RELIGIOUS HOUSES 



Giles de Argentein, Richard's son and successor 

 opposed the election of a canon of Dunstable 

 as Prior of Wymondley in 1 247, he was unsuc- 

 cessful.* 



The convent acquired various property during 

 the first seventy years of its existence. In 1232 

 Henry III granted them a virgate of land in 

 Dinsley ' for 5^. a year and the maintenance of 

 his anniversary and that of King John ; in 1275 

 they owned a carucate of land in the hundred 

 of Hertford, bought of Ivo de Hoverile * ; they 

 then had land also in Beeston, co. Nottingham,' 

 and in 1278 held in Tewin 40 acres,^" to which 

 80 acres more were added in 1285 by the gift of 

 Walter de Neville.^i 



The resources of the house, however, were 

 still inadequate to its needs. WilHam Dalderby, 

 Bishop of Lincoln, in 1315 wrote to the rectors 

 and vicars throughout the archdeaconries of 

 Buckingham, Oxford, Bedford and Huntingdon, 

 requesting them to permit the proctors of the 

 poor canons of Wymondley to solicit the alms 

 of the faithful within their districts, and offer- 

 ing an indulgence of forty days to those who 

 gave to them 12; and in 1323 Bishop Burghersh 

 sent similar letters to the clergy of his diocese 

 and granted an indulgence for the benefit of the 

 canons.!' 



The house seems also to have had other 

 difficulties at the beginning of the 14th century. 

 John de Wymondley, the prior, who had ruled 

 for ten years,!* was removed in 1300,!^ and 

 after a long delay,!* which points to disagree- 

 ments among the canons, John de Mordon, a 

 former prior, was reinstated.!' Mordon died in 

 1304, and was succeeded by Elias de Wheat- 

 hampstead,!* but it was not until 1 3 10 that 

 John de Wymondley at last formally resigned.!' 

 The canons, in electing John de Buckden 

 prior in 1340, seem hardly to have chosen a 

 person circumspect in temporal affairs, as 

 advised by their bishop.^ He was accused, with 

 others, in March 1345 ^ of ' attempting things 



^ Jm. Mtn. (Rolls Sep.), iii, 175. 



' Cal. Chart. R. 1226-57, p. 159. It was before 

 committed to them during pleasure {Rot. Lit. Claus. 

 [Rec. Com.], ii, 88). 



« Hund. R. (Rec. Com.), i, 191. 



' Ibid, ii, 314. 



!" Assize R. 323, m. 13 d. 



!! Cal. Pat. 1281-92, p. 195. 



"* Line. Epis. Reg. Dalderby, Memo. fol. 311. 



^' Ibid. Burghersh, Memo. fol. 1 09 d. 



" Ibid. Sutton, Inst. fol. 84 d. 



" Ibid. Dalderby, Inst. fol. 231. 



" Ibid. Dalderby, Memo. fol. 1 1. 



!' He must have been a man of good character or 

 the bishop would not in 1 302 have made him con- 

 fessor of the nuns of Rowney (ibid. fol. 44). 



!* Ibid. Dalderby, Inst. fol. 235 d. 



" Ibid. fol. 242. 



*'' Ibid. Burghersh, Memo. fol. 371. 



'! Cal. Pat. 1343-5, p. 501. 



very prejudicial to the king and his crown, 

 which if allowed to proceed will be not only to 

 the king's prejudice and the subversion of laws 

 and the rights of the crown, but also to the 

 manifest lesion of ecclesiastical Hberty.' Un- 

 fortunately the offence for which his arrest was 

 ordered is not stated, but it possibly was con- 

 nected with the suit brought against him at 

 that date by Joan daughter of the late John 

 de Argentein for detaining a charter entrusted 

 to Elias his predecessor.^'^ 



The Argentein deeds caused a later Prior of 

 Wymondley some unpleasantness. As he was 

 on his way to Halesworth, co. Suffolk, in 1382, 

 to assist at the funeral of John de Argentein, he 

 was seized at Newmarket by the partisans of 

 one of the heirs and forced to surrender certain 

 muniments which John had deposited in the 

 priory for safety.^ 



The inconsiderable bequests made to the 

 priory by Argentein ^^ were apparently but a 

 small portion of what the convent obtained at 

 his death, for under the will of Ann Maltravers, 

 John's mother,^* they were then to receive ^^ 

 a great cup with a cover, a dragenall, 6 dishes, 

 6 pottingers, 6 saucers, 2 pitchers and 

 2 pottles, all of silver, as well as a ' dozer ' 

 of green powdered with dolphins and 4 ' cous- 

 ters ' of the same suit. 



Some land in Hertford was given to the 

 convent in 1330 by Roger de Luda to main- 

 tain a chantry in Tewin Church,2' and four 

 cottages in Shefford (in Campton, co. Beds.) 

 in 1392 by John Cokkowe for a chantry in the 

 priory .2* An indulgence for their relief granted 

 by the Bishop of Ely in 1394 ^^ shows that they 

 then needed help. When the house was visited 

 by Bishop Alnwick in 1442 ^° its general state 

 was quite satisfactory, none of the four canons 

 having any complaints to make. It had then 

 an annual income of ^20 clear, which cannot 

 have offered much margin for extra expenditure. 



At the visitation of May 1530 ^! the one ques- 

 tion of importance was the financial situation, 

 which was certainly gloomy in the extreme. 

 The prior had just spent 100 marks on the 



22 Plac. de Banco East. 19 Edw. Ill, rot. 144, 

 given in Tear Bk. 19 Edw. Ill (Rolls Ser.), 23, 

 n. 6, &c. 



23 Cal. Pat. 1 38 1-5, p. 260. 



^ 20s. for the repair of the priory and 20/. to the 

 convent to celebrate for his soul (Gibbons, Early 

 Lincoln Wills, 25). 



26 Chan. Inq. p.m. 49 Edw. Ill, pt. ii, no. 17. 



26 The articles were left to John for his life with 

 remainder to the priory (Nicolas, Test. Vetusta, 91). 



27 Cal. Pat. i33 3-4> P- !7- 



28 Ibid. I 391-6, p. 187. 



29 Gibbons, CaL of Ely Epis. Rec. 399. 



80 Visit, of Bp. Alnwick (Doc. of Bp. of Line, at 

 Exchequer Gate). 



31 Visit, of John Rayne, chancellor of the diocese 



(ibid.). 



441 



56 



