RELIGIOUS HOUSES 



the abbey of Pr^aux in different counties, on 

 condition that during the war with France at 

 least jTSo a year was paid to the king's exchequer, 

 but the terms were modified later in the same 

 year.' 



On the suppression of the alien houses, Henry V 

 annexed the revenues of the priory of Toft or 

 Tofts to the Carthusians of Witham, Somerset,^ 

 but Edward IV transferred them in February, 

 1462, to the college of St. Mary and St. Nicholas 

 (Kmg's), Cambridge.^ 



122. THE PRIORY OF WELLE OR 

 WELL HALL IN GAYTON ^ 



William de Streis, about the year 1081, be- 

 stowed the manor of Welle and the advowson 

 of the church of St. Nicholas on the abbey of 

 St. Stephen, Caen. The abbey established here 

 a small priory or cell of Benedictine monks. The 

 grant of the manor and church and other pri- 

 vileges was confirmed by William II, Henry II, 

 •and Richard I. 



Herbert and Ralph occur as priors of this cell 

 about the beginning of the thirteenth century. 



In 1275 the prior was found to hold the 

 manor of Welle in free alms, with gallows, free 

 warren, waif and stray, and assize of bread and 

 beer.' 



About this time the priory or cell of Welle 

 was united with the small Essex priory of Pan- 

 field, which was also a cell of St. Stephen's, Caen. 

 The prior was termed the prior of Panfield and 

 Welle. Under this double designation the priory 

 was found in the taxation of 1 20 1 to hold in 

 temporalities in Norfolk, meadow land in West 

 Acre of the annual value of 31., rents in Ashwicken 

 £1 25. lid., rents in Leziate £t, ijs. Sd., and 

 rents, lands, mills, court perquisites in Gayton 

 £22 9!- 2d., yielding a total of ^^28 i2s. gd. In 

 addition to this the annual value of the appro- 

 priated rectory of Gayton was declared at ;^i6. 



In 1325 an extent or survey of the jury was 

 taken by royal command. The jury declared 

 that the abbot of St. Stephen's, Caen, was rector, 

 and that the rectory was worth 24 marks per 

 annum. The total value of the manor and church 

 was ^35 2s. O^d. ; but the prior of Castle Acre 

 received therefrom 1 1 marks, leaving the clear 

 amount at ^27 13J. 6^^.^ 



During the wars with France the prior of these 

 two cells paid in 1334 to Edward III. thirty-four 

 marks annually for the farm of the priories. On 

 14 December, 1373, the king granted the cus- 

 tody of Panfield and Welle to Sir Hugh Fastolf 



' Pat. 14 Rich. II, pt. i, m. 21 ; pt. ii, m. 46. 



' Ibid. I Hen. V, pt. iii, m. 20. 



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



* Blomefield, His/. 0/ No/f. viii, 427-9 ; Dugdale, 

 Mon. vi, 1010-12 ; Taylor, Index Monastkus, 10 ; 

 Round, Cal. Doc. France, i, 156-62. 



' Hund. R. (Rec. Com.), i, 461. 



« Add. MSS. 6164, fol. I 3 1-2. 



so long as the war continued, on the payment to 

 the crown of £^0 per annum and ;/^iO per 

 annum to a certain monk or prior there residing. 

 The custodian was to perform all customary 

 duties incumbent on the priories and to keep the 

 houses in good repair. 



In July, 1379, a grant was made by Richard II, 

 with the assent of the council, to Thomas de 

 Woodstock, earl of Buckingham, the king's uncle, 

 of j^ 1,000 a year to maintain his rank as earl. 

 This large sum was taken from the farms of 

 various alien priories in the king's hands on 

 account of the war ; ;^40 of this amount was 

 the rent paid by the custodian of the joint priories 

 of Panfield and Welle. In June of the following; 

 year it was ordered if the earl of Buckingham 

 died in the next expedition against France the 

 executors of his will should receive the like sum 

 for one year to discharge his debts. ' 



In 1 38 1 Richard II granted the custody of 

 this priory to Sir John Devereux and Mary his 

 wife and Joan their daughter, for their lives. 



After the suppression of the alien priories by 

 the Parliament of Leicester, Henry V in 1415 

 granted the priory and manor and rectory of 

 Welle or Welles to the renowned warrior, John 

 Woodhouse, to be held by the service of a rose 

 on Midsummer Day. 



On 10 March, 1469, Edward IV granted 

 Welles Priory to the dean and canons of the 

 free chapel of St. Stephen within the Palace of 

 Westminster,* with whom it remained till the 

 dissolution of that college in 1548, when it 

 was granted to Osbert Mundeford and Thomas 

 Gandy. 



123. THE PRIORY OF ST. WINWA- 

 LOE, WEREHAM' 



The priory of Wereham, or Wirham, was 

 founded by the earls of Clare in the time of 

 Richard I. It was dedicated to St. Winwaloe 

 or St. Guenolo, a saint who flourished in the 

 sixth century, and whose body was enshrined in 

 the abbey of Monsterol in the diocese of Amiens, 

 France. Of that abbey the priory of St. Win- 

 waloe was a cell. 



The earliest extant deed of this small house is 

 one of 1 1 99, whereby L. prior of St. Winwaloe, 

 with the consent and advice of his brother 

 Remigius, abbot of Monsterol, granted a toft 

 and eleven acres to Robert de Stradesete. In 

 1270 there was an exchange of lands in Were- 

 ham between the abbot and convent of Were- 



' Pat. 3 Ric. II, pt. 



40. 

 « Ibid. 9 Edw. IV 



i, m. 40 ; 4 Rich. II, pt. i, 



pt. 



1, m. 5. 

 ■ ' Early Deeds relating to the Priory of St. Win- 

 waloe, preserved at Stow Bardolph,' a paper by Rev. 

 G. H. Dashwood in Norf. Arch, v, 297-312 (1859) ; 

 Blomefield, Hist, of Norf. ii, 508-9 ; Dugdale, Mon. vi, 

 1051 ; Taylor, Index Montis tic us, 9. 



465 59 



