A HISTORY OF GLOUCESTERSHIRE 



Maidstone resigned the bishopric of Hereford, 

 and entered the house of the Grey Friars of 

 Gloucester. 1 In 1 246 Henry III allowed them 

 to hold schools of theology in a turret of the 

 town wall. 2 In 1285 the friars again desired to 

 enlarge their site, and sought permission to acquire 

 a plot of land near their church. 3 They came 

 into conflict with the Benedictines of St. Peter's, 

 and appealed to Peckham, archbishop of Canter- 

 bury, himself a Minorite. In 1285 he wrote to 

 the abbot and convent of Gloucester, bidding 

 them satisfy the Grey Friars ; it appeared that 

 a man had desired to be buried in their church- 

 yard, but that the monks had seized his body. 4 

 In the middle of the fourteenth century another 

 dispute arose when the friars claimed the right 

 to the water coming from a spring at Breresclyft, 

 and it was settled in their favour through the 

 intervention of the Black Prince in 1357.* In 

 1365 the friars acquired another half acre for 

 the enlargement of their site. 6 There is no 

 evidence of the mortality in the house during 

 the Black Death ; in 1337 the number of friars 

 was thirty-one, 7 and the activity of the brethren 

 a few years afterwards suggests that they suffered 

 no permanent diminution in numbers. Towards 

 the end of the fifteenth century a great part of the 

 church was rebuilt. William, marquis of Berke- 

 ley, left j2O to the fabric by his will of 1491 ; 8 

 Maurice VI of Berkeley gave 10 marks for 

 several years, and in 1520 he made a provision 

 that if he died before the rebuilding of the 

 church was complete, his executors should finish 

 the work. 9 In 1538 Richard Ingworth, the 

 royal visitor, reported to Cromwell that the 

 Grey Friars was ' a goodly house, much of it 

 new builded." 10 It is probable that many of the 

 Grey Friars fled abroad in 1534 5, 11 for only five 

 remained at Gloucester in I538. 13 They were 

 not reduced to such straits of poverty as the 

 Black and White Friars ; nevertheless, on 28 July, 

 they too stated in the presence of the mayor 

 and aldermen that they could not keep the 

 visitor's injunctions and continue in their house, 

 and accordingly they delivered it into Ingworth's 

 hands for the use of the king. 13 



1 Monumenta Franciscans (Rolls Ser.), i, 59. 

 1 Close, 30 Hen. Ill, m. 6. 



* Inq. a.q.d. I 3 Edw. I, No. 62. 



4 Reg. Epis. Peckham (Rolls Ser.), iii, 905. 



* Stevenson, Calendar of Records of the Corporation of 

 Gloucester, 352. 



6 Inq. a.q.d. 38 Edw. Ill, No. 3. 



7 Brist. and Glouc, Arch. Soc. Trans, xiii, 1 79. 



8 Smyth, Lives of the Berkeley! (ed. Maclean), ii, 

 134. 



9 Ibid. 201. 



10 Wright, Suppression of the Monasteries (Camd. 

 Soc.), 199. 



11 Gasquet, Hen. Vlll and the English Monasteries 

 (ed. 1899), p. 313. 



" Wright, op. cit. 201. 

 13 Ibid. 202. 



27. THE CARMELITE OR WHITE 



FRIARS, GLOUCESTER 



The house of the Carmelite Friars of Glou- 

 cester outside the north gate had its origin about 

 1268," and was probably founded with the help 

 of Queen Eleanor, Sir Thomas Giffard, and 

 Thomas II of Berkeley. 16 In 1321 Henry de 

 Ok gave a curtilage with stews, hays, dikes, walls 

 and trees. 16 In 1337 the number of friars was 

 thirty-one, 17 and in 1343 Edward III allowed 

 them to acquire 3^ acres of land from Thomas 

 of Berkeley, and a messuage from Richard 

 of Hatherley for the enlargement of their 

 manse. 18 In 1347, by an agreement with the 

 prior and brethren of the hospital of St. Bartholo- 

 mew, they obtained an aqueduct running through 

 a leaden pipe from the spring called ' Gosewhyte- 

 well ' to their enclosure. 19 



On 25 July, 1538, Richard Ingworth, the 

 royal visitor, reported to Cromwell that the 

 Black and White Friars were ready to surrender. 2 * 

 The White Friars had but a small house, ' and 

 in decay, and some houses taken down and sold.' 21 

 Their rents were only zos. a year, and some ten 

 years before they had received the money down 

 for twenty years. Three or four days after Ing- 

 worth's report had been made the three remaining 

 friars declared before the mayor and aldermen 

 that they could not keep the visitor's strict in- 

 junctions and tarry in their house, and they 

 therefore gave it into Ingworth's hands for the 

 use of the king. 23 



28. THE CRUTCHED FRIARS OF 

 WOTTON-UNDER-EDGE 



In 1349 Edward III granted a licence for the 

 foundation of a house of Crutched Friars at 

 Wotton-under-Edge which should be endowed 

 with lands of the yearly value of j^io. 23 



" On the morrow of the Epiphany, 1269, William 

 de Beauchamp left a mark to the Carmelites of Glou- 

 cester ; Wore. Epis. Reg. Giffard (Wore. Hist. Soc.), 8. 

 On 1 8 January, 1270, Walter GifFard, archbishop of 

 York, granted a licence to the friars of Mount 

 Carmel who were dwelling at Gloucester to build an 

 oratory by Brook Street outside Gloucester, as the 

 site was within his jurisdiction ; York Archicpis. Reg. 

 Giffard (Surtees Soc.), 92. 



14 Ibid. 151. 



16 Cal. of Pat. 14 Edw. II, pt. ii, m. 17. 



17 Arch. Journ. xxxix, 299. Edward III gave a groat 

 each to thirty-one Carmelites when he came to Glou- 

 cester in 1337. 



18 Cal. of Pat. 17 Edw. Ill, pt. ii, m. 15. 



19 Stevenson, Calendar of the Records of the Corpora- 

 tion of Gloucester, 343. 



10 L. and P. Hen. Vlll. xiii, pt. i, No. 1456. 



11 Wright, Suppression of the Monasteries (Camd. 

 Soc.), 199. 



" Ibid. 20 1-2. For the inventory made in May, 

 1538, cf. L. and P. Hen. Vlll, xiii, pt. i, No. 1109. 

 " Cal. of Pat. 23 Edw. Ill, pt. i, m. 23. 



112 



