A HISTORY OF NORFOLK 



Priors of Molycourt 



Simon,* occurs 1248 

 Edward," occurs 1276 

 Robert,' occurs 1297 

 Andrew,* occurs 1306 



William de Merstone,' elected 1316 

 John de Malteley,* elected 1320 

 David de West Dereham,' elected 1333 

 John de Dereham,*" elected 1369 

 Thomas de Walton,** elected 1390 

 Stephen Wyse,*'' elected 1427 



HOUSES OF BENEDICTINE NUNS 



12. THE PRIORY OF BLACK- 

 BOROUGH 



Roger de Scales and his wife Muriel, about 

 the year 1150, founded a small priory for monks 

 {fratriius) at Blackborough in Middleton Parish, 

 dedicated to the honour of the Blessed Virgin 

 and St. Katharine. It was endowed with lands 

 and woods, etc., in the immediate neighbourhood 

 of the house. The confirmation and extension 

 grant of Robert de Scales, son of the founder, 

 shows that the establishment was at that time for 

 the support of religious of both sexes [sororthus et 

 fratribus), but the house was finally assigned 

 about 1200 to the sole use of Benedictine nuns. 

 Robert de Scales, great-grandson of the founder, 

 confirmed to the nuns the churches of Middleton 

 and Santon, with a moiety of the Church of 

 Wetherden, Suffolk.* 



The taxation of 1 291 showed that the priory 

 had property in twenty-five Norfolk parishes, to 

 the annual value of ^^26 4^. 3j(f. In spirituali- 

 ties they had the appropriated churches of Mid- 

 dleton and St. Martin's, Rainham, valued 

 respectively at ^^5 6j. id. and ^^ 10, and a portion 

 of the church of Wetherden, worth ^^5. The 

 total clear value for taxation purposes came to 

 /36 191. id., because there were deducted from 

 the full total £i^ 13J. 5^^. for habits for the 

 nuns, 25J. for the fabric of their church, and 

 57^. jd. in payment to various lords. At that 

 date, in addition to those entertained from time 

 to time at the guest-house, the number of the 

 nuns and their servants living in the priory was 

 forty-four.^ 



The prioress and nuns of Blackborough ob- 

 tained in 1329 a licence, by a fine of ten marks, 

 for the alienation in mortmain by William de 

 Salleford, chaplain of the advowson of the church 

 of Paddlesworth, Kent, to find a chaplain to 

 celebrate daily in Blackborough church for the 



' Blomefield, Hist, of Norf. vii, 47. He is also 

 mentioned in 1250 as predecessor of the then prior ; 

 Assize R. 560, m. 35 a'. 



' Blomefield, loc. cit. 



' Ibid. • Ibid. 



' The more important documents from a fourteenth- 

 century chartulary of Blackborough, then in the 

 possession of Mr. Hudson Gurney, of Keswick Hall, 

 Norfolk, are given in full in Dugdale {Mon. iv, Z06-9), 

 see Hist. MSS. Com. Rep. xii, pt. ix, 122. 



' These particulars are given in the chartuLiry. 



good estate of Isabella de Scales and the said 

 William in life and for their souls after death.*' 



In 1350 Robert de Scales confirmed to the 

 prioress and convent the advowson of the church 

 of Islington. 



In 1377 the church of Paddlesworth was. 

 appropriated to the priory.** 



A return made to the crown in 1 41 6 of the 

 appropriated churches of the diocese, names the 

 following as belonging to the nuns of Black- 

 borough, with the dates of their appropriation : — 

 Illington (1388), Middleton (1360), South Keyn- 

 ham (1370), and a medietv of Wetherden 



(1349)-'' 



The Valor of 1535 gave the clear annual 

 value of the priory at ;^42 ds. 'J^d. 



Edward III, in 1347, pardoned the prioress- 

 and nuns their share for two years and the tenths 

 granted him by the clergy, because they were,, 

 through no fault of their order, in so miserable 

 and depressed a condition.*^ 



Margaret de Bristede, a nun of this house,, 

 obtained an indult in 1352 to choose a confessor 

 to give, if penitent, plenary remission at the hour 

 of death.*' 



On 7 July, 1 5 14, the nuns were visited by 

 Bishop Nicke. The prioress and five of the 

 sisters were severally examined. Margaret 

 Gygges stated that the day and night offices were 

 duly said and silence observed and that her sole 

 complaint was that the prioress, to save the 

 expense of an auditor, did not present an annual 

 statement of accounts. Margaret Hollins, 

 sacrist, bore witness to the good repair of the 

 manors, but said that the cloister and church 

 were somewhat defective. Agnes Guy said that 

 they had had no sub-prioress for four years, that 

 they were ignorant of their foundation numbers,, 

 that the prioress rendered no account, and that 

 the house was said to be in debt. Margaret 

 Cobbes said that the church porch was in ruins, 

 that the prioress rendered no balance sheet, but 

 gave the sisters a verbal account of the house^ 



' Norw. Epis. Reg. i, 66. " Ibid, i, 83. 



' Ibid, ii, 62. '» Ibid. V, 5. 



" Ibid, vi, 152. "Ibid, ix, 25. 



" Cal. of Pat. 1327-30, p. 400. 

 " Cat. ofCamb. Unit: MSS. v, 482. 

 '' Norw. Epis. Reg. viii, 127. 

 '« Pat. 21 Edw. Ill, pt. i, m. 3. 

 " CaJ. Papal Reg. iii, 451. 



350 



