RELIGIOUS HOUSES 



creation on the Patent Rolls of 1460. It is there- 

 stated that it was founded of the pious devotion 

 and religious purpose of William Breton, D.D., 

 vicar of All Saints, who had already for a long 

 time lived a common life with other stipendiary 

 priests of the church, to the number of sixteen, 

 the chaplains of the fraternities of the Holy 

 Trinity, the Blessed Virgin, Corpus Christi, 

 St. George, the Rood, St. John Baptist, and 

 St. Katharine, and who desired that this system 

 should be kept up and definitely maintained in 

 the future. ' And because they, the vicar and 

 priests aforesaid, have spent and are spending 

 their lives — especially in the time of the said 

 vicar — away from the society of lay folk, con- 

 stantly day and night observing (like fellow 

 members of a college) divers statutes, ordinances, 

 and laws, not only in the church, as is fitting, 

 but in a certain messuage or close, commonly 

 called the priests house (le Prestis house), the 

 vicar humbly entreated the crown to establish 

 them as a perpetual college, consisting of a 

 warden and fellows. Thereupon the petition 

 was granted, and it was ordained that the vicar 

 and his successors, and the fraternity chaplains 

 and their successors, should henceforth form a 

 perpetual corporate body, to implead and be im- 

 pleaded under the title of ' The Wardens and 

 Fellows of the College of All Saints, in the town 

 of Northampton.' They were entitled to acquire 

 augmentation of their funds to the value of 

 20 marks a year, without any fine or fee, and 

 were empowered to make statutes and ordinances 

 among themselves for celebrating mass, for divine 

 service, for the observance of good morals, and 

 the extirpation of evil, and for the good estate of 

 the king and queen and Prince Edward, and for 

 their souls after death.i 



The actual rules and statutes drawn up by 

 this self-denying band of town clergy have not 

 come down to us, but the kind of life they led 

 can be gleaned from some of the pre-Reforma- 

 tion wills cited by Mr. Serjeantson. Thus the 

 vicar of St. Giles, in 1531, left 'to every preste 

 dwelling within the college of all hallows goeing 

 to their comons a crysom to be ther napkyns.' 

 Agnes Tuttam, of All Saints parish, left, in 

 1 5 17, 'to an honest preste to syng in Saynt 

 James' chapell for a whole yere, he to bord in 

 ye college and kepe dayly servyng as hys bre- 

 theren do, viii marks sterlyng.' In 1528 

 Richard Bott bequeathed ' to the colege a gardyn 

 that William Dixson hathe. I will that they 

 synge a diryge and masse for me every yere. 

 Also I will that the Mayr offer at the masse and 

 take up viijd. of the forsayd gardyn.' 



1 Pat. 38 Hen. VI. pt. 2, m. I. A full transla- 

 tion of these letters patent appears in Mr. Serjeant- 

 son's Hist, of the Church of All Saints, Northampton 

 (1901) ; the 6th chapter of this work, pp. 67-72, 

 gives all the available information respecting this 

 college. 



The Valor of 1535 shows that the actual 

 clear annual value of the college (apart from the 

 stipends) in rents and dues was merely 39/. 4^. 

 From the same source we learn that the vicar, 

 who was also the warden, paid the college i6d. 

 for the privilege of having a private entrance.* 



The College and Chantry Commissioners of 

 Edward VI. describe this college, ' or prestes 

 house,' as the place for the habitation and 

 boarding of the vicar and priests serving the 

 church, and give its clear annual value of 

 34J. lod.^ 



The attenuated possessions of this college did 

 not save it from confiscation. The site of the 

 college was granted in 1548 to William Ward 

 and Richard Venables, and the fellows' garden 

 in College Lane, and another garden and stable 

 belonging to the college, were sold at the same 

 time to Francis Samwell ; they only realised 

 i8j. ^d. In the particulars of sale it is stated 

 ' there is no leadde belonging to the seyd college, 

 but there is one bell which hangeth on the hall 

 to call the Prestes to Dyner praysyd at Vj.' ■* 



Vicars of All Saints, who were Wardens 

 OF THE College = 



William Breton, S.T.P., died 1472 

 John Lumbery, S.T.P., died 1472 

 John Trentham, S.T.P., died 1475 

 Robert Medilham, S.T.P., died 1480 

 Hugh Myllyng, S.T.P., died 151 1 

 John Bell, M.A., died 1530 

 Thomas Malory, died 1539 

 William Ermystead, S.T.P., died 1545 



46. THE COLLEGE OF TOWCESTER 



William Sponne, rector of Towcester and 

 archdeacon of Norfolk, founded a small college 

 or chantry of two priests, to say mass for his 

 soul in the chapel at the east end of the south 

 aisle of the parish church. Licence was granted 

 for the endowment in 1448, the year after his 

 death.8 



In the year 1440 John Lord Clinton sold a 

 messuage in Towcester, called the Tabard, with 

 lands and appurtenances in the fields of Tow- 

 cester, Wood Burcote, and Caldecote, to William 

 Sponne, and Thomas Lane, clerk. Thomas 

 Lane, by deed dated January, 145 1, delivered 

 this messuage and lands to William Hall and 

 Nicholas Germayne, chaplains of Sponne's 

 chantry, and to thirteen other honest men, 

 parishioners of Towcester, according to the 

 request of Master Sponne, the income derived 

 from which should be spent in maintaining the 



s Falor Eccl. (Rec. Com.), iv. 315, 320. 

 3 Coll. and Chant. Cert. xxxv. 2 Edw. VI. 

 * Aug. Off. Misc. Bks. Ixviii. f. 404. 

 5 Serjeantson, All Saints, Northampton, 182. 

 <5 Pat. 27 Hen. VI. pt. I, m. 27. 



ISI 



