Source: https://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/staffs/vol3/pp298-303
Timestamp: 2019-04-24 16:13:48+00:00

Document:
Though surrendering over the deanery, the king retained his right to collate to the prebends of Penkridge during a vacancy in the see of Dublin. In 1253 Henry granted to William of Kilkenny, Archdeacon of Coventry, the power to collate to the prebends of Penkridge which should fall vacant during the next voidance of the archbishopric. (fn. 24) On the death of Archbishop Luke in 1256 the Pope appointed Fulk de Sanford, Archdeacon of Middlesex, to Dublin, but two months later the king made a life grant to Henry of Salisbury, a royal chaplain, of the power of collating to the prebends of Penkridge. In March 1257 the king surrendered the deanery to Archbishop Fulk to hold 'as his predecessor Luke held it, saving to the king and his heirs his right when he wishes to assert it.' Fulk obtained a bull in June confirming to him John's grant of the advowson. He also petitioned the Pope to make the union of the deanery with the archbishopric complete and absolute, claiming that the deanery had no revenues of its own for the support of the dean. A bull of 1259 duly granted that no one in future should be instituted as dean except the archbishop and his successors in the see of Dublin.
The permanent union of the deanery of Penkridge and the archbishopric of Dublin had no effect on the status of the church as a royal free chapel. Henry III showed his interest by his gift in 1251 of a silver chalice and of two oaks from Cannock Forest to make stalls for the church. (fn. 43) In 1253 he gave ten oaks for the work then in progress on the fabric of the church. (fn. 44) More marked was the Crown's resistance, as in the case of other royal free chapels, to papal attempts to tax Penkridge, except when such taxation was for the benefit of the king. (fn. 45) In the 14th century papal provisions to prebends in Penkridge provoked determined opposition from the Crown. (fn. 46) The first of these seems to have been the provision of Elias de Janaston to the prebend of Dunston; in 1315 Elias surrendered the prebend and accepted the royal claim that the papal provision was void. In 1317 the Pope made provisions to two canonries at Penkridge, each in expectation of a prebend there. (fn. 47) In the case of the first the archbishop-elect of Dublin who was then at the papal court, promised to appoint to the next vacant prebend. In 1325, however, after the vacancy had occurred, Edward II asserted the complete exemption of the prebends of royal free chapels from all ordinary jurisdiction and from conferment by anyone except himself; he cautioned the Dean and Chapter of Penkridge against proceeding further in the execution of the provision. The archbishop as dean accepted the royal declaration and sent it on to the chapter at Penkridge with his order for it to be observed. In 1333 the Pope provided Thomas Michel, Rector of Berkley (Norf.), to a Penkridge canonry with the expectation of a prebend. Two years later Coppenhall fell vacant and Michel was provided to it by papal mandate. Edward III made a strong protest, but Ralph, Lord Stafford, interceded for Michel and the king agreed to confirm him in possession on condition that he renounced his right by virtue of the papal provision. This renunciation was duly made. Another papal provision, to the prebend of Coppenhall in 1342, seems to have been accepted by the Crown without protest, no doubt because of the war with France. When, however, Thomas Michel died in 1361 at the papal court and the Pope proceeded to provide William Russell to the Coppenhall prebend, (fn. 48) Edward III opposed the provision and in 1362 appointed David of Wooler. (fn. 49) Thomas de Eltenheved succeeded Russell as the papal nominee in 1363, but he was so violently disturbed by Wooler in enjoyment of the prebend that he appealed to the papacy. Judgement was, of course, given for him and the Bishop of Coventry and Lichfield was ordered to restore to him the prebendal property and, in case of hindrance from Wooler, to put him under sentence of greater excommunication. Finally Wooler resigned, and in 1363 the king appointed Richard de Bedyk, ordering the imprisonment of any persons hindering his collation by the prosecution of appeals in foreign parts. But Eltenheved appears to have retained possession, and in 1365 the king appointed John Edward. Eventually he got possession, his estate in the prebend was ratified by the Crown in 1371, and he died as prebendary in 1381. In 1379, during the papal schism, Urban VI had granted Richard II the right to nominate to two canonries, with expectation of prebends, in every cathedral chapter and collegiate church in the realm, and thus in 1381 the king nominated John de Wendlyngburgh to the prebend of Coppenhall without any friction. Several other royal appointments were made between 1385 and 1400.
The Crown was also involved in a struggle over the exemption of Penkridge, like other royal free chapels, from ordinary and metropolitan visitation.
A metropolitical visitation of Penkridge and of the other royal free chapels in Staffordshire took place under Archbishop Arundel who appointed two commissaries to carry it out in 1401. (fn. 62) There was a secret examination of each member of the chapter or his deputy, as well as of other ministers serving the church. In all things canonical obedience was given to the visitors. They also examined certain parishioners and exercised all their visitatorial powers without meeting resistance.
On the eve of the Dissolution the college of Penkridge comprised the dean and 7 prebendaries, 2 resident canons without prebends, an official principal, 6 vicars, a high deacon, a subdeacon, and a sacrist. (fn. 63) Three of the vicars were resident vicars choral, each with a yearly portion of £5 from the prebends of Penkridge, Coppenhall, and Stretton. (fn. 64) The other three would have had various duties inside the church itself. The two resident canons were still the priests who served the chantry of the Blessed Virgin and the King's Chantry. The stipends of the two canons were £6 16s. 4¼d. and £6 11s. 2¼d. derived from lands and tithes in Penkridge parish and lands and tenements in Muchall (in Penn). (fn. 65) There were, however, charges on these stipends of 10s. for bread and wine, 8s. for bread and ale for the Maundy, and 4s. 4d. for a light before the Sacrament. The sacrist had a house and lands in Penkridge worth 8s. 8d. a year. He also shared with the resident canons the income from the Hay House estate in the Dunston area and from land in Muchall, Moor Hall (in Penkridge), Castle Church, Essington (in Bushbury), Whiston (in Penkridge), Cannock, and 'Malton'. The two canons and the sacrist shared with the vicars choral 42s. rent from three closes in Penkridge. (fn. 66) The high deacon received 53s. 4d. a year out of the prebend of Dunston and the subdeacon 40s. out of the prebends of Congreve and Longridge. There was also a morrow-mass priest 'employed by the inhabitants of Penkridge' and endowed with a rent of 3s. 4d. from property at Whiston.
The incomes of the prebendaries were derived mainly from tithes and rents. Only at Coppenhall and Stretton were the prebendal chapels served by vicars; in each case the vicar received small tithes and also had a house and glebe. At Shareshill the curate received a salary of £5 6s. 8d. from the prebendary, and there was presumably a similar arrangement at Dunston, where a chapel had been built by 1445. (fn. 67) Between 1291 and 1535 all the prebends except Longridge had increased in value. Coppenhall was now worth £16, Stretton £12, Shareshill £10 16s. 8d., Penkridge £9 6s. 8d., Dunston £6, and Congreve £2 16s. 8d. Longridge had dropped to 16s., entirely from grain, and it was exempt from the synodal payment of 6s. 8d. due to the dean every third year from each of the other prebendaries. The dean's prebend was valued at £1 6s. 8d. At the dissolution the total yearly value of the college was £82 6s. 8d. By then much of its property was leased out, notably to Edward Littleton of Pillaton. The college house and all the deanery possessions were leased to him in 1543 for 80 years; in 1545 he was granted the farm of the prebend of Stretton for 21 years and the farm of the prebend of Shareshill for 10 years, and in 1547 the prebend of Coppenhall for the life of the incumbent and the prebend of Penkridge for 21 years.
Penkridge College was dissolved in 1548 under the Act of 1547. (fn. 68) The minister's account for 15471548 shows the prebendaries receiving half a year's income, £41 1s. 8d., up to Easter 1548. In August 1548 the site of the college house and all the deanery possessions, in the tenure of Edward Littleton, were granted to John Dudley, Earl of Warwick; his lands were forfeited to the Crown in 1553. In 1581 the Crown granted the college and its possessions to Edmund Downynge and Peter Aysheton, who sold them in 1583 to John Morley and Thomas Crompton. They conveyed them in 1585 for £604 to Sir Edward Littleton in whose family they then descended with little change until the extensive sales of the 20th century.
Henry of London, Archbishop of Dublin, succeeded 1226, died 1228.
Richard of St. John, appointed 1228, appointment cancelled 1230.
Luke, Archbishop of Dublin, succeeded 1230, died 1256.
Fulk de Sanford, succeeded 1257.
From 1259 the deanery remained united with the archbishopric of Dublin until the Dissolution.
. . . SANCTI MI[CHAELIS] [D]E P. . .
1. The original dedication appears to have been to St. Mary, the style used in a bull of 1259. The seal in use about this time, however, gives the dedication as to St. Michael; the earliest dated use of the new dedication is in 1246. The archbishops of Dublin as deans of Penkridge referred to the royal free chapel of St. Michael in their official title. See S.H.C. 1950-1, 14, 15 n., 16 and n.; Cal. Pat. 1232- 7, 492; 1385-9, 367.
2. Cal. Archbp. Alen's Reg. (Royal Soc. of Antiq. of Ireland, 1950), 310.
3. Cart. Sax. ed. Birch, iii, p. 246; S.H.C. 1950-1, 4 and n.
4. Dorothy Whitelock, Anglo-Saxon Wills, 55, 163, 164, 165.
5. S.H.C. 1950-1, 48-49. In the reign of Hen. I the church of Lapley was disputed between St. Rémy and a royal clerk, who was perhaps a canon of Penkridge: see below p. 340.
6. V.C.H. Staffs. iv. 45, no. 115. These clerks also held 2 hides and 3 virgates in Gnosall, probably because they served the church there; the property was never part of the endowment of Penkridge. For Gnosall church see ibid. 128.
7. S.H.C. 1924, p. 285; Cal. Chart R. 1341-1417, 308. The bishop had recently secured papal recognition of Stephen as king: J. H. Round, Geoffrey de Mandeville, 253.
8. Roger seems to have been a chancery clerk under Roger le Poer, son of Hen. I's justicar, Roger, Bp. of Salisbury: Round, G. de Mandeville, 46 n. 4, 263.
9. See below p. 303.
10. He attested a grant of R., Abbot of Burton, who has been identified as Roger (1177-82) rather than Richard (1182-8); the grant also mentions Ranulf de Glanvill's justiciarship (1180-9): W.S.L. 84/6/41; S.H.C. v(1), 40-41; ibid. 1937, p. lxiv.
11. The sheriff accounted for a mark from this prebend, formerly held by Roger the Archdeacon, from Mich. 1183 to Mich. 1189: S.H.C. i. 107, 109, 140.
13. Ibid. iii(1), 40; ibid. 1950-1, 51, 52 n.
14. Ibid. 1950-1, 7-8; V.C.H. Staffs. v. 53, 58, 154, 162.
15. S.H.C. 1924, p. 128.
16. Ibid. p. 359. The reason for the payment was that the prebendary, in order to secure succession to his father in the prebend, had mortgaged the chapel of Cannock for a lump sum and 4s. a year: ibid. 1950-1, 51. V.C.H. Staffs. v. 58, is wrong in saying the prebendary had to pay 4s. year.
17. S.H.C. 1924, p.140; ibid. 1950-1, 51-52. The success of Penkridge may be explained by the fact that the three judges were heads of religious houses in or near Bristol; the Dean of Penkridge was Elias of Bristol, who may well have had some influence there. The agreement is dated at Bristol.
18. Ibid. 1924, p. 141.
19. Ibid. pp. 12, 66.
20. See below p. 300.
21. S.H.C. 1950-1, 9-11. He had been Archdeacon of Stafford. For Penkridge manor see V.C.H. Staffs. v. 108. The dean soon granted two-thirds of the manor to his nephew Andrew le Blund: ibid. 109, 110.
24. For this para see ibid. 12-15.
25. Cal. Pat. 1266-72, 601. Wm. was one of the candidates for the archbishopric but was not successful.
26. S.H.C. 1950-1, 14 n. By 1362 the Crown allowed only 40 days as the period of voidance during which the archbishop had the right of collation: ibid.; and see below n. 49.
27. H. Wharton, Anglia Sacra, i. 440.
28. Cal. Pat. 1385-9, 367-8; see below.
29. Cal. Doc. Ireland, 1285-92, 193-4.
30. Cal. Archbp. Alen's Reg. 310-11; see below.
31. Tax. Eccl. (Rec. Com.), 242. There is an undated valuation of the prebends of Penkridge in Alen's Register (see S.H.C. 1950-1, 23) which by reason of the lower rate of assessment for all except two may be presumed to be earlier than 1291. It may be the valuation for the Taxation of Norwich of 1254 or the 'verus valor' begun in 1267. The assessments are 40s. for the dean's prebend (not mentioned in 1291), £10 13s. 4d. for Coppenhall (presumably including the vicarage), £6 13s. 4d. for Stretton, £6 6s. 8d. for Dunston, £4 for Penkridge, £2 16s. 8d. for Congreve and 16s. for Longridge. In 1259 the deanery was stated to have no revenues of its own: see above p. 299.
32. S.H.C. 1950-1, 46-52. It is wrongly dated as 1271 in Cal. Archbp. Alen's Reg. 309.
33. This is on the assumption that the prebend of La More mentioned in 1261 is to be identified with the prebend of Penkridge.
34. S.H.C. 1950-1, 21-23, 24; V.C.H. Staffs. v. 58; see below.
35. S.H.C. 1924, p. 362.
36. Cal. Pat. 1340-3, 353. The vicarage of Coppenhall was still a separate prebend in 1333: S.H.C. 1950-1, 28 n.
38. Cal. Pat. 1348-50, 360.
40. S.H.C. 1950-1, 47-48, 52.
41. Cal. Archbp. Alen's Reg. 310-11.
43. Ibid. 1911, 16; Cal. Close, 1247-51, 457.
44. Cal. Close, 1251-3, 389. For the extensive 13th-cent. work in the church see V.C.H. Staffs. v. 131-2.
45. See below p. 305.
46. For what follows on provisions see S.H.C. 1950-1, 31-36, unless otherwise stated.
47. Cal. Papal Regs. ii. 148, 149. In the first case the king stated that provision belonged to the Archbp. of Dublin.
48. He was provided on the petition of his kinsman, the bishop-elect of St. David's.
49. The see of Dublin was not vacant, but the king claimed the right of collation since more than 40 days had passed since Michel's death. The archbp. confirmed the royal grant.
50. Cal. Close, 1247-51, 223.
52. Cal. Pat. 1258-61, 40.
53. See below p. 324.
55. Reg. Epist. Fratris Johannis Peckham (Rolls Ser.), i. 112-13.
61. See below p. 324.
62. Lambeth Palace Libr., Reg. of Archbp. Arundel, f. 482. For this visitation see below p. 325. The free chapels of Wolverhampton, Tettenhall and Stafford were also visited.
63. For what follows on the property and organization of the college and on its dissolution see (unless otherwise stated) S.H.C. 1950-1, 23-24, 36-43, and the references there given; S.H.C. 1915, 202-8; V.C.H. Staffs. v. 111, 113, 120, 124-5, 140, 147, 179; ibid. iv. 166.
64. A note by Archbp. Alen in his Register (p. 311) stated that the salaries of the resident vicars had been much diminished.
65. According to the Valor Eccl. (Rec. Com.). iii. 106, the 2 canons had an income of £1 6s. 8d. from lands and tenements.
66. Only 2 of the closes yielded an income because each year one close lay in the common field.
67. V.C.H. Staffs. v. 147.
68. See below p. 326.
70. St. Michael's, Penkridge, Marriage Reg. 1735-54, f. 4v.; Lich. Dioc. Regy., Penkridge Peculiar; W.S.L., C. B. Penkridge; White, Dir. Staffs. (1834); see above p. 74 The last official, J. A. Fell (incumbent of Penkridge 1852-73), continued to exercise the jurisdiction after 1858: Lich. Dioc. Regy., Penkridge Peculiar, marriage bonds.
71. V.C.H. Staffs. v. 111.
72. S.H.C. vi(1), 23; see above pp. 298-9.
73. S.H.C. 1950-1, 7, 8, 9 and n., 51, 52 n. He was also Dean of Tettenhall c. 1225: see below p. 320.
74. S.H.C. 1950-1, 11. For the remainder of the list see above p. 299.
75. S.H.C. 1950-1, 15 n.
76. A. B. Tonnochy, Cat. of Brit. Seal Dies in B.M. 188.

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