A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK 



PRIORS OF BLYTHBURGH 



Nicholas l 



Thomas s 



Osbert 3 



Roger 4 



Richard * 



Elias 6 



Wyth 7 



Guy, occurs 1 200, &c. 8 



William, occurs 1260, &c. 9 



Adam, occurs 1290 and I294 10 



Alexander de Donewych, appointed 1310" 



Nicholas de Daggeworth, appointed I332 12 



John de Norton, appointed 1361 ls 



Walter de Stanstede, appointed 1371 H 



John de Alveley, appointed I374 16 



William de Wykeham, appointed 1382 16 



Lawrence de Brysete, 1395 17 



John Hydyngham (Hethyngham), appointed 



1395 U 



John Lacy, appointed 1418 19 

 Thomas Hadley, resigned 1427 M 

 Roger Okham, appointed 1427 21 

 William Kent, appointed 1431 ~ n 

 John Sompton, died 1483^ 

 John Newton, appointed I483 24 

 John Brandon, appointed 1497 25 

 John Marham, appointed 1500 26 

 Robert Park, appointed I5o6 27 

 John Righton, appointed 1521 28 



An impression of the common seal of the 

 priory is attached to the acknowledgement of the 

 supremacy at the Public Record Office. It is 

 of large oval shape, and bears the Blessed Virgin, 

 with sceptre in right hand, and Holy Child on 

 left knee, with the legend : 



SIGILLUM . SANCTE . MARIE . DE . BLIEBURGH 



17. THE PRIORY OF BRICETT 



Ralph FitzBrian and Emma his wife, about 

 the year mo, founded a priory for Austin 



I Blyth. Chartul. fol. %b. Nicholas and the six 

 following priors are mentioned in undated grants, &c., 

 of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. 



' Ibid. fol. U, 36. ' Ibid. fol. 39^, 48. 



4 Ibid. 29. 'Ibid. 30. Ibid. 6ob. 



7 Ibid. 62. 'Ibid. fol. 30, 31,61. 



9 Ibid. fol. %b, 13, iob, 24, 52. 



10 Ibid. fol. 2,9, 2ob, 61. 



II Norw. Epis. Reg. i, 40; Blyth. Chartul. fol. 13, 

 24, 30^, 31. 



12 Norw. Epis. Reg. ii, 54. 

 "Ibid, v, 52 ; Blyth. Chartul. fol. ic,b. 

 "Norw. Epis. Reg. vi, 10. "Ibid, vi, 28. 



, " Ibid, vi, 85. " Ibid, vi, 202. 



18 Ibid, vi, 217 ; Blyth. Chartul. fol. 126. 



19 Norw. Epis. Reg. viii, 37. w Ibid, ix, 27. 



11 Ibid. " Ibid, ix, 49. " Ibid, xii, 99. 

 "Ibid. "Ibid, xii, 195. 26 Ibid. 

 "Ibid, xiii, 70. "Ibid, xiv, 170. 



canons at Bricett, which was dedicated to the 

 honour of St. Leonard. The foundation charter 

 endowed the priory with the tithes of Bricett 

 andof'Losa' with its chapel, a moiety of the 

 church of ' Stepla,' and the church of Stangate, 

 Essex, in addition to various plots of land in the 

 vicinity. The founder also gave to the canons 

 a large garden on the south of the monastery 

 and a smaller one on the east, and he ordained 

 that whenever he was in Suffolk the canons were 

 to act as his chaplains and to receive a tithe of 

 his bread and beer. 29 



These gifts, with slight additions, were con- 

 firmed to the canons both by the son and 

 grandson of the founder and by Sir Almaric 

 Peche, who married the great granddaughter 

 and heiress. In 1250, Walter bishop of Nor- 

 wich, with the assent of the prior and convent, 

 licensed a chantry in the chapel of Sir Almaric 

 and his lady, within the court of their house, on 

 condition that the chantry chaplain, at his first 

 coming, should swear, in the presence of the 

 prior, to restore to the mother church of Bricett 

 every kind of offering made in the chapel, 

 without any deduction, on the day or the day 

 after the offering was made ; and also that no 

 parishioner should be admitted to the sacrament 

 of penance or any other sacrament by the chap- 

 lain, save in peril of death. It was also stipulated 

 that Almaric and his wife and household and 

 their heirs should attend the mother church at 

 Christmas, Easter, Pentecost, the Assumption, 

 and St. Leonard's Day, and make the accustomed 

 offerings at high mass. 30 



Although the founder had enjoined that the 

 canons of this house were to be under the special 

 protection of the Bishop of Norwich, and that 

 the prior was to have the power of appointing 

 and removing canons, the priory of Bricett was 

 claimed, early in the thirteenth century, as 

 pertaining to the monastery of Nobiliac, in the 

 diocese of Limoges and the duchy of Berry. 31 

 This claim was resisted, but in 1295 an agree- 

 ment was arrived at favourable to the foreign 

 house, whereby Bricett became an alien priory ; 

 this composition was renewed and confirmed by 

 the Bishop of Norwich in the chapter-house of 

 Bricett, on 16 July, I3IO. 32 



The taxation roll of 1291 gives the annual 

 value of the temporalities of Bricett priory in 

 various Suffolk parishes and in Pentlow, Essex, 

 as ^13 18*. o^d. Under spiritualities there was 

 the church of Wattisham with an income of 

 .5 6s. 8d. and portions from Castle Acre of 

 ji 135. 4^., and from Wenham of 6*. 33 



19 Foundation Charter among King's Coll. Camb. 

 muniments. Cited in Dugdale, Mon. vi, 174. 

 50 Ibid. 174-5. 



31 Prynne, Pap, Usurp, iii, 682, 707. 

 s 'Bodl. Chart. Suff. 188. 

 33 Pope Nic6. Tax. (Rec. Com.), i-jb, 115, 117*, 



122, 124, 128, 128^,129^, I3O4, 131, 13 I>, 132, 133. 



94 



