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. 



90 



