RELIGIOUS HOUSES 



PRIORESSES OF REDLINGFIELD 



Emma (probably daughter of the founder), 

 c. 1 1 20 1 



Alice Davolers, temp. Henry III a 



Margery, 1303-1 4 3 



Agnes de Stuston, 1314* 



Julia de Weylond, 1331 * 



Alice Wynter de Oxford, 1349 



Eleanor de Bockynge, 1394 7 



Ellen Hakon, died 1416" 



Margaret Hemenhale, 1416 9 



Elizabeth Clopton, died 1419 10 



Isabel Hermyte, 141 9 u 



Alice Lampit, 1427 12 



Alice Brakle, 1459 13 



Margaret, died 1482 u 



Alice Legatte, 1482 15 



Margery Cokrose, I52O 1S 



Grace Sampson, 1524 lr 



There is a poor impression of the twelfth- 

 century seal of this house attached to a charter. 

 It is a pointed oval, and represents the Blessed 

 Virgin with the Holy Child on her knees. 

 The only word of the legend remaining is 



R.ADELING. 18 



ii. THE PRIORY OF ST. GEORGE, 

 THETFORD 



There was an old religious house on the Suf- 

 folk side of Thetford founded by Uvius, the first 

 abbot of Bury St. Edmunds in the days of Cnut. 

 It was said to have been founded in memory of 

 the English and Danes who fell in a great battle 

 near by between King Edmund and the Danish 

 leaders Ubba and Hingwar. It was served by 

 canons who officiated in the church of St. George 

 as a cell of St. Edmunds. About the year 1 160, 

 in the days of Abbot Hugh, Toleard and An- 

 drew, the two surviving religious of this cell, 

 depressed with poverty, visited the abbot and ex- 

 pressed their strong desire to withdraw. At 

 their suggestion the abbot and convent of St. 

 Edmunds resolved to admit to the Thetford 

 house certain Benedictine nuns who were then 

 living at Ling, Norfolk. The bishop of Nor- 

 wich, the archdeacon of Canterbury, and the 

 sheriffs of Norfolk and Suffolk gave these ladies 

 and their prioress Cecilia an excellent character, 

 and the change was solemnly effected. 



1 Add. MS. 19099, fol. job. ' Ibid. 



3 Ibid. 19090, fol. 70; Pat. 7 Edw. II, pt. ii, 

 m. 19. 



4 Ibid. m. 1 8. s Norw. Epis. Reg. ii, 43. 



8 Ibid, iv, 93. Ibid, vi, 195. 



8 Ibid, viii, 22. ' Ibid. I0 Ibid, viii, 46. 



"Ibid. "Ibid, ix, 27. "Ibid, xi, 112. 



14 Ibid, xii, 97. u Ibid. 



16 Ibid, xiv, 60. " Ibid, xiv, 190. 

 18 Add. Chart. 10640. 



The abbot assigned to these nuns, at the time 

 of the transfer, the Thetford parish churches of 

 St. Benedict and All Saints, his rights in Favertin 

 Fields, and whatever else belonged to the abbey 

 of Bury within the limits of Thetford. As an 

 acknowledgement of this, the nuns were to pay 

 yearly 4*. to the abbey infirmary. The prioress 

 undertook to be in all respects faithful and obe- 

 dient to the abbot. 19 



Maud, countess of Norfolk and Warrenne gave 

 to these nuns in her widowhood a rent of three 

 marks out of her mill at Cesterford, Essex, to- 

 wards their clothing. 20 



Pope Nicholas's taxation gave the annual 

 value of the temporalities of this house as 

 72 gj. 4</. 21 



The 1535 Valor gave the spiritualities in Nor- 

 folk as 4 15*. id., and those in Suffolk at 

 ji3 i6j. 8d., the temporalities in the two coun- 

 ties as 31 14;. i i^d. ; but from this sum there 

 were various deductions, the largest of which 

 was j5 6s. 8d. to their chaplain, so that the clear 

 annual value only amounted to 40 in. 2iW., 23 

 which was a great drop from the earlier valua- 

 tion. The reason for this depreciation becomes 

 clear from the statement made by Martin with 

 regard to the taxing of the religious houses in 

 the reign of Henry VI. At that time the nuns 

 of Thetford were excused ; their petition for 

 relief stated that their revenues both in Norfolk 

 and Suffolk were much decreased by recent mor- 

 tality and had so continued since 1349, and that 

 their possessions in Cranwich deanery had suffered 

 much from inundations. 23 



In 1214 the abbey of Bury granted the nuns 

 seven loaves and 2d. in money, to be given them 

 every Sunday by their almoner for the corrody 

 of Margaret Nonne. 24 



From the first establishment of the nuns at 

 Thetford, the cumbersome plan had been adopted 

 of sending weekly supplies from Bury St. Ed- 

 munds (a distance of about twelve miles) not only 

 of bread and beer but even of cooked meat 

 (fercula). The thirteenth-century custumary of 

 the abbey states that thirty-five loaves and ninety- 

 six gallons of beer were sent weekly to Thet- 

 ford. 25 Owing to the not infrequent robberies 

 and assaults on the servants and wagons of the 

 convent conveying this weekly dole on a long 

 journey, and to the occasional unsatisfactory state 

 of the provisions on arrival, it was agreed in 1369 

 that henceforth, instead of forwarding bread, 

 beer, and dressed provisions, the abbey should 



19 Dugdale, Man. iv, 4778, where the original ac- 

 count of the foundation is set forth at length, from 

 Harl. MS. 743, fol. 219. 



80 Maddox, Hist, of Essex, 33. 



11 Taxatio (Rec. Com.), 109. 



** Vakr Eccl. (Rec. Com.), iii, 3 14. 



" Martin, Hist, of Thetford, 106. 



" Ibid. 10 1. 



K Harl. MS. 3977, fol. 25. 



