RELIGIOUS HOUSES 



farm of ^^90 and 10 marks.^^ This payment 

 included all incidental charges, and the king's 

 escheator in 1 341 was ordered not to meddle 

 further with the priory, which he sought to enter 

 on the excuse of the voidance of the abbey of 

 Caen by the death of Simon the last abbot, as it 

 was being farmed by the prior for the king ; ^' in 

 the same way the collectors of the tenth granted 

 by the clergy in 1338 were ordered to exact no 

 more from the prior of Frampton, as he was 

 already paying ^^90 for his farm.^* In December, 

 1 34 1, the foreign superior was ordered to appear 

 before the council, and to bring with him all 

 accounts and memoranda of payments made by 

 him.^* The following month he received a 

 promise that a quantity of wool requisitioned by 

 the crown officials commissioned to take a moiety 

 of wool in Dorset for the king's use should be 

 paid for."^ An extent of the priory was ordered 

 to be made at the close of 1344,^' and in 1346 

 Edward III granted ;^ioo of the farm of the 

 priories of Frampton and Loders to William de 

 Groucy,^' Thomas de Lancaster receiving a 

 grant of £100 of the farm of Frampton alone 

 the following year.^' 



The waste and destruction attending the 

 occupation of alien cells in the reign of Edward III 

 resulted in a harvest of inquisitions under 

 Richard II with the object of ascertaining the 

 cause. A commission in 1381 was appointed to 

 survey Frampton and its lands and to make inquiry 

 into the damage done therein.'" The king, the 

 year after, on the payment of 1 00 marks, licensed 

 John Devereux, knt., to acquire the priory from 

 the abbot of St. Stephen's, Caen, for life with 

 successive remainder to Margaret his wife, John 

 their son, and Joan their daughter, paying ;^8o 

 yearly farm at the Exchequer while the war should 

 last.'' The lessee presented in 1387 to the 

 church of Frampton, which, except for an interval 

 following the restoration of alien houses in 1361, 

 had been in the king's hands since 1337, and in 

 1385 the farm paid for the custody of the priory 

 was remitted by letters patent of Richard II. 

 Henry IV in 1400 confirmed the manor or priory 

 of Frampton with its issues to Joan, the daughter 



"Close, II Edw. Ill, pt. 2, m. 13; Pat. 11 

 Edw. Ill, pt. 2, m. 37. 



"Close, 15 Edw. Ill, pt. 3, m. 4. There was 

 evidently some delay in complying, for the order was 

 repeated in I 343. Ibid. 17 Edw. Ill, pt. 2, m. 17. 



" Ibid. 12 Edw. Ill, pt. I, m. 20. 



" The order was transmitted to the sheriff the fol- 

 lowing month. Ibid. 15 Edw, III, pt. 3, m. 5 a'. 

 6 d. In 1 345, and again in 1 347, the prior, Lawrence 

 de Brioco or Breoto, was summoned by name. Ibid. 

 19 Edw. Ill, m. 22 (/. ; 21 EJw. Ill, pt. I, m. 6 d. 



" Pat. 15 Edw. Ill, pt. 3, m. 2. 



-' Ibid. 1 8 Edw. Ill, pt. 2, m. 12 d. 



^'Ibid. 20 Edw. Ill, pt. 2, m. I. 



^' Ibid. 21 Edw. Ill, pt. 3, m. 34. 



'"Ibid. 4 Ric. II, pt. I, m. 27 a'. 



''' Ibid. 5 Ric. II, pt. 2, m. 19. 



of John Devereux, who had survived her mother 

 and brother, and with her husband, Walter Fitz- 

 Wauter, ' chivaler,' entered into possession in 

 1398.'* In 1402 after the restoration of alien 

 houses, Frampton Priory, 'which is conven- 

 tual,' was restored to Ralph de Nubibus, monk 

 of the abbey of St. Stephen, Caen, on condition 

 that he should maintain its former condition and 

 pay to the king during the war the ancient 

 apport due to the head house in time of peace, 

 with other charges.'' 



It is, as a rule, extremely difficult to get any 

 real idea of the internal condition of a foreign 

 cell, and Frampton is no exception in this respect. 

 The episcopal registers record that priors were 

 presented by their superiors, the abbot of Caen or 

 his proxy, to the bishops of Salisbury for institu- 

 tion, letters being subsequently issued to the 

 archdeacon of Dorset for their induction. The 

 resignation of a prior was also made into the 

 hands of the ordinary, but though the house was of 

 the Benedictine order and consequently could not 

 claim exemption, there is no record that he 

 exercised the right of visitation. A very common 

 cause of misgovernment, the frequent and 

 arbitrary withdrawal of the head of a dependent 

 cell by the foreign superior, seems to have been 

 present here, for in 1343 the bishop successfully 

 petitioned the pope to confirm the presentation 

 of Lawrence de Sancto Brioco to the priory in 

 order to strengthen his position and prevent his 

 arbitrary removal by his superior.'* 



Previous to the suppression of alien cells in 

 1 414 the priory or manor of Frampton was made 

 over by Henry IV to John, duke of Bedford, 

 and Thomas Langley, clerk, keeper of the privy 

 seal, for as long as the war should last for a 

 yearly farm of ^93 6s. 8d., the grant under date 

 of 2 March, 141 4, providing that a reduction 

 should be made at the Exchequer in the event of the 

 priory being injured and destroyed by the enemy 

 lliiad absit) ; it was followed in December of 

 tiiat year by another grant which remitted the 

 payment of this rent and included William, prior 

 of Ogbourne, as holding jointly with the duke 

 and Thomas Langley, and again in 1410 by a 

 licence enabling the duke to acquire from the 

 chief houses in Normandy the whole, or part, of 

 all the temporalities pertaining to the priories of 

 Ogbourne and Frampton." Henry V confirmed 

 the grants of his father in the first year of his 

 reign, "* but on the reversion of the priory of 

 Frampton to the crown by the death of the duke 

 of Bedford, it was given by Henry VI, 16 No- 



" Ibid. 2 Hen. IV, pt. I, m. 8. The February 

 following, the king cancelled his previous grant of the 

 profits of Frampton rectory to John Cheyne, knt., and 

 Thomas Horston, clerk. Ibid. pt. 2, m. 31. 



'' Ibid. 3 Hen. IV, pt. 2, m. 22. 



" CaL Pup. Letters, ii, 26 ; iii, 187. 



" By inspeximus of Henry V, Pat. I Hen. V, pt. 3, 

 m. 41. 'Mbid. 



115 



