A HISTORY OF NORTHAMPTONSHIRE 



protection the monks of St. Andrew of North- 

 ampton and their nuncios sent to preach for 

 their church, and that they were to be protected 

 and assisted with alms in the work of building.^ 

 Henry III. on I January, 1223-4, issued an 

 order for the prior of St. Andrew to be allowed 

 timber [fusta) for beams to build the tower of his 

 church.* In connexion with this tower we read 

 that on the vigil of St. Clement, 22 November, 

 1237, there was a vehement storm of wind and 

 rain, and, as the chronicler describes, something 

 wonderful, if not actually miraculous, happened at 

 the monastery of the Blessed Andrew. As the 

 monks were serving God in the quire, the pin- 

 nacles round the great central tower [turres qua 

 circumhant turtim magnam ultra chorum) fell with 

 a crash, breaking through into the church after 

 a piteous fashion ; nevertheless, through divine 

 mercy, all escaped unhurt.' In the first year of 

 the reign of Edward I. an order was sent to 

 acquit the prior of St. Andrew's, Northampton, 

 of the sum of j^i3 bs. Sd. in which the sub-prior 

 and convent made fine with the late king for the 

 custody of their houses in time of voidance, the 

 said sum having been paid by the prior to the 

 keeper of the wardrobe on Thursday after the 

 Translation of St. Thomas the Martyr (7 July), 

 1270, unless they had already received acquit- 

 tance thereof by writ of the late king.* The 

 prior and convent were requested with other 

 religious houses to aid the king with victuals for 

 the Scotch expedition in 1 3 10,' they were sum- 

 moned in 1322 to raise as many men-at-arms 

 and foot soldiers as they could to march against 

 the earl of Lancaster and his adherents, and to 

 muster at Coventry on the first Sunday in Lent.^ 

 In addition to other incidents of aid and 

 subsidy the crown exercised to the full the royal 

 prerogative of imposing pensioners as on houses of 

 royal foundation or patronage. In April, 131 1, 

 Benedict de Watford, who had long served the 



' Pat. ID John, m. i. 



2 Close, 8 Henr>' III. m. 15. 



s Corpus Christi Coll. Camb. MS. cclxxxi. su6 

 anno. This MS. is termed a Chronicle of St. Andrew's, 

 but is in reality a chronicle of general history extend- 

 ing from A.D. 901 to 1339 ; the early part is a trans- 

 script of the Melrose Chronicle. A note in the volume 

 says that it belonged at one time to Burton Abbey, 

 but is evidently the work of a Northampton monk. 

 In the latter part there are a very few entries of local 

 interest of which the above is the most original and 

 valuable. 



* Close, I Edw. I. m. 8. On 21 Januar}-, 1383-4, 

 the prior and convent received acquittance of five 

 marks paid for the temporalities during the last void- 

 ance. Close, 1 2 Edw. I. m. 9. 



5 Ibid. 3 Edw. II. m. 5d. 



s Par/. IVrits (Rec. Com.), ii. div. 111,1230. They 

 were returned in 1297 from the county of North- 

 ampton as holding lands and rent to the value of ^20 

 yearly and upwards, and as such summoned under 

 general writ to perform military sen'ice beyond the 

 seas. Ibid. i. 762. 



late and present king, was sent to the priory to 

 receive food and clothing and other accessories in 

 the house according to his estate, and to have a 

 suitable chamber within the precincts.^ In 

 October, 13 16, Roger de Scardcburgh was sent 

 to receive the allowance that John de Pychcrhous, 

 deceased, had had in tiie house.^ In September 

 of the same year, John de Ditton, clerk, had 

 letters to the prior and convent to receive the 

 pension due from them to one of the king's 

 clerks by reason of the new creation of a prior.* 

 On the appointment of a superior in 1320, Peter 

 de Pulford, clerk, obtained royal letters for a 

 similar pension. i" On the death of Benedict le 

 Sejourner, Richard Swyn, the king's envoy, was 

 sent to take his place, 12 October, 1325," and 

 in 1335 John Swyn, who had long served the 

 king and his father, was sent to receive from the 

 convent such maintenance as Richard Sywn, de- 

 ceased, had had by the late king's request. •- This 

 last order was repeated in November, 1338,'' and 

 some confusion seems to have arisen, probably 

 owing to the fact that the grant to John Swyn 

 was made before the death of Richard had actually 

 occurred. The prior and convent received a re- 

 quest in February, 1338-9, to admit Robert de la 

 Chapelle into the house, in place of Richard Swyn, 

 deceased,^* and in March, 1339-40, they were 

 peremptorily summoned to comply with the 

 order ; '' the monks having proved that they had 

 admitted the said John Swyn by reason of a like 

 grant long before Richard's death, the order was 

 revoked. 1'' 



The frequent absence of its head,i7 with the 

 usual accompaniment of slack government, and 

 other causes soon plunged even this well-endowed 

 house into debt and difficulty. In April, 1338, 

 Thomas, then prior, addressed a letter to the 

 abbot of Cluny in which he stated in pitiful 

 terms that his house was gravely burdened with 

 debt from the defective harvests of the last two 

 years, from the payment of royal dues, and from 

 the heavy exactions of the papal legate, with the 

 frequent reception of guests. He claimed that 

 though his house was directly subject to the house 

 of La Charit^, yet all priors of their order 

 ought to turn for aid to the great mother church 

 of Cluny when in distress, and with considerable 

 shrewdness pleaded that if their seriously indebted 



^ Close, 4 Edw. ii. m. jd. 



8 Ibid. 10 Edw. II. m. 23. * Ibid. m. 25d. 



10 Ibid. 13 Edw. II. m. 4d. 



11 Ibid. 19 Edw. II. m. 2 5d. 



12 Ibid. 9 Edw. III. m. 6. 



'3 Ibid. 12 Edw. III. pt. iii. m. 22d. 



1* Ibid. 13 Edw. III. pt. I, m. 14. 



'5 Ibid. 14 Edw. III. pt. I, m. 34. 



IS Pat. 14 Edw. III. pt. I, m. 23. 



17 Not only was attendance at the general chapter 

 of the order compulsory, but each superior on being 

 appointed appears to have obtained leave of absence 

 for a period, sometimes extending to a year or even 

 eighteen months, while he visited the mother house. 



104 



