A HISTORY OF NORFOLK 



to the castle of Mettingham, where it remained 

 until its dissolution.^ 



Richard Shelton, the master, and nine chap- 

 lains, signed their acknowledgement of the royal 

 supremacy of 28 September, 1534.^ 



The Valor of 1535, when Richard Skelton 

 was master, gives the clear annual value of the 

 temporalities in Suffolk and Norfolk of the col- 

 lege of the Blessed Virgin of Mettingham as 

 £,i<)i lOJ. \d., and of the rectories of Ravening- 

 ham and Norton as jTio ijs. ^d., giving a total 

 clear annual value of jTaoa "]$. <,\d. It also 

 appears from the Valor that the college supported 

 fourteen boys in the house and gave them 

 education as well as board, lodging, and clothes, 

 at an annual charge of ^^28. 



The college was surrendered to the crown on 

 8 April, 1542. The surrender was signed by 

 Thomas bishop of Ipswich, as master or warden, 

 with the consent of his fellows or chaplains.' 

 On 14 April of the same year the college with all 

 its possessions was granted to Sir Anthony Denny.* 



This Denny was clerk of the Privy Chamber 

 and keeper of Westminster Palace, and profited 

 much by monastic and collegiate plunder. A 

 letter from Robert Dacres of the Privy Council 

 to Anthony Denny, dated 13 May, 1542, states 

 that his profit had been advanced as well among 

 the chaplains of the college as the tenants. 

 There were secured for him two great chalices 

 and a great pix of silver and parcel-gilt, divers 

 rich corporas cases, and nineteen massive silver 

 spoons, as well as palls of silk, &c. The 

 college, notwithstanding the obsequious and 

 servile wording of the ' voluntary ' surrender, had 

 made some endeavour to conceal certain church 

 goods and other property from the legalized 

 marauders ; but 'one simple priest being well 

 examined gave light to all these things, and then 

 all the other priests confessed.' ' 



Masters of Raveningham College' 

 Thomas Boyton, 1349 

 Alexander de Boyne, 1355 

 Adam Wyard, 1 36 1 

 John de Carlton Rode, 1375 

 Roger Wiltey, 1380 



113. THE COLLEGE OFRUSHWORTH' 



Sir Edmund de Gonvile, founder of Gonvile 

 Hall, Cambridge, was both rector and patron of 



' Pat. 18 Ric. II, pt. i, m. 14. 



' Dep. Keeper's Rep. vii, App. 2, p. 86. 



' Rymer, Foedera, xiv, 746-7, where the document 

 is cited at length. 



* Pat. 33 Hen. viii, pt. vi, m. 3. 



'L. and P. Hen. VIII, xvii, 322. 



" From Blomefield, corrected by the episcopal 

 Registers. 



' ' The College of St. John Evangelist of Rush- 

 worth,' A'or/: ^rc^. x, 277-380, a most able and exhaus- 

 tive paper by Rev. Dr. Bennet, F.S.A. ; Blomefield, 

 Hist, of Norf. i, 286-93 ; Dugdale, Mon. vi, 1 385-7 ; 

 Taylor, Index Monastkus, 49, 50. 



Rushworth (now Rushford), when he formed the 

 plan of making Rushworth a collegiate church. 

 On 7 May, 1341, he obtained licence for the 

 alienation in mortmain of a messuage in Rush- 

 worth, and the rectory of the church for two 

 chaplains to celebrate daily for his good estate in 

 life, and for his soul after death, and for the souls 

 of his ancestors and heirs.* In 1342, Sir 

 Edmund resigned the rectory of Rushworth, and 

 was instituted to that of Terrington, where he 

 died in 1350. On his resignation the college 

 was ordained on a larger scale than was at first 

 intended, and consisted of a master or warden 

 and four brethren or fellows. The fellows were 

 to elect the master and present him at Larling, 

 the principal seat of the Gonvilles, to the 

 founder's heirs if there were any there residing ; 

 he was then to be presented to the bishop and 

 installed by mandate to the archdeacon. The 

 church was appropriated to the college without any 

 endowment for a vicar, for the cure of the parish was 

 laid upon the master, who had to pay eight marks 

 for firstfruits at the time of his appointment. 



The master and fellows were to lodge and 

 board in the same house, and always to use a 

 common table save when hindered by sickness. 

 For other necessaries, such as clothing, the 

 master was to have an annual stipend of 50J. and 

 each of the fellows 30J. Any fellow leaving the 

 college was to assign half his goods to the house. 

 All were enjoined to lead honest, modest, quiet, 

 peaceable, and chaste lives, quatenus humana per- 

 mittit fragilitas. Offences were to be corrected 

 by the master in chapter, more religiosorum. 

 Collects for the founder and for their bene- 

 factors, living and dead, were to be said daily in 

 chapter after Mass. All the brethren, or at least 

 four, were to rise at dawn and say mattins of 

 Our Lady without music in the church of Rush- 

 worth, and afterwards to sing mattins and the 

 other canonical day hours according to the use of 

 the diocese. There were to be four daily Masses : 

 namely. High Mass, Lady Mass, and Mass for the 

 departed, in the church ; and the Mass of the Holy 

 Trinity, in the chapel annexed to their dormitory. 

 The anniversary of Edmund Gonville was to be 

 solemnly observed. All from the college, when- 

 ever they were in the church, were to wear a 

 white mantle or cope with hood or amice, save 

 those who were in surplices or other ecclesiastical 

 vestments. Outside the church they were to 

 conduct themselves in gesture, dress, and in every 

 particular as became honest clerks. They were 

 forbidden to stay a single night away from the 

 college without the express leave of the master 

 or his deputy. The master was to present a 

 complete balance-sheet every Michaelmas.' 



" Pat. 15 Edw. Ill, pt. i, m. 10. 



' Dr. Bennet gives the original statutes of 1342 in 

 Norf. Arch, x, 50-64. They were slightly revised in 

 1360 by Bishop Percy. The revised statutes are 

 given in Archbishop Islip's Register, fol. 1631J, and are 

 cited in the Monasticon, vi, 1386-7. 



458 



