A HISTORY OF NORFOLK 



office ; that he had been concerned in drawing 

 up divers great instruments in the process of 

 divorce of Queen Anne ; and that he wrote to 

 the king the abridgements of the comperta of 

 the late visitation. He stated that the manor of 

 West Dereham was worth £'^2 I2s. 8(^., and the 

 residue of the rent was ;^200, and the movables 

 worth ;r6oo. He promised if his petition was 

 granted to retain only ;^50, giving Cromwell 

 the other ;r200 a year, and movables to the 

 value of ;^400 or ^^500. It is scarcely necessary 

 to say that the chance of so great a share of the 

 spoils was accepted by Cromwell, and the 

 slanderous visitor obtained his grant.' 



It is not in any way credible, if the visitors' 

 report of the condition of this house had been 

 true or credited, that Abbot Roger, who presided 

 over a convent charged with these outrageous 

 offences, would have been assigned the unusually 

 large pension of ^^66 ly. ^d. This pension, as 

 well as smaller sums to five of his canons, was 

 granted on 6 November, 1539.^ 



Abbots of West Dereham 



Augustine,' appointed 1 1 88 



Ralph,* occurs teinp. Richard I, John, Henry 



III 

 Remigius,' occurs 123 I 

 Angerius,* occurs 1232 

 Roger,' occurs 1268 

 Denis Walter,* occurs 1286 

 Simon,' occurs 1304 

 Walter de Donton,'" elected 1306 

 Paul de Tilney," elected 131 3 

 Bartholomew,'- occurs 13 16 

 John de Rutham,'' elected 1325 

 Nicholas de Dereham,'* elected 1339 

 William de Holt,'* elected 1368 

 Constantine,'^ occurs 1393 

 John Flete," occurs 1398 

 John,'* elected 141 2 

 Robert," occurs 1428 



John Wygenhall alias Saresson,^" elected 1429 

 John Lynn,^' elected 1455 



' L. and. P. Hen. Fill, xiii (2), 5 1 2. 



' Ibid, xiv (I), 598. 



' Stone MSS. 929. 



-■ Ibid. Bodl. Ch.irt. 30/^ 



^ Anct. D. (P.R.O.), A.3074. = Ibid. 



'Tanner, Norf. MSS. i, 565. 



« Ibid. ' Ibid. '" Ibid. " Ibid. 



" Close, 10 Edw. II, m. 281^. As, however, Paul 

 de Tilney was abbot in 1325, when he died (Stowe 

 MS. 4935 fol. 7), this n.ime must be a mistake, 

 unless Abbot Paul temporarily vacated the office. 



" Norf. Epis. Reg. i, 117; Add. MS. 4935, i. 7. 



" Norf. Epis. Reg. iii, 52. 



'* Ibid, v, 80. 



"^ Blomefield, Hist, ofh'otf. vii, 335-6. 



" Ibid. " Norf. Epis. Reg. vii, 52. 



" Blomefield, Hist, of Norf. vii, 335-6. "" Ibid. 

 *' Norf. vol. /irch. Inst. (1851), 99-1 14. 



William Maxey," elected 1482 



John Martyn" alias Wysbech," occurs 1488 



William Norwich,^' elected 15 11 



Roger Forman,-* elected 1522, last abbot 



43. THE ABBEY OF LANGLEY 



The founder of the Premonstratensian abbey 

 of Langley, dedicated to the honour of the 

 Blessed Virgin in 1195, was Sir Robert Fitz- 

 Roger Helke, who was lord of Langley by 

 marriage with Margaret, daughter and co-heir of 

 William de Cheney, and relict of Sir Hugh de 

 Cressi. The founder was sheriff of Norfolk and 

 Suffolk 1 192-3. His descendants, with whom 

 the patronage of the abbey rested, assumed the 

 name of de Clavering from their lordship of that 

 name in Essex. 



The house was colonized by brethren from 

 Alnwick, the abbot of Alnwick thus becoming 

 the father abbot to Langley. 



Pope Innocent's bull of confirmation names 

 amongst the abbey endowments the churches of 

 St. Michael, Langley ; St. Helen, Ranworth ; 

 the Holy Trinity, Loddon ; St. Margaret, 

 Trickley ; St. Mary, Rushall ; St. Mary, Kirk- 

 by ; and St. Mary, Ewra.-' 



In the first year of his reign King John con- 

 firmed the grants of the founder and all other 

 benefactions with full exemptions from every 

 manner of toll and custom. He also granted to 

 the abbots and canons, in the same year, a fair of 

 two days on the vigil and the feast of Saints Philip 

 and James, and a Tuesday market."* 



In 1235 Abbot Hugh obtained the appropria- 

 tion to the convent of the church of St. Mary, 

 Kirkby, from Thomas, bishop of Norwich, a 

 stipend of eight marks being assigned to the 

 Vicar.-" 



A letter of Richard (or Rycher) the abbot, 

 dated 21 January, 1276, recites the confirmation 

 by Roger, bishop of Norwich, of the appropria- 

 tion and patronage of the churches of the Holy 

 Trinity, Loddon ; St. Gregory, Heckingham ; 

 St. Mary, Rushall; St. ilary, Kirkby; St. 

 Helen, Ranworth ; St. Botolph, Limpenhoe ; 

 and St. Margaret, Trickley ; to the uses of the 

 abbot and convent of Langley, excepting the 

 collation to the church at Ranworth, which 

 belonged to the bishopric of Norwich.''^ Three 

 years later, in 1279, Walter de Turkeley gave 



'- Redman, Visit. (Bodl.), fols. 9, 33. 



" Ibid. fol. 72. 



■' Ibid. fol. 99. 



" Blomefield, Hisl. ofKorf. vii, 336. " Ibid. 



"Add. MS. 5948, pp. 12, lib. The bull is 

 imperfect and lacks the date. This MS. is a thir- 

 teenth-century chartulary of the abbey of 58 folios, 

 but is imperfect in several places. 



" Chart. R. I John, m. 8. 



" Cal. of Bodl. Chart. 192. 



'" Ibid. 



41! 



