RELIGIOUS HOUSES 



Nicholas de Monesle, 1 1362 

 John de Hereford, 2 1389 

 John de Welles, 3 1395 

 Thomas Lakynghithe, 4 1430 

 Reginald Tylney, 6 1439 

 William Dense, 6 1467 

 John Ive, 7 1484 

 Godwin Bury, 8 occurs 1493 

 Richard Gotts, 8 1504 

 John Gerves, 10 occurs 1514, died 1 536 n 

 William Blome, 12 elected 1536, surrendered 

 same year 



The first seal of this priory is a small pointed 

 oval bearing the Blessed Virgin seated on a throne 

 with the Holy Child on the left knee and a 

 sceptre in the right hand. There is hardly any 

 of the lettering remaining in either of the two 

 impressions at the British Museum. 13 



The second (fifteenth-century seal) is very 

 elaborate. It bears the Assumption of the 

 Virgin in a vesica of clouds uplifted by four 

 angels. Above is the Trinity (three half- 

 length crowned persons side by side) in the 

 clouds. On the left of the Virgin is a bishop 

 with mitre and staff, and on the right a saint with 

 nimbus and a long cross. Below are the arms 

 of Montchesny, benefactor, and of Blount, 

 founder. Legend : 



SIGILLO : COMMUNE : COVE' : BTE : MARIE : 



DE : IXWORTHE lt 



25. THE PRIORY OF KERSEY 



Neither the date of the foundation nor the 

 name of the founder of this small priory of 

 Austin canons, dedicated to the honour of the 

 Blessed Virgin and St. Anthony, is known. 

 The earliest record of it occurs in 1219 in con- 

 nexion with lands in Semer. 15 



Among the muniments of King's College, 

 Cambridge, are several charters showing that 

 Thomas de Burgh and his wife Nesta were the 

 chief early benefactors of this house. Thomas 

 de Burgh granted them all his patrimony in the 

 town of Lindsey. By another charter, Thomas 

 and Nesta his wife granted three acres of arable 

 land in Groton. His widow Nesta de Cockfield 

 made several considerable grants to the canons 



1 Norw. Epis. Reg. vi, 86. 



' Ibid. 40. ' Ibid. 198. 



4 Ibid, ix, 43. * Ibid, x, 23. 



6 Ibid, xi, 1 66. 7 Ibid, xii, 109. 



8 Jessopp, Visit. 44. 9 Norw. Epis. Reg. xiii, 33. 



10 Jessopp, Visit. 84. 



11 L. and P. Hen. Fill, x, 89. 



'" Misc. Bks. (Aug. Off.), ccxxxii, fol. 31. 

 " Harl. Chart. 44 E. 50 and 51. 

 " Engraved, Pnc. Suff. Arch. Inst. \, p. 86 ; B. Mus. 

 Cast, Ixxii, 3. 

 16 Feet of F. Suff. 3 Hen. Ill, No. 29. 



of Kersey. By the first she granted them the 

 mother church of Kersey, with all its appurte- 

 nances, eight acres adjoining the cemetery on the 

 south, the two and a half acres on which the 

 house was founded, a messuage where the hospital 

 (damns hospitalis] stood, &c. By the same charter 

 she granted the tithes of her mills at Cockfield, 

 Lindsey, and Kersey, to sustain the light of this 

 chapel. Nesta took for her second husband John 

 deBeauchamp; they jointly, in 1 240, confirmed 

 and increased the grants to the priory of lands 

 and pasture in Lindsey and Kersey, and con- 

 firmed to them the church of Kersey. After 

 Nesta was widowed for the second time she 

 gave the canons the church of Lindsey in order 

 that they might better relieve the poor who 

 flocked there once every week. In her last charter 

 she desired that her body might be buried in the 

 conventual church, and gave the canons further 

 lands, with customary service, in Lindsey and 

 Kersey. 16 



The taxation roll of 1291 gives the annual 

 value ot the priory as ^33 6s. "]d. ; the spiritu- 

 alities were the rectory of Lindsey 6 135. 3^., 

 and a portion of is. from Pentlow church, 

 Essex ; the remainder was in lands and rents, 

 chiefly at Kersey and Lindsey, and at Benfleet, 

 Essex, with a mill and fisheries at Boxford. 

 The priory only held the advowson of the church 

 of Kersey. 17 



John del Brok obtained licence, under fine of 

 five marks, to alienate in 1338 to the prior and 

 convent property in Kersey and adjoining 

 parishes to find a chaplain to celebrate daily for 

 the souls of his ancestors. 18 



In 1347 the prior of Kersey, out of com- 

 passion for the leanness of the priory, whose 

 possessions did not suffice for the support of the 

 prior and canons, was excused his portion of the 

 tenths granted the king by the province of Can- 

 terbury for the four terms that had passed and 

 for the coming year. 19 



The advowson or patronage of the priory went 

 with the manor of Kersey, and was granted, in 

 1331, by the trustees of Edmund, late earl of 

 Kent, to Thomas de Weston to hold for life, 

 being subsequently held, in the same reign, by 

 Thomas de Holand and Joan his wife ; in the 

 time of Richard II by Thomas de Holand and 

 Alice his wife ; and in the time of Henry IV by 

 Elizabeth, wife of John, late earl of Kent. 

 The next patron was Sir Henry de Grey, Lord 

 Powys, and in 1444 he obtained permission to 

 grant it to the college of St. Mary and St. 

 Nicholas (afterwards King's), Cambridge. 20 



" These six charters, from King's Coll. Camb., are 

 cited in Dugdale, Man. vi, pp. 592-3. 



17 PopeNich. Tax. (Rec. Com.), i6b, lU, 24^, 104^ 



107^, 122, 125, 128^, 1203, 132^, 133. 



18 Pat. 12 Edw. Ill, pt. i, m. 37. 



19 Ibid. pt. ii, m. 2. 



- Copinger, Hist, of Suff. iii, 395-7. 



I0 7 



