50 PAPKRS; ETC. 



not higher nor further, but were there time out of muicl dis- 

 cliarged and unladen ; that the Abbat had made a certain 

 eist, through which the boats could be drawn in time of 

 flood as far as the mill called Tobriggemill, and apart 

 from this not above Bathepolecrosse ; and that all injury 

 arising from the impediments alleged to be eaused by the 

 willovvs and other trees was removed and entirely at an 

 end. The Abbat thereupon obtained a verdict. The 

 exemplification is dated, the King himself being witness, 

 at Westminster, the 15th of December, 1384.-' 



Prior John de Kyngesbury was gathered to bis fathers 

 on the 5th of Novembei-, 1391. On the foUovving day, 

 Brother John ßusschton, Sub- Prior, and the Convent of 

 Taunton, wrote to William de Wykeham, Bishop of Win- 

 chester, to inform him that Br. John de Kyngesbury their 

 Prior had departed this present life on the 5th of Novem- 

 ber, and that his body had been buried ; and that, being 

 without a Prior, they therefore begged that he their pa- 

 trou would graut them licence to elect another. The letter 

 was dated in the Chapter Ilouse of their Conventual 

 Church on the day aforesaid. On the lOth of November, 

 the Blshop from his manor of Essherc granted to the 

 Canons the licence which was thus solicited. On the 

 2 Ist of the same month they proceeded to the election; 

 and on that day Br. John Kysshton, Sub-Prior, and the 

 Convent, wrote to the Bishop of Winchester informing 

 him that they had elected Br. Walter Cook, one of their 

 brothers and a Canon of their House, for their Prior, and 

 prayed the Bishop's consent and approbation. This was 

 given. On the 27 th of November, William de Wykeham 

 wrote from EssLere to ßalph, Bishop of Bath and Wells, 



* Pat. 8 Ric. II., p. 2, mm. 43, 44. 



