A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK 



that no statement of accounts had been rendered 

 by the prior for thirty years. Among the com- 

 plaints of other canons (in all sixteen were 

 examined) were the badness of the food and the 

 dirty methods of serving it ; the faulty nature of 

 the prior's accounts ; the lack of due provisions 

 for the sick ; the poor quality of the beer ; and 

 the lack of necessary garments for the novices. 



This visitation also brought to light a grave 

 case of fraudulent letters to obtain orders. 

 Thomas Woodbridge, one of the canons, pro- 

 ceeded to Norwich and received priest's orders 

 without the licence or knowledge of the prior, 

 presenting letters forged in the prior's name. 

 Thomas Ipswich confessed that he had written 

 these letters for Woodbridge last Whitsuntide. 



The reformanda of the bishop, consequent on 

 this visitation, ordered that a master was to be 

 provided for instructing the novices and boys in 

 ' priksong ' and grammar ; that one canon 

 should be sent to the university ; that an annual 

 statement of accounts was to be presented in the 

 chapter-house before three or four of the older 

 brethren ; that a proper place was to be assigned 

 for an infirmary, with a sufficiency of healthy 

 food and drink and of medical and surgical assist- 

 ance for the infirm ; that the prior was to pay 

 each novice 7.0s. for clothing according to old 

 custom ; that horses and a servant be provided 

 for canons when they seek orders ; that the 

 presbytery be at once repaired ; that one brother 

 be sacrist and another precentor ; that the same 

 drink be supplied to the brethren as to the prior ; 

 that warning be given to the servants as to being 

 insolent ; that the roof and walls of the chapter- 

 house be repaired ; and that the refectory be 

 supplied with footboards and backs to the benches 

 to lessen the cold in winter. The visitation was 

 adjourned until the ensuing feast of the Purifica- 

 tion to see if the various reformations were 

 carried out. 1 



John Thetford, prior of the Holy Sepulchre, 

 Thetford, was a benefactor to Butley priory 

 about 1534. He gave them two chalices, one 

 for the chapel of All Saints and another for the 

 chapel of St. Sigismond. He also gave them a 

 relic of special value, namely the comb of 

 St. Thomas of Canterbury and a silver box of 

 small relics. 2 



Thomas Manning alias Sudbury, who had 

 been elected prior in 1528, was appointed suffra- 

 gan Bishop of Ipswich in March 1536, having 

 been nominated along with George, abbot of 

 Leiston, by the Bishop of Norwich. 3 In Decem- 

 ber 1536 the new suffragan bishop got into 

 trouble with Cromwell over some alleged com- 

 plicity in the escape of a canon of Butley 

 imprisoned on a charge of treason, whereupon 

 he dispatched his servant to the Lord Principal, 



1 Jcssopp, Visit. 285-9. 



' Add. MS. I9o;o, fol. 216. 



' L. and P. Hen. nil, x, 597 (2). 



two days after Christmas, with two fat swans, 

 three pheasant cocks, three pheasant hens, and 

 one dozen partridges : — the weather had been so 

 open and rainy that he could get no wild fowl. 

 In his letter he told Cromwell that divers were 

 busy to get him to resign his house, but that with 

 the king's favour he would never surrender it. 4 



However, the prior-bishop found it impossible 

 to resist — all pensions would have been forfeited if 

 he had remained obstinate — and on I March, 

 1538, Manning and eight of the canons signed 

 the surrender. 5 A list of the household drawn 

 up at the same time shows that there were then 

 twelve canons, two chaplains, an under-steward, 

 twelve men-servants, including a barber, a master 

 of the children, seven children kept of alms to 

 learning, three scullions, a slaughterman, two 

 sheep reeves, two horse-keepers, a church clerk, 

 a cooper, five wardens of the boats — ferry and 

 river — a smith, two warreners, three bakers and 

 brewers, two maltsters, a porter, a gardener, six 

 women in laundry and dairy, twelve husband- 

 men, five carters, three shepherds, two wood- 

 makers, a swineherd, two plough- and cart-wrights, 

 two for making candles and keeping the fish- 

 house, and two impotent beadsmen. 6 



This list shows that the canons retained up to 

 the end, in their own hands, the direct control of 

 the adjacent lands, treating them as a ' home 

 farm.' Moreover, it is quite clear that they not 

 only kept school for others besides their own 

 novices, but that they had also a certain num- 

 ber of poor boarding scholars. 



Prior Manning does not appear to have had 

 any direct pension granted him, but shortly after 

 the dissolution of his house he was appointed 

 warden of Mettingham College, and was also 

 granted for life (with reversion to the Duke of 

 Suffolk) considerable manors and lands that had 

 belonged to the monasteries of Monks Kirby, 

 Warwickshire, and Axholme, Lincolnshire. 7 



The site of the priory, with adjacent lands, 

 was granted to William Naunton, treasurer of 

 the Duke of Suffolk's household, in July 1538, 

 on a twenty-one years' lease. 8 



Priors of Butley 



Gilbert, 1171 s 



William, elected by priory 1 195 10 



Robert, 1213 u 



Adam, 1234 12 



Peter, 125 1 13 



4 Ibid, xi, 1337, 1357. 



' Dep. Keeper's Rep. viii, App. ii, 13. 



6 L. and P. Hen. nil, viii, pt. i, 394. 



7 Ibid, xiv (1), 651 ; xiv, pt. ii, 442. 

 " Ibid, xiv (1), 603. 



9 Appointed by the founder ; Proc. Stiff. Arch. Inst. 

 iv, 406, 408. 



'" Ibid. 412, taken from a chartulary in private 

 hands. 



11 Ibid. " Ibid. " Ibid. 



98 



