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YALE UNIVERSITY
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1935

THE
HISTORY OF
MYNCHIN BUCKLAND
PRIORY AND PRECEPTORY.

THE
HISTORY

OF

MYNCHIN BUCKLAND
PRIORY AND PRECEPTORY,

IN

THE COUNTY OF SOMEESET.

BY
THOMAS HUGO, M.A., F.S.A., F.R.S.L., &c,
TBUSTEE AND MEMBEB OP THE COUNCIL OP THE LONDON AND
MIDDLESEX ABCH.EOLOGICAL SOCIETY;
HONOEAEY FELLOW OF THE GENEALOGICAL AND HISTORICAL SOCIETY OP
GBEAT BEIT AIM';
HONOEAEY MEMBEE OP THE SOMERSETSHIRE ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND
NATURAL HISTOEY SOCIETY;
HONOEAEY MEMBEE OP THE SURREY AECH.1EO LOGICAL
SOCIETY ;
AITS MEMBEE OP VARIOUS OT1IEB LITERARY AND AECH.EOLOGICAL SOCIETIES.

LONDON:
J. R. SMITH, SOHO SQUARE.
TAUNTON : F. MAY, HIGH STEEET.
1861.

PREFACE

The primary object of the following pages is to furnish
the archaeologist with as minute an account as can now
be recovered of a Religious House of singular interest.
Its annals have hitherto been presented to him in a most
meagre and fragmentary form, but it has, nevertheless, few
equals and fewer superiors in its claims on the attention
of every student of our Monastic History, of which, as I
have elsewhere remarked, it forms an unique aud most
instructive chapter.
The account of the place itself, however, includes the
mention of numerous details illustrative of Conventual
History in general, and of the peculiariaties of the Order of
S. John of Jerusalem in particular. Among the former
may be noticed the modes of conveying landed and other
property to Religious Communities, the burdens by
which most of the greater Monasteries were oppressed
during the last few years of their existence, and the
process by which, after the Dissolution, their possessions
were transferred to the King's grantees. And among the
latter may be instanced the system and form of Govern
ment of the Order of the Hospital, the succession of its

VI. PKEFACE.
earliest Priors of England, the relation of the provincial
English Preceptories to the Head House at Clerkenwell,
the annual returns made by the various Preceptors to the
Prior and by him to the Grand Master of the Order, and
the manner of leasing their estates to the several tenant
farmers in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries.
The documents contained in the Appendix will be found
a very valuable addition. Almost all of them are now
printed for the first time, while the few which have hitherto
been committed to the press are now presented with
that accuracy the former lack of which was such as to
make their re-publication most desirable. I have given
them in their original form, only placing apostrophe
commas in the stead of those marks of contraction which
the fount of the printer did not supply ; and, in the case
of one MS., I have occasionally added corrections within
brackets, where the text was more than ordinarily corrupt,
and the reader was, accordingly, more likely to mistake
the sense.
Many of my readers will be surprised, as at a fact very
much opposed to modern notions on the subject, when told
that the spacious County of Somerset contained but four
Religious Houses appropriated to women. In the adjacent
County of Devon there were but three, while Cornwall did
not possess a single example. Of the four Somersetshire
Houses the present volume is devoted to the History of
one, and 1 have made extensive and valuable collections
towards doing a similar office for the three others, the
history of each of which is deeply interesting.
I have only to add that if any one, into whose hands
this or any other volume of mine may come, should have
it in his power to favour me with the least additional infor
mation on the subjects of these researches, I shall be most

PRKFACIi. Vll.
thankful for its communication, how valueless and unim
portant soever it may appear to him to be. It oftentimes
happens that an acquaintance with isolated facts of seeming
vvorthiessness is an aid towards the attainment of the most
valuable knowledge ; inasmuch as such facts are very
frequently not only important in other and more direct
ways, but also are found to be connecting links between
particulars which previously appeared distant from or
without any reference to each other, and thus become
elucidations of difficulties which would otherwise be hope
lessly obscure.
T. H.
5, Finsbury Cireus,
Ascension Bay, 1861.

CORRIGENDA ET ADDENDA.

Page 10, note *, for 457b read 467b ; note \, for IV. read VI.
—P. 11, «. * «<ZfZ MS. Harl. 6968, Cart. p. 19.— P. 12, line 8,
/or Tunecote /•««(? Tunecot; I. 11, /or Bremesmore read Fre-
mesmore; Z. 13, for Toustoke read Toustok; Z. 25, for Meres-
tone read Mereston ; n. *, /or m. 9 ra?<Z m. 6, and add Eot.
Hundred. Edw. I., pp. 70, 94.— P. 13, I. 20, /or Henbiry r««<Z
Neubiry.— P. 20, ». * for ad. 9, .d. r««^ ad. q. d.— P. 23, Z. 5,
/or message y««rf messuage; I. 21, aj/fer years.* insert inverted
commas. — P. 24, I. 2, a/for that wwrZ the ; I. 23, /or park read
parish. — P. 27, I. 9, /or Priory read Preceptory. — P. 30, I. 2, /or
Prunslee raw? Pruneslee ; I. 14, /or elemosynary r««<Z eleemosy
nary. — P. 36, Z. 8, fo Hawlay add or Hawley ; 1. 10, fo Dawson aoJfl!
or Dauson. — P. 60, 1. 6, a/for Mile.* wsertf inverted commas. — P. 62,
I. 15, a/fer Bourgchier mser£ , Prioress, — P. 74, 1. 6, insert John
Samweys, or Samwise, requested to purchase the farm of the
manor of Toller, with the rectory of Toller, and Wynforde, on
the 23rd of February, 1 540. ; I. 25, for Bucklande read Buclande ;
I. 28, for seid read said. — P. 75, I. 13, to Stapleheys add or
Staplehayes ; I. 14, to Eiden add or Eoden. — P. 77, I. 27, to
Claveshey add or Chalveshey. — P. 78, n. *, «$<# Appendix, No.
XXII. ; n. f, remove Appendix, No. XXII.— P. 89, I. 19, /or
UaiHH3E read !La?LittiS.— P. 92, Z. 6, for he'nt reaoJ h'ent;
Z. 33, for 155 r««(Z 153. — P. 93, Z. 18, for morabant read mora-
bant' ; Z. 36, for Buckland read Bukland.— P. 99, Z. 25, for
Som's' raw? Sum's'.— P. 100, Z. 11, /or Bromfild read Bromfeld ;
I. 13, for rac'oe re«<Z raco'e. — P. 102, Z. 8, /or Priorisa read
Priorissa; Z. 32, for n'ror r««oJ n'ror'. — P. 103, Z. 25, /or
sequens read sequenc'. — P. 104, Z. 38, /or tene' and face' r«fl(Z
ten'e #w<Z fac'e.

fthjnrjjra futkliuA ^riartj atA ^rmptartj.

A MONG the many delightful roads by which a traveller
,f\ in the west may reach on all sides the fair town of
Taunton, he will find few, if any, more agreeable than that
which runs from Borough Bridge to the village of Durston,
and then, with West Monkton at a short distance on the
right and Creech S. Michael on the left, leads him through
our favorite Bathpool, and by its picturesque mills, either
along the ancient highway, commonly called Old Bathpool
Lane, under Creechbury Hill, or by the windings of the
Tone and the Priory Fields, to the busy streets and the
consequent termination of his journey. He will not have
advanced far on the route that I have here laid down, when
the matchless vale of Taunton Dean, with its churches and
steeples, its mansions and parks, its corn-fields and groves,
and its noble framework of Neroche and Blackdown, above
the sunny shoulders of Thornfalcon and Stoke, of Orchard A

2 MYNCHIN BUCKLAND
and Pickeridge, opens wide before him, and he only relin
quishes the charms of the more distant prospect for the shady
lanes, the luxuriant vegetation, the tall trees, the lovely
river, and the snugly sheltered homesteads, of which his
descent into the lowlands soon gratifies him with the closer
view. After passing the hamlet of West Ling, and when
he is within half a mile from Durston, he may observe in
a meadow on his right hand some curious inequalities of
the surface, contracting and expanding with that certain
definiteness and regularity of outline which assures him of
the presence of design on the part of the constructors,
though it is more than likely that he may be unable to
offer an explanation of the intention which not the less
certainly actuated them in their labours. On his left, at
the distance of a field from the road, is a modern mansion,
and adjoining to it are some agricultural buildings and
court and garden walls of an earlier age. These last are
the only features which the place now presents of occu
pation more ancient than his own, save the roads and
hedgerows that may have been there for centuries.
Quiet, and still, and lonely is the present aspect of the spot,
and yet it was once a scene both of contemplative privacy
and of active industry ; and they who owned and occupied
it were members of a Community that had a long and
singular history, and bore a distinguished part in the great
world of men and of things. It was the site of the Priory
and Preceptory of Buckland, Mynchin Buckland, or Buck-
/land Sororum, one of the Commandries of the Order of S.
John of Jerusalem. It was the focus of an influence sensibly
and deeply and widely felt. A few crumbling fragments, now
recognized with difficulty, once formed the boundary bet ween
it and the surrounding world. And the green undulations
which attracted our traveller's notice were long centuries ago

riUORY AND PRECEPTORY. 3
the demesne Ponds that supplied with their habitual and
constant diet the successive Brethren and Sisters of the
House. It is to thi3 very interesting Community that I am
about to direct the attention of my reader. And in pre
senting him with a history of Buckland Priory, I may
remind him that I am introducing him to an entirely new
and different aspect of Monastic Life and Conventual
Usage from those with which I have in previous pages
endeavoured to make him familiar. The system of the Hos
pital itself was unlike all others save one, as I shall presently
attempt to show. And, in addition to this, it is specially
to be noted that we have here a feature which even in that
Order was not elsewhere to be seen in England. Mynchin
Buckland was both a Priory and a Preceptory. The latter
was a normal example of a Hospitalars' Commandry ; the
former was the sole instance in the kingdom of its peculiar
class. It was a Community of Women, and the only one
that the Order possessed. As such, its history presents us
not only with a subject of the greatest local interest, but
with an unique chapter in monastic annals at large. It is
at once a new scene to the student of olden days, and one
of which no county but Somersetshire can furnish him
with an example.
Before I enter into the vicissitudes of this attractive
place, it will be necessary to give my reader a brief outline
of the Order to which it belonged. We should otherwise
be likely to meet with obscurities in the story which a few
words of previous explanation would avail to prevent.
The Order of Knights Hospitalars began and took its
name from a Hospital founded at Jerusalem, and its chief
objects were the defence of the pilgrims on their road
thither, and the care and maintenance of them during their

4 MYNCHIN BUCKLAND
sojourn. It included among its members both men and
women; and, of the duties just enumerated, the latter was
necessarily as well as specially the office of the Sisters, as
was the former of the Brethren. The Knights, or officers
of the highest rank, were called in the first instance
Knights of S.John of Jerusalem; and afterwards, from
the place of their successive residence, Knights of Rhodes
and Knights of Malta. The Hospital was founded in the
Holy City about the year 1092, and was dedicated to S.
John the Baptist. Eight years afterwards the Order was
introduced into England, and the brethren's first house
was built for them at Clerken well in the year 1100. They
soon acquired immense wealth, which was much increased
in the earlier part of the fourteenth century by the cession
to them of the estates of the suppressed Order of the
Knights Templars.
The general history of the Hospitalars does not form
a portion of my subject, and is also, I presume, more or
less known to the greater part of my readers. It is to the
peculiarities of their government that I desire to draw
attention. The most important of these consisted in the fact that
their Houses, which were erected upon the majority of
^ their estates, were not independent communities, but the
officers were in all cases simply stewards of the Prior of
England, who in his turn had to account to the head of
the Order. Each of these communities, generally consist
ing of but few members, of whom the majority were usually
laymen, with one or more chaplains for the celebration of
Divine Offices, was under the government of a Commander
or Preceptor, and was hence styled a Commandry or
Preceptory. The brethren were allowed a maintenance
from the produce of the estates committed to their super-

PRIORY AND PRECEPTORY. 5
intendence, and accounted for the overplus to the Prior at
Clerkenwell. Lands, therefore, could only be given to
the Order through the Prior, and not to any single Com
mandry, that being deemed in law incapable of receiving
them, as the officers were but " obedientiarii," officials,
deputed by the Prior as his representatives and receivers.
Their system was, accordingly, entirely different from
those of other Orders, that of the Temple excepted.
Instead of each being independent, and having the care \
of its own individual interest, all were so many subject \
brotherhoods, each acknowledging one general head, and
contributing its portion to the general treasury.
This will be sufficient to give the reader a notion of the
early history of the Order and its mode of government.
We will now proceed to our immediate subject. Let me,
however, premise that considerable errors have arisen from
the identity of its name with that of numerous other
localities possessed of a similar cognomen. This has,
unhappily, tended to confuse and falsify, and so to render
worse than useless, even the few and very meagre notices of
it which have hitherto been committed to the press. There
is hardly one of the previous writers who has not mistaken
it more or less for the Abbey of Buckland in the County
of Devon. One has identified it with Buckland S. Mary
in Somersetshire. And, strange to add, even the learned
Sir Henry Chauncy, in his History of Hertfordshire, has
described an imaginary Buckland Monastery in that county,
and has given in connection with it some of the earlier
facts in the history of our House. It has not been
hitherto, however, nor is it now my desire, to dwell upon
other men's omissions or mistakes. A much more agree
able and valuable task is mine, to which I contentedly and
gladly turn.

0 MYNCHIN BUCKLAND
It was about the year 1166, that William de Erlegh, lord
of the manor of Durston, founded the House for a small com
munity of Augustine Canons. His father, John de Erlegh,
who died in the previous year, was possessed of several
manors in the county of Somerset, one of which still bears
his name in Somerton Erie, and is mentioned as paying
five marcs for scutage in 1161. In behalf of the souls of
King Henry and of Alianor the Queen, and of King Henry
his son and their other sons and daughters, and for the
benefit of the souls of himself and of his wife, this William
de Erlegh gave, as Brother John Stillingflete informs us,
all the land of Buklande, and the Church of Perretone
(Petherton),* with other churches and lands in divers
places, as appears by a charter for that purpose made, for
the planting and ordaining of Religion at Buckland, by
the hand of his kinsman S. Thomas of Canterbury ; and
that the said Canons thus planted and ordained should
possess the aforesaid lands and churches to their proper
uses in pure and perpetual alms, f
According to the same chronicler, who wrote an
account of the Order in 1434, for a perpetual memorial
and commemoration of the various benefactors and their
* " The Brooke is oaullid Peder, and risith West Sowth West- yn the
Hylles about a 2 myles of. First it cummith by North-Pedreton, a praty
uplandisoh Toun, wher is a fair Chiroh, the Personage wherof was impro
priate to Mynohinbocland." — Leland, Itin. vol. ii., p. 66.
t MS. in Off. Armor. L. 17, fol. 153. MS. Cott. Tib. E. ix., f. 23.
Appendix, No. I.
As will be observed by the references, I am acquainted with two MSS.
of this work of Brother John Stillingflete, one preserved in the College of
Arms, L. 17., and the other in the Cottonian Library, Tiberius, B. ix.
Both are transcripts later by upwards of a century and a half than the life
time of the chronicler. The former has been m uch injured by the fire of 173 1 ,
and exists but in fragments : the latter is considerably more ample in details,
although both of them were evidently copied from a common original, but
its text is most corrupt, and the writer was clearly ignorant of the language
of the production which he endeavoured to perpetuate.

PRIORY AND PRECEPTORY. 7
numerous donations, it appears that together with the
Church of Pereton (Petherton), and all its dependent
chapels and their appurtenances, the same William de
Erlegh gave the Church of Chedsey (Chedzoy), with all
the right which the Hospital had or ought to have in the
Church of Poulet, with the Chapel of Huntworth, the
Chapel of Earl's Neweton, the Chapel of Thurlakeston
(although this assuredly was either then or very shortly
afterwards appropriated to the Priory of Taunton), the
Chapel of Sirdeston, and the Chapel of King's Newe
ton; also the Church of Bekynton, the Church of
Kynmersdon, and the Church of Sirston, with, it is added,
other lands and benefactions besides.*
It appears that Walter was the first and possibly the
only Prior of the House. The chronicler just quoted is
silent on the fact, and indeed the whole account is not a
little obscure. But, on turning to other MS. sources for
information, I find a Walter Prior of Bokeland, or Bokland,
as witness in two documents belonging to this period. One
of these sets forth that Alan de Furvell, or Fervell, gave
to the Church of S. Andrew of Wells the Church of
Cudeworth with the Chapel of Cnolle, to be a perpetual
prebend of that Church.f The other is a confirmation by
Maude Chandos of a donation of Silvanus to the Church
of S. Mary of Stowey, at its dedication, of two acres of
land, and of a later donation to the same Church of an
acre and a half in Betescumbe ; and also of a donation of
Roger de Paris to the same Church at the aforesaid dedi
cation of an acre of land in Bueli.J Probably, as he is not
mentioned in connection with the subsequent troubles, he
* MS. in Off. Armor. L. 17, fol. 153b. Appendix, No. II.
t MS. Harl. 6968, p. 40. Keg. Well., f. 38.
J MS. Harl. 6968, Cart, p, 21.

8 MYNCHIN BUCKLAND
died before the arrival of the evil days which made hi3
House notorious. Indeed, it is not improbable that those
troubles were associated with the election of his successor.
A few years after their foundation, these Canons were
removed from their monastery. The exact circumstances
are nowhere recorded, but it appears that a violent
altercation had unhappily arisen which resulted in the
death of their steward, who was a relative of the pious
founder. A sentence of outlawry was accordingly passed
upon them, their House was declared to be forfeited, and
their lands and churches were made over by the then
sovereign, King Henry the Second,* with the concurrence
of Ralph Archbishop of Canterbury, of Reginald Bishop
of Bath, and of many of the chief men of England both
clerical and lay, to Garner of Naples, Prior of the Hospital
of S. John of Jerusalem in England. Among the earliest
records of this transfer, for the original deed has not to my
knowledge been preserved, is a charter of " inspeximus "
granted by K. John, recounting at large the possessions of
the Hospitalars, and concluding with the usual forms of con
firmation of all previous donations, together with express
mention of the arrangement to be noticed immediately.
This charter was dated at Rouen, 30th of August, 1st of
John, a.d. 1199.f
As I have already hinted, it was not a simple transfer,
but a very important stipulation was introduced into the
grant, and directed to be fully and faithfully observed. It
appears that there were a few Sisters belonging to the
Order, who resided at several of the Commandries, as
at Hamton near Kyngeston, Kerebrooke, Swynfeld, and
other places. It was now ordered and agreed to that these
* MS. in Coll. Arm., L. 17, f. 155. Appendix, No. III.
t Hot. Cart. 1 John, m. 17.

PRIORY AND PRECEPTORY. 9
ladies should be removed from their various places of resi
dence and be placed in one common and conventual home
at Buckland, and that the Order should have no Sister
hood belonging to it in England save and except in this
House alone. This occurred about the year 1180, or some
time about fifteen years after the original foundation.
The displaced Canons were removed by Garner, with the
King's consent, to certain monasteries, selected probably
for their high character and the sound state of their
internal discipline. Three were, on their own petition,
consigned to the Hospital at Clerkenwell, and assumed the
habit of the Order; two were placed by Reginald Bishop
of Bath, also on their own petition, in the Priory of
Taunton; one in the Priory of Berlitz, and one in that
of S. Bartholomew, in Smithfield. These preliminary
arrangements being satisfactorily concluded, the main
design was forthwith carried out. The Sisters hitherto
residing, as already stated, in several of the preceptories,
were brought together and lodged at what was henceforth
called Mynchin or Nuns' Buckland. From the names which
have been preserved, they appear to have been at least nine
in number : — Sister Milisent, previously living at Standon,
in Hertfordshire; Sister Johanna, at Hamton, in Middlesex;
Sister Basilia, at Kerebrooke, in Norfolk ; Sister Amabilia
and Sister Amicia, of Malketon, at Shenegey, in Cambridge
shire ; Sister Christina, of Hoggeshawe, at Hoggeshawe,
in Buckinghamshire ; Sister Petronilla, at Gosford, in Ox
fordshire ; and Sister Agnes, at Clanefelde, also in Oxford
shire. They were located at Buckland, that, as it was
solemnly added, they and their successors might serve God
in that place for ever* Such was the small beginning, and
such the first members of this afterwards famous Sisterhood.
* MS. in Coll. Arm., L. 17, fol. 153. Appendix, No. IV. B

10 MYNCHIN BUCKLAND
From a very interesting list of some of the immediate
successors of Prior Garner, contained in one of the
Cottonian MSS., specially intended, as it would appear, to
illustrate the history of Buckland, we learn that the first
Prioress was named Fina. This lady, who died about the
year 1240, governed the House for the long space of sixty
years, and outlived from the date of her appointment seven
successive Heads of the Order* She was greatly revered,
and, as we shall notice subsequently, was specially remem
bered in the prayers of the Sisterhood for a considerable
period after her decease.
The maintenance of these religious women was provided
for by a series of benefactors. First on the list is Matilda
Countess of Clare, wife of William Earl of Clare, and
mother of Richard Earl of Clare, who gave to the Hospital
the advowson of the Church of S. Peter of Kerebrooke, and
the Preceptory of that name. She gave also to the Sisters
of Buckland a pension of 13s. 4d., to be paid by the Pre
ceptor for the time being, and many other benefactions.
The gift is recorded to have been made at Westminster,
in the fifth year of King Richard I, 1193, in the time
of Alan, Prior of England and subsequently Bishop of
Bangor.f That of Kerebrooke, however, at least, must be
placed at an earlier date, as we have already seen that the
Order was in possession of it in the year 1180.
Gilbert de Veer, Prior of the Hospital of S. John of
Jerusalem, gave the Sisters an annual pension of one
hundred shillings, issuing from the manor of Reynham.J
He died 13th August, 1198 (?).
* MS. Colt. Nero, E. vi. f. 457b. Appendix, No. V.
t MS. in Coll. Arm. L. 17. fol. 148 b. Appendix, No. VI.
J MS. Cott. Nero. E. IV. f. 467b. Appendix, No. VII.

PRIORY AND PRECEPTORY. 11
Hugh Wallis, Bishop of Lincoln, by his will, made in the
year 1211, left the sum of twenty marcs "ad fabricam
ecclesia? de Bokland." This structure, it appears, was
dedicated to the Blessed Virgin and S. Nicholas.*
Hugh de Alneto, or D'Auney, Prior of the Hospital of S.
John of Jerusalem, gave, with the consent of the Chapter,
permission to the Lady Loretta, Countess of Leicester, to
find a Chaplain to celebrate daily the mass of the Virgin
in the Church of the Sisters, in return for certain lands
and rents which the Countess gave to the Hospital,
to be converted to the proper uses of the Sisters afore
said of Buckland, so that the aforesaid Chaplain should
be deputed to no other service save the proper and peculiar
ministry of the Virgin in the Church aforesaid.f We pos
sess the charter of the Countess of Leicester contained in
one of " inspeximus " and confirmation granted shortly
after by King Henry III., and dated at Westminster, the
16th of July, 1227. As it is of considerable interest, both
from its subject matter and from the names of the places
with which it furnishes us, some of my readers may be glad
to have it in a literal translation. It is as follows : —
" Be it known to all the faithful of Christ, as well present
as future, who shall see or hear this writing, that I Loretta,
Countess of Leycester, have given and granted to God,
and Blessed Mary, and S. John Baptist, and the blessed
Poor of the House of the Hospital of Jerusalem, towards
the sustenance of the Sisters of Boclaund serving God,
and towards the finding of a certain Chaplain in the same
House, who daily and for ever may celebrate mass in
honor of the Blessed Virgin Mary, in the greater Church

* Rot. Chart. 1 J oh. m. 17.
t MS. Cott. Tib. E. IX. f. 23. MS. in Coll. Arm. L. 17. f. 153 b.
Appendix, No. VIII.

12 MYNCHIN BUCKLAND
at Bokland, at the altar of the Blessed Virgin, for the
health of my soul and of Lord Robert my husband, some
time Earl of Leicester, and for the health of the souls of
my father and mother, and of all my ancestors and succes
sors, all my land of Noteston, and all my land of Ynesford,
this side the water and that side the water, and sixty-four
acres of my demesne above Ruwedon, and all my land of
Ridescot, and of Hele, and of Chorlecot, and of Tunecote,
and of Boteburn, and all the land which Philip at Way
holds, with the tenants of the aforesaid lands. Moreover,
a hundred acres of my demesne in Bremesmore, and my
wood which is called Ancrwd, and one ferling at Roitheye,
with all their appurtenances in the manor of Toustoke, with
pasturage and all other things appertaining to the aforesaid
lands. Moreover, all kinds of common between my tene
ments wheresoever. To be holden and possessed freely and
quietly in perpetual and pure alms, as any alms may be
freely and quietly given. And that this my gift may in
future times obtain the strength of perpetual firmness, I •
have held it right to strengthen it by the defence of the
present writing with the apposition of my seal. Wit
nesses, Master Lambert, Sub-dean of Wells; Lord
Philip de Alben ; Lord Roger de la Zuohe ; Adam, son
of Hondebrand ; Master Humphrey, Canon of Cycester ;
Master Reginald de Merestone ; William, Chaplain of
Bukingeham ; Walter, clerk of Langeham ; Thomas, clerk
of Glouecester ; Nicholas de Wyleye, and others." *
Other early gifts, of which the exact dates have not
been preserved, are the following : —
Ralph, the son of William de Briwere, gave to the
Sisters the Church of Tolland with its appurtenances.
* Cart. 11 Hen. III., p. 2, m. 9. Appendix, No. IX.

PRIORY AND PRECEPTORY. 13
Alan, son of Antony Russell, gave them the Church of
Donington, in the diocese of Lincoln.
Warin de Aula gave them Bodescombe.
Ascuid Musard gave them Chiltcombe, Wysangre, and
Bochelcote. And Robert A.rundale gave them Halse, with its appur
tenances.* Probably this gift is the same as that
subsequently mentioned, as having been made so late as
the year 1374, and as the subject of legal investigation in
the year 1400. The name, however, of the donor is there
given as Roger Arundell.
Muriel de Bohun gave them 40 solidatse of land in
Sherborn and Prumesley, in the county of Dorset, which
grant was confirmed by her husband, Ralph de Bruere.f
The Prioress of Buckland held also one fee in Primes-
leigh, which was Robert de London's, of the Bishop
of Salisbury ; and, with William Waddam, half a fee,
which was Robert de London's, of the same Bishop in
chief.! By a charter dated at Henbiry, the 3rd of August, 1228,
King Henry III. granted the Sisters permission to take
from his park of Neuton a cartload of dead wood for fuel
every week in the year. And it was considerately added,
that, because it was more convenient to remove the aforesaid
firewood in summer than in winter, the king permitted
them to take the stated number of cartloads in the interval
from Easter to the feast of S. Peter ad vincula, the 1st
of August. An order was given to Richard de Wrotham,
to allow them to remove the fuel, in agreement with the
terms of the king's grant. [|
* MS. Cott. Tib. E. IX. f. 23. MS. in Off. Armor. L. 17. f. 153 b.
Appendix, No. X.
t Sutehins's Dorsetshire, II., p. 394. J 16.
|| Pat. 12 Henry III., m. 2. Appendix, No. XI.

14 MYNCHIN BUCKLAND
It would appear that this privilege was not only one of
considerable value, as it would necessarily be, but also one
which was subject to frequent invasion, for we find a long
series of confirmations of this and similar grants. In some
instances it was possibly the change of the officer to whom
the park was intrusted, which necessitated the preparation
of a new instrument. On the 3rd of April, 1229, the king
signified from Marlborough to Hugh de Nevill his royal
pleasure that the Sisters should have weekly from his park
of Neuton one cartload of the dead wood of that park for
their fuel. A similar permission was added to remove the
whole of their yearly gathering between the feast of Easter
and that of S. Peter ad vincula, instead of employing
the winter in so inconvenient a work.* A similar order
was given to Richard de Wrotham, dated at Westminster,
15th of May, 1229.f
Immediately subsequent to this grant, a very interesting
addition was made to the revenues of the Sisters, and again
it was by their royal benefactor. The letters were addressed
to the King's treasurer and chamberlains. " Know ye," he
says, "that we have given, and granted, and by our
charter have confirmed to the Prioress of Bocland and the
Sisters there serving God, of the Order of the Hospital of
Jerusalem, to maintain three maidens for ever in the said
priory, a delivery of two pence and one half-penny, which
Roger, Chaplain of the Bishop of Lincoln, used to receive
daily by the hand of the Sheriff of Hereford our almoner ;
and a delivery of two pence, which Margary, the nurse of
Isabella our sister, used to receive daily by the hand of
the same. To be held of us and of our heirs by them and
their successors in free, pure, and perpetual alms ; and to
* Claus. 13 Hen. III., m. 12.
t Claus. 13 Hen. III., m. 10.

PRIORY AND PRECEPTORY. 15
be received for ever at our exchequer ; that is to say, one
half at Michaelmas, and the other at Easter. And so
we command you that ye have these deliveries made unto
them, as aforesaid. At Faversham, the 20th of September,
1229."* This was followed eight days afterwards by a grant,
addressed to Richard de Wrotham, in favour of the Sisters,
increasing the gift of one to that of three weekly cartloads
of wood for their fire. It was to be taken every week
" de spinis, alno, et arabili," in the park of Neuton, and a
similar concession was added as to time with that pre
viously stated. The grant was dated at Westminster, 28th
September, 1229.f A similar one was addressed two days
afterwards to John de Monem, from London, the 30th of
September, 12294
Terric de Nussa, Prior of England, who died on
the 21st December, 1237, gave the Sisters and their
successors, by advice of the general Chapter of his
brethren, an annual allowance of thirty-eight marcs,
twelve shillings, and eight pence sterling, which they
were to receive from the Preceptor of Buckland for the
time being, at two terms of the year ; namely, at the feast
of Easter, nineteen marcs, six shillings and four pence,
and a similar sum at the feast of S. Michael. And it
was further ordered that the Preceptor or Master should
be allowed this amount in his responsions or annual returns
to the Receiver General of the Order. |)
Previous to the 15th of February, 1270-1, which was the
day of his decease, Roger de Veer, Prior of England, paid a
* Pat. 13 Hen. III., m. 4.
+ Claus. 13 Hen. III., m. 4.
J Claus. 13 Hen. III., m. 3.
|| MS. in Coll. Arm., L. 17, f. 153. Appendix, No. XII.

16 MYNCHIN BUCKLAND
visit to Bukland to inspect the state of the House. He found
great difference and discord prevailing between the Pre
ceptor and the Prioress and Convent, about a number of
matters intimately affecting the Prioress and her Sisters.
There is little doubt, as in an instance which will be before
us presently, that the Preceptor looked with a grudging
eye on the possessions of the Sisterhood, and hardly
endured to part with the funds which he was compelled to
advance for their maintenance. Roger appears to have
felt that nothing but peremptory measures would ensure
peace. With the assent of his chapter at Melcheburn, he
made among other regulations the following : — That the
Prioress and Convent should have their own steward, who
should sit at the table of the Preceptor; and one servant,
who should sit with the servants of the Preceptor ; and
who should be there daily at table unless the steward
should otherwise appoint him. That at the feast of S.
Michael, when the steward should desire to hold his court
at Hele, he should have of the cellarer five white loaves and
his flagons full of ale ; and that at the same feast, when he
should hold his courts at Kinmersdon and Primmilegh,
he should have the same ; and at Hokeday the same ; and
that he should have his horse furniture and all other neces
saries, at the delivery and appointment of the Prioress and
Convent. And that, if in anything he should be at fault,
it should be lawful for the Prioress to prohibit him from
meddling with their goods, but not to remove him from his,
office without the consent of the Prior. Moreover, it was
ordained that the Sisters should have a secular priest to
celebrate mass for the soul of Sister Fina sometime
Prioress there, and for the souls of the founders and bene
factors of the said House, who should sit at table with the
brethren, and have his bed in the dormitory between the

PKIORY AND PRECEPTORY. 17
priests and clerks, and for the rest of his time should be at
the order of the Prioress ; so that the Preceptor should
have an allowance of five marcs for the table of the said
priest, and also of the one brother who celebrated the mass
of Blessed Mary, and also three shillings at the feast of S.
Michael for the clerk of the chapel* The calm which
this arrangement produced was at best but temporary, and
we shall soon have to notice some evidences of the feeling
with which it was regarded by the Preceptor and his
brethren, by whom the establishment of the neighbouring
Community was clearly considered a grievance of no com
mon order !
In or about the year 1270, the Hospitallers of Boclande
were returned among other Somersetshire landowners as
holding five virgates of land, of the annual value of fifty
shillings. f
In 1276, the Sisters are stated on the verdict of a jury
to have common of pasture for eight oxen and two cows in
a place of forty acres situated in Rolneston.J
Shortly after this date the chapel of Kynmeresdon was
sacrilegiously broken into and plundered. The crime was
charged upon a certain Robert de Bo  , (the MS.
is imperfect and the name cannot be regained) before the
Justices Itinerant, but he was happy enough to clear him
self to the satisfaction of his judges. A letter is extant
from Robert Bishop of Bath to the King, " excellentissimo
domino suo domino Edwardo," wishing him health "in Eo
per Quern reges regnant et regnorum omnium gubernacula
sustentantur," and soliciting the prompt restoration of the
possessions and goods of the accused, which had been
* MS. in Off. Arm. L. 17, f. 153 b. Appendix, No. XHI.
t Test, de Nevill, f. 759.
% Hilar, an. 4 Edw. I. de Jur. et Ass. rot. 14. Abbrev. Plac. p. 189. C

*

18 MYNCHIN BUCKLAND
detained during the process of the investigation. The
Bishop's letter is dated at Windsor, 9th September, 1281.
In 1290 was the famous Taxatio of Pope Nicholas IV.
The Church of Boclonde was then valued at £5 6s. 8d ;
Perton, with its Chapel, at £53 6s. 8d. ; the Vicarage of
the same at M 13s. 4d. ; and Elleworth, at £4 6s. Sd.f
The favour of collecting fire wood from the park of Neu
ton, Perton, or Petherton, appears, as I have remarked, to
have been often contested. In the year 1290, the nuns were
obliged to petition the king in parliament with a view to
the restoration of their rights. They submitted that since
the battle of Evesham, a.d. 1265, they had been hindered
in their ancient privilege, and humbly solicited the king's
favour in the restitution of the same.}
Richard de Plessetis, or de Placey, a descendant of
Richard de Wrotham already noticed, who died 20 Edw.
I., 1292, founded, about two years before his decease, a
perpetual chantry at Newton for the health of his soul and
the souls of his father and mother, and all his ancestors and
successors. For the endowment of the same, he granted to
William de Hilprinton, the intended chantry priest, and his
.successors, in the chapel of S. Peter at Newton, a house in
which William de Grey, a former chaplain, lived aforetime,
and several acres of land in Ivymore, Highmore, and
Ellerhaye, together with the tithes of Newton and Pether
ton Park, and right of common for six oxen and six heifers
in all places where he had common. The witnesses to this
charter were the Preceptor of Buckland, Sir Geoffrey de
Wrockshall, Sir John de Placetis, Peter de Hamme, and
John de Marisco.|| * Calendar of Letters, No. 1948.
f Tax. Eccl. P. Nich. IV., pp. 198, 199.
% Pet. in Pari., 18 Edw. I., n. 152, vol. I., 68.
|| Collins, e Regist. Well. in. 65.

PRIORY AND PRECEPTORY". 19
In 1297, the 25th of Edward I., the Master of the
Hospital of Bocland was returned from the counties of
Somerset and Dorset, as holding lands or rents to the
amount of £20 yearly value or upwards, either in capite or
otherwise, and as such he was summoned under the general
writ to perform military service, &c, in parts beyond the
sea. The muster was at London, on the Sunday next
after the Octave of S. John the Baptist, or the 7th of
July, 1297.*
In the Perambulation of the Forest of North Petherton,
dated the 25th of May, 26 Edward I, 1298, it is set forth
that John de Erlegh holds the manor of North Petherton,
with the moors, &c, and that the Prior of S. John of
Jerusalem holds the hamlet of Gogestode, the Priory of
Bokeland, the hamlets of Taklestone and Heggynge, with
the woods, moors, marshes, &c, and the hamlet of Bidone,
with the moors, marshes, &c.f
King Edward I. gave the Order a charter for a weekly
market, held on Monday, in his manor of liaise.!
The year 1306 brought a further increase of property.
A writ was addressed on the 16th of October, 1305, and an
inquest was held at Somerton, before J. de Montacute, the
King's Escheator, on the Monday after Palm Sunday in the
following year, or the 28th of March, 1306, to examine
and report whether it were to the detriment of the King,
or of any others, if Thomas de Berkelay should give two
shops, with their appurtenances, in Welles, to the Prioress
and Sisters of Boclande. The process was exactly similar
to that which I have fully explained in my History of
Taunton Priory, and does not require further illustration.
* Pari. Writs, i., 293.
t Per. Por. de North Petherton, 26 Edward I.
X Cart. 18 Edw, I., n. 80. MS. Coll. Arm., L. 17. f. 156. Appendix, No. XIV.

20 MYNCHIN BUCKLAND
The verdict was favourable, and the King's letters patent,
dated at Lanercost, the 20th of October, enabled both
parties to act in agreement with the donor's desire* The
annual value of the property was eighteen shillings in all
issues. William de Tottehale, Prior of England, presented John
de Messingham to North Pederton, 12th March, 1309-10.f
The year subsequent to this date, the same Thomas de
Berkelee granted under very peculiar circumstances four
pounds of rent, with appurtenances, issuing from lands and
tenements in Hamme, held by Thomas de Stane of the
the said Tholnas. This sum was to be received by the
Prioress and Sisters in aid of the maintenance of his
daughter Isabella, who was a Sister of the House. They
were to receive it during the life of this lady; and after
her decease it was to revert entirely to its former master.
The letters patent describe the Priory as very poor,
" quod nimis exile esse dinoscitur," and convey the King's
license for this seasonable help. They are dated at London,
the 25th of August, 13114
The Master of the Hospital was certified, pursuant to
writ tested at Clipston, 5th March, 1316, as one of the
lords of the township of North Petherton. ||
In the Ordination of the Vicarage of Poulet, made in
the following year, the Vicar was to pay every year one
marc of silver to the Sisters of Bokland.§
On the 9th of March, 1320, John de Werewell was
Preceptor, and was appointed by the Prior of S. John to

* Inquis. ad. 9, d. 34 Edw. I., n. 178. Pat. 34 Edw. I., m. 4.
t MS. Harl. 6985 B, f. 126 b.
X Pat. 5 Edw. II, p. 1, m. 20.
|| Pari. Writs, II., 378.
§ MS. Harl. 6908, Cart. p. 7.

PRIORY AND PRECEPTORY. 21
be procurator and administrator of the estates belonging to
the Hospital in the diocese of Bath and Wells*
In the year 1328, an amicable arrangement was after
some delay arrived at between Geoffrey Samuel and William
his son on the one part, and the Prioress Isabella la Louwe
and Convent on the other, touching the celebration of
Divine Service in their chapel of Lokyngton, in their parish
of Kilmersdon. It was agreed that the Prioress and
Convent, for themselves and their successors, should grant
to the aforesaid Geoffrey and William, the celebration in
the aforesaid chapel, on Sundays, Wednesdays, and Fridays,
to be performed by the perpetual Vicar of Kilmersdon, in
return for a tenement which the Prioress and Convent held
of the fee of the aforesaid Geoffrey and William. To the
constant maintenance of this celebration, Geoffrey and
William bound themselves and their heirs in one quarter of
corn, to be paid every year to the said Vicar from their
manor of Lokyngton. The confirmation was dated the
19th of November, 1328.f
On the 28th of August in the following year, 1329, died
Thomas L'Archier, Prior of England. He gave to the
Sisters of Buckland a yearly pension of forty shillings, to
be drawn for ever from the manor of Hidon, a limb of
Templecomb.f During the same year, the Preceptor and Sisters were
obliged to call in the aid of their ecclesiastical superiors
against the harsh measures of Master Richard de Thistel-
den, their diocesan's official. The latter had called upon
them to exhibit their title to the churches of Northpeder-
ton, Durston, Halse, Bromfeld, and Kynemersden, in the
* Archer, e Peg. Drok. 159.
t MS. Harl, 6964, p. 132.
X MS. Cott. E. vi. f. 467b. Appendix, No. XV.

22 MYNCHIN BUCKLAND
diocese of Bath and Wells. These churches were, as we
have already noticed, canonically appropriated to them,
and had been so from ancient times. On their citation to
pay the customary " obedience" in behalf of these churches,
considerable harshness was exhibited; and, on their duly
demanding to be furnished with a copy of his commission,
the commissary had not only neither listened to their
prayer nor acceded to their request, but had pronounced
them contumacious, when they were not so, had fined
them in an immoderate sum of money, and had ordered the
same to be levied forthwith. An appeal was forwarded to
the Apostolic See, which was promptly followed by an
inhibition against his attempting aught to the prejudice of
the appellants duriDg the pending of the suit in the Court
of Canterbury. The inhibition was dated at London, the
26th of September, 1329*
It appears, from the Year Book of 1330, that the arrange
ment just mentioned in connexion with the chapel of
Lokyngton, or Leeke, was not fully and faithfully observed.
The record referred to presents us, accordingly, with an
instance of litigation, the issue of which, so far as we can
gather it, was of an unfavourable character. The proceed
ings, as there given, are in avowry, and the question is
raised as to the lawfulness of a certain distress levied
by Agnes, widow of William Samuel, upon Isabel de Berch,
Prioress of Buckeland, through the alleged non-perform
ance of the terms of the covenant. Agnes, by a plaint
sued by the Prioress, is made defendant, and called upon to
give reasons for levying the distress. To those of my
readers who feel an interest in the old practice of the law,
it will Dot be unwelcome if I enter into the particulars
* MS. Harl. 6965, p. 17. Appendix, No. XVI.

TRIORY AND PRECEPTORY. 23
of the case, and exhibit the process by which an attempt
was made to obtain restitution. It is stated that " Agnes
Samuel avoweth a distress upon Isabel de Berch, Prioress
of Buckland, by reason that one M., a predecessor of
the said Isabel, held of Richard Flory a message and
acre of land by fealty and the service of finding a
chaplain to sing, in the chapel within his manor of Leeke,
masses, matins, and vespers, on three days in the week
throughout the whole year, to wit Sunday, Wednesday,
and Friday, and to find in the same chapel bread, and wine,
and other things suitable for the celebration of Divine
Service, "pan', et vine, et auters ornam'ts pur divines
servic' celebrer," of which services Richard was seised ;
the which Richard gave and granted the manor, with the
chapel to which the services related, to William the late
husband of the same Agnes, and to Agnes, and to the heirs
of their two bodies ; the which M. made attornment
of the said services to William and Agnes ; and after the
death of William this same Agnes was seised, by the hand
of the said Isabel, &c, and for the singing in arrear for
two years*
The defence that seems by the pleadings to have been
set up to Agnes Samuel's case was that the Vicar by a
certain composition received a quarter of wheat for the
fulfilment of the duties, which were performed by a
priest employed by him. And the question was whether
the facts alleged by the Prioress were sufficient answer to
bar Agnes Samuel of her action, or whether on the
other hand she were justified in levying the distress. We
do not know the issue, as, the Court sitting in Banco
and not at Nisi prius, no decision was come to on the
* Mioh. 4 Edw. III., pi. 52.

24 MYNCHIN BUCKLAND
merits ; though I think, as I have already said, that it may
be gathered from the pleadings that Prioress would be
unsuccessful, and that the distress which Agnes Samuel
had levied would be pronounced valid and according to
law. Of the year 1335 I am happy to furnish a very valuable
memorial. It is the certificate of the Lord Bishop to the
King, of the churches, advowsons, and pensions which the
Prior and Brethren of the Hospital possessed in the diocese
of Bath and Wells. They are here stated to hold, as
appropriate rectories, the Church of Halse, of the annual
value of iDIO ; the Church of Durston, with the tithes
of Coggelode by Boclande, (there is still a "Coglett
Field " in the immediate neighbourhood of the site of
the Priory) of the annual value of 8 marcs ; the
Church of Northpederton, of the annual value of 60
marcs ; and the Church of Kynemersdone, of the annual
value of 24 marcs. They have also, it is added, the
advowsons of the Churches of Ellesworthe, taxed in 6
marcs and a half ; of Talande, taxed in 3 marcs ; and of
Hethfeld, taxed in 5 marcs. They have also the following
annual pensions : from the Chapel of Bodyngton in the
park of Netherstauway, 2s. ; from the Church of Touland,
2s. ; from Bekyngton, 20s. ; and from the Church of Poulet,
1 marc. The document is dated at Banwell, 27th August,
1335.* In the 11th year of King Edward III., 1337, died John
de Erlegh, seised at the time of his decease of the manors
of Durston, North Petherton, Somerton Erie, Bekington,
Michaelchurch, &c. The fact of special interest in our
present enquiry is that he left behind him a son John, born
* MS. Harl. 6965, p. 93.

PRIORY AND PRECEPTORY. 25
and baptised at Durston, 29th of November, 6 Edward
III., 1332, who afterwards attended the Black Prince to
Spain ; another son Richard ; and three daughters, Katha
rine Prioress of Buckland, Elizabeth wife of Sir John
Stafford, and Alice wife of Sir Nicholas Poines* Here
we have an instance, by no means uncommon, of a noble
daughter of the house of a founder governing the Com
munity which owed its origin to the piety of an ancestor
long gone to his reward.
For the year subsequent to this date we possess an
invaluable series of returns, which furnish us with a most
lively picture of the system of the Hospital in full operation
and activity. It will be remembered that, in the sketch
which I gave of the Order, I showed that all the provincial
Heads and Preceptors were simply delegates of the Prior of
England, and had to account to him for the surplus of their
receipts over their expenditure. The Hospital in England
was only a portion of that widely-spread institution which
had possessions in at least two-thirds of the then known
world. An annual return was accordingly made from each
of the Preceptories or Commandries by the Preceptor or
receiver to the Prior of England, and by him to the head
quarters of the Order, wherever those might happen to be.
Happily for us, we possess one of these interesting balance-
sheets, that for the year 1338, which was fortunately
discovered at Malta, and published three years ago by the
Camden Society, with an admirable preface by my lamented
friend, Mr. John Mitchell Kemble. This truly valuable
contribution to historical and archaeological science would,
in my humble opinion, be perfect, but for the grave mistake,
for which my friend was not responsible, of printing the
* Inq. p. m. 28 Edw. III., n. 71.

26 MYNCHIN BUCKLAND
MS. in extenso, the result of which is that certain
errors run through the whole volume, a result but poorly
compensated for by the imagined — and only imagined —
greater facility with which the accounts may be perused.
To well-instructed antiquaries it is as easy to read manu
scripts with their contractions as in extenso, while to general
readers the matter presented in either form is equally
obscure and unintelligible.
The return itself consists of a minutely-accurate balance-
sheet for every part of the property of the Order in
England, with an exact account of income and of outlay in
every bqjulia, bailiwick or manor. Buckland figures pro
minently among these ; and I will endeavour, by means of
the data here presented to us, to give my reader a picture
of the scene on which we are now engaged, as it appeared
during the former half of the fourteenth century.
The establishment consisted of various buildings, of
which three are mentioned, which either required some
outlay, or furnished a source of income. First, there was
the court or manor-house, but it sadly needed a new roof.
The bakehouse attached to it also wanted repair, and is
described as in a very ruinous condition. A dovecot,
which, singularly enough, appears to have been an
appendage to almost every House, and a never-failing
source of emolument, is returned as yielding, together with
the produce and herbage of the garden, the considerable
annual value of 10s. The proceeds of both were no
doubt disposed of in the neighbourhood, when the supply
exceeded the need at home. As that supply would neces
sarily vary with different years, it is not unlikely, especially
as we constantly find this item set down in round numbers
throughout the various accounts, that it was computed at
a certain annual value, which in some years was exceeded

PEIORY AND PRECEPTORY. 27
by the actual return, while in others it was deficient.
Attached to the Community was a demesne of 268 acres of
arable land, of which 200 were valued at 12d. an acre;
and the remaining 68 at 7d. an acre, amounting together
to £12 16s. There were also 42 acres of meadow, whereof
three were taken by the Sisters. Of the remaining 39 the
value of each was 2s., and of the whole 78s. There was
also a small church, " una parva ecclesia," appropriated to
the Priory, of the annual value of 40s. Two mills were an
additional source of income, which, with assessed rent, paid
by free tenants to their landlord, amounted to £10. The
fines and perquisites of the manor courts were valued at
20s. The confraria, or voluntary contribution from the
neighbourhood, whether constant or exceptional is uncertain,
hardly produced this year the sum of 80 marcs.
Halse is returned as a " member " of this bailiwick. It
also had a manor house, but in a state of still greater
dilapidation than that of Buckland. " Destructa " it was,
"et multum vastata;" so much so that the proceeds of the
manor for a whole year would scarce be sufficient to repair
the damage. 220 acres were attached to it, 200 of which
were valued at 12d., and 20 at lOd. an acre, together
£10 16s. 8d. There were 28 acres of pasture, valued at
8d. an acre ; 18 acres and a half of meadow, valued at 2s.
an acre; 52 acres of pasture, valued at 4d. an acre; assessed
rent £20 3s. per annum ; fines and perquisites of the manor
courts, 40s. ; works and customary services of the native
villani, commuted, I presume, into a money-rent, 40s. ; the
appropriated rectory, valued at 18 marcs ; and pasture in
moor and wood, at 6s. 8d.
The total amount of receipt and profit from the entire
manor, with its member, was 186 marcs, 10s. 4d.
We will now turn to the other side of the account, and

28 MYNCHIN BUCKLAND
here we shall have an interesting and necessarily faithful
picture of the social life of the House.
The Society consisted, in the first place, of the
Preceptor and five Brethren, after whom were their servants
of various kinds, and the stranger guests, whom their rule
of hospitality obliged them to entertain. The cost of 94
quarters of wheat, which were made into bread for the
House, at 3s. a quarter, amounted to £14 2s. For their
beer, 130 quarters of grain, of which 52 were of barley, at
2s. a quarter, and 78 of oat malt, at 20d. a quarter, both
amounting to £11 14s. Then there were the expenses of
the kitchen, an outlay of 4s. a-week, or £10 8s. a- year.
The robes, mantles, and other necessaries of the Preceptor
and his five Brethren, are stated at £10 8s-, allowing
£1 14s. Sd. to each, which, as it appears throughout the
returns, was the stated and ordinary sum. The stipend of
a chaplain, per annum, with a seat at the Preceptor's table,
20s. John le Port, a corrodary, or fellow-commoner, by
deed of the chapter, had a seat at the table, valued at 1 8s. In
the robes of the Preceptor's servants was expended 1 marc.
In the stipends of four clerks of the confraria, with commons,
£4. In the wages of various servants, the cook, baker,
steward, porter, woodreeve, chapel-clerk, gardener, swine
herd, and carter, 51s. 8d., of whom four received 2 marcs,
and each of the rest 5s. The stipends of four pages
amounted to 8s. They spent during the year, in repairs
and roofing of their buildings, 40s. The visitation of the
Prior of England, whose duty it was to make in person his
annual examination, cost during the six days of his presence
the heavy sum of £6. Lastly there was the annual pension
to the Sisters, which we have already noticed, amounting to
the charge of 29 marcs. The sum total of all the expenses
and payments is 125 marcs, 3s. And the surplus, to be

PRIORY AND PRECEPTORY. 29
paid to the general treasury of the Order, figures at 61
marcs, 7s. 4d.
The Preceptor and his brethren who at this time
represented the Hospital at Buckland were Brother
John Diluwe, Preceptor, chaplain; Brother Robert Mount-
fort, chaplain ; Brother Adam de Catworth, chaplain;
Brother Thomas de Taimeworth, chaplain; Brother Andrew
de Shafteworth, sergeant-at-arms ; and Brother Henry de
Whaddon, sergeant-at-arms and steward of the Sisters.
To these we must add John le Port, the corrodary, to
whom we have already referred.
The return concludes with an account of the Sisterhood.
It describes their House as having been founded by the
kings of England, and themselves as wearing the habit of
the Hospital, and as commonly amounting to fifty in number.
It further states that, by the ordination of their founders,
their possessions were managed by themselves. Intent on
making a correct report, and with a scarcely disguised
feeling of resentment against everything which could tend
to diminish the surplus by which his activity and good
management could best be exhibited, the Preceptor most
ungallantly adds that he and his brethren neither did nor
could have or get aught from these ladies, "sed potius onus
et gravamen," but rather burden, charge, and grievance —
inasmuch as by a fixed ordination they were to have a
brother of the Priory of England, at the expense of the
Prior and Preceptor of the place, to be their steward, and
two brethren for chaplains, and one secular chaplain to serve
their church — also, it is not omitted to add, at the expense
of the Preceptor. In the same place they had three
carucates of land, of the annual value, in common years, of
£6. Besides this, they are described as being in possession
of other property, with some of which we are already

30 MYNCHIN BUCKLAND
acquainted: — at Thele, in Devonshire, one carucate of land,
of the value of 40s. ; at Prunslee, one carucate, valued at
40s. ; at Kynemersdon, one carucate, valued at 50s. Of
assessed rent, they are stated to own 90 marcs, but it is
added that hardly so many as 80 are levied. The following
churches also are mentioned as appropriated to them: — The
church of Pederton, of the value of 50 marcs ; the church
of Kynemersdon, of the value of 20 marcs ; and that of
Bromfeld, valued at £1 0. All of which, is the conclusion
forcibly impressed upon the treasurer, are insufficient to
provide for the maintenance of the Sisters and that of their
servants, together with the repairs of their buildings, their
dress, and other necessaries, apart from the help of friends
and elemosynary payments.* It is indeed clear that a
Community of fifty nuns, with their servants, although they
did not afterwards, or perhaps often, amount to half
so many, would be very inadequately maintained out
of the funds thus described as being at their disposal, and
that they would require the assistance of powerful patrons
to enable them to support a bare existence.
From Hidon, a limb of Temple Combe, the same record
informs us that they had 3 marcs per annum for a tene
ment of theirs there.f This, as we have already noticed,
was given them by Prior Thomas L'Archer, who died in
1329. I may here place on record that William Redmor was
presented to the Church of Hethfeld by Philip de Thame,
Prior of England, on the 4th of February, 13484 Jt
would appear that he did not long retain his benefice ;
for John de Donne, Rector of the Church of Hethfeld,
* Hosp. in Engl, pp. 17—20.
+ Hosp., p. 205.
J MS. Harl. 6965, p. 201.

PRIORY AND PRECEPTORY. 31
presented Robert atte Crosse, Priest, to the Church of
Fydyngton on the 25th of June, 1354. The institution is
dated at Wylescomb, the 1 7th of the following month.*
The pension of 20s. due from the Church of Bekyngton
had to be recovered by law in 1353. A writ was addressed
for this purpose to John de Werdyr, the parson, on the
12th of July in that year.f
In connexion with Buckland, it will not be amiss to
repeat that Roger Arundell, sometime lord of the manor
of Halse, gave that manor, in the year 1374, to the
Prior of S. John of Jerusalem in England, on condition
that he and his successors should find and maintain a chapel
at Halse, and a chaplain to celebrate Divine Service for ever
in the same for the souls of Roger, his predecessors, and all
the faithful departed. A jury found the facts aforesaid,
and that the manor, which was held of the king in capite,
as of his manor of Hampstede Mareschall, by military
service, was of the annual value in all issues of £20. The
same jury found that Roger Torell had given to the
Rector of the Church of Mulverton 20 acres of arable
land, called Mynsterlond in Mulverton, to find a chaplain
who should celebrate Divine Service three days every week
in the chapel of Torelles Preston. The land was held of
the king in capite, by military service, and was worth in
all issues 16s. per annum. The Jurors were Bartholomew
Baghey, Adam Londe, Robert Ladell, Walter Cherl,
Richard Hokeday, John Holm, Benedict Flamesy, Robert
Hewere, John Garland, Thomas Clyve, Gilbert Stenes,
and Robert Skilgate ; and the inquest was taken at
Taunton, before Adam atte More, the king's eschaetor,
on Wednesday, the 8th of March, 1374. A writ of
* Hyll Cartulary, pp. 52, 53.
t MS. Harl. 6965, p. 257.

32 MYNCHIN BUCKLAND
"certiorari" in respect of these gifts was issued on the 3rd
of July, 1400.*
We must now pass to the year 1387. At this time the
Prioress and Sisters obtained from King Richard II., by a
fine of thirteen shillings and four pence, another charter of
" inspeximus " and confirmation of their ancient grant from
Henry III., of fuel from the park of Perton. The letters
patent were dated at Westminster, 25th June, 1387.f
At an Inquisition taken at Yvelchester, 7th October,
1398, Roger Mortimer, Earl of March, who died on the
previous feast of S. Margaret, July 20, is stated to have
been seised at the time of his death of two fees payable
by the Prior of S. John, as of the honor of Wiggemor.
This is stated in immediate connexion with various other
properties of the said Roger at Mershewood, Bocland, and
Chilton.J On the 28th of April, 1405, another charter of " inspexi
mus " and ratification was granted to the Prioress and
Sisters, on the payment of one marc, in behalf of their
ancient privilege. The letters patent on this occasion are
particularly valuable, inasmuch as they furnish us with the
name of the Prioress of the House, and thus make a still
further addition to our list of hitherto unnoted Superiors.
The lady in question was named Alicia, but of what family
and from whom descended all human record has disap
peared. The document is dated at Westminster, on the
day and year above mentioned. ||
Three years subsequently, on the 14th of November,
1408, a writ of privy seal was issued, which furnishes us

* Inq. ad q.d. 1 Hen. IV., n. 22.
t Pat. 11 Ric. II., p. 1, m. 36.
J Inq. p.m. 22 Rio. II., n. 34.
|| Pat. 6 Hen. IV., p. 2, m. 28.

PRIORY AND PRECEPTORY. 33
with a considerable amount of information as to the legal
position of the Sisters. It is clear, from the very terms of
their constitution, that they were necessarily subject to
the Prior at Clerkenwell in no inconsiderable degree.
Bracton, indeed, specially cites them as instances of legal
inability of acting apart from the Prior and Head of their
Order.* It appears that the Sisters had represented to
the king the ancient grant which had been, as we have
seen, conceded to them so early as the reign of Henry III.,
and the further permission accorded of removing their fire
wood, for greater convenience, between the Festival of
Easter and that of S. Peter ad vincula. It is added,
though hardly as it would seem borne out by the facts,
that these concessions had been enjoyed by them from
that time to the present without let or hindrance either
from the king or the custodians of the park. The present
keeper, however, had resisted their demand on the ground
that they were but officials, " obedienciarie " of the Prior of
S. John, and therefore not competent to accept the grant
in their own persons. The Prioress and her Sisters, ac
cordingly, petitioned the king to interfere in their behalf
and to provide a remedy. This result it is the intention
of the writ to effect. The king, taking it into his royal
consideration that the Prioress and Sisters would instantly
and devoutly pray for the health of himself and his dearest
consort Johanna during their lives, and for their souls
after their deaths, and for the king's dearest consort Maria,
deceased, granted their request, by conveying to Walter
Grendon, Prior of S. John, the gift already conceded, so
that the same might be to the use and profit of the Prioress
and Sisters at Buckland. Various ambiguities also in the
* He legibus, lib. v. tr. v. c. 18, de exceptionibus.

34 MYNCHIN BUCKLAND
original charter were now removed, and the intention of
the royal donor made more conspicuous. Perton is changed
to Pederton. In the previous instruments they were to
take their firewood "de spinis, alno, et arabili:" the grant
now ran " videlicet thorn, aller, mapel, et hasell." It was
also set forth that each cartload should consist of as much
firewood as six horses could draw, and that the servants
should fall, cut up and carry away at their will the amount
granted to them every year, from the Festival of the
Annunciation to the Festival of All Saints, without dis
turbance, hindrance, or grievance from the king, his heirs,
the keeper of the park, or any other official or servant
whomsoever.* King Henry V. confirmed this grant of his father to
William Hilles, Prior of S. John, in behalf of the Prioress
and Sisters, on the payment of half a marc, at West
minster, on the 8th of February, 1418-9.f
Of this also a confirmation was granted by King Henry
VI., at Westminster, on the 5th of February, 1422-34
And another ratification and confirmation of the same, on
the payment of half a marc, was made to Robert Botell,
Prior of S. John, twenty-one years afterwards, on the
10th of February, 1443-4.|]
The Sisters appear to have struggled against poverty
without much aid from those who should seem to have been
their natural patrons, but from whom it is clear that
they received little sympathy. On the 22nd of April,
1447, they sold their pension of 4 marcs, payable to them

* Pat. 10 Hen. IV, p. 1, m. 19. MS. in Coll. Armor. L. 17, f. 156b.
Appendix, No. XVII.
t Pat. 6 Hen. V, m. 10.
J Pat. 1 Hen. VI., p. 6, m. 6.
|| Pat. 22 Hen. VI., p. 2, m. 22.

PRIORY AND PRECEPTORY. 35
from the vicarage of North Pederton.* These, it is said
by Dr. Archer, are still paid to the Crown.
It would appear, although we know very little either of
the process or the results, that several valuations of the
property were made during the last half of the fifteenth
century, especially in 1460 and 1493. We shall presently
have before us, however, a most valuable and complete
document of a similar kind, and of so near a period to that
of the returns alluded to as to make their absence a matter
of less importance.!
For some few years nothing seems to have transpired of
which a record is preserved for us ; but I have found some
documents which belong to the commencement of the
following century, which give us an excellent insight into
the condition of the House at that period.
I may premise, however, to keep to the chronological
order as far as possible, that, at a Chapter holden at
Melchborne on the 9th of November, 1500, there was
granted to Alexander Verney, Chaplain, a chamber suit
able to his rank in the manor of Bodmescomb in the county
of Devon, with fuel for the said chamber from the underwood
of that manor, eight marcs sterling a year by way of stipend,
and for food and raiment, during his life, to be received
through the hands of the Preceptor of Buckland, or of the
farmer in charge. The said Alexander obliged himself to
celebrate Divine Service in the Chapel of Bodmescomb as
long as his strength lasted so to do. If, from old age or
infirmity, he became unable to officiate, his chamber and
allowances were still to be continued to him. If, however,
whilst "able to celebrate, he failed in his duty, and without
* MS. Harl. 6966, p. 81.
t Comput. 38 Hen. VI. Off. Aug. 13092. Comput. 8 Hen. VII. Off. Aug. 1232.
Add. MS. 21, 324, pp. 12b, 28b.

36 MYNCHIN BUCKLAND
licence from the Prior or farmer omitted to perform it, the
present grant was to be reckoned null and void. The-
seals of both parties were affixed to this agreement, which
was dated as above*
In an " Assembly " holden in the house of S. John of
Jerusalem, at Clerkenwell, on the 20th of January, 1500-1,
at which were present Brother John Kendal, Prior of Eng
land ; Brother Henry Hawlay, Preceptor of Willughton ;
Brother Robert Pek, Preceptor of Badislay and Mayne ;
Brother Robert Dawson, Preceptor of Halston and Temple-
comb ; Brother Thomas Newport, Preceptor of Newland ;
Brother Robert Danyel, Preceptor of Swynfeld ; Brother
Adam Chetwod, Preceptor of Badisford and Dynglay; Bro
ther John Tonge, Preceptor of Ribston, Mount S. John, and
Carbrok ; Brother Jo. Bowth, Preceptor of Quenyngton ;
and Brother William Darel, Preceptor of Yeuelay and Ba-
rowe ; a lease was granted to John Vernay of Farefelde, in
the county of Somerset, esquire, of the Preceptory of Buc-
lande Priors, in the county of Somerset, with the manors of
Bodmescomb and Cove, in the county of Devon, appertaining
to the said Preceptory, and all and singular other demesnes,
lands, tenements, meadows, pastures, rents, services, contri
butions, courts with their profits, tithes, oblations, goods
and chattels of felons and vagabonds, and all other
liberties, emoluments, rights and advantages whatsoever;
save and except wroods and underwoods, advowsons of
churches, guardianships, disposals in marriage, and admis
sion fines, which were wholly reserved. The lease was to
run from the festival of the Nativity of S. John the Baptist
next coming, to the end of thirty years ; and the rent to be
paid into the Treasury at Clerkenwell was ninety-three
pounds, six shillings, and eight pence sterling per annum,
* MS. Lansd. 200, f. lxxix b.

PRIORY AND PRECEPTORY. 37
payable in equal portions at the festivals of the Purification
of the Blessed Virgin and of S. Barnabas the Apostle.
Besides this, the following stipulations (to us the far more
interesting part of the transaction) were to be most strictly
observed. The aforesaid farmer and his assigns were to
provide due and honest hospitality in the Preceptory, at
their own expence ; and also, at their own expence, to find,
according to the ancient order, five chaplains, two of whom,
Chaplains of the Cross, or two others whom the Prior should
depute, were to be assigned to places in the Church of the
Sisters at Buclande, one in the Chapel of the Preceptory,
one at Bodmescumbe, and one at Durston, for the
continual celebration of Divine Service, They were
also to find maintenance and a chamber for one chaplain
of the Prioress, and maintenance for the steward of her
House and for his servant, with two cartloads of hay, every
year of the term. They were to give to Alexander Vernay,
Chaplain of Bodmescomb, whose appointment we have
already noticed, a chamber with his fuel there, and
eight marcs sterling as stipend, and for his food and
raiment, according to the tenor of the agreement previously
made with him. Besides this they were to pay to the
Prioress and Convent yearly for their customary pension
the sum of £22, and to the steward of the courts pertaining
to the said Preceptory his regular salary. Still further,
they were to bear all other ordinary and extraordinary
burdens incumbent on the Preceptory until the end of the
term, the aids to the treasury at Rhodes excepted. They
were to keep the buildings, walls, enclosures, hedges, &c,
in good repair, and to return them in as sound a state as
they received them. If any of the buildings should become
ruinous during the term, the Prior was to rebuild them, and
the farmer and his assigns were to repair and maintain them

38 MYNCHIN BUCKLAND
for the future. They were to find provision and attend
ance for three or four days and nights for the servants of
the Prior coming with five or six horses twice a year on
visitation to the said Preceptory, or for holding courts there.
The aforesaid farmer and his assigns were to have housebote,
fyrebote, ploughbote, cartbote, hedgebote, harobote, and
foldebote, in and of the woods and underwoods of the said
Preceptory by reasonable assignment and without waste.
It was stipulated also that the Prior and his servants were
to visit the said Preceptory whenever they pleased, and to
hold courts and make leases ; the farmer and his assigns to
have the profits of the said courts, and to restore at the
end of the term all the rolls of the courts, and leases, old
and new, which should come to their hands during the
interval. The farmer and his assigns were not to release
their status in the Preceptory to any other holder without
the licence of the Prior. If the rent went back, in part or
in all, for two months after the dates above specified, it
was to be lawful for the Prior to re-enter and take posses
sion. If the profits of the contributions were suspended,
the farmer and his assigns were to be allowed the differ
ence, and to pay those monies only which they should
actually receive. John Vernay bound himself to the per
formance of these agreements under a bond of two hundred
pounds sterling ; and also that at the end of the term
he and his assigns should surrender to the Preceptor of
Buclande all the ornaments of the chapel there, with all the
stock living and dead. The document was signed with the
seals of the Prior and of John Vernay aforesaid, and was
" dated in our House of Clerkenwell, by London, in our
Assembly holden there on the twentieth day of January,
in the year of our Lord one thousand five hundredth." *
* MS. Lansd. 200, ff. Ixxxiiii, lxxxiiii b. Appendix, No. XVIII.

PRIORY AND PRECEPTORY. 39
It would appear either that this agreement was not
observed, and that the alternative provided for came into
operation, or that a transfer was effected with permission of
the lessors; for so early as the 10th of March, 1507-8, at an
" Assembly," holden on that day at the House at Clerken
well, under the presidency of Thomas Docwra, Prior of
England, assisted by Brother John Tong, Preceptor of
Ribston, Mount S. John, and Carbrok ; Brother Thomas
Sheffeld, Preceptor of Bruerlay and Shengay ; Brother
Lancellot Docwra, Preceptor of Dynmore and Temple-
combe ; Brother John Rawson, Preceptor of Swynfelde ;
and Brother Thomas Golyn, Preceptor of Baddisford and
Dynglay, a lease of the Preceptory was granted to Edmund
Myl, of Wellys, gentleman, and to Anna his wife, together
with the manors of Bodmescomb and Cove, in the county
of Devon. The terms of the lease are precisely similar to
those already detailed, save that the special mention is
omitted of Alexander Vernay, the Chaplain of Bodmes
comb, who may be supposed to have departed this life
during the interval*
Once more a Confirmation was granted to the Sisters of
their early privilege which has been so often before us.
It is a document of a most curious kind, and especially so
when we consider it with reference to the character of him
from whom it came. In the second year of his reign,
King Henry VIII. addressed letters of " inspeximus " to
his beloved in Christ Thomas Docwra, Prior of the Hospital
in England, recounting the terms of the previous letters,
and granting through him to the Prioress and Sisters of
Bucland a hundred and fifty-six cartloads of wood every
year, from his park of Petherton, on the ground of their
* MS. Cott. Claud. E. VI. ff. liiib, liiii.

40 MYNCHIN BUCKLAND
offering up constant and devout prayers for his own health
and that of his dearest consort Katharine during their
lifetime, and for their souls after their decease. Every
cartload was to be of the draught of six horses or eight
oxen ; and, inasmuch as the time was limited in the former
letters to the interval between the festival of the Annun
ciation and that of All Saints, they were now at liberty to
collect the firewood from the latter festival to that of S.
George the Martyr, the 23rd of April. They were also
permitted to place sufficient fences round those parts of the
park where the future fuel was growing, so that the young
shoots might not be damaged, and that cattle and other
animals might not injure the same. It was also allowed
them, if they saw fit, to gather the amount of two years
in one, but in that case they were not to remove any
during the whole of the following year. All these conces
sions were to be enjoyed without any payment to the
keeper of the park, or any fine to the hanaper of the
chancery. The instrument was dated at Canterbury, 5th
April, 1511 *
This arrangement was of but short duration. Edmund
Myl died, and his widow became the wife of Lionel Norres
in 1514. The lease was surrendered, and the Prior and
his Chapter granted an annuity of ten pounds, out of the
issues of the Preceptory, for the term of the life of the
survivor. The instrument was dated the 11th of January,
1514-5.f In 1516, the property was leased to Henry Thorneton,
gentleman, of Currymalett, for forty years, from the festival
of the Nativity of S. John the Baptist next ensuing, at
a rent of one hundred and three pounds, six shillings, and
* Confirm. 2 Hen. VIII., p. 10, n. 7.
+ MS. Cott. Claud. E. VI. ff. cxlvii, cxlviib.

PRIORY AND PRECEPTORY. 41
eight pence sterling a year. The increase of ten pounds
in the yearly rental which is thus apparent was to meet
the annuity of the same amount, just mentioned, which
was, however, to revert to the farmer on the death of
the annuitants. The terms of the lease in other respects
were similar to those of the former. It was dated at the
House of S. John at Clerkenwell, 24th April, 1516.*
It will be recollected that, by the conditions of the previ
ous leases, there was an express reservation of the wood,
underwood, and reparations of buildings. An indenture
was made between Thomas Docwra, Prior of the Hospital
of S. John of Jerusalem in England, and his brethren
Knights of the same on the one part, and Henry Thornton,
farmer of their Commandry of Bukeland, gentleman, on
the other, by which the former covenanted, bargained, and
sold for the residue of his lease unto the said Henry and
his assigns all their wood and underwood lying, standing,
and growing in their wood within the lordship of Hals,
called Hals wood, containing by estimation 40 acres, save
and except two trees of " oke " in the same wood, of the
best " okes " that will and may serve for timber for the said
Prior and his brethren, and their successors. For this
concession the said Henry paid £20 sterling, with which
the said Prior confessed himself to be well and truly
satisfied and contented. It was agreed that the said Henry
Thornton should repair and maintain at his own cost all
manner of the houses and buildings ; that it should be
lawful for the said Henry to stub and grub all the said
wood and underwood ; and that he might, if he pleased,
without impeachment of waste or destruction, alter, trans
pose and change such houses and buildings, provided that
* MS. Cott. Claud. E. VI., ff. clxiib, clxiii, chiii b.

42 MYNCHIN BUCKLAND
he made others in their stead. He bound himself and his
heirs in the sum of £100 for the due performance of this
engagement, which was entered into in the Chapter holden
in the House of S. John's of Clerkenwell beside London,
the 2nd of October, 1519.*
It should be remarked, that, although no mention is
made in these documents of the Preceptor and his assistants
at Buckland, we are not to conclude for certain, how likely
soever, that such personages did not exist ; because,
according to the rule of the Order, as we have repeatedly
noticed, they were simply officials, and the direction of their
estates was virtually in the hands of the Superior at
Clerkenwell. It would appear, nevertheless, that a change
had taken place in the general mode of management. The
position of the Preceptor and his Brethren, if such officers
were still in being, which I hardly believe, was clearly very
different from what it was when the accounts of their
predecessors just two centuries before were so minutely laid
open to our inspection.
On the same day as the date of the last instrument, the
2nd of October, 1519, the Prior and Chapter leased for a
term of forty years, to the said Henry Thornton, farmer
of Bucland, a tenement with its appurtenances, late in the
tenure of John Curson, situated and lying in the parish
of S. Clement Danes, outside Temple Bar. The rent was
40s. sterling a-year.f
We are now close upon times of trouble. I have already
in previous Memoirs entered fully into the history of the
unscrupulous movement which terminated in the violent
suppression of the Religious Houses, and the wholesale
* MS. Cott. Claud. E. VI, ff. clxxxiiii, clxxxiiii b.
t MS. Cott, Claud. E. VI., f. clxxxviii.

PRIORY AND PRECEPTORY. 43
robbery of their possessions. The main features of that
odious tragedy are necessarily the same in every instance,
although the details are as various as the multiform shapes
in which tyranny, falsehood, sacrilege, and murder can
present themselves and be exemplified when under no
restraint nor necessity to deceive. Happily, therefore,
there will not be any need to take the reader over ground
with which he is already acquainted, and which is too
unlovely to be voluntarily allowed to detain us. I will,
accordingly, introduce him to the particular and special
information which I have succeeded in gathering in con
nexion with the House on the history of which we are now
employed. Is is singular that no Declaration of the King's Supre
macy, made either by the officers of the Preceptory or by
the Sisterhood, has been preserved. It may be presumed
that such was submitted to and accepted by them, but the
record of the transaction is not extant.
Immediately afterwards, with a view to apportion the
payment voted to the King for the support of his new
dignity, followed the well-known " Valor." It is a most
important document, as furnishing us with a minute account
of the possessions of the House, with its income and
expenditure in customary deductions, on the eve of the
dissolution. I will, therefore, present the reader with its
details, only more lucidly arranged than in their original and
obscure form. Under each head he will thus be able without
difficulty to see the gross and net values of the estates, both
before and after the dues, stipends, and other disbursements
had been accounted for and liquidated, and the subsequent
surplus which remained for the maintenance of the House
itself.

44

MYNCHIN BUCKLAND

PRIORY OF MYNCHYN BOCKELAND.
Declaration of the Extent and Annual Value of all and
singular the Lands and Tenements and other Possessions,
with the Tithes, Oblations, and all other Issues of the
divers Benefices and Chapels belonging and appropriated to
the aforesaid Priory as below appeareth, namely in the time
of Katerina Bowghshere, now Prioress at the same place,
approved and examined by the Commissioners aforenamed
[Sir Andrew Lutterell and Hugh Mallet, Esqr., Commis
sioners ; Hugh Trotter and John Plompton, Auditors.].
Lands round the Priory".
Value in issues of the Demesne Lands, re- "1
maining in the hands of the Prioress, and > cxvijs viijd
taxed by four trustworthy men. Thus clear J
BOOCKELAND.
Value in assessed Rents as well of
the Free as of the Customary
Tenants there, per annum . . xxiju
Out of this, per annum,
For a chief rent there to the
Prior of S. John of Jerusa
lem in England . . . . ixd
So clear
Fines of land there Wellys.
Value in Rents of divers burgages
there, per annum . . . . xlix!
Out of this, per annum,
For rent to the Bishop of Bath . .
For the fee of William Vowell,
steward there . . . . . . xiij
For the fee of Alexander Pophame,
bailiff there  iij
And there remains clear

Vxxj11 xixs iijd

ixu

mj

iiijd

)xxxj8 vijd

PRIORY AND PRECEPTORY.

45

iiiju xjs

X1J«

IX"

GOTTON.
Assessed Rents as well of the Free
as of the Customary Tenants
.there, per annum
Out of which, per annum,
For rent to the Abbat of Glas
tonbury And there remains clear
NORTHPETHERTON.
Assessed Rents as well of the Free
as of the Customary Tenants
there, per annum . . . . xxiij11
Out of which, per annum,
For a priest in the parish church
there, celebrating daily for
the souls of Henry Erley and
others, by agreement . . vjuxiijsiiijd
For the fee of John Walton,
steward there
For the fee of John Bekyn,
bailiff there And there remains clear
Fines of lands there, per annum
Perquisites of the Courts and
other Casualties

> iiip xs

> xiiip

ixu

xir/ny"

xxxiij8 iiijd

xxx"

nys

Brymton Raff.
Assessed Rents there, per annum, clear . .
Cadecote.
Rent of one tenement there, per annum, clear
Horewoode.
Rent of one tenement there, per annum, clear

xxxnijs

xxmjs viya

W "'J

xnj5 mja

46 MYNCHIN BUCKLAND
ASSHE AND THORNEFFAWCON.
Assessed Rents there, per annum . . xlvij8 vjd
Out of which, per annum,
For the fee of John Popham,
bailiff there , . . . . . ijs
And there remains clear
County of Dorset.
Chyldcomb.
Assessed Rents there, per annum, clear
Pemeslegh in Shylborne.
Assessed Rents as well of the
Free as of the Customary
Tenants there, per annum xiiij11 iijs viijd
Out of which, per annum,
For rent to the Bishop of Sarum xijd
For the fee of John Hely,
bailiff there .. .. xiijsiiijd/
And there remains clear
Perquisites of the Courts there \

and other Casualties
Fines of lands . .

irj8 nijQ
xvjs viijd .

xlvs vjd

xmj"

xiij11 ixs iiijd

xx"

Value of Spirituals, as under.
County of Somerset.
Rectory of Bockeland with the Chapel of
Mihill Church.
Issues of predial tithes  vijs xjd "1
Of personal tithes . . .. .. .. iijs J>xijsvd

Other casualties there, in common years
Clear

xvnjc

priory and preceptory.

47

Rectory of Kylmersdon.
Issues of predial and personal tithes xviij11 xs s
Demesne Lands, with other casualties I
there, in common years . . vs j
Clear
Bromefyld.
Issues of predial and personal tithes,
demesne lands, with other casualties
there, in common years . . . . viiju Vs
Out of which, per annum,
To the Archdeacon of Taunton, for
synodals . . . . . . . . ijs
So clear
Rectory of Northpetherton.
Issues of predial and personal
tithes, with other casual
ties there, in common
years . . . . . . xxiiij11 xd
Out of which, per annum,
To the Bishop of Bath,
for procurations . . ijs iijd
To the Archdeacon of
Taunton, for synodals vijs vd ob'
So clear
Briggewater.
A pension from the Prior there, for tithes of Horsy
Mede, per annum. Clear
Canyngton.
A pension from the Prioress there, for tithes of
Cleyhull, per annum. Clear
Stondenhat.
A pension from Alexander Popham, for tithes
there, per annum. Clear 

xviiju xvs

> virj" iys

> xxiiju xjs jd ob'.

vuf

vij"

xls

48

MYNCHIN BUCKLAND

>xxviijlixvs iiijd

)ixuvjs viijd

County of Lincoln
Dyrton.
Issues of tithes of all kinds . . xxix11
Demesne Lands with other
casualties, in common years xxij8
Out of which, per annum,
For the fee of Gothlac Over
ton, the receiver there . . xxvjs viyv
Clear DONYNGTON.
Issues of tithes of all kinds, demesne
lands, with other casualties, in
common years . . . . . . x11
Out of which, per annum,
For the fee of Gothlac Overton,
the receiver there . . . . xiijs iiijd }
Clear
Essex.
Preceptory of Raynhame.
A Pension paid by William Weston, Prior of S. John
of Jerusalem in England, per annum. Clear , . cs
Somerset.
Preceptory of Temple Comb.
A Pension paid by Brother Edmund Husey
there, per annum. Clear . . . . xxvjs viijd
Kent.
Preceptory of Swynfyld.
A Pension paid by Brother Edward Brown
there, per annum. Clear . . . . xl9

PRIORY AND PRECEPTORY.

49

xiijs iiijd

Northampton.
Preceptory of Kerbroke.
A Pension paid by Brother John Rawson
there, per annum. Clear
King's Alms.
Receipt by the hands of the Sheriff of Here
ford yearly in the Exchequer of our Lord
the King. Clear . . . . . . . . vju xiijs iiij
Somerset.
Church of Powlet.
Annual Pension there. Clear
Church of Northpetherton.
Annual Pension there. Clear
Church of Tollande.
Annual Pension there. Clear
Church of Bekynton.
Annual Pension there. Clear . . . . . . xxs

xiijs iiijd

liijs iiijd

Temporals. Devon.
Hele, in Tawstoke Parish.
Assessed Rents as well \
of Free as of Cus
tomary Tenants, per

annum, there . . xxiiju xvj8 iiijd q'
Out of which, per annum,
For the fee of Thomas
Perd, steward there
For the fee of Richard
Payn, receiver there
And so clear

xiijs iiijd

irjs nrj°

xxij11 xixs viijd q'.

G

50 MYNCHIN BUCKLAND
Fines of lands there, per annum, . . xxs
Perquisites of the Courts and other ^ xxiijs iiijd
Casualties . . . . . . iijs iiijd J
Cornwall,
Brode Woode Wygger.
Assessed Rents as well of the Free as
of the Customary Tenants there, per
annum. Clear  lxxvs iiijd ob'.
Sum total of the value as well of all the
Temporals as of the Spirituals above
mentioned .. .. ... . . ccxxiijlivijsiiijdq'.
The tithe from thence . . . . . . xxip vjs ixd *
Such was the precise state and value of the property
in the 27th year of Henry VIII., 1534.
The " Valor " gives us also the names of the following as
Incumbents of benefices at the period of its formation : —
John Aisshelok was rector of Beckyngton, Thomas
Thomson was vicar of Kilmersdon, Thomas Hill was vicar
of Halse, John Dawes was rector of Hethfelde, Robert
Balche was vicar of Powlet, John Bulcume was vicar of
Northpetherton, John Langdon, Walter Jones and John
Saunders were chantry priests in the same church, and
John Crosse was rector of Tolland.f
This return confirmed the desires and paved the way for
a carefully planned course of systematic aggression. Before,
however, we enter into the narrative of the closing scenes,
which are now rapidly drawing onwards, it will be best to
dispose of a few particulars which would not be so well
introduced in a subsequent page.
* Val. Eccl, vol. I., pp. 210, 211. MS. Harl. 701, f. 104b.
t Val. Eccl. I, 159, 160, 172, 212, 214,223.

PRIORY AND PRECEPTORY. 51
So far as we can learn from the details already presented,
and 1 believe they are very nearly all that can now be
recovered, the Sisters of Buckland, although constantly
numbering in their community the daughters of great and
noble houses, were but slenderly supported, and for a long
time at least very far from adequately provided for. They
were considered also in the light of a burden and grievance
by the Officers charged in a special degree with their
direction and general well-being. At first consisting,
as it would seem, but of a Prioress and nine Sisters,
the Society amounted in the year 1338 to so many
as fifty ladies, who, together with their servants, must
have needed a considerable revenue. No doubt but
that a great part of the cost of their maintenance was
defrayed, as the Preceptor then hinted in his return,
by eleemosynary contributions from the neighbourhood
and more distant friends. Their precise relationship to
the Order of S. John has been, 1 think, greatly mis
understood. It has been said that they "had, at first,
great dependance upon the knights, but afterward they
disengaged themselves, and became a distinct Priory or
Hospital of Nuns of the order of S. Augustine;"* and that
"there is no mention of their being subordinate to any
other Religious."t The contrary, as it appears to me, has
been clearly shown. At no time were they distinct or inde-
pendant. Their chaplain and steward were always officers
of the Order; and they received their ancient pensions, and
were accounted " obedientiarias" down to the period of the
Dissolution. That the Priory was distinct from the Com
mandry as a religious Community is, of course, certain ;
for it was the very reason of its foundation that the Sister-
* Tanner, Not, Mon. by Nasmith, t H>-

52 MYNCHIN BUCKLAND
hood might be thus separated. But their union with the
Order itself was never, that I can discover, broken. And
the fact that they are called Nuns of the Order of S.
Augustine is not to be understood as militating against this
view, inasmuch as the Hospitalars, as well as the Templars,
were members of that numerous body of Conventual
Societies which accepted the rule of S. Austin as the guide
of their religious life. Tanner's subsequent assertion that
" it doth not appear when or by whom the Preceptory was
founded, but some have thought it more ancient than the
Nunnery," is so fully answered in the previous pages that
it need not occupy us further.
Another and very conclusive evidence, at once of their
obedientiary position and of their unbroken union with the
Order, is exhibited in the fact that from beginning to end
they did not so much as present to their appropriated
rectories. I have recovered the following names of the
incumbents of the parishes down to the time of the Sup
pression, and doubt not that, to the local reader especially,
the lists, however imperfect, will be objects of considerable
interest. It will be seen that the Prior of England, and
neither the Prioress nor the Preceptor of Buckland, was
the patron in every instance : —
Incumbents of North Petherton: — John de Messingham,
4th March, 1309-10; Laurence de Cherleton, 19th October,
1310; William de Dychton, 2nd August, 1313.* These were
presented by Prior William de Tothale. Thomas de Fox-
tone, 6th September, 1332 ; presented by Prior Leonard
de Tybertis. Nicholas de Somerton, 15th December,
1342; Nicholas de la Mor, 3rd October, 1345 ; William de
Avene, 26th April, 1347; Reginald de Fardyngeston, 24th
* MS. Harl. 6964, pp. 10, 12, 51.

PRIORY AND PRECEPTORY. 53
February, 1348-9 ;* presented by Prior Philip de Thame.
John Harowe, A.M., 18th January, 1504-5; William Park-
howse, A.M., 8th June, 1523 ; presented by Prior Thomas
Docwra. John Bulcombe, 30th October, 1531;f presented
by Prior William Weston.
Incumbents of Kilmersdon : — William  , 26 th
November, 1331 ; John de Messyngham, 6th January,
1 334-5 ; presented by Prior Leonard de Tybertis. John de
Upton, 3rd August, 1341 ; Nicholas de Stanlak, 22nd
August, 1348 ; John Markwille, 13 th December, 1348 ;$
presented by Prior Philip de Thame. Robert Symond,
 ; Thomas Bourgchier, 14th September, 1521 ; James
Harwode, 20th April, 1524 ; presented by Prior Thomas
Docwra. Thomas Pullon,  ; John Tomason, (Thomas
Thomson, of the "Valor") 17th June, 1534 ;[| presented
by Prior William Weston.
Incumbents of Elworthy: — John de Messingham, 19th
October, 1310; William de Jarponnyle, 16th October,
1315 ; presented by Prior William de Tothale. Ralph de
Hokyn ton, 24th November, 1323; Richard de Coute, 19th
September, 1327 ;§ presented by Prior Thomas L'Archer.
William Legh, 26th April, 1339; John de Sutton, 30th
May, 1346 ; Walter de Chadleshounte, 28th August, 1349 ;
John le Potter, 16th August, 1351 ; IT presented by Prior
Philip de Thame. Stephen Chapman,  ; John Tre-
vennaunt, 15th March, 1455-6 ;** presented by Prior Robert
Botyll. John Poole,  ; Edmund Sterne, 26th October,

* MS. Harl. 6965, pp. 61, 155, 173, 185, 203.
¦f MS. Harl. 6967, pp. 3, 42, 44b.
X MS. Harl. 6965, pp. 46, 84, 146, 191, 193.
|| MS. Harl. 6967, pp. 29b, 34b, 47.
§ MS. Harl. 6964, pp. 12, 33, 84, 115.
t MS. Harl. 6965, pp. 126, 176, 219, 237.
** MS. Harl. 6966, p. 83.

54 MYNCHIN BUCKLAND
1506 ; Robert Bailly, 5th May, 1509 ;* presented by Prior
Thomas Docwra.
Incumbents of Halse : — Richard Philip,  ; Thomas
Hyll, L.L.B., 23rd January, 1505-6 ;f presented by Prior
Thomas Docwra.
Incumbents of Heathfield : — Owen de Cory,  ;
Robert de Pippecote, 28th September, 1332 ; presented by
Prior Leonard de Tybertis. Richard de Poterne, 4th
July, 1346; Richard Payn, 22nd April, 1348; William
Redmor, 4th February, 1348-9 4 John de Donne, 1354 ; ||
presented by Prior Philip de Thame. Thomas Banys,
 ; William Meyre, 10th March, 1505-6 ; presented by
Prior Thomas Docwra. Edward Kebyll,  ; John
Dawes, 2nd June, 1534 ;§ presented by Prior William
Weston. Incumbents of Tolland : — William de Banton, 20th
January, 1265 ;f presented by Prior Roger de Vere.
Gilbert de Quenton,  ; William de Quenton, 11th
April, 1320 ;** William Morys, 28th August, 1349 ; Nicho
las de Blenye,  ; Walter Stammel, 8th July, 1351 ; ft
presented by Prior Philip de Thame. Walter Crosse,
 ; John Crosse, A.M., 25th May, 1517 ;Jf presented
by Prior Thomas Docwra.
It was doubtless for the peace of the Sisterhood that its
members were so little called upon to interfere in the more
secular affairs of their House. If power were less freely
* MS. Harl. 6967, pp. 6b, 11.
t MS. Harl. 6967, p. 5b.
J MS. Harl. 6965, pp. 64, 176, 189, 201.
|| Hyll Cart. pp. 62, 53.
§ MS. Harl. 6967, pp. 6b, 47.
1 MS. Harl. 6985 B, p. 121b.
** MS. Harl. 6964, p. 45.
ft MS. Harl. 6965, pp. 219, 236.
tJ MS. Harl. 6967, p. 23b.

PRIORY AND PRECEPTORY. 55
imparted, we may hope that anxiety was removed in an
equal measure. The maintenance of their rights was in
stronger hands than their own; and the benefit was
theirs without the labour and danger which its defence
involved. The instance of the rector of Beckington is
exactly in point. When the payment of his annual pension
was not forthcoming, as we have seen, in the year 1353, the
Prioress and Sisters had not to endure the ordeal of prose
cuting their suit in person against the defaulter, but it was
the great Prior of England who came to the rescue, and
obtained the remedy which the law provided.
The daily life of these ladies in the privacy of their
conventual home had, we may be sure, little to disturb its
repose, save the occasional matters which we have had
detailed, in which they were brought into contact with the
noisy world without. They had little if any intercourse
with the adjacent Commandry ; as, in the first place,
the statutes of the Order were imperative against the
admission of women to domestic offices; and, in the second,
the feeling existing between the two Societies was not such
as to conduce to intimacies of a higher character. For the
former position, indeed, their generally noble or gentle birth,
and for the latter, their attitude, always, as would appear,
antagonistic, equally disqualified them. Nor is there a
single instance related of them (or I would have honestly
mentioned it, as my object has invariably been to present
as truthful an aspect as lies in my power of those Houses
and their inmates whose chronicles I seek to rescue from
oblivion), of any violation of the laws of morality. So far
as we know — and we should be pretty sure to have
some evidences of the contrary fact had it existed
— the tongue of scandal itself was dumb. The blameless
Sisterhood pursued its way of peace, broken only by

56 MYNCHIN BUCKLAND
trifling and un frequent interruptions, or terminated by the
end that comes alike to all. We may be well assured that
the House was one of those, where, with all the religion,
all the education of the age was encouraged, and where
both religion and education yielded to the full their refined
and refining influences. It was no doubt also a noted
seminary for the daughters of the great neighbouring
families. The Berkeleys, Erleghs, Montacutes, Wrothams,
Bouchers and others were quite at home at Buckland, and
learned from the good Sisters all the mental accomplish
ments which they in after life possessed. Reading, writing,
some knowledge of accounts, the art of embroidery, music,
and French, " aftur the scole of Stratford atte Bowe," was
the recognised course of study; and we should wrong alike
the teachers and the taught if we regarded the result as
unfavourable. The life of intellectuality and religious quiet
had many charms ; and the pupil was doubtless so frequently
enamoured of the contrast between it and that with which
she was brought in contact elsewhere, that instances were
not wanting of a resignation of all the worldly advantages
that high birth and powerful connexions could impart to
their possessor, and of a permanent abode as Sister or as
Prioress within the venerable and well beloved walls of her
early and holy home.
We have already noticed that, in the return made to the
Grand Master of the Order in 1338, the Sisters are described
as wearing the habit of the Hospital. The chief peculiarity
of this consisted of a black mantle with a white cross
in the front. In other respects the general attire of the
ladies was, I presume, that of the members of Augustinian
Sisterhoods — a black cloak with a long cowl, a short upper
white tunic over a longer black one, and a whimple which
covered the bosom and ascended in many folds to the chin.

PRIORY AND PRECEPTORY. 57
I possess two interesting rings, which may be supposed
to have decorated the fingers of more than one generation
of the Sisters, and may indeed have been employed at the
solemn ceremony which separated them for ever from the
outer world and introduced them to the seclusion in which
they sought and, we will believe, found repose. The
earlier of the two is a work of the thirteenth century, and
may so far have belonged to the good Prioress Fina herself.
It is of gold, set with an unwrought sapphire, the hoop very
thin and delicately engraved on the portions adjoining the
stone. It was found in " Coglett Field," close to the site of
the Priory, in 1858, by a labourer employed on the place.
(See the figure.) The other, also of gold, but much stouter,
is of the fifteenth century, and bears a heart on which is
engraved the monogram ifj£f. It was found by another
labourer in a field called "Broadworthy,'' near the site of
the Priory, in 1853. (See the figure.) Another, which was
described to me as of a cable pattern, was found in the
immediate neighbourhood, in 1851, and has since been
taken by its owner to one of our colonies.
No list of the Prioresses has hitherto been constructed. In
the meagre accounts of the place already published, the
name of the last only is given, and that but in connexion
with the Dissolution and the events which almost im
mediately preceded it. Their succession is not recorded in
the Episcopal Registers, and thus the best of all means
of obtaining information of the names and dates of
Superiors of Religious Houses is unfortunately in this
instance of no avail. From all sources, however, I can at
length supply the following series.
1. Fina, the first Prioress, who began her conventual
reign in 1180, and died sixty years afterwards, in 1240. H

58 MYNCHIN BUCKLAND
2. Alianor de Actune (?) about 1280.
3. M  , previous to 1328.
4. Isabella la Louwe occurs in 1328.
5. Isabel de Berch occurs in 1330.
6. Katharine de Erlegh occurs in 1337.
7. Alicia occurs in 1405.
8. Katharine Bowser, Bowrghshere, Bourgcher, Bourg-
chier, Bourgheyr, Burgchier, Bourcher, or Boucher, the
last Prioress, occurs in 1534, 1536, 1538, and 1539. The
prominent facts in the life of this lady we shall shortly
have before us in detail.
In this list I have not thought it necessary to enter into
the circumstances connected with each of the Prioresses,
as they have either been already given in the previous
pages or will be presented to the reader before the conclu
sion of the History.
Collinson, from " MS. Palmer," says that Rachel Newton
was Prioress in 1537, and that Elizabeth Carey and
Catherine Nevil, Sisters of the House, were living in 1565,
and married, the first to Thomas Speed, and the second to
the Vicar of Ling. That these statements are entirely
erroneous, I am able to prove by reference to the official
list of the last members of the Sisterhood, which shall
be given in its proper place, and wherein no such names
appear. This must be held conclusive.
Of the Preceptors
1. John de Werewell occurs in 1320.
2. John Diluwe occurs in 1338.
3. Richard Mareis in 1536. This last I give on the
authority of Collinson, who does not, however, add the
source of his information, which may be as inaccurate and
idle as the instance just before us.
My previous pages will supply the names of several

PRIORY AND PRECEPTORY. 59
members of each Community at various periods of their
history. To these the reader is referred.
Of the local features of the Priory and Preceptory we
have no account save the incidental notices of various
buildings in the Return of 1338, and a Survey mentioned
by Collinson, from " MS. Palmer," as having been taken
in the year 1571, when much of the conventual structure
would have been altered if not totally destroyed. These
notices relate exclusively to the Preceptory. In the former,
as the reader will recollect, we have mention made of a
court-house, a bakehouse, a dovecot, and a small church.
The latter shows that the house " of the Preceptor and his
brethren was on the north side of the great church," and
was called at the period of the Survey " the House of the
Lord Prior's steward." It must not, however, be inferred
from this absence of detail that the Priory was otherwise
than well fitted for its inmates. The religious Commu
nities of the middle ages were usually occupants of
structures of incomparable excellence, and we may be
tolerably sure that such a Sisterhood as that of Buckland
was no exception to this constant rule. Their abode was
no doubt a picturesque group of buildings, to which nothing
but the glorious architecture of mediaeval times could have
given existence ; buildings ever lovely themselves, and
attracting the love of all that look upon them with rightly
appreciating and understanding eyes. It is much to be
regretted that Leland who was in the immediate neighbour-
hood, if not at the very place, does not furnish us with a
description of the scene. He pleasantly describes the park
from whence the Sisters obtained their firewood, and the deer
with which it abounded. " There ys a great Numbre of Dere
longging to this (Pederton) Park, yet hath it almost no other
Enclosure but Dikes to let [obstruct] the Catelle of the

60 MYNCHIN BUCKLAND
Commune to cum yn. The Dere trippe over these Dikes
& feede al about the Fennes, and resort to the Park
agayn. There is a praty Lodge motid yn the Park There
cummyth a praty Broke through the Park, and half a Mile
beneth the Park it goith ynto Ivel. * * * * From
the Lodge in Pederton Parke to Northpederton a Mile*
But he leaves the home of the Sisters without a word, and
no care can now avail to supply its absence.
The Conventual Church was as usual a place of sepul
ture. It is true that we have but few visible evidences of
the fact, though we still possess some which shall be subse
quently described. I am happy, however, to perpetuate
the testimony of an aged gentleman, whom I lately visited
at Durston, and who kindly communicated his recollec
tions of the place. He perfectly remembered the house
belonging in his youth to the Lords Boringdon, which had
been erected in the seventeenth century, with a noble hall
of oak wainscot, "large enough to turn a coach andhorses in."
This he had himself helped to take down more than seventy
years ago. Adjacent to it was an ancient chapel with a
bell-gable, which was used for Sacred Service and in which
he had been baptised, that shared at the same time the fate
of the house. He remembered to have seen several
monuments, with figures of men, some of them bearing
shields on their arms. There were, so far as he recollected,
no monuments of women ; nor were there any ornaments,
such as rings and the like, or money found during the
alterations. Several hundred loads of stone were carted
away, including some pieces of sculpture which were placed
in a gentleman's garden at West Monkton. Thus much from
my observant narrator. I was subsequently informed that
* Leland, Itin, vol. n., q. 66.

PRIORY AND PRECEPTORY. 61
the gentleman alluded to was fond of decorating his grounds
with relics from various localities ; so that, if these objects
yet exist, which I have been unable to discover, they could
not be attributed to Buckland with any degree of cer
tainty. We will now take up the narrative from the point at
which we left it.
On the 10th of December, 1534, Katherina Burgchier,*
Prioress, and the Convent of Bokeland granted to John
Popham, gentleman, the first and next advowson, donation,
nomination, presentation or free disposition of the parish
Church of Tolor, in the County of Dorset, whenever by
death, resignation, deprivation, cession, or any other mode
of avoidance, it should first and next chance to be vacant ;
the said advowson and presentation to be holden by the
aforesaid John Popham and his executors and assigns for
that one turn only. The Court of Augmentation con
firmed this grant on the 20th of June, 1544.f
On the 3 1st of January, 1536, Katherina Boucher, Prioress,
and her Sisters granted an annuity of £4 for life to John
Tregunwell, doctor of laws, and one of the councillors of the
most potent and dread king " potentissimi et metuendissimi
regis" Henry VIII. It was to be paid in two equal portions,
one at the festival of our Lord's Nativity, and the other on
that of S. John the Baptist, and was stated to be in con
sideration of his counsel already and hereafter to be given.
* I scarcely need to remind the reader, who may be struck with the fre
quent variations in the orthography of proper names, that, throughout this
and other Histories of Religious Houses, 1 invariably give them as they
appear in the document which supplies the information then and there
detailed. + Orders and Decrees of the Court of Augmentation, vol. xiv, 2nd Nos.
ff. 38b, 39.

62 MYNCHIN BUCKLAND
I fear that this must be considered in the light of a bribe,
or at best as a retaining fee for services which the receiver
never intended to render, rather than for any valuable return
either past or future. It was doubtless considered prudent
to conciliate, as other communities did, the good will of a
man of known and acknowledged influence, who might be
of use in the troublous days on which the Religious Societies
instinctively felt themselves to be entering. If the annuity
were left unpaid for three months, the creditor had power to
distrain on their lands in the county of Somerset. This grant
was allowed by the Court of Augmentation, on the 11th
of October, 1539, and ordered to be paid with the arrears
from the time of the Dissolution.*
On the 10th of September in thesame year, 1536, Katerina
Bourgchier and Convent gave to Alexander Popham the
office of Steward of their House or Hospital of Bokeland,
with plenary authority in all matters appertaining thereunto,
and also the profits and emoluments arising therefrom,
together with an annuity of £4 of good and lawful English
money, and one livery gown of the value of twenty shillings,
or twenty shillings in lieu thereof. They also gave him the
office of Receiver of all and singular the rents of their lands
and tenements in Shirborne, in the county of Dorset, the
duties to be performed either by himself or by a sufficient
deputy, and an annuity of thirteen shillings and four pence,
to be paid at Michaelmas during his life. If these sums
remained unpaid for fifteen days, the said Alexander was
empowered to enter and distrain on their lands in the parish of
Northepetherton. The Court of Augmentation ordered the
continuance of this annuity with arrears from the Dissolution,
on the 7th of November, 1539. t
* Orders and Decrees, vol. VI., ff. clxxxix, clxxxixb.
t Orders and Decrees, vol. vi, ff. iiii**xiiii, iiiUxxiiii b.

PRIORY AND PRECEPTORY. 63
On the 1st of August, 1538, Katerina Bourgcher,
Prioress, and Convent granted to the same Alexander
Popham, for good counsel and faithful service, an annuity
of six pounds thirteen shillings and fourpence, issuing from
all their lands and tenements in theparish of Northpetherton,
to be paid in equal portions at the feasts of Michaelmas,
Christmas, Easter and S. John the Baptist. After non
payment for a month, he might enter and distrain on the
lands in the parish of Northepetherton. This also, with
arrears from the Dissolution, was ordered by the Court of
Augmentation, on the same day as that of the previous order,
the 7th of November, 1539.*
On the 1st of August, 1538, Katerina Bourgheyr,
Prioress, and Convent granted to William Porteman, of
Orchard, gentleman, in return for good counsel already and
thereafter to be given, an annuity of twentysix shillings and
eightpence, issuing from their manor of Northpetherton, and
from all their lands and tenements within that parish, to be
paid at Michaelmas. Here we have another instance of
the extortions by submission to which the Religious Houses
were obliged to secure the favour of the powerful, and also
of the gross venality which characterized those who could
without shame appropriate such infamous gains. No wonder
that these were the men who soon afterwards were the fore
most to struggle for the spoil. Non-payment for a month
was to empower him to enter and distrain. This also was
ordered to be continued for his life, together with arrears
from the Dissolution, on the 4th of July, 1539. f
On the 2nd of October, 1538, an Indenture was made
between " Dame Kateryn Bourcher, Priorisse of the House
of Suster Buckland, and the Covent of the same House,
* Orders and Decrees, vol. VI, ff. iiiixJtxvi,iiii^xvib.
t Orders and Decrees, vol. x, ff. iiioxxxiiii b, iii°xxxv.

64 MYNCHIN BUCKLAND
of the one partye, and John Popham, gent., cytizen and
haberdassher of London, of the other partye." This
instrument, which, as the reader will have already
perceived, is in English, sets forth, that, after the payment
by the said John of a sum of twenty marcs sterling, the
Prioress and Convent demised, granted, and let to farm
all their parsonage of Kyrton, in the County of Lincoln,
with all the glebe lands, and the tithes of corn, wool, and
lambs, and all other profits of the said parsonage, the fourth
sheaf paid to the lord Prior of S. John of Jerusalem always
excepted and reserved. They also demised, granted, and
let to farm the parsonage of Donnyngton, in the said
County of Lincoln, with all the glebe lands, tithes, and
profits of all kinds appertaining thereunto. These parsonages
were let on a lease of forty years from the festival of the
Nativity of S. John the Baptist next coming after. The
rent was nine and thirty pounds sterling per annum, to be
paid yearly at the festival of S. Barnaby the Apostle, that
is to say, for Kyrton nine and twenty pounds, and for
Donnyngton ten pounds. It~ was agreed to that the said
John Popham should pay to the Vicar of Kyrton, every
year at the feast of the Nativity of S. John the Baptist,
the sum of four pounds seven shillings and seven pence :
the Prioress and Convent to pay synodals and other claims
due to the king and all other persons; and to maintain,
sustain, and repair the said parsonages, houses, and walls
at their own proper cost and charge. If the rent were not
paid for the space of a quarter of a year, the Prioress and
Convent might re-enter and expulse the said John and
his executors and assigns. These terms were allowed and
confirmed by the Court of Augmentation, on the 6th of
November, 1539*
* Orders and Decrees, vol. VI. ff. cviii. cviii b, cix.

PRIORY AND PRECEPTORY. 65
The minuteness with which these and previous details
have been presented to the reader will not be considered
out of place or without value by any who desire to be
acquainted with the state, habits and customs of eccle
siastical and civil England, as well as with the vicissitudes
of this particular House, during the interesting period of
the middle ages. They know that with this very minute
ness much of the value and interest of researches like the
present are necessarily associated. And for such students,
I may add, my labours are intended.
It would appear that the family of Popham was bene
fitted in no ordinary degree by its connexion with the
Priory. By a deed dated in their Chapter House, the
18th of January, 1539, Katherina Bourcher, Prioress, and
Convent granted to Marmaduke Popham the office of
Receiver of all and singular the rents of their Rectories of
Kyrton and Denendon, in the County of Lincoln, the duties
to be performed either by himself or by a sufficient deputy,
with an annuity of forty shillings issuing from their lands
and tenements at Premsleye, in the County of Dorset, to
be paid at Michaelmas. On non-payment for a month
after date, he was empowered to enter and distrain on their
lands in Premsleye. The Court of Augmentation ordered
the continuance of this annuity, with arrears from the
Dissolution, on the 8th of November, 1539.*
This was the last official act that the Prioress and her
Sisters performed previous to that involuntary one which
placed all similar transactions at once and for ever beyond
their power. The final blow was just about to fall, and
but a brief respite yet awaited them. A short month
elapsed and all was over.
* Orders and Decrees, vol. VI, f. 1.

66 MYNCHIN BUCKLAND
On the 10th of February, 1539, the Chapter-house of
Buckelonde was witness of the most melancholy scene that
had ever been enaGted within its walls. It was on that
day that the Prioress and Convent were summoned to meet
the Commissioners John Tregonwell and William Peter,
and unwillingly affixed their conventual seal to the instru
ment of Surrender.* This was the conclusion of so much
that piety and refinement had laboured at and brought to
perfection, a conclusion whereof it is difficult to speak
as its monstrous enormity deserves. The document still
exists in the Record Office, with the impression of the
seal appended. In the brief notice of this House by the
last editors of the Monasticon, it is said that an impression
had been seen by one of them, but so wholly flattened that
no part of the subject of it could be discovered. This, if
intended for the present, which I have every reason to
believe, hardly gives a fair description of its state. The
legend, indeed, belies its name, for it is illegible; but
the device in the centre is clearly that of a Greek or Patri
archal Cross. (See the figure.) The form of the instru
ment itself is the one that was generally adopted, prepared
as usual beforehand, and requiring merely the insertion of
the name and style of the doomed House, and the signa
tures and seal of the pillaged inmates. In the case before us
the signatures are wanting. It was, perhaps, too mournful
a task and hard an effort for the unhappy Sisters to set
their hands to a document which consigned them to ever
lasting exile from their ancient and beloved home. And,
accordingly, the Commissioner John Tregonwell was fain
to content himself with the subscription of his own name
in the stead of other and better.f
* MS. Lansd. 97, f. 3b.
t Autograph Jri Off. Record. Rymer, Feed, xiv, p. 634.

PRIORY AND PRECEPTORY. 67
I am able to furnish, from the unimpeachable authority
of an original Pension List, the names and pensions of
the entire Community who were witnesses of the ruin
of their House. There were at the period of the
Dissolution the Prioress and thirteen Sisters. Katheryn
Bowser, Prioress, had a pension of £50 a year ; Margaret
Sydnam, subprioress, £4 1 3s. 4d. ; Julyan Kendall, £4 6s.
8d. ; Jone Hyll, £4 ; Anne Plummer, £4 ; Tomysyn
Huntyngton, £4 ; Katheryn Popham, £4 ; Anne Maunsell,
£4 ; Mary Dodyngton, £4 ; Ales Emerforde, £4 ; Jane
Babyngton, £4 ; Mary Mathew, £4 ; Agnes Mathew, £4 ;
and Isabell Grene, £4. There was also Priest William
Mawdesley, confessor, and professed of their Order, who
had a pension of £4. The document is signed : — Jo.
Tregonwell, William Petre.* Dr. Archer says that the
Prioress had'also a gratuity of £25.f
In order to furnish all that we know of the subsequent
history of these ladies, together with some notices of
the officers and others, to whom, as we have already seen,
orders were given for the continuance of their grants, I
may add that in the year 1556 there remained charged
upon the government the stipend of Alexander Popham,
chief steward, 100s.; and annuities to — Alexander Popham,
£6 1 3s. 4d. ; John Tregonwell, £4 ; William Porteman,
26s. 8d.; and John Butler, 13s. 4d. Besides these, there
were pensions to the following of the surviving Sisters. The
orthography varies from that already given, but the persons
can be easily identified. Johanna Hille, £4 ;| Thomasine
* Pensions, Hen. VIII. Miscell. Books, Off. Aug. vol. 245, n. 128.
Appendix, No. XIX.
t E Reg. Puller. 345.
J Not so much as a specimen of too frequent incorrectness, as of warning
to those who perpetuate such by contenting themselves with simply copying
the statements of others, I would mention the fate which this lady's name

68 MYNCHIN BUCKLAND
Huntingdon, £4 ; Katerine Pophame, £4; Anne Maunde-
feld, £4 ; Johanna Bavington, £4 ; Elisabeth Grene, £4t ;
and Agnes Mathewe, £4. And to William Maudesley,
clerk, £4.*
John Andersey, the last Incumbent of the Chantry of
Newton Placye, figures in the record as having an annual
pension of 100s. ; and Richard Verser, the last Incumbent
of the Chantry of Blessed Mary in the Church of Northe
petherton, as the receiver of an annual pension of the
same amount, f
Bj a singular piece of good fortune, of which the history
of no other Religious House that I know of can furnish an
instance, we have thus had preserved for us the names of
the first as well as the last Prioress and Sisters of Buckland
— the former when brought together at the beginning from
various Houses into one Conventual home ; the latter both
as they were at the evil day of their dispersion, and also
when death had been busy among them after an interval
of sixteen years. What became of these last during that
interval, whither they betook themselves, and how they
succeeded in bearing up under the anguish that memories
of the happy past would scarcely fail to create, we know
not. Nor can we gain more insight into their after
fortunes. The notice just presented to the reader is the
has undergone. The scribe who copied the list for Willis wrote it
"Hylbere," and thus it appears in the "History of Abbeys." (Vol. ii, p, 196.)
Collinson has of course reiterated the assertion. The name in the original
record is " Hille ;" and the syllable added by the copyists is the first ward of
the "per annum iiiili" that follows! Many readers may consider Ihis a
matter of the most trifling consequence. It is an instanoe, however, which
admits of too constant parallel ; and the negligence which has given con
tinuance to such errors is unworthy of the students of a branch of learning
in which false statements are specially mischievous, and accuracy and exact
ness are of indispensible necessity.
* Card. Pole's Pension-book, f. xxix. Appendix No, XX.
t Ii., fol. xxx,

PRIORY AND PRECEPTORY. 69
concluding glimpse that we get of them. In subsequent
records they appear no more.
We must now turn to the real cause of the hard
measure and undeserved brutality so mercilessly dealt
out to these innocent sufferers. The main temptation
to the aggression against their peace was the lands with
which ancient liberaUty had endowed them, and after which
an unscrupulous tyrant and greedy courtiers thirsted, even
to the robbery, or if need were, the murder of their
lawful owners.
To illustrate the earliest condition of the property after
it had been thus wrested from them and taken into the
king's hands, I will furnish the reader with a brief but
carefully made Abstract of the Return called the Ministers'
Accounts, for the year ending at Michaelmas, 1539, the
first, it will be remembered, subsequent to the Dissolution.
The original record seems at the first aspect little less
than obscurity itself, but this is to a great extent removed
by adopting the tabular form in which it is here presented.
The amounts have yet to be charged with sundry deduc
tions in the shape of stipends, repairs, &c, as will be seen
by comparison with the " Valor," where many of them are
already given.
THE LATE PRIORY OF BUCKELOND.
The Accounts op all and singular the Bailiffs,
Farmers, &c, from Michaelmas, 1538, to
Michaelmas, 1539.
The Account of Edwaed Rogebs, Esq., Pakmee.
BUCKELOND.
Farm of the site of the late Priory, includ
ing gardens, orchards, and other lands,
called xiiij Acres, Newlonde, Purches,

70 MYNCHIN BUCKLAND
Staplehays, Ryden, Robbys, Harys,
Horlocke Mede, Hurt Mede, Longe
Mede, vj Acres Mede, with their appur
tenances, in the occupation of the said
Farmer . . . . . . viij11 ijs iiijd
Farm of the Rectory . . . . xx8
Sum total, ix11 ijs iiijd

The Account of Alexandee Poppeham, Bailiff.
Hele.
Assessed Rents . . . . xvju xiiijd ob.
Farm of the Manor . . . . vju vj8 viijd
Perquisites of the Courts .. iiijliiiij8viijd
Sum total, xxvj11 xijs vjd ob.

The Account of Alexandee Poppeham, Collectoe.
Wellys.
Assessed Rent of one Burgage . . xx8
Ditto of one Burgage . t . . xx"
Ditto of one Burgage . . . . ix8
Sum total, xlix8

Gotton.
Assessed Rent of one Messuage . . xl"
Ditto of one Tenement . . . xl8
Ditto of one Tenement . . . . v8
Ditto of one Cottage . . . . vj8
Sum total, iiij11 xjs

Brymtonraffe. Rents of Messuage and Mill, with their
appurtenances . . . . xxiiij8 viij'

d

priory and preceptory. 71
Cadecote.
Value of a tenement, late in the tenure of
John Edwardes, ij8 iiijd ; but there
were no returns, as it was not let.
HOREWOD. Chief Rent of a Mill . . . . xiij9 iiij*
Aysshe and Tornfawcon.
Rents of lands, tenements, and cottages xlvij8 vjd
Brodewodwiger.
Rents of free Tenants . . . . x" xd
Assessed Rents . . . . lxiiij9 vd ob.
Toller.
Farm of the Preceptory with Rectory xxij11
S. John of Jerusalem.
Annual Rent received from the Prior,
by ancient custom, but this year
it was unpaid . . . . xxij11
Perquisites of the Courts. . . ixu
Sum total, lxviij11 ixd ob.
Remaining due, xxij11

The Account of Thomas Jesoph, Paemee.

Chilcombe.

Farm of the Manor

xiiij11
, Bailiff.

The Account of Richard "Wakeham.
Northpederton.
Rents of free Tenants
xxxiiij8
viijd
Assessed Rents
xix11
ijd
Perquisites of the Courts . . xxx11 vj9
Sum total, li11 xxd
72 MYNCHIN BUCKLAND
The Account of Alexander Poppeham, by Jawcus Ayssheley,
his deputy.

Prymsley.

Rents of free Tenants

. ,

xj8 iiijd

Assessed Rents

. .

. . xiiju xijs vjd

Sum total,

xiiij11 iij8 xd

-

The Account of Alexander Poppeham, Faemee.
Kylmerston.
Farm of the Manor with Rectory . . xviij11 xvs

The Account of Joan Atwyll, Paemee.
Bromfyld.
Farm of the Rectory . . . . viiju v8

The Account of John Woeth, Gent., by Alexandee Poppeham,
his deputy.
NORTHEPEDERTON. Farm of the Rectory . . . . xxvj11 xd
Pension from the Vicarage . . Iiij8 iiijd
Pawlett.
Pension from the Vicarage, this year unpaid xiij8 iiijd
Sum total, xxix11 vij8 vjd
Remaining due, xiij8 iiijd

The Account of Marmaduke Poppeham, Receivee.
Kyrton.
Farm of the Rectory . . . . xxix11
Rent of three cottages, parcel of the
aforesaid . . . . xxij8
Donyngton.
Farm of Tithe, &c. . . . . x11
Sum total, xlu ij8

priory and preceptory. 73
The Account of Alexander Poppeham, Collector.
Rayneham, in Berks.
Pension from the Preceptory, this year unpaid c8
Swynfild, in Kent.
Pension from the Preceptory, this year unpaid xls
Kerbroke, in Northamptonshire.
Pension from the Preceptory, this year unpaid xiij8 iiijd
Templecome, in Somerset.
Pension from the Preceptory, this year unpaid xxvj8 viijd
Toland, in Somerset.
Pension from the Rectory . . . . ij3
Bekyngton, in Somerset.
Pension from the Rectory . . . . xx8
Sheriff of Hereford.
A certain Alms of the King, this year unpaid vj11 xvjs xjd
Sum total, xvj11 xviij8 xjd
Remaining due, xv11 xvjs xjd *
On a comparison of these accounts with those already
given in the "Valor," it will be found that very little
difference exists between them. Indeed, in more than
half the cases, the values given are identical.
Such was the spoil. We have now, in conclusion, to see
how it was disposed of, and who were the richer for the
transfer. The first notice that we have of the use to which the
revenues were devoted may be considered the least objection
able of the whole. On the 27th of February, 1540, the king
granted to John Worth, Esq., an annual pension of £24
* Ministers' Accounts, 30-31 Hen. VIII. Off. Aug.

74 MYNCHIN BUCKLAND
and 10d., issuing from the manor of Bucklond, formerly
belonging to the late Monastery of Bucklond, just now
dissolved. We have already seen this John Worth in the
character of Receiver of rents and pensions from Northe-
pederton and Pawlett*
Some time elapsed before the bulk of the property was
disposed of. A "Request to purchase" the site of the Priory
and the Rectory and tithes of Mighelchurch was submitted
to the king, signed " W. Essex," and bearing date the 11th
of March, 35th Hen. VIII., 1544. To the enumeration of
the various portions of the domain, which will presently
be detailed in the grant, the Auditor, Mathew Colte-
hirste, whose duty it was to examine the terms of the
Request, and to report upon any charges on the estates,
appended the following note.f — " What comoditie the
fferme?' hereof taketh aboue the annual Rent I knowe not.
It'm the kynges grace is charged wth cvjs viijd for the
stipend of a preeste serving Cure at Sancte Michaell
Chapell being w'in a q^rter of a myle of the seid scite.
where they wedde & crisen & burith in the Churche Yarde
of the seid late Pryory. & so is like to be charged, vnlesse
the seid Chapell be annexed to the Chapell of a Conioundry
of Sancte Johnes adionyng to the seid scite : there is no
more landes w'in ij myles perteynyng to the seid Proory.
the Comaundry of Bucklande parcell of Sancte Jones
adioneth to the same. P'Mathiam Coltehirste Audit'." In
the margin we are told that "The superfluous howsys
there where sold to the seid fferme?- [Edward Rogers] at
the tyme of the dissolucyon of the howse." The woods on
the estate are reported as follows : — Roden Coppies, 3
* Cartas Miscell. in Off. Reo. vol. 7, n. 2S.
t Part, for Grants, Off. Aug. The letters printed in italics are repre
sented in the original by marks of contraction.

PRIORY AND PRECEPTORY. 75
acres ; Wynsell Wood, 7 acres ; and hedgerows, 2 acres ;
with sundry reservations for the farmer of the demesne*
This was shortly afterwards followed by the instrument
which the framers had in view. On the 30th of June, 1544,
the king granted to his beloved and faithful cousin and coun
cillor, William, Earl of Essex, and his beloved James Rokeby,
Esq., William Ibgrabe, Esq., and John Cokke, Edward
Rogers, and Edward Bury, Esqrs., and their heirs, &c, for
the sum of £1049 lis. 2^d. of lawful money of England,
the whole House and Site of the late monastery of Buckland,
in the County of Somerset, and all its lands, meadows, pas
tures and hereditaments, called or known by the name or
names of Fouretene Acres, Newland, Purches, Stapleheys,
Riden, Lobbis, Hary s, Horlocke Meade, Hurte Meade, Longe
Meade, and Sixe Acres Meade, with all their appurtenances,
then or lately in the tenure or occupation of the said Edward
Rogers or his assigns, in Bucklande, or Buckland Sororum,
parcel of the possessions of the said late monastery, and for
merly in the hands, culture, and proper occupation of the late
Prioress of the late monastery of Buckland at the time of the
Dissolution. Also all those woods and lands called Riden
Coppes and Wynsell Wood, containing by estimation ten
acres, with all their appurtenances in Buckland. Also all
the houses, buildings, granaries, stables, dovecots, gardens,
orchards, and lands whatsoever, within the site, sept,
boundary, circuit, and precinct of the said late monastery,
and all and singular commons, ways, paths, easements,
advantages, profits, and emoluments whatsoever in Buck-
land, Mighelchurche, and Northpetherton, in any manner
appertaining. Also all the Rectory, and church, or chapel
of Mio-helchurche, with its appurtenances ; and all and every
kind of tithes of green crops, corn, grain, hay, wool, lambs,
* Part, for Grants, Off. Aug.

76 MYNCHIN BUCKLAND
and other small tithes, and oblations, revenues, and profits
whatsoever in Mighelchurche and Buckland, in any way
appertaining to the said Rectory, and Church or Chapel of
Mighelchurche. All these were to be holden as fully and
entirely as the last Prioress had them. The aforesaid site,
and lands, and properties of various descriptions were stated
to be of the clear annual value of seventy-five shillings and
eightpence. They were to be held of the king in chief, by
the service of a twentieth part of one knight's fee, and an
annual rent of seven shillings and sevenpence sterling,
to be paid at Michaelmas. The grantees were also to pay
one hundred and six shillings and eightpence a year for the
stipend of a curate to celebrate Divine service in the
Church or Chapel of Mighelchurche. Besides all this the
grant conveyed enormous possessions in the parishes of
S. Botolph, Aldersgate, S. John, Clerkenwell, and S.
Sepulchre, in the city of London and county of Middlesex,
and in the counties of York, Northumberland, Stafford,
Hertford, Wilts, and Essex. The instrument was dated
at Westminster, on the day and year above mentioned.*
On the 13th of October, 1544, in consideration of the
sum of £754 17s. 8d., of good and lawful English money,
the king granted to William Porteman, Sergeant-at-Law,
and Alexander Popham, Esq., and their heirs, &c, all the
manor of Northpetherton, or Northpederton, with all and
singular its rights and appurtenances, formerly belonging to,
and parcel of the possessions of, the late dissolved Priory of
Bukland, and all the site, demesne lands, meadows,
pastures, &c, of the said manor. Also the wood commonly
called Barwoode, in Northpetherton, containing by estima-
* Orig. 36 Hen. VIII. p. 1. rot. xxxviii. Pat. 36 Hen. VIII., p. 2, mm.
34 (13), 33 (14), 32 (15), 31 (16). Leland, Itin., vol. II., p. 68. Appendix,
No. XXI.

PRIORY AND PRECEPTORY. 77
tion eight acres. Also all the messuages, lands, tenements,
meadows and pastures, with their appurtenances, in Gotton,
in the parish of Westemonketon, formerly belonging to the
late Priory, in the tenure or occupation of Richard Warr,
Esq., Robert Warr, William Hare, and Weltheane
Merkes, widow. Also all the messuages, tofts, houses,
buildings, granaries, stables, dovecots, mills, gardens,
orchards, meadows, woods, watei s, marshes, vivaries, weirs,
fisheries, commons, wastes, &c, &c, with all knights' fees
and other rights, in Northpetherton, Michelchurche, Brom-
feld, Brympton Raiff, Wollavyngton, Mirelinche, and
Gotton — as fully and entirely as Katerina Bourgchier the
last Prioress had held the said property. Also messuages,
&c, in Ayshe and Thornfaucon, lately belonging to the
said Priory. Also a tenement and messuage in the parish
of Bromefeld, formerly belonging to the lately dissolved
Priory of Taunton, in the occupation of one Richard
Raynald. Also another tenement and messuage in Brome
feld, in the tenure and occupation of one John Pylman,
formerly belonging to the late Priory of Taunton. Also
lands in Kyngeshyll, in the parish of Spaxton, also formerly
belonging to the late dissolved Priory of Taunton. Also all
the manor, farm, and grange of Claveshey, with its appurte
nances, in the parishes of Northepetherton and Bromefelde ;
and the capital messuage, house, site, and capital mansion of
Claveshey, formerly belonging to the lately dissolved monas
tery of Athelney; and the wood commonly called Claveshey
Wood, containing by estimation ten acres, and the wood
called Holesey Wood, containing by estimation five acres,
in Northepetherton aforesaid, formerly belonging to the
late monastery of Athelney. Also messuages, &c, at
Durlegh, Gotehirst, Dunwer, &c, in the parishes of Bridge-
water and Northepetherton, formerly belonging to the

78 MYNCHIN BUCKLAND
Priory of S. John, at Bridgewater. The property formerly
belonging to the Priory of Buckland in Buckland, North
petherton, Michelchurch and Bromefeld, was estimated at
the clear annual value of £23 17s. 4d, ; in Ayshe and
Thornefaucon, of 47s. 6d. ; at Bromefeld and Spaxton, of
41s. 8d. ; at Claveshey, of £9 ; at Durleigh and Gotehirst,
of 33s. ; and at Dunwer, of 14s. 6d. The grantees were to
pay the following annual rents : — for the property at
Buckland, 38s. ; for Gotton, 9s. ljd. ; for Ayshe and
Thornfaucon, 4s. 9d. ; for Bromefeld and Spaxton, 4s. 2d. ;
for Claveshey, 18s. ; for Durlegh and Gotehirst, 3s. 4d. ;
and for Dunwer, 17Jd. Also to Richard Wakeham, bailiff of
the manor of Northepetherton, an annual fee of 20s.; and to
John Walton, steward of the court of the said manor,
13s. 4d. All advowsons of churches, and spiritual emolu
ments and profits were reserved to the king. The Request
to purchase was dated the 6th of July, 1544 ; and the
grant at Westminster, the 13th of October, in the same
year.* We have already seen the disposal of the Priory, and
have now to notice that of the Preceptory, which was not
long delayed. The Request to purchase is dated the 13th
of December, 1544. Ralph Lambe, the deputy of Matthew
Coltehirste, Auditor, annexed to the enumeration of the
lands thus solicited the significant and not unusual decla
ration, "I have made the particlers hereof to no other
person, nor I knowe any other person desyrus to bye the
pmnysses."t This was doubtless intended to assure the
royal salesman that the bargain was the best that could
be effected under the circumstances. On the 16th of
* Part, for Grants, Off. Aug. Orig. 36 Hen. VIII., p. 3, rot. xii. Pat. 36
Hen. VIII., p. 8, mm. 23, 24, 25, 26. Add. MS. B.M. 6366, pp. 28 b, 29.
t Part, for Grants, Off. Aug. Appendix, No. XXII.

PRIORY AND PRECEPTORY. 79
February, 1545, the purchase was completed. The king
then granted to Alexander Popham, Esquire, and William
Halley, gentleman, and their heirs, &c, in consideration of
the sum of £999 16s. 7d. of lawful English money, all the
manor and the late Preceptory of Bucklond Pryours, in the
County of Somerset, together with the manor of Halse,
and all other manors, lands, tenements, meadows, pastures,
rents, reversions, services, and other hereditaments what
soever, appertaining to the said late Preceptory, with all its
other members and appurtenances, then or lately in the tenure,
discharge or occupation of the aforesaid William Halley.
Also the Rectory and impropriated Church of Halse, and
all and singular other Rectories and impropriated Churches
appertaining to the said Preceptory ; and all glebes, tithes,
pensions, portions, oblations, revenues, fruits, advantages,
profits, emoluments, and hereditaments whatsoever, as well
spiritual as temporal, of every kind. Also the advowsons
and rights of the Rectories aforesaid. Also the two manors
of Bodmescombe and Cove, in the County of Devon, with
all their appurtenances. Also the manor of Cleyanger, in
the County of Devon. Also the advowsons, donations,
presentations, &c, of the Church and Rectory of Hethe-
feld, and of the Church and Rectory of Halse, in the
County of Somerset ; and of the Rectories and Churches
of Brendon and Cleyanger in the County of Devon. Also
the wood and grove called Wynsell Grove, containing by
estimation four acres; and the wood and grove called
Peryfeld Grove, containing by estimation four acres ; and
the o-rove called Bowyers Grove, containing by estimation
twelve acres ; and the wood and waste called Bodmescombe
Wood, containing by estimation thirty-five acres; and
twelve acres, sixteen acres, and twenty-seven acres, called
Uprynges of Wood ; all parcels of the late Preceptory of

80 MYNCHIN BUCKLAND
Bttcklond Pryours. Also a messuage, &c, in the parishes
of Gotehurste and Charlinche, formerly belonging to the
late Priory or Hospital of S. John of Brydgewater. Also
the demesne and manor of Thurlebare ; the messuage, &c,
called Playstrete, in the parish of Staple; a rent of
twenty-four shillings and ninepence half-penny, called
The Thurchetts,* issuing from certain lands and tenements
in Thurlebare; a close called The Pryours Wood, in
Thurlebare, of thirteen acres ; and lands in Westhatche
and Upphatche; all formerly belonging to the late Priory
of Taunton. Also the manor and demesne of Tobrydge,
with all its rights, &c, in the parish of S. James by
Taunton, and formerly belonging to the late Priory of
Taunton. All these were to be holden by the grantees as
fully, entirely, and amply, as by their former possessors.
The manor and late Preceptory of Buckelond Priours
together with the manor of Halse, &c, were of the clear
annual value of £31 19s. 2d, without deducting the
reserved tithe ; the vicarage of the clear annual value of
£5 19s. 5^d., without deducting the reserved tithe; and the
Rectory of Hethefeld, £9 4s., without deducting tithe.
The Preceptory of Bucklond Pryours and Halse were to
be held by the grantees of the king in capite, by military
service, to wit, the twentieth part of one knight's fee, and
by the following annual rents, to be paid at Michael
mas : — for Buckelond and Halse, £3 3s. lid.; for Tobrydge,
10s. 7d. ; for Cleanger, &c, 10s. 2d. ; and for Thurlebare,
14s. 5d. The grant was dated at Westminster, the 16th
of February, 36 Hen. VUL, 1544-5.+
* Probably intended for Churchetts, or Churchessets, a payment to the
Church of corn as the Pirst-fruits of harvest. See, for another instance,
the author's History of Taunton Priory, page 119.
+ Orig. 36 Hen. VIIT., p. 8, rot. xvii. Pat. 36 Hen. VIII., p. 26, mm.
(6) 44, (7) 43, (8) 42. Add. MS. B.M. 6366, p. 116. Appendix, No. XXIII.

PRIORY AND PRECEPTORY. 81
The more distant portions of the property were disposed
of in a similar manner.
On the 18th of July, 1543, in consideration of the sum
of £1451 2s. 9£d., the King granted to Sir John Horsey
the manor of Prymsley, or Promsley,* in the county of
Dorset, with all its rights, members, and appurtenances,
formerly belonging to the late dissolved Priory of Bucke-
lande, in the County of Somerset. Together with this were
granted lands at Thorneforde, Overcompton, and Nether-
compton, and atPynford, in the parish of Shirborne. Pryms
ley was estimated at the clear annual value of £14 17s. 2d.
The lands were to be held of the King in capite, and the
annual rent for Prymsley was to be the sum of 29s. 9d.,
payable at Michaelmas. The Request to purchase was
dated the 5th of June, 1543 ; and the grant at Terlynge,
on the day above mentioned.!
One month after a Request to purchase, dated the 6th
of July, 1543, the King granted to Richard Parker, of
Tawstok, in the County of Devon, gentleman, for the
sum of £1436 7s. 10d., the Rectories of Bradford and
Hilfaraunce, in the County of Somerset, formerly belonging
to the Priory of Barliche; the demesne and manor of
Pyxton, and Nynehed, formerly belonging' to the Priory of
Taunton; the manor of Moremaleherbe and Brodewod-
wiger, in Devon, formerly belonging to and parcel of the late
Priory of Mynchyngbukland, in the County of Somerset ;
the Rectory of Northemolton, and lands at Lynkcombe,
Hilfarcombe, and Wykelangforde, &c, formerly belonging
to the late Monasteries of Dunkeswell and Frythelstoke, in
the County of Devon. Bradford and Hilfaraunce were

* See page 13 for the original gift.
f Part, for Grants, in Off. Aug. Orig. 35 Hen. VIII., p. 2, rot.
Pat. 35 Hen. VIII., p. 6, mm. (1) 38, (2) 37.

mi.

82 MYNCHIN BUCKLAND
of the clear annual value of £16 4s. 6d. ; Pyxton and
Nynehead, £15 15s. ; Lynkcombe and Hilfarcombe £12
7s. 0|d.; Northemolton, of £16; and Moremaleherbe, £3
15s. 3Jd. The advowsons were reserved. The property was
to be held in capite, by the service of a twentieth part of one
knight's fee, and the following annual rents to be paid at
Michaelmas : — for Bradford and Hilfaraunce, 32s. 5|d. ; for
Pyxton, &c, 31s. 6d. ; for Lynkcombe, 24s. 8^d.; for
Northmolton, 32s.; and for Moremaleherbe, 7s. 6|d.
Besides these charges, the grantees were to pay annually to
the Curate of Hylfaraunce a stipend of 26s. 8d. ; for pro
curations and synodals for the Church of Bradford, the sum
of 12s. 5Jd.; to the bailiff of Lynkcombe, his fee of 13s. 4d.;
to the Vicar of Northemolton, £17 6s. 8d.; and, lastly, the
sum of 66s. 8d., for the said Rectory of Northemolton, to
the Dean and Chapter of the Cathedral Church of S.
Peter at Exon. The grant was dated at Rayne, the 6 th of
August, 1543.*
On the 11th of June, 1544, the King granted to Sir
John Fulford, Humfrey Colles, Esquire, and their heirs,
certain tenements with their appurtenances in the parish
of Bromfeld, in the tenure or occupation of Robert
Stalyche, John Harle, and John Hewett, formerly belong
ing to the late Priory of Bukeland. Also a horse mill, and
a moiety of a close called Newe Close, and five acres of
meadow with their appurtenances in Rysemore, in the
County of Somerset, in the occupation of John Grene and
Johanna his wife, and formerly belonging to the late
Hospital of S. John of Bridgewater. Lands in Devon,
formerly belonging to the late monasteries of Canonleighe,
* Part, for Grants, in Off. Aug. Orig. 35 Hen. VIII., p. 1, rot. cxvii.
Pat. 35 Hen. VIII., p. 6, mm. 12 (26), 11 (27), 10 (28). Add. MS. B.M.
6365, p. 297.

PRIORY AND PRECEPTORY. 83
S. Nicholas at Exon, and Buckfast, in that County, and
of Mountague and Clyve, in the County of Somerset,
accompanied the aforesaid, and the purchase money
amounted to the sum of £1199 18s. 3d. The property
belonging to Bukeland was estimated at the clear yearly
value of 24s. 4d., the tithe not deducted ; and that belong
ing to S. John of Bridgewater to £4, the tithe also not de
ducted. The grantees in capite were to pay, at Michaelmas,
for the Bridgwater property the yearly rent of 8s.; and for
that at Bromfeld 2s. 5£d. The Request to purchase was
dated the 12th of March, 1544; and the grant at West
minster on the day aforesaid.*
On the 26th of July, 1544, (the Request is dated the
10th of the same month,) the King granted to Roger
Tavemer and Robert Taverner, gentlemen, two tenements
and a mill called Elsam Myll, and certain lands and tene
ments called Stone Londes, situated in Brompton Raffe,
in the County of Somerset, with all their appurtenances,
in the tenure or occupation of John Edwardes, and formerly
belonging to the late dissolved Priory of Buckelonde, in the
said county. The annual value was 24s. 8d.; and it was to be
held by a yearly payment, at Michaelmas, under the name
of tithe, of 2s. 6d. This was accompanied by large estates
in London and the Counties of Northampton, Lincoln, and
York, and the amount paid for the whole was £546 17s. 6d.
The grant was dated, witness Katharine Queen of England,
at Westminster, on the day and year aforesaid.f
On the 8th of November, 1544, a year which witnessed
such wholesale changes in the possession of Church
property, the King, in consideration of the sum of £269
* Part, for Grants, in Off. Aug. Orig. 36 Hen. VIII., p. 4, rot. clxvi.
Pat. 36 Hen. VIII, p. 12, mm. 5 (35), 4 (36), 3 (37).
t Part, for Grants, in Off. Aug. Orig. 36 Hen. VIII, p. 5, rot. iii.

84 MYNCHIN BUCKLAND
13s> 4d., granted to William Bisshoppe, of Bredy, in the
County of Dorset, yeoman, and to John Hide, of London,
gentleman, and their heirs, the manor of Chylcombe, with
all its rights, in the County of Dorset, lately belonging to
the Priory of Buklande* Also other lands in Southampton,
&c. The clear annual value of Chylcombe was reckoned
at £14. It was to be held of the King in chief, by payment
of a yearly rent of 28s. at Michaelmas. The Request to
purchase was dated the 8th of November, 1544; and the
grant at Westminster, on the day above mentioned.!
On the 13th of the same month they obtained license,
we are told, to alienate a moiety to Thomas Martin, of
Longbridy, and his heirs. William Bisshoppe did not long
enjoy his new estate. He died on the 31st of May, 1545,
leaving the ominous property to his son John, who succeeded
his father at the age of seventeen years, and died four years
after, 3 Edward VI ! $
Nine months elapsed before other changes were effected.
On the 4th of July, 1545, the King granted to William
Hodgys, of Myddelchynnock, in the County of Somerset,
and to William Hodgys, of London, son of the former, and
their heirs, for the sum of £695 Os. 5d., the site
of the Monastery of the Grey Friars of Ivellchester,
twenty-nine messuages in the town of Bridgewater,
lately, belonging to the Hospital of S. John in that
town ; and three messuages or burgages in the city of
Wells,[| in the separate tenure or occupation of Thomas
Bodyej Cristofer Cooke, and Leticia Trystes. To these
were added other lands in the counties of Dorset and Derby.
* See page 13 for the original gift.
t Part, for Grants, in Off. Aug. Orig. 36 Hen. VIII, p. 4, rot. ciiii«i.
X Sutchins's Dorsetshire, 2nd Ed, vol. II, p. 293.
|| See page 19 for the original gift.

PRIORY AND PRECEPTORY. 85
The property in Ivellchester was reckoned of the clear
annual value of 13s. 4d.; that in Bridgewater, of £21 3s.
4d.; and that at Wells, of 49s. It was to be held by fealty,
in free soccage, and not in capite. The Request to purchase
was dated the 24th of February, 1545; and the grant as
above, at Westminster.*
The spoil was not yet entirely disposed of. For the sum
of £1393 8s. 10d., the King granted to John Pope, gentle
man, and his heirs, the manor of Kyrton in Holland, in the
County of Lincoln, lately belonging to Buckland Priory,
with all its houses, lands, and other appurtenances, of the
clear yearly value of 22s. An enormous tract in the
Counties of Oxford, Gloucester, York, Wilts, Salop,
Middlesex, Surrey, and Warwick accompanied the afore
said property. Kyrton was to be held in free soccage, by
fealty only, and not in capite. The Request to purchase
was dated the — day of July, 1545, and the grant at
Westminster, the 3rd of October, 1545.!
By this time, as the reader will have perceived, not much
remained either to excite or to gratify the lust of acquisition.
My task, accordingly, is all but completed. Of course I
cannot pursue further the history of each estate, which has
now ceased to be of the interest that it hitherto possessed.
The exception, however, which I have made in previous
instances, it will not be improper to repeat in this.
So early as four years after the original grant to William
Halley, in whose occupation, it will be remembered, the
property even then was, King Edward VI., in considera
tion of the sum of £6 13s. 4d., authorized him to
alienate to John Cuffe and John Tynbery, and their heirs,
* Part, for Grants, in Off. Aug. Orig. 37 Hen. VIII, p. 6, rot. xxx.
t Part, for Grants, in Off. Aug. Orig. 37 Hen. VIII, p. 3. rot. xvi.
Pat. 37 Hen. VIII, p. 3, mm. 13 (33), 12 (34), 11 (35), 10 (36), 9 (37).

86 MYNCHIN BUCKLAND
his capital messuage called Buckelond Priors, with its
appurtenances, and two gardens, two orchards, two hundred
acres of arable land, thirty-six acres of meadow, seventy-
three acres of pasture, and two acres of land covered with
water — the Ponds, I presume, to which I drew attention in
the beginning of the History — with their appurtenances, in
Buckland Priors and Coglod, in the County of Somerset,
holden of the King in capite. Also to the aforesaid John
Cuffe and John Tynbery special license was given to
appropriate the same. The grant was dated at Westminster,
the 13th of February, 1548*
On the 4th of July, 1608, Edward Rogers, son of George
Rogers, of Canington, sold to Sir Henry Hawley the site,
circuit and precinct of the late Monastery or Priory of
Buckland, with its appurtenances.! The manor, according to
Collinson^ was subsequently sold by the Hawleys to John
Baker, Esq., Receiver General of the land-tax in the
County of Somerset, whose son Christopher sold it to
George Parker, of Boringdon, in the County of Devon,
Esq., and his decendant, John Parker, Baron Boringdon,
to the family of the present possessor.
Thus have we traced the history of this interesting spot,
from its original selection for the abode of a Religious Com
munity, through ages of dutiful attention to the grand
objects for the advancement of which it was so chosen,
of varying fortune and frequent struggle, down to its
violent alienation from those objects and its compulsory
separation from the Society with which they were con-
* Orig. 2 Edw. VI. p. 1. rot. xlv. Pat. 2 Edw. VI, p. 1, m. (11) 35.
Add. MS. B.M. 6367, f. 30. Appendix, No. XXIV.
t Trin. Rec. 9 Jao. i. rot. oxii.
X Vol. in. p. 99.

PRIORY AND PRECEPTORY. 87
nected. The present appearance of the place gives very
little indication of the former of these associations. Various
fragments, indeed, of an older structure, as plinth mould
ings and similar remains, are noticeable in the more ancient
of the farm buildings, and there still exists a barn with
some buttresses of the late Perpendicular period. Nothing,
however, that I noticed, connected with the structure
itself, is necessarily earlier than the sixteenth century, and
accordingly all that is now visible may have formed no part
of the conventual edifices, but have been the work of the
first intruders to accommodate the place to their own
purposes. Apart from the Ponds, already described, there
are nevertheless a few relics of monastic days, which I
have had the happiness of bringing into notice. This has not
been effected without some difficulty. On the occasion of
repeated visits I had made many and strict enquiries of the
labourers employed about the spot, and of the neighbours
in general, as to the discovery or existence of any ancient
remains either of the buildings and their ornamental acces
sories, or of the instruments, utensils, or other evidences of
the religious or domestic life of the olden possessors. For
a long time I could obtain for my queries nothing but an
uniform negative. At length one of a large body of farm
servants set me upon the track of possessing myself of the
rings of which mention has already been made, and even
tually succeeded in recollecting that several large grave
stones with illegible inscriptions had been dug up many years
before — it was in 1836 — from three to four feet under the
surface of what is now the kitchen garden of the mansion.
These after a long search I had at length the gratification
of recovering. It is clear, from several previous notices,*
* Seepr. 11, 27,37,74.

88 MYNCHIN BUCKLAND
that thera were two Churches appropriated to the adjacent
Societies, the greater belonging to the Prioress and her
Sisters, and dedicated to the Blessed Virgin and S.
Nicholas, the less in the possession of the Preceptor and
his Brethren. In which of them the remains thus brought
to light originally found a place, or whether in the church
yard, also previously mentioned, it is now of course
impossible to determine. The Priory Church, however,
as I hinted in a former page, would appear to have been
their most probable locality. The most ancient was a
portion of an incised slab, (see the figure) with a few
Lombardic characters all but obliterated : —
* : ifcflB '$ ******* (EiLflE : *
The next was a fragment of the fifteenth century, com
mencing with $Dnttt ptO, immediately after which came
the envious fracture that prevented all identification of it
with theold worthy whose memory it was intended to immor
talize. ('/See the figure.) Parts of four letters of a second line
remained — lattu — no doubt the last syllable of the name of
the House — thus : — 2Drate pro
lanD
A third fragment, of the same period as the last, read
\>pitittut d
The former line had its two concluding letters imperfect, but
represented, perhaps, a part of the word " Schereborn;" the
latter was evidently a portion of the well known formula.
C<See the figure.) There was yet another memorial, and that
of a most touching character. It was the only one that was
found entire, and had accordingly been taken some care of

PRIORY AND PRECEPTORY. 89
and placed in a cellar. Nothing, however, was known of it,
except that it had upon it a number of old letters which
nobody could read. I duly obtained leave, most cour
teously accorded by the tenant of the mansion, to examine
the mysterious relic; and, after transporting a range of
brewing utensils which were marshalled upon it, discovered
at length the object of my search covered with the dust
that many years during which it had been untouched had
collected on its surface. This was soon removed, and I
was then most amply rewarded for my labour. The object
brought to light was a noble incised slab, (see the figure)
about seven feet long by four feet broad, of thirteenth or
early fourteenth century work, in commemoration, as I
conjecture, of a deceased Prioress. A very beautiful
Lombardic cross occupied the centre, on either side of
which was one line of the inscription, almost as sharply
defined as when it left the hand of the old workman: —
&<EflDKaiL3I(EiBS3DKSD<IEaC3r;8JiBffi«1|.a:
31€i^ma3]^<£©3|3D^<£KC3|;3 spatii
" Sister Alienor of Actune lies here, on whose soul God
have mercy. Amen." The epitaph is slightly abbreviated
from the more usual formula, but the letters are remarkably
fine, and the whole is of a truly artistic character. This,
however, we may consider its least interesting peculiarity.
It is eloquent of something higher than even Christian art,
how noble and beautiful soever. Who Sister Alienor of
Actune was, although this is not forgotten elsewhere, is
now, I fear, beyond the power of the genealogist to dis
cover for us and declare. But this venerable gravestone,
disinterred from its long night of centuries, has once more
made the world acquainted with her name, and will now,
doubtless, through her unworthy remembrancer, do so to a
M

90 MYNCHIN BUCKLAND
far wider extent than it ever transmitted it before. Such
publicity will not now interfere with her repose. And
that which has at length furnished so graceful a memorial
of her is surpassingly worthy of reverent remark. It is a
silent and yet speaking witness of one who " did what she
could " in her ancient day ; who, perhaps with much to
discourage and distress her, laboured and fainted not in
her high resolve; and at length, when human toils were
over, entered into that rest for which, it cannot be too
much to imagine, her life in this sacred home very emi
nently tended to prepare her. Nor shall I, as I hope, be
considered fanciful in adding, that it may symbolize also
the System with which it was connected — buried, past,
and gone — yet preservative, and indeed full, of beautiful
forms and holy thoughts for those who will reverently
examine it and wipe away the dust that has settled upon
its surface, and trace, as they so well may, its distinguishing
lines, telling at once of the Cross which was its centre, the
union which was its strength, and the hope of final mercy
which was alike its mainstay and its reward.

PRIORY AND PRECEPTORY. 91

APPENDIX

No. I.
[MS. Cott. Tib. E. ix, f. 23.]
.... ande. Wms de Erlegh p' salute a'ie Henrici
Regis et Ael  sui R' Henric' & alioru' filioru'
& filiaru' suaru'  cone' eis totam de Buckland &
ecc' de Pereton'  plantand' & ordinand' p'
manu' Tho: Archep'i Avun  religionem apud
Buckland &° cu' usu eccl'aru & 
[MS. in Off. Armor, L. 17, f. 141.]
Anno d'nice incarnationis 1434 hunc libra' taliter
co'pilauit frater Joh'es Stillingflete de no'ib' fundator'
hospitalis s'ci Joh'is Jerusalem in Anglia &c.
[MS. in Off. Armor, L. 17, f. 153.]
Bukland. Will'ms de Erlegh p' salute ai'e Regis
Henrici & Alienore Regine & filij sui Regis Henrici &
alior' filior' & filiar' suar' p' remedio ai'e ip'ius Will'mi
& vxoris sue dedit tota' t'ra' de Buklande & ecclia' de
Perreton' cu' alijs ecclijs et t'ris suis in diu's' loc' vt pat'
p' carta' inde confecta' ad plantandu' & ordinandu' p'
manu' Thome archidiaconi a'uncli ip'ius Will'mi de Erlegh
Religione' apud Bukland & qd iid'm Cano'ici
sic plantati et ordinati in eodem loco p'dc'as t'ras & eccl'ias
in vsus suos p'p'os in pura' p'petua' elemosina'
possiderent.

92 MYNCHIN BUCKLAND
No. II.
[MS. Cott. Tib. E. ix, f. 23.]
Will'ms d' Erlegh p'dict' dn's de Driston dedit ad
edificand' domu' de B  cu' eccl'ia de Pereton, cu'
o'ib' capellis membris &c. s's ecc' de Chedsey . . . o'i
jure q'd fres' he'nt in eccl'ia de Pouiett cu' capella de
Huntwrth & Newton Comitis & de Thurlackston & de
Sirdeston & de Newton & eccl'ia de Bekynton & de
Kynm'sdon & de Sirston &c.
[MS. in Coll. Armor, L. 17, f. 153b.]
Will'mus de Erlegh p'dc'us dn's de Driston dedit ad
edifica'da' domu' de Bukland cu' eccl'ia Pereton cu' om'ib'
membris capellis & p'tin' suis s' eccl'ia' de Chedsey q' est
me'bru' eius & cu' om'i iure qd ff'res hospital' h'nt v'l habere
debebu't in eccl'ia de Poulet no'ie eccl'ie de Pereton cu'
capella de Huntworth & capella de Neweton Comit' & capella
de Thurlakeston & capella d' Sirdeston & capella de Neweton
Regis & dedit eccl'ia' de Bekynton' cu' om'ib' p'tin' &
ecclia' de Kynm'sdon ac ecclia' de Sirston cu' alijs pl'rib'
t'ris & bonis.

No. III.
[MS. in Coll. Arm, L. 17, f. 155.]
Ip'e (Henricus Rex Anglie II.) ecia' confirmauit domu'
de Bukland vt sorores ib'm & non alibi remanerent.
[MS. Cott. Tib. E. ix, f. 23.]
Qui tamen religiosi p' interfecc'oe cuiusdam Scenesca
 ipi'us Will'i d' Erlegh dn's Henric' Rex 2
fecit eos .... Napoli tunc p'or hospit de Sfi Johis
J'r'm in Angl ap  multoru' et Anglie
p'ceru' p' collocandis ib'm soror . . . . ut fr'es p'd ci
in nullo alio loco in Angl' retin'  nisi
in domo de Buckland. [MS. in Coll. Armor, L. 17, f. 155,]
Quos quid'm Cano'icos postea p' plures annos p' eor"
culpa & fbrisfactura, eo videl't quod quendam senescallu'

PRIORY AND PRECEPTORY. 93
suu' consangu'em Will'mi de Erlegh int'fesseru't [interfece-
runt] dn's Rex Henricus IIs p' tunc existens fecit amoueri,
et f'ri Garn'io de Neapoli tunc p'ori Hospitalis sc'i Johis
Jher'Im in Anglia apud London consensu Rad'i Cantuar'
archei'pi & Reginald' Bathon' e'pi & multor' p'cer' Anglie
tam cl'icor' qam laicor' easd'm t'ras & ecclecias p' collocandis
ib'm sororibus donauit ac confirmauit circa aos dni Mill'mo
cm lxxxm sub conuenco'ne videli't qd id'm p'or seu sui
successores in nulla alia domo sua in Anglia retineret
sorores sui ordinus [ordinis] n' in p'dc'a domo de Bukland.

No. IV.
[MS. Cott. Tib. E. IX, f. 23.]
Que quidem sorores aliq  in domibus
p'tic'laribus &° Canonicos p'dctos in 
prior tamen p'dict' consensu Regio decolla . . . fecit
sorores  [MS. in Coll. Armor, L. 17, f. 153.]
Que quid'm sorores olim sp' suu' morabant viz apud
Hamton iuxta Kyngeston apud Kerebrooke & Swynfeld
& alijs loc'. Deinde frat' Garnerius p'dcus p'or de consensu
regio eosd'm cano'icos tres viz in domu' hospital' p'd'ci ad
petic'one' eor' suscepit et h'itu' eiusd'm hospital' tribuit &
duos in p'oratu' de Tanton ac vnu' in p'oratu' de Berlith &
vnu' in monast'iu' sc'i Barth'i de Smithfield apud London
Reginaldus ep'us Bathon' p'dc'us ip'is hec petentib' &
obtantib' in Religione cano'icor' recipi fecit. Postmodu'
vero hijs p'act' p'fatus ffrat' Garnarius p'or sorores in diu's'
p'cept'ijs ordinis sui in Anglia vt p'd'cit' existentes vt p'dicit'
congregari & apd Bukland de consensu ac volu'tate Regio
necnon consensu om'i quor' int'fuit collocari fecit videl't
sororem Milsante' apud Standon sororem Joh'am apud
Hamton sororem Basilia' apud Kerebrooke sororem Ama-
biliam & sorore' Amisia' de Malketon' apud Shenegey
sorore' Xpmam d' Hoggeshawe apud Hoggeshawe sorore'
Petronillam apud Gosford et sororem Agnetam apud
Clanefelde vt in eod'm loco de Buckland eod'm sorores &
sue succ' deo inp'p'm deseruirent.

94 MYNCHIN BUCKLAND
No. V.
[MS. Cott. Nero, E. vi, f. 467b.]
Nomina Prioru' Hospitalis Sancti Joh'is Jerl'm in Anglia.
Frat' Garnarius de Neapoli erat primus Prior tempore
fundaco'is Soror' domus de Bukland temp'e Regis Henrici
sc'di qui congregauit sorores tunc p' diu'sa loca disp'sas ac
temp'e d'ne ffine prime Priorisse ib'm que Priorissa vixit
in ip'o statu lx annis. Iste erat Prior p' pl'res annos ante
passionem Sc'i Thome Martiris & obijt vltimo die Augusti.
Frat' Ric'us de Turk Prior temp'e eiusdem Priorisse
obijt xijmo die Augusti.
Frat' Rad'us de Dyna Prior temp'e eiusdem Priorisse
obijt xiijmo die Maij.
Frat' Gilb'tus de Veer Prior temp'e eiusdem Priorisse
dedit sororib' domus . . . Bukland cs annue pens :
exeunt, de man'io de Reynham & obiit xiijm0 die Augusti.
Frat' Hugo de Alneto Prior temp'e eiusdem Priorisse
obijt xxiij0 die Nouembr'.
Frat' Alanus Prior & Ep'us de Bangor temp'e eiusdem
Priorisse obijt xix° die Maij.
Frat' Rob' tus Thesaurarius Prior tempore eiusdem
Priorisse obijt xxvjt0 die Octobr'.
Frat' Terricus de Nussa obijt xxj° die Decembr' anno
d'ni mill'imo ccmo xxxvijmo.
Frat' Rob'tus de Maunby Prior obijt xiiij0 die mens'
Octobr'. Frat' Rog'us de Veer Prior dedit eccl'ie de Clerkenwell
vna' de sex ydrijs in quib' Jhesus conu'tit aquam in vinu'
anno d'ni milfimo ccmo lxix0 & obijt xv die ffebruar1 anno
d'ni mill'imo ccmo lxx°.
Frat' Petrus de Hakham Prior tempore Regis E. primi
obijt xj° die Januar'.
Frat' Simon Botard Prior obijt iij° die Maij.
Frat' Helyas Smethton Prior obijt xxvij die April'.
Fiat' Steph'us ffulburn Prior obijt primo die Januar'.
Frat' Joseph Chauncy Prior obijt xix° die Maij. Iste
fieri fecit capellam d'ni Prioris in domo de Clerkenwell
temp'e, E. p'ini a conquestu.
Frat' Walterus Prior adquisiuit p'ceptorias de Quenyng-
ton & Shenegey & plures terras & ten' & obijt xxviij0 [?]
die Auo-usti.

PRIORY AND PRECEPTORY. 95
Frat' Will's de Haunle Prior fieri fecit claustrum de
Clerkenwell anno d'ni mill'imo ccmo lxxxiiij'0 et regni regis
E. primi xij° et obijt iiijt0 die ffebruar' anno d'ni supad'co.
Frat' Ric'us Pauley Prior tempore Regis E. filij E. obijt
iij° die Augusti.
Frat' Rob'tus de Dyna Prior obijt xxiiijt0 die Nouembr'.
Frat' Will's Tothall Prior obijt xij° die Octobr' anno
d'ni mill'imo cccmo xviij0 lr'a d'nicalis' D.
Frat' Thomas L'archier Prior obijt xxviij0 die Augusti
anno d'ni mill'imo cccmo xxix0 hie dedit sororib' de Bukland
xls' annuatim imp'p'm p'cipiend' de man'io de Hidon' p'tin'
ad Templecombe.
Frat' Leonardus de Tyb'tis Prior obijt vltimo die Januar'
temp'e huius bona Templarior' data sunt Hospitalarijs.

No. VI.
[MS. in Coll. Armor, L. 17, f. 148b.J
Kerebrooke. — Matildis Comitissa de Clare vxor Will'i

comit' de Clare ac mat' Ric'i comit' de Clare dedit

 so'rib' dom' de Bukland xiijs iiijd solvend' annuati'
p' man' p'ceptoris ib'm p'o temp'e existent' & alia pl'ra
bona Hec donac'o f 'ca fuit apud Westmon'. a0 qui'to rr'
Ric'i p'mi & a0 d'ni mill'mo c' Ixxxxij0 & tempore ff'ris Ala'
p'oris hospitalis in Anglia & Ep'i de Bangor.

No. VII.
will be found included in No. V.

No. VIII.
[MS. Cott. Tib. E. ix, f. 23.]
Deinde frater Hugo de AIneto p'or hospit p'd' consensu
fr  d'ne Lorette comitisse Leicestrie ad
inveniend' j fre'm Capella . . . celebrantem missam
gloriose Virginis ; s's in excambio p' ter' alijs ....
[MS. in Coll. Armor, L. 17, f. 153b.]
Deinde ffrat' Hugo de AIneto p'or Hospital' p'dci de co'i
consensu & volluntate ffr'm capituli concessit dn'e Lorrette

96 MYNCHIN BUCKLAND
comitisse Leycestrie ad inveniendu' vnu' ffr'm capellanu'
cotidie celebrat'um missa' gloriose virginis Maria [Marie]
eccl'ia Soror' p'dcar' p' c'tis t'ris redit' alijs que p'dca comi-
tissa contulit domui hospital' sc'i Joh'is in p'p'os vsus soror'
p'dcar' de Bukland conuertend' Ita qd p'd'ctus ffrat' capel-
lanus nulli alij s'uic'o deputabit' n' p'p'e gloriose v'ginis
minist'io in eccl'ia p'd'ca.

No. IX.
[Cart. 11 Hen. Ill, p. 2, m. 6.]
P' Hospital' de Bocland. Rex &c. salt'. Inspeximus
cartam Lorette quonda' Comitisse Leycestr' f'cam D'o &
b'e Marie & s'co Joh'i Bapt'e & b'atis paup'ib' s'ce domus
hospital' Ierosol' ad sust'ntaco'em sorror' de Bocland * *
in h' uerba. Not' sit om'ib' X'pi fidelib' tam p'sentib' qa'
futuris hoc script' visuris v'l audituris q'd ego Loretta
comitissa Leycestr' dedi & concessi D'o & b'e Marie & sc'o
Joh'i Bapt'e & b'is paup'ib' domus hospital' Ierosol* ad
sust'ntaco'em soror' de Boclaund D'o s'uienciu' & ad
inueniend' quendam cap'll'm fr'em in eade' domo qui cotidie
& p'petuo missam in honore b'e Virginis Marie i' maiori
eccl'ia ap' Bokland. ad altare b'e Virginis celebret p' salute
anime mee & d'ni Rob'i viri mei Com' quonda' Leicestr'
& p' salute a'iar' p'ris & m'ris mee & om'iu' ancessor' &
successor' meor' tota' t'ram meam de Noteston' & totam
t'ram meam de Ynesford exa aqam &¦ vlta aqam & Ixiiij
acas de d'nico meo sup' Ruwedon' & totam t'ram meam
de Ridescot' & de Hele & de Chorlecot' & de Tunecot'.
& de Boteburn' & totam t'ram qa' tenet Philipp' at Viam
cu' ho'ib' p'd'cas t'ras tenentib'. & p't'ea cent' acas de d'nico
meo in Frem'esmore & boscu' meu' qui uocat' Ancrwd' &
vnu' ferling' ad Roitheye cu' om'ib' p'tin' suis in man'io de
Toustok cu' pasturis & om'ib' aliis ad p'd'cas t'ras p'tin'tib'.
Et p't'ea om'imoda' com'unam int' ten'ta mea vbiq' lib'e &
* h'end' & possidend' in p'petuam & purarn elemosina' sic'
ulla elemos' lib'ius & quiecius dari potest. & vt h' mea
donac'o futuris temp'ib' p'petue firmitatis robur optineat.
earn p'sentis scrp' munimi'e cu' sigilli mei app'oe dign' duxi
roborare. Hiis testib'. Mag'ro Lamb'to subdecano Wal'nsi
d'no Philippo de Alben'. d'no Rog'o de La Cuche. Ada' fiP

PRIORY AND PRECEPTORY. 97
Hondebrand' Mag'ro Vmfr' Canon Cycestr' Mag'ro Regin'
de Mereston'. Will'o capell'o de Bukingeh'. Walt'o cl'rico
de Langeh'. Thom' cl'rico de Glouecestr'. Nich' de Wyleya.
& aliis. N03 hanc donat' & concessione' rata' & gatas
h'entes. p'd'co hospitali & sororib' p'd'cis earn p' nob' &
h'edib' n'ris concedim' & co'firmamus. T. ut supa Dat' ut
supa. (Daf p' manu' R. Cycestr' ep'i &c. ap' Westm. xvj
die Jul' anno &c. xj°.)

No. X.

[MS. Cott. Tib. E: ix, f. 23.]
Rad' filius Will'mi de Bremerye dedit Sororib' p'd' ecc'
de T'oland. Alan' filius Ant'i Russell ecclam de Danington
in dioc. Line. Warin' de Aula, Budescombe &c.
Ascuid Musard Chiltcombe Wysangr & Bochelcotte.
Rob'tus Arundale Halse &c.
[MS. in Coll. Armor, L. 17, f. 153b.]
Rad'us filius Will'i de Briwere dedit sororib' ib'm ecclia'
de Toland cu' p"tin'.
Alanus filius Ant'i Russell dedit ecclia' de Donington
in dioc' Lyncolne p'tin' eisd'm.
Warinus de Aula dedit Bodescombe p'tin' eisd'm
sororibus. Ascuid Musard dedit Chiltcombe Wysangre & Bochel-
cote. Rob'tus Arundale dedit Halse c'm p'tin.

No. XL

[Pat. 12 Hen. Ill, m. 2.]
P' sororib' de Bocland. — D'ns R' i'tuitu D'i co'cessit
sororib' de ordine Hospital S'ci Joh'is J'rlm ap' Bocland
d'o s'uientib' & s'uit'is qd singul' sept' capiant i' p'co d'ni
R' de Neuton de mortuo bosco eiusd' p'ci vna' carectatam
busce ad focu' suu'. Et q' compete'tius i' estate qa' i'
hyeme cape' pot'nt p'dc'am busca', co'cessit eis d'ns R'
N

98 MYNCHIN BUCKLAND
q'd a Pasch' usq' ad festu' S'ci Pet' ad Vincula busca'
p'dcam capiant i' p'dco p'co ad num'm carectar' q' de toto
anno eis compet'nt scd'm concess' n'ram p'dcam. In cui'
&c. T. R. ap. Neubir' iij die Aug'.
Et mand' Ric'o de Wrotha' qd eas p'd'cam busca' cap'e
p'mittat sic' p'dc'm est. T'. ut sa-

No. XII.
[MS. in Coll. Armor, L. 17, f. 153.]
Deinde ffrat' Terricus de Mussa p'or hospital' p'dci de
concilio ffr'm gen'alis capit'li dedit d'cis sororib' de Bukland
& successorib' suis xxxta & octo marcas duodecim solidos
& octo denarios st'lingor' annuati' recipiend' inp'p'm ad
duos anni t'minos viz ad f 'm pasche decern & noue' ma'cas
sex solidos & quatuor denarios de p'ceptore d' Bukland
qui p' tempore fu'it ita qd p'ceptor de p'dcis xxxviij ma'c'
xijs & viijd a d'co Terrico & successoribus suis h'ebit
al'locac'one' sup' responc'one sua soluenda.

No. XIII.
[MS. Cott. Tib. E. ix, f. 23.]
Consequent? fr' Rog'us de Ver p'or hospit'lis p'dict in
adventu suo ad  p' statu dom' ordinavit &e.
[MS. in Coll. Armor, L. 17, f. 153b.]
Consequent' v° ffrat' Roge'us de Ver p'or hospital' p'd'ci
in aduentu suo ad Bukland p' statu domus videndo invenit
distancia' & discordia' int' p'iorem p'ceptorem & p'orissa'
ac conuentu' dom' de Bukland p' diu's' reb' d'cas priorissa'
& sorores tangentib' et assensu capit'li sui de Melcheburn
ad p'petua' pace' int' ip'os s'uanda' ordinauit int' cet'a qd
p'dc'e p'orissa & conuentus h'ebunt senscallu' suu' ad
mensa' p'ceptoris & unu' garc'one' sedentem cu' garconib'
p'ceptoris & erit ibi cotidie in mensa nisi dux'it h'ue s'm
dicti senescalli & ad f'm sc'i Mich'is cu' tinere volu'it
senescallus curia' de la hele h'ebit de selario qui'q' albos
panes & costrellos suos plenos s'uicie et ad id'm f'm p' cur'
de Kynm'sdon d' Primmilegh tenend' h'ebit totid'm & ad le

PRIORY AND PRECEPTORY. 99
hokeday totide' equitatura' vero & om'ia alia necc'ia h'ebit
de lib'ac'oe & ordinaco'e p'orissa [p'orisse] & conuent,'. Et
si in aliquo deliquerit, licebit p'orisse ea' [euJ] defendere ne
de bonis ear' int°mittat sed non eu' remouere absq' p'ore.
It'm h'ebunt saserdote' s'clarem ad celebrandu' p' ani'a
Sororis ffine quondam p'orisse ib'm & a'iab' fundator' &
b'nfactor' d'ce dom' qui erit in mensa cu' ffrib' & lectu' in
thalamo int' sas'dotes & cl'icos & p' relicu' tempus scd'm
dispoco'ne' p'orisse ita qd p'ceptor he'at allocacone' de quinq'
marcr' p' mensa d'ci sacerdot' & ecia' vni' ffris celebrant'
missa' be' Marie & ecia' tres solidos ad f'm sc'i Mich'is p'
cl'ico de capella.

No. XIV.
[MS. in Coll. Armor, L. 17, f. 156.]
Edwardus Rex Anglie a conquestu p'mus concessit

vnu' mercatu' singul' sept' p' die' Lune apud Man'iu' suu'
de Halse in Com' Som's.
[Cart. 18 Edvr. I, m. 19, n. 80.]
P' P'ore hospitalis S'ci Joh'is Je'rlm in Angl'. R'
archiep'is &c. salt'm. Sciatis nos concessisse & hac carta
n'ra confirmasse dil'co nob' in X'po f 'ri Will'o de Henleye
Priori Hospital' S'ci Joh'is Jer'lm in Angl' q'd ipe &
successores sui imp'petuu' h'eant vnum m'catum sing'lis
septimanis p' diem Lune apud man'ium suu' de Hause in
Com' Som's'. Nisi m'catum illud sit ad nocumentu' vicinar'
m'cator'. Concessim' eciam &c.  Quare volum' & firmit'
p'cipim' p' nob' & h'edib' n'ris q'd p'dcus Prior & succes
sores sui imp'petuu' h'eant. p'd'cm m'catu' apud man'ium
suu' de Hause cu' om'ib' lib'tatib' & lib'is consuetudinib'
ad hui'modi m'catum p'tinentib'. Nisi &c.  Hiis
testib' ven'abilib' p'rib' G. Wygorn' R. Bathon' & Wellen.
A. Dunolmens' & Th. Meneuens' Ep'is. Edmundo fr'e n'ro.
Will'o de Valencia auunc'lo n'ro. Gilb'to de Clare Com'
Glouc' & H'tf '. Henrico de Lacy comite Line'. Humfrido
de Bohun comite Heref & Essex. Rog'o de Bigod comite
Norf & Marescallo Angl'. Ottone de Grandisono. Petro
de Chaumpnent. Ric'o de Bosco & aliis. Dat' p' manu'
n'ram apud Westm. vj die Maij.

100 MYNCHIN BUCKLAND
No. XV.
will be found included in No. V.

No. XVI.
[MS. Harl. 6965, p. 17.]
Official. Cur. Cant, dicreto viro mag'ro Ric'o de Thistel-
den officiali d'ni Radulphi ep'i Bath. & Well, salut. Ex
parte religiosorum viroru' Prioris & fr'um Hosp. sci Joh.
Jer'lm in Angl. nobis extitit intiinatum qd cu' vos preten-
deretis prefatos religiosos ad exhibendu' titulu' si quem
haberent in ecc'lis de Northpederton, Durston, Halse,
Bromfild, & Kynemersden, Bath. & Well. dioc. quas in
usus proprios canoniei possidebant, & possiderant ab antiquo,
& ad prestand' vener. p'ri pred'co obedientiam rac'oe
eccli'aru' pred'carum coram vobis d'ci p'ris commissario
speciali ad judiciu' evocatos pars eorundem religiosoru' cora'
vobis in judiciu' sufficienter comparens, ut sibi copiam
commissionis & certificatorij citaco'is p' vos in hac parte
pretensarum fieri faceretis, a vobis cum instantia debita
postulavit, sed vos ¦>  effectualiter exaudire, aut copiam
hujusmodi eidem facere non curastis, sed d'cos religiosos
contumaces, cu' non essent, pronunciastis, ipsosq'  in
immoderata pecunie summa mulctastis, ipsamq' mulctam a
preceptore f'ribus & sororibus domus d'corum religiosoru'
de Boclaunde d'ce dioc. levanda' fieri decrevistis & levari
mandastis &c. appellatu' ad sede' Ap'licam,  quare
vobis inhibemus  ne pendente in Cur. Cant, hujusmodi
negotio quicquam hac occasione in d'ce partis appellantis
prejudiciu' attemptetis &c. dat. Lond. 6 Kal. Oct. [1329.]

No. XVII.
[MS. in Coll. Armor, L. 17, f. 156b.]
Henric' Rex Anglie iij' [iiij'] ampliauit & pleniu' decla-
rauit carta' qam Henric' Rex Anglie p'genitor suus concessit
p'orisse & sororib' domus de Bukeland videli't qd ip'e
quali't septi'ana imp'p'm cap'ent in p'co suo de Pederton
tres carectatas busce p' focali suo & ista v'ba tres carectatas

PRIORY AND PRECEPTORY. 101
busce de spinis alno & arabil' ad focu' suu' & postea
inveniab'tr qd p'd'ce p'orissa & sorores non erant capaces
d'ce concessionis eo qd sunt obedienciare P'oris Hospital'
S'ci Joh'is Jher'lm in Anglia i'o custodes d'ni Regis i'bm
d'cam concessione' h'ere non p'misit. Quare Rex Henric'
qartus p'd'cus de gra' sp'ali a0 sui x° concessit p' salute a'ie
sue ac Joh'ne consort' sue ncnon Maria [Marie] consort'
sue defuncte qd p'or Hospital' & succ' sui imp'p'm p' se &
s'uient' suos de Buk' p'cipiant quali't septi'ana iij carectatas
subbosci infra p'cu' suu' de Pederton viz Thorn aller mapell
& hasell ad vsum & p'ficuu' d'car' P'orisse & soror' & succ'
suar' imp'p'm. Et qd queli't carectata subbosci p'd'ci
existat de tractu sex equor' & qd ip'i p'st'nant succidant &
carient ad voluntate' sua' subboscu' p'dcu' quol't a0 a festo
An'unc' be' Marie vsq' f'm Omi' Scor' qd antea erat
concess' eis a Pasca vsq' f'm S'ci Petri ad uincula
absq' impedimento seu p'turbac'one aliquali ofnciarior'
d'ni Regis. [Pat. 10 Hen. IV, p. 1, m. 19]
P' Priorissa & sororib' de Bucland. R' om'ib' ad quos
&c. sal'tm. Sciatis q'd cum dil'ce nob' in Xpo Priorissa
& sorores ordinis hospitalis S'ci Joh'is Jer'lm de Bucland
nobis monstrau'int qualit' nobilis p'genitor n'r Henr' nup'
Rex Angl' p' cartam suam quam confirmauim' concessit
sororib' domus p'dce tunc deo s'uientib' & s'uituris qd ip'e
quali't septimana imp'pm cap'ent in parco suo de Perton
iam vocato Pederton tres carectatas busce p' focali suo p'
ista v'ba tres carectatas busce de spinis alno & arabl' ad
focum suu' ac p' eo qd competencius extitit ad capiend'
buscam p'dcam in estate qam in yeme concessit eis qd ip'e
cap'ent buscam p'dcam in parco p'dco a Pascha vsq' festum
S'ci Petri ad vincula ad num'u' carectar' que eis de toto
anno p'tinerent iuxta concessionem p'dcam p'ut in carta &
confirmac'oe p'dcis plenius continet' qd q' vigore conces
sionis & confirmac'ois p'dcar' p'fate Priorissa & sorores in
pacifica omn' p'dcar' carectar' busce infra parcum p'dcm
annuatim p'ut in concessione & confirmac'oe p'dcis fit
mencio a tempore confecco'is ear'dem extiterunt absq'
aliquo impedimento seu gauamine n'ri vel p'genitor' n'ror'
p'dcor' aut custodum parci p'dci qui p' tempore fuerunt
seu alior' ministror' vel officiarior' ibidem quor'cumq'

102 MYNCHIN BUCKLAND
quousq' iam tarde q'd nunc custos n'r ibidem ipas buscam
p'dcam aut aliquam parcellam eiusdem iuxta concessionem
& confirmacoem p'dcas h'ere non p'misit p' eo qd p'dce
Priorissa & sorores sunt obedienciarie Priori hospitalis S'ci
Joh'is Jer'lm in Angl' ac qd ip'e p'sone capaces p'ut p'dcus
custos sup' ip'as imponit non existunt. Vnde nob' suppli-
carunt sibi p' nos de gra' & remedio in hac parte p'uideri.
Nos de gra' n'ra sp'ali & ad effc'm qd p'dce Priorisa &
sorores p' salubri statu n'ro ac carissime consortis n're
Johanne dum vixim' & p' a'iab' n'ris cum ab hac luce
migau'im' necnon p' a'ia carissime consortis n're Marie
defuncte deuocius exorent & qd om'imoda ambiguitas &
dubia hui' v'bor' de spinis alno & arabl' in concessione
p'dca specificator' amoueant' concessim' p' nobis & heredib'
n'ris quantum in nob' est Walt'o Grendon Priori d'ci
hospitalis S'ci Joh'is Jerl'm in Angl' & successorib' suis
impp'm qd ip'e & successores sui p' se & s'uientes suos d'ci
hospitalis de Bucland h'eant & p'cipiant quali't septimana
tres carectatas subbosci infra boscum n'nn p'dcm siue
Parcum de Pederton videl't thorn aller mapel & hasell ad
vsum & p'ficuu' p'dcar' Priorisse & soror' & successor' suar'
impp'm et q'd quel't carectata subbosci p'dci de tractu sex
equor' existit q'dq' p'fatus Prior & successores sui p'dci vel
s'uientes sui p'dci h'eant & p'cipiant p'dcas tres carectatas
subbosci vt p'dcm est impp'm & qd ip'i p'sternant succidant
& carient ad voluntatem suam subboscum p'dcm p' focali
p'dcar' Priorisse & soror' & successor' suar' quol't anno a
festo Anunciaco'is b'e Marie vsq' festum O'im Scor' ad
num'u' carectar' que eis aut successorib' suis p' totu' annu'
p'tinebunt absq' p't'baco'e impedimento seu gauamine n'ri
vel heredum n'ror' aut Custodis n'ri d'ci bosci n'ri vel parci
seu alt'ius officiary siue ministri n'ri vel heredum n'ror
quor'cumq'. In cuius &c. T. R. apud West'm xiiij die
Nouemb'i. p' b're de priuato sig'.

No. XVIII.
[MS. Lansd. 200, ff. lxxxiiii, Ixxxiiii b.J
Assemblia tent' in domo de Clerkenwel xx die January,
1500, P'ntib' ib'm p'sonal'r Rd0 d. p'ori ffr' Jo. Kendal, ff. II .

PRIORY AND PRECEPTORY. 103
Hawley. ff. B. Pek. ff. Ro. Dauson. ff. T. Newport, ff. Ro.
Danyel. ff. A. Chetwod. ff. Jo. Tonge. ff. Jo. Bowth. &
ffr. Will'o Darel P'ceptrib' —
Om'ib' X'pi fidelibus ad quos p'sens scriptum Indenta-
tum peruen'it ffrater Joh'es Kendall Prior Hospit'lis Sancti
Joh'is J'rlm in Anglia Et eiusdem P'oris Conf'res Salt'm
in d'no sempit'na'. Sciatis nos p'fatos Priorem & conf'res
vna'mi nostris assensu et consensu tradidisse et ad firma'
dimisisse Joh'i Vernay de ffarefelde in Com' Som's' armigero
preceptoria' n'ram de Buclande Prioris in dicto Com' cu'
manerijs de Bodmescomb et Cove in Com' Deuon' eidem
p'ceptorie p'tinentib' et cu' om'ib' et sing'lis alijs dominijs
t'ris et ten'tis pratis pascuis et pasturis redditib' et s'uicijs
conf'rijs in Com' Som's' & Deuon' curijs cu' ear' p'ficujs
decimis oblaco'ib' bonis et catallis felonu' et fugitiuor' et
cu' om'ib' alijs libertatib' emolimentis et com'oditatib'
quibuscuq' ad d'cam p'ceptoria' qualit'cumq' spectantib'
et p'tinentib' Boscis & subboscis aduocac'onib' Eccl'iar'
wardis maritagijs & releuijs duntaxat exceptis Ac nobis
p'fato Priori et succ' n'ris om'ino res'uat' Habend' &
tenend' predicta' p'ceptoria' cu' om'ib' suis p'tinen' p'dict'
except' p'except' p'fato Joh'i Vernay et assignatis suis a
festo Natiuitatis Sc'i Joh'is Bapte prox' futur' post data'
p'sens' vsq' ad fine' et term' Triginta annor' extu'c p'x'
sequens et plenarie complendor' Reddendo inde antim
nobis p'fato P'ori et succ' n'ris apud thesauria' n'ram de
Clerkenwell p'pe London Nonaginta et tres libras sex solidos
& octo denarios sterlingor' ad festa Purificaco'is b'te Marie
Virginis et S'ci Barnabe ap'li equis porc'onib' durante
termi'o p'dicto It'm p'dictus ffirmarius et assignati sui
sumptib' suis p'prijs tenebu't debita' et honesta' hospitali-
tatem infra dicta' p'ceptoria' Necno' sumptib' suis inuenient
scd'm antiqua' consuetudine' quinq' Capellanos videlic'
duos Capellanos de cruce vel alios duos quos nos p'dictus
Prior vel succ' n'ri deputabimus infra Eccl'iam de Buclande
priorissa vnu' Capellanu' infra capella' p'ceptorie ib'm
vnu' Capellanu' apud Bodmescomb' et vnu' Capellanu'
apud Durston diuina continuo ib'm celebraturos durante
termi'o p'dicto Necnon victu' et camera' pro vno Cap0
d'ce priorisse atq' victu' pro seniscallo domus eiusd'm
Priorisse et p' famulo suo cu' duob' bigat' feni antim eod'm
termi'o durante Prouiso semp' q' dictus ffirmarius et

104 MYNCHIN BUCKLAND
assignati sui dabunt et soluent an41' durante dicto termi'o
d'no Alexandre Vernay capellano celebranti apud Bodmes
comb' camera' cu' focali suo ib'm et octo marcas sterlingor'
no'ie stipendij sui et pro victu et vestitu suo sc'dm tenore'
carte sub sigillo n'ro com'j eid'm d'no Alexandre facte pro
termi'o vite sue. It'm p'dictus firmarius et assignati sui
soluent priorisse et Contui de Bucland p'dict' antim p'
pensione sua consueta xxij1' atq' seniscallo curiar' dicte
p'ceptorie p'tinenciu' feodu' suu' Necnon om'ia alia on'a
ordinaria et extraordinaria dicte preceptorie incumbencia
& imponenda p'dictus ffirmarius et assign' sui supportabu't
sumptib' suis durante termi'o p'dc'o Responsionib' et
alijs subsidy's pro com'j thez0 Rhodi impositis etimponendis
du'taxat exceptis Reparabunt q' dictus firmarius et
assign' sui om'ia domos et edificia muros sepes clausuras et
fossatas dicte p'ceptorie p'tinen' durante termi'o predieto
eaq' om'ia et sing'la in fine eiusd'm term'i nobis p'fato Priori
& succ' n'ris in adeo bono statu quo ea recepit sursum
reddent et liberabunt P'uiso q' si contingat aliqua
edificia dicte p'ceptorie ad terra' propt' eor' ruinam cadere
infra dc'm term' In tali casu nos p'dictus Prior et succ' n'ri
edificia ilia nostris su'ptib' de nouo edificabim' illaq' sic
de nouo edificata p'dictus ffirmarius & assignati sui eor'
sumptib' postmodu' reparabu't et manutenebu't durante
termi'o p'dicto It'm dictus firmarius et assign' sui expensas
mi'stror' nostri p'dicti Prioris et succ' n'ror' cu' quinq' vel sex
equis venienciu' bis p' annu' ad sup'vidend' d'cam p'ceptoria'
vel ad tenend' curias ib'm vel ad renouand' rentalia et alias
evidencias per tres vel quatuor dies et tot noctes supportare
tenea'f durante termi'o p'dicto Habebunt q' dictus ffirma
rius et assign' sui housebote ffyrebote ploughbote cartbote
hedgebote harobote et ffoldebote in et de boscis ac subboscis
dicte p'ceptorie p'tinentib' p' assignaco'em mi'stror' nostri
p'dicti P'oris et succ' nostror' capiend' et in dicta p'ceptoria
rac'onabilit' et sine vasto expendend' durante termi'o p'dicto
Et bene liceb' nobis p'dicto Priori et succ' atq' mi'stris
n'ris quando nobis placu'it sup'videre dicta' p'ceptoria'
nostra' cu' suis p'tinen' Necnon tene' curias et face'
rent'lia atq' territoria terrar' et ten'tor' p'dicte preceptorie
durante termi'o p'dicto Prouiso q' dictus ffirmarius et assign'
sui habebu't et p'cipie't p'ficua d'car' Curiar' eod'm termi'o
durante dictus q' ffirmarius et assignati sui liberabu't nobis

PRIORY AND PRECEPTORY. 105
p'd'co Priori et succ' n'ris in fine d'ci terra j om'es rotulos
curiar' et rentalia tam antiqua qam noua que p'uenient ad
manus suas durante termi'o p'dicto Prouiso semp' q' non
licebit p'dicto Joh'i Vernay statum quem habet in p'dicta
p'ceptoria alicui alteri dimittere sine lice'cia nostri p'dicti
P'oris et succ' n'ror' durante termi'o p'dicto Et si con-
TINGAT dictu' an'uale' redditu' lxxxxiij11 vjs viijd sterlingor'
a retro fore in parte vel in toto et non solut' post aliquem
terminu' soluco'is sup'ius specificatu' per duos menses Tunc
bene licebit nobis predicto Priori et succ' n'ris in p' dicta'
p'ceptoria' cu' suis jurib' et pertinen' vniu's' reintrare eaq'
om'ia et sing'lavt in pristino statu n'ro retin'e p'ntidimissione
in aliquo non obstante Prouiso semp' q' cu' p'ficua Con-
fratriar' que sunt parcelle reuencionu' dicte p'ceptorie ex-
timantur ad annuale' valore' lxxxxij11: Idcirco si contingat
&m dn'm n'r'm papa' modernu' siue success' suos suspend'e
dictas confr'ias aliquo tempore durante termi'o p'ntis indenfe
Tunc p'dictus Joh'es Vernay ffirmarius et assign' sui durante
ilia suspenc'one non erunt onerati cu' dicta integra annuali
firma lxxxxiij11 vjs viijd sed du'taxat erunt computabiles sup'
eor' sacramentu' p'dicto Priori et succ' suis de tantis pecunijs
quas recipient ex nuncijs confr'iar' p'dictar' pro dictis con-
fr'ijs et de illis du'taxat pecunijs facient soluc'onem p'dicto
Priori & succ' suis dura'te suspencione p'dicta atq' de residuo
pecuniar' carente ex dicta su'ma lxxxxij11 pro confr'ijs idem
ffirmarius et assign' sui allocac'onem habebu't in p'dicta
eor' annuali firma Nonaginta et triu' librar' sex solidor'
et octo denarior' durante suspenco'e p'dicta Et ad om'es
et sing'las conuenco'es p'dictas ex parte p'dicti Joh'is
Vernay ffirmarij et assign' suor' cu' eff'tu p'implendas
idem Joh'es Vernay obligat se heredes et executores suos
p'dicto Priori & succ' suis In ducentis libris sterlingor' p'
p'sentes In cuius Rei testi'om tam sigillu' nVm co'e q'm
sigillu' p'dicti Joh'is Vernay p'ntib' indenturis alt'nati' sunt
appensa Dat' in domo n'ra de Clerkenwell prope London
in Assemblia n'ra tent' ib'm vicesimo die January a0 d'ni
Mill'mo Quingentesimo Prouiso semp' q' dictus ffirmarius
et assign' sui in ffine p'dicti term'i dimittent et liberabu't
preceptori de Buclande p'dict' p' tempore existen' om'ia
orname'ta capelle ib'm sim'l cu' to0 stauro viuo & mortuo
specificato in dorso p'nt' indenture Dat' ut supa.

106

MYNCHIN BUCKLAND

No. XIX.
[Misoell. Books, Off. Aug, vol. 245, no. 128. J
Bukelond. — Here ffoloweth the yerely pencons or anuy-
ties grauntyd by the Kinges highnes to
the late P'ores and Nunes of the late
surrendryd howse of Buckelonde in the
countie of Som'sett. And they and eu'y
of them to haue there halfe yeres penc'on
at th'anuncac'on of or ladye next cumyng
whiche shalbe in the yere of or lorde god
a thowsande fyve hundreth xxxix, and
soo from halfe yere to halfe yere during
there lyves and the lyfe of eu'y of them —
That is to say
Ffurst to Katheryn Bowser p'oresse ) 1H
x-  l  l  '  /"I

for her yerely penc'on
To Margaret Sydnam supp'ores
To Julyan Kendall
To Jone Hyll
To Anne Plumm'
To Tomysyn Huntyngton
To Katheryn Popham
To Anne Maunsell
To Mary Dodyngton
To Ales Emerforde
To Jane Babyngton
To Mary Mathew
To Agnes Mathew
To Isabell Grene
To S's Will^ Mawdesley co'fes- \ ....u
sor and p'fessyd in there order J J
Sma of the yerely pensions cvij11
Jo. Tregonwell
William Petre.

uy'1 xiij3 iiijd
iiij11 vj3 viijd
iiij11 iiij11
iiij11 iiij11
iiij11iiij11
iiij11iiij11 iiij11
iiij11 iiij11

No. XX.
[Card. Pole's Pension Book, fol. xxix.]

ffeod'

Alex'i Popham capitl' Sen11 '
ib'm p' script' Abb'is et |-
Conven' p' a'

PRIORY AND PRECEPTORY.

107

Buckeland
nup' monast'iu'

' Sup' d'ci Alex'i Popham
p' annu' . . vjJ1xiijsiiijd
Joh'nis Tregonwell p'
An' { annu' . . iiij1'
Will'i Portema' mil'

::ii

p annu

xxvp viya

Joh'nis Butler p' annu' xiij3 iiij*3

Penc' I

Johanne Hille p' annu'
Thomasine Huntingdon p'
annu'
Kat'ine Pophame p' annu'
Anne Maundefeld p' annu'
JohanneBavingtonp'annu' iiij11
Elisabeth Grene p' annu' iiiju

ny"

iiij11
iiij11iiij11

Agnes Mathewe p' annu'
Will'i Maudesley cl'ic' p'

ny"

ny1'

No. XXI.

[Abstract of Orig. 36 Hen. VIII, p. 1, r. xxxviii.]

P' Comite
Essex Jacobo Rokeby
Will'o Ibgrabe Joh'e
Cokke Edwardo Rogers
& Edwardo Bury sibi &
hered'.

Rex om'ib' ad quos &c.
salt'm Sciatis q'd nos p' sum'a
mille quadraginta nouem librar'
vndecim solictor' duor' denarior'
& vnius oboli legalis monete
Angl' ad manus &c.  p'

p'dil'c'm & fidelem consangui-
neu' & consiliariu' n'r'm Comi-
tem Essex ac p' dil'cos nob' Jacobum Rokeby armig'um
\V ill'm Ibgrabe armig'um Joh'em Cokke Edwardum Rogers
et Edwardum Bury armig'os  totam domu' &
Scitum nup' monast'ij de Buckland in Com' n'ro Som's'
modo dissoluto ac om'ia ter^ prata pasturas & heredita-
menta n'ra vocat' seu cognit' p' nomen vel p' no'i'a de
fouretene acres Newland Purches Staplehayes Roden
Lobbis Harys Horlocke Meade Hurte Meade Longe
Meade & Sixe acres Meade seu quocumq' alio no'i'e aut
quibuscumq' aliis no'ib' sciantr censeanf vel cognoscant1'
cum om'ib' ear' p'tin' modo vel nup' in tenura siue occu-

108 MYNCHIN BUCKLAND
paco'e d'ci Edwardi Rogers vel assign' suor' iacen' &
existen' in Bucklande alias diet' Buckland Soror' in d'co
Com' Som's' d'co nup' Monast'io de Buckland dudum
spectan' vel p'tinen' ac parcell' possessionu' inde existen' ac
in manib' cultura & occupaco'e p'pria nup' Priorisse illius
nup' Monast'ij de Buckland tempore dissoluco'is eiusdem
nup' Monast'ij reseruat' existen' Ac om'es illos boscos n'ros
& t'ras n'ras vocat' Riden Coppes & Wynsell Wood
continen' p' estimaco'em decern acras cum eor' p'tin'
vniu'sis in Buckland  Necnon om'ia domos edificia
horrea stabula columbaria ortos pomaria gardina t'ram &
solum n'ra quecumq' infra Scitum Septum ambitum cir-
cuitum & p'cinctum d'ci nup' Monast'ij de Buckland
existen' ac om'ia & singula co'ias vias semitas easiamenta
com'oditates p'ficua & emoluinenta quecumq' in Buckland et
Mighelchurche & Northpetherton p'dict' diet' t'ris pratis &
pasturis in Buckland & Mighelchurche p'dict' quoquo
modo spectan' vel p'tinen' & cum eisdem vsitat' seu occu-
pat' existen' Aceciam totam illam Rectoriam n'ram &
eccl'iam n'ram siue Capellam n'ram de Mighelchurche
cum p'tin' in d'co Com' n'ro Som's' d'co nup' Monast'io
de Buckland dudum spectan' & p'tinen' Necnon om'es
& om'imod' decimas blador' garbar' ganor' feni lane &
agnellor' ac alias decimas minutas ac oblaco'es obuenco'es
& p'ficua quecumq' in Mighelchurche & Buckland p'd'eis
& alibi vbicumq' d'ee Rectorie et eccl'ie siue Capelle de
Mighelchurche quoquo modo spectan' vel p'tinen' 
Et que quidem Scitus d'ci nup' Monast'ij de Buckland ac
p'dict' terr' prata pascue pastur' decime ac cet'a p'missa
in Buckland Northpetherton & Michelchurche p'd'eis modo
extenduntr ad clar' annuu' valorem septuaginta quinq'
solidor' & octo denarior'  H'end' &c. in capite p'
s'uiciu' vicesime partis vnius feodi militis ac reddendo
annuatim &c.  pro p'd'eis t'ris ten' pratis pascuis
pasturis rectoria decimis & cet'is p'missis in Buckland &
Mighelchurche p'dict' septem solidos 8c septem denarios
sterlingor'  ad festum S'ci Mich'is Arch'i singulis
annis soluend'  Ac p't'qam de Centum sex solidis
& octo denarijs annuatim soluend' p' stipendio Curat'
diuina celebrant' in eccl'ia siue Capella de Mighelchurche
p'dict'  In cuius &c. T. R. apud Westm' xxx
die Junij.

PRIORY AND PRECEPTORY. 109
No. XXII.
[Abstract of Orig. 36 Hen. VIII, p. 3, rot. xij.]
Rex om'ib' ad quos &c. salt'm Sciatis q' nos p' su'ma
septingentar' quinquaginta quatuor librar' septendecim
solidor' & octo denarior' bone & legalis monete n're Anglie
 Will'm Porteman s'uientem n'r'm ad legem & Alex-
andrum Popham armig'm p' manib' bene & fidelit' solut'
de quaquidem sum'a septigentar' &c  totum illud
maniu' n'r'm de Northpetherton aliasNorthpederton in Com'
n'ro Som's' cum om'ib' & singulis suis iurib' membr' &
p'tin' uniu'sis nup' Prioratui de Bukland in dc'o Com' n'ro
Som's' modo dissolut' dudum spectan' & p'tinen' ac parcelP
possessionu' reuencionu' seu p'ficuor' inde existen' ac totum
situm eiusdem man'ij ac om'ia t'ras d'nicales prata pascua &
pastur' cum suis p'tin' eidem man'io p'tin' seu spectan' Ace-
tiam totum ilium boscum n'r'm vulgarit' vocat' Barwoode
iacen' & existen' in Northpetherton alias Northpederton
p'd'ca continen' p' estimac'oem octo acras t're & bosci cum
p'tin' Necnon om'ia ilia mesuagia t'ras & ten' prata pascua &
pastur' n'ra cum suis p'tin' iacen' & existen' in Gotton infra
parochiam de Westemonketon in d'co Com' n'ro Som's' d'co
nup' prioratui Bukeland dudum spectan' & pertinen'  in
tenuris siue occupaco'ib' Ric'i Warr Armig' Rob'ti Warr
Will'i Hare & Weltheane Merkes vidue  Necnon
om'ia mesuagia tofta domos edificia orrea stabula colum
baria molendina ortos gardina pom'ia t'ras ten' prata &c.
 boscos subboscos — aquas stagna viuaria gurgites —
piscaco'es, co'ias, vasta &c — feod'milit' &c — in Northpether
ton alias Northpederton Michelchurche Bromfeld Brymton
Raiff Wollauington & Mirelinche ac in Gotton in d'ca
parochia de Westmonekton — aut alib' vbicumq' in eodem
Com' n'ro Som's'  Necnon mesuag' &c  in Ayshe &
Thornfavcon in d'co Com' n'ro Som's'  Necnon vnu'
ten' & mesuagiu' n'r'm cum suis p'tin' iacen' & existen' in
parochia de Bromefeld in d'co Com' n'ro Som's' nup'
prioratui de Taunton in d'co Com' n'ro Som's' modo
dissolut' dudum spectan' & p'tinen' &c  Acetiam aliud
mesuagiu' in Bromefeld modo in tenura seu occupaco'e
cuiusdam Joh'is Pylman  Necnon terr' in Kyngeshyll
in parochia de Spaxton in d'co Com' n'ro Som's' d'co nup'
prioratui de Taunton dudum spectan' &c  Insup'

110 MYNCHIN BUCKLAND
totum illud man'iu' firmam & grang' n'ra' de Claveshey cum
p'tin' in parochijs de Northepetherton & Bromefelde p'd'eis
Necnon totum illud Capitale mesuagiu' domum situm &
capitalem mancionem man'ij firme & grangie n'ror' de
Claveshey p'd'ca modo siue nup' in tenura siue dimissione
d'ci Will'i Portman vel assign' suor' nup' monast'io
de Athelney in d'co Com' n'ro Som's modo dissolut'
dudum spectan' & pertinen' Necnon boscum n'r'm vulgarit'
vocat' Chalveshey Wood eontinen' p' estimaco'em decern
acras t're & bosci ac boscum nVm vocat' Holesey Wood
eontinen' p' estimaco'em quinq' acras t're & bosci iacen' &
existen' in Northepetherton p'd'ca cum p'tin' d'co nup'
monast'io de Athelney p'tinen' & spectan' ¦  Necnon
om'ia & singula domos &c d'co man'io firme & grangie
aliquo modo spectan' &c. Quequidem in Northepether
ton Michelchurche Bromfeld Brymton Raiff WoUauington
Mirelinche & Gotton d'co nup' Prioratui de Bucland
dudum spectan' & p'tinen' sunt clari annui valoris viginti
triu' librar' septemuecim solidor' & quatuor denarior' 
Ac quequidem in Ayshe & Thorn efavcon sunt clari annui
valoris quadraginta septem solidor' & sex denar'  Et
quequidem in Bromefeld & Spaxton  quadraginta
vnius solidor" & octo denar'  Et quequidem maner'
&c. de Claveshey  nouem librar'  Reddend'
annuatim  p' Northepetherton &c. triginta octo solidos
 p' Gotton nouem solidos vnu' denariu' & vnu' obulum
 p' Ayshe & Thornfavcon quatuor solidos & nouem
denarios  p' Bromefeld & Spaxton quatuor solidos &
duos denarios  p' Claveshey octodecim solidos In
cujus rei &c. T. R. apud Westm' xiij die Octobr'.

No. XXIII.
[Abstract of Orig. 36 Hen. VIII, p. 8, rot. xvii.]
Rex om'ib' ad quos &c. salt'm. Sciatis qd nos p' sum'a
nonnigentar' nonaginta nouem librar' sexdecim solidor' &
septem denarior" legalis monete Angl' &c. p' Alex'm
Popham armig'um & Will'm Halley gen'osum  totum
illud man'iu' & totam illam nup' Preceptoriam n'ram de
Bucklond Pryours in Com' n'ro Som's' cum man'io de
Halse ac om'ib' alijs man'ijs t'ris tentis patis pascuis pasturis

PRIORY AND PRECEPTORY. Ill
redditib' reu'sionib' s'uicijs & cet'is hereditaments quibus-
cumq' iacen' & existen' in d'co Com' n'ro Som's' d'ce nup'
P'ceptorie de Buckelond Priours p'tin' cum om'ib' alijs
suis iurib' membris & p'tin' vniu'sis  modo vel nup' in
tenura dimissione siue occupaco'e p'fati Will'i Halley vel
assign' suor' Necnon Rectoriam & eccl'iam imp'priatam
de Halse ac om'es & singulas alias liectorias & eccl'ias
imp'priat' n'ras d'ce Preceptorie p'tinen' ac om'es glebas
decimas penciones porco'es oblaco'es obuenco'es fruct'
commoditates p'ficua emolumenta & hereditamenta n'ra
quecumq' tam spiritualia qam temporalia cuiuscumq' sint
gen'is  necnon aduocaco'es & iura pr'onat' Rectoriar'
& eccl'iar' p'dict'. Ac etiam om'ia ilia duo man'ia n'ra de Bod
mescombe & Cove in Com' n'ro Deuon' cum om'ib' &c. 
Necnon aduocaco'es donaco'es p'sentaco'es &c. eccl'ie &
Rectorie de Hethefeld & eccl'ie & R'torie de Halse 
Necnon totum ilium boscum & grouam n'ram voc' Wynsell
Groue eontinen' p' estimaco'em quatuor acras t're & bosci
ac totam illam boscum & grouam n'ram vocat' Peryfeld
Groue eontinen' p' estimaco'em quatuor acras t're & bosci
ac totam illam grouam n'ram vocat' Bowyers Grove
eontinen' p' estimaco'em duodecim acras bosci & vasti ac
totum ilium boscum & vastum n'r'm vocat' Bodmescombe
Wood eontinen' p' estimaco'em triginta quinq' acras bosci
& vasti necnon "duodecim -acras t're ac sexdecim acras
t're & viginti septem acras t're vocat' Vprynges of
Wood  parcell' d'ce nup' P'ceptorie de Bucklond
Pryours  Insuper dominiu' & man'iu' de Thurlebare
&c. nup' Prioratui de Taunton spectan' &c. 
Ac mesuagiu' &c. vocat' Playstrete &c. nup' Prioratui de
Taunton &c. Ac redditum viginti & quatuor solid' nouem
denar' & vnius obuli vocat' le Thurchetts exeun'de quibus-
dam t'ris &c. in Thurlebare  Et vnu' clausum bosci
vocat' le Pryours Wood eontinen' tresdecim acras bosci 
Necnon totum maneriu' & dominiu' n'r'm de Tobrydge cum
om'ib' suis iurib' &c. in parochia S'ci Jacobi iuxta Taunton
Prioratui de Taunton spectan' &c.  Que quid'm man'iu' &
nup' Preceptoria de Buckelond Priours vna cum d'co man'io
de Halse ac om'ib' alijs man'ijs &c. sunt de claro annuo
valore triginta vnius librar' nouemdecim solidor' & duor'
denarior' decima inde nob' p' p'sentes reseruat' non deduct'
et que quidem vicaria est de claro annuo valore quinq'

112 MYNCHIN BUCKLAND PRIORY'.
librar' nouemdecim solidor' quinque denarior' & vnius
obuli decima inde nob' res'uata non deducta. Et que
quidem Rectoria de Hethefeld &c. nouem librar' & quatuor
solidor' decima inde &c. reseruat' non deduct'  P'ceptoriam
de Bucklond Pryours ac Halse tenend' in capite p' s'uiciu'
militare videl't p' vicesimam partem vnius feodi militis, acred-
dend' &c. p' Buckelond & Halse tres libras tres solidos &
vndecim denarios bone & legalis monete n're Angl' 
p' Tobrydge decern solidos & septem denarios  p' Thurle
bare quatuordecim solidos & quinq' denarios  ad
festum S'ci Mich'is Arch'i singulis annis soluend' •  In
cuius rei &c. T. R. apud Westm' xvj die ffebruarij anno
R. sui tricesimo sexto.

No. XXIV.
[Abstract of Orig. 2 Edw. VI, p. 1, r. xlv.J
Rex om'ib' ad quos &c. salt'm Sciatis &c. p1 sex libris
tresdecim solidis & quatuor denarijs &c.  concessim' dil'co
nob' Will'o Halley gen'oso q'd ipse unu' capitale mesuagiu'
suu' vocat' Buckelond Priors cum p'tin' ac duo gardina
duo pomaria ducentas acras t're triginta sex acras prati
sexaginta tresdecim acras pasture & duas acras t're aque
coop'tas cum p'tin' in Buckland Priors & Coglod in Com'
Som's' que de nob' tenentr in capite ut dicitr dare possit
& concedere alienare confirmare aut cognosc'e p' finem in
Cur' n'ra &c. dil'cis nob' Joh'i Cuffe & Joh'i Tynbery
h'end' & tenend' sibi & hered' suis &c. Et eisdem Joh'i
& Joh'i &c. de p'fato Will'o recip'e possint & ten'e &c.
similit' licenciam dedim' ac dam' sp'alem Et vlt'ius con
cessim' &c. p'fatis Joh'i & Joh'i q'd ip'i Capitale mesuagiu'
p'd'cm ac om'ia & singula p'missa cum p'tin' dare concedere
& recognosc'e possint p'fato Will'o & Margarete vx'i eius
h'end' & tenend' eisdem Will'o & Margareta ac hered' &c.
licenciam dedim' & dam' sp'alem  In cujus &c. T. R.
apud Westm' xiij die February.
T. H.

"FROM MYNCHIN BUCKLAND PRIORY.
tFhc.Jbya dti.y-iah.isii.

RINGS FOUND NEAR THE SITE OF MYNCHIN
BUCKLAND PRIORY.

{Actual Size.)

Drawn and Engraved for the Rev. Thomas Hugo's History of
Buckland Priory.

T.H.kl&M£-¥RQtA M/(VCH|^ jucKLAr/D

COMMON SEAL OF MYNCHIN BUCKLAND PRIORY.

[Actual Size.)

From an Impression attached to the Deed of Surrender, preserved among
the Records of the Court of Augmentations.