238 ST. Michael's mount. 



conflicting grant was made to King's College, Cambridge ; * by 

 patent dated 29tli November, 1461, Edward IV regranted the 

 Priory of St. Michael's Mount, then belonging to the duchy of 

 Cornwall, to Elizabeth, the Abbess, and the Convent of St. Saviour 

 and SS. Mary and Bridget, Syon, of the order of St. Augustine, 

 the condition being that they should pray for the good estate of the 

 King and of Cicely his mother, and for their souls after death, 

 and those of Eichard, late Duke of York, his father, and his 

 progenitors, and do other works of charity.f On the 26th of 

 February in the following year| the College relinquished its 

 claim, and, until the reign of Henry VIII, the history of St. 

 Michael's Mount is only part of the history of the monastery of 

 Syon, whose house, it is interesting to note, is now, after many 

 adventures, settled near Chudleigh in the adjoining county of 

 Devon. 



Carew, in his Survey of Cornwall, gives an account of the 

 seizure of the Mount, in the reign of Eichard the first, by Henry 

 de la Pomeray " who surprised it, and expulsed the monks," but 

 adds that there was another story to the effect that, having killed 

 the King's sergeant at arms at his castle of Berry Pomeroy, he 

 abandoned his home, and getting to a sister of his residing at 

 the Mount, bequeathed a large portion of his land to the rehgious 

 there, for redeeming his soul, and then killed himself. § Prince in 

 his "Worthies of Devon" repeats the story from Carew, but 

 adds that Pomeray' s sister was '■'■■most lilcely the prioress of that 

 cell." I may be mistaken, but I believe this to be the sole 

 foundation for the statement found in modern histories of the 

 Mount, that there was a Nunnery here, while others, with (as I 

 think) not a bit more evidence, say there was no nunnery here 

 but a Gilbertine priory, in which, as you know, monks and nuns 

 were wont to live in adjoining houses under the same rule. Dr. 



*"Eectori et Scholaribus S. Nicholai Cantab," that being the name of this 

 College at the date of the Grant. Pat. Rolls, 30 Edw. Ill, pt. 3, m. penult; 10 

 Henry VI, pt. 1, m. ult. and 20 Henry VI, pt. 4, m. 3. 



fPat. Eoll, 1 Edward IV, pt. 2, m. 8, and 1 Edward IV, pt. 3, m. 1, and 

 ibid, pt. 5, m. 14. 



tPat. Eoll, 2 Edward IV, pt. 1, m. 23 ; CI. Eoll, 2 Edward IV, m. 13. 



§ Roger de Hoveden says (Chronica, vol. iii, page 238, Eolls Series) " auditp 

 ^.dventu regis, obiit timore perterritus," 



