RELIGIOUS HOUSES 
£8 to the prioress of Dartford, with the in- 
tention that they should be given to the hos- 
pital.) In the Valor Ecclesiasticus the stipend 
of the warden is valued at £8 135. 2d., and 
those of the other priests at £5 135. 4a., £5, 
and £8 125. 4d. respectively.2 The Chan- 
try Certificate ot 1546 gives the clear value 
of the warden’s stipend as £13 25.° 
COLLEGE 
23. THE COLLEGE OF NORTHILL 
The parish church of Northill was made 
collegiate by the executors of Sir John 
Trailly and his son Reynold? in 1405°; 
the rectors of the church were from that time 
forward masters of the college. The endow- 
ment was intended to maintain four fellows 
besides the master, and two choristers * ; and 
this increase of the staff of clergy must have 
been a real benefit to the parish, which con- 
sisted of no less than seven hamlets at con- 
siderable distances from the parish church and 
also from one another.5 
The royal commissioners sent to report on 
the condition of the chantries, colleges and 
hospitals in 1546 suggested that the college 
ALIEN 
24. THE PRIORY OF LA GRAVE 
OR GROVEBURY 
The manor of Leighton was granted by 
Henry II. to the abbess and convent of Fonte- 
vraud in 1164° ; and it is probable that a 
house was built there for a cell of the order, 
not very long after. A prior is first men- 
tioned in 1195-6, and is then called the prior 
of Leighton’; the name ot La Grave or 
1 Pat. 21 Hen. VI. pt. 1, m. Io. 
2 Chant. Cert. (Beds), 1. 
3 Tanner, Not. Mon., gives the date 6 Henry IV., 
and says that Sir Gerard Braybrook was one of 
the executors. Sir John Trailly died 1401, and 
his son in 1402. An inscription in memory of 
the first master, John Warden, and containing 
these two dates, was in the chancel of Northill 
church in 1582 (Beds N. and Q.i. 67, from MS. 
notes of Francis Thynne, Lancaster Herald). 
4 Chant. Cert. (Beds), 1. The master was to 
have his board, the pay of one servant, and finding 
for two horses; the fellows their board; the 
choristers board, lodging and clothing. 
5 Ibid. 
6 Round, Cal. of Doc. France, i. 377; Dug- 
dale, Mon. vi. 1085. The charter was confirmed 
by John (Chart. R. [Rec. Com.], i. pt. 1, 72b, 
which states that the manor of Leighton was worth 
6). 
= = Reg. R. 6 Rich. I. No. 5; Feet of F. 
(Rec. Com.), 7 Rich. I. p. 3. It would seem 
that the cell was founded between 1189, when the 
manor of Leighton was apparently held directly 
might well be turned into an almshouse, if 
that were the king’s pleasure ?°; and in 1548 
reported that it was thought one priest alone 
would not be able to serve the cure." It does 
not seem that any notice was taken of either 
of these suggestions, 
In 1428? the master of the College held 
two-thirds of a knight’s fee in Tempsford, 
jointly with Robert Scot, of the barony of 
Eaton. The Valor Ecclesiasticus assigns to the 
college an income of £61 55. clear’? ; the 
Chantry Certificate states it at £56 35. 7d., 
of which £22 10s. formed the stipend of 
the master,'4 
The first master was John Warden**; the 
last was Thomas Grene.‘® 
HOUSE 
Grava does not appear till late in the reign of 
Henry III.*7 The dedication of the church 
is unknown. ‘The prior of Leighton had a 
good deal of trouble with his tenants on the 
subject of feudal services during the thirteenth 
century, which involved him in suits before 
the Curia Regis from 1213 to1290.'8 William 
de Lyencourt, who was prior of La Grave 
during the latter part of the century, was a 
person of some importance ; he was proctor 
by Fontevraud, and 1195-6, the first date of a 
prior. 
8 Valor Eccl. (Rec. Com.), iv. 211. 
9 Chant. Cert. (Beds), 4. 
10 Tbid. 
11 Tbid. 1. 
12 Feud. Aids, i. §7. 
13 Valor Eccl. (Rec. Com.), iv. 196. 
14 Chant. Cert. (Beds), 1. 
15 Beds N. and Q.i.67. 
16 Chant. Cert. (Beds), 1. 
17 Anct. Deeds (P.R.O.), D. 222. He is called 
the prior of Leighton as late as 44 Henry IIT. (Cur. 
Reg. R. 168, n. 2 in dorso). 
1s These difficulties between him and his men 
belong to the general ecclesiastical history of the 
county ; they also serve to clear him from blame 
for the murder of a lay brother of Dunstable, killed 
by ‘ the men of the prior of Grava’ in 1259 in de- 
fence of the rights of his church (Ann. Mon. [Rolls 
Series], iii. 213). The property of the two priories 
lay in the same neighbourhood, and such a quarrel 
might easily arise without the knowledge of the 
head of either house. 
403 
