RELIGIOUS HOUSES 



possession of his friend the Windsor herald. 1 A 

 drawing at the head of the roll shows a table 

 tomb, on the one side an Austin friar and on the 

 other a civilian, engaged in conversation. The 

 heading to this rhymed descent is : 



This Dialogue betwix a Secular as asking, and a 

 Frere answerying at the grave of Dame Johan of 

 Acres shewith a lyneal descent of the lordis of the 

 honoure of Clare, fro the tyme of the fundation of 

 the Freeris in the same honoure, the yere of our 

 Lord MCCXLVIII unto the first day of May the 

 year MCCCLVI. 



A MS. of Robert Aske's, temp. Henry VIII, 

 gives : 



The names of the nobles buried in the Frere 

 Augustyn's of Clare. Sir Richard Erie of Clare ; 

 Lionell Duke of Clarence ; Dame Joan of Acres ; Sir 

 Edmond Montbermer, son of the said Joane ; John 

 Weyburgh ; Dame Alice Spencer ; Willm. Goldryche ; 

 Sir John Beauchamp, knight ; John Newbury, 

 esquire ; Willm. Capel and Elianor his wyfe ; Kempe, 

 esquire ; Robert Butterwyke, Esquire ; the Lady 

 Margarete Scrope, daughter of Westmoreland ; Joan 

 Candyssle, daughter of Clofton ; Dame Alianor 

 Wynkeferry, Sir Edmund, last of the Mortimers, 

 Erie of Marche, Sir Thomas Gily and his furste 

 wyfe ; Lucy, wife of Walter Clofton ; Sir Thomas 

 Clofton and Ada his wyfe.* 



There is but little information with respect to 

 these friars during the fifteenth century. The 

 details as to their suppression in 1538 were in 

 the hands of Richard Ingworth, then suffragan 

 bishop of Dover. Writing to Cromwell on 

 29 November of that year, Ingworth said that 

 he had received at Clare the Lord Privy Seal's 

 letter instructing him to deliver that house and 

 its ' implements ' to Richard Frende, which had 

 been done. The implements did not suffice to 

 pay the debts and at the same time save the lead 

 and plate for the king. The jewels were pledged 

 for ^33 2s. >d. and he had redeemed them for 

 the king with other money. He had left the 

 house and its contents in Frende's custody under 

 indenture. The lands besides the orchards 

 were thirty-eight acres, only worth at clear 

 annual value 48*. io\d. There were fifteen or 

 sixteen fother of lead (on the church), and the 

 house, which was tiled, was in much decay. 3 



In August, 1539, Richard Frende obtained 

 grant in fee from the crown of the site, soil, 

 circuit, and precinct of the late priory of Austin 

 Friars of Clare, which lay in the parishes of 

 Clare, Ashen, and Belchamp St. Pauls (of the 

 annual value of 3), to hold at a rent of 'id. a. 

 year, in as full a manner as John Halybud, the 

 late prior, and the brethren thereof held the same. 4 



1 Weever, Funeral Monuments, 734-42. This roll has 

 been accurately reproduced, with the drawing and the 

 arms, in the large edition of Dugdale's Mon. vi, 

 16001602. 



' Proc. Stiff. Arch. Inst. vi, 80-1. 



1 L. and P. Hen. VIII, xiii, pt. ii, 933. 



* Pat. 31 Hen. VIII, pt. vii, m. 24. 



PRIORS OF THE AUSTIN FRIARS OF CLARE 



Adam de la Hyde, occurs 1299 * 

 John, occurs 1349* 

 Robert, occurs 1361, &c. 7 

 John Halybud, occurs 1538 8 



41. THE AUSTIN FRIARS OF 

 GORLESTON 



This friary was founded towards the end of 

 the reign of Edward I, by William Woderove, 

 and Margaret his wife. 9 On 28 June, 1311, 

 Roger Woderove, son of the founder, obtained 

 licence to grant to the prior and Augustine Friars 

 of Little Yarmouth a plot of land adjacent to 

 their dwelling, 10 and in 1338 a further enlarge- 

 ment of their house was made on a plot of land 

 240 ft. by 70 ft., the gift of William Man, of 

 Blundeston. 11 



In the large and handsome church many dis- 

 tinguished persons were buried. Weever names 

 the founder and his wife ; Richard earl of Clare ; 

 Roger FitzOsbert and Katharine his wife ; Sir 

 Henry Bacon, 1335, and many of his family ; 

 Joan countess of Gloucester ; Dame Alice 

 Lunston 1341 ; Dame Eleanor, wife of Sir 

 Thomas Gerbrigge, 1353 ; Dame Joan Caxton 

 1364; William de Ufford, earl of Suffolk, 1382; 

 Michael de la Pole, earl of Suffolk ; Sir Thomas 

 Hengrove ; Dame Sibyl Mortimer, 1385; Sir 

 John Laune, and Mary his wife ; Alexander 

 Falstolfe ; William March, esq., 1412, and 

 John Pulman, I48i. 12 



Lambarde, writing of this house, which he 

 mistakenly terms an abbey, says : ' Here was of 

 late years a librarie of most rare and precious 

 workes, gathered together by the Industrie of 

 one John Brome, a monk of the same house, 

 which died in the reign of King Henry the 

 Sixte.' I3 John Brome was prior of the house 

 and died in 1449. His collection of books was 

 famous and said to include several of which 

 there were no other copies in England ; he was 

 himself the author of chronicles and sermons. 14 



The historian of Yarmouth says that these 

 Austin Friars had a cell across the water in 

 Yarmouth proper, the remains of which are to 

 be seen in Howards Street ; the adjoining row 

 is still called Austin Row ; though popularly 

 corrupted into Ostend Row. 15 



6 Chartul. No. 122. 

 ' Ibid. No. 102. 



I Ibid. Nos. 1 1 6, 139, 140. 



8 Pat. 31 Hen. VIII, pt. vii, m. 24, 

 8 Weever, Funeral Monuments, 863. 



10 Pat. 4 Edw. II, pt. ii, m. 3. 



II Ibid. 12 Edw. Ill, pt. iii, m. 15. 



11 Weever, Funeral Monuments, 863. 



13 Lambarde, Tofog. Diet. (1730), 136, 



14 Stevens, Contin. of Mon. ii, 176. 

 " Palmer, Hut. of Yarmouth, i, 428 



I2 9 



