RELIGIOUS HOUSES 



of St. Mary at Quay (Star Lane), and in width 

 from east to west, from Foundation Street to 

 the town wall, parallel with the Lower Wash. 



The convent accommodated, in the thirteenth 

 century, over fifty religious, as can be gathered 

 from the amount of the food grants made by 

 royalty. When Edward I was at Ipswich in 

 April, 1277, he gave the Dominicans an alms of 

 14.5. lod. for two days' sustenance. In Decem- 

 ber, 1296, the king gave four marks for the food 

 of four days, and in the following January one 

 mark for a single day's food. 1 



Father Palmer has set out a large number of 

 bequests to the Ipswich Dominicans of small 

 sums of money for masses, from the townsfolk 

 and others, from 1378 to the very eve of their 

 suppression. 8 



The following burials in this church are 

 recorded by Weever : Dame Maud Burell, 

 Edmund Saxham, esquire, John Fastolph and 

 Agnes his wife, Gilbert Roulage, Jone Chamber, 

 and Edmund Charlton, esquire. He also adds 

 the following, whose names are on the martyr- 

 ology register of the Black Friars' benefaction : 

 The Lord Roger Bigot, earl-marshal, Sir John 

 Sutton, knight, Lady Margaret Plays, Sir Richard 

 Plays, and Sir Robert Ufford, earl of Suffolk, who 

 died in 1369.* 



The name of one fourteenth-century prior of 

 this house is known. In June, 1397, the master- 

 general of the order declared that Brother John 

 de Stanton was the true prior here, and not Brother 

 William. 4 



I n X 535~6 Edmund, the prior of the Domini- 

 cans of Ipswich, leased a garden next one of the 

 gates of their house to Henry Toley, merchant, 

 of Ipswich, and Alice his wife. 6 



Towards the end of 1537 the prior and 

 convent leased for ninety years a dwelling-house 

 and garden to Sir John Willoughby, knt., and 

 other dwelling-houses, including a building called 

 ' le Fraytof,' to different persons. 8 



This action points to a considerable diminution 

 in the number of the friars, and also to an 

 expectancy of dissolution. 



The suffragan Bishop of Dover (an ex-friar) 

 suppressed this house, as royal visitor, in Novem- 

 ber, 1538.' 



On the expulsion of the community, William 

 Aubyn, one of the king's serjeants-at-arms, 

 became tenant of the site and buildings, worth 

 50*. id. a year ; and the whole was sold to him 

 in 1541 for 24..* 



1 Rot. Gard. de oblat. et eleemos. reg. 5 Edw. I, 

 25 Edw. I. 



2 Reliquary (new ser.), i, 72-5. 



3 Weever, Funeral Monuments, 750-2. 



4 Reg. Mag. gen. ord., at Rome, cited by Father 

 Palmer. 



' Hist. MSS. Com. Rep. ix, 236. ' Ibid. 



7 L. and P. Hen. fill, xiii, pt. i, 1021. 



8 Pat. 33 Hen. VIII, pt. vii, m. 7. 



The matrix of the thirteenth-century seal of 

 this priory is in the Bodleian Library. It bears- 

 a half-length of the Blessed Virgin, with the 

 Holy Child in her arms, and in an arch below 

 the figure of a kneeling friar. Legend : 



CO VENT 



: FR M : PREDICATORUM 

 GIPPESWICI 9 



36. 



THE DOMINICAN FRIARS OF 

 SUDBURY 



The Friars Preachers were established at 

 Sudbury by Baldwin de Shipling and Chabil his 

 wife, who were afterwards interred in the quire 

 of the conventual church, which was dedicated 

 to our Saviour. 10 They were settled here before 

 1247, for in that year Henry III gave them six 

 marks towards their support. 11 



Their first site was about 5 acres in extent, 

 and there is record of its being twice enlarged. 

 In 1299 Robert de Pettemer, chaplain, was. 

 allowed, after inquisition, to give the friars a strip 

 of adjacent land, 134 ft. by 40 ft. ; 12 and in 

 1352 a far more considerable enlargement was 

 sanctioned, whereby Nigel Theobald (father of 

 Archbishop Simon) gave them 4^ acres of land,. 

 3 acres of meadow, and i acre i rood in 

 Sudbury, adjoining their original homestead. 13 



In August, 1380, Archbishop Simon and his 

 brother John Chertsey obtained licence for the 

 alienation to the Friars Preachers of Sudbury of 

 a piece of land in ' Babyngdonhall ' 20 ft. 

 square containing a spring, and for the making 

 by the latter of an aqueduct thence to their 

 house. 14 The archbishop and his brother paid 

 a half mark for this permission, and made the 

 grant ; but so much opposition was offered by 

 landowners to the making of the conduit that it 

 was delayed for nearly five years. At length the 

 friars obtained from the king royal protection for 

 themselves, their servants, and labourers engaged 

 in this work, and all sheriffs, mayors, bailiffs, &c., 

 were charged to defend the friars and prevent 

 any molestation or violence in the matter. 18 



The records of the royal alms bestowed on 

 this house are scanty as compared with many 

 friaries. Edward I in 1299 gave the friars of" 

 Sudbury three days' food ; the executors of 

 Queen Eleanor in 1291 gave IOQJ., and 

 Edward I in 1296, when at Waddington, near 

 this town, gave 30*. to the thirty black friars of 

 Sudbury for three days' food. 18 



9 Engraved in Wodderspoon, Ipstvich, opp. 305. 



10 Weever, Funeral Monuments, 743. 



11 Lib. R. 32 Hen. III,m. 10. 



11 Inq. p.m. 27 Edw. I, No. 87 ; Pat. 27 Edw. I, 

 m. 14. 



13 Inq. p.m. 26 Edw. Ill, 2 d. 406, No. 32 ; Pat- 

 26 Edw. I, pt. ii, m. 3. 



14 Pat. 4 Ric. II, pt. i, m. 27. 



15 Ibid. 8 Ric. II, pt. ii, m. 28. 



16 Reliquary, xxiv, 82. 



123 



