A HISTORY OF BEDFORDSHIRE 
of having been the cause of her son’s death! ; 
and in 1342 Prior Robert of Lubenham was 
involved in a suit with the abbot of St. 
Alban’s about the manor of Caldecote in 
Herts, which he claimed against a tenant of 
the abbot’s, but finally quitclaimed before the 
day appointed for the hearing of the case.? 
The episcopal registers contain very few 
references to Bushmead, and not a single 
visitation is recorded. It may be gathered 
from this source that the conventual church 
was rebuilt, like so many others, early in the 
fourteenth century, but the canons were too 
poor to complete it without a licence to beg 
alms?; and that about the same time a 
canon who had left the monastery ‘ through 
levity of. mind,’ and wandered about in 
secular habit, returned penitent, but found his 
prior unwilling to receive him back.* About 
the same time another of the canons, Richard 
of Stoughton (who was afterwards prior and 
probably died of the pestilence), obtained a 
licence from the bishop to keep a school of 
sixty boys, and teach them ‘the science of 
grammar’*®; but it is not known how long 
this good work was continued. As the in- 
come of the house was less than £100, it 
was surrendered under the act of 1536 
(probably on 8 February), and the prior 
received a pension of £8.° 
The priory was dedicated to St. Mary, and 
its first endowment by Hugh de Beauchamp 
and his brother Roger included very little 
more than the site, with certain rights of way, 
wood, water and pasture, and the tithes of 
Eaton Park ;7 but by 12364 number of small 
rents and parcels of land had been added, not 
only in the county of Bedford, but also in 
Huntingdon, Cambridge, Northampton, and 
1 Pat. 11 Edw. I. m. 13d. Nothing further is 
known of the circumstances, but it may have been 
a similar affair to that of Christine Mustard, who 
accused the prior and some canons of Dunstable of 
causing the death of her husband (Ann. Mon. [Rolls 
Series], iii. 298, 306). He was really killed at a 
wrestling match before the hospital of Hockliffe, at 
which the canons of Dunstable were present. 
2 Gesta Abbatum Mon. S. Albani (Rolls Series), 
ii. 330. 
ting Epis. Reg., Memo. Dalderby, 163d 
(1310); ibid. Memo. Burghersh, 21, 35d (1321). 
(Indulgences for the fabric, and a licence to beg 
alms.) 
4 Ibid. Memo. Burghersh, 75d, 77d. 
& Ibid. 246d (1332). 
8 L. and P. Hen. VIII. x. 1238 ; xiii. (1), 1520. 
The latter, which is a list of pensions paid 28 
Henry VIII., has the date 8 Feb. after the name 
of the prior of Bushmead. 
7 Dugdale, Mon, vi. 281-2. 
Hertford ;8 with the manor of Blisworth, 
Northants.®° The total income of the priory 
in 1291 was however only £25 135. 7d. ;*° 
a taxation recorded in its chartulary gives 
a total of £35 19s. 4d. The advowson 
church of Caldecote, Herts, was granted to 
the prior and convent in 1283,'? but they do 
not seem to have retained it long. In 1302 
the prior held only one-fortieth of a knight’s 
fee of the barony of Eaton.* The valuation 
of 1535 amounted to £71 135. gd. ;!* and that 
which was made immediately after the dis- 
solution to £83 195. 83d."° (all in small sums 
except the demesne lands, which were worth 
£20 15. 4d.) 
Priors oF BusHMEAD 
William, first prior *® 
Joseph of Copmanford,'’ occurs 1231 
John de Wildeboef,*® elected 1233,died 1251 
Simon of Colesden,'® occurs 1260 
Richard Foliott,?® occurs 1283, resigned 
1298 
Simon of Redburn,” elected 1298, re- 
signed 1321 
Robert of Lubenham,” elected 1321, 
resigned 1348 
8 Bull of Gregory IX. dated 1236 (Cott. MS. 
Aug. il. 117). 
9 Dugdale, Mon. vi. 282, charter of Isabel 
Pauncefote, and of her daughters, confirming the 
same. Neither is dated, but the name of Blisworth 
is on Pope Gregory’s bull and in Pope Nich. Tax. 
(Rec. Com.) among the temporalities of the priory. 
10 Pope Nich. Tax. (Rec. Com.) 
11 Bushmead Chartul. (undated). 
12 Pat, 11 Edw. I. m. 13. Licence for alienation 
in mortmain by William de Hurst of the advowson 
of the church of Caldecote, and a carucate of land. 
13 Feud. Aids,i.1§. 14 Valor Eccl. (Rec. Com.) 
18 Dugdale, Mon. vi. 283. 
16 Foundation Charter, Dugdale, Mon. vi. 280. 
The following list of names is taken as it stands 
from the Bushmead Chartulary, where however 
no dates are given, only the time that each prior 
was in office. Fortunately the dates can be supplied 
for nearly all from other sources. 
17 Bushmead Chartul. under Barford Charters, 
reference to Joseph, 1231. 
1s Linc. Epis. Reg., Rolls of Hugh de Wells (on 
the resignation of Joseph). The Bushmead Chartul. 
adds: ‘ qui obiit monachus Wardon, 1251.’ 
19 Bushmead Chartul. Stilton Charters, 
20 Pat. 11 Edw. I. m. 13d. 
21 Linc. Epis. Reg., Inst. Sutton, 104; Jocelyn 
of Stoughton, the cellarer, was elected, but Simon 
accepted by the bishop. The chartulary gives 
him fifty years of office, which the registers do not 
corroborate. 
22 Ibid. Inst. Burghersh, 291. ‘This prior has 
thirty-four years assigned him, which is again in 
excess of the interval between the institutions, 
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