RELIGIOUS HOUSES 



a pix of silver gilt weighing 9 oz., &c. The 

 chapel of our Lady had an alabaster reredos. 

 In the vestry was a good supply of vestments, 

 altar cloths, frontals, and silk curtains, as well as 

 a silver cross worth ^5, a silver censer ^4 131.4^., 

 and a silver-gilt chalice £2 js. Sd. The house- 

 hold furniture was simple. The cattle and 

 stores brought up the inventory to the good 

 sum of ^56 13s. 1 



Prioresses of Campsey 



Joan de Valoines, 2 occurs 1 195 and 1228-9 



Agnes de Valoines, 3 occurs 1234 



Basilia, 4 occurs 1258 



Margery, 6 occurs 13 I 8 



Maria de Wingfield, 6 1334 



Maria de Felton, 7 died 1394 



Margaret de Bruisyard, 8 1394 



Alice Corbet, 9 141 1 



Katharine Ancel, 10 141 6 



Margery Rendlesham, 11 1446 



Margaret Hengham, 12 1477 



Katharine, 13 1492 



Anna, 14 1502 



Elizabeth Everard, 16 1 5 13 



Elizabeth Blennerhasset, 16 15 18 



Elizabeth (or Ellen) Buttry, 17 1526 



The fourteenth-century pointed oval seal of 

 this priory bears the Blessed Virgin, crowned 

 and seated on a throne, the Holy Child standing 

 on the right knee, within a triple arched canopied 

 niche. In base between two flowering branches, 

 a shield bearing per pale a cross lozengy, diapered, 

 a chief dancetty. Legend : — 



priousse : ET 



MARIE : DE CAMPISSEY 



CONVENTUS : . 

 18 



30. THE PRIORY OF FLIXTON 19 



An Austin nunnery was founded in honour of 

 the Blessed Virgin and St. Katharine at Flixton, 



1 Proc. Suff. Arch. Inst, viii, 11 3-1 6. 



1 Add. MS. 1909^ fol. 66b. 3 Ibid. 



4 Tanner MSS. Now. 



5 Add. MS. 1909^ fol. 66b. 



r ' Now. Epis. Reg. ii, 65. 7 Ibid, vi, 195. 



" Ibid. 9 Ibid, vii, 43. 



10 Tanner MSS. Now. 



" Norw. Epis. Reg. xi, I. u Ibid, xii, 59. 



" Ibid, xii, 112. M Ibid, xiii, 21, 36. 



15 Tanner MSS. Norw. ,6 Ibid. 



" Jessopp, Visit. 219. She died in 1543, and was 

 buried in St. Stephen's Church, Norwich. 



19 B.M. Cast, lxxi, 1 01. 



19 Stowe MS. (B.M.), 1083, is a miscellaneous 

 volume of extracts and abstracts, with a few original 

 documents. Nos. 56 to 84 are abstracts of a number 

 of Flixton priory evidences. Those bearing the 

 names of successive prioresses seem to have been 

 selected for citation. The writing of these abstracts 



in the year 1258, by Margery, daughter of Geof- 

 frey de Hanes and relict of Bartholomew de 

 Crek, to whom Robert de Tatesale, son of 

 Robert de Tatesale, knt., in 1256, granted 

 licence to found a home of religion upon the fee 

 which she held of him in Flixton, wheresoever 

 she would in that town. He also granted her 

 the fee, which she held of him there on nominal 

 service, to appropriate to the said house. She 

 endowed it with the manor of Flixton, and sub- 

 sequently with her moiety of the advowson of 

 Flixton, the advowson and appropriation of 

 Dunston and Fundenhall, Norfolk. 2 " 



The same Robert de Tatesale subsequently 

 granted to Beatrice, the first prioress, and the 

 convent, the tenement that Margery de Crek 

 held of him at Flixton, in pure alms, and Robert 

 son of Bartholomew and Margery de Crek re- 

 leased to the prioress and the nuns all his right 

 in the manor of Flixton (formerly his mother's) 

 with the advowson of the moiety of the church. 



Particulars as to this nunnery do not appear 

 in the taxation roll of Pope Nicholas, 1 29 1, but 

 a survey of the priory lands and possessions in 

 the following year supplies many interesting par- 

 ticulars. We there learn that the number of 

 the nuns was limited by the founders to eigh- 

 teen, in addition to a prioress, and that everyone 

 received yearly 55. for garments. The manor 

 and part of the church at Flixton was worth 40*. 

 a year, and the moiety of Flixton church, 

 £4. 135. 4</., and the church of Dunston, £5 ; 

 various lands, rents, and services brought the 

 annual value up to ^43 i8j. 2\d. n 



A general return of the appropriated churches 

 of the diocese, with the date of vicarage ordi- 

 nations made in the year 141 6, names only two 

 under Flixton priory: Fundenhall 1347, and 

 Flixton 1349. The advowson of Dunston is 

 named as given to the priory in 1274, but not 

 appropriated. 22 



At the instance of Master Robert de Cisterna, 

 the king's leech, licence was granted in 131 1 to 

 the prioress and nuns of Flixton, on account of 

 their income being insufficient for their susten- 

 ance, to acquire lands and tenements to the value 

 of jflO a year. 23 



In 132 1 the Bishop of Norwich effected an 

 exchange with this priory of a moiety of the 

 advowson (with permission to appropriate) of the 

 church of Flixton for the advowson of the church 



is in a hand of about the middle of the sixteenth cen- 

 tury. Nos. 79, 80, and 81 are undated abstracts of 

 charters temp. Edw. I, all giving the name of Prioress 

 Beatrice. The originals of these charters are in the 

 hands of the Earl of Ashburnham. Hist. MSS. Com. 

 Rcf>. viii, pt. ii, 27. 



w Lansd. MS. 477, &c., cited in Suckling, Hist, of 

 Suff i, 190. 



" Jermyn MSS. cited in Suckling, Hist, of Suff i„ 

 191. 



M Norw. Epis. Reg. viii, fol. 125. 



3 Pat. 4 Edw. II, pt. i, m. 24. 



"5 



