A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK 



Thomas Hopman, a friar of this house, got 

 into trouble in 1355 for leaving the realm with- 

 out licence. It is supposed that he was acting 

 as an agent at the Roman court on behalf of the 

 Bishop of Ely in the serious dispute between the 

 king and that prelate. A writ was issued in 

 August for his arrest when he returned, and for 

 his deliverance to the prior of the Friars Preachers 

 of Dunwich, there to be kept in safe custody. 



Licence was obtained in 1384 by Robert de 

 Swillington, at the supplication of the Friars 

 Preachers of Dunwich, whose house was im- 

 perilled by the incursion of the sea, which had 

 already destroyed the greater part of Dunwich, 

 to alienate to them land at Blythburgh for build- 

 ins; thereon a new house ; with licence to the 

 friars to transfer their house thither, selling their 

 old site to any who would buy it. 2 



This translation to a site four miles distant 

 never, however, took place ; the friars continued 

 in their old house. 



Here the priory remained till its dissolution. 

 A letter written to Cromwell in November, 

 1538, by the ex-prior, who had been promoted 

 to be suffragan bishop of Dover, informed him that 

 he had suppressed twenty houses of friars, among 

 them being 'the Black and Grey in Dunwich.' 



He further reported that the lead from the 

 roofs of these despoiled houses lay near the 

 water, and was therefore meet to be carried to 

 London or elsewhere. 3 



The possessions of these Black Friars then 

 consisted of the site of the convent with its 

 buildings, gardens, and orchard, and of two 

 adjacent tenements of the yearly value of 

 £1 35. \d. The site was at once let by the 

 crown at ioj. a year, and the tenements at 

 6s. 8d. each. 4 



The whole property was granted in 1544-5 

 to John Eyre, an auditor of the Court of 

 Augmentation. 5 



Amongst the distinguished persons who ob- 

 tained interment in the church of the Black 

 Friars, Dunwich, were the founder, Sir Roger de 

 Holish, Sir Ralph de Ufford and Joan his wife, 

 Sir Henry Laxfield, Dame Joan de Harmile, 

 Dame Ada Craven, Dame Joan VVeyland, sister 

 of the Earl of Suffolk, John Weyland and his 

 wife Joan, Thomas son of Robert Brews, knt., 

 Dame Alice, wife of Sir Walter Hardishall, Sir 

 Walklyn Hardesfield, Austin Valeyns, Sir Ralph 

 Wingfield, Richard Bokyll of Leiston and his 

 two wives, and Sir Henry Harnold, knight and 

 friar, ' whose bones with the church and edifice 

 now lie,' as Gardner wrote in 1754, ' under the 

 insulting waves of the sea.' 6 



' Pat. 29 Edvv. Ill, pt. ii, m. 6a. 

 - Pat. 8 Ric. II, pt. i, m. 9 ; pt. ii, m. 33. 

 8 L. and P. Hen. fill, xiii, pt. ii, 1021, 1023. 

 1 Mins. Accts. 30-31 Hen. VIII, 139. 

 5 Pat. 36 Hen.VIII, m. 38 (12). 

 fi Weever, Funeral Monuments, 720 ; Gardner, Hist. 

 of Dumvich, 6 1 . 



35. THE DOMINICAN FRIARS OF 

 IPSWICH 



The Dominican friars were established at 

 Ipswich by Henry III in 1263. For their 

 accommodation the king purchased a messuage 

 of Hugh, son of Gerard de Langeston, 7 and two 

 years later, at the instance of his confessor, John 

 de Darlington, the king granted them an adjacent 

 messuage, purchased of the same Hugh, for the 

 augmentation of their site. 8 



Their church and house, dedicated to St. Mary, 

 soon began to flourish. Robert de Kilwardby, 

 provincial of their order, who afterwards became 

 archbishop of Canterbury, took a particular 

 interest in this foundation ; in 1269 he pur- 

 chased a further messuage to add to their site. 9 



The crown issued a commission in May, 1275, 

 to John de Lovetot, to inquire whether it would 

 be to the injury of the king or town to grant 

 licence to the Friars Preachers of Ipswich to 

 build an external chamber extending from their 

 dormitory to the town dyke. 10 Further enlarge- 

 ment of their homestead was authorized in 1308 

 and in 1334. n 



Pardon was granted to the Friars Preachers of 

 Ipswich for having acquired without licence 

 from John Harneys, for the enlargement of their 

 manse, a void place and a dyke 1 00 ft. square ; 

 licence was at the same time granted them to 

 retain the lot without fine, providing the burgesses 

 and townsmen had full ingress to repair the walls 

 of the town for defence in time of war, and 

 whenever necessary. 12 



In February, 1348, the bailiffs and commonalty 

 of Ipswich unanimously granted the Black Friars 

 a plot of land south of their curtilage, which was 

 103 ft. in length. For this the friars were to pay 

 bd. a year rent and to keep up the town wall 

 opposite the plot, and also the two great gates, 

 one on the north and the other on the south of 

 their court ; and through these gates the com- 

 monalty were to be allowed to pass whenever 

 any mishap fell on the town, or other necessity 

 required. 13 



By an inquisition of March, 1 350-1, it was 

 adjudged that Henry de Monescele and two 

 others might assign three messuages to the 

 Dominicans for the extension of the site. 14 



These various grants gave to the Friars 

 Preachers a large site in the parish of St. Mary 

 at Quay, reaching in length from north to 

 south, from St. Margaret's Church to the church 



r Close, 47 Hen. Ill, m. 2. 



8 Pat. 50 Hen. Ill, 113. 



9 Feet of F. Suff. 53 Hen. Ill, 30. 

 10 Pat. 3 Edw. I, m. 27^. 



" Pat. I Edw. II, ii. m. 24 ; 8 Edw. Ill, pt. i, 

 m. 19. 



" Pat. 20 Edw. Ill, pt. i, m. 3. 



13 Add. Chart. 10 130. 



M Inq. a.q.d. 24 Edw. Ill, 79 ; Pat. 25 Edw. Ill, 

 pt. ii, m. 30. 



122 



