138 



II. 

 THE HISTORY OF BREADSALL PRIORY.* 



By the Rev. J. Charles Cox, LL.D., F.S.A. 



ITH regard to the foundation of this small priory 

 of Breadsall or Breadsall Park, it has always 

 hitherto been stated that it was in its first origin 

 an establishment of Austin Friars or Friars 

 Eremites. This statement has been made in consequence 

 of the entry on the Patent Roll of 1266 to the effect that 

 Henry III. granted to the Eremites of Breadsall a messuage 

 and twenty acres of land in Horsley and Horston, for which 

 they were to render yearly half a mark to the bailiff of 

 the royal manor of Horston. f There must, however, be 

 some slip of the scribe in making this entry, for the Austin 

 Friars, in common with the other mendicant orders, were 

 not allowed to accept any benefactions of land other than 

 the site of their house. Instead of ever being a house of 

 Austin Friars, this priory was clearly a priory of Austin Canons, 

 otherwise such a donation as this would have been an impos- 

 sibility; moreover, a house of friars was invariably placed 

 amid a considerable population. All that can be said of its 

 origin is that it was clearly well established before 1266, and 

 that it had been founded in the same century by one of the 

 Curzons of Breadsall, either Richard de Curzon, son of Henry 

 Curzon by the heiress of Dunne, or by Sir Robert Curzon, 

 the son of Richard. 



* Condensed and considerably amended from Churches of Derbyshire, 

 iii., 67-78. 



t Pat. R. 50 Henry III., m. vii., No. 17. 



