A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK 



John de Farnham, appointed 1380 l 

 Thomas de Fakenham, appointed 1391 s 

 Silvester Bolton, appointed 1431 3 

 John Eye, appointed 1433 * 

 Thomas Cambrigg, appointed 1440* 

 Thomas Norwych, appointed 1462* 

 Augustine Sceltone, occurs 1487 7 

 Richard Norwich, occurs 1492* 

 Richard Bettys, occurs 1520' 

 John Eia, occurs I526 10 

 William Hadley, occurs 1532" 

 William Parker, surrendered 1536-7" 



The first seal of the priory represents St. Peter, 

 full length, in the right hand two keys, and in 

 the left an open book. Over his shoulders are a 

 crescent and a star. Legend : 



t SIGILL' 



NTUS. SAN 



3. THE PRIORY OF DUNWICH 



In early days the monastery of Eye, to which 

 all the churches of Dunwich had been assigned 

 by the Conquerer, possessed a cell or small priory 

 in that town. It was swallowed up by the sea 

 about the time of Edward I. Leland states that 

 the monks of Eye, in his days, possessed an 

 ancient textus or book of the Gospels, brought 

 from this cell, called in later days, ' The Red 

 Book of Eye,' which had belonged to St. Felix. 14 



Gardner, writing in 1754, makes mention of 

 what was probably the last trace of this cell. 

 Common or Covent Garden, abutting on Sea- 

 Field, was a plot of ground whereon grew large 

 crops of thyme, &c., which created in many people 

 a belief that it was a garden for the service of the 

 whole town. But the name rather implies the 

 foundation of some convent thereabouts. Also 

 mention is made of a cell of monks at Dunwich 

 subordinate to Eye, destroyed some ages past, so 

 possibly it was a curtilage appertaining to the 

 religious house. And as the sea made encroach- 

 ments thereupon many human bones were dis- 

 covered, whereby part thereof manifestly appeared 

 to have been a place of sepulture, which was 

 washed away in the winter Ann. Dom. I74O. 15 



1 Norwich Epis. Reg. vi, 71. 



Ibid, vi, 158. 



Ibid, ix, 51. 4 Ibid, ir, 68. 



Ibid, x, 36. 



Ibid, xi, 134. 



Harl. MS. 639, fol. 64*. 



Cott. MS. xxvii, fol. 90^. 



Jessopp, Visit. 183. w Ibid. 221. 



" Ibid. 295. 

 11 Pensioned ; L. and P. Hen. VIII, xii (i), 5 10. 



13 B.M. Cast Ixxi, p. 109 ; Dugdale, Mon. iii, 

 pt. xix, fig. 5, from Harl. Chart. 44, D. 42. 



14 Leland, Collectanea, iv, 26. 



" Gardner, Hist, of Dunwich, 62. For further parti- 

 culars see under ' Priory of Eye.' 



7 6 



4. THE PRIORY OF EDWARD- 

 STONE 



The story of the small short-lived priory of 

 Edwardstone can soon be told. Hubert de Mon- 

 chesney, lord of the manor, gave the church of 

 Edwardstone, in the year 1114, with all its 

 appurtenances, to the abbot and monks of Abing- 

 don, Berks. In the following year this grant 

 was confirmed by Henry I, in whose charter 

 mention is also made of two parts of the tithes of 

 'Stanetona' and ' Stanesteda,' of the tithes of mills 

 and underwood, and of pannage for pigs, &c. 

 A further confirmation was granted by the Arch- 

 bishop of Canterbury. 16 



Hence it came to pass that two or more Bene- 

 dictine monks were placed at Edwardstone to 

 hold it as a priory or cell of Abingdon. This 

 arrangement, however, only lasted until 1160. 

 In that year Hugh de Monchesney, the son of 

 the founder, with the assent of his own son and 

 heir Stephen, allowed the removal of these 

 two monks, at the wish of Abbot Wathelin, 

 to the larger priory or cell of Colne in Essex. 17 

 Colne itself became an independent priory in 

 1311. 



5. THE PRIORY OF HOXNE 



A small religious house existed at Hoxne in 

 pre-Norman times, dedicated in honour of St. 

 Athelbright ; it is mentioned in the will of 

 Bishop Theodred II, in 962. Probably it formed 

 part of the bishop's manor of Hoxne, for Bishop 

 Herbert, of Norwich, founded here a cell in 

 1101, in connexion with the great Benedictine 

 cathedral priory, which Ralph, the sewer, rebuilt 

 from the ground. 18 



Bishop Herbert's charter granted the parish 

 church of St. Peter, Hoxne, and the chapel of 

 St. Edmund, king and martyr, to the monks of 

 Norwich, and the cell and priory were removed 

 to the immediate vicinity of the historic chapel 

 under Bishop de Blunville, who was conse- 

 crated in 1226. Bishop Roger de Skarning in 

 1267 consecrated a churchyard for the priory. 

 The house consisted of a prior, removable at will 

 by the prior and convent of Norwich, and seven 

 or eight monks. The monks kept a school for 

 the children of the parish, and supported or 

 boarded two of the scholars. 19 



"Abingdon Chartul. (Cott. MS. Claud. B, vi), 

 fol. 137. 



17 Dugdale, Mon. iv, 96, 101. 



13 Proc. Buff. Arch. Inst. vii, 41. 



19 Blomefield, Hist. ofNorf. iii, 607-10. Blomefield 

 had access to a chartulaiy of Hoxne, which was then 

 (1743) in the hands of Mr. Martin of Dalgrave, and 

 from which he took his information as to the succession 

 of the priors and the gifts of benefactors. This 

 chartulary cannot now be traced. 



