RELIGIOUS HOUSES 



Geoffrey, 1 occurs 1321 

 Stephen of Thame, 3 elected 1373 

 Henry, 3 occurs 1416 

 Richard, 4 occurs 1421 

 John Talbot, 5 occurs 1535 

 Richard Brangwen, 8 last abbot, occurs 

 1536 



Dugdale says, 7 ' according to Willis the 

 seal of the abbey was the effigies of the Blessed 

 Virgin crowned, sitting on a splendid throne, 

 in her bosom the venerable Infant.' He adds 

 the only impression remaining is that of 

 [Abbot] John 1308, which is a neat oval seal 

 with this inscription on the edge : S' FRIS 



JOHlS. MENDHAM.' 



ii. THE ABBEY OF NUTLEY 

 The Abbey of Nutley, or Crendon Park, 

 was founded early in the twelfth century by 

 Walter Giffard and Ermengarde his wife, for 

 Austin Canons following the customs of Arrou- 

 aise. 8 It was dedicated to the honour of St. 

 Mary and St. John Baptist. The exact date 

 of foundation cannot be given, but it seems 

 probable that it was about the same time as 

 that of Missenden, and it must certainly have 

 been before 1164, to fall within the lifetime 

 of Walter Giffard. It was the richest mon- 

 astery in Buckinghamshire : its income at the 

 dissolution was very little short of 450, and 

 it had even then the patronage of eleven 

 churches. 



Yet it has very little history. There are 

 one or two suits of importance during the 

 thirteenth century, and these constitute the 

 whole of our information for this period. 

 There was a long suit in connection with a 

 moiety of the manor of Lower Winchendon, 

 for which it seems that the abbot advanced an 

 unwarranted claim. It began in 1207, when 

 Agnes Wake had the land secured to her as a 

 marriage portion, and the canons were ordered 

 not to molest her in any way. 9 It was re- 

 opened in 1 22 1, when Agnes showed the fore- 

 going charter, while the abbot pleaded the 

 custom of an earlier date to ; and it was finally 

 settled in 1238, when the abbot quitclaimed 

 it to Hugh Wake, but received it back again 



i Close, 15 Edw. II. m. 25d. 



Line. Epis. Reg. Memo. Bokyngham, 126. 



3 Langley, History of the Desborough Hundred, 

 340. 4 Ibid. 



6 Valor Eccl, (Rec. Com.), iv. 251. 



Aug. Off. Misc. Bks. 232, f. 2od. 



7 Dugdale, Man. v. 684. . 



o Foundation Charter, Dugdale, Man. vi. (i) 



278. 



Rot. Pat. 8 John (Rec. Com.), 70. 

 10 Bracton's Note Book, m. 416. 



at a yearly rent of sixteen marks. 11 There was 

 another suit in 1214, when the canons se- 

 cured the church of Bottesham in Cam- 

 bridgeshire against Richard de Clare, by 

 showing the charter of Walter Giffard. 12 



Abbots of this house during the fourteenth 

 century were several times commissioned by 

 the pope to inquire into the circumstances of 

 appeals and petitions 13 ; and on this abbey 

 as well as Missenden, Edward II. and Ed- 

 ward III. used occasionally to quarter their 

 old servants. 14 At the beginning of the same 

 century there must have been some dispute 

 concerning jurisdiction between Bishop Dai- 

 derby and the canons of Nutley : for the 

 bishop complained in a letter to the Dean of 

 Waddesdon that the infirmarian and three 

 others had dared to try and hinder him from 

 administering the sacrament of confirmation 

 in the conventual church ; they had attacked 

 his servants, beaten and trampled upon them, 

 and committed other enormities ; and an- 

 other canon in his malice defended these evil- 

 doers. The entry is unfinished, so the con- 

 clusion of the affair is unknown 1B : but it 

 seems that this house, though not exempt, was 

 seldom visited by the bishops of Lincoln. 



Richard of Crendon, who was abbot in 

 1333, was mixed up in a very discreditable 

 affair in that year : the Prior of Walron in 

 Norfolk complained to the king that the 

 Abbot of Nutley and another canon with cer- 

 tain knights carried away two of his horses and 

 other goods of his at Kelling and Sherring- 

 ham. 16 An inquiry was made in 1345 as to the 

 rights by which the canons of Nutley held so 

 many churches in proprios usus, as they were 

 found to be destitute of vicars " ; and it was 

 noticed more than a century later that the 

 churches belonging to this house were ruinous 

 and badly served. 18 In 1374 lt was formall 7 



11 Feet of F. 18 Hen. III. no. 4. It seems how- 

 ever that the abbot succeeded in proving his claim 

 finally, for in 1302 we find him in possession of the 

 whole manor of Lower Winchendon, and thence- 

 forward to the dissolution. In 1346 it is expressly 

 stated to be in pure and perpetual alms of the gift 

 of Walter Giffard and Ermengarde. Feud. Aids, 

 i. 96, 121. 



Cur. Reg. R. 59 (15 John), " 1 5 i dorso. 



Cal. of Pap. Letters, ii. 122, 168, 224, 522. 



i Close, ii Edw. II. m. igd ; 6 Edw. III. m. 

 I id, etc. 



Line. Epis. Reg. Memo. Dalderby, 15. 



i Pat. 7 Edw. III. pt. i., m. igd. 



" Line. Epis. Reg. Memo. Bek, 64. 



is Browne Willis, History of Buckingham, 198, 

 from a visitation report of 1493. The report of 

 Bishop Atwater, 1518, shows the abbot again in 

 default. 



48 



377 



