RELIGIOUS HOUSES 



St. Peter's, Wiggenhall. In 1422 the prioress 

 spent twenty marks on the precinct walls, 

 and forty marks on the cloister. Taking ad- 

 vice in 1423 as to the bad condition of the 

 conventual church, Joan decided to take it down 

 and rebuild it : ' Trostynge to the helpe of oure 

 Lorde and to the grete charite of goode cristen 

 rnen.' The one who came chiefly to her assist- 

 ance in this and other good works was her cousin 

 Edmund Perys or Pery, rector of Watlington, 

 who by his will of 1427 desired to be buried in 

 the conventual church of Crabhouse. The 

 nuns' new church was over three years in build- 

 ing, and cost 400 marks, 'whereof William 

 Harold that lithe in the chapel of our Lady 

 payde for the ledyinge of the chirche vij skore 

 mark,' Richard Steymour, citizen of Norwich, 

 paid ;^40 for the roof, and he also gave them 

 the stalls and reredos at a cost of ;^20, and two 

 antiphoners of the great value of twenty-six 

 marks, ' whiche lygen in the queer.' Among 

 other contributions were twenty-one marks from 

 'the gylde of the Trinite whiche Naybores 

 helde in this same chirche.' During the time 

 the work of the church was in progress the 

 prioress also built ' the longe chaumber on the 

 este syde of the halle whiche costes xxiiij 

 mark.' 



Edmund Perys, the prioress's chief supporter, 

 ' passed to God on the Wednesday next after 

 the concepcyon of Oure Lady,' 1427 ; and 

 then another good friend came to her help, who 

 was also her cousin. Dr. John Wiggenhall, 

 at that time rector of Oxborough. In 1429 

 he was abbot of West Dereham, and subse- 

 quently held many important offices. His father 

 and mother were buried at Crabhouse. In 1429 

 he helped the prioress to complete and furnish 

 the church, setting up the images, paving both 

 nave and quire, providing stalls and doors for the 

 quire, and cloths for the altars. The barn at 

 Wiggenhall St. Peter was repaired in 1430 at 

 a charge of ^^, and a new malt-house rebuilt at 

 Crabhouse for ten marks. In 1431 the hall or 

 frater was taken down and built anew at a cost 

 of seventy marks. That same year the new 

 malt-house and an old one, with all the malt, 

 were burnt in a fire caused by a careless woman ; 

 but the prioress, nothing daunted, with the help 

 of Dr. Wiggenhall and others, set to work, and 

 in the course of two years built a new malt- 

 house, with a dovecot over the kiln, of better 

 worth than the two that were burnt, at a cost of 

 ;^50. In 1434 Joan repaired and heightened 

 the bakehouse, raised the steeple and re-roofed 

 it with lead at a cost of ;^I0, and spent £^ on 

 rebuilding and slating the north side of the 

 cloister. In 1435 the dorter (the first set up in 

 the place) was in such grievous decay that the 

 prioress, ' dredyinge the perischynge of her sisters 

 whiche lay thereine,' took it down, but was too 

 busy in the other works, such as the cart-house, 

 turf-house and stables, that cost eighty marks, to 



do more to it that year. In 1436, 'in the xvij 

 yere of the same prioress, be the help of God 

 and of goode cristen men sche began the grounde 

 of the same dortoure that now standith, and 

 wrought thereupon fulli vij yere betynes as God 

 wolde send hir good.' There was a great dearth 

 of corn in 1438, and Joan must needs have 

 suspended all further work, if it had not been 

 for the generosity of Dr. Wiggenhall, who sent 

 her 100 combs of malt and 200 combs of 

 barley, in addition to 20 marks, For the soule 

 of my lord of Exetyr.' ^^40 and 5 marks were 

 at the same time provided. The dorter, and 

 a house at Lynn called Corner Bothe, which 

 had long been ruinous, were completed in the 

 winter of 1444. After an energetic rule of 

 twenty-four years, just when all the work on 

 which she had been so long engaged was 

 accomplished, Joan Wiggenhall died, and was 

 succeeded, early in 1445, by Margaret Dawbeny. 



In 146 1 Master Stephen Bole, rector of Eccles, 

 built a good house at the west end of the con- 

 ventual church of Crabhouse, at a cost of £\Si 

 also in the time of Prioress Margaret ; the same 

 Stephen made other gifts to the convent, par- 

 ticularly in helping with the wall of the porch, 

 to the extent of ^^47 I ox., and after Etheldreda 

 Wulmer was appointed prioress in 1469, on the 

 death of Margaret, Master Stephen continued 

 his charitable gifts to the priory, particularly in 

 the making of a new well. 



On 9 September, 1476, there was an unusual 

 ceremony in the nuns' church at Crabhouse, 

 which was doubtless celebrated in the nave. By 

 special licence of the bishop of Norwich, Thomas 

 Hunston and Margaret Keroyle were married in 

 the monastery. The vicar of St. Mary Magda- 

 lene, Wiggenhall, received a composition in lieu 

 of his fees.^ 



The convent was visited on 10 July, I5i4> 

 by Master Thomas as commissary for the bishop. 

 Elizabeth Bredon, the prioress, testified to the 

 general obedience and religious life of the sisters, 

 save one, and to the good repair of the buildings. 

 The house was in debt 10 marks, but was owed 

 5 marks. Difi^erent nuns mentioned the bad 

 condition of the roof of the Lady Chapel, and the 

 disobedience and quarrelsome character of others, 

 and of the infrequency of confession. A pain- 

 ful scandal of the previous year came to light 

 with respect to one of the sisters.^ The bishop 

 enjoined obedience on the sisters, and on the 

 prioress the granting greater facilities for con- 

 fession. Agnes Smyth, the penitent offender, 

 was ordered to take the lowest seat for a month, 

 and to say in cloister seven times during that 

 period the whole psalter. 



' Reg. fol. I. 



* This is absolutely the one solitary instance of im- 

 morality which comes before us in all these visitations 

 of the Norfolk (Norwich diocese) nunneries, which 

 cover a period of just forty years ; Dr. Jessopp's Introd. 

 to Norzv. Fish. xlii. 



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