A HISTORY OF NORFOLK 



When Edward I was at Yarmouth, in 1277, 

 he gave the friars on Low Sunday an alms of 

 23^. lod. to find the food for two days.' From 

 this it may be estimated that there were about 

 thirty-five inmates. 



In 1287 the east coast of England was ravaged 

 by a severe storm, and Yarmouth suffered griev- 

 ously. Much of the town walls were destroyed, 

 and the house of the Dominicans was covered by 

 the waves. ^ 



Thereupon the friars, with the idea of escaping 

 like misfortune in the future, began to fill up a 

 deep place between their house and that of Simon 

 Salle, beyond which the sea often flowed, with 

 stones and rubbish, and proceeded to build on 

 this small piece of reclaimed land, which measured 

 130 ft. by 115 ft. Early in 1290 a royal writ 

 was issued to the sheriff of Norfolk to hold an 

 inquiry whether this alteration, which involved 

 the removal of a part of the town wall, might be 

 licensed. The jurors, one of whom was Thomas 

 Fastolf, held that the proceedings of the friars 

 were calculated to jeopardize the town wall, and 

 the scheme was consequently abandoned.' 



The executors of Queen Eleanor, about 

 Michaelmas, 1 291, gave an alms of lOOJ. to 

 William de Hotham, provincial for this con- 

 vent.* 



Each of the three orders of friars at Yarmouth, 

 and in several cases the Friars Preachers alone, 

 had many small bequests made to them, by bur- 

 gesses and others who prudently made their wills 

 at the time of the Great Pestilence of 1349. 

 Simon de Ormesly, smith, by will of 26 January, 

 1350, directed his body to be buried in the 

 church of the Friars Preachers, to whom he left 

 lOi. as well as lid. to two particular friars. 

 The wills of this county show that bequests to 

 this and the other two houses of friars at 

 Yarmouth were fairly frequent up to the time of 

 their dissolution.* 



In the year 1525 the church of this convent 

 was burnt down and never restored.* 



Richard Ingworth, the ex-friar, and special 

 instrument of the king for the suppression of 

 the mendicant orders, wrote to Cromwell in 

 November, 1538, naming nineteen houses of 

 friars whose surrender he had accepted, the Black 

 Friars of Yarmouth being among the number.' 



The fourteenth-century seal of this house 

 (if in. X I i) is an elaborate composition for its 

 size. In three niches stand the Virgin and 

 Child, St. Dominic with a cross, and a bishop 



' Rot. Gard. 5 Edw. I, cited by Palmer. 



' T, Wykes, CAron. (Rolls Ser.). 



' Inq. p.m. 18 Edw. I, No. 14.0. 



' Rot. gard. 69-70 Edw. I, No. 14.0. 



' YiXmcr, Reliquary (new ser.), i, 141-4., gives about 

 four closely-printed pages of these bequests, chiefly 

 taken from Blomefield, Hist, of Noif. and Swinden, 

 Hist, of Yarmouth. 



' Manship, Hist, of Yarmouth. 



■ L. and P. Hen. Fill, viii (2), 117. 



with crozier. In the base are two fishes naiaiit, 

 for the ancient arms of Yarmouth. Legend : — 



s'. CONVENTS FRiTm. PREDIC. GERNEMUTE ' 



64. THE FRANCISCAN FRIARS OF 

 YARMOUTH 



The Franciscan or Grey Friars probxbly came 

 to Yarmouth soon after 1226, which was the 

 year of their arrival at Norwich. Their founder 

 is said to have been Sir William Gerbrigge, knt.' 

 The site originally granted them was about the 

 centre of the town, on ground now occupied by 

 Queen Street ; their precincts gradually extended 

 from the river on the west to Middlegate Street 

 on the east, and from Row 83 on the north to 

 Row 96 on the south.'*' 



Leave was given in 1285, after an inquisition 

 ad quod damnum, by the bailiffs of Yarmouth 

 for the Friars Minor to hold that rengiate of 

 land, with buildings and appurtenances, con- 

 tiguous to their area, which the king held of 

 the grant of John son of William Gerbrigge, the 

 younger, for the enlargement of their site, pro- 

 vided that the lane between the said rengiate and 

 the rengiate of Thomas Gerbrigge remain open 

 and common for the easement of both rengiates, 

 and of the neighbours and others of the said 

 town as heretofore." In May 1290, con- 

 firmation was granted of a quitclaim by John de 

 Bromholm to the Friars Minor of his right in a 

 plot of land lying between the dwelling-house 

 of the friars on the north side and the common 

 lane on the south side." 



A commission of oyer and terminer was ap- 

 pointed in 1 302 touching the petition of the Friars 

 Minors of Yarmouth, who complained that some 

 malefactors of the town had broken the pavement 

 near the wall, whereby rainwater ran under it 

 to the destruction of the pavement, and that 

 some of the townsmen, with strangers, threw 

 down and broke to pieces their fence, which 

 they made for the defence of their dwelling- 

 place against the flow and violence of the sea, 

 by putting timber and other heavy weights 

 upon it." 



Wills of the thirteenth century downwards 

 show frequent small bequests to the Grey Friars 

 by the townsfolk of Yarmouth, often accom- 

 panied by a request for interment in the church 

 or churchyard. Many of the once powerful 

 family of Fastolf were buried there. No men- 



' B. M. XXXV, 70 ; Gent. Mag. Ixi, 513, 632. 



' Speed, Hist. 1066. William Gerbrigge was one 

 of the Yarmouth bailiffs in 1271 (Blomefield, Hist, of 

 Norf xi, 322) ; he was probably a son of the 

 founder. 



'° Palmer, Hist, of Yarmouth, \, 419. 



" Cal. Pat. 13 Edw. I, m. 18. 'Rengiate' is 

 apparently a local term for a plot of ground. 



" Ibid. 18 Edw. I, m. 28. 



" Ibid. 30 Edw. I, m. \6<i. 



436 



