A HISTORY OF NORFOLK 



Burnham,' who also received a legacy of 

 26s. 8^. from Nicholas Esthawe in 1457.^ 



Robert Bale, the most distinguished literary 

 Carmelite of the English province, was a friar 

 of this house. He used to pass a part of every 

 year at the Carmelite houses of Oxford and 

 Cambridge for the purposes of study. His chief 

 work was the annals of his own order. He 

 died prior of this house in 1503 and was here 

 buried.' 



When rumours of the approaching dissolution 

 of the friars were rife, Jane Calthorp wrote to 

 Cromwell, on 17 May, 1538, asking him to 

 obtain the king's leave for her to purchase the 

 White Friars, Burnham, as it was near Polsted 

 Hall, which manor had been granted to her and 

 her heirs male. In the letter she stated that she 

 had only one poor house to dwell in at Norwich, 

 where she was often driven by the plague. The 

 letter also stated that there were only four friars left 

 at Burnham, and as they were too poor to sustain 

 the charge and repairs of the house they were 

 willing to part with it.* 



A paper drawn up towards the end of 1538 

 enumerating the friaries that had not been 

 * defasede ne rasede,' states that the houses of the 

 White Friars, Burnham, were not sold, but re- 

 mained as left by the visitor (Richard Ingworth), 

 on account of an order not to meddle as 

 Sir Richard Gresham had the preferment of the 

 house at the king's hands.' 



Among the spoils of church plate from the 

 religious houses of Norfolk were ' 3 oz. gilt, 

 58 oz. white and a nutt garnished with silver,' 

 from the White Friars of Burnham.^ 



48. THE DOMINICAN FRIARS OF 



LYNN 



The priory of Friars Preachers was founded at 

 Lynn, towards the end of Henry Ill's reign, by 

 Thomas Gedney, on the east side of the town, 

 between Clow Lane and Skinner Lane. The 

 church was dedicated to St. Dominic, and the 

 house was large enough to accommodate forty 

 religious as early as the beginning of the reiijn 

 of Edward I.^ 



The priory site was enlarged in the fourteenth 

 century.* The house was supplied with fresh 

 water from a spring called Brookwell, at Middle- 

 ton, nearly four miles distant ; the site of the 

 -well being the gift of William Berdolf.' 



' Anct. D. A. 12352. 



' Ibid.. 13389. 



^ Diet. Nat. Biog. vol. iii. 



' L. and P. Hen. Fill, xiii (i), 374. 



' Ibid. (2), 508. * Ibid, xvii, 139. 



■ Rel'tquary (new ser.), vol. ii, p. i. This .irticle, 

 pp. 1-8, is by the late Father Palmer. 



" Cal. Inq. a.q.d. 3 Edw. II, No. 57 ; Pat 3oEdw. 

 JII, pt. ii, m. 9. 



' Cal. Inq. a.q.d. 21 Edw. I, No. 71. 



When Edward I was at Gay wood in 1 27 7 

 he sent these friars 135. \d. for a day's food, and 

 also \ii. for another day. John de St. Omer, 

 mayor of Lynn, in 1285, gave them wine to 

 the value of lu. for the feast of St. Dominic. 

 When Edward I passed through Lynn in 1300 

 he sent an alms of 155. for a day's food. 

 Edward II on arriving at Lynn in 1326 gave a 

 like sum for the day's food of forty-five friars ; 

 and Edward III, when passing through the town 

 in 1328, sent 14/. 8^'. to the forty-five friars 

 who were then in the house. Father Palmer 

 also sets forth at length numerous bequests to the 

 four orders of friars of this town, and to the 

 Black Friars in particular up to the year 1505. 



Provincial chapters of the Dominicans are 

 known to have been held here at this house 

 in 1304, 1344, and 1365 ; on the first occasion 

 Edward I gave 20 marks towards the expenses, 

 whilst Edward III gave ^^15 on the second 

 occasion, and ;^io on the last.'" 



About the year i486 the priory suffered 

 severely from fire. Twenty years later the 

 buildings were not fully restored, and the master- 

 general, on 24 June, 1476, empowered the 

 prior for five years to admit as many as he would 

 to the benefits and suffrages of the order, pro- 

 vided their alms were applied to the repair of 

 the convent.'' 



When the Valor of 1535 was drawn up 

 there was but rare mention of friars, as their only 

 property was, as a rule, the land on which their 

 house and church stood. In this case, Thomas 

 Lovell being prior, the Dominicans held a 

 tenement in Lynn let at lOx. a year and a parcel 

 of meadow at 8j.'- 



This community was destroyed in 1538. 

 The day and month are left blank on the 

 surrender, which is signed by Thomas Lovell, 

 prior, Robert Skott, bachelor, and trustees of 

 the order.'' 



Priors 

 (Mentioned by Father Palmer) 

 William de Bagthorpe, 1393 

 John Braynes, 1488 

 William Videnhus, 1497 

 Thomas Lovell, 1535 



The site of this house, as well as of the other 

 three friaries of Lynn, was granted by the kino- 

 to John Eyre, who was one of the king's 

 auditors or receivers. Eyre obtained a large 

 share of monastic lands, including much of the 

 great abbey of Bury St. Edmunds ; but he did 

 not prosper and died childless." 



'" Reliquary (new ser.), ii, 4. 



" Reg. Mag. Gen. Ord. cited by Father Palmer. 

 Various minor particulars as to fifteenth-centur)- friars of 

 th.s house are also given from this source from the 

 same chronicle. 



" Falor Eccl. (Rec. Com.), iii, 397. 



" Dep. Keeper's Rep. viii, App. 2, 30. 



'* Spelman, Hist, of Sacrilege, ij^-j. 



426 



