A HISTORY OF NORTHAMPTONSHIRE 



On the resignation of Prior Hammond in 

 December, 1473, the choice of the convent, 

 licence to elect having previously been obtained, 

 fell on Thomas Sudbury, monk of St. Saviour's, 

 Bermondsey, to whom the temporalities were 

 restored, his election having been confirmed by 

 tlie prior of Lewes as vicar and commissary of 

 the abbot of Cluny.i In August. 1480, Philibert, 

 prior of La Charite, accepted the appointment of 

 William Brecknock, monk of St. Andrew's, void 

 by the death of John Holder, as prior of that 

 house ; the crown granted him a licence to hold 

 the temporalities according to the rule of the 

 Cluniac order, saving to the king fealty ; and at 

 the same time he was appointed by the prior of 

 La Charitc proctor of all his English cells, viz., 

 Bermondsey, VVenlock, Northampton, Pontefract, 

 and Davcntry.- 



In 1488 the priory of St. Andrew's was 

 claimed by Thomas Sudbury and William Breck- 

 nock.' The dispute probably arose through 

 some clash of authority between the crown and 

 Cluny. Both claimants were cited to appear 

 before the archbishop of Canterbury in February, 

 1488, but the immediate result is not recorded.-* 

 However, on 11 February, 1491, William 

 Brecknock appeared in Lambeth Palace chapel 

 and resigned the priorship, and on the same day 

 the archbishop re-admitted Thomas Sudbury. ^ 



Thomas Yorke, alias Skit or Shere, became 

 prior in 1503. He was presented by papal 

 dispensation in 1509 to the vicarage of St. Bar- 

 tholomew's, Northampton, and in 1512 to the 

 neighbouring rectory of Holdenby.' He was 

 elected abbot of Whitby in 1 5 17. The last 

 prior of St. Andrew's, Francis Abree or Leicester, 

 is given in the Valor of 1535.' The clear annual 

 value of the priory, after the many outgoings 

 and pensions had been paid, amounted only to 

 ^^263 -js. i^d? 



An account of the surrender of this house 

 2 March, 1538, to Dr. Layton, and of the pen- 

 sions granted, with the promotion of the prior to 

 be the first dean of Peterborough, has been 

 already given.^ Layton reported that the house 



1 P.it. 13 Edvi'. IV. pt. 2, ms. 14, 16. 



- Ibid. 20 Edw. IV^. pt. 1,111. 3. 



' In April, 1487, the temporalities of VVenlock 

 were restored to Thomas Sudbury, appointed by 

 Prior Brecknock as proctor of La Charite. Ibid. 

 22 Edw. IV. pt. I, m. 22. 



* Lambeth Registers, Morton, f. 8. 



5 Ibid. f. 29. The convent petitioned Henr)' VII. 

 that whereas in ' late yeres past ' there had been great 

 trouble between one Thomas Sudbury ' pretending ' to 

 be prior and William Brecknock ' pretending ' to be 

 likewise, and the goods of the house had been greatly 

 wasted and annuities granted away recklessly, he would 

 annul all such grants, leases, and obligations except 

 such as were approved by the chancellor and the 

 bishop of Lincoln and another. R. of Pari. vl. 434. 



6 Browne Willis, Hist, of Mitred Abbia, 11, 159. 



7 Valor Eccl. (Rec. Com.), iv. 313-15. 



8 Ibid. ^ See Eccl. Hist, above. 



was greatly in debt, many lands sold or heavily 

 mortgaged, and the actual walls ruinous. The 

 site seems to have been speedily cleared of its 

 buildings. A year after the dissolution Leiand 

 wrote after visiting Northampton : 'St. Andreas, 

 the late monastery of blake monkes, stoode yn 

 the north parte of the toune, hard by the north 

 gate. Simon Saincteliz the first beying erle of 

 Northampton and Huntendone made this house : 

 but he is not buried there ; for he dyed in 

 France and there buried. But Erie Simon the 

 seconde and Erie Simon the 3, sunne to the 

 seconde, were both buried in S. Andreas. There 

 was also buried under a flat stone in the quier 

 an archbishop.^" There was buried also one 

 Varney that was made knight at the field of 

 Northampton.' " 



It is a somewhat curious and not a little 

 interesting fact in the history of the fabric of 

 St. Andrew's Priory, used from time to time for 

 so many purposes of a non-monastic character, 

 that the Cluniac prior made no difl'iculty about 

 finding the considerable accommodation required 

 for the general chapter of the Benedictine order. 

 Northampton was, no doubt, one of the most 

 convenient centres in England for such a gather- 

 ing ; thus in 1246 when the Benedictine 

 chapter had been summoned at Oxford on 

 St. Matthew's Day, it was proposed that it should 

 be adjourned to Northampton in consequence of 

 the paucity of members, and was shortly after 

 held there. The Benedictines had no house of 

 their own in Northampton or the neighbourhood, 

 and were doubtless glad to avail themselves of 

 the accommodation provided at St. Andrew's. It 

 is known that the general Benedictine chapter 

 was held in this Cluniac house in 1225 (when 

 the abbots of Westminster and Reading presided) 

 in 1246, 1292, 1426, 1429, 1432, 1435,1471, 

 and in 1473 and 1 48 1, and doubtless on other 

 occasions that have not been recorded.^* 



Priors of St. Andrew, Northampton 



Thomas,'' temp. Stephen 



Robert Trianel,^* made abbot of Ramsey 1 180 



Robert '5 occurs 1 1 86 



Henry '^ occurs 1 192 



Walter '^ occurs 1200 



Samson'^ occurs about 1220 



"^ The archbishop of Treves, who died while at- 

 tending the council at PIpewell. 



11 Leiand, Itin. (Hearne ed.), i. 9. 



1- From information kindly supplied by Mr. E. 

 Bishop. 



13 Epistolae Petri Ven. Abb. Clun. lib. ii. 8. 



1* Ann. Mon. (Rolls Ser.), ii. 241. 



15 Cal. of Doc. France, i. 187-8. 



16 Cott. MS. Vesp. E. xvii. if. 80, 82. 



17 Harl. MS. 6952, f. 208. 



1* Reg. of St. Andrew's, 'penes Joh. Theyer de 

 Coupershill juxta Gloucester,' f. 20, as cited in the 

 original Mon. This register cannot now be traced. 



108 



