RELIGIOUS HOUSES 
FRIARIES 
13. THE HOUSE OF FRANCISCAN 
FRIARS, BEDFORD 
The house of the Grey Friars at Bedford 
was said by Leland to have been founded by 
Lady Mabel de Pattishall*; the Valor Ec- 
clesiasticus however gives the name of John 
St. John as the first founder.? It is uncertain 
at what date the Grey Friars came to Bedford, 
but their church was completed and dedicated 
on 3 November 1295, when indulgences were 
granted by Bishop Sutton to those who should 
visit it. In 1300‘ some of the friars of Bed- 
ford received licences from Bishop Dalderby 
for hearing confessions. Like their Domini- 
can brethren, they seem to have met with 
more kindness from the nuns than from the 
monks of the older orders: for in 1310 the 
prioress and convent of Harrold ® joined with 
some of the citizens of Bedford in making 
them a grant of divers small plots of land 
within the town for the enlargement of their 
area. 
The friars of Bedford® signed the ac- 
knowledgment of the royal supremacy on 
14 May 1534, John Vyall, S.T.P.,’ being 
at that time warden of the house; his name 
appears again in the Valor LEcclesiasticus of 
1535. The warden of the Friars Observants 
of Greenwich was sent to this house in 1531, 
when the brethren of his own order were 
dispersed, and was kept there under some 
kind of restraint.2 The deed of surrender,® 
which is dated 3 October 1538, gives the 
names of a warden, vice-warden, and ten 
other friars?°; it is in the form which seems 
1 Quoted Dugdale, Mon. vi. 1509. 
2 Valor Eccl. (Rec. Com.), iv. 190. 
3 Linc. Epis. Reg., Memo. Sutton, 127. 
4 Ibid. Memo. Dalderby, 11d. 
5 Pat. 4 Edw. II. m. 18. 
6 L. and P. Hen. VIII. vii. 665. 
7 This can scarcely be the same as the warden 
who signed the deed of surrender; though the 
Christian name of the latter is John, his surname 
certainly begins with ‘M’ and ends with ‘er.’ 
» There is a letter printed in Beds N. and Q. 
i. I91 from the vicar of the Observants to Sir 
John Dyve, a knight dwelling in Bedfordshire, 
asking him to find out how the warden is being 
treated, whether his friends may resort to him or 
write. The writer wishes the king knew his virtue 
and religious conversation and loyalty ; and pro- 
mises to find money, if Sir John will see that he has 
all he needs. 
® Deeds of Surrender (P.R.O.), No. 19. 
10 ‘The confiscation of the conventual seal was 
one of the means employed to obtain the surren- 
to have been offered to the friars only, be- 
ginning ‘Forasmuch as we the warden and 
friars of the house of Saint Francis in Bed- 
ford . . . do profoundly consider that the 
perfection of Christian living doth not con- 
sist in dumb ceremonies, wearing of grey 
coat, . . . ducking and becking and girding 
ourselves with a girdle full of knots, and 
other like pharisaical ceremonies’; and has 
no seal." The value of the house in 1535 
was £3 135. 2d.'? 
14 THE HOUSE OF DOMINICAN 
FRIARS, DUNSTABLE 
The Black Friars arrived in Dunstable in 
1259 °° at the invitation of the king and queen 
and the magnates of the neighbourhood, and 
began at once with the help of alms to build 
their church. They were very unwelcome 
to the canons of that place, and not without 
reason ; for the novelty of the friars’ coming, 
and of their manner of life, drew many people 
away from their parish church, and diminished 
the customary offerings there at a time when 
they were sorely needed.’* But the prioress 
of Markyate, though her own house was not 
a wealthy one, was more generous, and helped 
the friars with a dole of loaves until their 
church should be finished ; a kindness ill- 
repaid, for they insisted on the continuance 
of the gift after the immediate necessity was 
passed, and when the nuns were almost as 
poor as themselves.’® 
The jealousy between the canons and the 
friars lasted for some time, but there seems 
never to have been any open quarrel; on the 
contrary, one of the friars was admitted to 
ders of the friars (Canon Dixon, History of the 
English Church, ii. 38). It would be interesting to 
know why the friars surrendered in English and 
the monks in Latin; and also why the special 
humiliation of signing such a document as this was 
reserved for friars. 
11 The friars, as well as the nuns of Elstow and 
Chicksand, seem to have been usually known by 
their family names; the majority of the Cister- 
cians and the Austin canons are called by place- 
names. 
12 Valor Eccl. (Rec. Com.), iv. 190. 
13 Ann. Mon. (Rolls Series), iii. 213 ; Dugdale, 
Mon. vi. 1485. 
14 See Dunstable Priory. 
15 See Markyate Priory. Adam of Biscot, the 
second vicar of Luton, became a Dominican friar 
(probably in this house) about this time (Rev. H. 
Cobbe, Luton Church, 122). 
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