A HISTORY OF NORTHAMPTONSHIRE 



Abbey or St. Janus, 

 Northampton. Party 

 argent and guUs a 

 scallop or. 



tury by William Peverel. It lay outside the liberties, 



but in the suburb, and owned much property in the 



town. The only trace remaining to-day is the 



name Abbey Street ; a small part of the Abbey wall 



on the Weedon Road, near the point where the 



roads to Duston and Upton divide, was entirely taken 



down in 1927.'^ The great barn of the abbey was 



described by Henry Lee (1715) as ' one of the greatest 



and stateliest barns of England. A carriage with 



grain could stand in one of its southern porches, 



as I have seen, before it was 



shaken down and the material 



sold.'*' He adds that the 



abbot of St. James' entertained 



travellers coming from the 



west, as the prior of St. 



Andrew's entertained those 



coming from the north, the 



town inns being often ' very 



ordinary.' From early in the 



13th century the two houses 



were much used for monastic 



gatherings. Twenty at least of 



the triennial general chapters 



of the Austin Canons were 



held at St. James' between 



1237 and 1446, and thirty-nine of the forty general 



chapters of the Benedictine order between 1338 and 



1498 were held at St. Andrew's, though a Cluniac 



house.*'* 



THE FR.4.\CISCAN^^ first settled in Northamp- 

 ton in 1226. Valuable details as to the foundation of 

 the house are to be found in the Phillips MS. of 

 Eccleston, not yet in print when the previous volume 

 of this history was written, which contains a number 

 of marginal notes specially bearing on Northampton. 

 The first two friars arriving in the town in 1226 were 

 received by Sir Richard Gobion, ' who settled them 

 outside the east gate on his own hereditary estate 

 near St. Edmund's Church.'*' The knight's own son 

 John was one of the first to take the habit, and in 

 consequence the angry parents ordered the friars to 

 depart. The humble acquiescence of the brothers 

 and their poverty, however, so touched Gobion's 

 heart that he relented and allowed them to stay. About 

 1235 the friars moved into the town, where the towns- 

 folk had given them a site in St. Sepulchre's parish, 

 and thenceforward a series of grants from their 

 devoted patron Henry III of timber for building 

 are found on the Close Rolls."' By 1258 the friary was 

 complete, and the brothers began building a house 

 for their schools. The Greyfriars' site, ' the best 

 builded and largest House of all the places of the 

 freres,' according to Leland," was almost due north 



of the market place, near the present Greyfriars 

 Street. Traces of interments were found in 1849, 

 1887 and 1889,'* in Princess Street, showing conclu- 

 sively that the cemetery lay between Newland and 

 the south side of Princess Street, on the site of the 

 present Temperance Hall and Masonic Hall. The 

 well also was discovered, and is under the present 

 Masonic H.ill. 



A house of POOR CLARES or SISTERS MINOR, 

 the first in England, existed for a short time in North- 

 ampton. From 1252 to 1272 the sheriff of Northants 

 is ordered to provide the sisters with five tunics of 

 russet every two years. They are described as 

 dwelling near the Friars Preachers, that is, not far 

 from the Mayorhold. Nothing is known of the house 

 beyond the references on the Close and Liberate 

 Rolls, first noted by Mr. Serjeantson in 191 1.*^ 



The FRIARS OF THE SACK^ also had a house 

 in Northampton, founded by Sir Nicholas de Cogenhoe 

 in the reign of Henry III. In 1271 they received a 

 grant from the king for the building of their church.'"* 

 From the returns to the inquest of 1274-5 it appears 

 that their house was in the south-east quarter, 

 between the Derngate and ' Dandeline's court,' 

 wherever that was.** The friary came to an end 

 before 1303," and the order itself was suppressed in 

 1307. 



THE DOMINICANS*'' first settled in North- 

 ampton about 1230, and began building about 1233, 

 assisted by a series of grants from Henry III, from 

 1233 to 1270.** The house was large enough for a 

 provincial chapter to be held there in 1239." The 

 building of ' studies ' is mentioned in 1258.* Building 

 continued through the reigns of Edward I and Edward 

 II, and in 1310 the friars obtained a license from the 

 bishop to have six superaltars in their church.* 

 The royal chancery was estabhshed in the Black- 

 friars' Church from 31 July to 6 August 1338.' 

 No traces of the house are left ; it was situated on 

 the east side of the Horsemarket and its precincts 

 came down to Gold Street.* 



If the later tradition can be trusted,* by which 

 Simon de Montfort was one of their first benefactors, 

 THE WHITE FRIARSO must have settled in North- 

 ampton by 1261; ; they were certainly here by 1270, 

 when Simon dcPateshull was bcstowinglands on them.' 

 An inquest of 1278* shows that their house was near 

 the town wall, and they were making additions to 

 it both at that date and in 1299.' In 1310 they 

 obtained leave to have six altars in their church,*' 

 and four provincial chapters were held in it in the 

 course of the 14th century. The site of their house 

 was in the parish of St. Michael," near the top of 

 Wood Street, formerly called Whitefriars Lane, 



•♦ Ibid. p. 262. The position indicated 

 by Dr. Cox in hit map, horo. Rec, vol. ii, 

 ii definitely incorrect. 



" Lee, Coll. p. 92. 



•'• H. E. Salter, Cbapten of the Augiu- 

 linian Canoni(Oxl. Hist. Soc), pp. xiii-xli ; 

 W. A. Pantin, Tram. Royal Hut. Soc. 

 4th Ser. X, 251-5. 



"y.C.H. Norihant,. ii, 146-7; Ser- 

 jeantion, Hiit. of the Six Hoiuei of Friars 

 in Nortbampt. (191 1). 



'• Eccleston, De /Idvrntu Fratrum Mino- 

 runi, ed. A. G. Little (Paris, 1909), p. 29. 



'•" Serjeantson, op. cit. pp. 47, gives 

 full references. 



*° Itinerary^ i, 10. 



" Aiioc. Arch. Soc. Reps. 1887-8, pp. 

 12 1-4, contains a full .iccount of the 

 excavations, by Sir H. Drydcn. 



•* Serjeantson, /Itst. of the Six Houses 

 of Friars in Northampt. 



•' Ibid. 



" Close R. sfillcn. Ill.ni. 10. 



" Rot. Himd. ii, 3. 



•• Close R. 31 Ed. i, m. 10. 



" y.C.H. Northants. ii, 144-6 ; Ser- 

 jeantson, op. cit. 



•• Ibid. 



" Liberate R. 23 Hen. Ill, mm. 5, R. 



' ClotcR. 42 Hen. HI, m. 2. 



• Line. Epis. Reg. Dalderby, Mem. 

 fo. 162. 



' Close R. 12 Ed. Ill, pt. 2, m. 20 d. 



• Serjeantson, op. cit. The position 

 indicated by Dr. Cox upon the map in 

 Boro. Rec. vol. ii, is incorrect. 



° Tanner, Notitia Monaslica ; cf. Boro. 

 Rec. i, 360. 



' V.C.H. Northants. ii, 148-9; Ser- 

 jeantson, op. cit. 



' Rot. Ihind. ii, 2. 



" y.C.H. Northants. ii, 148. 



• Pat. R. 27 Ed I, m. 3:. 



'» Line. Epis. Reg. Dalderby, Mem. 

 fl. 162, 171. " Boro. Rec. i, 360. 



