Source: https://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/bucks/vol1/pp360-365
Timestamp: 2019-04-21 02:43:13+00:00

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The priory of Tickford was not the only house of this order in Buckinghamshire; but it was the only one which survived the suppression of alien priories and became indigenous, during the course of the Hundred Years' War. It was certainly one of the earliest monasteries founded in this county, if not actually the first (fn. 1); but the date of foundation cannot be exactly fixed. There is a charter in existence, witnessed by Archbishop Theobald of Canterbury, and therefore not later than 1154, (fn. 2) which recounts the gifts of Gervase Paynel, then living, and also of his father Ralf and his grandfather Fulk, the founder of the house; and this seems to bring it very near the beginning of the twelfth century. Fulk Paynel is said to have been the son of Ralf Paynel, (fn. 3) who appears in the Domesday Survey and was founder of the priory of Holy Trinity at York near the close of the eleventh century.
Tickford Priory was originally a cell to the Abbey of Marmoutier at Tours (fn. 4); and this connection was a source of much difficulty during the thirteenth century. Very little is known of the history of the house during the twelfth century, except the names of a few priors, attached to documents of no great importance. (fn. 5) But early in the thirteenth century the question of jurisdiction came to the front, and the difficulty had reached an acute stage between 1220 and 1230. (fn. 6) It will perhaps be not unprofitable to describe its course and final settlement with some detail, as the exemption of Cluniac monasteries was not so clearly established and understood as that of the Cistercians and other orders of later date.
In accordance with this agreement Bishop Sutton came to the priory in the same year and was received by the new prior, Geoffrey called Villicus, at the door of the cloister in solemn procession, and was reverently censed: he afterwards sang mass and preached in the conventual church.
This was the end of one difficulty, and for a while we may hope there was some measure of quiet within the monastery. But there were other troubles to face in the century which followed. Some time before 1311 the charters and muniments of the priory were destroyed by fire, and had to be confirmed afresh by letters patent. (fn. 20) A few other entries in the Close and Patent Rolls of this period give an idea of the great difficulty there must have been in maintaining the regular life in an alien priory during the wars with France. As early as 1324 this monastery was in the king's hand, and its prior under subjection to the official keeper of the lands of aliens, (fn. 21) who was ordered in this year 'to cause the prior of Tickford, who was in his custody by the king's order, to be brought before the King's Bench on 11 November to prosecute an assize concerning the advowson of one tenth of the chapel of Yardley, and to deliver the necessary expenses from the priory.' (fn. 22) In the same year a survey of the monastery was taken by the king's orders, (fn. 23) and showed that the number of monks was seriously diminished; there were only eight besides the prior. It seems too that an effort had been made to free the house from debt by selling corrodies; there were at this time two chaplains, eight men and one woman who received board, and possibly lodging also, at the expense of the priory. (fn. 24) The priors too at this time were foreigners, sent direct from Marmoutier, and by no means always men of high character. William de Menevere in 1329 was accused of taking the goods of John Kimble of Filgrave. (fn. 25) The vicar of Newport Pagnel complained in 1340 that Fulk de Champaigne, then prior, with two others, had lately besieged his house at Tickford, had broken the doors and windows, when he tried to escape had insulted, beaten and wounded him, and threatened to burn the house over his head if he returned. (fn. 26) This prior, or his successor, died in the year of the Great Pestilence, which probably lowered still further the numbers and resources of the priory.
Thomas Broke, who was elected in 1503, had been previously Prior of Snelshall. The last prior surrendered the house to Wolsey 5 February, 1524, (fn. 34) that its revenues might be applied to the support of the new college at Oxford, and received a pension of £10 a year. (fn. 35) The five monks who remained were given 6s. 8d. each as 'reward,' (fn. 36) but it is uncertain whether this was a regular pension or only paid to them at their dismissal. Probably they entered other houses of religion.
Pointed oval seal of late fourteenth century taken from an impression in gutta-percha gilded, (fn. 77) represents the Blessed Virgin with crown seated in a niche with tabernacle work at the sides. The Holy Child with nimbus is on her right knee, in her left hand she holds a sceptre fleur-de-lizé. In base in a niche with round-headed arch an ecclesiastic is kneeling, turned three-quarters to the left, in prayer. Legend: SIGILLŪ: CŌIE: DOMUS: BEATE: MARIE: DE: TYKFORD.
1. The priory of Ivinghoe may perhaps have been a little earlier: but its date of foundation is as uncertain as that of Tickford.
2. Round, Cal. of Doc. France, i. 444. It is a charter of Robert de Chesney, bishop of Lincoln. Reference was made to the same charter and others of Fulk and Gervase Paynell and of Henry II. in some inspeximus charters of Hubert archbishop of Canterbury, dated 1224 (Harl. MS. 2188, f. 125).
3. T. P. Bull, History of Newport Pagnel, 28. Several references to the external history of this priory are taken from this book; but the author had obtained nothing from the Lincoln Registers except the names of priors.
4. Round, Cal. of Doc. France, i. 444.
5. Feet of Fines (Rec. Com.), i. 187, 190. Fulk Paynel seems to have placed one of his nephews in the priory. A charter of his is witnessed by Helias, monk, nephew of Fulk Paynel. Harl. MS. 2188, f. 125d.
6. During the same ten years the prior of Newport was involved in a long suit relative to the church of Aston, Warwickshire, and the chapel of Yardley appendant thereto. In 1220 the chapel of Yardley was claimed by the abbot of Alcester, Ralf de Limesy, Giles de Ardington and the prior of Newport. The first two owned their claim to be unfounded, and the chapel was finally awarded to Giles till he should come of age: but he quitclaimed it to the prior. In 1230 the prior claimed the church of Aston, in virtue of a charter made by Thomas de Ardington, grandfather of Giles, and confirmed by Silvester, bishop of Worcester. The charters were pronounced to be false, and it was proved that the prior had not presented to the church in the time of Thomas de Ardington or his son Henry. So Giles de Ardington recovered seisin. Bracton's Note Book, iii. 347-8, and ii. 337. But Hubert, archbishop of Canterbury, in 1224 appears to have confirmed a charter of Gervase Paynel granting to the priory the church of Aston with the chapels of Yardley, Bramwig, and Overton (Harl. MS. 2188, f. 125). It had also been confirmed by Stephen Langton (ibid. 125d), and was confirmed again by Ralf de Somery when he married Hawise, heiress of the Paynels (ibid.). It belonged to Tickford in 1291, but was again disputed between 1324 and 1331; and was finally reckoned as part of the property of the priory at the dissolution (L. and P. Henry VIII. iv. 2167).
7. Linc. Epis. Reg. Rolls of Hugh of Wells.
8. Ann. Mon. (Rolls Ser.), iii. 109.
9. Linc. Epis. Reg. Rolls of Hugh of Wells. It is simply said here that William had resigned: the chronicler of Dunstable explains that this was not a voluntary resignation, and that he was sent into exile.
11. In 1450 it was noted that the number should be sixteen. Sir G. F. Duckett, Charters and Records of the Abbey of Cluni, ii. 213.
12. Cal. of Pap. Letters, i. 257.
14. Pat. 6 Edw. I. m. 19 and 9.
16. Linc. Epis. Reg. Memo. Sutton, 2.
17. Cal. of Pap. Letters, i. 521.
18. Linc. Epis. Reg. Inst. Sutton, 108d-114.
19. Linc. Epis. Reg. Inst. Sutton, 100d-116.
20. Pat. 5 Edw. II. pt. 1, m. 14.
21. Linc. Epis. Reg. Inst. Sutton, 117d.
22. Close, 18 Edw. II. m. 27. This chapel and the church of Aston were now claimed by the prioress of Catesby: the prior recovered one third of the advowson of the church in 1331. Pat. 5 Edw. III. pt. 1, m. 4.
23. Dugdale, Mon. v. 204-5.
24. The account of these corrodies is interesting, as tending to show that the monks of mediaeval England fared on the whole neither more nor less luxuriously than ordinary citizens of the middle class—that is to say, of the class from which most of them came, during the thirteenth and until the sixteenth century. If the fare provided in the refectory of the convent had been much poorer than was customary in this class of life, the secular chaplains and vicars who served their appropriate churches would scarcely have been expected to take their meals ordinarily with the monks, and to regard this board as part of their stipend: if the food had been better and more costly than that eaten by ordinary citizens, the monks themselves would not have been so ready to grant corrodies for life to their lesser benefactors. Bread and beer are constantly mentioned as the staple diet of the monks. See the account of Dunstable Priory in the V.C.H. Beds, i. 375. Nearly all these pensioners at Tickford received a loaf of bread and a gallon of conventual beer daily: one had in addition four dishes of meat every week, another a robe every year: in one case it is expressly stated that a monk's corrody was granted in satisfaction of a debt of 25s.
25. Pat. 2 Edw. III. pt. i., m. 34d.
26. Pat. 14 Edw. III. pt. i., m. 20d. These last are merely accusations, and may not of course have been actually proved.
27. Bull, History of Newport Pagnel.
28. Pat. 10 Richard II. pt. i., m. 36.
29. Ibid. 9 Richard II. m. 40d.
30. Cal. of Pap. Letters, v. 93-4, and 271-2.
32. Bull, History of Newport Pagnel, 80; from Bodleian Library, Bucks Charters, 59.
33. Sir G. F. Duckett, Vísitations of English Cluniac Foundations, 43. In the same author's Charters and Records of the Abbey of Cluni the words are debent esse sexdecim, which is probably the correct form of the statement made by the visitors.
34. L. and P. Henry VIII. iv. 1137.
37. Round, Cal. of Doc. France, i. 444; and the confirmation charter given in Dugdale, Mon. v. 202, and dated 1187.
38. Harl. MS. 2188, f. 125d.
39. Pope Nich. Tax. (Rec. Com.). A survey of the manor taken 22 Edw. I. amounts to £141 15s. 2d. (Dugdale, Mon. v. 204-5).
41. Feud. Aids, i. 104.
43. L. and P. Henry VIII. iv. 6788.
45. Dugdale, Mon. v. 206.
46. Charter of Fulk Paynel; Dugdale, Mon. v. 202.
48. Feet of Fines (Rec. Com.), i. 187, 190.
49. Linc. Epis. Reg. Rolls of Hugh of Wells.
53. Feet of F. 19 Hen. III. 13.
54. Dugdale, Mon. v. 201.
56. Linc. Epis. Reg. Rolls of Gravesend. Dugdale's list has Reginald de Bernewell also, occurring 3 Edward I.; who is probably the same person.
57. Pat. 6 Edw. I. m. 19, etc.
58. Linc. Epis. Reg. Inst. Sutton, 117d.
59. Ibid. Inst. Dalderby, 176. His name is spelt in two or three different ways.
60. Ibid. Inst. Burghersh, 341.
61. Ibid. Inst. Gynwell, 240.
62. Dugdale, Mon. v. 202.
64. Linc. Epis. Reg. Inst. Bokyngham, 409.
65. Ibid. 410d (William de Alneto).
66. Pat. 9 Richard II. m. 40d, etc., and Bull, History of Newport Pagnel, 97.
67. Dugdale, Mon. v. 201.
68. Ibid. and Linc. Epis. Reg. Inst. Gray, 49.
69. Linc. Epis. Reg. Inst. Gray, 49.
70. Ibid. Memo. Chadworth, 64.
71. Linc. Epis. Reg. Inst. Chadworth, 155.
72. Ibid. Inst. Rotherham, 106.
73. Ibid. Inst. Smith, 365d.
76. L. and P. Hen. VIII. iv. 1137 (18). Thomas Broke is given by Dugdale and Brown Willis as the last prior, it is possible that he may be identified with Thomas Parker, who occurs at the dissolution of the house.
77. B. M. Seals, xxxv. 194.

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