A HISTORY OF NORFOLK 



Margaret Brctom,' elected 1329 

 Beatrix de Lystone/ elected 1330 

 Danetta de VVakethorp,' elected 1339 

 Margaret Campleon,'' elected 1396 

 Margaret Chykering," elected 1418 

 Alice Wesenham,* elected 1420 



Margaret Copynger,* elected 1466 

 Joan Eyton,^ elected 1477 

 Elizabeth Mounteneye,'" elected 1498 

 Sarah Frost," elected 1 5 19 

 Elizabeth Hothe," or Both,'^ occurs 1535, last 

 prioress.^^ 



HOUSES OF CLUNIAC MONKS 



15. THE PRIORY OF CASTLE ACRE 



The Earl of VVarenne, the founder of the 

 great Cluniac house of Lewes, founded a priory 

 of the same order at Castle Acre between 1087 

 and 1089, making it subject to Lewes, as Lewes 

 was subject to Cluni. The founder endowed 

 this priory of St. Mary with the Norfolk churches 

 of Castle Acre, Methwold,Wickmere, andTrunch, 

 and the church of Leaden Roding, Essex, to- 

 gether with two parts of the tithes of his de- 

 mesnes in Grimston.' William, the second earl, 

 confirmed his father's grants, together with a 

 considerable amount of additional gifts. The 

 first church had been within the castle area ; 

 but the monks, finding it inconveniently small, 

 had begun to build a monastery on the present 

 site before the second earl drew up his charter. 

 Therein he granted them the two orchards and 

 all the cultivated ground between the orchards 

 and castle, where they had founded their new 

 church with his help and encouragement, and 

 further gave them his serf Ulmar the stonemason 

 to work on the new church. The church and 

 cloister were not finished until after the death of 

 the second earl. They were consecrated by 

 William Turbus, bishop of Norwich from 11 46 

 to 1 1 74, in the lifetime of the third earl, who 

 died in 1 148. 



The Norfolk churches and portions of tithes 

 or ecclesiastical pensions that came into the 

 hands of the monks of Acre at an early date were 

 very numerous. Bishop Ebrard of Norwich 

 confirmed to them no fewer than twenty-six 

 churches or portions about the year 1 140. 

 Henry L confirmed to the priory the churches of 

 South Creake and Newton, and Henry IL the 

 church of Fleet. 



The taxation of 1 291 gives the annual value 

 of the priory's temporalities in seventy-eight 

 Norfolk parishes at ;^i30 ijs. S^d., in two Suf- 

 folk parishes at p. 4^., and in Lincoln diocese 

 at £2 lOs. The Norfolk diocese spiritualities 



' Norw. Epis. Reg. ii, 33. ' Ibid. 36. 



' Ibid, iii, 39. ' Ibid, vi, 223. 



^ Ibid, viii, 36. ' Ibid. 57. 



' Karl. MSS. 21 10, fbl. i. This is an admirably 

 arranged fourteenth-century chartulary of Castle Acre ; 

 a full synopsis of its contents is given in Dugdale, 

 Mm. V, 46-8. The original has been consulted for 

 the information given in these pages. 



were of the annual value of £^2 Js. ; those of 

 London diocese, ly. ^d. ; those of Lincoln, £"] ; 

 and those of Ely, £1 2s. This yields a total 

 annual value of ^^215 14.S. ^^d. 



Order was issued in January, 1325, to the 

 treasurer and barons of the exchequer to cause 

 the priory of Castle Acre to be restored to the 

 prior, the prior having given the king to under- 

 stand that the keepers of alien priories in Norfolk 

 and Suffolk had taken the house into the king's 

 hands by virtue of a general order affecting the 

 lands of aliens in the power of the king of 

 France ; whereas the late king, in 1306, had 

 made exception in favour of Castle Acre, having 

 learnt from John de Warenne, earl of Surrev, 

 and others, that the prior and convent were 

 Englishmen and not aliens, and that they did not 

 pay any tax or pension to any of the power of 

 France, and were not bound by obedience or 

 affinity to any one of that power, save that the 

 abbot of Cluni used to visit the priory when he 

 came to England, and that the prior and convent 

 in such visitations received their profession from 

 the abbot." In the following April this order 

 was repeated ; everything was to be restored to 

 the priory, saving to the king the corn and other 

 goods taken for his use for the expedition to the 

 duch)' of Aquitaine." 



Protection for a year was granted to the prior 

 of Castle Acre on 14 August, 1337, because he 

 was not by birth of the power of the king of 

 France, paid no cess or pension to any religious 

 alien house, and was bound in obedience to none 

 save to the abbot of Cluni when visiting this 

 kingdom. ^^ Nevertheless the king claimed to 

 present to the advowsons of the priory on account 

 of the war with France ; thus on 8 December, 

 1338, he presented, on that ground, to the 

 church of St. Andrew, Tattersett.'' 



A formal charter of denizenship or naturali- 

 zation was granted by the crown to Castle Acre 

 Priory in the year 1351.^' 



' Norw. Epis. Reg. xi, 158. ' Ibid, xii, 55. 



"Ibid. 203. " Ibid, xiv, 153. 



" L. and P. Hen. Fill, xiii (i), 576. 

 " Valor Eccl. (Rec. Com.) iii, 313. 

 " Close, 18 Edw. II, m. 19. 

 '^ Ibid. m. 9. 



" Pat. 1 1 Edw. Ill, pt. ii, m. 10 ; Close, 1 1 Edw. 

 Ill, pt. ii, m. 42. 



" Pat. 12 Edw. Ill, pt. iii, m 4. 



'* Duckett, Chart, and Rec. 0/ Cluni, i, 31. 



356 



