RELIGIOUS HOUSES 



priory the church of Kingston-on-Thames 

 with the chapelries of Thames Ditton, 

 East Molesey, Petersham and Sheen.' The 

 cloister and other buildings were com- 

 pleted in 1 136, when the canons were 

 inducted by the Bishops of Rochester and 

 St. Asaph, deputed for that purpose by 

 William de Corbeuil, Archbishop of Canter- 

 bury.^ In 1156, during the rule of Robert, 

 the second prior,^ Henry II. gave to the 

 canons the manor of Ewell in Surrey with its 

 members, Kingswood and Selswood.* In 

 1252 Henry III., inspecting and confirming 

 the charters granted by his predecessors to the 

 priory, confirmed, among others, a charter of 

 Henry II., granting that all the goods of the 

 canons of St. Mary of Merton should be 

 free of toll and passage and all custom 

 throughout England, that they should have 

 pasturage for their breeding mares and pannage 

 for their swine in all royal forests, and that 

 they should not be impleaded by any tenant 

 holding of their demesne except before the 

 king or his chief justice.^ A charter of 

 Richard I. confirmed to the canons all gifts 

 made to them to be held fully and freely as 

 other abbeys and religious houses held with 

 right of see, sac, tol, theam and infangnethef, 

 free of all secular service and quit of suits, 

 plaints of the shire and hundred court, the 

 payment of geld and danegeld and money 

 pertaining to murder and theft.* 



Among other grants to the prior and 

 canons were lands in Alconbury and 

 Upton confirmed by Henry III.,' and the 

 church of Eflingham, said to have been 

 bestowed by William de Dammartin.* the 

 father of Odo de Dammartin, founder and 

 benefactor of the Austin Hospital of Tan- 

 dridge.^ Frequent mention in the records of 



1 Dugdale, Mon. vi. 425. 



2 Decern. Scriptores, 1664. 



3 Robert II. followed Robert Bayle, who died 

 in 1 150. A list of priors up to 1307 is given in the 

 Merton Chartulary (Cott. MS. Cleop. C. vii. f. 196). 



* Cart. Antiq. R. U. 5. 



B Cart. R. 36 Hen. III. m. 11, and Add. MS. 

 6166, p. 464. 



Ibid, and Cart. Antiq. R.G.G. 18. This 

 pancarta of Henry III. was inspected and confirmed 

 by Edward III (Cart. 10 Edw. III. no. 44) and 

 Henry VI. (Pat. 3 Hen. VI. pt. ii, m. 10). 



' Cart. R. 36 Hen. III. m. 11. 



8 Dugdale. Mon. vi. 245. 



9 A charter of Walter, seventh prior of Merton, 

 dated 1 217, testified that he and the canons of 

 Merton had admitted into the fraternity of their 

 house Odo de Dammartin, the founder, and all the 

 brothers and sisters and benefactors of the Hos- 

 pital of St. James of Tandridge, to be participants 

 in all their prayers, alms, fastings, vigils, and in 



the reign of John show that the canons had 

 at this time secured an influential position 

 and full recogiiition. An order was sent by 

 the king in 1205 to the bailiffs of the port 

 of Portsmouth directing them to find a pas- 

 sage for the king's nuncios, one of whom was 

 a canon of Merton, proceeding on the king's 

 business to Normandy, and to take from them 

 security that they were leaving on no sinister 

 pretext and that they carried nothing be- 

 yond personal provision.'" In 12 14 Henry, 

 canon of Merton, was elected prior of Car- 

 lisle." The priory seems at one time to have 

 been entrusted with articles of considerable 

 value. John granted letters patent on 27 

 June 1215, testifying that he had received 

 at Winchester by the hands of Adam, the 

 cellarer of Merton, valuables committed to 

 the custody of the prior of Merton by royal 

 command.''' In 1 2 1 8 Prior Walter, ' spurn- 

 ing the pomp and riches of the world and 

 loving the quietness of solitude,' resigned his 

 ofBce in order to assume the habit of a Car- 

 thusian monk.'' The sub-prior and canons 

 received a licence from the king to elect a 

 successor to their late head,'* and on 6 

 November the royal assent was given to the 

 election of Thomas the cellarer. He was 

 one of the arbitrators in the settlement of a 

 dispute in 1222 between Eustace, Bishop of 

 London, and the abbot of Westminster as 

 to the subjection of the abbey to the see of 

 London.'* His death occurred in September 

 of the same year. In the December following 

 during a great tempest which raged through- 

 out England, causing many deaths and untold 

 damage, the tower of Merton priory was 

 blown down,'" and to assist in repairing the 

 damage thus caused the prior received per- 

 mission from Henry III. in 1225 to take six 

 old oak trees from Windsor Forest." On i 

 December 1230 Archbishop Richard conse- 



all other acts and benefits in their house (Cott. 

 MS. Cleop. C. vii. f. 86). 



10 Close, 6 John, m. 4. 



11 Ibid. 16 John, m. 2. 



12 Pat. 17 John, m. 22. 



13 Am. Mon. (Rolls Ser.), ii. 290. 



14 Pat. 2 Hen. III. m. i. 



16 Matt, of Paris, Chron. Major (Rolls Ser.), 



iii. 75. 



16 Jnn. Mon. (Rolls Ser.), iii. 76. 



" Close, 9 Hen. III. m. 7. In 1343 the pnory 

 contributed twelve oaks from its woods at Kmgs- 

 wood for the king's chapel at Westminster. 

 John de Baddeley and William de Hesle were 

 appointed to fell the oaks and to cause them to be 

 taken through the wood and thence to Westmin- 

 ster, the carriage being provided at the lungs 

 charge by the counsel and advice of the sheriff of 

 Surrey and Sussex (Pat. 17 Edw. III. pt. i, m. 11). 



95 



