A HISTORY OF NORTHAMPTONSHIRE 



expenses. 1 The fair survived the dissolution, but 

 was moved into the town of Northampton about 

 the year 1690. During the short rule of John 

 Lupus, 1 266-1 269, the church of Spratton was 

 appropriated to the abbey, and a vicarage 

 ordained.' 



The abbot was summoned to attend Parlia- 

 ment in 1265,' and again in the year 1319.* On 

 the latter occasion the abbot, being an old man, 

 appointed one of his canons, Henry of Blisworth, 

 to act as his proxy, and the proctor was in- 

 structed to procure, if possible, a revocation of 

 the costly privilege of attendance. Representa- 

 tion was made to the chancellor, the bishop of 

 Ely, and the court of chancery that the abbot of 

 St. James did not hold of the king, either by 

 barony or in chief, but in frankalmoigne, and 

 that neither he nor his predecessors had been 

 summoned hitherto save in the case of the year 

 1265. The plea was accepted by the court, and 

 an order given for the abbot's name to be ex- 

 punged from the roll of those to be summoned.^ 



An order was sent in the early part of the 

 reign of Edward I. to the barons of the Ex- 

 chequer to acquit the prior and convent of 

 £b 131. 4(f., in which they made fine with the 

 late king to have the custody of their house 

 during a recent voidance.6 The king in April, 

 1291, granted to the abbot and canons the site 

 of various houses that had belonged to the Jews 

 before the order for their banishment from the 

 kingdom in 1290, situated before the entrance to 

 their synagogue {scola), as well as of the houses 

 that had belonged to Sarra of London, a Jewess.^ 

 It appears from various deeds that the synagogue 

 and Jewish settlement lay close to the precinct 

 walls of the abbey ; the cemetery of the Jews lay 

 beyond the north gate of the town. 



The abbey church was rebuilt on a large scale 

 during the reign of Edward L He forwarded 

 the work by ordering eight oaks fit for timber to 

 be allowed the abbot of the king's gift,** an in- 

 dulgence was granted by Bishop Dalderby in 

 1 30 1 to all who should contribute towards the 

 fund for the fabric,^ and a licence was issued for 

 the dedication of two altars in the conventual 

 church in 13 10, the date probably of its comple- 

 tion. 1° The bishop's register records in 1312 the 

 dedication of altars of SS. Katherine and Mar- 

 garet in the church of St. James of Northampton. ^^ 

 The abbey was sometimes used on state occa- 

 sions. On 2 July, 13 1 8, Sir William de Aremyn, 

 keeper of the rolls of chancery, brought the great 



1 Mins. Accts. (Aug. Off.), 30 Hen. VIII. 



2 Bodl. MSS. Top. Northants, E. v. ff. 335-6. 



3 Selden, Titles of Honor, 724. 



* Pari. Writs (Rec. Com.), ii. div. iii. p. 1230. 

 = Ibid. His name, nevertheless, is given for 132 1, 

 1322. Ibid. 1 23 1. 8 Close, 2 Edw. I. m. 7. 



^ Pat. 8 Edw. II. pt. I, m. 11. 



8 Close, 1 8 Edw. I. m. 4. 



9 Line. Epis. Reg. Memo, of Dalderby, f. 37. 



10 Ibid. f. 179. 11 Ibid. f. 2 35d. 



seal to Northampton, and delivered it to the 

 chancellor, John de Hotham, bishop of Ely, in 

 his inn in St. James's Abbey, and writs are dated 

 from the abbey on the 4th of the same month. i- 



No entries in the diocesan registers throw 

 light on the internal condition of the abbey. In 

 1309 the bishop had occasion to excommunicate 

 John de Horewood, one of the canons, for apos- 

 tasy in leaving the convent. 1^ Various wills of 

 the fourteenth century are entered in the chartu- 

 lary of the house containing various small 

 bequests to the canons.i* Denise, wife of 

 Walter Passelew, by her will dated 1340, and 

 proved 1342, left 6j. 8^/. for a single pittance to 

 the house. John Passelew, of Northampton, 

 butcher, by his will of 1349 left a chest {unam 

 cisiam) to St. James's, and his seal to Canon 

 Passelew of the monastery. Many persons of 

 rank and distinction sought interment within the 

 abbey church. In 1485 Sir John Catesby of 

 Arthingworth, justice of the common pleas, 

 willed his body to be buried here. In 1490 

 Richard Woodville, Earl Rivers, bequeathed his 

 body to be buried in the abbey church of 

 St. James, Northampton, ' in a place made ready 

 for the same.' In 1496, Thomas, Lord Borough, 

 directed in his will 'that a stone belaid upon my 

 mother lying interred in the abbey of St. James 

 at Northampton, somewhat raised in height, with 

 the arms of my father and mother thereon, and 

 an inscription ; for the doing whereof I be- 

 queath x li.' 1^ 



On 2 May, 1501, ' Richard Berde, doctour of 

 the lawes sogournand in the monastery of synt 

 James beside Northampton,' left his body to be 

 buried in the conventual church. He bequeathed 

 for his mortuary his best gown with the hood 

 belonging thereto, ^Tio in money in recompense 

 for the cost and charges to which he had put the 

 monastery, 20s. to the abbot, and ioj. to each of 

 the canons. He also bequeathed to the abbot 

 and his successors his ' best surplus of Raynes,' 1^ 

 to the abbot and convent his best breviary, to 

 the prior a silver spoon, his signet of silver, and 

 his ' beds of Mistelden ' ; to Robert Chamber- 

 leyn, one of the canons, a double bottle of a 

 quart, a little pillow, his ' harnist gardill,' his gilt 

 knives, a little coffer, and his red mantle ; to 

 Sir John, another of the canons, a coffer ; to the 

 conventual church, his ' mustardeviles 1^ hoode 

 with the lynyng of grene silk for the cross-bearer 

 on Seynt Nicholas nyght ' ; 1^ to fourteen servants 



12 Cal. of Close, 1313-8, p. 620. 



1' Line. Epis. Reg. Memo, of Dalderby, f. 133. 



!•* Cott. MS. Tib. E. V. ff. 195b, 197b. 



1^ Nicol.is, Test. Vet. p. 428. He was himself, 

 however, buried at Gainsborough. 



1^ A striped or rayed cloth. 



17 ' Mustredevilliars ' was a kind of mixed grey 

 woollen cloth. 



IS The hood with the green lining intended to deck 

 a youthful cross-bearer for the boy-bishop burlesque 

 on St. Nicholas's Day. 



128 



