A HISTORY OF NORTHAMPTONSHIRE 



placed during voidance at the gate of the priory 

 for protection ; that after the convent had 

 elected a prior they were wont to send him 

 forthwith to the ancestors of Stephen de Scgrave 

 with letters patent under their common seal, 

 whom the said ancestors received without chal- 

 lenge and presented by their letters patent to the 

 bishop of Lincoln ; that the prior elect, on his 

 confirmation by the bishop, returned to the 

 priory without doing fealty or service to Stephen's 

 ancestors, and that the servant at the priory gate 

 left without letter or order from his lord imme- 

 diately on the entrance of the new prior. The 

 king, on the receipt of this return, gave instruc- 

 tions to the escheator of Northampton not to 

 meddle further with the temporalities of the 

 priory now void by the death of Alexander, late 

 prior.i 



Shortly before the election of Thomas of 

 Saxton in March, 1332-3, Edmund de Bereford, 

 clerk, made a grant to the priory of the manor 

 of Grandborough, Warwickshire, on condition 

 that the convent should find four canons to 

 celebrate for the souls of his father, mother, and 

 himself, and for King Edward and Henry, bishop 

 of Lincoln, and should distribute 40J. yearly on 

 his anniversary to the poor, and 20s. on the 

 anniversary of his father.^ This grant was made, 

 however, without licence from the crown, and 

 the manor was shortly afterwards recovered by 

 the heirs of the Braundeston family, from whom 

 the Berefords had purchased it.^ 



Edward IIL in 1346 granted a licence for the 

 alienation in mortmain to the prior and convent 

 (i) of eight messuages, etc., the gift of John de 

 Lyouns ; (2) of a messuage and nine acres of land 

 in Thorpe Mandeville, from John de Wardyng- 

 ton ; and (3) two acres of land in Chalcombe, 

 from John de Segrave, in full satisfaction of the 

 lOOJ. yearly of land which they had leave to 

 acquire.* The prior is entered in the following 

 year, 1347, for a loan of ;^5 13;. 4^. to the king 

 towards the expenses of the war in France." 



The priors of Chalcombe are mentioned in 

 various deeds and documents during the re- 

 mainder of the fourteenth, fifteenth, and early 

 sixteenth centuries. Sir John de Segrave, who 

 died at Bretby, Derbyshire, in 1352, left his 

 body to be buried in the priory of Chalcombe, 

 appointing the prior as one of his executors." 

 The pope in 141 1 sanctioned the appropriation 

 of the church of Harford by the prior and con- 

 vent, being of their patronage, on the ground 

 that their buildings were much in need of repair, 

 and their revenues greatly impaired by reason of 

 the extensive hospitality they were bound to 



1 P.it. 19 Edw. II. pt. 2, m. 13. 



- Line. Epis. Reg. Inst, of Burghersh, f. 197. 



3 Dugdale, y/;;//f. of IVarzcickshire, p. 312. 



■* Pat. 20 Edw. III. pt. I, m. 15. 



5 Ibid. 21 Edw. III. pt. 2, m. 24. 



« Nicolas. Test. Vet. 55. 



maintain. The annual value of the priory was 

 declared to be under 200 marks.' \n the same 

 year Thomas Brackley, canon of the priory, 

 obtained papal dispensation to hold a benefice 

 with or without cure of souls, and this dispen- 

 sation was renewed to him in 141 3, after his 

 election as prior." John Ferneall, who succeeded 

 Thomas Brackley, was a brother of the Corpus 

 Christi Guild, Coventry, in 1495 and 1498 ;® he 

 was also vicar of Chalcombe from 1491 to 

 1499,^'' and these dates probably represent the 

 duration of his rule. Pope Julius IL in 1504 

 issued a bull granting the appropriation of the 

 parish cfiurch of Slipton to the priory in conse- 

 quence of the loss incurred through a recent 

 fire.'' Prior Saunders was vicar of the church of 

 Chalcombe from 1511 to 1534; in the latter 

 year he and seven of the canons subscribed to the 

 acknowledgement of the king's supremacy.'^ He 

 died shortly afterwards, and was succeeded by 

 Henry Austen, whose rule must have been very 

 brief, for at the time of the survey of 1535 the 

 office was vacant, and Thomas Stone in charge 

 as sub-prior. The income of the house at that 

 time amounted to ^^85 131. 5|^., out of which 

 there was a charge of ^^l 141. %d. in alms and 

 distribution to the poor ;" it fell thus within the 

 scope of the earlier Act of Suppression of houses 

 of less yearly value than ^^200.^* The prior 

 received a pension of ;^I4, but no mention is 

 made of the rest of the community.'^ 



The messuages and lands belonging to the 

 suppressed priory of Chalcombe, at Wardington, 

 Oxfordshire, with court-leets, views of frank- 

 pledge, etc., were granted to Thomas Pope, 

 treasurer of the Court of Augmentations, in 

 February, 1537,'^ and in the following September 

 he expressed a desire to Cromwell to purchase 

 the residue of the priory property .'' Five years 

 later, however, the site of the priory and the 

 adjacent lands were granted to Michael Fox.'* 



According to a manuscript note of about the 

 year 1550, the conventual church of this 

 small priory was the burial place of a remarkable 

 number of distinguished persons.^' 



Priors of Chalcombe 



William of Colingham,^'' elected 1241 

 Adam of Appleby,-' elected 1274, died 1299 



^ Cal. of Papal L. vi. 276. « Ibid, and 396. 



1* Baker, Hist. ofNorthants, i. 594. 

 '" Bridges, Hist. ofNorthants, i. 157. 

 " Line. Epis. Reg. Memo, of Smith, f. 7b. 

 '^ P.R.O. Acknowledegment of Supremacy, No. 29. 

 13 Valor Eccl. (Rec. Com.), iv. 338. 

 iJ L. and P. Hen. VIII. x. 1238. 

 '5 Ibid. xiii. pt. 1, p. 575. 



'" Ibid. xii. pt. I, 539 (19). '^ Ibid. pt. 2, 664. 



'■* Vincent, Visitation ofNorthants. 



19 Add. MS. 5758, f. 24. 



20 Extracts from Reg. of Line. Harl. MS. 6950, 

 f. 112. 21 Ibid. f. Z07. 



134 



