RELIGIOUS HOUSES 



Gervase Paynel, then living, and also of his 

 father Ralf and his grandfather Fulk, the 

 founder of the house ; and this seems to bring 

 it very near the beginning of the twelfth cen- 

 tury. Fulk Paynel is said to have been the 

 son of Ralf Paynel, 1 who appears in the 

 Domesday Survey and was founder of the 

 priory of Holy Trinity at York near the close 

 of the eleventh century. 



Tickford Priory was originally a cell to the 

 Abbey of Marmoutier at Tours 2 ; and this 

 connection was a source of much difficulty 

 during the thirteenth century. Very little 

 is known of the history of the house during the 

 twelfth century, except the names of a few 

 priors, attached to documents of no great im- 

 portance. 3 But early in the thirteenth cen- 

 tury the question of jurisdiction came to the 

 front, and the difficulty had reached an acute 

 stage between 1220 and 1230.* It will per- 

 haps be not unprofitable to describe its course 



1 T. P. Bull, History of Newport Pagnel, 28. 

 Several references to the external history of this 

 priory are taken from this book ; but the author 

 had obtained nothing from the Lincoln Registers 

 except the names of priors. 



1 Round, Cal. of Doc. France, i. 444. 



3 Feet of Fines (Rec. Com.), i. 187, 190. Fulk 

 Paynel seems to have placed one of his nephews in 

 the priory. A charter of his is witnessed by Helias, 

 monk, nephew of Fulk Paynel. Harl. MS. 2188, 



f. 125<.l. 



During the same ten years the prior of New- 

 port was involved in a long suit relative to the 

 church of Aston, Warwickshire, and the chapel of 

 Yardley appendant thereto. In 1220 the chapel 

 of Yardley was claimed by the abbot of Alcester, 

 Ralf de Limesy, Giles de Ardington and the prior 

 of Newport. The first two owned their claim to 

 be unfounded, and the chapel was finally awarded 

 to Giles till he should come of age : but he quit- 

 claimed it to the prior. In 1230 the prior claimed 

 the church of Aston, in virtue of a charter made by 

 Thomas de Ardington, grandfather of Giles, and 

 confirmed by Silvester, bishop of Worcester. The 

 charters were pronounced to be false, and it was 

 proved that the prior had not presented to the 

 church in the time of Thomas de Ardington or his 

 son Henry. So Giles de Ardington recovered 

 seisin. Bracton's Note Book, iii. 347-8, and ii. 337. 

 But Hubert, archbishop of Canterbury, in 1224 

 appears to have confirmed a charter of Gervase 

 Paynel granting to the priory the church of Aston 

 with the chapels of Yardley, Bramwig, and Overton 

 (Harl. MS. 2188, f. 125). It had also been con- 

 firmed by Stephen Langton (ibid. I25d), and was 

 confirmed again by Ralf de Somery when he 

 married Hawise, heiress of the Paynels (ibid.). It 

 belonged to Tickford in 1291, but was again dis- 

 puted between 1324 and 1331 ; and was finally 

 reckoned as part of the property of the priory at 

 the dissolution (L. and P. Henry fill, iv. 2167). 



and final settlement with some detail, as the 

 exemption of Cluniac monasteries was not so 

 clearly established and understood as that of 

 the Cistercians and other orders of later date. 



In 1220 Hugh of Wells, Bishop of Lincoln, 

 visited the priory as diocesan and installed 

 William, a monk of the house, as prior in the 

 place of Hugh, who had just resigned. 5 This 

 was probably resented by the Abbot of Mar- 

 moutier as an infringement of his rights ; but 

 he was not in a position at that time to assert 

 any claim against the bishop, as the priory 

 itself was in rebellion against his authority, 

 and under the leadership of Prior William, 

 protested against the payments exacted by 

 the parent abbey from its cells. William was 

 compelled to resign and to leave the house 

 altogether in 1228, and some of the monks 

 were imprisoned, because they would not 

 accept a certain charter offered to them by 

 the abbot ; but soon afterwards a composi- 

 tion was made, which secured to Marmoutier 

 the rights of visitation and correction, but 

 remitted all payments which had hitherto been 

 required of the English monks. 6 



In consequence, however, of these difficul- 

 ties, no successor had been appointed at 

 William's resignation ; and after six months 

 the bishop collated John of Colne, a monk of 

 Spalding. 7 When John resigned in 1233, the 

 bishop came to the priory again, and had some 

 very serious faults to find with the monks. 

 He said the rule was so badly kept that the 

 house was a scandal to other religious, and the 

 number of monks was not even half what it 

 should be. He enjoined them to keep their 

 rule better in future, and to receive twelve 

 more monks during the following year. 8 

 This would suggest that the proper number 

 was about twenty. 9 



During the episcopate of Robert Grosse- 

 tte, the Abbot of Marmoutier complained to 

 the pope that the bishops of Lincoln were ex- 

 ceeding their rights : by excommunicating 

 monks of Tickford, contrary to the privileges 

 of the order, and also interfering in the ad- 

 ministration of the priory. William, Cardinal 

 of St. Eustace, was appointed to inquire into 

 the matter, and gave sentence for the bishop 



B Line. Epis. Reg. Rolls of Hugh of Wells. 



6 Ann. Man. (Rolls Ser.), iii. 109. 



' Line. Epis. Reg. Rolls of Hugh of Wells. It 

 is simply said here that William had resigned : the 

 chronicler of Dunstable explains that this was not 

 a voluntary resignation, and that he was sent into 

 exile. 



n Ibid. 



In 1450 it was noted that the number should 

 be sixteen. Sir G. F. Duckett, Charters and Re- 

 cords of the Abbey of Cluni, ii. 213. 



361 



46 



