JOUENAL 



OF THE 



EOYAL INSTITUTION OF COKNWALL. 



No. V. APRIL. 1866. 



l.-^An Inventory of the Property of the Alien Priory of St. Michael's 

 Mount, in Cornwall, in the year 1337; toith a Notice on Alien 

 Priories in general. — By Edwaeb Smikke, Vice-Warden of the 

 Stannaries, President of the Royal Institution of Cornwall, Sfc. 



THE late visit of the Prince and Princess of "Wales to this County, 

 and their temporary residence at the Mount of St. Michael, 

 may perhaps dispose the readers of the Journal to be amused with 

 an original document relating to that structure, which I had the 

 pleasure of bringing under the notice of the reverend author of the 

 Exeter Monasticon some years ago, while he was engaged in col- 

 lecting materials for that interesting work. 



The document forms a small portion of an official Return made 

 to the Crown, dated 24th July^ A.D. 1337, of the property, real 

 and personal, of all Alien Priories in Cornwall. The occasion of 

 this inquiry was the war then impending between the Sovereigns 

 of England and France ; and the seisure of the Priory took place 

 about four months after the creation of the Duchy and the endow- 

 ment of the Black Prince under the well-known Charters bearing 

 date, respectively, the 17th and 18th March, A.D. 1337, and 3rd 

 January, 1338. 



By way of introductory explanation, it may be interesting to 

 consider the position of those conventual establishments which at 

 that time, and on subsequent occasions of a war between the two 

 countries, were called "Alien Priories." 



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