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. 



86 



