A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK 



Wicet, or to those that shall rebuild the church 

 of the Friars Minor. 1 



The only record of the suppression of these 

 friars is the communication made to Cromwell 

 in 1538 by the suffragan Bishop of Dover, which 

 has already been cited under the Black Friars. 



Within their church were interred the bodies 

 of Sir Robert Valence, Dame Ida of Ilicetshall, 

 Sir Peter Mellis and Dame Anne his wife, Dame 

 Dunne his mother, John Francans and Margaret 

 his wife, Dame Bertha of Furnival . . . Austin 

 of Cales and Joan his wife, John Falleys and 

 Beatrice his wife, Augustine his son, Sir Hubert 

 Dernford, Katharine wife of William Phellip, 

 Margaret wife of Richard Phellip, Peter Codum, 

 and the heart of Dame Hawise-Ponyngs. 2 



The site of this convent was granted in 1545 

 to John Eyre, of the Augmentation Office, who 

 was so large a holder of monastic lands in the 

 eastern counties. 3 



Wardens 4 of the Franciscan Friars of 

 Dunwich 



John Lacey (predecessor of Bokenham) 



Nicholas Bokenham, 1482 



George Muse, 1505 



The pointed oval fifteenth-century seal of this 

 convent bears St. John Baptist under a canopied 

 arch, with nimbus, clothed in a camel skin, its 

 head hanging at his feet ; holding in the left 

 hand the Agnus Dei on a plaque, and pointing 

 to it with the right hand. By the side of the 

 Baptist is a kneeling friar, with scroll, s. : joh : 

 ora : p' : me : Legend : — 



sigillu : gardiani : fratrum : minor : 

 donewycy 6 



Gardner gives a reproduction of another re- 

 markable seal of this friary, representing a ship 

 with large mainsail ; at the bow is seated a 

 crowned king, and at the stern a mitred bishop 

 with crozier in left hand. Legend : — 



sigillu' : fr'm : minor : donewic 6 



39. THE GREY FRIARS OF IPSWICH 



On the west side of Ipswich, in the parish of 

 St. Nicholas, a convent of Franciscan or Grey 

 Friars was founded early in the reign of 

 Edward I. The founders were Sir Robert 

 Tiptot, of Nettlestead, and Una his wife ; Sir 

 Robert died in 1298. 7 



1 Gardner, Hist, of Dunwich, 61. 

 ' Weever, Funeral Monuments, 721. 

 * Dep. Keeper's Rep. ix, App. ii, 207. 



4 Gardner, Hist, of Dunwich, 61. 



5 B. M. Cast, lxxi, 106. There is a lithograph of 

 this seal in Suckling, Hist. ofSuff. ii, opp. 292. 



6 Gardner, Hist, of Dunwich, pi. opp. 43. 



7 Dugdale, Baronage, ii, 39 ; Weever, Funeral Monu- 

 ments, 751. 



There are but few record entries relative to 

 this house. In September, 1328, Edward III 

 granted protection, during pleasure, to the 

 warden and Friars Minor of Ipswich," and this 

 protection was renewed in February, 1 33 1. 9 



In January, 1332, licence was granted, after 

 inquisition, to these friars to accept the alienation 

 to them by Nicholas Frunceyes, knight, of a 

 messuage and toft for the enlargement of their 

 dwelling-house. At the same time they received 

 a pardon for having acquired without due licence 

 a toft from Geoffrey Poper, and land 50 perches 

 in length and 7 ft. in breadth from Sir William 

 de Cleydon, knight. 10 



On 1 April, 1538, Lord Wentworth, of 

 Nettlestead, wrote to Cromwell as to this friary, 

 stating that the warden and brethren lived there 

 in great necessity, for the inhabitants were 

 extending their charity to the poor and impotent 

 instead of to ' such an idle nest of drones.' He 

 complained that they were selling the jewels of 

 their house, and as he was ' their founder in 

 blood ' he sent for the warden, who stated that they 

 had been compelled to sell something, for during 

 a twelvemonth they had only gathered ^5, anil 

 could not continue in that house three months 

 longer. There were no lands, only the bare 

 site, with a garden or two enclosed. Lord 

 Wentworth, hereditary patron of this friary, 

 called to mind (for Cromwell's edification) how 

 this order was 'neither stock nor griffe which the 

 Heavenly Father had planted, but only a hypo- 

 critical weed planted by that sturdy Nembrot, the 

 Bishop of Rome,' and begged for the grant of 

 the house. 11 



As a consequence of this letter, Ingworth, 

 the special visitor of the king for the friaries, 

 attended at the Grey Friars, Ipswich, on 7 April, 

 and drew up an inventory of their goods. In 

 the quire were five candlesticks, two hanging 

 lamps, a holy-water stoop, with latten sprinkler, 

 twenty books good and ill, and a wooden 

 lectern ; in the vestry were various old vest- 

 ments and other matters of little value ; whilst 

 the other contents of the house were all common- 

 place and mostly old. Bishop Ingworth removed 

 all of this stuff to the house of the Black Friars, 

 locking it up in ' a close house.' The visitor 

 tracked out the plate which had been sold or 

 pledged. He recovered from Archdeacon 

 Thomas Sillesdon a censer, two chalices, a cross 

 with a crystal in it, twelve spoons, &c, and 

 various vestments which he had craftily pur- 

 chased, as well as plate from Lord Wentworth 

 which had been pledged to him. The total 

 plate recovered amounted to 259! ounces. 



The visitor left behind him certain utensils 

 for the use of the friars still remaining there, 



8 Pat. 2 Edw. Ill, pt. ii, m. 21. 



9 Ibid. 5 Edw. III,pt. i, m. 31. 

 "'Ibid. 6 Edw.III.pt. i, m. 25, 26. 



11 L. and P. Hen. Fill, xiii, pt. i, 651. 



126 



