RELIGIOUS HOUSES 



returned details of the annual value of the manor, 

 yielding a total of ^^lo 2s. io\d} 



Upon the dissolution of the alien priories in 

 1414 Field Dalling Priory was first granted by 

 the crown to Epworth Priory ; then to the 

 Spittle-on-the-Street, Lincolnshire ; then to the 

 Carthusians of Coventry ; and lastly, in 1462, to 

 the Carthusian priory of Mountgrace, Yorkshire. 

 In the last grant * Fieldallying ' is described as 

 parcel of the alien priory of Long Bennington, 

 lately belonging to the abbot and convent of 

 Savigny,^ 



118. THE PRIORY OF HORSTEAD' 



William Rufus granted the manor of Horstead 

 to the nuns of the abbey of the Holy Trinity, 

 Caen, which had been founded by his mother. 

 Queen Maud. The gift of Horstead was con- 

 firmed by Henry I and again by Henry II. 



In 1 29 1 the taxation roll shows that the abbess 

 of Caen held temporalities in Horstead to the 

 annual value of ;^20 ioj. ()\d., whilst smaller 

 amounts in six other parishes brought up the total 

 income in Norfolk to £2^ 2s. ^^d. In addition 

 to this there was a pension or portion from the 

 church of Horstead of ^3 13^. 413^. 



Horstead was amongst the dissolved alien 

 priories of 1414, when it came to the crown and 

 was granted for life to Sir Thomas Erpingham. 

 It was subsequently granted by Henry VI, in 

 1 43 1 , to complete the foundation of his college of 

 Saints Mary and Nicholas, now King's College, 

 Cambridge. 



119. THE PRIORY OF LESSINGHAM* 



The lordship of Lessingham, together with the 

 advowson of the rectory, was given in the time of 

 William Rufus by Gerard de Gurney to the great 

 abbey of Bee in Normandy. The small priory 

 of Lessingham became subject to Ogbourne 

 Priory, Wiltshire, which was the chief English 

 cell of Bee. 



In 1286 the abbot of Bee was successful, by 

 pleading the confirmation charter of Henry III, 

 in resisting the claim for the hundred from the 

 manor of Lessingham.^ 



The taxation of 1291 gave the annual value 

 of the abbot of Bee's possessions at Lessingham 

 as ;^i6 1 3$. g^d., whilst the church of Lessing- 

 ham was entered at £6 13^. ^.d. 



It was dissolved with the other alien priories 

 in 141 5, and remained for some time in the 



' Add. MSS. 6164, pp. 253-4- 



' Pat. I Edw. IV, pt. vi, m. 14 and 13. 



'Round, Ca/. Doc. France, \, 143, 149, 150; 

 Dugdale, Mon. vi, 1057 ; Blomefield, Hill. 0/ Nor/, x, 

 442 ; Taylor, Index Monastic us, 12. 



* Blomefield, Hist. o/Norf. ix, 328 ; Dugdale, Moa. 

 ■vi, 105 I ; Taylor, Index Monastic us, 5. 



' Plac. de Quo War. (Rec. Com.), 493. 



hands of the crown. The possessions of the 

 priory were, however, settled by Edward IV on 

 King's College, Cambridge, in 1462.'^ 



120. THE PRIORY OF SPORLE 



This small alien priory was founded early in 

 the twelfth century as a cell of the Benedictine 

 abbey of St. Florent, Saumur, in the diocese of 

 Angers, and the province of Anjou. 



The founder was Alan son of Flaald, who 

 granted to the monks of St. Florent the church 

 of Sporle {Sparlaicum) with all its tithes, the hold- 

 ing of a certain man, the land of two ploughs, 

 one in Sporle and the other in Mileham, together 

 with wood for building and firing, and pasture 

 everywhere for their flocks with his own. He 

 gave them the church free from all claims, 

 specially from that of the monks of Holy Trinity, 

 assigning to them 20s. a year from his farm of 

 Sporle.' 



Pope Calixtus II, by bull of 18 February, 

 1 1 23, confirmed to the abbey of St. Florent, 

 among other English possessions, the church of 

 St. Mary ' de Esparlaio ' or Sporle. This was 

 again confirmed by Pope Eugenius III in 11 46. 

 A bull of confirmation of Pope Adrian IV in 

 1 157 names the church of St. Mary de Sparlio 

 with the chapel of Little Palgrave and its appur- 

 tenances, and there is a similarly worded confir- 

 mation in a bull of Pope Urban III of 28 De- 

 cember, 1 1 86.* 



The taxation of 1 291 gives the annual value 

 of the temporalities in four Norfolk parishes as 

 8/. 6d., but the priory then held also the churches 

 of Sporle and Palgrave. 



An extent of the priory of Sporle, taken in 

 1325, certifies that the tithes of the rectory of 

 Sporle were of the annual worth of ;^20, and 

 the altar dues averaged 100;.; that the 617 

 acres of glebe of the church were worth 38^. 6d. ; 

 rents, 13;. 4^/. ; a portion of the tithes of Hun- 

 stanton, 40^.; of Great Ellingham, 135. ^d.; of 

 Estworm, lbs. ; of Suchacre, lOi. ; and of Mile- 

 ham, j^4.» 



When the alien priories were taken into the 

 king's hands in 1337 Edward III allowed the 

 prior of Sporle to have the custody of his house 

 on payment of 5 marks a year and 40/. as custody 

 fee." 



Thomas Eliot, prior, resigned in 1345, and 

 the king (on account of the war) presented John 

 de Breidesdale. In 1349, a vacancy occurring 

 through the plague, William de Leke succeeded. 

 On 17 February, 1379 William Sporle, monk 

 of the Benedictine priory of Castle Acre, was pre- 

 sented by the crown to the bishop of Norwich 



' Pat. I Edw. IV, pt. iii, m. 23. 

 ' Round, Cal. Doc. France, i, 414. 

 * Ibid, i, 402 and 404. 

 •Add. MS. 6164, fol. 128. 

 " Cal. of Pat. 12 Edvir. Ill, pt. ii, m. 29. 



463 



