A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK 



PRIORS OF WOODBRIDGE 



Ambrose, 1 occurs 1267 



Thomas, s occurs 1286 



Henry de Ocklee (Eccles), 3 1305 



John de Athelyngstone, 4 1326 



John Brundish, 1342 



William Bast, 1345 



John de Hadeley, 6 1349 



William Halton, 1349 



Henry de Brom, 8 1371 



Thomas de Croston, 7 1372, died 1394 



William de Melton, 8 1394 



Thomas Parham, 9 1432 



Nicholas Foster, 10 occurs 1447-52 



Thomas Pakkard, 11 1467 



John Hough alias Hadley, 12 1493 



Augustus Rivers, 13 1507 



Richard Bool, 1509 



Thomas Cooke, 16 1516 

 Henry Bassingborne, 17 1530 



The first seal of the priory, early fourteenth 

 century, bears the crowned Virgin seated on a 

 throne with a footboard, the Holy Child on the 

 left knee, and a sceptre in the right hand. 

 Legend : 



OMUNE : CAPITULI 

 WODEBRE. 



ECC E 



18 



DE 



The later seal, fifteenth century, represents 

 the Annunciation under a canopied niche. The 

 Blessed Virgin and the Archangel Gabriel have 

 a pot of lilies between them ; a scroll from the 

 latter bears ' Ave gracia pie.' In the base is a 

 Latin cross on a shield. Legend : 



+ SIGILLU : COE : CAP'LI : BTE : 



MARIE : DE : WODEBREGGE 



19 



HOUSES OF AUSTIN NUNS 



29. THE PRIORY OF CAMPSEY 



The priory of Campsey, or Campsey Ash, was 

 founded about the year 1195, by Theobald de 

 Valoines, who gave all his estate in that parish 

 to his two sisters Joan and Agnes, to the intent 

 they should build a monastery in honour of the 

 Blessed Virgin, for themselves and other religious 

 women. In accordance with his desire the 

 sisters built and established here a house of 

 Austin nuns, of which Joan became the first 

 prioress, Agnes succeeding her. King John 

 confirmed the grant of Theobald in January, 

 1203-4." 



Among the earliest subsequent benefactors 

 were Simon de Brunna and John L'Estrange 

 of Hunstanton, both of whom gave lands in 

 Tottington. 15 



In 1228-9 a dispute arose as to certain tithes 

 between the prioress and convent of Campsey 

 and the prior and convent of Butley, which was 

 in the first instance brought before the abbot 

 of St. Benet of Holme and other papal com- 

 missioners. The prioress and convent of 

 Campsey appealed again to Rome against the 

 decision, whereupon the commissioners excom- 

 municated them. Pope Gregory IX referred 

 the appeal to the prior of Anglesey and others ; 

 and the priory of Butley, because these judges 

 refused to admit the execution of the excom- 

 munication, obtained papal letters on that point 



1 Proc. Stiff. Arch. Inst. iv, 224. ' Ibid. 



3 Norw. Epis. Reg. i, 17. 



4 Ibid, ii, 2. 'Ibid, iv, 91. Ibid, vi, 9. 

 'Ibid, vi, 197. 'Ibid. 'Ibid, ix, 54. 



10 Bodl. Chart. Suff. 246, 247. 



11 Norw. Epis. Reg. xi, 163. 



"Ibid, xii, 1 68. "Ibid, xiv, 77. 



14 Chart. 5 John, m. 15, No. 124. 

 14 Stevens, Contin. of Man. i, 523. 



to the prior of Yarmouth and others. Before 

 this last commission, the prioress and convent 

 of Campsey pleaded that as the sentence was 

 issued after the appeal, every excommunicated 

 person being allowed to defend himself, the 

 other judges had acted rightly in refusing to 

 admit the execution. The prior of Yarmouth 

 and his colleagues declined to receive such plea, 

 and the prioress again appealed to the pope. 

 Eventually, in June, 1230, the original papal 

 order against the nuns of Campsey was enforced, 

 whereby the small tithes of the church of 

 Dilham and of the mill of the same place 

 were to be paid to the priory of Butley. 20 



The taxation roll of 1291 shows that the 

 temporalities of this priory were by that date 

 widely scattered over Suffolk, with certain lands 

 and rents in Norfolk and Essex ; their total 

 annual value was assessed at 6j 3*. 3!^. The 

 value of the four churches then appropriated, 

 Allesby (Lincoln), Tottington (Norfolk), and 

 Ludham and Bruisyard, was ^40, giving a total 

 of 107 3*. 3 fc/ 



The steady way in which the endowments of 

 this house increased during the fourteenth century 

 bears testimony to the good repute of the nuns. 

 Licence was granted in 1 3 1 9 to the prioress and 

 nuns at the request of Robert de Ufford to 

 acquire lands and tenements to the annual value 

 of jiO ; and in the same year the convent 

 obtained grants in Bruisyard and adjacent 

 parishes, worth j ijs. 8d. a year. 23 



16 Tanner Norw. MSS. " Ibid. 



18 Cott. Chart, xxi, 44. 



19 B.M. Cast, Ixxii, 16. Engraved in Proc. Suff. 

 Arch. Inst. iv, 224. 



10 Cal. Pap. Reg. i, 121-4. 



81 Pope Nich. Tax. (Rec. Com.), 27, 29, 58, 676, 83, 

 95, 97*, 102, 103, ii2*, 1 1 6b, 119*, 124*, 131*. 

 "Pat. 13 Edw. II, m. 15, 30. 



112 



