By the Rev. J. E. Jackson, F.S.A. 275 



process, effectual in such cases, it restored them ; and so those two 

 estates continued to belong to Farley to the last.^ 



Sometimes the Alien Priories obtained permission to break off 

 all connection with their foreign superiors. This was called an act 

 of naturalization, and such Alien Priory was then said to be made 

 "denizen" or "native." In 1373 Lewes Priory was permitted to 

 become thus independent, and, further, at the request of Richard 

 Fitzalan, Earl of Arundel, the enfranchisement was extended to all 

 the cells or houses subordinate to Lewes .^ According to this state- 

 ment, Farley ought to have been from that time free from the con- 

 troul of the French house ; free also from the danger of being 

 confiscated on account of such connection. Yet some other excuses 

 must have been ready for laying hands upon it, for, a few j^ears 

 afterwards, in 1397, we find some of its property in lay hands. 

 Sir Thomas Hungerford, of Heytesbury, appears in that year as 

 holding, for the monks, their manor of Monkton Farley, and cer- 

 tain lands at Bradford. His son, Sir Walter Hungerford, and 

 "William Lord Stourton, of Stourton, also had under their joint 

 care the Priory itself. This appears from a petition (preserved in 

 the Rolls of Parliament, 1409, 11 Henry IV.) by which Sir Walter 

 prays the Commons that, whereas certain commissioners sent into 

 Wilts had reported that he and Stourton had suffered the Priory 

 of Farley to fall into dilapidation whilst it was in their care, he 

 denies the accusation, and j^rays that the matter may be tried by a 

 jury composed of men of position in life suitable to his own ; which 

 petition was granted. For what reason the Black Monks had been 

 displaced is not stated. But it is certain that their property was 

 restored to them ; and they would probably be only too glad in 

 those times to be allowed to recover them, without urging very 



' It would seem as if upon restoration, the Crown claimed to consider itself a 

 New Founder. For at the end of the Lewes Chartulary in the British Museum, 

 [Vesp. F. XV. p. 318,] there is a long Deed dated Edw. IV., in which Farley 

 Priory, unquestionahly founded by 15ohun in Hen. I., is nevertheless described 

 as of the foundation of King Edw. III., for thirteen monks to sing daily service 

 fcr the King's welfare; and that they once incurred forfeiture, for having main- 

 tained only ten brethren instead of thirteen for nine years. 

 ' Ilorsfield's Hist, of Lewes, 1, 237. 



