A HISTORY OF NORFOLK 



5, THE PRIORY OF YARMOUTH ^ 



Bishop Herbert, the founder of the great 

 church of St. Nicholas, Yarmouth, associated 

 with it a small priory of Benedictine monks, 

 which he made a cell of the cathedral priory at 

 Norwich. The parish service was performed by 

 three chaplains and a deacon, who were nominated 

 by the prior. 



This priory was so entirely dependent on 

 Norwich, its accounts being included in those of 

 that cathedral priory, that the references to it 

 are scanty. The taxation of 1 29 1 mentioned 

 that the prior of Yarmouth held lands, rents, and 

 a marsh at Thornton of the annual value of 9;. 

 In the Valor of 1535 the spiritualities of the 

 Norwich Priory at Yarmouth are returned at 

 ^31 lOJ. ^d. 



In 1349 Simon de Halle, of Great Yarmouth, 

 left by will 2s. to each monk of the Yarmouth 

 Priory ; in the same year Thomas de Drayton 

 left a like sum to the prior and is. 6d. to each of 

 the three parish chaplains.^ 



The dean and chapter of Norwich held the 

 priory and its possessions at the dissolution, as the 

 successors of the cathedral priory; in 1 55 I they 

 leased the priory and parsonage of Yarmouth to 

 Robert Sowel for the term of eighty years. 



There are various points of interest in the 

 account rolls of the Yarmouth cell preserved in 

 the treasury of Norwich Cathedral. The first 

 one, for 1355—6, gives the sum of the receipts 

 as jTzia 2s. lid. One of the largest items was 

 j^33 51. 6d. as the offerings in the popular chapel 

 of St. Mary on the west side of the churchyard. 

 The offerings at the image of St. Nicholas and 

 others in the great church amounted to 93J. ^d. 

 The customary altar oblations brought in the 

 large sum of ;^62 6s. ^d. The expenses of the 

 year, however, considerably exceeded the receipts, 

 being ;^235 5/. 



The roll of 1442 shows ^^15 iix. as the 

 oblations at the four- principal feasts, together 

 with Easter dues. Oblations and masses for the 

 dead produced ;^i I os. lo^d. ; marriage offer- 

 ings, 60s. lid.; and purification offerings, 

 47^. id. In 1451 the sum of 8j. iid. occurs 

 among the expenses as the charges incurred for 

 the castigation and reforming in the church of 

 Yarmouth of those who fought against the 

 citation of the lord bishop. 



At the visitation of Norwich Priory in 15 14, 

 Henry Langrake, prior of Yarmouth, was 

 examined by the bishop as to the state of his 

 cell ; he said it was in good repair and not in 

 debt, and that he annually produced his account 

 before the prior and auditors.^ 



John de Hoo occurs as prior about 1400.* 



' Blomefield, op. cit. xi, 365 ; Dugdale, Mon. vi, 

 465 ; Taylor, Index Monastkus, 10, II. 

 ' Swinden, Hist, of Tarmouth, 818. 

 ' Jessopp, Norw. Visit. 72. 

 * Exch. Eccl. Docs. 3, 27. 



6. THE ABBEY OF ST. BENET OF 

 HOLM 



In a solitary spot among the marshes, at the 

 junction of the Rivers Bure and Thurne, a little 

 company of Saxon monks or recluses, under the 

 government of one Suneman, as early as the year 

 800, erected a church or chapel, dedicated in 

 honour of their patron St. Benedict ; but in the 

 general devastation of this district by the Danes 

 in 870, the fraternity were scattered and their 

 buildings destroyed. 



In the following century a holy man named 

 Wolfric, with seven companions, reoccupied the 

 site, and rebuilt the church with houses for their 

 accommodation.* They had lived here for some 

 sixty years, when the attention of Cnut was 

 drawn to them by alleged miraculous interven- 

 tion. The king took the recluses under his 

 patronage, and in the year 1019^ founded here 

 an abbey of black monks of the rule of St. 

 Benedict, bestowing on them the manors of 

 Horning, Ludham and Neatishead.' In the first 

 of these three manors, about thirteen miles from 

 Norwich, was the site of the abbey. The 

 king's example of munificence was followed by 

 many Saxon nobles and men of wealth, amongst 

 whom we find Ralf, ' the Staller ' and Edric, the 

 king's steersman, whose names are familiar from 

 the pages of Domesday, and the still more 

 famous Edith ' Swanneshals.' The privileges 

 and possessions of the abbey were considerably 

 extended by Edward the Confessor in 1046. 

 Among the possessions enumerated in the Con- 

 fessor's charter were the twenty-eight churches of 

 Horning, Tunstead, Neatishead, Belaugh, Hove- 

 ton, Wittistede, Horning, Thurgarton, Thwaite, 

 Calthorpe, Erpingham, Antingham, North 

 Walsham, Swanton, Scottow, Lamas, Lud- 

 ham, Beeston, Stalham, Somerton, Winterton, 

 Waxham, Thurne, Ashby, Caister, Bastwick, 

 Ranworth, and St. Martin, Shotesham. 



From the enumeration of the extensive abbey 

 property, which lay entirely in Norfolk, as given 

 in the Domesday Survey, it appears that the 

 money value of the different estates had materi- 

 ally increased between the time of the Confessor 

 and the date of the survey, though, owing to the 

 prominent part taken by its abbot in resisting the 



' Dugd.ile, Mot. i, 282 3, 'from Brompton MS. 

 in Bibl. Cotton, fol. 7 d.' 



^ Certain chroniclers have dated Cnut's founda- 

 tion after his return from Rome in 1 031, but this is 

 impossible from the known dates of the witnesses. 

 The year 10 1 9 is the date given in the Chronica 

 Johannis de Oxenedes (Rolls Ser. 19), himself a monk 

 of Holm, and this date exactly tallies with the wit- 

 nesses. 



' Cott. MS. Galba E, ii, fol. l. A full analysis of 

 the contents of this fine chartulary is given in Dug- 

 dale, Mon. iii, 66-79. Where no other references 

 are given the statements in this sketch are taken from 

 this chartulary. 



330 



