The Early History of Christ's College, Cambridge: Derived from Contemporary Documents (Cambridge Library Collection - Cambridge)

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The Early History of Christ’s College, Cambridge First published in 1934, this book is a history of Christ’s College, Cambridge, from its foundation in 1437, though its relocation to its current site, up to the charter of 1505. The original college, founded by parochial rector William Byngham, was named God’s House and occupied a site which is now part of King’s College. It was given its first royal licence in 1446 and moved to its present site in 1448. The college received its present name and charter when it was refounded in 1505 by Lady Margaret Beaufort, the mother of King Henry VII. This book recounts the history of Christ’s during this period, using archival evidence and illustrations to offer a fascinating picture of the less well known early stages of the college’s development.

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The Early History of Christ’s College, Cambridge Derived from Contemporary Documents A. H. L l oyd

C A M B R I D G E U n I V E R SI t y P R E S S Cambridge, new york, Melbourne, Madrid, Cape town, Singapore, São Paolo, Delhi, Dubai, tokyo Published in the United States of America by Cambridge University Press, new york www.cambridge.org Information on this title: www.cambridge.org/9781108008976 © in this compilation Cambridge University Press 2010 This edition first published 1934 This digitally printed version 2010 ISBn 978-1-108-00897-6 Paperback This book reproduces the text of the original edition. The content and language reflect the beliefs, practices and terminology of their time, and have not been updated. Cambridge University Press wishes to make clear that the book, unless originally published by Cambridge, is not being republished by, in association or collaboration with, or with the endorsement or approval of, the original publisher or its successors in title.

THE EARLY HISTORY OF

CHRIST'S COLLEGE CAMBRIDGE

Jtenry ^bh the rnediev-aL giass in. the Golleae GhajxcL

THE EARLY HISTORY OF

CHRIST'S COLLEGE CAMBRIDGE derived from contemporary documents by A. H. LLOYD sometime Fellow-Commoner of the College

CAMBRIDGE AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS 1934

PRINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN

PREFACE

T

o the University generally, Christ's College is known as an institution founded by the Lady Margaret, and with very few exceptions members of the college themselves would be startled to learn that in 1505 it was almost seventy years old, though the formal title, given by its charter in 1505 at the request of the Lady Margaret, makes the actual position clear enough when it opens 'Christ's College by Henry the sixth King of England first begun'. The history of the college from 1505 has been written by Dr John Peile (Master 1887 to 1910), but he gives the earlier period, prior to 1505, no more than eight pages, in the course of which he refers to 'The few documents concerning God's House which I have found in the Muniment Room'. It is the history of the college before 1505 that is here portrayed and it is drawn entirely from contemporary documents. In the main, the muniments of which use has been made have been discovered in the ownership of the college; they must be more numerous than Dr Peile has supposed, for I have examined at least 200, all of which are earlier than the charter of Henry the Seventh. In addition, the muniments of the University Registry, Trinity Hall, Clare, Corpus Christi, King's and Trinity Colleges have yielded information of greater or smaller importance, and the archives of the borough of Cambridge have been examined with some little success. Outside Cambridge, documents of value for the history of the college have been found in the Public Record Office, in the Diocesan Registries of Ely and Lincoln, in the Principal Probate Registry at Somerset House, and amongst the University Wills preserved in the District Probate Registry at Peterborough. The Bishop of London's Registers were examined with no result, but the records of the Dean and Chapter of St Paul's and the Court of Husting, Guildhall, each yielded something, as did the Cambridge documents found in the Bodleian Library. The manuscript collections of Baker and Cole in the British Museum, and of Baker and Adam Wall in the University Library, have been searched, but no use has been made of any statement of those writers

vi

PREFACE

unless it could be tested by examination of the contemporary document upon which it purported to be based. I have regarded as official and authoritative the three volumes of Documents relating to the University and Colleges of Cambridge, 1852, and, except in the case of the documents there published concerning Godshouse and Christ's College (of which I have read and transcribed the originals, both those preserved in the college and those only to be found in the national archives), I have not thought it necessary to trouble the caretakers of the documents to produce the parchments. I have drawn upon various printed sources in my endeavour to provide a suitable background, social, political and educational, against which the history of the college in the fifteenth century might be better seen and interpreted. Usually it has not been necessary to go behind such printed matter when it is commonly regarded as of high repute but, where confirmation seemed to be desirable, it has been sought in examination of original documents. In dealing with the history of other institutions, such as alien priories, and with persons not members of Godshouse I have here and there found reason to regard existing printed accounts as being incomplete or even inaccurate; in such cases I have gone in search of contemporary evidence and have presented a more complete, corrected or even an entirely new record. Certain explanations of medieval forms, words and procedure have been introduced in the hope that the book may so be made more widely useful to members of the college. The monumental volumes of Willis and Clark have been used with everincreasing respect and appreciation, but their history of the two sites of Godshouse has been subjected to a close re-examination with the aid of the documents in the muniment rooms of Christ's and King's Colleges. This has enabled me to produce revised site-plans and to fill one or two lacunae whose existence J. W. Clark had recognised, and from those and similar discoveries to shew that parts of the present buildings of the college were erected in the fifteenth century. The pleasure of writing this preface I find in the opportunity it presents of formal expression of thanks to those upon whose goodwill and knowledge I have drawn in the course of the research upon which the book is based, though I hope that my private expressions have

PREFACE

vii

already assured them of my sincere sense of gratitude. My thanks are due before all to the college for very special facilities given to me for that close study of the records without which this history could not have been written and, in particular, to the Master and to the bursar for their unfailing consideration. If I do not further elaborate my appreciation of indebtedness to the Master and fellows it is in the hope that they may discover its truest manifestation in the record of the society's earliest history now placed before them. I have to thank also the governing bodies of Trinity Hall, Clare, Corpus, King's and Trinity Colleges for access to their records and permission to use them so far as they contributed to my results; especially do I thank the custodians in each instance for much kindness and patience. To the Registrary and his courteous staff I am indebted for convenient access to the ancient records in their care. Of friends who by the wealth of their experience have special knowledge of sources of information I must mention particularly Dr G. G. Coulton, F.B.A., Dr W . M. Palmer of Linton and Canon C. W . Foster of Lincoln, whom I have found ever ready to sweep difficulties out of my path. I am indebted to the Syndics of the Press for the use of the Loggan block, which indeed is but one further addition to many courtesies I have received from the officials and the staff. There is one whom I have left until the last. It is difficult for me to give adequate expression of my profound obligation to my daughter, whose deep interest in the progress of the work, delight in each discovery concerning the history of the college, and fertility of suggestion in regard to matters of obscurity have been matched only by her scholarly, efficient and unsparing help in the wearisome labour of reading and re-reading the MS. and the proof, checking of references and making of the index. In particular, I owe her much for her help in the extension of the charters. A. H. LLOYD Cambridge July 1934

CONTENTS Preface

page v

List of Abbreviations Chronological Summary Chapter I. William Byngham, the First Founder

xii xvi I

II. The Dispute with John Langton

22

III. The First Royal Licence, 1439

35

IV. The Expansion of the Mike Street Site

44

V. The Royal Licences of 1442

50

VI. Marking Time: 1443 to 1446

57

VII. The Royal Licence of 1446 and its period

74

VIII. The Foundation Charter of the College of Godshouse and its period DC. The Relationship of Godshouse and Clare Hall X. The Last Days of William Byngham

86 105 121

XI. The Proctorship of John Hurte, 1451-1458, and of William Fallan, 1458-1464

139

XII. The Proctorship of William Basset, 1464-1477

171

XIII. The Proctorship of Ralph Barton, 1477-1490

189

XIV. The Proctorship of John Syclyng: Early Years, 1490-1496 XV. The Proctorship of John Syclyng: Later Years, 1496-1506

251

XVI. The Negotiations between Godshouse and the Lady Margaret

280

215

CONTENTS Chapter XVII. Sydyng's Death and Will

ix page 305

XVIII. The Buildings and Furniture remaining from the Godshouse period XIX. Godshouse and Christ's College

313 341

Appendix A. (a) A Chronological List of the Charters and other Royal Letters issued in favour of Godshouse (b) Transcripts of Various Documents B. (a) Register of Members of Godshouse (b) Biographical Supplement C. (a) The Sources of the Godshouse Revenues (b) The Rectories and Advowsons of Churches held by Godshouse

3 54 356 379 383 401 417

D. The Financial Position of the College at the Death of the Lady Margaret

430

E. The Council in the Marches of Wales: Documents from the Reign of Henry VII found in the College

436

Index

447

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS PLATES I. Henry the Sixth from the medieval glass in the college chapel II. Plan of Godshouse Site in 1443 III. The Seals of Godshouse, anno 1448

frontispiece between pages 44 and 45 facing

IV. A Lawyer's Indenture of Receipt, 1457

page 96 „

163

V. Plan of the Site of Godshouse, 1446-1506 between pages 182 and 183 VI. The Great Gateway from Saint Andrew's churchyard

facing page

VII. Buildings of Godshouse. The north side of the north range VIII. The Great Gateway from the court EX. The Autographs of the Lady Margaret, Syclyng and the Three Old Fellows X. Buildings of Godshouse.' The ij litill chapelles'

197

226 j>

276

3J

295

if

320

XL Christ's Collegein 1688, reduced fromLoggan's print between pages 330 and 331 XII. The Lady Margaret's Lodging, drawn in full scale from Loggan's print between pages 330 and 331 XIII. Buildings of the Lady Margaret. The south side of the south range facing

PaMe 35°

XIV. Petition to the Prince in Council

„

439

XV. Endorsements of ensuing proceedings

„

440

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

xi

FIGURES IN THE TEXT The arms attributed to Godshouse by Hamond

page 2

The arms of the Binghams of Nottinghamshire

3

Autographs of John Syclyng

252, 253

Autograph and seal of John Fisher as bishop of Rochester

281

'An holywater stokke' and one of 'xxiiij crosses at the halowynge of the chapelT

322

The blocked entrance doorway

324

The doorway to the demolished side chapel

326

The doorway made for the Master 'when he remov'd to his private Lodge'

332 0

The southern hah of the great gate

336

The great chest in the Treasury, for the money and the seal

338

Two of the chests bequeathed by Syclyng 338 The drawings reproduced in plates and figures are the work of Miss Ellen T. Talbot, other than that measured and drawn by Mr Hughes.

LIST OF A B B R E V I A T I O N S Add. MSS. Annals A. W. Baker Bekynton Biog. Reg.

Additional manuscripts in the British Museum. Annals of Cambridge, by Charles Henry Cooper, 5 vols. 1843-52,1908. Manuscript Collections of Adam Wall (Fellow of Christ's College 1756-98); preserved in the University Library, Mm. 5.40-54. Manuscript Collections of Thomas Baker (Fellow of St John's College), vols. 1 to 23, Harl. 7028-50, vols. 24 to 42, Univ. Lib. Official Correspondence of Thomas Bekynton (Chronicles and Memorials), edited by George Williams, 2 vols. 1872. The Biographical Register of Christ's College, by John Peile, 2 vols. 1911-13.

Bor. Arch. Bridges

The archives of the borough of Cambridge preserved in the Guildhall there. The History and Antiquities of Northamptonshire, by John Bridges, 2 vols. 1791.

C.C.R.

Calendar of Close Rolls in the Public Record Office, with reference to the volume and the page. Cal. Pap. Pet. Calendars of Papal Registers. Petitions to the Pope, vol. i, 1342-1419. Camb. Plans Old Plans of Cambridge, by John Willis Clark and Arthur Gray, 1921. Campbell Materials for a History of the Reign of Henry VII (Chronicles and Memorials), ed. by William Campbell, 2 vols. The Cambridge Antiquarian Society; Proceedings and CommunicaC.A.S. tions; Octavo Publications. Chr. Documents preserved in the muniment room of Christ's College, Cambridge, with further reference to the particular drawer in which the document is preserved. Badg. = Badgeworth. Camb. = Cambridge and Brazen George. Fend. = Fendrayton. Gh. = Godshouse. Help. = Helpston. Mast. = Masters' half-yearly accounts. Misc. = Miscellaneous. Mon. = Monmouth. Nav. = Navenby. N. Hyk. = North Hykeham. Clare The Master's Old Book, preserved in Clare College muniment room. Cole Manuscript Collections of the Rev. William Cole (1714-82), preserved in the British Museum, Add. MSS. 5798-5887, 5952-5962, 59925994, 6034-6035, 6057, 6151, 6396-6402. Conf. Ch. Confirmation Charters in the Public Record Office. Conf. Roll Confirmation Rolls in the Public Record Office.

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS C.P.R.

xui

Calendar of Patent Rolls in the Public Record Office, with reference to the volume and the page. Crosby Names of Incumbents in the parishes of the diocese of Ely, extracted from the episcopal registers by Canon Crosby, preserved in the University Library, Cambridge, Add. MS. 6380. D.N.B. Dictionary of National Biography. Documents Documents relating to the University and Colleges ofCambridge, 3 vols. 1852. E.CkP. Early Chancery Proceedings, in the Public Record Office, Lists and Indexes, xn. E.H.R. English Historical Review. Ely Episcopal Registers of the Diocese of Ely. GB. Grace Books, A and B (in two parts), containing the proctors' accounts and other records of the University of Cambridge (C.A.S. Luard Mem. 1897; 1903; 1905); T 1908 and A 1910, Cambridge University Press. Godfrey Notes on the Churches of Nottinghamshire, Hundred ofBingham, b y j . T. Godfrey, 1907. Harl. Harleian manuscripts in the British Museum. Harl. Soc. Publications of the Harleian Society. Hennessy Novum Repertorium ecclesiasticum parochiale Londinense, by George Hennessy, 1898. Hist. Reg. The Historical Register of the University of Cambridge, ed. by J. R. Tanner, 1917. Hostels The Mediaeval Hostels of the University of Cambridge, by the Rev. H. P. King's Stokes, LL.D., etc. (C.A.S. oct. publ. No. xnx, 1924). Lady Margaret Muniments The Lady Margaret, CharlesCambridge. Henry Cooper, 1874. of King'sbyCollege, Lamb A Collection ofLetters, etc. from the MS. Library of Corpus Christi College, by John Lamb, D.D., 1838. Line. Episcopal Registers of the Diocese of Lincoln. Lloyd Notes upon some Fifteenth Century Masters and Fellows of the College of Clare Hall, by A. H. Lloyd, preserved in the Library of Clare College. Lon. Chron. A London Chronicle, 1446-50 (Hatfield MSS.), in E.H.R., vol. xxix. Masters The History of the College of Corpus Christi, Cambridge, by Robert Masters, 1753. Maxwell-Lyte Historical Notes on the use of The Great Seal of England, by Sir Henry Maxwell-Lyte, 1926. Memorials Memorials of Cambridge, ed. by Charles Henry Cooper, 3 vols. 1860-6. Monasticon Monasticon Anglicanum, by Sir William Dugdale, ed. Caley, Ellis and Bandinel, 6 vols. in 8, 1846. Mullinger The University of Cambridge, from the earliest times, by James Bass Mullinger, 2 vols. 1873-84.

xiv Muskett N.E.D. Newcourt Nichols

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

Suffolk Manorial Families, by Joseph James Muskett, 1900. The New English Dictionary. Repertorium Ecclesiasticum, by Richard Newcourt, 2 vols. 1708-10. A Collection of all the Wills.. .of the Kings, etc. of England, by John Nichols, 1780. Not. Mon. Notitia Monastica, by Thomas Tanner, 1744. OldCambridge An Illustrated Catalogue of the Loan Collection of Plate, ed. J. E. Foster Plate and T. D. Atkinson, 1896. Otryngham The register book of John Otryngham, Master of Michaelhouse, preserved in the muniment room of Trinity College. Palmer Cambridge Borough Documents, vol. i, ed. by W . M. Palmer, 1931. Parker The History and Antiquities of the University and Colleges of Cambridge, by Richard Parker, 1721. Paston The Paston Letters, ed. by James Gairdner, Lib. edn. 1904. P.C.C. Prerogative Court of Canterbury, wills, or their transcripts, and administrations, proved or granted therein now preserved in the Principal Probate Registry, Somerset House, London. Peile Christ's College, by John Peile, Litt.D., 1900. Documents relating to St Catharine's College, by Henry Philpott, 1861. Philpott P.R. Patent Rolls, with reference to regnal year, part (as i, ii, etc.) and membrane (m.). Priv. Counc. Proceedings and Ordinances of the Privy Council of England, ed. by Sir Nicholas Harris Nicolas, 6 vols. P.R.O. Public Record Office. Proc. Ind. Proctors' Indentures, being annual audits of the University chest and other chests, cautions, etc., preserved in the University Registry. Proc. Soc. Ant. Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries bf London. Rackham Early Statutes of Christ's College, Cambridge, by Harris Rackham, M.A., priv. printed, Cambridge, 1927. Rashdall The Universities of Europe in the Middle Ages, by Hastings Rashdall, 2 vols. 1895. Reg. Reg. Registrum Regale. A list of the Provosts of Eton, the Provosts of King's College, etc. Eton, 1847. R.H.C. Rolls of the Court of Husting, preserved in Guildhall, London. Rotuli Parliamentorum. Rot. Parl. Sharpe Calendar of Wills,CourtofHusting, ed. Reginald R. Sharpe, 2 vols.1889-90. St Paul's Muniments of the Dean and Chapter of St Paul's, Chapter Library. Stow Stow's Survey of London, ed. C. L. Kingsford, 2 vols. 1908. Taxatio Taxatio Ecclesiastica P. Nicolai IV, circa 1291, printed 1802. Surtees Society, Testamenta Eboracensia, or wills registered at York, Test. Ebor. ed.J. Raine, 1836. Testamenta Vetusta, by Sir Nicholas H. Nicolas, 1826. Test. Vet.

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS Thoroton Univ. Cal. Valor Bales. Venn Vetus Liber V.C.H. Walker W. and C. York

xv

History of Nottinghamshire, Thoroton's, ed. J. Throsby, 3 vols. 1797. The Cambridge University Calendar. Valor Ecclesiasticus temp. Henry VIII. Alumni Cantabrigienses, by John andj. A. Venn. Part 1,4 vols. 1924-7. Vetus Liber Archidiaconi Eliensis, ed. C. L. Feltoe and E. H. Minns (C.A.S. oct. publ. No. xxvm, 1917). The Victoria County History. Biographical Register of Peterhouse, 1284-1616. The Architectural History of the University of Cambridge, by R. Willis and J. W. Clark, 4 vols. 1886. The archiepiscopal registers of the diocese of York.

The volume of a work referred to is indicated by a Roman numeral and the page by arabic figures. Dates are expressed in terms of the year beginning 1 January.

CHRONOLOGICAL SUMMARY 1423 June 23 1424 May 25 1436 August 8 1437 July 25

N37] [1438] [1439] 1439 July 13 1442 February 9 March 1 June 10 1444 August 27 1446 June 18 August 26 1447 September 3 1448 March 28 April 16 1449 January 26 1451 November 17 1451 1456 December 2 1458 October 8 1458 1462 November 4 1464 1468 August 27 December 6 1477 1484 February 9 i486 October 25

Byngham instituted to the rectory of Carlton Curlieu. Byngham instituted to the rectory of St John Zachary, London. Sara Becket's bond in favour of Godshouse when it shall have been erected. Tyled hostel acquired from Barnwell priory. Cat hostel bought. John Langton's petition against Byngham. The mansion of Godshouse built in Milne Street. Byngham's petition for licence to give Godshouse to Clare Hall. Licence of the king accordingly. Licence to found a completely independent college. Licence in mortmain for its specific endowments. Licence confirming and correcting that of March I. Helpston rectory and land acquired for the use of Godshouse. Acquisition of the Tiltey abbey property. Licence to found the college in le Prechour strete. The advowson of Fendrayton granted by the king. Acquisition of the Denney abbey property. Foundation charter of Godshouse. The advowson of Navenby and the hospital of St James of Magna Thurlow granted by the king. Byngham's death in London. John Hurte elected second Proctor. Acquisition of the Sempringham property. Acquisition of the Herrys tenement. John Hurte's retirement and William Fallan's succession as third Proctor. Confirmation charter of Edward IV. Fallan's retirement and Basset's succession as fourth Proctor. Acquisition of the Fishwick property. Second confirmation charter of Edward IV. Basset's retirement and Barton's succession as fifth Proctor. Confirmation charter of Richard III. Confirmation charter of Henry VII.

CHRONOLOGICAL SUMMARY

xvu

1490 Syclyng's succession to Barton as sixth Proctor. 1496 Sealing of the statutes of Godshouse. 1504 [between March 25 Terms of agreement reached between the Lady Margaret and August 22] and Godshouse. Licence of Henry VB for the continuance and extension 1505 May 1 of the college. Acceptance of the statutes of the Lady Margaret by the 1506 October 3 Proctor and fellows of the college. Death of Syclyng and succession of Wyatt as second Master circa December 1 of Christ's College. 1507 January 28 Lease of the 'great orchard' from Jesus College. August 28 Acquisition of the messuage lying between the college and Walls Lane. 1508 May Wyatt's retirement and his succession by Thompson as third Master of Christ's College.

IN PIAM MEMORIAM COLLEGII CHRISTI FUNDATORUM TRIUM

MARGARETAE COMITISSAE RICHMONDIAE ET DBRBIAE

HENRICI REGIS ANGLIAE POST CONQUESTUM SEXTI

WILLELMI BYNGHAM PERSONAE ECCLESIAE SANCTI JOHANNIS ZACHARIAE LONDINII

Chapter I W I L L I A M B Y N G H A M , T H E FIRST F O U N D E R

M

ost colleges have to be content with one founder, while some, like Gonville and Caius College, have two; Christ's College, however, has three. The earliest of the three is overshadowed by the royal splendour of his successors, but, though Christ's College owes most of its possessions to Henry VI and his niece, the Lady Margaret, it owes the fact of its existence to a plain parochial rector, William Byngham. We could wish to know something of the source whence Byngham issued, but, though there may be indications that point with some probability to his family, there are no documents to enable us to replace conjecture with certainty. Peile, untiring pursuer of biographical detail, has to admit 'nothing is certainly known of his birth: he may have been one of the Binghams of Carcolston, Notts.' l He gives no information concerning the basis of his supposition, but such straws as it has been possible to observe independently do seem to point in the direction of the Midlands. In the first place, the initial solid fact in Byngham's life-history is found in bis presentation to the rectory of Carlton Curly [hodie Carlton Curlieu], Leicestershire, to which he was instituted 23 June 1423; * Carlton Curlieu is near to Market Harborough and, in a direct line, lies about thirty-five miles from Carcolston. In the second place, a familiarity with the Midlands is indicated in his petition to Henry VI, 3 where he seems to speak with knowledge of the country when he says 'your poure besecher hath founde of late ouer the Est partie of the wey ledyng from hampton^ to couentre and so forth no ferther North pan Rypon, lxx scoles voide or mo J>at weren occupied all at ones within 1. yeres passed, bicause J>at }>er is so grete scarstee of maistresof Gramer'. In the third place, in Hamond's plan of Cambridge, bearing date 1592, 1 3

1HC

Biog. Reg. i, 1. V. infra, p. 356.

2 4

Line, xvi, f. 98 d. I.e. Hampton upon Thames. I

2

W I L L I A M B Y N G H A M , T H E FIRST F O U N D E R

Godshouse has attributed to it the arms of Bingham of Carcolston. This plan, of which the only complete copy is in the Bodleian Library, has a summary notice of all the colleges and shews their arms; while recognising the continuance of Godshouse in Christ's, it supplies a separate note, with arms, of Godshouse, which note has been translated as follows by the Master ofJesus: * College of God's House, first founded by William Bingham, Rector of the Church of S. John Zachary, London, within the precinct of the present King's College, in the reign of King Henry the Sixth in the year of Our Lord, 1442. Godshouse by Hamond* It was rounded tor the second time by the same King Henry the Sixth in Preachers' Street, opposite to the Church of S. Andrew, in the 24th year of his reign, and the year of Our Lord, 1445. It is now incorporated in Christ's College. The Master ofJesus adds: 2 The College had no arms, but Hamond shows a shield bearing arms intended for those of Bingham, namely: gold a Jess gules charged with three silver

water-buckets; but Mr Hope3 points out that there is no evidence that these were borne by him. The observation of the late Sir William Hope would apply to many other similar cases, and its general application would deprive heraldic bearings of much of their identificatory value. If there had been no great fire in the city of London, we might be able to find to-day a memorial brass in the church of St John Zachary with the arms of our Byngham emblazoned thereon, but it is doubtful if such a record would have more value than the testimony of Hamond, which, it is reasonable to suppose, reflected the traditional knowledge concerning Byngham, his family and arms, current in his college 140 years after his death. Hamond had no necessity for displaying a shield for Godshouse (which 1 Camb. Plans, p. 35. % Ibid. p. 35 sq. 3 C.A.S. Proc. and Comm. viii, 118. * The hatching used by Hamond does not bear any relation to the tinctures; he uses it as a scheme of decoration and it appears on his shields of the colleges generally. Hatching as a means of indicating tinctures was not evolved by heralds until the seventeenth century.

HIS FAMILY

3

so far as is known had no arms of its own), since he recognises its position as the nucleus of Christ's in his description of the College of Christ, the shield of which he also gives. The gratuitous inclusion by him, on his map, of a notice of Godshouse bearing, for lack of a corporate shield, the arms of Byngham, in an age when heraldic bearings were an open book to educated men, should be regarded as possessing authority at least equal to any such display by Byngham himself; short of an official record in the College of Arms, it is probably as good a piece of evidence as The arms of the Binghams could be expected. of Nottinghamshire Whether or not this was in Peile's mind, when he inclined to the possibility of Byngham's connection with the Nottinghamshire house1 of that name, this third point is the foundation upon which that supposition must be based, the first and second points being subsidiary to it. Cole (Brit. Mus. Add. MS. 5846, f. 164 sq.) gives to Byngham the arms belonging to a Dorset family which it is impossible to accept; the matter cannot be treated in this place, but the confusion upon which it is held to be based is discussed in a note at the end of this chapter, under the heading Thomas de Bingham.* The family name was Bugge, and~Thoroton3 opens the pedigree in the reign of Henry III with Rad. Bugge de Nottingham, who settled in Bingham; his eldest son retained the family surname (50 Henry III), but a younger took a territorial name as Richard de Willoughby. In the third generation, the eldest son has become Richard de Bingham, though a younger one is known as Galf. Bugg de Leek. Thereafter the name derived from the territorial estate is stabilised; the senior branch remained at Bingham and retained the form de Bingham, while the junior branch, hiving off to Colston, became Bingham de Colston,* and when, 1

Dr Peile's reference to Carcolston should be extended to cover the main stock at Bingham and any branch springing therefrom. 1 3 4 Infra, pp. 17 sqq. Thoroton, i, 272. Ibid, i, 272, 242. 1-2

4

W I L L I A M B Y N G H A M , T H E FIRST F O U N D E R

in the second year of Elizabeth, a descendant of this Carcolston family is resident in the county of Rutland, he in his turn is Johannes Bingham de Glaston.1 In Thoroton's day, the Bingham arms were still to be seen in an upper window of Carcolston church. By marriages with heiresses, the Binghams obtained a footing in various parishes in Nottinghamshire and neighbouring counties; their pedigrees are to be found in the pages of Thoroton's Nottinghamshire, Nichols's Leicestershire and in the Visitations of Nottinghamshire,* but in none of the sources has it been possible to trace a scion of the house whom we could identify with certainty as the William Byngham of St John Zachary, London, and of Godshouse, Cambridge. Dr Peile3 thinks 'it is not improbable that he was the canon of Thurgarton (Southwell) who was instituted vicar of Granby, near Bingham, Notts. 8 Sept. 1447: resigned, his successor being appointed 26 Feb. 144I'.4 That identification, far from being probable, is impossible; Thurgarton priory was a house of canons regular of the order of St Augustine, while William Byngham of Godshouse and St John Zachary, London, was a secular priest. The man of that name who was vicar of Granby was probably the canon of Thurgarton who became prior of that convent in 1471; 5 Austin canons often served the churches appropriated to their convents. The most outstanding member of the Bingham family was Sir Richard Bingham, justice of the King's Bench. He was a contemporary of William Byngham, and a contemporary also, in his earlier years, of William Paston, the 'Good Judge', justice of Common Pleas. Sir Richard, whose daughter married Stephen Scrope, stepson of Sir John Fastolf, is several times mentioned in the Paston Letters, a long letter of his to Fastolf being included therein (No. 308). Like the Pastons, though of older standing, the Binghams were of the smaller territorial magnates of their own counties, and their names are found on the commissions of the peace for the county of Nottingham constantly during the reigns of Henry VI and Edward IV.6 1

2 Thoroton, i, 243. Harl. Soc. vol. iv. Biog. Reg. i, 2. * Cf. Godfrey, p. 193. 5 Cf. V.C.H. ii, 125, quoting Harl. MS. 6972, ff. 41-2. 6 C.P.R. passim. 3

HIS E D U C A T I O N

5

Of William Byngham's date of birth, and of his education, it has proved impossible to discover any definite evidence, but deductions may be made upon both matters from our certain knowledge of him in his later years; and first as to his education. It was the practice of gentle families of standing to send their sons to the universities, as is seen in the case of the Pastons, whose sons were sent to Cambridge and even to the much more distant Oxford. The candidates for orders were subject to episcopal ordination and, if the necessity arose, bishops did not hesitate to postpone admission to the order of the priesthood until and unless the candidate had satisfied their requirements. But there is no need to labour the fact of Byngham's education, for the man who made it his main purpose in life to provide additional schoolmasters throughout the length and breadth of the land, and who became with his sovereign's approval the head of a college founded for that purpose, must clearly have enjoyed himself the benefits he sought to confer upon others. It is impossible to make a definite statement of the place of Byngham's education, for the records of the universities had not begun to preserve either matriculations or graduations in the early years of the fifteenth century, but the fact of his founding his college in Cambridge is in itself sufficient to justify the assumption that it was in Cambridge that Byngham took his own degree. And it may with equal probability be assumed that he did so as a member of Clare Hall, which would explain his association of the Master and fellows of that college with himself in the various royal licences he sought and obtained. Their friendship for him was so marked as to be extended to the college of his foundation, as he acknowledges in the tribute he pays to them when proposing that these be appointed with him to make statutes: William Millyngton, William Guile, Robert Wodlark, and John Tylney, lately fellows of the College of Clare Hall, Cambridge, whom togedier with the master of the same, now deceased,1 he always found prompt to aid in promoting the College of Godeshous.2 1 William Wymbill, Master of Clare, was living 6 July 1443 (Chr. Gh. K), but was dead before 10 May 1445 (Crosby, p. 231). C£ Lloyd, pp. 1 sqq. * Chr. Gh. 3.

6

WILLIAM B Y N G H A M , T H E FIRST F O U N D E R

Passing to consideration of Byngham's date of birth we find the first mention of him in a deed on the husting roll (151 (7)), dated 26 August 1422, where he is described as 'clerk' in a grant to him and seven others of the reversion of lands and tenements in the parish of St Michael le Quern in Westchepe. All that can with certainty be deduced from this document is that in 1422 he was of age and standing sufficient to justify his inclusion with responsible citizens as a trustee. Our earliest knowledge of him as priest is derived from the entry of the institution of William Byngham, priest, to the church of Carlton Curlieu on 23 June 1423.1 The identification is established by the entry of his institution to the church of St John Zachary, London, where he is described as William Byngham, rector of Carlton Curlieu.2 A clerk could not be received into priest's orders according to the canon law until he attained the age of twenty-five; if Byngham became priest at the canonical age and was immediately presented to Carlton Curlieu, his birth must be placed in the year 1398. Byngham was admitted to the rectory of St John Zachary in the city of London in May 1424, by the dean and chapter of St Paul's, and recognition of a very young man in the rectory of a city church by these powerful ecclesiastical patrons seems unlikely. It would appear to be more reasonable, in view of these fixed dates for important responsibilities, to regard Byngham's birth as occurring about 1390, which would make him, (a) on his appointment to the rectory of Carlton Curlieu, thirtythree years old; (b) on his appointment to the rectory of St John Zachary in London, thirty-four years; (c) on his earliest activities as a college founder,3 forty-five years. In dealing with the questions of Byngham's family, date of birth and place of education, conjecture and inference based upon the facts of his later life have alone been available, and the soundness of the conclusions reached must be judged accordingly. With his institution to the 1

Line, xvi, f. 98 d. He exchanges with the previous rector John Barnesley upon the authority of a commission of the archbishop of Canterbury, 25 May 1424 (St Paul's, W.D. 13, f. 95). 3 I.e. 1435; v. infra, p. 11 sq. 2

CARLTON AND LONDON

7

rectory of Carlton Curlieu, the firm foundation of contemporary record is available: 'William Byngham, priest, presented by the prior and convent of the house of Jhesu of Betheleem of Sheen, to the church of Carleton Curly, on resignation of Sir William Lychefeld, was instituted on 23 June 1423 V Nichols, in his Leicestershire, names no rectors of Carlton Curlieu between one of 1274 and one who died in 1472, and it seems desirable to place upon record in a note at the end of this chapter a such additional information as various documents have yielded. Here it is sufficient to remark that William Lychefeld, whom Byngham succeeded at Carlton, was in close association with Byngham in later years both in London and in Cambridge.3 Byngham's stay at Carlton was a short one, for on 25 May 1424 he became rector,* by exchange, of St John Zachary, London, a church burnt down in the great fire. It was situated in Maiden Lane, and after the fire the parish was annexed to that of St Anne, Aldersgate.5 Its churchyard still remains; it lies, almost surrounded by buildings, on the corner formed by Noble Street and Gresham Street, not far from the General Post Office, St Martin's le Grand. Stow says the monuments of the church were well preserved in his time, but, though he mentions Byngham, 'founder of Christ's College, Cambridge', as rector here, he makes no reference to a Byngham monument. Besant6 makes the statement that the church of St John Zachary was built by a monk named Zachary, for which the nearest approach to authority 1 4

Line, xvi, f. 98 d.

2

Infra, p. 20 sq.

3 y. infra, p. 397 sq.

Byngham is sometimes styled person, sometimes priest, sometimes rector, sometimes clerk, sometimes Sir [William Byngham], which last is dominus, a title constantly given to parish priests down to a much later date than Byngham's but strictly the style then, as now in academical surroundings, of a bachelor. It is desirable to bear in mind that in medieval times, and in formal documents down to modern times, person or parson (as it was also spelt in exemplification of its pronunciation) was the complete equivalent of rector. Blackstone says: 'A parson is one that hath full possession of all the rights of a parochial church He is sometimes called the rector'. Later, the term became debased and was used to signify any vicar, curate, chaplain or minister, but the earliest illustration of this less exact use given in N.E.D. is Shakespeare's Love's Labour's Lost, 1588. In the muniments of Christ's College, however, 'parson' is used of a vicar as early as 1532. 5 W. Besant, The Survey of London (Mediaeval London, vol. i), p. 28. The parish of St John Zachary, though united with that of St Agnes and St Anne, still has its own 6 churchwardens. Loc. cit.

8

W I L L I A M B Y N G H A M , T H E FIRST F O U N D E R

seems to derive from documents preserved in the chapter records, where there is mention of the church under the name St John Zachary in a visitation of 1181.1 There is a chirograph deed granting the church of St John Baptist to one Zacary in amis for the term of his life, provided that he visit the mother church [St Paul's is meant] at Christmas and at the feast of the Apostles Peter and Paul every year, offering in charity forty-two pence each time. There are fifteen or sixteen witnesses and the chirograph is countersigned by John, treasurer.2 This deed is of the twelfth century and there is also a contemporary enrolment.3 There is no foundation for the inherently improbable 'monk' of Besant, and so far is the name of the church from being due to this Zacary that it appears to be the obvious alternative to its dedicatory title of St John Baptist, as in the Cambridge church of that name formerly in Milne Street, which was removed by Henry VI to enlarge the site of his college. There can be no objection to the proposal that this St John Baptist church was called St John Zachary to distinguish it from the St John Baptist of Walbrook,* so long as that is not connected with the grant of it to Zacary, who may have been led to apply for the living by the appropriateness of the already established colloquial name. The years 1424 to 1435 were fruitful years for Byngham, years during which he was forming a wide circle of friends, and making acquaintance with the management of affairs which, whether that was his purpose or not, proved to be of great service in the setting-up of the College of Godshouse. The fifteenth century was a period when, owing to the state of medical science, short final illnesses were the rule, and when too, for the greater part, men postponed giving form to their testamentary wishes until they were conscious that the hour of death was nigh. To prepare for the next world meant, also, taking fitting leave of the present, and the priest called in to minister in spiritual things was at the same time frequently the dying man's guide in the final ordering 1

St Paul's, W.D. 4, f. 85. * Ibid. A. Box 12, No. 1137. 3 fad. W.D. 4, liber L. 4 F. Bond, Dedications and Patron Saints of English Churches, p. 193.

LEGATEE A N D L I T I G A N T

9

of his temporal affairs. Of the will drawn under the confessor's direction, who could be a more fitting executor than he whose duty it was to take care that the testator made proper provision for the house where his devotions had been paid in this world and for the welfare of his soul in the next? And so we find that by the will dated 28 May 1425 William Byngham, rector of St John Zaehary, and the wardens of the same church take a share of the estate of William Hope, goldsmith, in return for their prayers;1 and it appears that a few years later they do the same under the will, dated 25 July 1431, of Bartholomew Seman, 'goldbetere', who also, by will dated 12 March 1429,* leaves a certain tenement and rents to Michaelhouse, Cambridge, for two poor scholars to be known as 'Turkeschildren' (to pray for Sir Robert Turk, knight, his two wives and others). Herein we may perhaps see the influence of Byngham in the provision that, failing proper observance of the conditions by Michaelhouse, the bequest with its obligations shall pass to Clare Hall. Throughout his career as a London rector, duties of this character were discharged by Byngham and, especially in the cases of the larger estates, they often involved him in litigation. Thus, his name appears frequently in the proceedings of the Court of Chancery: William Byngham, parson of St John Zaehary, is a defendant along with his co-executors of Nicholas Conyngston.3 William Byngham, clerk, is plaintiff as executor of William Flete, merchant, in an action against Alexander Mede, respecting lands in Lincolnshire.4 William Byngham, widi other executors ofThomas Horley, late of Biggleswade, is defendant in an action brought by William Warboys, respecting messuages in Dunton, Bedfordshire,5 and William Byngham, with other feoffees of William Crosse, is defendant in an action brought by George, son of the said William, respecting lands in Bedfordshire.6 We see him, in 1428, as defendant in an action brought by the dean and chapter of St Paul's concerning an annual payment of twenty shillings due to them out of the rectory of St John Zaehary,7 where he 1 2

Sharpe, ii, 436. Ibid, ii, 459. Seman was buried in St John Zaehary (Stow, i, 305).

3 E.CkP. Bdle 11, No. 216. 4 ibid. Bdle 19, No. 195. 6 5 Ibid. Bdle 35, No. 75. Ibid. Bdle 24, No. 56. 7 W. McMurray, The Records of Two City Parishes, p. 269.

io

W I L L I A M B Y N G H A M , T H E FIRST F O U N D E R

was, perhaps, only defending a friendly action to put upon record in a court of law an already agreed position. Amongst the friends made by Byngham at this period was John Carpenter, town clerk of London from 1417 to 1441, member of parliament for the city in 1436 and again in 1439, and founder of the City of London School. The bond between the older man and the younger is probably to be found in their interest in education. Carpenter died about 1441, and his biographer says upon this matter: 1 'Master William Byngham, another distinguished promoter of learning, had this friendly notice taken of him by Carpenter', and he quotes the following passage from Carpenter's will: 'Also I give and bequeath to Master William Byngham, as a memorial of me, that book which Master Roger Dymok* made, contra duodecitn errores et heresesLollardomtn,

and gave to King Richard, and which book John Wilok gave to me'. Mention has already been made of Lychefeld, Byngham's predecessor 1

T. Brewer, Memoir of the Life and Times offohn Carpenter, pp. 66 sq. and 139. For this writer and the treatise here named v. D.N.B. xvi, 293. The work is known in three manuscripts, one in Paris in the Bibliotheque Nationale, another in the University Library, Cambridge, die diird in die library of Trinity Hall, Cambridge. The copy in the University Library (G.4.3) is in a hand of die middle of the fifteenth century and was of die gift of Archbishop Rodierham (1480). On f. 1 is written in a late seventeenth-century hand 'Cuius et alterum exemplar Ms. hoc multo vestustius, Et splendidius, in Bibhodi. Aule Trin. vide'. The Trinity Hall copy is No. 17 of Dr M. R. James's catalogue of die manuscripts of diat college, and is attributed by him to the late fourteenth century. It is written on vellum 10J x 7J, ff. 160+ 1. On die first page die initial has a portrait of King Richard II throned, and the royal arms (France ancient and England quarterly) are blazoned in colours on die right-hand margin, while on die bottom margin is his badge, two stags sejeant guardant gorged crowned and chained or. There are many illuminated initials and borders, and die writing is wordiy of its frame. Dr James regards it as a copy made for presentation to die king and, since Carpenter refers to the copy he bequeadied to Byngham as die one given by Dymok to die king, diere seems sufficient reason to conclude that die Trinity Hall MS. was once the property of Byngham. Robert Hare gave it to diat college and he received it from Andiony Rooper, grandson of Sir Thomas More, 12 June 1588. This work of Dymok was published for die first time in 1922 by die Wyclif Society, edited by H. S. Cronin, widi the tide Rogeri Dymmok Liber Contra XII Errores et Hereses Lollardorum. Cronin speculates (p. xx sq.) upon the ownership of die MS. between Richard II and Rooper, but die lacuna of 189 years is left unfilled by him. It is now possible pardy to fill in die gap and die complete known links in its chain of owners are King Richard II, John Wilok, John Carpenter, William Byngham widi, longo intervallo, Andiony Rooper, Robert Hare (d. 1611) and Trinity Hall. 1

L O N D O N FRIENDS

n

in the rectory of Carlton Curlieu. He was presented to a city rectory (All Hallows the More) in 1425 and was one of four city parsons who presented a petition to the king in parliament in the year 1447. As they were all friends of Byngham and were associated with him in various ways, three of them in connection with Godshouse, it is worth quotation in summary: Maistre William Lycchefeld,1 parson of die parish Chirche of all Halo wen the more in London; Maister Gilbert [Worthyngton],* parson of Seint Andrewe in Holbourne subarbs of the said Citee; Maister John Cote,3 parson of Seint Petre in Cornhull of London; and John Neell, Maister of the Hous or Hospitall of Seint Thomas of Acres, and parson of Colechirche in London for power to appoint a person in their respective parishes to hold and exercise a school. The king grants the petition 'so that it be done by thadvyse of the Ordinarie, otherelles of the Archebishope of Canterbury for the tyme beyng'.* It seems natural to connect this movement of his four friends with the influence of Byngham, whose own efforts to provide masters for such schools had been set on foot more than ten years earlier. Sir John Fray,5 second baron of the Exchequer from 1435, chief baron from 1437 till 1448, on the commissions of the peace for various counties and for the town of Cambridge from 1429 onwards, was in intimate connection with Byngham in various ways, and the friendship may date from this early period through friends whom we know to have been common to them both. Fray was one of the king's commissioners for the purchase of a site for King's College, and on that account may have been useful to Byngham. Byngham's active preparations for the founding of his college must have begun as early as 1436. There are two documents6 preserved in the college muniment room which suggest that even in the year before he may have been making his plans, and, by a third, we learn that as 1

Infra, p. 397 sq. * Infra, p. 399 sq. 4 Infra, p. 390 sq. Rot. Part v, 137. 5 Infra, pp. 393 sqq. Chr. Misc. F, 27 and Misc. B, 30, both relating to the will of one magister Robert Carlyon, Byngham being an executor along with John Druell. The documents belong to the years 1435, 1436; cf. infra, p. 390. 3

12 W I L L I A M B Y N G H A M , T H E FIRST F O U N D E R early as 8 August 1436, the design of founding Godshouse was so firmly established that Sara Beket entered into a bond for .£ 100 in the interests of its endowment.1 It may be said, without denying the existence of more altruistic motives, that the predominant incentive to found a college was the special place the founder always enjoyed in the devotions ofits members. It would be idle to claim that Byngham was indifferent to the prayers of the scholars he proposed to benefit, but the measures taken by him to secure such spiritual gain to himself were so inconspicuous, and their firm establishment by statute was so long deferred,2 as to suggest that such personal advantage from the foundation of the college was far from being his main purpose. Byngham's principal motive, the driving force which sustained him during the struggle for twelve years against adverse circumstance and powerful opposition, is to be sought in his profound conviction of the need of greater facilities for education in the grammar schools of England. It is the theme of his earliest surviving petition, it is prominent in the successive charters he obtained from the king; it was so engraved upon the minds of his contemporaries, and through them upon their successors, that it is the burden of the preamble to the statutes made forty-five years after his death. That the scholars of the college should become masters in grammar, and be bound to go to teach in any suitable school when so qualified, is the cardinal purpose of their training as set forth in the Godshouse statutes; and even in the Lady Margaret's statutes, by which Christ's College was governed until the middle of the nineteenth century, the Byngham tradition is maintained in the provision 3 that six pupils shall devote themselves to the rudiments of Grammar, and those things which best promote the teaching of Grammar, and shall take the first degree in the same, in order that diey may be able (if by chance they are ever called upon) to go forth competently to teach Grammar in any part of England. Which 1

Chr. Gh. Y; cf. infra, p. 99 sq. The first statutes of Godshouse were not formally given beforei495/6, and prayers for founders cannot be said to be firmly established without statutes to enforce them. Byngham had full royal authority to make statutes himself and they must have been in existence in essence long before they were formally sealed; cf. infra, p. 242. 3 Ch. XLI; Rackham, p. 107 sq. z

COLLEGE F O U N D E R S

13

duty none of them shall refuse (provided that an annual stipend often pounds be offered to him) under pain of the loss of every emolument in the said College.1 Before 1439 there were eight colleges in the university: Peterhouse, Michaelhouse, Clare Hall, King's Hall, Pembroke Hall, Gonville Hall, Trinity Hall, Corpus Christi, the latest having been founded in 1352. Two of the colleges had been founded by powerful bishops, one by a man who, as canon of York and of Wells, and chancellor of the Exchequer to King Edward II, was 'a man therefore of property and influence, who may be compared with Walter de Merton both in these respects, and in the prudent care with which he prepared and perfected his foundation'.3 Two colleges owed their existence to wealthy ladies of the highest rank, another to King Edward III; Corpus Christi was the foundation of two Cambridge gilds, and Gonville Hall was founded by one who, though described as rector of Terrington, was the son of a wealthy mother and held high offices under John, earl Warren and Henry, earl of Lancaster, in addition to ecclesiastical preferment. The much more humble rector of the London church of St John Zachary was of a different social order from any of these and, while the moral support of friends such as other London rectors of similar educational zeal must have been a great stand-by to Byngham, he had to cultivate the friendship also of those to whom he looked primarily to provide the material wealth without which his projected college could not have been established. The names of the more prominent of these it has been possible to discover: they were John Brokley, Johanna Bokeland and William Flete. In the period 1435-7 Byngham was acquiring land for his college, which was originally placed in Milne Street, then one of the principal highways of the town; a few years later, at the king's request, he sold the land and the buildings he had built upon it to commissioners acting for the king to enable him to enlarge the new royal college which we know to-day as King's. The deeds relating to Byngham's purchases passed to that college, and one of them provides the names of early 1 2

Rackham, pp. 107 and 109. W. and C. i, p. xxxviii.

14 W I L L I A M B Y N G H A M , T H E FIRST F O U N D E R benefactors of Godshouse. On 25 July 1437 Thomas Fordeham and Simon Randekyn confirmed by deed1 that they had conceded to John Brokelee alderman of London, William Flete of Rickmansworth gendeman, Johanna Bokeland widow of Richard Bokeland citizen of London, and to William Byngham rector of the parish church of St John Zachary London, a messuage with a garden at its eastern end, in the parish of St John [Zachary], Cambridge, with all its appurtenances. The property is described as lying between, on the north, a vacant and waste plot of land belonging to Barnwell priory upon which had formerly been a hostel known as Tyled hostel, which piece of land William Byngham had leased from the prior and convent of Barnwell, and on the south, another tenement of Thomas Fordeham and Simon Randekyn, and abutting on the west, upon the king's highway called 'Mylne strete', with a frontage thereto of twenty-two pedes pauli,* and on the east, upon a tenement of Robert Lyncoln, with a width there of twenty-one paul's feet. The deed proceeds to relate, in a manner quite modern, the title of the grantors derived from three successive owners, and states that their tenement bounding the site upon the south extends to Piron Lane. Since it is declared in the deed that Byngham already held on lease from the prior and convent of Barnwell the land to the north on which Tyled hostel formerly stood, it must be assumed that his acquisition of a site had begun some time before 1437, possibly even as early as 1435. The essential feature in the recital of boundaries in a conveyance of land is reference to facts well known, and Byngham's relationship to Tyled hostel must have existed long enough to fulfil that condition. Willis and Clark suggest 3 that he had already established his scholars in Tyled hostel before his purchase from Fordeham and Randekyn; without necessarily assenting to that proposition, we may reasonably conclude that Byngham's activities were already well known before 1437. It is desirable to state that the lease of Tyled hostel was for a long term, and 1

King's, A, 77b. * I.e. feet of the standard marked upon one of the piers of St Paul's, London. 3 W . and C. i, p. lv sq.

E N F E O F F M E N T T O USES

15

that it was distinguished from his purchase of the adjoining property mainly by the fact that he paid to the prior and convent a perpetual annual rent, a rent which we know from other sources1 to have been a quit rent of two shillings. The inclusion in the deed of John Brokley, Johanna Bokeland and William Flete as co-feoffees with Byngham is an example of a form of conveyance which had grown into great favour during the fifteenth century, principally to evade the burden of many of the incidents of feudal tenure. It was known as a feoffment to uses and it enabled the feoffees* to hold the legal estate, which alone was subject to feudal incidents of tenure, while dealing with the equitable estate in accordance with the dictates of the owner of that interest, who might be one of themselves or might be outside their number altogether. There must have been instances where the 'enfeoffment to use' method of conveyance would be chosen by benefactors for the protection of their interests, and this may have been one of such cases. This brings up the personal interest of the deed, for there can be no doubt that all three feoffees (besides Byngham) were benefactors of Godshouse. It is provided in the statutes of Godshouse 3 that daily prayers shall be offered for the soul of'John Brokley, formerly Alderman of London', and in the statutes of the Lady Margaret the names of William Byngham, priest, and John Brokley are specifically named, after her kindred,* for inclusion in the daily prayers of each fellow. The other two names 1

King's, A, 89; where, by a blunder, he is styled Johannes Byngham, ckricus; the reference to Byngham is, however, only incidental. 1 The feoffees were joint tenants, not tenants in common; they held, that is, each of them the whole estate so that, when one died, his interest passed not to his heirs but to the surviving feoffees. If, before the estate was alienated, all the feoffees died, it passed to the heir of the last surviving but, like the original feoffees, he held the legal estate only and was bound to deal with it under the instructions of him who held the equitable estate or his heir. In short, the feoffment to uses, amongst other advantages, provided a simple and efficacious means of appointing trustees. The trust might be abused, but anyone intending to avail himself or this mode of conveyance would choose the feoffees with care, and he had a remedy in case of misfeasance; the common law would deal with the legal estate only but the use could be enforced in the court of the king's Chancellor whose jurisdiction in equity was advancing with rapid strides at this period. 4 Ibid. p. 89. 3 Rackham, p. 39.

16 W I L L I A M B Y N G H A M , T H E FIRST F O U N D E R are merged in the ' many others besides whose names nevertheless we do not mention'. 1 From the statutes we learn that John Brokley, alderman of London, was a benefactor, but nothing of his history or of the date or extent of his benefaction has hitherto been available. It has been possible to gather from various sources some information concerning his history which is set out in the appendix,3 and in the light of the deed now being considered it is certain that the beginning of the benefaction for which he was to be remembered dates from at least as early as 1437. Johanna Bokeland (Buckland) was a benefactor as executrix of her husband's will.3 Some account of her life, as well as the romantic story of Richard Bokeland's varied career, will be found in the appendix,4 but here it is enough to say that he died in the autumn of 1436 (his will was proved 15 October of that year), having directed 'that therbe founden at the universitees of Oxenford or Cambrigg at the discrecon of my wyf and executors two gode honnest and vertuous preests.. .for xx yere praying for my soule... and full all I am bounden to pray for'. Johanna exercised her discretion in favour of Cambridge and, as she became a feoffee with Byngham for the site of Godshouse, we may reasonably suppose that she paid a lump sum down in return for an undertaking to secure the prayers of two priests for twenty years. The provision of a definite term of years would account for the absence of the Bokeland name from the list of benefactors mentioned in the Godshouse statutes. The third of Byngham's co-feoffees, "William Flete, was king's clerk to Richard II, Henry IV, Henry V and Henry VI successively, drawing an annual income from the issues of the county of Cambridge for the year 1399, and thereafter, till his death in 1444, from the county of Lincoln. He was placed upon numerous commissions in various counties, and in certain years was escheator for Essex and Hertfordshire. He was knight of the shire for his own county of Hertford, where he was lord of the manor of More in Rickmansworth; he held lands also in Lincolnshire. Nothing has been traced to throw light upon the 1

Rackham, p. 89. 3 P.C.C. 21 Luffenam.

2 4

Infra, pp. 383 sqq. Infra, pp. 386 sqq.

T H O M A S DE B I N G H A M

17

benefaction leading to his inclusion as co-feoffee in the purchase of the Godshouse land in 1437. His value at that time to Byngham and Godshouse may not have lain in any financial gift but in his knowledge of law and his experience of affairs; arising out of his will, it will be suggested that a benefaction came to the college which remained in its possession until disposed of in modern times.1 Note i T H O M A S DE B I N G H A M , M A S T E R O F P E M B R O K E H A L L There was another person named Bingham whose story linked Cambridge with Bingham in Nottinghamshire in a generation earlier than that of William Byngham. This was Thomas de Bingham, second Master of Pembroke Hall.2 Richard Parker made him first Master, 1343, doctor of divinity, and derived him from 'the noble family.. .of Bingham Melcomb, in the co. of Dorset'. 3 Carter says of him that he was S.T.P., first Master of Pembroke soon after 1343, resigned 1373 and died 1392.4 Cole recites these statements but degrades him from his doctorate; he gives him for arms Azure a bend cotised argent inter 6 cross crosslets or, which are practically those of the Dorset family. Putting aside these eighteenth-century writers, and basing ourselves upon contemporary documents, this is what we find. Thomas de Bingham was senior proctor of the university in the year 1362/3,5 and, while in that office, being then in priest's orders, he petitioned the pope for a benefice of the value of .£30 with cure of souls, or of JQ20 without, in the gift of the archbishop of York. The reply was Let him have one in the gift of the prior and convent of Spalding.6 He was rector of Westmill, Hertfordshire (upon presentation of the countess of Clare), 2 August 1367 to 22 March 1374;7 rector of Bingham, Nottinghamshire, 23 July 13698 to 30 March 1391;' rector of 1 3

% Cf. infra, pp. 63 sq., 392 sq. University Calendar. History ana Antiquities of the University of Cambridge (1721), p. 51. 4 The History of the University of Cambridge (1753), p. 71. 5 Proctors' Accounts for that year, preserved in the University Registry, I (2). 6 Cal. Pap. Pet. p. 405. ? Bishop Buckingham's register, quoted by R. Clutterbuck, History of Hertfordshire, iii.320. 8 Godfrey, pp. 15 sqq., quoting the Torre MS. Other rectors of Bingham, with Cambridge associations, were William Watnowe, S.T.P. (1453-82), resident in Peterhouse 1455-8 (Walker, i, 49 sqq.), and Richard Wyatt, S.T.P. (1508-22), the second Master of Christ's College. 9 Ely, Fordham, f. 26b; P.R. 17 March, 15 R. II, ii, 21. LHC 2

18 WILLIAM BYNGHAM, THE FIRST FOUNDER Gransden Parva, diocese of Ely, 30 March 1391 until his death, which occurred early in 1392/3, his successor at Gransden Parva being instituted 30 April 1393.1 The territorial form, de Bingham, bespeaks his connection with some place of that name; his holding for twenty-two years the rectory of Bingham, Nottinghamshire, points to that rather than the Dorset Bingham's Melcomb as the place of his origin, and that view gains further support when we find that, though he was presented to the rectory of Bingham by Sir Geoffrey de Stanton and Sir Simon de Leek, knights, those two persons held the presentation only for that turn. The patronage lay in the territorial Bingham, or squire of Bingham, who probably enfeoffed his two friends for that turn to avoid any accusation of simony. When we find that the patron who presented to the living in 1364 was Sir Richard de Bingham, knight, that he lived until 1387/8, having been married in 1344/5, and that his next brother was named Thomas, who died sine prole,3 it is difficult to resist the conclusion that we have established the place and family from which Thomas de Bingham issued. This plain recital of Thomas de Bingham's history leaves unexplained the attribution to him, by eighteenth-century writers, ofthe arms ofthe Bingham's Melcomb family. It is possible that this arises from a confusion of the Cambridge man with a contemporary Thomas de Bingham who was sub-dean of Wells, a confusion which has persisted down to the present time.3 The Wells man appears frequently in the patent rolls as a living person for several years after the death of the Cambridge man, having his estate as sub-dean of the cathedral church of Wells, with the prebend ofWythlakyngton therein, ratified 14 July I39O,4 when he is styled master in theology.5 He appears again in 1396,1398, 1400 and 14016 in the patent rolls, and his name is found in an inquisition ad quod damnum in 1401 ;7 he must have died about 1404, since there is an entry in the expenses of the communar of the dean and 1 2

Ely, Fordham, f. 38 b. Thoroton, i, 272 sq., in conjunction with Harl. Soc. iv, 144. 3 Cf. Venn, quoting The History ofFramlingham by R. Hawes, ed. Loder, p. 208 sq. 4 C.P.R. 1388-92, p. 298. 5 This degree is unknown to Cambridge; a man became bachelor (S.T.B.) and, if he desired to proceed further, the next and only stage was doctor (S.T.P.). Parker and Carter, if we may assume diem to be influenced by die mastership of die Wells man, got over the difficulty by making the Cambridge Thomas 'doctor'. But prior to the fifteenth century master, doctor, professor seem to have been interchangeable terms, especially on die continent of Europe, and doctor and professor so remained until recent times in Cambridge. We find that in 1470 Robert Wodlark was styled master in theology in a papal document addressed to him as provost of King's College (Cat. Pap. Letters, 1458-71, p. 753), but he was certainly S.T.P. in May 1448 (Christ's muniments, Camb. N.). Cf. infra, p. 136, n. 1. 6 C.P.R. 1396-9, pp. 34 and 426; 1399-1401, pp. 288 and 476. 7 P.R.O. File 431 (17), 28 March, 2 H. IV.

THOMAS DE BINGHAM

19

chapter for March 1408, which runs' [paid to] the escheator, for the exequies of Mr Thomas Byngham 3 rd year £ 1 . o. o'. 1 The comparative proximity of Wells to Bingham's Melcomb (they are about thirty miles apart) makes for the probability that the sub-dean of Wells was of the Dorset family, and therefore rightly entitled to the arms wrongly ascribed to his contemporary of Cambridge. When the confusion arose it is not possible to say; perhaps it was due to Fuller, who includes prominently amongst his Worthies Sir Richard Bingham, of Bingham's Melcomb (1528-99), the Elizabethan warrior whose memory was still green in Fuller's own day. The armorial confusion between the two persons named Thomas must be held responsible for the erroneous attribution by William Cole of the Bingham's Melcomb family arms to William Byngham.2 The Memoirs of the Binghams, by Rose E. McCalmont (1915), is specially concerned with the Somerset and Dorset family and its connections. On p. 167 it is stated that 'they must be dissociated from the other distantly connected [the connection is not shewn] branch which had originated in Nottinghamshire. Of these last the pedigree such as it is exists, but none of the Christian names contained in it will fit in with the Binghams of Melcomb Bingham who settled in London'. Failure to establish connection is to be expected, for, apart from the utter dissimilarity of the arms, the manner of acquisition of the surname is entirely different in the two cases. The Binghams of Dorset, found established there and in Sutton Bingham, Somerset, at least as early as the reign of Henry III, claimed descent from Sir John de Bingham of temp. Henry I; they imposed their name upon the place of their settlement, which became, in consequence, Melcomb Bingham or Bingham's Melcomb. The Binghams of Nottinghamshire bore the family name Bugge and the earliest records describe them as de Nottingham. They acquired estate and settled in the parish of Bingham about the end of Henry Ill's reign; in 1266, the head of the house is described as Radulphus Bugg. His eldest son is described as Richard de Bingham, miles, while his second son is Galfridus Bugg de Leek. Richard's son is William de Bingham, miles, in 1306, and thenceforward the Bingham branch is invariably known as de Bingham or Bingham.3 Thus the Dorset family, having possessed the family name Bingham, imposed it as an additional name upon the district in which it was settled; the Nottinghamshire family with the surname Bugge settled in the parish of Bingham and, shedding the plebeian Bugge, adopted the territorial de Bingham. The paucity of reference to Thomas de Bingham in academical documents makes it interesting to find that the Otryngham Book 4 places him amongst the list of benefactors to Michaelhouse for whom prayer is to be made. 1 Cat. MSS. Dean and Chapter of Wells, ii, 42 (Hist. MSS. Comm.). 2 Brit. Mus. Add. MS. 5846, ff. 164b and 165 a. 3 4 Thoroton, i, 272. Trinity College muniment room. 2-2

20 WILLIAM BYNGHAM, THE FIRST FOUNDER Note ii CARLTON CURLIEU,

LEICESTERSHIRE

The parish church was appropriated to the alien priory of Ware, a cell of the abbey of St Ebrulf in Normandy, whose temporalities were seized by Edward III.1 The presentation to the rectory thus passed into the king's hands and the following appointments appear on the calendars of the close and patent rolls: 10 February 1377. John de Friseby, parson of Carleton Curie, is mentioned.2 8 May 1383. Presentation of Richard Foxton, parson of Heryngeswell, diocese of Norwich. 3 25 April 1402. Presentation of John Norburgh, parson of Thorpe Edmer and prebendary of the sixth prebend in the collegiate church of Newark, Leycestre, to the church of Carleton Curly, in the diocese of Lincoln, in the king's gift by reason of the temporalities of the alien priory of Ware being in his hands, on an exchange of benefices with Richard Foxton.4 24 June 1403. Presentation of John Segevaux of the church of Leke,5 diocese of York, to the church of Carlton, in the diocese of Lincoln, in the king's gift on account of the war with France, on an exchange of benefices with John Norburgh. 6 This last exchange appears to have fallen through, for we find 21 August 1403. Presentation of Richard Foxton to Carlton on exchange with John Norburgh, thus restoring the position ante 25 April 1402.7 25 September 1414. Henry V founded the Carthusian house of Jesus of Bethlehem of Shene, and amongst its many endowments was the advowson of Carlton Curlieu church. The prior and convent of this house henceforth present to the rectory.8 1 November 1420. William Lychefeld, priest, presented by the prior and convent of the house of Jhesu of Betheleem of Shene, was instituted at Fotheringay to the church of Carleton, vacant.9 23 June 1423. William Byngham, priest, presented by the prior and convent [as above], was instituted at Lidyngton to the church of Carleton Curly, on the resignation of Sir William Lychefeld.10 1 2 Monasticon, vi, 1049. C.C.R. 1374-7, p. 519. 4 3 C.P.R. 13 81-5, p. 271. Ibid. 1401-5, p. 87. 5 Leek was the home of Galfridus Bugg, a Bingham who retained the original family name. He was the uncle of Thomas de Bingham, second Master of Pembroke Hall. 6 C.P.R. 1401-5, p. 238. 7 Ibid. p. 254. 8 Charter Rolls, 2 H. V, i, 8. 9 Line, xvi, f. 88 d. 10 Ibid, xvi.f. 98 d.

RECTORS OF CARLTON

21

There are no more institutions between this and that of Richard Hanson, below, either at Lincoln or at Lambeth (sede vacante), but 26 May 1424. John Bernesley, parson of St John Zachary, London, exchanged that rectory with Byngham for the church of Carl ton Curlieu.1 Following him must have been one Sir John Byllysfeld, for, on 8 February 1442. Richard Hanson, priest, presented by the prior and convent [as above], was instituted at Lidyngton to the church of Carlton Curie, on the resignation of Sir John Byllysfeld, for the sake of an exchange with the church of Nether Herdys, diocese of Canterbury.2 1 Hennessy, p. 96. John Bernesley was formerly rector of Greatham, Sussex. Though no relationship has been traced between him and Thomas Bemesley, first dean of the College of Stoke Clare, the connection of Byngham with both is suggestive of relationship. * Line, xviii, f. 155.

Chapter II THE DISPUTE WITH J O H N

LANGTON

B

efore Byngham could make use, for the purposes of his college, of the land bought from Fordeham and Randekyn (Cat hostell as it is seen to have been called1), he was confronted with a startling proposal, attractive enough to have induced him to give it serious consideration, though its adoption would have involved the surrender of his site and the selection of another some distance away. This proposal appears to have been made by the Chancellor of the University and, though it is of singular interest and had consequences of much importance both to Godshouse and the university, it has escaped the attention of all historians of both institutions. There is no record preserved of the preliminary conversations, though the Chancellor maintained that they had been brought to the stage of agreement between the parties. This is an ex parte statement and the Chancellor admits that there was no writing between the university and Byngham, and that he had no remedy at common law; he was driven to appeal to the Chancellor of England, and it is the fortunate preservation of John Langton's petition in the early chancery documents in the Public Record Office that allows this interesting controversy to be brought to light after an oblivion of nearly 500 years. After the present writer had found and read the original document he discovered that it had already been printed by Mr W. T. Barbour in vol. iv of the Oxford Studies in Social and Legal History (VinogradofF). Mr Barbour's purpose was to trace the development of the chancery's legal functions in the fifteenth century* and John Langton's petition is only one out of many selected for consideration; he was not concerned 1 1

An endorsement upon King's, A, 77 b. Preface, op. cit.

LANGTON'S PETITION

23

with its bearing upon the history of the University of Cambridge. The petition is No. 55 of bundle 39 of Early Chancery Proceedings. To the full reverent fader in god the bisshop of Bathe Chaunceller ofEnglond

Besechet lowely your pore oratour John Langton Chaunceller of the universite of Cantebrigge that where the seyd Chaunceller and universite by the assent and graunt of our soverain lord the Kyng have late ordeyned to founde and stablisse a college in the same toun it to called the universite college and to endowe it with diverses possessiouns in relevyng of the sayd universite and encresing of dergie ther And how late acorde took bytwix oon sir William Byngham that the seyd Chaunceller and scolers shuld have a place of the seyd sir William adioynyng on every side to the ground of the seyd Chaunceller and universite that they have ordeyned to bud her seyd college upon for the augmentation and enlargeyng of her seyd college and to edifie upon certein scoles of Civill and other faculteez and for to gif the sayd sir William a noder place therfor lyeng in the sayd toun bitwix the whit Freres and seint Johns Chirch and do it to be amorteysed suerly after the intent of the seyd sir William of the cost of the seyd Chaunceller and universite os the ful reverent fader in god the bisshop of Lincoln in whos presence this covenaunt and acorde was made wole recorde And it is so reverent lord that the seyd Chaunceller and universite acordyng to this covenaunt have ordeyned the sayd sir William a sufficeaunt place lyeng in the seyd toun of Cantebrigge bytwix the said whit Freres and seintJohns Chirch and extendyng doun to the Ryver of the same toun wyth a gardeyn therto which place is of better value then this other place is and profred to amorteyse it at her own cost acordyng to the covenaunt forseyd and therupon diverse costes and grete labores have made and doon late therfor And also required diverses cymes the seyd sir William to lepe * and performe on his party these seyd covenauntz the seid sir William now of self wille and wythoute any cause refusith it and will not doo it in noo wise Plese it to your gracious lordship to consider dies premisses and therupon to graunt to your seyd besechers a writ sub pena direct to the seyd sir William, to appere afore yow in the Chauncery of our lord kyng at a certein day upon a certein peyne be yow to be limited to be examened of these materes forseid and therupon to ordeyne by your gracious lordship that the said sir William may be compelled to do that trowth good feith and consciens requiren in this caas considering that in alsomich as there is no writing bitwix yowr seyd besechers and the seyd sir William thei may have noon accion at the comyn lawe and that for god and in wey of charite. 1

Query: a mistake for 'kepe'?

24

DISPUTE WITH J O H N LANGTON

The petition is undated and the editors of the Calendar attribute the contents of the bundle as a whole to '1467 to 1472 and perhaps 1433 to 1443'. Mr Barbour places the petition 'after 1433 '* and 'about 1433',2 of which the first is too indefinite and the second too early; and, as no guidance is to be obtained from the position of the document in the bundle where it finds a place, we are driven back upon its own internal evidence and upon our knowledge of local circumstance in our search for the year to which it belongs. We must place the petition during the period when John Langton was Chancellor of the University and John Stafford Chancellor of England simultaneously, which was from 1436 to 1443. The reference to the bishop of Lincoln gives no assistance, for he was translated from Norwich to Lincoln in 1436 and died as bishop of Lincoln in 1449. The king's commissioners bought land for his college of St Nicholas as early as 14 September 1440 (the site of the Old Court of King's, from Trinity Hall), and they bought Crouched hostel, owned by the university since 1432 and lying adjacent to Godshouse, on 19 October 1440. The conditions described in the petition to the Chancellor had therefore ceased to exist by October 1440 certainly, and most probably even earlier, since the king's intentions would be known before the dates of the conveyances. Moreover, since Byngham obtained the first royal licence for Godshouse on 13 July 1439, and thereby gained royal protection, the petition of John Langton must have been addressed to the Chancellor of England before that date. Byngham's petition, which produced the 1439 licence, makes mention of a 'mansion ycalled Goddeshous the which he hath made and edified in your towne of Cambrigge for the free herbigage of poure scolers of Gramer' and, since Langton's plaint made no reference to Godshouse, nor to any building on the site which he coveted and which was referred to as a 'plot', it must be accepted that the university's petition applied to a state of things existing before the 'mansion' had been built. In view of these various considerations, the most likely date for 1

Op. cit. p. 221.

J

Op. cit. p. 121.

ITS D A T E

25

Langton's petition in chancery is one between 1436, when he became Chancellor of the University, and 1438, when the buildings of Godshouse must already have been erected. For how long the dispute had been smouldering before the more powerful disputant sought to fan it into flame with a writ sub pena it is impossible to say; Langton may have inherited negotiations initiated by his predecessor. Alnwick, bishop of Lincoln at the date of the petition, may have acquired his qualifications as a witness while still bishop of Norwich (1422-36). It is not without interest, though too much must not be built upon it, that Alnwick conveyed a tenement and a garden, situated in the very area where lay the alternative site offered to Byngham, by a deed dated 25 April 1437.1 Had this tenement and garden been acquired by Alnwick2 with a view to satisfying Byngham and then, Byngham having refused to accept the proposed exchange, been sold by Alnwick because it was no longer of interest to him? In that case the date of Alnwick's deed of sale would provide 25 April 1437 as a terminus ante quern for the petition. As is usual in the case of these early chancery petitions,3 we are not given the defendant's reply and the judgement is not endorsed upon the petition, but it is necessary to assume from the subsequent history of the site that the final outcome was unfavourable to the petitioners, though whether that followed immediately from the rejection of their prayer, or was determined by the judgement of the court after the issue of a writ and Byngham's appearance thereto, remains hidden. It is possible that Byngham had promised to contemplate the surrender of his college site, but that when the Chancellor of the University indicated the particular site he proposed to give in exchange Byngham found the consideration offered to be inferior to that promised. He was a man of affairs with much experience of courts of law both as plaintiff and defendant,1* and was very unlikely to buy a pig in a poke or to submit tamely to the contention that he had done so. There are two statements 1 2

Trinity Hall, No. 59.

He was a generous benefactor to the university. Annals, i, 204. 3 Barbour, op. cit. p. 70. « E.CLP. Bundles 11 (216), 19 (195), 24 (56), 35 (75).

26

DISPUTE WITH J O H N

LANGTON

in the petition so direct that they must have had some substance, but there is no evidence remaining to support them. They are: (a) That the Chancellor and the university had the king's grant to found their proposed college. (b) That the 'plot' of William Byngham adjoined on every side the ground of the university. As to (a), it is to be observed that no grant to the university to found a college is to be traced in the patent rolls, but it must be remembered that letters patent do not themselves constitute a grant, or licence; they are the formal evidence that such and such a thing has been given, as is implied by the regular form dedimus et concessitnus, referring to something already done to which the letters patent bear witness. The Chancellor of the University may have received intimation that he could have a grant, which he postponed getting confirmed by letters patent with their attendant cost, until he saw the issue of his negotiations with, and later his petition against, Byngham. As to (b), the site which Byngham had acquired, i.e. Cat hostel and Tyled hostel, was bounded on the west by the neutral ground of Milne Street, and on the north by Crouched hostel, which had passed into the university's possession on n March 1432. Difficulty arises with regard to the east and the south. On the east was St Thomas's hostel which, at the relevant date, was in the possession of Thomas Fordeham; it passed to Byngham subsequently and was part of Godshouse when he conveyed the land and buildings to the king's commissioners. The land on the south side of Byngham's site lay between him and Piron Lane and is described in the deed of sale to Byngham and his co-feoffees, on 25 July 1437,1 as being the possession of Fordeham and Randekyn, though it passed to Byngham at some date after 24 March 1440.* In the case of these two tenements (both of them in the hands of Fordeham at the relevant date) the university may have had a preliminary agreement with Fordeham that would justify the claim that Byngham's plot adjoined on every side the ground of the university,3 but the contem1

King's, A, 77 b. * King's, A, 77 (18). An instance of such a preliminary agreement is that between the abbot of Tiltey and Byngham as revealed by the endorsement of the Strawey Lane garden lease now to be mentioned. 3

T H E SITE O F F E R E D

27

porary documents prove that, if this were so, the agreements were never implemented and the land never passed into the possession of the university. Though Byngham had an immediate triumph over his powerful adversary he was to learn, as we shall see later, that his success was dearly bought. If he had agreed with the Chancellor and university by accepting the offered site 'bytwix the whit Freres and seint Johns Chirch and extendyng doun to the Ryver', he would have had their good will instead of that opposition which delayed for years the fruition of his plans. And if Byngham's objection to the alternative site was its remoteness from the Schools,1 he was ultimately driven to the site without Barnwell Gate which was farther away still. It appears probable, however, that he did not lightly reject the proposed exchange, for there is preserved in the muniment room of Christ's College * a lease of the house and walled garden belonging to the abbot and convent of Tiltey (a Cistercian house in Essex) which was given to Robert Foxton and Alice his wife in 1408 for their joint lives and one year after the survivor's death. The plot referred to is marked on Willis and Clark's Plan of the Site of King's College, fig. 3, as 'Garden of Abbot of Tiltey'. The adjoining St Nicholas hostel was in the occupation of the same Robert and Alice Foxton and must have been enclosed by the area offered by the Chancellor to Byngham in exchange for his Godshouse site. An endorsement on Foxton's lease shews that its unexpired term had been acquired by Byngham and that he had an arrangement with the abbot of Tiltey of a conditional but favourable character. Though the lease is dated, the endorsement is not, but all the attendant circumstances point to the period of the negotiations which broke down. The abbot was Simon Pabbenham, known in 1438 and probably the unnamed abbot of Tiltey who received benediction in 1436 from Bishop Gilbert.3 He appears in the conveyance of the convent's Preacher Street property to Byngham in 1446.4 1 The region of the site offered to Byngham can be fairly clearly ascertained though not its dimensions. All that may be safely claimed is that it lay within the area indicated by the letter B on the plan between pp. 44-5, an area whose limits are necessarily no more than approximate. 2 Chr. Camb. (without number). 3 V.C.H. Essex, ii, 136. « Chr. Camb. C.

28

DISPUTE WITH J O H N LANGTON

To assess Byngham's reasonableness and judgement in rejecting the alternative site offered by the Chancellor and university, it is necessary to dismiss from the mind present-day conditions when Queens', King's, Clare, the Hall, Trinity and St John's all have buildings actually bordering, or very close upon, the river banks. 'The alluvial tract and the lowest part of the ground occupied by gravel, which passes under the alluvium, was in its natural condition unsuitable for buildings, and the ancient town did not encroach upon it. It was later utilised for the erection of monastic and collegiate buildings, and, as shown by Professor Hughes, the ground was extensively raised artificially for the purpose.' r 'There is evidence that all the colleges between Queens' and St John's have been built on ground which has been artificially raised, and that, before the erection of the second court of Queens' College [circa 1480], no attempt was made to build on the eastern bank.' 2 The bearing of Langton's petition upon the fortunes of Godshouse has been sufficiently considered, but the project there claimed to have been contemplated by the Chancellor and the university authorities comes before us so startlingly, after being lost to sight for 500 years, as to demand examination from that wider point of view also. It is amazing that the declared intention of the university, to found and endow a college to bear its name, should have passed into oblivion, leaving no impress in tradition or in internal record. That a scheme of this nature should have been contemplated by the university is the more surprising when we consider the unhappy fate of its former venture in the same field. The story of University Hall is as brief as it is melancholy. On 5 July 13 21, Edward II granted by letters patent power to the Chancellor and Masters: 'That they might obtain and hold advowsons of churches to the annual value of .£4.0 and assign the same at their discretion to certain houses which they intended to establish in the university for the support of scholars in divinity and students in the art of logic'.3 No action was taken under this licence, but, on 20 February 1326, Edward II 1 3 3

Prof. J. E. Marr, in Camb. Plans, p. xxxiii sq. The Master ofJesus, ibid. p. xv. C.P.R. 1317-21, p. 601; Documents, i, 6.

U N I V E R S I T Y HALL

29

granted by letters patent licence to the Chancellor and university to found a college and to assign two messuages which they have in the street called Milne Street, in the parish of St John, Cambridge, for the habitation of the scholars.1 These two documents do not appear to have been regarded as connected, either by Willis and Clark or by Mr Wardale, the historian of Clare College, but the licence obtained 27 March 1327, by the Master and scholars of University Hall, Cambridge, lately founded, to acquire lands, tenements, rents, and advowsons of churches to the value of ^ 4 0 per annum,2 does seem to establish that connection and to shew that the university project which resulted in the foundation of University Hall had been present to the minds of the Chancellor and Masters for some years, and that the first formal step had been taken by them as early as 13 21. The house thus constituted was called University Hall.. .but it was not successful, and, after languishing for about twelve years, the same Richard de Badew [Chancellor of the University when the college was founded], by a deed dated 6 April 1338, in which he styles himself 'Founder, Patron, and Advocate of the House called the Hall of the University of Cambridge', granted all his rights and tides therein to the Lady Elizabeth de Burgo (daughter of Gilbert de Clare), who refounded it, and supplied the endowments which it had previously lacked.3 This curious transaction, whereby Richard Badew as for himself and his co-founders parted with all the university's rights as 'Founder, Patron, and Advocate', is without parallel in the history of the university. There is no trace of any royal charter authorising the Badew-Clare transaction, though it appears to be tacitly approved in the letters patent 4 licensing the giving to and receiving by the scholars of the hall of Clare of sundry additions to their revenues, in one of which licences 5 the college is said to be founded anew. The same detachment from what has gone before is shewn by the foundress of Clare, who ignores the founders of University Hall abso1

C.P.R. 1324-7, p. 244; Documents, i, 7. C.P.R. 1327-30, p. 64; Documents, i, 8. 3 W. and C. i, p. xl. 4 C.P.R. 1334-8, p- 237; 1345-8, pp. 135 and 195. 5 Ibid. 1345-8, p. 195.

2

30

DISPUTE WITH J O H N

LANGTON

lutely. She provides in her statutes for prayers on behalf of Edward III, of herself and of three deceased friends, but with the spiritual wellbeing of the founders and benefactors of University Hall she has no concern. The Lady Elizabeth of Clare paid to the university its price for its rights as founder, patron and advocate of the house called the Hall of the University of Cambridge (whether it was in part a money payment or consisted solely in relieving the university of its liability we do not know) and entered into possession of the advantages and obligations, spiritual and material alike, in respect of this college. The failure of this venture in collegiate foundation by the university is not surprising. Institutional paternity is apt to be characterised more by initial fervour than by enduring force. That the main motive underlying the private munificence of college founders in the middle ages was the priority enjoyed by them in the daily prayers and celebrations of such institutions is clearly indicated by the terms in which Henry VI assented to the request of Byngham that he should become the founder of Godshouse in his own person in reality. The king says: Observing by divine inspiration that the founders of sacred places are most faithfully commended by the prayers and intercessions of the same before all the other benefactors and enjoy the same intercessions almost as first fruits for ever and resolving to alleviate by prayers and devotions the great dangers . . . for ourselves and the realm.... Know ye that we graciously assenting to the prayers and supplication of the said William Byngham.. .deign to found a certain perpetual college of a proctor and certain scholars in grammar and the other liberal faculties in our said town of Cambridge to study and to pray for our healthful state and that of William Byngham himself while we live and for our souls when we shall have departed from this light and for the souls of our most illustrious parents and progenitors sometime Kings and Queens of England and for the souls of me parents of the said William Byngham and of the other benefactors of the same College and of all the faithful departed. This prime motive of a particular place in the prayers of a college was absent in the case of so large a community as the university, always rather loosely bound together and composed, even in the middle ages, of a constantly changing body of individuals. It must be allowed that the prime purpose of the university in founding University Hall was the provision for maintenance of poor scholars rather than the spiritual

P O V E R T Y OF T H E U N I V E R S I T Y

31

reward of the founders, but the initial fervour of those directing the university at the time of foundation was not sufficient. No college proceeded from its founder's head and hand fully complete but was, in its early days especially, a continuous drain upon his resources. That drain, in the absence of the stimulus which fed it in the cases of individual founders, would not be met by the lightly knit, ever-fluctuating body of those forming the university; and the college that was founded by the benevolence of the university reached the end of its founders' charity in the short space often or twelve years. With this pitiful experiment before us, we may proceed to consider whether the essential conditions of successful permanent establishment had been secured by 1437. Had the university at that time emerged, even temporarily, from that condition of penuriousness which has, in the main, dogged its steps until modern times? In considering this matter, the story of the building of the Schools quadrangle (absorbed later in the University Library) is instructive, since it covers almost the whole period from the failure of University Hall down to 1470.1 The foundation of the north side of the quadrangle was laid about 1347, and the work proceeded slowly. In 1377, with a legacy of forty marks and some other help, the walls were carried up until they came almost to the level of the first floor, when building ceased for some years for want of funds. It is not known when the work was resumed, but it is said to have been completed in 1400. (This is the range in which the old Divinity School and the Catalogue Room remain to us to-day.) The west side (the Periodicals Room with the West Room above) was next taken in hand, but it is not known when this range was finished; it had been completed some time before 1438. The next step was taken by the formation of a syndicate in 1457 for building a new School of Philosophy and Civil Law or a Library on the south side. In 1458, the Chancellor, the two proctors and three others were appointed to supervise the work, and provision was made for collecting funds, the grace beginning with the preamble 'whereas the Schools of Philosophy and Civil Law are in a state of irremediable decay and ruin, and must shortly fall to the ground unless some remedy be speedily provided, the said 1 The summary whichfollowsis based upon W. and C. iii, ch. 11.

32

DISPUTE WITH J O H N LANGTON

schools are to be built...'. The work was begun immediately but progress was extremely slow, 'probably through want of funds', for, in 1466, the Chancellor went to London to solicit subscriptions and must have had some success, for the work proceeded and was completed in 1470 or 1471.1 We find also that shortly after the date (1437) to which we have seen reason to ascribe the chancery petition, the university addressed an appeal ad misericordiam to the king 2 and he responded with a grant in mortmain dated 10 July 1438,3 giving to the Chancellor, Masters and scholars of the University of Cambridge the reversion of the manor of Ruyslep, county Middlesex, with a plot called 'Northwode', to aid in supporting the charges for the schools for students of theology and both laws and of the common library, and for the support of chaplains to celebrate divine service every day 'in the chapel of great beauty' in the university for the good estate of the king while alive and for his soul after death, and for the souls of his parents, ancestors and progenitors and of all the faithful departed. It is reasonable to enquire if the financial conditions disclosed by these events encourage the view that the university had in 1437 the means seriously to undertake a repetition of the experiment of 1326; a repetition requiring funds sufficient to acquire an expensive site, to erect buildings thereon, and 'to founde and stablisse a college.. .called the universite college and to endowe it with diverses possessiouns'. Was there, about the year 1437, such pressing need for a new college as would justify the university in assuming again a burden which in the past had proved to be beyond its power to bear? Its own peculiar liability lay in the responsibility to provide for the proper discharge of the tuitional, administrative, judicial and ceremonial functions of the body expressed by its name, and it has already been shewn that its financial state was utterly inadequate to enable it to reach the standard it had set for itself in the erection of buildings for those purposes. Do the circumstances of the time reveal such outstanding need for the provision of eleemosynary accommodation for poor scholars as to 1

W. and C. iii, 13 sq. W. and C. iii, 11, and Hare MSS. (paper copy, in 3 vols.) ii, 128 b. 3 P.R. 10 July, 16 H. VI, ii, 13. 1

COLLEGE F O U N D A T I O N S

33

justify the university in allowing its course to be deflected from its primary obligations to satisfy it? By a college in the medieval university should be understood an institution making provision for poor scholars. For those students able to pay their way, there was, probably, sufficient provision in the existing hostels, for hostels were conducted for purposes of profit by those who directed them, or for the mutual economic convenience of the students by whom they were used; if more were required the supply automatically responded to the demand. The colleges, in the fifteenth century, were not primarily engaged in teaching; they were intended for the moral and spiritual supervision, together with eleemosynary maintenance, ofpoor scholars who attended lectures in the various faculties in the schools provided by the university. When University Hall was founded for such poor scholars in 1326, the only pre-existing colleges were Peterhouse (1284), King's Hall (1316) and Michaelhouse (1324); at that time there was, very likely, outstanding need for more. By 1437 the position had been altered by the founding of Clare (1338), Pembroke (1347), Gonville Hall (1348), Trinity Hall (1350) and Corpus Christi (1352). We need not doubt that there was room for further colleges; the number of scholars carried by the charitable funds of the existing eight colleges cannot much have exceeded one hundred (excluding perendinantes), and there was still great opportunity in 1437 for the pious liberality of the wealthy devout, as was seen in the establishment of Godshouse (1439), King's (1441), Queens' (1448) and St Catharine's (1473). It is manifest that there were at that period charitable souls ready to respond to the call for this expression of their piety, but there is nothing to explain this outburst of college foundation, providing after a sterile stretch of ninety years four new colleges between 1439 and 1473, unless it be the force of William Byngham's example, designed to supply masters to grammar schools in dire need. What we utterly fail to find, in the circumstances of the time, is any such pressing need as would justify the Chancellor and Masters of the University, in 1437, in undertaking the establishment of a new college when they already laboured under serious difficulty in providing for the university's own paramount needs. The site had been available before Byngham came to Cambridge, LHC

3

34

DISPUTE WITH J O H N

LANGTON

but the Chancellor and Masters took no steps to acquire it until Byngham had seen it suitable for founding a college thereon, and had bought it for that purpose. Byngham's purpose was not alien to the purpose of the university as declared in the petition to the king's Chancellor; his college would contribute to the 'relevying of the sayd universite and encresing of clergie ther' in the same sort as the hypothetical 'universite college', and that his plans involved no interference with the projected' edifieyng upon certein scoles of Civill and other faculteez' is abundantly proved by what was subsequently done in that way. The conclusion is inevitable that the real object of the Chancellor and Masters at that time was to prevent the erection of a college in such close proximity to what had already become the centre of the administrative and teaching work of the university.

Chapter III THE FIRST ROYAL LICENCE, 1439

T

he editors of Documents relating to the University and Colleges of

Cambridge had no knowledge of John Langton's dispute with Byngham, and they very properly introduced the Godshouse series with Byngham's petition to the king, which it is usual to attribute to the year 1439. The petition, as is customary at that period, does not beara date,but the king's licence of 13 July 1439 was obviously its outcome, and it is reasonable to ascribe to the petition a date late in 1438 or early in 1439 in order to leave adequate margin for the slow motion of the law machinery. Byngham's petition has been printed many times but always directly or indirectly from the same source, the only contemporary copy of the petition known being that still remaining in the muniment room of King's College. It is printed afresh in the appendix, immediately before the royal licence given in answer to it.1 It should be noted that the King's College document is not the original petition, as is generally implied, and sometimes specifically stated;3 the original would be sent to the king and retained. Such petitions occasionally remain amongst the Chancery Warrants, in immediate contact with the warrant for the licence if the prayer of the petition be granted. The warrant has been found in File No. 719 (4921 A), and runs: Henri par la grace de dieu roy etc. A loneurable pere en dieu levesque de Bath nostre Chanceller saluz. Nous volons de ladvis et assent de nostre counsail et vous mandons que selonc la conteneue dune copie quelle nous vous envoions dosee dedeins ycestes vous facez faire noz lettres patentes desoubz nostre grand seal en due fourme. Don souz nostre prive seal a nostre Manoir de Shene le xiij6 jour de Juyll Lan de nostre Regne dys et septisme. The 'copie' (No. 4921 B) adjoins, but the petition does not accompany the two documents. What is preserved at King's College is a con1 J

Infra, p. 356 sq. A. F. Leach, Educational Charters and Documents, 598 to 1909, p. 403. 3-2

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FIRST R O Y A L L I C E N C E , 1439

temporary copy of the petition on parchment; it is in the muniment room, folded and enclosed in an envelope, within the table case against the north wall, west of the window. It is not easy to understand how this document came into the possession of King's College; even if it had been the original it could have had no value as evidence of title. Its presence there is the more remarkable (a) as the licence to which it was the preliminary never became operative but was surrendered to the chancery, and (b) as the confirmation of the grant of the site and buildings of Godshouse to the king's commissioners by Byngham, the one important evidence of title in writing, is no longer to be found amongst the college documents. It is clear from the words used in addressing the king that Byngham had already built his house or mansion and had named it Godshouse; we may be sure that he had already installed in his building such students as it was capable of accommodating for their instruction in grammar. For these purposes no royal licence was needed; others had erected buildings for the reception of those seeking to prosecute their studies in the university, or had adapted or used existing buildings for that purpose, mostly for private gain. Such buildings so used were known as hostels. The main advantages generally desired by those seeking a royal licence to form a corporate body were perpetual succession; right to sue and be sued as a corporation; right to transact business by means of a common seal; right to hold lands, buildings, rents, services, advowsons and all other property whatsoever to the value specified in the charter in perpetuity notwithstanding the Statute of Mortmain; power to make statutes and ordinances for its governance. The peculiar character of the licence sought by Byngham in his petition made some of these objects superfluous and they were not specifically mentioned; the licence of 9 February 1442 replacing that of 13 July 1439) being of an ordinary type, did provide for all the privileges of a corporation.

MEDIEVAL GRAMMAR S C H O O L S

37

The purpose behind Byngham's determination to found a college is clearly described in his petition to the king; it was his knowledge of the great lack of schoolmasters and his conviction of the profound injury inflicted upon the realm in consequence. He had discovered in the course of his own journeys between the Thames1 and Ripon that, in the part of England lying to the east of that line of march, no fewer than seventy grammar schools were without masters. To the generality of persons it will have seemed more likely that less than seventy grammar schools would have been found in the whole of England in the first half of the fifteenth century, but that belief, born of the absence of literature upon the subject until recent years, is no longer tenable, since the publication of the results of the life-long study of the evidence by A. F. Leach. He finds that There were 7 classes of Schools [prior to the reign of Edward VI], classifying them according to the institution with which they were connected. There were Schools connected with Cathedral Churches, with Monasteries, with Collegiate Churches or Colleges, with Hospitals, with Guilds, with Chantries, and lastly, independent schools, existing ostensibly and actually for themselves as independent entities.2 He writes also: The records appended to this book show that close on 200 Grammar Schools.. .existed in England before the reign of Edward VI, which were, for the most part, abolished or crippled under him. It will appear, however, that these records are defective... .They do not give, they could not from their nature give, a complete account of all the Grammar Schools then existing in England... .The Grammar Schools which existed were not mere monkish Schools, or Choristers' Schools, or Elementary Schools All were Schools of exactly the same type, and performing precisely the same sort of functions, as the Public Schools and Grammar Schools of to-day. There were indeed also Choristers' Schools and Elementary Schools.3 Others who have studied such questions are found to have reached similar conclusions; thus, Foster Watson writes: 'Without however attempting to determine the relative numbers of the different classes of 1 A. F. Leach, Educational Charters, p. xli, suggests with much probability that by Hampton we should understand Hampton upon Thames. J 3

English Schools at the Reformation, 1546-8, p. 7. Ibid. p. 5 sq.

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FIRST R O Y A L L I C E N C E , 1439

schools, the evidence is clear that the number of schools was great in the later Middle Ages'; 1 while Hastings Rashdall's conclusion is 'the smallest towns and even the larger villages possessed Schools where a boy might learn to read and acquire the first rudiments of ecclesiastical Latin: while, except in very remote and thinly populated regions, he would never have had to go very far from home to find a regular Grammar School '.* It would be tedious to develop the matter further; enough has been given in the way of quotation to shew that the number of grammar schools was sufficiently large in the middle ages to establish the credibility of Byngham's statement. Leach sees in the college which Byngham had licence to found in 1439' the first secondary school training-college on record' 3 (as he finds Magdalen College, Oxford, to be the second*), and to this view we may readily assent, with the caveat that the curriculum did not include that specific course in the art of pedagogy which is expected in a modern training-college: a course the less necessary then, since the medieval university scholar in all faculties was required to give as well as to hear lectures at some stage in his career. Byngham's petition and the licence it obtained did not propose any novelty in university practice; he asked that licence might be given to 'fynde perpetually in the forseid mansion ycalled Goddeshous xxiiij Scolers for to comense in gramer', i.e. to be qualified for and to take the degree of master in grammar which was already one of the recognised degrees in Cambridge and other universities.5 The first founder of Godshouse did not lack new ideas, but they found expression within the walls of his own college, not in any interference with the established system of the university of which it formed part, though there is evidence that they were not without influence in that wider field.6 Not only did he declare in his petition that grammar 1

Foster Watson, English Grammar Schools to 1660, p. 14. Rashdall, ii, 602. 3 The Schools of Medieval England, p. 257; Educational Charters, p. xl. 4 The Schools of Medieval England, p. 270. 5 Documents, i, Statutes of the University, No. 117, p. 374; Rashdall, ii, 458. Apart from that development in university practice to be treated of later (the institution of college lecturers), we may be justified in attributing to Byngham's 2

A M A N OF T H E M O D E R N W O R L D

39

'is rote and grounde of all the seid other sciences', but in the licence it produced (no less his ipsissima verba, being a transcript of the 'cedule' he sent with his petition to the king), he used the words: * 'when that faculty [grammar] is weakened the knowledge and understanding, not only of sacred scripture and the Latin necessary for dealing with the laws and other arduous business of our said realm, but also of mutual communication and conversation with strangers and foreigners, are utterly lost'. As Leach writes: 'Here spoke the citizen of London and the man of the modern world', 2 with an early smouldering of that new humanist spirit which burst into flame with the residence of Erasmus in Cambridge seventy years later. Byngham's assertion that grammar was the only liberal science pursued in the universities for which there was no definite provision by way of endowment is equivalent to saying that the study of that subject, 'the which is rote and grounde of all the seid other sciences', was not encouraged in Cambridge. This may appear to be at variance with the presence there for centuries before Byngham's day, and for another century after his death, of a Master of Glomery (Magister Glomeriae) whose style, once held mysterious, has long been accepted as equivalent to master in grammar, not in the sense of any holder of that university degree but with a special significance. This official was usually,3 perhaps always, the holder of the higher degree of master of arts; he had the dignity of being attended by a bedell with mace, had certain prominence at the inception of masters in grammar,'* and had certain jurisdiction rights in causes affecting grammar school boys. In the second half of the thirteenth century the person so styled was the occasion of a dispute between the archdeacon of Ely and the Chancellor of the University of so serious an order as to demand the intervention of the bishop. The emphasis upon grammar, as the basis of sound scholarship, the admission to the degree of master in grammar, in the period following Byngham's death, of persons whose qualification lay partly in terms kept, partly in years of practical teaching (e.g. GB. B 1 , pp. 54. 99.134). . , 1 Translated from the Latin of P.R. 13 July, 17 H. VI, ii, 16, and Chr. Gh. E (v. infra, pp. 357 sqq.). 2 The Schools of Medieval England, p. 257. 4 3 Vetus Liber, p. 290. Documents, i, 374.

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FIRST R O Y A L L I C E N C E , 1439

Magister Glomeriae and his office have been discussed frequently in recent years,1 but there is still more to be said before the early stages of the story can be regarded as complete. It would, however, be foreign to the purpose of this book for the task to be essayed here, and it must suffice to say that the Master of Glomery was not primarily an officer of the university, and had no place in the teaching of grammar to its students. His position therefore does nothing to qualify the impression made by Byngham's statements that the study of grammar in the university demanded further support in view of its fundamental importance. The licence of 13 July 1439 has not been published in Documents nor, apparently, elsewhere. It is printed in full in the appendix hereto * and the following summary contains its salient provisions. The king's letters patent recite that he has learnt from William Byngham, parson of the church of St John Zachary, London, and from other trustworthy persons, of the scarcity of grammar masters both in his universities of Cambridge and Oxford and throughout his realm. Realising the serious gravity of that state of things, and knowing that the said William desires to give a certain mansion in the town of Cambridge, newly erected by him at his own labour and charges, together with the adjacent gardens, etc. to the Master and scholars of Clare Hall and their successors by the king's licence to the effect that there may be in the said house for all time twenty-four scholars specially suited to remedy the said deficiency of grammar masters, with a chaplain competent in learning both to pray for the good estate of the king and of the other benefactors of the said house while they live, and for the souls of the king, his predecessors and his ancestors and the souls of the other benefactors after they have departed this world, in perpetuity, and to educate the aforesaid scholars to the degree of master in grammar and to the priestly order and thereafter to be sent out to such schools in divers parts of the realm as may need masters; such scholars and chaplain to be under the government of the Master and scholars of Clare Hall according to such statutes and ordinances as may be ordained by the 1

Rashdall, ii, 555; A. F. Leach, The Schools ofMedieval England, pp. 157 sq., 171 sq.; Vetus Liber, pp. 289 sqq.; Hostels, pp. 49 sqq. 2 Pages 3 57 sqq.

S U M M A R Y OF T H E L I C E N C E

41

said William or his executors or any one else thereto deputed by him in agreement with them, vacancies amongst the said scholars and chaplain from time to time being filled according to those rules and statutes. Realising also the great and heavy costs attendant upon this matter, the king has given licence to the said William and to any other persons whomsoever to give to the Master and scholars of Clare Hall for the time being and to their successors the said mansion called Godshouse, and lands, tenements, advowsons of churches, etc. not held in chief or by knight-service but by socage or burgage to the value of £50 per annum, to be held by the said Master and scholars and their successors in perpetuity for the maintenance in food, clothing and other support of the said twenty-four scholars and the chaplain; licence also to the Master and scholars of Clare Hall and to their successors to receive the said house and gardens, lands, tenements, etc. and advowsons of churches to that value from the said William or any other person or persons with power to appropriate the churches to their own use, without paying for these privileges any fee or fine for the benefit of the king or his heirs, and to hold the same in perpetuity according to the provisions of the agreed ordinances, the Statute of Mortmain notwithstanding. The licence winds up with other formal and usual provisions and reservations. Byngham's original design is made manifest by the words used in John Langton's petition in chancery 'acorde took.. .to gif the sayd sir William a noder place... and do it to be amorteysed suerly after the intent of the seyd sir William of the cost of the seyd Chaunceller and universite', and his ultimate realisation of his design is found in the licence of 9 February 1442. He desired a fully fledged college to be founded independently of any other, and with its endowments secured to it in perpetuity by amortisation, i.e. by licence of the king with the assent of parliament to over-ride the Statute of Mortmain. To secure those privileges what was in effect a private act of parliament * was necessary, and that entailed, as it would to-day, much expense, 1

This b only another way of expressing a licence conveyed by royal letters patent under the king s great seal with the advice and assent of his council. The actual words used in the chancery warrant for the issue of this very licence are 'Nous volons de ladvis et assent de nostre counsail et vous mandons', etc.

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FIRST R O Y A L L I C E N C E , 1439

required influential support, and might encounter strenuous and possibly successful opposition. The Chancellor of the University had promised Byngham to provide what was necessary to secure licence and, failing agreement with him, not only would the expense of obtaining licence fall upon Byngham, but he must needs forgo that influential support of whose sufficiency the Chancellor was confident. As he did not fall in with Langton's wishes, we must conclude that the petition of Byngham met with his opposition instead of support, wherein lies the explanation of the repeated applications to the king ('he hath diuerse tymes sued unto your highnesse'), apparently in vain. It would appear that Byngham then conceived the plan of circumventing the Chancellor's opposition by petitioning for a licence to give Godshouse, with suitable endowment, to the century-old college of Clare Hall. A proposal to widen the activities and increase the endowments of an existing college, already possessing the royal licence, would probably be beyond the successful opposition of the Chancellor, and the licence of 13 July 1439 went forth in answer to Byngham's petition so modified. He sacrificed something to obtain even this measure of success, since his college was to become a branch of an existing college instead of acquiring an entirely separate existence. On the other hand, the 1439 licence enabled him to fulfil his obligations to his friends, the benefactors of Godshouse, in allowing him to provide there a chaplain to pray for them, and it permitted the continuance of the work of training his scholars not in Clare Hall but in the very house he had built for them. Moreover, the terms of the licence gave power to Byngham or any other persons to give to Clare Hall the land and buildings of Godshouse with the proposed endowments, and gave to him or to his executors or any persons deputed by him power to make the rules,

statutes and ordinances by which Godshouse should be governed even when it should pass into the possession of the Master and scholars of Clare Hall. It was precisely the lack of these powers which would make Byngham anxious to obtain his licence from the king. His scheme for training grammar school masters had already taken concrete form; for that he needed no licence. It was his fear lest death should overtake him before

ITS VALUE T O B Y N G H A M

43

he received his licence that would cause him grave concern, for, in that event, the college for whose permanent establishment he had lived and worked would have come to nought. Given the powers emphasised above in italics, it was simple to provide by will for the exercise, by such persons as he should indicate, of the privileges he had secured to himself by licence, and so to confer immortality upon his college. In a later chapter,1 it will be shewn conclusively that Byngham did not give Godshouse to Clare Hall under the 1439 licence, as common prudence would have required him to do immediately if he had not possessed the royal authority to delegate his powers to his executors or others. Possessing that authority to delegate, he proceeded instead to develop his plans with the assurance that, if he died before their maturity, he had provided by his choice of delegates (probably the Master and scholars of Clare Hall), by will or other instrument, for the perpetual continuance of Godshouse according to the licence. 1

'The Relationship of Godshouse and Clare Hall', ch. rx, p. 105.

Chapter IV T H E E X P A N S I O N OF T H E M I L N E S T R E E T SITE

T

he site occupied by the 'mansion', with gardens adjacent, on 13 July 1439 is described by Willis and Clark, vol. i, p. 337; it consisted of Tyled hostel, or St Giles's hostel, leased from the prior and convent of Barnwell, and Cat hostel, bought from Fordeham and Randekyn.1 The outlook for Godshouse must have improved when Henry VI determined to found his college of St Nicholas, for thereby he gave quietus to the scheme of a college to be founded by the university (if such a scheme had seriously been entertained), and the prominent place held by Langton in the carrying out of the king's plans would serve to dull the edge of his grievance against Byngham. The site of the Old Court of King's was acquired from various owners by Langton and two other commissioners, and was conveyed by them as a whole to the king on 22 January 1441. The negotiations had been conducted with three separate owners and may have occupied many months; we may assume, therefore, that the king's intentions would be known early in the year 1440, if not before; the deed conveying the Trinity Hall part of the king's site is dated 14 September 1440.2 The area of the site surrendered by Byngham in 1443 or later, to enable the king to carry out his plans for a larger college, is fixed by the conveyance of a large number of properties by the commissioners to the Provost and scholars of the college of St Mary and St Nicholas in one deed dated 25 July 1446.3 The conveyance included a messuage or tenement formerly called Goddeshous and anodier tenement called Saint Thomas hostel contiguous to the said messuage in the said town of Cambridge which hostel or messuage and tenement lie between the vacant plot of the prior and convent of Bernewell4 and the aforesaid college of the 1

King's, A, 77b. 3 King's, A, 68; cf. infra, p. 394 sq. King's, A, 84. 4 This Barnwell property had been part of Byngham s holding for Godshouse but, being held on different tenure by him, would be transferred separately; the quit rent upon it was released to King's College by the priory in 1448 (King's, A, 89). 2

ITS R E L A T I O N T O KING'S COLLEGE

45

blessed Mary and St Nicholas on the north and the said lane called Peron lane on the south which hostel messuage and tenement we recently acquired from William Byngham, clerk. The commissioners proceed to say that they have Byngham's deed conveying the property; that deed, unfortunately, is not to be found. The description given by the commissioners of the site surrendered by Byngham makes it clear that the words GODS HOUSE appearing on Willis and Clark's Plan of the Site of King's CollegeI do not adequately cover the area given up; they should stretch much farther to the east. Nothing has been found to throw light upon the character or extent of the building erected by Byngham, a building which was rased to the ground within eight or ten years from the date of its foundation to make way for King's College chapel, of which about three-fourths stands upon Byngham's site. The statement commonly made that Godshouse stood upon part of what is now the ante-chapel of King's does not take sufficient account of the ultimate area of Byngham's property; the Plan of Godshouse Site in 1443 drawn for this work is based upon Willis and Clark's Plan of the Site of King's College but shews the actual dimensions, making plain that the site extended from about the north and south porches on the west to a line equal with the second buttresses of the chapel from the east. The only guidance we have in estimating the size of the building that stood upon this site is found in Byngham's own words, in his second petition to the king * (circa 1445-6), 'in the wich sayd mansion calde Godeshous myght wel be logged. 1. [50] persones and so wern commynle'. The development of the site from that occupied by Tyled and Cat hostels, which Byngham possessed as early as 1437, into the much larger site indicated on the plan, took place after the issue of the 1439 licence, and circumstances favour the view that the growth occurred before 9 February 1442, when the king's second licence was granted for Godshouse. As the first purchase of land for the king's extension of his own college is dated 26 August 1443,3 and the king's purpose 1 2

Vol. iv, pi. 13. Chr. Gh. M; W. and C. i, p. lvii sq.; infra, p. 66.

3 W. and C. i, 337.

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E X P A N S I O N OF M I L N E S T R E E T SITE

would, presumably, be within common knowledge much earlier, it is not credible that Byngham would wish to extend his site, or that he would have found a vendor if he had so desired, after the intentions of the king had become known. The only purchase for the extension of Godshouse of which there is record was made on 24 March 1440,1 and this was of the land lying between Cat hostel and Piron Lane, which had been described by Fordeham and Randekyn in their conveyance of Cat hostel to Byngham and others in the deed of 25 July 1437, as their own property forming the southern boundary of Cat hostel. The additional area was conveyed not to Byngham direct but to John Fray, chief baron of the Exchequer, John Cowper and John Coote, clerks, and the reasons for assuming their purchase on behalf of Byngham are that Fray and Coote were friends of and associated with Byngham in other matters, and that the land so bought by them was included in the site conveyed by Byngham to the king's commissioners.2 There is nothing in any document that has been discovered to shew when other purchases of land were made by or for Byngham, but the purchase of St Thomas's hostel must have been subsequent to 10 October 1440,3 when it belonged to Fordeham. During this period of site expansion, the period from July 1439 to the beginning of 1442, Byngham must have been acquiring his title to those endowments of his college which are specified in detail in the royal grants of 1 March 4 and iojune^ 1442. These consisted of properties and revenues formerly belonging to alien priories whose ownership had been cancelled by various parliamentary statutes. In some instances they were annual payments due from monastic houses in England to the mother house abroad, in others they were the actual manorial or similar properties from which such revenues were derived. The properties of the priories had been taken into the hands of the king on the ground of public policy during the wars with France, and especially with the view of preventing revenues drawn from England being applied by foreigners to purposes likely to support the enemy.6 These are measures easy to parallel in recent international history but, in the 1

3 King's, A, 77 (18). * King's, A, 84. King's, A, 72. 4 Chr. Gh. H ; P.R. 20 H. VI, iii, 16. 5 chr. Gh. I; P.R. 20 H. VI, iii, 28/27. 6 Fuller treatment of the subject of alien priories will be found on pp. 401 sqq. infra.

R E V E N U E S OF ALIEN P R I O R I E S

47

fifteenth century, the papal claims to consideration in such matters raised special difficulties. Henry VI would be particularly sensitive to any suggestion of secular application by him of revenues due to the religious, and in anticipation of the council of Bale in 1434, the English envoys were given specific instructions as to the line of argument to pursue in the event of the question being raised there with a possible demand for the restitution of the alienated properties. The envoys were to maintain at Bale that Henry V, instead of appropriating the revenues to his own private uses, as he might lawfully have done, had sought and obtained permission from Pope Martin V to devote them to the endowment of churches, monasteries and other pious uses, as in fact he had done,1 liberal compensation having been offered to the churches and monasteries in the kingdom of France and the duchy of Normandy for any losses they might have sustained.2 In pursuance of his father's design, and in accordance with the papal concession, Henry VI assigned the revenues of suppressed alien priories to the endowment of his new colleges. The king himself must have presented at his own charges to his own colleges of Eton and the blessed Mary and St Nicholas, Cambridge, the alien priory revenues he assigned to those societies, but it would be a mistake to assume that he did the like with regard to those assigned at this early stage to Godshouse. His licence confirming these possessions must not be so read; its purpose is to authorise Byngham and the others to alienate the specified revenues in mortmain, without fine or fee to the king, his successors or their servants, though there would, doubtless, be the usual legal charges, and the not unhandsome payments in hanaper.3 Moreover, both in the licences in mortmain to Godshouse and in the instructions to envoys above referred to, mention is made of compensation to the deprived churches and monasteries of France and Normandy; directly or indirectly that compensation would be paid, and, save in such special cases as those of Eton and King's Colleges, paid by the institutions or their benefactors to whom the 1 The monasteries of Shene and Syon were founded by Henry V and their vast possessions were principally so derived. 2 Cf. Bekynton, i, p. lxxxix sq. 3 Cf. the cost to the university in fees for their letters patent of 1459, infra, p. 68 sq.

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alienated revenues were assigned. In other words, Byngham and his supporters, Brokley, Flete, Johanna Bokeland and, or, others bought and paid for the properties and revenues confirmed to Byngham by the charters of 1442, at prices presumably worth while, having regard to the income so secured.1 We have said that these purchases must have been arranged during the interval between July 1439 and early in 1442. There was some state office through which such matters were arranged, probably a department of the Exchequer. The office may not have advertised its wares, but it appears to have kept schedules of the revenues available that could be supplied on application to possible purchasers. That seems to be the reasonable interpretation to be placed upon a parchment preserved in the Christ's College muniment room, 2 which bears, amongst the particulars of various revenues formerly belonging to alien priories, the name and amount of one that was acquired by Byngham, namely, Ikham. The document includes many revenues far beyond Byngham's depth of purse, some whose individual amounts exceed the whole endowment income of Godshouse. The unexpected presence amongst the archives of the college of this parchment, which appears to bear details extracted from the Exchequer records, may not unreasonably be associated with the friendship between Byngham and John Fray, chief baron of that important court and department of state; it must have been connected with Byngham's search for endowments suitable to the needs of his college. How greatly would its interest to us have been increased if each item of the schedule had borne its sale price! The aggregate revenues set forth in the document amount to 2000 marks, and they are the details which were granted by letters patent of 14 July 1439 (17 Henry VI, ii, 8 and 93) to Humphrey, duke of Gloucester, the king's uncle, comprising that annual income. The order of arrangement on the patent roll is different from that in the college document, which is under counties, but careful comparison establishes 1

Even the king's particular darlings, Eton and King's, when they desired to add

to their possessions of alien priories, beyond those given in endowment by the king, had to purchase them, as may be clearly seen in the statute 29 H. VI printed in Rot. Parl. v, ai 8 b. 2 3 Chr. Misc. A, 55. C.P.R. 1436-41, p. 303 sq.

H U M P H R E Y OF G L O U C E S T E R

49

their agreement. The grants to Humphrey were for his life, and in 1441 and 1442 the reversions after the death of the grantee of some of the revenues were given by the king to other persons and institutions, notably to Eton 1 and King's Colleges.2 Humphrey at times, perhaps for the king's convenience, parted with portions of his income and received compensation^ but he appears also to have sold his life interest in others, as in the case of Ikham to Byngham for Godshouse, since, by the licence of 1 March 1442 to Byngham and others, that lordship or priory was given in possession, not in reversion. There is a curious document 4 remaining in the muniment room of the college, clearly from Byngham's period, which provides evidence of the close watch kept by the' ordainer' over the revenues of the house. It is a single sheet bearing three extracts from the pipe rolls for the 26th year of Henry VI, two from the county of Hereford, one from Devon. The extracts have been compared with the entries on the original rolls and they prove to be faithful copies. Under Hereford, one reads: The prior of the alien priory of Monmouth and his successors owed in time of peace ten marks per annum of ancient apport to the Capital House of the aforesaid priory in parts beyond the seas, which is owing from the 16th day of November in die first year of Henry iiijth. The Devon entry states that Brother Thomas Swynford prior of Totton [Totnes] and his successors owed in time of peace forty shillings per annum of ancient apport to the Capital House of the said priory in parts beyond the seas, which is owing since the eleventh day of February in die first year of Henry iiijth. If we might be justified in assuming that, when acquiring his revenues from alien priories for the college, Byngham became entitled not only to their current and future annual payment but also to the arrears, these annual sums, going back to the year 1400, would yield a large amount for the use of the college, and their collection would explain much of the litigation which Byngham had to face, of which that relating to the lands of Chepstow, discussed in chapter vi, is an example. 1 3

LHC

Rot. Parl.v, 49a. Ibid. p. 552.

a 4

C.P.R. 1436-41, p- 557Chr. Mon. 4. 4

Chapter V T H E R O Y A L L I C E N C E S OF 1442 n the short space of two and a half years we find Byngham obtaining a new licence for the College of Godshouse, and its terms go to shew that the difficulties confronting him in 1438 and 1439, leading to his acceptance of a licence more restricted in scope than he desired, had been overcome. The foundation of King's College, putting an end to any possibility of the university proceeding further with' the idea of founding a new college upon Byngham's site, may have led to the removal or qualification of Langton's active opposition to Byngham's plans, and this negative good may have been accompanied by the positive advantage of the frequent presence in Cambridge of Byngham's friend, and coadjutor in many trusts, John Fray, chief baron of the Exchequer, an influential public servant and a man of substantial means. We have seen that Fray, with others favourable to Byngham, had bought land adjoining Godshouse which went into Byngham's possession; and Fray and John Somerset, Chancellor of the Exchequer, were appointed with John Langton, Chancellor of the University, the king's commissioners for the acquisition of the land for his new college of the blessed Mary and St Nicholas (King's). Frequent co-operation of Byngham's powerful friend with Byngham's opponent in a common task may have put an end to the strained relations. The date of the letters patent for the new licence is 9 February 1442.1 After the preamble, it summarises the licence of 13 July 1439, 'which letters indeed William himself is in willingness to return to our Chancery to be cancelled', with the intention that the present licence should take its place. The letters proceed to say that the king has given licence to the aforesaid William Byngham, and to his beloved clerks, masters William Wymbill, William Millyngton,* William Gulle,3

I

1

P.R. 20 H. VI, iii, 15; Chr. Gh. G; Documents, iii, 155-8. The locus classicus for William Millyngton's life-history is the article by George Williams in C.A.S. Communications, i, 287 sqq. He doubts his being fellow of Clare, but that is put beyond all question by the Godshouse documents. Vide Lloyd, pp. 34 sqq. 3 Vide Lloyd, pp. 3 sqq. 1

S U M M A R Y OF T H E F E B R U A R Y L I C E N C E

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1

doctors in theology and John Tylney, doctor in decrees, Master and fellows of Clare Hall, their heirs and any other person thereto designated by the said William Byngham, and to any One of them jointly and severally, to found a college of a priest and scholars to the number of twenty-five or less to be instructed in grammar in the tenement with gardens adjacent called Godeshous, to be called for ever by the name of 'The Proctor and Scholars of Godeshous'. It is to be founded according to ordinances, statutes and so forth made by the persons just named while they live, or by any other person or persons to that purpose designated by the said William Byngham, or by the more part of them, and, after the death of any one of them, by those who survive or the majority of them, or by their heirs or the heirs of any of them. The letters patent proceed to confer upon the Proctor and scholars of the College of Godeshous all the usual privileges of a corporate body. They permit Byngham and the others named or any other persons to give to the college the tenement and gardens and also other possessions to the value of ^50 per annum. Beyond this, they may give tithes and advowsons of churches to the value of ^ 5 0 yearly (notwithstanding that the king or his progenitors may have conceded such properties to any other ecclesiastical communities, secular or religious). These revenues may be given by a fine levied in the king's courts or in any other way, and they are to be given for the maintenance of the college and of the Proctor and scholars of the college. Licence is also given to the Proctor and scholars of the College of Godeshous to receive the properties so given and to retain them to themselves and their successors in perpetuity, without paying fine or fee to the king or his successors; and neither the persons giving nor the Proctor and scholars and their successors shall be troubled or hindered by justices, sheriffs, coroners, or other royal ministers. Finally, these things are permitted notwithstanding the Statute of Mortmain. This was not the conclusion of the matter. The licence to give and to receive properties up to the total yearly value of J£IOO did not specify all the particular properties which the licensees proposed to give, and this was an essential requirement for the safeholding of such properties. 1 Vide Lloyd, p. 32 sq. 4-2

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The properties might be acquired piecemeal, and the balance of the maximum amount authorised by the licence might not be used for many years; in the present case, the balance never was used and became inoperative, because it was superseded by the licence for the larger amount of £300 given by Henry VI in his foundation charter of 1448. The history of other colleges shews that approximation to the maximum amount licensed by the original charters was attained only after long periods of years. The reason is that college founders, in dealing with the value of the endowment, and in some cases also with the numbers of their scholars, which they sought to have licensed by their charters of foundation, went to the extremity of their hopes for the future. With a licence to hold endowments to the amount of .£100, though only able to begin with a yearly sum of .£30 or ^40, they were dispensed from the need to apply for further licences to cover further benefactions, in larger or smaller amounts; all they needed in such cases of additional benefactions was a licence to hold the particular property forming the new benefaction, which licence would be granted automatically upon production of the original letters patent with proof that the particular licences to hold, already granted, left sufficient margin for the further benefaction for which licence to hold was being sought. There were instances where colleges, either through ignorance or through carelessness, did not obtain licence before accepting additional endowments (though within the maximum value authorised by their charter); they were probably liable to suffer forfeiture but escaped with a heavy fine. Hence there was the necessity for the licence of 1 March 1442,1 whereby the king recites that he had given licence for the founding of a college in the tenement called Godeshous to consist of a Proctor and scholars in grammar and the other faculties, with power to Byngham, Wymbill, etc. to endow the same college with lands, tenements, revenues, services and advowsons of churches to the annual value of £100. He pays a tribute to the great and strong desires that Byngham has, and has long cherished, for the increasing of masters of grammar 1

Chr. Gh. H; Documents, iii, 159-62; P.R. 1 March, 20 H. VI, iii, 16.

T H E L I C E N C E O F M A R C H FIRST

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and, wishing himself that Byngham's desires and long labours in this matter should not in any way be frustrated but that his intentions should be fully carried into effect, he has deigned, graciously acting with him on this occasion, of his special grace and of his own certain knowledge, with the mature and deliberate consent ofhis council to give and concede1 for himself and his successors to Byngham, Wymbill, etc.: (1) The reversion of the annual payment due from the prior ioos. of Novus Locus super Acolme in Lincolnshire granted for life to one John Crook, clerk of the Exchequer. (2) The reversion of the annual payment often marks due 1335. 4 P- 85), with the exception of the Badgeworth tithes which yield 405.

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in the quindain of the Purification of the blessed Virgin [2 February 1445] and render account there to the king of the profits for the period 13 May 1443 to 4 November 1444. They did so appear, by their attorney Richard Forde, and complained that the properties had been unjustly seized and that they were aggrieved and troubled at being called upon to render account. They made their statement of their title and produced letters patent of the lord king dated 12 July 1443, addressed to the treasurer and barons of the Exchequer, in which, after reciting at length his letters patent of 10June 1442, he proceeded: ' W e therefore command you that you permit W.B. etc. to have and to occupy the aforesaid properties according to the tenour of our letters patent, not molesting W.B. etc. contrary to the tenour of the same'. Therefore, said Forde for Byngham and his co-feoffees, they do not conceive that the lord king wishes to disturb them by causing them to render account, and they seek that the king's hands be withdrawn from the properties and that they be restored to them. The barons of the Exchequer, having examined the letters patent and the other evidence, proclaimed that if any serjeants-at-law or attorneys of the king wished to inform them that the properties are not part of the priory of Chepstow they must appear and be heard and, no one so appearing, decree was made by the barons that the said portions, etc. be removed from the king's hands, and that they be restored to Byngham, etc. together with the issues and profits from the date of their being seized, and that both the said William Byngham, etc. and the said Mauricius de la Rener, formerly escheator, and any other whatsoever should be discharged from all issues and profits coming therefrom as regards the lord king and should rest quietly in virtue of these premises, and, lastly, that Byngham be excused from making the account. This document has been paraphrased at some length to indicate the nature of the vexatious actions to which at this period those holding properties were exposed. There is no reason to assume a special liability to trouble of this nature in Byngham's case, but there was, in regard to the priory of Chepstow, a certain element of complication inasmuch as that house strove, and apparently with success, to become denizen after being placed upon the list of alien priories, since its revenues are

ADVOWSON OF HELPSTON

61

1

included in Valor Ecclesiasticus as those of an active house. Whether the proceedings just described were in reality undertaken at the instigation of the prior, rather than upon the initiative of the king's officers, there is nothing to shew. But even in East Anglia in the fifteenth century, secular as well as ecclesiastical properties had frequently to be defended, failing success in appeal to law, by the strong right hand of the owner, as the Paston Letters reveal, and this action arising in the distant west was settled with a despatch to be viewed at that date with envy in Norfolk. That the weight of the duchess's influence went in Byngham's favour in these proceedings may not be definitely asserted, but the endorsement of contemporary date upon the transcript of the record suggests it. It was at about this period that negotiations were set on foot for the purchase of the advowson of the rectory of Helpston in Northamptonshire, and they were sufficiently advanced by the month of September 1443 for the execution of documents2 constituting a contract. The primary interest of the proceedings at this early stage lies in the names of the parties; as representing the vendors, Thomas Bernesley, archdeacon of Leicester and first dean 3 of the College of Stoke Clare, received an earnest of twenty pounds sterling from Byngham and gave his bond in acknowledgement, and amongst Byngham's co-feoffees was his old wealthy London friend, John Brokley, who was a co-feoffee also, as we have seen, in the grant of part of the original site of Godshouse. By the terms of the contract, Byngham had two years in which to determine whether or not to complete the purchase, an interval which may reflect some uncertainty as to the title of the property, which, indeed, is specifically mentioned as a matter upon which Byngham and his friends are to be satisfied. It will be shewn in the appendix 4 that the bishop of the diocese had found it necessary a few years earlier than this to issue a commission to discover the actual 1

iv, 372; cf. Monasticon, iv, 652. Chr. Misc. E, bond no. 16; Chr. Help. E. 3 He held the deanery until his death in 1454; he was buried at Stoke Clare and, as he died intestate, his estate was administered by William Wilflete, third dean of the college (Masters, app. 38). Bernesley composed the statutes of the College of 4 Infra, p. 426. Stoke Clare in 1422 (Monasticon, vi, 1417 sqq.). 1

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M A R K I N G T I M E : 1443 TO 1446

position of things at Helpston, so it would appear that the Godshouse representatives did well to be cautious. In the end the examination made on their behalf must have proved satisfactory long before the expiration of the prescribed period of two years, since the college documents shew that the purchase had been completed by 27 August 1444. At that date a grant1 was made of an acre of land in Helpston and the advowson of the church there by Simon Alcock, S.T.P.,2 and Robert Parlynton, rector of PaykirkeS to William, bishop of Sarum,4 Richard, duke of York,5 John, viscount of Beaumont,6 Richard Newton, chief justice of the Common Bench, John Fray,' chief baron of the Exchequer, William Byngham, William Guile, Gilbert Worthyngton, John Horley and John Cote,7 clerks. Another document 8 is a declaration by John Kirton, abbot of Thorney, William Ryall, prior of Depyng, John Beck, Rector of the College of St Mary and All Saints, Oxford,? John Warby, rector of St Gutlac of Depyng, and Robert Ballard, rector of Helpston, that the grantors of the above-named document have sworn it in their presence and that seisin of the land and advowson was in their presence given to William Byngham personally as representing himself and his co-feoffees. Again, on the same date, there is an indenture 10 between the said John Beck and Byngham by which Beck gives bond to deliver peaceable possession of the premises to Byngham, and a similar indenture 11 from Thomas Bernesley to Byngham. The full story of Helpston, its rectory and its supposed chantry, before and after the acquisition is of no small interest but is too lengthy to be told here12 in detail. Attention must be drawn to the powerful 1

J Chr. Help. B. Vide D.N.B. i, 338. Peakirk, five miles north-east of Helpston. William Ayscough, 1438-50, not Master of Michaelhouse 1433-50, as declared in the University Calendar; the bishop had been fellow of Michaelhouse but the Master (from 1454 onwards) was another person of that name. 6 5 Father of Edward IV. Vide supra, p. 58. 7 Fray and Cote were feoffees of the land on the corner of Piron Lane which we have suggested was bought on Byngham's behalf. 8 Chr. Help. C. 9 I.e. Lincoln College; Beck, or Beke, was second Rector of the college, 1434-60. 10 Chr. Help. D. " Chr. Help. E. " Cf. infra, pp. 426 sq. 3 4

FLETE AS B E N E F A C T O R

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co-feoffees of Byngham, especially to the first three names, the viscount of Beaumont being the husband of Katherine, duchess of Norfolk, whose interest Byngham had already sought through the king's aid in regard to the Chepstow property; he seems to have made excellent use of that introduction. Names such as these are clearly meant to obtain security from any attack upon the rights of Byngham, to whose use the land and advowson were held by him and his co-feoffees, as is plainly shewn by his taking seisin. Guile and Worthyngton are found in various Godshouse documents, while Horley is met later in the royal licence of 26 August 1446, but especial attention must be directed to Newton and Fray. It is understood in the college that the living of Helpston was given by Byngham himself to the society1 and this appears to derive from an old, but not contemporary, endorsement of a deed. Byngham must have given much in wealth as well as in work, but his gifts were probably made in the earliest days of Godshouse, those leading up to the licences of 1442. Byngham gave Helpston, as he gave all the other properties named in the charters, in the sense of making it over in his personal capacity to the Proctor (himself) and the scholars of Godshouse when the college was founded. That very purpose is indicated in the various charters as, e.g., in the king's gift of the church of Fendrayton,* where the grant is to William Byngham, 'clerk and ordainer of a dwelling called Godeshous', and others with licence to grant to the Proctor and scholars of the College of Godshouse 'when the same shall have been founded'. Though Byngham's direct personal gift of Helpston has to be denied, it is interesting to be able to trace the actual benefactor to whom it was due. William Flete,3 king's clerk, has already been mentioned as a co-feoffee with John Brokley, Johanna Bokeland and Byngham in 1437 of a portion of the site of the original building of Godshouse; he died in 1444. His will has not been found but the records of the Court of Hustings shew that Sir Richard Newton, chief justice, and John Fray, chief baron of the Exchequer, with William 1

Form of Commemoration of Benefactors; cf. Peile, p. 4. * Chr. Fend. B. 3 Supra, p. 16 sq.; cf. infra, p. 392 sq. * R.H.C. 173 (35-6).

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M A R K I N G T I M E : 1443 TO 1446

Byngham, clerk, were its chief executors.1 His estate was long in being wound up and Byngham's name appears constantly in various matters relating to it. The absence of the will does not present any obstacle to the assumption that, with the almost invariable practice of the time, one of its latest clauses would provide that the residue of the estate should be applied at his executors' discretion for the benefit of Flete's soul. The occurrence of the names of Flete's three principal executors, of whom one, Sir Richard Newton, is not found in any other Godshouse connection, makes the assumption that the purchase of Helpston on behalf of Godshouse may have been made out of the funds of Flete's estate something more than a conjecture. It is true that Flete's name is not included specifically, as is Brokley's, amongst the benefactors to be prayed for according to the statutes, but neither are those of Richard and Johanna Bokeland. The Bokeland names are omitted for the obvious reason that Richard Bokeland had preferred to be prayed for intensively by two priests for the limited period of twenty years* rather than more diffusely in perpetuity, a choice fully justified by the abolition in the reigns of Henry VIII and Edward VI of all endowments for 'superstitious uses'. Flete's will, if it had survived, might have shewn a similar provision. Dr Peile describes John Hurte as vicar of Helpston,3 and says that he was presented by the bishop of Salisbury,4 but the document upon which, presumably, he bases these statements does not lend itself to this interpretation. There is a form of presentation? of Hurte by the bishop of Salisbury, the duke of York, viscount Beaumont and other of the feoffees, including Byngham as rector of St John Zachary; it bears the date of 3 July without any year and it is unexecuted. It is to be attributed to 1445, in which year there was a vacancy at Helpston, filled by the institution 12 November of Master Hugh Tapton, priest, upon the presentation of the bishop of Salisbury, die duke of York 1

There is preserved at Somerset House the transcript of the will of one William

Flete (P.C.C. 28 Luifenam) of this very period. It is not completely legible but enough remains to shew that it is not the will of William Flete, Byngham's friend. 2 Supra, p. 16. 3 Christ's College, p. 4. « Biog. Reg. i, 2. 5 Chr. Help. F.

HURTE AND HELPSTON

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1

and others; the previous institution to be found in the registers of the bishops of Lincoln is that of Robert Ballard, priest, 29 October 1412.* It would appear that the intention to present Hurte was frustrated, and it may be suggested with a good deal of probability that the presentation was not carried out owing to events at Clare Hall, of which college Hurte was a fellow. That society was singularly unfortunate in its experience of destructive fires; its buildings were consumed in 1362 and rebuilt, and in 1525 a great part of the Master's lodging and the treasury were burnt down, the archives being destroyed.3 In consequence of this second disaster the local material for such details as dates of the Masters of the college is mainly lacking, though the use of external contemporary sources makes it possible to fill some of the lacunae of local records. Baker quotes,* with serious doubts, a table of Masters (penes Magistrum Coll.), and though the grosser inaccuracies of that table have in recent days been purged away, the list in the current issues of the University Calendar has serious blemishes in regard to the second and third quarters of the fifteenth century. William Wymbill, there given as Master 1421 to circa 1440, died in 1445; 5 he was certainly Master in June 14426 and probably until his death, being succeeded by William Guile. Such documentary evidence as does remain at Clare, principally the Master's Old Book, deriving from the days immediately following the fire of 1525, exhibits Hurte as occupying an important place in the management of the society's affairs, acting for some time as deputy for the Master during a vacancy; this may have occurred more than once, including a period when he was Proctor of Godshouse. If Hurte was called to fill such a position in 1445 it might account for his withdrawal from the proposal to present him to Helpston; it seems probable that he was much concerned then for Clare Hall with matters arising from the extension of the site of King's College. 1

J Bridges, ii, 516. Ibid. Annals, i, 107, 311, quoting Caius, Hist. Cant. Acad. p. 57; Memorials, i, 45. 4 Baker, xxxviii, 254. 5 Crosby, p. 331, quoting Ely, Bourchier, 5. For further notes upon Wymbill, v. Lloyd, pp. 1 sqq. 6 P.R. 10 June, 20 H. VI, iii, 28 and 27. IHC 5 3

66

M A R K I N G T I M E : 1443 TO 1446

It seems proper to place here the second of those petitions preserved to us out of the many which Byngham is known to have addressed to the king, to which reference has already been made. It is printed by Willis and Clark,1 though, contrary to their practice, they give no reference to their source. The transcript here produced is of the contemporary copy in the college muniment room 2 and, as it is not known elsewhere, this must be presumed to be the source also of WilHs and Clark: To the Kyng our sovereyng lord Beseches mekle your pouer prest and dayle bedman William Byngham to whome it lyked your good grace for to grant licence to have made A College for drawyng forth of maystres of gramer in a mansion of his in your vniuersite of Cambrige ecalled godeshous as it appers by your lettres patentes there of made vn to hym the which mansion afterward it lyked your graciouse hieghnesse to desir to have for enlargeyng of your worthy College of our lade and of seint Nicholase in the wich sayd mansion calde Godeshous myght wel be logged .1. persones and so wern commynle. For the wich mansyon it wase promysed your sayd besecher that he shuld have hade an other mansion redele ordeynd and bygged sufficiendy as large and larger as welle bygged and better as cler with owt Charge and better in alle Condycyons. And also your lettres patentes in his hande for foundyng of his College ther in the same mansion so ordeynd for hym of new with owt any labour or any cost vn to hym as my lordys of Salesbury3 and of Suff4 knawn wel both the wiche promyse as yet was not fulfylled your sayd bedman to fulgret labourse excessyfe werenes and all new costes to hym importable in his sute to gete a new patent at his own cost for the same mater. And over that thate he hyrd hym loginge for his scolers and for harbergach of his stor and hustilmentes for his howseholde by iij. yers to geder or euer he cowth get or purvey hym of any place to purchase to his ese vn to now late he with gret dimculte purveyed hym of a place wher for hym most for euer pay yerle xxjs. iiijeir Successours and also to graunte licence to pe same maistre and scolers and pax Successours for to resceyve withouten ony fyn or fee J>e same mansion and the seid other londes tenements rents and services and aduousons to pe seid value after pc forme of a cedule * to this bille annexed to J»entent J>at pe seid maister and scolers mowe fynde perpetually in pe forseid mansion ycalled Goddeshous xxiiij scolers for to comense in gramer and a preest to gouerne fern for reformacion of pe seid defaute for pe love of god and in jj?e] wey of charitee. Licence to William Byngham to give his mansion etc. to Clare Hall (Christ's College muniments, Godshouse E) Cf. Chapter m Henricus dei gratia rex Anglie et Francie et dominus Hibemie Omnibus ad quos presentes littere pervenerint Salutem Sciatis quod cum ex lamentabili insinuacione Willelmi Byngham persone ecclesie sancti Johannis Zacharie Londonie aliorumque fidecredulorum nobis sit intimatum quod ubi in quampluribus regni nostri Anglie partibus scole grammaticales ohm in numero non modico floruerunt et exinde excellentes grammatici grammaticeque magistri egregii processerunt Jam pre parcitate huiusmodi magistrorum facultas grammatice tam in Universitatibus nostris Cantebrigie et Oxonie quam ahbi per totum regnum nostrum predictum quod dolendum est fere permanet desolata non solum in tocius cleri et ecclesie regni nostri predicti vehemens detrimentum verumeciam in animositatis talium in ahis facultatibus studere optancium subtraccionem manifestam Nos scolarum predictarum ruinam intime contemplantes ac advertentes qualiter attenuata facilitate ilia nedum sacre scripture ac latini necessarii pro iuribus et aUis negociis arduis died regni nostri pertractandis set eciam mutue communicadonis et colloquii cum extraneis et Alienigenis sciencia et intellectus penitus deperirent qualiter eciam predictus Willelmus parcitati grammaticorum memorate intime compaciens quandam mansionem in Villa Cantebrigie que de nobis in burgagio tenetur ut dicitur Godeshous vulgariter nuncupatam sumptibus suis laborious et expensis noviter constructam et erectam cum gardinis adiacentibus et aliis pertinenciis magistro et scolaribus Aule de Clare Universitatis nostre Cantebrigie predicte et successoribus suis mediante licencia nostra dare intendat et assignare ad finem et effectum quod continue futuris temporibus viginti et quatuor adolescentes scolares in requisites pro reformacionis presentis negocii 1

The schedule is the draft of the licence desired by the petitioner and was submitted by him with his petition.

358

APPENDIX A

effectu notabiliter dispositi ac unus Capellanus ydoneus sciencia competens tam ad exorandum pro salubri statu nostro aliorumque benefactorum eiusdem mansionis dum vixerimus et pro anima nostra cum ab hac luce migraverimus et pro animabus inclitorum antecessorum et progenitorum nostrorum omniumque aliorum benefactorum mansionis predicte imperpetuum quarn ad predictos scolares ad gradum magistralem in grammatica et ad ordinem sacerdotalem educandos et eos deinde ad diversas partes regni nostri predicti ubi scole grammaticales in presenti existunt desolate in tante necessitatis et desolationis consolationem sub gubernacione et disposicione predictorum magistri et scolarium et successoram suorum mittendos iuxta ordinaciones regulas statuta et composicionem inter eos et predictum Willelmum vel executores suos aut ahos per ipsum Willelmum ad hoc deputandos et assignandos in hac pane ordinanda prefigenda et statuenda ac quod quilibet scolaris huiusmodi et Capellanus qui loco alicuius predictorum viginti et quatuor scolarium et Capellani decedentis promoti ammoti sive a predicta mansione expulsi pro dicto negocio iuxta ordinaciones regulas statuta et composicionem predicta imperpetuum continuendo eligendus fuerit sive recipiendus mansionem predictam inhabitare possint et possit ac morari in eadem Attendentes insuper dictum negocium non absque magnis et gravibus sumptibus et expensis posse sortiri effectum Volentes proinde ob reverenciam dei omnipotentis ac matris sue Marie Virginis gloriose sponseque eiusdem et matris nostre ecclesie sancte militantis in hac parte benigne agere et pro sustentacione eorundem uberius providere De gratia nostra speciali et ex certa nostra sciencia concessimus et licenciam dedimus pro nobis et heredibus nostris quantum in nobis est prefato Willelmo Byngham predicte mansionis Godeshous vulgariter nuncupate constructori et quibuscumque aliis personis seu cuicumque persone aliqua aHa terras tenementa sive redditus eisdem magistro et scolaribus aut eorum successoribus magistro et scolaribus Aule de Clare dicte Universitatis nostre Cantebrigie pro tempore existentibus ea de causa dare concedere assignare seu legare volentibus aut volenti quod dictus Willelmus Byngham dictam mansionem cum gardinis adiacentibus et aliis pertinenciis necnon quod tam idem Willelmus quam ipse persone aut ipsa persona terras tenementa et redditus cum pertinenciis aceciam advocaciones ecclesiarum cum pertinenciis de illis que immediate de nobis non tenentur in capite per servicium militare set solomodo de illis terris tenementis redditibus et serviciis cum pertinenciis ac advocacionibus ecclesiarum cum pertinenciis que de nobis vel de aliis personis quibuscumque tenentur per socagium vel per burgagium usque ad valorem quinquaginta librarum per annum prefatis magistro et scolaribus Aule de Clare eiusdem Universitatis nostre Cantebrigie qui nunc sunt vel qui pro tempore fuerint dare concedere et assignare per finem inde levatum in Curia nostra aut heredum nostrorum vel sine fine levato in eadem Curia seu alias legare possint et possit absque fine vel feodo ad opus nostrum vel heredum nostrorum inde capiendo

TRANSCRIPTS OF VARIOUS DOCUMENTS 359 Habenda et tenenda eisdem magistro et scolaribus et successoribus suis in auxilium sustentacionis predictorum viginti et quatuor scolarium et Capellani in dictam mansionem per magistrum et scolares antedictos et successores suos admittendorum et posterorum suorum pro victu et vestitu atque supportacione onerum eis et mansioni predicte incumbencium ut prefertur imperpetuum Et eisdem magistro et scolaribus Aule de Clare dicte Universitatis nostre Cantebrigie et eorum successoribus quod ipsi huiusmodi mansionem terras tenementa et redditus cum gardinis adiacentibus et aliis pertinenciis ac advocaciones predicta cum pertinenciis usque ad valorem predictum de predicto Willelmo et de personis aut persona predictis de tempore in tempus recipere et percipere et ecdesias illas appropriare et eas sic appropriatas in proprios usus suos una cum terris tenementis et redditibus predictis cum pertinenciis absque fine vel feodo ad opus nostrum vel dictorum heredum nostrorum inde capiendo habere et tenere possint sibi in forma predicta imperpetuum et secundum quod ordinaciones regula statuta et composicio predicta expressam facient mencionem usque ad valorem predictum tenore presencium similiter licenciam dedimus et concessimus specialem Statuto de terris et tenementis ad manum mortuam non ponendis edito aut eo quod expressa mencio aliorum bonorum et concessionum regiorum eisdem magistro et scolaribus Aule de Clare et successoribus suis ante hec tempora factorum sive eo quod expressa mencio de vero valore mansionis et gardinorum adiacencium predictorum cum pertinenciis iuxta formam statuti inde editi in presentibus facta nullatenus existit non obstante Dumtamenper inquisidones inde capiendas et in Cancellariam nostram vel heredum nostrorum rite retornandas compertum sit quod id fieri possit absque dampno sive preiudicio nostro vel heredum nostrorum aut aliorum quorumcumque Nolentes quod predictus Willelmus et alie persone predicte vel heredes sui aut predicti magister et scolares Aule de Clare Universitatis nostre Cantebrigie antedicte vel successores sui racione premissorum vel alicuius eonindem per nos vel dictos heredes nostros Justiciaries Escaetores Vicecomites aut alios Ballivos seu ministros nostros vel heredum nostrorum predictorum quoscumque molestentur in aliquo seu graventur Salvis tamen nobis et aliis capitalibus dominis feodorum illorum serviciis inde debitis et consuetis In cuius rei testimonium has litteras nostras fieri fecimus patentes Teste me ipso apud Manerium nostrum de Shene tercio decimo die JuHi Anno regni nostri decimo septimo1 per breve de privato sigillo

Bate

1 As usual at this period, the spelling and grammar of this and other Latin documents transcribed are often irregular; the words are here reproduced as they are found in the original.

360 APPENDIX A Grant of the patronage and advowson of the parish church of Fendrayton (Christ's College muniments, Fendrayton B) Cf. supra, p. 79 sq. Henricus dei gratia Rex Anglie et Francie et Dominus Hibernie Omnibus ad quos presentes littere pervenerint salutem Sciatis nos dedisse concessisse ac per presentes litteras nostras patentes pro nobis heredibus et successoribus nostris confirmasse Willelmo Byngham clerico ac unius mansionis vocate Godeshous Cantebriggie ordinatori magistris Willelmo Lychfeld Willelmo Millyngton Willelmo Guile et Johanni Tylney heredibus et assignatis suis patronatum et advocacionem sive ius patronatus ecclesie parocbialis de Fendrayton alias dicta Fennedrayton quocumque nomine censeatur cum omnibus et singulis suis perrinenciis habenda et tenenda eisdem Willelmo Willelmo Willelmo Willelmo et Johanni heredibus et assignatis suis imperpemum Insuper concessimus et hcenciam dedimus pro nobis heredibus et successoribus nostris predictis Willelmo Willelmo Willelmo Willelmo et Johanni heredibus et assignatis suis et eorum cuilibet et persone ac personis aliis quibuscumque coniunctim et divisim quod ipsi et eorum quilibet absque fine vel feodo magno vel parvo nobis heredibus vel successoribus nostris reddendo vel faciendo dare concedere et confirmare poterint etpoterit quilibet eorundem patronatum et advocacionem sive ius patronatus ecclesie predicte quocumque nomine censeatur cum perrinenciis suis Procuratori et scolaribus Collegii de Godeshous Cantebriggie predicta erigendi creandi fundandi cum idem Collegium erectum creatum et fundatum fuerit et successoribus suis habenda et tenenda eisdem imperpetuum necnon predictis Procuratori et Scolaribus et successoribus suis quod ipsi predicta patronatum et advocacionem sive ius patronatus cum perrinenciis suis sepedicte ecclesie de Fendrayton alias dicta Fennedrayton quocumque nomine censeatur cum perrinenciis suis ab eisdem Willelmo Willelmo Willelmo Willelmo et Johanne ac de persona vel personis aliis quibuscumque recipere admittere habere et rerinere poterint habenda et tenenda sibi et successoribus suis imperpetuum absque fine vel feodo magno vel parvo nobis heredibus vel successoribus nostris reddendo vel faciendo eciam hcenciam dedimus specialem Statuto deterriset tenemenris ad manum mortuam non ponendis aut eo quod de aliis donis et concessionibus per nos vel per progenitores nostros perantea factis predictis Willelmo Willelmo Willelmo Willelmo et Johanni vel eorum alicui per se divisim vel cum aliis personis coniunctim vel eo quod de vero valore predicti patronatus advocacionis sive iuris patronatus mencio in presentibus non sit facta aut aliqua alia restriccione vel ordinacione incontrarium facta in aliquo non obstante In cuius rei testimonium has litteras nostras fieri fecimus patentes Teste me ipso apud Westmonasterium tercio die Septembris Anno regni nostri vicesimo sexto per breve de privato sigillo et de data predicta auctoritate parhamenri Sprotley

TRANSCRIPTS OF VARIOUS DOCUMENTS 361 King Henry VI's foundation charter (Christ's College muniments, Godshouse Q) Cf. Chapter vm Henricus dei gratia Rex Anglie et ffrancie Dominus Hibernie Omnibus ad quos presentes littere pervenerint salutem Sciatis quod cum nuper ex lamentabili insinuacione multorum fidedignorum acceperimus quod in quampluribus regni nostri Anglie partibus ubi ante hec tempora infra paucos annos scole grammaticales in numero non modico floruerunt et ex eisdem grammatici grammaticeque Magistri egregii processerunt iam pre parcitate huiusmodi magistrorum facultas ilia tam in Universitatibus nostris Cantebrigie et Oxonie quam alibi per totum dictum regnum nostrum quod dolendum est fere permanserit desolata nedum in tocius deri et ecclesie regni nostri antedicti vehemens detrimentum verum edam in animositatis talium in aliis facultatibus studere optandum subtracdonem manifestam unde nos scolarum grammatice predictarum ruinamet Magistrorum eiusdem facultatis carenciam intime condolentes et advertentes qualiter quidam Willelmus Byngham persona ecdesie Sancti Johannis Zacharie Londonie pardtati grammaticorum memorate intime compadens quandam mansionem in Cantebrigia prope Aulam de Clare Godeshous vulgariter nuncupatam in supportadonem grammaticorum disponendam fecerit et ordinaverit cui quidem Willelmo Byngham ac dilectis clericis nostris Magbtris Willelmo Myllyngton Willelmo Guile doctoribus in theologia Johanni Tilney decretorum doctori ac Willelmo Wymbyll iam defuncto et heredibus suis ac persone et personb quibuscumque aliis per dictum Willelmum Byngham ad hoc nominandis et assignandis et eorum cuilibet coniunctim et divisim ex certa sdenda nostra et ex assensu consilii nostri litteras nostras patentes quarum data est nono die ffebruarii Anno regni nostri vicesimo concessimus et licendam dedimus pro nobis heredibus et successoribus nostris quantum in nobb fuit quod ipsi de uno presbitero et scolaribus in sdenda grammatice erudiendis ad numerum viginti et quinque personarum vel dtra in quodam tenemento cum tribus gardinis eidem tenemento adiacentibus in Villa nostra Cantebrigie Godeshous vulgariter nuncupato unum Collegium de et in dicto tenemento cum gardinis predictis de novo fundare creare incorporare erigere unire ordinare et stabilire per nomen procuratoris et scolarium de Godeshous semper nuncupandum poterint et quilibet eorundem potent iuxta modum ordinadones regulas et statuta eorundem regendum et gubernandum perpetuis futuris temporibus duraturis Pensantes nichilominus postmodum pia consideradone qualiter novo Collegio nostro regali in Vula nostra predicta per nos in honorem beate Marie Virginb et Sancti Nicholai confessoris nuper erecto dictum tenementum cum gardinis vocatum Godeshous adeo contiguum situatum fuerit quod absque illo tenemento nobis habiliter in edificandum nostrum predictum Collegium procedere nequivimus et quod ad rogatum nostrum spedalem prefatus Willelmus Byngham idem tenementum in ampli-

362

APPENDIX A

ficacionem fundi Collegii nostri antedicti in complacenciam nostram singularem nobis tradidit et dimisit dictusque Willelmus Byngham ut accepimus et cercioramur unam aliam mansionem pro huiusmodi scolaribus educandis ordinare edificare et disponere proponit de et in duobus cotagiis sive uno tenemento que quondam fuerunt Abbatis de Tyltey et in alio tenemento eisdem contiguo quod quondam fuit Abbatisse de Denney cum gardinis eisdem adiacentibus prout simul situantur in le Prechurstrete extra BaronWellgate in parochia Sancti Andree Cantebrigie inter quandam mansionem Johannis ffysshWyke quondam Bidelli Universitatis Cantebrigie quam inhabitavit et tenuit in feodo suo ex parte australi et dictam puplicam viam vocatam le Prechurstrete ex parte occidentali et tenementum Willelmi fryssher Burgensis Cantebrigie ex parte boreali et extendit se versus terram Priorisse Sancte Radegundis Cantebrigie ex parte orientali Que quidem cotagia sive tenementum continent in latitudine iuxta communem viam predictam novemdecim virgas de virgis ferreis nostris et aliud tenementum quod erat Abbatisse de Denney cum gardinis situatum a dictis cotagiis sive tenemento immediate versus boriam continet in latitudine iuxta viam predictam undecim virgas de virgis ferreis nostris et in longitudine utrumque eorum tenementorum continet a predicta via pupplica vocata le Prechurstrete versus terram predicte Priorisse inter occidentem et orientem Centum et unam virgas de virgis nostris ferreis volentesque proinde ne labores affecciones et expense eiusdem Willelmi Byngham graves et diutini in ilia parte aliqualiter frustrarentur concessimus et licenciam dedimus pro nobis heredibus et successoribus nostris eidem Willelmo Byngham Magistris Willelmo Lychfeld Willelmo Millyngton Willelmo Guile in sacra theologia professoribus Johanni Tylney decretorum doctori Johanni Horley in sacra theologia Bacallario et Gilberto Worthyngton ac Johanni Cote iam defunctis heredibus et assignatis suis et eorum cuilibet ac persone seu personis ahis quibuscumque per dictum Willelmum Byngham ad hoc nominandis sive assignandis quod ipsi et eorum quilibet et heredes sui de et in predictis duobus cotagiis sive tenemento quondam Abbatis de Tyltey et tenemento quondam Abbatisse de Denney cum gardinis adiacentibus ad hoc per dictum Willelmum Byngham ordinatis et adquisitis tribus duobus vel uno eorum vel quacumque parte vel quibuscumque partibus eorundem tenementorum cotagiorum sive gardinorum unum Collegium perpetuum de uno Procuratore et scolaribus non solum in facilitate grammatice set eciam in aliarum facultatum liberalium sciencia erudiendis secundum ordinacionem et statuta eorundem Willelmi Byngham Willelmi Lychfeld Willelmi Myllyngton Willelmi Guile et aliorum prenominatorum in hac parte facienda facere erigere stabilire et fundare sive sic fieri erigi stabiliri ac fundari perpetuis futuris temporibus duraturis procurare poterint et poterit quilibet eorundem prout per litteras nostras patentes quarum data est vicesimo sexto die Mensis Augusti Anno Regni Nostri vicesimo quarto eisdem Willelmo Byngham Willelmo Willelmo

TRANSCRIPTS OF VARIOUS D O C U M E N T S

363

Millyngton Willelmo Gilberto Johanni Johanni Tylney et Johanni Horley inde factas plane liquet Ac per eandem cartam dedimus concessimus et confirmavimus supradictis Willelmo Byngham Willelmo Millyngton Willelmo Guile et Johanni Tylney heredibus et assignatis suis quendam redditum sive antiquum apportum decem marcarum per annum quem Prior Prioratus de Monemuth Alienigeni in Marchiis Wallie alias dicta Monemouth quocumque nomine idem Prioratus censeatur et successores sui debuerunt et solvere tenebantur Capitali domui Prioratus predicti in partibus transmarinis tempore pads quendam annuum redditum sive apportum quadraginta solidorum quem predecessores Prioris illius qui tune fuit Prior Prioratus de Tottofi in Comitatu Devonie alias died Prioratus de Totteneys in Comitatu Devonie quocumque nomine idem Prioratus censeatur tempore pads annuarim solvere solebant sive solvere debuerunt de antiquo apportu ad Capitalem domum Prioratus predicd in pardbus transmarinis et ille qui post tune fuit Prior Prioratus predicti nobis annuarim reddere tenebatur reversionem annualis pensionis redditus sive apportus quocumque nomine censeatur Centum solidorum per annum quem Prior de novo loco super Aucolum alias dictum Acolum alias dicto Acolme in Comitatu Lincoinie alias dictus Prior de Neustede super Aucolum in Comitatu Lincoinie quocumque nomine censeatur olim annuarim reddere tenebatur Abbari et Conventui de Longvillers alias dicta Longevillers alias dicta Longeville in ffrancia quocumque nomine censeatur post tune nobis reddere debuit et portare annuarim tenebatur per nos nuper concessum Johanni Crooke uni dericorum Scaccarii nostri durante vita sua post mortem eiusdem Johannis Crooke reversionem annue Pensionis firme redditus sive apportus decem marcarum quos Abbas de Sawtre alias dictus Abbas de Sautre quocumque nomine censeatur una cum quinquaginta -mards pro ecdesia de frulburn anas dicta ffoulbourne et ecdesia de Honyngham alias dicta Honyngton quocumque nomine eedem ecdesie censeantur annuadm reddere tenebatur et quos annuam pensionem firmam redditum sive apportum decem marcarum Johannes ffouler alias dictus ffowler unus clericorum Capelle nostre ad tune habuit pro termino vite sue ex concessione nostra cum aedderit post mortem eiusdem Johannis ffouler alias died ffowler annuam firmam sive annuum redditum quadraginta sex solidorum et octo denariorum quos Willelmus Clerke Capelknus et Thomas ffitzharry post tune nobis solvere tenebantur annuadm pro custodia Prioratus de Carswell in Wallia alias died Prioratus de Carsewell in Dominio de Ewyas Lacy in North Wallia quocumque nomine idem Prioratus censeatur una cum reversione eiusdem Prioratus cum perrinendis cum aedderit post finem decem annorum proxime sequendum festum Narivitaris Sancri Johannis Baptiste quod fuit anno regni nostri sexto dedmo quem quidem redditum sive firmam predicti Willelmus Clerke Capellanus et Thomas ffitzharry nobis post tune debuerunt de custodia Prioratus predicti ratione cuiusdam dimissionis per nos eisdem Willelmo Clerk et Thome fBtzharry nuper facte habende eis a dicto

364

APPENDIX A

festo Narivitatis Sancti Johannis Baptiste usque ad finem decem annorum ex tune proxime sequencium reddendo nobis inde annuatim quadraginta sex solidos et octo denarios ad festa Natalis domini et Nativitatis Sancti Johannis Baptiste equis porcionibus Prioratum de Chipstowe Alienigenum quocumque nomine idem Prioratus censeatur cum omnibus terris tenementis redditibus serviciis firmis pensionibus porcionibus et possessionibus aliis ac ecclesiarum advocadonibus eidem Prioratui qualitercumque spectantibus Prioratum Maneria sive dominia de Ikham in Comitatibus Lincohiie et Oxonie una cum advocadonibus eorundem Prioratuum de Carsewell Chipstowe et Ikham ac omnibus et singulis terris tenementis redditibus feodis Militum et aliis possessionibus quibuscumque una cum warennis serviciis theoloneis piscariis pratis pascuispasturis molendinis boscis subbosds pannagiis visibus franciplegii Curiis custumis consuetudinibus pensionibus pordonibus obladonibus decimis advocadonibus ecclesiarum Vicariarum Capellarum Hospitalium benefidorum et ofSdorum quorumcumque ecdesiasticorum seu secularium predictis Prioratibus Dominiis Maneriis terris tenementis et aliis possessionibus quomodolibet spectantibus sive pertinentibus quibuscumque nominibus predicta redditus apportus firme Prioratus terre possessiones Maneria Dominia pensiones pordones tenementa reversiones censeantur eorumve aliquod censeatur qualitercumque quandocumque et quacumque ex causa eadem redditus apportus firme Prioratus terre possessiones Maneria Dominia pensiones pordones tenementa et reversiones cum suis pertinenciis ad manus nostras progenitorum vel predecessorum nostrorum devenerint vel devenire debuerint eorumve aliquod devenerit seu devenire debuerit habenda et tenenda sibi et heredibus et assignatis suis a primo die Martii Anno regni nostri vicesimo imperpetuum libere et quiete ab omni exacdone et servido seculari ac sine apportu firma compoto vel ratiocinio aut alio proficuo quocumque nobis heredibus vel successoribus nostris inde reddendo vel faciendo prout in predictis Litteris nostris plenius apparet Attamen sepedictus Willelmus Byngham prout nobis intimavit predicti Collegii erecdonem et fundadonem usque in presentem diem duTerre non postposuit ob id quod nostri glorie et premii in ilia celesti patria ampUadonem per personalem dicti Collegii de Godeshouse fundadonem mereremur toto cordis annelitu ardenter affectavit atque pro eodem negodo in persona nostra propria reahter exequendo nobis humiliter supph'cavit Quodrca divino animadvertentes instinctu sanctorum locorum fundatores predbus eorundem et sufFragiis devotissime pre cunctis ceteris benefactoribus commendari eisdemque suffragiis quasi premiciis vel fructibus semper frui primitivis grandiaque drca nos et rem nostram pupplicam a deo nobis traditam strenue gubernandam pericula regie nostre magestatis humeris incumbencia predbus et devodonibus alleviare cernentes Sdatis quod nos gradose annuentes votis et supplicadonibus dicti Willelmi Byngham iam instandus nostram regiam pulsantis celsitudinem ut ex assensu consensu ac ad specialem

TRANSCRIPTS OF VARIOUS DOCUMENTS 365 eiusdem Willelmi supplicacionem quoddam dignaremur Collegium perpetuum secundum harum seriem regendum et gubernandum de uno procuratore et certis scolaribus in grammatica et aliis facultatibus liberalibus in dicta Villa nostra Cantebrigie ad studendum et orandum pro salubri statu nostro et ipsius Willelmi Byngham dum vixerimus et animabus nostris cum ab hac luce migraverimus et animabus darissimorum parentum et progenitorum nostrorum quondam Regum et Reginarum Anglie ac pro animabus parentum died Willelmi Byngham ceterorumque benefactorum eiusdem Collegii et omnium fidelium defunctorum de et in prefatis tenemento sive cotagiis nuper Abbatis de Tyltey et tenemento nuper Abbarisse de Denney in Cantebrigia predicta ac de et in messuagio cum pertinendis in parochia Sancte Trinitatis Cantebrigie iuxta tenementum Johannis Beer unde idem messuagium fuit parcella situato quasi ex opposito aqueductui fratrum minorum Cantebrigie aceciam in quodam tenemento iacente ad finem australem gardini Collegii vocati Peteres House in Cantebrigia predicta et abuttante super viam regiam vocatam Trumpyngton strete ad caput orientate et super communem pasturam Cantebrigie quod tenementum nuper fuit Prioris et Conventus Prioratus Alborum Canonicorum ordinis Sancti Gilberti ordinis de Sempryngham in Cantebrigia que tenementa sive cotagia et messuagia predictus Willelmus Byngham pro predicto Collegio inhibi per nos erigendo et fundando perquisivit quem ac heredes et assignatos suos ob piam intencionem suam ac diutinos labores et assiduitates innumeros sumptus et expensas in eodem negocio per ipsum factos et impensos ac imposterum faciendos et impendendos tanquam alteros fundatores eiusdem Collegii haberi et nominari Volentes de et in predictis tenemento sive duobus cotagiis ohm Abbatis de Tilteia et tenemento nuper Abbarisse de Denney ac de et in predicto messuagio in parochia Sancte Trinitatis et in tenemento nuper Prioris et Conventus Alborum Canonicorum predictorum in dicta Villa nostra Cantebrigie et in qualibet parte et quibuscumque partibus eorundem ereximus fundavimus creavimus ac tenore presencium fundamus et facimus erigimus creamus et stabilimus unum Collegium perpetuis futuris temporibus duraturis ac predictum Willehnum Byngham ex certa nostra scienda et ex causis notabilibus nos ad hoc moventibus Procuratorem et pro procuratore ipsius Collegii sic per nos erecti et fundati ac per nos nunc institutum et prefixum Johannem Lincohi litteratum ac Johannem. Pycard Robertum Milton et Ricardum Corlus presbiteros scolares eiusdem Collegii per dictum Willelmum Byngham nobis nominatos et ad hoc per nos nunc assumptos secundum ordinadones et statuta predictorum Willelmi Byngham et Magistrorum Willelmi Lychfeld Willelmi Millington Willelmi Guile Johannis Holand sacre theologie professorum Johannis Hurte et Roberti Scolyse in eadem Bacallariorum et cuiuslibet eorum vel aliorum quorumcumque per predictum Willehnum Byngham ad hoc nominandorum et assignandorum regendos corrigendos privandos et ammovendos prefidmus

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creamus et ordinamus per presentes Volentes et concedentes quod ipsi Procurator et scolares eiusdem Collegii sic per nos ut premittitur assumpti et prefixi et successores sui Procuratores et scolares eiusdem Collegii futuri secundum ordinaciones et statuta predicta eligere congregare et admittere poterint sibi plures scolares usque ad numerum sexaginta personarum vel citra secundum ordinaciones et statuta predicta regendos corrigendos privandos et ammovendos quos et successores suos sic eligendos congregandos et admittendos tanquam scolares et membra eiusdem Collegii secundum predicta ordinaciones et statuta esse haberi nominari et reputari volumus imperpetuum Preterea volumus et concedimus per presentes quod decedente predicto Procuratore cedente vel eo quacumque de causa inde ammoto seu privato scolares eiusdem Collegii pro tempore existentes secundum formam et efFectum statutorum et ordinacionum predictorum alterum ydoneum hominem in Procuratorem et pro Procuratore eiusdem Collegii sic per nos ut premittitur erecti et fundati eligant et eligere possint quern in Procuratorem et pro Procuratore eiusdem Collegii per Cancellarium Universitatis Cantebrigie predicte et successores suos Cancellarios eiusdem Universitatis pro tempore existentes et non per nos nee heredes neque successores nostros admitti et confirmari secundum ordinaciones et statuta predicta regendum corrigendum privandum et tenore presencium duximus ammovendum Et sic decedentibus huiusmodi Procuratoribus cedentibus aut eis quoquo modo inde privatis vel ammotis infiiturum died, scolares Collegii per nos ut premittitur erecti et successores sui habeant et habere possint iuxta ordinaciones et statuta predicta liberam eleccionem de novis Procuratoribus quos ut supradictum est admitti confirmari regi corrigi privari et ammoveri volumus et eos sic in Procuratores electos admissos et confirmatos Procuratores esse perpetuos eiusdem Collegii absque licencia de nobis heredibus vel successoribus nostris inde petenda seu prosequenda et non alios neque alio modo volumus et concedimus pro nobis heredibus et successoribus nostris quantum in nobis est imperpetuum Volentes eciam quod decedentibus vel cedentibus scolaribus antedicti Collegii sic per nos ut premittitur erecti seu eorum aliquo decedente vel cedente aut eis vel eorum aliquo ex inde privatis vel ammotis privato seu ammoto in futurum semper habeant Procuratores et scolares dicti Collegii per nos ut premittitur erecti et successores sui pro tempore existentes imperpetuum iuxta ordinaciones et statuta predicta liberam facultatem et potestatem ad eligendum novos scolares vel scolarem et in eorum vel eius loco ponendos vel ponendum ac quod quilibet scolarium sic de novo eligendus sit admissus et confirmatus per predictum Procuratorem vel successores suos pro tempore existentes quos Procuratores et scolares sic electos admissos et confirmatos absque licencia inde de nobis heredibus vel successoribus nostris petenda prosequenda vel habenda in futurum et non alios Procuratores scolares et membra esse eiusdem Collegii per nos ut premittitur erecti secundum ordinaciones et statuta

TRANSCRIPTS OF VARIOUS DOCUMENTS 367 predicta regendos corrigendos privandos et ammovendos Volumus et concedimus pro nobisheredibuset successoribus nostris imperpetuum Volentes ulterius et concedentes per presentes quod dictum Collegium per nos sic erectum Collegium de Godeshouse Cantebrigie sic vocetur nominetur et imperpetuum nuncupetur et quod died Procurator et scolares in idem Collegium nunc pre&ri sive assumpti et successores sui imperpetuum Procurator et scolares Collegii de Godeshous Cantebrigie sint nominentur et vocentur Et quod dicti Procurator et scolares et successores sui pro tempore existentes sint in re facto nomine et in lege unum corpus et una Communitas perpetua et corporata imperpetuum habeantque successionem perpetuam et commune sigilfum pro negociis suis communibus serviturum Et quod ipsi et eorum successores sint persone habiles et capaces in lege imperpetuum ad impetrandum recipiendum perquirendum et adquirendum terras tenementa redditus servicia proficua advocaciones ecclesiarum emolumenta iura et possessiones temporalia et spiritualia tam de nobis heredibus et successoribus nostris quam de aliis personis ecclesiasticis tam secularibus quam regularibus ac de personis aliis secularibus quibuscumque licet ea immediate de nobis heredibus vel successoribus nostris seu personis aliis per servicium Militare aut alio modo quocumque teneantur eorumve aliquod teneatur sine aliqua alia licencia nostra heredum vel successorum nostrorum ad hoc imposterum postulanda perquirenda vel impetranda habenda et tenenda eisdem Procuratori scolaribus et successoribus suis imperpetuum Et quod ipsi Procurator et scolares et successores sui per predictum nomen procuratoris et Scolarium Collegii de Godeshouse Cantebrigie placitare et implacitari possint et prosequi omnimodas causas querelas et acciones reales personales et mixtas cuiuscumque generis sint vel nature ac respondere et defcndere responderi et defendi in eisdem tam coram nobis quam coram quibuscumque Justiciariis nostris et Judicibus Ecclesiasticis et secularibus quibuscumque Et ulterius de gratia nostra speciali pro nobis heredibus et successoribus nostris remisimus quietum damavimus et relaxavimus eisdem Procuratori et scolaribus ac successoribus suis imperpetuum omne ius dameum et titulum que habemus habuimus seu quovismodo infuturum habere poterimus in omnibus predictis tenementis cotagiis et messuagiis ac omnimoda corrodia pensiones annuitates et alia quecumque que nos heredes vel successores nostri aut aliquis alius ad nostrum mandatum vel rogatum ratione fundacionis nostre antedicte ab eisdem Procuratore et scolaribus sive Collegio de Godeshouse Cantebrigie et successoribus suis predictis vel aliquo eorundem exigere aut vindicare possimus aut possit infuturum et eos inde excusatos et quietos esse volumus et concedimus per presentes perpetuis temporibus duraturis Concessimuseciam eisdem Procuratori et scolaribus et successoribus suis imperpetuum quod quocienscumque et quandocumque predictum Collegium de Godeshouse Cantebrigie de Procuratore per mortem cessionem privacionem seu resignadonem aut alio modo quocumque vacare contigerit scolares eiusdem Collegii

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pro tempore existentes habeant et percipiant omnia fructus proficua et emolumenta de quibuscumque terris tenementis redditibus serviciis Prioratibus ecclesiis rectoriis pensionibus apportibus porcionibus etpossessionibus eiusdem Collegii seu eidem Collegio spectantibus durante huiusmodi vacacione proveniencia secundum ordinaciones et statuta predicta disponenda que tempore ac ratione huiusmodi vacationis ad nos heredes vel successores nostros pertinent seu pertinere poterint infuturum absque compoto ratiocinacione seu aliquo alio nobis heredibus vel successoribus nostris inde reddendo seu solvendo Ita quod nos heredes et successores nostri Escaetores et alii Ministri nostri quicumque ab omni custodia seisina et possessione eiusdem Collegii aut terrarum tenementorum reddituum serviciorum ecdesiarum rectoriarum et aliarum possessionum quarumcumque eiusdem Collegii seu eidem spectancium seu pertinencium durante huiusmodi vacacione simus exdusi imperpetuum per presentes Concessimus eciam et licenciam dedimus specialem prefato Procuratori et scolaribus et successoribus suis quod ipsi absque fine vel feodo magno vel parvo nobis heredibus vel successoribus nostris inde reddendo solvendo vel faciendo integre particulariter simul aut per vices dare concedere remittere seu relaxare poterint Abbari de Tyltey et successoribus suis imperpetuum terras redditus servicda ad valorem viginti sex solidorum et octo denariorum per annum ultra reprisas Et Abbarisse de Denney et eiusdem loci Conventui et successoribus suis imperpetuum alia terras tenementa redditus et servicia ad valorem viginti solidorum per annum ultra reprisas et prefato Priori et successoribus suis imperpetuum alia terras tenementa ad valorem viginti septem solidorum per annum ultra reprisas Et eisdem Abbati de Tyltey et eiusdem loci Conventui et Abbarisse de Denney et eiusdem loci Conventui ac prefato Priori et successoribus suis imperpetuum quod ipsi separatim possint recipere perquirere et habere de prefatis Procuratore et scolaribus et successoribus suis dicta terras tenementa redditus et servicia habenda et tenenda preiato Abbari et successoribus suis ad valenciam viginti sex solidorum et octo denariorum et predicte Abbarisse et successoribus suis ad valenciam viginti solidorum imperpetuum ac predicto Priori et successoribus suis imperpetuum ad valenciam viginti septem solidorum per annum ultra reprisas absque fine vel feodo magno vel parvo nobis heredibus vel successoribus nostris inde reddendo solvendo vel faciendo similiter licenciam dedimus specialem Insuper concessimus et licenciam dedimus per presentes pro nobis heredibus et successoribus nostris prefato Willelmo Millyngton Willelmo Guile et Johanni Tylney heredibus et assignaris suis quod ipsi et quilibet eorum absque fine vel feodo magno vel parvo nobis heredibus vel successoribus nostris inde reddendo solvendo vel faciendo omnia predicta Prioratus Alienigenos et eorum advocaciones ac apportus pensiones terras tenementa redditus servicia ecdesias ecdesiarum advocadones dominia Maneria reversiones una cum warennis serviciis theoloneis piscariis pratis pascuis pasturis molendinis boscis subboscis pannagiis visibus franci-

TRANSCRIPTS OF VARIOUS DOCUMENTS 369 plegii Curiis custumis consuetudinibus franchesiis libertatibus prisonis bonis felonum et proditorum pensionibus porcionibus oblacionibus decimis advocacionibus ecdesiarum Vicariarum Capellarum Hospitalium beneficiorum et offidorum quorumcumque ecdesiasticorum seu secularium cum omnibus aliis pertinenciis predictis Prioratibus dominiis Maneriis tenementis et aliis possessionibus predictis eorumve alicui spectantibus sive pertinentibus dare concedere remittere relaxare et confirmare poterint et poterit dictis Procuratori et scolaribus et successoribus suis imperpetuum per finem in Curia nostra heredum v d successorum nostrorum inde levandum vel alio modo quocumque Et quod tarn predicti Willelmus Millyngton Willdmus Guile et Johannes Tylney ac quedam Anna Priorissa Prioratus Sancti Jacobi de Hynchyngbroke quocumque nomine idem Prioratus censeatur et eiusdem lod Conventus prope Brampton et Sara Beket de Cantuaria et eorum quilibet quam persona et persone alie quecumque seculares et ecdesiastice tam regulares quam seculares absque fine vel feodo magno vel parvo nobis heredibus v d successoribus nostris inde reddendo solvendo vel fadendo dare seu legare remittere relaxare concedere et confirmare integre particulariter simul sive per vices poterint et possit prefatis Procuratori et scolaribus et successoribus suis imperpetuum Alia terras tenementa redditus Prioratus et eorundem advocadones servida ecdesias et ecdesiarum advocadones aliaque possessiones et emolumenta cum suis pertinenciis ad valorem tricentarum librarum per annum ultra reprisas Insuper concessimus et licendam dedimus pro nobis heredibus et successoribus nostris predictis Procuratori et scolaribus et successoribus suis imperpetuum quod ipsi omnia predicta Prioratus Alienigenos et eorum advocadones ac apportus pensiones terras tenementa redditus servicia ecdesias et ecdesiarum advocadones feoda Militum et possessiones alias quascumque predictas una cum warenis serviciis theoloneis piscariis pratis pascuis pasturis cum molendinis boscis subbosds panagiis Visibus frandplegii Curiis custumis consuetudinibus franchesiis libertatibus prisonis bonis felonum et proditorum pensionibus pordonibus obladonibus dedmis advocadonibus Prioratuum ecdesiarum Vicariarum Capellarum Hospitalium benefidorum et omdorum quorumcumque ecdesiasticorum seu secularium predictis Prioratibus dominiis Maneriis terris tenementis et aliis possessionibus eorumve alicui quomodolibet spectantibus sive pertinentibus ac alia terras tenementa Prioratus et eorum advocadones redditus servicia ecdesias ecdesiarum advocadones feoda Militum proficua et emolumenta cum suis pertinenciis perquirere habere redpere tenere ac sibi et successoribus suis imperpetuum appropriare et in proprios usus tenere et possedere ac retinere possint sibi et successoribus suis imperpetuum absque fine vel feodo magno vel parvo nobis heredibus vel successoribus nostris inde reddendo solvendo vel fadendo Insuper concessimus et licenciam dedimus pro nobis heredibus et successoribus nostris predictis Procuratori et scolaribus et successoribus suis imperpetuum quod ipsi absque fine vel feodo magno vel IHC

24

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parvo nobis heredibus vel successoribus nostris inde reddendo solvendo vel faciendo predicta Prioratus apportus pensiones et eorundem Prioratuum advocaciones terras tenementa redditus servicia ecdesias et ecclesiarum advocaciones feoda Militum ac possessiones quascumque alias tarn temporales quana spirituales per nos per personam seu per personas quascumque alias eisdem Procuratori scolaribus et successoribus suis in primeva fundacione eorum vel quocumque tempore alio data concessa vel collata sive infuturum danda concedenda sive conferenda cum aliis personis quibuscumque secularibus et ecclesiasticis tarn regularibus quam secularibus pro aliis Prioratibus apportibus pensionibus terris tenementis redditibus serviciis ecclesiis seu ecclesiarum advocacionibus cum omnibus suis pertinenciis infra regnum nostrum Anglie Et eisdem personis tam secularibus quam ecclesiasticis regularibus sive secularibus quod ipsi huiusmodi Prioratus Alienigenos et eorum advocaciones apportus pensiones terras tenementa redditus servicia ecdesias et ecclesiarum advocaciones et possessiones quecumque alia cum prefatis Procuratore et scolaribus vel successoribus suis pro predictis Prioratibus et eorum advocacionibus ac predictis apportibus pensionibus terris tenementis redditibus serviciis ecclesiis et ecclesiarum advocacionibus ac possessionibus quibuscumque aliis et quolibet eorundem mutare cambire in escambium ponere dare concedere et permutare poterint et poterit quelibet earundem et tam personis secularibus quam ecclesiasticis regularibus et secularibus illis quibuscumque que cum predictis Procuratore et scolaribus eorumve successoribus huiusmodi Prioratus Alienigenos et eorum advocadones ac predicta apportus pensiones terras tenementa redditus servida ecdesias et ecclesiarum advocaciones ac possessiones quecumque alia eorumve aliquod permutaverint sive in escambium posuerint quod ipsi predicta Prioratus et eorum advocadones apportus pensiones terras tenementa redditus servida ecdesias et ecclesiarum advocadones feoda Militum ac possessiones ilia quecumque et quodlibet eorundem per predictos Procuratorem et scolares eorumve successores eis in escambium ut predidtur danda concedenda permutanda sive in escambium ponenda ab eisdem Procuratore et scolaribus eorumve successoribus quam eisdem Procuratori et scolaribus et eorum successoribus quod ipsi ab huiusmodi personis secularibus ecclesiasticis tam regularibus quam secularibus predicta huiusmodi Prioratus et eorum advocadones apportus pensiones terras tenementa redditus servida ecdesias et ecdesiarum advocadones ac possessiones quecumque alia et quodlibet eorundem per eas eisdem Procuratori et scolaribus et eorum successoribus in escambium quod predidtur danda concedenda permutanda sive in escambium ponenda integre particulariter simul aut per vices perquirere redpere habere et tenere possint et possit quilibet eorundem ac eisdem pacifice gaudere sibi heredibus et successoribus suis imperpetuum absque ulteriori prosecudone alicuius alterius licende nostre heredum vel successorum nostrorum penes nos heredes vel successores nostros aliqualiter ex causis supradictis facienda

TRANSCRIPTS OF VARIOUS DOCUMENTS 371 absque incursu alicuius forisfacture sive pene erga nos heredes vel successores nostros infuturum hiis occasionibus quovismodo similiter licenciatn dedimus spedalem absque fine vel feodo magno vel parvo nobis heredibus vel successoribusnostris inde reddendo solvendo vel faciendo Nolentes quodpredicti Willelmus Millyngton Willelmus Guile et Johannes Tylney Anna Priorissa et Sara Beket eorumve aliquis aut eorum heredes seu predicti Procurator et scolares aut eorum successores vel persone alie seculares sive ecclesiastice seculares vel regulares aut eorum successores vel heredes predicti qui cum dictis Procuratore et scolaribus vel successoribus suis huiusmodi terras tenementa Prioratus apportus pensiones redditus servicia ecclesias et ecclesiarum advocadones ac possessiones quascumque alias eorumve aliquod permutaverint sive in escambium posuerint permutaverit sive in escambium posuerit ratione premissorum aut eorum alicuius per nos heredes vel successores nostros Justidarios Escaetores Vicecomites Coronatores Ballivos aut alios Ministros nostros heredum vel successorum nostrorum quoscumque futuris temporibus impetantur inquietentur molestentur in aliquo seu graventur nee aliquis eorum impetatur inquietetur seu gravetur non obstantibus aliquibus statutis restriccionibus provisionibus aut ordinadone incontrarium premissorum eorumve alicuius factis vel faciendis licet predicta Prioratus apportus terras tenementa redditus iura feoda Militum servicia possessiones ecclesias Prioratus et ecclesiarum advocadones eorumve aliquod per nos vel per progenitores nostros seu per personam vel personas quascumque anas perantea aliquibus persone aut personis loco aut lods ecclesiasticis secularibus vel regularibus aut Communitati cuicumque et eorum successoribus in eorum primeva fiindadone vel alio tempore quocumque collata concessa seu confirmata fuerint eorumve aliquod concessum coUatum seu confirmatum fuerit Statuto de terns et tenementis ad manum mortuam non ponendis edito sive aliquo alio statuto de huiusmodi Prioratibus et possessionibus Alienigenis facto aut eo quod predicta firme pensiones Prioratus Maneria dominia terre tenementa redditus servicia apportus reversiones ac Prioratuum et ecclesiarum advocadones cum pertinendis in manibus nostris ratione et occasione guerre seu causa alia quacumque extiterint aut eo quod predicta firme pensiones Prioratus dominia terre tenementa redditus servicia apportus reversiones ac Prioratuum et ecclesiarum advocadones cum pertinenciis suis quibuscumque de dono progenitorum nostrorum sive per eos Cantariis Hospitalibus vel ad alia pietatis opera sustinenda supportanda et facienda data quandocumque extiterint sive aliquo alio statuto sive resumpdone generali vel speciali Prioratuum Alenigenorum vel alia ordinadone incontrarium facta vel fadenda sive eo quod expressa mencio de vero valore annuo dictorum Prioratuum Maneriorum dominiorum apportuum Pensionum terrarum tenementorum reddituum serviciorum ecclesiarum advocadonum et aliarum possessionum quorumcumque cum pertinenciis sive eo quod expressa mendo de nominibus capitalium domorum predictorum apportuum Prioratuum de Chipstowe 24-2

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Monemuth Totteneys et Carsewell eorumve alicuius contra formam statuti inde editi in presentibus facta non existit aut eo quod de aliis donis concessionibus sive confirmacionibusspecificatis inpredictislitterisnostris quarum data est vicesimo sexto die Augusti Anno regni nostri vicesimo quarto vel de aliis donis concessionibus et confirmacionibus nostris seu alicuius progenitorum antecessorum vel predecessorum nostrorum eisdem Willelmo Byngham Willelmo Lychfeld Willelmo Millyngton Willelmo Guile Johanni Tylney Johanni Holand Johanni Hurte et Roberto Scolyse vel alicui eorum per se vel cum personis aliis perantea factis in presentibus mencio facta non existit aut eo quod pax finalis inter regna Anglie et ffrancie reformata fuerit seu eo quod predicta firme pensiones Prioratus Maneria dominia terre tenementa redditus servicia apportus reversiones ac Prioratuum et ecclesiarum advocaciones cum suis pertinenciis de nobis in capite tenentur Aut eo quod Abbatibus Prioribus sive quibuscumque presidentibus aHis ecclesiasticis quibuscumque nominibus censeantur sive successoribus suis domorum sive locorum religiosorum seu secularium ecclesiasticorum de regno fFrancic vel de partibus aliis transmarinis quibus predicta firme pensiones Prioratus Maneria dominia terre tenementa redditus servicia apportus reversiones ac advocaciones Prioratuum et ecclesiarum cum pertinenciis pertinent sive ab antiquo tempore perdnuerunt per prefatos Willelmum Byngham Willelmum Millington Willelmum Guile et Johannem Tylney aut per predictos Procuratorem et scolares vel successores suos per rationabilem concordiam inter ipsos in hac parte faciendam infuturum sumcienter recompensatum et satisfactum non fuerit aut eo quod in scriptura presencium titterarum patencium nostrorum per vitium vel impericiam scriptorumearundem aliqua discrepancia litterarum a recordis in Cancellaria aut Scaccario vel in aHis Curiis nostris existentibus compertum fuerit aliquo aho iure. titulo et interesse seu alia causa quacumque que nobis in hac parte heredibus vel successoribus nostris infuturum perrinere poterit non obstante In cuius rei testimonium htteras has nostras fieri fecimus patentes Teste me ipso apud Westmonasterium sexto decimo die Aprilis Anno regni nostri vicesimo sexto per ipsum Regem et de data predicta auctoritate parliamenti Nayler

Grant of the hospital of St James ofMagna Thurlow and the advowson of the parish church ofNavenby (Christ's College muniments, Godshouse 9) Cf. supra, p. 102 sq. Henricus &c Omnibus &c Salutem Sciatis quod ex mero motu nostro ac in puram et perpetuam elemosinam dedimus concessimus et hac presenti carta nostra confirmavimus Willelmo Byngham Procuratori Collegii nostri de Godeshouse Cantebrigie per nos pro exnibicione et educacione Magistrorum

TRANSCRIPTS OF VARIOUS DOCUMENTS 373 et Scolarium grammatice facultatis et aliarum facultatum liberalium nuper erecti fundati et stabiliti et eiusdem Collegii Scolaribus et successoribus suis reversionem hospitalis sive libere Capelle sancti Jacobi de Thirlaw {sic) magna in Comitatu SufFolcie quocumque nomine idem hospitaleseucapellacenseatur post mortem Willelmi Benet quocumque nomine censeatur Magistri et possessoris eiusdem et post decessum alterius persone cuiuscumque ius vel titulum ex quacumque nostra concessione pretendentis et obtinentis in eodem hospitali seu libera Capella una cum advocacione eiusdem habenda et tenenda predictis Procuratori scolaribus et eorum successoribus in proprios usus et ad eorum sustentacionem imperpetuum aceciam advocacionem ecclesie de Naanbi alias dicta Nanbi in Comitatu Lincolnie quocumque nomine censeatur Concessimus eciam et licenciam dedimus pro nobis heredibus et successoribus nostris predictis Procuratori et Scolaribus et successoribus suis quod quandocumque predictum hospitale seu Capella vacaverit bene liceat eisdem in illud sive ulam intrare et ingredi et penes se retinere et habere et eisdem gaudere imperpetuum absque prosecucione alterius processus sive brevis de ad quod dampnum penes nos et successores nostros quomodolibet faciendi statuto de terris et tenementis ad manum mortuam non ponendis aut eo quod de aliis donis et concessionibus predicto Willelmo Byngham separatim per se vel coniunctim cum aliis personis ante hec tempora factis aut eo quod de vero valore annuo predicti hospitalis sive capelle et ecclesie predicte eorandemque advocacionum specialis mencio in presentibus facta non existit aut eo quod per impericiam vel negligenciam scriptoris presencium aliqua discrepancia in scriptura nominum virorum hospitaUs seu Capelle ecclesie vel ville predictorum a scriptura contenta in recordis Curiarum nostrarum earumve alicuius comperta fuerit aut alio iure ritulo ordinacione vel interesse nostris heredum et successorum nostrorum in aliquo non obstantibus In cuius rei &c Teste me ipso apud Westmonasterium vicesimo sexto die Januarii Anno regni nostri vicesimo septimo

Safe conduct for Byngham and others (Christ's College muniments, Godshouse P) Cf. supra, p. 77 Omnibus Christi fidelibus ad quos presens Scriptum pervenerit Henricus GrifEth Senescallus domini Ricardi ducis Eboraci dominioram suorum de Ewyas Lacy Usk Trellek et Caerlion in marchiis Wallie Salutem Noveriris me prefatum henricum dedisse et hoc presenti Scripto meo concessisse Willelmo Byngham Rectori ecclesie Sancti Johannis Zacarie Londinii Johanni Lufday Roberto Melton Clericis Ricardo Corlus Johanni Lincoln et Willelmo Shether litteratis ac eorum cuilibet necnon eorum servientibus salvum et securem conductum ad veniendum equitandum morandum

374

APPENDIX A

et redeundum tociens quociens et quandocumque eis placuerit in dominiis predictis cum eorum membris bonis et catallis suis absque impeticione gravamine aut molestacione aliquali eis servientibus seu eorum bonis vel catallis suis per me predictum Senescallum seu per quemcumque alium omciarium vel ministrum infra dominia predicta inferendo imponendo vel faciendo A die confectionis presentium donee per me vel per deputatum meum per viginti dies perantea de contrario premuniti fuerint vel eorum aliquis premunitus fuerit In cuius rei testimonium presentibus Sigillum meum apposui Datum quarto decimo die mensis Julii Anno regni Regis Henrici sexti post conquestum vicesimo quinto

Safe conduct for Millyngton and Byngham over the hand and seal of Richard, duke of York (Christ's College muniments, Godshouse n ) Cf. supra, p. 77 sq. Ricardus dux Eboraci Comes Marchie et Ultonie Dominus de Wyggemore et de Clare Omnibus et singulis vicecomiribus Senescallis Constabulariis Ballivis Prepositis ofSciariis et ministris nostris quibuscumque infra Dominia nostra De Usk et De Caireleon ac per omnia Dominia nostra per totam Walliam Salutem Sciatis quod nos in nostram Defensionem suscepimus et proteccionem Venerabiles et circumspectos viros magistros Willelmum Millyngton sacre pagine professorem ac Willelmum Byngham Rectorem ecdesie parochialis sancti Johannis Zacharie Londinii proprietarium mansionis de Goddeshous in Universitate Cantibriggie necnon et omnia res redditus servientes bona et catalla sua ac possessiones ubicumque infra dominia nostra predicta iam ad presens sint aut fuerint in futurum Quare vobis omnibus et vestrum cuilibet tenore presencium precipimus firmiter et mandamus quatinus predictos magistros Willelmum et Willelmum necnon et omnia res redditus possessiones servientes bona et catalla ipsorum ab omnibus placitis querelis exaccionibus et domandis contra ipsos seu eorum alterum mods seu movendis levatis seu levandis habitis seu habendis manu nostra protegatis defendatis et quietos esse libere permittatis Et ab omnibus huiusmodi placitis querelis exaccionibus et domandis si que sint aut fuerint omnino supersedeatis et superseded eciam continuo faciatis non inferentes eis nee quantum in vobis est inferri permittentes inuriam molestiam dampnum aliquod seu gravamen Et si quid eis iniuriatim fuerit id eis sine dilacione emendari eciam faciatis Proviso semper quod hec nostra proteccio nobis non cedat in preiudicio in futurum In cuius rei testimonium has litteras nostre proteccionis post biennium a data presencium minime valituras sigillo nostro fedmus sigillari Date Londonie vicesimo secundo die Februarii Anno Regni metuendissimi domini nostri Regis Henrici sexti post Conquestum anglie vicesimo sexto R. York (autograph)

TRANSCRIPTS OF VARIOUS DOCUMENTS 375 Form of agreement concerning college lectures, circa 1451 (Christ's College muniments, Godshouse As) Cf. supra, pp. 134 sqq. Hec indentura Facta inter Willelmum Byngham procuratorem Collegii de Goddeshous Cantabrigie et scolares eiusdem Collegii ex una parte et Radulphum Barton clericum ex parte altera testatur quod idem Radulphus concedit prefatis procuratori et scolaribus et successoribus suis per presentes quod ipse qualibet die ad lecturas in universitate Cantabrigie legendas usitata adeo bene in termino Autumpnali sicut aliis terminis anni A Festo Sancti Michaelis archangeli proxime futuro Durante vita sua iuxta scire suum leget aut legi faceat infra dictum collegium scolaribus eiusdem Collegii et eorum successoribus ac illis illuc venientibus sive adherentibus et infra idem Collegium existentibus tres lecciones sive tres lecturas videlicet unam inde de sofestria alteram inde de logica et terciam inde de philosophia vel unam duas earum prout affluencia et copia scolarium huiusmodi ad eas audiendas dispositorum exposcent et requirent Et si contingat ipsum Radulphum aliquo die huiusmodi post dictum festum Sancti Michaelis archangeli aliquam prefatarum leccionum propter carenciam scolarium omittere sive minime perimplere et in sciencia grammaticali rethoricali vel poeticali erudiri et sufficienter informari extunc idem Radulphus loco huiusmodi leccionis sive leccionum propter carenciam scolarium omissarum sive minime perimpletarum leget scolaribus superius recitatis unam lecdonem vel duas lecciones grammaticales rethoricales vel poeticales in quibus ipsum Radulphum adtunc erudiri et sufficienter informari contegerit Ita quod tres lecciones huiusmodi ad minus cotidie scolaribus predictis si affluxerint perlegantur Et insuper cum idem Radulphus ad gradum magistratus in ambus promotus fuerit extunc idem Radulphus durante tota regencia sua ad ordinarium eius suum iuxta modum Universitatis predicte tarn omnes scolares dicti Collegii quam alios ad dictum Collegium causa erudicionis connuentes quam alios pauperes scolares ad ordinarium eiusdem Radulphi audiendum dispositos gratis et libere absque solucione monete aliquali recepiet et admittet Proviso semper quod bene licebit prefato Radulpho causa racionabili exegente et licencia procuratoris vel eius successoris aut eorum locum tenentium prius optenta a collegio predicto per triginta dies continuos semel in anno ultra tres vacaciones in dicta Universitate extra terminum Autumpnalem usitatas et se absentare Ita quod sufficientem sostitutum ad premissa contingentia et eorum quodlibet durantibus dictis triginta diebus sufficienter perimplenda Idem Radulphus sumptibus suis propriis inveniat et exhebiat ita quod duo sophismata et unam opposicionem et unum problema audiat omni septimana integra si affluencia scolarium tot exposcat Pro quibus quidem lecturis et aliis premissis per ipsum Radulphum ut prefertur exequendis

376

APPENDIX A

et adimplendis prefatus procurator et scolares Collegii de Goddeshous supradicti prefatum Radulphum in scolarem eiusdem Collegii pro termino vite sue tenore presencium receperint et admitterint et eidem Radulpho decem denarios sterlingorum septitnanatim a dicto festo Sancti Michaelis archangeli proxime futuro durante vita sua pro communis suis Ac quadraginta solidos sterlingorum pro lectura sua in forma predicta perimplenda annuatim durante vita sua Ad festa natalis Domini Pasche Nativitatis Sancti Johannis Baptiste et Sancti Michaelis Archangeli equis porcionibus solvere concedunt primo termino solucionis eorundem quadraginta solidorum incepiente ad festum natalis Domini proxime futurum aceciam idem procurator et scolares concedunt quod ipsi prefato Radulpho quolibet anno durante vita sua erga festum pasche quattuor virgas panni lad lanei vel octo virgas panni lanei stricti pro hberata sua praeter sex solidos et octo denarios vel sex solidos et octo denarios pro eodem panno dileberabunt Excepto quod quotiens contingat ipsos procuratorem et scolares liberatam suam huiusmodi generaliter scolaribus eiusdem collegii dispensare sive providere ex tune idem Radulphus quattuor virgas eiusdem panni si pannus ille latus fuerit vel octo virgas eiusdem panni si strictus exstiterit pro hberata sua huiusmodi illo anno de eisdem procuratore et scolaribus recepiet duntaxat et habebit proviso semper quod si dictus Radulphus aliquo tempore futuro ad aliquod beneficium ecclesiasticum cum cura animarum extra vel infra universitatem Cantebrigie promoveatur et lecciones predictas et aUa premissa in forma supradicta legat et observet ex tune ipse Radulphus pro toto illo tempore quo sic promoveatur ut scolaris died Collegii non reputetur nee aliquod de dictis decem denariis per septimanam ut prefertur recepiendis recepiet nee habebit ultra annum primum sue promocionis sed tamen dictos quadraginta solidos et predictam liberatam in forma ut prefertur recepiendos et habendos recepiet et habebit Et si ipse Radulphus ad gradum baculariatus vel magistratus in theologia promoveatur Aut cum aliqua infirmitate vexatus fuerit Ita quod predicte lecciones et alia premissa ex parte sua in forma predicta per ipsum minus legantur seu perimpleantur ex tune ipse Radulphus nihil de dictis quadraginta solidis sive liberatura predicta seu de dictis sex solidis et octo denariis pro eadem liberatura sibi ut prefertur concessis recepiet seu habebit Et si prefatus Radulphus versus dictos procuratorem et scolares et successores suos seu eorum aliquem inhoneste inordinate aut male habuerit sive gubemaverit et post secundam monitionem per prefatum procuratorem et duos scolares dicti Collegii seu eorum successores sibi inde factam se non reformaverit correxerit nee emendaverit aut si idem Radulphus a dicto Collegio ultra dittos triginta dies continuos aut alias se absentaverit sive prolongaverit vel premissa seu eorum aliquod ex parte sua modo et forma predicris minime observaverit et perimpleverit ex tune omnes et singules concessiones et beneficia per ipsos procuratorem et scolares prefato Radulpho ut prefertur concessa nullius sint

TRANSCRIPTS OF VARIOUS DOCUMENTS 377 vigoris nee effectus sed omni iure robore tune careant et virtute nisi idem Radulphus se subiciat et offerrat iudicio et arbitrio predictorum procuratoris et scolarium et successorum suorum In cuius rei testimonium Commission of the university appointing Syclyng special commissary (Christ's College muniments, Misc. F, 15) Cf. supra, pp. 235 sqq. Universitas Cantebrigie cum cetu regentium et non Regentium omnibus qui presentes has litteras inspexerint: Salutem in domino Jesu Quam nulla respublica in terris tarn maxima est: nulkque tarn adeo parvaque maiorum vestigia et pristorum sapientissimorum hominum exempla in suam utilitatem et decorem non convertat: fit ut antiquissimorum hominum more et veterum rerumpublicarum consuetudine Commissionem hanc nostram et dilucidam et robore (quantum valemus) firmatam sic constituerimus Nam ut a sapientissimis et vetustissimis hominibus accepimus in illis que levius fortasse et negligenrius attendi solent: homines errare labi atque decipi possunt Quarum propter hanc commissionem nostram certain claram et providam esse curavimus Namque primum oramus et obsecramus eos patres confratres et quoscumque universitatis amicos ad quos Magister Johannes Siklynge artium septem liberalium magister confrater noster et almi collegii Domus Dei in nostra universitate situari magister sive custos atque huius cause commissarius specialis cum his nostris presenribus litteris publico sigillo universitatis appendente maxime corroborate et in membrana perscripris accesserit: ac huius Commissionis virtute et auctoritate eorum misericordem in novam fabricam ecdesie nostre publice et nunc humi dilapidate et miserabiliter iacentis elemosinam petiverit: ut eidem Magistro Johanni Syklynge speciali huius cause procuratori et publice a nobis commissario Deputato fidem integerrimam et plenissimam in hac causa adhibere velint Oramus preterea: ut eidem pecunias et eorum misericordes quascumque elemosinas in hanc vel piissimam vel iustitissimam causam bono animo tradant Est eciam decretum apud nos ut idem Commissarius noster omnium et singulorum nomina conscribat Nam volumus singulorum patrum filiorum et confratrum et amicorum universitatis ac nostri omnium piissima Dona et devotissimas elemosinas cum nominibus consignari atque (ut ita dicamus) ordine registrari* Itaque ipse procurator et commissarius noster ea omnia ad nos in solemnem et publicam Regencium et non Regencium congregacionem referet Eo pacto et laudem: et nostras preces ad omnipotentem Deum in tanta necessitate universitatis et nostri omnium adiutores apertissime merebuntur Date Cantabrigie Idibus Juniis 1

Cf. GB. B1, pp. 97, 159.

Appendix B (a) REGISTER OF MEMBERS OF GODSHOUSE It seems desirable to collect together the names of those found to be members of Godshouse between the years 1439 and 1505, during which it was so called. A tentative list was presented by Dr Peile in his Biographical Register but it has been possible to offer a longer one, forty-two names in all, based upon independent research. Some of Dr Peile's names it has been necessary to omit for lack of evidence for the connection of those persons with the college, whether as fellows or as pensioners. Peile's system of indicating fellowship by a single asterisk, proctorship by two, has been retained; some of those not so marked may have been fellows though others were certainly perendinants or pensioners. In the few cases where the association with the college is not definitely established, a query precedes the name. There are twenty-four names of fellows, adding to which the names of the six Proctors we thus obtain those of thirty persons who were on the foundation. The usual duration of fellowship was about six years, since by the Godshouse statutes a man must ordinarily retire after his first year of regency. Dividing sixty-six years (1439-1505) by six we get eleven periods, and that multiplied by four (the greatest number of fellows at one time) yields a maximum number of forty-four names of fellows during the sixtysix years. There would be some whose period offellowship would be shortened by death or other accident, as also by the statutory obligation to accept, if required, the mastership of a school upon attaining to the degree of master in grammar, say after four years. On the other hand there were those who as college lecturers (Barton was fellow and lecturer from 14.52 until 1477) or parish priests (Sydyng held his fellowship, being parish priest, from circa 1479 until 1490) or by prolongation of their course of study (Scott may have been fellow from circa 1488 until 1506, when he signed the new statutes and so became fellow of Christ's College) had a term greatly in excess of six years. It would appear therefore that an average of six years would be a reasonable estimate. If we add to the assumed forty-four the names of those Proctors who were never fellows (Byngham, Hurte, Fallan, Basset), we obtain a possible total of forty-eight names of those who were on the foundation, and in recovering thirty of these we have secured a large percentage even ignoring the possibility that some of those not marked with an asterisk may have been fellows, not perendinants or pensioners. If a suggested maximum of forty-four fellows in sixty-six years should seem a small number, it should be remarked that, until the sixteenth century, it is probable that the average total of those upon college foundations in Cambridge was not largely in excess of one hundred. Until 1439, when Godshouse was founded, there were only eight colleges; by 1475 there were

38o

APPENDIX B

only twelve and, until the founding of St John's in 1511, only thirteen. The average number of fellows in each college was small because the funds for exhibition were small. Corpus Christi in 1487 had seven fellows, besides the Master, St Catharine's had three, Queens' four; at Gonville Hall, about 1480, is recorded the foundation of two fellowships in addition to the original four. The total number of students in the university was much greater, for the colleges accepted not only fellows but also those who paid for their board and lodging; while to these again should be added the much larger number of persons who resided entirely at their own charges, in the numerous hostels and inns, which then flourished though they became extinct about the middle of the sixteenth century. In using the following register, reference should be made to the index for direction to the pages of the text where the individual names are mentioned, as also to D r Peile s Biographical Register. ? Anstie, John Artweke, Edward **Barton, Ralph Barton, Walter **Basset, William *Benglace, James *Boteler, Thomas

*Brigges, William

*Burton, Richard **Byngham, William *Catur, J. *Copnaye, Robert *Corlus, Richard *Fabbe, John **Fallan, William

Mentioned in John Fabbe's will, 1504. Mentioned in Syclyng's will, 1506. B.A. 1507, M.A. 1510, B.D. 1520, D.D. 1528. University preacher 1514 and 1528, auditor 1527 and 1529. Dr Peile's remark that he is not found in GB. A should be viewed in the light of the fact that he probably became M.A. in 1452, two years before GB. A begins. Master in grammar 1490; living in Herefordshire as late as 1509. B.A. 14 May 1463, M.A. 31 May 1467. Chaplain, Papworth St Agnes, 25 July 1466 (Ely, Gray, f. 61); vicar, Gransden Magna, 16 October 1466 until 1478, when he resigned and went to Harwoid [Harrold] vicarage (list of vicars at Gransden Magna church). Brydges and odier variants are found. In 1499, Robert Fynge of Fendrayton by his will (P.C.C. 32 Home) appointed Sir William Brydgis to 'synge' for him for five years at Cambridge and provided ,(,4 yearly therefor. Brydges witnessed the will and was obviously a Fendrayton man. Master in grammar 1501, B.A. 1503, M.A. 1508. Presented by Godshouse to the rectory of Navenby, 5 May 1456 (Line. Reg. xx, f. 125 d). Proc. Ind. 1471. Presented by Godshouse to the rectory of Navenby, circa 1458; he died in 1479 (Line. Reg. xxi, £ 22 d). Litteratus, 1447 (Gh. P).

REGISTER OF MEMBERS OF GODSHOUSE 381 *Fowke, Edward

? Hudson, Thomas **Hurte, John ? Lewyng, Master *Lincoln, John *Loveday, John

*Melton, Robert

*Nunne, Thomas

*Pycard, John Pycard, Richard

Reynolds, Richard

*Rycheman, Thomas

He was an intimate friend of William Sowode, Master of Corpus Christi College (1523-44), and through him a friend of that college. Cf. Masters, pp. 64, 66, who (p. 74) quotes Fox for his authority in asserting that Fowke 'was a great favourer and furtherer of the truth in the dark days of Henry VIII'. College lecturer in 1506 (GB. T, p. 41). Syclyng's will. B.A. 1506 (GB. B \ pp. 208, 216). Syclyng's will. Litteratus, 1447 (Gh. P). In 1451 he was a member of the house of St Thomas ofAeon, London (Byngham's will). He was a member as early as 1447, when he was styled ckricus, and is mentioned in college documents until 1459 (Misc. F, 7). Between 20 November and 22 December 1448 he resigned the chaplaincy of Bateman's chantry in Burgh [Borough Green] church (Ely, Bourchier, f. 20). Clericus is his description in 1447, and he is an active participant and co-feoffee in college documents as late as 1468. Rector of Fendrayton from circa 1454 to 1476; rector of Helpston 1476-? Date of death unknown. University preacher in 1512/13. The editors of Grace B o o k r (Introd. p. xxxi) treat him as admitted' bachelor' of grammar in 1502, but that degree, though provided for by Univ. Star. No. 116, does not appear to have been taken in Cambridge in the period subsequent to 1454, when such records of the university begin (cf. GB. A, Introd. p. xxiiisq.); in Oxford that stage of grammar degree persisted until the sixteenth century (Rashdall, vol. ii, pt. ii, p. 599). The argument on which is based the decision here given that he was master, not bachelor, in 1502, is too technical for elaboration in this place, but consideration of the ancient statutesandof GB. F, pp. 3 and 23, seems to place the matter beyond doubt. Priest in 1448 (Gh. Q). His will (1513) describes him as fellow of Christ's; since his place in the B.A. list of 1502/3 immediately follows the names of Scott and Nunne there is some probability that he was then of Godshouse, if not a fellow. Fellow of Christ's in his will, 14 April 1521. Questionist 1504/5, B.A. 1505/6, M.A. 1508/9, when he had an interesting grace (GB. F, p. 72). His position in Godshouse is not certain. As Rychmond he paid one shilling for commons in 1496/7, presumably as master in grammar; B.A. 21 January 1502/3 as it domo dei. He had a grace in 1502/3 (GB. F, p. 11) that three autumn terms might serve

382

*Scott,John

*Shether, William *Smyth, Dominus *Spensar, Robert *Sterr, John ? Stevynson, Mr Story, Robert

APPENDIX B for two ordinary terms for his form as questionist, shewing a return, as in other cases, to residence in Cambridge in the intervals of employment, perhaps as a schoolmaster. This grace explains the long interval between bis mastership in grammar and his admission as B.A. An interesting man; Peile postulates two John Scotts, one a questionist in 1491, the other inceptor in grammar 1500/1, but the editor of GB. B 1 relates both entries to the same person and that seems likely. Though a questionist should determine within two years, the penalty for non-compliance was only one mark, and the Grace Book entries relating to Scott suggest exceptional conditions, the grace for inception (GB. B 1 , 162), and the personal security of the senior proctor (GB. B 1 , 147) amongst them. Scott was a man. of business capacity and Syclyng may have found it convenient to prolong his academical career in order to retain him in fellowship. He became master in grammar during Syclyng's second period of senior proctorship, 1500/1, B.A. in 1502/3, and was still bachelor when he signed the statutes in 1506. His progress thereafter was rapid, fellowship being now no longer necessarily vacated after the first year of regency. He became M.A. in 1507, junior proctor in 1510, university preacher in 1510/11 and 1513/14, S.T.B. in 1516/17; he was largely used by the foundress's executors in connection with work on the buildings about 1510/11. Litteratus, 1447 (Gh. P). De domo dei, B.A. 1502/3. Mentioned in a will, 1474. Mentioned in i486 (Camb. Aa). Mentioned in Syclyng's will. M.A. (GB. B 1 , pp. 228,232; in each place his name is found in close proximity to those of other members of the college). M.A. 1505/6; ordained Lincoln 1506/7 under title from Christ's.

**Syclyng, John *Sygar, Henry B.A. 1486/7, M.A. 1490/1. Tamworth, Christopher The name is variously spelt, once as thomworthe. He had a grace in 1502/3 that two autumn terms should count as two ordinary terms (GB. T, p. 11). B.A. Michaelmas term 1504/5, M.A. 1507/8. Peile says that he was ordained, Lincoln diocese, sub-deacon 17 February 1506/7, deacon 1 March 1506/7, priest 3 April 1507, under title from the college. The rapid passage to priesthood points to a student of more than ordinary age in 1507, and the grace obtained in 1502/3 may indicate that he was a schoolmaster.

BIOGRAPHICAL SUPPLEMENT

383

*Tapton, Hugh

M.A.; priest, presented to Helpston in 1445 by Byngham and his co-feoffees, which rectory he resigned in 1457 in exchange for Blankney, Lincolnshire. Had a grace to incept in canon law in 14.60/1 (GB. A, p. 29). Tasker, Thomas Cferiois;mentionedasresidingini5o6(Rawnnson,D9i7). One of this surname was B.Civ.Law 1514/15. ? Ward, John Sydyng's will. B.A. 1503 (GB. B 1 , pp. 180, 186; GB. T, p. 12). One *Watson, Richard of this name was instituted rector of Childerley Magna in 1546 (Ely, West and Goodrich, f. 186); he resigned and was instituted rector of Lolworth, 1556, dying within a year (Ely, Goodrich, f. 35). *Worthyngton, William Spelt also Wurlyngton. Mentioned as a legatee in John Fabbe's will. B.A. 1499/1500, M.A. 1502/3. He had some skill in writing, for the exercise of which he was paid by the university proctors in 1495/6 (GB. B 1 , p. 96). In 1502/3 he had a grace pro exoneracione consciencie (GB. T, p. 18). Wylson, Henry Incorporated B.A. 1506/7, proceeded M.A. 1507/8; his grace (GB. T, p. 63) seems to point to residence in the college during the Godshouse period. Presented to Helpston as vicar by the Master and fellows April 1507; the dear value of the living to him was ^ 8 yearly (H. Salter, A subsidy collected in the diocese of Lincoln in 1526, p. 137).

(b) BIOGRAPHICAL SUPPLEMENT In this appendix will be found further information, beyond that which it seemed proper to include in the narrative, concerning persons who were of service to the college, or were connected with it, without being at any time members of the society. Names to be found in the Dictionary of National Biography, or in Venn's Alumni Cantabrigienses, are included here only if the college documents or other sources have produced matter not to be discovered in those standard works of reference. J O H N BROKLEY Cf. supra, pp. 15 sq., 71 sqq. This name (Brokle, Brokelee and other variants are found) is of Suffolk origin,1 Brockley being a village seven miles south of Bury St Edmunds. One of Brokley's associates in London was Nicholas Wyfold, who bore another Suffolk village name,1 and the two may have had these surnames conferred upon them on their arrival in London as indicating their places 1 British Family Names, by H. Barber (1903); Dictionary of Surnames, by C. W . Bardsley (1901).

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of origin, after the manner of that time. Brokley was one of the wealthiest London citizens of his day; he was a draper, and Master of that Worshipful Company in the year 1441/2. As early as 1421 he was member of parliament for the city, and in 1425/6 was sheriff. He became alderman for Aldersgate Ward in 1426 and retained that office until 1434; * since that was the ward in which the church of St John Zachary was situated we need seek no further for the circumstances bringing him and William Byngham into that friendship which introduced Brokley's wealth into the service of the College of Godshouse from the year 1436 onwards. From 1434 to 1438 Brokley was alderman for Candlewick Ward, 1 and for Walbrook Ward from 1438 to 1444.1 He was mayor of London for the year 1433/4. His presence as alderman for Walbrook is recorded on 31 July 1444,2 and on 19 October 1444 he was succeeded in that office by Simon Eyre.2 These dates fit in with the date of his death on 30 September 1444, as derived from the statutes of Godshouse, Rotuli Parliamentorum and other sources. He was much in demand as a man of wealth and business capacity for service in the offices of feoffee, executor and the like, and his name is found frequently in Early Chancery Proceedings in such positions; there are many entries relating to his name in the Calendar of Letter Books of the city of London (R. R. Sharpe). He does not appear to have been survived by any child, but he left a widow, Katherine, who married his sometime associate, Nicholas Wyfold, already mentioned. The will of John Brokley has evaded discovery, despite diligent search in Somerset House, Lambeth, Guildhall and other possible sources; that is a serious loss but one less to be regretted inasmuch as a petition to parliament in 1447 has provided us with the names of his executors and given us some idea of the magnitude of his fortune and the manner of its disposal intended by him. The petition is printed in Rotuli Parliamentorum v, 129 sq., and is of the year 1447. The executors appointed by Brokley were his widow, Sir William Tresham, speaker of the House of Commons, Thomas Burgoyne, gentleman, and William Edy, draper, and it was the last three of these who petitioned the Commons against the first and principal of their number, the widow. The ground of their petition was the failure of Katherine to apply the residue of the estate as directed by the testator for the benefit of his soul, and it was probably because of the damage thereby done to the public weal, and because of the magnitude of the estate concerned, that they sought this particular remedy. So much seems to stand out from the words of their address: To the full wyse and discrete Communes of this present Parliament; Please it youre wise discretions, by wey of charite, and for grete helpe of grete almusdedus to be done, to considre howe etc. 1 1

A. B. Beaven, Aldermen of the City of London, ii, 7. Ibid, ii, 217.

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The petitioning executors proceed to recite 'that a litell before Michelmasse was thre yere' (i.e. just before his death, the day after Michaelmas 1444) Brokley made the said four his executors and by his testament demised to Katerine all the stuff of his Houshold, Halle, Chambre and Kychyn, with all his Plate which amounted to a grete and a notable summe; and over that MMM li. of money, to be taken of the stuf of his Shope, and of his Dettouts, and also made other diversez Legatez to diversez persones grete and notable: which summe of MMM li., with all summes of his seide Legate and moche more, the saide Katerine long tyme passed hathe receyved. They say that after the payment of all bequests and debts and all alms done for the testator's soul before Katherine's marriage to Nicholas Wyfold, there remains due to the executors the sum of seven or eight thousand marks (,£4666 to ^5333) in money received by her, which should be disposed for John Brokley's soul by his executors: for which soule, litell or nought be hir, in whos kepyng the Bokes, sureteez and godes in substaunce holy remaigne, hath ben done, als fer as can be conceived, sithen that she was laste weddud, which is passud the space of two yere, nor is like to be doo, withouten remedy purveyud in this behalfe. The three executors pray the king to ordain by the authority of the present parliament that the Chancellor of England have power to summon them and also Nicholas Wyfold and Katherine his wife to appear in the king's chancery before him in their proper persons, each bringing such books and other evidences as they have in their possession and that the Chancellor have power to do all things that in his discretion seem needful that the balance of the testator's estate may be disposed for his soul 'by way of almes and of dedus of charite'. The petition was granted, Fiat prout petitur, but there the story ends and all efforts to trace the outcome of the proceedings before the Chancellor have failed. Tresham died in 1450, Katherine about 1453, and Nicholas Wyfold in 1456; Thomas Burgoyne lived until 1470 and was a feoffee in relation to the Herrys portion of the Godshouse site.1 Wyfold was clearly the villain of the piece; he married after Katherine's death a third wife, also a widow, Margaret, daughter of Thomas Catteworth, another prominent citizen, sometime mayor, and, like Wyfold, a grocer, of which Worshipful Company he was twice Master. Margaret survived Nicholas and married for her third husband John Howard, first duke of Norfolk of that house (the Jockey of Norfolk). The will of Wyfold, dated 28 June 1456, remains in part (P.C.C. 8 Stokton); it shews him to have been a man of much substance, mentions his deceased wives Alice and Katherine as also his daughter Isabel, but his executors' names do not remain, having been in that part of the will which has not survived. As the will was proved at Lambeth 28 October 1456, the death of Wyfold is shewn to lie between 28 June and 28 October of that year. 1 Supra, p. 157LHC

25

386

APPENDIX B

Fuller details concerning Brokley, Wyfold and the others named in this note would be inappropriate here, but those desiring further information may consult with advantage Sharpe's Calendar of Letter Books, Beaven's Aldermen, Rolls of the Court of Husting, Early Chancery Proceedings, Rotuli Parliamentorum (vi, 317) and similar sources. RICHARD AND JOHANNA BUCKLAND Cf. supra, p. 16 Bokeland, Bukeland and other variants of the name are found. Richard's early calling in life was that of a fishmonger and we seem to find in him an out-standing example of the good apprentice, for his wife, Johanna, was the daughter of Agnes and Richard Gyfford, her father being styled fishmonger in her mother's will1 (dated 12 June 1423). In his chosen avocation Buckland contrived to acquire wealth enough to enable him to contribute largely in means and services to Henry V and his son, and still to find freedom from the cares of his trade sufficient to permit him to promote the interests of the kingdom at home and abroad in the course of an adventurous and varied career, far removed from the ordinary associations of a fishmonger's life. His name occupies a large space in the patent rolls from 1416 until 1436, when he died, and his affairs have their reflection in the rolls for some years after that event. The date of his birth has not been found, nor his place of origin, but by 2 September 1415 he had become collector of customs in the port of London, and he is named as having lent 200 marks to the king to maintain the siege of Harfleur, and at about the same time is commissioned with others to take ships for the victualling of the king in foreign parts. Four years later he is styled 'victualler of Calais' and supervises the passage of troops to that port; and on 18 December 1423 he is required to pay to the executors of Henry V £300 of which he and another have possession as the result of making or providing tiles. Bokeland's first recorded service (20 May 1425) under Henry VI is that of making inquisition in Northamptonshire, in which county he had by that time acquired a landed estate, and on 20 August 1426 he and John Melbourne were granted repayment of ^30 lent by them jointly to the king. Melbourne was associated with Bokeland in many enterprises and was one of the executors appointed by his will. On 1 June 1426 he entered upon a new phase of service, being appointed with others to hear and determine an appeal upon an action in the Court of Admiralty; but his foreign service proceeded also, suggesting intercourse with France sufficiently easy to permit the current conduct by the same person of duties at home and abroad. From 1424 for several years he was 'warden of the King's exchange in Calais', otherwise 'King's esquire, treasurer of 1 Sharpe, ii, 450.

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387

Calais'. In that capacity he was appointed with two others by the garrison of that town in February 1427 to prosecute their claim for arrears of pay before the king's council (Priv. Counc. iii, Pref. pp. xlii sq., 242 sq.). On 24 February 1432 he was described as 'King's esquire, captain of the King's castle of Banelyngham in the parts of Picardy', which, despite his range of accomplishments, is somewhat surprising until we learn that ne was 'engaged in victualling the said castle'. From time to time we are afforded a glimpse of his private affairs as when (2 June 1434) he took proceedings, as citizen and fishmonger, against John Walsh, merchant, esquire or 'gentilman', of Westchester in the county of Chester, who owed him ^ 8 8 . 125. gd. In this description of Walsh we appear to have an instance, such as Bokeland's own career provides, of the opportunities yielded by the troubled conditions of the fifteenth century for the entry of enterprising traders and burgesses into the ranks of the territorial classes. The service of the king and participation in the conduct of the war, if not in the actual fighting, were apparently still to be Bokeland's chief occupation. He was commissioned with others, 10 February 1434, to take muster of that redoubtable warrior John de Talbot 1 and of 140 men-at-arms in their armour, and the 780 mounted archers of his company, then at Dover intending to proceed to France. He had a similar appointment in July of the following year. In 1434 and again in 1436 his name appeared on commissions of the peace and for raising loans to the king in what had become the county of his adoption, Northamptonshire. He appears 23 January 1437 as Richard Bokeland, citizen and fishmonger of London, in a plaint against one John Aberhale of Gillowe, Herefordshire, who owed him £ 8 6 . 125. o . In the same book, amongst the receipts for the year 24 Henry VIII (1533), we discover the three amounts: It. recevyed of the vicare of thyrlow the ward \ . ...a....,, 1 uu and arbitrament for lumberds wood/ It. — — — — — — vi xiiis iiiid It. resayved for pentions and interest xlix8 iiiid From these it would appear that, though deprived for the future of the rent and other cash proceeds of the 'farm', the college had been able to establish before arbitrators its title to liquidated damages for the cessation of the payments to it in kind, while the third amount may represent payment of the rent down to a fixed date, long past. Henceforth Thurlow disappears from the account books of the college and is not shewn in the return of commissioners appointed by Henry VIII in the 37th year of his reign (Documents, i, 200 sqq.). All traces of the hospital, even also of its site, have disappeared, and the references of sixteenth and seventeenth century antiquaries, while slender enough in regard to the institution, do nothing to satisfy our curiosity concerning the situation of the building and its material remains in their day. TOTNES PRIORY2 was a small Benedictine house in the diocese of Exeter. It was conventual, and owed forty shillings per annum to the abbey of SS. Sergius and Bacchus of Angers, which sum was granted to Godshouse in 1442. The house survived until the Dissolution, and in i486 (27 October) 'the alien prior and convent of the alien priory of Totton alias Totteneys', Devon, were formally ordered by the king to pay to 'Goddishous' College a certain rent or tribute.3 In Valor Ecclesiasticus it is shewn as paying forty shillings per annum to 'the college of the lord King in Cambridge called Gods Howse'.* 1 2

A very early use of this word for one who was not a rector. 4 Cf. supra, p. 53. 3 Campbell, ii, 47. Valor Eales. ii, 367.

417

(b) THE RECTORIES AND ADVOWSONS OF CHURCHES HELD BY GODSHOUSE The churches held by the college also contributed, directly or indirectly, to its revenues. Thus, the rectory of Fendrayton was held by the Proctor, and its income was so large as to relieve the college of the necessity to provide him with any stipend, though he would doubtless receive commons. 1 Since they added to these resources of the college, it seems necessary to include the churches in any account of the revenues, but they are all grouped together here apart from the less homogeneous sources. THE RECTORY OF FENDRAYTON Cf. supra, pp. 80, 103 sq., 174 sq., 179 sqq. The earliest reference which has been found to this parish church is undated but it should be placed in, or very soon after, the year 1184. In that year, 23 June, Alain Illvicomtede Rohan founded the Cistercian abbey of Bon Repos (Bona Requies) in Brittany, amongst its endowments being the churches of Fulbourn, Costessey, Bamburgh and Honingham.2 A separate charter of dotation from the same donor gives the church of Fendrayton in the diocese of Ely to the abbey but this is not even referred to by Lobineau,^ nor by Morice,4 which is not indeed surprising, since these writers made their collections in the eighteenth century while the charter giving the church of Fendrayton to Bon Repos has lain in the possession of Christ's College since the fifteenth century, and is still to be found in the muniment room;5 it retains the seal of Alain, a much finer example than the one illustrated by Lobineau and by Morice, No. XDC of their plates. The church of Fendrayton was farmed by the abbot and convent of Bon Repos to the abbot of St Sergius of Angers, who enjoyed it through their local representative the so-called prior 6 of Swavesey; the arrangement was a convenient one, since the parish of Swavesey lay alongside that of Fen1

This arrangement is definitely provided with regard to Syclyng in the Lady Margaret statutes (ch. EX) and if the college, after the large addition of her bounty, was so relieved, we must suppose diat the Proctor would not be a greater burden upon it in its Godshouse days. 1 Charter of Foundation; Lobineau (Gui Alexis), Histoire ie Bretagne, ii, 157 sqq. 3 Op. cit. 4 Pierre H. Morice, Preuves a VHistoire EccUs. et Civ. de Bretagne, i, 697 sq. 5 Chr. Fend. 1. 6 There never was a conventual priory of Swavesey. The brother of St Sergius sent from France to serve the parish church and to watch over that monastery's possessions was styled prior locally, and by courtesy in some royal documents. Cf. supra, p. 402. IHC 27

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APPENDIX C

drayton. It would appear that the rights of Alain of Rohan in Fendrayton church were not complete since one Ansell, and Ingrithe his wife, released in 1198 to the prior etc. of Swavesey their claim to the advowson of the church of Fendrinton [sic].1 The story is not continuous, but before long the local curators of the interests of the Cistercian abbey of Bon Repos are found to be the sister house of that order, the abbey of Sawtry. In 1232 the church was vacant and William de Godesdon, clerk of Stephen de Sedgrave, was presented by letters patent, the right of presentation belonging at that moment to the king.2 Again in that reign, Richard de Ouere was presented, this time by the abbot of Bon Repos, 3 and, also in the reign of Henry III, John de Creyk was presented by Laurence, abbot of Sawtry, as proctor of the abbot of Bon Repos,4 who early in Edward I's reign (1278) had to meet an attempt of the abbot of St Sergius of Angers and the prior of Swavesey to recover their interest. The ultimate issue to that litigation was to establish the rights of Bon Repos.5 The dispute was finally settled by a fine between Ralph, abbot de Bona requie, acting through Adam, abbot of Sawtry, and Hamelin, abbot of St Sergius, acting through Nicholas le Porter, of the advowson of the church of Fendrayton.6 In the reign of Edward I Philip de Lacy,? in that of Edward II (between 1310 and 1316) John de Crek 8 and Walter de Dodyngton, were presented by abbot Richard of Sawtry acting, as the court of Common Bench held, in each case as the proctor of Bon Repos.' Walter was the son of Gervase de Dodyngton; he was rector of Fendrayton in 1327, when he was accused with others of assault,10 and is mentioned in a matter of executorship in 1340." At some time during his incumbency, Walter gave to the church a portiforium in two volumes, which was found still there in the inventory taken between 1365-90." He died in 134313 and his death was the occasion of a bold-faced attempt on the part of the abbot and convent of Sawtry to lay claim to the advowson as against the king to whom the right of presentation had passed 1 Pedes Finium, ed. by Walter Rye (C.A.S. Oct. publ. xxvi (1891), p. 2, No. 19; William Farrer, Feudal Cambridgeshire, p. 39 sq. 2 C.P.R. 1225-32, p. 464. The name of the church is Drayton but the association of the de Sedgrave family seems to point definitely to Fendrayton, as they held land there in 1279, 1284-6 and in 1316. 3 Chr. Fend. 2. 4 Year Book 17/18 Ed. Ill, 271/3 (note). 6 5 Rot. Parl. i, 12. Pedes Finium, ed. by Walter Rye, p. 51 sq. 7 Styled John de Lacy in the order of court of 11 R. II. 8 There does not appear to be confusion here with the John de Creyk of Henry Ill's reign. 9 Year Book 17/18 Ed. HI, p. 273 (note). 10 23 April, C.P.R. 1327-30, p. 151. 11 Crosby, citing Montacute's Reg. February 1340. I3 " Vetus Liber, p. 135. Year Book 17/18 Ed. HI, p. 268.

RECTORIES AND ADVOWSONS

419

in virtue of the lands of the religious of the power of France being in his hands because of the war.1 During Walter of Dodyngton's incumbency, apparently in 1338, the king had taken into his own hands the lands, rents and other possessions in England of the religious houses 'of all the power of the King or France', with whom he was then at war, and under this ordinance the Exchequer had laid hands upon the yearly 'farm' of sixty marks payable by the abbot and convent of Sawtry for the churches of Fulbourn All Saints, Cambridgeshire, and Honingham, with a pension out of the church of Costessey, both the latter in Norfolk, a few miles west-north-west of Norwich. Whereupon the abbot of Bon Repos represented to the king that his house was not in the power of France but in the duchy of Brittany* [with which the king was not then at war] and besought him to provide a remedy. The king having learned from trustworthy testimony that the abbot of Bon Repos and his house were of the duchy of Brittany issued an order to the treasurer and the barons of the Exchequer to supersede the demand made upon the abbot of Sawtry in respect of the 'farm' of sixty marks and its arrears.3 There is no mention here of Fendrayton, but Tanner 4 (quoted in Monasticon, vol. v, in the note on p. 521, under Sawtry) adds Fendrayton to the other churches named as amongst those out of which the sixty marks were payable by Sawtry to Bon Repos, giving this very close roll entry for his authority. In view of the claim immediately thereafter set up by Sawtry to the advowson of Fendrayton it is necessary to correct Tanner's error. Following the death of Walter of Dodyngton the king presented his clerk, John Elys of Hilton,* and the abbot of Sawtry prevented his institution by obtaining under pretext an inhibition from the court of Canterbury directed to S[imon de Montacute] bishop of Ely as diocesan, against his admission. The pretext was that the advowson lay in the abbot and convent of Sawtry in their own right, and did not come under the statute vesting the lands of alien religious in the king's hands. The inhibition from the court of the archbishop of Canterbury was immediately countered by a writ of quare impedit in the court of Common Pleas, where the matter was argued at length, the effective issue being whether in their presentations in the reigns of Henry HI, Edward I and Edward II, which were not denied, being certified by the bishop of Ely, the abbot and convent of Sawtry had presented as in their own right or as the procurators of Bon Repos. The case is worth reading in 1 2

28 June 1343, C.P.R. 1343-5, P- 45-

Cf. C.P.R. 1340-3, p. 73 (10 December 1340). 3 C.C.R. 1339-41, p. 429 (6 July 1340). 4 Not. Mon. p. 194. 5 C.P.R. 1343-5, p. 45, repeated p. 106. By this time, 1343, the area of war had been extended into Brittany, cf. C.P.R. 1343-5, p. 212 (15 February 1344) and Foedera, vol. n, ii, 1242 (23 December 1343). 27-2

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1

full; it is sufficient here to say that the court held that Sawtry had presented in the right of Bon Repos and therefore judgement went to the king. The abbot of Sawtry was not content to accept defeat in the court of Common Pleas, but sought for long to obtain by other proceedings support for his fraudulent claim. Mandates for the arrest of various persons taking proceedings in derogation of the judgement of the court were issued by letters patent on 25 November 1343,2 and on 20 December of the same year.3 Eighteen months later, 1 April 1345,4 Sawtry was still endeavouring to upset the judgement, for on that date orders to arrest agents of the abbot were issued to the king's serjeant-at-arms, William de Welham, and others including one John Salkyn of Dover, with instructions to bring them before the Chancellor and others of the council with any bulls and processes in their possession to receive judgement. The steps then taken seem to have put an end to the unlawful proceedings, since the matter does not appear later in the patent rolls. The litigious abbot of Sawtry was, beyond question, seeking the support of the court of Rome and, inter alia, the inclusion ofJohn Salkyn of Dover amongst those ordered to make arrest is significant in that connection. The king's clerk, John Elys of Hilton, notwithstanding these strenuous efforts to prevent his institution, enjoyed the rectory for several years, but he was seeking a change of scene in 1355. Crosby 5 cites Newcourt (ii, 67) for placing in the rectory of Fendrayton one John de Waltham in May of that year6 but, as John de Waltham was presented by the king to Cortenhale in the diocese of Lichfield, 16 June I355,7 it is not likely that he was instituted to Fendrayton. And in fact John Elys de Hilton was there until 24 November 1356, when the king presented John de Lenne, parson of the church of Haverhill, diocese of Norwich, to Fendrayton, on an exchange of benefices with John de Hilton.8 The king presented, 28 January 1357, William Albon,' who was still in the rectory of Fendrayton when he exchanged benefices with William Croucher, warden of the chapel of Totehull, diocese of London,10 1 March 13 71. William Croucher's estate as parson of the church of Fendrayton was ratified 4 July 1373," and the date of his departure is not known. On 9 July 1376, however, William Tamworth, parson of the church of Fendrayton, is accused with others by the countess of Norfolk of trespass and poaching.1* It is to be borne in mind that William Croucher may be the same 1

Year Book 17/18 Ed. HI, pp. 266-78. C.P.R. 1343-5, p. 178. 4 3 Ibid. p. 185. Ibid. p. 503. 6 5 Sub Fendrayton. Cf. also C.P.R. 1354-8, p. 222. 7 8 Ibid. p. 245. Ibid. p. 475. 10 9 Ibid. p. 503. C.P.R. 1370-4, p. 5511 Ibid. p. 300. " C.P.R. 1374-7, p- 32