RELIGIOUS HOUSES 



niche. On each side three roses. In the base, 

 under an arch, the abbot in prayer. Legend : 



s' ABBATIS ET CONVENTU . . . E WAVERL . . . 



An imperfect pointed oval seal^ of the 

 thirteenth century, attributed to Waverley, 



represents a dexter hand and vested arm 

 issuing from the right, and grasping two keys 

 in pale : in the field on the left a star of 

 six points, on the right a crescent ; legend — 



SIG IE. 



HOUSE OF CARTHUSIAN MONKS 



4. THE PRIORY OF SHEEN 

 In the year 1414 Henry V. founded at 

 Sheen, Richmond, a priory, known as the 

 House of Jesus of Bethlehem, for forty 

 monks of the Carthusian order. This was 

 the last of the religious foundations of Surrey. 

 The foundation charter^ describes the site 

 with much nicety. It was built on the 

 north side of the royal manor house, on a 

 piece ofland 3,125 feet long by 1,305 feet 8 

 inches broad, extending from ' Hakelok ' by 

 ' Diverbussh ' on the south to the cross 

 called * Crosasshe ' on the north. The build- 

 ings were on a fine scale, but as there were 

 only thirty sets of chambers round the great 

 court or cloister, it would appear that the 

 original design of a house for forty monks 

 was reduced to that number.^ According to 

 the Carthusian rule each monk lived and fed 

 apart, they only met in common in quire and 

 chapter.* 



The considerable property assigned to this 

 royal foundation largely consisted of the pos- 

 sessions of the suppressed alien priories. The 

 endowments included the alien priories of 

 Ware, Hertfordshire ; of Hayling in Hamp- 

 shire ; of Carisbrooke, in the Isle of Wight ; of 

 Lewisham in Kent, including the manors of 

 East Greenwich and East Combe ; all the 

 estates of the abbey of Lyre in England and 

 Wales, or 700 marks out of the royal 

 revenue if these should ever be recovered ; 

 the weir of Petersham, with fishery rights ; 

 and the manor of East Hendred, Berks. The 

 spiritualities were very considerable, and in- 

 cluded the advowsons and appropriations of 

 the churches of Ware in Hertfordshire ; Bel- 

 grave, in Leicestershire ; Byfield, Marston St, 

 Lawrence, and Middleton Cheney, North- 

 amptonshire ; Lewisham and Marden, in 



1 Harl. Chart. 79 E. 12. 



2 Dugdale, Mon. vi. 31-2, from the Charter 

 Rolls 3 and 4 Hen. V. m. 8. Pat. 2 Hen. VI. pt. 

 iv. MS. 27, 26, 25. 



3 Willis' Mitred Abheys, ii. 337, where an account 

 of the dimensions of the house is cited from a MS. 

 copy of Florence of Worcester. 



* Constitutions of the Order, Dugdale, Mon. vi. 

 pt. I, v.-xii. 



Kent ; Hayling, Upper Clatford, and St. John's 

 Southampton, in Hampshire ; Carisbrooke, 

 Arreton, Freshwater, Godshill, Whippingham, 

 Newchurch, and Newtown, in the Isle of 

 Wight ; Winterbourne Stoke, in Wiltshire ; 

 Basildon, Easthampstead, and Sunningfield, in 

 Berkshire ; the four churches of Wareham, in 

 Dorset ; Linton, Bridstow, Westeord, Much 

 Marcle, Fownhope, Lene, and Areland with 

 tithes of various other lordships, in Hereford- 

 shire; ' Tuddenham,' Lydney, and Chedworth, 

 with tithes of other lordships, in Gloucester- 

 shire ; Eastham-cum-Hanley, Feckenham, 

 Tenbury, and tithes of the forest of Malvern, in 

 Worcestershire ; Elmdon, in Essex ; Helling- 

 ly, in Sussex ; and Padbury, in Buckingham- 

 shire. Another royal gift of the founder was 

 that of four pipes of red wine annually at 

 Candlemas. 



This wholesale bestowal of the property of 

 alien priories on the new foundation, though 

 authorized by the parliament of Leicester, did 

 not pass without strong protest. The abbot 

 and convent of the Benedictine abbey of St. 

 Evroul, Normandy, wrote an earnest appeal 

 to the Carthusians of Sheen, in the year 141 6, 

 to restore the property with which Henry V. 

 had endowed them and which had belonged 

 to them for centuries. In their case, as they 

 stated in this letter, their English possessions 

 had been their chief source of income, and at 

 one time had supplied them with ^^2,000 a 

 year. Owing to frequent wars between 

 France and England they had of late 

 obtained nothing from this source, and had 

 in consequence been obliged to reduce their 

 quire monks from forty to less than twenty. 

 They appealed to justice and ecclesiastical 

 traditions, stating that no state policy or fear 

 of foreign wars could justify the Carthusians 

 in retaining property thus obtained. Eleven 

 years were consumed by the monks of St. 

 Evroul in a vain endeavour to regain their 

 English property. In 1427 they carried their 

 case to Rome, but failed." 



There is a fifteenth century chartulary of 

 this priory among the British Museum manu- 



89 



5 Gasquet's Henry Fill, and the English Mon- 

 asteries, i. 60. 



12 



