A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK 



had js. id. in Earl Stonham, whilst the manor 

 of Creeting St. Olave produced £g OJ. S^. 1 



The goods and stock pertaining to the priory 

 of Creeting St. Olave were valued by the crown, 

 in 1325, at £17 ioj. id* 



Edward III granted this manor during the 

 French war in 1345 to one Tydeman de Lym- 

 bergh, a merchant ; but in 1360 permitted the 

 abbot and convent of Grestein to sell it to 

 Sir Edmund de la Pole. 3 



74. THE PRIORY OF STOKE BY 

 CLARE 



Earl Alfric, son of VVithgar, who lived in the 

 reigns of Canute, Hardecanute, and Edward the 

 Confessor, founded the church or chapel of 

 St. John Baptist in the castle of Clare, and 

 therein placed seven secular canons. This 

 church, with all its endowments, was given by 

 Gilbert de Clare, in 1 090, to the Benedictine 

 monastery of Bee in Normandy, of which it 

 became a cell, and thus remained until the year 

 1 124, when Gilbert's son Richard removed the 

 foundation to Stoke, where it eventually reverted 

 to a collegiate establishment. * 



The fourteenth-century chartulary 6 opens with 

 confirmation charters of Henry II, Richard I, 

 John, and Henry III, including a grant of a 

 Thursday market at Stoke, and a yearly fair of 

 three days at the feast of St. John Baptist. The 

 various charters of Gilbert, earl of Clare, the 

 founder, and of his son and grandson, are set 

 forth, whereby the monks, in addition to lands, 

 mills, fishing, and pasturing rights, held the 

 advowsons of the churches of St. John and 

 St. Paul, Clare, and the churches of Cavenham, 

 Foxhall, Hunston and Bures, Crimplesham, 

 Gazeley, Winham, Birfield, Ash, and Woching. 6 

 The ordination of the vicarage of Gazeley, at 

 the time when the church was appropriated to 

 the priory, is duly set forth under date of 1 2 July, 

 1286. 7 



An undated letter of Roger, earl of Clare, 

 solemnly presents to the house certain relics (not 

 specified) which he entrusts to the monks, both 

 cleric and lay, to be by them carefully preserved 

 with the greatest reverence. 8 



The confirmation charters of the Bishops of 

 Norwich and London and the Archbishop of 



1 Pope Nich. Tax. (Rec. Com.), 1 29, 1 29^. 

 ' Mins. Accts. bdlc. 1 127, No. 4. 

 "Pat. 22 Edw. Ill, pt. iii, m. 13; Close, 

 33 Edw. Ill, m. 6. 



4 Dugdale, Mon. (1st ed.), i, 1005-9; Tanner, 

 Not. Mon. Suff. xiv. 



5 Cott. MS. App. xxi. There is an abstract of its 

 contents in the Davy MSS. (Add. MS. 19103, 

 fols. 136-205). 



6 Chartul. 21-5, 29, 33, 36. 



r Ibid. 3;. 5 Ibid. 44. 



Canterbury, from 1 090 to the end of the reign 

 of Henry III, cover several folios. 9 These are 

 followed by several papal confirmations, and by 

 an indulgence from Pope Innocent exempting 

 them from any provision of benefices. 10 



Amid a very large number of grants of land, 

 rents, &c, mostly of small value, occur the gifts 

 of the church of Bradley by Richard the son 

 of Simon, of the church of Little Bradley by 

 Albrinus son of Ercald, of the church of Little 

 Bunstead by William de Helium, of the church 

 of Bunstead by Robert de Helium, and of the 

 church of Stamborne by Robert de Grenville, 

 with various confirmations. 11 The taxation roll 

 of 1 29 1 shows that the priory at that time held, 

 in addition to churches, temporalities in seven- 

 teen Suffolk parishes of the annual value of 

 ^30 14J. 72^.; it had also considerable lands 

 and rents in Essex, and a small amount in 

 Norfolk, yielding a total income of ^53 1 3*. 7,d. 



In 1305 a quit-claim was executed in favour 

 of this priory of the advowson of the church of 

 Little Barton by Mildenhall. 12 



Prior John Huditot died in 1391 ; whereupon 

 Robert bishop of London and William prior of 

 Okeburne, authorized by Pope Boniface IX to 

 act for the abbot of Bee in the case of dependent 

 English houses, presented Richard de Cotesford, 

 an English monk of that house, to the Bishop of 

 Norwich, to be prior, with the assent of the 

 king as patron, by reason of the minority of the 

 son and heir of the Earl of March. 13 



Richard II, in 1379, made a grant during 

 pleasure, to his uncle, Thomas de Woodstock, 

 earl of Buckingham, of £bo a year from the 

 farm of this alien priory during the wars, to help 

 to maintain his rank as an earl, 14 and among 

 grants made from the alien priories' estates to 

 the crown in June, 1395, towards the king's 

 expenses in the war with France, was the year's 

 issues and profits of the priory of Stoke by Clare 

 of the value of £60. 15 In the following month, 

 however, the friends of this priory managed to 

 secure from the crown a charter of denization, 

 but only on condition of the very heavy fine 

 of 1,000 marks being paid to the abbot of 

 Westminster, to be expended solely on the new 

 works of St. Peter's Church. This sum was to 

 be paid at the rate of 200 marks a year until 

 discharged. The grant of denization stated that 

 Richard de Cotesford, the then prior, was of 

 English birth, and provided that the convent of 

 monks was henceforth to be exclusively drawn 

 from those of English birth, and that no tribute 



9 Ibid. 70, fols. 32-4. These are in a different 

 hand ; ibid. 70-137. 



10 Ibid. 138-143. 



11 Ibid. 270, 274, 280, 285, 296, 309. 

 "Pat. 33 Edw. I, pt. 2, m. 9. 

 "Ibid. 15 Ric. II, pt. i, m. I. 



14 Ibid. 3 Ric. II, pt. i, m. 40. 

 "Ibid. 18 Ric. II, pt. ii, m. 9. 



154 



