A HISTORY OF NORFOLK 



their ancestors. Sir Robert left to Simon, rector 

 of Scoulton, and eight other trustees, his manors 

 of Scoulton, Tottington, and Stanford in Norfolk, 

 and Burton and Foxton in Cambridgeshire, the 

 income to accumulate until there was the sum of 

 two thousand marks out of the profits. Even- 

 tually, in 1405, the royal licence was obtained 

 to erect the chantry, and to endow it with land 

 in Attleborough, and with the advowson and 

 appropriation of the church of Great EUingham, 

 due provision being made for the poor and for 

 the vicar.* 



The college was to consist of a warden or 

 master, and four chaplains or fellows. They 

 were to yield obedience to the master, and to 

 live in common in their college or mansion- 

 house. All five were to hold their benefices for 

 life, and if any were so old or infirm that they 

 could not serve, they were nevertheless to con- 

 tinue in their place and be maintained for life 

 by the college. The master's stipend was 60s., 

 and that of each chaplain 40J., to be paid half- 

 yearly, on St. John the Baptist's day and Christmas 

 day. The master and chaplains were each year 

 to have a new cloth suit, or ten shillings in lieu 

 thereof. The master was to be chosen by the 

 majority of the fellows and need not be a member 

 of the college ; if they elected two, the choice 

 between them lay with the bishop. Two wax 

 tapers of two pounds each were to be lighted 

 yearly on the anniversaries of the founder and 

 his wife, and five poor people were each to be 

 given i^d. The master was to present an 

 annual statement of accounts to the fellows on 

 Michaelmas Day. 



The college-house stood near the north-west 

 corner of the churchyard. 



On 28 January, 1493, Archdeacon Goldwell, 

 as commissary for the bishop, visited the college 

 of Attleborough, on that occasion called priory. 

 John Newton, the prior, and three canons were 

 present, and there was nothing found worthy of 

 reformation. 



At the visitation of 15 14 Peter Foston was 

 master or warden. He was subjected to examina- 

 tion, as well as the two chaplains, but nothing 

 was found by Bishop Nicke worthy of refor- 

 mation. 



The visitation made by the suffragan bishop 

 of Chalcedon and his fellow commissaries, on 

 26 June, 1520, was more searching. John 

 Claydon, the master or provost, was absent, but 

 appeared by proxy in the person of William 

 Beynham ; but as neither the master nor his 

 proxy satisfied the visitation mandate, the master 

 was pronounced contumacious and ordered to 

 appear on the morrow. The next morning 

 Beynham produced his sealed form of proxy and 

 other duly executed documents, and the visitation 

 proceeded. 



John Whitlock said that the master did not 



' Pat. 7 Hen. IV, pt. ii, m. 22. 



observe the statutes, he had retained his salary 

 for a year or more, and also detained a book of 

 accounts from the time of the death of his pre- 

 decessor. Master Peter Foston, up to that time. 

 George Jekson also said that the master did not 

 observe the foundation statutes. The bishop 

 ordered Beynham to exhibit on 16 July, at 

 Holt, the foundation charter of the college, 

 together with a statement of accounts.* 



Master John Claydon and two fellows, 

 William Brown and Robert Wittell, subscribed 

 to the king's supremacy on 25 August, 1534.^ 



The Valor Ecclesiasticus of 1535 gave the 

 annual value of the rectory of EUingham as 

 ;{^io Js. 8d., and of the college manor of 

 Attleborough 3s£i$ i8x. Sd., yielding a total of 

 ^^26 55. 4</., but various outgoings reduced the 

 clear value to j^2i i6j. ^d- 



Henry VIII subsequently granted licence for 

 the appropriation of the greater part of the 

 valuable rectory of Attleborough, but this was 

 never accomplished, the dissolution of the college 

 intervening. In 1541 the site of the college 

 and its possessions were granted to Robert earl 

 of Sussex, who shamelessly pulled down the quire 

 of the fine church (for the lead) on the false 

 plea that it had been appropriated to the college. 



Masters of Attleborough College* 



John Rykedon, 141 7 

 Thomas Cove, 1 42 1 

 John Spyrling, 1441 

 Richard Fishere, 1442 

 Robert Popy 

 John Cralle, 1448 

 Thomas Draper 

 John Powlyn, 1477 

 John Newton, 1483 

 John Williamson, 1485 

 Peter Foston, i486 

 John Claydon, 1519 



There is a cast of an early fifteenth-century 

 seal in the British Museum, showing Our Lord 

 on the cross on a hatched field. Legend : — 



+ sigillu . . . catar. sce. crucis. in 

 attelburgh ' 



no. THE COLLEGE OF HOLY 

 TRINITY OR THORESBY, LYNN 



Thomas Thoresby was a great merchant of 

 Lynn ; his father had been mayor of the town in 

 1442 and 1456, his grandfather in 1425, and he 

 was himself mayor in 1477, 1482, and 1502. 

 The south chancel aisle, with a chapel and tomb, 

 of St. Margaret's church, was his work ; all that 



' Jessopp, Norte. Fisit. (Camd. See), 3 7, 94, 1 5 8-9. 

 ^ Deputy Keeper's Rep. vii, App. 2. 

 ' Blomefield, Hist. o/Norf. i, 541. 

 ^ B.M. Ixix, 5. Given in Dugdale, Afo». vi, 1400, 

 and Blomefield, Norf. i, 364. 



454 



