A HISTORY OF NORTHAMPTONSHIRE 



Lady in this church was maintained by the 

 gild of the tylers' craft.^ 



Among the charters of the British Museum * 

 is the certificate of the admission of Robert 

 Greenway and Alice his wife into the con- 

 fraternity of the order of Friars Preachers by 

 Richard Metteley, prior of Northampton, dated 

 151 1. This well-written parchment certificate, 

 with rubricated initial, shows that admissions 

 were of usual occurrence, for the names of 

 Robert and Alice, as well as the precise year, 

 have been filled up in a running hand, forms 

 of admission being evidently kept ready for use. 

 The official seal is missing. 



The Valor of 1535 showed that this friary 

 possessed jTa i8j. bd. in rents of buildings and 

 gardens within the site, and an average of £2 13J. 

 in charitable gifts. The outgoings were a 

 pension of 3J. ^d. to the abbey of St. James, 

 and ^d. to the mayor and bailiffs of the town, 

 leaving a clear annual value of ;^5 ']s. \od? 



20 THE FRANCISCANS OF NORTH- 

 AMPTON 



The Franciscans or Grey Friars, otherwise 

 known as the Friars Minor, established them- 

 selves at Northampton soon after their first 

 arrival in England in 1224.'' A small detach- 

 ment made their way to this important central 

 town from Oxford.* The first Franciscans who 

 landed in England numbered four priests and 

 five laymen ; one of the priests was Richard of 

 Kingsthorpe, an Englishman by birth and a 

 distinguished preacher.* It seems natural to 

 conclude that one of the causes of their speedy 

 appearance at Northampton was the fact of its 

 proximity to the birthplace of friar Richard. 

 Northampton was grouped under the custody or 

 wardenship of Oxford up to the time of the 

 dissolution. 



The Franciscans first established themselves 

 in a house in the parish of St. Giles, which was 

 outside the eastern walls of the town. Their 

 first warden is said to have been Peter Hispanus.' 

 In 1235 John de Reading, abbot of Oseney, 

 resigned his charge, and putting on the Franciscan 

 habit became a member of the Northampton 

 house.* 



The friars rapidly won the esteem of the 

 townsmen, and afterwards moved to a good site 

 to the north-east of the town, which was granted 



1 Northampton Borough Records, i. 330. 



2 Add. Chart. 22,376. 



3 Valor Eccl. (Rec. Com.), iv. 318. 



* Thomas de Eccleston, De Adventu Minorum (Rolls 

 Ser.), ii. 9. ^ Ibid. 



« Leland, Coll. (Hearne ed.), ii. 341-2. 

 7 Thomas de Eccleston, De Adventu Minorum 

 (Rolls Ser.), ii. 9. 



* Bridges, Hist. ofNorthants, i. 435. 



them by the burgesses. Leland thus describes 

 it : ' ' The Grayfreres House was the beste buildid 

 and largest house of all the places of the frcres, and 

 stoode a little beyond the chief market place, 

 almost by flatte north. The site and ground 

 that it stoode on longid to the cite, whereupon 

 the citizens were taken for the founders of it. 

 There lay ii. of the Salysbiries buried in this 

 house of Grey Freres. And as I remember it was 

 told me that one of the Salisbyries dough ters was 

 mother to Sir VVylliam Par and his elder 

 brother.' John Bungey, doctor of divinity of 

 Oxford, and ninth provincial of the English 

 Franciscans, was of this house and buried here.^" 

 Humphrey, duke of Buckingham, slain at the 

 battle of Northampton in 1460, obtained a 

 sepulchre within the church of the Grey Friars.^* 



Edward I. bestowed a cart and horse on the 

 friars, and in 1277 the sheriff and coroners of 

 the town were enjoined by the crown to restore 

 to the Friars Minor of Northampton the cart 

 and two horses which had been taken into the 

 king's hands as deodands by reason of the death 

 of Richard de Lilleford, lately slain by the said 

 cart, as they had been given by the king out 

 of charity.'^ On 4 January of the following year 

 the king granted to the friars four oaks fit for 

 timber out of his forest of Silverstone,'' which 

 indicates that their new buildings were in pro- 

 gress. A licence was granted in August, 1291, 

 for the friars to unite the course of a spring 

 called Triwell, then running in three directions 

 between the towns of Northampton and Kings- 

 thorpe, and to lead it by a subterranean conduit 

 to their house, provided that they indemnified 

 the persons through whose property the conduit 

 would be taken for the damage, which was 

 estimated by a jury at one mark if the lands 

 should be sown at the time.^* 



Bishop Dalderby in 1308 pronounced sen- 

 tence of excommunication against those who 

 had abducted certain persons from the church of 

 the Friars Minors of Northampton. Probably 

 these persons were fugitives who had sought 

 sanctuary. 1* A bequest of 3^. ' to our Saviour's 

 ymage in the Gray Friars ' is recorded in the 

 will of Simon G. . . . dated 1526.^* 



Reference has already been made to the dis- 

 solution of the Northampton friaries. The 

 Franciscans ' surrendered ' on 28 October, 1538; 

 the deed was signed by John Wyndlowe, 

 warden, and by ten of the brethren. Ambrose 

 Gierke and Roger Wall were appointed attorneys 

 to receive and deliver the premises to Dr. London 



' Leland, Itin. (Hearne ed.), i. 10. 

 1" Stevens, Addition to the Monasticon, i. 97. 

 ^^ Dugdale, Baronage, i. 166. 



12 Close, 5 Edw. I. m. 4. 



13 Ibid. 6 Edw. L m. 15. 

 1* Pat. 19 Edw. L m. 5. 



15 Line. Epis. Reg. Memo, of Dalderby, f. 112. 

 15 Northants Wills, c. 126. 



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