RELIGIOUS HOUSES 



These all stood up staunchly for their order, but 

 another Sussex templar, Richard de Kocfeld, said 

 that John de Borne, confessor to Earl Warenne, 

 said that he had ruined his soul by joining the 

 order, while he further related that Walter, 

 rector of Hoathly, had told him that he had 

 heard that a certain Templar had said there was 



one article of the oath of admission which he 

 could never reveal to any living creature. 



PRECEPTORS OF SHIPLEY 

 John de Hamedon, occurs 1247 

 Thomas de la Fenne, occurs 1288 * 1292* 

 William de Egendon, 1304-8. 



HOUSE OF KNIGHTS HOSPITALLERS 



21. THE PRECEPTORY OF POLING 



The origin of the preceptory of Poling does 

 not appear to be known, but in 1338 the lands 

 of the Hospitallers in Sussex * consisted of the 

 estate of Poling with lands in Combe and Off- 

 ham, bringing in 13 ijs. 3^. yearly, with 

 other property in Ocklynge at Eastbourne, Mid- 

 hurst, Up Marden, Islesham, and Rumboldswyke 

 bringing the total up to 78 in. 3^., inclusive 

 of 40 marks for ' confraria,' that is to say alms 

 collected in the neighbourhood. Against this 

 had to be set 34 for the expenses of the estab- 

 lishment, which consisted of Peter atte Nasshe, 

 knight preceptor, and his confrater Clement de 

 Donewico, knight, a chaplain, a ' claviger ' or 

 steward, a cook, two attendants of the preceptor, 

 and two clerks employed to collect the ' con- 

 fraria,' of whom one had his board at the pre- 

 ceptory and was therefore probably collector in 



the immediate neighbourhood, while the other 

 who did not board presumably worked the more 

 distant districts. Besides these estates, the lands 

 formerly held by the Templars at Shipley (worth 

 10 marks clear), and Compton (leased for 

 4 marks), had passed to the hospital, 5 but the 

 manor of Saddlescombe, worth 100 marks, had 

 not so passed, having been seized by the earl of 

 Surrey. 6 In 1341 the Ocklynge estate was seized 

 into the king's hand on the ground that the prior 

 of the hospital was bound to find a chaplain to 

 celebrate there, and to give alms to the poor 

 twice in the week, but upon inquiry it was 

 found that no such service was due, though 

 brother Robert de Criel, who had held it for 

 fifty years, had distributed such alms of his own 

 free will. 7 



After the suppression of the priory of St. John 

 of Jerusalem, the estates at Poling were given, in 

 1541, to the college of Arundel. 8 



FRIARIES 



22. HOUSE OF DOMINICAN FRIARS, 

 ARUNDEL 



The date and circumstances in which the 

 Dominicans settled at Arundel are not known, but 

 it is possible that they were brought there by 

 Isabel, countess of Arundel. 1 The first men- 

 tion of their convent is in 1253, when 

 St. Richard, bishop of Chichester, left to them 

 in his will 201. and a book of Sentences. 2 It is 

 not unlikely that the saint's confessor and bio- 

 grapher, Ralf Bocking, who was a Dominican, 

 may have been an inmate of this house, the only 

 one of the order in Sussex at that date. 3 When 

 Edward I came to Arundel in May, 1297, he 

 gave 221. for three days' food for the friars, 4 which 

 at the recognized rate of 4^. for a day's food, would 

 -i. 



1 Assize R. 924, m. 59. 



1 Magd. Coll. Oxon. D., < Shoreham,' 1 8. 



4 Larking, The Knights Hoifit. in Engl. (Camd. 

 Soc.), 24, 25. 



'Ibid. 175. 'Ibid. 213. 



7 Close, 1 5 Edw. Ill; pt. iii, m. 20. 



point to a community of twenty-two brethren at 

 this time, and a similar royal gift in 1324 of 

 6s. 8d. for one day's food corresponds to twenty 

 brethren. 5 



Edmund, earl of Arundel, in 1324 obtained 

 licence to grant to the friars 2 acres of land 

 adjoining their precincts, 6 but no other grant of 

 land is recorded. In 1381 Michael Northburgh, 

 canon of Chichester, mentioned in his will that 

 he had bound himself to bestow a sum of 40 

 upon the Friars Preachers of Arundel, in return 

 for which they were to celebrate two masses for 

 him, the first at the high altar and the second at 

 the lower ; and they were further to construct 

 two glazed windows with the money, as set forth 

 in an indenture made between them. 7 But in 

 spite of numerous legacies, the house was a poor 



L. and P. Hen. Vlll, xvi, 1056 (69). 

 Suss. Arch. Coll. xxviii, 87. 

 Ibid, i, 167. s Ibid, xxviii, 87. 



Ibid. 5 Ibid. 88. 



Pat. 17 Edw. II, pt. ii, m. 19. 

 7 Cant. Archiepis. Reg. Courtenay, fol. 208. 



93 



