A HISTORY OF NOTTINGHAMSHIRE 



appears to be no evidence that there was any house 

 of Grey Friars at Newark prior to the days of 

 that king. His founding of the Newark house 

 of this severe order occurred about the year 

 1499.** By a codicil to his will, Henry VII in 

 1509 left j20O to the convent ' that by his 

 succour and aid was newly begun in the town of 

 Newark.' M 



In the Dodsworth MSS. occurs the mention 

 of ' Gabriel, fader of the Observant friers at 

 Newark.' M 



Among payments made by Henry VIII in 

 1538 there is entry of 40*. to Richard Lucas for 

 1 bringing one Bonaventure a friar of Newark.' ** 



Early in 1539 Dr. London, who was the 

 chief instrument of Henry VIII in the suppres- 



sion of the friars, wrote asking for a commission 

 from Cromwell to take the surrender of the 

 friars at Newark. 70 



The ex-friar Richard Ingworth, Bishop of 

 Dover, writing to Cromwell in March 1539 

 said that he had recently received ' to the king's 

 use' twelve houses of friars, one of which was 

 that of Newark ; they were all poor, each house 

 had a chalice of 6 to 10 oz., and those he had 

 with him. 



Richard Andrewes, of Hailes, Gloucestershire, 

 and Nicholas Temple were the recipients, in 

 July 1543, of much monastic property in the 

 Midlands : inter alia of the site, churchyard and 

 certain gardens of the ' late house of Augustinian 

 Friars ' in Newark, Notts. 71 



COLLEGES 



1 8. THE COLLEGE OF CLIFTON 



Sir Gervase Clifton in 1349 obtained licence 

 to give eleven messuages and certain lands in 

 Clifton and Stanton on the Wold, with the 

 advowson of the latter, to three chaplains cele- 

 brating divine service in the church of Clifton 

 by Nottingham, for the good estate of Sir Gervase 

 and of Isabel his wife. 1 



His great-great-grandson, Sir Robert Clifton, 

 began in 1476 to change this three-fold chantry 

 into a small collegiate establishment, increasing 

 the endowments and causing it to be dedicated to 

 the Holy Trinity. The three priests had a man- 

 sion in common, and the senior was termed the 

 warden. Sir Robert died in 1478, and the 

 founding of the college was concluded by his 

 son Sir Gervase, an esquire of the body to 

 Edward IV and a knight of the Bath at the 

 coronation of Richard III. 8 



Sir Gervase assigned certain lands to Lenton 

 Priory on condition that they paid 10 a year to 

 the warden of Clifton College to celebrate for 

 his soul and for the soul of William Booth, late 

 Archbishop of York. Sir Robert had married 

 Alice sister to the archbishop. This 10 is 

 entered among the annual outgoings of the 

 priory at the time of the Valor of 1534.* The 

 clear annual value of the college was at this time 

 entered as 20 2s. 6d. ; of which sum the warden, 

 John Fynnes, had 6 1 31. 4<f., and the two fel- 

 lows or chantry priests (John Hemsell and Thomas 

 Rusby) 6 each. 4 



* Co!/. Angh. Minorit. i, 21 1 ; ii, 39. 



* Brown, Hist, of Newark, 42. There can be no 

 doubt that this refers to the Observant Friary ; owing 

 to a misconception as to the word ' convent ' there 

 has been much idle local speculation as to the site of 

 this convent and as to the order to which it belonged. 



"Dods. MSS. (Bodl.), xcix, fol. aoo. 

 "Arundcl MSS. xcvii, fol. 28*. 

 "L.nJP. Hen. nil. xiv (i), 3. 



The suppression commissioners of 15478 

 returned the annual value as ^21 5*. lod. The 

 same warden and priests were resident.' 



19. THE CHANTRIES OR COLLEGE 

 OF NEWARK 



Although not styled a college in pre-Reforma- 

 tion documents, the coalition in common life of 

 a large number of chantry priests of the great 

 parish church of St. Mary Magdalen, Newark, 

 is more deserving of the name of college than 

 the much smaller foundations of a like kind in 

 Nottinghamshire, such as those of Ruddington, 

 Sibthorpe, Tuxford, or Clifton. It is therefore 

 thought well to give a brief sketch of these 

 combined chantries under Religious Houses. 



One of the earliest of these chantries was that 

 founded in 1330 at the altar of St. Laurence by 

 Maud Saucemer of Newark, for her soul when 

 dead, for her husband William, and for their 

 respective fathers and mothers. A rent of six 

 marks was to be paid out of the monastery of 

 Wellow by Grimsby. The presentation rested 

 with Maud for her life and then with the vicar 

 of Newark, taking counsel with six of the more 

 trusty parishioners, preference being given to the 

 kin of her and her husband. The chantry 

 priest was to work in harmony with the priest of 



n L. aid P. Hen. nil, xiv (i), 413. 



n Pat. 35 Hen. VIII, pt. iii, m. 12. There is no 

 other reference to any settlement of Austin Friars in 

 Newark, and it seems clear that it is a slip. The 

 seal attributed to the Austin Friars by Brown (Hist. 

 of Newark, 63) is shown by its legend to be that of a 

 secular cleric. 



1 Thoroton, Notts. \, 105-6. 



'Ibid. 106-7. 



' Vabr Eccl. (Rec. Com.), y, 149. 



4 Ibid, v, 167. 



1 Coll. and Chant. Cert. Notts, rrrvii. 



I 4 8 



