THE RELIGIOUS HOUSES 

 OF SURREY 



INTRODUCTION 



IN the following pages a brief account is given of each of the sup- 

 pressed religious houses of the county. Considering its area, the 

 number of these establishments was unusually small, but several of 

 them were of considerable importance. The Premonstratensian or 

 White Canons had no house in the county, nor was there a single con- 

 vent of nuns of any order. The reference given by Tanner to Black 

 nuns at Horsley and to White nuns at Oxenford (under Waverley) are 

 not supported by any further evidence ; if they ever existed, their life 

 was of brief duration. The meanly conceived attempt of Edward II. 

 to substitute Dominican sisters for Dominican friars at Guildford, though 

 strongly urged, was a failure. 



The Benedictines held the mitred abbey of Chertsey of old founda- 

 tion. The oldest but by no means the wealthiest of the English Cis- 

 tercian abbeys was at Waverley. 



At Bermondsey was one of the most noteworthy houses of the 

 Cluniac order which became an abbey towards the close of its life. 

 The story of its administration, rendered so difficult through the long 

 wars with France, is as disastrous as was usually the case with the 

 Cluniac houses in England. It was saved from destruction at the be- 

 ginning of the fifteenth century by obtaining a charter of denization. 

 In addition to Bermondsey there was but one other alien priory in the 

 county, namely the small one at Tooting dependent upon the great 

 Norman abbey of Bee. 



The Austin canons had one of their most wealthy establishments at 

 Merton ; and there was another of much celebrity at Southwark. 

 They had also smaller houses at Reigate, Tandridge, and Newark near 

 Guildford. 



The little welcome extended to the friars in Surrey is somewhat 

 remarkable ; it is especially strange that there was not a single house of 

 any one of the mendicant orders in connection with the considerable 

 population of Southwark. The Dominicans had a large house at Guild- 

 ford under special royal patronage. The story of the treatment by 

 Henry VIII. of the Observant friars of Richmond founded by Henry 

 VII. is one of pecuUar sadness. Tanner's statements as to Carmelites 

 at Sheen and Crouched friars at Guildford are not correct. 



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