A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK 



William Goldwin, the schoolmaster, dated I O Jan- 

 uary, 1528-9, to Cardinal Wolsey. He ex- 

 pressed his gratitude and that of the people of 

 Ipswich, and sent specimens of the handwriting 

 of some of the boys, who, he hopes, will soon be 

 able to speak Italian ; the number is increasing, 

 so that the school-house is becoming too small. 1 



A letter from William Brabazon to Cromwell 

 on 24 July, 1529, mentions that my lord's col- 

 lege at Ipswich is going on prosperously, and 

 ' much of it above the ground, which is very 

 curious work.' The sub-dean, Air. Ellis, takes 

 the oversight of it ; he has stone and all other 

 necessaries, and they are working day and night. 2 



In the following year came the fall of Wolsey, 

 and with his fall this unfinished college came to 

 an end. On the disgrace of its founder, the king 

 claimed all the founder's property. 



On 14 November, 1530, the commissioners 

 made an inventory of all the plate and goods. 

 They seized a vast amount of church and domes- 

 tic plate, and after stripping the buildings of 

 everything of value, they charged Dean Capon 

 with having £1,000 of the cardinal's treasures in 

 his possession. Not believing his denial the 

 commissioners, with six yeomen of the guard 

 and eighteen other persons, waited five days on 

 the premises ere they left. On Sunday 2 1 No- 

 vember, members of the Duke of Norfolk's council 

 took possession of the buildings, and on the mor- 

 row the dean left for London. 3 



In 1 531 the actual site of the college, formerly 

 the priory of St. Peter and St. Paul, was granted 

 to Thomas Alvard, one of the gentlemen ushers 

 of the king's chamber, together with all the 

 Ipswich property pertaining to ' the late Cardy- 

 nelles College.' 4 Other property of the college 

 was granted by patent to the provost and college 

 of Eton, 8 and yet more to the abbot and convent 

 of Waltham. 6 ' The very site,' says Mr. Wodder- 

 spoon, 'of the Cardinal's College becomes in a 

 brief space of time a spot for depositing of the 

 refuse and filth of the town.' 



67. THE COLLEGE OF METTINGHAM 7 



The college of Raveningham was founded on 

 24 July, 1350, by Sir John de Norwich, eldest 

 son of Sir Walter de Norwich and Catherine 

 his wife. It consisted of a master and eight 

 secular priests or canons who were to officiate in 

 the parish church of Raveningham for the weal 

 of the souls of the founder and Margaret his 

 wife, in honour of God and the Blessed Virgin, 



1 L. and P. Hen. VIII, iv, pt. iii, 5159. 

 * Ibid. 5792. 



s Wodderspoon, Mem. Ipstc. 327-8. 

 4 Pat. 23 Hen. VIII, pt. ii, m. 4. 

 4 Ibid. as. 27. 6 Ibid. m. 26. 



; Blomefield, Hist, of Nor/, viii, 52-4; Dugdale, 

 Mon. vi, 1459 ; Taylor, Index Mon. 49. 



St. Andrew the Apostle, and all saints. The 

 church was dedicated to the honour of St. Andrew, 

 but the collegiate house, according to the foun- 

 dation charter, was to be named after the Blessed 

 Virgin. 8 



The college was well endowed by the founder 

 and his heirs with the manors of Lyng, Howe, 

 Blackworth, Hadeston, and Little Snoring, and 

 with the appropriation of the churches of Raven- 

 ingham and Norton Subcourse, 9 as well as with 

 lands and rents in various other parishes. 



In 1382 there was a proposal to remove the 

 college to Mettingham Castle (Suffolk). On 

 5 July of that year John Plays, Robert Honeard, 

 and Roger de Boys, knights, and John de 

 Wolterton and Elias de Byntre, rectors of the 

 respective churches of Harpley and Carleton, 

 paid the immense sum of £866 1 35. \d. to the 

 crown for licence to transfer the chantry of eight 

 chaplains from Raveningham to Mettingham 

 Castle ; to increase the number of chaplains or 

 canons to thirteen, and to alienate in mortmain 

 to the college the said castle and 60 acres of land, 

 1 8 of meadow, 2 of pasture, £5 10s. in rents, 

 and much more land in various townships, three 

 parts of the manor of Bromfield, the manor of 

 Mellis, and the manor of Lyng, notwithstanding 

 that the manor last named is held of the Duke of 

 Brittany as of the honour of Richmond. 10 



Some difficulty as to this transfer arose chiefly 

 through the opposition of the nuns of Bungay, 

 who had the appropriation of the church of 

 Mettingham, and the college continued at 

 Raveningham for several years after this date. 

 On 6 August, 1387, the same applicants ob- 

 tained a grant from the king, on the payment 

 of the modest fee of one mark in the hanaper, to- 

 transfer the chantry of Sir John de Norwich's 

 foundation from Raveningham, where it still was, 

 to the church which was then being newly built 

 in the rectory of Norton Subcourse, and that in 

 consideration of the great fine of 1382 the master 

 and twelve chaplains and their successors at 

 Norton should hold all the lands and possessions 

 granted to the chantry at Raveningham with 

 the castle of Mettingham and all lands and 

 possessions granted when it was proposed to 

 move the college to that castle. 11 



A proposition for this transference to Norton 

 had been made in the reign of Edward III and 

 licence obtained in 1 37 1, but it came to nought. 12 

 Sir John de Norwich of Mettingham Castle, by 

 will of 1373, left his body to be buried in 

 Raveningham church by the side of his father 

 Sir Walter, there to rest till it could be moved 

 to the new church of Norton Subcourse, to the 

 building of which he bequeathed £450. 



8 Weever, Funeral Monuments, 365. 



3 Norw. Epis. Reg. iv, fol. 31, 32. 

 "'Pat. 6 Ric. II, pt. i, m. 35. 

 11 Ibid. 11 Ric. II, pt. i, m. 25. 

 " Ibid. 4-5 Edw. Ill, pt. ii, m. 35. 



144 



