RELIGIOUS HOUSES 



therein termed ' the priory of Datforde in Great 

 Massingham.' Bound up with it are various 

 later surveys, mostly of Elizabethan date. 



Priors or Wardens of Great Massingham 



William,^ 1 260 



Geoffrey de Fakenham,^ elected 1299 

 John de Lenn,^ elected 1325 

 John Wesenham/ elected 1354 

 John de Reynham,^ elected 1372 

 Roger de Brisele/ elected 1378 

 Stephen Helgeye/ appointed 1395 

 Robert Bate,* appointed 1405 

 John de Hegham,^ elected 1420 

 Nicholas Felbrigg,'" elected 1420 

 John Gedney,^' elected 1 45 6 

 John Cousyn,'^ elected 1467 



30. THE PRIORY OF MOUNTJOY 



William de Gyney or Gioneto, in the reign of 

 Richard I, founded a chapel dedicated to the 

 honour of St. Laurence at a place called Tueit, 

 afterwards known as Montegaudio or Mountjoy, 

 in the parish of Heveringland. The land on 

 which the chapel was to be erected was called 

 the old stew (vetus vyvarium), with the alder bed 

 adjoining. He endowed it with houses for the 

 brethren to live in, a mark of rent from a mill, 

 thirty acres of the assart of Sudfrid, twenty acres 

 of the assart of Rumholt, three ditches of turf to 

 be dug yearly near the ditches dug for the use of 

 his court of Heveringland ; feeding for six pigs 

 in his park at acorn time without pannage, and 

 1,000 red herrings of the rent that is due yearly 

 at Michaelmas at Diiham for the buying of 

 herrings." 



It is said that originally this chapel and 

 houses for brethren, otherwise a priory, was 

 granted to the priory of Wymondham, and that 

 they were to maintain two or three monks at 

 Mountjoy. But at all events, soon after its 

 foundation, the founder by another charter con- 

 veyed to Brother Vincent, a canon there, and his 

 successors, the mill of Likkemilne, with the 

 meadow by the millstream and an acre of land." 

 A third grant of the founder of a piece of his 

 turbary, with the soil, water, and fishing in 

 Heveringland, was made to the prior and canons 

 of Mountjoy.^* A fourth charter, witnessed by 



' Fin. Norf. 44 Hen. Ill, 33. 



* Pat. 27 Edw. I, m. 36. 



^ Norw. Epis. Reg. i, 115. 

 « Ibid, iv, 156. 



* Blomefield, Hisi. of Norf. ix, 8. "• Ibid. 

 ' Pat. 18 Ric. II, p. 2, m. 13. 



Mbid. 6 Hen. IV, p. I, m. 15. 



' Norw. Epis. Reg. vi, 92. 



'° Ibid, viii, 56. " Ibid, xi, 94. 



'Mbid. i6i. 



" Anct. D. A. 3014. 



" Ibid. 3013. '■' Ibid. 3012. 



the founder, whereby William Henecote grants 

 the priory a piece of land on payment yearly of a 

 root of ginger, and two other almost equally 

 early charters name canons and not monks. '^ 



It may therefore be accepted that an Austin 

 prior and canons were established here early in 

 the reign of John, and that Vincent was the first 

 prior. There are five other undated charters, of 

 the beginning of the thirteenth century, at the 

 Public Record Office, whereby small grants were 

 made to the prior and canons of St. Laurence's, 

 Heveringland.^' 



Roger de Gyney, lord of Heveringland, 

 materially increased their pasture rights.'* On 

 3 May, 1294, Roger de Gyney granted lands and 

 rents to the priory, to the annual value of ^^lO, 

 of his fee in Heveringland, Sweningtone, and 

 Diiham, as their rents and profits were so attenu- 

 ated that they did not suffice for their support,'* 

 and in 1306 Sir Roger de Gyney granted to 

 Prior Thomas and the canons that none of his 

 bondmen should implead them in his court by 

 reason of any plea of trespass.^" 



On 28 October, 1311, John de Felthorp,, 

 clerk, entered into an obligation, in the Mountjoy 

 chapter-house, to pay to the prior and canons a 

 mark of silver, a quarter of wheat, and a quarter 

 of barley as yearly pension during life, for his 

 sojourn of thirteen weeks in the year at their 

 house, payable in each year at Michaelmas before 

 his sojourn."' 



Peter the prior of Mountjoy occurs in various 

 charters temp. Edward II, up to 1324.^^ Whilst 

 Peter was prior the house received considerable 

 augmentation of an endowment from Thomas 

 de Quitwell, rector of Felthorpe, of land and ser- 

 vices in Felthorpe ; in return for which the 

 priory was to provide a canon to celebrate mass 

 daily for the souls of the donor, of Richard and 

 Alice, his father and mother, and of Sir William 

 de Quitwell. 



In 1343 John Fode and John de Hadescho, 

 chaplains, had royal licence on payment of loox. 

 to assign to the priory two messuages and 1$. "jd. 

 rent in Heveringland, Felthorpe, &c., to support 

 two canons to celebrate daily for the souls of John 

 Fode and John de Shelton,-' and next year John 

 the prior and the canons of St. Laurence had 

 released to them by Walter Neel of Hevering- 

 land all right in two pieces of land called ' Tol- 

 kesker ' and ' Netheryd.' In the same year 

 Peter, rector of Irmingland, released to the priory 

 all his rights in the advowson of that church, as 

 well as land and rents in the same parish.^* 



In 1364 Pope Urban V granted an indulgence 

 of a year and forty days of enjoined penance to 

 those penitents who should visit the convent and 



'* Ibid. " Ibid. 2999-3003. 



'Mbid. 2782-3-4. "Ibid. 2781. 



" Ibid. 2788. " Ibid. 2750. 



" Ibid. 2807, 3043-6, 3051. 



" Ibid. 2748 ; Pat. 17 Edw. Ill, pt. i, m. 27. 



^' Anct. D. A. 2732-3; Pat. i8Edw.III,pt. i, m. 28. 



387 



