9 1202

Gislebert I0

William, 11 1228

Richard, 12 1242

Roger de Kersey, 13 1247, died 1273

William, 14 1274

Peter de Horsage, 15 elected 131 5

Richard de Wintringham, 16 elected 1329

John de Shefford, 17 elected 1338

Roger de Kerseye, 18 1347

Robert de Thetford, 19 1349

Robert Edwyn, 20 resigned 1 35 1

Adam de Hokewold, 21 elected 135 I

William de Haneworth, 22 elected 1358

Adam de Worsted, 23 elected 1378

Robert de Stowe, 24 died 1420

John Paltok, 25 elected 1420

John Grenegras, 26 elected 1432

6 L. and P. Hen. Fill, x, 364.

7 Chant. Cert. Norf. No. 90.

8 Misc. Bks. (Aug. Off.), ccxxxii, 35^.
B Martin, Hist, of Thetford, 189-90.

10 Ibid. " Ibid. " Ibid.

13 Ibid. " Ibid.
u Norw. Epis. Reg. i, 63.

16 Ibid, ii, 28. "Ibid, iii, 19.

18 Martin, Hist, of Thetford, 189.

19 Ibid. *° Norw. Epis. Reg. iv. 134.
" Ibid. M Ibid, v, 29.

" Ibid, vi, 63. " Ibid, viii, 57.

"Ibid. ,6 Ibid. ix, 57.

RELIGIOUS HOUSES

Peter Tryon, 1 elected 1454

Reginald Ilberd, 2 elected 147 I

John Burnell, alias Burham, 3 1 496

William, 4 1 503

Thomas Vicar or Lowthe, 5 occurs 15 12

John Thetford, 6 occurs 1519, 1534

John Clerk, 7 occurs 1535

The thirteenth-century seal of this priory has
under a pinnacled canopy Our Lord rising from
the sepulchre, at the head of which is an angel,
with two sleeping soldiers in base. Legend : —

ECCLESIE D' THETFORD. . . . 8

A fine but imperfect impression of a seal
' ad causas ' of this house is attached to a charter
of 1457. It bears the risen Saviour standing,
the right hand raised in benediction, and the left
grasping a long cross. In the field, on the left,
are the arms of Warenne, chequy ; and on the
right a crescent and a star. Legend : —

.HEFO.

.AD CAVS.

28. THE PRIORY OF WOOD-
BRIDGE

The small priory of Austin canons at Wood-
bridge, in honour of the Blessed Virgin, was
founded about the year 1 193, by Ernald Rufus.
It was endowed at the outset with lands at
Woodbridge and in the neighbourhood, and with
the advowson of Woodbridge church, and to
these were soon added the advowsons of
Brandeston and St. Gregory, Ipswich. 10

There were no appropriations to this priory at
the time when the taxation roll of 1 291 was
drawn up, but the temporalities brought in an
income of ^23 in, 8id. This amount was
chiefly derived from lands and rents in Wood-
bridge parish, namely, ^12 lew. I Or/., and the
next largest item was £6 13*. 4-d. from lands at
Layer de la Hay, Essex. 11

The Valor of 1535 showed a considerable
increase. The prior and canons at that time
held the rectory of Woodbridge (j£8), whilst
a portion of Brandeston Rectory produced
fz 131. \d. The temporalities came chiefly
from Woodbridge, Alnesbourn, Lyndeley, and
Aspall. The total clear annual value of the
priory was £50 3*. 5-W. 12

' Norw. Epis. Reg. xi, 76. * Ibid, xi, 82.

3 Martin, Hist, of Thetford, 190.

4 Ibid. . s Jessopp, Norte. Visit. 88.
6 Ibid. 1*55. 7 Valor Eccl. (Rec. Com.).

8 B.M. Cast, lxix, 48 ; Dugdale, Mon. vi, 729 ;
Acknowledgement of Supremacy (P.R.O.), 109.

9 Add. Chart. 17245 ; Blomefield, Norfolk, ii, 98.
"' Dugdale, Mon. vi, 600 ; Proc. Suff. Arch. Inst.

iv, 338.

" Pope Nich. Tax. (Rec. Com.), 27, 124^, 1253,
iz~b, 1283, 129^.

u Valor Ecel. (Rec. Com.), iii, 422.

The alliance of the small priory of Alnes-
bourn with that of Woodbridge, in 1466, has
been previously described.

Licence was granted by Edward II, in 13 18,
to the prior and convent of Woodbridge to
acquire in mortmain lands and rents to the value
of iooj. a year. 13 But there was no ready
response of benefactors to avail themselves of
this licence. It is not until the year 1344 that
we find a gift made under shelter of the licence
of 1 3 18, and then it was only land and rent,
the gift of John de Brewon, clerk, to the value
of two out of the hundred shillings that were
sanctioned. 14

Bishop Nykke personally visited Woodbridge
priory on 2 August, 15 14. The prior and one
of the canons stated that all was well, but two
other canons said that the prior was remiss in
the collecting of rents to the detriment of the
house. It was also reported that the manor
house of Alnesbourn was in complete ruin, but
not through the fault of the then prior. The
bishop enjoined on the prior to be more par-
ticular and diligent in collecting rents due to the
priory. 15

At the visitation of the same bishop in 1532,
William Lucham, sub-prior, deposed that the
prior was remiss and a poor administrator ; that
the priory gates were not shut at proper times ;
that the house was in debt j£io ; and that they
had neither corn nor barley in store for the next
autumn. Canon Goodall stated that the south
porch of the conventual church was in ruins on
account of defects in the timber, and that the
house was overburdened with the pension to
ex-prior Coke. Canon Penderley, the curate of
Woodbridge, said that there was not sufficient
income to discharge the burdens and to do the
repairs of the priory. Canon Pope considered
that the prior had incurred too great expense in
making a water-mill. Canon Daneby said that
the priory suffered from penury and want, and
that both house and mill were in bad repair, but
that otherwise all was well, and in this Canon
Houghton agreed. The bishop admonished the
prior to use all diligence in repairing the defects
and dilapidations of the priory. 16

Henry Bassingborne, the prior, and six
canons signed their acknowledgement of the royal
supremacy on 21 August, 1534. 1 '

The house was suppressed in February,
1 536—7, and a pension was assigned to Prior
Henry. 18 The rest of the canons went out
unpensioned.

The site of the priory and its possessions
were granted to Sir John Wingfield and Dorothy
his wife.

13 Pat. 2 Edw. II, pt. ii, m. 4.

14 Ibid. 18 Edw. Ill, pt. ii, m. 2.

15 Jessopp, Visit. 134-5. 16 Ibid. 292-3.
17 Dtp. Keeper's Rep. vii, App. ii, 305.

19 Misc. Bks. (Aug. Off.), ccxxxii, f'ol. 40^.

Ill

A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK

Priors of Woodbridge

Ambrose, ' occurs 1267

Thomas, 2 occurs 1286

Henry de Ocklee (Eccles), 3 1305

John de Athelyngstone, 4 1326

John Brundish, 1342

William Bast, 1345

John de Hadeley, 5 1349

William Halton, 1349

Henry de Brom, 6 1371

Thomas de Croston, 7 1372, died 1394

William de Melton, 8 1394

Thomas Parham, 9 1432

Nicholas Foster, 10 occurs 1447-52

Thomas Pakkard, 11 1467

John Hough a Has Hadley, 12 1493

Augustus Rivers, 13 1507

Richard Bool, 1509

Thomas Cooke, 16 15 16
Henry Bassingborne, 17 1530

The first seal of the priory, early fourteenth
century, bears the crowned Virgin seated on a
throne with a footboard, the Holy Child on the
left knee, and a sceptre in the right hand.
Legend : —

. . omune : capituli : ecc'e : de :

WODEBRE.

The later seal, fifteenth century, represents
the Annunciation under a canopied niche. The
Blessed Virgin and the Archangel Gabriel have
a pot of lilies between them ; a scroll from the
latter bears ' Ave gracia pie.' In the base is a
Latin cross on a shield. Legend : —

-4- sigillu : coe : cap'li : bte :
marie : de : wodebregge 19

HOUSES OF AUSTIN NUNS

29. THE PRIORY OF CAMPSEY

The priory of Campsey, or Campsey Ash, was
founded about the year 1 1 95, by Theobald de
Valoines, who gave all his estate in that parish
to his two sisters Joan and Agnes, to the intent
thev should build a monastery in honour of the
Blessed Virgin, for themselves and other religious
women. In accordance with his desire the
sisters built and established here a house of
Austin nuns, of which Joan became the first
prioress, Agnes succeeding her. King John
confirmed the grant of Theobald in January,
1 203-4. u

Among the earliest subsequent benefactors
were Simon de Brunna and John L'Estrange
of Hunstanton, both of whom gave lands in
Tottington. 15

In 1228-9 a dispute arose as to certain tithes
between the prioress and convent of Campsey
and the prior and convent of Butley, which was
in the first instance brought before the abbot
of St. Benet of Holme and other papal com-
missioners. The prioress and convent of
Campsey appealed again to Rome against the
decision, whereupon the commissioners excom-
municated them. Pope Gregory IX referred
the appeal to the prior of Anglesey and others ;
and the priory of Butley, because these judges
refused to admit the execution of the excom-
munication, obtained papal letters on that point

1 Proc. Suff. Arch. Inst, iv, 224. ' Ibid.

3 Norw. Epis. Reg. i, 1 7.

4 Ibid, ii, 2. 5 Ibid, iv, 91. 6 Ibid, vi, 9.

7 Ibid, vi, 197. 5 Ibid. 9 Ibid, ix, 54.

10 Bodl. Chart. Suff. 246, 247.

11 Norw. Epis. Reg. xi, 1 63.

u Ibid, xii, 168. 13 Ibid, xiv, 77.

" Chart. 5 John, m. 15, No. 124.
15 Stevens, Con tin. of Mon. i, 523.

to the prior of Yarmouth and others. Before
this last commission, the prioress and convent
of Campsey pleaded that as the sentence was
issued after the appeal, every excommunicated
person being allowed to defend himself, the
other judges had acted rightly in refusing to
admit the execution. The prior of Yarmouth
and his colleagues declined to receive such plea,
and the prioress again appealed to the pope.
Eventually, in June, 1230, the original papal
order against the nuns of Campsey was enforced,
whereby the small tithes of the church of
Dilham and of the mill of the same place
were to be paid to the priory of Butley. 20

The taxation roll of 1 291 shows that the
temporalities of this priory were by that date
widely scattered over Suffolk, with certain lands
and rents in Norfolk and Essex ; their total
annual value was assessed at £6j 3$. T^d. The
value of the four churches then appropriated,
Allesby (Lincoln), Tottington (Norfolk), and
Ludham and Bruisyard, was ^40, giving a total

°* £ l0 7 3 s - 34^ 21 .

The steady way in which the endowments of

this house increased during the fourteenth century

bears testimony to the good repute of the nuns.

Licence was granted in 1 3 1 9 to the prioress and

nuns at the request of Robert de Ufford to

acquire lands and tenements to the annual value

of ;£io ; and in the same year the convent

obtained grants in Bruisyard and adjacent

parishes, worth £j l"s. Hd. a year. 22

16 Tanner Norw. MSS. " Ibid.

16 Cott. Chart, xxi, 44.

" B.M. Cast, lxxii, 16. Engraved in Proc. Suff.
Arch. Inst, iv, 224.
10 Cal. Pap. Reg. i, I2I-+.

21 PopeNich. Tax. (Rec. Com.), 27, 29, 58, 6jh, 83,
95, qjh, 102, 103, 1 12^, 1 16£, I 193, 124^, 13 \b.

22 Pat. 13 Edw. II, m. 15, 30.

RELIGIOUS HOUSES

John de Framlingham, clerk, obtained licence
in 1332, at the request of Queen Philippa, for
the alienation to the prioress and nuns of
Campsey, of the manor of Carlton-by-Kelsall
and the advowson of the church of that town.
It was provided that the priory was to grant the
manor for life to a chaplain, on condition that
he, with two other chaplains, to be found by
him, celebrated daily in the church of Carlton
for the soul of Alice de Henaud, the Queen's
aunt, and for the soul of the grantor after his
death. On the death of the chaplain the priory
was to resume possession of the manor and
regrant it to another chaplain on like conditions. 1
Licence was also granted in 1342, to Robert de
Ufford, earl of Suffolk, to alienate to the prioress
and convent of Campsey an acre of land in
Wickham and the advowson of the church of
that town with leave to appropriate it. 2

The prioress and convent had licence in
1343 to alienate to the dean and chapter of
Lincoln a pension of ^10 that they had received
yearly out of the church of Allsby, to find two
chaplains to celebrate daily in the cathedral
church of Lincoln, for the soul of Robert
de Alford, rector of Anderby. 3

In 1346 Thomas de Hereford had licence to
alienate to this priory the advowson and appro-
priation of the church of Hargham, to find
chaplains to celebrate daily in the priory church
for the soul of Ralph Ufford. 4 Later in the
same year the church of Burgh, Suffolk, was
appropriated to the priory under like conditions. 6
Both these appropriations were made at the
request of Maud countess of Ulster. This lady,
in 1347, entered the religious life among the
nuns of Campsey, taking the habit of a regular,
and taking with her as dower the issues of all
her lands and rents in England, by crown
licence, for a year after her admission. It was
also granted that when, at the end of the year,
the king or the heir entitled to them, took this
property, Henry earl of Lancaster, her brother,
and five others, whom she had appointed her
attorneys, were to pay for her sustenance and for
the relief of the priory, which was very lean,
200 marks yearly for her life. 6 In October of
the same year, licence was obtained for Countess
Maud to ordain a perpetual chantry of five
chaplains (one being the warden) to celebrate
daily in the chapel of the Annunciation of our
Lady, in the priory church, for the honour of
God and His Virgin Mother, and for the saving
of the souls of William de Burges, earl of Ulster,
her first husband, and of Ralph de Ufford, her
second husband (whose body was buried in that

1 Pat. 6 Edw. III. pt. i, m. 2.

• Ibid. 16 Edw. Ill, pt. ii, m. 1 8, 13.

3 Ibid. 17 Edw. Ill, pt. ii, m. 35.

4 Ibid. 20 Edw. Ill, pt. ii, m. 26 ; pt. iii, m. 25.

5 Ibid. pt. iii, m. 24.

* Ibid. 21 Edw. Ill, pt. iii, m. 57.

chapel), also of Elizabeth de Burges and Maud
de Ufford, her daughters by the said husbands,
and for the good estate of the countess and
of John de Ufford and Thomas de Here-
ford, knights, and for their souls after death.
A messuage in Asshe, and the churches of
Burgh and Hargham, lately given to the priory,
were to be assigned to the warden of this
chantry. 7

Roger de Boys, knight, and others obtained
licence in 1383 to alienate to this priory the
manor of Wickham Market and 5 acres of
meadow and 5 of pasture in Mellis, of the yearly
value of £ 1 8 18s. to support an increased number
of nuns and chaplains, and to find a wax candle
to burn in the quire of their church on the prin-
cipal festivals, 8 and in 1390 Sir Roger de Boys
and others, on payment of ^50 to the king,
were allowed to alienate to the priory the manor
of Horpol, a fourth part of the manor of Dal-
linghoo, and the manor of Hillington, in aid of
the maintenance of five chaplains to celebrate
daily in the priory, and of two nuns there
serving God. 9 This remarkable foundation is
fully described in a small chartulary at the Public
Record Office. 10 It is the only instance of which
we are aware where a small college of secular
priests was actually established within the pre-
cincts of a nunnery.

The various particulars set forth in the ordi-
nation of this chantry by the Bishop of Norwich,
under date 3 October, 1390, provide that the
gifts of lands in Bruisyard, Swefling, Peasenhall,
Badingham, Cranford, and Parham, by Sir Roger
Boys and others were to be used towards the
adding of three chaplains to the two chantry
chaplains already provided by the foundation of
1383 ; that they were especially to pray for the
souls of William de Ufford and Robert de Ufford
and their wives, and for all the faithful, in the
chapel of St. Thomas the Martyr, within the
convent precincts ; that the convent was to
build for them a suitable manse with chambers
and common rooms within the close near to the
chapel ; that one of the five secular priests was
to be warden or master ; that they were to have
a common dormitory and refectory ; that the
priory was to pay the master 13 marks a year
and the other four chaplains 10 marks each ;
that the priory was to provide lights, wax, wine,
and vestments for the chapel of St. Thomas, and
also to keep the buildings in proper repair ; that
the chaplains were to be allowed free ingress and
egress through the convent at all suitable hours ;
that the master and chaplains were strictly to
abstain from entering the cloister or other build-
ings of the nuns ; and that the master was to
celebrate high mass in the conventual church on

' Pat. 21 Edw. Ill, pt. iii, m. 5.

8 Ibid. 7 Ric. II, pt. i, m. 39.

9 Ibid. 13 Ric. II, pt. iii, m. 2- .

10 Exch. L.T. R. Misc. Bks. No. 112.

A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK

the great feasts and on principal doubles. The
chartulary also contains a copy of the assent of
Mary the prioress and the nuns to this ordinance,
sealed in their chapter-house on 5 October ;
and of that of the dean and chapter of Norwich,
sealed on 7 October. The surplus of this en-
dowment, after paving the stipend of the master
and chaplains, was to go to the common fund of
the priory, and to be used towards the susten-
ance of two additional nur.s.

Licence was obtained by the priory for
50 marks in 1392 for the alienation by Robert
Ashfield and others of 12s. \d. rent in Totting-
ton, Norfolk, and of the reversion of that manor
after the deaths of John de Bokenham senior
and John de Bokenham junior, to find three
tapc-rs to burn daily before the high altar at high
mass in the conventual church. 1

Licence for £40 was granted in 1400 to the
prioress and nuns of Campsey for Robert Ash-
field and others to assign to them the manor
called Blomvyle bv Perham, together with con-
siderable lands in Wickham Market and adjacent
places, and the advowson of Pettistree, with
leave to appropriate. 2

In 14 1 6 an important return was made of
the appropriated churches of the diocese of
Norwich, with the dates of the appropriation.
The following are those entered as pertaining to
the priory of Campsey : —

Ludham, 1259; Bredfield, 1259; Totting-
ton, 1302; Wickham Market, 1343; Tun-
stead, 1350 ; and Pettistree, 141 3. 3

The Valor of 1535 gives the clear annual
value of this priory as ^182 gs. $d. The tem-
poralities consisted of the manors, with members,
of Campsey, Wickham Market, Overhall and
Netherhall Denham, Tottington-cum-Stanford,
and Swefling, of the clear value of ^158 19/. $\d.
The spiritualities, then consisting of the rectories
of Wickham and Pettistree (Suffolk) and Tun-
stead and Tottington (Norfolk) were valued at
^23 gj. iiW.' The wealthy chantry of Ufford
foundation, within the conventual church, was
worth ^35 6j. 8^., and was most certainly part
of the priory's property, as the surplus, after
paying the chantry priests' stipends, went to the
common fund of the nunnery. To exclude
this from the sum total of the priory's income
was a mere piece of trickery to bring this house
within those that were to be suppressed in 1536,
and which were bound to have a less income
than ^200.

Archdeacon Goldwell visited Campsey on
24 January, 1492, as commissary of his brother
the bishop. The visitation was attended by
Katharine the prioress, Katharine Babington, the
sub-prioress, and eighteen other nuns. Each

1 Pat. 16 Ric. II, pt. i, m. 34.

'"' Ibid. I Hen. IV, pt. v, m. 4.

3 Norw. Epis. Reg. viii, fol. 128.

1 Valor Eccl. (Rcc. Com.), iii, 415-17.

was examined severally and separately, but no-
thing was found that demanded reformation.'

Bishop Nykke personally visited Campsey in
1 5 14. The prioress, Elizabeth Everard, gave a
good account of everything pertaining to the
house, and in this she was supported by Petronilla
Fulmerston, the sub-prioress, and eighteen other
nuns, none of whom had any complaint to
make. 6

A prioress and the full number of twenty nuns
were found here at the visitation of 1520, when
everything was again found to be satisfactory. 7
The like number attended the visitation of 1526,
when Elizabeth Buttry was prioress. Each of
these ladies bore testimony to the good estate of
the house in slightly varied phraseology. The
only shadow of a complaint was from Margaret
Harman, the precentrix, who, after stating that
for the past thirty-five years she had never known
anything worthy of correction or reformation,
added that the office books in choir needed some
repair. 8

The prioress Elizabeth Buttry had only just
been appointed when the last-named highly
favourable visitation was held. Judging from
the last visitation of 25 June, 1532, her rule over
this happy, peaceful nunnery was unsatisfactory.
Only six out of the eighteen nuns examined
made an omnia bene report. The remainder all
complained of the too great strictness and
austerity, and more particularly of the parsi-
monious and stingy character of the prioress.
Even Margaret Harman, who was then sacrist,
and who had been a nun of this house for forty-
one years, said that the food was sometimes not
wholesome. Others complained much more
bitterly of the food and of the unhealthy cha-
racter of the meat. Katharine Grome, the pre-
centrix, said that within the last month they had
had to eat a bullock that would have died of
disease if it had not been killed. Another sister
complained of the unpunctuality of the cook ;
their dinner hour was supposed to be six, but
sometimes it was eight o'clock before they had
finished the meal. There was, however, no kind
of moral delinquency alleged of anyone ; and
the bishop, after enjoining the prioress to provide
a more liberal and wholesome diet, and the cook
to be more punctual, gave his blessing, and dis-
solved the visitation. 9

The exact date of the suppression of this
house is not known, but it was some time in the
year 1536.

An inventory of the goods and chattels was
drawn up on 28 August of that year by the
Suffolk commissioners. The high altar of the
conventual church was well furnished with a
white silk frontal, a carved wooden reredos, four
great candlesticks of latten, a lamp of latten,and

Jessopp, Visit. 35-
Ibid. 179-80.
Ibid. 290-2.

6 Ibid. 133-4.
■ Ibid. 219.

II 4

RELIGIOUS HOUSES

a pix of silver gilt weighing 9 oz., &c. The
chapel of our Lady had an alabaster reredos.
In the vestry was a good supply of vestments,
altar cloths, frontals, and silk curtains, as well as
a silver cross worth ^5, a silver censer ^4 131.4^.,
and a silver-gilt chalice £2 js. Sd. The house-
hold furniture was simple. The cattle and
stores brought up the inventory to the good
sum of ^56 13s. 1

Prioresses of Campsey

Joan de Valoines, 2 occurs 1 195 and 1228-9

Agnes de Valoines, 3 occurs 1234

Basilia, 4 occurs 1258

Margery, 6 occurs 13 I 8

Maria de Wingfield, 6 1334

Maria de Felton, 7 died 1394

Margaret de Bruisyard, 8 1394

Alice Corbet, 9 141 1

Katharine Ancel, 10 141 6

Margery Rendlesham, 11 1446

Margaret Hengham, 12 1477

Katharine, 13 1492

Anna, 14 1502

Elizabeth Everard, 16 1 5 13

Elizabeth Blennerhasset, 16 15 18

Elizabeth (or Ellen) Buttry, 17 1526

The fourteenth-century pointed oval seal of
this priory bears the Blessed Virgin, crowned
and seated on a throne, the Holy Child standing
on the right knee, within a triple arched canopied
niche. In base between two flowering branches,
a shield bearing per pale a cross lozengy, diapered,
a chief dancetty. Legend : —

priousse : ET

MARIE : DE CAMPISSEY

CONVENTUS : .
18

30. THE PRIORY OF FLIXTON 19

An Austin nunnery was founded in honour of
the Blessed Virgin and St. Katharine at Flixton,

1 Proc. Suff. Arch. Inst, viii, 11 3-1 6.

1 Add. MS. 1909^ fol. 66b. 3 Ibid.

4 Tanner MSS. Now.

5 Add. MS. 1909^ fol. 66b.

r ' Now. Epis. Reg. ii, 65. 7 Ibid, vi, 195.

" Ibid. 9 Ibid, vii, 43.

10 Tanner MSS. Now.

" Norw. Epis. Reg. xi, I. u Ibid, xii, 59.

" Ibid, xii, 112. M Ibid, xiii, 21, 36.

15 Tanner MSS. Norw. ,6 Ibid.

" Jessopp, Visit. 219. She died in 1543, and was
buried in St. Stephen's Church, Norwich.

19 B.M. Cast, lxxi, 1 01.

19 Stowe MS. (B.M.), 1083, is a miscellaneous
volume of extracts and abstracts, with a few original
documents. Nos. 56 to 84 are abstracts of a number
of Flixton priory evidences. Those bearing the
names of successive prioresses seem to have been
selected for citation. The writing of these abstracts

in the year 1258, by Margery, daughter of Geof-
frey de Hanes and relict of Bartholomew de
Crek, to whom Robert de Tatesale, son of
Robert de Tatesale, knt., in 1256, granted
licence to found a home of religion upon the fee
which she held of him in Flixton, wheresoever
she would in that town. He also granted her
the fee, which she held of him there on nominal
service, to appropriate to the said house. She
endowed it with the manor of Flixton, and sub-
sequently with her moiety of the advowson of
Flixton, the advowson and appropriation of
Dunston and Fundenhall, Norfolk. 2 "

The same Robert de Tatesale subsequently
granted to Beatrice, the first prioress, and the
convent, the tenement that Margery de Crek
held of him at Flixton, in pure alms, and Robert
son of Bartholomew and Margery de Crek re-
leased to the prioress and the nuns all his right
in the manor of Flixton (formerly his mother's)
with the advowson of the moiety of the church.

Particulars as to this nunnery do not appear
in the taxation roll of Pope Nicholas, 1 29 1, but
a survey of the priory lands and possessions in
the following year supplies many interesting par-
ticulars. We there learn that the number of
the nuns was limited by the founders to eigh-
teen, in addition to a prioress, and that everyone
received yearly 55. for garments. The manor
and part of the church at Flixton was worth 40*.
a year, and the moiety of Flixton church,
£4. 135. 4</., and the church of Dunston, £5 ;
various lands, rents, and services brought the
annual value up to ^43 i8j. 2\d. n

A general return of the appropriated churches
of the diocese, with the date of vicarage ordi-
nations made in the year 141 6, names only two
under Flixton priory: Fundenhall 1347, and
Flixton 1349. The advowson of Dunston is
named as given to the priory in 1274, but not
appropriated. 22

At the instance of Master Robert de Cisterna,
the king's leech, licence was granted in 131 1 to
the prioress and nuns of Flixton, on account of
their income being insufficient for their susten-
ance, to acquire lands and tenements to the value
of jflO a year. 23

In 132 1 the Bishop of Norwich effected an
exchange with this priory of a moiety of the
advowson (with permission to appropriate) of the
church of Flixton for the advowson of the church

is in a hand of about the middle of the sixteenth cen-
tury. Nos. 79, 80, and 81 are undated abstracts of
charters temp. Edw. I, all giving the name of Prioress
Beatrice. The originals of these charters are in the
hands of the Earl of Ashburnham. Hist. MSS. Com.
Rcf>. viii, pt. ii, 27.

w Lansd. MS. 477, &c., cited in Suckling, Hist, of
Suff i, 190.

" Jermyn MSS. cited in Suckling, Hist, of Suff i„
191.

M Norw. Epis. Reg. viii, fol. 125.

3 Pat. 4 Edw. II, pt. i, m. 24.

A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK

of Helmingham, held by the nuns of the gift of
Cicely, widow of Robert de Ufford. 1

At the time of the Black Death (1349) the
value of this house greatly deteriorated, and it
dwindled to half its former income, a position
from which it never recovered. The Valor of
1535 gave the total clear annual value, including
the appropriations of the churches of Flixton,
Fundenhall, and Dunston, as £23 4*. oW.
Among the considerable outgoings the largest
item was £8 35. 4*/., distributed to the poor on
the anniversary of Margery the foundress. 8

Among the rolls at the Bodleian is one of 1370,
of articles, and depositions relative to a dispute
pending in the Roman court between the
parishioners of Fundenhall, Norfolk, and the
prioress and convent of Flixton, concerning the
repairs of Fundenhall church. 3

Katharine Pilly, the prioress, who had laud-
ably ruled this house for eighteen years, resigned
in 1432, on account of old age and blindness.
In the following year the bishop as visitor made
careful provision for her sustenance. The ex-
prioress was to have suitable rooms for herself
and maid ; each week she and her maid were to
be provided with two white loaves, eight loaves
of ' hool ' bread (whole bread), and eight gallons of
convent beer ; with a dish for both, daily from
the kitchen, the same as for two nuns in the
refectory ; and with 200 faggots and 1 00 logs,
and eight pounds of candles a year. Another
kindly provision was that Cecilia Creyke, one of
the nuns, was to read divine service to her daily,
and to sit with her at meals, having her portion
from the refectory. 4

Towards the close of the life of this house, the
average number of the nuns was about eight,
instead of the eighteen named by the founders.
No evil was brought to light at the visitations
of Bishops Goldwell and Nykke.

Bishop Goldwell personally visited this priory
on 20 June, 1493. Elizabeth Vyrly, the
prioress, Margaret Causten, the sub-prioress, and
four other nuns were severally examined, and
nothing was found worthy of reformation. The
nuns were attending mass at the parish church
because their chaplain had broken his arm and
was unable to celebrate. 6

Bishop Nykke made his first visitation to this
priory on 11 August, 1514. Various complaints
were made as to the caprice and severity of the
prioress, the laxity of discipline and administra-
tion, and of the frequent access of John Wells,
a relative, to the prioress. The bishop ordered
that John Wells (who seems to have been the
chaplain) should leave the house and town,
before All Saints' day, and adjourned the visitation
to the following Easter. 6

1 Pat. 14 Edw. II, pt. ii, m. 21.

* Valor Eccl. (Rec. Com.), iii, 446.
3 Bodl. Rolls, Suff. 13.

* Norw. Epis. Reg. ix, 87.

s Jessopp, Visit. 47-8. 6 Ibid. 1 44.

The visitation of 14 August, 1520, was held
by the suffragan Bishop of Chalcedon and other
commissaries. Alice (Elizabeth) Wright, prioress,
complained of the disobedience of Margaret
Punder, her predecessor, but gave a good report
of everything in the house. The late prioress
complained of non-receipt of her proper pension,
board, and winter fuel. The sub-prioress stated
that no annual account was presented. Isabel
Asshe said that when she and her sisters were
unwell, the prioress compelled them to rise for
mattins, in which complaint three other nuns
agreed. The visitation was adjourned, and the
prioress was ordered to present the accounts and
inventory before Christmas. 7

The visitation was resumed on 20 August by
Nicholas Carr, the chancellor of the diocese, and
another commissary, when each inmate was
again severally examined. The prioress pleaded
that no accounts had been presented, as she was
not accustomed to figures and had not written
down what she had expended. Margaret Pun-
der, the ex-prioress, repeated her complaint of
niggardly treatment, adding that she was unwill-
ing to yield obedience to the prioress as contrary
to the rules of religion. Five other sisters
testified omnia bene, save the non-presentment
of accounts. The chancellor enjoined on the
prioress that all dogs were to be removed from
the priory within a month, save one ; that the
prioress was to have a sister with her if she
slept outside the dormitory ; that she was to
render a yearly account before the senior sisters
of the state of the houses and of all receipts and
expenses, under pain of deprivation ; and that
she was to discharge Richard Carr from the
priory's service. 8

At the visitation of August, 1526, the prioress,
ex-prioress, and four other sisters all testified
omnia bene, save that the sub-prioress complained
of the defective roofs of the cloister and refectory
which the prioress was ordered to repair as
quickly as possible. 9 The visitation was equally
satisfactory in every respect in 1532, when the
same prioress and ex-prioress and six other sisters
were all examined. 10

Flixton Priory was among those numerous
small houses of East Anglia, &c, that were
authorized to be suppressed in 1527—8 by bulls
of Pope Clement VII, to enable Cardinal Wolsey
to found great colleges at Ipswich and Oxford.
Wolsey's fall, however, prevented the accomplish-
ment of this plan, so that Flixton was included
in the general suppression of the smaller houses
by the legislation of 1536. The Suffolk com-
missioners visited this nunnery on 21 August,
1536, when they drew up an elaborate inven-
tory of the goods and chattels of the house.
' In the Chiste wt. in the quire ' were a great
array of vestments, but many of them very old ;

7 Ibid. 185-6.
9 Ibid. 261.

8 Ibid. 190-I.
10 Ibid. 318-19

116

RELIGIOUS HOUSES

' Seynt Kateryn's cote of clothe of gold lyttle
worth att mid.' The chambers were well sup-
plied with bedding. The pewter in the buttery,
the table linen in the refectory, and the utensils
in the kitchen were much battered and worn,
and of small value. The church plate was
valued at £5 15*. 4.J., the most valuable item
being ' a crosse cette with Glasse of Sylvar and
parcell gilt with Mary and John, pond, xx oz.
att iiij. imd. the oz. lxvij. v'nid.' The conven-
tual or table plate was valued at £8 js. ; it
included a maser with a silver foot, and two
other masers with silver bands. The cattle,
hay, and corn were worth upwards of £10, and
the whole inventory amounted to £20 oj. $d}

Elizabeth Wright, the prioress, surrendered
the house on 4 February, 1536— 7. 2

The priory and its possessions were granted
by the crown on 10 July, 1537, to Richard
Warton. 3

Prioresses of Flixton

Eleanor, 4 occurs 1258
Beatrice de Ratlesden, 6 occurs 1263, &c.
Emma de Welholm, 6 1301—28
Margery de Stonham, 7 died 1345

Isabel Weltham, 10 elected 1345

Joan de Hemynhall, 11 occur* 1357

Joan Marshall, 12 occurs 137 I

Margery Howel, 13 elected 1375

Katharine Hereward, 14 elected 1392

Elizabeth Moor, 15 died 1 414

Katharine Pilly, 16 elected 1414

Maud Rycher, 17 elected 1432

Mary Dalangehoo (Delanio), 18 died 1446

Cecilia Creyk, 19 elected 1446

Helen, 20 resigned 1466

Margery Arteys, 21 elected 1466

Isabel, 22 occurs 1483

Elizabeth Vyrly, 23 occurs 1493

Margaret Punder, 24 occurs I 5 10— 16

Elizabeth Wright, 25 occurs 1520, surrendered

*537 26

Impressions of the seal, lozenge-shaped, with
a semicircular lobe on each of the four sides, are
affixed to several Flixton charters of the Stowe
collection of the thirteenth and fourteenth
centuries. 27

It bears our Lord on the Cross between St.
Mary and St. John, with sun and moon ; in the
base, under an arch, the Agnus Dei ; in each of
the lobes one of the symbols of the evangelists.

HOUSE OF PREMONSTRATENSIAN CANONS

31. THE ABBEY OF LEISTON

The abbey of Leiston was founded for the
white canons of the Premonstratensian Order,
in the year 11 82, by Ranulph de Glanville, who
was also the founder of Butley priory. By the
foundation charter, this abbey, dedicated in
honour of the Blessed Virgin, was endowed
with the manor of Leiston, and with the ad-
vowsons of the churches of St. Margaret,
Leiston, and St. Andrew, Aldringham. These
churches, as stated in the charter, Glanville had
first granted to the Austin canons of Butley,
but they had been by them resigned. The
founder stated that he made these gifts for the
good estate of King Henry, and for his own
soul's sake, and for that of his wife Bertha, and
their ancestors and successors. 8

The next benefactions were the church of
St. Mary, Middleton, 9 by Roger de Glanville,

1 Proc. Suff. Arch. Inst, viii, 89-90.

* L. and P. Hen. Fill, xii, pt. i, 5 10.

3 Misc. Bks. (Aug. Off.), ccix, fol. 114.

* Tanner MSS. 4 Stowe MS. 1083.
6 Norw. Epis. Reg. i, 7. 7 Ibid, iv, 52.

8 Cott. MS. Vesp. E. xiv, fol. 34^. This MS. is
a small quarto chartulary of the abbey, covering
83 fols. ; it begins with papal and archiepiscopal con-
firmations of privileges, and includes confirmation
charters of Henry II, Richard I, and John.

9 Ibid. fol. + J.

confirmed by Roger Bigot, earl of Norfolk, and
the church of St. Botolph, Culpho, 23 by William
de Valoines, confirmed by William de Verdun.
Pope Honorius III, in 1224, confirmed to the
abbey the four churches of Leiston, Aldringham,
Middleton, and Culpho, 29 and on 26 Februarv,
1280, John Peckham, archbishop of Canterbury,
who was staying at the abbey, confirmed to the
canons the appropriation of the same four 30
churches.

The taxation roll of 1291 gave the annual
value of the priory as £130 151. ~\d. Of this
sum ^56 13*. \d. came from the appropriated
rectories, by far the largest amount (^34 13;. 4^.)
coming from the wide-spread parish of Leiston. 31

10 Norw. Epis. Reg. iv, 52.

11 Stowe MS. 1082, No. 62. " Ibid. No. 83.
13 Norw. Epis. Reg. vi, 43.

" Ibid, vi, 170. ' 1S Ibid, vii, 84.

16 Ibid. lr Ibid, ix, 58.

18 Ibid, xi, 3. " Ibid.

30 Ibid. 155. " Ibid.

33 Stowe MS. No. 74. n Jessopp, Visit. 48.

n Ibid. 105. '» Ibid. 190.

36 L. and P. Hen. Fill, xii (1), 510.

" Nos. 44, 47, 50, 64, 70, and 72.

' s Cott. MS. Vcsp. E. xiv, fol. 45, 693.

39 Add. MS. 81 7 1, fol. 62-3.

'" Bodl. Chart. Suff. 226.

31 Pope Nich. Tax. (Rec. Com.), 116, 117*, 118,
n8i, 124, 124*, 125^, 126, 126*, 127, 127^, 128,
\z%b, 129, 1293.

A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK

John Underwood of Theberton and Matthew
Broun of Knoddishall obtained licence in 1342
to alienate to the abbey of Leiston a messuage
towards the sustenance of a canon to celebrate
once a week in the abbey church for their souls,
and for the souls of the faithful departed. 1

The abbey obtained licence in 1344 to
acquire lands or rents to the value of ;£20
yearly, in consequence of their impoverished state
through the frequent inundations of the sea over
their lands. 2 Lands and rents in Leiston and
neighbouring parishes to the value of 5 55. yearly
were granted under this licence to the abbey in
the following year. 3

In 1347 the royal sanction was obtained for
the appropriation to the abbey of the church of
St. Peter, Kirkley. 4 On I May, 1380, Henry,
bishop of Norwich, and Nicholas, prior of Nor-
wich, gave their assent to the appropriation of
the church of Theberton to the abbey and con-
vent of Leiston, 6 and in the following year an
agreement was sealed securing to Norwich priory
a pension of 4*. from Theberton church, 6 but in
1382 Margaret countess of Norfolk effected an
exchange with the abbey, giving the canons the
advowson of Kirkley, and taking Theberton. 7

John the abbot and the convent of Leiston
indemnified the Bishop of Norwich and the
cathedral priory in 1367, by reason of the
appropriation of the parochial church of Corton,
of their patronage, for first fruits, &c. 8 A
notarial instrument at the Bodleian concerning
the appropriation of this church is dated
27 November, 11 Pope Urban VI (1389). 9

The Valor of 1535 gave the clear annual
value of the abbey as j£i8i ijs. \%d. The
temporalities of the manor of Leiston and its
members produced ^124 1 is., and lands and
rents at Cu'.pho, Laxfield, Clavering, and Pet-
taugh added about ^24. The spiritualities from
the four churches of Leiston, Middleton, Aldring-
ham, and Corton, realized a clear income of
^37 os. $d.

In 1350 the advowson or patronage of this
abbey, which had escheated to the crown by
the death of Guy de Ferre without issue, was
granted to Robert de Ufford, earl of Suffolk.
A few years later the new patron became the
munificent refounder of the abbey ; for the first
abbey church and the buildings, which were
placed inconveniently near the sea, becoming too
small, Robert earl of Suffolk, in 1363, erected
new and larger buildings about a mile eastward,
in a better and somewhat higher situation. This

1 Pat. 16 Edw. Ill, pt. ii, m. 4.

! Ibid. 18 Edw. III.pt. ii, m. si.

3 Ibid. 19 Edw. Ill, pt. ii, m. 24.

1 Ibid. 21 Edw. Ill, pt. iii, m. 22.

i Bodl. Chart. SufF. 227. 6 Ibid. 221, 224.

7 Ashm. MS. 804.

1 Bodl. Chart. SufF. 222.

s Ibid. 196 ; see also 223

new abbey was unhappily, ere long, almost de-
stroyed by fire, but was rebuilt on the same site
on a finer scale in 1 308-9. 10

The old abbey near the sea was never quite
abandoned, but treated as a small cell. Legacies
were left to our Lady of the old abbey in I 5 1 1
and 1516, 11 and John Green, the penultimate
abbot, relinquishing his office by choice, was con-
secrated anchorite at the chapel of St. Mary in
the old monastery near the sea. 1J

Richard II, in 1388, granted to the abbey an
ample charter of confirmation, adding the privi-
lege of electing their superior on a vacancy,
without seeking licence of the crown or any
other patron, and that during such vacancy no
one should seize their temporalities or in any
way whatsoever meddle with them. It was
further provided that no abbot of the house
should ever henceforth be compelled to grant
any corrody or pension. 13 At this time the
Uffords had become extinct, and Michael de la
Pole, the new earl of Suffolk, is named in the
patent as the patron of the abbey, which was,
however, at that time a purely nominal and
honorary office.

During the reigns of Edwards II and III the
insisting on the support of royal pensioners by
the abbey had been a severe tax. In 1309,
Simon de St. Giles, a servant of the late king,
was sent to Leiston Abbey to be provided for life
with food and clothing and a suitable chamber.
In 1 3 14 the great burden was laid on this con-
vent of supporting for life Thomas de Varlay
in food, clothing, shoe-leather, and all necessaries,
together with suitable maintenance for two
horses and two grooms. 14 In 1334 William de
Banbury was sent by the crown to receive mainte-
nance ; ls and in 1343 John de Lech, one of the
king's mariners, was sent on a like errand. 16

The houses of the white canons were all
exempt from diocesan visitation, but they were
always rigidly and regularly visited by commis-
saries from the parent house of Pr£montre\
When Bishop Redman held the office of visitor
he proved himself to be a singularly painstaking
and somewhat stern official. His visits to Leis-
ton, according to his register at the Bodleian, were
almost entirely satisfactory.

The abbey was visited by Bishop Redman in
1478, when Richard Dunmow was abbot and
Robert Colvyll prior and cellarer. Fourteen
other canons were present. It was stated that
the five churches appropriated to the abbey were
served by the canons, and that their appoint-
ments were not perpetual. 17

10 Suckling, Hist, of Stiff, ii, 433-4.
" Ibid. 444.

12 Add. MS. 1908 1, fol. 162.

13 Pat. 12 Rich. II, pt. i, m. 19.
M Close, 2 Edw. II, m. 7 d.

15 Ibid, 7 Edw. Ill, pt. ii, m. 12 d.
10 Close, 16 Edw. Ill, pt. ii, m. z^d.
" Ashmole MS. 15 19 (Bodl. Lib.).

118

RELIGIOUS HOUSES

The next visit of the bishop was on 22 August,
1482, when high praise was given to the abbot
for his administration. The debt on the house,
which was jf 140 in 1478, was reduced to £8o,
and there was abundance of grain and other
necessaries. 1

At the visitation of 1488 sixteen canons were
present, exclusive of Abbot Thomas Doget
(Dolcet). The visitor enjoined a day's punish-
ment on Robert Colvyll and three others for
breaking silence, and complained about the ton-
sures ; otherwise he gave the house the highest
praise. 2

The visit paid to the abbey on 30 September,
1 49 1, found everything satisfactory ; there was
a superabundance of all necessaries. 3 The next
visitation was in 1494 ; there were twelve priests
besides the abbot and six novices, and the report
was entirely favourable.' 1

The return for this abbey in 1497, when the
abbot, fifteen priests, a deacon, and sub-deacon
were present at the visitation, pronounced every-
thing to be excellent. 5

The visitation report on 13 October, 1500,
was somewhat longer ; Abbot Thomas Doket
and fourteen other canons were present. The
bishop enjoined that there was to be a little
window to each cell or chamber of the dormi-
tory. No canon, either within or without the
house, was to use hoods with either white or
black tails, 6 but simple cowls. Thomas March,
an apostate, was condemned to twenty days of
penance, but sentence was remitted at the prayer
of the convent. Everything else was excellent. 7

This abbey came within the number of the
smaller houses suppressed by the Act of 1536.
The Suffolk commissioners came here on
21 August, 1536, and drew up a full inventory.
The conventual church was fairly well supplied
with ornaments and vestments. Details are
given of the high altar, and those in the Lady
chapel, St. Margaret's chapel, and the chapel
of the Crucifix. The last three altars were
supplied with alabaster tables, and there was
another small alabaster sculpture on the south
side of the quire door. The censers and candle-
sticks were of latten, but there were three pairs
of chalices (that is chalices and pattens) of silver
gilt. The vestments in the vestry were fairly
numerous, but chiefly old and of small value.
'A lyttell pair of old organs' in the quire was
valued at 10;. The furniture and utensils of
the chambers, cloister, buttery, kitchen, were of
an ordinary character, and of very little value.
The only large items of the inventory were the
cattle of the home-farm ^22 35. \d., and the
corn jTio 8x. 8d. The total of the whole in-
ventory only reached ^42 i6j. 3d'. 8

Ashmole MS. I 5 19 (Bodl. Lib.), 35.
Ibid. 74. 3 Ibid. ' Ibid.

' Liripiis nigris aut albis.'
1 Proc. Stiff. Arch. Inst, viii, 102-4.

5 Ibid.

' Ibid.

George Carleton, the last abbot, received a
pension of ^20, 9 but his fellow canons were
turned out penniless, the Act only providing pen-
sions for the superiors of the suppressed houses.

The abbey and its possessions formed a part of
the vast monastic grants made by the crown to
Charles, duke of Suffolk ; they were granted to
him on 7 April, 1537. 10

Abbots of Leiston

Robert, 11 occurs 11 82, 1 1 90

Philip, 12 occurs 1190, 1235

Gilbert, 13 c. 1 240

Matthew, 14 occurs 1250

Robert, 15 occurs 1253

William, 16 c. 1280

Gregory, 17 occurs 1285

Nicholas, 18 occurs 1293

John de Glenham,' 3 occurs 1308

Alan, 20 occurs 13 10

Robert, 21 occurs 1312

Simon, 22 occurs 13 1 6

Robert, 23 occurs 1326

John, 24 occurs 1344

John, 25 occurs 1390, 1399

Thomas de Huntingfield,** occurs 1403, 14 I 2

Clement Bliburgh, 27 occurs 1437, 1445

John of Sprotling, 28 occurs 1456, 1459

Richard Dunmow, 29 occurs 1475, 1482

Thomas Doget, 30 occurs 1488, 1500

Thomas Waite, 31 occurs 1 504

John Green, 32 occurs 1527

George Carleton, 3 ' 5 last abbot, 1 531

The seal of Abbot Philip, c. 1200, shows the
abbot standing on a corbel, with crozier in right
hand, and book in the left. Legend :

. . .HIXIPPI : ABBATIS : DE : LEESTONA M

The conventual seal, attached to a charter "'
of 1383, also shows an abbot on a corbel, with
a crozier and book. Legend :

+ sic' : abbatis : et : convent : de :

LEESTONA

8 Misc. Bks. (Aug. Off.), ccxxxii, 31.
10 Pat. 28 Hen. VIII, pt. iv, No. 8.
" Cott. MS. Vesp. E. xiv, 10, 39.

12 H.irl. MS. 441, 24 ; Vesp. E. xiv, \ob, 38. &c.

13 Addy, Beauchief, 25.

" Suckling, Hist, of Stiff, ii, 431.

" Cal. Chart. R. I. 426.

16 Bodl. Chart. Suff. 226. '" Add. Chart. 102-4.

18 Add MS. 8171, fol. 8 2 £.

" Pat. 1 Edw. II. " Pre. Reg. No. 3.

" Addy, Beauchief 47. " Close, 10 Edw. I.

■ Pat. 19 Edw. [I. !4 Close, 18 Edw. III.

'• Suckling, Hist, of Suff

" Cal. Pap. Reg. v, 620 ; Add. Chart. I 2651.

" Suckling, Hist, of Suff.

,s Pre. Reg. No. 80. » Ibid. Nos. 496. 500.

'" Ibid. Nos. 501, 507.

31 Suckling, //;'//. of Suff. ii, +02. " Ibid.

33 Ibid. » B.M. Cast, Ixxii, 6.

" Harl. Chart. 54 I, 4.

119

A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK

HOUSE OF KNIGHTS TEMPLARS

32. THE KNIGHTS TEMPLARS OF
DUNWICH

There was a house or preceptory of the
Knights Templars at Dunwich at an early date,
for King John, in the first year of his reign, con-
firmed to them their lands and other liberties at
Richdon in this town. 1 This confirmation was
strengthened by Henry III in 1227. 3

In 1252 the bona Templiariorum de Donewico
were valued at in. a year. In early wills
their house was styled Templum beate Marie et
Jobannis, and it once occurs as Hospitale beate
Marie et S. Johannis vocat Le Tempi!. 3

On the suppression of the order of the Tem-
plars in 13 1 2, their Dunwich property was
transferred to the Knights Hospitallers. In
1 31 3 John de Eggemere, who had been ap-
pointed ad interim keeper of the Templars' manor
of Dunwich, was ordered by the crown to pay
to the Bishop of Norwich the arrears of the
wages assigned to Robert de Spaunton and John
Coffyn, Templars assigned to him to put in cer-
tain monasteries to do penance, to wit \d. a day

for each, and to continue to pay the same. 8
There can be no doubt from this entry on the
close rolls that Spaunton and Coffyn were two
of the Templars who had been attached to
the Dunwich preceptory.

Weever, writing in 1 63 1, describes the church
of this establishment as having been a fine build-
ing, with a vaulted nave and lead-covered aisles.
The church held various indulgences and was a
place of much resort. It stood in Middlegate
Street, and about 55 rods from All Saints'. The
establishment possessed various houses, tenements,
and lands in the town and neighbourhood, and
their manor extended into Middleton and Wes-
tledon. The court of the lordship, called Dun-
wich Temple Court, was held on All Saints'
Day. The church, styled in wills ' the Tem-
ple of Our Lady in Dunwich,' remained in use
until the dissolution of the order of the Hos-
pitallers in 1540, when the revenues of the
Temple manor fell to the crown, and were
granted to Thomas Andrews in 1562, as parcel
of the possessions of the Preceptory of Battis-
ford. 9

HOUSE OF KNIGHTS HOSPITALLERS

33-

THE PRECEPTORY OF BATTIS-
FORD

There was a preceptory or hospital of the
Knights of St. John at Battisford at least as
early as the reign of Henry II, for that king gave
lands at Bergholt to the Hospitallers of Battis-
ford. 4 Henry III, in 1 27 1, granted these
knights a market, a fair, and free warren on
their lands at Battisford. 6 William de Bates-
ford gave them, in 1275, 40 acres of land and 6
of wood ; at the same time they had a grant from
Henry Kede of Battisford of a certain messuage
with the customary service pertaining thereto. 6

Brother John de Accoumbe, preceptor of the
house of the hospital of Battisford, together with
two other brothers who were being sent by the
grand prior to Scotland on business of the order,
in April, 132 1, obtained a safe-conduct for two
years. 7

That remarkable source of information as to
the knights hospitallers in England in the reign
of Edward II, namely the report of Prior Philip

' Chart. R. I John, pt. i, m. 34.

* Ibid. 2 Hen. Ill, pt. i, m. 29.

3 Suckling, Hist. o/Suf. ii, 279.

4 Dugdale, Mon. (1st edition), ii, 552.

6 Chart. R. 56 Hen. Ill, m. 4.

* Hund. R. (Rec. Com.), ii, 193.

7 Pat. 14 Edw. II, pt. ii, m. 16.

de Thame, in 1338, to the Grand Master of the
whole order, is very explicit with regard to the
Suffolk preceptory. 10

The bailiwick or preceptory of Battisford had
two members or ' camerae ' attached to it,
namely those of Coddenham and Mellis. The
total receipts for the year 1338 amounted to
£93 ioj. "]d. Half the church of Battisford
was appropriated to the hospitallers, and was
worth IO marks a year, whilst the rectory of
Badley produced £10 a year.

By far the largest source of income was ' de
Fraria 11 ad voluntatem contribuentium] which
produced that year the large round sum of £50.

There were messuages (houses) with gardens
at both Coddenham and Mellis, in each case
valued at 3;., with arable and other lands and
rents, and in the case of Coddenham a windmill ;
the total receipts of the former were ^Tio 51. Sd.
and of the latter £4. 31. id.

8 Close, 7 Edw. II, m. 15.

» Weever, Funeral Monuments, 719; Gardner, Hist.
of Dunwich, 54.

10 Edited by Mr. Larking for the Camden Society
in 1857. The details as to Battisford occur on
pp. 84—6.

11 The ' Confraria,' ' Fraria,' or « Collecta ' was the
regular annual collection for the needs of the order
made throughout the particular district assigned to a
preceptory (in this case, as in most, a whole county)
by authorized clerks.

120

RELIGIOUS HOUSES

The expenses enable us at once to see that
the chief local charges on the income were those
of maintenance and hospitality. Following the
general rule, it is found that there was (i) a
preceptor or master of the house, Richard de
Bachesworth, who acted as receiver and who
was himself a knight ; (2) a confrater or brother,
William de Conesgrave, also a knight ; (3) a
salaried chaplain at 20;. ; and (4) a corrodian,
one Simon Paviner, who in return for certain
benefactions had board and lodging at the house.
In addition to these there were of the house-
hold a chamberlain, a steward, a cook, a baker,
each receiving 6s. 8d. a year, two youths at 5$.
each, and a page at 3;.

The board for all these, in addition to the hos-
pitality they were bound to extend to visitors,
particularly the poor, caused an expenditure of
£j 4.S. in wheat and oats for bread ; £3 41. for
barley for brewing; and £j 16s. at the rate of
3*. a week, for fish, flesh, and other necessaries
for the kitchen. The robes, mantles, and other
necessaries for preceptor and brother cost
£2 9 s - \d. The three days' visit of the prior of
Clerkenwell, the mother-house of the order in
England, caused an expenditure of 6oj. The
total outlay for the year was £33 35. iorf.,

leaving the handsome balance of £60 Of. lod.
to be handed over to the general treasury.
There were two other small sources of income
for the Hospitallers from this county, in 1338,
which were paid direct to Clerkenwell, namely
10 marks from Dunwich, of which the particu-
lars are given elsewhere, and $s. from Gisling-
ham, being the yearly rent of a life lease of much
waste property in that parish. In both cases
these estates had originally pertained to the
Templars. 8 The value of the property of this
bailiwick deteriorated after the Black Death.
The Valor of 1538 gave its clear income as
£52 1 6 j. zd. 4

After the dissolution of the order, Henry VIII
granted this preceptory in July, 1 543, to Andrew
Judde, alderman of London. 5 In the following
September he obtained licence to alienate it, 6
and on 18 April, 1544, it was granted to Sir
Richard Gresham. 7

Preceptors of Battisford

John de Accoumbe, 8 occurs 1321
Richard de Bachesworth, 9 occurs 1328
Henry Haler, 10 died 1480
Giles Russel, 11 e. 1530

FRIARIES

34. THE DOMINICAN FRIARS OF
DUNWICH

The Dominican priory of Dunwich was
founded about the middle of the thirteenth
century by Sir Roger de Holish. It was situated
in the old parish of St. John, and was but 120
rods distant from the house of the Franciscans. 1
The exact time of their settlement cannot now
be determined, but at all events considerable
progress was being made with substantial build-
ing prior to 1256. On 9 April that year
Henry III gave these friars of Dunwich seven
oaks for timber out of any of the royal forests of
Essex. 2

After the house had been founded, difficulties
arose between the Black Friars of Norwich and
those of Dunwich as to the bounds which the
two houses were to traverse for spiritual and
eleemosynary purposes. Two friars of each
convent were elected to confer. Those chosen
for Dunwich were brothers, Geoffey de Walsing-
ham and William of St. Martin. The four met
at the Austin house of St. Olave, Herringfleet,
on 10 January, 1259, when they chose a fifth
friar to act as arbitrator. The decision was to
the effect that the river which divides Norfolk
from Suffolk was to be the bound between the
two houses, save that two parishes, Rushmere

1 Gardner, Hist, of Dunwich (1754).
* Close, 40 Hen. Ill, m. 12.

2 I

and Mendham, that were in both counties, were
to be assigned in their entirety to Dunwich. 12

When Edward I visited Ipswich in 1227 he
sent lbs. to the Friars Preachers of Dunwich for
two days' food. This house benefited to the
extent of 100s. in 1291, under the will of
Eleanor of Castile. 13

In 1349 a considerable addition was made to
the homestead of these friars; on 12 October
the king licensed John de Wengefeld to assign
5 acres to them for the enlargement of their
site. 14

3 Larking, Knights Hospitallers, 167.

4 Valor Eccl. (Rec. Com.), iii, 403 ; the return is
not quite perfect. Speed gives the value as ^53 \os.

'■' Pat. 35 Hen. VIII, pt. iii, m. 4.

6 Ibid. pt. vi, m. 27. ; Ibid. pt. xv, m. 24.

8 Pat. 14 Edw. II, pt. ii, m. 16.

9 Larking, Knights Hospitallers, 85.

10 Killed at the siege of Rhodes, 1480. Porter,
Knights of Malta, ii, 32 I.

11 Porter, Knights of Malta, ii, 291. Giles Russel.
joint preceptor of Battisford and Dinghley (Northants),
was nominated lieutenant-turcopolier about 1535,
and turcopolier in 1543.

Turcopolier was the title peculiar to the chief
knight of the English language. He was commander
of the turcopoles or light cavalry, and had also the
care of the coast defences of Rhodes and afterwards
of Malta.

11 Palmer, Reliquary, xxvi, 209. " Ibid.

" Pat. 23 Edw. Ill, pt. iii, m. 20.

21 16

A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK

Thomas Hopman, a friar of this house, got
into trouble in 1355 for leaving the realm with-
out licence. It is supposed that he was acting
as an agent at the Roman court on behalf of the
Bishop of Ely in the serious dispute between the
king and that prelate. A writ was issued in
August for his arrest when he returned, and for
his deliverance to the prior of the Friars Preachers
of Dunwich, there to be kept in safe custody.

Licence was obtained in 1384 by Robert de
Swillington, at the supplication of the Friars
Preachers of Dunwich, whose house was im-
perilled by the incursion of the sea, which had
already destroyed the greater part of Dunwich,
to alienate to them land at Blythburgh for build-
ins; thereon a new house ; with licence to the
friars to transfer their house thither, selling their
old site to any who would buy it. 2

This translation to a site four miles distant
never, however, took place ; the friars continued
in their old house.

Here the priory remained till its dissolution.
A letter written to Cromwell in November,
1538, by the ex-prior, who had been promoted
to be suffragan bishop of Dover, informed him that
he had suppressed twenty houses of friars, among
them being 'the Black and Grey in Dunwich.'

He further reported that the lead from the
roofs of these despoiled houses lay near the
water, and was therefore meet to be carried to
London or elsewhere. 3

The possessions of these Black Friars then
consisted of the site of the convent with its
buildings, gardens, and orchard, and of two
adjacent tenements of the yearly value of
£1 35. \d. The site was at once let by the
crown at ioj. a year, and the tenements at
6s. 8d. each. 4

The whole property was granted in 1544-5
to John Eyre, an auditor of the Court of
Augmentation. 5

Amongst the distinguished persons who ob-
tained interment in the church of the Black
Friars, Dunwich, were the founder, Sir Roger de
Holish, Sir Ralph de Ufford and Joan his wife,
Sir Henry Laxfield, Dame Joan de Harmile,
Dame Ada Craven, Dame Joan VVeyland, sister
of the Earl of Suffolk, John Weyland and his
wife Joan, Thomas son of Robert Brews, knt.,
Dame Alice, wife of Sir Walter Hardishall, Sir
Walklyn Hardesfield, Austin Valeyns, Sir Ralph
Wingfield, Richard Bokyll of Leiston and his
two wives, and Sir Henry Harnold, knight and
friar, ' whose bones with the church and edifice
now lie,' as Gardner wrote in 1754, ' under the
insulting waves of the sea.' 6

' Pat. 29 Edvv. Ill, pt. ii, m. 6a.
- Pat. 8 Ric. II, pt. i, m. 9 ; pt. ii, m. 33.
8 L. and P. Hen. fill, xiii, pt. ii, 1021, 1023.
1 Mins. Accts. 30-31 Hen. VIII, 139.
5 Pat. 36 Hen.VIII, m. 38 (12).
fi Weever, Funeral Monuments, 720 ; Gardner, Hist.
of Dumvich, 6 1 .

35. THE DOMINICAN FRIARS OF
IPSWICH

The Dominican friars were established at
Ipswich by Henry III in 1263. For their
accommodation the king purchased a messuage
of Hugh, son of Gerard de Langeston, 7 and two
years later, at the instance of his confessor, John
de Darlington, the king granted them an adjacent
messuage, purchased of the same Hugh, for the
augmentation of their site. 8

Their church and house, dedicated to St. Mary,
soon began to flourish. Robert de Kilwardby,
provincial of their order, who afterwards became
archbishop of Canterbury, took a particular
interest in this foundation ; in 1269 he pur-
chased a further messuage to add to their site. 9

The crown issued a commission in May, 1275,
to John de Lovetot, to inquire whether it would
be to the injury of the king or town to grant
licence to the Friars Preachers of Ipswich to
build an external chamber extending from their
dormitory to the town dyke. 10 Further enlarge-
ment of their homestead was authorized in 1308
and in 1334. n

Pardon was granted to the Friars Preachers of
Ipswich for having acquired without licence
from John Harneys, for the enlargement of their
manse, a void place and a dyke 1 00 ft. square ;
licence was at the same time granted them to
retain the lot without fine, providing the burgesses
and townsmen had full ingress to repair the walls
of the town for defence in time of war, and
whenever necessary. 12

In February, 1348, the bailiffs and commonalty
of Ipswich unanimously granted the Black Friars
a plot of land south of their curtilage, which was
103 ft. in length. For this the friars were to pay
bd. a year rent and to keep up the town wall
opposite the plot, and also the two great gates,
one on the north and the other on the south of
their court ; and through these gates the com-
monalty were to be allowed to pass whenever
any mishap fell on the town, or other necessity
required. 13

By an inquisition of March, 1 350-1, it was
adjudged that Henry de Monescele and two
others might assign three messuages to the
Dominicans for the extension of the site. 14

These various grants gave to the Friars
Preachers a large site in the parish of St. Mary
at Quay, reaching in length from north to
south, from St. Margaret's Church to the church

r Close, 47 Hen. Ill, m. 2.

8 Pat. 50 Hen. Ill, 113.

9 Feet of F. Suff. 53 Hen. Ill, 30.
10 Pat. 3 Edw. I, m. 27^.

" Pat. I Edw. II, ii. m. 24 ; 8 Edw. Ill, pt. i,
m. 19.

" Pat. 20 Edw. Ill, pt. i, m. 3.

13 Add. Chart. 10 130.

M Inq. a.q.d. 24 Edw. Ill, 79 ; Pat. 25 Edw. Ill,
pt. ii, m. 30.

122

RELIGIOUS HOUSES

of St. Mary at Quay (Star Lane), and in width
from east to west, from Foundation Street to
the town wall, parallel with the Lower Wash.

The convent accommodated, in the thirteenth
century, over fifty religious, as can be gathered
from the amount of the food grants made by
royalty. When Edward I was at Ipswich in
April, 1277, he gave the Dominicans an alms of
14.S. lod. for two days' sustenance. In Decem-
ber, 1296, the king gave four marks for the food
of four days, and in the following January one
mark for a single day's food. 1

Father Palmer has set out a large number of
bequests to the Ipswich Dominicans of small
sums of money for masses, from the townsfolk
and others, from 1378 to the very eve of their
suppression. 2

The following burials in this church are
recorded by Weever : — Dame Maud Burell,
Edmund Saxham, esquire, John Fastolph and
Agnes his wife, Gilbert Roulage, Jone Chamber,
and Edmund Charlton, esquire. He also adds
the following, whose names are on the martyr-
ology register of the Black Friars' benefaction : —
The Lord Roger Bigot, earl-marshal, Sir John
Sutton, knight, Lady Margaret Plays, Sir Richard
Plays, and Sir Robert Ufford, earl of Suffolk, who
died in 1 369.'

The name of one fourteenth-century prior of
this house is known. In June, 1397, the master-
general of the order declared that Brother John
de Stanton was the true prior here, and not Brother
William. 4

In 1535-6 Edmund, the prior of the Domini-
cans of Ipswich, leased a garden next one of the
gates of their house to Henry Toley, merchant,
of Ipswich, and Alice his wife. 6

Towards the end of 1537 the prior and
convent leased for ninety years a dwelling-house
and garden to Sir John Willoughby, knt., and
other dwelling-houses, including a building called
' le Fraytof,' to different persons. 6

This action points to a considerable diminution
in the number of the friars, and also to an
expectancy of dissolution.

The suffragan Bishop of Dover (an ex-friar)
suppressed this house, as royal visitor, in Novem-
ber, 1538. 7

On the expulsion of the community, William
Aubyn, one of the king's serjeants-at-arms,
became tenant of the site and buildings, worth
50J. 2d. a year ; and the whole was sold to him
in 1541 for ^24. 8

1 Rot. Gard. de oblat. et eleemos. reg. 5 Edw. I.
25 Edw. I.

'"' Reliquary (new ser.), i, 72-5.

3 Weever, Funeral Monuments, 750—2.

' Reg. Mag. gen. ord., at Rome, cited by Father
Palmer.

" Hist. MSS. Com. Rep. ix, 236. 6 Ibid.

7 L. and P. Hen. fill, xiii, pt. i, 102 1.

' Pat. 33 Hen. VIII, pt. vii, m. 7.

The matrix of the thirteenth-century seal of
this priory is in the Bodleian Library. It bears
a half-length of the Blessed Virgin, with the
Holy Child in her arms, and in an arch below
the figure of a kneeling friar. Legend : —

s' : co'vent : fr'm : predicatorum :
gippeswici 9

36. THE DOMINICAN FRIARS OF
SUDBURY

The Friars Preachers were established at
Sudbury by Baldwin de Shipling and Chabil his
wife, who were afterwards interred in the quire
of the conventual church, which was dedicated
to our Saviour. 1 " They were settled here before
1247, for in that year Henry III gave them six
marks towards their support. 11

Their first site was about 5 acres in extent,
and there is record of its being twice enlarged.
In 1299 Robert de Pettemer, chaplain, was
allowed, after inquisition, to give the friars a strip
of adjacent land, 134 ft. by 40 ft. ; 12 and in
1352 a far more considerable enlargement was
sanctioned, whereby Nigel Theobald (father of
Archbishop Simon) gave them 4^ acres of land,
3 acres of meadow, and 1 acre I rood in
Sudbury, adjoining their original homestead. 13

In August, 1380, Archbishop Simon and his
brother John Chertsey obtained licence for the
alienation to the Friars Preachers of Sudbury of
a piece of land in ' Babyngdonhall ' 20 ft.
square containing a spring, and for the making
by the latter of an aqueduct thence to their
house. 14 The archbishop and his brother paid
a half mark for this permission, and made the
grant ; but so much opposition was offered by
landowners to the making of the conduit that it
was delayed for nearly five years. At length the
friars obtained from the king royal protection for
themselves, their servants, and labourers engaged
in this work, and all sheriffs, mayors, bailiffs, &c,
were charged to defend the friars and prevent
any molestation or violence in the matter. 15

The records of the royal alms bestowed on
this house are scanty as compared with many
friaries. Edward I in 1299 gave the friars of
Sudbury three days' food ; the executors of
Queen Eleanor in 129 1 gave 100*., and
Edward I in 1296, when at Waddington, near
this town, gave 30«. to the thirty black friars of
Sudbury for three days' food. 16

' Engraved in Wodderspoon, Ipstiich, opp. 305.

"' Weever, Funeral Monuments, 743.

11 Lib. R. 32 Hen. Ill.m. 10.

" Inq. p.m. 27 Edw. I, No. 87 ; Pat. 27 Edw. I,
m. 14.

13 Inq. p.m. 26 Edw. Ill, 2 J. 406, No. 32 ; Pat.
26 Edw. I, pt. ii, m. 3.

" Pat. 4 Rio II, pt. i, m. 27.

,s Ibid. 8 Ric. II, pt. ii, m. 28.

16 Reliquary, xxiv, 82.

[23

A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK

Father Palmer collected a large number of
small bequests made to these friars by will,
between 1355 and 1506. 1

The provincial chapter of the Dominicans was
held at Sudbury in 1 3 1 6. The king gave £1$ for
the food of the friars on this occasion, being ^5
for himself and ^5 for his queen, and £5 for his
son Edward. On 24 August the ' de orando pro
rege et regina,' &c, was issued to the assembly.
The province met here again in 1368, when
Edward III made a like donation.*

This priory was suppressed some time before
October, 1539, for in that month Thomas Eden,
clerk of the king's council, and Griselda his wife
obtained a grant of the site and appurtenances in
as full manner as John Cotton, the last prior,
held the same. 3

Weever has a long list of distinguished burials
in this church, which includes, in addition to the
founders, many members of the families of
GifFord, Cressenon, Walgrave, and St. Quintyn. 4

The most noteworthy member of this com-
munity was John Hodgkin, who took a
prominent part in the Reformation movement
immediately preceding the dispersion of the
friars. He was a D.D. of Cambridge and taught
theology in the convent of Sudbury. In 1527
he was appointed provincial by the English
Dominicans. In February, 1529-30, Godfrey
Jullys, prior of Sudbury, and the brethren granted
him the use of a house to the west of their
church, with garden and stabling, at a yearly
rental of I 5*., so long as he was provincial. On
the establishment of the royal supremacy in
1534 Hodgkin was regarded with some sus-
picion, and court influence procured his deposi-
tion and the appointment of John Hilsey as
provincial in his place. Hodgkin endeavoured
to get reinstated, and he wrote a sycophantic
and meanly submissive letter to Cromwell,
declaring that he would be ' ever ready to do in
the most lowly manner such service as he shall
be commanded.' Towards the end of 1536 he
was restored to the office of provincial ; and the
priory of Sudbury, ' considering the help and
comfort they had by the presence of Master
Doctor Hodgkin provincial,' renewed the lease
of his lodging at the reduced rental of 1 3;. i^d.
On 3 December, 1537, he was appointed by
the king one of the suffragan bishops, and was
consecrated at St. Paul's on 9 December under
the title of bishop of Bedford. On the suppres-
sion of the friary of Sudbury, Hodgkin had his
lease registered in the Court of Augmentation,
and continued to reside there till February,
1 54 1. At that date he obtained the vicarage of
Walden, Essex, and afterwards other preferment.
He did active work as suffragan and married in
the reign of Edward VI. When Mary came

1 Reliquary, xxiv, 82-4. * Ibid. 84.

* Pat. 31 Hen. VIII, pt. iv, m. 38.

' Weever, Funeral Monuments, 743, 778.

to the throne he was deprived of his preferments,
but repudiating his wife and expressing penitence
obtained a dispensation and preferment from
Cardinal Pole. On the accession of Elizabeth
Hodgkin was quite ready to conform yet again,
and took part in several consecrations of bishops.
He died in 1560. 6

37. THE FRANCISCAN FRIARS OF
BURY ST. EDMUNDS

In the year 1238 both the Dominicans and
the Franciscan friars endeavoured to establish
themselves at Bury ; but the legate Otho was
then at the great monastery, and being dis-
couraged by him the Dominicans desisted from
their attempts. 6

The Franciscans, however, persisted in their
efforts, and at last they obtained a bull in their
favour from Alexander IV. Relying on this,
they entered Bury on 22 June, 1257, and hastily
established themselves in a farm at the north end
of the town. The officials of the abbey remon-
strated with them, but in vain, and at last the
monks, in spite of the papal bull, expelled them
with ignominy, though without personal violence.
The friars appealed to Rome, and the pope wrote
severely to the convent, enjoining the primate
and the dean of Lincoln to induct them into
another homestead which had been granted them
on the west side of the town. Accordingly the
treasurer of Hereford cathedral, as the commis-
sary of the archbishop, and the dean of Lincoln
in person arrived at Bury, gave their judgement
in the parish church of St. Mary, and invested
the friars in their new premises. The monks,
however, in their indignation, drove out both
friars and delegates from the town.

The next step of the Franciscans was to lay
their grievance at the foot of the throne, when
Henry III, specially urged by his queen, espoused
the side of the mendicants, and caused the friars,
backed by the civil power, to be established on
the western site in April, 1258. Here they
rapidly raised buildings and remained for between
five and six years. After the death of Alexan-
der IV, the monks laid their case before his
successor, Urban IV, with the result that the new
pope ordered the friars to pull down their build-
ings and abandon the ground. The friars obeyed,
and reconciliation was effected between them
and the monks on 19 November, 1262. On
leaving the town itself the monks granted the
friars a site beyond the north gate, just outside
the town jurisdiction, called Babwell, and here
they continued till the dissolution.

There was some delay on the part of the friars
in carrying out their promise, but they finally
quitted the town in November, 1263. Their

5 jirch. Journ. xxxv, 162-5.

6 Arnold, Memorials (Rolls Ser.), ii, 30.

124

RELIGIOUS HOUSES

minister or warden was at that time Peter de
Brigstowe, and the names of five other friars are
set forth. 1

In 1300, when the king was at Bury, he
granted 441. for putura or dietary payment for
the convent of the Franciscans for three days.
A day's food for a friar was always reckoned in
these gifts at \d., so that there must have been
about forty in the household. 2

During the riots of 1327, at the time when
the town had got the upper hand and the prior
of St. Edmunds and his brethren were locked up
in the Guildhall, six of the senior friars sought
leave to re-establish themselves in the town.
The whole convent of the Franciscans, together
with the town chaplains, made at this time
solemn procession through Bury, a thing which
they had never done before, as though to en-
courage the populace in their violence against
the monks. Moreover, according to the monkish
historian, the friars subsequently helped the ring-
leaders to escape. 3

In February, 1328, the warden and Friars
Minor of Babwell obtained the royal protection
for two years, and this was changed in the follow-
ing April to protection. ' during pleasure.' 4

There was apparently peace between the
monks and friars at the beginning of the fifteenth
century, for in 14 12, when the general chapter
of the Grey Friars was held at Bury, the great
abbey made a donation of ^10 towards their
expenses. 5

The popularity of the Babwell friars is proved
by the frequency of bequests to them. 6

Robert, bishop of Emly, by his will of 1411,
left his body to be buried in the church of the
Friars Minor of Babwell ; he also left to that con-
vent six silver spoons, a silver cup, and his lesser
maser. 7 Among other burials in this church,
Weever mentions Sir Walter Trumpington and
Dame Anne his wife, Nicholas Drury and Jane
his wife, and Margaret Peyton. 8

John Hilsey, the ex-Dominican friar, Crom-
well's agent, who was then bishop of Rochester,
wrote to his master on 27 September, 1538,
saying he had been at Babwell talking with the
warden ; he had been reported for some treason-
able utterances, but expressed his sorrow, and
said he was ready to surrender if the king or
Cromwell wished it. Hilsey offered to take the
surrender on his return from Lynn. There was
a bed-ridden friar at Babwell, and he should be
used as Cromwell commanded. 9

1 Reg. Werkcton (Harl. MS. 638), passim. Cited
and annotated in Arnold, Memorials, ii, 263-85.
1 Lib. Gard. R. 28 Edw. I, 46.
s Arnold, Memorials, ii, 335, 349, 352 ; iii, 294.

4 Pat. 2 Edw. Ill, pt. i, m. 29.

5 Reg. Croftis (Harl. MS. 27), fol. 109.

6 Tymms, Bury Wills, 2, 5, 6, 35, 50, 5;, 73, 79,
80,83,92,94,95,115,117. ' Ibid. 2.

8 Weever, Funeral Monuments, 760.

9 L. and P. Hen. VIII, xiii, pt. ii, 437.

The actual surrender was, however, made in
the following December to another ex-Dominican
and special tool of Cromwell in dealing with the
friars, Richard Ingworth, suffragan bishop of
Dover. 10

The house of the Grey Friars, Babwell, with
its appurtenances, was granted in May, 1541, to
Anthony Harvey, at a rental of ioj. 11

Wardens of the Franciscan Friars of
Bury St. Edmunds

Peter de Brigstowe, 1263
Adam Ewell, 12 141 8

38. THE FRANCISCAN FRIARS OF
DUNWICH

According to Weever, quoting from the
' painfull collections of William le Neve,' the
house of the Grey Friars of Dunwich was
founded 'first by Richard Fitzjohn and Alice
his wife, and after by King Henry the third.' 13

Its original site was changed and moved
further inland (where the ruins and precinct
walls still remain) by gift of the burgesses of the
town in 1289. An inquisition ad quod damnum
of that year returned that it would not be in-
jurious to the king to allow the corporation of
Dunwich to grant these friars a plot of land for
their convent, containing about seven acres of
ground, situated between the king's highway on
the west and the house of Richard Kilbeck on
the north. 14 Accordingly a grant was made in
mortmain by the king in August, 1290, to the
Friars Minor of Dunwich of the king's dyke
adjoining a plot given to them by the com-
monalty of the town to build upon and inhabit,
with licence to enclose the same. 15

Licence was granted to the Friars Minor of
Dunwich in 1328 to enclose and hold the vacant
plot there which they used to inhabit, and which
was taken into the king's hands when they re-
moved to another place in the town, because it
would be indecent that a plot of land dedicated
for some time to divine worship, and where
Christian bodies were buried, should be con-
verted to secular uses. 16

Further precautions were taken for the pre-
serving of the old site in the year 141 5. 17

The conventual church seems to have been
under repair or re-construction shortly before its
dissolution, for Katharine Read, by will of
16 June, 1 5 14, left 3*. \d. to Friar Nicholas

10 Ibid. 1 02 1. " Tymms, Bury trills, 5.

u Reliquary, xxiv, 85.

13 Weever, Funeral Monuments, 721.
" Inq. p. m. 18 Edw. I, 92.

14 Pat. 18 Edw. I, m. 11.

16 Ibid. 2 Edw. Ill, pt. ii, m. 19.
" Ibid. 16 Hen. IV, pt. i, m. 33.

125

A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK

Wicet, or to those that shall rebuild the church
of the Friars Minor. 1

The only record of the suppression of these
friars is the communication made to Cromwell
in 1538 by the suffragan Bishop of Dover, which
has already been cited under the Black Friars.

Within their church were interred the bodies
of Sir Robert Valence, Dame Ida of Ilicetshall,
Sir Peter Mellis and Dame Anne his wife, Dame
Dunne his mother, John Francans and Margaret
his wife, Dame Bertha of Furnival . . . Austin
of Cales and Joan his wife, John Falleys and
Beatrice his wife, Augustine his son, Sir Hubert
Dernford, Katharine wife of William Phellip,
Margaret wife of Richard Phellip, Peter Codum,
and the heart of Dame Hawise-Ponyngs. 2

The site of this convent was granted in 1545
to John Eyre, of the Augmentation Office, who
was so large a holder of monastic lands in the
eastern counties. 3

Wardens 4 of the Franciscan Friars of
Dunwich

John Lacey (predecessor of Bokenham)

Nicholas Bokenham, 1482

George Muse, 1505

The pointed oval fifteenth-century seal of this
convent bears St. John Baptist under a canopied
arch, with nimbus, clothed in a camel skin, its
head hanging at his feet ; holding in the left
hand the Agnus Dei on a plaque, and pointing
to it with the right hand. By the side of the
Baptist is a kneeling friar, with scroll, s. : joh :
ora : p' : me : Legend : —

sigillu : gardiani : fratrum : minor :
donewycy 6

Gardner gives a reproduction of another re-
markable seal of this friary, representing a ship
with large mainsail ; at the bow is seated a
crowned king, and at the stern a mitred bishop
with crozier in left hand. Legend : —

sigillu' : fr'm : minor : donewic 6

39. THE GREY FRIARS OF IPSWICH

On the west side of Ipswich, in the parish of
St. Nicholas, a convent of Franciscan or Grey
Friars was founded early in the reign of
Edward I. The founders were Sir Robert
Tiptot, of Nettlestead, and Una his wife ; Sir
Robert died in 1298. 7

1 Gardner, Hist, of Dunwich, 61.
' Weever, Funeral Monuments, 721.
* Dep. Keeper's Rep. ix, App. ii, 207.

4 Gardner, Hist, of Dunwich, 61.

5 B. M. Cast, lxxi, 106. There is a lithograph of
this seal in Suckling, Hist. ofSuff. ii, opp. 292.

6 Gardner, Hist, of Dunwich, pi. opp. 43.

7 Dugdale, Baronage, ii, 39 ; Weever, Funeral Monu-
ments, 751.

There are but few record entries relative to
this house. In September, 1328, Edward III
granted protection, during pleasure, to the
warden and Friars Minor of Ipswich," and this
protection was renewed in February, 1 33 1. 9

In January, 1332, licence was granted, after
inquisition, to these friars to accept the alienation
to them by Nicholas Frunceyes, knight, of a
messuage and toft for the enlargement of their
dwelling-house. At the same time they received
a pardon for having acquired without due licence
a toft from Geoffrey Poper, and land 50 perches
in length and 7 ft. in breadth from Sir William
de Cleydon, knight. 10

On 1 April, 1538, Lord Wentworth, of
Nettlestead, wrote to Cromwell as to this friary,
stating that the warden and brethren lived there
in great necessity, for the inhabitants were
extending their charity to the poor and impotent
instead of to ' such an idle nest of drones.' He
complained that they were selling the jewels of
their house, and as he was ' their founder in
blood ' he sent for the warden, who stated that they
had been compelled to sell something, for during
a twelvemonth they had only gathered ^5, anil
could not continue in that house three months
longer. There were no lands, only the bare
site, with a garden or two enclosed. Lord
Wentworth, hereditary patron of this friary,
called to mind (for Cromwell's edification) how
this order was 'neither stock nor griffe which the
Heavenly Father had planted, but only a hypo-
critical weed planted by that sturdy Nembrot, the
Bishop of Rome,' and begged for the grant of
the house. 11

As a consequence of this letter, Ingworth,
the special visitor of the king for the friaries,
attended at the Grey Friars, Ipswich, on 7 April,
and drew up an inventory of their goods. In
the quire were five candlesticks, two hanging
lamps, a holy-water stoop, with latten sprinkler,
twenty books good and ill, and a wooden
lectern ; in the vestry were various old vest-
ments and other matters of little value ; whilst
the other contents of the house were all common-
place and mostly old. Bishop Ingworth removed
all of this stuff to the house of the Black Friars,
locking it up in ' a close house.' The visitor
tracked out the plate which had been sold or
pledged. He recovered from Archdeacon
Thomas Sillesdon a censer, two chalices, a cross
with a crystal in it, twelve spoons, &c, and
various vestments which he had craftily pur-
chased, as well as plate from Lord Wentworth
which had been pledged to him. The total
plate recovered amounted to 259! ounces.

The visitor left behind him certain utensils
for the use of the friars still remaining there,

8 Pat. 2 Edw. Ill, pt. ii, m. 21.

9 Ibid. 5 Edw. III,pt. i, m. 31.
"'Ibid. 6 Edw.III.pt. i, m. 25, 26.

11 L. and P. Hen. Fill, xiii, pt. i, 651.

126

v«

WooDBRIDGE PRIORY

Camfsey Priory

Philip, Abbot t Leiston, 1190-1255

As,

/'JSA '

. —

»y>

Leiston Aoblv

Fkancucan Friars Of DimwicH

Suffolk Monastic Seals, Plati III

RELIGIOUS HOUSES

' till my lord privy seal's pleasure be further
known.' '

Among the corporation records of Ipswich are
two wills of interest with regard to this friary.
Robert of Fornham, who died in 13 19, left the
tenement that he had purchased of Claricia Strike,
and the tenement he had purchased of Leman
Le Bakestere to the Grey Friars ; but John
Strike and Geoffrey the cook, on coming before
the bailiffs and coroner of the court of Ipswich
as executors of Robert of Fornham, could only
produce an unsigned and unwitnessed will.

Probate, however, was granted on the testimony
of two of the Grey Friars (although their house
was to benefit), who ' on the peril of their souls '
certified that the deceased had made this will
when of sound mind. 2

Weever mentions the following distinguished
persons who sought and obtained burial in the
conventual church of the Grey Friars.

Sir Robert Tiptot and Una his wife, the
founders ; the heart of Sir Robert Vere the
elder ; Margaret, countess of Oxford, wife of
Sir Robert Vere, the younger ; Dame Elizabeth,
wife of Sir Thomas Uffbrd, and daughter of the
Earl of Warwick ; Sir Thomas Tiptot, the
younger ; Margaret, wife of Sir John Tiptot ;
Robert Tiptot, esquire ; Elizabeth Uffbrd ;
Elizabeth Lady Spenser, wife of Sir Philip
Spenser and daughter of Robert Tiptot, with
Philip, George, and Elizabeth their children ;
Joan, daughter of Sir Hugh Spenser ; Sir Robert
Warlesham and Joan his wife ; John son of
William Cleydon ; Sir Thomas Hardell, knight ;
Elizabeth, wife of Sir Walter Clopton, of
Hadley ; Sir William Lancham ; Sir Hugh
Peach and Sir John Lovelock, knights ; the
heart of Dame Petronilla Uffbrd ; Dame Beatrice
Botiler ; Dame Aveline Quatefeld ; Dame
Margery, aunt of Sir Thomas Uffbrd ; and
Dame Alice, widow of Sir John Holbrook. 3

To these may be added Sir Robert Curson,
at whose great house in Ipswich Henry VIII
had visited in 1522; the hearse-cloth over the
hearse above his tomb is named in the 1536
inventory.

40. THE AUSTIN FRIARS OF CLARE

Richard de Clare, earl of Gloucester, was the
first to introduce the Friars Heremites of St. Aus-
tin to this country, and it is generally assumed
that the first establishment of the Austin Friars
was at Clare, and that they were brought here in
the year 1 248.*

1 L. and P. Hen. Fill, xiii, pt. i, 699 ; xiii (2), App.
16. The whole inventory is set forth at length in
Wodderspoon, Mem. of Ipswich, 315-19.

3 Hist. MSS. Com. Rep. ix, 225.

3 Weever, Funeral Monuments, 751.

* Their next house was founded at Woodhousc,
Salop, in 1250, and their third at Oxford, in 1252.

The Austin Friars, like the rest of the
mendicant orders, were not permitted by their
rules to hold other property save the site of their
house ; but in this instance the rule was inter-
preted in a somewhat liberal sense. Houses of
friars, owing to their freedom from the cares of
property, appear to have seldom possessed any-
thing of the nature of a chartulary ; but in the
case of Clare there is a fairly long chartulary
extant, containing transcripts of nearly two
hundred separate deeds. 6 The high position of
the founder and his posterity, coupled with the
fact that Clare was the parent house of the
order in England, placed this friary in a some-
what exceptional position, particularly as Clare
was a favourite residence for royalty in the
thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. The
majority of the numerous grants in the chartu-
lary were for quite small plots of meadow land,
or of adjoining small lots of buildings, which
were added to the site for enlargement, and
would have been lawful for any friary. Other
charters are mere evidences of the title to small
properties on the part of benefactors. Others
again are the recital of indulgences and various
privileges, or the record of particular events.
But a few of them are undoubtedly in direct
antagonism to the usual mendicant rule, and
involve grants that would not have been accepted
save by the consent of the provincial and of the
general chapter of the province. Thus in 1349,
John, prior of this house, accepted the gift of the
manor house of Bourehall from Michael de
Bures. 6

The most noteworthy record of abnormal
gifts is the first entry of the chartulary, headed
Carta mortijicationis, which recites the licence of
Edward III, in 1364, for the alienation in mort-
main, to the prior and brothers of the Austin
House at Clare, of Ashen and Belchamp St. Paul,
for their benefit and for the enlargement of their
manse. 7

Many of the small grants of adjoining property
were from Maud, countess of Gloucester and
Hereford, for the repose of the soul of the
founder, her husband, who died in 1262.

In 1278 William bishop of Norwich granted
a licence for any bishop of the Catholic Church
to consecrate the cemetery round the friars'
church. 8 In the following year Anianus, bishop
of Bangor, when on a visit to Clare, granted a
forty days' indulgence from enjoined penance to
penitents contributing to the enclosure of the
cemetery, or the construction and repair of the

5 Had. MS. 4835. It is a quarto of paper in a
15th-century hand, entitled ' Registrum Chartarum
Monasterii Heremitarurn S. Augustini de Clare.'
Among the Jermyn MSS. (Add. MS. 8188, fol. 55-
84), is a full transcript of this chartulary. The
subsequent references to these charters give their
numbers in the transcript.

6 Chartul. No. 102. 7 Ibid. No. I.
8 Ibid. No. 166.

127

A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK

buildings of the priory. In the same year
William archbishop of Edessa granted a like
indulgence. 1 The bishop of Bangor also granted
an indulgence, at the same time, for all who
should say an Our Father and a Hail Mary there
for the repose of the soul of Richard de Christes-
hale, whose body was buried in the friary
church. 2

On 10 May, 1305, died Joan of Acre, and
was buried in the conventual church of the friars
of Ckre, in the presence of Edward II and most
of the nobility of England. Joan was the
second daughter of Edward I and Queen
Eleanor, and took her name from the eastern
town where she was born in the first year of her
father's reign, when he was fighting the Saracens.
She was married at the age of eighteen to
Gilbert, earl of Clare and Gloucester, grandson
of the founder of the priory, to which she was a
benefactor, building the chapel of St. Vincent as
an adjunct to the conventual church. She out-
lived the earl, and took for her second husband,
Ralph Mortimer. Her daughter Elizabeth, by
her first husband, who became the wife of
Sir John de Burgh, built a new chapter-house,
dormitory, and refectory for the friars, about
1310-14. Ralph, bishop of London, in 1307,
granted a forty days' indulgence to all penitents
saying here an Our Father and a Hail Mary for
the soul of Joan of Acre. 3 Thomas, bishop of
Worcester, when at Clare in the first year of his
consecration (13 1 8), granted a like indulgence; 4
and so also did Stephen bishop of London in
13 1 9, 6 Benedict, bishop of 'Cardie,' in 1338, 6
and John, bishop of Llandaff, in 1 347.'

In 1324 Bishop Rowland, formerly arch-
bishop of Ordmoc, granted an indulgence to all
penitents contributing to the fabric and orna-
ments of the church. 8 Benedict, bishop of
Cardie and suffragan and commissary for the
Bishop of Norwich, granted in 1338, forty days'
indulgence to penitents visiting this church and
contributing to the fabric fund on the solemn
dedication day. 9 The same bishop in 1340
granted a like indulgence to those saying an
Our Father or a Hail Mary for the soul
of Brother John of St. Edmunds, D.D., of
good memory, whose body was buried in this
church. 10

Prior Robert of this house, on 3 August,
1 36 1, formally assigned in the chapter-house to
Brother John Bachelor, for use at the altar in

1 Chartul. Nos. 1 71-2. ' Ibid. No. 170.

3 Ibid. No. 160. 4 Ibid. No. 159.

'Ibid. No. 173.

6 Ibid. No. 162. Benedict Cardicensis (Sardis),
prior of the Austin Friars of Norwich, was suffragan
of Norwich from 1333 to 1346.

' Ibid. No. 163.

8 Ibid. No. 169.

9 Ibid. No. 164.

10 Ibid. No. 165.

the newly-built chapel of the Annunciation, a
great missal, a silver chalice weighing twenty-
seven shillings with a silver spoon weighing six
pennies, a green velvet chasuble and set of vest-
ments with gold orphreys and apparels, various
cushions, a green carpet four ells long, two neck-
laces set with precious stones and a silver necklace,
nine gold rings, a small chest containing four
silk veils, &c. u

Edward Mortimer, son of Joan of Acre by
her second husband, was buried in this church
by the side of his mother. Further celebrity
was given to the friars' church by the burial,
before the high altar, after long delay, of the
body of Lionel, duke of Clarence and earl of
Ulster, son of Edward III. He died at Alba
Pompeia, Piedmont, in 1368, and was first buried
at Pavia. Eventually the body was exhumed
and re-interred in this chancel. The sum of
ten marks was paid to the prior and brethren, in
the chapter-house, on 12 September, 1377, for
their share in the funeral expenses. 12

In 1373, a dispute that had arisen between
the Austin Friars of Clare and of Orford, as to
the seeking alms in the Isle of Mersea and other
places, was settled at the provincial chapter held
in August at Newcastle-on-Tyne ; the upper
gate of Colchester was to be a bound between
the two houses. 13 A similar difference between
the Austin Friars of Clare and Thetford was
settled in 1388, when a list of the parishes
where they might severally visit and seek for
alms was drawn up. 14

On St. Agatha's Day (5 February), 1380,
William, bishop of Pismon, suffragan of the
bishop of Norwich, dedicated the new ceme-
tery without the walls of the church, extending
from the west gate to the footbridge to the
castle, together with the re-built cloister and
chapter-house. 15 William, bishop of Norwich
in 1 38 1, granted twenty days' indulgence from
enjoined penance to those contributing to the
fabric. 16

Robert, bishop of London, in a communica-
tion to the prior of the Austins of Clare, with-
drew the excommunication of Sir Thomas
Mortimer, knt., who with his assistants had
dragged out from the friary church one John de
Quinton, who had escaped there for a certain
theft, thus violating sanctuary ; provided that
Sir Thomas, on the first Sunday in Lent, after
evensong, came to the church bareheaded and
barefooted, carrying a taper, and presented both
the taper and a silk cloth valued at ^3, at the
altar. 17

Weever printed in 1 63 1 a curious rhymed
descent of the lords of Clare, in both Latin and
English, from a roll which was then in the

" Ibid. No. 165.
13 Ibid. No. 138.
15 Ibid. No. 158.
" Ibid. No. 161.

'- Ibid. No. I 20.
" Ibid. Nos. 176, 177.
174.

16 Ibid. No.

128

RELIGIOUS HOUSES

possession of his friend the Windsor herald. 1 A
drawing at the head of the roll shows a table
tomb, on the one side an Austin friar and on the
other a civilian, engaged in conversation. The
heading to this rhymed descent is : —

This Dialogue betwix a Secular as asking, and a
Frere answerying at the grave of Dame Johan of
Acres shewith a lyneal descent of the lordis of the
honoure of Clare, fro the tyme of the fundation of
the Freeris in the same honoure, the yere of our
Lord MCCXLVIII unto the first day of May the
year MCCCLVI.

A MS. of Robert Aske's, temp. Henry VIII,
gives :

The names of the nobles buried in the Frere
Augustyn's of Clare. Sir Richard Erie of Clare ;
Lionell Duke of Clarence ; Dame Joan of Acres ; Sir
Edmond Montbermer, son of the said Joane ; John
Weyburgh ; Dame Alice Spencer ; Willm. Goldryche ;
Sir John Beauchamp, knight ; John Newbury,
esquire ; Willm. Capel and Elianor his wyfe ; Kempe,
esquire ; Robert Butterwyke, Esquire ; the Lady
Margarete Scrope, daughter of Westmoreland ; Joan
Candy ssle, daughter of Clofton ; Dame Alianor
Wynkeferry, Sir Edmund, last of the Mortimers,
Erie of Marche, Sir Thomas Gily and his furste
wyfe ; Lucy, wife of Walter Clofton ; Sir Thomas
Clofton and Ada his wyfe. 3

There is but little information with respect to
these friars during the fifteenth century. The
details as to their suppression in 1538 were in
the hands of Richard Ingworth, then suffragan
bishop of Dover. Writing to Cromwell on
29 November of that year, Ingworth said that
he had received at Clare the Lord Privy Seal's
letter instructing him to deliver that house and
its ' implements ' to Richard Frende, which had
been done. The implements did not suffice to
pay the debts and at the same time save the lead
and plate for the king. The jewels were pledged
for ;£33 2s. 6d. and he had redeemed them for
the king with other money. He had left the
house and its contents in Frende's custody under
indenture. The lands besides the orchards
were thirty-eight acres, only worth at clear
annual value 48*. iohd. There were fifteen or
sixteen fother of lead (on the church), and the
house, which was tiled, was in much decay. 3

In August, 1539, Richard Frende obtained
grant in fee from the crown of the site, soil,
circuit, and precinct of the late priory of Austin
Friars of Clare, which lay in the parishes of
Clare, Ashen, and Belchamp St. Pauls (of the
annual value of ^3), to hold at a rent of 2d. a
year, in as full a manner as John Halybud, the
late prior, and the brethren thereof held the same. 4

1 Weevcr, Funeral Monuments, 734-42. This roll has
been accurately reproduced, with the drawing and the
arms, in the large edition of Dugdale's Mon. vi,
1600-1602.

' Proc. Suff. Arch. Inst, vi, 80-1.

' L. and P. Hen. Fill, xiii, pt. ii, 935.

4 Pat. 31 Hen. VIII, pt. vii, m. 24.

2 I29

Priors of the Austin Friars of Clare

Adam de la Hyde, occurs 1299 5
John, occurs 1349 6
Robert, occurs 136 1, &c. 7
John Halybud, occurs 1538 8

41.

THE AUSTIN FRIARS OF
GORLESTON

This friary was founded towards the end of
the reign of Edward I, by William Woderove,
and Margaret his wife. 9 On 28 June, 131 1,
Roger Woderove, son of the founder, obtained
licence to grant to the prior and Augustine Friars
of Little Yarmouth a plot of land adjacent to
their dwelling, 10 and in 1338 a further enlarge-
ment of their house was made on a plot of land
240 ft. by 70 ft., the gift of William Man, of
Blundeston. 11

In the large and handsome church many dis-
tinguished persons were buried. Weever names
the founder and his wife ; Richard earl of Clare ;
Roger FitzOsbert and Katharine his wife ; Sir
Henry Bacon, 1335, and many of his family;
Joan countess of Gloucester ; Dame Alice
Lunston 1341 ; Dame Eleanor, wife of Sir
Thomas Gerbrigge, 1353 ; Dame Joan Caxton
1364; William de Ufford, earl of Suffolk, 1382 ;
Michael de la Pole, earl of Suffolk ; Sir Thomas
Hengrove ; Dame Sibyl Mortimer, 1385; Sir
John Laune, and Mary his wife ; Alexander
Falstolfe ; William March, esq., 141 2, and
John Pulman, 1481. 12

Lambarde, writing of this house, which he
mistakenly terms an abbey, says : ' Here was of
late years a librarie of most rare and precious
workes, gathered together by the Industrie of
one John Brome, a monk of the same house,
which died in the reign of King Henry the
Sixte.' 13 John Brome was prior of the house
and died in 1449. His collection of books was
famous and said to include several of which
there were no other copies in England ; he was
himself the author of chronicles and sermons. 14

The historian of Yarmouth says that these
Austin Friars had a cell across the water in
Yarmouth proper, the remains of which are to
be seen in Howards Street ; the adjoining row
is still called Austin Row ; though popularly
corrupted into Ostend Row. 15

s Chartul. No. 122.

6 Ibid. No. 102.

: Ibid. Nos. 116, 1 39, 140.

8 Pat. 31 Hen. VIII, pt. vii, m. 24.

9 Weever, Funeral Monuments, 863.

10 Pat. 4 Edw. II, pt. ii, m. 3.

11 Ibid. 12 Edw. Ill, pt. iii, m. 15.
" Weever, Funeral Monuments, S63.
11 Lambarde, Topog. Did. (1730), 136.

14 Stevens, Contin. of Mon. ii, I 76.

15 Palmer, Hist, of Yarmouth, i, 428

A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK

The house was suppressed, with the other
Yarmouth friaries, by Richard Ingworth to-
wards the end of 1538, 1 and the site was
ganted in 1544 to John Eyre, rightly styled by
Weever 'a great dealer in that kind of property.'

42. THE AUSTIN FRIARS OF
ORFORD

A priory of Austin Friars was founded at
Orford in the reign of Edward I. Robert de
Hewell, in 1295, gave them a plot of ground in
Orford, sixteen perches square, whereon to
build. 2

The Austin Friars of Orford obtained pardon
in 1 3 14 for having acquired, without licence, a
small plot of land from John Engaye for the
enlargement of their site. 3

They had licence in the following year to
add another small plot, 30 ft. long by 3 ft.
broad, to their area.' 1

A further plot of land, to enlarge their dwelling,
was granted to these friars in 1337, by Walter
de Hewell of Orford. 6

Helen Holder, of Orford, bequeathed, in
1526, to the Friars Austin of Orford 10s. to
sing a ' trentall of Massis for my soule, the
mony to be parted among them that be priests.' 6

43. THE CARMELITE FRIARS OF
IPSWICH

The Carmelite or White Friars seem to have
been established at Ipswich in 1278, for their
settlement here was contemporary with that at
Winchester, which took place at that date. In
that year a provincial chapter of the Carmelites
was held at Norwich, and there seems good reason
to believe that the founding of a house in the
second great town of East Anglia was determined
at that chapter, and the members of the new
community chosen from those of Norwich. 7

They were established on land that eventually
extended from St. Stephen's Lane to Queen
Street on the south side of the Butter Market.
The first record of the extension of the site
occurs in 1297, when licence was granted for
the Carmelite friars of Ipswich to enclose a lane
called 'Erodesland,' 26 perches long and 8 ft.
broad, for the enlargement of their dwelling-
place. 8

Pardon was granted to the Carmelites of
Ipswich in December, 1344, for having acquired

1 L. and P. Hen. Vlll, xiii, pt. ii, 1021.
' Inq. a. q. d. 23 Edw. I, No. I 20.
3 Pat. 7 Edw. II, pt. ii, m. 24.
' Ibid. 9 Edw. II, pt. i, m. 30.
s Ibid. 1 1 Edw. Ill, pt. ii, m. 32.

6 Add. MS. 19101, fol. ill.

7 'The White Friars at Ipswich,' by Rev. Benedict
Zimmerman, Proc. Suff. Arch. Inst, x, 196-204.

'Pat. 25 Edw. I, pt. i, m. 16.

in fee, without licence from Edward I, various
small plots of land adjoining their area for
enlarging the conventual buildings and church,'
and in 1 32 1 a further extension of their build-
ings was begun, for in that year the prior
obtained licence to acquire twelve small plots
of adjacent land for that purpose. 10 Thomas le
Coteler was licensed in 1333 to alienate to the
priory of Mount Carmel an adjacent messuage
for the enlargement of their house, 11 and Thomas
de Lowdham gave a further small plot of adjoin-
ing land in 137 7- 12

The last-known enlargement of their premises
occurred in 1396, when John Reppes, the prior,
purchased two messuages from John Warton and
Margaret his wife for the sum of 100 marks. 13

Ipswich was often chosen for the meetings of
the provincial chapters of the White Friars, so
that it may be fairly assumed that the house was
of sufficient size soon after its foundation to
accommodate a large number of visitors. At
the chapter held at Ipswich in 1300, William
Ludlyngton, then prior of the Ipswich House,
was elected provincial. In 1312 the provincial
chapter elected John Berkhamstead, prior of
Ipswich, provincial. Several other friars of this
house attained, from time to time, to the honour
of provincial ; among them were John Polsted
in 1335, and John Kynyngham in 1393.

The conventual church was rebuilt in the
latter part of the fifteenth century. It was
consecrated by Friar Thomas Bradleyce {alias
Scrope), bishop of Dromore, a man noted for
his special sanctity, in 1477.

This friary was celebrated for the number of
learned men who were its members. Thomas
Yllea, a preacher and writer of merit, entered
religion at the time when his father was prior ;
he was for some time in Flanders, but died at
Ipswich in 1390. John Polsted studied at
Oxford, and was provincial from 1335 till his
death in 1341 ; he wrote more than twenty
works, and was buried at York. Friar John of
Bury St. Edmunds rendered this house celebrated
by his erudition, eloquence, and piety ; he chiefly
wrote commentaries on the Holy Scriptures, and
died at Ipswich in 1350. John Paschall, of
Suffolk, graduated at Cambridge from this house
in 1333 ; he was consecrated bishop of Scutari
in 1344 as suffragan bishop of Norwich diocese,
but in 1347 was translated to LlandafF. He
was a voluminous writer, and several volumes of
his sermons are extant.

Friar Richard Lavingham is said to have
written ninety volumes, and Bale considers his
literary activity almost miraculous ; he died at

9 Pat. 8 Edw. II, pt. i, m. 10.

10 Ibid. 14 Edw. II, pt. ii, m. 24.
"Ibid. 6 Edw. III.pt. ii,m. 3.
"Inq. a.q.d. 50 Edw. Ill, No. 21.

11 ' The Carmelites of Ipswich,' by V. B. Redstone,
Proc. Suff. Arch. Inst, x, 192.

130

RELIGIOUS HOUSES

Bristol in 1383. John Kynyngham, provincial
from 1393 till his death in 1399, did credit to the
Ipswich friary as a writer of many works. Prior
John Barmyngham, who died in 1449, Doctor
of both Oxford and Paris, was considered one of
the most enlightened scholars of each of those
universities. Nicholas Kenton, provincial from
1444 to 1456, 'shone so as a historian, poet,
philosopher, theologian, and orator,' that he was
appointed chancellor of the university (Cambridge)
in 1445.

John Bale, elected prior of Ipswich in 1533,
joined the order at Norwich when only twelve
years of age. It is generally said that he broke
his vows and married in 1534 ; but his marriage
must have been some years later, for he was
writing as prior of this monastery in 1536. He
held the bishopric of Ossory from 1553 until
his death in 1563. In all his virulent and coarse
writings against his former co-religionists, Bale
had the grace to deal gently with his former
order of the Carmelites, and evidently esteemed
the learning that characterized various members
of the house over which he was for a short time
prior. 1

The Carmelites of Ipswich were suppressed
by the ex-friar Richard Ingworth, then suffragan
bishop of Dover, in November, 1538, as is
known from his letter about various friaries
addressed to Cromwell. 2 Earlier in the year,
' the petition of the Carmelyttes of Ipsewich
supplicacion to the Lorde Cromwell moste
piteously lamenting ' set forth, on behalf of the

prior and his co-brethren of their ' poore religious
house,' that Dr. Ingworth, as Cromwell's deputy-
visitor, had confiscated the sum of ^28 13*. 4^.,
owing to them for tenements in Ipswich, which
they had been compelled to sell through extreme
poverty. They desired, in their simplicity, Crom-
well's assistance. 4 About the same date Cromwell
received a strongly-worded begging appeal from
one Sir John Raynsforth, asking for the gift of
the house of the Ipswich White Friars. 5

The site was granted to Charles Lambard, of
Ipswich, in October, 1 539- 6

VVeever mentions the following among the
more important burials in this church : — Sir
Thomas de Lowdham and his son Sir Thomas,
both knights, and John de Loudham, esquire ;
Margaret Coldvyle, and Gilbert Denham, esquire,
and Margaret his wife, who was a daughter of
Edward Hastings. Also the following of this
order : — John VVilbe, 1335 ; John Hawle, papal
chaplain, 1433; John Barmyngham, 1448-9;
Richard Hadley, 1461 ; and John Balsham,
bishop of Argyle, 1425. 7

Priors of the Carmelite Friars of
Ipswich

Richard de Yllea, c. 1280

William Ludlyngton, occuis 1 300, &c.

John Berkhamstead, occurs 13 1 2

John Reppes, occurs 1396

John Barmyngham, c. 14^0—8—9

John Ball, 1533

HOUSE OF MINORESSES

44. THE ABBEY OF BRUISYARD

A brief account is given under the nunnery of
Campsey of the founding by Maud countess of
Ulster, in 1346, of a perpetual chantry of four
chaplains and a warden in the chapel of the
Annunciation, within the conventual church of
Campsey. 3 Eight years later this chantry or
college was removed from the nunnery to the
manor place of Rokehall, in Bruisyard parish,
where a chapel of the Annunciation was built
and rooms provided for the warden and four
priests. The sound reasons alleged for the
change were that the residence for these five
chaplains was in the village of Ashe, some
distance from the priory church of Campsey,
and that this going backwards and forwards for
the various divine offices in wintry and rainy

'Stevens' Cont. of Dugdale's Mon. ii. Writers
of the Order of the Carmelites, Nos. 25, 34, 41, 5;,
70, 104, 116, 124 ; 'The White Friars of Ipswich,'
by the Rev. Benedict Zimmerman, Proc. Suf. Arch.
Inst, x, 196-204.

' L. and P. Hen. Fill, xiii, pt. ii, 1 021

'Pat. 21 EJw. Ill, pt. iii, m. 5.

weather was unduly onerous for the older chap-
lains ; moreover it was thought more expedient
that their chapel should be in some other place,
' ubi non est conversatio mulierum.' 8

This chantry or collegiate church at Bruisyard
had, however, but a brief life ; for in 1364, on
some complaints, at the instance of Lionel duke
of Clarence and with the consent of king and
bishop, it was agreed that this establishment
should be surrendered for the use of an abbess
and sisters belonging to the order of Nuns
Minoresses or Sisters of St. Clare. 9 The actual
surrender to the nuns was not accomplished until
4 October, 1366.

' L. and P. Hen. Fill, xiii, pt. ii, App. 17.

5 Ibid. 1262.

6 Misc. Bks. (Aug. Off.), ccxii, fol. id.

7 Weever, Funeral Monuments, 750. The date of
the death of John Balsham is erroneously stated by
VVeever to be 1530; Friar Balsham resigned the
bishopric of Argyle in 1420, and was buried at
Ipswich five years later.

* Pat. 30 Edw. Ill, pt. iii, m. 5, per inspex. where
the statutes for the rule of this collegiate church of.
Bruisyard are set forth.

9 Ibid. 38 Edw. Ill, pt. i, m. 44.

'3 1

A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK

Sir Nicholas Gcrnoun, knight, in his old age
and infirmity, was allowed to dwell at the house
of the Nuns Minoresses of Bruisyard ex devocione,
and he obtained leave from the crown in 1383
to continue to hold his rents and farm from
Drogheda to the amount of £t>6 13*. \d. yearly,
which had been forfeited for the defence of
Ireland by virtue of the statute of 3 Richard II
touching non-residence. 1

Licence was granted in May, 1385, to the
executors of the Earl of Suffolk to alienate to
the abbey the manor of Benges, Suffolk. 2 In
the following February the abbess and convent
of Bruisyard were licensed to alienate this manor
of Benges to the prioress and convent of Campsey,
in exchange for the manor and advowson of
Bruisyard, together with leave to appropriate the
church. 3 In 1390 the abbey acquired various
plots of land in Bruisyard and adjacent parishes,
and in Hargham, Norfolk, as well as the advow-
son of the church of Sutton, Suffolk. 4

The Valor of 1535 shows that the abbey then
possessed temporalities of the clear annual value
of ^43 15*., namely the manors with mem-
bers of Bruisyard, Winston, Alderton, South
Repps, Hargham, and Badburgham (Camb.).
The clear value of the spiritualities, comprising
the churches of Bruisvard, Sutton, and Bulmer,
amounted to £\7. Js. id., leaving a full total of
£56 25. id. 6

This house seems to have been exempt from
episcopal supervision ; at all events it does not
appear in the visitation registers of Bishops
Goldwell and Nykke.

I' 1 153 5, when dissolution was in the air,
some complaint was made to the Lord Privy
Seal as royal visitor-general, with regard to the
action of this abbey, whereupon the abbess and
convent wrote to Cromwell : —

We your oratrices and humble subjects, thank you
for your worshipful letter, whereby you have com-
forted us desolate persons. We assure you we have
not alienated the goods of our house, or listened to

any but discreet counsel. We have not wasted our
woods beyond the usage of our predecessors in times
of necessity. We beg you to intercede for us with
the King, our founder, that we may continue his
bcdewomcn, and pray for him, the queen, and the
princess. 6

The Suffolk commissioners for the suppression
of the smaller religious houses visited Bruisyard
Abbey on 22 August, 1536, and drew up an
inventory. The ornaments of the church in-
cluded a variety of vestments and altar cloths, a
table of alabaster, two great candlesticks of
latten, and ' a payor of lytell orgaynes very olde,
att xj.' The parlour, several chambers, buttery,
kitchen, bakehouse, and brewhouse were but
poorly furnished. The church plate was valued
at ^28 1 2s. 4-d. ; it included six chalices, two
paxes, and a pair of cruets. The total inventory,
signed by Mary Page, abbess, reached the sum
of £40 13s. 4-d. 7

The abbey, on payment of the sum of £(>0
to the king, was able to stave off the evil day,
being specially exempted from suppression, and
Mary Page confirmed as abbess by patent of

4 July, I537- 8

On 17 February, 1539, came the final sur-
render of the house and all its possessions, signed
by Mary Page, abbess, in the presence of Dr.
Francis Cove. 9

The site and precinct of the abbey, with the
whole of its possessions, was assigned by the crown
to Nicholas Hare and Katharine his wife, on
9 March, 1539, at a rental of £6 41. ie/. ,u

Abbesses of Bruisyard

Emma Beauchamp, 11 occurs 1369 and 1390

Agnes, 12 occurs 1413

Ellen Bedingfield, 13 occurs 1 42 1 and 1425

Katharine, 14 1444

Elizabeth Crane, 15 occurs on 29 August, 1 48 1

Alice Clere, 16 1489

Margaret Calthorpe, 17 1497

Mary Page, 18 1537

HOSPITALS

45. THE HOSPITAL OF BECCLES

There was a leper hospital, dedicated to St.
Mary Magdalen, on the south side of the town
of Beccles, on a site now known as St. Mary's
Hill. It was probably of early foundation, as
was the case with almost all hospitals for this
special affliction, but no record of it is found
earlier than the year 1362, when Sir Richard
Walkfare, kt., and others gave to the hospital

'Pat. 6 Ric. II, pt. i, m. 26.

' Ibid. 9 Ric. II, pt. ii, m. 7.

1 Ibid. 10 Ric. II, pt. ii, m. 26.

'Ibid. 14 Ric. II, pt. i, m. 5.

5 Vahr Eccl. (Rec. Com.), iii, 442-3.

20*., annual rent issuing out of the manors of
Barsham and Hirst. 19

Tradition relates that one Ramp, who was very
much afflicted with leprosy, was perfectly cured of his

"I. and P. Hen. Fill, ix, 1094.

7 Ibid, xi, 347.

8 Pat. 29 Hen. VIII, pt. v, m. 6.

9 Rymer, Foedera, xiv, 629.

10 Pat. 30 Hen. VIII, pt. ii, m. 33.
" Tanner MS. Nonv.

18 Ibid. » Ibid.

14 Ibid. « Ibid.

16 Ibid. 138. " Ibid. 202.

18 Rymer, Foedera, xiv, 628.

19 Pat. 36 Edw. Ill, pt. i, m, 34.

132

RELIGIOUS HOUSES

disorder by accidentally bathing in a spring of water
near this plot, where he soon after created a hospital
for the benefit of persons so afflicted. 1

It was under the rule of a master, and possessed
a chapel. Various wills of the locality include
bequests to this house. In 1503 Thomas Leke
of Beccles left 6s. Sd. to the repair of the lepers'
chapel, and in 1506 John Rudham of Beccles
bequeathed nd. for a like purpose. John
Bridges, a brother of the hospital, by will of
1567, left 20s. to Humphrey Trame, master, to
be equally divided between the brethren and
sisters. 2

This hospital escaped suppression by either
Henry VIII or Edward VI, as there seems to
have been no kind of chantry endowment con-
nected with it, it being, like many other leper
hospitals, chiefly maintained by voluntary gifts.
Edward VI in 1550 granted licence to Edward
Lydgate, a brother of the hospital, to beg daily
for the lazars' house of Beccles. 3

By a deed dated 18 May, 1575,

between Humphreye Trame, master of the hospital
of St. Mary Magdelin at Beccles, and the bretherne
and system of the said hospital on the one part, and
Margaret Hury of Yoxford on the other part, it is
witnessed, that the said Humfry and the brethren
and system, of their godly love and intent have not
only takyn the sayd Margaret into the said hospytall
beinge a sore diseased person wythe an horyble syck-
ness, but also have admytted and made the seyd Mar-
garet a syster of the same house during her naturall
lyfe, accordinge to the auncyent custom and order of
the same ; trustynge in our Lord God, wythe the
helpe and devocon of good dysposed people, to prepare
for the same Margaret, mete, drink, clothinge, wash-
inge, chamberinge, and lodginge, good and holsome,
duringe the naturall lyfF of the said Margaret, mete
for such a person.

Humphrey Trame, by his will of 1596, gave
to the hospital

one bible, one service-book, and ye desk to them
belonging, to go and remain for ever with the hospital
of St. Mary Magdalen, to the intent that the sick,
then and there abiding, for the comfort of their souls
may have continual recourse unto the same. 4

46. THE HOSPITAL OF DOMUS DEI,
BURY ST. EDMUNDS

The hospital of St. John, more usually known
as the ' Domus Dei ' or God's House, was
founded by Abbot Edmund 1248-56.

There is a chartulary in the British Museum,
drawn up about 1425, when Thomas Wyger
was warden, pertaining to the Domus Dei,

1 Jermyn MSS., cited in Suckling's Hist. qfSiiff.i, 22.

'Add. MS. 19112, fol. 58.

3 Pat. 4 Edw. VI, pt. iv, m. 3.

1 Suckling, Hist, of Stiff] ii, 22-4, where the later

history of the hospital is recorded.

' gallice Maysondieu'; described as being out-
side the south gate of the town of St. Edmund*,
and under the governorship of the prior of the
monastery. 6

It was established by Abbot Edmund, when
Richard was prior, for supplying hospitality and
refreshment to Christ's poor without any fraud
or diminution. If any of the poor in the hospital
fell into any grave sickness and were not able to
depart, they were to tarry till strong enough to
go on their way. No brother or sister was to be
admitted except they were approved by two wise
and discreet wardens who were to act under the
guidance of the almoner. Mass was not to be
celebrated in the house, nor any altar erected,
but a room was to be provided for private
prayer. 6

A revised ordination of this house by Abbot
Simon and the convent shows that the original
house had proved inconvenient, so that a new
and much enlarged house was built. In this
enlarged Domus Dei a chapel and altar were
provided for the inmates, and there was also a
graveyard attached for the burial of any who
might die within the walls. 7

Several masters or chaplains of this house are
named in the chartulary. They were instituted
by the prior of the abbey. Thus in 1394 Prior
John Gifford inducted Reginald Sexter, and in
1416 Prior Robert Iklynham inducted Richard
Sudbury. 8

Richard II in 1392 licensed Robert Stabler
chaplain, William Say chaplain, John Redgrave
chaplain, and two others, to alienate to this
hospital property in Bury and Westhill, in aid
of sustaining a chaplain to celebrate in the
chapel of Domus Dei ; the charter recites the
consent of the abbot and convent in 1379 to the
founding of a chantry in this hospital for the
souls of John Kokerel and Clare his wife, Stephen
Kokerel and Agnes his wife, and several others.
The stipend for this chantry priest was to be
33*. \d. to be paid by the master; in addition
to board and lodging and fire. 9

William Place, priest, master of the hospital
of St. John Evangelist, by will of 21 July, 1504,
proved on I December, 1504, bequeathed small
sums to the church of St. Mary, Burv, and to
various friars at Lynn, and particular gifts to the
abbey of Bury. He made no mention of the
hospital of which he had charge, but possibly it
benefited, for he left the residue of his goods to
his executors to do other good deeds as they
should think best to the pleasure of God. 10

5 Arundel MS. i. This chartulary consists of thirtv-
nine folios, the last nine of which are on paper.

6 Ibid. fol. 1.

' Ibid. \b, 2 ; Harl. MS. 638, fol. 138^, 139.
• Arundel MS. i, 16a, iya.

'Harl. MS. 638, fol. 24,192 ; Pat. 16 Ric II,
pt. i, m. 1 1.
10 Tjmms, Bury Willi, 105-6.

133

A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK

Wardens of Domus Dei, Bury St. Edmunds

Adam, 1 tcm[>. Hen. Ill

Simon dc Sermingham, 2 1332, 1337

John dc Serton, 3 137 I

Reginald Sexter, 4 1394

Richard Sudbury, 5 14 16

Thomas Wyger, 6 c. 1425

William Place, 7 died 1504

47. THE HOSPITAL OF ST. NICHOLAS,
BURY ST. EDMUNDS

The hospital of St. Nicholas stood a short
distance without the east gate. The establish-
ment consisted of a master, a chaplain, and
several brethren. It was founded by an abbot of
Bury St. Edmunds ; but the exact date and the
particular abbot are unknown.

The earliest known dated reference to it is of
the year 1224, when Henry III granted a fair
to the master of the hospital of St. Nicholas, to
be held on the feast and vigil of the Translation
of St. Nicholas. 8

The oldest of several charters at the Bodleian
relative to this hospital is perhaps of a little earlier
date, f. 1 21 5 ; it is a grant from Richard de la
Care, the prior, and the brethren of the hospital
of St. Nicholas without the east gate of St.
Edmunds to the hospital of St. Peter of all their
right in land called ' Holdefader Acre,' lying at
' Dristnapes ' ; for this grant the brethren of
St. Peter gave 6;. of silver. 9 Other undated deeds
of a slightly later date refer to further transfers
between the two hospitals. 10

In 1325 Edward II granted pardon to the
brethren of St Nicholas for acquiring from
Hervey de Staunton, the king's clerk, land and
rent in the town of St. Edmunds, in aid of the
maintenance of a chaplain to celebrate daily in
the hospital for the king and his children and for
the souls of Abbot John and the faithful
departed. 11

The master and brethren of the hospital of
St. Nicholas obtained licence in 1392 for the
alienation to them, by Thomas Ewelle and others,
of land and meadows in Bury, Langham, and
Great Barton. 12

The chantry of Henry Staunton's founding in
the chapel of this hospital seems to have been
usually held by one of the obedientiaries of the
great abbey. In 1351 it was held by John de
Sneylewell, the sacrist, and at another time by
Edmund de Brundish, the prior. 13

1 Arundel MS. i, fol. 8.
'Ibid. 14. 3 Ibid. 15a.

6 Ibid. 1 ja.

7 Tymms, Bury Wills, 105.

e Close, 8 Hen. Ill, pt. i, m.

9 Bodl. Chart. Suff. 33.
10 Ibid. 28, 30, 83.
" Pat. 16 Ric. II, pt. i, m. 10.
13 Add. MS. 19103, fol. 160.

' Ibid. 16a.
6 Ibid, passim.

Ibid.

The Valor of 1535 names John Kcall as
chaplain of the chapel of St. Nicholas without
the east gate. At that time the mastership and
the chaplaincy were apparently combined. The
clear value is given as £b I <)s. id. a year. 11

Master Henry Rudde, doctor of Bury, by will
of 1 506, bequeathed to the hospital of St. Nicholas
'a vestement of whyte satyn and bordrid with
Seynt Nicholas arms, to the value of V mark,' u
and Anne Buckenham, of Bury, by will of 1534,
left ' to the chapell of Sainte Nicholas, of whom I
holde my house, a litle chalis.' 18

Masters of the Hospital of St. Nicholas,
Bury St. Edmunds

Richard de la Care, 17 c. I 2 1 5
William Maymond, 18 1343
John Gerrard, 19 1396
William Stowe, 20 1459
John Keall, 21 1535

48. THE HOSPITAL OF ST. PETER,
BURY ST. EDMUNDS

St. Peter's Hospital stood without the Risby
gate, but within the abbey jurisdiction. It was
founded by Abbot Anselm towards the close of
the reign of Henry I, for the maintenance of
infirm, leprous, or invalided priests, or in their
absence of other aged and sick persons.

The earliest deeds in the muniment room of
the Guildhall, Bury St. Edmunds, are a parcel
chiefly of the reigns of Henry III and Edward I,
concerning the possessions of the hospital of St.
Peter, which are now attached to the Grammar
School. There is one, however, of the reign of
Henry II which recites the gift to this hospital
by Simon de Whepstede of i2d. rent for the
lights before the altar of St. Mary within the
hospital church.

Scientia, widow of Gilbert de la Gaye, gave
I Of. annual rent from a building in St. Edmunds,,
in return for which Robert de Baketone, clerk,
then prior of the hospital, granted her a weekly
mass for her soul and the souls of her ancestors
and the souls of brethren dying in the hospital.
What was left of the rent, after paying for the
masses, was to be expended in shoes for the
brethren. 22 There are also at the Bodleian a
variety of other undated deeds, temp. Henry III,
of small grants to this hospital, 23 and several grants

" Valor Eccl. (Rec. Com.), iii, 466.

15 Tymms, Bury Wills, 107. ,6 Ibid. 138.

" Bodl. Chart. Suff. 33. 18 Ibid. 105.

19 Harl. MS. 638, fol. 145^.

20 Bodl. Chart. Suff. 123.

21 Valor Eccl. (Rec. Com.), iii, 466.

22 Hist. MSS. Com. Rep. xiv, App. viii, 155-6.

23 Ibid. 29, 31-3, 40, 47, 61, 62, 65, &c.

!34

RELIGIOUS HOUSES

of rents in the reign of Edward I, 1 and in
1324 an annual rental of I2</. from a mes-
suage in St. Edmunds, in Scolehallestrete, was
granted to Thomas de Swanstone, warden of
St. Peter's. 2

The last pre-Reformation master, Christopher
Lant, occurs in a deed of 1538, whereby the
master and brethren appointed Edmund Hurste,
their proctor, to ask and collect in their name,
throughout England, alms and charity for the
leprous of the hospital of St. Peter. 3

Though not originally founded exclusively for
lepers, this hospital gradually become confined
to such cases. It was ordained by the abbot and
convent in 1 30 1 that when any priests of the
charnel were disabled by any incurable disease,
they were to be maintained at St. Saviour's Hos-
pital ; but if they were infected with any conta-
gious disorder, they were to be sent to the
hospitals of St. Peter or St. Nicholas. 4

There is a reference in another of the abbey
registers to the Leprosi extra Risby Gate. b In its
later history, the hospital of St. Peter was al-
ways referred to as a lazar-house. The Valor
of 1535 gives the gross income of the chapel of
St. Peter of the foundation of the abbot of
St. Edmunds, of which Christopher Lant, clerk,
was then master, as £20 i6j. 8£d. f and the
net income as £10 i8j. lO^d. Out of the
gross, £4. is entered as paid in alms ' pauperi-
bus le Lazares House extra Rysbygate de
Bury.' 6

It is rather singular that the income of this
hospital was specially assessed in 1535 ; for in
1528 a bull was obtained from Pope Clement
authorizing the annexing of this hospital, to-
gether with St. Saviour's, to the abbey, the in-
come being specially appropriated for hospitality
at the abbot's table ; in the case of St. Peter's,
however, this project does not seem to have been
carried out. 7

In the first instance, St. Peter's hospital was
under the immediate control of the abbey al-
moner ; 8 but in the time of Henry III and on-
wards it was ruled by a master who was a
secular priest appointed by the almoner. This
hospital continued after the dissolution of the
great majority of kindred institutions, for in I 5 5 1
protection (or licence to beg) was granted to the
lazars of the hospital of St. Peter nigh St. Ed-
munds Bury, for one year ; and George Hodg-
son, ' guide ' of the house, was appointed their
proctor. 9

1 Hist. MSS. Com. Rep. xiv, App. viii, 72, 78,
s Ibid. 151.

90, 91.

* Ibid. 100.

4 Reg. Sacr. fol. 86.

4 Reg. Kansyk, fol. 94.

6 Valor Eccl. (Rec. Com.), iii, 465.

7 Rymer, FoeJera, xiv, 244-5.

8 Reg. Nigrum, fol. 185.

' Strype, Eccl. Mem. Edu, VI, ii, 249.

Masters or Priors of the Hospital of St.
Peter, Bury St. Edmunds

Alan, 10 c. 1225

Gilbert de Pollekot, 11 c. 1240

Robert de Baketone, 12 c. 1260

William son of Bartholomew alias Livermore,"

c. 1275
Robert, 14 occurs 1280
William, 15 c. 1300

Thomas de Swanstone, 16 occurs 1324
Walter Burton, 17 occurs 1439
Christopher Lant, 18 occurs 1538
George Hodgson, 19 occurs 155 1

49. THE HOSPITAL OF ST. PETRON-
ILLA, BURY ST. EDMUNDS

Near to the hospital of St. John, or ' Domus
Dei,' out of the south gate, stood the hospital
of St. Petronilla, or St. Parnel, for leprous
persons. 20 It is ignored both by Dugdale and
Tanner, but was clearly a separate foundation
apart from the Domus Dei, and founded by one
of the early abbots.

Edward Steward was the master in 1535,
when the clear annual value was declared to be
£10 1 7*. \\d. The income was derived from
temporalities in Bury, Whepstead, and Rush-
brooke, and from a portion of the rectory of
Mildenhall. £4 lis. $d., apparently apart
from the just cited income, was paid to the
poor of the house of St. Petronilla. 21

The hospital is referred to in various docu-
ments as to land transfers of Henry VIII,
Edward VI, and Elizabeth, wherein it is di-
versely described as the hospital of St. Petronilla,
St. Peternelda, St. Pemell, and St. Parnell. 22

50. THE HOSPITAL OF ST. SAVIOUR,
BURY ST. EDMUNDS

The hospital of St. Saviour, without the north
gate, was begun by Abbot Samson about the
year 11 84, but it was not finished nor fully
endowed until the time of King John. It was
originally founded for a warden, twelve chaplain
priests, six clerks, twelve poor men, and twelve
poor women. 23

Abbot Samson and the convent granted to the
hospital the place upon which the buildings

" Ibid. 77.
Ibid. 1186.

Ibid. 151.

"> Bodl. Chart. SufF. 28, 83.
11 Ibid. 66. " Ibid. 76

14 Ibid. 70, 84, 87. 14

16 Ibid. 100. " Ibid. 113.

19 Strype, Eccl. Mem. Edw. VI, ii, 249.
K There were considerable remains of it as late as
1780.
" Valor Eccl. (Rec. Com.), iii, 461, 465.
" Add. MS. 1 9103, fol. 164.
" Liber Niger, fol. 24, 30.

*35

A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK

stood ; ^13 in silver of their village of Ickling-
liam ; two portions of their church of Melford ;
portions of certain tithes ; eight acres of corn
in Cockfield ; and their houses at ' Telefort,'
saving to the monaster) an annual service of 25.,
and to the canons \2<l. This grant was con-
firmed on 16 July, 1206, by John de Gray,
bishop of Norwich. 1

The annual value of this hospital in 1 291 is
set down at the round sum of ,£io. 2

A charter of Abbot John, 1 292, relative to this
hospital, lays down that the inmates henceforth
must be poor ; that bs. Sd. was to be allowed to
clerks and laymen, and 55. to sisters ; and that
the warden was to be a man of prudence and
discretion. The endowment was at the same
time augmented by 10 acres of land and two of
meadow near the south gate, and by 22<^. rent
in the town. 3

In the time of Edward I, there were only
seven chaplains, and it was decided to dismiss the
poor sisters and in their place to receive and
maintain old and infirm priests. 4

In 1336 the abbey successfully resisted the
crown's custom of imposing pensioners on the
hospital funds ; securing a grant that after the
death of John de Broughton the hospital should
not again be called upon to provide corrodies
out of its revenues. 5

In 1390 William the abbot, with the consent
of Adam de la Kyndneth, guest-master, granted
to Edward Merssh of Ickworth a corrody in this
hospital for his life. In the following year Robert
Rymer was granted a corrody by the same abbot
in St. Saviour's, through the vacancy caused by
the death of Edward Merssh. 6 In the year
1392 John Reve, of Pakenham, was admitted
an inmate on the following terms : he was to
have board and lodging in the hospital for life,
and to receive annually a gown, a pair of
stockings, and a pair of shoes. It is added in a
memorandum that John Reve in consideration
of this grant was to pay to the master of the
hospital, towards the new fabric of the hospital,
the large sum of 26 marks by the hand of Robert
Ashfield. The hospital was also used from time
to time as a refuge for worn-out priests. Abbot
John of Northwold, when founding the charnel
house, laid down that its two chaplains, when
they became infirm, were to be admitted to St.
Saviour's Hospital, save if they were suffering
from any contagious disease, when they were to
be sent to the hospital of St. Peter or that of
St. Nicholas. 7

Among the town muniments are five rolls of

1 Bodl. Chart. Stiff, ii.

1 Pope Nich. Tax. (Rec. Com.), 133.

3 Harl. MS. 638, fol. 138.
* Liber Niger, fol. 30.

4 Pat. 13 Edw. Ill, pt. i, m. 13.
6 Cott. MS. Tib. B. ix.fol. 6 1 b.
1 Proc. Suff. Arch. Inst, vi, 297.

accounts of this hospital for the years 1353-4,
1374-5, 1385-6, 1386-7, and 1438-9. Mention
is made in the accounts for 1386-7 (when the
receipts were £iob is. gid. and the expenses
^234 35. 6$e/.), among the ornaments of the
chapel of St. Thomas in the infirmary church,
of 12s. for a silver box placed beneath the feet
of an image, and a base (corbel stone) bought of
Simon, the abbey mason, at 5;., for the image to
stand on at the right corner of the altar. Also
three books with the services of the passion and
translation of St. Thomas, 13*. \d. Sixpence
was paid to a messenger going to Clare to get a
doctor in theology to preach on St. Thomas's Day,
and then on to Sudbury for tiles for the pavement
of St. Thomas's Chapel. A suffragan bishop re-
ceived a gift this year, as well as his chaplain
and servant ; he probably attended to consecrate
the chapel or altar of St. Thomas. 8

St. Saviour's Hospital was by far the largest
and most important institution of its kind in the
town. It suffered much at the hands of the
rioters of 1327, both in stock and goods ; the loss
was valued at ^21 95. 6d., including horses,
cows, and pigs, as well as smaller articles, such
as six silver spoons worth Js. bd., and a maser
worth a mark."

The accounts of this hospital are not entered
separately from those of the abbey in the Valor
°f 1535- There are eight entries of dues pay-
able to the hospital from certain abbey properties,
amounting to ^6 2s. 3 c/. I0 This intermingling
of the accounts of the hospital with those of the
abbey arose from the fact that in 1528 Pope
Clement issued a bull whereby the profits of this
hospital were annexed to the abbey and specially
assigned for the exercise of hospitality at the
abbot's table. 11

The hospital site and buildings (save the lead)
were granted on its suppression by Henry VIII
to Sir John Williams and Anthony Stringer in
February, 1542-3, but they almost immediately
received licence to alienate to Nicholas Bacon
and Henry Ashfield. 12

Wardens of the Hospital of St. Saviour,
Bury St. Edmunds

Peter de Shenedon, 13 occurs 13 1 8
Nicholas Snytterton, 14 occurs 1374
Walter de Totyngtone, 10 occurs 1385
John Power, 16 occurs 1390
Adam de Lakyngheth, 17 1406

8 Hist. MSS. Com. Rep. xiv, App. viii, 128-30
Arnold, Mem. ii, 346.

10 Valor Eccl. (Rcc. Com.), iii, 451,453, 461-4.
" Rymer, Focdera, xiv, 244-5.
" L. and P. Hen. Fill, xviii, pt. i, 131, 133.
" Pat. 12 Edw. II, pt. i, m. 27.
" Hist. MSS. Com. Rep. xiv, pt. 8, 128.
,s Ibid. 129.

16 Pat. 13 Ric. II, pt. i, m. 17.
" Cott. MS. Tib. B. ix, fol. 1033.

136

RELIGIOUS HOUSES

Si. THE HOSPITAL OF ST. JAMES,
DUNWICH

A leper hospital dedicated in honour of St.
James, consisting of a master, with several
leprous brothers and sisters, existed at Dunwicli
at least as early as the reign of Richard I.
Walter de Riboffwas one of the chief bene-
factors, and by some considered the founder.
By his charter, apparently early in the reign of
John, he granted to the church of St. James
and the house of lepers of Dunwich, and to
Hubert the chaplain who ministered there and
to all successive chaplains, for the soul of Henry
de Cressie and his own good estate, 40 acres of
land at Brandeston, various plots in other places, to-
gether with eight bushels of wheatat Michaelmas,
two loaves of bread (daily) from his oven, and a sex-
tary (pint and a half) of ale from his brewhouse
wherever his residence might be, and the tithes
of his mills. To the chaplain he also assigned
an annual pension of 51., and a comb of corn
yearly at Michaelmas, to be divided between two
leprous brethren, one of the chaplain's nomina-
tion and one of the nomination of himself and his
heirs; any of the household of the hospital who
were healthy (not lepers) were to receive the
sacraments and make their offerings at the
church of Brandeston on festivals. The dead
were to be buried in the graveyard of the mother
church. 1

Pope Gregory IX, in 1233, granted licence
confirmatory of letters by Pope Lucius to the
lepers of St. James, Dunwich, to receive legacies
and trusts left for their use. 2

Protection was granted by Edward II, in
131 2, with authority to seek alms for one year,
to the master and brethren of St. James, Dun-
wich, as they had not sufficient wherewith to
live unless they obtained succour from others. 3
This licence was renewed for another twelve-
month in each of the three following years, for
the same reason. 4 This annual sanction for
collecting alms was also maintained from 1320
to 1323. 5 In 1330 it was renewed, and in
1 33 1 the same was granted for two years
to the master, brethren, and their attorneys col-
lecting alms in the churches ; the king's bailiffs
were to prevent any unauthorized persons col-
lecting in their name. 6

Weever, writing in 163 1, says of this
hospital : —

The church is a great one, and a faire large one after the
old fashion, and divers tenements, houses, and land to the
same belonging, to the use of the poor, sicke, and im-

1 Bodl. Chart. Suff". 196; Gardner, Hist, of
Dunzuich, 62-5.

' Cal. Pap. Reg. i, 137.

3 Pat. 6 Edw. II, pt. i, m. 21.

4 Ibid. 7 Edw. II, pt. i, m. 12 ; 8 Edw. 11,
pt i, m. 7 ; 9 Edw. II, pt. ii, m. 29.

s Ibid. 16 Edw. II, pt. i, m. 17.
6 Ibid. 5 Edw. Ill, pt. ii, m. 33.

2 I

potent people there. But now lately, greatly decaied
and hindred by evil Masters of the said Hospital, and
other evilly disposed covetous persons, which did sell
away divers lands and rents from the said Hospitall,
to the great hinderancc of the poor people of the
said Hospital, as is plainly to be proved. 7

Gardner says (1754) that the former great
income had dwindled to £21 19*. 8V., of which
485. went to the master, and the residue to
maintain three or four indigent people 'who
reside in one poor old house, being all the remains
of the buildings, except the shells of the church
and chapel.' 8

Masters of the Hospital of St. James,
Dunwich

Hubert, 9 c. 1200
William Coterell, 10 1389
John Pevntneye," 1392
Hugh Blythe, 1 - 1393
Edmund Lyster, 13 occurs 1401
Adam Reyner, 14 occurs 1499

The thirteenth-century seal of this hospital
shows a full-length figure of St. James with
nimbus, having the right hand raised in bene-
diction, and a crutch or cross-tau in the left.
On each side is an eschallop shell. Legend : —

SIGILL . SACTI. IACOBI. I.

DON

52.

THE HOSPITAL OF THE HOLY
TRINITY, DUNWICH

A hospital dedicated to the Holy Trinity, but
more often mentioned as the Domus Dei, Maison
Dieu, or God's House of Dunwich, was founded
at an early date, though no records of it have
been found before the reign of Henry III. It
was then and afterwards in the patronage of the
king, and consisted of a master and six brethren
and certain sisters.

In October, 1304, Edward I granted simple
protection to the master, brethren, and sisters of
the hospital of the Domus Dei, Dunwich. 16 In
the following March Robert deSefeld, and at the
same time two other benefactors, were licensed
to alienate to the hospital land in Dunwich and
Westleton. 17 Royal protection authorizing the
collection of alms was renewed by Edward I in
1306, 18 and Edward II granted a year's protcc-

7 Weever, Funeral Monuments, 719.
6 Gardner, Hist, of Dunuich, 63.
'Bodl. Chart. SufF. 196.

10 Pat. 13 Ric. II, pt. ii, m. 19.

11 Ibid. 16 Ric. II, pt. i, m. 17.

" Ibid. 17 Ric. II, pt. I, m. 22.

13 Bodl. Chart. SufF. 197. " Ibid. 189-90.

15 B. M. Cast, lxxi, 105.

16 Pat. 32 Edw. I, m. 2.

l; Ibid. 33 Edw. I, pt. i, m. 13.
18 Ibid. 34 Edw. I, m. 21.

A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK

tion in 131 1, which was renewed in 13 14,
1315, 13 16, 131 7, and again in 1323, when it
was stated that the house had fallen into debt. 1

In 1330 Edward III granted protection for
three years to the master, brethren, sisters, and
envoys of the Maison Dieu of Dunwich, as they
were compelled by their poverty to seek alms
elsewhere, 2 and in 1337 protection was renewed
for a year. 3

The arm of the civil law was invoked by the
brethren and sisters of this house in 1306, to
recover from the abbot of St. Osyth, Essex, a
certain cross which he had taken away, and to
which very many people used to resort from
divers parts, bringing with them considerable
offerings {non modicas largitiones). The abbot
was ordered to deposit the cross in Chancery,
and eventually on the sworn evidence of good
men of Dunwich that this was the actual cross
that had been taken from God's House of their
town, the abbot was compelled, in the presence
of the chancellor, to restore the cross into the
hands of Adam de Bram, master of the hospital. 4

On 24 October, 1378, Richard II revoked
the letters patent of the late king granting to
John Wodecot the custody of the Maison Dieu
of Dunwich ; for it had been granted on the
false suggestion that it was void by the death of
Roger de Elyngton, king's clerk, appointed in
February, 1365, on the resignation of John de
Tamworth. Restitution was to be made to
Roger.'

In 1455 Sibyl Francis made a bequest to the
fabric of the church of ' le Mesyndieu ' ; Robert
Sharparew left 31. \d. in 1 5 12 to the reparation
of the ' Mezendew ' ; and in 1527 theie was a
legacy towards the paving of the church.

In Weever's time (1631) the church had
been pulled down. He describes the hospital as
decayed, like that of St. James, through evil
masters and other covetous persons, but still pos-
sessing divers tenements, lands, and rents for the
poor of the hospital. 8

Gardner (1754) states that in his days the
income, through ' ill-disposed rules,' was reduced
to £11 1 7*. The master drew £2 as salary,
and the rest was divided

among a few Poor who live in the Masters and
another old decrepid House, being all that is left of
the Buildings, except a small portion of the South
Wall of the Church. 7

1 Pat. 5 Edw. II, pt. i, m. 22, &c.

* Ibid. 4 Edw. Ill, pt. i, m. 9.

3 Ibid. 11 Edw. Ill, pt. i, m. ;.

' Prynne, Antiq. Const Regni Angliae, 1 137-8.

5 Pat. 2 Ric. II, pt. i, m. 25.

6 Weever, Funeral Monuments, 719. He adds, ' I
would to God these injuries and wrongs don to these
two poore Hospitals might be restored, and reformed
again to their former estate. For, surely, whosoever
shall doe it, shall doe a good worke before God ; I
pray God bring it to passe, Amen.'

■ Gardner, Hist, of Dunwich, 66.

Masters of the Hospital of the Holy
Trinity, Dunwich

Robert Falconis, 8 died 1290

Robert de Sefeld, 9 appointed 1290, removed

I3°5
Adam de Bram, 10 appointed 1306
John de Langeton," appointed 1 3 19
John de Tamworth, 12 resigned 1365
Roger de Elyngton, 13 appointed 1365
John Elyngton, 14 resigned 1386
John Hereford, 15 appointed 1386
William Coterell, 16 appointed 1389
Adam de Elyngton, 17 appointed 1390
John Lucas, 18 appointed 1390
John Hopton, 19 appointed 1466

The common seal of this house is a large
oval, bearing in the centre the three lions of
Henry III surmounted by a triple cross, on the
lowest limb of which are two fieuri-de-l'u.
Legend : —

SIGILLUM. FRATRUM. DOMUS. DEI. DE.
DONEWICO. 20

53. THE HOSPITAL OF EYE

There was a leper hospital outside the town
of Eye which was probably of early foundation,
but no record has been found concerning it
earlier than the reign of Edward III.

Protection was granted in 1329 to Adam
Fraunceis, master, and the brethren of the leper
hospital of St. Mary Magdalen without the
town of Eye, and for their messengers collecting
alms about the realm, as they had nothing of
their own whereon to live, 21 and in 1337 similar
protection was granted for two years. 22

Tanner says that it continued till the Dissolu-
tion, and was under the government of the bailiff
and burgesses of the town. 23

54. THE LEPER HOUSE OF
GORLESTON

Not much is known of the lazar-house of
Gorleston. It was probably one of those leper
houses of early establishment of which records
are so few, as they were supported almost entirely

8 Pat. 18 Edw. I, m. 42. 9 Ibid.

" Ibid. 34 Edw. I, m. 21.

11 Ibid. 12 Edw. II, pt. ii, m. 6.

' f Ibid. 2 Ric. II, pt. i, m. 25. " Ibid.

" Ibid. 10 Ric. II, pt. i, m. 1 1. " Ibid.

16 Ibid. 13 Ric. II, pt. ii, m. 19, 17.

17 Ibid. pt. iii, m. 4.

18 Ibid. 14 Ric. II, pt. i, m. 40.

19 Ibid. 6 Edw. IV, pt. ii, m. 19.

°° Gardner, Hist. 0/ Dunwich, pi. opp. p. 43.
" Pat. 3 Edw. Ill, pt. i, m. 37.
'- Ibid. 11 Edw. Ill, pt. ii, m. 22.
n Tanner, Notitia, Suff. xx, 2.

.38

RELIGIOUS HOUSES

by the alms of those entering or leaving the town
on whose outskirts they were planted.

Protection was granted by Edward III for
two years, in June, 1 33 1, to the master and
brethren of the hospital of St. Mary and
St. Nicholas (sic) y Gorleston, and their mes-
sengers collecting alms, as the house had not
sufficient means of subsistence. 1

The house is mentioned in a will of 1372,
and again in 1379, when Simon Atte Gap, of
Great Yarmouth, bequeathed a legacy of 6s. 8cl.
towards its maintenance. 2

Part of its small possessions were held of the
manor of Gapton by the tenure of a yearly pair
of gloves. In the receipts of Gapton Hall court
roll for 1643 is entered : —

Received of Humphrey Prince, gent, for one acre
called Glove Acre, a payer of gloves, of him for the
house, late the hospital of St. James {sic) in South-
towne, Geth by the way of Yarmouth viii^. 3

Some of its lands are now in possession of
Magdalen College, Oxford ; they were known
as ' Spytelyng in Gorleston.' 4

55 and 56. THE LEPER HOSPITALS
OF ST. MARY MAGDALEN AND
ST. JAMES, IPSWICH

The first known mention of the leper hos-
pital of St. Mary Magdalen, Ipswich, occurs in
1 1 99, when King John granted it a fair on the
feast of St. James the Apostle. 5 This grant
was confirmed and extended by Henry VI in
1430, when the fair was authorized to be held
on the land of this house, on both the day and
the morrow of St. James's festival. 6

There was also a leper hospital of St. James
in this town, which was united to the hospital
of St. Mary Magdalen in the fourteenth century,
and held by a common master. The joint
mastership of the two hospitals was in the gift of
the bishop, and to it was usually annexed the
church of St. Helen with the chapel of St. Ed-
mund. There are many collations to this joint
benefice in the diocesan registers.

In October, 1324, the custody of the ad-
ministration of the goods of the leper hospital of
St. James, then vacant, was committed to the
custody of the (rural) dean of Carlford, according
to ancient custom, so that he might answer for
the time being for the receipts and expenditure
of the house. 7

1 Pat. 5 Edw. Ill, pt. ii, m. 34.
' Suckling, Hist. ofSuff. i, 37.

3 Gapton Ct. R. cited by Suckling, ibid.

4 Hist. MSS. Com. Rep. iv, 461, 463.

5 Chart. R. I John, pt. ii, No. 91.

6 Add. Chart. 10 104.

' Norw. Epis. Reg. i, 117. The ditcs arc those of
appointment.

Masters of the Leper Hospitals of St. Mary
Magdalen and St. James, Ipswich

Alexander, 8 1336

William Olde de Debenham, 9 135 I

John May de Multon, 10 1 361

Thomas de Claxtone, 11 1367

John de Blakenham, 12 1369

Stephen Ingram, 13 1385, reappointed 1390 14

William de Cotsmore, 15 1399

William Tanner, 16 1409

Robert Markys, 17 resigned 1464

Robert Lang, 18 1464

Thomas Bullok, 19 1468

Thomas Eyton, 20 1472

57. THE HOSPITAL OF ST. LEONARD,
IPSWICH

There was a third leper hospital of early foun-
dation at Ipswich — that of St. Leonard, in the
parish of St. Peter, near the old church of
St. Augustine, 21 probably but slenderly endowed,
and relying chiefly on the alms of travellers. A
commission appointed in 1520 to define the
bounds of the town of Ipswich began its report
in these terms : —

' From the bull stake on the Cornhill in the said
burgh of Yepiswiche unto the close of the hos-
pitall of Seynt Leonard, & from thens . . .' 22

It escaped suppression under Henry VIII and
Edward VI. In 1583 Henry Bury was ap-
pointed ' Master of the hospital and Sick House
of St. Leonard,' vacant by the death of Philip
Apprice. At the same time Henry Lawrey,
beadle of the hospital, had £1 6s. 8d. added to
his salary for his great pains.

In 1606 ' the preaching place' in the hospital
was ordered to be restored and the head of the
pulpit ceiled. 23

58 and 59. THE HOSPITALS OF
ORFORD

There seem to have been two hospitals at
Orford in honour respectively of St. Leonard and
St. John Baptist, the former in all probability for
lepers. We have only met with a single record
reference to each.

The master and brethren of the hospital of
St. Leonard, Orford, obtained the royal licence
to seek alms in October, I320. 54

8 Norw. Epis. Reg. ii, 88. 9 Ibid, iv, 134.

10 Ibid, v, 53. " Ibid, v, 76. " Ibid, v, 86.
13 Pat. 8 Ric. II, pt. ii, m. 17.

11 Ibid. 14 Ric. II, pt. i, m. 40.
13 Norw. Epis. Reg. vi, 252. "' Ibid, vii, 23.
"Ibid, xi, 145. ,s Ibid.
"Ibid, xi, 170. "Ibid, xi, 184.
" Taylor, Index Moti. 1 16.
" Hist. MSS. Com. Rep. ix, 232.
SJ Add. MS. 19094, fol. 144.
21 Pat. 14 Edw. II, pt. i, m. 16.

'39

A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK

In 1390 Richard II granted to his servant
William Cotcrell, for life, the wardenship of the
hospital of St. John, Orford, in conjunction with
the hospital of Holy Trinity and St. James,
Dunwich. 1

A chapel of St. John Baptist was standing
in 1500 on the north side of the river. 2

60. THE HOSPITAL OF DOMUS DEI,
THETFORD

God's House, or Domus Dei, was a house of
early foundation. Blomefield believed that it
dated back to the days when William Rufus
removed the episcopal see from Thetford to
Norwich, 3 but Martin could find no sufficient
proof of this. 4 It was situated on the Suffolk
side of the borough ; the river washed its walls
on the north, and the east side fronted the
street.

It was at any rate well established before the
reign of Edward II, as it was found, in 1319,
that John de Warenne, earl of Surrey, held the
advowson of the God's Hospital, Thetford. 5
In that year a considerable store of cattle and
goods is described as having been acquired by
the prudence and frugality of William de Norton,
the late master, and left under the care of the
bishop ; his successor was enjoined not to
dispose by sale or donation of any of the
particulars of the inventory without leaving to
the house an equivalent. 6

The new master does not, however, appear
to have followed the good example of William
Norton ; for he is soon found to be holding
other preferment, and was probably non-resident.
In 1326 William Harding, master of God's
House, Thetford, and rector of Ccrncote,
Salisbury diocese, acknowledged a debt of eleven
marks due to one Stephen de Kettleburgh. 7
In the same year he was also warden of the
hospital of St. Julian, Thetford.

In 1335, John de Warenne obtained the
royal licence to transfer the hospital of God's
House with a'l its revenues and possessions to
the prior provincial of the Friars Preachers ; but
speedily changing his mind obtained another
licence for transferring it to the prior and canons
of the Holy Sepulchre, Thetford. 8 By this
arrangement it was covenanted that the priory
should find two chaplains to sing mass for the
soul of the founder of the hospital, and to find
sustenance and entertainment for three poor
men.

1 Pat. 13 Ric. II, pt. ii, m. 19, 17.
'Add MS. i9ioi,fol. 106.

3 Blomefield, Hist, of Norf. ii, 79.

4 Martin, Hist, of Thetford, 92.
6 Close, 12 Edw. II, m. 9.

6 Norw. Epis. Reg. i, 77.

7 Close, 19 Edw. II, m. 9.

8 Pat. 9 Edw. Ill, pt. ii, m. 26.

In 1347 Henry, duke of Lancaster, as patron,
confirmed to the prior and canons the gift of
the lands, tenements, and rents lately belonging
to the hospital of God's House, but excepted
the actual site of the hospital, which he conferred
upon the Friars Preachers. Two of the canons
were to sing daily mass in the conventual church
for the souls of the founders of the hospital.
The priory was also to find a house yearly for
three poor people from 9 November to 29 April,
giving to each of them nightly a loaf of good
rye bread, and a herring or two eggs. They
were also to provide three beds, and hot water
for washing their feet. This charter received
royal confirmation the following year. 9

61. THE HOSPITAL OF ST. JOHN,
THETFORD

There was a leper hospital dedicated in honour
of St. John on the Suffolk side of the town.
Martin gives references to it under the reigns
of Edward I, II, and III. In 1387 John of
Gaunt, as already detailed in the account of
the friary, gave the old parochial church of
St. John to the friars, which then became the
chapel of the hospital. At the time of the
dissolution it was demolished as part of the
friars' property, and the site was granted to
Sir Richard Fulmerston. 10

62. THE HOSPITAL OF SIBTON

There was a hospital near the gate of Sibton
Abbey. Though there is but little to put on
record about it, it is given separate mention, as
it had an income independent of the abbey.

Simon bishop of Norwich appropriated to it
the church of Cransford for the better support
of the inmates in the year 1264. "

There are slight remains on the site.

63. THE HOSPITAL OF ST. LEONARD,
SUDBURY

Most of our leper houses were of early
foundation, whilst the crusades were in progress,
but one was founded, about a mile outside
Sudbury, as late as 1272, by John Colneys or
Colness, its first governor or warden. Colneys
applied to Simon of Sudbury, then bishop of

9 Pat. 22 Edw. Ill, pt. i, m. 23.

10 Blomefield, Hist, of Norf. ii, 71-2 ; Martin,
Hist, of Thetford, 97-8. There is a certain amount
of confusion as to two leper hospitals, one of St. John,
and the other of St. John Baptist ; but the house
had possibly a double dedication.

11 Reg. Prior. Norw. vii, fol. 80, cited in Tanner,
Notitia, SufF. xxxviii, 2.

140

RELIGIOUS HOUSES

London, to draw up certain ordinances for its
rule. The bishop assented, and from his
ordinance, dated I May, 1372, we learn that
the bishop's parents, Nigel and Sara Theobald,
were also concerned in this charitable foundation.
It was laid down that there were to be for ever
three lepers, and after the death of John Colnevs
•one to be chosen governor whom the other two
were to obey ; that when a leper died or resigned
or was expelled, a third was to be chosen by the
•survivors within six months, but if any difficulty
arose they were to inform the mayor of Sud-
bury, and the spiritual father of the church of
St. Gregory was to put in another ; that the
profits of the hospital of St. Leonard were to be
divided into five parts, whereof the governor
was to have two parts, his two leper brethren
other two parts, and the fifth part to be used
in the repair of the premises ; that there was
to be a common chest in some church or safe
place in Sudbury wherein the fifth part and the
writings of the house were to be kept ; and that
the governor was to have one key of the chest,
and the other was to be in the hands of some
person deputed by the mayor of Sudbury. It
was also provided that if the statutes should not
be duly kept after the founder's decease, the
hospital revenues should be divided between the
church of St. Gregory and the chapel of
St. Anne annexed to the same in equal pro-
portions, for the souls of Colneys the founder,
and of Nigel and Sara Theobald, and all the
faithful departed. 1

The estates of the hospital were vested in
feoffees by deed of 16 January, 1445—6. In the
later corporation books of Sudbury there are
several references to the 'hospital called Colnes'

and lands adjoining. In 1619-20 'the little
house at the Colnes' was rebuilt. In 1657
John Rider was appointed governor of the
hospital in the place of Edward Stafford ; he
had to find 40J. to be of good behaviour. The
last person who bore the name of governor or
master was a man called Loveday ; he died in
18 1 3.

The following was the form of oath taken by
members of the hospital, on admittance : —

You shall swear that you will well and truly
observe all the ancient rules and orders of this house
(as governor or fellow of the same) so long as you
shall continue therein, according to the utmost of
your skill and knowledge ; you shall be obedient to
the members thereof as your state does require in
all things lawfull ; you shall quietly submit to all
such deprivation and expulsion as by competent
authority shall be inflicted on you, for such crimes
and misdemeanours as they shall judge worthy of the
same ; and all other rules and orders which shall
hereafter be made by sufficient authority for the due
governance and regulation of the said hospital you
peaceably acquiesce in — So help you God.

The oath, doubtless adapted from the original
one, was thus used in 1770, when Edmund
Andrews was governor, and Joseph Andrews
and George Gilbert fellows.-

By a scheme of the Charity Commissioners
of 1867 the net income of Colneys' charity
is applied towards the support of St. Leonard's
Cottage Hospital. This is one of the extra-
ordinarily rare instances of a medical hospital
escaping confiscation under Henry VIII and
Edward VI. It was probably spared as there
was no ground for supposing that any of the
slender income was used for ' chantry ' purposes. 3

COLLEGES

64. THE COLLEGE OF JESUS, BURY
ST. EDMUNDS

A college was founded at Bury in 1480 by
John Smyth, esquire, a wealthy burgess, as a
residence for certain chantry priests presided
over by a warden or master ; they were to say
divine service in the church of St. Mary and to
pray for the souls of the founder, of his wife
Anne, his parents John and Avice, and his
daughter Rose.

By his will dated 12 September, 1480, John
Smyth left 20c/. to every priest of the college
present 'at mynedirige,' and he further provided
that whensoever the college of priests became
incorporate and had royal licence to purchase or
hold property, then he desired his feoffees of the
manor of Hepworth, upon due request to them
by the master or president and fellowship
{pheliiicbep)oi the same, to deliver the said manor

1 Add. MS. 19078, fol. 376.

with its appurtenances to them for the sustenta-
tion of the said chantry priests ; he also made
a like provision with regard to his manor of
' Swyftys.' l

Six days after drafting his will, the founder
executed a deed conveying the manor of Swifts
to trustees, who were to assign all the profits to
the master or president of the college of priests
'newe builded within the town of Bury, to be
wholly applied to the building and sustention
and repair of the college,' reserving, however, to
himself for his life a yearly sum of 10 marks. 6

The royal licence was obtained in the follow-
ing year, founding a chantry and perpetual gild
of 'the sweet name of Jesus,' consisting of a
warden and society of six chaplains or priests,
who were to live together in a common man-

* Add. MS. 19078, fol. 377.

' Proc. Stiff. Arch. Inst, vii, 26S-74.

4 Tymms, Bu,y Wills, 56, 58.

5 Ibid. 64-8.

141

A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK

sion, to pray daily for the souls of John Smyth
(the deceased) and others, as well as for the
brethren and sisters of the gild, and to do other
works of piety. 1

The college received various small bequests
by wills of Bury townsmen. William Hony-
born, of Bury, dyer, in 1493, ' e ^ r I2 <^- ' t0 tne
gilde of the holy name of Jesu, holden at the
college.' John Coote, by will of 1 502, left
y. ±d. to the gild of St. Nicholas held in the
college, and also provided that 'at my thyrty day
the priests of the colage to have a dyner among
themseffes in the colage, after the discression of
myne executors and supervisor.' Edmund Lee
of Bury, esquire, in 1535, left 6;. %d. 'to the
company of the Jesus College in Bury, towards
their stoke for salte fyshe and lynge.' Thomas
Neche, master of the college, was one of the
witnesses of this will. 2

This college was suppressed by Edward VI.
The Chantry and College Commissioners of
2 Edward VI made the following report of this
establishment : —

The messuage called the Colledge wythe vj small
tenements in Burye. In feoffamente by oone William
Coote clerke to contynnewe for ever to the intente
that in the seid Capytall Messuage nowe called the
Colledge, all the priestes of the parysshe churches of
Sevnte Jaymes and Seynte Maryes in Bury should
contynually kepe & have their lodgings. And in iiij
of the seide small tenementes iiij poore mene should
have other dwellvnges free for ever. And thothcr
two tenementes to be letten yearly, and with the
money that shoulde growe of the farme, the seid vj
houses shoulde mayntayne the seid vj houses in
reparation. The whiche capytall messuage and ij
tenements bene at this daye and at all tymes sythe
decayse commytted to thuse aforeseide and noother.
And oone Thomas Neche clerke of thage of lxiii yeres
having cr. yerely in the name of a pencian owte of the
parsonage of Founcham All Seyntes, and hath the
parsonage of Trayton of the close yerely valew of vj //',
and xLr of a prebente in Staffordshire. A manne
beinge indifferently welle learned.'

The college is described as being distant two
furlongs from the parish church, and of the
annual value of 40J. The goods and household
stuff were valued at 77*. 2d., and a bell weighing
20 lb. at 31. 4-d.

Separate entry is made of a chantry endow-
ment of jT6 8j. \d. yearly value, for the master
or president of the college to say mass for the
soul of William Coote in the parish church of
St. Mary's, which was also held by Thomas
Neche.

Also of another chantry founded by John
Smyth for a chaplain of the college to say mass
in St. Mary's Church, of the value of £12. The
chantry priest was John Stacye, and the surplus
was to be used for the repairs of the college. 3

1 Pat. 21 Edw. IV, pt. 1, m. 5.

* Tymms, Bury Wills, 81, 92, 125, 127.

65. THE COLLEGE OF DENSTON

Edward IV, on 1 March, 1475, licensed Sir
John Howard, knight, and John Broughton the
younger, esquire, to found a perpetual chantry
or college of a warden and society of chaplains
to celebrate divine service daily at Denston, and
to do other works of piety according to their
ordinance, to be called ' Denston Chauntry.'
They were also licensed to grant in mortmain
to the warden and society possessions not held in
chief, to the value of £40 yearly. 4

It was endowed with the manor of Beau-
monde in Denston parish, and with lands in
Lilsey, Monks Eleigh, Groton, and Badley
Parva. 6

The Valor of 1535 mentions Peter Calcott
as then master of the college of Denston, of the
foundation of John Denston. The rectory of
Denston pertained to the college, but was then
in the hands of the king, and its value is not
given. The temporalities of the college were
valued at £25 gs. 2\d., but various outgoings,
including 4OJ. given to the poor on the anni-
versary of John Denston brought down the clear
annual value to £22 8s. fd. 6

In 1548 Denston is entered as a small college
consisting of a warden or master and two priests
or co-brethren. Richard Baldry, the master,
had a stipend of £10 and the two priests,
Richard Marshall and Robert Fisher, £5 each.
They served the parish church and had a
mansion house adjoining. The gross income
was there set down as £27 9;. i\d. and the net
income as fjll I Js. \\d? After suppression the
college property was assigned in 1548 to Thomas
and John Smith. 8

66. THE CARDINAL'S COLLEGE,
IPSWICH

A college of secular canons at

' Chant. Cert. 45, No. 44.

Ipswich to
which was attached a school was one of the two
considerable educational schemes projected by
Cardinal Wolsey. The college at Oxford came
eventually to a successful issue, but the college
at Ipswich perished ere it had come to maturity.
This college was erected on the site of the
dissolved priory of St. Peter and St. Paul. On
14 May, 1528, the king confirmed the bull of
Pope Clement for the suppression of this monas-
tery and the founding of the college at Ipswich.*
To help to find funds for this considerable pro-
ject, the pope also sanctioned the appropriation
to it of the Ipswich churches of St. Peter, St.

' Pat. 14 Edw. IV, pt. ii, m. 5.
4 Dugdale, Mon. vi, 1468.

6 Valor Eccl. (Rec. Com.), iii, 471.

7 Chant. Cert. 45, No. 25.
6 Proc. Arch. Inst, vi, 46.

9 Rymer, Foedera, xiv, 241.

142

RELIGIOUS HOUSES

Nicholas, St.-Mary-at-Quay, St. Clement, and
St. Matthew, and the small monasteries of Snape,
Dodnash, Wikes, Tiptree, Horkesley, Rumburgh,
Felixstowe, Bromhill, Blythburgh, and Mountjoy,
together with the various churches pertaining to
them. 1

The actual date of the laying of the foun-
dation stone is known from the inscription with
which it was at that time incised. The stone
was found in two pieces built up into a common
piece of walling in Woulfoun's Lane, in 1789,
and given to Christ Church, Oxford. It is in-
serted in the wall at the entrance to the Chapter
House, on the right-hand side. It bears the
following inscription: 'Anno Christi 1528, et
regni Henrici Octavi Regis Angliae 20 mensis
vero Junii 15, positum per Johannem Episcopum
Lidensem.' John Longland, bishop of Lincoln,
was also employed by the Cardinal to lay the
first stone of his college at Oxford. 2

The royal licence for the founding of this
college in Ipswich, the cardinal's birthplace,
granted in the same month as the laying
of the foundation stone, set forth that it
was to consist of one dean or master, twelve
priests (sacerdotes), eight clerks, eight singing boys
and poor scholars, and thirteen poor men, to
pray for the good estate of the king and cardinal,
and for the souls of the cardinal's parents, and
also of one undermaster (hipodidasculus) in gram-
mar for the said poor scholars and others coming
to the college from any part of the realm. This
licence also included a grant of incorporation for
the foundation, bearing the name of the Car-
dinal's College of St. Mary in Ipswich, with
mortmain licence to endow it to the annual
value of £100 for the erection of chantries and
appointment of anniversaries, etc. 3

Dr. William Capon, master of Jesus College,
Cambridge, was appointed dean, and on 3 July,
1528, a commission was nominated consisting
of Dr. Capon, Dr. Higden, dean of Cardinal's
College, Oxford, Dr. Stephen Gardiner and
others, to amend and reform the statutes of
the two colleges. On the same day the notarial
attestation of the foundation charter of Ipswich
College was made in the south gallery of
Hampton Court. 4

The exemption of the college from diocesan
jurisdiction was granted by a bull of Pope
Clement VII, which was confirmed by the king
on 20 August, 1528.*

A letter from the cardinal to the younger
countess of Oxford was written on 3 September,
asking her to send ' two bucks next Lady Day '
(Nativity of Blessed Virgin Mary, 8 September),

1 L. and P. Hen. FIII,'\y, pt. ii, 4229, 4259, 4297,
4307, 4424, 5076.

' Prcc. Suff. Arch. Inst, vi, 334-5.

J Pat. 20 Hen. VIII, pt. i, m. 32.

4 L. and P. Hen. Vlll, iv, pt. ii, 4460, 446 1.

Mbid. 4652.

to the college at Ipswich, for the entertainment
of Drs. Stevyns and Lee, whom he is sending
thither for the induction of certain priests, clerks,
and children, for the maintenance of God's ser-
vice there. Various presents for a great dinner
on this occasion also reached the college on
7 September, from the Duke of Norfolk, the Duke
of Suffolk, Sir Philip Booth, and others. 6

The newly appointed dean wrote at length to
VVolsey on 26 September, acknowledging the
receipt on 6 September of parcels of vestments
and plate, hangings, &c. Cromwell and Lee
and Stevyns, who brought the parcels, remained
in the college four days, and Cromwell was at
great pains in preparing the hangings and
benches for the hall, which was then well
trimmed. On Our Lady's Even, the dean, sub-
dean, six priests, eight clerks, nine choristers,
and all their servants, after evensong in the
college church (St. Peter's), repaired to Our
Lady's Chapel and sang evensong there. They
were accompanied by the bailiffs of the town, the
portmen, the prior of Christ Church (Holy
Trinity), and others. On 8 September it rained
so continuously that the procession through the
town had to be abandoned, but they made as
solemn a procession as they could in the college
church, all the honourable gentlemen of the
shire were there as well as the town officials, the
Bishop of Norwich, and the priors of Christ
Church and Butley. They all dined together
in the college. The dean considered the singing
men well chosen, but some of them said that
they had got better wages where they came
from. One man was not sufficient to keep the
church vestry clean, ring the bells, prepare the
altar lights, etc., therefore he had put in another
man and called him sexton. There were but
five priests under the sub-dean, too few to keep
three masses a day, and the sub-dean could not
attend as he was required to superintend the
buildings. Mr. Lentall was of much zeal with
the quire both for mattins and masses : ' there
shall be no better children in any place
in England than we shall have here shortly.'
He had made fifteen albs of the new cloth,
but there were many more to be made.
Nine bucks arrived for the Lady's Day, which
were distributed with money to make merry
withal to the chamberlains and head men of the
town, to the bailiffs and portmen's wives, and to
the curates. They also received coneys,
pheasants, quails, and a fat crane. One hundred
and twenty one tons of Caen stone had arrived,
and he expected a hundred more after Michael-
mas, and there was promise of a thousand tons
more before Easter. 7

With regard to the school attached to the
college, there is an interesting letter extant of

' Ibid. 4696, 4706.

7 Ibid. 4778. This letter is set forth at length
in Ellis, Orig. Let. (1st ser.), i, 185.

'43

A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK

William Goldwin, the schoolmaster, dated I O Jan-
uary, 1528-9, to Cardinal Wolsey. He ex-
pressed his gratitude and that of the people of
Ipswich, and sent specimens of the handwriting
of some of the boys, who, he hopes, will soon be
able to speak Italian ; the number is increasing,
so that the school-house is becoming too small. 1

A letter from William Brabazon to Cromwell
on 24 July, 1529, mentions that my lord's col-
lege at Ipswich is going on prosperously, and
' much of it above the ground, which is very
curious work.' The sub-dean, Air. Ellis, takes
the oversight of it ; he has stone and all other
necessaries, and they are working day and night. 2

In the following year came the fall of Wolsey,
and with his fall this unfinished college came to
an end. On the disgrace of its founder, the king
claimed all the founder's property.

On 14 November, 1530, the commissioners
made an inventory of all the plate and goods.
They seized a vast amount of church and domes-
tic plate, and after stripping the buildings of
everything of value, they charged Dean Capon
with having £1,000 of the cardinal's treasures in
his possession. Not believing his denial the
commissioners, with six yeomen of the guard
and eighteen other persons, waited five days on
the premises ere they left. On Sunday 2 1 No-
vember, members of the Duke of Norfolk's council
took possession of the buildings, and on the mor-
row the dean left for London. 3

In 1 531 the actual site of the college, formerly
the priory of St. Peter and St. Paul, was granted
to Thomas Alvard, one of the gentlemen ushers
of the king's chamber, together with all the
Ipswich property pertaining to ' the late Cardy-
nelles College.' 4 Other property of the college
was granted by patent to the provost and college
of Eton, 8 and yet more to the abbot and convent
of Waltham. 6 ' The very site,' says Mr. Wodder-
spoon, 'of the Cardinal's College becomes in a
brief space of time a spot for depositing of the
refuse and filth of the town.'

67. THE COLLEGE OF METTINGHAM 7

The college of Raveningham was founded on
24 July, 1350, by Sir John de Norwich, eldest
son of Sir Walter de Norwich and Catherine
his wife. It consisted of a master and eight
secular priests or canons who were to officiate in
the parish church of Raveningham for the weal
of the souls of the founder and Margaret his
wife, in honour of God and the Blessed Virgin,

1 L. and P. Hen. VIII, iv, pt. iii, 5159.
* Ibid. 5792.

s Wodderspoon, Mem. Ipstc. 327-8.
4 Pat. 23 Hen. VIII, pt. ii, m. 4.
4 Ibid. as. 27. 6 Ibid. m. 26.

; Blomefield, Hist, of Nor/, viii, 52-4; Dugdale,
Mon. vi, 1459 ; Taylor, Index Mon. 49.

St. Andrew the Apostle, and all saints. The
church was dedicated to the honour of St. Andrew,
but the collegiate house, according to the foun-
dation charter, was to be named after the Blessed
Virgin. 8

The college was well endowed by the founder
and his heirs with the manors of Lyng, Howe,
Blackworth, Hadeston, and Little Snoring, and
with the appropriation of the churches of Raven-
ingham and Norton Subcourse, 9 as well as with
lands and rents in various other parishes.

In 1382 there was a proposal to remove the
college to Mettingham Castle (Suffolk). On
5 July of that year John Plays, Robert Honeard,
and Roger de Boys, knights, and John de
Wolterton and Elias de Byntre, rectors of the
respective churches of Harpley and Carleton,
paid the immense sum of £866 1 35. \d. to the
crown for licence to transfer the chantry of eight
chaplains from Raveningham to Mettingham
Castle ; to increase the number of chaplains or
canons to thirteen, and to alienate in mortmain
to the college the said castle and 60 acres of land,
1 8 of meadow, 2 of pasture, £5 10s. in rents,
and much more land in various townships, three
parts of the manor of Bromfield, the manor of
Mellis, and the manor of Lyng, notwithstanding
that the manor last named is held of the Duke of
Brittany as of the honour of Richmond. 10

Some difficulty as to this transfer arose chiefly
through the opposition of the nuns of Bungay,
who had the appropriation of the church of
Mettingham, and the college continued at
Raveningham for several years after this date.
On 6 August, 1387, the same applicants ob-
tained a grant from the king, on the payment
of the modest fee of one mark in the hanaper, to-
transfer the chantry of Sir John de Norwich's
foundation from Raveningham, where it still was,
to the church which was then being newly built
in the rectory of Norton Subcourse, and that in
consideration of the great fine of 1382 the master
and twelve chaplains and their successors at
Norton should hold all the lands and possessions
granted to the chantry at Raveningham with
the castle of Mettingham and all lands and
possessions granted when it was proposed to
move the college to that castle. 11

A proposition for this transference to Norton
had been made in the reign of Edward III and
licence obtained in 1 37 1, but it came to nought. 12
Sir John de Norwich of Mettingham Castle, by
will of 1373, left his body to be buried in
Raveningham church by the side of his father
Sir Walter, there to rest till it could be moved
to the new church of Norton Subcourse, to the
building of which he bequeathed £450.

8 Weever, Funeral Monuments, 365.

3 Norw. Epis. Reg. iv, fol. 31, 32.
"'Pat. 6 Ric. II, pt. i, m. 35.
11 Ibid. 11 Ric. II, pt. i, m. 25.
" Ibid. 4-5 Edw. Ill, pt. ii, m. 35.

144

RELIGIOUS HOUSES

On the death of Sir John de Norwich, the
last heir male of the family, his cousin, Katharine
<Je Brews, was found heir ; Sir John Plays and
Sir Robert Howard and the others who obtained
licence for the removal of the college to Metting-
ham in 1382, and to Norton in 1387, were that
lady's trustees, on whom she settled the college's
inheritance.

On the removal of the master and twelve
chaplains to Norton the college still retained
the title of the place where it was first founded ;
the society was termed ' Ecclesia Collegiata
S. Marie de Raveningham in Norton Soupecors.'
But the college merely tarried at Norton for
seven years ; in I 394 it was eventually removed
to the castle of Mettingham, where it remained
until its dissolution. 1

Richard Shelton, the master, and nine chap-
lains signed their acknowledgement of the royal
supremacy of 28 September, 1534. 2

The Valor of 1535, when Richard Skelton
was master, gives the clear annual value of the
temporalities in Suffolk and Norfolk of the college
of the Blessed Virgin of Mettingham as
j^i g 1 10s. o\d. and of the rectories of Raven-
ingham and Norton as £10 I js. 5^., giving a
total clear annual value of ^202 71. $%d. It also
appears from the Valor that the college supported
fourteen boys in the house and gave them
education as well as board, lodging, and clothes,
at an annual charge of £28.

The college was surrendered to the crown on
8 April, 1542. The surrender was signed by
Thomas, bishop of Ipswich, as master or warden,
with the consent of his fellows or chaplains. 3
On 14 April of the same year the college with
all its possessions was granted to Sir Anthony
Denny. 4

This Denny was clerk of the Privy Chamber
and keeper of Westminster Palace, and profited
much by monastic and collegiate plunder. A
letter from Robert Dacres of the Privy Council
to Anthony Denny, dated 13 May, 1542, states
that his profit had been advanced as well among
the chaplains of the college as the tenants.
There were secured for him two great chalices
and a great pix of silver and parcel gilt, divers
rich corporas cases and nineteen massive silver
spoons, as well as palls of silk, &c. The college,
notwithstanding the obsequious and servile word-
ing of the ' voluntary ' surrender, had made some
endeavour to conceal certain church goods and
other property from the legalized marauders ;
but ' one simple priest being well examined gave
light to all these things, and then all the other
priests confessed.' 6

1 Pat. 18 Ric. II, pt. i, m. 14.
* Dep. Keeper's Rep. vii, App. ii, 86.
' Rymer, Focdera, xiv, 746-7, where the document
lis cited at length.

' Pat. 33 Hen. VIII, pt. vi, m. 3.
s L. and P. Hen. Fill, xvii, 322.

Masters of Raveningham College •

Thomas Boyton, 1349
Alexander de Boyne, 1355
Adam Wyard, 1 36 1
John de Carlton Rode, 1375
Roger Wiltey, 1380

68. THE COLLEGE OF STOKE BY
CLARE

Richard de Clare, earl of Hereford, removed,
in 1 1 24, the monks of Bee whom his father
had established in the castle of Clare to the
town of Stoke. This alien priory was naturalized
in 1395 ; 7 but in 141 5 Edmund Mortimer, earl
of March, its then patron, caused it to be
changed into a college of secular priests or
canons, by virtue of a bull from Pope John XXIII,
ratified by Pope Martin V. 8

The first charter of foundation was not sealed
by the earl until 9 May, 1 419 ; 9 and the seal of
the college was attached to the statutes by Thomas
Barnsley, the first dean, on 28 January, 1422— 3. 10

It was provided by the statutes that the college
should consist of a dean and six canons, who
were to form the chapter, to whom obedience
was due from the inferior ministers, and whose
order in quire, chapter, and procession is exactly
set forth. They were all to reside a full thirty-
two weeks yearly, the dean or vice-dean regulating
the period of residence for each ; every canon in
residence was, on every double feast, to attend
mattins, high mass, evensong, and compline, and
on every festival mattins or mass or one of the
hours ; the dean was to hold for the college all
the tithes and appurtenances of the parish
churches of Stoke and Honydon, and all the
tithes of the manors of Arbury and of Chilton ;
the dean's residence was to be in a manse called
' Locus Decani,' and he was to receive annually
20 marks ; the prebends allotted to each stall,
three on the south side and three on the north,
are all set forth, the prebendary of the first stall
on the north side having also at his disposal the
chapel of the Blessed Virgin of Stoke ; neither
the dean nor canons were to be in bed beyond
six o'clock in the morning, or at the latest half
past six, save if oppressed by old age or notable
infirmity ; any canon absent from divine offices
but found present at table at meal times was to
be punished by the dean or vice-dean.

' From Blomefield, corrected by the episcopal
registers.

7 The making denizen of this alien priory of
St. John Baptist is set forth at great length on the
patent rolls. To secure this privilege from the crown,
Richard Cotesford, the English-born prior, was re-
quired to pay 1,000 marks, at the rate of 100 marks
a year, towards * the new work ' at St. Peter's,
Westminster. Pat. 19 Ric. II. pt. i, m. 8.

8 Cott. MS. Vit. D. xii, fol. 73, 79.

9 Ibid. fol. j}d. 10 Ibid. fol. 81.

145

A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK

There were also to be eight vicars and two
vipper clerks sworn to continual residence, and
instructed in plain song and part-song (in piano
cantu et dhcantu) ; five chorister boys of good
life to help in singing and to serve in quire, each
to receive five marks a year, or at least food and
clothing and all necessaries ; vicars or choristers
absent from mattins, mass, or evensong to be fined
one penny, from the other hours a farthing, the
fines to be used for buying church ornaments.
There were to be, in addition, two under clerks,
perpetually resident, to act as keepers of the
vestments, bellringers, lamp-trimmers, door-
keepers, clock-winders, &c. The mattins bell
was to be rung at five and the last stroke at six ;
high mass to be finished at 1 1 a.m. and evensong
at 5 p.m. All services were to follow the use
of Sarum. The mass of Our Lady to be sung
daily as well as the mass of the day, save when
the mass of the dav was of the Blessed Virgin,
and then the second mass was to be of Requiem.
Mattins and evensong were to be sung daily
immediately after the ringing of the bell, save in
Lent, when evensong of Our Lady was to follow
evensong of the day. The canons were to wear
grey almuces and the vicars black, and both
were to wear black copes and white surplices at
mattins, mass, and the other hours, after the
manner of other colleges. A master was to be
appointed at 40J. salary to teach the boys reading,
plain song, part-song, &c, and to give his ex-
clusive time to them, seeing after their clothes,
beds, and other necessaries.

Every evening at eight the curfew bell was to
be rung for a sufficient time to admit of walking
from the chapel of St. Mary to the college, and
when the bell finished every outer door was to
be fastened, and no one of the household of the
college, from canon to chorister, was to be per-
mitted to be outside the house save by special
permission of the dean or vice-dean. No canon,
vicar, or clerk was to frequent taverns at Stoke
or Ash ; a canon thus offending to be suspended
for a year, and other minister to be expelled.
No canon (except he had an income of £40 a
year), nor vicar, nor clerk was to hunt ; nor were
greyhounds or any kind of hunting dogs to be
kept within the college save by the dean, whose
dogs were not to exceed four. No canon nor
minister of the college was to carry arms of any
kind, either defensive or offensive, within the
college, under pain, if a canon, of forfeiting the
arms to the dean for the first offence, and paying
a fine of 20j. to the church fabric for a second
offence ; a vicar or clerk thus acting was to be ex-
pelled. Other statutes dealt with striking blows,
incontinency, slander, and debts ; the attaining
to a thorough knowledge of vocal and instru-
mental music ; the offices of verger and janitor,
with their respective duties and emoluments ;
the division and cultivation of the vicars' garden ;
the common seal, and its custody ; the rendering
of annual accounts ; the arrangement of the

146

masses ; the dining in common hall, and the
reading of the Bible at meals ; leave of absence
for eight weeks for a vicar, and six weeks for a
clerk ; the use of special antiphons ; the ringing
or causing to be rung of a bell on the chancel
gable (of such sound that it would carry half a
mile) by each priest when about to celebrate
mass ; the giving of a cope of 40;. value by
each canon within the year of his appointment ;
the election of dean and canons on a vacancy,
and the election of vicars, clerks, and choristers ;
the assigning of the churches of Gazeley,
Crimplesham, and Bures, and various pensions,
&c. for the sustenance of the vicars ; the giving
to the college by each vicar within a year of his
appointment of six silver spoons, or 13*. 4^. to
purchase them ; and the oath to be taken by
each member of the college.

The last of all these numerous statutes provided
that daily, immediately after compline, there shall
be sung in the Lady chapel, by all the ministers
present, the antiphon of the Blessed Virgin,
namely, Saint Regina, &c. It is noted that this
one statute was added at the special petition of
Richard Flemyng, bishop of Lincoln, who pro-
cured the confirmation of the statutes by Pope
Martin. 1

These statutes were slightly amended from
time to time, and the number of the prebends
augmented as benefactions increased. 2

The clear annual value of the college of St.
John Baptist, Stoke, was shown by the Valor of
1535 to be ^324 4*. \\d. The temporalities
in Suffolk, Essex, Norfolk, and Hertfordshire
brought in an income of ^99 lis. ~j\d. The
spiritualities produced ^268 4;., and included
the Essex rectories of Great Dunmow, Thaxted,
Bardfield Magna, Bardfield Saling, Wetherfield,
Finchingfield, and Bures ; the Gloucestershire
rectory of Bisley ; the Norfolk rectory of
Crimplesham, and the Suffolk rectories of Gaze-
ley, Cavenham, Hundon, and Stoke ; together
with a great number of pensions or portions from
other churches. The offerings at the image of
the Blessed Virgin within her chapel in Carte-
strete, Stoke, averaged 40$. a year. 3

The church of Great Dunmow had been
appropriated to the college in 148 1, and that of
Wetherfield in 1503. 4

1 These elaborate statutes are set forth in full in
Latin in Dugdale, Mon. vi, 1417-23. There is an
English translation of them. Add. MS. 19103,87-95.

2 The institutions in the Norwich diocesan register
of some fifty years later record admission to the sixth
stall on the dean's side (the dean taking the first),
and to the fifth stall on the north side, so there must
have been at one time ten prebendaries.

3 Valor Eccl. (Rec. Com.), 469-71. There were
then six prebendaries and a canon.

' Parker MSS. C. C. C. Camb. cviii, 2-3. There
is much pertaining to the endowments and statutes
of Stoke College in Parker's noble collection of MSS.
They are numbered cviii, 2-4, 16-18, 22-40
clxx, 137. See Nasmyth's Catalogue (1777).

RELIGIOUS HOUSES

The college was visited in February, 1493, by
Archdeacon Goldwell, as commissary for his
brother the bishop. The visitation was attended
by Richard Edenham, bishop of Bangor (1465—
1496), who held the deanery, and six canons,
together with three vicars, two ' conducts,' six
•clerks, a verger, and five choristers. There was
no reform needed. 1

All the members of the college were summoned
to a visitation held by Bishop Nykke in the Lady
Chapel of Sudbury College in June, 15 14. The
vicars-choral were first examined ; their testi-
mony was that everything was laudably conducted,
but that the number of the vicars had been re-
duced from eight to six for many years, owing
to insufficiency of income ; one of their number
complained that their statutory privilege of being
absent for eight weeks in the year without any
diminution of stipend was no longer observed.
Bishop Edenham, as dean, made a satisfactory
report. Thomas Whitehead, prebendary of the
second stall on the south side, and Thomas
Wardell, prebendary of the second stall on the
north side, stated that the book of the statutes
had been suspiciously erased and interlined,
particularly in the parts relative to the residence
of the canons and vicars. Another of the pre-
bendaries complained that the dean and Thomas
Whitehead had been illegally felling much
timber and applying it to the repairs of a mill,
•whereas the woods were only to be used for the
repairs of the college and its houses ; also that
Whitehead had carried ofF much pertaining to
the college for the repair of his benefice of Bird-
brook. The same prebendary, William Wiott,
also stated that Whitehead lived scandalously at
his benefice. A fourth prebendary said that the
erasures in the book of the statutes led to many
disputes ; and that although there were but six
vicars instead of eight, there were nevertheless
four clerks serving in quire, although the statutes
only provided for two. It was also alleged that
profits of the appropriated churches of Dunmow
and Bisley, formerly assigned for the augmenta-
tion of the vicars, were now divided among the
canons. The bishop was evidently not satisfied,
and prorogued his visitation to the next feast of
the Annunciation. 2

The next recorded visitation was held in
June, 1520, when the suffragan Bishop of Chal-
cedon and two other commissaries were the
visitors. The vicars had been reduced from
eight to five, for whose support there was scarcely
sufficient ; nevertheless the 'conducts' or clerks
had been increased in numbers. The fellows or
prebendaries repeated their complaints as to the
tampering with the book of the statutes, and
consequent disputes. The visitation was pro-
rogued until Michaelmas. 3

In April, 1 521, the master and fellows of

1 Jessopp, Visit. 42-3.
'Ibid. 81-3.

Stoke agreed to a revision of their statutes, in the
presence of the bishop's commissary, on account
of the erasures and interlineations in the original
copy ; they promised to abide by any decision at
which the bishop might arrive. 4

Five years later, namely on 12 July, 1526,
the bishop in person visited the college. Of the
beginning of this visitation an unusually detailed
account is preserved in the register. It was held
in the chapter-house, or, as the bishop's scribe
explains it, ' in the vestry which they hold to
be a chapter-house in the collegiate church of
Stoke.' Thomas Whitehead, the senior canon,
who had held a prebend here for twenty-nine
years, in the presence and with the consent of
three other canons, asserted openly before the
diocesan, that Richard Griffith, receiver-general
and secretary of Queen Katharine, had at her
command forcibly taken away, in spite of their
protests, the statutes and muniments of the
college, namely the book of the statutes, the bull
of Pope John XXII as to the founding of the
college with bulla attached, the confirmation of
Henry V, the charter of Edmund earl of March,
and the charter of Richard duke of York, with
other muniments and evidences, and the common
seal with three other seals. The visitation notes
continue, Et dicit magister IVhitehed, and then
suddenly break off.

At this point in the visitation a startling in-
cident occurred. A letter from the cardinal was
handed to the bishop. Cardinal Wolsey was at
this time endeavouring to carry out his scheme
of suppressing various small religious houses that
seemed to be of little use, in favour of establishing
the two large collegiate foundations at Ipswich
and Oxford. The pope had granted him ample
powers, and he had cast his eyes on the wealthy
college of Stoke. Learning that the bishop of
Norwich was making a visitation tour, it became
a matter of some moment to check it. The
cardinal's commissioners were anxious to make
out a good case for the suppression of the college,
and probably had their brief prepared ; more-
over the non-resident master or dean of the
college, ' no estimable person,' had been already
gained over. But the college was now under
the patronage of the queens of England, and
when Queen Katharine learnt what was con-
templated she acted with prompt decision, sent
down her faithful servant Griffith and took
possession of the title deeds. Meanwhile, on
8 July, the cardinal wrote to the dean announ-
cing that he was about to visit the college on
1 August, with powers of a legate a latere.
This important and ominous letter seems to have
been handed to the bishop just after he had
begun his visitation. Cardinal Wolsey had full
power as legate to inhibit the bishop visiting, but
the Bishop of Norwich was on safe ground in
considering that a letter addressed to the dean of

* Ibid. 132-4.

Ibid.

95-

147

A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK

the college did not concern him, and he continued
the visitation regardless of the contents. The
letter, however, of the cardinal to the dean was
set forth at length by the bishop's scribe in his
register ; it stated that the religious life of the
college was said to have declined, and the dean
and canons were cited to appear on I August
before the cardinal's commissioners. This letter
had reached the college on 1 1 July.

The notes of the interrupted but continued
visitation show that Dr. William Greene, the
dean, was not present, but thai six prebendaries
were in attendance, with eight vicars and five
' conducts ' or lay stipendiaries. The result of
the several examination of the canons and the
vicars is set forth in detail. It was shown that
the janitor of the college, who ought to be in resid-
ence, was in attendance on the queen ; that the
dean, though bound to reside, was non-resident
and in other ways broke the statutes ; that George
Gelibrond, one of the vicars who had been forced
upon them by the present dean, though incap-
able of singing, was a most quarrelsome and dis-
creditable person ; and that the dean had presented
him to the vicarage of Stoke under his seal,
without the consent of the chapter, and had also
dismissed a vicar of the college without cause
and without the leave of the chapter. All the
vicars united in complaining of Gelibrond, most
of them also stating that he defamed Cardinal
Wolsey. Three slightly different versions in
English are entered of the actual words used by
Gelibrond when defaming the cardinal, the
most pungent is : 'It is a pitie that he berith
the rule that he doithe, and if otheremen wolde
doo as I wolde, he shoulde be plucked out of his
house by the eyres. I wolde to God there were
xl thousand of my mynde.'

The bishop's injunctions were that if the dean
did not reside he was only to receive ^20 a year
out of the profits, according to the statutes; that
the chancel of Clare was to be repaired at the
dean's expense, before next All Saints' day ; that
the janitor was to reside and see to his duty,
otherwise to forfeit his salary ; that one of the
clerks was to sleep and remain all night in the
vestry ; that the verger was to be in attendance
and exercise his office in the same manner as at
the collegiate church of St. Stephen, West-
minster, or of Windsor ; and that George Geli-
brond, irregularly admitted, was to be expelled
from his stall. This last injunction was after-
wards withdrawn in favour of a monition.
Other injunctions related to inventories, custody
of seals, the recovery of the muniments, &c. x

The bishop left Stoke on 1 5 July and visited
other Norfolk houses, arriving at Thompson
college on 21 July. When there, one John
Stacy, of Norwich, a messenger of the cardinal,
brought him a letter from Wolsey, dated 2 July,
concerning the visitation of Stoke, which had

been for some unknown reason delayed. To
this letter the bishop wrote a wary reply, stating
the exact hour that the letter reached him,
adding that he had already visited Stoke, but
saying nothing as to his injunctions. Mean-
while the bishop took action against Dr. Greene,
the dean of the college, whom Dr. Jessopp>
describes as ' an unprincipled rogue, ready to
sell himself and the college for what he could
get.'

Canon Kiel, supported by two of his col-
leagues, had testified that the dean had been
duly cited to the bishop's visitation, and produced
a letter in which Dr. Greene not only declared
his own intention of being absent, but urged his.
fellows to resist the visit. The dean was then
cited to appear before the bishop in the chapel
of his palace at Norwich on 20 August. At
the appointed time Canon Kiel appeared and
testified that the dean's answer to him was ' I
can not appear, nor will not appear, and ye were
to blame and folis any of you to tappere before
my lorde, for I send you letter to the contrary.'
Whereupon, Dr. Greene was formally pro-
nounced contumacious and suspended from cele-
brating divine service and cited to appear before
the bishop in the manor chapel of Hoxne on
Wednesday after next Mid-Lent Sunday to
show cause why graver action should not be
taken. Canon Gilbert Latham, the only one of
the college who supported the dean in sub-
serviency to the cardinal, was also at the same
time pronounced contumacious. 2

It is not known precisely what next took
place, but the aged diocesan and the queen
evidently succeeded in checkmating Wolsey so
far as the immediate suppression of Stoke College
was concerned, for it lasted until the days of
Edward VI.

The college was again visited by the diocesan
on 10 July, 1532, when Canon Whitehead,
who had sent the book of the statutes to London,
was ordered to restore it before Michaelmas
under pain of excommunication. There were
not many complaints, but it is clear from one of
the entries that Cardinal Wolsey did visit the
college either in 1526 or at some subsequent
date. The bishop, in consequence of ^13
having been paid to the king that year in dis-
charge of procuration fees due at the visitation
of the late cardinal, and of jewels to the value of
forty marks having been taken by thieves out of
the vestry, ordered that there was to be no
division that year of the residue of the profits of
the college among the residentiaries. He
further enjoined that women were not to fetch
linen for washing from the houses of the vicars,
nor were they to serve in the houses of the
canons; that the muniments were to be kept
under three locks of diverse workmanship ; that
one of the clerks was always to sleep at night

1 Jessopp, Visit. 226-39.

Ibid.

2 54-59-

148

RELIGIOUS HOUSES

in the vestry, particularly in the winter season ;
and that an annual statement of accounts was to
be made immediately before the feast of the
Purification. 1

The state papers show that the corruption of
this college continued. Dean Robert Shorton,
writing to Cromwell on 14 August, 1535, said
that he had received his letter in favour of
Gilbert Latham, a canon of the college, asking
for his restoration to the college dividends. For
once, at all events, in his life, Cromwell met
with no subserviency. The dean flatly refused
to allow Latham a penny. To do so would be
contrary to statute and custom. There could
be no division until repairs were deducted. In
a year and a half the canons had only spent ^4
in repairs, whereas, according to custom, they
should have spent £14-- Latham had got into
his hands £i~], and Westby as much, against
the statutes. This would not be suffered ;
moreover if they, dean and canon, divided
equally, each share would not come to as much
as £5 or £6. 2

Dean Shorton could not have had much time
to give to the college affairs, for he was a bad
pluralist, being at the same time master of St.
John's College, Cambridge, and canon of York,
as well as holding a benefice in Durham diocese.
But he died shortly after rebuffing Cromwell,
namely, on 17 October, 1535. Ley ton, Crom-
well's subsequent unprincipled tool against the
monasteries, wrote to him in October, saying
that Dean Shorton was in articulo mortis,
begging for a letter commending him to the
bishop of Durham for this benefice. He asked
for the letter to be delivered to the bearer, who
would ride with it to Stoke College, 'and as
soon as the dean is dead, ride on with it to
Durham.' 3

The vacancy caused by the death of Dean
Shorton was filled by the appointment of
Matthew Parker, the future archbishop. He
was presented on 4 November, 1535. 4 In 1537
Matthew Parker procured the assent of his
chapter to a reformation of the statutes. 8

An inventory of the goods of Stoke College
was drawn up on 8 December, 1547. There
was a very rich supply of vestments, including
thirteen suits for priest, deacon, and subdeacon,
with albs ; fifty-five copes, seventeen single
vestments, and a considerable number of altar
cloths, corporas cases, etc. The books in the
library, ' with ther cheres, tables, yrons, and
waynscott,' were valued at ^5. The silver
plate, including four chalices, a cross, two
candlesticks, cruets, pix, &c. was divided into

1 Jessopp, Visit. 299-301.
* L. and P. Hen. Vlll, ix, 92.
'Ibid. 632.

4 Parker MSS. (C.C.C. Camb.), cviii, 6.

5 Ibid. Parker carried out this reform in the hope
of saving the college. Strvpe, Life of Parker, 3.

gilt, parcel-gilt, and white ; its total weight was
461 oz.

There was also a considerable supply of
church ornaments in latten. There was a pair
of organs in the rood loft, another in the quire,
and two pairs in the Lady chapel. In the tower
were six great bells and a little sanctus bell, and
'a clock parfect striking on ye great bell.'
The destruction contemplated is shown by
the fact that twenty-two gravestones with their
brasses were valued at ^3 135. 4^. and even 'the
foundar's tombe ' at 20;. 6

The following details appear in the certi-
ficate of this college taken by the commissioners
in 1548. 7

'The College of Seynte John Baptiste in
Stoke nexte Clare, founded by Edmund yerle of
the Marches and Ulton, lord of Wigmore and
of Clare,' 19 May, 2 Henry V, to find a dean,
six canons, eight vicars, seven chief clerks, two
meaner clerks, one verger, one porter, and five
choristers. Since the foundation, the numbers
had been twice augmented ; in the first place by
William Pykenham, sometime dean, for another
vicar, to be vicar to the dean and his successors ;
and in the second place by William Lowell,
sometime verger, for a deacon of the college.
The yearly value was declared at ^383 2;. b\d.
and the clear value ^314 \\s. tid. There were
490 oz. of plate, ornaments, and household stuff,
valued at ^69 os. 8d.; lead remaining 62 fothers,
and bells weighing 8 tons, 2 cwt. 26 li. Arrears
of rent amounted to £105 <)s. id.

Matthew Parker, D.D., the dean, aged 48,
drew ^67 Os. 2d. and held in addition divers
pensions of the annual value of ^30. The
stipends and pensions of the other members of the
establishment, including the schoolmasters of the
college and of the free school are also given in
detail.

On the suppression of the college in this year,
it was granted to Sir John Cheke and Walter
Mildmay. A pension of ^40 was secured for
Dean Parker. 8

Deans 9 of the College of Stoke by Clare

Thomas Barnesley, A.M. 1415-54
Walter Blaket, A.M. 1454-61
William Welflet, S.T.P. 1461-9
Richard Edenham, S.T.P. 1470-93 (Bishop
of Bangor)

6 Weever, Funeral Monuments, 742-3, says that there
were buried in this college Sir Edward Mortimer, the
last earl of March, Sir Thomas Grey, knight, and his
first wife, and Sir Thomas Clopton, and Ada his wife.
The Duke of Norfolk, writing to Dean Parker in
1540, expressed his desire to be buried in the
collegiate church among his ancestors.

; Chant. Cert. 45, No. 47.

s Hook, Archbishops of Cant, ix, 82.

9 This list is taken from that drawn up by Arch-
bishop Parker MSS. (C.C.C. Camb.) cviii, 1 I.

149

A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK

William Pikynham, LL.D. 1493-7
John Ednam, S.T.P. 1497-15 17
Robert Bekinsawe, S.T.P. 1517-25
William Greene, S.T.P. 1525-9
Robert Shorton, S.T.P. 1529-35
Matthew Parker, S.T.P. 1535

There are numerous impressions of the seal
ad urn hi i of this college attached to various
Harleian charters. It is a pointed oval, bearing
the head of St. John Baptist, with rays and
large nimbus ; there is a flowering sprig above
and below the head. Legend : —

. 1

sigillu : COLLEGII : DE : STOKE : AD : CAUSAS :

69. THE COLLEGE OF SUDBURY

There lived at Sudbury in the first half of the
fourteenth century, close to the old church of
St. Gregory, a worthy burgher, Nigel Theobald, a
person of some position and one of the leading wool
merchants in the county of Suffolk. 2 To Nigel and
Sara his wife were born two sons, Simon of
Sudbury and John of Chertsey. The eldest
son, distinguished for his learning, was conse-
crated bishop of London in 1361, and translated
to the primatial see of Canterbury in 1375.

Among the records of the borough of Sudbury
is a grant of land near the croft adjoining his
father's house, which was assigned to Simon the
future archbishop by Hugh de Dedlyn in 1339. 3
On this plot of land and on the site of their
father's house, the two brothers Simon and John
founded the college of St. Gregory, a charter
granting the requisite permission being sealed by
Edward III on 21 February, 1374-5. In the
previous year the brothers had obtained the
advowson of the church of St. Gregory from the
prioress, prior, and convent of Nun Eaton. The
advowson and appropriation of the church were
to be put in the hands of a community of chap-
lains, one of whom was to be warden. 4

A deed dated 9 August, 1375, when Simon
had become archbishop, was enrolled between
Simon and his brother John, of the one part,
and Henry bishop of Norwich, of the other part,
for the actual erection of the college, with the
licence of the latter prelate, who secured for
himself the sum of two marks and for the prior
and chapter of Norwich five shillings annually as
an acknowledgement. This licence was con-
firmed in 1 38 1. 6

In March, 1380, licence was granted for the
alienation to the college by the joint founders, of
the manors of Balidon and Middleton, 570 acres

1 Harl. Chart. 442a, 32-50 ; B.M. Cast, lxxiii, 13.
' Close, 13 Edw. Ill, pt. ii, m. 34 ; 14 Edw. Ill,
pt. i, m. I ; 15 Edw. Ill, pt. ii.
1 Proc. Suff. Arch. Inst, vii, 24.
4 Pat. 49 Edw. Ill, pt. i, m. 29.
6 Norw. Epis. Reg. vi.

of land, &c, of the yearly value of £ij Os. g^d."
There were further grants in the following
year of a messuage and three shops in
St. Michael's, Cornhill, London, and of over
200 acres of land in Sudbury and other places in
Suffolk, which were the endowment of the
priory of Edwardston (commonly called the
priory of St. Bartholomew, Sudbury), a cell of
the abbey of Westminster. 7

In the college the warden lived, with five
secular canons and three chaplains ; they kept
the canonical hours and celebrated in the adjoin-
ing church of St. Gregory.

In 1384 the endowments of the college were
increased by the alienation to the warden and
chaplains, by John Chertsey and John Renny-
shale, of the manor of Braundon, Essex, of the
yearly value of £12 51. I id?

The Valor of 1535 shows that the college
was then in receipt of ^37 oj. ofrf. from houses,
lands, rents, &c, in Sudbury and the Sudbury
manor of Neles ; of £70 is. 4^d. from lands in
Essex ; and of £10, from property in London.
In spiritualities there was the further income of
j£i5 is. \d. from the church of Sudbury with
its chapel of St. Peter, and a small pension from
Cornard Parva. The gross annual value was
£iit1 is. yd., and the net value ^122 18*. yl?

Archdeacon Goldwell visited this college as
commissary of his brother in 1493.

Thomas Aleyn, the master, presented his
accounts, and eight other fellows attended ; it
was found that no reform was needed. 10 The
next recorded visitation was in 1 5 14, by Bishop
Nykke in person. Master John Carver, and
eight fellows were examined ; all declared that
everything was in good order, save that there
was a debt of £1^. The bishop enjoined on
the master and fellows to prepare a tripartite
indenture of the jewels and movable goods of
the college, whereof one part was to be handed
to the bishop at his next visit. 11

At the visitation of 16 June, 1520, Richard
Eden, the master, although he had been duly cited,
made no appearance either personally or by
proctor. His name was again called on the
following day, and as there was again no ap-
pearance, the bishop excommunicated him.
John White, aged 80, testified that he had
been a fellow of Sudbury for 50 years ; he said
they lacked three fellows of their full foundation
number, but they had two • conducts ' or
stipendiaries in their place ; that one of the
fellows had been acting as chantry priest at
Melford for five years ; and that divine worship
was duly observed ; and that all temporal mat-

6 Pat. 3 Ric. II, pt. i, m. 1 ; pt. ii, m. 17.

7 Ibid. 4 Ric. II, pt. i, m. 11. See previous
account of the priory.

b Ibid. 7 Ric. II, pt. ii, m. 29.

9 Valor Eccl. (Rec. Com.), iii, 456.

10 Jcssopp, Visit. 41-2. " Ibid. 80.

ISO

RELIGIOUS HOUSES

ters were well ordered at the college and that
they were out of debt. Thomas Legate, the
college steward, who had been a fellow for
I 2 years, gave a good report of everything, save
that the statute as to their dress being of one
colour and pattern was not observed. William
Tublayne, who had been fellow for 12 or
13 years, William Nutman for 7 years, and
John Sickling for 10 years, all made favourable
reports. 1

The bishop next visited Sudbury College on
10 July, 1526, when Richard Eden, the master,
was in attendance ; he was examined and gave
an undeviating favourable report of everything
pertaining to the house. But the bishop, acting
apparently on private information, 2 contented
himself on that occasion with the master's
testimony, and prorogued the visitation, adjourn-
ing it until after the Michaelmas synod. On
the visitation being resumed, evidence was given
of great disorder. The master was absent, and
Thomas Legate, a fellow and president in the
master's absence, deposed that annual accounts
were not rendered and that the fellows were
ignorant of the state of the house, that he
believed they were in debt, and that Nutman,
the steward, was much in fault. He also com-
plained of the almost daily quarrels and disputes
between Nutman and Sickling, another of the
fellows. William Tublayne also complained of
Nutman, stating that he neglected to pay their
quarterly stipend properly, and did not attend to
the repairs of the manors, farms, and granges.
Nutman deposed that all was well, save that the
house was in debt. Sickling said that he had not
heard or seen any accounts for 14 years, and
that the steward made no monthly returns as he
was ordered by the statutes, that their stipends
were not properly paid, and that there was a
niggardly supply of provisions. Thomas Coche
alias Kerver, a former fellow, had provided the
infirmary with feather beds and other bedding,
but they were not at the service of the fellows
when ill. Robert Chickering, another fellow,
stated that the manor houses, granges, and other
houses belonging to the college were in a
grievous state of dilapidation, through the neg-
ligence of the steward, that the agriculture of
the college property was in a sad plight, and that
(heir food was sparse and unhealthy, all owing
to the bad management of the same official,
who refused to supply any accounts. William
Fisher, another fellow, testified in a like manner.
The injunctions consequent on this visitation
are missing. 3

The last visitation of this college, prior to its
dissolution, was made on 7 July, 1532.
Thomas Legate, the sub-warden, testified that
the number of the fellows was defective. There
ought to have been eight, but there were only

1 Jessopp, Visit. I 50-1.
' Ibid. 224-6.

Ibid.

three. The two other fellows, Chikering and
Fisher, said that there had only been three
fellows for the last three years, and that they
knew nothing of the accounts, for they were
never presented. It was further stated that
sometimes, at time of divine service, there were
only two chaplains in quire ; that there were no
choristers, and that a youth of eighteen acted as
college steward. On 9 July the bishop called
the master, Richard Eden, to account in the
chapter- house, ordering him to exhibit the
faculties, together with institutions and collations,
whereby he held many benefices ; he was to
appear before him on the morrow of St. Nicholas's
Day in the chapel of his manor of Hoxne, and
to hear his will as to the charge of perjury,
which, with other articles, had been alleged
against him. The warden swore on the Holy
Gospels that his faculties, with institutions and
collations, were in his house at London in a
secret place to which he only had access.

The bishop ordered the warden at once to
remove from the college a French chaplain ; and
to fill up the number of fellows to eight before
next Michaelmas. The visitation was then
prorogued until the following Lady Day. 4

Richard Eden, the last master of the college,
who was also archdeacon of Middlesex, surren-
dered it to the king on 9 December, 1544.
The surrender, in addition to the master's
signature, was signed by Edmund Lyster,
Thomas Legate, and Robert Paternoster, chap-
lains. 6

On 3 February, 1544—5, tne king granted
the college and its appurtenances and property to
Sir Thomas Paston, one of the gentlemen of the
privy chamber. 6

Masters of the College of Sudbury

John Cordebef, 7 occurs 1375
Peter Hermis, 8 resigned 1393
John Stacy, 9 appointed 1393
George Bryce, 10 died 1446
Thomas Bett, 11 appointed 1446
Henry Sy thing, 12 appointed 1452
Robert Sylman, 13 appointed 1464
Thomas Aleyn, 14 occurs 1493
John Carver, 18 occurs 1 5 14
Richard Eden, 16 occurs 1520

The fine seal bears St. Gregory seated in a
canopied niche, with papal tiara, the right hand
raised in benediction, and a cross in the left.

4 Ibid. 297-8.

* L. and P. Hen. VIII, xix, pt. ii, 718.

6 Proc. Suff. Arck. Inst, vii, 30-1.

7 Bodl. Chart. Suff. 233.

5 P.it. 17 Ric. II, pt. i, m. 15. * Ibid.
10 Norw. Epis. Reg. xi, 2. " Ibid.
"Ibid, xi, 29. " Ibid, xi, 143.
14 Jessopp, Visit. 41.

" Ibid. So.

16 Ibid. 150.

151

A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK

Above, in a smaller niche, the Trinity, and on
each side in a canopied niche, a saint. In the
base Archbishop Simon kneeling, between two
shields of arms. Legend : —

SIG' LU GREGORII DE SUDBURY 1

70. THE COLLEGE OF WINGFIELD

In 1362, Lady Eleanor, relict of Sir John
Wingfield, and Thomas Wingfield, brother of
Sir John, being his executors, founded, in accor-
dance with his desires, a college of priests in the
parish church of Wingfield. The original
foundation only provided for a provost or master
and three other priests ; but this number was
afterwards increased to nine priests and three
choristers. It was jointly dedicated in honour of
St. Mary, St. John Baptist, and St. Andrew.
The original foundation also provided for the
support at the college of three poor boys. 2

Licence was granted in November, 140 1, to
the provost or master and the chaplains of the
collegiate church of Wingfield, for Thomas
Doupe to grant in mortmain to them land in
Stradbroke, Wingfield, and Earsham. At the
same time Michael earl of Suffolk obtained
licence to grant land rent in Stradbroke, Wing-
field, Silham, and Earsham, worth 10s. yearly. 8

The Valor of 1535 shows a clearannual value
of j£io, 14*. 5^. The temporalities were
obtained from Wingfield, Chekering, Sydeham-
cum-Esham, Stradbroke, Walpole, Benhall
Robert, Middleton Chekering, and Raydon
Wingfield ; the gross value being ^47 iox. \d.
The spiritualities were the rectories of Wing-
field, Stradbroke, and Syleham, with the chapel
of Esham. Among the deductions was the sum
of £8 paid to the three poor boys on the foun-
dation. 4

Bishop Goldwell made a personal visitation of
this college on 27 September, 1493, wnen
William Baynard, the master, with three fellows
and four ' conducts,' was examined. The
report of the visitation stated that though there
was not much worthy of reformation, the

ordinance and statutes of the house were not
read before the members, the master was too
remiss in correction, and that no provision was
made for teaching grammar. 6

When Bishop Nykke visited in 1526, Thomas
Halkyn, one of the fellows, said that the college
seal was in the hands of only a single fellow,
but that otherwise all was well ordered by the
master. Three other fellows gave equally
satisfactory testimony. 7

The last visitation of this college, prior to its
dissolution, was held on 4 July, 1532; it was
attended by Robert Budde, master, Nicholas
Thurlynge, fellow, and three stipendiaries.
There were no complaints, and nothing to re-
form ; but Robert Tompson, stipendiary and
steward of the college, said that they were two
priests short. 8

Robert Budde, master of the college, and four
of the fellows signed the acknowledgement of the
royal supremacy on 17 October, 1 534.°

The college was surrendered on 2 June, 1542.
The instrument of surrender is signed by Robert
Budde, master, and by four fellows. Annexed to
the surrender is the commission, dated 12 May,
of the same year, and the commissioners' cer-
tificate of the surrender, dated 17 June. 10

In this college were buried the bodies of
William de la Pole, duke of Suffolk, 1450, and
his son and heir, John de la Pole, duke of
Suffolk, 1 49 1. 11

The fine seal of this college bears St. Andrew
crucified on a saltire cross ; in the base the arms
of Wingfield. Legend : —

-f- COMMUNE -+- SIGILLUM -4- S -f- MARIE -f-

De Wvngfieeld I2

Masters of the College of Wingfield

Robert Bolton, occurs 1 404, 13 resigned 1426'*
John Burthan, ls appointed 1426
Henry Trevyllian, 16 appointed 1433
William Baynard, 17 occurs 1493
Thomas Dey, 18 occurs 1530
Robert Budde, 19 occurs 1532

ALIEN HOUSES

71. THE PRIORY OF BLAKENHAM

Walter GifFord, earl of Buckingham, gave the
manor of Blakenham to the great Benedictine
abbey of Bee in the reign of William Rufus. 6

As this was an estate of some importance and
must have required supervision, it is probable

1 Add. Chart. 8405 ; B.M. Cast, lxxii, 14.
' Norw. Epis. Reg. v, 88.
3 Pat. 3 Hen. IV, pt. i, m. 22.
' Valor Eccl. (Rec. Com.), iii, 407.
5 Dugdale, Mon. vi, 1 002, where the charter is cited
from the original at Eton College.

that it was placed in the charge of one or two
monks who would have their chapel and offices

6 Jessopp, Visit. 52-3. r Ibid. 223. 8 Ibid. 296.
* Dep. Keeper's Rep. vii, App. ii, 304.

10 Ibid, viii, App. ii, 49.

11 Weever, Funeral Monuments, 758.

" Add. Chart. 10642 ; B.M. Cast, lxxii, 15.
" Brit. Arch. Assoc. Journ. xxi ,347.

14 Norw. Epis. Reg. ix, 15. Mentioned as master
in 1405 ; Pat. 5 Hen. IV, pt. ii, m. 7.

15 Norw. I' pis. Reg. ix, 15. 16 Ibid, ix, 61.
Jessopp, Visit. 52.

19 Add. Chart. 10642. " Jessopp, Visit. 296, &c.

152

RELIGIOUS HOUSES

at the manor house in early days ; but it was
some time before Blakenham is named as a dis-
tinct alien priory or cell. For a long time it
•was under the charge of the prior of Ruislip,
Middlesex, against whom in 1220, and again in
1225, this manor of Blakenham was claimed by
Thomas Ardern. For a time the manor was
held by the crown in consequence of these dis-
putes ; but eventually full seisin was given to
the prior of Ruislip as representing the abbey of
Bee. 1

Subsequently this manor was under the con-
trol of the prior of Okeburne, the chief repre-
sentative and proctor of the abbot of Bee. The
taxation of 1 29 1 names a portion of 405. out of
the rectory of Great Blakenham due to the prior
•of Okeburne. 2 In 1325 the manor was held by
the same prior. 3

A curious point arose in 1339 in connexion
with this manor, as held by an alien power
•during the time of the war with France. Robert
de Morle, admiral of the fleet from the mouth of
the Thames northward, claimed from John de
Podewell, bailiff of the manor of Blakenham, an
armed man to set out to sea in the king's service.
Whereupon the prior of Okeburne appeared
before the council, asserting that he already
found two men to serve the fleet at Portsmouth,
and if this further charge was laid on him, he
asked to be discharged from the custody of the
priory, as he would be unable to pay the farm
rent due to the king. The council, on delibera-
tion, considered that it would be to the king's
harm if the priory was resumed by the crown,
and therefore orders were issued to the admiral
superseding the exaction of a man from Blaken-
ham. 4

After the dissolution of the alien priories, the
former possessions of the abbey of Bee at
Blakenham came to Eton College, through
Henry IV, in 1460.

Among the grants of Edward IV to William
Westbury, the provost, and to the college of
Eton in 1467, occurs 'the priory or manor of
Blakenham, co. Suffolk, sometime parcel of the
.alien priory of Okeburne.' 5

72. THE PRIORY OF CREETING
ST. MARY

There are four adjacent Suffolk parishes of
the name of Creeting, differentiated by the in-
vocation of their respective churches, St. Mary,
St. Olave, All Saints, and St. Peter. The first
two of these had small distinct alien priories of
Benedictine monks. The more important of

1 Close, 4 Hen. Ill, m. 15 ; 12 Hen. Ill, m. 11.
' Pope Nici. Tax. (Rec. Com.), 115.

* Mins. Accts. 18 Edw. II, bdle. 1127, No. 4.

* Close, 13 Edw. Ill, pt. ii, m. 41 d.
•* Pat. 7 Edw. IV, pt. iii, m. 13.

2 I

the two was the priory of Creeting St. Mary,
a cell of the abbey of St. Mary of Bernay, in the
department of the Eure. Henry II, by charter
of 1 1 56, confirmed to the monks of Bernay all
that they had held in England in the time of
King Henry, his grandfather, including the
manor of Creeting (Gratingis).*

The taxation of 1 29 1 enters lands, &c, from
Everdon, Northamptonshire (another cell of
Bernay), as pertaining to the prior of Creeting ;
they produced an income of £6 js. bd. At the
same time lands to the value of 2s. lod. a year
are entered as pertaining to this priory in Ston-
ham Aspall, whilst the lands, stock, &c, of
Creeting St. Mary and Newton were worth
j£io 1 5 s. *,d. a year. 7

The possessions of Bernay Abbey at Creeting
in Suffolk seem to have continued under the
same rule as those at Everdon, Northampton-
shire. Thus, in a long list of alien priories, in
1327, mention is made of the prior of Creeting
and Everdon ; the two houses then formed a
joint cell of the abbey of Bernay. 8

In 1325 the goods and cattle of the manors
of Creeting and Newton pertaining to this priory
were valued by the crown at £18 15*. ioa'. 9

A commission was issued by the crown in
1378 to. inquire touching waste and destructions
by the late prior and farmers of the alien priory
of Creeting, in the king's hands on account of
the war with France, to the custody of which
the king has appointed his clerk, John de
Staverton. lu

In 1409 John Stanton and John Everdon
were acting as crown wardens of the joint
priory of Creeting and Everdon, at a rent to
the king of £26. The total receipts for that
year were £.29- u

Edward IV granted the possessions of this
suppressed priory, in 1462, inter alia, to form
part of the endowment of Eton College. 12

73. THE PRIORY OF CREETING
ST. OLAVE

Robert, earl of Mortain, in the time of the
Conqueror, gave the manor of Creeting St. Olave
(Gratingis) to the Benedictine Abbey of Grestein
in Normandy ; it was held in chief of the king. 13

The taxation of 1291 enters i8j. Sd. as the
annual value of land pertaining to the prior of
'Gretingge' (under the abbot of Grestein) in
Barking, Essex. This priory at the same time

6 Round, Cal. of Doc. Trance, i, 137.

1 Pope Nich. Tax. (Rcc. Com.), 54, 120, 129^.

8 Close, 1 Edw. Ill, pt. i, m. 22.

9 Mins. Accts. bdle. I I 27, No. 4.
"' Pat. 2 Rich. II, pt. i, m. 38 d.

" Mins. Accts. bdle. 1093, No. 1.

,; Pat. 1 Edw. IV, pt. iii, m. 24.

"Dom. Bk.; Testa de Net-ill (Rec. Com.), 295.

A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK

had js. id. in Earl Stonham, whilst the manor
of Creeting St. Olave produced £g OJ. S^. 1

The goods and stock pertaining to the priory
of Creeting St. Olave were valued by the crown,
in 1325, at £17 ioj. id*

Edward III granted this manor during the
French war in 1345 to one Tydeman de Lym-
bergh, a merchant ; but in 1360 permitted the
abbot and convent of Grestein to sell it to
Sir Edmund de la Pole. 3

74. THE PRIORY OF STOKE BY
CLARE

Earl Alfric, son of VVithgar, who lived in the
reigns of Canute, Hardecanute, and Edward the
Confessor, founded the church or chapel of
St. John Baptist in the castle of Clare, and
therein placed seven secular canons. This
church, with all its endowments, was given by
Gilbert de Clare, in 1 090, to the Benedictine
monastery of Bee in Normandy, of which it
became a cell, and thus remained until the year
1 124, when Gilbert's son Richard removed the
foundation to Stoke, where it eventually reverted
to a collegiate establishment. *

The fourteenth-century chartulary 6 opens with
confirmation charters of Henry II, Richard I,
John, and Henry III, including a grant of a
Thursday market at Stoke, and a yearly fair of
three days at the feast of St. John Baptist. The
various charters of Gilbert, earl of Clare, the
founder, and of his son and grandson, are set
forth, whereby the monks, in addition to lands,
mills, fishing, and pasturing rights, held the
advowsons of the churches of St. John and
St. Paul, Clare, and the churches of Cavenham,
Foxhall, Hunston and Bures, Crimplesham,
Gazeley, Winham, Birfield, Ash, and Woching. 6
The ordination of the vicarage of Gazeley, at
the time when the church was appropriated to
the priory, is duly set forth under date of 1 2 July,
1286. 7

An undated letter of Roger, earl of Clare,
solemnly presents to the house certain relics (not
specified) which he entrusts to the monks, both
cleric and lay, to be by them carefully preserved
with the greatest reverence. 8

The confirmation charters of the Bishops of
Norwich and London and the Archbishop of

1 Pope Nich. Tax. (Rec. Com.), 1 29, 1 29^.
' Mins. Accts. bdlc. 1 127, No. 4.
"Pat. 22 Edw. Ill, pt. iii, m. 13; Close,
33 Edw. Ill, m. 6.

4 Dugdale, Mon. (1st ed.), i, 1005-9; Tanner,
Not. Mon. Suff. xiv.

5 Cott. MS. App. xxi. There is an abstract of its
contents in the Davy MSS. (Add. MS. 19103,
fols. 136-205).

6 Chartul. 21-5, 29, 33, 36.

r Ibid. 3;. 5 Ibid. 44.

Canterbury, from 1 090 to the end of the reign
of Henry III, cover several folios. 9 These are
followed by several papal confirmations, and by
an indulgence from Pope Innocent exempting
them from any provision of benefices. 10

Amid a very large number of grants of land,
rents, &c, mostly of small value, occur the gifts
of the church of Bradley by Richard the son
of Simon, of the church of Little Bradley by
Albrinus son of Ercald, of the church of Little
Bunstead by William de Helium, of the church
of Bunstead by Robert de Helium, and of the
church of Stamborne by Robert de Grenville,
with various confirmations. 11 The taxation roll
of 1 29 1 shows that the priory at that time held,
in addition to churches, temporalities in seven-
teen Suffolk parishes of the annual value of
^30 14J. 72^.; it had also considerable lands
and rents in Essex, and a small amount in
Norfolk, yielding a total income of ^53 1 3*. 7,d.

In 1305 a quit-claim was executed in favour
of this priory of the advowson of the church of
Little Barton by Mildenhall. 12

Prior John Huditot died in 1391 ; whereupon
Robert bishop of London and William prior of
Okeburne, authorized by Pope Boniface IX to
act for the abbot of Bee in the case of dependent
English houses, presented Richard de Cotesford,
an English monk of that house, to the Bishop of
Norwich, to be prior, with the assent of the
king as patron, by reason of the minority of the
son and heir of the Earl of March. 13

Richard II, in 1379, made a grant during
pleasure, to his uncle, Thomas de Woodstock,
earl of Buckingham, of £bo a year from the
farm of this alien priory during the wars, to help
to maintain his rank as an earl, 14 and among
grants made from the alien priories' estates to
the crown in June, 1395, towards the king's
expenses in the war with France, was the year's
issues and profits of the priory of Stoke by Clare
of the value of £60. 15 In the following month,
however, the friends of this priory managed to
secure from the crown a charter of denization,
but only on condition of the very heavy fine
of 1,000 marks being paid to the abbot of
Westminster, to be expended solely on the new
works of St. Peter's Church. This sum was to
be paid at the rate of 200 marks a year until
discharged. The grant of denization stated that
Richard de Cotesford, the then prior, was of
English birth, and provided that the convent of
monks was henceforth to be exclusively drawn
from those of English birth, and that no tribute

9 Ibid. 70, fols. 32-4. These are in a different
hand ; ibid. 70-137.

10 Ibid. 138-143.

11 Ibid. 270, 274, 280, 285, 296, 309.
"Pat. 33 Edw. I, pt. 2, m. 9.
"Ibid. 15 Ric. II, pt. i, m. I.

14 Ibid. 3 Ric. II, pt. i, m. 40.
"Ibid. 18 Ric. II, pt. ii, m. 9.

154

RELIGIOUS HOUSES

of any kind whatever was to be paid to any
foreign abbey. 1

The independent position secured for this
priory had but a brief existence ; twenty years
later the priory was dissolved in favour of a
college. 2

Priors of Stoke by Clare

Nicholas, 3 occurs 1 1 74

John de Havelen, 4 temp. Hen. II

Hugh, 5 occurs 1198, 1202

Richard, 6 occurs 1222

John, 7 occurs 1247, &c.

Henry de Oxna, 8 appointed 1325

Peter de Valle, 9 appointed 1367

John de Huditot, 10 died 1 39 1

Richard de Cotesford, 11 appointed 1 39 1

William de Sancto Vedasto, 12 appointed 1395

William George, 13 appointed 1396

William Esterpenny, 14 appointed 1396

75. THE HOSPITAL OF GREAT
THURLOW

The origin or date of foundation of the small
hospital of St. James, which was subordinate to

the foreign hospital of Hautpays or De Alto
Passu, is not known. Being an alien house, it
came into the hands of the crown in the four-
teenth century. The church of Thurlow
Magna, which was appropriated to the hospital
as early as the taxation of 129 1, was returned as
of the annual value of £10 I y. \d. xli

In 131 2, grant for life under privy seal was
made to John Menhyr, king's clerk, of the
custody of the hospital of St. James, Thurlow ;
later, however, in the same year the life
custody of this hospital was transferred to
Thomas Miltecombe ; and yet again to John
Beauchamp, alias John de Holt. 17

In May, 1385, Robert Dovorr, king's clerk,
obtained life wardenship of this hospital. 18 In
the following month, a royal mandate was issued
for the arrest of persons collecting alms in divers
churches and other places, on behalf of Thurlow
Hospital, without warrant of Robert Dovorr, the
warden, and appropriating the same to their
own use. 19

Edward IV, in 1463, included the hospital or
free chapel of St. James, Great Thurlow, in the
numerous endowments of Goddishous' College,
Cambridge. 20

ADDENDUM

76. THE HOSPITAL OF SUDBURY

In the time of King John, Amicia, countess
of Clare, founded a hospital at Sudbury to the
honour of Jesus Christ and the Blessed Virgin
His mother. 15 Tanner supposes it to be identical
with the house or chapel of St. Sepulchre, which
the same countess gave to the monks of Stoke
Clare, and which was granted by Edward VI to

I Pat. 19 Ric. II, pt. i, m. 8.

'See the account of the college of Stoke by Clare.
3 Ne\vcourt, Repertorium, ii, 501.
'Cott. MS. Aug. xxi, 365. 'Ibid. 16, 17, 18.

c Ibid. 14. 'Ibid. 11-12, 13,42.

s Norw. Epis. Reg. ii, 6.

9 Ibid, v, 80.

10 Pat. 15 Ric. II, pt. i, m. I.

II Norw. Epis. Reg. vi, 161.

12 Ibid, vi, 212. " Ibid, vi, 223.

" Ibid, vi, 228.

" Dugdale, Mon. vi, 776.

John Speke ; but of this there is some doubt. 21
Mention is made in 1277 of the breaking open
by thieves of certain chests that had been
deposited in the hospital of Sudbury, county
Suffolk, without mentioning dedication, as
though there was only one of any importance. 22

Richard II in 1383 granted the custody of
the free chapel of St. Sepulchre, Sudbury, to
Peter Harmodesworth ; it was in the king's
gift by reason of his custody of the land and
heir of Edmund, late earl of March, tenant in
chief. 23

16 Pope Tskh. Tax. (Rec. Com.), 122.

l? Pat. 6 Ric. II, pt. i, m. 36, 21, 19.

15 Pat. 8 Ric. II, pt. ii, m. 14.

"Ibid. m. id.

80 Pat. 2 Edvv. IV, pt. ii, m. 16.

"Tanner, Notitia, 524 ; Taylor, Index Mon., 116.

" Pat. 5 Edw. I, m. 2.

B Pat 7 Ric. II, pt. i, m. j 1.

155

POLITICAL HISTORY

THE South-folk who dwelt in one half of the original kingdom of
the East Angles found a natural boundary between themselves
and the East Saxons in the estuary and marshy course of the
Stour, while the march in the north was also clearly defined by
the course of the Waveney. On the west the boundary was not so clearly deter-
mined. There the fens extended almost to Bury, the county being prevented
from becoming absolutely insular in character by the low wooded hills to
the south-west. The actual boundary here was to be found in the ditch at
Newmarket (called later the Devil's Ditch), where the neck of land between
the fens led to Cambridge and formed the principal gateway into the
county. When the actual separation of the folks took place is impossible
to state. In Domesday Suffolk is geographically distinct from Norfolk, but
all through the middle ages down to Tudor times it continued, with a few
exceptions, to be administered fiscally with the sister county.

The county was divided for administrative purposes into hundreds,
half-hundreds, and ferdings. The origin of this division has been ascribed to
Alfred, but this is no doubt simply a compliment paid to a national hero, for
the term centeni was used among the Teutonic tribes to describe a certain
district. By the time Tacitus wrote the word had ceased to have a literal
meaning and had become the designation of an administrative area, and such
it is in Suffolk in historic times. It is possible that Alfred or his son Edward
redistributed the hundreds in order to facilitate the collection of ship-money.
As evidence of this redistribution it is worth noting that the chief town from
which the hundred was obviously named often lies outside the boundary of the
hundred, and did so in Domesday. Wangford lies no longer in that hundred,
but in Blything ; Parham lay outside the shrunken remains of its hundred;
Lackford lies beyond the march of Lackford. In Domesday there are twenty-
eight hundreds. Of these Babergh is made up of two and Sampford of
one-and-a-half, pointing again to re-distribution, while Ipswich, Cosford,
Lothingland and Parham rank as half hundreds. By the end of the thirteenth
century the number had shrunk further. Blackbourn had absorbed Bradmere,.
but ranked fiscally as two hundreds. In the twelfth century 2 Sudbury had
been regarded as a quarter of the hundred of Thingoe, and in the Hundred
Rolls of Edward I it is held by the earl of Gloucester of Bury, but seems to
be identified with Babergh. The extra-hundredal part of Loes, containing
Woodbridge manor, is given in Domesday as part of Loes. Lothingland was
part of Luding, a hundred which was afterwards the half hundred of Mut-
ford. Both these half hundreds were manors in the king's hands and granted
out by him. In 1763 the two were re-united into one hundred. Exning
seems to be another instance of a manor becoming a half hundred. Below
the hundreds came the vills and townships.

1 J. H. Round, Feud. Engl. 98. • Ibid. IOI.

'57

A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK

The hundredal organization was the basis of all administration, judicial,
fiscal, and military. There was the county court, the hundred court, and
the court of the township, though this last was not strictly speaking judicial.
In Anglo-Saxon times the county court met twice a year and the hundred
court every three weeks. Under Henry II the latter was held every fort-
night, while in the thirteenth century it occurred every three weeks, and
the county court every month. Twice a year, however, came a specially
full hundred court, when the sheriff visited the hundred to see that the
tithings were full and that every man was in frank-pledge. At these the
reeve and four men of the vills attended. Attendance at these courts was a
duty attached to the land and as such irksome : such a man held such land on
condition that he attended so many courts in the year. The dwellers in the
county were identified with the land, and were collectively responsible for
crimes and miscarriages of justice committed within their marches. There
was the same idea underlying the hundred. If a man committed a murder
in Sampford or Babergh the whole hundred was responsible for the payment
of the fine of five marks. If a man fled from justice the hundred made good
his flight. The county and the court were one. In the shire the
courts were never called anything but the county, and the suitors were
the freeholders of the county. They ' were also the doomsmen, and no
foreigner could legally try a Suffolk man. In 133 1 2 the county complained
that owing to the dilapidated condition of Ipswich gaol Suffolk criminals
were lodged at Norwich, and were delivered by Norwich men. This was
against the law, for the men of Norfolk knew not the crimes of the men of
Suffolk. The principle of the administration of the county was Suffolk
men must transact Suffolk business, and no matter whether it were a hue and
■cry, an inquisition post-mortem, an array, a grant to collect, it was done by
the landowners of the shire.

The officers of the county were first the sheriff who presided at the county
court, while the bailiff of the king or the steward of the lord presided at the
court of the hundred. The earl had no official position beyond drawing the
third penny from the county revenue till the fourteenth century, when he prac-
tically became responsible for the military organization. The office of sheriff
became neither hereditary nor elective. His judicial powers were lessened
by the introduction of the Custodes Pacis, two or three knights empowered
to hear and determine felonies, who finally developed in the reign of
Edward III into the justices of the peace. In Tudor times the quarter-
sessions had superseded both the county and hundred courts, and were held at
Ipswich, Bury, Woodbridge, and Dunwich. Below the sheriff came the
coroners, four officers elected in the county court who kept the pleas of the
crown. These had to be resident in the county and possess certain property.
The king's fiscal and territorial interests were further looked after by the
escheator. The judicial interests of the crown in Suffolk were constantly
clashing with those of the great ecclesiastical liberties in which the king's
writ did not run. They removed fourteen hundreds from the royal juris-
diction, for the abbot of Bury claimed the right of the return of all writs in
Babergh, Risbridge, Thedwastry, Thingoe, Cosford, Lackford, and Black-

1 Pollock and Maitland, Hist, of Engl. Law (1895), i, 550.
' Cat. of Close 1330-3, p. 113.

158

POLITICAL HISTORY

bourn, while the like claim was made on behalf of St. Etheldreda of Ely in
Carleford, Colneys, Plumesgate, Loes, Wilford, and Threadling. In 1344 1
the abbot of Bury was required by the sheriff and the king's justices
to plead at Ipswich. He replied that already, in the time of Edward I,
the question of his jurisdiction had been argued and settled. He cited
the evidence then given by twelve men from the hundred of Risbridge,
who swore before the justices in eyre at Ipswich that the abbot had royal
liberties as appeared in the pleas of the king of Quo Warranto. It was
further proved that all original pleas affecting any tenement within the
four crosses of St. Edmund should be delivered to him, and with all other
writs affecting the crown within the liberty of St. Edmund should be pleaded
in Bury by justices appointed by the abbot. The sheriff sometimes refused
to arrest men indicted at Bury.

For fiscal purposes the county was divided into the two liberties and
the geldable 2 which had two centres, one at Ipswich for Bosmere and
Claydon, Sampford, Stowe, Hoxne and Hartismere, and the other at Beccles,
for Blything, Wangford, Mutford and Lothingland. The liberties paid one
half of the tax between them, while the geldable area was responsible for the
other. Bury paid two parts to Ely's one, and of the secular Beccles paid two
to Ipswich's three. Out of the county receipts were paid its defence, its
gaols, its castles and its sick, 3 and until after the Restoration the sheriff was
responsible for the amount of the firm.

From Anglo-Saxon times there have been two sources from which the
king could draw an army. There was the county host — the county in arms
for purposes chiefly of defence — and there were the individuals who owed
military service and so to speak formed the army for attack. The county
host, led in pre-conquest times by the aldermen or the earl, and afterwards by
the sheriff, was an unwieldy instrument, badly armed, unmanageable and
disinclined to advance beyond the county border.

At the Conquest William gave many of the forfeited lands on the
understanding that the service of a fixed number of knights would be
demanded, 4 but at an early period the crown accepted a money payment in
lieu of personal service. By the reign of Henry II the county was com-
pletely parcelled out into knights' fees, and the fees themselves had become
minutely sub-divided — the earl of Clare 6 was assessed for 131I knights' fees
in Suffolk besides I, \, &, £, tV, and 2 + 30 of fees. Such sub-division meant
an arrangement among the various holders, probably one by which the original
divider of the fee remained responsible for the service, while the holders
of the aliquot parts paid him their obligation in kind or money. The
abbot of St. Edmunds acknowledged that he owed the king 40 knights'
fees : 6 as a matter of fact he had 52 J from which he took scutage, and
pocketed the difference, or rather the hereditary seneschal William de
Hastings took toll. Earl Hugh rendered account for £227 10s. for knights
and Serjeants in the Welsh war. 7 The honour of Eye was assessed for
90J fees. The knights of St. Edmund were bound to do castle-ward at

1 Cal. Pat. 1343-5, p. 363. ' Add. MS. 19171, fol. 36.

1 Pipe R. Hen. II (Pipe Roll Soc), passim.

4 Pollock & Maitland, Hist, of Engl. Law (1895), i, 237.

4 Pipe R. 10 Hen. II (Pipe R. Soc), p. 33. 6 Ibid. 1 1 Hen. II, p. 3. > Ibid. p. 7.

T 59

A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK

Norwich for three months in bands of five as were those of Eye at Eye and
Orford ; but this ward, too, was being commuted for money. 1 Under
Edward I the system broke down, though as early as 1198 the abbot of
St. Edmunds had had to hire knights to go to Normandy at 3J. a day, for
his own refused on the pretext that they were not bound to cross the sea.
Minute sub-infeudation had made a feudal host impossible. In 13 14 the
dower of the widow of the earl of Clare consisted of many fiefs in various
manors. Amongst others she held : —

J fee in Helmingham held by Robert de Cressi at 20s.
„ Great Bures held by Peter Silvestre's heirs, 50J.
£ and £ ,, Gaisle held by Wm. de Hausted, 60s.

■£$ „ Brokeleye held by John de Cramavill, 51.
J ,, Barwe held by John de Cretyng, 20s.
1 „ scattered through several manors held by Rob. Mauduyt, 100;.

Under Henry III the whole of the freemen, the jurati ad arma, were
enrolled by name and arms by the constables of every hundred for military and
police purposes, while Edward I instituted the commissioners of array, whose
business it was to inspect the county contingent and take the most likely
men. This led to a decrease in the military power of the sheriff. The higher
classes were forced into arms by distraint for knighthood, all those who held
^40 a year in fee being liable. In 1 297 the sheriff was commanded to summon
all those who possessed 20 librates of land or more, as well those who
held in chief as those who did not, those within the franchises and those
without, to prepare at once to follow the king with arms and horses. The
county force was now made up of great lords who received a special
summons from the king, and whose tenants usually served under them,
minor knights who by the fourteenth century served by indenture under a
■chosen lord, and the men picked from the jurati ad arma by the com-
missioners of array. In 1345 Edward III reassessed the county; owners of
land valued at iooj-., or one knight's fee, to provide one mounted archer,
those of £\o to provide a hobeler armed at least with hagueton, visor,
burnished palet, iron gauntlets, and lance, the number of men increasing with
the income. The Davillers of Brome, 2 it may be noted, held their land by
the duty of leading the footmen of the counties of Norfolk and Suffolk
from the ditch of St. Edmunds without Newmarket to the Welsh wars.
From this time the force was under the command of the chief men of the
county, who in Tudor times were appointed by the king to the office of deputy
lord-lieutenant. 3

The Tudor and Stuart kings often sent letters missive to their servants
and other gentlemen desiring the person addressed to certify how many men
he could put in the field in the service of the king. In 1536 Sir Charles
Willoughby, Sir Arthur Hopton of Westwood, Sir Anthony Wingfield of
Letheringham, Sir William Drury of Halstead, Sir Thomas Jermyn of
Rushbrooke, could all put one hundred retainers in the field ; Sir Thomas
Rushe of Chapmans, and John Spryng of Lavenham, sixty ; George Colte of

1 1324. Richard de Amundeville held Okenhall in chief of the honour of Eye by the service of doing
suit at each court of the honour, and zod. to the ward of the castle of the honour at the end of every thirty-
two weeks.

' Cal. of Close (1330-3), p. 244.

5 Grose, Military Antiquities, ed. 1786, p. 80.

160

POLITICAL HISTORY

Colt's Hall in Cavendish, Sir John Jernyngham, and Richard Cavendish of
Grimstone, thirty.

In 1524 Suffolk furnished a muster 1 of 2,999 archers and 7,763
billmen. But the service was by no means voluntary, and the usual method
when it came to foreign service was simply to press the men in the
market-towns and ship them off. At other times, the whole contingent being
assembled at Ipswich or Beccles, the captains appointed by the king,
beginning with the colonel, picked their men.

The old system of the militia broke down in the wars of the seven-
teenth century. An Act was, however, passed in 1662 for there-organization
of the militia, the obligations to provide horsemen or footmen being allotted
according to a scale of property, while the lord-lieutenant was granted full
powers of raising the force, appointing officers, and levying rates for the
supply of equipment. According to the muster roll of 1692, 2 the Suffolk
militia then consisted of four regiments of infantry with two additional
companies at Ipswich and four troops of horse : the Red Regiment, under
Colonel Anthony Crofts, included six companies with a total complement of
460 officers and men ; Colonel Sir Philip Parker's White Regiment com-
prised seven companies, with 509 of all ranks ; the Blue Regiment, late
commanded by Sir Philip Skipton, mustered eight companies 657 strong ;
while the Yellow Regiment of Sir Thomas Bernardiston showed the same
number of companies with a complement of 660. The two Ipswich
companies with their 181 men and the four troops of horse 208 strong,
under the personal command of the lord-lieutenant, Lord Cornwallis, brought
up the total of the county forces to 2,675 or " a ^ ranks. In 1697 !t was
remarked that the Suffolk militia had not been mustered since 1692, while
the sixty years that followed witnessed the general decay of any efficient
militia force outside the city of London.

The Militia Bill of 1757 introduced the ballot, and all men from
eighteen to forty-five were with a few exceptions liable to its operation.
During the Napoleonic wars the regular or ' marching ' militia supplied
volunteers, attracted by bounties, to fill the waste of the line, while
under special Acts of Parliament supplementary and local militia were
further raised, the latter being largely recruited from disbanded volunteers.
After Waterloo the regular militia was nominally retained, but by a policy
of systematic neglect reduced to a mere skeleton of officers and sergeants.
The middle of the century witnessed a revival, and in 1871 the old
constitutional force was removed from the special jurisdiction of the lords-
lieutenant to the more direct control of the War Office. Some ten years
after, on the territorial re-organization of the infantry of the line, the West
Suffolk Militia became the 3rd battalion of the Suffolk Regiment, and was
embodied on two occasions during the last Boer War. Besides the infantry
there are also now artillery militia with head quarters at Ipswich.

The regular battalions of the present Suffolk regiment are furnished by
the old 1 2th Foot, which owes its origin to an independent company raised
shortly after the Restoration to garrison Windsor Castle. 3 At the time of

1 L. and P. Hen. fill, iv (i), No. 972.

' From a return of 169-. Egerton MS. 1626 (B.M.).

' Rudolf, Short Hist, of Terr. Regiments, I 2 I .

2 l6l 21

A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK

Monmouth's rebellion other companies raised in Norfolk, and elsewhere were
united with it, and the regiment thus formed was numbered the 12th of the
line. It had already fought at the Boyne and Aughrim, at Dettingen and
Fontenoy, where its loss is said to have been greater than that of any other
regiment on the field, before it shared in the memorable victory of Minden,
for which the laurel wreath is graved in commemoration on the buttons of
the officers. 1 At a later date the regiment was the senior corps of infantry
present in the last great siege of Gibraltar, and has since borne the badge
of the castle and key with the motto ' Montis Insignia Calpe,' while
during the siege it first received the territorial title of the East Suffolk
Regiment. In the record of its later service may be mentioned the storm of
Seringapatam in 1799, the Kaffir War 2 of 185 1—3, and the fighting in New
Zealand in the early ' sixties ' of the last century. In the late South African
War, though the Suffolk Regiment lost heavily at Colesberg in January,
1900, it did excellent service on many occasions afterwards, the conduct
of the Suffolk Mounted Infantry at Bothaville being especially worthy of
note. 3 As in most of the non-royal regiments of English infantry its facings
are now white.

Besides the East Suffolk, now the Suffolk Regiment without qualification,
the old 63rd of the line, now the first battalion of the Manchester, bore for
about a century 4 the title of the West Suffolk Regiment, while in 1804 a
second battalion was raised for it and stationed at Bury St. Edmunds, 6 being
disbanded at Ipswich in November, 18 14.

The record of the county yeomanry can be merely alluded to here. In
the late South African War the Duke of York's Own Loyal Suffolk Hussars
showed their readiness to answer the call of duty and patriotism.

Suffolk men still acknowledged the duty of the citizen to defend his
country when during the Napoleonic wars forty-two separate companies of
volunteers were raised. The volunteers of Yoxford 6 (1798) solemnly signed
an agreement by which they agreed to form themselves into an independent
company of not less than 60 nor more than 1 20 men, to be supplied with arms
and uniform by the government, also with a non-commissioned officer to
teach them the use of arms. They promised to serve under the general
commanding the Eastern Division in case of actual invasion, or of the danger
of invasion being deemed so imminent as to make it advisable for the lord-
lieutenant or his deputies to give orders for the removal of cattle, corn, or
any other article which might be of advantage to the enemy or useful to the
public service. 7 Most of the companies were disbanded before the end of the

1 Lawrence-Archer, The British Army, 1 86.

2 The reserve or 2nd battalion was in South Africa actually from 1 851 till 1857. Lawrence-Archer,
op. cit. 185. ' Stirling, Our Regiments in South Africa, 1 21.

4 Lawrence-Archer, op. cit. 441. 4 Rudolf, op. cit. 550.

6 Add MSS. 19188, fol. 57.

'Note from the Muster Rolls in the Record Office. The year 1803 saw the birth of many of the
companies.

Company Men Commanding Officer Did duty at

Helmingham 528 Earl of Dysart Ipswich

Hartismere Rangers .... 360 Major Wm. Reeve of Roydon . . . Diss

Halesworth 1 1 2 James Reeve Southwold

Blythford 83 Jno. Dresser —

Bosmere and Claydon . . . 300 Sir Wm. Middleton of Shrubland Park

near Ipswich Bury

162

POLITICAL HISTORY

war, but the movement was revived in 1859, when trouble with France
was anticipated, and the lord-lieutenant was asked to superintend the formation
of volunteer companies to repel invasion. From that date to the present day
the movement has increased, and the volunteers are now an acknowledged
factor in home defence. Of the four volunteer battalions attached to the
Suffolk Regiment two are furnished by Suffolk, with head quarters at Ipswich
and Bury respectively, both possessing affiliated cadet corps from Suffolk
schools. There are also artillery volunteers at Ipswich and elsewhere.

The early political history of East Anglia is rescued from obscurity by
the incursions of the Danes. The insular character of her geographical
position prevented the Angles from entering on a career of conquest such as
in turn tempted the other members of the Heptarchy. One of the royal
family of the Uffings, Redwald, who succeeded to the throne in 599, became
Bretwalda, but this was probably a case of personality over-riding environment.
At first even the christianizing of the kingdom was intermittent ; behind
the screen of forest and fen the Angles dropped back again into their old rites. 1
Feeble knees were confirmed by the establishment by King Sigebert about
636 of a school at Dunwich, and of a monastery at Cnobheresburg, 2 while in
673 Dunwich and Elmham became bishops' sees. Until 823 the kingdom
existed as a separate entity, but in that year Egbert of Wessex granted his

Company Men

Bury 205

Bungay 1 80

Carlford 70

Lakenheath and Wangford . . 105

Leiston and Theberton ... 67

Melton 105

Rendlesham 1 00

Risbridge 3 1 5

Saxham 65

Kelsale and Carlton .... 59

Hollesley Bay 350

Hoxne 70

Huntingfield 1 13

Ipswich 388

Babergh 350

Hadleigh 160

Stoke 57

Stowe 120

Blackburn 300

Eye 100

Fornham and Bury .... 80

Thedwastre 80

Beccles 120

Benacre and Wrentham ... 180

Southwold 120

Yoxford 76

Sibton 77

Dunwich 73

Framlingham 200

Lowestoft 95

Gorleston 91

Saxmundham 71

Woodbridge 157

Colneys 330

Tunstall 213

Aldeburgh 58

' Bede, Eccl. Hist. (Eng. Hist. Soc),

Commanding Officer Did duty at

Orbel Ray Oakes and Captain Benjafield —

Major Peter Forster of Ditchingham . Lowestoft

Sam Collett ; Robert Ginger ... —

Robert Eagle of Brandon .... Bury

Forman Josselyn —

Joseph Stammers —

Edward Crisp —

Colonel Wm. Matthews —

Thomas Mills —

M. Rabett —

Major W. W. Page —

Wm. Barber —

Wm. Philpot of Huntingfield ... —

Major Neale —

Colonel MacLean —

Captain Leake —

Captain Mannock - —

Captain Tyrrell —

Lt.-Colonel Webber —

Captain Wayth —

Captain Powell —

Captain Blake —

Captain South —

Major Good —

Captain May . —

Captain Davy —

Captain Jermyn —

Captain Robinson —

Major Stanford —

Captain Arnold —

Captain Bell —

Captain Freeman —

Major Purcell —

Major Vernon —

Captain Shepherd —

Captain Winter —

* Ibid. 198.
163

A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK

alliance to it at the price of its nominal independence. 1 The witan of
the East Angles continued to act as the centre of local government and
military organization. The thing of the South folk, may have met at
Thingoe ' — at Bury, in fact. In 866 the Danes, who had been for long
harassing the coasts, lurking among the creeks and inlets, came first to land and
took up their quarters in East Anglia, ' and there they were horsed.' 3 Four
years later Suffolk acquired its famous martyr, for King Edmund was killed in
defence of his kingdom. In 884 East Anglia became Danish. The army
under Guthrum settled there and apportioned it among themselves, and it
became by virtue of the treaties of Wedmore part of Danelagh. The return of
the Danish army from a pillaging expedition in France was the signal for
the breaking-out of the Anglo-Danes. Alfred prevented the landing of one
detachment in the Stour, but a second pirate fleet swept away his victorious
ships and landed its men.* On Edward's accession Ethelwald, the pretender
to Alfred's throne, thought to make good his claim by Danish arms, fled to
East Anglia and gathered a large army among them. 5 This gave Edward a
chance of ravaging the county in 906, 6 and he afterwards bridled the South
folk by a chain of forts. The Danes broke through the line again and
again, and it was not till 920 7 that Edward was able to oust the Danes
from the Huntingdon-Cambridge line of defence. He took them in the rear,
making Colchester his head quarters and sending expeditions thence into East
Anglia, where the English and the Danish colonists received him gladly.
The army, caught in the fens, with Edward and his army behind and his
forts in front, had to submit. From now until 991 East Anglia enjoyed a
cessation of raids, but in that year the Danes, who for ten years had been
burning intermittently the south and west, landed and fired Ipswich, 8 and then
over-ran the county. This was the year which saw the first payment of
Danegeld by the exhausted English. The county, however, both paid and
suffered. In 10 10 Ulfkytel, the alderman, met the army invading the
Stour at Ringmere near Ipswich. 9 His army, composed of the county levies,
had in its ranks the usual traitor, this time one of Danish extraction, for
Thurkytel, a Danish jarl, was the first to flee. The county levy was slaughtered,
and for three months the pagans lived on the whole district, where they
destroyed men and cattle, and burned even into the wild fens. So great was
the misery that St. Edmund appeared to fight for his people, and smote
Sweyn the tyrant, so that he died, 10 and the county was rid of one
oppressor. Even the martyr however could not fight the army single-
handed, and in 10 16 Cnut had obtained so firm a footing that for a second
time a partition of the kingdom took place, and again East Anglia fell to the
Danes. The death of King Edmund affirmed Cnut's hold upon England,
and he divided the whole kingdom into four provinces and gave East Anglia "
to Thurkill as his viceroy. East Anglia afterwards continued to be governed
by its earl, and was part of Harold's earldom and later of Gyrth's, but it was
not until the fourteenth century that the earldom of Suffolk was separated
from that of Norfolk or East Anglia.

1 A. S. Chron. (Rolls Ser.), i, I io-i. ' Gage, The Hundred cfTbingpe, I.

' A. S. Chron. (Rolls Ser.), i, 130-1. ' Ibid, i, 152-3. 3 Ibid, i, 180-1.

6 Ibid, i, 182-3. ' ^id. i, 194-5. 8 Ibid, i, 238-9.

' Ibid, i, 262-3. '° Will, of Malmesbury, Gesta Regum (Roils Ser.), i, 212.

11 A. S. Chron. (Rolls Ser.), i, 284-5.

164

POLITICAL HISTORY

Under William I the geographical separation of Suffolk was recognized
in Domesday, but politically the twin shires were regarded as one. William's 1
policy was to give one shire to one earl under his two viceroys, and to Ralph
Wader, an Anglo-Breton, who had fought tor the Normans, was given the
earldom of East Anglia, whose centre was Norwich Castle, to which lands in
Suffolk owed castle-ward. The other castle of importance in East Anglia, the
only one mentioned in the Suffolk Domesday Book, was Eye, built by Robert
Malet, but there can be little doubt that strongholds existed in such places as
Clare, Framlingham, Haughley, Ipswich, Walton and Burgh. It is impossible
to determine the part played by Suffolk in the resistance to the Normans,
though no doubt the fens saw tragedies which find no record in the scant annals.
It is very probable that so long as local customs went on fairly undisturbed
the county took small heed of changes in the kingship, to which it had in
the last fifty years become inured. Suffolk men fully appreciated the danger
from the Danes, and Roger Bigod's new possessions made him responsible for
the defence of the southern coast, the usual entrance of the invaders. He, with
Robert Malet and Ralph Wader, met Sweyn 2 when he sailed up the Orwell
in 1069 and defeated him near Ipswich. A few years later Suffolk was called
to arms again under Robert Malet to resist its own earl. The king's frequent
absence in Normandy and Ralph Wader's steady advance in power were the
forerunners of the earl's rebellion. Ralph married Emma, daughter of the
Earl of Hereford, and at the Bride-ale at 3 Exning hatched the conspiracy and
rebellion which was to divide England into independent earldoms. The earl
was defeated and outlawed, and his fall made way for the rise of a more
formidable family, the Bigods, one of whom already possessed 117 manors in
the county. Roughly speaking he, with Robert Malet, who possessed 221
manors, the Liberty of St. Edmund and that of St. Etheldreda, wielded the
whole county influence.

The turbulent reigns of William II and Henry I saw the gradual
growth of the power of the Bigods, whose influence became almost paramount
after the expedition of Robert of Normandy in 1101 to claim his brother's
throne. On the suppression of the rebellion Robert Malet suffered
the confiscation of his vast properties, and in consequence the castle and
honour of Eye fell into the royal hands. Roger Bigod was staunch for
Henry and received the castle of Framlingham as his reward. He was in
high favour. His eldest son * was drowned in the White Ship with Prince
Henry in 1 120, and Hugh Bigod, the younger son, succeeded to his father's
place. Earl Hugh was one of those who swore fealty to Matilda in 1126
and 1 1 3 1 and lightly broke both oaths. 5 Suffolk laymen were for Stephen, and
Bigod was for himself, though Stephen made him earl of East Anglia in 1 141.
The king's treatment of the bishops had alienated the Church, and the
Liberties were probably against the king. 6 Bungay, the Bigod stronghold,
was taken and the earl himself, playing too openly for his own hand, was
surprised and defeated by Stephen. In 1 153, when Henry of Anjou invaded
England, Ipswich under Bigod declared for him, was besieged and had to

1 Freeman, Norman Conquest, iv, 70. ' Ibid, iv, 251-2.

5 Florence of Wore. Chion. (Engl. Hist. Soc), ii, 10 ; Freeman, op. cit. iv, 573.

4 Florence of Wore. Chron. (Engl. Hist. Soc ), ii, 74.

i Ibid. 84. 6 De Gestis Regis Stepiani (Rolls Ser.), 46 et seq.

165

A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK

surrender before help arrived. Earl Hugh must have regretted his support
of Prince Henry, for the first demand of the new king was for the surrender
of his castles, and in 1 1 57 x Framlingham and Bungay were given up. Orford
and Eye and Walton were in the king's hands, and were garrisoned by his
knights. In 11 68 Orford 2 was refortified, and during the war with his son
in 1 173 all the king's castles were put into a state of thorough defence ; 3 two
Norman engineers being sent from Ipswich to Orford to oversee the work
there. Walton was garrisoned by twenty foot soldiers and two horsemen under
the command of four knights, Gilbert de Sanford, Roger Esturmey, William
Tollemache, and William Vis-de-Leu, all members of south-eastern Suffolk
families. Ships were sent from Orford to Sandwich to prevent the landing
of the Flemish allies of the prince. The preparations were justified, for on
29 September, 1 173, the earl of Leicester landed near Walton with an army
of Flemings. Presumably he took the castle, but it does not necessarily
follow, for he failed before Dunwich. In conjunction with Earl Hugh he
garrisoned Bungay and Framlingham, took Hagenet, and secured Norwich by
treachery. Then he marched westwards from Framlingham towards Bury,
for, as the chronicler gibes, the hospitality of St. Edmund's was proverbial.
At Farnham St. Genevieve they were met by the abbot's forces under Walter
fitz-Robert and the king's men led by Richard de Lucy and the earl of Arundel,
who had both come with all speed from the Scottish border, and defeated.
The countess of Leicester was captured crouching in a ditch, and her husband
was also taken. The hapless Flemings, scorned as weavers, were butchered
by the county levies armed with scythes and other primitive weapons, and
great was the slaughter which followed the presumption of the foreigners in
over-running the territory of St. Edmund. 4 This defeat, however, did not
make peace in the county, for the Flemish garrisons in Bungay and Fram-
lingham led by Earl Hugh terrorized the surrounding county. He besieged
Eye, swept off the cattle and corn belonging to the castle, and destroyed the
fish-ponds, cow-houses, and barns. 5 The garrisons were increased in Walton
and Orford, and the following year 1 174—5 Earl Hugh made peace with the
king and gave up Framlingham Castle, which was levelled to the ground, as
also was Walton. The earl went on a crusade and died abroad in 1 1 77.
Crusading zeal had seized hold of Suffolk. Numbers took the cross, and as
an earnest of their prowess in the Holy Land they 6 massacred the Jews in
Bury on Palm Sunday, 1190. Those who survived were banished from the
place for ever. In Sudbury, Bungay, and Ipswich, the same fate overtook
them to the filling of the royal coffers and the easement of local debtors.
Grateful Richard sent the standard of Cyprus to decorate the shrine of
St. Edmund. During Richard's absence, the bishop of Ely had been
supported in his quarrel with John by Walter fitz-Robert, who held the
castle and honour of Eye for the king. There was a general loosening of
the central authority, and by the death of Richard the earl of Norfolk re-
gained his power and seized his castles and refortified them. If John had been
able to retain the fealty of the two Liberties his cause in Suffolk would have

1 Roger of Wendover, Chron. (Rolls Ser.), i, 1 6.

' Pipe R. 14 Hen. II (Pipe Roll Soc), 15. • Ibid. 19 Hen. II, 117.,

4 Chron. of Jordan Fantosme (Rolls Ser.), 283-97. i Pipe R. 20 Hen. II, 126.

6 Florence of Wore. Chron. (Engl. Hist. Soc), ii, 158.

166

POLITICAL HISTORY

been good, but already in his brother's time he had alienated the goodwill of
St. Etheldreda, while his exactions as king soon made 1 St. Edmund's the head
of the conspiracy against him. Richard earl of Clare, his son Gilbert and
his cousin Robert fitz- Walter, William de Huntingfeld, Roger de Cresci
and the earl led the county against the king. The autumn of 12 14 saw an
extraordinary number of noble pilgrims at the shrine of the martyr, whose
church was turned into a council chamber. Every knight there swore to
stand by the liberties accorded to church and nobles by Henry I. Roger
de Cresci undertook to raise the county and lead it. Robert fitz- Walter
son of Walter fitz-Robert, who had opposed John during Richard's absence,
was elected ' Marshal of the army of God and of the Holy Church.' In
the inevitable civil war Suffolk suffered as between two fires ; soldiers, either
friends or foes, plundered indiscriminately. The barons in London proved
themselves as great a scourge as the royalists, 2 and in November, 121 5, the
county found itself ravaged by the king's army, which was watching to
prevent the barons drawing supplies, and at the same time trembling under
the incursions of the licensed robbers who had made the isle of Ely their
head quarters. The destruction of John's fleet under Hugh Boves 3 had
strewn the coast with corpses and left it defenceless against the landing of
7,000 Frenchmen, the vanguard of Lewis's army. These in their turn
pillaged the towns and marched off to London laden with booty, and twice
again in the same year were towns put to ransom by the barons under fitz-
Walter and William de Huntingfeld. The news of John's death followed
close on the last ravaging of the county, for true to his policy of carrying
the war into his enemies' lands, the king had overrun the county before his
retreat north. 4 Suffolk now exchanged the doubtful excitement of war for
that of religious revival, which in the days of rival orders brought many evils
and riots in its train. The Friars Minor and the Dominicans were preaching
everywhere at the market crosses and usurping the place of the parish priest,
especially in the matter of confession, for it was easier for the sinner to confess
anonymously to an unknown and passing friar than to his own director. The
very liberties of St. Edmund were threatened. Gilbert of Clare, engaged in
a lawsuit with the abbot, tried to thrust into the town a body of the
friars, while the sheriff refused to acknowledge his judicial rights. 5 The
abbot complained that those who sought sanctuary within the four crosses
were so watched as to starve to death. The county was restless ; no
strangers were allowed to pass unchallenged, nor was anyone allowed to
give them entertainment, 6 and the hue and cry was strictly kept in every
town by special constables. When war actually broke out Suffolk as usual
was against the legitimate authority. At the battle of Lewes in the
insurgent army were the earl, Robert de Veer earl of Oxford, William
de Criketot, Roger de Huntingfeld, John de Boseville, John Esturmy,
Roger de Sancto Philoberto, Waleran Munceaux, Robert Peeche, and William
de Boville. 7 The last was nominated one of the custodes pacts of the Mise

1 Roger of Wendover, Flares Hist. (Rolls Scr.), ii, III.

* Ckron. ofEdw. I-Edu: II (Rolls Ser.), i, 17.

' Roger of Wendover, Flores Hist. (Rolls Ser.), ii, 147-8.

4 Chron. of Edu: I-Edw. II (Rolls Ser.), i, 19.

5 Matt. Paris, Chron. Maj. (Rolls Ser.), v, 688 ; Florence of Wore. Chron. (Engl. Hist. Soc), ii, 188.

* Assize of Arms. ' Blaauw, ' Simon de Montfort,' from East Angl. Mag. vii (new ser.), 63.

167

A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK

of Lewes (1264). The next year most of these were in sanctuary at
St. Edmund's or in the Isle of Ely. After the taking of Kenilworth the
Disinherited dispersed, and a large body of them took refuge in the Fens.
They drew their supplies from Suffolk, ravaged the county generally, and
brought the fruits of their excursions to Bury for sale, the burgesses openly
conniving. On 27 May, 1266, John earl of Warenne and William de
Valence, the king's half-brother, appeared before the town and accused the
abbot of conniving at the presence of the insurgents under Nicholas de Se-
grave. 1 The abbot threw the blame on the burghers, who, caught thus in
a cleft stick, had to make their peace with the king at the price of
200 marks, and with the abbot, who demanded >Ci°o. Next year
(6 February, 1267) the king arrived to hold a council at Bury, and brought
with him the papal legate who justified his presence by excommunicating
the Disinherited. They cared not a jot, and Gilbert of Clare made a
successful diversion in their favour towards London, so that it was not until
1 1 July that Prince Edward forced the isle and pardoned the defenders, a
considerable number of whom took the cross.

The Hundred Rolls of Edward I give a clear view of the balance of
parties in the county at this time. The two Liberties were intact, but the
hundred of Loes was held of Ely by the earl-marshal. Sampford was in the
hands of Robert de UfFord, whose son later became the first earl of Suffolk ;
Mutford in those of Thomas de Hemgrave ; and Lothingland in John de
Baliol's. In the king's hands were Stowe and Hartismere, Bosmere and
Claydon, Blything, Wangford, and Hoxne. Gilbert, earl of Clare, practically
commanded the south-west corner. Aylmer de Valence held Exning.
The work of reducing the county to order was vigorously undertaken by
Edward, whose fiscal and judicial system was a clearly defined one of
personal responsibility on the part of collectors and judges. The county
suffered under the taxation, which was assessed by royal officers who had no
regard for the liberties. On the other hand, the unjust judge was not allowed
to escape. When Thomas de Weyland,'- forgetting that he was a judge of
the supreme court, hid the murder committed by one of his servants and
was chased into sanctuary at St. Edmund's, where he was sheltered by the
carl of Clare's friars, the king roused the county forces to hem him about
till he would come out and surrender, which was not for two months. In
1275 the knights of the shire were first summoned to Parliament for the
purpose of voting money. The fifteenth voted was to be collected by
Robert de Typetot,* the sheriff to co-operate only. Ready money was badly
needed, and not only by the king, almost every knight was indebted
to Luccan merchants or to the Jews. In 1278 the Jews and the goldsmiths,
who were also bankers and money-lenders, were arrested in Bury for coin-
clipping. They were imprisoned till they ransomed themselves. The
king, however, respected no liberties, and the goldsmiths (presumably
the Jews had paid enough) were taken from 4 Bury gaol under the very
nose of the abbot, to be tried in London. Bury protested and the king
sent the men back, but the justices in eyre finally invaded the liberty and —
culmination of perfidy — took the fines and brought them to the king's

1 Florence of Wore. Chron. (Engl. Hist, foe), ii, 197. ' Ibid li, 240.

3 Cal. of Close, 1272-9, p. 250. ' Florence of Wore. Chron. (Engl. Hist. Soc), ii, 220-1.

168

POLITICAL HISTORY

exchequer. But still money was not forthcoming freely, and 1 the sheriff was
warned that unless he squeezed his county more thoroughly the king would
make him remember. The Jews were finally expelled in i 290 and the county
came into the hands of the Italian merchants.

Home defence cost the king nothing but a command — Suffolk had
to defend its own shores. The coast had been for years infested by pirates,
who plundered Dunwich, landed raiding parties and attacked ships, and
by 1295 to this was added the possibility of French invasion. 2 Peremp-
tory orders were issued to Earl Roger to guard the coast, laying all other
things aside. Under him William de Boville of Letheringham, Reginald
de Argenteyn of Halesworth and Cratfeld, Roger de Coleville of Rendle-
sham, John de Byskeleye of Brampton, constables, were directed to levy
the county forces, horse and foot, and to cause them to come to the coast
to guard it. Royal letters were sent to the following knights and county
gentlemen, who were to work under the constables, and to see that their
tenants and men were in readiness for defence, William de Nevreford of
Henstead and Cove, Robert de Shelton, John Bygod, Edward Charles
of Dodnesse, Jolland de Vallibus, Giles de Mountpounzen, William de
Wauncy of Depden, Simon de Noers, John de Cokeford of Whatfield and
Naughton, Thomas de Bavent of Easton Bavent, William de Kerdiston of
Glemham, Robert de Ufford of Ufford, Shelton, and Bawdsey, John de
Holebrook of Kesgrave and Floxhall. Recalcitrant landowners were to be
distrained by the sheriff if they refused to answer to their assessment, and
Peter de Dunwich was made overseer. The general tightening of the sinews
of government had its reaction under Edward II. The levelling effect of the
county legislation of Edward I had been resented, and Quo warranto
stung deep. St. Edmund and St. Etheldreda again asserted their privileges
against the county, the barons regrasped their liberties, the sheriff and the
conservators of the peace became party leaders, and the common folk followed
the lawless example of their superiors. Suffolk was suffering all the evil effects
of the prolonged wars with France and Scotland, and of a series of bad
seasons. The continual drain of men and money exasperated the peasants, as
it wearied the landowners. Provisions were scarce and dear, purveyance
harsh. The rich bribed the takers of prisage and the poor had to bear
double. Justice was again at the mercy of might. Stephen de Segrave of
Peasenhall, and Nicholas his brother, espoused the quarrel of their brother
Henry with Walter de Bermyngham. 3 Nicholas assembled his men at Bury
with horse and arms, and marched through the county, spreading dismay, to
join Stephen and overawe the court at Norwich where Henry was
imprisoned. The king forbade this brotherlv expression of interest, but the
Segraves carried it through, and next year Nicholas, far from being in dis-
grace, received from the king a grant for life of the town and castle of Orford
and £60 out of the farm of Ipswich. 4 Peter de Gaveston, earl of Cornwall,
on his marriage with Margaret, sister of Gilbert de Clare, received the castle
and manor of Eye and the manor of Haughley. The county was soon divided
into Royalists and Lancastrians. One of the lords ordainers of 131 1 was Sir
Bartholomew de Burghersh, whose wife was the only daughter of Richard

1 Ca!. of Close, 1279-88, p. 529. ' Ibid. 1288-96, p. 455.

1 Ibid. 1307-13, p. 354. ' Cal. of Pat. 1307-13, p. 506.

2 169 22

A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK

Weyland of Fenhall, and John de Botetout of Mendlesham was one of the
negotiators of the peace of 13 12. The death at Bannockburn of the young
earl of Clare and the subsequent division of his property among D'Audleys,
Damorys, and Despensers, hardly affected the balance of parties in the county. 1
Roughly speaking the strength of the lords was in the south and west, while
what hold Thomas of Brotherton, earl of Norfolk, had, was in the north-
east. Clare Castle was the centre of the Lancastrian circle, and in many
cases the fiefs of the earl of Gloucester lay cheek by jowl in the same manor
with those of Lancaster, whose manors lay round 1 Ipswich, and possibly
encouraged the town-folk to resist the king's officers 2 and those of the
bishop of Norwich. The burghers besieged the king's bailiffs in their
house, while at 3 Bury the king's clerk had to run for his life from abbot
and townsmen. The castles were mostly in the hands of the rebels. The
king's half-brother, Thomas of Brotherton, held Framlingham, the Norfolk
centre, but in 13 14 it was given into the hands of Sir John de Botetout,
while Nicholas de Segrave still held Orford. Both Botetout and Segrave
were 'out' with the earls in 13 18, and were included in the general
pardon which followed. The staunch loyalists all through were Edmund
Bacon of Olton, and John of Cleydon his brother, Thomas de Grey of
Denardiston, Edmund de Hemgrave of Hemgrave and Mutford, Robert de
Bures of Aketon and Kettlebaston, and John de Haustede, Guy de Ferre of
Benhall, and William de Beauchamp of Debenham and Pettaugh. They
carried, or miscarried, on what county business could be transacted. There
were the usual complaints of the exactions of the sheriff, who could not
protect the property of those serving in Scotland nor would he bring the
malefactors to trial. In 13 17 Lancaster was making his party against the
Despensers, and the county was full of those who promised gifts and lands,
and who entered into illegal conspiracies. 4 Next year William de la Mote
of Willisham (Lancaster's tenant), Nicholas de Segrave, Peter de Denar-
diston, William de Amundeville of Thorney, John de Botetout, Robert
Spryng, Richard de Preston, Richard de Emeldon, John de Yoxhall, John,
son of Robert de Vaus, Nicholas de Preston, Simon Sturmyn, John de
Tendring, Bernard de Brus, John de Claveryng were all pardoned as Lan-
castrians, 6 and the castle and honour of Eye were taken into the king's hands.
On 18 November, 1321, Edward issued an order to arrest any in the
county who spoke to the king's shame, 6 and sent a writ of aid to Hemgrave
and Grey to assemble all the horse and foot of Suffolk against the insurgents
on the Welsh marches. Gilbert Peeche of Little Thurlow, Thomas de
Veer, Edmund Bacon, John de Vaus, and John de Tendring were amongst
those who led their men to join the royal forces. The sheriff was ordered to
raise the hue and cry against the adherents of Lancaster, taking with him the
posse of the county. Accordingly Peter Denardiston, Robert de Peyton,
Robert de Gedeworth, and Sir John de Botetout, Sir John de Fresingfeld of
Cockley [Despenser's man], Sir Adam de Swillington, and Robert de Wat-
ville were outlawed and their property confiscated. The usual pardon
followed. With Lancaster's death in 1322 the territorial balance was affected

1 Tanner MSS. Bodl. Lib.

3 Ibid. p. 469.

6 Ibid. p. 228 passim.

10056.

' Cal. of Pat. 1 3 17-2 1, p. 605.

4 Ibid. p. 95.

6 Cal. of Close, 1 3 1 8-23, p. 506.

170

POLITICAL HISTORY

favourably to the king, for the earl's lands fell to him, and he had also in his
hands Clare Castle and manor (for Elizabeth Damory had ' left the king
without permission ') as well as that of Eye. This, however, made little
difference to the rebellious spirit of the county. During the anxious months
from December, 1325, to September, 1326, when Isabella the queen was daily
expected to land on the Suffolk coast with an army of English refugees and
French mercenaries, it refused to pay for signal beacons or to make prepara-
tions to repel the invasion, 1 though Robert de Ufford, Thomas de Latymer,
and Richard de la Ryvere were duly appointed arrayors. The king 2 spent some
weeks [26 December to 14 February] going nervously upand down the county
superintending the defences. John de Sturmy, 3 admiral of the north fleet,
guarded the coast and held Orford Castle, while the ports of Ipswich, Orwell,
Bawdsey, Orford, and Dunwich were left to the watch of what forces the
arrayors could raise. They watched in vain, for in September Isabella and
Mortimer landed unopposed on the coast, probably at Landguard Point, near
Walton. The county flocked to her army at every step, and she proceeded
triumphantly to Bury, where 4 she levied contributions and laid violent hands
on treasure stored there. John de Sturmy, 5 probably as the price of his
treachery, was confirmed in his custody of the castle and town of Orford.

The minority of Edward III and the reign of Mortimer and Isabella
did not make for a strong central control, and the local conditions became
deplorable. The attempt of Edward I to assimilate all justice under one
system had come to nought under his son, and now the eight and a half
hundreds which were under Bury's jurisdiction were absolutely lawless.
The magnates were little better than robbers, and in 1328 the king issued
an order prohibiting any earl or baron from seeking adventures or doing
feats of arms. 6 Some sought adventure nevertheless in kidnapping 7 the
abbot of Bury, and his fate was unknown for days. To this normal state of
lawlessness was added the distraction of Kent's rebellion. Robert de Ufford 8
raised the county against 9 Sir William de Cleydon and John fitz-Simond and
the widow of John de Nerford, and was rewarded by receiving the custody
of the town and castle of Orford. Night and day the county was harassed
by armed robbers, for the commissioners of the peace were lax in the
performance of their duties. A certain band countenanced by the sheriff
made lc Stowmarket church their head quarters and thence issued to terrorize
the neighbourhood. They drove Sir Richard de Amundeville from his house
at Thorney. As late as 1344 men were riding with banners displayed,
taking men, imprisoning and holding them to ransom, perpetrating
homicides, arsons, and other evils. An attempt to widen the powers of the
sheriff brought a protest from the abbot of Bury. Sir Robert de Ufford
was the king's right hand, and in 1337 was rewarded with the earldom of
Suffolk. 11 The same year the decisions of the council on the French war were
laid before the men of Suffolk at Bury bv him, supported bv Hugh de Saxham
and Ralph de Bockyng, seneschal of St. Edmunds. The war was not popular at
the outset, and the commissioners of array, empowered to arrest recalcitrant

1 Cal. of Pal. 1 3 24.-7, p. 311.
1 Cal. of Close, 1327-30, p. 249.
6 Cal. of Close, 1327-30, p. 407.
6 Cal. of Pat. 1327-30, p. 571.
10 Cal. of Pat. 1 340-3, p. 3 1 3.

' Ibid. p. 200 et seq.

4 Cal. of Pat. 1327-30, 36.

7 Ibid. p. 442.

* Cal. of Close, 1327-30, p. 471 passim.

11 Cal. of Close, 1337-9, p. 60.

«7*

' Ibid. p. 243.

A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK

defenders of their country, were roughly handled at Ipswich by Sir Thomas
de Holebroke and his followers, who rescued the attached ' rebels.' l Suffolk,
admiral of the coast, reported the impossibility of getting men and ships,
and resort was had to convicted pirates, who were offered the alternatives,
gaol and confiscation or service in Brittany and Gascony. The wages paid to
soldiers and leaders were good enough to tempt anyone ; still, though many
crossed the sea, it was not until i 345 that the whole county was ordered out
and went. The county was full of wrangling over the value of the one-ninth
which was paid direct to the Italian merchants, the Bardi and Peruzzi, on
whose failure Sir 3 William Tollemache of Gaisle, merchant of England,
advanced money to the king.

Suffolk was used to the departure of men to seek their fortunes in
Gascony. 3 Sir Guy de Ferre, of Benhall and Farnham, had been lieutenant
in Guyenne in 1298 and seneschal in Gascony in 1307 ; Sir Gilbert Peeche
had held the latter office in 1316— 17; Sir John de Wysham in 1324;
Sir John de Haustede (who certainly held lands in the county) in 1330 and
1342; Sir Oliver de Ingham of Weybread in 1334. In 1331 John de
Sancto Philiberto of Lackford was mayor of Bordeaux, an office second
only to that of seneschal. Criketot and Dagworth were also familiar names
in the duchy. The French possessions were looked upon much in the same
light as the colonies of the present day. Active young men might there
push their fortunes. The fiscal burden entailed by this war was what made
it so unpopular. The wages of men were paid in beasts, and further com-
plications arose in converting the sheep or fleeces into a more portable form
of exchange.

In October, 1344, 4 Sir Thomas de Holebroke, Nicholas de Playford
and Thomas de Enges were ordered to find by inquisition and certify to the
king by the Epiphany the names of all persons other than religious men
holding of the fee of the church, having iooj., £10, or £25, and so on
up to £1,000 yearly in land or rent. On this inquisition the county was
assessed next year, and all barons, bannerets, knights, and esquires were ordered
to prepare themselves to set out for Gascony and Brittany. Sir Thomas
Dagworth, of the family of Dagworth and Thrandeston, was made king's
lieutenant and captain in Brittany. Ships were impressed at all the ports.
On Palm Sunday the county levies, including those from the towns of Bury,
Ipswich, and Sudbury were inspected at Ipswich and the archers led to
Portsmouth by Oliver de Stretton and Thomas de Wachesham. Few of the
gentry seem to have remained at home save those incapacitated by age or
infirmity. The county poured across to La Hogue. Suffolk landowners
fought in the first division at Crecy under the Prince of Wales. 5 Among
his bannerets were Sir William de Kerdiston, Sir Edmund de Thorpe,
Sir Thomas de Barnardiston, Sir William de Tendring, Sir Richard Playce.
In the second division were Sir William Tollemache, Sir John Shardelowe,
Sir Robert de Tudenham. The king's division held the earl of Suffolk,
Sir John de Botetout, Sir John de Huntingfeld, Sir John de Wingfeld,

1 Cal. of Pat. 1338-40, p. 273. ' Ibid. 403.

3 Thos. Carte, Cal. Gascon Rolls, i, 35, 50 ; C. Bemont, Roles Gascons, passim.

' Cal. of Pat. 1343-54, P- 4>4-

5 Wrottesley, Crecy and Calais. From the Public Records (William Salt, Arch. Soc), 3 1 et seq.

172

POLITICAL HISTORY

Sir Bartholomew de Naunton, Sir Gilbert Peeche, Sir John Loudham,
Sir William Carbonel, Sir Oliver de Stretton, Sir Thomas de Colville,
Sir Adam de Swillington, Sir Thomas de Vis de Leu. The train of the
earl of Suffolk included Richard Fitz-Simond, Richard Freysel of Boyton
and Capell, Oliver de Stretton, John de Rattlesden, Oliver de Walkfare,
Gilbert Peeche, Thomas de Vis de Leu, Richard att Lee, William Criketot
of Ousden and many others, some of whom had already served in the
campaign of 1337— 40. *

After the Crecy and Calais campaign came the Black Death, and the
war was not renewed till 1355, when the Black Prince led his army to
Gascony. The same Suffolk names appear on the rolls, sons taking the place
of fathers. The earl of Suffolk was given lands in Gascony, and on his death
in 1369 he was succeeded by his son William, who while the war dragged
on was admiral of the north fleet. Now England was no longer the
invader, but feared invasion. In 1377, about ten days after the death of
Edward III, the harrying of the southern coast by the French brought out
the Suffolk men-at-arms and archers. Beacons were watched* to send the
signal through the county. Two years later the king demanded loans for the
war. The earl 3 headed the list with £100 ; the good men of Hadleigh
gave jC5°> those of Bury 50 marks, Ipswich £40, while Alderton and
Bawdsey gave 40 marks. This was followed by the calling out by the
county of all able men between the ages of sixteen and sixty to resist
invasion.

The county had been passing through an economic crisis. The villeins
had during the last century gradually emancipated themselves and the
modern farmer class was emerging. At the same time many causes had
tended towards the emancipation of the serfs and labourers. The Black
Death and the resulting scarcity and dearness of labour had opened the eyes
of the landlords, and the Statute of Labourers (1351) had been an attempt
to rebind the labourers to the soil. Added to the economic question was the
religious one. WycliFs poor priests had been going through the county in
their long russet gowns, and were accused of teaching what are now termed
socialistic doctrines. The poll tax of 1 38 1 was the culmination of burdens,
for the county was already full of ' champerties and embraceries, confederacies,
deceptions and other falsities.' In the beginning of that year the sheriff and
the escheator were commanded to inquire touching the names, abodes, and
conditions of all lay persons over fifteen years of age, men, women and
servants, notorious persons alone excepted, and to return the list direct to the
treasury. By June 4 all Suffolk was in an uproar, though the storm seems to
have concentrated itself round Bury, whither marched those ' angels of Satan,'
their Essex sympathizers, with William de Benyngton as archangel. Under
John Wrawe and his lieutenant Robert Westbrom, they broke into
and pillaged Sir John Cavendisshe's house at Bury, and soon after slew the
owner in the neighbourhood of Lakenheath. 5 At the same time another
gang was perpetrating a similar act at Mildenhall, where the country folk found
and killed the prior of Bury. His murderers marched to Bury, and the two

1 Cal. of Pat. 1 334.-8, p. 527. * Ibid. 1377-81, p. 3S. ' Ibid. pp. 635-8.

4 Thomas of Walsingham, Hist. Angl. (Rolls Scr.), ii, I et seq.
1 Powell, East Anglia Rising, 13.

»73

A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK

forces under threat of burning down the convent, forced the monks to give
up their charters and jewels, and divided the latter among themselves as
earnest of the fulfilment of the promises of the monks to reduce the customs.
Then sticking the heads of Cavendisshe and the prior on tall poles, with
ribald jests they carried them through the town to the market-place, where
they were posted. The prior's body was flung into the fields, and for fifteen
days no man dared to give it burial. In the county the plan of the insur-
gents was to seize the person of the earl and cover their depredations with
his presence. The earl was warned of their approach and intention, and fled
precipitately from his dinner-table to St. Albans.

The bishop of Norwich, juvenis et audax, marched from Newmarket to
Thetford overawing the countryside by his stream of adherents, and so into
his own county, where he defeated the insurgents. The danger was first
averted by promises and pardons, from which the men of Bury were
excepted ; then licence was given to the landowners who had been spoiled
to regain their possessions as best they could without hindrance from the
king or his ministers. The lands and goods of the late rebels were put up
publicly to farm. But in spite of drastic measures the sheriff had no easy
business to execute his office. The men of Lowestoft refused admittance to
the king's officers, 1 and John de Tudenham, 2 the sheriff, went about in fear of
his life from the outlaws who were lying in wait to kill him. Bury was not
forgiven till 1385, when after much haggling a large fine was paid by the
burghers. In the meantime the earl of Suffolk 3 had died very suddenly on
the steps of the council room in 1382. He left no heir, and three years
later the earldom was revived for Michael de la Pole. 4 He was the son of
that William de la Pole, merchant of Hull, who had established the political
fortunes of his family by lending to Edward III the sum of £11,000, in
1338, at Mechlin. 5 Edward had always been grateful to the man who had
prevented his bankruptcy at the time of the ruin of the Italian bankers. The
son was greater in administration than in arms, though he had served, it was
said in the articles of impeachment of 1386, for thirty years in the war and
had been captain of Calais and admiral. He had raised himself to the
position of chancellor, and was in high favour with Richard II. Marriage
with the heiress of Sir John Wingfield brought him the lordship of the
manor of Wingfield, 6 but save the manor of Lowestoft and the hundred of
Lothingland he held no other lands in Suffolk. He was only granted the
reversion of the Ufford lands on the death of the widow of the late earl. 7
She was still living in 1 395, 8 and Earl Michael died in exile in Paris in 1389.*

The leaders of the county were the duke of Norfolk and the earl
of March. The former revived the preponderance of the Bigod family
centring round Bungay and Framlingham, while the latter represented the
Gloucester interest which centred round Clare. The banishment of Norfolk
and the death of March in Ireland left Michael de la Pole, lord of Wingfield,
who had not 10 succeeded to his father's attainted title, without a rival in the
county. His opportunity arrived when Henry Bolingbroke came to claim

1 Cal. of Pat. 1381-5, p. 503. ' Ibid. 587.

5 Thos. of Walsingham, Hist. Angl. (Rolls Ser.), ii, 48-9. * Cal. of Pat. 1385-9, p. 18.

1 Cal. Gascon Rolls, I— 91. 6 Suff. Inst. Arch, viii, 190. ' Cal. of Pat. 1385-9, p. 18.

1 Ibid. 1 391—6, p. 659. • Thomas of Walsingham, Hist. Angl. (Rolls Ser.), ii, 187.

10 Cal. of Pat. 1 38 1-5, pp. 449-50.

'74

POLITICAL HISTORY

his patrimony and found a crown. ' In consideration of his services at the
king's advent ' he was rehabilitated in the dignity of the earldom of Suffolk, 1
with the lands which had belonged to the UfFords. He was now definitely
Lancastrian, and round him collected the adherents of that party, as did the
Yorkists round March and Norfolk. The Lancastrians were fairly numerous : 2
Sir Edward Hastings, Sir William Clopton of Kentwell Hall, Sir William de
Elmham, Sir John Heveningham, Sir William Argentein, Sir Roger Drury,
John Burgh, Robert de Peyton, Thomas Hethe, and others. Sir Thomas
Erpyngham was given the custody of the castle and manor of Framlingham
during the minority of the earl of Nottingham, Norfolk's heir, while the
earl of Suffolk received the lordship of the honour of Eye. The death of
the young earl of Nottingham in 1405 for conspiracy against Henry IV
confirmed the de la Pole influence. The earl of Suffolk died at the siege of
Harfleur in September, 141 5/ and the following month his heir, who had
tried to unite both county factions by his marriage with Elizabeth Mowbray,
was killed at Agincourt. 4 The earldom devolved on William the brother of
the last earl. For seventeen years he served his country abroad, and saw the
gradual shrinkage of the Anglo-French possessions. His long absence and his
unfortunate reputation damaged his county influence, which was almost
swamped by those of March and Norfolk combined. They were constantly
clashing : where one oppressed the other championed.

Here is an example in point. A certain esquire of Suffolk called
John Lyston 5 recovered 700 marks in the assize of novel disseisin against
Sir Robert Wingfield of Letheringham. Sir Robert, to evade payment, had
Lyston outlawed for some offence in Nottinghamshire, so that all his goods
and chattels became forfeit to the crown. Then the duke of Norfolk was
granted that 700 marks as part of his arrears of pay for service on the
Scots marches. This the duke released to Sir Robert Wingfield, who went
quit of his debt. The duke of Suffolk took the matter up warmly. But
while he championed Lyston old Sir John Fastolf in Lothingland complained
bitterly of his exactions. 6 Suffolk had been governor of Normandy, and the
responsibility of its loss was thrown on his shoulders. Now Fastolf had held
lordships in Maine, and regarded the duke as his debtor for the amount of
his loss. This lay lightly on the duke, who wanted to get hold of the
propertv of the childless old man, and by 1450 had already managed to oust
him from four manors valued at a rental of 200 marks, besides other
extortions put at 6,000 marks.

In 1447 Suffolk was at the zenith 7 of his career, and in February his rival
the duke of Gloucester was arrested at the Parliament held at Bury and died
immediately. Preparations had been made for the stroke and soldiers had
been sent into the county by sea to ensure its success. Three years later,
Suffolk, ' the abhorred tode,' was a fugitive by Ipswich to the Continent, but
was intercepted at sea and beheaded on the gunwale of a boat on the Dover
sands. The duke of Norfolk and his uncle the duke of York now used all
their influence to swamp the Suffolk party. They met at Bury 16 October,
1450, 8 to agree upon and appoint knights of the shire of their own party.

1 Cal. of Pat. 1 399-1401, p. 160. ' Ibid, passim.

'Thomas of Walsingham, Hist. Angl. (Rolls Ser.), ii, 309. ' Ibid. 313.

5 Paston Letters (ed. Gairdner), 1,4.1. ' Ibid, i, 148, 358.

7 1448 he was made duke of Suffolk. s Paston Letters (ed. Gairdner), i, 1 60-1.

175

A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK

The earl of Oxford backed them up so that by 8 November, the day fixed
for the election, their adherents came to Ipswich in their best array ' with as
many cleanly people ' as they could get for their worships. The county was
full of private strifes. Land-snatching and ward-lifting were common, and
' it stood right wildly without a mean may be that justice be had.' The
obvious remedy seemed to be a strong sheriff", but that was impossible to get
as parties stood. In 1454 the sheriff, Thomas Sharburne, did not return the
writ for the knights of the shire, alleging intimidation by the duke of Nor-
folk's men and tenants. He saw he was to be overborne, and rode away
refusing to hold the shire. Next year Norfolk worked hard to keep out the
Lancastrians, the most to be feared being Sir Thomas Tudenham. The
Suffolk levies probably arrived with the duke too late for the first battle of
St. Albans (1455), but one Suffolk man gained uneviable notoriety there. Sir
Philip Wentworth, a valiant kidnapper of wards, 1 bore the king's standard, but
cast it down and fled into hiding in Suffolk. Norfolk swore he ought to be
hanged. After the rout of Ludlow the Yorkists were in peril, and Tuden-
ham, Chamberlayn, and Wentworth were ordered to take as traitors and
imprison all well-wishers of the lords. 2 The rapid change of 1460 when
York landed turned the tables, 3 and the late commissioners for traitors were
glad of letters of protection from March and Warwick, while the countess of
Suffolk had assured her position with the winning side by marrying her son
John to Elizabeth Plantagenet, daughter of the duke of York. From this
time on, though the territorial rivalry of the two dukes — Edward IV later
restored the dukedom to John — did not cease, they were both adherents to the
house of the White Rose. In February, 1462, the Lancastrians, Sir Thomas
Tudenham, John earl of Oxford and Aubrey Veer his son and heir, John
Clopton, and William Tyrrell were all arrested on suspicion of having been in
treasonable correspondence with Margaret the queen, and with the exception of
Clopton, were beheaded on Tower Hill. 4 The Veer tenants were arrested
and all their lands confiscated : Sir Thomas Tudenham's went to John Wenlock
lord of Wenlock. Sir John Clopton of Long Melford had a general pardon, 6,
turned his coat, and set about, along with Sir Thomas Waldegrave and
Sir Gilbert Debenham, the raising of men and ships to defend the coast
against Margaret's Scots and French allies. The county was absorbed in
the factious troubles of the two dukes. The king threatened to send a com-
mission under the duke of Clarence to inquire into the rioting which attended
their disputes. The Suffolk folk loved neither their duke nor his mother,
and accused them of harbouring traitors and countenancing the extortioners
whom the king had already tried to get hold of, to the filling of their
own pocket. The sheriff too and his officers indicted men for their own
profit, and Sir Gilbert Debenham and the under-sheriff fell out over this
at the Bury assizes. In October, 1463, Queen Margaret sailed from
France, but the coast was well guarded and the county levy was turned
out to resist her. Sir John Wingfield, William Jermy, John Sulyard, and
Thomas Heigham were appointed commissioners for treason. 6 John Gerveys v

1 Ptis'on Letters (ed. G.iirdner), i, 336 ; Fenn Letters (cd. 1789), iii, 212.

' Fenn Letters, iii, 349. 5 Paston Letters (ed. Gairdner) i, 519.

1 Fenn Letters (ed. 1787), i, 84 ; Cal. of Pat. 1461-7, pp. 28, 132, &c.
s Cal.ofPat. 1461-7, pp. 113, 195. 6 Ibid. p. 348.

176

POLITICAL HISTORY

gentleman, of Bury St. Edmunds, was rewarded by the grant for life of the
manor of Brent Bradford, 1 lately held by Lord Roos, while Sir James Luttrell
lost his Suffolk manors. 2 Thomas Colte got Acton, which had been confiscated
from the earl of Wiltshire, and Sir John Scotte received Clopton, late
Lord Beaumont's. 3 This was only an interlude in the county rivalry. The
duke of Norfolk held his court at Framlingham and the duke of Suffolk held
his at Wingfield Castle. There they lived like princes with their councils
and their soldiers, wielding almost absolute power over their adherents. The
Fastolf inheritance was coveted by both. The duke of Norfolk called his
adherents out of Suffolk to besiege the manor house of Caister which John
Paston had inherited from Sir John Fastolf, and Sir John Heveningham, Sir
Thomas Wingfield, Sir Gilbert Debenham, and Sir William Brandon were all
captains at the siege. 4 In this uproar the preparations for the Lancastrian
rising of 1470 5 were almost unnoticed, and the earl of Oxford was busy dis-
posing himself with all the power he could at Bury in conjunction with
his brother, who was raising Norfolk. The duke of Suffolk was true to
Edward IV, and during the short restoration of Henry VI, compelled his men
of the borough of Eye to pay the men enlisted for the Yorkist army. 8 But
the speedy return of Edward IV in March, 1471, though Veer was able to
prevent the possibility of his landing on the coast, was followed by his pro-
clamation in Suffolk by Lord Howard. Oxford and his adherents suffered
further forfeiture, and Richard duke of Gloucester 7 was granted the lordships
of Lavenham, Mendham, Cockfield, &c, lately belonging to the earl, and
also Borsted, Shelley, &c, belonging to Robert Harleston. The earl was not
deterred however from making another attempt, and in May, 1473, he was
hovering round the coast. 8 One hundred gentlemen in Norfolk and Suffolk
had agreed to rise to meet him, but wind and weather did not serve, and
though he actually landed at St. Osyth's he did not tarry long. The same
year Edward IV made a progress through the county. The duke of Norfolk
died in 1475, and Sir Robert Wingfield was made controller of his estate
during the minority of his daughter. Suffolk's position was perilously near
the crown, and his son the earl of Lincoln was regarded as the heir after
Richard of Gloucester. The final triumph of the Lancastrians in 1485 found
the duke still supple enough to join the winning side.

By 20 October, after Bosworth field, which was fought on 22 August,
he was calling out the county levies in the name of Henry VII. Lord
Lovell, 9 after the failure of his rising in i486, tried to escape by Suffolk ports,
and his hiding-place in the Isle of Ely was denounced to the sheriff by
Margaret countess of Oxford, his wife's aunt. She straitly charged the
sheriff to watch the ports and creeks, but the fugitive gained a refuge in
Flanders, where he found the preparations for the Lambert Simnel expedition
in full swing. Along with the duke's eldest son he returned in Lambert's
cause. The Suffolk levies 10 were turned out, and money was not to be accepted
in lieu of service by Sir William Clopton and Sir William Cornwallis of
Thrandeston. The duke did not openly approve of his son's action. Both

1 Cal. of Pat. 1461-7, p. 443. ' Ibid. p. 231.

3 Ibid. p. 116; 1467-77, p. 18. ' Fenn Letters (ed. 1789), iv, 405.

5 Ibid, ii, 54. * Paston Letters (cd. Gairdner), ii, 413.

7 Cal. of Pat. 1467-77, p. 297. 8 Fenn Letters (ed. 1787), ii, 138.

9 Ibid, ii, 339. I0 Ibid, v, 363.

2 177 23

A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK

the county and its duke were sources of anxiety to Henry VII, for
Duke Edmund was almost the only remaining Yorkist heir to the throne.
The county would have followed him, and in 1504 Henry confiscated all
his estates and spent much ingenuity in trying to entrap his person. Finally
he was given up by the duke of Burgundy in 1506 and closely guarded
in the Tower. The county had suffered much from Henry's ingenious
methods of acquiring money. ' Those that love me pay,' said he ominously ;
and the Yorkist paid.

The composition of the county was slowly changing. New families were
springing up. The late wars had brought forward such as the Drurys and
Sulyards, Hoptons, Brandons, and Coltes, while cloth fortunes were founding
such as the Spryngs of Lavenham. The court under Edward IV had become
a brilliant centre, and under Henry VIII was the source of all honour and
service. Within its walls county jealousies could be fought out : the duel
settled now what had before involved half the county. The fortunes of
Suffolk became more directly dependent on the king's wishes. Henry VIII
had European ambitions which meant men and money from the county.
Charles Brandon, Lord Lisle, son of Sir Robert Brandon of Henham, had
with him at Tournay Sir Richard Cavendish, Sir Richard Wingfield, and
Sir Arthur Hopton. 1 Sir Anthony Wingfield and Sir Thomas Tirrel won
their spurs there and were made knights in the church after the battle by
the king as he stood under his banner. Peace was made and Francis and
Henry met and kissed on the Field of the Cloth of Gold. Suffolk men were
there to attend on the king and queen : Sir Richard Wentworth, Sir Anthony
Wingfield, Sir Robert Drury, Sir Arthur Hopton, Sir Philip Tilney,
Sir Robert Wingfield, Sir William Waldegrave. All this magnificence
had to be paid for and the county was drained of money. 2 Parliament
had voted a tenth and a fifteenth, and the knights of the shire,
citizens of cities, and burgesses of boroughs and towns were to name and
appoint able persons for the collection. This rate, however, would make but
a small sum to meet the great charges of the wars, and the ' loving Commons
willing a larger sum to be collected in a shorter time — as in a more easy,
universal and indifferent manner ' voted a graduated subsidy which gathered
pence from every able-bodied man and unmarried woman above the age of fifteen.
It began at 5 per cent, on the year's income of all those over fifteen taking
wages or profits for wages to the value of 40J., and became less in proportion
as the possessions advanced in value, those having lands and rents above 40J.
and under £40 only paying z\ per cent. The inequality was glaring. The
method of collecting and assessing the tax was of the most businesslike.
Sad and discreet persons as well justices of the peace as others were
appointed commissioners. The county by hundreds, towns, and parishes was
to be canvassed by constables and head-boroughs, and the names and surnames
of men and women over fifteen years of age were to be written in a book.
Masters might pay for servants and stop it out of their wages. The com-
missioners were to return the assessed list to the constables who were to
collect the money and distrain if resisted. Thus was the Tournay campaign
paid for, and the sixpences of the Suffolk labourers went to help to gild the
cloth of gold.

1 L. and P. Hen. Fill, i, passim. * Par!. R. House of Lords, 4 Hen. VIII.

178

POLITICAL HISTORY

War was renewed in 1522 and so were the demands for money. Par-
liament was called, but before it met a property tax in the shape of a loan was
resolved on. Again an inquiry was to be made, but quietly so that no one should
be alarmed. Then the commissioners were to call together such temporal
persons as they thought fit, and to explain to them the king's necessitous state
and how he required a loan on the following terms : Persons worth from
£20 to £300, at the rate of £10 per ^100 ; from £300 to £1,000, 20 marks
per £100. The shadowy bait of repayment out of the next Parliamentary loan
was to be used. The commissioners at the same time were to have an eye for
likely-looking labourers who could be pressed for the wars. Lord Willoughby,
the abbot of Bury, Sir Robert Drury, Sir William Waldegrave, Sir Richard
Wentworth, Sir John Heveningham, Sir Philip Tilney, Sir Thomas Tirrell
of Gipping, Lionel Tollemache, Humphrey Wingfield were the com-
missioners who by their successful ' practising ' squeezed £7,400 out of those
who owned £40 and upwards, while those who owned from £5 to £20
contributed £3,000. Besides this there was £3,374 from the subsidy which
was to have been used to repay the first £10,000. Add to this the necessary
drain on private incomes in providing sons with war outfits, for Charles
Brandon, duke of Suffolk, had with him in France Wingfields, Cavendishes,
Jerninghams, Waldegraves, Wentworths, and Hoptons.

The patience of the county was cracked and at the next demand in 1525 it
flew in pieces. Wolsey devised strange commissions to every shire ' and ordered
that one-sixth of every man's substance should be paid to the king for
furniture of his war. This was in March. The dukes of Norfolk and
Suffolk, aided by the news that ten French sail were cruising off the coast, 5
set about practising the grant. On 6, 7 and 8 April they practised all the
rates from £20 upwards, and next week came the more ticklish work 3 — those
below that amount. The people objected that the spirituality were not put to
any charges, the more that they had taken no part in the rejoicing at the capture
of Francis I at Pavia, when the laymen had had to pay for the bonfires and
public rejoicings commanded by the king. Norfolk promised that the
spirituality would certainly pay double and that they would make general
processions of thanksgiving, and thought the matter ended. He was too
sanguine. The commons adopted the method of passive resistance towards
the collectors with threats of violence towards those who paid. In the
woollen towns of the south-west, however, there was actual disturbance.
Essex was in sympathy, and popular gatherings were held on the county
borders, for the wool workers of Lavenham, Sudbury, and other towns were
seething. Norfolk (May 8) feared an actual outbreak, 4 and desired above all
things to temper their madness and untruth by some ' dulce ' means, for hasty
punishment might cause danger. He had by gentle handling persuaded the
master clothiers to assent to giving the sixth, but the manufacturers had not
now wherewithal to pay the wages of their men, so they dismissed their
carders, spinners, fullers, and weavers. The men raged at the loss of their
work, and Suffolk (no expert handler of men) ordered the constables to
confiscate their harness. This caused an open outburst against Suffolk and
Sir Robert Drury, and four thousand men assembled from the woollen towns

1 Hall, Chron. (1809), p. 697. » L. and P. Hen. Fill, iv, (i), Nos. 1241-60.

' Ibid. No. 1 24 1. 4 Ibid. No. 13 19.

179

A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK

at the sound of the alarum bells. Suffolk assembled his men, retainers, and
county gentlemen, but they refused to draw on the rioters. 1 They broke
down the bridges, however, and waited near Bury for Norfolk to come up,
when negotiations at once began. John Spryng, of Lavenham, with
his brother-in-law, Sir Thomas Jermyn, went willingly from the duke to
treat with the rebels, and persuaded the labourers that their only safety now lay
in complete submission. Those of Lavenham and Brent Eleigh came in their
shirts and kneeled for mercy, saying they were the king's subjects and had
committed this offence for lack of work. Norfolk aggravated their offence
purposely to frighten them, took four hostages, and sent a message to the
other towns to warn them to be at Bury by seven the next morning or else
be treated as rebels. The danger which had been averted was great, for the
whole of the eastern counties were ready to rise. The four hostages were to
be indicted for high treason, and were sent finally before the council, where
they were released, wily Wolsey himself going bail for them as another
Suffolk man. But though crushed the county was not quieted. The treaty with
France interfered with the wool trade and the workers were adrift on the
county. Sir Robert Drury got hold of certain rioters in March, 1528, and
on examination at Bury 2 John Davy, the leader, said that he and others had
arranged to go up to the king and cardinal with as many men as they could
assemble and beseech a remedy for the living of poor men. Norfolk recom-
mended severity and asked that they might be hanged. Next month,
April, Norfolk hinted that the people would soon be asking for the repay-
ment of the loan money — ' a thing more to be feared than any other, for it is so
much desired.' The Parliament of 1530 disappointed that growing hope, for
by it the king was released from repayment and in return granted a general
pardon to all rioters. But pardons do not fill empty stomachs. In the
meantime Henry was embroiled with wife and pope, and later with his
people over the question of his divorce. Anne Boleyn was crowned in May,
1533, and at her coronation Sir William Drury, Sir John Jernyngham, and
Sir Thomas Russhe were made knights of the Sword, Sir Thomas Jermy a
knight of the Bath, 3 and William Waldegrave was knighted.

The passing of the Act of Succession in 15 34 outraged the county while
it was forced to submit. Sir William Waldegrave, 4 John Spryng, and Robert
Crane had the unenviable task of enforcing it. In vino Veritas, and Margaret
Ellys of St. Clairs Bradfield 3 spoke the truth as all men knew it when, in her
cups as she pleaded, she said Anne was no queen but a naughty whore, and
cried ' God save Queen Katharine.' In Suffolk the duke of Norfolk managed
the king's affairs, and for the Parliament of 1536 he had arranged that such
knights should be chosen as would serve his highness according to his
pleasure. His pleasure was the suppression of the smaller monasteries, which
inoculated the county gentlemen with land fever and added further to the
distress of the poor. The Lincoln rebellion sent Suffolk, the favourite, north
in command of the troops, while Norfolk remained behind to settle the
county and call out the levies. From Stoke 6 he directed operations and calmed
the ' light ' young clothiers, making such harsh words in Hadleigh, Boxford,

1 Hall, Chron. (1809),
3 Ibid, vi, No. 1494.
1 Ibid, viii, No. 196.

p. 699.

• L. and P. Hen. VIII, iv (ii), No. 4012.
4 Ibid, vii, No. 689.
6 Ibid, ix, No. 625.

180

POLITICAL HISTORY

Nayland, Bildeston, Rattlesden, and elsewhere, that it would have been hard for
anyone to speak, an unfitting word without being seized and sent to him. Sir
Thomas Jermyn, under-steward to the duke at Bury, and Sir William Drury
and John Spryng, stewards of the liberty of St. Etheldreda, 1 rode with him
through the country, and 1,400 or 1,500 tall Suffolk men were ready at an
hour's warning. Out of the liberty of Bury alone were 1,000 more men
only waiting for harness. Lord Wentworth was to remain to govern the
county with Sir Humphrey Wingfield, Sir Thomas Russhe, Sir John
Jernyngham, 'a man of good estimation,' to assist him towards the coasts, and
about Bury, the abbot. 2 Thanks to the duke's firm not to say rough hand-
ling, Suffolk, denuded of her tall men, for the moment was saved from open
rebellion ; but through the year individuals continued to be indicted for
treasonable utterances, and plays, prophecies, and songs touching the king's
honour were common. 3 One mysterious individual who had played too suc-
cessfully the part of Husbandry in one of the plays was sought for but
not to be found. No games, no assemblies of the people were allowed, and
Suffolk reported all quiet. It was the quiet of hopeless regret, for it was
now firmly believed through the county that if they had only risen and
joined with Lincolnshire and Yorkshire they would have ' gone through the
realm.' They were in consequence irritable and inconstant and not in a mood
for the levying of the subsidy in 1538,* so that Norfolk advised great firm-
ness and the money to be assessed at the quarter sessions by the magistrates.
A rumour got about that all unmarked cattle were to be confiscated to the king.
Unhappy experience had taught that the flagrant injustice of the order did not
show its impossibility, and an unknown rascal in a green coat and riding a
fair white gelding was held responsible for the report. 5 Vagabonds were
numerous, and were ordered out of the county, but as the same measure was
in practice in every other county it is not wonderful that their number
remained undiminished. Priests and curates were by no means reconciled
to the Act of Supremacy, and read so confusedly ' hemming and hacking the
Word of God and such injunctions as we have lately set forth ' that no man
could understand the true meaning thereof. Such clergymen, with vagabonds,
valiant beggars, and readers of the mass of Thomas a Becket, were to be swept
up and imprisoned without bail.

This year (1539) the military force of the county was reorganised, with
a view not only to defence but for the advancement of justice and the mainte-
nance of the commonwealth. When he had pardoned the poor souls in the
Suffolk riots Henry had remarked that it was in his power to cut them to
pieces by the sword with their wives and children, and this ' ordering of the
Manrede ' was conceived in the same spirit. It was a kind of police
and militia system. The king was to appoint four, five, or six men in every

1 L. and P. Hen. Fill, ix, No. 6+2.

' The following were commanded to turn out and serve the king's own person — L. and P. Hen. fill :
Sir Charles Willoughby with 100 men ; Sir George Somerset of Badmundisfield with 40 men; Sir Arthur
Hopton of Westwood with 100 men, served with Suffolk ; Sir Anthony Wingfield of Letheringham with 100
men, served with Suffolk ; Sir Thomas Russhe of Chapmans with 60 men ; Sir John Jernyngham of Somerleyton
with 30 men ; Sir William Drury of Halsted with 100 men; Sir Thomas Jermyn of Rushbrooke with 100
men ; John Spryng of Lavenham with 60 men ; George Coke of Long Mclford with 50 men ; Richard
Cavendish of Girminston (?) with 30 men.

3 L. and P. Hen. Fill, xii (i), Nos. 424 and 1284. ( Ibid, xii (i), No. 32.

1 Ibid, xiii (ii), No. 52.

181

A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK

shire to be his head commissioners, who were to take oath to execute all com-
missions, letters, and missives, and to do all they could for the surety of the
king and his succession, for the advancement of justice, the repressing of
unlawful games, and the encouraging of the use of the long bow. Under them
sundry minor officials who took the same oath did the work, took the musters,
and sent in the certificates to the king. Besides the general musters the king
sent letters missive to his servants and other gentlemen, desiring them to
certify the number of men they could put in the field for the king's service in
war. The invasion of a force under Charles V and Francis I to execute the
papal bull launched against Henry was the occasion of all this bustle. Lowes-
toft, Aldeburgh, and Orwell were to be put in a state of defence 1 and nothing
was thought of but the carting of ammunition and guns. In 1542 there was
war with France and danger from the Scots. The duke of Norfolk was ordered
to the Border and commanded to take the Suffolk levies with him. Certain
gentlemen like Sir John Jermy the sheriff, ' as good a knight as ever spurred
a cow,' paid for substitutes. Norfolk took with him his own special
adherents, Sir William Drury, Sir William Waldegrave, Sir Thomas Jermyn,
John Spryng, and Henry Doyle, and 2,500 foot, all desirous to be avenged on
the Scots. Two years later 3,000 men mustered for France. 2 Tall men
were taken in the markets and pressed, and immediately shipped off to
Calais, whither there was a daily procession wearing the red cross. Nothing
was seen or talked of save harness, ensigns, and liveries of footmen. This cam-
paign was disastrous to both Lord Surrey and his father the duke of Norfolk,
the former was accused of treason and beheaded 13 January, 1547, and ten
days after Norfolk was attainted and his warrant signed 27 January. Next
day Henry VIII died.

The county respected the Act of Succession, and Edward VI was pro-
claimed. Princess Mary had a following, however, and all those oppressed
by the new landlords looked eagerly to her accession. One Pooley was a
leader of the worst sort of rebels in Suffolk 3 and held seditious meetings. Of
the rebels who were taken some were set in the Ipswich pillory by
Sir Anthony Wingfield, others lost an ear, or, worse still, were sent up to
London to be tried and punished there. The short reign of Edward came
to an end on 6 July, 1553.

Princess Mary was in Norfolk at Kenninghall. She at once bestirred
herself to gather the loyal east about her. 4 On the 8th she wrote to
Sir George Somerset, Sir William Drury, Sir William Waldegrave, and
Clement Heigham, requiring their obedience and presence at Kenninghall.

1 L. and. P. Hen. V1I1. xiv (i), No. 655.

* Ibid, xix (i), p. 1 58. The following gentlemen with their men were commanded to the army for
France in 1544: — Lord Wentworth, 140 foot; Sir Humphrey Wingfield, 10 foot; Sir John Willoughby,
6 foot ; Sir Thomas Jermyn, 40 foot ; Robert Crane, 6 men ; Wm. Calthorpe, 6 men ; Edmund Pooley,
3 men ; Robert Downes, 2 men ; Ralph Chamberlayn, 6 men ; John Croftes, 10 men ; Rob. Garnish of
Kenton, 4 men ; Thos. Heigham of Heigham, 6 men ; Clement Heigham, 4 men ; Robert Spryng, 4 men ;
Edward Waldegrave, 5 men ; Marten of Melford, 5 men ; Ric. Coddington, 10 men ; John Brewse, 10 men ;
John Southwell, 3 men; George Colt, 10 men; Lawrence Slystede, 2 men; Wm. Rede, 6 men; Wm.
Pooley, 2 men ; Thos. Pope, 3 men ; Robert Gosnold, 2 men ; Wm. Mannock, 6 men ; Rob. Kene, 2 men ;
Rob. Forde, 4 men ; Rob. Raynoldes, 3 men ; Wm. Foster, 3 men ; Walter Waddeland, 3 men ; John
Tasburgh, Thos. Bateman, Edm. Playter, Jn. Hacon, Roger Rookwood, Ant. Heveningham, Rog. Wood-
house, Thos. Dereham, Wm. Hunston, J. and H. Wentworth, nil ; Sir Wm. Drury, 30 men ; John Spryng,
30 men ; John Shelton, 30 men ; Henry Doyle, 30 men.

3 Cal. S.P. Dom. 1547-80, p. 20. ' * Strype, Mem. Eccl. iii, 1.

182

POLITICAL HISTORY

On the 14th she was at Framlingham collecting an army to oppose the earl
of Oxford and Lord Rich, whom she commanded to retire towards Ipswich. 1
On that and the following days Suffolk men came to swear fealty to her : on
the 14th Francis Jenney of Knoddishall, Thomas Playter of Sotterley, Robert
Codan of Weston, George Harvey of Ickworth, Thomas Timperley of Hintles-
ham, Nicholas Bohun of Chelmondiston, John Reeve of Beccles, Robert Bacon
of Drinkstone, John Rinete (or Reignolde) of Shotley, Owen Hopton of West-
wood, Edward Ichingham, Robert Cheke of Blendhall, John Blennerhasset of
Barham ; on the 15th Henry Chettings of Wortham, Edward Glemham of
Glemham (2nd son), Sir Anthony Rowse of Dennington, Sir Thomas Corn-
wallis of Brome (sheriff), Sir Nicholas Hare of Bruisyard, John Tirrel of
Gipping, Thomas Petyt of Shipmeadow ; on the 1 6th and 17th, John
Smith of Cavendish, Richard Cooke of Langham, Robert Gosnolde of Otley,
Sir Richard Brooke of Nacton, John Brend of Beccles, Lord Wentworth of
Nettlestead, Edward Tasburgh of Ilketshall, Sir William Drury of Halstead,
Robert Drury of Halstead, Clement Heigham of Barrow.- The munitions
and ordnance of the ships which had been stationed at Harwich under
Sir Richard Brooke to prevent Mary's escape were safely brought away to
Framlingham on the 16th, as well as the artillery from St. Osyth's, before
Lord Darcy could come up. 3 In order to recruit her army all the gaols in the
county were discharged on the 18th by the advice of her council of Suffolk
gentlemen, and on the 21st proclamation was made to all captains to bring
their men to a muster 4 under Sir William Drury and Sir William Walde-
grave. Mary 5 was received by the people of Suffolk solely on her right as
heir to the crown. They realized the danger and difficulty which would
beset them under a Roman Catholic queen if she proved bigoted, for the
county favoured the Gospel. Mary was a woman of thirty-seven, whose life
had been one long persecution for her religion. She was embittered and
distrustful, but there can be little doubt that she was honest when she bought
the general allegiance of Suffolk by her promise to respect its conscience.
As she said a month later to the Mayor of London, ' she meant not to
compel or strain men's consciences otherwise than God should, as she trusted,
put into their hearts a persuasion of the truth that she is in, through
the opening of this Word unto them by godly and virtuous and learned
preachers.' A pacific restoration to the power of Rome was all she seemed
to have dreamed till her marriage in 1554. Mary was grateful to in-
dividuals. She did not forget those who had helped her at Framlingham,
and one of her first actions was to reward them with office and pension. Six
of her council were Suffolk men : Lord Wentworth, Sir Thomas Cornwallis,
Sir Edward Waldegrave, Sir Henry Jerningham (captain of the Guard),
Sir Wm. Cordell, Sir Clement Heigham, Sir Nicholas Hare. The
approaching marriage with Philip of Spain roused Protestant Suffolk.
Ipswich protested, and Edmund Withipoll of that town was no truckler,
whatever the bailiffs might be. In the county there was Thomas Pooley '
of Icklingham to lead them. Sir William Drury was ordered to search his
house for incriminating papers, and either take £ 1,000 bail or send him

1 Acts of Privy Council (New Ser.), 1552-4, p. 300. * Ibid. p. 294.

5 Ibid. p. 298. * Ibid. p. 300.

5 Strype, Mem. Eccl. iii, 76. 6 Acts of Privy Council (New Ser.), 1554-6, p. 106.

183

A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK

under strong escort to London. Sir Henry Tirrell ' had the unenviable task
of forcing the recalcitrant to church and imprisoning those who refused.
He was thanked for his 'travail' in August, 1554. Papist members were
returned for that year's Parliament.

The Marian persecution began; 2 in February, 1555, Dr. Rowland
Taylor was burned at Hadleigh, and in June seven men were delivered
out of Newgate to suffer in Essex and Suffolk. 3 In July Francis Clopton
of Denston was apprehended with his servant and committed to the Fleet.
Many rled abroad to France and Geneva, and waited their chance of over-
throwing the scarlet woman on the throne. In June, 1556, these exiles-
made an attempt in Suffolk. The traitorous correspondence of Andrew
Revett and William Bigott had been taken by the sheriff, Sir John Sulyard. 4,
In consequence their persons were secured and their houses searched, with
small result. This summary dealing did not deter the exiles, and they sent
a bold man and ' one condemned ' called Clayberd, 6 who gave himself out
as the earl of Devon, then in exile at Padua, and used the name of the
Princess Elizabeth to further his cause. He fell immediately into the hands-
of Sir John and was executed at Bury, while his few supporters were arraigned
and condemned. Andrew Revett cleared his name by proving that the
charge against him rested on a letter forged by a retainer of Sir Nicholas
Hare. Most of the county stood aloof ready to follow a recognized leader
against a persecution which was so abhorred that it was almost impossible to
get the burnings carried into effect, 6 and that with a papist sheriff and two
zealous assistants, Sir William Drury and Sir Clement Heigham. Lady
Wentworth, the wife of the unfortunate defender of Calais, was first charged
with harbouring Protestants, then she was apprehended and committed
to the Fleet, and not released till she recanted. Edmund Withipoll,
William Brampton, and William Gresham were ordered to come up before
the council also.

Mary died opportunely 17 November, 1558. The county could not
have been held in much longer, and the accession of Elizabeth was hailed by
the majority with acclamation, for Suffolk hoped she would reign by the
light of the Gospel, as expounded by its favourite preachers. They were
soon to find out that her mind was in the main that of her father. In her
progress through Suffolk in 1561 she was scandalized at Ipswich by the
impudent behaviour of many of the ministers and readers, for little order was
observed in the public service, and few wore the surplice, while all had wives
and children. The bishop winked at the schismatics. Not so the queen/
She issued an order to the archbishop of Canterbury and all church digni-
taries, dated Ipswich, August 9, forbidding the resort of women to collegiate
churches or cathedral lodgings. Having spread dismay through the town
which had assessed itself heavily for her entertainment she departed to
Shelley Hall and thence to the Waldegraves at Smallbridge and the
Tollemaches at Helmingham.

1 Acts of Privy Council (New Ser.), I 554-6, p. 63. ' Machyn's Diary (Camden Soc), p. 82 et seq.

3 Acts of Privy Council (New Ser.), 1554-6, pp. 165, 1 7 1 .

4 Ibid. 235 and 360. * Strype, Mem. Eccl. iii (i), 546.
6 Acts of Privy Council (New Ser.), 1556-8, p. 135.

' Nicholl, Progresses of Queen Elizabeth, pp. 96-7.

184

POLITICAL HISTORY

The county was over-run with returned soldiers and sailors whose pay
was in arrears. 1 The coast was riddled by pirates, subjects of the queen who,
forgetting the fear of God Almighty and the duty of good subjects, had been
robbing and spoiling honest merchants on the coasts and seas. Foreign wars
had deranged the cloth trade. Mary queen of Scots, a captive in England,
had become the hope of English Catholics and already the duke of Norfolk,
was intriguing for her release. Add to this the growing number of enclosures,
royal and private parks becoming daily more spacious and encroaching on the
arable and pasture land, with the attendant game laws. It was rumoured
that the Protestants had risen to massacre the Catholics," a strange thing, as
the Spanish ambassador writes, for in Suffolk they have it all their own way.
The arrest of the duke of Norfolk however turned the rising into a social one
and the Protestant county prepared to go to London to liberate forcibly their
Papist duke. Rigorous measures were used, but the clothiers continued
disturbed and incensed. All their enterprises were lost, says the Spanish
ambassador, by bad guidance, 3 ' although they are undertaken with impetus,
they are not carried through with constancy.' Papists, Puritans and Ana-
baptists, all extremists were alike subjected to persecution. Certain families,*
such as the Sulyards, the Rookwoods, the Drurys of Losell, and the Forsters,
were staunch for their faith and suffered imprisonment, fine, and exile without
a murmur. In February, 1 578-9/ the good divines of Ipswich and Bury
attempted the conversion of Michael Hare, Roger Martin of Melford, Henry
Drury, and John Daniel, who all preferred prison. In the autumn of the
same year they laboured with equally vain results, for Edward Sulyard of
Wetherden, Thomas Sulyard of Grundisburgh, Edmund Bedingfield, Henry
Everard, and William Hare refused liberty on their terms. 6 The year 1582
saw the beginning of the Jesuit mission to England. Losell was a well-
known harbour for the priests, who evaded the vigilance of the coastguard.
They taught the children of the recusants and, inspiring them with a
magnificent spirit of self-abnegation, persuaded many to become lay members
of the order. The political danger was increased by the mission, for the
Catholic forces in England were becoming organized just about the time
when the Spanish invasion seemed most probable. Now began the prepara-
tions to repel the Spaniards. Spanish spies of a sanguine temperament reported
Suffolk impracticable for a landing, but though full of heretics there were still
Catholic gentlemen who could raise 2,000 men. The coast defences at Alde-
burgh, Dunwich, Southwold, and Lowestoft were put in order by Robert Day,
an engineer. 7 The inhabitants were to pay for the work, and those that would
not be persuaded, to suffer. Many Suffolk merchants furnished ships out of
their private means, and Ipswich and the other ports were called upon to pro-
vide four ships and a pinnace. 8 The necessity of mobility in the forces for land
defence caused a new muster rating to be issued. All those who had estates

1 Acts of the Privy Council (New Ser.), I 558-70, pp. 278 et seq.
' Cal. S. P. Spanish, 1568-79, No. 123. « Ibid.

4 Records oj the English Province, S. J. ser. ii, iii, iv, passim.
6 Jets of the Privy Council (New. Ser.), 1 578-80, p. 47.

6 Framlingham Castle was considered a fit place for the custody of recusants. Ibid. I 580-1, p. 82.

7 Act of the Privy Council (New Ser.), I 586-7, pp. 1 14 et seq.

8 Ibid. 1 588, p. 10. Ipswich and Harwich were called upon for two ships and one pinnace, of the cost of
which Harwich eventually bore a sixth part, Aldeburgh, Orford, and Dunwich for one ship and Lowestoft
and Yarmouth one ship and one pinnace.

2 185 24

A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK

of £1,000 a °d upwards must keep six horses or geldings fit for mounting
demi-lances with harness complete and ten with weapons and harness for light
horsemen and so on down to estates of ioo marks and under £100, which
were to furnish one gelding and harness for one light horseman. 1 The
apportioning of the ship-money was not so easy. 2 Upland woollen towns
objected to pay for both coast and land defence. Ipswich answered that their
wool was shipped at the coast, and no port no trade. Lowestoft was too
poor to furnish the pinnace alone, and the coast towns of Blything had to
contribute. Aldeburgh had in a most spirited fashion furnished a ship and
paid £s9° f° r fr> while Orford, Dunwich and Southwold, Woodbridge and
Walberswick, collectively contributed only £40 to the outlay. 3 During the
summer of 1588 it was found impossible to maintain the county levy at the
coast, for the farms wanted hands in the June weather, and it was arranged
that the towns and companies should take it by turns to watch a month.
Her Majesty was a believer in the blue water theory and the Navy was
indeed the defence of the whole realm. Suffolk was ordered to provide
200 cwt. each of butter and cheese for the fleet at reasonable price. On
23 July, while the fight was running up the channel, the county was
ordered to send 2,000 men, and on the 28th, when the Spaniards had anchored
off Calais, another 1,000 was urgently demanded. The county levied 4,239
men, and 2,000 of these were to repair on 8 August to Tilbury, under Sir
William Heydon their colonel, but the same day a contradictory order was
sent, for news had come that the Spanish fleet had been sighted ENE. of
Yarmouth,* and Sir William was to wait with his levy till it would appear what
course they were going to take, while Sir William Waldegrave, Sir Nicholas
Bacon, and Sir William Spryng were ordered to bring the rest of the levies to
Stratford-le-Bow. On 7 August the danger was over, for the Spaniards were
fleeing northward before the gale, and the Suffolk men were allowed to go
about their harvest again. 5 Only the seamen had no rest, and 1 10 were ordered
to be taken and pressed and sent to Dover and Sandwich. The geldable
portion of Suffolk was commanded to contribute £500 to the ships furnished
by Ipswich and Harwich. 6 All gentlemen who had served in Her Majesty's
service in the summer were to be exempt, and the tax fell principally on
the poor and on the recusants. The county continued to send contingents to
the Spanish wars under Drake and Norris, 7 but the men deserted at the water's
edge, and sailors simply were not to be found.

The 21 July, 1603, saw Suffolk once more with a duke of its own.
Thomas, lord Howard de Walden, 8 second son of the Duke of Norfolk, was
raised to the dignity. Two years later the county was horrified to find that
one of its number was implicated in the Gunpowder Plot. Ambrose Rook-
wood, of ColdhamhalP had been persuaded into joining the plot, which was
wildly supposed to be the first act in a new Spanish invasion. Robert Rook-
wood of Clopton and Robert Townsend of Broughton were examined for
evidence, and Ambrose's house was searched, but nothing treasonable was to be
found and he himself had not been seen in the county since October. 10 The

1 Grose, Military Antiquities, 13. * Acts of the Privy Council (New Ser.), I 588, p. 58.

"Ibid. 115. 'Ibid. 210. s Ibid. 224.

6 Ibid. 368 et seq. 7 Cal. S. P. Dom. 1591-4, p. 552. 8 Ibid. 1603-10, p. 23.

9 See East Angl. Mag. iii (Ser. xi), 145. l0 Cal. S. P. Dom. 1603-10, p. 253.

186

POLITICAL HISTORY

county ordered public rejoicings at the king's escape, 1 and the poor of
Ipswich received a dole of bread, while Dr. Samuel Ward, the town preacher,
published a picture in which he commemorated this grand blessing of God to
the nation. The immediate result of the plot was an increased distrust of
the Papists.

The excitement of the Spanish marriage seems to have run high as early
as 1 6 17, and stout Protestants like 2 Sir John Heigham proposed to buy off
James I. He wrote to the justices of the peace asking them to use their
influence to get a liberal contribution voted in the county and to test the
disposition of the principal gentlemen. Dr. Willett was imprisoned for
sounding the county on the same extraordinary proposal. This exhibition of
feeling did not deter James from pushing on the marriage in 1622, with the
result that recusants were more leniently treated and Mr. Ward 3 of
Ipswich was inhibited from preaching. The Spanish fear was only super-
seded by the French one, and the county was alarmed at the attitude
of the Papists, who were said to be holding secret meetings, among others
at the houses of one * Benefield in Redlingfield, and one Gage. In spite,
however, of their fears, the county refused to pay a muster-master, and
it was so bare of money that none was to be had to pay the garrison in
Landguard Fort. A loan was hurried on, and a list of persons able to
subscribe £10 was sent U P to tri e council. It is significant that the subsidy
in Suffolk under James I only produced £2,137, as against £6,828 in
Elizabeth's time. All the money was absorbed in general war expenses ;
nothing was spent on the county, and at the summer assizes at Bury in 1626
the people raised a great clamour against the duke of Buckingham's careless
neglect of their coasts. 5 They complained bitterly that their ships were taken
and fired by pirates in their very havens before their eyes, and Suffolk boats
hardly dared venture a bow out of port. Buckingham could not afford to
withdraw the loan, though everywhere the people were refractory, and the
attitude of a certain attorney, Valentine Coppin of Halesworth, 6 was typical.
He said he had no intention of lending money to His Majesty nor had he
authorized anyone to subscribe for him ; in fact, he knew nothing about
a subscription. There were at the same time disputes in the county about
the provision for the king's household. The petition of the inhabitants
of Woodbridge 7 shows what a constant drain there was at this time on all
purses. They were charged for the king's provisions for his household,
the repairing and watching of beacons, the provision of powder and match
and bullets, the wages of soldiers in the bands for every five weeks' training,
the carts, pioneers' tools, and nags ; the charge of 3,000 men to march into
Kent on any alarm, and 5,000 men on the coasts, and 4,000 men to march
to Yarmouth, as well as all county charges. To these they were asked to
add, with the rest of the county, a moiety of the expenses of the two ships
demanded from Ipswich for the war with Spain. The water was so low in
the well that the county sent a remonstrance to the council demonstrating
their impotency to contribute. The men pressed for service mutinied at
Harwich, and many fled through the county and were concealed by the

1 Bacon, Annah of Iprxhh, 10 Nov. 1605.

' Cal. S. P. Dom. 161 1-1S, p. 505. * Ibid. 1619-23, p. 399. 4 Ibid. 1625-6, p. 102.

4 Ibid. 1625-6, p. 409. * Ibid. 1627-8, p. 29. ' Ibid. p. 72.

187

A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK

friendly inhabitants. Sir Charles Cornwallis, at his wits' end, suggested that
the deputy-lieutenants should be given powers of arbitrary punishment, so
that the runaways might be punished without fear of pursuit in law or in
Parliament. 1 Further, men were demanded for the siege of La Rochelle.
The county refused to send them till the last two presses were satisfied and
some definite provision made by the council for the payment of press and
conduct money, for ' without money service cannot be got.' In reply, the
council first adopted a tone of dignified reproach, saying that the custom
always had been for the county to defray all expenses, and send in its bill
to the government, and then peremptorily ordered the impressment to
proceed without delay. The justices of the peace and the deputy-lieutenants
had simply to put their hands in their pockets. Masters 2 and owners of
Ipswich ships were many of them like to be ruined by the Isle de Rhe
disaster, and Aldeburgh frankly told the council that if they wanted the
town fortified they must do it themselves. A further loan of £5*55° was
demanded in February, 1628. The county despaired of keeping solvent,
and Buckingham was regarded as the root of all evil, so much so that one
of the Feltons of Playford thought to mend matters by assassinating him. It
was rumoured that Felton was only one of certain persons of quality in Suffolk
who had threatened the Duke. :i But Felton's fortitude prevented the
discovery of the names of any of his confederates. His action brought no
relief, only a change of masters. The coasts were no better defended. The
county definitely refused to pay the muster-master's fee, and at Bury*
Sir Robert Crane and Sir Lionel Tollemache, as members of Parliament,
refused to sign any warrants for it, fearing they might be committed for it
by the House. 'But,' said Sir Robert Crane, 'you, Sir Thomas Glemham and
Mr. Poley, and such as are no Parliament men, make out the warrants.' The
other deputy-lieutenants answered they would all run the same course, and
the warrants remained unsigned. The fiscal and military exactions, added to
the irksome ecclesiastical restraints under Laud, made Suffolk men restless
and hopeless. The sacredness of individual religion as they found it in the
Gospels and in the sermons and prayers of their powerful preacher,
Dr. Samuel Ward, whose fame was great in both London and Cambridge,
was to them more precious than their homes. They decided, urged thereto
by a certain 5 Dr. Dalton, parson of Woolverstone by Ipswich, to emigrate to
America, and arrangements were made for transporting some 600 persons
out of Suffolk. Mr. Ward did not discourage their flight under persecution,
while commending the courage of those who remained, for he writes : ' he was
not of so melancholy a spirit nor looked through so black spectacles as he
that wrote that religion stands on tip-toe in this land looking westward.'
The first ships were to sail on 10 March, 1633. Ward was brought up before
the Court of High Commission, and Dr. Brent made an ecclesiastical
visitation through the county. He found preachers everywhere. Not a
bowling-green or an ordinary could exist without one, and many private
gentlemen kept divines in their houses as tutors to their children.

October, 1634, saw the beginning of the fiscal revolt, the struggle in the
county against arbitrary taxation. 6 In that month the maritime towns were

1 Cal. S.P. Dom. 1627-8, p. 198. * Ibid. 1625-49, p. 320. 3 Ibid. 1633-4, P- '75-

* Ibid. 1625-49, p. 379. ' Ibid. 1633-4, p. 450. 6 Ibid. 1634-5, p. 242.

188

POLITICAL HISTORY

asked to provide a ship of 700 tons, with arms, ordnance, double-tackling,
and provisions for twenty-six weeks, from 21 March, with 250 men. In
March, 1635, this was amended. 1 The king would provide the ships if the
county would give the money, and in August the amount still unpaid out of
Suffolk and Essex amounted to £657. During the same month was issued
the second writ for ship-money, assessing this time the whole county and all
corporate towns therein at £8,000.- This was not without precedent, for
in 1628, as has been seen, the county refused to pay its share of the ships
assessed on Ipswich. The sheriff was personally responsible for the total
amount. The poor country towns cried out that the ports had forced them
to pay on the last writ, and that they ought at least now to be assessed merely
at the county rate. This led to endless disputes ; every town and hundred
had fifty good reasons why part of its assessment should be thrown on to its
neighbour. By January, 1636, Sir John Barker had managed to collect all
save £100, but his receipt for £7,615 is dated 31 July. The demand
became yearly now; each August saw its writ. In 1636 only half the
assessed amount was paid, but the decision of the judges in the king's favour
quickened Sir Philip Parker, so that next year the amount was brought up to
£7, 900/ The demands of 1638 and 1 639 * were simply not paid, many of
the defaulters having fled to New England and Holland, and Sir John Clench,
the sheriff, was practically ruined. By 1 640 the absolute impossibility of
collecting the ship-money was demonstrated, and Sir Symonds D'Ewes, the
sheriff, on 21 April, the day appointed for the high constables to bring in the
£8,000, did not receive £200/ Instead, the distracted constables sent him
certificates, saying that they could not get the money, and dared not distrain,
for the tenants threatened actions. Ipswich division backed up Beccles, and
the constables were powerless. The sheriff gave the true reasons for the
non-payment : deadness of trade, scarcity of money, low prices tor all com-
modities of plough and pail, great military charges of the past summer.
Daily groans and sighs were the only returns. In the Parliament of 1640
the king offered to take twelve subsidies instead, and these were granted.

The trouble with Scotland in 1639 meant the calling out of the county
levy. The Covenanters had many sympathizers in Suffolk, and the Puritans
of Ipswich organized a transport strike, 6 so that the army contractors in the
north could get no shipmen to carry out their contracts. Many in the
county refused to pay coat and conduct money for the same reason, 7 and the
1640 levy of 600 men mutinied at Bungay. They attacked the deputy-
lieutenants there who had gone to see them delivered over to Lieut. -Colonel
Fielding, and held them up in their inn. Sir William Playter, however,
boldly arrested the two ringleaders. 8 The soldiers were Puritans and fanatical.
They held commissary courts among themselves and did justice on those of
their fellows who offended against their moral standard. They also proceeded
against witches. Sir Thomas Jermyn, the lord-lieutenant, got them on the
march with all possible speed, dreading the impossibility of harmonizing the
drums and bells. Suffolk was clearly a hot-bed for the new ideas. The
.new book of canons inculcating divine right and passive obedience was found

1 Cal. S.P. Dom. 1634-5, P- 559- ' Ib 'd- l6 35> P- 3^3-

s Ibid. 2 Mar. 1637-8, p. 200. * Ibid. 163S-9, pp. 64, 530.

4 Ibid. 1640, p. 59. ' Ibid. 1639, p. 157.

1 Ibid. 1640, p. 274. ' Ibid. 336.

189

A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK

nailed to the Ipswich pillory. 1 Sir Lionel Tollemache sent to Laud a copy
of the scandalous paper found alongside of it. Small wonder that in the
exciting election of 1640 the Puritan candidates, Sir Nathaniel Barnardiston
and Sir Philip Broke, were returned. The county " was full of the cries of
the poor for work, and food, and their curses and threats came daily to every
ear and told of sadder consequences at every door. Sixteen thousand people
assembled to march to the House of Commons to petition for help and also to
have the worship of God settled in a purer fashion. The question of the
control of the militia and the management of military matters had already
been hinted at when Sir Lionel Tollemache and Sir Robert Crane refused to
sign muster-master warrants for fear of embroiling themselves with Parliament.
Now the question had become the crucial one, and Sir Thomas Jermyn was
said to have been one of those who would have used the levies to overawe
Parliament.

By 11 August, 1642, Parliament had voted that the king's commis-
sioners of array were to be accounted traitors, and the militia of Suffolk was to
be turned out in the cause of the Commons. 3 On the 1 8th Sir Roger North
and Sir Wm. Spring were ordered to secure the powder magazine at Bury.
Landguard Fort, under Captain Sussex Camock, was in their hands ; but he
was half-hearted, and allowed 4 one ship full of ammunition to slip by
him. Parliament appointed new deputy-lieutenants — Sir William Castleton,
Sir John Wentworth, Sir Robert Broke, Sir William Soame, Sir Thomas
Barnardiston, Thomas Baker, Brampton Gurdon, William Rivett of Bildeston,
Robert Brewster, John Gurdon, Nathaniel Bacon, Francis Bacon, William
Bloyes, and Thomas Blosse for Aldeburgh. Thomas Tirrell of Gipping, Edmund
Harvey, and Francis Brewster were added 11 May, 1643. They were to
hasten the contributions of loyal subjects for the defence of king and Parliament
in horse, money, or plate. Sir Nathaniel Barnardiston was sent down by the
House to set things going. The deputy-lieutenants were to exercise the usual
military authority and to appoint colonels and captains. Ipswich 5 was to be
fortified, and John Blomfield and Samuel Dunken rode to Colchester to find
an engineer to do this, while the burghers enrolled themselves as volunteers
under 6 Edward Bedwell, and undertook to watch for the king's ships. In
December, 1642, the papists and others having successfully tried the experi-
ment of association, 7 Parliament ordered the association of the eastern
counties for their mutual defence against the said Papists.

In February, 1643, the deputy-lieutenants were ordered to subscribe
the warrants for the association. After two or three attempts they arrived at
the following :

We whose names are hereunder written do profess freely and [with] willingness to join
in the association and do further promise to use the uttermost endeavours for assembling the
inhabitants of the several counties of Essex, Suffolk, Norfolk, Cambridgeshire, and Hertford-
shire, and by our own example and persuasions to further the effectual association of the said
counties according to the Ordinance of Parliament and to return an account thereof. 8

1 Cal. S.P. Dom. 1640, p. 518.

s Petition of the Clothiers and other Inhabitants of the county of Suffolk, 1 642.

3 House of Commons Journ. 18 Aug. 1642. ' Ibid. 28 Nov. 1642.

5 Bacon, Annals of Ipswich, 23 Nov. 1642. 6 Commons Journ. 28 Nov. 1642.
' Rushworth, Hist. Colled. 1708, iv, 603, 17 Dec. 1642.

6 Tanner, MSS. Bodl. Lib. 9940. Rushworth gives a ' form of association,' but the one in the Tanner
MSS. is that actually signed by the Suffolk commissioners.

190

POLITICAL HISTORY

The deputy-lieutenants for Bury signed it : Thomas Gippes, alderman,
Thos. Chaplin, John Briggs, and Samuel Moodye ; and for the body of the
county, John Heveningham, 1 William Spring, William Soame, William
Barrowe, and Robert Brewster. The committee for Suffolk sat at Bury, and
had very wide powers, both administrative and coercive. 2 They could enter
into the houses of Papists and of all delinquents or such as had not contributed
to the cause or who had executed the king's commission of array, and of all
clergymen who had publicly preached against or reviled the proceedings of
Parliament. They were to make a list of these malignants and delinquents,
and in it must have been the following : Sir Frederick Cornwallis of Brom-
hall, Major Thomas Staunton of Staunton, Sir Charles Gawdy of Croweshall
Debenham, Henry and Edward Warner of Mildenhall, Captain Nicholas
Bacon of Culford, Benjamin Cutler of Ipswich, Lord Windsor of Stoke by
Nayland, Sir John Pettus of Chester Hall, John Hervey of Ickworth, Arthur
Denny of Palgrave, Edward Rookwood of Euston, Francis Cheney of Eye,
Robert Gosnold of Otley, Samuel Gooch of Bradfield, Arthur Heveningham
of Heveningham, Sir Thomas Glemham of Glemham, and his son Sackville,
John and William Le Hunt of Little Bradley, Lord Willoughby of Parham,
Richard Bowie of Kersey Priory, Sir Thomas Jermyn of Rushbrooke,
Edmund Cooke of Herringfleet, George Gage of Hengrave, Nicholas Garnish
of Micklefield, Lawrence Britton of Hitcham (a known agent for the king),
Thomas Webb of Cowling, Thomas Easton of Thorndon. The same families
as had been persecuted for their religion under Elizabeth suffered under
Parliament : Sir Edward Sulyard of Haughley Park, John Bedingfield of Gis-
lingham, Henry Foster of Copdock Manor, Francis and Dorothy Everard of
Great Linstead, Anne Lomax, Sir Thomas Timperley of Hintlesham, and his
son Michael, Sir Francis Mannock of Gifford's Hall, Stoke by Nayland,
Lady Carill of Lavenham, Sir Edward Golding of Eye, James Harrison of
Ipswich, Henry Nuttall of Swilland, Charles and Lady Lettice Tasburgh of
Flixton, John and Edward Daniell of Acton, Lady Mary widow of Sir
Walter Norton, and Nicholas Daniel her brother, Edward Chaplin of Farn-
ham St. Martin, Thomas Allen, Oldring's House, Lowestoft, Reginald Rouse
of Badingham, Henry Yaxley of Yaxley, Francis Yaxley of Melles, Sir Roger
Martin of Long Melford. All these suffered sequestration. 3

The county was at first assessed 4 at a monthly charge of £5,000, of
which Ipswich paid £150, Southwold £20, and Dunwich £5 5/. In 1646
it was assessed at £7,070, to which Ipswich contributed £ 212 - The
money was to be paid in weekly instalments. The Papists' estates contributed
largely to the amount. The earl of Manchester was in command of the asso-
ciation and ordered 5 Lothingland to be garrisoned but his warrant was over-
ridden by that of the commissioners, who 'conceived themselves not only his
judges but reformers of what actions of his they pleased to see fit.' The county
was denuded of horses to mount home and London troopers, and while monev
1 flowed from it, but little was returned to pay the soldiers there. The committee
were a set of ignorant civilians who grumbled at having to send their com-
panies beyond their borders. That the county could be defended at York

1 This signature is very indistinct, but John Heveningham was an active Parliament man.
* Rushworth, Hist. Coll. ed. 1708, iv, 604. * Cal. of Com. for Compounding, 164.3-60, passim.

4 Add. MSS. 1 91 7 1, fol. 36 et seq. 4 Tanner, MSS. Bodl. Lib. 99+1.

191

A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK

passed their comprehension, and the money and men for the fort at
Newport Pagnell had very often to be written for. This fort, the apex of
the eastern triangle, was in Bedfordshire on the Ouse, and was one of the
points by which the royal forces could break through to the east. The other
point for defence was near Wisbech, called the Horse Shoe Pass. On
14 February, 1644, Laurence Crawford was appointed general in command of
the eastern counties, and 3,000 men were sent from the county to Cambridge
to cover Waller's advance towards Oxford. On his defeat, 29 June, at
Cropredy, the county were told plainly that their harvest must wait, for if any-
thing happened to Waller's army it would be worse for them than the going
of their men out of the county. Two days later the news of Marston Moor
relieved the anxious committee, and the men were allowed to go about their
harvest, for they had testified to the committee that their hearts were zealously
set on the cause of God and their country. Soldiers were getting tired of
their trade and many deserted.

The year 1645 was one of humiliation for the royalists, and the com-
mittee in Suffolk, had trouble with their troops. At Bury l there was rioting
fomented by the royalists, who were plotting to get" Landguard Fort in their
hands. The chaplain there was a dangerous man, and Captain Sussex
Camock's loyalty to Parliament was more than suspect. News from Shrews-
bury warned the committee, and Captain Hunter on 17 May was ordered to
put himself with fifty men into the fort and to keep his instructions secret.
Sir Nathaniel Barnardiston was then commanded to make inquiries in the
county as to such as kept intelligence with the king's quarters. The result
of the inquiry went to prove that the fort had not been in real danger, and
Camock was set at liberty. The importance of Landguard Fort was felt by
Charles the next year, when he attempted to escape by the east coast and
could get no ship. With the king's surrender the war ended for a time, and
Suffolk delinquents escaped abroad in considerable numbers.

In 1648 royalist insurrections blazed up over Suffolk. At Bury :! rioting
began over the hoisting of a maypole and at once became serious. Next day
the streets were full of royalists shouting, ' For God and King Charles ! ', the
magazine and arms were seized and the Parliament men were chased out of the
town. Several troops of Colonel Whalley's horse were ordered to advance
against the town with the county forces, 4 and Sir William Playter and Sir
Thomas Barnardiston were sent down to negotiate, with orders that if the in-
habitants would surrender they were to promise them indemnity for all acts,
but if they would not make absolute submission then there was to be no
capitulation, and the commissioners were to let the rioters take their punish-
ment from Whalley's dragoons. Bury wisely yielded to mercy. Aldeburgh
was secured by Captain Johnson, and Lothingland and the Isle of Flegg by
Sir John Wentworth and Captain Robert Brewster. None of these measures
was premature, for one morning there arrived at Landguard Fort, 6 in a
small boat, the vice-admiral of the fleet with his wife and children, escaped
from his ship, which with the rest had declared for the king. During the
siege of Colchester by the Parliament the Suffolk levies were kept on the

1 Cat o/S. P. Dom. 1644-5, p. 496. ' Ibid. 1644-5, p. 484, passim.

' Ibid. 1648-9, 65 ; Rushworth, Hist. Coll. ed. 1708, vi, 396.

4 Cal. o/S. P. Dom. 1648-9, 65. 6 Ibid. 1648-9, 85.

192

POLITICAL HISTORY

border to prevent provisions being thrown into the town, and after its
capitulation Fairfax made a triumphal procession through the county feted
everywhere. This rising was fatal to the delinquents. 1 Sixteen thousand
pounds was demanded from the county as a contribution towards its expense,
and Bacon was sent down to see about sequestering the estates of the
delinquents in order to pay the county forces.

On Cromwell's assuming the title of Lord Protector the old cavalier
enemy began to stir. But, as Colonel John Fothergill of Sudbury wrote on
14 March, 1654, 'the Lord hath hitherto delivered [us] so he will own us
still by discovering all their wicked plots and preventing all their hellish
intentions.' The county was searched by him and he could only discover two
suspected persons, though he had scoured all High Suffolk with his troop,'
Colonel Rolleston of Peterborough, who had been with the king all through
the war, and Captain Partredge of Barham Hall. The people however were
reputed by the extreme Puritans as embittered and malignant, though the
petition of 28 January, 1660, from the gentlemen, ministers, freeholders, and
seamen of the county, to General Monk hardly bears this out :

It is tedious, they said, to see Government reeling from one hand to another ; it
is in your power to fix it. Cast your eyes on a nation impoverished, bleeding under an
intestine sword. Let its miseries and ruins implore your assistance. The only redress is in
a full and free Parliament.

Another was sent to the Lord Mayor and Aldermen of London, promis-
ing to follow their lead, to let this ' cheerful suffrage of ours be annexed as a
label to your honourable intendment.' Writs were issued to fill up county
vacancies in the house, and royalists and presbyterians were returned. On
29 May, 1660, Charles II landed at Dover.

Puritan Suffolk, however, was restless under cavalier government, and
while the Tollemaches, the Cornwallises, and the Jermyns were petitioning for
favours and the loyal clergy detailing their sufferings, the republican partv
was neither weak nor silent. Captain Thomas Elliott 8 of Aldeburgh, of the
Commonwealth Fleet, who had plundered the king's royalist subjects to the
extent of £ 12,000, vindicated his principles on the king's proclamation day
by hanging up a picture of his frigate, and arranging round it the prizes he
had taken. On the other hand obsequious Bury asked for a renewal of its
charter, for it humbly said that certain things had been done in the late
troubles which were not justifiable under their former patents. The dis-
affected were so many that the infamous Edward Potter, 4 spy by trade, who
endured many ills in his passion for truth, allowing himself to be arrested
and beaten by the king's officers rather than reveal his identity, was sent
among them. He reported the Quakers, the men of peace, to be doing
much harm and to have the best horses in the countv. He promised to
enter into any plot and to help it forward to a certain moment, when he
would reveal everything to the government. The government reorganized
the militia for police purposes, for the republican party was too numerous to
be sent to gaol. The greatest safeguard against plots lay in the division
of parties. On one occasion, possibly in 1663, 200 horsemen rose in
Suffolk, but finding the plotters not of their own party they retired quietly.

1 Commons Journ. 27 July, 1 Sept. 1648. ' Clarendon MSS. Ixiii, 103, 3 Aug. 1659.

>Cal. o/S.P. Dom. 1661-2, p. 177. 'Ibid. 154.

2 193 25

A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK

The Dutch war diverted men's minds. The militia was ordered in the
autumn of 1665 to be in readiness to defend their coast at the shortest notice,
and men were so needed tor the navy that in Aldeburgh and Ipswich the
news that an English frigate had been sighted was heralded by the spectacle
of forty or fifty able-bodied seamen fleeing out of the town into safe hiding.
Dutch prisoners simply swarmed at Ipswich and Sudbury. Landguard Fort
was strongly garrisoned by Colonel Darell with 1,000 men, while Sir Charles
Littleton and Colonel Legge's foot companies camped on the hill behind it.
Lord Oxford's troop lay at Woodbridge. During the summer of 1666 the
whole county was under arms, but it was not till the next summer, when
negotiations for peace were going on at Breda, that the Dutch actually
landed their men. On 2 July eight Dutch ships came into the Rolling
Grounds, and under cover of their guns landed a party of men at Felixstowe. 1
The harbour was protected by a line of ships, which were to be blown up and
sunk on an occasion such as this, but for some unknown reason this move-
ment did not come off. Two or three thousand men landed at Felixstowe,
of which the larger party attacked the fort with scaling ladders and pikes and
grenadoes. Twice they came on and twice were repulsed, so that they had
to return to their boats. In the meantime the rest of the landing-party
were holding their own well in the fields and lanes against the county forces
under the earl of Suffolk, who not being able to use his horse could only
press them back by slow inches. All through the afternoon they fought
till the evening, when by 9 o'clock the unsuccessful scaling party rejoined
them. By this time the tide had left their boats high and dry, and there
was nothing for it but to keep up the fight till the tide served. This they
did with great coolness from eleven till two in the morning, the earl's men
pressing them hard all through the night. By dawn they were afloat and
aboard, and by six o'clock they were under sail. The English loss was
trifling, and the Dutch hardly greater, but, adds Silas Taylor the Harwich
store-keeper, the Dutch had an aching tooth. Peace was concluded 2 1 July
and the militia disbanded. Next year the king surveyed the scene of the
fight, living in his yacht, the Henrietta, moored in the estuary of the Orwell.
He sailed round the coast to Aldeburgh, and thence rode to Ipswich to dine
with Lord Hertford, who commanded the forces there.

Peace brought back the religious difficulty, and conventicles increased in
number and boldness daily, 2 so much so that the king caused the lord-
lieutenant to inquire concerning the frequent and scandalous meetings under
pretence of religion. In 1672, however, an extraordinary number of
licences for Nonconformist meeting-houses and ministers were issued.
The temper of the county was shown in next year's election, when
Mr. Samuel Barnardiston, the candidate of the commonality and the
Nonconformists, Lord Huntingtower being that of the gentry, was elected
amid great excitement. The indulgence of 1672 was withdrawn in 1675,
and the danger in the county, as Sir John Pettus wrote, was that the
Dissenters and Papists should be forced ' to skip for shelter into the same
scale to make it mount beyond the level.' 3 'No popery,' was the cry,
however, and had Monmouth been successful in the west 4 the county would

x Cal. o/S.P. Dom. 1667, p. 263. 'Ibid. 1667-8, p. 522. 'Ibid. 1673-5, p. 553.

'There is little doubt that Sir Samuel Barnardiston was one of those who financed his expedition.

194

POLITICAL HISTORY

have risen in a body. A papist king was a thing to mock at, and in 1688
at Bury the Dissenters burlesqued the doctrine of Rome in a show called
' Before the Firy Purgation,' which even the gentry found extraordinarily
comical. ' Free parliaments and the Prince of Orange,' the obverse to that
of ' No popery,' was now the cry. All Papists were displaced in the militia,
and the Revolution was accomplished with characteristic tranquillity. The
regiment that had been Lord Dumbarton's, by its mutiny at Ipswich and the
subsequent trial of the ringleaders at Bury, created the only excitement.

The political history of Suffolk since the Revolution mainly centres
round its Parliamentary interests. Under Edward I the shire returned two
knights, while Ipswich, Dunwich, and Orford were each summoned to
send two burgesses. The Liberty of St. Edmunds was represented by its
abbot ; only one writ was issued for the election of a burgess 1 (30 Edw. I),
and the sheriff noted on the back that the seneschal of St. Edmunds had the
right to the return of all writs. Bury was only accorded the right of
parliamentary representation by James I. The election of the knights of
the shire was nominally in the hands of the suitors to the county court, but
until restrained by public opinion and parliamentary act it was practically in
those of the sheriff. In 1275 the sheriff was instructed to cause the election
of two knights in full county court, but the territorial importance of the court
was diminishing, and in 1406 it was enacted that all the suitors duly
summoned, as well as others, should attend the election. It was also
ordered that the sheriff should make proclamation of the election in every
market town fifteen days before the court. In 1430 'in consequence of the
tumults made in the county court by the great attendance of people of small
substance and no value, whereof everyone pretended a voice as to such
elections equivalent with the most worthy knights and esquires resident,' the
franchise was strictly limited. To have the right to vote it was necessary
to be a resident in Suffolk and to possess 40J. in freehold, the same to be
sworn to on the Gospels. In 1432 the freehold had to be in Suffolk. The
sheriff had the right to reject any elector who did not satisfy him that he
possessed the necessary qualification. 2 The power of the sheriff was hard
to limit. He could issue a general summons to the court, or he might only
cite his special friends, and in extreme cases he simply did not return the
writ. The act of 1406 tried to accomplish this limitation. It directs that
the names of persons chosen shall be written in an indenture under the seals
of those that did choose them. This indenture was to be attached to the
writ and regarded as the sherifFs return. In 1410 the justices of assize were
given power to inquire into the returns, and any sheriff making a false one
was to be fined £100, while the members forfeited their wages. The
persons eligible as knights of the shire were described in 1275 as ' de
discretioribus et legalioribus.' Those girt with swords were meant, for
in 1340 they are specially described as ' gladio cinctos et ordinem militarem
habentes et non alios.' In 1372 sheriffs were disqualified as candidates, and
in 141 3 it was enacted that candidates must be resident in the county.
The knights elected 3 had to find two, four, or six manucaptors that they
would appear at the day and place appointed. If they refused to find these

1 Brevia Parliamentarian ii, 2 1 2-1 3. ' Stubbs, Const. Hist. vol. iii, ch. xx.

5 Brevia Parliamcntaria, ii, 137.

•95

A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK

guarantors their goods were distrained to insure their appearance in parlia-
ment on the day fixed. In the reign of Queen Anne a property qualification
was demanded of the knights, and this was not repealed till 1858.

The members for the boroughs were before 1430 usually elected in
the county court after the knights had been chosen. The mayor, bailiffs, or
the chief officers, with four or five citizens and burgesses, were sent as
representatives, and made in the court the formal election of their already
chosen burgesses. This method was found inconvenient, and from 1445 a
precept for the election was sent to the magistrates, which was to be returned
by indenture between them and the sheriff. The election was to take place
between eight and eleven in the morning, and the persons to be elected were
not to be below the degree of a yeoman. Members were paid by the county
and boroughs, and to escape the expense the latter sometimes sent none.

There never was what could be called a free election. That was not
possible till the introduction of the ballot. The interference was not how-
ever wholly confined to local magnates. From the fourteenth century
onwards the crown tried to influence the return of members favourable to its
policy. With the centralization of the administrative this influence increased,
and under the Tudors and Stuarts royal agents were busy. Cromwell's
candidates for Henry VIII's parliaments were sure to be elected. Mary
insisted on the return of orthodox Roman Catholics, while Elizabeth in-
creased her influence by giving representation to Sudbury, Eye, and
Aldeburgh. James I tampered with the charters of the boroughs and gave
Bury two members, and in the time of Charles I the borough warrants had
a curious habit of straying into l private hands and remaining there. William
of Orange even made an electioneering tour through the county, while the
enormous sums expended by George III for this purpose are notorious.
Until 1586 all petitions regarding disputed elections came before the king
and council. But royal interference was necessarily intermittent and special,
while the influence of territorial families was permanent. In 1450 the
duke of Norfolk and the earl of March decided which knights were to
represent the county, and again in 1455 they issued the mandate that 'None
towards the duke of Suffolk (i.e. Lancastrian) were to be elected.' Under
Charles I the territorial influence was weakened by the strong growth of
religious ideas, and royal interference became necessary for the furthering of
despotic measures. In later times the county representation was often a
matter arranged by the two largest interests, each party sending one mem-
ber. There was a decided attempt about 1722 to extend the 2 Hervey
interest from Bury to the county by putting up one of the earl of Bristol's
sons. But the earl would not hear of it, for his son had neither the necessary
property qualification of £600 a year in land, nor the equally indispensable
social one of being able to drink without stint at quarter sessions with the
county gentlemen. The Grafton and Bristol interests usually carried all before
them. Farmers voted with their landlords as a matter of course, and land-
owners appeared at the poll followed by their tenants.

In the boroughs the narrowness of the franchise had a very serious
effect on the political morals of the county. The right to vote was

1 Sir Simonds d'Ewes, Pari. Affairs, Harl. MSS. 165.
* Letter Bk. of John Hervey, Oct. 1722.

196

POLITICAL HISTORY

inherent in the status of a burgess, and the freemen with the corporation
chose the member. But there were freemen resident and non-resident, and
the right of the latter to vote was a hotly debated question. Moreover there
were many respectable men who were not burgesses but who contributed to
the municipal charges and desired to vote. The borough elections were
variously influenced : ' by making a private roll of favourable freemen, and
excluding all opponents as not having been enrolled, and 3 by the wholesale
making of burgesses just before the polling day. One alderman of Dunwich
had a factor at Wapping who paid men to become freemen and then secured
their vote, though they had never seen the town. The same official was
said to carry the common seal of the borough in his pocket, and to give the
oath of a freeman when and where the fancy seized him. The earl of
Bristol 3 in 1725 promised preferment to a local parson, and then was some-
what indignant when his son was challenged by the defeated candidate on
charge of bribery. But open sale of votes was by no means unknown. 4 A
vote in Ipswich rose from the fixed normal value of £3 to £30 on the last
day of the election. The wise man remained undecided in his opinion till
the last moment, then took the money of one party and voted for the other
just to show 'he had no fancy to be hired.' Vanities such as scarlet waist-
coats were used as bribes, and rents were paid and pressed men redeemed by
candidates. On the other hand an appearance of force was sometimes
resorted to. A convenient frigate would appear just before the election and
press those who were likely to vote for the rival candidate. Boxers and
prize-fighters were imported in 1747 into Sudbury, though' in earlier
years Benjamin Carter the notorious mayor of this notorious borough
played their part and struck down and imprisoned certain who would have
voted for the opposing candidate. Gradually the territorial influence slipped
off the boroughs, and flourishing ones like Bury, Sudbury, and Ipswich were
left entirely to that of corruption. In 1747 Lord Bristol laments that Bury
is no longer the chaste and constant mistress he loved and valued. 8 ' Since
she is grown so lewd a prostitute as to be wooed and won by a man she
never saw,' he wrote to his son ' let who will take her.' The opposition to
his nomination seemed as unnatural to him as the late rebellion. Sudbury
openly advertised her favours for sale, and the mayor did a roaring trade in
promises to use his interest for many candidates. 7 Dunwich, in 18 16, a mean
village of forty-two houses and half a church, whose corporation would soon
have to exercise their electoral functions in a boat anchored over the town,
was under the joint ownership of Lord Huntingtower and Mr. Snowdon
Barne. 8 The few miserable hovels called Orford had for proprietor Lord
Hereford, while Aldeburgh's patron was Sir Claude de Crespigny, and
Eye submitted implicitly to the nominations of Lord Cornwallis. Nine
individuals sent to Parliament thirteen out of the fourteen Suffolk members.

The restricted franchise was regarded on all sides as the root of the evil,
and great things were expected from the Reform Act of 1832. This Act
enfranchised £10 householders in the boroughs and in the county ; £10

1 House of Commons Journ. 19 Mar. 1 702, Sudbury. 'Ibid. 31 Mar. 1 7 14, Norwich

* Letter Bk. of John Hervey, 9 Mar. 1724—5. * Pari. Returns, 1835, viii.

' House of Commons Journ. 1702, Sudbury. * Letter Bk. of John Hervey, 23 June, I '4".

' Oldfield, Rep. Hist, iv, 561. • Ibid, iv, 566-7.

197

A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK

copyholders ; £\o leaseholders for a term originally created for not less than
sixty years ; £50 leaseholders for a term created for not less than twenty
years ; £50 occupiers. This materially widened the voting basis; but, as was
shown before the Bribery Committee of 1835, it diminished the monetary
value of the vote without touching the practice of bribery. The Ipswich
elections of 1826 and 1835 show little change in the moral atmosphere. In
1826 1 the electors were some 1,000 or 1,100 freemen, two-thirds of whom
were non-resident, and all were friends and relatives. The practice was for
candidates to pay the admission fees for freemen, who, generally speaking,
waited for an election to obtain their freedom without cost. The annual
borough contests were financed by the members. Votes were looked upon
as personal property with right of sale. A poor voter would be content
even with 20s. or 301., while a rich one would ask £50. The bribery oath
was regularly administered. Their votes once bought, the men were ' cooped '
until they had polled to prevent their being corrupted ; that is, they were
housed out of the borough, fed, and treated, and then driven to the poll. The
Reform Bill made little difference in the actual number of voters. 2 It
disfranchised the non-resident freemen, but the number of £10 householders
practically brought the constituency up to the original 1,000. At the
election of 1832 there was a feeling that the old system had been condemned,
and it was unanimously resolved to discontinue the practice of bribery and
treating ; but by 1835 that 'scandal of free institutions' was in full swing
again, and jTio was offered for a vote after the first day's poll. The bribery
oath was administered and swallowed. One man there had been
bribed by a free loan to vote for Kelly and Dundas. 3 As he was about to
enter the booth an inspector tendered him the oath, but when he came to the
words ' promise and inducement ' he stammered and broke off. The
returning officer, standing by, said the voter evidently did not understand
the terms of the oath, and twice repeated them slowly before the con-
scientious objector ' gulped ' them. Tradesmen refused to vote either way
for fear of losing patronage, and one contractor who had promised to remain
neutral was forced to vote by threats of loss of work. Working men in
Ipswich felt bitterly the class pressure : 'Gentlemen,' they said, 'ought to get
us poor men the ballot or else we cannot vote as we like.' The same election
at Sudbury was one of the most riotous and drunken ever witnessed. Cooping
was in full force, and the Rose and Crown inn was besieged by the Reds to
capture three cooped Blues who had preferred unwisely to be lodged in the town.
The restriction (1835) of the time of voting to one day reduced the practice of
cooping. In the county the landlords still regarded their tenants' votes as
their own, and forced them to vote for their candidate. The Reform Bill
of 1832 had given Suffolk four county members, while Dunwich, Orford, and
Aldeburgh were disfranchised. Sudbury lost its members in 1844, and, with
Eye, was in 1885 merged in the five electoral districts into which the county
was then divided, while at the same time Bury St. Edmunds was restricted to
one member only.

1 Pari. Returns, vol. viii. ' Ibid. s Ibid.

198

MARITIME HISTORY

A professional committee of 1785, considering the question of invasion, decided that if an
enemy were allowed three months he might transport to England 30,000 men, with guns, horses,
and sixty days' stores, in 10 sail of the line, 85 smaller ships, and 150 shallops. Suffolk has been
held to be a vulnerable point in the line of English coast defence ; it will therefore be interesting
to inquire what facilities it would have offered to an unwieldy fleet carrying a force which, not
strong enough to strike efficiently itself, could only act as an accessory to the main invasion whereso-
ever that might be. A primary necessity for such a fleet is a port where guns and stores can be
disembarked in security, but it is evident that Suffolk offers few advantages in that respect.
Obviously the estuary formed by the Stour and Orwell is the roadstead an enemy would select,
and, assuming that the line-of-battle ships had silenced the defences at Landguard and Harwich, a
disembarkation could be effected safely in the harbour, which is, however, commanded from Shotley and
the Walton heights, and could only be a temporary base until they were held by the invader, and no
base at all if they were lost by him. The troops might have pushed on to Ipswich, but transports with
stores and supplies could not follow them, because the Orwell for six out of its ten miles of course
between Landguard and Ipswich was at low water a narrow, shallow, and tortuous stream clogged
with mudbanks, and above Downham Reach impassable for ships of any burden. Such as it is,
however, Orwell Haven is the only port in Suffolk an invader could use. The River Deben will
only admit small craft ; the River Aide, although deep in some places within, is marred or protected
at the entrance by a bar which alters in size and shifts in position, and the mouth of the River
Blyth is still more difficult to enter. Neither Lowestoft Harbour nor Yarmouth Haven will admit at
low water of vessels drawing more than ten or twelve feet.

General Dundas, in a confidential report made in 1796, remarked that ' it seems very difficult
for an enemy to make any attempt on the coast of . . . Suffolk.' If he decided to dispense with a
port and throw his troops ashore on the coast, trusting to speed and indifferent to the chance of
weather dispersing his fleet and cutting him off from supplies and reinforcements, it would be a
very dangerous proceeding, but one which might be effected. Even now, although a steam fleet
could possibly hold its anchorage, the heavy surf caused by a gale would prevent communication
with the shore ; in sailing-ship days there was the added peril that the anchorages themselves were
always more or less insecure. The belt of sands which fringes part of the coast of Suffolk serves as a
breakwater generally, but there is usually some one quarter from which the roadsteads thus formed
are exposed to the full force of wind and sea and cease to be protected. Hollesley Bay has always
been a favourite anchorage ; it affords good holding ground and is sheltered by Orfordness, by the
.Whiting, and by the trend of the coast to the south-westward, from the full force of gales from any
quarter but those from NE. by E. to E. ; but even there a sea may easily rise sufficient to close
communication with the shore for a more or less lengthy period. Between Orfordness and
Lowestoft Roads there is practically no shelter, for the famous ' Solebay ' anchorage is only safe
with off-shore winds, and for sailing-vessels to remain at anchor in threatening weather would
be courting misfortune. Passing northwards, Lowestoft and Yarmouth Roads, formed by the
Newcome, Holm, Corton, and Scroby sands, may be considered one roadstead, but of the
Lowestoft portion the South Road is too confined to be of much use for anything but small
coasters, and the North Road is little larger. Corton Road, joining Lowestoft North Road with
Yarmouth Roads, is an area of much greater capacity, but it, like Yarmouth Roads, is exposed to
the northerly gales which have often wrought disaster. The channels leading inside the sands
frequently alter in shape and position, and if the buoys and lightships were removed an enemy
would find it a difficult task even to-day to run in and out continuously with safety. In the past
he would have been also in constant fear of a gale heaping up his transports on the shore, with
which also he could only hold communication by boats when the weather permitted.

Commercially, as well as militarily, Orwell Haven has been the chief port of Suffolk. It is
possible, however, that the action of the sea, which has been continuous on this coast within
historic times, has altered the smaller ports for the worse. We know that it has destroyed
Dunwich, converted Southwold Bay into a meaningless geographical expression, and transformed
the contour of the seaboard. It may be that in the mediaeval period both the Woodbridge and
Orford rivers were easier of access and ran with a deeper stream than now.

199

A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK

The character of the Suffolk coast, river-pierced, and in some parts fringed by tidal marsh,
must in early times have rendered communication between the inhabitants by water, where that
was possible, easier than by such paths as then existed. The fact, also, that it was included in the
Saxon Shore shows that arrivals and departures by sea were comparatively frequent. Therefore,
although we have no maritime history for a long period, it is fairly certain that there was a
maritime life, especially as the fisheries, the foundation of all traffic by sea, must have existed
immemorially. For geographical and political reasons the first attacks of the Norsemen were on
the north-eastern and southern coasts, and although they encountered a more stubborn resistance in
England than in any other country of the western world, it was more by land than by sea. Never
such good seamen as the Norsemen the Saxons seem to have lost much of their earlier maritime
aptitude ; although fleets were formed, and did sometimes win battles, it would appear to have been
more an artificial effort than a natural inclination. At first Ireland and Wessex promised the
Norsemen richer spoil than East Anglia, of which, perhaps, they had heard little, so that their first
recorded appearance there is in 838, after which an interval of nearly thirty years elapsed before the
Danes came in force in 866. It may be surmised that many a disastrous wreck among the
dangerous sands fringing Essex and Suffolk had taught the raiders to be cautious in their approach
and careful in the choice of season for their arrival in those waters. No land or sea battle is
spoken of in connexion with Suffolk during the thirteen years' contest which ended with the peace
of Wedmore in 878, for East Anglia had long been in the possession of the Danes, and the
English were struggling to hold even Wessex. In 876 the Danish army ' stole away ' to Wareham
from the camp at Cambridge ; ' most commentators think that it was by a series of forced marches,
but Mr. J. R. Green 2 assumes, as is most probable, that Guthrum went by sea, and if so Orwell
Haven would have been the natural place of embarkation.

The peace of Wedmore was but a truce, and the hard fighting the Vikings had experienced
on the continental shore tempted them once more to try their fortune in England in 884. The
direct onslaught fell upon Kent, and their repulse from Rochester was followed by an attack by
Alfred's fleet on Guthrum's Danes of East Anglia, who had assisted their fellow countrymen.
The resulting battle in 885, at the mouth of the Stour and at Shotley Point, 3 when sixteen Danish
ships were captured and their crews killed, is the first known sea fight directly connected with
Suffolk and Essex, although the victors were themselves defeated by a superior force during their
return passage. The years of war which followed Alfred's death had for their object national
consolidation, and have nothing to do with naval history, but we may note that Athelstan, in the
campaign which ended at Brunanburh in 937, was accompanied by a fleet to which probably
every maritime shire contributed its quota. In 980 the Danish harrying recommenced, and in
991 Ipswich was plundered and perhaps destroyed. In the following year there was a levy of
London and East Anglian ships to meet this invading army, for which Suffolk must have supplied
its share. The scene of war was chiefly in Wessex and for a long time the county seems to have
escaped the calamities that were suffered by the greater part of England in the succeeding years, but
no doubt it sent men to the ' fyrds,' and in 1008 obeyed the new law that every 310 hides of
land should build and equip a warship, the legal precedent for the subsequent ship-money levies.
In 1 010 a Danish army sailed from Kent and landed at Ipswich, but it is not said to have done any
mischief there, although it ravaged and burnt its way through the whole of East Anglia. Again,
in 1 01 6, Cnut landed in the Orwell, necessarily at or near Ipswich, and marched inland destroying
and killing everywhere. In all these cases Ipswich seems to have escaped comparatively lightly,
possibly because of the presence as settlers of descendants of former Norse invaders. With the
accession of Cnut ended the era of a devastating war of conquest ; the lesser civil commotions
which occurred during the reign of the Confessor do not appear to have affected Suffolk. Fleets
were frequently raised during tin's period, and as Harold, before becoming king, was earl of the
East Angles, it is probable that Suffolk ships followed in his service to Wales and elsewhere. No
doubt, also, they were present in the fleet discharged too soon in 1066.

The commerce of daily life, the coasting and fishing trades, voyages to Flanders, and perhaps
to the North German ports, must have gone on notwithstanding such epoch-making events as the
battle of Hastings and the Conquest. We are ignorant of the maritime strength not only of
Suffolk but of all the counties. The fact, however, of Domesday showing that in several places
manorial rents were paid partly in herrings indicates that the fishery was a well-established industry
long before the Conquest. William I was the last man likely to underrate the importance of
maritime power, and if he had no English he had a powerful Norman fleet at command. At
any rate both in 1071 and 1072 he was able to send fleets to sea to act in conjunction with his
land forces, and if many of the ships were Norman others must have come from the English ports
and have been collected in proportion to the importance of the coast towns in the manner customary

1 Jngl.-Sax. Chron. (Rolls Ser.), i, 145. * Conquest of Engl. 108.

' Still called ' Bloody Point.'

200

MARITIME HISTORY

with his successors. Neither in the expedition to Ireland in 1 171 nor in Richard's crusade of 1 1 90
do we know that Suffolk took part. For the former there were 400 ships, most of which must
have been very small and levied in the south and west ; Richard's fleet consisted of upwards of
100 large vessels, and probably included many from the continental dominions of the crown. The
landing at Walton of a military force, brought from Flanders by Robert, earl of Leicester, occurred
in 1173, but there was no attempt by sea to hinder his passage. In 1205 we have the first station
list of the king's ships, from which we find that there were two galleys at Ipswich and five at
Dunwich. 1 As there was none between London and Ipswich, and Dunwich has the same number
as London, this is incidental evidence of the early importance of the two Suffolk ports. In that
year the king placed two galleys in commission to guard the coast from Orford to Yarmouth,
promising the crews a half value of all prizes 2 ; besides these other galleys were attached to
Ipswich and Dunwich. Both in 1208 and 12 14 lists of ships belonging to all the ports of the
kingdom, with the names of their owners, were required, but in the latter year the demand was
confined to ships of eighty tons and upwards. 3 In 121 3 the principal maritime districts were called
upon to supply naval necessaries, Norfolk and Suffolk being required to find masts, oars, and
cordage. 4 In the same year there was a general levy of ships to form the fleet which, under the
earl of Salisbury, destroyed a French force in the Swin, and no doubt the Suffolk ports were repre-
sented in his command. John was several times in Suffolk during his reign, but only once on the
coast, in 121 6, at Ipswich.

In 1225 the sheriffs of Norfolk and Suffolk were directed to select at Ipswich three ships fitted
for horse transport, or, if they were not to be obtained there, to take them from Dunwich. 6 At
this date the Cinque Ports contingent was the nucleus of the royal fleets, and it is noteworthy that
a writ to the Cinque Ports ordering a levy was frequently accompanied by one to Norfolk and
Suffolk for the same purpose, showing that in sufficiency and readiness they were considered on an
equality. And, of the Suffolk ports, Dunwich stands out pre-eminently as the one upon which
the crown relied as always having ships and men available. On 10 September, 1229, the bailiffs of
Dunwich were required to send forty ships, armed and manned, to Portsmouth by the 29th for
the king's passage over the sea, and although ten of the forty were remitted there is no indication
that this was done because such a sudden demand for so many vessels unduly strained the maritime
resources of the town. 6 Again, in 1235, when most of the Cinque Ports, together with Yarmouth
and Southampton, were assessed for one ship each, Dunwich alone was required to send two. 7 An
order of 1236 that ten vessels were to be chosen in Norfolk and Suffolk for the passage of the king's
sister Isabella on her marriage with the Emperor Frederick 8 seems to show that the ships belonging
to these ports were comparatively large and roomy and suitable for passengers, since the only others
levied were from the Cinque Ports; and those we know, whatever their merits, did not possess such
qualities. Dunwich was again coupled with the Cinque Ports in 1242, when, after Henry's failure
abroad, he urged the bailiffs to devote the whole strength of the towns to ravage the French coast
and to destroy French commerce. 9

Both in 1230 and 1255 there were arrests of ships large enough to carry sixteen horses ; in the
first instance the writ is for Suffolk generally, in the second Orford, Ipswich, and Dunwich are
specified. 10 In 1242 only vessels of eighty tons and upwards were required from the Suffolk ports."
In another writ Goseford, which undoubtedly meant Bawdsey Haven '*' — that is to say, the district
watered by the lower part of the River Deben, probably including Woodbridge — is grouped with
Ipswich and Orwell. 13 These appear to have been the only Suffolk ports as yet conspicuous.
Perhaps a sign of the commencing decline of Dunwich is to be found in 1264 when a writ states
that twenty-four of their ships having been impressed the town and the adjacent places were left
unprotected, and that therefore one vessel, available at VVinchelsea, was to be returned. 11 The
Dunwich men themselves considered that the moment of their greatest prosperity was when they
took the farm of the town from Edward I, about 1279 ; at that time they possessed eighty ' great
ships' and the tolls levied at their 'commodious port' paid most of the farm. By 1348 the ships
had been destroyed by enemies, the port spoiled by sandbanks, and lands submerged by the sea. u

1 Close, 6 John, m. 10. 'Pat. 6 John, m. 2.

3 Ibid. 9 John, m. 2 ; 16 John, m. 1 6. * Close, I 5 John, m. 4.

'Ibid. 9 Hen. Ill, m. 16. e Close, 1 3 Hen. Ill, m. 4 ; 14 Hen. III. m. 16.

1 Pat. 19 Hen. Ill, m. 14. f Rymer, Focdcra, i, 358. 9 Ibid. 406.

" Close, 14 Hen. III. m. ] 7 d. ; Pat. 38 Hen. Ill, m. 5. In the 1230 levy the owners showed some
hesitation and the local authorities were ordered to imprison those recalcitrant (Close, 14 Hen. Ill, m. 13).
" Close, 26 Hen. Ill, m. 4.

18 'Goseford haven aliter diet Baudseye haven' (Exch. K. R. Mem. Roll 333, East. r. 7).
13 Pat. 19 Hen. III. m. \\ d.

M Close, 48 Hen. Ill, m. \d. The others were at Bordeaux.
16 Pat. 22 Edw. Ill, pt. 1, m. 1 2 d. ; Rot. Pari, i, 426 ; ii, 210.

2 201 26

A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK

A feature of the maritime history of the thirteenth century is the appointment of one or more
persons, sometimes for one county and sometimes for a group of counties, as keepers of the coast, a
step towards the organization of systematic defence. In 1 2 I 7 Nicholas Donewyz was nominated for
Norfolk, Suffolk, and Essex, and in 1224 Richard Aiguillun for Norfolk and Suffolk ; in the latter
case writs were directed to the burgesses of Orwell, 1 Orford, Yarmouth, and Lynn to assist him in
his duties. 2 The functions of the keeper were chiefly military, but were also judicial in matters
relating to the sea and coast ; he was in military command both at sea and on land and was given
somewhat large powers. In 1295 the keepers were told to send three Yarmouth ships to cruise in
the North Sea for the protection of English and Flemish fishermen. 3 In 1297 the four keepers of
Norfolk, Suffolk, and Essex were directed to maintain six ships at the expense of the inhabitants
and of merchants using the North Sea. 4 In 1316 John de Thorpe's duties are defined as being to
protect the people of the coast between Ipswich and Lynn from murders and robberies both by sea
and land, and he was empowered to appoint constables and to compel all people to assist. 5
Practically, the keeper was expected to put down piracy, to beat off raiders, to enable coasters and
fishermen to sail in peace, and to summon the county to arms upon invasion. The office did not
continue long, for during the second half of the fourteenth century, the growth of the admiral's
court, the increased power of the admirals, and, finally, the creation of the post of High Admiral,
lessened its importance. Historically, however, the keeper may be considered the ancestor of the
conservators of truces instituted locally by Henry V, and of the later vice-admirals of the coast
whom we find acting from the middle of the sixteenth century. An illustration of an intermediate
class of appointment, when the keeper's duties were ceasing to be military and were becoming
administrative, like those of the subsequent conservators and vice-admirals, is to be found in the
duties of Hugh Fastolf who, in 1364, was lieutenant for Norfolk and Suffolk of Robert Herle,
admiral of the king's fleets, and in that capacity held an inquiry upon the seashore at Covehithe.' 5
Here, he who would have been formerly keeper of the coast is becoming the admiral's deputy, as
two centuries later the vice-admiral of Suffolk was the deputy of the Lord High Admiral. A part
of the system of defence under the care of the keeper was the line of beacons, corresponding to the
modern coastguard stations, usually placed on the hill nearest the shore and guarded in war time bv
a watch from the neighbouring parishes. 7

The Welsh wars of 1277 and 1282-3, an( ^ tne Scotch war of 1295 were mainly fought by
the feudal armies. The Cinque Ports furnished most of the squadrons — not large ones — required
for the Welsh wars, but the Scotch campaigns stirred the east coast to greater activity. Parliament
granted a subsidy of a thirtieth for the war of 1282, and the taxation roll for Ipswich shows that
fourteen ships and sixteen boats were owned in the town. 8 In 1 294 three large fleets were equipped ;
that from the east coast under the command of Sir John Botetourt included eleven vessels from
Bawdsey and Harwich together, seven from Ipswich, four from Dunwich, four from Orford, and
two from Goseford. 9 In the following year there was an attempt to keep the intended port of
concentration secret, the person collecting the ships in Suffolk and elsewhere being directed to
' bring them on a certain day to a certain place as directed by word of mouth.' 10 Sometimes the
levies were very sweeping ; in 1298 all the ships found in Norfolk and Suffolk, suitable for the
transport of men and horses, were to be impressed. From a writ of Edward III H we find that
about this time (probably in 1294) Dunwich furnished eleven armed ships for service in Gascon
waters and lost four of them. A claim of ^1,420 10s. for services and losses was examined by the
treasurer and barons of the Exchequer and duly allowed, but for some reason — perhaps there was a
counterclaim for debts due to the crown — was never paid either by Edward I or Edward II. On
his accession Edward III was petitioned, and, in directing the rolls of the Exchequer to be
examined, ordered that if the decree were found upon them the claim was to be paid, ' having
consideration to the estate of the town and the men thereof,' but less any debt due to the crown.

A general call upon the counties was made in 1 30 1 when some seventy ships were demanded,
of which Ipswich supplied two, Goseford and Bawdsey two, Orford one, and Dunwich one. la

1 Cf. 'The Mvthical Town of Orwell,' by Mr. R. G. Marsden, in Engl. Hist. Rev. xxi, 93 et seq.
• Pat. 2 Hen.'lII, m. 10 ; 8 Hen. Ill, m. 3. 3 Ibid. 23 Edw. I, m. 6.

4 Ibid. 25 Edw. I, pt. 2, m. 14.

5 Ibid. 10 Edw. II. pt. I, m. 25. In 1338 the keepers for Suffolk were distraining on the clergy and
others to oblige them to provide men (Close, 12 Edw. Ill, pt. 2, m. 13 </.).

6 Coram Rege, 38 Edw III, Mich. Rot. 33 (Rex). For other civil appointments of the same character
see Pat. I Edw. IV, pt. 2, m. 24 ; Add MSS. 30222 fol. 18 ; Hargrave MSS. 93 ; Orig. Writs, ii, 322^. On
the subject of coast defence see also Stubbs, Const. Hist. (2nd ed.), ii, 285.

7 ' Signa consueta vocata beknes per ignem.' Cf. Southey, Lives of the Admirals, i, 360 (quoting Froissart),
as to the method of constructing them.

8 E. Powell in Proc. Suff. Inst, of Arck. xii, pt. 2 (1905).

9 Chanc. Misc. T 2 r . "» Pat. 23 Edw. I. m. 9.

11 Close, 1 Edw. Ill, pt. 1, m. I. " Foedera (ed. 1816), i, 901, 928 ; Pat. 29 Edw. I, m. 20.

202

MARITIME HISTORY

Again, in November, 1302, there was a general levy from Newcastle to the Land's End, the
eastern counties being called upon for fifty ships, but the number required for each town is not
given. 1 In this case, and unlike the southern counties, which were commended as a whole for their
willingness, the east coast showed a lagging spirit whicli evoked some coercive measures. The
original order was dated 10 November, 1302, and Walter Bacun, a king's clerk, was to select the
vessels in the various ports. On 2 March, 1303,8 writ to the sheriffs of the counties directed them
to aid Bacun to take security from the shipowners for appearance at Berwick, as some had absolutely
refused to send ships, and others had not sent as many as had been demanded. 2 On 16 April
another clerk was associated with Bacun because 'he has been negligent ' and the king 'expects
great help from the ships.' 3 Seeing that probably the greater part of such trade as existed with
Scotland was carried on by the east coast towns it can be understood why a dynastic war was not
very popular in that region. The shipbuilding industry which was afterwards the chief business of
Ipswich must already have been of some standing, for in 1295 a galley and a barge for the king
were being built there. 4

The practice of the crown in taking up merchant ships was a part of the king"s claim to the
services of all his subjects, upon which the right of impressing seamen was also based. At first
sight the constant levies of ships and men would appear to have been destructive of commerce, but
in reality they were not nearly so disastrous to it as they seem to be. A trading voyage involved
great risk of loss from wreck, piracy, or privateering ; the royal service meant certain payment for
the fitting and hire of the ship with sixpence a day for the officers and threepence for the men, very
liberal wages allowing for the different value of money. The incessant embargoes which harassed
trade — then much increased — under Edward III were not yet common, and the alacrity with which
most of the ports responded to the demands made upon them shows that the services required were
not oppressive, nor even unwelcome, especially as those who contributed to the sea service were
freed from any aid towards that by land. There was no permanent naval administration at this
time. The king possessed some ships of his own and the commanders were usually charged with
their maintenance. When a fleet was to be raised from the merchant navy a certain extent of
coast was allotted to one of the king's clerks, or to a serjeant-at-arms, who acted with the bailiffs of
the port towns in selecting ships and men and seeing them despatched to the place of meeting. If
a ship did not appear, or the men deserted, they or the owner might be required to find security to
come before the king, and although there was as yet no statute dealing with the offence, 6 they were
imprisoned by the authority of the king alone or punished at the discretion of the admiral. 6

The entries on the Patent and Close Rolls show that in the thirteenth century Dunwich was
the leading Suffolk port. In 1275 and 1285 there are references to a direct wine trade with
Gascony, one of the ships engaged being of at least 125 tons. 7 In the next reign two Dunwich
ships were plundered to the value of some thousands of pounds in a Zealand port ; 8 in 1317 two
ships of Gosefcrd (probably of Woodbridge) are mentioned, one of which must have been of about
120 tons. 9 Orford, Ipswich, Orwell, and Goseford, as well as Dunwich, are referred to as passage
ports, but in 1229 only Ipswich and Dunwich were subjected to an embargo on foreign trading. 10

The continual quarrels between the ports about their rights or encroachments are sufficient
evidence that the herring fishery was carried on industriously. In 1233 the bailiffs of Yarmouth
were ordered to allow the Dunwich men to remain in their port in peace ; n an order of the same
year, 12 which exempted all Suffolk vessels from payment of the fortieth, was perhaps due to the desire to
encourage the fishery, since such a tax must have pressed most hardly on fishing boats. Some of the
orders, such as one in 1309 that no one should take fish ' without payment' from the Holland and
Friesland boats, seem to point to easy if dishonest methods of supply. 13 The feuds between
Yarmouth and the Cinque Ports are well known, but the Suffolk towns also had an uneasy time
with their big neighbour. In 1302 a commission sat to examine into complaints made by Yarmouth
against Gorleston and Little Yarmouth, and the gist of their offence may no doubt be found in
another Yarmouth petition in 1307 which states that 200 ships at the time, belonging to 'merchants
strangers,' were sometimes lying in the two smaller ports. 14 The success of Gorleston caused so
much ill-feeling in Yarmouth that a year later the sheriff of Norfolk was ordered to proclaim that
any injury done to the Gorleston men would be punished by ' grievous forfeiture.' 15 An award of

I Pat. 30 Edw. I, m. 2. ' Ibid. 31 Edw. I, m. 33.

3 Ibid. m. 27. ' Hist. MSS. Com. Rep. ix, App. i, 257.

5 The first statute was 2 Rich. II, st. I, cap. 4, by which deserters were fined double their wages and sent
to prison for a year.

II e.g. Pat. 30 Edw. I, m. 13; ibid. 32 Edw. I, m. 28 ; Close, 17 Edw. II, m. 6 d. See also/w/, p. 206.
; Pat. 3 Edw. I, m. 25. * Close, 2 Edw. II, m. 11.

' Ibid. 10 Edw. II, m. 12 d. ; 11 Edw. II, m. 18 d. '° Ibid. 13 Hen. Ill, m. 7 d.

" Ibid. 17 Hen. Ill, m. 10. " Ibid. m. 16 d.

" Ibid. 3 Edw. Ill, m. 23. To the cast coast generally except Essex and Lincolnshire.
" Pat. 30 Edw. I, m. 15 d. ; 35 Edw. I, m. 37 d. 15 Close, 1 Edw. II, m. 6.

203

A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK

i 331 seemed to settle the dispute in favour of Great Yarmouth, for it forbade any foreign ship to
discharge at Gorleston, the use of the port being confined to vessels belonging to the town. 1
However, so far from submitting to the decision we find from a writ of 1336 that 'large bodies of
armed men ' assembled at Gorleston and Little Yarmouth, and forced both English (other than those
owned in the town) and foreign ships to unlade there. 2 There must have been a large number of
Flemish fishing boats working in the Norfolk and Suffolk ports ; in 13 16 the count of Holland
consented to a tax on each boat arriving until a claim of £^300 against his subjects, for injuries
done to English merchants, was satisfied. 3

There was incessant strife between the men of Dunwich, Walberswick, and Southwold, con-
cerning the port and the receipt of dues, and Ipswich and Harwich had at this time a similar
quarrel on hand. Probably the Ipswich claim had been passively admitted until Harwich grew
pro perous, but in 1335 the Ipswich burgesses found it necessary to appeal to the king, saying that
4 the port of Orwell with the arm of the sea and the river leading from the mouth of the port
towards the sea as far as the town belongs to the king and his said town,' and again that the port of
Orwell ' has belonged in the past to their town.' 1 In 1340 a commission was inquiring into the
rights of the two towns, and the dispute as to jurisdiction lasted, it will be seen, well into the nine-
teenth century. Several documents of this period dealing with the controversy suggest that it was per-
haps the first time the pretention had been definitely put forward by Ipswich or refused by Harwich.

As piracy closely follows trade it may be regarded as a sign of commercial importance that the
Suffolk ports were frequent offenders or victims. The promise of spoil brought over Flemish
pirates, so that in 1282 Yarmouth, Dunwich, and Ipswich were called upon to set out a local
squadron to patrol the coast. 5 The wrongs, however, were not all suffered by one side, for in I 291
a Flemish merchant had his ship plundered at Dunwich although not necessarily by Dunwich men. 6
In 1299 there was another commission to inquire into the seizure of a ship near Dunwich, the
pirates taking their capture to Gillingham and selling the cargo there ; in the same year the earl of
Gloucester complained that ships in which he was interested were plundered and destroyed at
Southwold and ' his merchants' hindered in their accustomed use of the port. 7 At Orford, in 1309, a
vessel from Bruges was emptied and then sunk, while at Ipswich, in 131 1, thirty-seven men,
including the parson of Flixton, were in gaol for piracy. 8 The next year a Goseford ship
boarded one belonging to Lynn, at anchor near Rochelle, and after ransacking her set her adrift so
that she went ashore and broke up. 9 In 131 5 there were eleven commissions to inquire into
piracies committed between Lynn and Harwich ; there must have been many more in which the
losses were not large enough to tempt the sufferers to the tedious and expensive process of appeal to
the king. But the number is not surprising when we find, also in 13 15, a Cinque Ports ship,
especially commissioned to cruise after pirates, despoiling two Flemish traders lying in the Orwell.' 1 '
Matters had become so bad that the next year John de Botetourt was placed in charge of the coast
from the Thames to the Tweed to keep the king's peace, ' as well on land as on the sea near the
land,' with instructions to put aside all other business to attend to this particular need."

If Botetourt was successful it was only temporarily. Bad cases occurred continually, such
as the attack on a Walberswick ship at Southwold by Dunwich men, and the murder of sixteen of
the crew ; 12 here the hatred born of the rivalry between Dunwich and Walberswick was no doubt a
contributing factor. Soon after, in 1335, four ships, manned by Englishmen, came into Orwell
Haven, and lay there for nearly three months, rifling and sinking all traders, holding the crews to
ransom, and detaining ten vessels prepared for the royal service, although these last they eventually
set free unharmed. 13 There seems to have been another peculiarly audacious act in 1344, when 129
men boarded ships belonging to Robert de Morley, admiral of the northern fleet, which were lying off
Lowestoft and plundered them of cargo to the value of £5,000. u As the men were led by four of the
bailiffs of Yarmouth it might be imagined, but for the value of the cargo, to have been merely one of
the innumerable fishery disputes between Lowestoft and Yarmouth. But occasionally cases called
piracy were hardly, if at all, outside the law. In 1340 a fleet of sixty-four ships belonging to
Yarmouth, Dunwich, and Bawdsey, attacked a Mediterranean ship bound to Flanders, and pillaged
her of goods to the amount of £20,000. Edward was compelled to compensate the owners at a

1 Pat. 5 Edw. Ill, pt. 1, m. 1. * Ibid. 10 Edw. Ill, pt. 2, m. 25 d.

' Ibid. pt. 1, m. 34. * Ibid. 9 Edw. Ill, pt. 2, m. 18 d. ; 12 Edw. Ill, pt. 2, m. 16.

s Ibid. 10 Edw. I, m. 12 d.

6 Pat. 19 Edw. 1, m. 23 d. In the opinion of the writer a very large number of the cases of piracy, so-
called, in mediaeval times would later have been simple privateering cases for the adjudication of the Admiralty
Court. There was then no proper agency for the settlement of captures, and international law, even now
very cloudy, was only in the making. ' Pat. 27 Edw. I, m. 15 d. ; m. 6 d.

' Ibid. 3 Edw. II, m. 34 d. ; 4 Edw. II, pt. 2, m. \d. 9 Ibid. 6 Edw. II, pt. I, m. 7 d.

10 Ibid. 8 Edw. II, pt. 1, m. 21 d. " Ibid. 10 Edw. II, pt. I, m. 34.

u Ibid. 5 Edw. Ill, pt. i, m. 22^. 27</. u Ibid. 9 Edw. Ill, pt. 2, m. yd.

14 Ibid. 18 Edw. Ill, pt. 2, m. 49^.

204

MARITIME HISTORY

cost of ,£16,527, and gave the Norfolk and Suffolk men implicated the option of indemnifying him
or of standing a legal inquiry. They chose the latter course, which argues conscious innocence, and
that the crown standpoint was weak is shown by Edward's later action in offering a free pardon to
those accused if they sent their ships to serve in his fleets. 1

The county helped to form the fleets with which Edward II tried to maintain his hold upon
Scotland during the earlier years of his reign. In 1308 Yarmouth and Suffolk were called upon for
ten ships; 2 in 1310 Ipswich was required to send two, and Dunwich, Orford, and Little
Yarmouth each one, at their own cost. This attempt to make the ports provide ships at their own
expense was necessitated by a depleted exchequer, but must have seemed to them in unpleasant
contrast to the methods of Edward I. It may be a sign of the exhaustion of the east coast that
Edward called for the services of the southern ports more often than for those of the eastern and
north-eastern counties. In 13 1 3 thirty ships were levied in Norfolk and Suffolk ; 3 in 13 14 Ipswich,
Orford, and Goseford were asked for one ship each, and Dunwich for two. 4 In the following year
a commission issued to inquire into allegations that bribes had been taken by those sent to select ships
on the east coast, through which the best ships and men had escaped impressment. 5 In 13 16 an
attempt was made to persuade the Suffolk ports to set out ships voluntarily at their own cost, ' for
better keeping of the English sea,' but with what success we are not told. 6 In 131 9 Ipswich,
Dunwich, Orford, and Little Yarmouth were asked to send ships for three or four months at their
own expense, and afterwards at that of the king, but the charge on the ports was not to be a
precedent ; some of the towns, including all those of Suffolk, were to have prize goods without
rendering any account, but prisoners were to belong to the king. 7

A two years' truce with Scotland expired in 1322, and preparations for an attack on England were
being made in Flanders. Edward invaded Scotland himself and convoked a meeting of representa-
tives from the chief ports of Norfolk, Suffolk, and Essex at Norwich to discuss with the treasurer and
the bishop of Norwich the measures necessary to ward off the danger threatening from Flanders.
Ipswich, Dunwich, Goseford, Bawdsey, and Little Yarmouth, sent delegates who agreed to provide
ships at the cost of the ports for two months' service, two each being promised from Ipswich and
Little Yarmouth, one from Goseford and Bawdsey, and one each from Dunwich and Orford. 8
This happened in April, 1322, but by June it was considered necessary to strengthen the naval
force still further, and the contingents from the Suffolk ports were doubled, this time at the king's
charges, with an additional ship from Guston (PGunton), Walton, Colneys, and Felixstowe.* In
1323 a truce for thirteen years was concluded with Scotland, but war with France followed
immediately, and although an actual levy, made at first in the Suffolk ports, was cancelled, an
embargo was placed on all vessels of forty tons and upwards in England and Ireland. The succeeding
three years must have been a time of vexation for shipowners for, although nothing was done, they
were constantly harassed by preparations which were not followed by action. In 1326 Isabella was
in France, her return expected, and her intentions known. Fleets were levied round the coasts, that
from the eastern ports of vessels of thirty tons and upwards, including those from Ipswich, Orwell,
Bawdsey, Orford, Goseford, and Dunwich, being ordered to concentrate in Orwell Haven by
21 September. 10 Twelve ships in addition, manned and furnished at the expense of those not
contributing to the preparation of the main fleet, were to be taken up at Ipswich and Harwich ; this
squadron was to be stationed at Orfordness for the protection of the coast in the absence of the
fleet. 11 Orfordness itself is an impossible station, but as it forms one of the shelters of Hollesley Bay
it is clear that this is the first recorded use of the roadstead as a strategical position for men-of-war.
As shown on the Patent and Close Rolls the measures taken by Edward, or his advisers, were
remarkably well considered in the dispositions of the squadrons and the proposed movements ; but
either the final orders were given too late or there was treachery among the higher commanders, for
when Isabella landed at the mouth of the Orwell on 26 September she met with no resistance.

There was a short war with Scotland in 1327-8, for which forty ships were sent from the
whole of the east coast, but there was no levy on a large scale. A more serious war broke out in
1332, and as the Scots at this time, helped by their continental friends, seem to have been unusually

1 Pat. 14 Edw. Ill, pt. 1, m. 19V. ; 15 Edw. Ill, pt. 2, m. 22 d. ; 16 Edw. Ill, pt. 2, m. 42 d.
m. 35 d. ; m. 34 d.

' Rot. Scot. 2 Edw. II, m. 13. s Pat. 7 Edw. II, pt. 1, m. 18.

4 Rot. Scot. 8 Edw. II, m. 8. s Pat. 8 Edw. II, P t. 2, m. 10 d. ; m. ±d.

6 Close, 9 Edw. II, m. I 3 a'. Application was made to the whole coast from Lynn to Falmouth.

7 Rot. Scot. 12 Edw. II, m. 6, m. 3 ; Pat. 12 Edw. II, pt. 2, m. 17.

8 Close, 15 Edw. II, m. 14a'. ; m. 12 d. ; Pat. 15, Edw. II, pt. 2, m. 19.

9 Close, 15 Edw. II, m. 5. Covehithe was now added to Bawdsey. The Bawdsey men appealed to the
king against the action of their mayor and the admiral of the northern fleet who tried to make them equip
.another ship for service with the south fleet. They had no difficulty in obtaining a prohibition (Close,

15 Edw. II, m. 4).

10 Ibid. 20 Edw. II, m. 10 d. " Pat. 20 Edw. II, m. 18.

205

A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK

well equipped for maritime operations the effects were felt along the whole of eastern England, both
in the preparations necessary and the losses caused by the enemies' ships. In 1334 there were
Scotch privateers cruising off the Suffolk coast. 1 Gradually the towns were becoming restive under
the hardships due to the embargoes and the frequent arrests of shipping with which Edward began
his personal government. But, like all strong sovereigns, he knew when to hide the iron hand in
velvet and, instead of insisting on the prerogative, condescended to persuasion, sending confidential
officials round the coast in December, 1336, to explain 'certain things near the king's heart.' 2 At
the same time another conference, similar to that of 1322, was assembled at Norwich ; 3 the usual
Suffolk ports were represented, with the addition of Kirklcy, which now begins to appear in the
writs. These mild proceedings do not seem to have been very successful. There was a general
arrest of shipping in January, 1337, but there was so much evasion along the east coast that a
commission was issued in August to imprison the defaulters and seize their ships and goods. 4 In
September a writ was addressed to the bailiffs of Little Yarmouth in particular, directing them to give
certain persons the option of going to sea or going to prison. 5

A catalogue of the orders, which rapidly succeeded each other during this reign, for levies of
ships in the various ports would be barren of interest unless the connexion with general history was
shown. But the disinclination of the eastern counties, the most progressive in trade and therefore
the greatest losers by these adventures, is well marked. In 1342 William Trussel was commissioned
to inquire, in Suffolk and elsewhere, whether the arresters of ships had not taken bribes from towns
and individuals to free the vessels, and sometimes extorted large sums. 6 The balance of maritime
war was against England in 1338 and 1339, until the victory of Sluys restored our supremacy for
many years. For this expedition 200 vessels were collected in Orwell Haven, from which Edward
sailed on 22 June, 1340. The continuous strain was telling, however, on English shipping
resources, and in the same year the sheriffs of the maritime counties were ordered to prevent any
sales of ships to foreigners. 7 A truce with France had followed the battle of Sluys, but the continued
decrease of the maritime strength of the country, as well as the necessary preparations for the
renewal of war, induced Edward to require the chief ports to send delegates to Westminster for
consultation and to receive orders. 8 The principal ports each sent two representatives, and it is
rather curious to find Goseford among them, while Ipswich and Little Yarmouth only sent one each ;
Dunwich and Orford are not in the list. No doubt social and other influences were brought to
bear on these men, and the plan may have proved successful enough to encourage repetition ; at any
rate, similar councils were convened in 1342, 1344, and 1347. In 1342 only the southern ports
were summoned to send townsmen to Westminster, but in 1344 and 1347 Ipswich sent two, and
Dunwich, Orford, and Goseford one each.

In 1342 complications arose in Brittany owing to the death of the duke without direct heirs,
leading to the despatch of a large fleet and army under Sir Walter de Mauny ; Edward himself
crossed later in the year. In one fleet alone there were 357 vessels, of which Ipswich sent fourteen,
Goseford fifteen, Dunwich four, and Orford one. 9 An undated list, probably relating to another
fleet prepared for this expedition, gives a total of 1 19 vessels, for which Ipswich provided two barges,
Little and West Yarmouth one, and Bawdsey, Orford, Kirkley, and Dunwich one each. 10 After
Edward's arrival many of the vessels deserted from Brest, leaving the king and his troops ' in very
great peril,' therefore writs were directed to the bailiffs of the ports to arrest the deserters and seize
their property. ' The masters of eleven ships of Ipswich, eleven of Bawdsey, two of Little
Yarmouth, three of Dunwich, and one of Orford, are named ; the vessels and goods were to be
forfeited and the masters fined. Two Little Yarmouth ships had not appeared at all. 11 At the
request of Robert de Ufford, earl of Suffolk, thirteen of the vessels arrested in virtue of the preceding
writs, and described as 'of his lordship,' were released. 12 It is very doubtful whether the severe
penalties of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries were often enforced to their full extent ; in
many cases they certainly were not, the shipping interest being too important to offend. But in this
instance Bawdsey at least paid its fines, and in 13 1 5 was freed from any liabilities that might arise
in consequence of the death of the receiver. 13

For the campaign of Crecy and the siege of Calais a great fleet was collected. The original
record, said to be a Wardrobe Account, containing a list of the fleet at Calais has perished, and the

1 Rot. Scot. 8 Edw. Ill, m. 5. 2 Close, 10 Edw. Ill, m. 4.,/.

3 Rot. Scot. 10 Edw. Ill, m. 3 d.

' Pat. 1 1 Edw. Ill, pt. 3, m. y J. 5 Close, 1 1 Edw. Ill, pt. 2, m. 32 d.

* Pat. 16 Edw. Ill, pt. 3, m. \d. ' Rymer, Foedera, v, 210.

6 Ibid, v, 231 ; Close, 15 Edw. Ill, pt. 1, m. 43<^. They received two shillings a day for their
expenses (ibid. 18 Edw. Ill, pt. 1, m. I 8 d.). ' Chanc. Misc. ^. " Ibid. -gg.

11 Pat. 1 7 Edw. Ill, pt. I, m. 17 d. ; Close, 17 Edw. Ill, pt. I, m. 4 </. ; m. 3 d.

" Pat. 17 Edw. Ill, pt. 2, m. 33. As examples of ship nomenclature the names of some of these may
interest the reader : La Sefray, La Scot, La Sareye, La Molete, La Burghmayde.

13 Pat. 23 Edw. Ill, pt. 3, m. 1.

206

MARITIME HISTORY

existing copies, which offer internal evidence that the original MS. was in some places nearly or quite
illegible when it was transcribed, are of the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries. 1 There
are discrepancies in these MSS. concerning the details relating to several of the ports, but in Suffolk
it is only Goseford about which any material question arises. One MS. 2 omits it altogether ; the
four others allot it thirteen ships, and three of them 303 men, but the fourth 3 says 404 men.
Ipswich sent twelve ships and 239 men, 4 Orford three ships and sixty-two men, and Dunwich six
ships and 102 men. It appears that from the time of the capture of Calais the men of the port of
Goseford, which here included Bawdsey, Falkenham, and Alderton, had held the privilege of supplying
the town with beer and other provisions. 5 In 1347, and perhaps partly inconsequence of the Calais
service, Ipswich petitioned that it was ' piteously impoverished ' by excessive taxation and the loss of
ships by wreck and in the king's fleet, 6 but as the object of the petition was to obtain a reduction in
the assessment for the tenths and fifteenths it need not be taken too literally. In 1402 Ipswich again
petitioned about its unreasonable farm, and was described by its burgesses as ' a frontier towards the
sea and a defence against the enemy for all the district around.' 7 A few new ports are mentioned
in the writs of this reign, but it cannot be said that any of them were rising into importance. An
order of 1 360 for the arrest of all ships is directed to the bailiffs of Ipswich, Orford, Bawdsey,
Kirkley, Little Yarmouth, and Dunwich ; 8 another of 1364, forbidding the export of gold, silver,
and jewels, is directed to Walberswick, Covehithe, and Kessingland, as well as to the places named
in the first writ except Little Yarmouth. 9

The naval history of Edward III is an illustration of the fact that the almost invariable result
of the destruction of an enemy's military fleets is an increase of raids and privateering. Although
naval victories were won, and no resistance was or could be made to the transport of Edward's
armies, the coasts were continually harassed by French incursions or the fear of them while the sense
of helplessness was increased in consequence of the spoils made by privateers and the exhaustion of
the shipowning class. An unstable peace existed between 1360 and 1369 ; the outbreak of war in
the latter year was followed by the meeting of another council of provincial experts at Westminster
in November to which, of the Suffolk ports, only Ipswich sent representatives. 10 The renewal of the
war was attended by the complete loss of English supremacy in the Channel. Levy followed levy
without result ; the Commons laid the causes to which they attributed the decay of shipping before
the king, and in June, 1 372, after the defeat of the earl of Pembroke before Rochelle, the crown was
reduced to issuing commissions of array for the maritime counties instead of defending them at sea.
The ordinary rate of hire of ships was 3*. \d. a ton for three months, and now both that and wages
were left unpaid, in contrast to the liberality Edward had shewn thirty years earlier when he could
afford to make extra and unusual payments to help the equipment of the fleets. The year 1375 was
marked by another maritime disaster in the shape of the capture or destruction, in Bourneuf Bay, of
thirty-nine merchantmen, ranging from 300 tons downwards. Ipswich lost three vessels, two being
of 100 and one of 150 tons; u they were no doubt wine ships, as there must have been a large
local trade to Gascony. 1 "

Edward III died in June, 1377, and in July the French were raiding the southern counties at
their will. The English fleet was practically non-existent, therefore in November Parliament
decided that the country generally should be required to build ships by the following March.
Ipswich, Sudbury, Bawdsey, and Hadleigh, were requested to prepare a balinger between them and
as an inducement, were promised that after its service in the king's fleets was completed it should
be returned for the use of the towns. 13 In 1379 Ipswich alone was called upon for a barge and
balinger, the squadron of which they were to form part being ordered to meet in Kirkley Road. 14
For years the coast was more or less in a state of blockade, and little more was done than to
attempt to protect it, as it were, in patches by local levies where the danger seemed greatest. In
1382 certain persons were commissioned 'to take sufficient mariners of the better sort,' in Suffolk
and elsewhere, to man ten or twelve ships for the safeguard of the coast. 15 Notwithstanding the
bitter and repeated complaints of Parliament concerning the ruin of English shipping, there are
indications that it was organization and generalship that was lacking rather than men or ships.
In 1385 there was a powerful fleet at sea, to which Ipswich sent the George, 170 tons, and two
smaller vessels. 16 In 1386 invasion was regarded as imminent; a great army was collected at

1 Cotton MSS. Titus F. iii, fol. 262 ; Stowe MSS. 570, fol. 23 ; ibid. 574, fol. 28 ; Harl. MSS. 3968,
fol. 130 ; ibid. 246. s Harl. 246. s Titus F. iii.

4 Harl. MS. 246 says sixty-two men — obviously a mistake. 4 Rot. Pari, iii, 271.

6 Ibid, ii, 189. r Ibid, iii, '514. 8 Close, 34 Edw. Ill, m. 37^.

9 Ibid. 38 Edw. Ill, m. 27 d. ,0 Rymer, Focdera (ed. 18 16), iii, 880.

11 Chanc. Dipl. Doc. P. 324 ; there was a Katherine of Ipswich of 160 tons in 1337 (Close, I I Edw. Ill,
pt. 1, m. 21). u Rymer, Focdera, vii, 563.

13 Close 1 Rich. II, m. 22. " Ibid. 2 Rich. II, m. 14'.

15 Pat. 6 Rich. II, P t. 1, m. 33. " Exch. Accts. Q. R. bdle. 40, No. 9.

207

A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK

Sluys as well as along the coast, and the descent was expected to be made in the estuary of the
Orwell. Therefore in September two knights were appointed to survey the harbour and the neigh-
bourhood where a landing might be effected, as, wrote the king, he had information that the French
and their allies intended to land in that district. 1 Charles VI had proposed to invade in August ;
as no counter-preparation, not even the preliminary general arrest of shipping, was made here
until September it was fortunate that several causes disorganized the French design.

Hostilities with France ceased in 1389, and for some years maritime commerce suffered only
its normal afflictions, for, although official peace existed, private war always continued. No
declaration of war came from cither side during the reign of Henry IV, but conditions at sea
differed nothing from actual belligerency. In consequence of this state of things, not only the
ports but many of the inland towns were ordered on 11 January, 1400-1, to build and equip ships,
singly or in combination, at their own cost by the following April ; Ipswich was to provide one
balinger, and Kirkley and Goseford, jointly, another. 3 Parliament met on 23 January and
protested against the proceeding and Henry's position was too uncertain to permit him, as he might
have done, to insist on the strict legality of his action. A general arrest of shipping in 1 40 1
applied, in Suffolk, only to Ipswich and Goseford ; two years earlier 3 there is a reference to Dunwich
as having been 'in great part destroyed' in 1357, and probably, although the smaller ports were
prospering by the fishery, they had not, from the nature of their trade, vessels large enough to be
of use for military purposes. The deep-sea fisheries, too, must have been in existence for some
time, for in 141 5 proclamation was made at Ipswich, among other places, that for a year there was
to be no fishing in Danish or Iceland waters 'aliter quam antiquitus fieri consuevit.' 4 In 1379
sixpence a ton convoy money was levied from herring boats by the week, but from 'other fishers'
only at the rate of twopence a week. 6

In 1402 the French raided the Essex coast, which was perhaps the reason why a king's ship,
the Katberine of the Tower, was lying in Orwell Haven from May to October of that year. 6 Shortly
before then six Suffolk nobles had promised the king each to provide a ship with a sufficient number
of seamen, forty archers and twenty men-at-arms, two others undertook to provide a vessel between
them, and three more each the half cost of a ship with ten men-at-arms and twenty archers. 7
How or where, if the promises were fulfilled, these vessels were used is not known, but the east
coast was in much more peaceful condition than the south during the early years of the reign of
Henry IV. The Patent Rolls are full of details of piracies committed by the men of the southern
ports, while the east coast towns seldom appear as accused, Goseford and Bawdsey in 1404 being
the solitary representatives for Suffolk. A squadron of Spanish galleys in French pay wintered in
the French ports in 1 405, and in the spring of 1406 the commanders arranged a raid in the Orwell,
but a sudden gale drove them away when they were lying off the estuary. In the same year the
safeguard of the sea was committed on terms to a syndicate of merchants and shipowners, who
were given large powers, including authority to impress ships. No doubt they took up some in
Suffolk, although we have no details of their proceedings, but, as might have been expected, the
plan failed and in December the king resumed his responsibilities. Henry proposed going to
Guienne in 141 1, therefore in September there was a general arrest of every vessel of thirty tons
and upwards throughout England. In the following April the south-eastern portion of Suffolk —
Ipswich, Bawdsey, Colneys, Erwarton,and Harwich 8 — was directed to provide a hundred mariners
as against thirty from Essex and a hundred from Kent ; 9 this may perhaps, but not certainly, be a
measure of the relative maritime importance of the counties.

To crush privateering and piracy Henry V, in 141 4, instituted officials in every port called
conservators of truces who, assisted by two legal assessors and holding their authority from the High
Admiral, were to have power of inquiry and punishment concerning all guilty of illegal proceedings
at sea. They were to keep a register of the ships and seamen belonging to each port, and acted as
adjudicators in such cases as did not go before the admiralty court. 10 They seem, so far as related
to judicial functions, to have been a link on the civil side between the earlier keepers of the coast
and the vice-admirals of the coast created in the sixteenth century. That the statute was strictly
enforced and helped to keep a little peace at sea is shown by the fact that two years later the king
consented to some modification of its stringency by promising to issue letters of marque when
equitable. In 1435 it was entirely suspended, being found 'so rigorous and grievous,' said the
Commons, taking advantage of a weak rule; in 145 1 it was brought into force again for a sJiort
time, and once more renewed by Edward IV.

Henry V began his reign with the intention of having a great fleet of his own. The custom
of general impressment was now expensive both to the shipowner and the crown, slow and inefficient,

1 Pat. 10 Rich. II, pt. 1, m. 29. ' Rymer, Foedera, viii, 172. ' Pat. 1 Hen. IV, pt. 5, m. 34.

* Rymer, Foedera, ix, 322. s Rot. Pari, v, 138.

s Exch. Accts. Q. R. bdle. 43, No. 7. ' Prot. of P. C. (first ser.), i, 106 (9 Feb. 1400-1).

6 Sic. 9 Rymer, Foedera, viii, 730. " 2 Hen. V, cap. 6.

208

MARITIME HISTORY

and the continual complaints of the merchant class, as voiced in Parliament, were not to be neglected.
The system could not be, and was not, at once abolished, but it became much less frequent" during
the fifteenth century, and there is quite a modern note in the establishment of cruisers round the
coast in 1 41 5, four vessels being stationed between the Isle of Wight and Orfordness and three from
Orfordness northwards. 1 The great fleet of upwards of 1,400 vessels, required for the campaign of
Agincourt, included a contingent from Suffolk, but very many were hired in Holland and Zealand,
either because the resources of the kingdom were insufficient, or Henry resolved not to tax them unduly.
In 1 4 1 6 Orwell Haven was the place of assembly of a large fleet, and the numerous occasions when it
served for such a purpose, although they have not called for notice here, must have greatly assisted
the business growth of Ipswich as well as of Harwich. Another big fleet was required for Henry's
passage to France in 141 7, but out of one list of 238 vessels 117 belonged to Holland and Zealand.
Many of the English ports were unrepresented, and it may be surmised that for political reasons the
king preferred to hire foreign ships as transports rather than to disturb English trade. For this
service, however, Dunwich, Covehithe (' Cooshith '), Orford, and Blythburgheach sent one ship. 2
An important branch of English maritime traffic in the fifteenth century was the transport of
pilgrims to enable them to perform their devotions at the shrine of St. James of Compostella.
They could only be carried in licensed ships, and nobles and merchants seem to have been equally
eager to obtain a share in what must have been a profitable trade. Most of the ships so employed
belonged to the southern ports, but any taken up for the purpose must necessarily have been of
considerable size judged by the standard of that age. For Suffolk there are very few entries in
long lists extending over many years, and Ipswich and Southwold are the only ports that appear. 3
A late licence, of the reign of Richard III, entitled Thomas Rogers, keeper of the king's ships, to
convey pilgrims in four vessels, and one of them was of Woodbridge. 4

After the death of Henry V one of the first proceedings of the Regency was to sell off the
Royal Navy by auction, but the loss was not felt at once because there was no French force capable
of contesting the dominion of the sea. There were arrests of shipping in 1428 and 1430, but
there was now a general feeling that in this method 'the long coming together of the ships is the
destruction of the country.' 5 Vessels were still impressed for the transport of troops, but the
cruising service was handed over to contractors who undertook to keep the sea with a certain
number of ships and men for a specified time. Of course the contractors desired to obtain as
much money and go to as little expense as possible, and in 1442 Parliament, dissatisfied with the
results, prepared a scheme by which a squadron was to be made up of selected ships from various
ports, but none came from Suffolk. There are existent several lists of ships taken up for the
transport of troops in 1439, 1440, 1443, 1447, and 1452. 6 Seeing that they only represent a
portion, large or small, of the merchant marine, they show that, notwithstanding war and weak
government, it was still flourishing, some of the vessels being of 300 and 400 tons. The large
ships, however, all belonged to the southern counties ; those from Suffolk, with the exception of
one of 160 and another of 140 tons, owned at Ipswich, were all small. During these years
Dunwich sent five vessels, Walberswick six, and Easton, Kirkley, and Southwold each one. A
vessel of 240 tons, described as of Orwell, must have belonged to Ipswich or Harwich.

Sea power played no great part in the Wars of the Roses, but we get some indication in the
Paston letters of the insecurity of territorial waters when such legal trammels as had existed were
relaxed. On 30 April, 1 350, the duke of Suffolk sailed, exiled, from Ipswich to meet his death in
the Straits of Dover, and it need not be imputed to cowardice that his Ipswich crews did not raise
a hand to save him. Writing in March of the same year, Agnes Paston notices several occurrences
showing how ' perlyous dwellyng be the se cost' was then, 7 and although her letter refers to
Norfolk, the coast of Suffolk must have been equally dangerous. The Walberswick Account Books
show payments in 1457 and 1463 for powder and cannon shot, and in 1469 for labour in throwing
up entrenchments. In 1460 the earl of Warwick, then at Calais, was expected to make a descent
in Suffolk, and orders were given to take the necessary precautions. 8 From the fact that in 1463 it
was necessary to seize all ships laden with stores intended to supply Edward's enemies the existence
of a Lancastrian party in the county may be inferred. 9

In 1 46 1 Suffolk was invited to join with Essex and Hertfordshire and follow the example of
the north by raising a squadron at their own cost to act against the French and Scots. Edward IV
was not ignorant of the value of a fleet and slowly set about the re-creation of a Royal Navy. His
method was to buy ships rather than to build them for himself. In 1462 he held 'two parts' of
the Margaret of Ipswich ; later he purchased one-fourth more from the London possessor, 10 and

1 Proc. of P. C. (first ser.), ii, 145. * Rut. Norman, (ed. Hardy), 1835, pp. 320-9.

5 Rot. Franc, pass. ' Harl. MSS. 433, fol. I 7 1 . i Prcc. cfP. C. (first ser.)', v. 102.

' Exch. Accts. Q. R. bdle. 53, Nos. 23, 24, 25, 39; bdle. 54, Nos. 10, 14.
7 Paston Letters (ed. 1872), i, I 14. 8 Pat. 38 Hen. VI, pt. 2, m. 21.

9 Ibid. 3 Edw. IV, pt. 1, m. \\d. "Ibid. 2 Edw. IV, F t. 2, m. 4.

2 209 27

A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK

subsequently lie must have bought the remaining shares, for the Margaret appears in the lists as a
king's ship. There were several arrests of ships in 1475 for the French war ; one of them — from
Newcastle to Bristol — must be almost, if not quite, the last example of the general arrest affecting
the whole country. The growth of the fishery is shown by the struggle for the profitable privilege
of supplying convoys for the fishing fleets. In 1472 a vessel at anchor in Orwell haven was
carried off by a Sandwich ship hired by the people of the east coast for the protection of the
fishermen during the season; but that seems to have been an exceptional incident. 1 In 1482 the
convoyers were appointed by the king, and the persons designated were authorized to arrest and
imprison any others who ventured to undertake similar work. 2 In the same year commissioners
were nominated to examine the accounts of the convoyers of 148 I, collecting rough statistics of
the state of the trade and the number of men employed in it ; 3 and in 1484 the accounts of the
convoyers of 1482 were similarly supervised. 4 There are several commissions for convoy of the
same character during the reign of Henry VII, 5 but the custom soon fell out of use as the Navy
grew larger, and men-of-war were more often in the North Sea. Some sailing directions assigned
to the reign of Edward IV show that the principal sands, channels, and landmarks for navigation
along the coast of East Anglia were much the same as now. 6

There must have been many wrecks upon the dangerous Suffolk coast during these centuries,
but few of such casualties appear in the records perhaps because the Crown had granted away most
of its rights along the coast. The right of wreck was coveted by manorial lords and corporations
both for profit and, incidentally, as evidence of exemption from the inquisition of the High Admiral.
Legally, if man, dog, or cat escaped alive from a ship it was no wreck, but if the cargo once came
into the hands of those ashore there was small chance of recovery. Every corporation used what
influence it possessed to obtain local jurisdiction in admiralty matters, not only as a question or
dignity and profit, but even more in order to escape the arbitrary and expensive proceedings of the
Lord Admiral's deputies, who brought much odium upon their master. Ipswich obtained admiralty
jurisdiction by the charter of 28 March, 1446 ; 7 in 1536 it was found by inquisition that the bailiffs
of Ipswich were exercising jurisdiction at Walton and fining people for non-appearance. The wives
of fishermen were 'attached in Ipswich with their horses and take their fish from them.' 8 The
burgesses of Dunwich claimed that their rights had been granted to them by John, and an
inquisition of 21 Henry III found that they were then exercising right of wreck. 9 The same inquisi-
tion tells us that Orford was enjoying similar powers, and at Aldeburgh, Thorpe, and several other
places the right to wreck of the sea was then in private hands. Very little of the Suffolk coast
remained subject to the pecuniary profit of the High Admiral; the fact that the duke of Gloucester,
afterwards Richard III, held this office during his brother's reign may explain why there was some
inquiry in 1465 into the powers under which individuals and corporations in Norfolk and Suffolk
were acting to the injury of the duke's emoluments. 10 Any results concerning Suffolk that may
have followed are unknown, and no evidence has been found of similar disputes for more than a
century. Southwold acquired its like immunities in the reign of Henry VII. 11

In 1481 a squadron was equipped to act against Scotland, and the Carve/ of Ipswich, Captain
Thos. Coke, was one of the five merchantmen selected to join the king's ships. 12 The reign of
Henry VII is almost barren of maritime incident, but some Suffolk ships were used as transports
when the earl of Surrey invaded Scotland in 1497. Three came from Walberswick, two from
Aldeburgh, two from Dunwich, and one each from Southwold, Orford, Easton, and Sizewell. 13

With the reign of Henry VIII the era of arrests and impressment of shipping may be said to
have terminated. The port towns were sometimes to be called upon to provide ships, but such
towns were usually associated in order to lessen the expense and eventually the county as a whole
contributed to the cost. Improvements in building and armament had now differentiated the man-
of-war from the merchantman ; the latter was of little use in fleets except ' to make a show,' and
to have required the ports to furnish real men-of-war would have ruined them. It was one of the
purposes of Henry's life to create a national Navy, and there was not a year of his reign that did
not witness some accretion to its strength. Such merchantmen as he required were hired without
the exercise of the prerogative. It is not until the reign of Elizabeth that we find in force the further
development of the right of impressment, the demand for fully armed ships at the cost of the ports
and counties, the principle upon which the ship-money levies were based. The first war with France

1 Pat. 11 Edw. IV, pt. 2, m. nd. s Ibid. 22 Edw. IV, pt. 1, m. 2.

J Ibid. m. jd. ' Ibid. 2 Rich. Ill, pt. I, m. 2.
6 Campbell, Materials for a History of . . . Henry Vll.

6 Sailing Directions . . . from a Fifteenth Century MS. (Hale. Soc), 1889. For Orwell Haven see
V. C. H. Essex, ii, 'Maritime Hist.'

' Hist. MSS. Com. Rep. ix, App. i, 231. 8 Admir. Ct. Misc. Bks. 831.
9 Gardner, Hist. Account of Dunwich, 1 14.

10 Lansd. MSS. 171, fol. 186. "Pat. 10 June, 1505.

" Rymer, Foedera, xii, 139. u Chap. Ho. Bks. vii, fol. 60 et. seq.

210

MARITIME HISTORY

of 15 12-13 was fought almost entirely by men-of-war, and although there were some twenty hired
ships in pay as tenders and victuallers none can be traced as belonging to Suffolk. It need hardly
be said that although impressment of ships had practically ceased, impressment of men continued,
and Aldeburgh, Southwold, and Ipswich helped to make up the crews of the king's ships. 1
Shipwrights and caulkers were pressed in Ipswich, Dunwich, Southwold, and Lowestoft, to come
to the new dockyard at Woolwich to help in the building of the Henry Grace de Dleu?
Ipswich and Dartmouth sent more shipwrights than any others of the ports and, so far as Ipswich
is concerned, the number available is a sign that the great shipbuilding industry which was so
striking a feature of its local history from the end of the sixteenth century was already estab-
lished. The famous Pett family, which provided master shipwrights in the royal dockyards for
upwards of a century, probably came from Harwich but some branches of the family lived at
Ipswich. 3 War with France and Scotland recommenced in 1522 and Ipswich sent some auxiliary
ships to join the fleet. The proposed, and possibly executed, erection of a blockhouse at
Lowestoft in 1528 4 is evidence of the importance of the roads as an anchorage.

The Iceland fishery, which had flourished during the early part of the fifteenth century,
had almost died out in consequence of a statute of 1430 (8 Hen. VI, cap. 2) forbidding Englishmen
to repair to Iceland or Denmark, but only to North Bergen ; this was enacted in fear of the king
of Denmark and in consequence of the riotous and piratical behaviour of English fishermen and
traders. In 1 45 1, however, Walberswick was sending thirteen vessels and twenty-two Sperling
boats to Iceland, the Faroes, and the North Sea, 6 and in 1484 a proclamation prohibiting ships
to go to Iceland without convoy shows that the fishery was still carried on. The first Parlia-
ment of Henry VIII repealed the Act of 1430 (1 Hen. VIII, cap. 1), and for a time, at any rate,
the fishermen can have given little cause for complaint for in 1523 the king of Denmark wrote to
Henry encouraging a larger trade. 6 The extent to which it had been taken up along the east
coast may be judged from a passage in a letter written by the earl of Surrey to Wolsey, 7 in
the same year, where he reports that he had heard that the Scots were fitting out a squadron
to intercept the Iceland fleet in which, if they succeeded, Norfolk and Suffolk he said, would
be ruined and all England left without fish. In 1528 the Iceland fleet numbered 149 vessels ;
Ipswich is grouped with five Essex ports, and fourteen ships sailed from them; Woodbridge sent three,
Aldeburgh, Sizewell, and Thorpe, six, and Dunwich, Walberswick, Southwold, Easton, and
Covehithe, thirty-two. 8 The last five places followed the Iceland trade more vigorously than
that of the North Sea proper, in which only eight boats were employed; but Ipswich, with Harwich
and Manningtree, sent twenty, Aldeburgh four, and Lowestoft six. 9 More than half these boats
frequented Scotch waters. The temporary improvement in the conduct of the fishermen does not
appear to have endured, at any rate near home, for in 1535 James V wrote to Henry that 'the
English who go to Iceland for fishing take slaves and plunder in the Orkney Isles.' 10 But,
however irregular their conduct they also fished, and by 1526 the quantity brought home
was so great that it was found possible to remit a portion of that taken for the king under the
right of purveyance. 11

There is a return of 1533 giving the number of vessels come back from the fishery that year,
from which we find that seven entered Lowestoft, twenty-two Dunwich, one Orford, and seven
Orwell Haven, which here probably stands chiefly for Ipswich. 12 The average tonnage was from
forty to sixty tons, except those at Orwell, which run from 60 to 150 tons. In 1536 Robert
Kingston of Dunwich, the master of an Aldeburgh vessel, was presented at an Admiralty Court for
leaving six sick men behind him in Iceland. 13 It would seem that at this period Dunwich, fallen
from its former estate as a commercial port, secured temporarily a new prosperity in the Iceland
traffic. From an action at law in 1535 relating to a Southwold ship we learn that she was hired
for .£120 for an Iceland voyage ; in an illustrative case quoted in the depositions, it was said that
the profit earned by another boat was upwards of ^700, and would have been more but for the
defaults of the master. 14 Occasionally persons of higher social standing than those who made the
trade their occupation were tempted by the large profits to join in it ; in 1545 there is an account
of the expenses of a vessel belonging to Sir Thomas Darcy which he sent to the fishery. 15 From a
national point of view it would be difficult to exaggerate the value of the Iceland, North Sea,
and Newfoundland fisheries. The Atlantic and North Sea were the breeding and training grounds
of the men who, in the reign of Elizabeth, destroyed the maritime pretensions of Spain.

I Chap. Ho. Bks. ii, fols. 7-10. • Ibid, v, 179. • See V.C.H. Essex, ii, 'Maritime Hist.*
' L. and P. Hen. fill, iv (pt. 2), 40 1 6. 6 Gardner, op. cit. 145.

6 L. and P. Hen. Fill, iii, 2783. ' Ibid. 3071.

8 Ibid, iv, 5101. 'Ibid. I0 Ibid, viii, 11 51.

II Ibid, iv, 2220 ; Add. MSS. 34729, fol. 63. " L. and P. Hen.Vlll, vi, 1380.
13 Admir. Ct. Misc. Bks. 831. " L. and P. Hen. FIJI, ix, 1020.
15 Hist. MSS. Com. Rep. vii, App. i, 603. She was manned from Dunwich.

211

A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK

About 1539 Henry feared a combination of the continental states against the kingdom. The
new navy, although more powerful than any England had ever yet possessed, more powerful than
even its creator dreamed it to be, was as yet an untried weapon. The preceding centuries were
fraught with the lesson that English battles were best fought on the English seas, but there was a
natural inclination, especially in an age which was tending towards formalism in military science, to
fall back upon the orthodox defences of castles, sconces, and bulwarks to prevent a landing or to
support a defending force. As early as 1535 the idea of fortifying the strategic points round the
coast was in the air, for Cromwell then noted in his ' Remembrances' that a small tax formerly
paid to Rome might well be diverted ' towards the defence of the realm to be employed in making
fortresses.' That the subject was then under consideration explains the existence of a map of 1533-4
showing proposed fortifications at Harwich and Landguard, although there is some doubt as to the
value of this map as evidence in point of date. 1 If it is reliable there must have been some par-
ticular reason, because at the time, and for some years afterwards, Calais and Dover were the only
places upon which money was being spent lavishly, and the fortification of the coast generally was
not commenced until 1539. Early in that year commissioners were appointed • to search and defend
the coasts,' 2 and Lowestoft, Aldeburgh, and Landguard were designated as requiring defences.*
On 27 March the earls of Oxford and Essex, who were in superintendence in the eastern counties,
wrote to Cromwell that 20,000 men might be put ashore at Landguard and that a ' substantial
blockhouse ' was necessary there. 4

The French ambassador, writing to his sovereign in May, thought that most of the places
where a foreign force might land would be in a state of defence by the end of the summer, but in
reality the work did not progress nearly so quickly ; in 1 5 40 most of such bulwarks as had been
erected were still unarmed, but Lowestoft possessed one gun. A contemporary map 5 shows a three-
gun battery commanding the Stanford Channel and another that of St. Nicholas Gat ; the sites of
these batteries have long been below low-water mark. As there is an appTintment of a gunner
for Lowestoft in March, 1 542,° the map may be assigned approximately to that year, and *
Landguard is indicated by a conventional circle it shows that the fort there was yet unbuilt.
Possibly there were also entrenchments thrown up at Mismer Haven. 7 In 1547 there is a reference
to the fort or forts at Landguard and to the six gunners permanently stationed at each of them.'*
There seem to have been 'houses' at Langer Point and Langer Rood ; Major J. H. Leslie, the
historian of Landguard, 9 considers the latter, now Garrison Rood, an excellent position militarily.
From a later paper 10 it appears that the blockhouse at the point was built by 1545 but that at Langer Rood
was probably somewhat later or not then garrisoned. Silas Taylor, who wrote his history of Harwich
in 1676, says that there was then remaining a bastion of one of the Henry VIII blockhouses which
was situated at or near the old burial-ground. At first all the coast defences, except those within
the Cinque Ports, were placed under the control of the Lord Admiral and regulations were drawn
up for their government, 11 but they soon passed out of his hands. Probably it was considered
unwise to entrust a subject with so much power.

War with France and Scotland broke out again in 1543, and in June the North Sea fleet was
collecting in Orwell Haven, when Henry visited Harwich. Besides being the best harbour south
of the Humber, that of the Orwell was also the nearest to the fertile eastern counties, an important
point in relation to the victualling of the fleets. North Sea squadrons were in commission in
1542-3-4; for that of the last year, operating in Scotch waters in conjunction with the invading army
under the earl of Hertford, Lowestoft supplied fifteen ships, Aldeburgh nine, Dunwich sixteen,
Walberswick eleven, Southwold ten, and Ipswich ten. 12 All these must have been used as transports
and storeships, but as no doubt a sufficient number of vessels was left to carry on trade the figures
indicate an active maritime industry. Four of those from Lowestoft, one from Aldeburgh, one
from Southwold, and two from Ipswich, were of 100 tons or more, the largest being one of 160
tons belonging to Ipswich ; the largest Dunwich ships were only of 60 tons. On 6 July, 1543,
an action was fought off Orfordness between a French squadron and one under Sir Rice Mansel.
The French, fifteen or sixteen in number, had conveyed troops to Scotland in June ; war was
declared subsequently, and on their voyage back they were intercepted by Mansel. The French
took one ship and the English two, but Mansel chased them back to the Forth. Probably

1 Cott. MSS. Aug. I, i, 56.

' For Suffolk : — Lord Wentworth, Sir Humphrey and Sir Anthony Wingfield, Sir Arthur Hopton,
Sir Edmund Bedingfield, Sir John Cornvvallis, Sir Thomas Jermyn, Sir Wm. Drury, Sir VVm. Waldegrave and
Sir John Jerningham.

5 L. and P. Hen. Fill, xiv, pt. I, 398, 655. * Ibid. 615.

6 Cott. MSS. Aug. I, i, 58. s L. and P. Hen. rill, xvii, 220 (37).

7 See /«//, p. 221. 8 S. P. Dom. Edw. VI, i, 22. ' Landguard Fort, Lond. 1 898.
10 S. P. Dom. Edw. VI, xv, 11.

" L. and P. Hen. VIII, xiv (pt. 2), 785 ; Admir. Ct. Misc. Bks. 129.
" L. and P. Hen. HIl,xix, (pt. 1), 140 (6).

212

MARITIME HISTORY

Suffolk, like other counties, was depleted of seamen and fishermen to man the royal fleets during
this war ; as a consequence certain hundreds were allotted to Lord Wentworth in 1545 for the
defence of the coast in the absence of the maritime population. 1 In February, I 547, Sir Andrew
Dudley was in command of a fleet then lying in Orwell Haven, ordered to intercept the supplies
passing from France to Scotland, but it does not appear that he had any merchantmen with him.
His flagship, the Pauncye, afterwards took the Lion, a Scotch man-of-war, but the prize was lost in
Harwich harbour ' by negligence,' says Edward VI in his Journal. 2

The question of piracy and wrecking becomes more noticeable during the reign of Henry VIII,
not because the offences were more prevalent — there were probably fewer cases than during
preceding centuries — but because suppression was taken in hand more seriously. Henry was
determined to make his kingship feared and respected at sea as he made it feared and respected
on land. No single life could have been long enough to see complete success, but the steps he
took mark a great advance in the organization of repressive measures and only the application
or extension of them was left to his successors. It had been found that the existing system
of trial for piracy was nearly useless, the offender having to confess before he could be sentenced,
or his guilt having to be proved by disinterested witnesses, who naturally could seldom be present
at sea. By two statutes, 27 Hen. VIII, cap. 4, and 28 Hen. VIII, cap. 15, such crimes were in
future to be tried according to the forms of the common and not as hitherto of the civil law.
Probably for the better administration of these statutes and for other reasons — namely the exe-
cution of a treaty with France of 1525 concerning maritime depredations, the strict protection of
the king's and Lord Admiral's rights in wrecks and other matters, the registration of ships and men
available and the levy of seamen, the inspection and certification of ships going to sea touching their
armed strength and the peaceful nature of the voyage, the exaction of bonds from captains and
owners as security for good conduct and the safe-keeping of prizes and prize goods — it was
deemed advisable to have round the coast permanent representatives of the Lord Admiral, who
should be of higher social standing and armed with greater authority than were the deputies who
had hitherto visited each county or district collecting the Lord Admiral's profits or maintaining his
rights. The officers in question, the vice-admirals of the counties, were, in their civil functions, the
successors historically of the keepers of the coast and the conservators of truces of the thirteenth and
fourteenth centuries, and there is not one of the duties of the vice-admirals which cannot be
paralleled among those performed by the earlier officials. We have seen that there had been
occasional appointments for Norfolk and Suffolk of officers who held posts very similar to those of
the vice-admirals, 3 but now, instead of acting temporarily and only in one or two districts, they
became a band of crown officials stationed round the whole coast, backed by the power of the Tudor
despotism and continued without any interruption during which their authority might diminish by
intermission. 4

The scheme did not come into operation simultaneously over all England, but developed out of
necessity and according to opportunity. The first nomination known by precise date is that for
Norfolk and Suffolk, but Cornwall may have even been earlier, and in view of the long established
reputation of the southern county for the lawless practices customary on its coast there is some
significance in the fact that the East Anglian appointment is of about the same date, although the
exact reasons are unknown to us. The first vice-admiral of Norfolk and Suffolk, appointed by the
then Lord Admiral, Sir William Fitzwilliam, by patent for life 20 August, 1536, was William
Gonson, long connected with the naval administration ; he is styled ' our commissary, vice-admiral,
and deputy in the office of the vice-admiralty.' 6 Gonson was well known to Henry and it is
likely that the nomination was the king's rather than Fitzwilliam's ; it may also be due to Henry's
favour that, unlike his successors, he was granted all fees and profits free from any account to the
Lord Admiral. Very shortly after the general institution of the vice-admirals the perquisites were shared
with the Lord Admiral, and they had to give bond to render their accounts half-yearly. This duty
was often ignored, and about 1553 ordinances were drawn up by which they were to regulate their
conduct and that of their subordinate officers. 6 The post was usually held by country gentlemen
for whom it was a source of dignity and profit ; in Suffolk, as elsewhere, all the best-known countv
names appear in the lists. Norfolk and Suffolk were not divided into separate vice-admiralties until
late in the reign of Elizabeth, and until the separation the office was almost an appanage of the
Wodehouse and Southwell families.

' Acts of P. C. 12 May, 1545. • Cott. MSS. Nero C. x. * Ante, p. 202.

4 The patents of appointment were from the Lord Admiral, sometimes for life and sometimes during
pleasure.

4 Admir. Ct. Misc. Bks. Ser. II, 224. I am indebted to Mr. R. G. Marsden, to whose learned researches
the history of the evolution of the office of vice-admiral is mainly due, for bringing Gonson's appointment to
my notice. Mr. Marsden has also given generous help in the legal and local history of the coast.

' Admir. Ct. Inq. i.

213

A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK

In 1547 the total cost of the Essex fortifications, in which Landguard was always included,
was nearly ^800 a year. 1 In 1551 the Privy Council decided that there was 'a number of
bulwarks and other fortresses upon the sea coast and otherwheres within this realm which stood the
king's majesty in very great charges and in no service at all nor could serve at any time to any
purpose ; ' 3 therefore it was resolved to disestablish some and reduce others. In pursuance of this
resolution Landguard was partially or entirely dismantled in June, 1553, and the ordnance sent up
to the Tower. 3 The end of the Henry VIII defences may perhaps be read in the confession of
John Jenyns before the Privy Council that he " pulled down two bulwarks at Langer in Suffolk side
beside Harwich.' 4 Dr. Lingard thought that the disarmament of the coast forts was only a device
of Northumberland's to supply himself with guns and other necessaries for the dynastic revolution
he was plotting. In July, 1553, tne duke's fleet watched at Orwell Haven and along the coast to
prevent Mary's escape, had that course entered her mind. The county was not called upon for
much service during the queen's reign, but in 1557 we were once more at war with France and
Scotland. Sir John Clere was in command of a squadron in the North Sea, but as it was doubted
whether he was strong enough to protect the Iceland fishing fleet a reinforcement of armed mer-
chantmen was ordered for him, for which Ipswich, Lowestoft, and Aldeburgh had each to provide
one vessel, and Dunwich and Southwold together, one. 6 With the Lord Admiral, in the Channel,
were two small Lowestoft vessels as tenders.

The reign of Mary sent many of the outlawed and discontented to the refuge of the sea, and
the more or less continuous warfare existing in western Europe during the reign of Elizabeth
tempted many such men to continue their vocation. Therefore the plague of piracy, and its first
cousin privateering, was virulent during the latter reign, although a number of cases which the
sufferers called piracy were really seizures of enemy's goods in neutral ships, and were justly
questions for the judge of the Admiralty Court. The east coast was less guilty than the south
in supporting pirates and purchasing their plunder ; it also suffered less from their depredations, but
it was by no means free from either class of circumstance. The peace of 1564 and the protests of
neighbouring powers forced Elizabeth to take more energetic action, and a circular letter to the
vice-admirals of counties called their attention to the suggestive fact that although many pirates had
been taken not one had been executed. 6 In August, 1565, a letter was addressed to the vice-
admiral of Norfolk and Suffolk, exhorting him to increased vigilance and to search the villages on
the coast for goods recently landed. 7 In November of the same year commissioners were nominated
for each county with large powers, and they were to appoint deputies at every creek and landing
place. 8 As the pirates had friends, agents, partners, and informants in nearly every port the
proceedings of the commissioners were not of much avail ; as an example, we find Robert Arnold
of Walberswick ordered to appear before the duke of Norfolk, at Kenninghall, for using abusive
language about them, 9 and there were no doubt many others who thought like Arnold but escaped
punishment. The business became further complicated when the prince of Orange issued letters
of marque, many of which were taken out by Englishmen, and many of his ships had Englishmen
on board. The Orange privateers were an element of la haute politique, and Elizabeth did not hold
it advisable entirely to crush them even if it had been in her power to do so. Subsequently the
Spanish Netherlands followed the precedent of the Dutch and sent out privateers, the beginning of
the affliction of ' Dunkirkers,' which plagued the coast for more than a century, while Englishmen
also obtained letters of marque from the Huguenot leaders in France. Pirates and privateersmen
used the English ports, secretly or openly, with an almost complete indifference to the commis-
sioners ; in 1569 Martin Frobisher, the famous seaman, was arrested for a prize brought in to
Aldeburgh and sent to the Marshalsea prison. 10 Frobisher's light-hearted proceedings at sea, which
were often nearly or wholly piratical, several times brought him under arrest, and in this aspect he
presents himself in connexion with more than one of the counties, but he always escaped unscathed.

In the spring of 1577 there was an especial outburst of piratical energy on the east coast, from
which Norfolk and Suffolk suffered severely, and the queen ordered ships to be sent to protect the
coasting trade. 11 In September new commissioners were appointed and still more stringent methods

l S.P. Dom. Edw. VI, i, 22. 'Acts o/P.C. 26 Feb. 1550-1.

3 Ibid. 11 June, I 553 ; S.P. Dom. Edw. VI, Add. iv, 45.

'Jets o/P.C. 4 June, I 5 38. Jenyns seems to have had a legal claim of some kind (ibid. 29 April).

5 S.P. Dom. Mary xi, 38 ; Acts o/P.C. 13 July, 1557.

'Jets o/P.C. 23 Dec. 1 564. ' Ibid, vii, 244.

8 Ibid. 8 Nov. 1565; S.P. Dom. Eliz. xxxvii, 71, i. The commissioners for Suffolk were Sir Owen
Hopton, Sir Robert Wingfield, Edward Grimston, and John Blennerhassett. The state paper gives a full list
of the ports, creeks, and landing places of the county ; the ports were Gorleston, Lowestoft, Easton, South-
wold, Walberswick, Dunwich, Aldeburgh, Orford, and Ipswich. In 1597 the Lowestoft men objected that
the place was not a port nor a member of any port (see post, p. 223).

9 Acts o/P.C. 1 1 Dec. 1 565. '" R. G. Marsden, Engl. Hist. Ret: xxi, 538 et. seq.
"Cecil MSS. 11 May, 1577.

214

MARITIME HISTORY

of repression adopted ; * the aiders and abettors ashore were now to be prosecuted and fined, and
the fines were to go towards recouping the victims ; the takers of pirates were to have a proportion
of the goods found on board, and commissions were to be granted to private persons to send out
ships pirate-hunting. 2 The commissioners set to work energetically, and soon succeeded in finding
misdemeanants in Suffolk. Within a month a number of Aldeburgh burgesses, who, surprised at
the new departure, at first 'utterly refused' to pay, were fined for dealing with pirates; they
subsequently thought better of it and offered what they considered ' reasonable ' compositions. 3
By December the commissioners had compiled a long list of receivers all over the county ; among
the offenders, as an actual pirate, was John Flicke of Woodbridge, probably a relative of Robert
Flicke, well known in naval history as a commander in the queen's fleets. 4 In another list Flicke
appears as paying £3, with sixteen other delinquents, fined from ^3 to ^45, 5 and one list of
Suffolk fines for 1577 a moun ts to £182 from fifty-nine persons, of whom thirteen lived at Ipswich. 6
Probably matters had not become worse in 1578, but the commissioners had found out more, and
in March forwarded another catalogue of forty-four receivers, many of whom were apparently
well-to-do people. 7

In 1579 Aldeburgh was searched, with the result that an inventory of pirates' plunder found
in the houses was sent up to the Council. 8 The accused were sometimes recalcitrant ; in January
of this year two burgesses of Southwold and one of Dunwich refused to pay the fines charged on
them, and, in consequence, were sent for to London and 'ordered to attend here upon their
lordships until discharged.' 9 Obviously this might be made a more expensive punishment than the
original fine. There is incidental evidence that the abettors and protectors of Elizabethan pirates
were sometimes of much higher social standing than the persons who merely looked to a profit in
buying their booty. We get a hint of one such case in the same year when five gentlemen, living
near Woodbridge, were ordered to appear before the Privy Council to answer an accusation that
Anthony Newport, a notorious pirate, had escaped apprehension by their connivance. lu By an Order
in Council of 16 December, 1582, jurisdiction in matters of piracy was suspended for three years in
those towns possessing Admiralty rights in order to avoid the conflict of authority which occurred
with the piracy commissioners in such places. This measure can hardly have had much effect, for
in 1586 pirates were resorting quite openly to Gorleston, which was in the Yarmouth jurisdiction,
to revictual. 11 It seems that when abroad the pirate or privateer was, as might be expected, even
less burdened with ethical scruples than when in English waters. About 1593 Edward Glemham,
who belonged to a Suffolk family, was cruising in the Mediterranean, and actually ' pawned ' "
several of his crew at Algiers in exchange for provisions. They were still in slavery when the
matter came before the Council in 1600 ; Glemham was dead and had left little property, so that
the queen authorized the Lord Mayor and the Trinity House to collect money for the redemption
of the men.

The bounty system inaugurated by Henry VII, by which an occasional tonnage allowance
was made to the builders of new ships suitable for service in war, had, under Elizabeth, settled into
a grant of 5;. a ton on all vessels of 100 tons and upwards. The expansion of trade and the
attraction of privateering stimulated shipbuilding everywhere, while the bounty conduced to an
increase of size in new vessels. For a time Ipswich, which by reason of the plentiful supply of
timber in the neighbourhood, became the shipyard of London, prospered exceedingly by the
demand. Besides the stimulus of war there were economic reasons for a revival of the shipping
trade under Elizabeth, but during the middle of the century there appears to have been a decline
of commerce with a consequent decrease of shipping. A paper, probably belonging to the beginning
of Elizabeth's reign, enumerates a long list of vessels 'decayed' since 1544; during the period
reviewed Ipswich and Harwich had lost the use of five ships of 600 tons, Walberswick one of 140,
and Aldeburgh one of 200 tons. 13

The part that Suffolk took in the Spanish war was the supply of men, ships, and money. On
the south coast there were recurrent panics of imminent invasion, but Suffolk did not feel the actual

1 S.P. Dom. Eliz. cxv, 32. For Suffolk : Lords Wentworth and North, Sir Robt. Wingfield, Sir Wm.
Waldegrave, Nicholas Bacon, Robert Jermyn, Edw. Grimston, and others, including the bailiffs and recorder
of Ipswich.

'Add. MSS. 34150, fols. 61, 64. In 1559 the judge of the Admiralty Court held that all goods must
be restored to the owners (S.P. Dom. Eliz. vi, 19) ; therefore this must refer to property belonging to the
pirates or unclaimed. There had been some doubt whether accessories ashore could legally be prosecuted
(Jets ofP.C. 6 June, 1577).

3 S.P. Dom. Eliz. cxv, 49. ' Ibid, cxix, 6, 13, i.

'Add. MSS. 12505, fol. 333. 8 S.P. Dom. Eliz. exxxv, fol. 15.

'Ibid, exxiii, 3. 'Ibid, exxxi, 38. * Jets of P. C. 16 Jan. 1578-9.

'"Ibid. 16 April, 1579. "Ibid. 26 Sept. 1586.

"Ibid. 10 Mar. 1 599-1600. Adjudications upon several of Glemham's captures exist among the
Admiralty Court papers. u S.P. Dom. Mary, i, 23.

215

A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK

effect of war until the military strength of Spain was destroyed, and privateering, the last expedient
of the defeated, taken up with vigour. When that happened the eastern counties, flanked by the
privateering nests of Sluys, Dunkirk, and Newport, experienced the fullest effects. For nearly
forty years, however, the resources of Suffolk were devoted to the increase of the national fleets and
armies, and we have better means of estimating what those resources were in the way of shipping
than for any earlier period. From at least the reign of John it had been usual to call upon the
officials of the ports for returns of the ships and men available for service ; most of the earlier ones
are lost, but several, complete or fragmentary, remain for the Elizabethan period. Usually the
details only deal with vessels of ioo tons and upwards, as smaller ones were not considered useful
for fighting purposes. War with France and Scotland existed in 1560, which was the cause of the
first Elizabethan list of March of that year. 1 The return for Suffolk gave 415 'mariners and
sailors,' and but four vessels of IOO tons and upwards, two belonging to Walberswick and two to
Southwold, the largest being of 140 tons. The number of seamen — the distinction between mariners
and sailors is obscure and unnecessary to discuss here — is evidently only that of those ashore at the
date of inquiry, and the list of ships is obviously incomplete since Ipswich is not included. The
next report, made in January, 1 565-6/ gives a total of 1,161 masters, mariners, and fishermen,
68 ships, and 436 crayers and boats. In men Southwold leads the county with 174 mariners
and fishermen, Dunwich is next with 166, Aldeburgh follows with 155, and Walberswick is
fourth with 122 men. Ipswich had only 18 masters and 66 men ; but Lowestoft, from Kirkley
to Corton, 115 men. These figures are only general, because the coast on each side of a town
was included in its return. Of ships of 100 tons and upwards Ipswich possessed three, Walbers-
wick two, and Dunwich, Southwold, and Lowestoft each one, the largest of 140 tons, belonging to
Southwold. Aldeburgh, including Thorpe, had the largest number — 89 — of fishing boats, and the
district from Southwold to Easton followed with 84.

In July, 1570, a general embargo was ordered, and at the moment it was found that in
Norfolk and Suffolk there were 1,660 men at sea and 600 at home; 3 another list of the same date
enumerates 1,156 Suffolk seamen with their places of residence. 4 By far the highest number —
320 masters and men — lived at Aldeburgh, Southwold was second with 192, and Dunwich third
with 108. In 1572 Thomas Colshill, surveyor of customs at London, compiled a register of
coasting traders belonging to the ports. 5 The Suffolk section may be thus arranged : —

100 tons

From

20 tons

100 tons

From

20 tons

and

50 to IOO

20 to 50

and

50 to IOO

20 to 50

and

upwards

tons

under

Southwold .

upwards

tons

under

Ipswich ....

I I

Woodbridge .

Walberswick. .

Aldeburgh.

1 2

Gorleston .

Orford ....

Lowestoft .

Dunwich ....

In 1576 there was a list drawn up of ships of over 100 tons built since 157 I, in which Southwold
appears with one of 170 tons, Ipswich with one of 160 and two of 120, Aldeburgh with two of
140 and 150, and Orwell with one of 150 tons. 8 A year later there is another list of men and
'ships, barks, and hoys,' but probably only of those at home at the time 7 : — Ipswich, six ships and
190 men ; Woodbridge, six and 180 men ; Orford, five and 25 men ; Aldeburgh, fifty-four and
120 men ; Dunwich, fourteen and 80 men ; Walberswick, four and 60 men ; Southwold, twenty
and 100 men ; Pakefield and Kirkley, four and 46 men ; and Lowestoft, four and 60 men. The
next full return is of ships of 100 tons and upwards. 8 In this Harwich and Ipswich are coupled
with eleven vessels of 1,230 tons, of which the largest was 150 tons : Bawdsey and Woodbridge
possessed one of 100 tons ; Orford and Aldeburgh, nine of 1,110 tons, of which the largest was
140 tons; and Walberswick or Southwold, one of 100 tons. References occur in the corres-
pondence of the Spanish ambassadors which show that shipbuilding was proceeding apace, and the
next list of I 582 9 supports the information they gave Philip II. Fifteen ships of IOO tons or more,
including two of 200 tons, were owned at Aldeburgh, eight at Ipswich, two at Southwold,
and one at Orford. Of craft between 80 and 100 tons Ipswich had six, Aldeburgh, four; and
Southwold and Lowestoft, each two. Of under 80 tons there were 60 vessels in the county,

1 S.P. Dom. Eliz. xi, 27. 'Ibid, xxxix, 17.

♦Ibid. 15. 'Ibid. Add. xxii.

6 Ibid, cvii, 68. Harwich occurs independently.
'Ibid, exx, I. "Ibid, xevi, fol. 267 ; 6 Feb. 1576-7.

2l6

3 Ibid, lxxiii, 48.
He excluded fishing craft.

'Ibid, clvi, 45.

MARITIME HISTORY

Dunwich and Southwold each possessing ten and Ipswich twelve. The number of men available
was 98 masters and 1,184 sailors. A paper of uncertain date, but of about 1590, 1 gives Aldeburgh
twenty-four fishing boats of 20 tons each, of which sixteen were new within eight years ; Walbers-
wick and Dunwich seven each, whereof four and five respectively were new ; Southwold three and
Lowestoft, two. All these were of 20 and 25 tons, and there were many smaller ones as well.
The system of registration must have rendered it difficult for the men to escape the Navy net when
they were required to serve. Thus on 7 March, 1589-90 the deputy-lieutenants, vice-admirals,
and justices in all the counties were ordered to register the ages, names, and dwelling places of all
seamen, fishermen, and gunners between sixteen and sixty years of age before 25 March ensuing,
while the officers of the ports were to send similar returns of those absent at sea. On 28 April
the deputy-lieutenants and the vice-admirals of Suffolk were thanked for their diligence in carrying
out the order ; 800 men remained impressed, 400 from Gorleston to Dunwich, and 400 from
Dunwich to Ipswich, and of these 310 were to be allowed to go fishing and to Iceland. It is to
be presumed that for the rest the original order remained in force ; that is that they were not, on
pain of death, to leave their districts.

The shipping in these lists owned at Ipswich is not remarkable for extent, but the real
prosperity of the town was based on the considerable build ng trade, which is noticeable during this
and the succeeding reigns. It was probably no new thing, 2 but it certainly increased greatly under
the favourable economic conditions which followed 1588. We obtain some guide to the number of
ships on which the five-shilling bounty was paid, by the orders for payment, or allowance on the
customs, among the 'Exchequer Warrants for Issues' ; but there is no doubt that many, if not most, of
these warrants are lost. During the earlier part of Elizabeth's reign Wood bridge ran Ipswich
closely ; in 1566 the bounty was paid on two Woodbridge-built ships, and on another in 1568, while
Ipswich also launched three between 1560 and 1570. It is, however, possible that those constructed
at Woodbridge were really the work of Ipswich builders. In 157 1 we meet with the first
indication in these papers of shipbuilding to the order of London owners, when the 'Julian of
120 tons and the Minion of 250 tons were constructed for Olyff Burre, a Southwark coppersmith,
who was a large owner of merchantmen and privateers. In 1572 Burre built another 150-ton
vessel in the Orwell, and in 1575 two more were launched, but the owners' names are not given.
The Ipswich reputation must have steadily improved, and the town reaped the full benefit of the
demand for ships towards the end of the reign. In 1595 three were launched for London owners,
and in 1596 five more. 3 In 1598 the Matthew of 320, in 1599 the Elbing Bonaventure of 300,
and in 1603 the Providence of 300 tons were paid for by the warrants. Other Suffolk ports had
some share of the building trade. In 1595 the Cherubim of 240 tons came from Orford ;
Aldeburgh, too, built some vessels, five, belonging to Alexander and William Bence, earning the
bounty in 1596. Several generations of the Bence family produced shipowners and shipmasters.

John Wylkinson is the only Ipswich builder named in the warrants ; another, mentioned in
1572, is Robert Cole, who had liberty to build at the Old Quay on payment of twopence a ton to
the town. 4 A third, William Wright, asked compensation in or about 1590 for a ship sunk by
order of Drake in 1589, and in his petition deposed that since 1563 he had built twenty-six ships,
all of 100 tons or more, besides many smaller vessels. 5 The town must have maintained a thriving
business during the reign of James I, although there are only occasional allusions to its chief
industry. In 1 61 4 an author, writing about the fishery, pointed out that Ipswich was the best
place in which to build fishing ' busses ' to compete with the Dutch, because there were more ship-
wrights there than in any other six towns in England ; 6 it was already famous for its cordage, and
was supplying canvas for the Navy in 1587. 7 In 1618 the committee of the East India Company
conferred with Browning of Ipswich about a ship of 500 or 600 tons for the eastern trade, and in
February completed the contract. 8 In 1 619 the company again employed Browning, 9 who seems
to have had a yard also at Woodbridge, where probably his larger ships were built. The strength
and influence of the Ipswich shipbuilding interest is shown by the fact that, in 162 1, the report that
the Ipswich men intended to promote a Bill for the dissolution of the London Shipwrights' Company
caused the representatives of that company to implore the protection of a secretary of state. 10 At
Walberswick a series of shipbuilders, extending for over a century, are referred to : — Thomas Pryme
in 1587, William Crispe in 1634, Robert Boulton, senior, in 1641, and John Cowling in 1687. n

1 S.P. Dom. Eliz. ccxxxv, 37. * Ante, pp. 203, 21 1.

' It should be understood that these dates are those of the payments of the bounty ; the ships may
have been built long before, but there is no way of ascertaining the exact year.

* Hist. MSS. Com. Rep. ix, App. i, 254. s Admir. Ct. Misc. Bks. 986, Xo. 70.

• T. Gentleman, England's Was to Win Wealth, 1614. Gentleman himself was a shipowner, and received
the bounty on a 200-ton ship in 1600 (S. P. Dom. Eliz. cclxxiv).

7 S.P. Dom. Eliz. ccxviii, 25. 8 S. P. Col. 16 Jan. 161 7-18.

9 Ibid. 25 May, 1619 ; 26 Nov. 1621.

10 Hist. MSS. Com. Rep. xii, App. i, 1 1 1. " Gardner, Hist. Acct. of Dunuich, 164.

2 217 28

A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK

In 1626 a petition for payment of money owing by the Crown stated that for the past thirty
years twelve ships a year had been built at Ipswich, but that ' that trade is now stopped.' 1 Probably
this assertion was not literally true, and the situation marked a check rather than a decline. In
1634 Sir Richard Brooke applied for permission to build a quay and dry dock at Downham Bridge,
or Reach, as the cheapness of timber in Suffolk made shipbuilding, he said, easy and profitable ; he
enclosed a certificate from some shipmasters testifying that Downham was a suitable place, and that
the great increase of the Ipswich building trade rendered additional dock and quay accommodation
necessary. 2 There is other striking evidence of the volume of the shipbuilding industry at Ipswich
about this time. A list exists of some 380 ships, built mostly for London owners between 1625
and 1638, the certificate of building being necessary to obtain a licence for ordnance. 3 Of these
fifty-nine were built at Ipswich for owners, in one or two instances, as far apart as Newcastle and
Sandwich ; the builders were Zephonias and Saphire Ford, Robert and Jeremiah Cole, Henry Leaver,
and Thomas Wright. Other Suffolk towns shared for a time in the good fortune born of Suffolk
oak. Fourteen ships came from Aldeburgh during the same years, and eleven from Woodbridge.
The builders belonging to the former town were Henry Dancke, Mathew Friggott, and Benjamin
Hooker ; to the latter Thomas Browning and William Cary. The largest vessel of all, the Levant
Merchant of 400 tons, was launched at Woodbridge.

From this period the especial production of ships of the ocean-going class declined. Perhaps
timber was becoming scarcer and dearer, and the extended establishment of the Thames yards
commenced a dangerous competition. The demand for men-of-war caused by the wars of the
Commonwealth brought a new form of the old industry into Suffolk, but it was very limited in
extent and did not compensate for the loss of merchant ship construction which became more
local. The severest individual blow to Ipswich building was dealt by a Suffolk family, the Johnsons
of Aldeburgh. In the middle of the seventeenth century Henry Johnson founded the Blackwall
Yard, now the Thames Ironworks Company ; he not only pursued the business of shipbuilding on
a very large scale, but his and his sons' success encouraged others to establish yards on the Thames,
and Suffolk ceased to build for London. The Johnsons became important personages in relation'
to the Navy; a son, another Henry Johnson, was knighted on 6 March, 1679-80, when
Charles II and the duke of York dined with him at the Blackwall Yard.

In 1542 a statute (33 Hen. VIII, c. 2) forbade any subject to buy fresh fish at sea or abroad
except in Ireland, Iceland, Scotland, the Orkneys, and Newfoundland. Whether due to legislation
or a general tendency of the age, the sea fisheries were pursued with a new energy in the sixteenth
century and were henceforward carefully watched and nurtured. The success of the Newfoundland
fishery from the western counties may have had some influence by encouraging the employment of
capital in those nearer home. How keen the competition was becoming in home waters is shown
by a French request about the end of September, 1543, for a safe-conduct for nearly 1,000 boats.
This could only have been for the herrings, which are due along the shores of Norfolk, Suffolk, and
Essex in October, and if we remember also the presence of the Dutch the local fishermen may well
have been pleased at Henry's refusal. 4 One of the articles of accusation against Lord Seymour of
Sudeley, the Lord Admiral, was that he had extorted ' great sums of money ' from the owners of the
Iceland ships, which shows that the business was profitable enough to bear large expenses. 5 There
was some decline under the unsettled conditions existing during the middle of the century. An
undated paper of the reign of Edward VI 6 tells us that in 1528-9 there were 140 vessels sailing
to Iceland, 7 but now — when the paper was written — only 43 ; and that, instead of 220 North Sea
boats, there were only 80. 8 This falling off did not continue long ; a petition of 1568 says that
the Norfolk and Suffolk fisheries were a fifth greater than when the statute of 5 Eliz. to which the
improvement was attributed, was passed, and probably the petitioners, asking for more, did not
over-estimate the growth. 9 There is a general reference in 1580 to the Iceland fishery of Suffolk, 10
and in 1 58 1 we have a Trinity House certificate of the increase of fishing boats since the last
Parliament — that is of 1576. 11 Orford was the only place in the county which used more boats;
Dunwich with 28, Aldeburgh with 25, Southwold with 8, and Walberswick with 6, were
stationary. The year 1584 gives us a petition from John Beycombe of Southwold for himself and
other fishermen from Shields to Brightlingsea, a claim which implies some sort of organization,

1 S. P. Dom. Chas. I, xxxiv, 85, 86.

* Ibid, cclxv, 40. The Trinity House, to whom the petition was referred, approved (ibid, cclxvi, 59).

5 Ibid, xvi, xvii.

' L. and P. Hen. Vlll, xviii, pt. 2, 259. It was not unusual to agree not to molest fishermen in time of
war. The number is that stated by Henry to the Emperor's ambassador and probably an exaggeration.

5 Acts of P. C. 23 Feb. 1 548-9. " S. P. Dom. Add. Edw. VI, iv, 56. ' cf. ante, 211.

3 Of course the 220 boats sailed from the whole coast, and not from any particular county.

9 S. P. Dom. Eliz. xlviii, 83. 10 Acts of P. C. 23 Feb. 1 579-80.

11 S. P. Dom. Eliz. cxlvii, 21. In fishing boats the crews were averaged at eight men and a boy to every
twenty tons (ibid.).

2l8

MARITIME HISTORY

complaining that they were mercilessly robbed by Scotch pirates, who v/ere at that time lying in
wait for the Iceland fleet of thirty sail. 1 The question of convoy protection clamoured for settlement
during this reign seeing that Elizabeth would never do anything at the expense of the Crown if,
by delay, she thought she could force her subjects to do it for themselves. In 1575 the Lord Admiral
equipped ships for the protection of the east coast, and endeavoured to recoup himself by a rateable
charge on those who benefited. From an obiection to pay anything made by the Rye men, who
sent boats round, we learn that he had done this at the request of Norfolk and Suffolk. In July,
1 5 91, Yarmouth undertook to provide the convoy for a payment of eightpence in the pound (on
the value of the fish) from the North Sea men and fourpence from the Icelandmen, but this
arrangement did not last long. 2

The behaviour of the Icelandmen gave rise in 1 585 to complaints from the king of Denmark of
their misconduct in his ports ; he threatened to forbid them to fish, and the customs officers were
directed to take bonds for their good behaviour. 3 The subject was again under discussion in 1599,
when we find that the English claimed the right of free fishing and trading in Iceland under a treaty
of 1490, conditional on the payment of customs and renewal of licences every seven years. 4 The
exaction of the composition due to the queen gives us the list of Suffolk vessels sailing to Iceland in
1 593- 6 Orford sent two ships, Aldeburgh four (one of the owners being Henry Johnson), Sizewell
two, Walberswick two, Dunwich two, and Southwold four ships and twelve ' barks,' of which five
belonged to John Gentleman, junior, and Thomas Gentleman. The development of the North Sea
fisheries was checked by the ravages of the Dunkirkers towards the end of the reign, 6 and still more,
thought Englishmen, by the competition of the Dutch after their truce with Spain. However, from
the alarmist pamphlets written during the reign of James I, we gain some information as to the
relative importance of the ports as fishing centres. Tobias Gentleman, writing in 1614, 7 describes
Ipswich as possessing no fishermen, but many seafaring men ; at Orford and Aldeburgh there were
forty or fifty North Sea boats and ten or twelve Iceland ships, while Southwold, Dunwich, and
Walberswick owned between them about fifty Iceland vessels and twenty North Sea boats. Kirkley
and Lowestoft, he says, were 'decayed,' having only six or seven boats, and the Lowestoft people
bought fish of the Dutch instead of working for themselves. The English fishermen were
handicapped by several disadvantages, one being unskilfulness as compared with the Dutch, but an
especial hindrance was the unsatisfactory condition of some of the towns and harbours. Dunwich,
he remarks, is 'now almost ruined;' the entrance of Southwold Haven, although the whole trade of
the town depended on the Iceland fishery, was so often closed that it frequently happened that the
vessels could not get in or out at the proper time. In 161 9 a petition relating to Dunwich,
Southwold, and Walberswick states that the conjoint value of their fishery had been ^20,000
a year. 8

The evidence concerning these ports is usually contradictory, but some of them evidently
possessed a foreign as well as a local trade. The question arose in 1585 whether Aldeburgh or
Orford was most suitable for a custom house, and while there were only two Orford owners trading
abroad the witnesses deposed to a much greater Aldeburgh trade. 9 One witness said that there
were 40 ships and 140 fishing boats belonging to the town, and the lowest estimate was 14 or
15 ships and 100 fishing boats, while nine or ten of the owners traded to Italy and Spain, no
doubt with salted fish. A pamphleteer of 1 6 1 5 10 writes that Aldeburgh formerly had 30 or 40
vessels, of an average of 200 tons, working all the year round in carrying coal from Newcastle to
France, and bringing back salt, but there is no hint of this trade nor of these ships in the details of
the Exchequer Commission. The Chamberlain's Accounts of Aldeburgh for 1626-8 give the names
of forty-eight vessels belonging to the port, but most of them are small ones. 11 A petition of 1628,
asking for convoy on behalf of ten towns of Norfolk, Suffolk, and the Cinque Ports, 12 states that
160 Iceland ships and 230 North Sea boats were expected to sail, but of the Iceland vessels the
larger portion must have belonged to Norfolk; in 1632 it was estimated that half the number of
vessels going to Iceland sailed from Yarmouth.

A combination of fortunate circumstances brought Devon to the front during Elizabeth's
reign, but although the eastern counties produced no remarkable leader, they gave the Navy a breed
of men strong, steady, and true, fine fighters and fine seamen, who could be relied upon either to
command or to serve. Thomas Cavendish of Suffolk was a circumnavigator of renown, but he only
copied Drake. The real strength of the east coast men lay in their North Sea training. A con-
temporary writer said well that ' wet and cold cannot make them shrink nor strain whom the

1 S. P. Dom. Eliz. clxxii, 72. ' Hist. MSS. Com. Ref. ix, App. i, 318.

3 S. P. Dom. Eliz. clxxx, 26. ' Cott. MSS. Vesp. C. xiv, fol. 26.

s Add. MSS. 34729, fol. 63. 6 Sce/w/, 223. * England's Jl'a\< to Win Wealth, Lond. 16 14.

8 S. P. Dom. Jas. I, 23 Feb. 1618-19. ' Exch. Spec. Com. 2178.

10 The Trade's Increase, Lond. 1 6 1 5 . " Redstone, Ship-money Returns for Suffolk.
" S. P. Dom. Chas. I, xc, 70.

219

A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK

North Sea hath dyed in grain ' ; the hard men, disciplined to coolness, resource, and endurance by
the ceaseless struggle with their dangerous servant were as valuable a national asset as their descendants
are to-day, and had no small share in winning that modern mastery of the sea for which the struggle
commenced with Elizabeth.

Although several of the expeditions sailing to the north-east put into Orwell Haven, it was for
the purpose of communicating with Harwich, and they cannot be said to have had anything to do
with Suffolk. John Foxe of Woodbridge was a man of more than local reputation. He was
gunner of a Mediterranean merchantman which was taken in 1563 by a Turkish ship. 1 He
remained in slavery in Egypt until 1577, when, seeing his opportunity, he transfused some of his
own wary courage into 266 fellow-prisoners, killed the guards, seized a galley, and, with 258
survivors, escaped to freedom. 3 He tells the story himself with some touches of cynical humour ; 3
the pope rewarded him, Philip II gave him a warrant as a gunner in his service, and even Elizabeth
was stirred to award him a pension of a shilling a day 'in consideration of the valiantnes done in
Turkey.' 4 Robert Flicke was a Suffolk man favoured, as a commander, by the London merchants.
He was commodore of the London squadron of eleven ships with Drake in 1587, and perhaps
rear-admiral of the fleet. Flicke was probably a wealthy man, for he subscribed £1,000 towards
Drake's 1589 voyage to Portugal, and in 1591 he was selected to command a squadron of six
London merchantmen sent to reinforce Lord Thomas Howard at the Azores. William Parker of
Woodbridge and Thomas and John Gentleman of Southwold are mentioned in 1582 among the
masters of merchantmen available for service in the Navy. Edmund Barker of Ipswich was an officer
of Lancaster's flagship in the East Indian voyage of 1591, of which he wrote an account, 6 and a
monument in St. Clement's Church, Ipswich, tells us that Thomas Eldred of that town went
round the world with Cavendish.

The spirit of the time worked in Suffolk as elsewhere. A letter was directed to the bailiff" of
Ipswich in 1573, as we " as to otner officials in the neighbourhood, informing them that the queen
would not tolerate the assemblies of men intending to go to sea in armed ships ; all preparations were
to cease except for service in Ireland. 6 The coast defences were neglected during the earlier part
of Elizabeth's reign ; but the Ridolfi conspiracy of 1 57 1, when there was some idea of landing
troops from the Low Countries at Harwich or Landguard, drew fresh attention to the port and it was
inspected, but nothing else was done. In June, 1578, Lord Darcy was directed to examine the defec-
tive fort 'beside Harwich,' which may mean Landguard, and in January, I 579-80, when the political
outlook became very threatening, another survey was ordered. At the same time Sir Robert Wing-
field was told to go to Aldeburgh, Dunwich, Southwold, and Lowestoft, where such guns as
remained lay dismounted and useless, and persuade the burgesses to replace them at their own
expense ; Aldeburgh, at least, was bound to do this by an agreement of 1569. 7 Later in the year
the justices of the county were directed to put the ordnance of the four towns in condition for
service. 8 Consideration was also given to the state of Harwich harbour, which was deteriorating
from several causes, one being the existence of a breach in Landguard through which the tide was
washing shingle from the north and east. The Ipswich people were considered responsible, but
answered that the breach was not within their liberties but within the freeholds of Mr. Fanshawe
and others. A commission of inquiry issued in 1582 to report on the harbour, 9 and the consequent
regulations ordered the bailiffs of Ipswich to repair the breach. Fanshawe denied responsibility, and
added that Landguard had only been used for drying fish within the last forty or fifty years. 10 The
deterioration and shoaling had probably been progressing for many years, for a commission of 1565 n
found that Ipswich, then, was ' not so much frequented as heretofore,' the reason being that nothing
of more than 60 tons could come above Downham Bridge. The effect of anything that stopped the
scour of the tide at the mouth would be felt even in the upper reaches of the river.

The war with Spain caused some thought to be given to the defenceless state of the coast, but
the queen, as usual, tried to bargain with her subjects as to how much she and they should respec-
tively accomplish. Wingficld's mission of 1580 had probably proved fruitless, and now he and
others were 'to deal ' with the towns to induce them to contribute towards the repair and mounting
of guns belonging to the queen, which remained in an unserviceable state at Aldeburgh, Southwold,
and Lowestoft. 12 As these are the same towns that Wingfield visited in 1580, and as he was to per-
suade the people ' to better consideration and not be obstinate,' it may be presumed that they had

1 There is an order of 8 July, 1557, to the Lord Admiral to deliver again to John Foxe of Aldeburgh his
ship, the Mary Fortune, recaptured from the French (S. P. Dom. Mary, xi, 23).

' Eight men died of hunger on board the galley. * Halduyt, Voyages (ed. 1888), xi, 9.

1 Pat. 28 Jan. 1580. 5 Hakluyt, Voyages (ed. 1888), xi, 272.

6 Acts o/P.C. 14 June, 1573. 'Ibid. 27 Jan. 1579-80.

8 S. P. Dom. Eliz. exxxvi, 11. 9 See V.C.H. Essex, ii, ' Maritime Hist.'

10 S. P. Dom. Eliz. clix, 19 ; clx, 8, 9. " Exch. Spec. Com. 2124.

" ActsofP.C. 17 May, 1586.

220

MARITIME HISTORY

proved obstinate in the former year. This time any who opposed him were to be reported to the
Council. Apparently little or nothing was done, because eighteen months later, in December, I 587,
when it was realized that the Armada was really coming, Captain Tumour was sent into Suffolk to
survey the defences, and the Aldeburgh burgesses petitioning at the same time for fortifications were
directed to consult with him. 1 The Council expressed the usual hope that the townsmen would
bear the cost themselves. There is a report of December, 1587, perhaps by the deputy-lieutenants,
on the military condition of Suffolk which shows that Landguard was quite defenceless. 3 The shore
was sufficiently steep to enable an enemy ' without help or use of boats to leap on land out of
their ships.' Once ashore it was a strong position for them, being cut off from the mainland at
every flood tide by the 'fleets' under Walton Cliff. It was intended to throw up an earthen
intrenchment with six guns. Orford was undefended, Dunwich and Walberswick were passed over
as of little importance, and Aldeburgh was said to have guns, but no intrenchments wherein to place
them. Mismer Haven is discussed at some length as « apt for the enemy to land in,' and it appeared
that the remains of former intrenchments there only required repair and re-arming. Southwold was
unprotected and marked for an 8-gun battery ; Lowestoft possessed two guns, and batteries were
designed to occupy the same relative position as those of Henry VIII. A parapet was proposed alon<>
the top of the cliff between Lowestoft and Gorleston, with a sconce at Gorleston.

In January, 1588, the deputy-lieutenants and Tumour sent in another report, substantially the
same as that of December. 3 Landguard and Lowestoft were the weakest points ; Aldeburgh,
' being now a town rich in shipping and otherwise,' required a fort for which the burgesses would
contribute. They concluded, in a striking passage, by saying that the people

from the best to the meanest are ready, according to their own most bounden duties, to bestow their
lives in this service for God, her Majesty, and country. And if these necessary defences and succours
may be had we shall no doubt fight with the better courage ; if not, we shall yet, notwithstanding, do
the duties of loyal and truehearted subjects but with greater hazard.

With this may be paired the spirit of the 4,000 Essex men who marched into Tilbury in July,
1588, with empty stomachs and found nothing to eat, but said 'they would abide more hunger than
this to serve her majesty and the country.' The Chamberlain's Accounts of Ipswich show that an
earthwork was in progress at Landguard in September, 1588 ; the corporation of Lowestoft built a
bulwark in the same year at a cost of £80, for which Elizabeth sent six guns. 4 At Aldeburgh three
batteries, carrying twenty guns, were erected. 5

The experience of 1587, and of later years, showed that the brunt of the fighting had always
to be borne by men-of-war, and that armed merchantmen were at best useful only for secondary
operations. This, however, was understood in 1588 only by a few seamen ; therefore in that year
the whole of the English coast was called upon to help, not by a general impressment but by sending
a specified number of ships to join the royal fleet. On 31 March, 1588, a general embargo on
shipping was proclaimed, the object being not so much to retain the vessels as the men. This was
followed the next day by orders to the port towns to furnish ships at their own expense, all to be of
more than 60 tons. 8 Ipswich and Harwich were linked for two ships and a pinnace ; Orford,
Dunwich, and Aldeburgh for one ship ; and Lowestoft, with Yarmouth, for a ship and a pinnace.
Both now, and on subsequent occasions, many of the ports sought excuses in their poverty either to
obtain a reduction in the demand made upon them or to have the county and neighbouring towns
joined with them towards the charges. As far as Ipswich and Harwich were concerned, the original
order had been changed to three hoys, and on 12 April the bailiffs of Ipswich, who usually
constituted themselves the spokesmen for the two towns, expatiated to Walsingham on the difficulties
encountered. 7 There had been an auxiliary order that most of the cost should be borne by those who
had made profits by reprisals, but the persons liable were all ready to swear that they were losers by
their ventures. A week later they wrote again to Walsingham and named one Ralph Morrys, a
gentleman of the town, who obstinately refused to pay anything. 8 On 19 April an Order in
Council directed that all the places within the jurisdiction of the Admiralty of Ipswich were to
contribute towards the Ipswich and Harwich ships.

Lowestoft protested that it was very poor, and that many of the wealthiest inhabitants refused
to pay, while some had left the town rather than do so. The Council ordered Pakefield, Kirklev,
Kessingland, Covehithe, Corton, Gorleston, and South Yarmouth, to assist, recommended the
bailiffs to chase the refugee townsmen, and told them to send to London all who continued to
refuse payment. 9 Then Aldeburgh followed ; the authorities complained that although their ship

1 Acts ofP.C. 26 Dec. 1587. ' S. P. Dom. Eliz. ccvi, 32.

* Ibid, ccviii, 23. ' Gillingwater, Hist, of Lowestoft, 415.

5 Add. MSS. 22249, fol. 53. 6 Acts of P. C. 31 March, 1 April, 1588.

' S. P. Dom. Eliz. ccix, 88 ; Hist. MSS. Com. Rep. ix, App. i, 255.
9 S. P. Dom. Eliz. ccix, 100. ' Acts of P. C. 19 May, 1588.

221

A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK

was already in commission, at a preliminary outlay of ^590, they had not been able to obtain more
than ^40 from Orford, Dunwich, Southwold, Walbcrswick, and Woodbridge, the places appointed
to help them. 1 The Privy Council answered that the towns ought to contribute at the rates to
which they were assessed for the subsidies, and that those who persisted in not paying were to be
sent up to them. These difficulties were not peculiar to Suffolk ; they occurred nearly everywhere,
but they throw a cold sidelight on the enthusiasm for battle which most historians and all poets
describe as inspiring England in 1588. The truth is that, while the ports were no less patriotic
than the shires, the demand for ships now bore on them with an unfair severity for several reasons,
and as open refusal was as yet impossible evasion or cavils were their only resource.

Of the three vessels assessed on Ipswich and Harwich the first town sent two, the JFilliam,
140 tons, Captain Barnaby Lowe, and the Katherine, 125 tons, Captain Thomas Grymble ; Akle-
burgh sent the Marygoll, 150 tons, Captain Francis Johnson, and Lowestoft the Mathew, 35 tons,
Captain Richard Mitchell. The Marygold was dismissed for want of provisions, on 13 June, and
the Matbew, contemptuously, on the same date as not worth keeping. 2 Three other Aldeburgh
vessels, and a 90-ton Lowestoft bark, the Elizabeth, joined the fleet as volunteers in the queen's pay,
presumably in the hope of picking up some plunder. The Elizabeth was one of the vessels used as
fireships on the night of 28-29 J u ' v > tne crucial moment of the campaign. 3 All the Suffolk ships
were attached to Lord Henry Seymour's division, watching the Flemish ports, which joined the main
fleet off Calais on 27 July, and they were no doubt in the subsequent battle off Gravelines, but, like
the rest of the merchantmen, did no useful service. On I August, Seymour's division anchored in
the Rolling Grounds, where the Lord Admiral, Howard, also arrived on the 7th, after chasing the
Armada past the Firth of Forth.

After the Armada crisis many of the corporations and counties showed no desire to liquidate
the liabilities incurred, but only a ready ingenuity in finding reasons why the responsibility should be
shifted to their neighbours' shoulders. In most cases the ships had been sent to sea before the money
for their equipment was collected, the credit of the town or district being pledged to some of the
more wealthy inhabitants for the necessary advance of money. In the case of Ipswich and Harwich
the vessels were with Seymour in May, while the Ipswich bailiffs were making the before-noticed
complaints to Walsingham, and that this was done was owing to two burgesses of Ipswich, John Tye
and John Barber, to whom the IVilliam and the Katberine belonged. 4 In December, 1588, the
Council were informed by the Ipswich authorities, speaking for Harwich as well as for themselves,
that they had levied four whole subsidies and had borrowed money, but yet had £s°° more to pay
which they were unable to find, especially as some of the places formerly directed to assist them had
been excused by the Council and others made their own excuses. 6 The Council directed that the
hundreds adjoining the coast were to make up the deficiency. This plan does not seem to have
been successful for, in the following January, Tye and Barber themselves addressed the Council,
saying that, notwithstanding these orders, they could not get paid.

In 1589 Norreys and Drake led a fleet and army to Portugal to place Don Antonio, the
pretender to the crown, on the throne and thus dismember the Spanish empire and end the war.
Although the queen gave assistance the expedition was a private adventure on the part of the
leaders and their associates ; consequently the ports were not called upon for ships, but upwards of
eighty were hired on the usual terms of two shillings a ton per month. The port of origin of many
of the ships is not given, but at least seven were from Suffolk, including both the William and the
Katberine, commissioned in the previous year. The failure of this enterprise deterred Elizabeth
from further undertakings on a large scale until 1596, when the attack on Cadiz took place. The
first sign of preparation was on 14 December, I 595, when the county was required to find provisions.
A week later, on 2 1 December, 6 a circular letter asked for two ships, manned, armed, and victualled
at local charge for five months. By this time the unfairness of placing the whole charge on the ports
was recognized, and of the ,£1,800 the vessels were expected to cost the Council expected half to
be raised on the coast and the other half from the county. 7 The original assessment was intended
to be ^3,000, therefore the Council had cut down the cost considerably in response to protests,
and they further decided that no person should be charged who was not rated at a certain amount of
subsidy. 8 Eventually the Costly and the fames, each of 200 tons and twenty guns, and both Ipswich
ships, sailed with the fleet as transports at a cost of ^1,896, but the troubles of the Suffolk authorities
were by no means over. Many people refused to pay and, in November, 1596, three burgesses of
Woodbridge appeared before the Council to answer for their contumacy. It had not been uncommon
for occasional cases of recalcitrancy to occur in the ports, but a more dangerous spirit is indicated
when persons of the position of Sir Nicholas Bacon and Sir Robert Jermyn were ' giving particular
advice contrary to our direction aggravating the matter' against the Privy Council, who had written

1 Acts of P. C. 28 May, 1588. * S. P. Dom. Eliz. ccxii, 34, i.

8 Ibid, ccxvi, 74. The owner was Thomas Meldrum. * Ibid, ccxxii, I.

4 Acts of P. C. 17 Dec. 1588. 6 Ibid. ' Ibid, xxv, 315. 8 Ibid. 9 Feb. 1395-6.

222

MARITIME HISTORY

seven times in vain to the county authorities. 1 Together with three burgesses of Ipswich Jermyn
and Bacon were summoned before the Council. It may be that the revolt of the county magnates
was a consequence of the new plan of assessing the whole county, and that they represented a
considerable body of opinion. In April, 1597, ^74° remained unpaid; in May four Lowestoft
men, who apparently represented the town, were before the Council, and they boldly maintained
that not only was the rating too high, but that Lowestoft was not a port nor a member of any port,
and had always been assessed hitherto with inland towns to the county for military contributions.
On the first point their arguments seem to have impressed the Council, for it was agreed to refer the
question to commissioners and accept their decision. 2 In November we find the officers and men of
the James and. Costly petitioning that they were yet unpaid, at which the Council 'marvelled.' 3 In
February, 1600, the Suffolk assessments were still uncollected ; the Lord Chief Justice had been
directed to confer with the local justices when he went on circuit, and he reported that they found
' the country so unwilling that there is small hope the said money could be gotten in unless there be
some strict order taken.' The Council could only apply the usual stimulant of ordering the
stubborn ones to appear in London.*

In 1596 some of the refractory inhabitants of the West Riding of Yorkshire had demanded to
know by what authority these assessments were made. The temper shown there and elsewhere
may have caused the government to be chary of making such claims without very real necessity.
There were nearly 200 transports with the earl of Essex to the Azores in 1597, but tne Y were a "
hired in the usual way, and there were no more forced levies from the counties during the reign of
Elizabeth.

As piracy died down the scourge of Dunkirk privateering, which was little different, became
more and more virulent, and it especially affected the east coast as the nearest cruising-ground to the
Low Countries ports, and as offering a harvest of helpless coasters, colliers, and fishing boats. The
Spanish government had always hesitated about issuing letters of marque, not for humanitarian
reasons, but because there were so few seamen in Spain, and permission, several times given to its
subjects, had been in each case speedily withdrawn. The governors of the Low Countries had no
grounds for wavering, and as Dunkirk, Sluyf, Nieuport, and Ostend fell into their hands they
became privateer bases which inflicted terrible injury upon English commerce. As early as 1586 the
Council recommended the people of Norfolk and Suffolk to subscribe among themselves to equip two
vessels to protect the fishermen from the Dunkirkers who were then marauding among them ; * the
plague grew worse towards the end of Elizabeth's reign because the queen refused to go to the
expense of cruising ships while there was any likelihood that a passive non possumus would compel her
subjects to act for themselves. In 1596 six or seven Dunkirkers were blockading Harwich harbour,
and nearly thirty traders had been taken. 6 The losses suffered, not only by Suffolk but also
by other counties, caused debates in Parliament in 1601, when one member declared that, within
his knowledge, Dunkirk alone began with two and now had twenty privateers at work. No assistance,
however, was to be obtained from the government, therefore in 1602 the masters and men of
Orford, Aldeburgh, Ipswich, Yarmouth, and the Essex ports expressed their willingness to subscribe
five per cent, of their wages towards the expense of convoying. 7

The accession of James I brought peace with Spain but piracy still continued on a smaller
scale, and the contempt shown by the Dunkirkers in taking Dutch merchantmen in territorial waters
caused them to be defined in 1605 as the portion contained within a straight line drawn from headland
to headland. 8 But international definitions are of little value unless emphasized by battleship?, and
the outrages of the Flemings continued irrespective of proclamations when the Thirty Years' War
commenced. Pure piracy was less prevalent but there was sufficient existing to make it necessary to
issue a fresh commission of piracy, for all the counties, in 1608. When, in 1619, a national
subscription was called for to restore the haven of Dunwich, Southwold, and Walberswick, one cause
of the poverty of the towns was said to be losses by pirates.

When the war with Spain, of 1624, legalized the action of the Dunkirkers they fell with
renewed activity on the east coast, which was quite defenceless. Orwell Haven was so open that in
August, 1625, Secretary Coke thought that even a few of them would constitute a sufficiently
strong force to destroy Harwich and then Ipswich ; 9 in 1626 they were expected to attack the
unfinished fort at Landguard. 10 In January, 1626, there were four cruisers on the station between
Harwich and Yarmouth, but notwithstanding this protection the Aldeburgh men petitioned for
ordnance because they were in daily fear of the Dunkirkers who had fired on the town." A month
later a privateer took a ship out of Southwold Roads, in sight of the place, driving the townsmen from

1 ActsofP.C. 20, 30 March, 1597. ' Ibid. 17 April, 18 May, 28 Dec. 159-.

5 Ibid. 6 Nov. 1597 ; S. P. Dom. Eliz. eclx, ill. * Ibid. 9 March, 1 599-1600.

5 Ibid. 10 July, 1586. 6 S.P. Dom. Eliz. cclix, 73.

' Ibid. Add. xxiv, 47. ' S.P. Dom. Jas. I, xiii, 1 1.

' S.P. Dom. Chas. I, iv, 77. u Ibid, xviii, 96. " Ibid, xix, 75, 120.

223

A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK

their guns by its fire. 1 As the Southwold authorities stated a few weeks afterwards that the town
was unprotected these guns were the old and useless ones referred to later. 3 It was believed, no
doubt with some exaggeration, that there was a whole fleet of Dunkirkers off the Suffolk coast. A
certificate of 1628 specifies thirteen Aldeburgh ships, of the value of ^6,800, lost between 1625
and 1627, of which four had been taken by Dunkirkers ; 200 men had been drowned, leaving 300
widows and children. 3 In August, 1626, there were fifty-eight Ipswich ships lying in the Orwell
and in Harwich harbour unable to sail for fear of capture, while the Iceland and North Sea fishermen
had abandoned their voyages for the same reason. In consequence of a petition from Dunwich and
its neighbours in December a convoy of four Newcastle ships, hired for the purpose, was ordered for
the fishery in January, 1627, 4 but in March the Ipswich burgesses still reported the Orwell as
blockaded and estimated their losses, from capture alone, during 1626 at ^5,000.' In addition to
this the hindrance to free ingress and exit was destroying their shipbuilding trade. 6 The Navy was
not large enough to spare vessels in war time for convoy purposes, nor was the administration
efficient enough to make the most of what resources were available, therefore in reply to a joint
petition from Norfolk and Suffolk of 1628, hired ships were again ordered to be taken up. In this
instance the government undertook to pay, but the petitioners were told that if the necessity recurred
the ports would have to pay for themselves. 7 Peace with France and Spain brought some relief,
but the Dunkirkers — which it should be understood was a generic name for all privateers — were not
quelled, and the pause was only for a time until the vastly increased parliamentary Navy policed the
four seas effectively.

The peaceful reign of James I gave little occasion for military or naval levies, therefore there
are few references to the ports. But there is evidence that in spite of the ravages of the Dunkirkers 8
maritime commerce had steadily increased so fa