RELIGIOUS HOUSES 



Richard Shellee, appointed 21 October 



139s 



21 



John Howeden, occurs at the dissolution of 

 the college, March 143 1 ^^ 



ALIEN HOUSE 



20. WARE PRIORY 



The foundation of the Benedictine priory at 

 Ware was due to Hugh de Grentemaisnil's gift 

 of the church, tithe and 2 carucates of land 

 here ^ to the abbey of St. Evroul in Normandy.* 

 There is no evidence when the house was built, 

 but the large amount of property in England 

 granted by the Conqueror's Norman followers 

 to St. Evroul's must soon have made the 

 establishment of a cell expedient, if not neces- 

 sary.* 



Apparently the earUest reference to the house 

 occurs in a charter of William Bishop of Lincoln 

 c. 1203-6,* ratifying as a grant of Earl Robert 

 of Leicester to Hubert Prior of Ware a gift 

 that had been made by the earl's mother, 

 Parnel, to St. Evroul's.* But it seems likely 

 that the Prior of Ware had long transacted 

 the abbot's business in England, for from 

 this time onward he is spoken of as the owner 

 of the English possessions of the Norman 

 monastery.* 



Of the priory there is never much information. 

 Something, however, is heard of its relations 

 with its patrons, the manorial lords, in the 13 th 

 century. Through the marriage of Parnel, 

 Hugh de Grentemaisnil's great-granddaughter. 

 Ware Manor had passed to the Beaumonts.' 

 Robert Earl of Leicester * dying without issue 

 in 1204, it fell to his sister and co-heir Margaret 

 wife of Saher de Quency Earl of Winchester. 

 The Countess Margaret built in the priory a 

 great hall, a large chamber, and a chapel for 

 her greater convenience when she chose to stay 

 there, and in this hall she held her manorial 

 courts.' Her son Roger,^" who succeeded her 

 in 1235," made the same use of the priory, as 

 did also his brother Robert, to whom he trans- 



^^ Lond. Epis. Reg. Braybrook, fol. 49. 



' Charter of William I from Ordericus Vitalis 

 (Dugdale, Mon. [ed. 1682], ii, 966). 



^ Hugh and his relatives refounded the abbey (ibid.). 



' For a list of the possessions of the monastery in 

 England see Round, Cal. Doc. France, 229 et seq. 



* Round, op. cit. 227. 



' A house at Charley (co. Leics.) and a carucate of 

 land in the assarts of Anstey (co. Herts.) (Round, op. 

 cit. 228). 



» R. of Hugh de Welles (Cant, and York. Soc), ii, 

 ^74' 3 '9; see also Pope Nich. Tax. (Rec. Com.), 

 passim. 



' Round, op. cit. 229. 



* Parnel's son. 



° Assize R. 1256, m. 39 (12 Edw. I). 



'"> Called WiUiam in the Assize R. 



" Excerpta e Rot. Fin. (Rec. Com.), i, 274. 



ferred the manor." In 1271 Robert's daughter 

 Joan, wife of Humphrey de Bohun, became 

 lady of the manor of Ware.^* The incon- 

 venience to the monks of a semi-pubhc hall 

 must by this time have become apparent, for 

 the prior built a small one for their own use 

 during Humphrey's frequent visits.^* After 

 her husband's death Joan added another 

 chamber to ensure herself better accommodation 

 during residence at Ware. She died in Novem- 

 ber 1283," and when the escheator arrived at 

 the priory to take possession of her property in 

 the king's name he found the windows and 

 doors of these houses in the close barred against 

 him by the prior. Afterwards with the help 

 of the Earl of Gloucester's men a forcible 

 entrance was effected, but meanwhile the prior 

 had had Joan's new chamber pulled down, and 

 a suit was brought against him in consequence 

 by Joan's heir, her sister Hawise Wake.^* 

 The prior's action seems unjustifiable, but it 

 may have been a protest against the patron's 

 real or supposed encroachment. 



The head of an alien priory was not in an 

 easy position. The fulfilment of his duty to his 

 superior sometimes meant unfairness to the 

 people among whom he was living ; on the 

 other hand, if he did not uphold his rights 

 firmly he might certainly have lost them all. 

 The pension of 10 marks demanded by the 

 prior from the vicar of Ware made it almost 

 impossible to get a priest to serve the church. 

 The parishioners therefore appealed to Pope 

 Gregory IX, and the Bishop of London and 

 Dean of St. Paul's, appointed by him to settle 

 the matter, decided in 123 1 that the prior was 

 not to require the pension in future, and if he 

 did the vicar should have certain tithes.^' 



In the dispute between Fulk Prior of Ware 

 and the Abbot of Cumbermere in 1281-2 over 

 the church of Drayton, in Hales, co. Stafford," 

 the abbot was undoubtedly in the wrong. After 

 judgement had been given by the Archbishop of 

 Canterbury for the prior, he was dispossessed of 

 the church by the secular authority through the 

 abbot's misrepresentations. However, he won in 



22 Cal. Pat. loc. cit. 

 12 Assize R. 1256, m. 39. 

 " F.C.H. Herts, iii, 386. 

 " Assize R. 1256, m. 39. 

 1= Chan. Inq. p.m. 12 Edw. I, no. 27. 

 " Assize R. 1256, m. 39. 

 1' Lond. Epis. Reg. Gilbert, fol. 169-70. 

 18 Reg. Etist. John Peckham (Rolls Ser.), i, 209-10 • 

 ii, 432. 



455 



