RELIGIOUS HOUSES 
Robert Hanslape,' elected 1509, resigned 
1525 
John Biggleswade,? elected 1525, died 
1531 
Thomas Dey,* elected 1531 
The common seal of the priory repre- 
sented our Lady crowned, and standing with 
the holy Child in her arms; on the right 
St. John the Baptist, on the left St. John the 
Evangelist ; the prior kneeling below. 
Legend : sIGILLUM COMMU . . . ORATUS 
DE CALDEWELLE.* 
g. THE PRIORY OF BUSHMEAD 
The Augustinian priory of Bushmead ° 
was founded some time during the reign of 
Henry II. by Hugh de Beauchamp, great- 
grandson of the Hugh of Domesday. The 
exact date is difficult to determine, but it 
must have been before 1187, as in that year 
the founder was slain at the Crusades.’ 
Leland® says that the canons of Bushmead 
venerated a certain hermit as the founder 
of their house, and perhaps, like Beaulieu, 
it was built on the site of an old hermit- 
‘age; but the first prior was a chaplain of 
Colmworth named William.? The Beau- 
1 Linc. Epis. Reg., Inst. Smith; Harl. Ch. 83, 
A 29 (June, 1525). 
2 Linc. Epis. Reg., Inst. Longland; List of 
priors who attended convocation, L. and P. Hen. 
VIII. iv. 6047. 
3 Linc. Epis. Reg., Inst. Longland, 39d; Valor 
Eccl. (Rec. Com.), iv. 192. Acknowledgment of 
Supremacy, Rymer, Federa, vi. (2), 198. 
+ B. M. seals, lviii. 30. The same seal is attached 
to Harl. Ch. 83, A 29. A-small seal in white wax of 
the twelfth century, representing a hand embrac- 
ing a crutch, with the legend siciLu’ Prioris DE 
CALDEWELLE, is mentioned by Gorham, History of 
St. Neo#’s, II. lxxiv. 
5 Besides the charters in Dugdale, Mon. vi. 280, 
there is a chartulary of the priory in the possession 
of W. Hugh Wade-Gery, Esq., of Bushmead, of 
which an abstract was printed in Beds N. and Q. 
iii, 130-45. All references to the chartulary given 
below are taken from this account. 
® The genealogy followed here is taken from the 
chartulary of Warden (Add. MS. 24466, ff. 31b, 39), 
which states that Hugh of Domesday had two sons : 
Payn, baron of Bedford, and Simon, whose son 
Hugh married the heiress of Eaton, and founded 
the other line of Beauchamps; Hugh’s son was 
Oliver, who had a son Hugh, founder of Bushmead 
Priory. The Bushmead foundation charters are 
granted by ‘ Hugh son of Oliver.’ This genealogy 
is not the same as that in Dugdale’s Baronage, 
224-5. 
7 Ibid. 225, from Roger of Hoveden. 
8 Leland, Coll. i. 68. 
® Named in the foundation charter (Dugdale, 
Mon. vi. 280). 
z 385 
champs of Eaton Socon retained the patron- 
age of the house until the middle of the 
fourteenth century, when it passed to Sir 
John Engayne,’° and later to the Braybrooks.! 
Sir Gerard Braybrook, who died in 1427, 
and was buried in Colmworth church, left 
directions in his will for the prior of Bush- 
mead to sing his requiem.!? Other benefactors 
were Simon de Pateshull and several members 
of the family of Wildeboef of Eaton.? The 
earliest papal bull securing special privileges 
to the house was that of Innocent III. in 
1198.'* ‘The canons were probably few in 
number even in the thirteenth century, as 
their total income in 1291'® was only about 
£25 ; a prior and three canons are mentioned 
in 1283,'* and the same number appears in a 
charter of 1523,'7 and in the acknowledg- 
ment of the Royal Supremacy a little later.’® 
The house has no history to speak of ; it is 
only once mentioned in the Annals of Duns- 
table, under the year 1249,'° when the prior 
was present, with the heads of the other 
Augustinian houses of the county, at the 
visitation held by Bishop Grossetéte at Cald- 
well, and joined them in counselling Prior 
Eudo to resign. In 1283 the prior, Richard 
Foliott, and three of his canons, with four 
other persons, were accused by Agnes de Legh 
10 Bushmead Chartul., No. 30 (dated 1346). 
Confirmation of Sir John Engayne (Add. MS. 
24465, f. 31b). 
11 Henry Braybrook was among the earlier bene- 
factors (Bushmead Chartul., Eaton Charters, Nos. 
32, 69 [mentioned with Prior Joseph] ). 
12 His will (in the Lamb. Lib.) is printed in 
Beds N. and Q. ii. 222. It has some interesting 
directions. On the day after his death was to be 
said a mass of our Lady and a requiem by note, 
with two wax tapers each of twelve pounds weight 
standing the one at his head and the other at his 
feet all through the service, and twelve poor men 
clothed in russet frieze, each of them holding a 
torch throughout the service. Every poor person 
at the funeral was to have 4d., and the prior of 
Bushmead to do the service and have for his 
travail 6s. 8d., and every canon of his house that 
was present 35. 4d., and all other priests 12d. 
13 Bushmead Chartul., Eaton Charters, Nos. 34, 
35, 56-61; Foundation Charter, Dugdale, Mon. 
vi. 280. 
14 Bushmead Chartul. No. 1. Other bulls were 
granted by Honorius III., Gregory VII. and IX., 
and Innocent IV. 
18 Pope Nich. Tax. (Rec. Com.) 
16 Pat. 11 Edw. I. m.13d. An appeal made against 
Richard Prior, and ‘ three canons of the house,’ 
which does not necessarily imply that there were 
no more at that time. 
17 Harl. Ch. 83, A 28. 
18 Rymer, Federa, vi. (2), 199. 
19 Ann. Mon. (Rolls Series), iii. 178. 
49 
