A HISTORY OF SURREY 



practical injunctions for the due management 

 of the temporalities.' 



In March 1398 Prior Weston was licensed 

 by the bishop to let benefices appropriated to 

 the priory, with a proviso that none of the 

 buildings belonging to these rectories were to 

 be used as taverns or for any illicit or dis- 

 honourable trades that might bring discredit 

 on the church. In the following month the 

 bishop visited the priory." In February 1399 

 Prior Weston was admonished by Bishop 

 Wykeham not to alienate the endowments of 

 the house.^ 



By his will dated 15 August 1408 the 

 poet Gower left his body to be buried 

 in the priory church ; 4.0s. to the prior ; 

 13^. 4^/. to each priest-canon ; 6s. 8d. to 

 each canon in his novitiate ; to each valet 

 within the gates 2s., and to each serving boy 

 I2d. For the service of the altar of the 

 chapel of St. John, where he was to be 

 buried, he left two full sets of vestments, one 

 of * blew ' baudkyn mixed with white colour, 

 and the other of white silk ; one large missal 

 and a new chalice.* 



In 1406 the marriage of Edmund Holland, 

 Earl of Kent, with Lucy, daughter of the 

 Duke of Milan, who brought her husband a 

 dower of 100,000 ducats, was celebrated in 

 the parish church. Stowe records another 

 wedding in this church of some importance 

 in February 1424, when James I., King of 

 Scotland, after a captivity of eighteen years, 

 was released and married Lady Joan Somer- 

 set, daughter of the Duchess of Clarence by 

 her first husband, John, Earl of Somerset. 



In the ninth year of the rule of Henry 

 Werkeworth, in the year 1424, there was 

 hanging in the tower of the priory a ring of 

 seven bells. The first, called Augustine, 

 weighed 38 cwt. 7 lb. ; the second, Mary, 

 27 cwt. 3 qr. 13 lb. ; the third, Stephen, 

 19 cwt. 3 qr. 7 lb. ; the fourth, Ave Maria, 

 15 cwt. 9 lb. ; the fifth, Laurence, 13 cwt. 

 7 lb. ; the sixth, Vincent, 7 cwt. 21 lb. ; 

 and the seventh, Nicholas, 5^ cwt. 9 lb. 

 But in that year Prior Henry caused the 

 bells to be increased in weight and number so 

 as to form a ring of eight bells, which were 

 hung in the newly constructed tower of the 

 priory church on the vigil of St. Bartholo- 

 mew's Day, 1424. The first bell, called 

 Trinity ; the second, Mary ; the third, 

 Augustine ; the fourth, Laurence ; the fifth, 

 Gabriel ; the sixth. Ail Saints ; the seventh, 



> Winton. Epis. Reg., Wykeham, iii. ff. 296-7. 



' Ibid. iii. f. 301b. 



' Ibid. iii. f. 309b. 



♦ Taylor's Annals of St. Mary Overy (1833). 



110 



John the Evangelist ; and the eighth, Chris- 

 topher.' 



On the death of Prior Henry Werkworth 

 in January 1452, the usual brief was sent 

 forth from the convent inviting the prayers 

 of those of other religious houses for the rest 

 of his soul. A copy of this document, 

 wherein the highest praise is given to the late 

 prior — vir Industrie laudabilis — is extant among 

 the Peck. MSS.» 



John Bottisham, the prior, who resigned in 

 1 462, was granted a pension of twenty marks, 

 in addition to his maintenance at the prior's 

 table ; also board and cloth for a gown for 

 his servant. The ex-prior was further as- 

 signed a suitable chamber in the priory with 

 a fire-place and wood for 300 fires ; also six 

 quarters of charcoal, and nine dozen pounds 

 of tallow candles. 



In 1469 the middle roof of the nave fell 

 in ; it was repaired with woodwork, as also 

 was the roof of the north transept.^ 



A grant was made by Edward IV. to 

 Southwark priory in 147S of the advowson 

 and appropriation of the parish church of 

 West Tilbury, Essex, on condition of the 

 convent promising to celebrate daily within 

 their church a mass of St. Erasmus the Mar- 

 tyr, in which the priest should pray for the soul 

 of the king's father, Richard, Duke of York, 

 and for the good estate of the king and his 

 consort Elizabeth, and for Edward Prince of 

 Wales, and the king's other children, and for 

 their souls after death.' 



Dr. Thomas Hede, commissary of the 

 prior of Canterbury, visited the priory on 6 

 May 1 501, during the vacancy of the sees 

 of Winchester and Canterbury. Prior 

 Michell reported favourably of the spiritual 

 condition of the house, but he stated that 

 there was a debt of £i.<^o when he entered 

 on his office, and that the debt did not now 

 exceed ;^ioo, and that there were no valu- 

 ables pledged. The seal was kept in the 

 sacristy under four keys, the respective cus- 

 tody of which was in the hands of the prior, 

 sub-prior, sacrist, and precentor. He had not 

 ordered a balance sheet for that year, but was 

 prepared to do so when requested. Richard 

 Hayward, sub-prior, testified that silence was 

 duly observed at the proper times and places ; 

 and that the debt of the house was the fault 

 of the predecessor of the then present prior. 

 William Kemp, sacrist, Richard Holand, 

 precentor, canons John Hale, Thomas Archer, 



5 Cott. MS. Faustina, A viii. f. 79b. 



« Add. MS. 4937, f. 266. 



"> Taylor's ^nnj//, p. 28. 



« Pat. 15 Edw. IV. pt. ii, m. 10. 



