A HISTORY OF 
it would be interesting to know what was 
the matter in dispute, as there was usually so 
much goodwill between the various houses of 
Austin canons in this county. A year later? 
a brother was received back, who had become 
an apostate through discontent and was now 
repentant. At the visitation of Bishop Grey ? 
(1431-6) the discipline of the house was still 
good ; all that the bishop enjoined was that 
the sub-prior should do the work of the 
prior, now grown old and feeble.? Later, 
when Cardinal Wolsey undertook to reform 
the whole Augustinian order, it seems that 
Newnham was still amongst the more satis- 
factory houses. At the great general chapter 
summoned at Reading in June 1518 (the 
first after the lapse of more than a century) 
the prior of Newnham was chosen as one of 
the definitors, and made visitor for two coun- 
ties.? 
The prior, John Ashwell, with fourteen 
canons and two lay brothers, signed an 
acknowledgment of the royal supremacy in 
1535.’ It is probable that these seventeen 
were but a small proportion of the original 
number.® Nothing is known of the circum- 
stances of the surrender of the house, except 
that it was made bya prior who had not been 
long in office,® and took place on 2 January 
1 Linc. Epis. Reg., Memo. Buckingham, 348. 
2 Ibid. Memo. Grey, 199. At this visitation 
it was enjoined that on every Saturday the warden 
of the church of St. Paul’s, Bedford, should give 
all the fruits of the church to the bursar of the 
monastery, to be used for the clothing of the canons 
and other necessities. 
3 Cott. MS. Vesp. D i. ff. 64, 70. General 
chapters were held at Newnham in 1292 (dan. 
Mon. [Rolls Series], iii. 390) and in 1340; priors of 
Newnham were definitors in 1340 and 1365 (Cott. 
MS. Vesp. D i. ff. 46b, 56). 
4 Rymer, Federa, vi. (2),200, and 7th Report 
of the Deputy Keeper of the Records. 
5 There is nothing in the documents relating to 
the priory to show the number of canons at any 
time before the end; but the income in the 
thirteenth century, on the analogy of other houses, 
would have supported thirty or forty. 
6 John Burne signed the surrender. In 1524 
the prior of Newnham was ordered to take the 
fealty of Agnes Gascoigne, the newly-elected 
abbess of Elstow (L. and P. Hen. VIII. iv. 487). 
In 1536 the prior of Newnham (unnamed) was 
accused of having fraudulently denied all know- 
ledge of a box of money deposited with him by the 
chancellor of Lincoln some time before. A certain 
priest and servants of the chancellor (who had just 
died) declared that they consigned the money to the 
prior, and gave the contents of the box in detail 
(ibid. xi. 1407). The results of the inquiry are 
not stated. 
BEDFORDSHIRE 
1540-1.” A pension of £60 was granted 
to the prior, John Burne, and pensions of 
other sums to fifteen canons besides. 
The original endowment of the priory by 
Simon de Beauchamp comprised the tithes of 
fourteen churches—St. Paul’s Bedford, Ren- 
hold, Ravensden, Great Barford, Willington, 
Cardington, Southill,® Hatley, Wootton, Stags- 
den, Lower Gravenhurst, Aspley, Salford, 
Goldington ; portions of land in many places 
which had belonged to the old canons; the 
tithes of all his markets, assarts and woods ; 
the castle mill and another with some lands 
and water attached ; the free use of all waters 
belonging to the castle, as far as Fenlake, for 
fishing, navigation and breeding swans; and 
the right to pasture a certain number of cattle 
with his own free of cost. These gifts are 
rehearsed with much detail and some additions 
in the Great Charter of William de Beau- 
champ. At the time of the Taxatio the in- 
come of the priory appears as £164 10s. 8d.,° 
of which £92 6s. 8d. is made up of spiritu- 
alities. The largest items amongst the tem- 
poralities are lands, etc., at Goldington, Salpho, 
Stotfold and Sharnbrook ;1° and these are 
found in the Feudal Aids as portions of 
knights’ fees. 
In 1302 the prior of Newnham held half 
a knight’s fee in Sharnbrook, several fractions 
in Goldington, and half a knight’s fee in 
Salpho.t In 1316 half a fee in Goldington, 
a quarter in Salpho, one seventh in Bidden- 
ham, one quarter in Southill.t? In 1346 half 
a fee in Cotes and half a fee in Sharnbrook.'* 
In 1428 the same as in 1346 with the addi- 
tion of half a knight’s fee in Salpho, and a 
quarter in Blunham and Moggerhanger.'* 
A comparison of the Valor and the Taxatio 
shows however that the property of the priory 
was almost the same in extent at both dates, 
varying very little in the course of history. 
It was all within the county of Bedford. Not 
one of the churches of the original endow- 
7 Ibid. xv. 11. 
8 Of Southill only two-thirds; the remaining third 
was not granted till 1255 (Cal. of Pap. Letters,i. 314). 
Turvey appears in the charters of Simon and Wil- 
liam de Beauchamp (Harl. MS. 3656, ff. 8, 14b), 
but it never could have belonged to Newnham. 
® The church of Gravenhurst is not included, 
as it does not appear in the Taxatio ; possibly other 
items are missing. 
10 These places are all named in the foundation 
charters, but the largest item there is three hides 
in Cardington. 
11 Feud, Aids, i, 11, 15, 16. 
12 Tbid. 17, 18, 19. 
13 Thid. 28, 29. 
14 Tbid. 39, 42, 45. 
380 
