RELIGIOUS HOUSES 



The 1535 Valor gave the spiritualities in Nor- 

 folk as £^ 1 5 J. id., and those in Suffolk at 

 ^^13 i6i. 8^., the temporalities in the two coun- 

 ties as ^^31 145. I i\d. ; but from this sum there 

 were various deductions, the largest of which 

 was j^5 6i. Sd. to their chaplain, so that the clear 

 annual value only amounted to ^^40 lis. 2^d.,^ 

 which was a great drop from the earlier valua- 

 tion. The reason for this depreciation becomes 

 clear from the statement made by Martin with 

 regard to the taxing of the religious houses in 

 the reign of Henry VI. At that time the nuns 

 of Thetford were excused ; their petition for 

 relief stated that their revenues both in Norfolk 

 and Suffolk were much decreased by recent mor- 

 tality and had so continued since 1349, and that 

 their possessions in Cranwich deanery had suffered 

 much from inundations.^ 



In 1 214 the abbey of Bury granted the nuns 

 seven loaves and 2d. in money, to be given them 

 every Sunday by their almoner for the corrody 

 of Margaret Nonne.' 



From the first establishment of the nuns at 

 Thetford, the cumbersome plan had been adopted 

 of sending weekly supplies from Bury St. Ed- 

 munds (a distance of about 12 miles) not only of 

 bread and beer but even of cooked meat [fercula). 

 The thirteenth century customary of the abbey 

 states that thirty-five loaves and ninety-six gallons 

 of beer were sent weekly to Thetford.'' Owing 

 to the not infrequent robberies and assaults on the 

 servants and wagons of the convent conveying 

 this weekly dole on a long journey, and to the 

 occasional unsatisfactory state of the provisions 

 on arrival, it was agreed in 1369 that hence- 

 forth, instead of forwarding bread, beer, and 

 dressed provisions, the abbey should grant annu- 

 ally ten quarters of corn, twenty quarters of 

 barley, and 621. in money.' 



One of the few early notices preserved of this 

 priory tells how in 1305 William de Fornham, 

 clerk, Walter de Trofton and John Cat, chap- 

 lains, one night after dark climbed over the 

 priory wall and went into a house in the court- 

 yard to talk with one Joan de Fuldon, a servant, 

 and how, when the light shining under the door 

 had attracted the notice of some of the nuns, the 

 gay clerks rose up and fled back over the wall 

 the way they came.' 



There was a long lawsuit in 1438 between 

 Alice Wesenham, prioress, and Robert Popy, 

 rector of Ling. When the nuns first removed 

 from Ling, they held a messuage where they 

 dwelt, close to the chapel of St. Edmund in 

 Ling, together with 60 acres of land and 30 of 

 meadow adjoining, and rents of $1. ()d. and two 

 hens. From that date for a long period they 



' yalor Eccl. (Rec. Com.), iii, 314. 



* Martlin, Hut. of Thetford, 106. 

 ' Ibid. loi. 



* Harl. MS. 3977. fol. 25. 



' Martin, Hist, of Thetford, 102-3. 



* Assize R. 1234, m. 26. 



had received the profits ; and out of them had 

 paid a chaplain at Ling, who was sometimes 

 called the prior of St. Edmund's chapel. But 

 for some years past the prioress had let all to the 

 rector of Ling, who undertook to serve the 

 chapel, and the dispute arose as to the amount of 

 rent and the rights of the prioress. Eventually 

 it was decided that the king should license the 

 prioress to convey the chapel and all the premises 

 to the rector and his successors for ever, they 

 paying to the prioress a clear annual pension of 

 four marks.' 



The nimnery was visited in November, 1492, 

 by Archdeacon Goldwell, as commissary of his 

 brother the bishop. Joan Eyton the prioress, 

 six professed nuns, and four novices were sever- 

 ally and privately examined. The visitor found 

 nothing needing reformation.* 



The only suggestion made by the visitor in i 5 14 

 after examining the prioress and eight nuns was 

 that the books required repairing. Two of the 

 nuns expressed a fear that the prioress was about 

 to receive as nuns certain unlearned and even de- 

 formed persons, particularly one Dorothy Sturghs, 

 who was both deaf and deformed.^ 



The visitation of 1520, undertaken by the 

 bishop in person, simply resulted in an entry that 

 the nunnery was very poor ; there was clearly 

 nothing amiss. ^'' Nor was there anything to 

 correct at the visitation of 1526, when there 

 were six professed nuns and four novices, in 

 addition to the prioress, in attendance.'' 



The last visitation, held in July, 1532, was 

 attended by the prioress and nine nuns. The 

 state of the house and the observance of religion 

 required no reformation. There was, however, 

 an irregularity pertaining to a corrody, for one 

 Thomas Forster, gentleman, was receiving sup- 

 port for himself, his wife, three children and a 

 maid. The infant daughter of John Jerves was 

 in the priory, and he was paying nothing for its 

 support. Silence was scarcely observed as well 

 as it ought to be in the refectory.'^ 



The house was dissolved in February, 1537.'* 

 Elizabeth Hothe, the prioress, obtained a pen- 

 sion of £s ; '■* this pension the prioress was still 

 enjoying at the age of 100 in the year 1553, 

 when she was living 'as a good and catholich 

 woman,' in the parish of St. James, Norwich." 



Prioresses of St. George, Thetford 



Cecilia,'* c. 1160 



Agnes,'' occurs 1253 



Ellen de Berdesette,'* elected 1310 



' Ibid. 



' Jessopp, Norw. Visit. 33. ' Ibid. 90-1. 



'» Ibid. 155. " Ibid. 243. " Ibid. 303-4. 



" L. and P. Hen. VIII, xn (i), 23q. 

 "Ibid, xiii (i), 576. 

 '= Blomefield, Hist. ofNotf. ii, 92. 

 " Harl. MS. 743, fol. 219. 

 " Martin, Hist, of Thetford, 106. 

 " Norw. Epis. Reg. i, 39. 



355 



