A HISTORY OF NOTTINGHAMSHIRE 



On 17 October 1290 the episcopal licence 

 was issued to the sub-prior and convent to choose 

 a prior in the place of Gilbert de Ponteburg, 

 who had resigned. On 2O November the arch- 

 bishop quashed the election of Alexander de 

 Gedling as prior because of canonical informali- 

 ties in the form of procedure, but himself pro- 

 vided him to the office. He issued his mandate 

 to the sub-prior and convent to yield due 

 obedience to Alexander and to the archdeacon to 

 install him. 37 



In February 1292-3 an archiepiscopal man- 

 date was issued to the prior not to allow his 

 canons to go outside the priory precincts. 38 



Notice of visitation of this priory on 14 January 

 1293-4 by the archbishop was given on the 6th 

 of the previous December. 39 There are no con- 

 sequent injunctions registered, so it may be 

 assumed that all was well. 



In February 12945 the prior and convent 

 received another letter relative to Richard 

 Maulovel, the canon who several years previously 

 had left this Austin house desirous of entering 

 one of a stricter rule. Since that time he had 

 been wandering about far and wide among 

 various religious houses under pretext of seeking 

 admission and then causing a scandal. The 

 priory were ordered to receive him back till he 

 found another house, but not to admit him to 

 the cloister. 40 



A letter was addressed by the archbishop in 

 September 1295 to the prior on behalf of Hugh 

 de Farndon, a canon of the house, who was in a 

 miserable plight, urging his readmission to under- 

 go due penance. 41 



In 1304 the prior was admonished by Arch- 

 bishop Greenfield to resign, but the convent 

 besought that he might be retained, pleading the 

 expense of a new election. Some of the canons 

 sent a letter to this effect to the diocesan, but it 

 lacked the common seal. The archbishop 

 ordered them to hold an election, and their choice 

 fell on John de Hikeling. The archbishop, 

 however, quashed this election on the ground of 

 informality, and the convent then chose John de 

 Ruddeston. This election was also quashed on 

 the like grounds, but the archbishop duly collated 

 Ruddeston to the office, as he thought him a 

 worthy man. 42 



In 1312 Archbishop Greenfield absolved 

 Walter Bingham from being Prior of St. Oswald 

 (Nostell), and he returned to the monastery of 

 Thurgarton, of which he was a canon. 43 



Archbishop Greenfield, 1311, sanctioned the 

 appropriation to this priory of the churches of 

 Thurgarton, Owthorpe, Tythby, Hoveringham, 

 Sutton, and Granby. 44 



" York Epis. Reg. Romanus, fol. 76 d. 



58 Ibid. fol. 79. " Ibid. fol. 83. 



40 Ibid. fol. 84. " Ibid. fol. 84 d. 



Harl. MS. 6970, fol. 101. 



Ibid. fol. 130^. " Ibid. fol. 146^. 



The church of Gotham was appropriated to 

 Thurgarton Priory by the archbishop's licence on 

 I July 1350, the plea being the poverty of the 

 house through the ravages of the plague. The 

 archbishop was careful to secure for himself and 

 his successors a pension from the church of 4 

 marks, and another of 2 marks for the chapter of 

 York. 4 " 



Boniface IX in 1402 granted power to the 

 prior and convent and their successors to rent, 

 let, farm, or sell to clerks or laymen all fruits, 

 tithes, and oblations of churches, chapels, and 

 other possessions without requiring the licence of 

 ordinaries. 48 In December of the same year 

 the priory obtained an indult from the pope to 

 have made anew in their dormitory as many cells 

 as might be expedient for the sleeping of their 

 canons ; such cells, when made, were not to be 

 changed in the future. 47 



The same pope in 1403 granted the petition of 

 the priory that as they were bound to find and 

 keep at their own cost a secular priest and to 

 depute a canon of their house to celebrate at 

 certain altars in the priory church for the souls 

 of Thomas Horoft (sic) and Walter de Elineton, 

 laymen, who were buried therein the prior and 

 his successors might depute at pleasure, for these 

 celebrations, two secular priests or two canons of 

 the priory in priests' orders. 48 



Licence was granted in 1431 for Alice widow 

 of Sir William Ueyncourt to found a perpetual 

 chantry for daily celebration at the altar of St. 

 Anne in the conventual church of St. Peter, 

 Thurgarton, for the good estate of the king and 

 the founder and their souls after death, and for 

 the souls of the said William and of John 

 Deyncourt, knight, and Jean his wife, and of 

 Alice's relatives and friends, and for all the faith- 

 ful departed. The chaplain to receive a yearly 

 rental of lOOJ., and the advowson of the chantry 

 to be in the hands of the Prior and Convent of 

 Thurgarton. 49 



The Prior of Thurgarton by an old-established 

 custom had a right to a stall in the quire of the 

 great collegiate church of Southwell, and this 

 would carry with it, we suppose, a right to a 

 seat in the chapter-house. The origin of this is 

 not known with any precision. Mr. Leach 

 says : ' How or when the prior got in is a 

 mystery,' and suggests that it may have originated 

 as a matter of courtesy, in 1225, in return for 

 the priory having given up Rolleston Church to 

 the archbishop for Southwell. 80 This is probably 

 the solution of the difficulty ; but it is much 

 more likely that the seat was at that time de- 

 finitely assigned to the prior as a part of the 



"Ibid. 697 1, fol. i nl>. 



46 Cal. of Papal Letters, v, 510. 



" Ibid. 546. 



48 Ibid. 601. 



" Pat. 9 Hen. VI, pt. i, m. 3. 



M Leach, Visit, of Southwell, xxix. 



124 



