A HISTORY OF NORFOLK 



Cromwell telling him that the Dominicans had sold 

 their great bell.' On 7 October the duke again 

 wrote to Cromwell enclosing a petition from the 

 unhappy priors and convents of the Black and 

 White Friars of the city begging that the surren- 

 der of their houses might be taken. ' The old 

 and small charity in these days is insufficient to 

 live on, and they have been fain to sell their 

 goods ; have made no waste, but are slandered 

 and inquieted by light persons breaking their glass 

 windows.' The duke told Cromwell that they 

 were ' very poor wretches ' — a distinct compliment 

 to those of mendicant orders — and that as he had 

 already given the worst of the Grey Friars 20s. 

 for a raiment, it was a pity if these should have 

 less.' 



The eventual disposal of the house and church 

 of the Black Friars will be treated of elsewhere. 



The appreciation generally entertained for 

 these friars in the city where they were estab- 

 lished, is shown by the very long list of gifts and 

 bequests from 1355 to 1529 given by Father 

 Palmer.' 



Priors of the Dominican Friars of 

 Norwich * 



Nicholas de Edenham, 1290 

 Geoffrey de Derham, 1305 

 Adam de Halesworth, 1374 

 Robert de Fretone, 1 38 1 

 John Pynnesthorp, 1 45 1 

 Roger de Wichingham, 1470 

 Simon Curteys, 1483 

 Roger Bernude, 1501 

 Thomas Bekylls, 1505 

 William Brygges, 1 507 

 Penyman 



Edmund Harcock, 1534 

 Thomas Briggs, 1535 



An imperfect impression of the circular ad 

 causas seal (2^ in.) of this house shows the 

 Baptism of Our Lord by St. John Baptist, with 

 dove descending ; in the field a sun on the left 

 and crescent moon on the right. Legend : — 



+ BIG CONVEN RIVICO . AD CAS ' 



A later fifteenth-century pointed oval seal 

 (2^ in. by i^in.) bears St. Dominic working a 

 miracle under a canopied niche. Legend : — 



SIGILLUM . COMUNE . . . PDICATORU . . .' 



There is an indistinct impression of the 

 thirteenth-century seal of the prior of the Sackites 

 (i^in. by i in.), with St. Edmund bound to a 

 tree and pierced with arrows.' 



' L. and P. Hen. FlII,xm (2), 154. ' Ibid. 216. 



' ReRquary (new ser.), vol. iii, 42-9. 



* See lists in Blomefield (iv, 339-40), Kirkpatrick 

 (40), and Palmer {ReTtquary [new ser.], vol. iii, 2 1 3- 

 14). 



' B.M. XXXV, 7. « Ibid. 236. 



' Ibid. 237; Blomefield, Hhl. ofSorf. iv, 578. 



54. THE FRANCISCAN FRIARS OF 

 NORWICH 



The Franciscan or Grey Friars arrived at 

 Norwich in 1226, and were established on a 

 site given them by John de Hastingford, between 

 the churches of St. Cuthbert and St. Vedast 

 in Conisford. They gradually increased in 

 numbers, until, sixty years after their arrival, it 

 was decided to build a large church with suitable 

 conventual buildings. As their rule prohibited 

 them accepting any fresh grants of lands or 

 tenements save those that adjoined their house 

 for purposes of extension, it became necessary, 

 in this as in so many other cases, to obtain sanc- 

 tion for closing intervening thoroughfares.' 



The Friars Minor of Norwich therefore 

 obtained leave in 1285 to close a lane, 21 1 feet 

 by 12 feet, adjoining their area on the south 

 side, for the enlargement of their close.' In 

 1292 the Franciscans received numerous grants 

 of small parcels of land in the citv from no 

 fewer than nineteen benefactors, among whom 

 were included the prior and convent of Nor- 

 wich, the prior of St. Faith's, and the abbot 

 and convent of Holm.'" In 1297, they obtained 

 leave to close a lane on the north side of their 

 plot, looi feet long by 10 feet broad, for the 

 enlargement of their dwelling." Three Norwich 

 messuages, the respective gifts of the prior of 

 Walsingham, Hugh de Rokeland, and Roger 

 le Mareschal, were bestowed on the friars in 

 1299." 



Having secured these considerable extensions, 

 the Franciscans set about building a new church 

 on a grand scale. The dimensions, as given in 

 two places by William of Worcester, are some- 

 what contradictory ; but it is clear that the nave 

 was 105 feet in length, and that the cloister 

 on the north side of the nave was a square of 

 its full length." 



There were three gilds in connexion with 

 this church, namely, those of Our Lady, of 

 St. John the Evangelist, and of St. Barbara.'^ 



Kirkpatrick and Blomefield give long lists 

 extending from 1330 to 1529 of those who 

 made small bequests to this house, and who were 

 buried in the church. As an example of the 

 more important of these testamentary gifts, that 

 of Roger Aylmer, esquire, in 1492, may be 

 cited : 'To the Warden and Convent of the Fryers 



- Blomefield, Hht. of Norf. iv, 106-16 ; Kirk- 

 patrick, Rclig. Order of Nonv. 104-29 ; Dugdale, A/on. 

 vi, 1522-3. 



' Pat. 13 Edw. I, m. 27. 



'" Ibid. 20 Edw. I, m. 11. The city of Norwich 

 petitioned the king at this time to allow a messuage 

 to be acquired by the Friars Minor (City Book of 

 Pleas, fol.46). 



" Ibid. 25 Edw. I, pt. i, m. I. 



" Ibid. 27 Edw. I, m. 27. 



" W. de Worcester, Itin. (Rolls Ser.), 506, 308. 



" Kirkpatrick, ReFig. Order of Kortc. 126. 



430 



