THE HISTORY OF BREADSALL PRIORY. 1 39 



The possessions of this small priory, dedicated to the Holy 

 Trinity, were valued by the Taxation Roll of 1291 at 

 ^5 19s. od. per annum. The twenty acres at Horston, in 

 the adjoining parish of Horsley, produced 10s. a year, whilst 

 twenty acres round the house at Breadsall, with a dovecot,* 

 were worth £2. The priory also held rents in Breadsall 

 and small plots of land in Morley and Horsley, whilst the 

 yearly profits on the farm stock averaged ^2 5s. 8d. 



The royal bequest of the Horston acres was farmed for 

 the priory from an early date. In 1328, license was obtained 

 from the Crown by the prior of Breadsall Park to lease this 

 land for a term of forty years to Thomas de Goldyngton 

 and his heirs, t 



The first prior of this house named in the episcopal registers 

 was Hugh de Mackworth, who was appointed in 1306, under 

 the patronage of Richard Curzon.J The endowments of this 

 house were so slender that it seems never to have had more 

 than two canons besides the prior. It therefore came about 

 that a canonical chapter election was an impossibility, and 

 hence the simple nomination of the hereditary patron was 

 usually accepted. 



The patron of the priory was the lord of the manor of 

 Breadsall Overhall, who was also the patron of the rectory 

 of the parish church of Breadsall. It was held by the Curzon 

 family for eight generations, but passed in the reign of 

 Richard II. to the Dethick family, through the marriage of 

 William Dethick with Cecilia, daughter and heiress of Thomas 

 Curzon. 



In 1309, Hamund de Merston, canon of the house of 

 the Holy Trinity of the Park of Breadsall, was admitted to 

 the rule of the same, at the presentation of Richard Curzon. § 

 The same prior was re-admitted by Bishop Norbury in 1322, 

 at the presentation of Henry Curzon. || 



* See page 135. 



t Pat. R. 2 Edw. iii. 2d. number, m. 30. 



X Lich. Epis. Reg., Langton, f. 65. 



§ Ibid., f. 71. 



|[ Ibid., Norbury, i., f. 63. 



