A HISTORY OF BUCKINGHAMSHIRE 



and by the fifteenth century the Arrouasian 

 name, where it was still retained, was little 

 more than a convenient excuse for escaping 

 attendance at general chapters and other 

 ordinances of the regular life. 1 



All the best known names in the county of 

 Buckingham are found amongst the early 

 benefactors of Missenden Abbey : Richard de 

 Urvill the archdeacon, Walter Giffard, Walter 

 de Bolebec, Turstin Mantel, Manasser Dan- 

 martin, Simon de Gerardmoulin, Hugh de 

 Gurnay, Robert Mansel, the Turvilles and 

 Cheinduits, and many others. The house 

 was never among the greater abbeys of Eng- 

 land, but it was fairly well endowed from the 

 beginning, and was one of the most important 

 monasteries in this county. The number of 

 canons was probably soon increased, and even 

 in the fifteenth century there were as many as 

 twenty. 2 It seems likely that a later William 

 of Missenden added to the original endow- 

 ment in the thirteenth century, and so came 

 to be reckoned as founder, and this would ex- 

 plain the result of the inquisition made in 

 1332, which reported that the house was 

 founded as recently as 1 293.' Yet another 

 William of Missenden in 1336 was buried in 

 the abbey with the honours of a founder * : 

 and perhaps these later benefactions obscured 

 the memory of the earlier ones. 



At the end of the twelfth century the Abbot 

 of Missenden was proctor to the Abbot of 

 Arrouaise, and had to act for him in a diffi- 

 culty which arose in connection with the 

 priory of Harrold in Bedfordshire. The 

 priors of this house had been nominated at 

 first by the Abbot of Arrouaise, without con- 

 tradiction ; but near the end of the twelfth 

 century, the nuns, under the leadership of a 

 certain brother ' B.' and Gila the prioress, 

 tried to escape from all subjection to the 

 parent abbey. They tried to get a privilege 

 from the pope for this purpose : the Abbot 

 of Arrouaise indeed alleged that they had 

 forged one, and was inclined at first to believe 

 that the Abbot of Missenden had aided and 

 abetted their plots ; but he afterwards cleared 

 the latter of all blame. It was finally arranged 

 that the nuns should pay half a mark yearly 

 to the Abbot of Missenden and be free in 

 future of all subjection to Arrouaise. After 

 this agreement, which took place about the 



' Cott. MS. Vesp. D, i. f. 64. 



2 Pat. 2 Edw. IV. pt. i, m. I4d. 



3 Inq. p.m. 5 Edw. III. n. 5 in Dugdale, Man. 

 vi. (I), 548. 



4 John Tofts' book, in Dugdale, Man. vi. (i), 

 848. John Tofts was alive though not prior in 

 1463 (Pat. 2 Edw. IV. pt. i, m. I4d). 



year Ii88, 5 there is no record of any further 

 connection between Missenden and Arrou- 

 aise. 



This house is mentioned early in the thir- 

 teenth century in connection with a few suits 

 of no great importance ; in two of these the 

 abbot was convicted of putting forward un- 

 warrantable claims. In 1225 he appeared 

 against Hubert de Burgh the justiciar, and 

 brought forward a charter from Walter de 

 Penn, which granted to him the advowson of 

 Oulton Church in Norfolk, but Hubert was 

 successful in proving that Walter never had 

 any right to make the gift, and the abbot was 

 fined in consequence. 6 In 1231 the abbot 

 was successful in proving his claim to the 

 chapel of Muswell, 7 but in 1245 he was again 

 convicted of wrongfully exacting a pension 

 from the rector of Taplow. 8 



We hear from the chronicler of Dunstable 

 that the convent of Missenden suffered some 

 kind of persecution from Ralf Brito, the king's 

 treasurer, before 1232, but no details are 

 given. 9 In 1239 Isabel, the wife of Gilbert 

 de Clare, Earl of Gloucester, desired that a 

 part of her body should be buried in this 

 abbey. 10 The Close Rolls of the reign of Ed- 

 ward I. show the abbots to have been some- 

 what involved in debt at this time. 11 And to- 

 wards the close of the thirteenth century the 

 abbey seems to have fallen into great poverty, 

 for in 1281 Henry Huse and Walter de Agmo- 

 desham were appointed to take it under the 

 king's special protection for four years, as it was 

 in danger of dispersion and ruin by murrain 

 among sheep and horses, failure of crops, and 

 accumulation of debts, 12 and in 1286 a similar 

 order was issued to Master William de Luda, 

 king's clerk, for a period of time unnamed. 13 In 

 1276 Abbot William of London received 50 

 marks from the king to establisha chantry in the 



' Harl. MS. 3688, ff. i6od-i63. What is here 

 told helps to explain the account of the final con- 

 cordia in the Chartulary of Harrold priory, Lansd. 

 MS. 391, ff. l8b, 19, which supplies the date, and 

 the fact that the Abbot of Missenden was proctor 

 to the Abbot of Arrouaise. This is further evi- 

 dence for the generally reliable character of Harl. 

 MS. 3688. 



6 Bracton's Note Book, m. 92 ; De Legibus et 

 Consuet. Angliae, iii. 246-7. 



7 Cat. of Pap. Letters, i. 125. 



8 Ibid. 217. 



Ann. Man. (Rolls Ser.), iii. 130. 

 Ibid. i. 113. 



11 Close, 2 Edw. I. m. gd, m. 7d ; ibid. 3 Edw. I. 

 m. I7d ; ibid. 6 Edw. I. m. 2d. The largest sum 

 mentioned is 151. 



12 Pat. 10 Edw. I. m. 21. 

 Pat. 14 Edw. I. m. 12. 



370 



