TxV.UNTON PRIORY. 47 



Tholomeus , Frysel, John Welles alias Tappewere, John 

 Tuleye, Robert Newton, John Croukorn, and John 

 Russchton, Canons Regulär of the said Conventual 

 Church. Disputes had arisen about the observance of 

 the rules, and it was also alleged that the administration 

 of the House both in spirituals and temporals was partly 

 neglected, owing to the said Prior being incapacitated by 

 old age and other infirmities. Inquiries were made, and 

 the Canons interrogated ; and presently the said Prior 

 submitted, and voluntarily tendered the resignation of bis 

 office to the said Commissary.'''' 



The House appears to have been without a Pi'ior for 

 several months. It was not until the 18th of April, 1378, 

 that William de Wykeham, Bishop of Winchester, patron 

 of the Priory, granted to the Canons bis licence to elect a 

 Prior in the room of Er. Walter Grateley their late Prior, 

 the office being, as we have just observed, void by bis free 

 resignation and voluntary cession.f It appears that John 

 de Kyngesbury, who in the list of dignitaries is named 

 the sub-prior, was elected to the vacant office ; for on the 

 Ist of May, 1378, William de Wykeham, Bishop of Win- 

 chester, wrote from Suthwerk to John, Bishop of Bath 

 and Wells, that he approved and consented to the election 

 which had been made of Br. John de Kyngesbury to the 

 Priorship of Taunton.J 



One of the most conspicuous and pleasing features of 

 the landscape in the neighbourhood of the Priory was the 

 lovely river that meandered through the fair vale of 

 Taunton in a thousand picturesque windings, as though 



* E Reg. "Will, de "Wykeham, Ep. "Winton., vol. ii., fol. clxvi. 



t E Eeg. "Will, de "Wykeham, Ep. "Wint., vol. ii., fol. clxvi. 

 X E Reg. Will, de "Wykeham, Ep. "Winton., vol. ii., fol. clxvi b. 



