A HISTORY OF NORFOLK 



34. THE PRIORY OF WALSINGHAM 



An anonymous ballad from the press of Richard 

 Pynson, circa 1460, of which there is a unique 

 copy in Pepys Library, relative to Our Lady of 

 Walsingham, thus opens : — 



Of thys Chsppel see here the foundatyon 

 Builded the yere of Christ's incarnatyon 



A thousand complete sixty and one. 



The tyme of Saint Edwarde, Kinge of this region.' 



It proceeds to relate how the noble widow 

 Lady Rychold de Faverches was favoured by the 

 Virgin with a view of the Santa Casa at Nazareth, 

 and commissioned to build its counterpart at Wal- 

 singham. Eventually 



Our blessed La)-die with blessed minystrys, 

 Herself being here chief Artificer 

 Arrered thys sayde house with Angells handys. 

 And not only rered it but sette it there it is. 



That the chapel was founded in the time of 

 Edward the Confessor is also confirmed by Le- 

 land.^ The earliest deeds in the chartulary of 

 Walsingham Priory name Richeldis, the mother 

 of Geoffrey de Favraches, as the founder of the 

 chapel ; but the term founding in this case refers 

 to the re-establishment or re-building of the chapel 

 by that lady after the Conquest. 



About the year 1169,^ in the episcopate of 

 William Turbus, Geoffrey de Favraches, on the 

 day he set out for a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, 

 granted to God and St. Mary and to Edwy his 

 clerk the chapel of Our Lady which his mother 

 had founded at Walsingham with all its appur- 

 tenances, together with the church of AH Saints, 

 Little Walsingham, to the intent that Edwy 

 should found a priory. Shortly afterwards these 

 gifts, with slight additions, were confirmed to the 

 Austin Canons of Walsingham by Robert de Bru- 

 curt and Roger, earl of Clare.^ 



It is clear that the chapel of Our Lady of 

 Walsingham was of no small repute ere the priory 

 ■was established, for it was very unusual in the 

 twelfth century to find a mere chapel in the 

 possession of lands, tithes, and rents. The chapel 

 ■was enclosed within the priory precincts, and 

 from its earliest establishment a continuous stream 

 of pilgrims found their way to this sanctuary. 

 The offerings speedily enriched the priory, and 

 though fluctuating much at different periods, 

 produced a considerable income for the four cen- 

 turies of its existence. Roger Ascham, when 

 visiting Cologne in 1550, remarked : ' The Three 



' Jrci. Journ. xiii, 115. 



' Leland, Collectanea, iii, 26. 



' This date is arrived at from a careful study of the 

 years of the different priors' rule, as given subsequently 

 from the dateless chartulary list. It is highly improb- 

 able that Geoffrey, of an age to make a pilgrimage in 

 1 169, was the son of a lady who founded the chapel 

 in 106 1 ; possibly he was grandson. 



* Walsingham Chart. Cott. MS. Nero E. vii. 



Kings be not so rich, I believe, as was the Lady 

 of Walsingham.' 



Among kingly pilgrims may be named 

 Henry III (1241), Edward I (1280 and 1296), 

 and Edward II (1315). Edward III, in 1 361, 

 granted £c) towards the expenses of John duke 

 of Brittany, for his expenses in this pilgrimage, 

 and licence of absence from London, to his 

 nephew, the Duke of Anjou (one of the French 

 hostages) for a like reason. The same king, in 

 1364, gave safe conduct to King David of 

 Scotland and twenty knights to make pilgrimage 

 to Walsingham.^ 



But it was not merely offerings in money that 

 made the priory prosperous ; gifts of lands, rents, 

 and churches were bestowed on the canons soon 

 after its foundation. A confirmation charter of 

 Henry III in 1255, confirmed the substantial 

 benefactions of eight different donors,* and 

 Edward I, when at Walsingham in 1281, con- 

 firmed to the priory the churches of St. Peter, 

 Great Walsingham, St. Clement, and St. Andrew, 

 Burnham, St. Andrew, Bedingham, Tymelthorp, 

 and Owelton.' 



The taxation of 1291 shows that the priory 

 had then possessions in eighty-six difi'erent 

 Norfolk parishes, and that its annual income 

 from such sources was ^•]C) 2s. 6^d. 



Clement V, in 1306, sanctioned the appro- 

 priation by the priory of the church of St. Peter, 

 Great Walsingham, value ;i^i O, of their patronage ; 

 the church was to be sen'ed by one of their canons.* 

 Royal sanction to the appropriation of the church 

 of St. Peter, Great Walsingham, was not granted 

 until 1314.^ On 5 May, 1309, at the instance 

 of Queen Isabella, licence was granted to the 

 priory of Walsingham for the acquisition in mort- 

 main of lands and rents to the yearly value of 

 £4-0. This instrument was vacated on 9 May, 

 9 Richard II, because the priory had by then 

 acquired lands and tenements to that amount.^* 



In May 1385, the priory paid the king the 

 heavy fine of ;^ioo to secure the alienation to 

 them in mortmain of considerable lands and 

 manors in Norfolk, including the manors of Great 

 and Little Ryburgh, of the value of ;^40 yearly, 

 to find four chaplains, canons or secular, to cele- 

 brate daily in the newly-built chapel of St. Anne 

 within the said priory for the good estate of Joan, 

 widow of Thomas de Felton, knight, and for her 

 soul after death, and for the souls of the said 

 Thomas, Thomas his son, and others, and to find 

 a light to burn daily therein at high mass.^' 



Prior Thomas and his convent obtained licence 

 in mortmain, in 1465, for the acquisition of lands, 



' Nichol, Pilgrimages of Erasmus (1875), Ixvi, 79 ; 

 Rymer, Focdera (Rec. Com.), vi, 315, 324. 



"• Chart. R. 39 Hen. Ill, m. 5. 



' Ibid. 9 Edw. I, m. 75. 



» Cal. Papal Reg. ii, 19. 



' Cal. of Pat. 8 Edw. II, pt. i, m. 11. 

 '» Ibid. 2 Edw. II, pt. 2, m. 9. 

 " Ibid. 8 Ric. II, pt. ii, m. 15. 



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