ably with his Countrymen and Friends dyedin peace after he had lived many Years Other Writers say he having taken Ivo Talbois in Battle would not deliver him until the King to have his Nephew preserved promised by Oath unto Hereward Reconciliation Pardon his former dignity with full restitution of all that had been his Which was done in the year 1076. Until which time from the death of Brando not only this Monastery but others also suffered very much For in the year 1070. many Abbots as well as Bishops by the Kings procurement were deposed or ejected upon slight surmises that the English might be deprived of all dignities So John Abbot who after he had related how Stigandus was deposed to make way for Lanfranc adds Plures eo anno tam Episcopi quam Abbates vel nullis vel levibus suspitionibus deponuntur aut ejiciuntr procurante Rege ut Angli nullis dignitatibus potirentur In the year 1072 the Monks of Eli were Outlawed having afforded succour to some Great men who were in Rebellion against the King I suppose to those who in the year before were in that Isle and in that Church in open rebellion with Hereward So Abbot John MLXXI Hereward le Wake Ecclesia intra paludes Heliensi cum multis aliis Anglis exlegatis resistit And then it follows An. MLXXII Monachi Helienses quibusdam Angliae Magnatibus contra Regem rebellantibus succursum praebentes exlegati sunt Et multi Monachi Anglici per totam Angliam malè tractati plurimum vexati Multa Monasteria tam de propriis pecuniis quam de aliorum apud ipsos depositis ad quadrantem ultimum spoliata Walsingham Hypodigm Neustriae p. 418. writes much to the same purpose telling us the Conqueror made all the Abbeys in England to be searched and caused all the money which the Richer people had there deposited to be brought into his Coffers only he places this in the year 1070. In the year MLXXV. Comes Northampt. Sanctus Walterus apud Wynton decollatus as the same Abbot John writes Which was done he saith notwithstanding that Lansranc pronounced him innocent and that if he was put to death he would be a Martyr And accordingly he was honoured by Wlfketulus Abbot of Croyland who gave him an honourable Burial and thereupon was violently deposed As indeed all the Bishops and Abbots were if they were Angligenae as he again repeats it introductis in eorum sedes Normannis Which I the rather mention because this Wlfketulus had been bred up in this Church of Burgh as we learn from what follows For that Coronicle saith that Ingulphus succeeding Wlfketulus for though he was an Englishman born he had lived long among the Normans interceeded with the King for his predecessor that he might come from Glastonbury where he was shut up in the Cloyster ad Ecclesiam suam de Burgo Which was granted ubi post paucos dies morbo correpto in Domino requievit Ingulphus P. 78 79. Oxon. Edit himself saith he was taken with a Palsy and that having been kept ten Year at Glastonbury he dyed 1085 after he had been not a few days but four Months at Burgh While he was here Ingulphus had frequent conversation with him for he procured leave that Wlfketulus might come from Burgh to Croyland as often as he thought good to call him Who informed Ingulphus of the Estate of the Church of Croyland and brought back to it many rich things but some he saith still remained at Burgh He was the more acceptable because there were Lands concealed from that Monastery in the discovery of which he thought Wlfketulus might assist him For one Alsford Bailiff of the Church of Croyland had been notoriously guilty of it and was called to an account for it by Ingulphus presently after he entred upon his Government But as he was in the way to appear before the King's Justices at Stamford he broke his neck by a fall off from his Horse and was carried to be buried at Burgh according to the order he had taken about it in his life time They that delight to read wonderful things may look into Ingulphus Pag. 77. and find a story he tells of a miraculous cloud about the Sun as they were carrying his body thither But it is time to return to Turoldus who as Hugo writes was a mischief to this Church eight and twenty years Which is not to be understood so rigorously as if he did no good for first as he gave away much Land so he got some back again particularly the Mannors that had been granted to Ivo Talbois which he was perswaded to restore to the Monks in his life time so that after his decease they should return ad dominium Sancti Petri. This I find in a Charter of William Rufus which runs thus Gulielmus Rex Anglorum Roberto Lincolniensi Episcopo by this it appears this was William the second for he made Robert Bishop of Linc. in the 6th year of his Reign 1092 Oswino vicecomite omnibus Baronibus suis fidelibus salutem Sciatis me concessisse Sancto Petro de Burgo Thuroldo Abbati Monachis ejusdem Ecclesiae ad victum eorum terras illas quas Ivo Talbois de praedicto Abbate tenuit ipse idem Yvo eisdem Monachis in vita sua reddidit ita sc ut post decessum ejus ad dominium Sancti Petri redirent Testante Cyrographo ab eodem Yvone Thuroldo Abbate conscripto Haec autem sunt terrarum nomina scil Scotere Walcote cum omnibus appendiciis c. And secondly all these Soldiers who had feods given them out of the Estate of the Church for its defence were bound by the original grant to serve the King also when there was occasion in his Wars This I understand out of a description of all the feoda militum still remaining in the Book called Swapham Fol. CCLXX. where this account is given why they were granted Quia omnes milites praedicti pro defensione domus facienda in exercitu Domini Regis alibi cum necesse esset de dominico Abbatis conventus feodati fuerant There also it appears how they sewed in King John's time and before that in Henry the seconds nay from the time of their first Infeoffement So the words are Et ante tempus ejusdem Henrici postquam feodati fuerunt à tempore dicti regis usque ad praesens hac ratione quia c. And Thirdly He and his Souldiers not only built Towns in those wast places which Adulphus had cleared from Wood and let the Lands out to Farm at a certain Rent c. some of which Towns were called by their names and remain to this day as Gunthorp Melton Walton Barnak c. but also Churches and Chappels the profits of which the Monastery received intirely for many years till the time of Ernulphus So the words are Ibid. fol. CCXCV. eodem vero tempore construebatur
doubted whether he wrote them himself more than he did the rest I shall therefore set down his Books as also some of the succeeding Abbots that the Reader may conjecture what Scholars those Abbots might be and see what Books were most in request amongst them Abbot Benedicts Library was furnished with these Books Quinque libri Moysis glossati in uno Volumine Sexdecim Prophetae glossati in uno Volumine Duodecim Minores glossati in uno Volumine Liber Regum glossatus Paralipomenon glossatus Job Parabolae Salomonis Ecclesiastes Cantica Canticorum glossati in uno Volumine Liber Ecclesiasticus Liber Sapientiae glossati in uno Volumine Tobias Judith Esther Esdras glossati in uno Volumine Liber Judicumglossatus Scholastica Historia Psalterium glossatum Item non glossatum Item Psalterium Quatuor Evangelia glossata in uno Volumine Item Matthaeus Marcus in uno Volumine Johannes Lucas in uno Volumine Epistolae Pauli glossatae Apocalypsis Epistolae Canonicae glossatae in uno Volumine Sententiae Petri Lombardi Item Sententiae ejusdem Sermones Bernardi Abbatis Clarevallensis Decreta Gratiani Item Decreta Gratiani Summa Ruffini de Decretis Summa Johannis Faguntini de Decretis Decretales Epistolae Item Decretales Epistolae Item Decretales Epistolae cum Summa sic incipiente Olim. Institutiones Justiniani cum Autenticis Infortiato Digestum vetus Tres partes cum Digesto novo Summa Placentorum Totum corpus juris in duobus Voluminibus Arisimetica Epistolae Senecae cum aliis Senecis in uno Volumine Martialis Terentius in uno Volumine Morale dogma Philosophorum Gesta Alexandri Liber Claudii Claudiani Summae Petri Helyae de Grammatica cum multis aliis rebus in uno Volumine Gesta Regis Henrici Secundi genealogia ejus Interpretationes Hebraicorum nominum Libellus de Incarnatione Verbi Liber Bernardi Abbatis ad Eugenium Papam Missale Vita Sancti Thomae Martyris Miracula ejusdem in quinque Voluminibus Liber R. Plutonis qui dicitur Vnde malum Meditationes Anselmi Practica Bartholomaei cum pluribus aliis rebus in uno Volumine Ars Physicae Pantegm practica ipsius in uno Volumine Almasor Dioscorides de virtutibus herbarum Liber dinamidiorum aliorum multorum in uno Volumine Libellus de compoto This was the stock of his Literature as Wittlesey hath set it down though another ancient Copy in some few things differeth from it There is some clashing betwixt Vossius and Possevine about the time of this Benedict but it is not worth the trouble of reciting It seems Benedict was a man of good note that his preferment to this Abby should sound in foreign parts Sigebertus Gemblacensis making mention thereof Benedictus Prior Cantuariensis factus est Ad an 1177. Abbas de Burc The Abby was at his entrance 1500 marks deep in debt from which Benedict freed it He laboured much in recovering of his Abby Lands some by suits in Law and some by force for as if he were Tam Marti quam Mercurio as well for the Sword as the Book he went sometimes in person armed upon such adventures His actions at home towards his Monastery were great and many It seems the Nave or body of the Church did not please him therefore he built it after a better manner from the Lantern to the Porch as now it is so that the painted Ceiling at the top which is still remaining was probably of his doing He set up also the Pulpit in the body of the Church which was but lately taken away He finished the Chappel of Thomas Becket which his Predecessor had begun He built a large and goodly House of stone for several Offices which was standing in our age He built the great gate leading to the Monastery and over it the Chappel of S. Nicolas both which are yet standing He was much in the Kings favour that the King King Richard for his piety gravity and wisdom was wont to call him Father And when King Richard in his return from the Holy Land was taken prisoner by Arch-Duke Leopold who detained him this Abbot Benedict being in the Kings absence made Coadjutor and Councellor with William Bishop of Ely Chancellor of the Realm Councelled that the Chalices of the Church should be sold to pay the Kings ransome which was done and the King returned home Then did King Richard confirm to Abbot Benedict and his Monastery the Marsh of Pekirk now commonly called North-Fenne about which there fell out some difference betwixt Radulphus le Wake and the Monastery for Radulphus being Lord of Deeping claimed Common in the Marsh as being but on the other side of the River but Abbot Benedict impounded his Cattel alledging that the Marsh belonged only to his Tenants of Pekirk Glinton Makeshye and Northburgh and desired Radulphus to enquire into the truth thereof So Radulphus came to Peterburgh with some others where being fully informed of the Abbots right he forbare to trespass any more Benedict also recovered the Marsh of Eye and the Hermitage of Singlesholt King Richard also granted unto Benedict his confirmation of the eight Hundreds as his predecessors had done And withal his Charter for the holding of a Fair in Peterburgh upon the Feast of S. Peter S. Peters Fair. to continue for 8 days although now it be contracted into one He also granted a weekly Market every Thursday and a Fair for three days at the Feast of S. Peter to be holden at the Mannor of Scotter in Lincolnshire then belonging to this Monastery Vid. Chartam in App. Pag. 252. John the Kings brother who was Earl of Moriton and afterwards King of England was also kind to Abbot Benedict and his Monastery giving them by his Charter yearly three Staggs and six Bucks out of his Forest of Sheerwood without contradiction In his time there flourished one William of Peterburgh a Monk of Ramsey a very Learned man upon whom Pitseus bestows a large Character whither the Reader that would see his works may resort Benedict having been Abbot the space of seventeen years died Anno 1194. being the sixth Year of King Richard the first and had for his Successor 23. ANDREAS He was first a Monk here then Prior and afterwards for his many vertues was chosen Abbot The Villages of Alwalton and Fletton which then belonged to him he gave to the Monks Kitchin for the augmentation of their Commons Having been Abbot about five years he died the same year with King Richard which was Anno 1199. He was buried in the South Isle of the Church at the back of the Quire in the same Grave where two of his Predecessors had been buried before as the Epitaph on the Wall over his Monument will testifie which was lately in ancient Saxon Letters but now in the ordinary renewed Hos tres Abbates quibus est Prior Abba Johannes Alter Martinus Andreas ultimus unus Hic
Peterburgh where Abbot Godfrey entertained them very nobly the Abbot presented the Prince with a rich Robe and the Prince asked the Messenger if the Abbot had sent one to his friend Peter the Messenger answering No the Prince then would not accept his the Messenger returning to the Abbot certified him of the Princes refusal and the reason whereupon another rich Robe was sent to Peter whose mediation the Messenger solicited for the Prince's acceptance of his Robe also whereupon Peter sends to the Prince and bids the Messenger say Volo I will that thou receive the Abbots gift which was done accordingly and the Abbot had thanks returned to him In his fourth year the 32 of King Edward Galfridus de la A Market and Fair at Northburgh Mare then Lord of Northburgh had procured from King Edward a Charter to hold a Market and Fair at Northburgh but Abbot Godfrey considering how prejudicial the same would be to his Town of Peterburgh compounded with Galfridus who quitted his Charter to the Abbot of Peterburgh and his Successors for ever In his fifth year the Church of Wermington was made an Appropriation Wermington Church Gate-house Godfrey was also a great builder adding much to his Monastery but we cannot say which for they are long since demolished only the great Gate-house over which was the Chamber called The Knights Chamber is yet standing the Chamber only being lately translated into another fashion about it were the Pictures of Knights upon the walls who held Lands of the Abby and the very Rafters were adorned with Coats of Arms. Godfrey also purchased the Mannor of Lullington or Luddington for 113l 6s 8d of Luddington Mannor Gregory then Lord thereof allowing him above this summ a Corrody in his Monastery that is maintenance during his life for himself two servants and their horses He setled a yearly stipend of five pound upon the Chaplain of Northolme And upon a certain number of Monks then residing at Oxney he setled a weekly portion of Victuals thirteen stone of Cheefe which they were to receive out of the Mannor of Eye and every week from May 3. to September 13. three pounds and an half of Butter He procured a Fair to be held at Northolme yearly on S. Matthews day and a Weekly Market every Thursday He built the dwelling A Fair and Market at Northolme Vid. Chart. in App. Mill-dam House at Burghberry and made the Dam commonly called Mill-Dam with a Water-Mill at the end thereof which hath been in use in our memory He built also of his own free will the Bridge now standing over the River and leading into the City of The Bridge which more in the next King Edward preparing for War with Scotland sent to Abbot Godfrey for contribution towards it and the Abbot sent him an hundred Marks The King sent the second time to the Abbot for his Knights service in horse and arms and the Abbot sent the King sixty Marks more The King sent the third time and the Abbot sent him 220l The King sent the fourth time for a supply of Carriages and the Abbot satisfied that with 30l The King sent the fifth time to borrow four hundred Marks which the Abbot also satisfied with the free gift of an hundred pounds About that time the King seized upon all the Lands of Walter de Langton his Treasurer and amongst the rest upon Thorp Watervile belonging to the Abbey of Peterburgh which by advice and assistance of John of Milton the Abbots Seneschal or Steward was recovered by the Abbots paying to the Kings Exchequer for the same 50 l. But John of Milton having taken the said Mannor of the Abbot and shortly after dying the King gave that Mannor to Earl Warren so that the Abbot was brought to a new composition of 120 Marks The King at that time imposed 40 s. upon every Knights-fee throughout the Realm towards the marriage of Elianor his eldest daughter and then Abbot Godfrey sent the King 127 l. Howbeit Wittlesey Registrum Adae fol. 76. I find in another Register that the King sent his Breves to the Sheriffs of Northampton Lincoln Nottingham Leicester Warwick Huntingdon and Bedford that they should not levy any such moneys upon the Lands of the Abbot of Peterburgh whereby it may seem that this 127 l. was rather the Abbots free gift than a tribute of duty the Abbot standing upon his exemption from such demands by the Charters of the Kings predecessors from the first foundation of his Abby Abbot Godfrey entertained the King the second time when for duties to the King and free gifts to his followers the Abbot expended the summ of 1543 l. 13 s. 4 d. He entertained also two Cardinals which were travelling towards Scotland to mediate for a peace betwixt King Edward and the Scots And the Abbot presented one of them called Gaucelmus with a Psalter curiously written with golden Letters And those Cardinals in their return coming hither again the Abbot presented Gaucelmus with an embroidered Cope of the value of 100 Marks And the other Cardinal Lucius de Aysk with a silver Cup gilt and fifty Ells of Scarlet So that the moneys expended by Abbot Godfrey for Vestments and ornaments of the Church for Lands purchased to his Abby and for gifts to several persons amounted to the summ of 3646 l. 4 s. 3 d. Abbot Godfrey made him a Pastoral Staff of Silver gilt over and in the head of it was the image of the Trinity which is the first and last staff that I find amongst any of the Abbots When he had governed his Abby the space of twenty two years he died and lieth buried at the upper end of the Quire betwixt William Genge and John Deping The Brass of his Monument was divorced from his Marble in the year 1643. being his pourtraicture and a small inscription in the Verge Whilst he lived his Library consisted of these Books Duae Bibliae una Gallice scripta Avicenna Instituta apparitata Sextus liber Decretalium cum apparatu Legenda Sanctorum Summum bonum Regula Sanctorum Benedicti Basilii cum aliis rebus Processionarium Breviarum in duobus voluminibus Manuale cum exequiis mortuorum Godfrey being dead there came an extent from the King against the Lands of the Abby and Barony of the Abbot when a Jury upon Oath returned them at this rate The Abbot of Peterburgh received for Rent yearly at  l. s. d.   Castor 18 10 6   Thorpe 15 1 6 ob  Burghberry 64 9 4   Glinton 23 6 1   Witherington 20 9 4   Walton 12 16 11   Eyebury 24 5 0   Oundle 43 11 0   Aston 15 16 11   Wermington 52 13 4 ob  Kettering 57 3 6   Cottingham 19 4 11   Stanwigg 16 7 10 ob q. Irtlingburgh 18 12 0   Polebroke 14 6 8   Okeslow
  Navesford   Tinwell 16 6 9   Eston 35 10 1 ob q. Collingham 34 4 5 ob  Fiskerton 69 1 2   Scotter 37 6 0   Walcot 9 19 2   Thurlby 7 1 8   Stanford 2 0 0   In all 621 l. 16 s. 3 d. ob  Yet was not this the whole Demesnes of the Abbot in those times for there were many other Mannors and many Rents and Lands in and about Peterburgh and in several Counties but these are all which Wittlesey hath recorded and I have no leisure to examine why there were no more returned Godfrey being dead Anno 1321. 12. Cal. September being the 15 year of King Edw. 2. the person thought fittest to succeed him was 35. ADAM de Boothbie Born there and was made a Monk in Peterburgh where he also had the Office of Subcelerarius Being chosen Abbot he repaired to the King then in the Isle of Tanet for his confirmation which he obtained And having also Episcopal confirmation he repaired the second time to the King for his Temporalities which were likewise confirmed unto him paying the Fees and other demands at that time due His acts in the several years of his government are more punctually related by Wittlesey than I intend to transcribe In his first year Thomas Earl of Lancaster making War against the King to wit King Edw. 2. Adam aided the King with the summ of 133 l. 6 s. 8 d. and towards the Kings expedition into Scotland with 200 l. more In his fourth year the Mannor of Torpel and Vpton came to the possession of Edmund surnamed Woodstock half brother to King Edward the second now reigning and there arising great troubles betwixt the Earls Officers and the Abbots Tenants all was quieted by the Abbots becoming a Tenant to those Lands paying the yearly rent of 106 l. 13 s. 4 d. In his seventh year which was the first of King Edward the third there arose a great contention betwixt him and John Bohun Earl of Hereford and Essex about the Son of Galfridus de la Marc which Galfridus Lord of Northburgh died Anno 1327. holding three Knights-fees of the Abby of Peterburgh and was buried at Peterburgh in S. Maries Chappel amongst his Predecessors And the said Galfridus held also of the said Earl of Essex Lands in the County of Essex by Knights-service He had three Wives and his last Wife by name Margaret he put away when she was great with Child at Peterburgh where the Child being born and baptized was called by the name of his Father Galfridus this young Galfridus had two Sisters by his Fathers side who charged him with being illegitimate saying that Margaret his Mother was not their Fathers Wife but his Concubine so that he had no hereditary right to his Fathers Lands Abbot Adam as guardian to the Child defended the Cause three years in the Consistory at Lincoln and in the Arches constraining the Sisters to desist But afterwards Queen Philipp Wife to King Edward the third Daughter of William Earl of Henault whom Roger of Northburgh Bishop of Chester so called by Wittlesey though I cannot find any such man elsewhere the Kings Proxie had beyond Sea espoused for the King coming to Peterburgh on New-years-day and the said Earl of Essex attending on her towards York where King Edward then was expecting her coming for the solemnization of Marriage which was performed the 24 day of the said Month of January 1327 the said Earl demanded young Galfridus of the Abbot and by threatnings and violence gat possession of him Whereupon the Abbot pursued the Earl at the Law the Earl on the other side accused the Abbot and his Covent of certain outrages upon his Mannor of Plaisic in Essex but this matter was composed by the Abbots giving the Earl 100l and yet the Earl was still possessed of Galfridus keeping him at Kimbauton in the County of Huntingdon Registrum Adae in manu D. H. The King sent his Breve to the Sheriff to seize upon him and to bring him to York there to appear before the Judge and to be awarded to his right Guardian But at length the Earl Wittlesey without more ado being conscious of his ill act freely restored the Child to the Abbot and moreover languishing upon his Bed of sickness and drawing towards his end he commanded his Executors to restore the 100l to the Monastery of Peterburgh And the Abbot married young Galfridus to the Daughter of Galfridus Scroope then one of the Kings Chief Justices Regist Adae About this time the Sheriff of Northampton required assistance and contribution from the Abbot of Peterburgh and his Tenants towards the Wall of Northampton Park which was quieted by the Kings writing to the Sheriff from York his Letters bearing date February 12. the second of his Reign wherein he certified the Sheriff that by ancient Charters of Kings his Predecessors the Abbot and Convent of Peterburgh with all their Lands and Dominions should be free from all works of Castles Parks Bridges and Inclosures Regist Adae The same day there was Inquisition made concerning the Bridge leading into Peterburgh which being gone to decay the question was Who should repair it for this there was a Jury empannelled six of Northampton-shire and six of Huntingdon-shire who upon examination returned an Ignoramus after this manner that there was none of right bound to repair or sustain the Bridge seeing none had done it in former time for there was no Bridge there until Godfrey Abbot of Burgh of his own good will in the fourth year of King Edward Father to King Edward that now is erected the said Bridge and himself kept it in repair so long as he lived But the King and Queen coming to Peterburgh the present Abbot Adam repaired the said Bridge for their passage although he was not bound thereunto to this the Jurors set their several Seals At this entertainment of the King Queen and John of Eltham the Kings Brother besides diet of meat and drink the King and Q. at Peterburgh Abbot in gifts Jewels Jocalibus and presents expended in ready mony the summ of 487 l. 6 s. 5 d. And for his Confirmation 50 l. 13 s. 4 d. more At other times also Abbot Adam was very free of his Purse giving the King towards an expendition into Scotland 100 l. and to the Queen 20 l. Attending upon the King at Oundle and Stanford he expended 34l 7s 4d with many other summs when the King or Queen came near his Monastery to Walmisford Bourn or Croyland And the second time giving entertainment King and Q. at Peterburgh to the King and Queen at his Monastery of Peterburgh besides other things he expended 327 l. 15 s. And after this Prince Edward the Kings eldest Son with his two Sisters and their Servants came and staied at Peterburgh eight weeks which cost not the Abbot nothing Wittlesey
Abby was at this time in full tenure and possession of King Henry made a tripartite kind of division assuming a third to himself confirming another third upon the Bishop and the rest upon the Dean and Chapter Those which King Henry took to himself being surrendred unto him were then let out unto Tenants at a yearly rate these and thus Com. North. Â Â Â Â * Or L. Russel afterwards E. of Bedford Eyebury then in the hands of Sir John Russel 13 l. 6 s. 8 d. Â Oxeney then in the hands of Roger Horton Gent. 1 l. 10 s. 0 d. Â Dosthorp called Gillims le lane-Lane-land then in the hands of John Stoddard 2 l. 0 s. 0 d. Â Pillisgate in the hands of David Vincent 19 l. 0 s. 0 d. Â Kettering cum Pightesly with the Advowsons of the Rectories there in the Queens hand 111 l. 3 s. 4 d. ob q. dimid * Given first to the Dean and Chapt. but taken away again with Polebrook also Stanwigge then in the Queens hand 27 l. 16 s. 0 d. ob Cottingham cum Desborough with the Advowsons of the Rectories in the Queens hand 67 l. 2 s. 1 d. Â Oundle with the Advowson of the Vicaridge in the hand of the Lord Russel 172 l. 0 s. 3 d. ob Ashton in the Queens hand 29 l. 3 s. 8 d. Â Wermington cum Egilthorp with the Advowson of the Vicaridge in the Queens hand 97 l. 4 s. 10 d. ob q. Polebroke with the Advowson of the Rectory then in the hands of Sir Edward Montague 12 l. 14 s. 0 d. ob q. Clopton with the Advowson of the Rectory in the hands of William Dudley Esq 3 l. 17 s. 4 d. Â Lullington with the Advowson of the Rectory in the hands of Sir Edward Mountague 8 l. 15 s. 7 d. ob Hundreds of Polebrook and Navesford in the Q. hand s. 19 l. 9 s. 3 d. q. Hundred of Howkeslow in the Queens hand 16 l. 13 s. 4 d. q. Com. Rutland Tinwel with the Advowson of the Rectory in the hands of Sir William Cecil 33 l. 13 s. 4 d. Â Com. Lincoln Gosberkirk in the Queens hand 74 l. 9 s. 2 d. ob q. 3 ob Com. Hunt Fletton in the hand of Roger Forest 27 l. 0 s. 6 d. Â Sum. total 733 l. 9 s. 9 d. 0. 3 pt q. dimid King Henry having taken these Lands from the Church of Peterburgh made provision for the Bishoprick to which he subjected the Counties of Northampton and Rutland for his Diocess and appointed the Abbots dwelling for the Bishops Palace and for his maintenance confirmed these Lands viz. Burghbury Eye Singlesholt Northam Witherington Walton Paston Gunthorp Southorp Thirlby The Hundred of Nassaburgh A Pasture in Park-lane of 8 Acres 40 Acres Sheepcotes S. Johns Yard The Vineyard and Toothill Snorshills Edgerly 50 Acres In Padholm 18 Acres Eastwood 180 Acres Westwood Burghbury 246 Acres The Spittle More at Eye and the Tything Barn there Pensions from Helpiston Etton Wittering Houses and Shops in the Parish of S. Gregory London and in the Parish of S. Bridget The Advowsons of Castre Bernack Paston Polebrook Scotter South Collingham The Vicaridge of S. John Baptist in Peterburgh The Deanery of the Colledge at Irtlingburgh and the Chantry there The Chappel of S. John upon or adjoyning to the Bridge in Stamford For all which the Bishop was to make to the King Annual acknowledgement by the payment of 33l 10s 8d In this Dotation of the Bishoprick bearing date September 4. and of King Henry 33. which was of our Lord 1541. John Chambers Hen. Isaacson in his Chronology pag. 375. B. Goodwin in J. Chambers the present Abbot was nominated for the Bishop whom some will have to be Doctor of Physick and Dean of S. Stephen's in Westminster and continued in his new transformed government about the space of 15 years to the year 1556. the 4 or 5. of Queen Mary Although an Inscription in Brass about the Verge of his Marble Monument beareth date otherwise for it was thus Credo quod redemptor meus vivit in novissimo die de terra surrecturus sum in carne mea videbo Deum salvatorem meum reposita est haec spes mea in sinu meo Moritur die ........... Anno Domini Millesimo Quingentesimo Tricesimo Which could not be for then he must die about his second year of government long before the dissolution of his Abby when he was nominated Bishop for Goodwin saith he was consecrated Bishop October 23. 1541. But it is probable that there was a mistake which if it hapned in his time a wonder he did not reform it the Monument indeed might be extant in his time for he might be careful in providing the house of his mortality before he came to inhabite therein At the foot of his figure upon the same Stone was laid a plate of Brass wherein these Verses were engraven En pius en validus pastor jacet hic Johannes Burgh Burgo natus ac domus hujus apex Cui caro mundus opes cesserunt idgenus omne Praelia divinus carnea vincit amor Ordinis infestos redigens sub vindice mores Dum comes ipse fuit norma locique decor Pauperimos ditans lapsis peccata remittens Mitibus ipse pius asperimus rigidis Sta lege funde preces Deus est cui singula cedunt Dic velit ipse dare celica regna sibi He had also another more stately Monument at the head of this made of white Chalk-stone with his Statue exquisitely carved lying on the top perhaps being Abbot and Bishop he might have a Monument for each but these Monuments habent sua fata sepulchra were demolished Anno 1643. There were lately some doors in the Church curiously carved with the device of this John thus An Eagle a Crosier and Mitre a Bur-dock with Burs thereon and a Ro-buck with the Letters R. O. on his side the summ whereof was John Abbot or Bishop of Bur-row At the same time that King Henry thus established the Bishop and his Revenues he established also the Dean and Chapiter with theirs of which hereafter Return we now to our Series of Succession John Chambers being dead the Succession continued in 46 DAVID POOL Who was first Fellow of All-Souls Colledge in Oxford afterwards Dean of the Arches and Chancellour of the Diocess of Lichfield and made Bishop of Peterburgh 1556. But I find not his nomination thereunto by Queen Mary only the Pope's in the donation and confirmation of him in this Bishoprick For it is sufciently known that this Church and Kingdom of England began again to submit to the Roman yoke from which they had been delivered in the time of King Edward 6. under which relapse I find the Popes power in reference to the Church of Peterburgh to have been more practised than ever it was before for throughout the whole Series of Abbots formerly recited
Lusgerg Ethelhuniglond Barchanig Which were places not very far from Medeshamstede it appears by several Charters which still remain upon Record in the Book called Swapham Where I find fol. CXXX XXXI that in the time of this Cutbald the glorious King of the Mercians Ethelredus or Adilredus for he is called by both names came to visit the servants of God in this Monastery of Medeshamstede and to obtain their prayers for the relief of his Soul and out of a desire of Eternal life as the words of his Charter are gave to the Friers there all that land called Leugtricdun triginta manentes habentem Not long after which one of the Friers coming to this King upon a certain occasion he took a glebe from the forementioned Land and put it super codicem Evangeliorum upon the Book of the Gospels in confirmation and for a testimony of the aforesaid donation Unto which these witnesses were present Sexulfus Episcopus Merciorum Wecca and Berhthun Monachi Hostryga ipsius Regis Regina Henfric Eadfric principes Regis Adilredi that none might dare to attempt any thing against this donation of the King qui sibi divinam donationem adesse optaret in futura vita Amen Which Leugtricdun I have reason to think was an Appendix to one of the above named places The first of which Bredun was given to this Church of Medeshamstede by Friduricus one of King Adilred's Noble Men by a Charter bearing this Title Fridurici principis de Bredun ad Medeshamstede ' In which he saith that the number of Christians increasing and multiplying he had given to the family of St. Peter the Prince of the Apostles inhabiting the Monastery of Medeshamstede terram cui vocabulum est Bredun viginti manentium cum omnibus ad eam pertinentibus Which was done in the presence and with the consent of Saxulph ejusdem gentis Episc and of the above-named King Adilredus For this end and purpose that they should found Oratorium in eadem praefata terra and there constitute a Priest for the teaching and Baptizing of the people Which upon due deliberation they undertook and chose one of their own number whose name was Hedda a man endued with admirable Wisdom and all manner of Virtues whom they made Abbot of Bredun with this condition that he should acknowledge himself to be a member of the Fraternity of Medeshamstede So it runs in the Charter whose words are these Et unum ex semetipsis nomine Hedda Presbyterum mirabili sapientia in omni virtutum genere praeditum summo libramine eligerunt eumque in loco praefato Abbatem constituerunt ea tamen conditione interposita ut se unum de eorum Fraternitatis membris esse noverit ' And the same Religious Prince Friduricus finding that this Venerable Abbot Hedda most diligently fed the people committed to his charge with the food of divine Preaching added another benefaction in a distinct Charter whose title is de Repinges ad Medeshamstede Wherein he gives to the aforesaid Abbot Hedda XXXI manentium terram quae vulgo vocitatur Hrepingas which is another of those places above mentioned This he did in the presence of King Adilredus and of Saxulph the Bishop of that Country who joyning their hands with his cespitunculam communiter praedictae terrae Sacrosanctae evangeliorum codici simul omnis coram multitudine populi imposuerunt and so subscribed this Deed with their own hands And afterward this Honourable Abbot Hedda as the Book calls him fol. CXXXIII and the Prior of the Monastery of Bredun obtained from King Adilred other Land which had quindecim Manentes 15 Tenents or Housekeepers as we now speak called by the name of Cedenanhac another of the places depending on Medeshamstede for fifty Shillings that is for Bedding and other Goods of that value which are thus specified in the Deed. Id est duodecim lectorum stramenta utpote culcita plumacia ornata capitalia simul cum sindonibus lenis quemadmodum in Britannia habere mos est nec non servum cum ancilla fibulam auream cum quatuor ex auro massiunculis arte aurificis compositis duos caballos cum cannis duabus pro praefata terra pretium dedit I have not room to examine the meaning of every word in this Deed some of which I no where meet withal but here which concludes as the former did that this price being paid the King in his Bedchamber at his own Town called Tomtun took a little clod of earth from the aforesaid Land with his own hands and laid it upon the Sacred Volume of the Gospels his Queen and Saxalph joyning their hands with his that none might dare to violate this grant The same Hedda if I mistake not was Abbot also of other two places before mentioned called Wermundshey and Wokinges for I find a Bull of Pope Constantine's about the Episcopal Jurisdiction over these places fol. LXXXVI directed unto him which I have not room to set down at large but only note that they are both said there to be found in nomine beati Petri Apostoli in the name of St. Peter Which makes it probable they were those belonging to this Church under the Government of this great man Hedda Whom I take to have been the Author of the Relation above named concerning the first plantation of Christianity in these parts of England and the next Bishop that succeeded Sexulf in the See of Litchfield who built that Church as I have already said and dyed DCCXXI When Cutbaldus dyed I am not able to affirm certainly but it was between the year DCCIX and DCCXVI For he was alive in the former of those years I gather from hence that Hugo saith Wilfrid dyed in his time at his Mannor of Owndle c. his words are In hujus Abbatis id est Cuthbaldi tempore Sanctus Wilfridus Episcopus in possessione ipsius Monasterii ad Vndalum transivit ad Dominum Ministeriis fratrum deportatus est ad suum proprium Monasterium in Rypun Now Wilfrid the first of that name who was Archbishop of York dyed An. DCCIX as I find in the Chron. Johannis Abbatis With whom agrees Tho. Stubbs Chron. Eccles Eborac whose words are to be corrected out of our Hugo commonly called Swapham for he speaking of the death of Wilfrid sayes Defunctus est in Monasterio suo apud Vndalum quod est juxta Stamford inde Ministerio fratrum delegatus in Monasterio suo apud Riponum est sepultus An. Domini DCCIX Where he calls Owndle Wilfrid's Monastery which it appears by all our Records was as Hugo only calls it part of the possession of the Monastery of Medeshamstede But as Cuthbald was then alive so it is certain he was dead before the year DCCXVI when as Mr. G. observes out of Ingulphus the Charter of King Ethelbald for the founding of Croyland Abbey was signed by Egbaldus Abbot of Medeshamstede EGBALDVS Concerning whom and the three next Abbots
following Hugo saith no more than this ' Egbaldus succeeded Cuthbaldus in the government of this Monastery and Pusa succeeded him after whom came Celredus to whom succeeded Hedda But what they did and at what time doth not appear unto us in these Ages all being abolished either by the negligence of Writers or by the times of persecution saving only what is written in Priviledges in which their names are found ' And particularly in the Records of the Church at the end of Hugo's Book fol. CXI there is a Charter of Ceadwalla King of Kent granting to this Abbot XL. terrae illius Manentes ubi Hogh nuncupatur ad Hebureahg insulam In which Charter he is called EGBALTHVS as he is also in one that follows granted by Suehardus Honorabili Abbati Egbaltho wherein he confirms the Donation of Ceadwalla and adds more of his own It would have been grateful perhaps to some Readers if I could have represented them at large but it will not consist with the bounds to which I am confined in this Supplement and therefore I shall only note the same of the next Abbot PVSA Who by the intercession of a great man called Brorda obtained of Offa King of the Mercians a grant of Land viginti Manentium for his Church at Woccing before named I shall set down the beginning of the Charter as I find it fol. CXXX In Trino nomine Divinitatis individuae Juste à nobis pietatis opera persolvenda sunt idcirco ego Offa c. rogatus à venerabili Abbate meo nomine Pusa simul à praefato meo it should be praefecto as appears by the Subscription vocabulo Brorda ut aliquam liberalitatem ejus Ecclesiae quae sita est in loco ubi dicitur Woccingas concederem quod libenter facere juxta eorum petitionem providi pro expiatione piaculorum meorum Domino devote largitus sum c. BEONNA There is a Charter of this Abbot which begins thus In nomine Gubernantis Dei monarchiam totius mundi Ego Beonna Abbas gratia dei cum conscientia licentia fratrum Dominum colentium in Monasterio quod appellatur Medeshamstede Wherein he grants to Prince Cuthberth terram decem manentium quae nuncupatur Suinesheade or Swineheved with the Meadows Pastures Woods and all the Appurtenances acknowledging that the forenamed Cuthberth had purchased the same of him for a valuable price i. e. mille solidis and every year for himself and his Successors unius noctis pastum aut triginta Oravit it should be Orarum I believe siclos Which Territory the Prince purchased on this condition that after his death it should go to his Heirs who should hold it for their lives upon the aforesaid terms in pastu vel pecunia but after their decease it should return quietly and without any suit at Law to the Monastery Of which bargain their were many Witnesses who signed it in manner following Ego Offa gratia Dei Rex Merciorum signo crucis Christi propria manu roboravi Ego Egferth Rex Merciorum consensi subscripsi Ego Higeberth Archiepiscopus firmando subscripsi After two Bishops subscribe and then Ego Beonna Abbas hanc meam Munificentiam signo crucis Christi firmavi To which the Prior and two other Priests subscribe their consent It may be necessary here to note that Ora was a piece of money of a certain weight or rather a weight whereby they received money and is written alsio hora in the Inquisition made into the Lands of this Church in the time of Martin the Second An. 1231. Where speaking of the Fishery at Walcote it is said to have yielded yearly duas horas The best explication of which that I can find is in the Laws of King Ethelred recorded by John Brompton in his Chronicle N. XXX which is concerning his Monetarii in all the ports of the Kingdom who were to take care ut omne pondus ad mercatum sit pondus quo pecunia mea recipitur eorum singulum signetur ita quod XV. Orae libram faciant But in the Inquisition now mentioned which was made through all the Mannors of this Church it seems to signifie a piece of money For thus the account is given of the Mannor of Walcote juxta Humbram after other particulars ibidem est situs unius Piscariae qui vocatur Holflet solebat reddere duas horas fol. CLIIII CELREDVS Besides his name Recorded by Hugo I find no mention of him but in Ingulphus which Mr. G. hath observed by which it appears he was Abbot here in the year DCCCVI and was Brother to Siwardus the third Abbot of Croyland But I suppose he is the same CEOLRED who in the year DCCCXLVIIII subscribed to a Charter of King Berthwulfus or Beorthwulfus wherein he granted great liberties to the Monastery of Breodun depending upon this Church of Medeshamstede as was said before then governed by the Venerable Abbot Swaph fol. CXXXII Eanmundus or rather Eadmundus as I believe it should have been written This Charter being remarkable for many things I have represented at large in the Appendix by which it will appear if my conjecture be true that this Celredus was advanced to the Episcopal dignity as Sexuulf had been though his See be not named whereby way was made for Hedda to succeed him here HEDDA When he entred upon the government of this Monastery or whence he came is not known but by Ingulphus we understand as is observed by Mr. G. that he was Abbot here in the year 833. and continued so to be till the destruction of the place by the Danes Who began to infest this Kingdom in the year 837. as John Abbot writes Chron. MS. in Sir J. C's Library DCCCXXXVII Dani crebris irruptionibus Angliam infestant And again An. DCCCXXXIX Dani passim per Angliam multas caedes agant And though they were several times beaten yet An. DCCCLI a great Army of them in 350 Ships came up the River Thames and pillaged Canterbury and London An. DCCCLIII the English fought against them in the Isle of Thanet magno dispendio An. DCCCLV they wintered in the Isle of Schepie and in the year DCCCLXIV in the Isle of Thanet having made peace with the Cantuarians In the year DCCCLXVI they did great mischief in the North took York depopulated the Country of the Eastangles entred into Mercia and wintred at Nottingham Three year after An. DCCCLXIX they left Mercia and went back to York and wintered there But the next year which was famous for the desolation they made of this Church and many other places they came and landed on Lyndesay Coast destroyed the Monastery of Bardney killing all the Monks without any pity and then entring Kestiven trod down killed and burnt all that came in their way Which Mr. G. hath largely enough related out of Ingulphus and therefore I shall follow my Author no further who hath nothing which is not to be found there The
Monument erected for the slain Abbot and Monks is here represented in this draught which I have caused to be taken of it as it now appears The very next year after the desolation of the Monastery An. DCCCLXXI Goredus so Abbot John's Chronicle calls him whom Ingulph calls Beorredus King of the Mercians took all the Lands of the Church of Medeshamstede between Stamford Huntingdon and Wisbeck into his own hands giving those that lay more remote to his Souldiers and Stipendiaries The same he did with the Lands belonging to St. Pege at Pegekyrk some of which he kept himself and gave the rest to his Stipendiaries Which are the very words of Ingulphus from whom its likely they were transcribed into that Chronicle In which we find nothing concerning this place till almost an hundred years after Edredus he saith in the year DCCCCXLVII cleared and restored the Monastery of Croyland by the instigation of Surketulus who turning Monk the King made Abbot of this place Which Ingulphus saith was done the year after An. 948. and sets down the Charter of that King in which there is no mention as in former Charters of the Abbot of Medeshamstede consenting to it and confirming it though in the boundaries of the Lands of Croyland Ager de Medeshamsted is there named Ingulphus p 35. Oxon. Edit Nor in King Edgar's Charter to the same Monastery of Croyland An. 966. is there any mention of his Subscription though among other Royal Woods there is mention made of Medeshamsted-Wood p. 42. For though Adelwaldus who by the assistance of King Edgar restored many Monasteries destroyed by the Pagans as Burgh Eli and Abenddon they are the words of John Abbot was made Bishop of Winchester An. 961. yet he did not apply himself to the rebuilding of this of Medeshamstede till nine years after if we may credit that Writer who saith it began to be restored just an hundred years after its desolation His words are these An. 970. Sanctus Adelwoldus Episcopus Wint. transtulit de Coemiterio in Ecclesiam reliquias Sancti Surthuni praedecessoris sui ante altare Sancti Petri honorifice collocavit Monasterium etiam de Medeshamstede restaurare coepit Burgum Sancti Petri appellavit Anno desolationis suae aequaliter centesimo In another different hand there is this Animadversion given that in claustro dicti Monasterii notantur anni desolationis LXXXXVI the time of its desolation are noted in the Cloyster of the said Monastery to have been but 96. years Which account Mr. G. follows though in Swapham or Hugo rather they are reckoned to be 99 years For so the Note is in the Margin of the Book in a hand of the same age with the Book it self Restauratio hujus loci à prima fundatione ejus An. CCCXIII. A destructione vero ejusdem Anno XCIX This great man Adelwold was at first a Monk in the Abbey of Glastonberry where as William of Malmsbury relates L. 2. de gestis Pontificum Angl. the Abbot had a dream representing to him how excellent a person this Monk would prove For he thought he saw a Tree springing up within the Walls of the Abbey which spread its branches to all the four quarters of the World and had all its leaves covered over with Cowles a very great Cowle being placed at the top of all At which being amazed an old man he thought told him that the great Cowle was Athelwold and the rest were innumerable Monks whom he should attract by his example Consonant to which was a vision his Mother had when she was with Child of him with which I shall not trouble the Reader but only note that it signified the large extent of his mind in this sort of Charity which reached to no less than forty Monasteries as all our Writers report Particularly W. of Malmsbury who saith L. 2. de gestis Regum Angliae he built so many and such noble Monasteries that it scarce seemed credible in his dayes that a Bishop of one City should do such things as the King of all England could not easily effect But he himself in another place makes this wonder cease by telling us that he could make King Edgar do what he pleased So his words are in the Book before named of the Acts of the Bishops of England it might seem a wonder he should do such things nisi quod Rex Edgar omnino ejus voluntati deditus erat à quo super omnes infra Dunstanum diligeretur And therefore the Abbot of Rieval L. de genealog Regum Angliae saith expresly that Edgar himself caused forty Monasteries to be built among which he reckons this of Burch as it now began to be called Which Athelwold saith Malmsbury L. IV. de gestis Potif Ang. built so sumptuously and endowed with such ample possessions ut penè tota circa regio illi subjaceat that almost all the Country round about was subject to it And this account also John Bromton Abbot of Joreval gives of this matter who having said that King Edgar built and repaired above forty Monasteries adds Inter quae consilio monitione Sancti Ethelwoldi Wintoniensis Episc Abbatiam Glastoniae Abendoniae composuit Abbatiam de Burgh prope Stamfordiam stabilivit c. So that the very truth in short is this Athelwold was to Edgar as Saxulf had been to Wulferus a trusty and diligent Servant who managed his Royal bounty in these magnificent Works And therefore is called by King Edgar in his Charter as Saxulf was by Wolfere in his Constructor the builder of the Churches before mentioned particularly of this formerly called Medeshamstede but now sua ac nostra instantia restauratum Burch appellatur Which by Ingulphus is called Burgum and by Matthew of Westminster ad An. 664. is said to be Vrbs Regia a Royal City Which this famous Bishop lived to see flourishing under Adulphus about thirteen year for he dyed not till the year 985. At which I find these words in the Chron. of John Abbot Sanctus Athelwoldus Wint. Episcopus qui Monasterium Burgi restauravit Kal. Augusti migravit ad Dominum There were some reliques of him preserved in this Church particularly of his Heirs ADVLPHVS Mr. G. having given an account of the most material things that are in Hugo concerning this Abbot whom John Bromton calls Eadrilf I shall only add that it is certain he succeeded Oswald in the Archbishoprick of York An. 992. So John Abbot writes Sanctus Oswaldus Archiep. Ebor. 2. Kal. Martii migravit ad Dominum cui Adulphus Abbas Burgi successit But though he call him Abbot of Burg which was become the new stile yet other writers still retained the old one and call him Abbas Medeshamstudensis So the Chron. of Mailros lately printed pag. 152. And so Florentius Wigornensis Ad An. 992 Venerabilis Medeshamstudensis Abbas Adulphus successit pro quo Kenulphus Abbatis jure fungitur Roger Hoveden also speaks the same language and Symeon of Durham in
in a little Charter Ibid. pag. CXXII containing the Names of all the Lands and Possessions of the Church which was recorded for the honour of their Benefactors whose names are written in the Book of Life c. Among which it is said Askill filius Toke dedit Walcote super Humbram dum adhuc viveret post obitum illius fratrum ejus sc Scirici Siworthi dedit Brand Abbas frater eorum eidem Ecclesiae Sancti Petri Muskam c. And in the Charter of Edward the Confessor confirming this benefaction it is said that Askil or Askitill gave this Land upon occasion of a journey which he undertook to Rome Askitillus Romam pergens dedit Sancto Petro Ecclesiae suae de Burch septem carrucatas terrae in Walcote duabus bovatis minus in Alcheburn unam Carrucatam totam Ecclesiam in Normandy unam Carrucatam quae sunt super fluvium Humbre William the Conqueror in his confirmation Ibid. pag. CIX petente Abbate Brand saith the same concerning the number of Plough-Lands in that place held by the Monastery sub Rege Edwardo Most of which it should seem by a trial which John Deeping Abbot of this Church had about the Lands in those Towns in the 13th year of Hen. 4. were part of the possessions of the Abby from its foundation and being alienated perhaps were again restored or redeemed by Brand and his Brethren before mentioned For that Abbot then before the Kings Judges at Westminster Ibid. pag. CCCLII. declaring how he was destrained by the Servants of Thomas de Lancaster the Kings Son pretending that he held a Mannor of his in Holderness and ought to do him homage and suit at Court for six Carrucatae of Land in Walcote juxta Humbr and one in Normanby which they said he held of the aforesaid Thomas alledged against all this that Wolferus King of the Mercians long before the Conquest gave and granted by his Charter which he there produced and laid before them to God and the blessed Apostle St. Peter and the servants of God in Medhamstede which is now called by another name Peterburgh in puram perpetuam eleemosynam praedictas sex Carucatas terrae cum pertinentibus in Walcote juxta Humbr praedictam unam carucatam terrae cum pertin in Normanby in Lincoln c. Of which Land he and his Predecessor were seised and held as parcel of the first foundation of the Abby from the King and not from the aforesaid Thomas of whom he held no Land at all nor owed him any service c. And accordingly it was adjudged for the Abbot This Estate was in danger to be lost again after the Conquest being got into the hands of Yvo Talbois but restored by him to the Monks as I shall observe in my Remarks upon the next Abbot Turoldus The Character which Ingulphus Pag. 70. Edit Oxon. gives of Abbot Brand is that he was a very Religious person and as he had heard from his Predecessor and many others very much addicted unto Alms-deeds wherewith he relieved the poor and in short adorned with all Vertues They that have a mind may in the same Author find the form and manner after which this Abbot made Hereward a Knight which was a thing forbidden afterward in the Synod of London held under Anselm as Eadmerus informs us p. 68. Where Mr. Selden calls this Abbot Brand Coenobiarcha Edmundoburgensis Spicileg ad Eadmerum p. 207. N. 5. not attending I suppose to those words of Ingulphus where he mentions Abbatem Burgi the Uncle of Hereward which he construes as if he spake of the Abbot of St. Edmundburgh There is mention of Brand as witness to a Charter of William the Conqueror in the second year of his Reign 1068. wherein he setled the Collegiat Church of St. Martins le Grand in the City of London indowed by Ingelricus and Girardus his Brother out of their own Revenues as may be seen in the third Tome of the Monasticon Anglicanum De Eccles Collegiatis p. 26. But the next year after he dyed as not only Hugo but John Abbot of this Church tells us in his Chronicon Where An. MLXIX having spoken of the death of Aldredus Archbishop of York he adds Obiit etiam Brando Abbas Burgi Patruus dicti Herewardi de Wake ex Regis collatione successit Turoldus Brando dedit pro Fyskyrton XX. marcas auri alias XX. pro Quametis pro ibidem ..... VIII. marc auri Our Writings also mention his redeeming Burleigh as well as the forenamed places which shows how studious he was of the prosperity of this place Where he dyed 2. Kaland Decembris saith Hugo agreeable to the Kalander which saith 30. Novemb. Depositio Brandonis Will de Waterville Abbatum c. TVROLDVS Or THVROLDVS as he is called in a Chater of King Henry the First was no sooner setled in the Monastery but all manner of evils as Hugo's words are came to it For that very year 1069 the Danes returned to infest England under the conduct of Suenus Abbot John saith the Sons of Swane their King with a very great Army Part of which under Osbern came to Eli and was presently re-inforced by Hereward de Wake and his associates who came and joyned with them He was a very great man called by one of our best Historians vir Serenissimus Walsingham who at his return out of Flanders where he had been for a while hearing how much his Family and Kindred had suffered by the Normans and finding Ivo Talbois the Conqueror's Sisters Son possessed of his Estate the Conqueror having given Ivo large possessions in Holland was extreamly inraged thereat and resolved by force of Arms to recover his own though with the havock and spoil of other people I cannot say that this place felt the first effects of his fury but here he discharged it after a most terrible manner as Hugo relates the story For he it was that invited and incited also Osbern and his Danes to go and plunder this Abby where he heard the Abbot his Uncle was dead and the place filled with a Norman whom he accounted an intruder and he a very severe man who lay then with some Souldiers at Stamford They came therefore with great speed though not so hastily but the Monks of Burgh had some notice so that the Sacrist called Ywarus by the Counsel of the Monks carried away all that he could viz. the Texts of the Gospel with the Chesibles Copes and Albes c. and went with them to the Abbot Turoldus at Stamford The very same morning came Hereward and his company in Boats against whom the Monks maintained the Close so stoutly as is observed out of him by Mr. G. that he had no way but to set fire to the Houses near the Gate by which means his Forces entred and burnt all the Offices of the Monastery and the whole Town except the Church and one House The Monks therefore
forty days of Penance that had been injoyned them And he also confirmed such Indulgences as had been granted by any of his Suffragans It bears date from Croyland the Thursday before the Feast of St. Michael There had been the like Indulgence granted a little before by Hugo Balsom Biship of Ely to those who out of devotion went piously to visit the Arm of St. Oswald and other Reliques in this Church c. To whom he grants 30. days relaxation of Penance Dated 11. Kalend. Sept. 1253. Another there is of Will Bishop of Ossory granting ten days Indulgence as I noted before to those that visited this Church on the Feast of the Dedication before mentioned All which show the true nature of Indulgences which were only relaxations of Penance and that other Bishops granted them as well as the Bishop of Rome as they also sometimes canonized a person for a Saint I have transcribed them all and set them down in the Appendix together with an Indulgence of Oliver Sutton some years after wherein he grants a merciful relaxation to all those that on certain times should devoutly come to the Altar of the blessed Virgin in her Chapel in the Monastery of Burgh which he had newly consecrated The same Boniface on the same day and year directed his Letters to the Bishop of Lincoln mentioning a Constitution of the Council held at Oxford which Excommunicated all those who either violated or disturbed the Ecclesiastical rights and liberties which he being desirous to maintain by these presents commands that all the disturbers or violaters of the rights and liberties of the Church of St. Peter de Burgo which had been granted by the Kings of England or any other persons should publickly and solemnly in general and by name be Excommunicated when it appeared they were guilty of such disturbance or violence About this time I suppose it was that Polebroke before mentioned out of which the ten pound for finding the five Hogsheads of Wine was paid was purchased by this Abbot The whole History of which is related in the Monasticon out of a Register of this Church in Sir Joh. Cotton's Library Which saith that Eustachius Vicecomes Founder of the Church of St. Mary de Huntingdon held two Fees de Honore Burgi in Clopton Polebroke Catworth c. Which Estate came afterward to one Will. de Lovetot and then to his Son Richard who held these two Fees in King Richard the first 's time as appears by his Charter in the first year of his Reign which confirms to the Abbot of Burgh among other Lands duo feoda in Clopton pertinentiis which were held by Richard de Lovetot Who had two Sons William and Nigell and three Daughters Amicitia Rosia and Margeria William dying without Issue the Estate came to Nigel who being a Beneficed Clergyman it came upon his death to the three Sisters The two Eldest of which though married had no share in these Fees but they fell to the youngest who was married to Richard Patrick and by him had a Son and a Daughter William and Margery She married to Will. de Vernon and her Brother William gave all his share in the Estate which was in the hand of Hugo Fleming and Tho. Smert and their Heirs who did homage to Will. Patrick for it to his Sister Margery Who after his death in her free Widowhood gave and granted all the Homages and Services of the aforesaid Fleming and Smert and their Heirs to John de Caleto Abbot of Burgh by her Deed. And afterward Rob. Fleming feofavit praedictum Johannem Abbatem de omnibus terris Tenementis quae habuit in Polebroke per Chartam Which Charter I find in our Records here remaining wherein Rob. de Flemenk gives to John de Caleto his Tenement in Polebroke and the Advouson of the Church In this year King Henry granted the very same Charter to this Church which Richard the first had done confirming all their Lands in the several Counties of the Realm by name It bears date at Windsor 12 Junii Anno Regni sui 37. The like for their Liberties in which is the Fair for eight days and the eight Hundreds c. and for their Woods In the next year 1254. three neighbouring Abbots dyed as I find in the Chron. of John Abbot viz. Thomas de Wells Abbot of Croyland David Abbot of Thorney and William Abbot of Ramsey Pope Innocent the IV. dyed also And in this year there was an aid granted to the King ad primogenit fil suum Militem faciend for the making Prince Edward a Knight An. Regis Hen. 38. sc de quolibet scuto de Honore Burgi XL. Sol. every Knights Fee of the Honour of Burgh paying forty Shillings which was received by one of the Friers Rich. de London So the Title of this account runs in our Book fol. CCCLXXI Recept fratris R. de Lond. de denariis Auxilii Domini Regis H. c. And then follow the names of all the Knights and their payments the first being Galfridus de Sancto Medardo who payd twelve Pound and therefore had six Knights Fees the second Radulph de Kameys who paid as much c. I have not room for the rest who are two and fifty in all some of which had but half Fees and others less In this year it was also that the King sent his Justices into many places in England to do right to every man and to free the Country from Thieves and Highwaymen Quorum unus fuit Abbas de Burgo saith Matth Paris one of which Justices was the Abbot of Burgh as Mr. G. hath observed In the year 1257. there was a power granted to this Abbot to distrain both of his Knights and of all other Freeholders who owed him service but had not done it that he might be able to perform the service wherein he stood bound to the King for his assistance in his War then in Wales For the Abbot stood bound to the King for Sixty Knights Fees which he had not performed and therefore a distress was granted against him upon all the Land he held of the King in that service without any prejudice to what the Church held in perpetuam eleemosynam In the next year I find a final agreement made between him and Ralph Crumbwell Son of Rob. Crumbwell about sixty Acres of Meadow in Collingham A confederation also between him and the Prior of Worcester whereby they engaged their Churches in such a mutual society and Friendship as I mentioned before between Alexander and the Abbot of St. Edmunds and several other things which I cannot find in what year they were done Particularly a Charter made by Steven de Horbiling wherein he gives to him and the Convent a Capital Messuage in Burgh in the Street called Tugate and another hard by it and three Acres of Arable Land c. Mr. G. saith p. 34. that he found no mention of the Rule of St. Benedict in this Monastery till
them but the shrine of their Saint and Patrone at length they sold him also all but his head which they still reserved to themselves Elsinus having bought the body sent it to Peterburgh whither the Monks of that Abbey in Normandy did often repair to do their devotions to their Saint But whilst Elsinus was careful abroad for profitable reliques his Abbey at home sustained loss in more real endowments for Hoveden in Yorkshire with many other lands were wrested from the Monastery of Peterburgh Yet Elsinus added something of his own purchasing a fourth part of Wittleseymere and giving it to his Monastery which had a part thereof before purchased by Adelwoldus Bishop of Winchester in the time of King Edgar Wittlesey In those days was the Monastery of Ramsey accused to the King who threatned the dissolution thereof but by the mediation of this Elsinus it was reprieved upon condition that Elsinus should undertake the charge of it which Elsinus afterwards remitted to the Ramisians About this time Leofricus who was Secretary of Burgh translated the bodies of S. Kyneburga and Kyneswitha from their Church of Castre and the body of S. Tibba from Rihale to Peterburgh Others place this translation in the Harpsfield from Capgra pag. 85. time of King Henry the first and that they had a yearly memorial celebrated here In the time of this Abbot Elsinus Anno 1051. Elfricus Archbishop of York died at Southwell and was buried at Peterburgh where he had been a Monk of whom more hereafter Elsinus having been Abbot here the space of fifty years died Anno 1055. and there succeeded 11. ARWINVS or ERNWINVS Ingulphus He was made Abbot by Election which deservedly passed upon him being a man of great holiness and simplicity but he liking better a private and solitary life freely surrendred his government after eight years continuance therein In his time Anno 1059. or as some say 1060. died Kinsius Archbishop of York who formerly had been Chaplain to King Edward the Confessor and was buried in the Church of Peterburgh where he had been a Monk Radulphus de Diceto calls him Kinsigius and commends him highly for his austere way of living his humility and other vertues Of whom again hereafter About this time S. Wulstan formerly Monk of Peterburgh was made Bishop of Worcester Bishop Godwyn Anno 1062. 12. LEOFRICVS or LEVRICVS Vid. appendiam Chartarum Having by his birth relation to the Royal bloud was first made a Monk of Burgh and afterwards Abbot upon the retirement of Arwinus He being dear to King Edward and Edgith his wife held by extraordinary benevolence five Abbeys in his hand at once viz. Burton Coventry Croyland Thorney and Peterburgh He redeemed of King Edward certain lands belonging to his Monastery as Fiskerton for twenty marks Fleton for eight marks and Burleigh for eight marks which being demised by lease to Elfgarus the Queens Chaplain for the term of his life he being dead the Queen would have taken it from the Church of Peterburgh had it not been for Abbot Leofricus In the third year of this Abbot Anno 1066. William Duke of Normandy entred England with an army and subdued it to his Norman power Of which I find these old Monkish Verses in some of our Writers Anno Milleno Sexageno quoque seno Agenito verbo Duce jam regnante superbo Anglorum metae crinem sensêre cometae Belli transacti sunt hic anni numerati Quod fuit hic factum quod est nunc usque vocatum Dilecti Christi fuerant tunc festa Calixti Abbot Leofricus was then in the English army where sickning he returned to his Monastery of Peterburgh and died the night after All-Saints day Deeping Bank In the time of this Abbot Leofricus one Egelricus a Monk of Burgh was made Archbishop of York but the Canons there envying that a Monk should be set over them though but lately it had been so refused to receive him wherefore he was made Bishop of Durham where he was received with general approbation Whilst he was Bishop there he gathered great store of wealth yet not to himself but that he might be rich in good works amongst which there is one that continues his memory to this very day the bank from Deeping to Spalding for in those days the passage being very difficult by reason of Woods and deep Marishes he raised that Causey for the benefit of Travellers which for many years after was called by his name Egelric Rode though now it be known only by the name of Deeping Bank But some affirm that Egelricus found his wealth for intending to build a Church at Coneester now Chester upon the street in laying the foundation thereof he chanced to light upon a great mass of treasure wherewith he finished that work and many others Such a new found treasure might be an additional to what he had before which surely was not small else he would scarce have undertaken to build Churches When Egelricus had held his Bishoprick of Durham long enough to weary himself with publick employments he returned to his Monastery of Peterburgh having resigned his Bishoprick to his brother Egelwinus But it hapned that these two brethren were accused to King William the Conqueror who laid up Egelricus in Chains at Westminster during his life and when he was near his end he refused to have his Fetters taken off and desired that he might be buried with them and so was he buried in S. Nicolas Porch in Westminster the other Brother Egelwinus was deposed from his Bishoprick by King William and sent to Abendone where he died The Writers of Peterburgh Swapham and Wittlesey say That in the time of Abbot Leofricus his sickness this Egelricus being at his accustomed Evening devotions the Devil appeared to him in the shape of a boy of terrible countenance and told him that ere long he should triumph over the chiefest of them which perhaps was in the death of Leofricus Abbot and that three several times he would revenge himself upon the Monks and Monastery telling him also the manner First that he would cause all the Monks to be expelled and the goods of the Monastery to be taken away Secondly he would cause the Monastery to be set on fire Thirdly he would set the Monks so at strife that they should cut one anothers throats But Egelricus replying The Lord rebuke thee Satan the Devil vanished and left a horrible stink behind him 13. BRANDO Having been Coadjutor to Leofricus was thought the fittest to succeed him and being elected he made his address to Edgar Atheling for his confirmation supposing him to be lawful heir to the Crown of England notwithstanding the late Conquest by K. William but William hearing thereof was much incensed against Abbot Brando that he was forced to give him forty marks for his favour to confirm him in his Monastery and the Lands to his Church Whilst he was a Monk
he gave to the Monastery many Lands as in Muscham Schotter Scalthorp Yolthorp Messingham Malmeton Cletham Hibaldstow Rachevildthorp Holme Riseby Walcot Normanby Alethorp there joyning with him Askylus Syricus and Sivortus who procured from King Edward a confirmation of these Lands to the Church Brando when he was Abbot created his Nephew Herewardus le Wake Lord of Brunne now Bourn Knight which Herewardus was a valiant man and stoutly opposed the Normans in those parts Brando enjoyed not long his Government but in November Anno 1069. which was the third of King William he died 14. TVROLDVS or THOROLDVS A Norman was placed by King William in the vacant Abby of Peterburgh He being a stranger neither loved his Monastery nor his Convent him He began to make a strange dispersion of the Lands belonging to his Church conferring sixty and two Hides of Land upon certain stipendiary Knights that they might defend him against Herewardus le Wake This Herewardus was son of Leofricus Lord of Brunne and having had a Military education beyond Seas repaired home to employ his valour in defence of his native Country against the Normans It hapned at that time that the Danes under Sweyn their King son of Canutus invaded this Land amongst whom Osbernus an Earl and Bishop entred into the Isle of Ely with whom Herewardus joyned and incited him to set upon the Monastery of Peterburgh for that the King had given it to a Norman Herewardus and the Danes coming hither the Monks and others with them defended themselves for a time with much valour in a hot dispute at Bolehith-gate now commonly called Bulldyke-gate being on the South of the Monastery and yet standing where when Herewardus and the Danes perceived their entrance doubtful and that they could not cut their way with their Swords and Weapons they assayed to do it by fire upon the adjoyning buildings and so entred through flame and smoke Being entred they seized upon all the good things they found carrying them away to Ely leaving much of the buildings the Monastery only excepted destroyed by fire and taking Adelwoldus the Prior with many of the more ancient Monks thither also But Adelwoldus watching for an opportunity to get away and return home the Danes being jovial and merry at a triumphal feast for this their booty Adelwoldus got privately to himself some gold and silver with some Reliques amongst which was S. Oswald's arm which he hid in his bedstraw till he could make his escape But an agreement being made between King William and Sweyn the Danish King that the Danes should depart with all their spoil most of the good things of this Monastery were carried away towards Denmark and a great part of them lost in the Sea by tempest those which arrived there were afterwards recovered by Iwarus the Secretary of the Monastery who took a journey thither for that purpose And now had Adelwoldus the Prior with the other Monks a time of returning without stealth to his Monastery of Peterburgh and taking the Abby of Ramsey in their way the Ramisians entertained them kindly for awhile but at their departure they detained their Reliques which afterwards upon the threats of Abbot Thorold they yielded up yet did not the Monks enjoy their newly recovered Treasures long for they being careless and drunken and their Abbot absent a fire seized upon the Church and other remaining buildings from which they rescued some few Reliques but little of other things All this while Turoldus Abbot absented himself from his Monastery and made his abode at Stamford but Herewardus being withdrawn he returned to his Monastery where he found all things in a desolate condition He brought along with him 140 Normans well armed to secure him against Herewardus and also built a Fort or Castle within his Monastery which for many years retained the name of Mount Thorold so that now the Monastery of Peterburgh seemed rather a warlike than religious place Yet for all that Turoldus could do for his own security he was at length taken by Herewardus and constrained to ransome himself with the payment of thirty marks in silver So profuse was this Turoldus of the goods of his Monastery that at his entrance an estimate of the goods thereof amounting to fifteen hundred pounds ere Turoldus had done there remained scarce five hundred But his disposing of the Lands as hath been said to certain Knights for their service in these Military times was remarkable and valid in after ages where I could give a large declaration of the persons thus invested with the Church-Lands and what Lands those were but it shall suffice to say that there were in all forty one men of note who received those Lands from Turoldus to hold upon that condition but they did not all receive in equal proportion but some more and some less some to find and afford the service of six Knights some of four some of one and some less as their portions of Land were yet in all the number of Knights for which they were to be answerable amounted to sixty eight and from whence there began a new addition to be annexed unto the name of the place as to be called The Honour of Peterburgh But there happened another Act of Turoldus which raised his discontents higher in himself and brought him lower in the good affection of his Convent for he received into his Monastery two Monks from beyond Sea who secretly stole away and carried many of the Church Goods with them At length Turoldus weary of his Government here procured for himself the Bishoprick of Beavois in France whither he transported many of the goods of the Monastery but he was not so welcome to his new Bishoprick as to make any long continuance there for on the fourth day he was expelled thence and returning again into England he gave the King a great summ of Money that he might be seated again in his Monastery of Peterburgh whither he returned and in all continued his Government there the space of 28 years and died Anno 1100 or as some say 1098. being the 10 or 11 year of William the Second 15. GODRIC VS The Monks now began to be provident for themselves for considering the inconveniences they suffered by Turoldus being imposed upon them they gave the King three hundred Marks in Silver that they might have the power of Electing their own Abbot which having procured from the King they chose Godricus who was Brother to Abbot Brando Whether or no Godricus might incurr the guilt of Simony by what the Church had done Bishop Godwin calleth him Geffrey page 34. I will not determine yet was he with Richard Abbot of Ely and Adelwinus Abbot of Ramsey deposed from their Governments by a Councel held under Anselmus then Archbishop of Canterbury for that as Peterburgh Writers say they had entred by Simony Yet Matth. Paris renders another reason that it In vita W. Rufi was because
claudit tumulus Pro clausis ergo rogemus 24 ACHARIVS Fol. 456. Whom Hoveden calls Zacharias was Prior of S. Albanes and elected thence to be Abbot here Anno 1200. He by his care and providence much enriched his Church and built many buildings in several Mannors belonging to it He maintained suit with the Abbot of Croyland for the Marsh of Singlesholt and recovered it letting it again to the Abbot of Croyland for a yearly acknowledgement of four stone Petras of Wax He added to the number of Monks that then were two and twenty more And when he had happily governed this Abby the space of ten years he died Anno 1210. being the 11 year of King John And there succeeded 25. ROBERTVS de Lindesey Glass-windows Who was Monk and Sacristary of Burgh and now Abbot unto which he paved the way by his good deeds towards the Church for whereas the windows were before only stuffed with straw to keep out the weather he beautified above thirty of them with glasses and his example brought the rest by degrees to the like perfection He built also the Chancel at Oxney being chosen Abbot he was presented to the King at Winchester and had his election confirmed And at Northampton he received Episcopal benediction from Hugo the second then Bishop of Lincoln in the year 1214. for after the death of Acharius the King held the Abbey in his own hand three years He settled the Hundred of Nassaburgh in peace and quietness for in those days the Foresters with their Cattel over-ran all so that the inhabitants of the Towns therein were much endammaged by them and their domineering in these parts by vertue of Forest Lands therefore Abbot Robert made a composition with the King giving him Vid. Chartam in App. 1320 Marks for the dis-foresting that part of the Country He covered the Abbots Hall with Lead He made in the South Cloister a Lavatory of Marble for the Monks to wash their hands in when they went to Meals their Hall being near on the other The Lavatory side of the wall the door leading into it being yet standing though the Hall be long since demolished only some small remains on the wall side are yet to be seen but the Lavatory continued entire until the year 1651. and then with the whole Cloister it was also pulled down Abbot Robert at his entrance into his place found but seventy two Monks to which number he added eight more assigning the Mannor of Bellasise for their maintenance having built a fair Mannor-house there which Bellasise builded partly is now standing He built also the Hall at his Mannor of Collingham In the time of this Robert the fourth Laterane Council was held under Innocent the fourth Pope of that name Anno 1215. Abbot Robert was cited and went thither and received injunctions for his Convent concerning several times of fasting and other duties which at his coming home he put into execution Fol. 287. In his time there arose great discords betwixt the Civil and Ecclesiastical States that the Land stood interdicted by the space of six years Then followed bitter Wars betwixt King John and his Barons wherein how the Monastery of Peterburgh behaved themselves I find but little in any of our Writers Only by what Matthew Paris relates it may be conjectured they were none of the Kings friends though their Patron Ludovicus saith he besieging the Castle of Dover a long time in vain at length the King passed over into Suffolk and Norfolk and miserably wasted those Countries And coming to Peterburgh and Croyland he plundered the Churches there his Officer Savaricus de Mallo Leone with his accomplices committing many outrages in the Country thereabout At Croyland he fired all their stacks which the inhabitants had newly gathered in and so returned to the Town of Lynn with great spoils But afterwards the King taking his journey from Lynn Northward all his Carriages and Treasures were cast away and perished as he passed the River Wellestre Yet afterwards the Abbot of Peterburgh was summoned to assist King Henry the third in the siege of Rokingham Castle which was then the Abbots and the Abbot himself went in person in that expedition till at length that Castle was reduced to the Kings obedience but whether it was this Abbot Robert or some Hon. de Pightesly of his Successors mine Author tells me not Pag. 288. In the time of this Abbot Robert about the year 1217 according to Pitseus there was one Hugo Candidus or Hugh White a Monk of this Monastery of whom the said Author in his Book De Scriptoribus makes mention who wrote the whole History of his Monastery whose works were extant in later times for John Leland who lived in the days of King Henry 8 collected many things out of him but whether or where the said Author be now extant I know not Pitseus tells us also of another Hugh In Appendice Pag. 865. a Monk of this Church whom he calls an English Historian but professeth his ignorance of what he wrote or when he lived Perhaps both might be but one and the same Hugh But perhaps Wittlesey an antient Writer of this Church may make it clearer by telling us that there was one Hugo Albus so called from his white complexion as being subject to bleed a Monk here who was famous in the time of Abbot Ernulfus and of John Henry Martin and William his Successors who wrote the History of this Monastery and so was before Pitseus his account Robert having been Abbot here the space of seven years died October 25. 1222. being the seventh year of King Henry 3. He was not very rich in Books his Library consisting only of these few Numerale Magistri W. de Montibus cum aliis rebus Tropi Magistri Petri cum diversis summis Sententiae Petri Pretanensis Psalterium Glossatum Aurora Psalterium non glossatum Historiale 26. ALEXANDER de Holdernesse Who was first a Monk then Prior and lastly Abbot of this place after the death of Robert A great builder he was and built the Hall at his Mannor of Oundle that also at Castre Eyebury and other places Having been Abbot here only four years he died on the day of his entrance November 20. 1226. and of King Henry 3. the Eleventh These were his Books Psalterium Concordantiae utriusque Test Claustrum animae Opus alterum quod perfecit Rogerus de Helpston Aurora Poenitentiale Tria Breviaria Concilium Lateranense cum aliis rebus Corrogationes Promethei Missale The first day of May before the death of this Alexander there died at Peterburgh Richardus de Mansco Mr. Philipot Catal. Canc. Angl. pag. 10. Bishop of Durham and Chancellor of England 27. MARTINVS de Ramsey Being a Monk of Peterburgh was elected Abbot after the death of Alexander And on S. Andrew's Eve the King ratified his Election which was also confirmed by Hugo then Bishop of Lincoln in the Chappel
man of great judgment and good elocution when he came to plead at Northampton before the Judge of Assize when his time was to speak he craved his Abbots blessing and spake so to the purpose that the Earl went as Wittleseys phrase is Sine die without the day and although the Earl brought the business to the Kings hearing yet there William Woodford worsted him also When this Richard was Sacrist he erected the great Steeple wherein the Bells hang but which I cannot say there being two such Steeples and gave two Bells which were called Les Londres Ladies Chappel In the time of Abbot Richard there was one William Parys Prior who built that goodly Chappel commonly called the Ladies Chappel which in the late times of violence was levelled with the ground William Parys himself laid the first stone and under it many sentences of Scripture written but whether in Brass or Lead Wittlesey tells not And he not only laid the foundation but perfected the whole work and adorned it with windows and paintings on the walls and settled five pound per annum upon it for service therein Afterwards dying he was buried in the North part of the Church near unto the said Chappel and the Inscription upon his Grave-stone is yet to be seen Hic jacet Willielmus Parys quondam Prior Burgi cujus animae misereatur Deus Amen Pater noster Ave Maria. The Books in Abbot Richards Library I find thus recorded Quatuor Evangelia Glos Psalterium Regula Sancti Augustini cum speculo caritatis edita à Beato Bernardo Nova Logica in 2. Vol. Priscianus de constructione cum aliis rebus Boëtius de Consolatione libellus diversarum rerum in uno Vol. Parabola Salomonis Ecclesiastes Processionarium cum hympnario Psalterium cum Gradale in choro Richard having been Abbot here the space of twenty two years and an half died Anno 1295. being the twenty third of King Edward the first and was buried in the South side of the Church near the Quire the Abbot of Croyland performing the Funeral service which being ended the company consisting of many Nobles and Abbots went to the Abbots house where they dined And dinner being ended there came one in the Kings name and seized on the whole Abby taking homage of the Tenants as had formerly been accustomed Afterwards two of the Monks went to the King to procure Licence for the election of an Abbot and the person elected was 33. WILLIHELMVS de Woodford Who for two years before had been Coadjutor with Abbot Richard in the time of his infirmity Writers commend him for a man of excellent parts and diligence in his government Being but Sacristary he purchased the Mannor of Southorp which when Southorp Mannor he came to be Abbot he assigned to the Monks He settled a daily proportion of bread upon some inferiour Officers added much to the buildings of his Monastery and was careful that dependant Eleemosynaries might receive their dues particularly he inquired into the Hospital of S. Leonard now commonly called by the name of The Spittle the original of which I must let alone till I can be informed and content my self with the allowance which The Spittle it received from the Abbot viz. Per annum quadraginta ulnas panni de panno Eleemosynae sicut Prebendarii Item ad festum Sancti Martini 1 petram uncti 1 petram sepi Item 3. bacon viz. 1 ad festum Natalis Domini 1 ad capiend quadrag 1 ad pasch de carnibus supersanatis Item totum ex .... porcorum fr. sanatorum Item 4 tuniatas servis viz. 1 tuniatam ad natal Domini aliam ad capiend quadrag tertiam ad pasch quartam ad festum Apostolorum Petri Pauli de Celario Abbatis Item quolibet mense 1 esk sol cujus summa per annum est 1 quar 5 esk Item servens dictorum infirmorum comedit cum familia Abbatis quater per annum viz. ad natal Domini ad Pasch ad festum S. Petri ad festum omnium Sanctorum The Monks having the Mannors of Alwalton and Fletton assigned them as hath been said they customarily paid out of them unto the Abbot 16s 6d yearly which Abbot William remitted unto them He died in the fourth year of his government and lieth buried in the South Isle of the Church near the Quire In his Library were these Books Instituta apparitata Decreta apparitata Apparatus Decret alium cum casibus Summa de vitiis Summa de virtutibus Summa Reynfridi Psalterium cum exequiis majorum Statuta Westmonasterii Statuta Capituli General Constitutiones extravagantes Regula Sanctor Basil Bened. Cartae Regum cum libertatibus Liber de arte praedicandi Processionarium Missale in duobus Voluminibus Duo Gradalia Breviarium 34. GODEFRIDVS de Croyland Was a Monk and the Celerarius of this Monastery and upon the death of William elected Abbot Anno 1299. which was the 27 of K. Edw. 1. It seems this Godfrey was much in King Edwards favour for at his entrance into his Abbatical government the King sent him a fair silver Cup gilt And when the Treasurer Walter de Langton demanded of Godfrey a thousand Marks for his Confirmation the King remitted it and would not suffer any more than his Exchequer fees to be taken In the first year it hapned that certain persons were fled for sanctuary into the Chappel of Thomas Becket whither they were pursued and against the priviledge of the place haled out from thence and some bloud was shed so that the Chappel for some time stood suspended and no service therein to be performed The Bishop of Lincoln passing that censure upon it until the persons so taken away should again be restored to the liberty of the place At length the Bishop sends his absolution appointing that the Abbot and some others with him should with the sprinkling of holy water and singing of the Penitential Psalms purge the said Chappel and so it should return to its former use The same year being 1300. A marriage being intended betwixt the heirs of Vfford and Southorp King Edward supposing himself to be concerned therein appointed Inquisition to be made whether the disposal of that marriage belonged to him or the Abbot of Peterburgh his Letters bearing date February 23. and the twenty ninth of his Reign And it being upon the Inquisition certified that those heirs and their progenitors held their Lands of the Abby of Peterburgh the right of disposal of those heirs did therefore belong to the Abbot which the King understanding desisted I find this Abbot Godfrey famous for worthy actions that there was scarce his like either before him or after In his third year saith Wittlesey who recounts the actions of every year but I shall name only the principal he entertained King Edward with his Queen and their several retinues Not long after came Prince Edward with his favourite Peter Gaveston to
In the time of this Abbot there was an Indictment at Northampton against a stoppage of the Water at Vpwell so that the River of Nen could not have its course towards Lynn whereby the Counties of Northampton Lincoln Bedford Huntingdon and Cambridge were much endamaged The Abbot of Peterburgh laboured hard to get the drain scowred and at length procured a Decree from Galfridus Scroop the Kings Chief Justice for clearing the passage the Abbots of Ramsey Thorney and Croyland joyning with him this cost the Abbot of Peterburgh 63 l. 11 s. 1 d. In Abbot Adams time there happened a fray in the Chappel at Registr Adae fol. 41. Oxney and blood being shed therein the Chappel was polluted and stood suspended from its priviledge of Divine Service The Bishop of Lincoln being then otherwise employed could not attend to reconcile it but gave his consent that any other Bishop might whereupon Abbot Adam wrote to the Bishop of Carlile intreating him that as he returned from the Parliament towards his Mannor of Horncastle he would come and reconcile the said Chappel And as Abbot Adam had been free towards the King so was the King to him confirming his Possessions and Priviledges particularly by Charter the tenth of his huntings Tenth of huntings throughout Northamptonshire that whosoever hunted any game throughout this County for the Kings use or by his authority was responsible to the Abbot of Peterburgh for the tenth thereof which were granted and confirmed long before by his Predecessors King Richard 1. and W. Rufus And King Henry 3. and King Edward 1. did both of them command by their express Warrant to the Forester that the Abbot of Peterburgh should have five Bucks in acknowledgment thereof What this Abbot was for Learning and Ability in his Function let the Reader conjecture by his Library which Wittlesey sets down Decretales Sermones Johannis de Abbevile Mediapars Missal Breviarium Manuale Liber Chartarum Actus Apostolorum Epistolae Canonicae Apocalypsis Gerardus super Psalterium Summa summarum Diurnale Dicta Senecae cum 36 tractatibus content is in eodem volumine These were his Books set down by Wittlesey which agrees with another ancient Catalogue that I have by me Adam in the beginning of his eighteenth year died being the year of our Lord 1338. and the 12 of King Edward 3. On the fourth day of December following he was honourably interred the Abbot of Ramsey performing his funeral service and making a Sermon He was buried betwixt the Quire and the great Altar a fair Marble Stone being laid over him with some Brass upon it which was taken away in the late demolition of Monuments The Epitaph written about it was this Claustri praelatus hujus cubat hic vocitatus Adam qui natus erat a Boothby nece stratus Vir castus justus omni virtute robustus M semel x trina ter sex i quoque bina Pars donetur ei celestis nunc requiei Presently after his death was the Seal of the Monastery broken and care was taken for the Kings consent to a new election But before we name the Successor we shall present the Reader with a bill of Adams funeral expences which I shall give in Latine as I find it in Wittlesey If the Reader be but a good Deipnosophist he may construe the meaning of some words better than I can In cera 250li De frumento pro distributionibus pauperum 45 quarters De allecibus pro eisdem 1000. culibet 6. In pane pro die sepulturae frumenti 20 quarters Brasii pro cervisia 40 quarters In vino 1 dolium 1 pipam In allecibus pro die sepulturae 8500 De Lupis aquaticis grossis 100 De Cod-lingis 12 Sem. De Haddok 1 Sem. De Spar-lingis 1 Sem. De Salmon 24 De Milvellis 120 De Dogdrout 100 De Plais 10 Sem. De Congris 1 De Wilkis 5 Sek De grossis anguillis 5 estik De minutis anguillis 70 estik De Sturgeon 1 Barrel De Lintea tela pro nappis mensarum pro naperouns 200 Vlnae De Platellis diversis garnitis 1400 De Trowes 12 Bollis 4 De ciphis de ligno pro vino cervisia  In ollis luteis pro vino cervisia 300 De Corbellis 5 Abbot Adam being interred and the turmoil of his funeral past the thoughts of the Monks returned to continue the succession in 36. HENRICVS de Morcot A wise and discreet man Being elected Abbot he was according to the custome though this be the first mention that I find thereof carried on shoulders with a Te Deum to the great Altar and from thence to the Pulpit where the Prior published his Election Then Henry took his journey towards London but the King being then at Antwerp Henry's Election was confirmed by those whom he left in Authority with whom Abbot Henry compounded for his Mannors and Lands for the summ of 200 l. the Queens mony excepted and the reservation to the King of the Knights-fees and the advowsons of the livings of the Monastery during the vacany And so Henry returned towards Peterburgh and although he might have returned to some of his own Mannors yet with the Abbot of Thorneys leave he stayed at Stanground the space of three weeks In the mean time Simon of Islepe Vicar general to the Bishop of Lincoln the Bishop being then out of the Kingdom published in the Church of Peterburgh that if any persons could object any thing against Henry or the form of his Election they should appear such a day in the Church of S. James in Thrapstone and signify the same where because none appeared the said Simon ratified the Election and granted his Letter to any Bishop to confer his benediction upon this new Elect at any place within or without the Diocess of Lincoln which was performed by the Bishop of Ely the Lord Chancellor in his Chappel at his house in Holbourn Then did the Chancellor direct his Letters to the Convent and Tenants of the Church of Peterburgh for their obedience to this their Abbot and also to William Trussell the Kings Eschaetor beyond Trent not to meddle with any Lands belonging to the Church of Peterburgh Abbot Henry being returned staid a while at his Mannor of Eye and shortly after came to Peterburgh and was installed the seventh of the Ides of Feb. Anno 1338. which was the twelfth year of K. Edward 3. Here Walter of Wittlesey leaves me who hitherto hath been a good guide to our story wherein further our progress must be assisted by such other Records and Rolls as we light of When Abbot Henry had governed this Church about 15. years he died Anno 1353 which was the 27 of King Edward 3. His Library consisted of these Books viz. Parva Biblia Decreta Decretale Apparatus sexti Libri Decretalium Liber qui vocatur Innocentius Hostiensis in summa Breviarium Antiphonarium cum Psalterio Processionarium Item Decretale Catholicon He had a sharp
gilt one Desk of Wood two Orfers one Front of painted Cloth In the Body of the CHURCH Item One Altar with Images Gilt one Front of green Silk with Ostrich Feathers one Coffer the Altar of our Ladies Lamentation Gilt one Front of painted Cloaths four Lamps in divers parts of the Church In the South I LE Item In S. Oswalds Chappel one Altar with a Front of painted Cloth one Table Gilt of S. Oswald Item In S. Bennets Chappel one Altar with a Front of painted Cloth one Table Gilt with the story of S. Bennet Item in S. Kyneburghs Chappel one Altar with a Front of painted cloth with one Table well Gilt. The Trinity CHAPPEL Item The Altar with a Front of old Silk one white Altar cloth of Diaper two Candlesticks of Latten one Table of Alabaster one Coffer and Seats of Wood one Lamp Item In S. Sprites Chappel a Table of Alabaster one Front of painted Cloth In the CLOYSTER Item One Conduit or Lavatory of Tynne with divers Coffers and Seats there In the Ostrie CHAPPEL Item One Altar Cloth two Fronts of painted Cloaths two Latten Candlesticks one Coffer one Super-altar of Marble one Vestment of Green Silk one Vestment of dove-coloured Silk two Albes In the Chappel of LOW Item one Altar two Fronts of old painted Cloaths two white Altar Cloaths two Vestments of Silk one Red the other Green and one Albe of Needlework Item One Chalice Gilt one Corporas one pair of Candlesticks of Latten three Bells to ring in the Chappel In the Infirmary CHAPPEL Item One Table of Alabaster one Front of Silk two Candlesticks of Latten three Coffers four Seats one Vestment one Albe of white Silk with Orfers of red Item One Vestment of white Bustian for Lent with an Albe three Corporasses with cases two Altar Cloths one old Vestment one old Albe Item One Vestment of blue Chamlet with Moons and Harts with one Albe to the same Item One Vestment of red course Satten of Cyprus with Harts and Knots Item One little Bell one Lamp hanging one broken Silver Crown Item Old Cloaths to cover Saints in Lent In the Abbots Gallerie CHAPPEL Item One Table of Alabaster In the other CHAPPEL Item One Table of Alabaster three old Chests an old Almery In the Abbots HALL These Tables were taken away 1644. to be used at the Siege of Croyland and never returned Item four fixed Tables four Forms one Table with two Tresles at the high Bench the hangings old Tapestry one Cupboard one Chair one Chaffer In the Abbots KITCHIN Item three great boyling Pots seven small Pots four Panns two Kettles one great brass Pan with two Handles a Ladle a Scummer five Spits one stone Mortar one Brandiron with four Barrs two Racks of Iron one Gridiron with four Barrs two Racks of Iron one Gridiron one flesh Hook two frying Panns one Porrenger one fire Fork In the Abbots Fish-HOUSE Item Old drie Ling of the last year 24 warp Item Great Ling of this year 100 warp Item In middle and small Ling 100 and a half warp Item In drie Haberdine 203 Fishes Item Stockfish 208 Fishes Item Salmon half a Barrel In Eyebury FARME Item In Sheep 29 score and ten sheep Item Oxen 19 Item Bulls and Bulchins 5 Item Kine 18 Item Heifers two years and upwards 13 Item Steeres 8 Item Yeerling Calves 12 Item Gueldings for the Saddle 4 In the Abbots BREWHOUSE Item Four Furnaces great and small two of Copper and two of Lead two great Mashing Fat 's an ark for ground Malt three Fatts five yieling Fatts six and thirty Keelers two cleansing Sives four Couls and a graining Tub. In the GARNET Item Six quarters of Malt ten quarters of Wheat two quarters of Oats two quarters of Barley six bushels of Pease In the BARNES Item Fifty loads of Hay by estimation The Abbots PLATE Imprimis A Basin and Ewer of Silver one Silver Pot of a quart two standing pieces covered all Gilt two flat Bowles of Silver two Salts with one cover Gilt one Nut without a cover two ale Pots with two covers four Masers great and small one dozen of silver Spoons two and twenty Masers great and small with bands of Silver and Gilt two pieces of Silver and ten Spoons of Silver a Horn with two feet of Silver and Tipped a Nut Tipped with Silver and Gilt. The length and breadth of the Church and other parts thereof Imprimis The Church containing in length 8 score yards in breadth 34 yards Item The Ladies Chappel containing in length 46 yards in breadth 14 yards Item The Cross Isle on the North side in length 18 yards and in breadth 12 yards Item Three Chappels with the entry into the Ladies Chappel in length 14 yards in breadth 7 yards Item The Isle on the South side with the Chappels in length 21 yards in breadth 20 yards Item The Cloyster about four square in length 168 yards in breadth 6 yards Item The Chapter House in length 28 yards in breadth 11 yards Item The great Dormitory in length 64 yards in breadth 13 yards Item The little Dorter in length 33 yards in breadth 12 yards Item The Fratry in length 54 yards in breadth 14 yards Item The Infirmary in length 65 yards in breadth 10 yards Item The Chappel at the gate of the Monastery 14 yards in length in breadth 8 yards Item The Vestry containing in length 18 yards in breadth 6 yards Item The Abbots Hall in length 32 yards in breadth 12 yards Item The Abbots great Chamber in length 33 yards in breadth 10 yards Item In the two Steeples of the Monastery at the Front Bells 10 and in other several places of the houses Bells 4. Item The Convents Kitchin in length 25 yards Item The Lavers in the Cloyster weighing 100 lib. All which goods were assigned to the said Abbot being Guardian for the same time by the Commissioners Philipp Pryce John Tregonnel and others Two years after this Inventory viz. 1541. and of King Henry 33. the King changed the person from an Abbot to a Bishop the Church from a Monastery to a Cathedral and the Town of Peterburgh from a Village to a City Here I must acknowledge my self at a stand as not able to give a perfect account of all Mannors Lands and Tenements belonging to the Monastery of Peterburgh at the time of the dissolution for it had Lands or Tenements in Catworth Thorp Watervile Achirch Tichmersh Winwick Hemington Kynethorp Armiston Grendone Thurning Pappelee Beningfield Addington Slipton Twywell Woodford Churchfield Stoke Pilketon Craneford Burlee Thornhaw Sibberton Walmisford Etton Lolhame Southorp Walcot Vfford Helpiston Woodcroft Vpton Cathwait Torpel Baddington Aston Nunton Deeping Bernack Marham Hargrave Allington Glapthorne Cotterstock Angotby Osgotby Swinstead Witham Careby Gretton Thrapston Denford Ringsstead many Lands in Holland c. Which how or when they were alienated from this Monastery whether by the King or by the Monastery it self before I cannot say But of such Lands as the
00 4  Mannor of Glinton and Peikirk 63 15 00  Mannor of Maxey 19 04 00  Mannor of Northburgh 07 08 01  Mannor of Stamford S. Martins 18 11 03 ob Mannor of Irtlingburgh 33 05 11 ob Mannor of Stanwigge 25 08 00 ob Mannor of Polebrook 40 08 01 ob q. Leicestershire  l. s. d.  Mannor of Eston and Bringhurst 92 06 01 q. Lincolnshire  l. s. d.  Mannor of Fiskerton 68 15 03 ob Mannor of Repham Scothern Sudbrook 40 09 10  Mannor of Scotter 49 04 06  Mannor of Walcot 06 18 01  Mannor of Grantham 00 12 08  Stamford beyond the Bridge 00 07 00  Boston 00 10 00  Mannor of Careby 00 07 00  Liberty or Hundred of Scotter 03 08 04  Nottingham-shire  l. s. d.  Mannor of North-Collingham and South-Coll 85 19 5  Huntingtonshire   l. s. d.  Mannor of Botolphbridge and Overton 07 12 00  Mannor of Alwalton  39 10 05   Sum. total 811 16 01 q. Out-Rents in other places not comprehended in the former values Fishing in Wittlesmere 03 13 04 Fishing in Woland 01 13 04 Fishing in the Water of Vpwell Com. Norf. 00 02 04 Fishing in the River Nene 07 00 00 Advowsons and Presentations of Churches belonging to the Dean and Chapter Peikirk Northburgh Stanwigge Alwalton Fiskerton Irtlingburgh All-Saints Vicaridges of Maxey North-Collingham Bringhurst Stanwigge Parsonage was afterwards taken away with the Mannor Portions or Pensions from several Churches Castre 05 00 00 Peikirk 01 18 00 Northburgh 00 10 00 Bernack 05 10 00 Irtlingburgh 01 13 04 Stanwigge 01 16 08 South-Collingham 01 00 00 Polebrook 01 00 00 Fiskerton 00 15 00 Scotter 02 00 00 Careby 00 07 00 Thornhaw 00 03 00 Vfford 00 16 08 Woodford and Stoke Doile 02 08 08 Churches Appropriate Maxey Eston North-Collingham In these Lands the Dean and Chapter of Peterburgh injoyed such priviledges as commonly Lords of Mannors used to do Yet was there one special priviledge which the Abbots from ancient times injoyed and executed and by the Grant of King Henry and also by Queen Elizabeth January 29. and third of her Reign confirmed unto the Dean and Chapter a Priviledge known of late days by the name of Non molestandum that is a freedom from payment of Tolls and Customes in all Fairs Markets passages of Bridges Ways Ports in and without the Realm of England This the Dean and Chapter of Peterburgh had power to grant to their Tenants and there are some living who reap benefit by this Non molestandum at this very day this priviledge having been granted unto them when the Dean and Chapter were in power so to do And whosoever should act contrary to this Priviledge was to incur the penalty of ten pounds And by her general Inspeximus bearing date July 9. in the ninth year of her Reign Anno 1567. she confirmed all the Lands and Priviledges of this Church What Religious care the late King Charles had for the augmentation of the Dean and Prebendaries with other Stipendiaries belonging to this Church shall be seen in the close of our Appendix The Succession of this Ecclesiastical body from the first Constitution thereof by King Henry was thus the first in each being particularly nominated in King Henry's Charter DEANS 1 Francis Abree Prior of Northampton Bachelor in Divinity was made Dean 1541. 2 Gerard Carlton Bachelor in Divinity 1543. 3 James Curtop Master of Arts. 4 John Boxhall Doctor of Law 5 William Latimer Doctor in Divinity 1560. In his time the Cathedral was by a great Peer begged of Queen Elizabeth to build him an House upon Information to the Queen that it was ruinous and no Prayers said therein but Dean Latimer recovered it by the Queens favour upon better Information 6 Richard Fletcher Doctor in Divinity 1585. translated hence to the Bishoprick of Bristol thence to Worcester thence to London 7 Thomas Nevil Doctor in Divinity 1590. first Master of Magdalen-Colledge and after of Trinity-Colledge in Cambridge where he built that stately back Court commonly known by his Name 8 John Palmer Doctor in Divinity 1598. was Master of Magdalen-Colledge in Cambridge 9 Richard Cleyton Doctor in Divinity 1608. first Master of Magdalen-Colledge in Cambridge then of S. Johns 10 George Meriton Doctor in Divinity 1612. 11 Henry Beamount Doctor in Divinity 1616. 12 Guil. Pierse Dr. in Divinity Canon of Christ-Church in Oxford made Dean 1622. translated to the Bishoprick of Peterburgh afterwards to Bath and Wells 13 John Towers Doctor in Divinity 1630. translated to the Bishoprick of this Church 14 Thomas Jackson Doctor in Divinity 1638. President of Corpus-Christi Colledge in Oxford He liveth and will live in his learned Works to the Worlds end 15 John Cozin Doctor in Divinity 1640. Master of S. Peters Colledge in Cambridge preferred to the Bishoprick of Durham 16 Edward Rainbow Doctor in Divinity and Master of Magdalen-Colledge in Cambridge installed Dean of this Church Jan. 5. 1660. Advanced to the Bishoprick of Carlile to which he was consecrated July 10. 1664. 17 James Duport Doctor in Divinity of Trinity-Colledge in Cambridge Installed July 27. following The Succession of the Prebendaries was as followeth In the first PREBEND Matthew Whittall D. D. A secular Priest Howeton Peter Anthony Burton M. A. Robert Rodes B. D. William Bayly B. D. William Smith B. D. Tobias Bland B. D. Sub-Almoner to Q. Eliz. and Parson of Abbot Rippon Com. Hunt John Bridgeman D. D. removed to the Bishoprick of Chester John Williams D. D. removed to the Bishoprick of Lincoln October 11. 1621. He wrote himself John Lincoln elect C. Sigilli whilst he was Prebendary here Thomas Swift B. D. Parson of Waddington Com. Lincoln Simon Gunton M. A. Cambr. In the second PREBEND William Judd B. D. A Monk of the place Edwin Sands D. D. William Binsley L. D. Edwin Sands restored being ejected by Q. Mary or withdrawing himself as others did in her days Nicolas Shepheard D. D. William Hill M. A. Edward Lively Robert Williamson D. D. Parson of Tichmarsh Com. Northampton Robert Williamson D. D. Fellow of Magd. Coll. Oxon. John Howorth B. D. President of Magd. Coll. Cantabr afterwards D. D. and Mr. of the same Colledge William Henchman M. A. Parson of Barton Com. Northampton Cambr. In the third PREBEND Robert Pierson T. B. A Monk of the place Christopher Hodgson B. A. Edward Baker Cler. James Howland M. A. William Bayly B. D. Edward Marshal T. B. Parson of Wimple Com. Cantab. Warner Marshall M. A. Parson of Castor Sebastian Smith M. A. Oxon. Abraham Jackson M. A. William Louch M. A. Oxon. In the fourth PREBEND John Barlow M. A. Nicolas Murrey L. B. Miles Johnson James Ellis L. D. Richard Cleyton D. D. Richard Cleyburne D. D. John Pocklyngton D. D. William Towers B. D. Oxon. Thomas Greaves D. D. In the fifth PREBEND John Cheyney Prior Pollard B. D.
cunctisque rebus justitiis pertinentibus cum saca socna ut nullus inde quicquam repetat praeter Arcis vel expeditionis subsidium Hanc ergo contestor omnes posteros meos Reges Judices per Dominum omnium judicem justitiae amatorem totius injustitiae vindicem nequis unquam audeat quicquam tam ex his quam de omni jure Sancti Petri detrahere aut diminuere quià revera sicut illi consequuntur aeternam vitam qui Ecclesiam Dei amplificant ita illis manent sempiterna Tormenta qui eam in aliquo spoliant Qui autem haec violaverit omnium Sacerdotum Ministrorum Dei ore Anathema sit Anno ab Incarnatione Domini Millesimo LX. confirmatum est hoc Testamentum Cui testes conspicui subscribendo annotantur ✚ Ego Eduardus Rex constitui ✚ Ego Edryd Regina concessi ✚ Ego Stigandus Archiepiscopus collaudavi ✚ Ego Aldredus Archiepiscopus comprobavi ✚ Ego Wolfrius Lincoln Antistes corroboravi ✚ Ego Haroldus Dux favi ✚ Ego Tostinus Dux testis fui ✚ Signum Raulfi Regis dapiferi ✚ Signum Asgeri Regis dapiferi ✚ Signum ✚ Signum Godrici filii Edryfe ✚ Signum Ulf de Lincona ✚ Signum Askill Tokes sun ✚ Signum Laulf Maltes sun Ego Wilihelmus Dei beneficio Rex Anglorum petente Abbate Brandone istud Privilegium in omnibus laudo confirmo sicut suprascripti Reges ante me Similiter terras fratrum vel propinquorum suorum quas habebant sub Rege Edwardo haereditarias liberas hoc est Scotter Scotton Malmeton Ragenaldetorpe Messingham Cletham Hibaldistow Walcote Muscham cum omnibus adjacentibus Ego concedo Monasterio suo ejusdem loci Patrono Beato Petro Apostolo in perpetuam liberas quietas cum omnibus consuetudinibus quae appellantur Anglice Sake Soke quatenus jugiter sint proprie dominicè ................... infirmas quaslibet necessitates ibidem Deo servientium Haec ergo nemo haeredum vel successorum meorum temerare audeat ne excommunicationis gladio intereat pro haereditate Ecclesiae infernum possideat Huic testes affuere Aldradus Archiepiscopus Eboracensis Wilwinus Lincolniensis Episcopus Merlesuein Vicecomes Vif filius Topi Willielmus Comes Willielmus Malet Ingelramus Presbyter K. William Rufus HIS CHARTER For the Tenth of his HUNTINGS IN NORTHAMPTON-SHIRE WIllielmus Rex Anglorum Omnibus fidelibus suis Ministris Francigenis Anglis Salutem Sciatis me concessisse dedisse Sancto Petro Abbati de Burgo totam decimam de mea venatione in Northamptonshire amodo concedo ut illam omni tempore habeant Testes Rad. Pagnallo W. Peverello R. de Escuris H. de Bello Campo Dat. per Richardum Engaine apud Bristestocam This Charter was again granted by King Henry the second and likewise by King Richard the first and another also for Huntingdonshire which we shall give in its place King Henry II. HIS CHARTER Confirming the Eight Hundreds TO THE MONASTERY OF PETERBVRGH HEnricus Rex Anglorum Dux Normannorum Aquit Comes Andeg. Justiciariis Vic. Ministris suis Angliae Salutem Praecipio quod Willielmus Abbas de Burgo teneat bene in pace libere quietè juste honorificè octo hundreda sua cum omnibus libertatibus liberis consuetudinibus suis justitiam suam de octo hundredis suis sicut aliquis Antecessorum suorum melius liberius quietius honorificentius tenuit tempore Regis Henrici Avi mei Et prohibeo ne quis eum in aliquam novam injustam consuetudinem ponat T. Thoma Cant. apud Winton This CHARTER was also Confirmed by King Richard the First King Richard I. HIS CHARTER FOR A FAIR To be holden Eight Days in PETERBURGH S. Peter's Fair. RIchardus Dei Gratia Rex Anglorum Dux Normannorum Aquitan Comes Andeg. Archiepiscopis Episcopis Abbatibus Comitibus Baronibus Justiciariis Vic. omnibus Ministris fidelibus suis Francis Anglis Salutem Sciatis nos concessisse Carta ista confirmasse Benedicto Abbati de Burgo omnibus successoribus suis Monachis ibidem Deo fervientibus Nundinas octo dierum in Villa de Burgo omni anno in festo Apostolorum Petri Pauli Quare volumus firmiter praecipimus ut praedicti Abbas Monachi habeant in praedictis Nundinis omnes libertates liberas consuetudines quas alii Baroni nostri habent in Nundinis suis Et prohibemus ne aliquis eos inde impediat nec Mercatoribus illuc venientibus vel inde redeuntibus aliquod gravamen inferat vel molestiam faciat T. Waltero Rothom Archiepiscopo 24 Martii Apud Rothom King Richard I. HIS CHARTER FOR A Weekly MARKET in Scotter in Lincolnshire Market and Fair at Scotter in Lincolnshire belonging to the MONASTERY of Peterburgh and for a FAIR to be holden for three Daies RIchardus Dei Gratia Rex Angl. Dux Norman Aquit Comes Andeg. Archiepiscopis Episcopis Abbatibus Comitibus Baronibus Justic Vic. omnibus Ministris fidelibus suis Salutem Sciatis nos concessisse praesenti Carta confirmasse Benedicto Abbati de Burgo omnibus Successoribus suis Monachis ibidem Deo servientibus ut commune Mercatum in Villa sua de Scotter in omni septimana in die Jovis Nundinas trium dierum omni anno in eadem Villa ad festum Apostolorum Petri Pauli Quare volumus firmiter praecipimus ut praedicti Abbas Monachi habeant in praedicto Mercato in praedictis Nundinis omnes libertates liberas consuetudines quas alii Baroni nostri habent in Mercatis Nundinis suis Et prohibemus ut nullus eos inde impediat nec Mercatoribus illuc euntibus vel redeuntibus aliquod gravamen inferat vel molestiam faciat T. Waltero Rothom Archiepiscopo 24 Martii Apud Rothom King Richard by his Charter bearing Date the first Year of his Reign which was 1189. granted the former Fair to Peterburgh and this to Scotter which because they with other Priviledges granted to this Monastery were in some sort changed whilst he was detained in Almain in his return from Warring in the Holy Land he renewed his Charter September 15. in the Tenth Year of his Reign saith John Trikyngham King Richard I. HIS CHARTER FOR THE Abbot and Covent OF PETERBURGH To have the Tenth of HUNTINGS IN HVNTINGDON-SHIRE And also for themselves to HUNT RIchardus Dei Gratia Rex Angl. Dux Norman Aquit Comes Andeg. Justic Vic. Forestariis Omnibus Ministris fidelibus suis Francis Anglis Salutem Sciatis nos concessisse Carta ista confirmasse Abbati de Burgo Monachis ibidem Deo servientibus totam decimam totius Venationis quae capietur in Huntingdonscire quicunque eam ceperit in perpetuum Et quod liceat eis venari Leporem Vulpem Catum salva alia venatione nostra Et ideo prohibemus ne
Bernardi Latinè Oratio sine devotione est quasi corpus sine anima B xvi Amours ou estis venus Lumer de Lais Gallice Speculum Edmundi Gallice Pater noster Gallice Contemplationes pro diversis horis diei Gallice Contemplatio de Passione Christi Gallice Disputatio inter spiritum animam Gallice C xvi Proverbia Senecae Liber qui vocatur Housbondrie Gallice Historia Anglorum Gallice Rythmice Computatio annorum ab initio mundi usque ad tempus Edwardi filii Regis Edwardi A SUPPLEMENT To the Foregoing HISTORY THE ancient name of this place all agree was Medeshamstede or Medeshamstud as it is called by Symeon Dunelmensis and the Abbot Medeshamstudensis Abbas by Roger Hoveden ad An. 992. or Medeshamstide as it is in Radulphus de Diceto ad An. 1051. But whence it had this name is not so certain The derivation which Mr. Gunton gives of it is out of Swapham or rather Hugo as I have shown in the Preface who saith that as Eli had its name from the abundance of Eeles taken in the Waters there and Thorney from the Thorns and Bushes wherewith it was overgrown and Croyland from the Terra Cruda moist and morish Ground on which it stands so this place from that Vorago or Gurges as he terms it in the middle of the River called anciently Medeswell Whose wonderful properties he derives from Springs perpetually bubling up which kept it from being frozen when the rest of the River was and yet made it so cold that when the Sun was hotter than a Chimney fire as his words are no Swimmer could endure it And it must be confessed that Bede derives Eli ab anguillarum copia from the plenty of Eeles there consentiens communi notitiae saith Will. of Malmsbury L. ult de gestis Pontif. Angl. agreeing to the common notion For it is known to all there was such abundance of all other Fish and Fowl also in that place ut pro uno asse c. that for one farthing five men and more might not only drive away hunger but fill themselves to satiety And Thornei also other Writers will have so called propter dumorum condensitatem from the thickets of all sorts of Thorns and Briers c. which Athelwold caused to be cut up saith the same Malmsbury intending in the very beginning of his Episcopacy to go and lead an Hermite's life in that place Which he magnifies to the Skies That place also which we now call Crowland or Croyland is called Cruland both by Hugo and by Henry of Huntingdon John Prior of Hexham Gervase of Canterbury and many others And Crulant by Symeon of Durham or rather Turgotus ad An. 1075. and Cruiland by Roger Hoveden in Hen. 2. p. 547. and more ancient than all this King Edgar in his Charter to our Church of Peterburgh calls it Crulond Which may make that derivation probable from crude Land which Ingulphus himself who was Abbot of Croyland gives of it crudam terram coenosam significat But for all this I see no reason to think that Medeshamsted had its name from the Medeswell there being no such deep pit in the River and Hugo himself reporting it with an ut dicunt as they say and another plainer derivation offering it self from the fair Meades or Meadows that lie on both sides of the River Nen upon which this place stands Which in those days were the more considerable because all the rest of the Country thereabouts which was not Fenn was Woods So I find in the Book called Swapham fol. CCXCV. that all the Nashum or Nassa as it was termed afterward called the Liberty of Burgh was solitary and full of Woods without any Inhabitant And so continued till the time of Adulphus who did but begin neither to clear the Country by cutting down the Woods and to make Mannors and Granges Presently after which the place being new built its name was changed into Burch or Burg as shall be then more largely shown which during all the time of the first Monastery before it was burnt by the Danes had been called Medeshamstede and frequently Medhamsted As much as to say the Ham i. e. Village or House standing upon the Medes And was sometime simply called Hamstede as I find in Matthew of Westminster Who speaking of the inrode made by the Danes under the conduct of Hinguar and Hubba in the year 870. and showing how they destroyed the North Country and then passed over Humber and so went forward till they came to the Fenns where they burnt the Monasteries and killed their Inhabitants he adds Horum autem nomina Coenobiorum sunt Croulandia Thorneia Rameseia Hamstede quod nunc Burgum Sancti Petri dicitur Which is no mistake in the Printed Book for in a MS. now in the Library of the Church of Westminster I find the same words without the least difference but only the letter e in the end omitted it being written Hamsted Where I doubt not there was another Well as Mr. G. observes by the way called St. Laurence his Well and very probably was near the Chappel bearing his name which was dedicated to the use of the Infirmary As appears by a Charter of Willielmus de Midilton a servant in the Infirmary who gave to the Abbot and Convent of Burgh and to the Infirmary of that place a Noble of annual Rent ad sustentationem unius lampadis continue ardentis in capella Sancti Laurentii ejusdem Infirmariae for the maintaining of a Lamp perpetually burning in the Chappel of St. Laurence belonging to the same Infirmary Swaph fol. CLXXXIX The Superstitious resort to it was the cause I suppose of its being stopt up so that now there are no footsteps of it For that moved Oliver Sutton Bishop of Lincoln to send his Inhibition to restrain that kind of devotion which as Mr. Gunton observes out of Dr. Hammond was used both here and at St. Edmund's Well in Oxford and I may add in other places also as appears by the Records of the Church of Lincoln Where the Register of the Acts of this Worthy Prelate in the ten first years of his Government which was twenty years in all are lost and therewith this Act about the Church of Peterburgh But there still remain the Acts of the other ten In the first of which he condemned that superstitious devotion which many people paid at St. Edmund's Well in the Fields near St. Clment's Church without the Walls of Oxford as tending to introduce the error of the Gentiles among Christs-worshippers and in the last the like foolish devotion at another Well in the fields of Lincelad in the County of Buckingham Requiring the Archdeacons of Oxon and Bucks solemnly to excommunicate all such persons as should presume hereafter to frequent those places under the pretence of Miracles done there Both which my worthy Friend Dr. James Gardiner Sub-Dean of the Church of Lincoln having at my request transcribed for me out of the Book
their honey out of several Flowers composed these Constitutions out of several former Rules And more particularly took care about the singing used in Monasteries V. Seld. ad Eadmerum p. 145. that it should not be hudled nor too swift but be so distinct that the mind might accompany the voice and they might fulfill that of the Apostle Sing with the Spirit and sing with the Vnderstanding also All which considered I look upon it as highly probable that this Monastery of Peterburgh now became subject to this Rule being one of those restored by King Edgar And yet it was not the very Rule of St. Bennet which was established in this Council but many ancient Orders and Customs improved by that Rule and accommodated to his Precepts For long after this when there was a Third Regulation of Monasteries under Lanfranc An. 1075 in the Council of London when several things were restored as the words are which had been defined by ancient Canons the Council after consideration of Episcopal affairs decrees concerning Monks ex Regula Benedicti Dialogo Gregorii antiqua Regularium locorum consuetudine as Baronius observes From which Sir John Marsham judiciously concludes in his large Preface before the Monasticon that even in the Norman times the Monastical Laws were mixed and that the Benedictine Rule was not so admitted as that the antient customs of the Monks were thereby abrogated I have noted already the day and year when Adulphus dyed but there is a mistake I since find in the day which if the Records of our Church be true was June 5. when he was solemnly commemorated in this Monastery and is the very first Abbot of whom there is any mention made in the Kalender of this Church which is still preserved in the Library of his Grace the Archbishop of Canterbury at Lambeth of which I shall give an account in its proper place Where over against the fifth of June are these Words Depositio Adulphi Anniversarium Ricardi de Lincolnia Agnetis uxoris ejus Of all the foregoing Abbots there is not the least memory little being certainly known of what passed in the time of the first Monastery before its desolation by the Danes But it 's like they were all comprehended in that general commemoration which was made in Whitson-Week Specialium Defunctorum and was repeated in the two Ember-Weeks following in September and December Where I find the same Order with this addition that there should be a Missa ferialis cum de Profundis and the names of those speciales defuncti were then read KENVLPHVS The Character which Hugo gives of this Abbot who was chosen by the unanimous consent of the Friers and the favour of King Edgar is that he was Flos literalis disciplinae torrens eloquentiae decus norma rerum divinarum secularium which was the cause of that general concourse from all parts ad ejus Magisterium which Mr. G. hath observed And it 's likely that he brought this Monastery into the credit wherein it continued for several years For Ingulphus P. 83. Oxon. Edit tells us that in the Reign of the Conqueror the Monks of Burgh were so famous and the World had such an high opinion of them ut totus mundus abiret post eos and many of the great men of the Land both the highest Bishops and other Noble Men and Lieutenants of the Countries chose to be Interred among them He procured a confirmation of the Priviledges of this Church and of all that had been given to it from King Ethelred the Son of Edgar in these words Swapham fol. XL. Ego Athelredus Anglorum imperio sublimatus has donationes praedecessorum meorum regnante Abbate Cenulfo solidavi cum hiis testibus Dunstano Oswaldo Archiepiscopis That he surrounded the Monastery with a Wall is certain but that it was thence called Burch or Burgh as W. of Malmsbury writes Mr. G. justly doubts For King Edgar in his Charter calls it upon its restauration by this name of Burch Yet notwithstanding this name Burh and Burgh and Byrigh signifying any place which was walled about and particularly a City or Castle from the Saxon word Deorgan which signifies to defend or take into safety W. of Malmsbury might mean that the place did not deserve the name of Burch till this time His words I confess imply more for he saith the place formerly called Medeshamstede being now incompassed with a Wall by Kenulphus à similitudine Vrbis Burch vocatus est was called Burch from its likeness to a City Upon the translation of St. Elphege to the See of Canterbury Kenulphus succeeded him in the Bishoprick of Winchester as Abbot John among others remembers ad An. 1006. Who saith not a word of his Simony with which William of Malmsbury boldly charges him L. 2. de gestis Pontificum Angl. Wentanum enim Episcopatum Kenulphus Abbas Burgensis nummis nundinatus fuerat Sed non diu sacrilego ausu laetatus ante duos annos hominem exuit For which cause it is likely there was no commemoration made of him in this Church his name not being in the Kalender before named as his predecessors and all his Successors are except one guilty of the same crime and another guilty of the like though he was so great a benefactor and famed also for his Wisdom and Learning Hugo saith he governed most admirably and sweetly till he was promoted to Winchester ELSINVS Called also Elfinus and Alfinus between whom and Kenulfus there was another Abbot viz. KINSINVS if we may believe the MS. Chron. of John Abbot of this Church which I have so often cited For though he say ad An. 1006. that upon Kenulphus his removal Elsinus succeeded him and was the third Abbot after the restauration yet ad An. 1048. speaking concerning the sute which the Abbot of Peykyrke had for the Lands of his Monastery which by the judgement of the Court of Hardecnute as I shall show hereafter were given away from him he saith it was contra Kenulfum Kinsinum Abbates Burgi And that this was no mistake we may learn from his remark upon the year 1051. where he saith expresly Elfinus succeeded him in this Monastery Alfricus Eboracens Archiepis obiit apud Burgum sepelitur cui successit Kinsinus Abbas Burgi cui successit Elfinus in Abbatem promotus Monachus ejusdem loci And again ad An. 1060. obiit Kinsinus Eborac Archiep. quondam Abbas Burgi c. What truth there is in this I am not able to say from any other record but that he was a great man and Archbishop of York and here buried it will appear more hereafter when I come to that time and we have gained this piece of knowledge from John Abbot that Alfinus was a Monk of Burch and chosen to be Abbot saith Hugo by the unanimous consent of the whole Congregation whom he governed fiftyyear By which account Kinsinus must either never have been Abbot here or but for
a few days or months Mr. G. hath related how he laboured to inrich this Church with Reliques and Hugo saith many other ways but is mistaken I think in his conjecture about his procuring the Arm of St. Oswald to be brought hither For Hugo mentions it among the benefits which the Church received in the time of Leofricus and thereabouts when Winegotus apportavit brachium Sancti Oswaldi de Bebeburch There it was preserved in Bede's time in urbe regia quae a regina quondam vocabulo Bebba cognominatur as his words are L. III. Cap. 6. and thence the ancient Seat of its rest it was furtim ablatum taken away by stealth if we may believe William of Malmsbury who relates what was pretended by the Church of Burgh which in his dayes said they had Oswald's Arm but doth not seem to give credit to it himself How they came to have his Arm at Bebbeburch a place in the North I cannot imagine if it be true which the MS. Chron. of John Abbot sayes ad An. MLXV that his body was not till then taken out of his Tomb. Agelwinus Dunelmensis Episcopus Ossa beati Oswaldi Regis Martyris apud Tynemutham de tumulo in scrinio cum honore levavit But perhaps Oswaldi is there false written for Oswini for Symeon of Durham saith it was Oswin's body that was taken up by that Bishop From the same Chronicle we learn also when it was that Elfinus went into Normandy and upon what occasion and bought there at Bonavalle the body of St. Florentine pro centum libris argenti Which was not till the year MXIII. when Suanus coming with innumerable Danes into England and exercising unheard of cruelties King Ethelred hardly escaped his hands and sent away his Wife per Abbatem Burgi and another person unto Richard Duke of Normandy he himself following her presently after In the same year Ingulphus P. 56. Oxon. Edit tells us this Monastery was again burnt by the same Suanus or Swanus and many Lands were taken away from the Church as Hugo relates while the Abbot was with the Queen in Normandy the English paying a vast Tribute to the Danish Army which wasted the Kingdom forty years together But he procured from Canutus the confirmation of their priviledges in as ample manner as they had been confirmed to Kenulphus by King Ethelred In these words Ego Cnut Rex Anglorum Deo favente Elfino abbate deprecante hoc Privilegium cum optimatibus corroboravi And in the dayes of Hardecanutus got a Judgment against Wolgatus Abbot of Pegekyrke both for the Seat of his Monastery and all the Mannors belonging thereunto which Elfinus claimed as Kenulphus had done to be part of the possessions of Burgh How just a sute this was I am not able to say Ingulph condemns it most heavily as a monstrous piece of oppression and it will not be amiss if I not only relate the whole story but give an account of this Monastery from its beginning there being very little said of it in the Monasticon Anglicanum St. Pege as Ingulphus informs us was Sister to St. Guthlac a person descended of a noble Stock both by the Father and Mother as Matthew of Westminster writes who being in love with a solitary life setled himself in the Island called Croyland where no body durst dwell because they were terrified as his words are with phantasies of Devils there inhabiting This was in the year DCXCIX as the often named Chronicon of John Abbot tells us Sanctus Guthlacus apud Croylandiam vitam Anchoreticam ducere coepit Anno aetatis suae XXVI About XV. year after he dyed as the same Writer informs us DCCXIIII obiit feria quarta in hebdom Pasch Upon whose death his Sister Pega setled her self in a Cell about four miles Westward distant from his Oratory of Croyland which afterward improved into a Monastery The place from her was called Pegekyrke now Peykirk and had Lands bestowed upon it by Edmund Athebing which of them doth not appear who gave for the redemption of his own Soul and of his Wives and of Siwerthus a little Country gift as he calls it of Land in a place called Pegecyrcan to the new Monastery of the Holy Trinity and our Lady and all the Saints viz. one Mansa and a half in that Village and three Perches in Waltun c Swapham fol. CXXXI It is a very remarkable Charter both for the Preface and for the Blessings and Curses annexed in the conclusion which therefore I have represented to the Reader intirely in the Appendix What other benefactions they had to that Monastery doth not appear but they were all seised as was said before by Beorredus in the year 871. after the first desolation made by the Danes And it was again destroyed by Swanus the Dane in the forenamed year 1013. And so lay waste till the time of Wlgatus when in the year MXLVIII after a long sute with the Abbots of Peterburgh he lost the very sight of his Monastery which was adjudged to belong to Burch Upon which Ingulph makes this severe reflection tantum tunc potuit super justitiam pecunia contra veritatem versutia c. So much could money then prevail over justice and craft against truth and so powerful was the Earl Godwin in the Court of King Hardecnute And he shows how several Mannors were recovered by particular persons from this Abbot Wlgatus so that he and eighteen Monks had nothing to live upon but wandered about till King Edward the Confessor took him into his Court and upon the death of Brickmerus made him Abbot of Croyland The same he repeats again when he comes to the Reign of the Conqueror telling us how in the times of Suanus Cnutus Harold and Hardecnutus many priviledges of Monasteries were lost the limits of their Lands changed c. according as the money of Rich men prevailed in the minds of the Barbarians who sought nothing but ruins Of which the erection of the Monastery of St. Pege was an evidence in the time of Hardecnute when the money of the Abbot of Burgh prevailed against the right of the Pegelandians and the power of Earl Godwin against the simplicity of the Poor So his words are praevalente contra justitiam Pegelandensium Abbatis Burgi pecunia super simplicitate pauperum Godwini comitis potentia But if we compare what he saith with the Chron. of John Abbot it will appear that this sute was commenced long before this in the time of Kenulphus and continued more or less till the time of Leofricus who dyed just before the Conquest I will set down both their words and so leave it Chron. Joh. Abbatis Burgi MS. MXLVIII Wolgatus Abbas de Peykirke amisit sedem Abbatiae suae cum omnibus Maneriis dicto Monasterio quondam pertinentibus per judicium Regis Hardecanuti contra Kenulphum Kinsinum Abbates Burgi ipsum Monasterium de P. suam possessionem esse calumpniantes Which Ingulphus
besought them to be favourable to it but they not regarding their cries entred armed into it and indeavoured to carry away the great Cross but could not Yet they took the golden Crown from the head of the Crucifix with the pretious Stones and the Footstool under its feet made of pure Gold and Gemms together with duo aurea feretra two golden or gilded Bears whereon they carried the Saints Reliques and other such like things in Procession and nine Silver ones and twelve Crosses some of Gold some of Silver And besides all this went up into the Tower and took away the great Table which the Monks had hidden there which was all of Gold and Silver and pretious Stone and wont to be before the Altar with abundance of Books and other pretious things which were invaluable there being not the like in all England And they pretended to do all this out of faithfulness to the Church for the Danes they told them would preserve these things for the use of the Church better than the Franks would do Nay Hereward himself was Homo Monachorum a lover of Monks and therefore some believed what they said and he also afterwards swore that he did all this with a good intention because he thought William the Conqueror would get it all Away they went therefore with their Booty and made all the hast they could to their Ships fearing the Normans might fall upon them and coming to Eli they committed all their spoil into the hands of the Danes themselves What became of it Mr. Gunton hath largely enough related out of Hugo Which doth so little agree with what I find in the life of Hereward de Wake that we must suppose all this to have been done if he was not mistaken in his story in the year 1070. and that he came again and spoiled this Church after the Goods which remained were restored as I shall show presently when I have finished the foregoing History Which saith that Turoldus came to the Abby the very same day the Danes went away with an hundred and sixty Normans well armed hoping to meet with the Enemy before they carried off their prey but found no body there and the place laid desolate all being burnt both within and without except the Church Insomuch that the City not long ago called aurea was now made pauperrima But the Abbot being come the Monks who had been scattered returned and performed divine Offices which had been discontinued seven dayes He strengthened himself also by Stipendiary Souldiers upon whom he setled threescore and two Hides of Land that they might defend him from Hereward So John Abbot ad An. 1069. Turoldus vero lxii hidas terrae de terris Ecclesiae Burgi dedit Stipendiariis militibus qui eum contra Herewardum le Wake tuerentur He built a Castle also hard by the Monastery as I shall note anon out of the same Chronicle and had the pleasure to see Hereward the next year 1071. hardly escaping out of the Isle of Eli where most of his accomplices as I have said were taken And yet notwithstanding that great man rallied again and came into these parts with Forces against which a great Army was raised out of Northamptonshire Cambridgshire Linoclnshire Holland Leicestershire Huntendone and Warwickshire while Hereward lay with a few Souldiers in comparison skulking in the Woods nigh unto Burch This I learn out of a Treatise at the end of Swapham intituled de gestis Heruuardi inclyti militis gathered out of such fragments as could be found of a Book written in the English tongue by Alefricus Diaconus who was Hereward's Priest at Brun. Who says this great Army gathered out of those severai Counties was lead by Turoldus Abbot of Burch and Yvo Talbois who incompassed Hereward and his men so strictly that they greatly distressed them But he nothing terrified placed all his Sagittarii and balistarii among the Trees which they had there for their security and from thence issued out as he saw his opportunities and having made great slaughters retreated under their shelter again This he continued to do after several manners all the day long till he had tyred the opposite Army and made them raise their Siege And then Hereward with all his men rushing out upon their Rere all at once put them into such a confusion that he took many of them Prisoners and among the rest Abbot Turoldus Whom he kept in Custody till he redeemed himself and other considerable persons with the summ of three thousand Marks of Silver So that writer saith Fol. CCCXXXVI with whom John Abbot agrees but mentions a far greater summ Nihilominus tandem cum multis aliis magnatibus speaking of Turoldus ab Herewardo captus quousque pro sua redemptione XXX marcas argenti solveret cum aliis suis conductitiis in custodia detentus est But after this ransome of himself and his Nephew and others whom he received from the hand of a Cosin of Herewardus called Siwardus Albus who had honourably entertained him out of reverence to the Abbot he forgot both his Covenant and the benefits he had received renewing the War against Hereward For the carrying on of which he gave away more Goods of his Church and many Possessions to Souldiers ut haberet semper militare auxilium ad expugnandum Herewardum Which coming to the Ears of Hereward who saw he was like to suffer for his kindness he made no delay but the same night marched with all the force he could make to Burch and burning the whole Town which it seems by this story began to be built again carried away all the Treasure of the Church and pursued the Abbot himself licet latitando cum suis evaserit But the next night if we may believe this Writer Hereward thought he saw in his dream an old man of inestimable beauty and in brighter habit than he had ever beheld or imagined with a terrible countenance threatning him with a great Key he held in his hand and with a dreadful voice that he should immediately restore all he had taken out of the Church if he loved his life Whereupon he rose up the very same hour and carrying back all that he had pillaged immediately departed from Burgh But lost his way in the night and wandred up and down in the Woods not knowing whither he went till a vast Wolf appeared who marched before them like a houshold Dog and led them into their right way As they saw by lighted Candles which appeared upon every mans Shield which none of them could pull off or blow out But when morning appeared both Wolf and Candles vanished and they came whither they desired beyond Stamford He relates many other wonderful atchievements of this famous Warrior who was accounted the Hector of his time and at last shows how he was reconciled to the King and served him faithfully having all his Fathers Lands and Possessions restored to him and living comfortably and peace
Henry at Bramton the Bishop and Barons then present in Court judged that Azeo had no right to the aforesaid forty Shillings and so Abbas Johannes disraisniavit as the word is apud Bramtonam in curia Regis quadraginta solidos quod Azeo Wardeden called also Wardede diu injuste habuerat c. Swaph fol. CXII One of the Witnesses to this was Galfridus Ridel before named who herein I suppose indeavoured to serve the Abbot and the next year after as I have showed got of him the Mannor of Pithesle for his life I have observed before in the life of Elfinus how the same year 1116. he made an end of a controversie with the Church of Croyland where there is the same phrase disrainiatum fuit for disproving and by showing the contrary to clear the Abby from pretended claims But before this year ended that dreadful fire hapned which is mentioned by Mr. G out of Walter of Witlesea who doth not tell the story so exactly as it is in Hugo From whom we learn that it burst out upon the second of the Nones of August as the Chron. of John Abbot also relates in the Vigils of St. Oswald King and Martyr after this manner The Friers having been in the Refectory that morning to mend the Tables the Abbot not liking what they had done fell a Cursing and straightway went out ad placitum apud Castre to keep a Court at Caster And one of the Servants in the Bakehouse making a Fire which he could not kindle so soon as he desired in an angry fit cursed also and said Come Devil and blow the fire Whereupon the flame instantly broke out and ran to the very top of the house and through all the Offices to the neighbouring Town which Hugo saith was wholly consumed but Abbot John in his Chronicon saith only a great part of it Magna pars villae adjacentis c. And thus was fulfilled the second prediction of Elricus mentioned by Mr. G. in the life of Leofricus who said the Church should be set on fire Let us all therefore saith Hugo in whose time these things hapned deprecate the Divine displeasure that the third may not come to pass And let every one of us walk circumspectly and bridle his anger and contain his hands that he do no evil not calling the Enemy to do any thing nor commending any thing to him for he is alwayes ready to do mischief c. After which pious reflection he proceeds to relate how the fire continued burning in the Tower of the Church Nine days and on the night of the ninth day a furious wind arising blew the fire and live coals upon the Abbots houses so that we thought saith he all the remaining Offices would have been consumed Dies tristitiae doloris erat dies ille But the next year upon the eighth of the Ides of March the Abbot laid the foundation of a new Church MCXVIII An. ab incarnatione Domini Millesimo centesimo octavo saith Hugo It should be MCXVII even by his own computation for he brought the Pall from Rome 1115. the next year the Monastery was burnt and the next he began to build it And so the Chronicon Johannis Abbatis expresly saith that he began to build it again 1117. In which year also he recovered duos sochemannos apud Castre which were unjustly detained from the Church by one Leofwine who came into the Chapter house and openly acknowledged that they belonged to the Demeans of St. Peter of Burch and accordingly quitted to God and St. Peter and Abbot John the two aforesaid Sochemans whose names were Willielmus filius Leoffi Lickadisc Leofricus avunculus ipsius with all that they held in the aforesaid Village and from thence forward held them of the Abbot The same Leofwinus requiring from this Abbot five Shillings from the houses beyond the River of Stanphord which he pretended to have a grant of from Abbot Ernulphus and other Abbots he came into Court the next year 1118. and it was adjudged that he should lose these five Shillings Unto which the names of the Judges and Witnesses are set Swaph fol. CXIII What other good Acts he did I do not find but Hugo saith he laboured much in the restauration of the Church though he could not finish it and governed the Church and the Abbey well all his time and purchased Lands After all which he was struck with an incurable disease viz. the Dropsie which put an end to his life 1125. Immediately upon which the King sent his Justitiaries Richard Bassed and Walter Archdeacon and many others to search the Abbots Treasures and Goods but found nothing he having spent all in his life time But they then took an account of all that belonged to the Church and the Abbey and carried it to the King who kept the Abbey in his hand two year Thus Hugo This account of all its Mannors and Goods I find among the records at the end of that History whose Title runs thus Ibid. fol. CXXXIV c. Haec est descriptio Maneriorum Abbatiae de Burch sicut Walterus Archidiaconus eam recepit sei sivit in manu Regis Henrici I. post obitum Johannis Abbatis By which it appears there were at that time LXXII Monks who had the full diet of Monks In the Bakehouse there were duo pistores who had victum militis and unus vanator who had the same and two other Bakers who had every day two White loaves and two Brown loaves which he calls panes bisos with Beer duo caratores I suppose he means labourers for afterward in the Brewhouse mention is made of Caratores ligni Carriers of Wood who had four brown loaves and bear two Servants that grinded in the Mill who had the same Every one of which had a yearly salary of Twenty four Shillings and four pence Then follows the number of Servants and their allowances in the other Offices in Bracino in Coquina Monachorum in Sartrino in Ecclesia in Infirmario In the last of which the Infirmary there were no less than forty Servants In the diet of the Monks there was spent every week in Bread XII achersetos de frumento VIII achersetos de brasio IV. de grud 2. achersetos de fabis in denariis 2. Marcas argenti as the words are fol. CXL Where achersetos I suppose signifies that which we now call a quarter but I cannot find its Original nor mention of it in any Glossary unless it come from Chirchset or Chirchsed which Fleta L. 1. c. 47. says was a certain measure but he doth not tell us of what quantity of Wheat which in old time every one both Britains and Englishmen paid to the Holy Church at Martinmasse After the Normans came hither many great men gave it under the name of first-fruits as appears he observes in a Brief of King Knute sent to the Pope wherein this Contribution is called Chirchsed as much as to
say Semen Ecclesiae the Seed or Corn of the Church Which I find word for word in very old French in a short Glossary upon unusual English words in the antient Charters or in the Laws of King Alred Alfrid Edward and Knute Chirchesed vel Chircheomer vel Chircheambre un certein de ble batu R checun hume devoyt au ceus de Bretuns e de Englis a le Eglise le jur seint Martin Mes pus le venue de Normans c. donewint sulum la velie ley Moysi ratione primitiarum sicun lein truve en le lettris Cnut Kilenveya a Rome c ' est dit Chirchesed quasi semen Ecclesiae The Letter it self is in Ingulphus but it was not sent adsummum Pontificem as Fleta says but to the Archbishops and Bishops and all the Nation of England as he was coming from Rome 1031. wherein he desires them that before he arrived in England all the dues which by ancient Laws were owing to the Church might be paid and after the rest he mentions the tenths of the fruits in August and in the feast of St. Martin the first-fruits of the seeds called Kyrkset So his Letter concludes Et in Festivitate Sancti Martini primitiae seminum ad Ecclesiam sub cujus parochia quisque degit quae Anglice Kyrkeset nominatur Ingulph p. 61. Edit Oxon. c. This description of their Lands and Goods concludes with a Customary of their Tenants Villani Cottarii and Sochemanni in every Mannor belonging to the Church Which while the King held in his hand he gave away as Mr. G. observes the Mannor of Pithtesle for the same summ of money which the late Abbot had given him to confirm it Deo Sancto Petro Monachis sigillo authoritate regia And the person to whom the King granted it it may be further observed was one imployed to take the forenamed account of the Estate of the Church viz. Richard Basset or Bassed This Abbot was commemorated upon the 10. of November on which it appears by the Kalander was Depositio Johannis de Says Abbatis Anniversarium Henrici Talbot c. HENRICVS de Angeli His story is told more perfectly by Hugo in this manner He was first of all Bishop of Soissons and afterward made a Monk and Prior of Cluni and then Prior of Savenni After which because he was Cosin to the King of England and the Count of Aquitain the same Count gave him Abbatiam Sancti Johannis Angeli from whence he took his denomination And he being crafty cunning and ingenious afterward got the Archbishoprick of Besenscun but staid there no more than three days For he had not yet enough but got the Bishoprick de Senites where he staid about seven days And out of this preferment as well as that of Besenscun the Abbot of Cluni got him expelled He got therefore being never quiet to be Collector of Peter-pence in England Where he obtained this Abbey of Burch by pretending he was very old past labour and toil unable to bear the Wars and Troubles of his own Country and would quit his Abbey there of St. John de Angeli and that by the advice of the Pope and the Abbot of Cluni and would here take up his rest There was another thing also that had a great stroke in his preferment for besides he was near of kin to the King and that the forenamed discourse seemed to have truth in it he was the principal Witness to make Oath in a difference between the Kings Nephew the Duke of Normandy and the Daughter of the Count of Anjoy Upon all these scores the Abby was bestowed upon him in the year mentioned by Mr. G. So John Abbot also in his Chron. MS. An. MCXXVIII Henricus Abbas Andagavensis precibus optinuit à Rege Henrico Abbatiam Burgensem What Walter of Witlesea saith of Spectres seen that year he came to the Abby he had out of Hugo who saith Hoc non est falsum quia plurimi veracissimi homines viderunt audierunt cornua He staid one year in the Monastery and received homage and money of the Milites and of the whole Abbey but did not the least good for he sent and carried all to his Abbey beyond Sea whither he went by the Kings licence And having staid there a whole year he returned hither and said he had absolutely quitted his other Abbey for good and all as we speak The same year came Petrus Abbot of Cluni into England and was honourably received by the Kings command in all the Monasteries Particularly here at Burch whither he came to see Henry who complemented him highly and promised he would procure the Abbey of Burch to be made subject to that of Cluni with which hopes Peter went home The next year Henry got together a great summ of money and went beyond Sea again where the King then was Whom he made believe that he was commanded by the Abbot of Cluni to come and resign his Abbey of St. John de Angeli to him and then he would return free from that care into England So he went thither and there staid till the Feast of St. John Baptist And the next day after the Monks chose another of their own body into his place and installed him singing Te Deum and doing all other things necessary for that end expelling Henry by the help of the Count of Anjoy with great disgrace and detaining all that he had there Where he had done no more good than in other places all the five and twenty years that he had governed them Being thus cast out he went to Cluni where they kept him prisoner the Abbot and Monks being very angry with him saying he had lost the Abby of St. John by his folly Nor would they let him stir out of Doors till by his craft he again deceived them with promises and Oaths that if they would permit him to return into England he would subject the Abbey of Burch to them and as Hugo's words are ibi construeret Priores Secretarios Cellerarios Camerarios omnia commendaret in manibus eorum intus foris By which agreement he got into England whither the King also returned out of Normandy Unto whom Henry came and accused the Monks of Burch to him very heavily though with out any truth in order to his end of subjecting them to Cluni The King in great anger sent for them to Bramtun where a Plea was managed against them with so much art that the King was almost deceived But God stept in to help them by the Counsels of the Bishops there present particularly Lincoln and the Barons who understood his fraud Yet he would not desist but being thus defeated indeavoured to make his Nephew Gerardus Abbot of Burch that what he could not do by himself might be effected by him All which made the lives of the Monks very uneasie till the King at last understood his knavery
and sending for him commanded him to surrender his Abbey and be gone out of his Realm Which he did in the year MCXXXII So John Abbot Henricus Abbas de Burgo quem dimisit ad Andegavenses redit With which Hugo agrees who says he recovered his Abbey of St. John de Angeli and that notwithstanding all his faults bonus Eleemosynator omnibus diebus fuit he was good to the poor all his days And therefore he made a good end not living long after he returned thither There is no memory of this Abbot in the Kalander of the Church no more than of Kenulphus and Godricus MARTINVS de Vecti Henry being gone the King gave this Abbey by the consent of the Monks saith Hugo to a religious Monk Martinus de Bec the Prior of St. Neots who was here installed upon the Feast of St. Peter with great honour and with the joy of the whole Convent and all the people An. MCXXXIII Where Chron. M. S. Johannis Abbatis saith Martinus de vecto in Abbatem Burgi est electus in die Sancti Petri receptus The next year the day after the Feast of St. Peter ad Vincula the King crossed the Seas again when about six a clock the Heavens were on a sudden so darkned that the Sun saith Hugo lookt like the Moon I suppose by a great Ecclipse and for three or four hours the Stars appeared which many took to portend some great thing And so it did for that year the King dyed and all ancient and wise men of the Land fell with him and so the Land was darkned because peace and truth and righteousness were taken away from it The same year 1135. King Stephen Nephew to the former King a Prince of a mild and low Spirit got the Crown and with him as Hugo goes on Young men who were very wicked also got into power and troubled the Land The Church especially was in great tribulation all England over and among the rest this of Burgh whose Abbot suffered very much and kept his Abbey with great difficulty And yet for all that he provided all things necessary for his Monks and for Strangers there being great love among them and the Monks being assistant to him He went on also with the building of the Monastery and of the Church the Chancel of which he finished and brought in cum magno honore the holy Reliques and the Monks into the new Church upon the Feast of St. Peter in the year of our Lord One thousand one hundred and forty three and twenty years after the burning of the place It should be twenty seven years after if we may belive the MS. Chron. of John Abbot which saith MCXLIII Conventus Burgi hoc anno intravit in novam Ecclesiam that they did not go into the new Church till 1143. At this great solemnity of bringing the Reliques and Monks into the new Church the Arm of St. Oswald was produced before Alexander Bishop of Lincoln the Abbots of Ramsey Thorney Croyland many Barons and a vast number of people as it had been once before brought forth to satisfie Matthias Abbot and shown intire in its slesh skin Nerves and every thing else The story of this Arm is in short related by Mr. Gunton where he speaks of the Reliques of this Church To which Will. of Malmsbury gives no great credit for though he saith there was shown here at Burgh the hand of St. Oswald with the Arm and devoutly worshipped by the people being kept loculo argenteo deaurato in Ecclesia Beati Petri yet he adds that too much credit is not to be given to it for fides dictorum vacillat ubi nihil auditor visu explorat L. 4. de gest Pontif. Which he doth not say he pretends because he doubted of the thing but he would not too hastily affirm that his Arm was in this place But waving this doubt of his Hugo saith he saw it and kissed it and handled it with his own hands at this time and relates a great many wonderful cures which were performed merely by the water wherein it was washed with which I shall not trouble the Reader He saith it had been shown before this to satisfie Martin himself who desired to see it either out of curiosity or because he doubted of its being uncorrupted And a Third time he adds it was shown to King Stephen who came to Burgh and offered his Ring to him c. as Mr. G. hath observed In like manner it was again shown that I may put together what belongs to this matter to King John in the time of Abbot Akarius as I learn from the Chron. of John Abbot An. MCCVI. Brachium Sancti Oswaldi Regis Martyris ostensum est Johanni Regi apud Burgum It was ordered also by a Statute of Abbot Walter to be carried in solemn procession every year upon the Feast of the Dedication of the Church unless it had been carryed about on the Feast of St. Oswald Swaph fol. CCLXXIII But leaving this let us take some account of his benefactions to this Church which were very many Hugo says indeed that by the instinct of the Devil and by ill Counsel he was guilty of imbezzling the Treasure of the Church in the beginning of his Government but he made amends afterward giving a whole Town called Pilesgate to the Church with all the Tythes and Offerings and many possessions c. By his Charter also in the time of King Henry I suppose the first for he dyed just after the second came to the Crown he gave with the consent of the King a great deal of Land and Rents and Services in several Towns which are therein named for the use of the Sacrist and for the Building and Repairing of the Monastery Ibid. fol. 100. This was in the beginning of his Government when Richard Priest of Castre having a mind to change his life and take upon him the habit of a Monk prevailed with this Abbot by his own and others intreaties to receive him into the Monastery of Burch Accordingly he came on a day appointed 1133 which was the first year of Martin into the Chapter-house and there before the Abbot and all the Monks made it his humble Petition that they would receive all he had viz. the Church of Castre which he then held with all belonging to it both in Lands and in Tithes and in other things which he gave to God and to St. Peter for ever Whereupon the Abbot granted what he desired on condition that he should come into Court coram Baronibus suis and there confirm what he had now done in the Chapter-house which he performed accordingly For the aforesaid Richard Priest came into the Abbots Chamber and there before the Abbot of Thorney and Will. de Albeni and Richard Basset and many other Barons of the Abbey and divers other persons who came with William and Richard restored his Church of Castre to the Church of St. Peter de Burch de
jacet inter terram Thome Speciarii terram Agnetis quondam uxoris Henrici in cultura que jacet inter boscum de Westwoode Capellam Sancti Botulphi pro quadam placia pertinente ad ortum Eleemosynarie Burgi super q. cancellum capellae Sancti Johannis Bapt. constructum est c. Which Chapel also of St. John Baptist seems to be distinct from the Church of that name Swapham doth not tell us when he dyed But the often mentioned Chron. of John Abbot saith An. MCC obiit Andreas Abbas Burgi cui successit Acharius Sancti Albani So he governed not about 5. but about seven year His memory was celebrated on the twenty first of February when I find in the Kalander was Depositio Domini Andreae Abbatis ACHARIVS As King John gave the Abbey of Burgh to this Prior of St. Albans so in the same year he gave the Abbey of Ramsey to the Prior of Burgh They are the words of Rog. Hoveden Ad An. 1200. p. 802. in that place where he calls this Abbot Zacharias as Mr. G. observes But he did not put him in presently upon the death of Andreas for Swapham tells us he received the Abbey in Rogation week and found it so bare of all manner of Provisions that there was not food enough for one day The reason was the Archbishop of St. Andrews in Scotland to whom the King had given the custody of the Abbey while it was void had left nothing but carried all that he could away with him Notwithstanding which this good man in a short time was able to furnish the place not merely with necessaries but superfluities For besides a great many rich vestments he gave to the Church Silver Basins for the great Altar with a case of Gold and Silver set with pretious stones opere pulcherrimo subtilissimo for the Arm of St. Oswald A yearly Rent also to the Refectory and the Pittancia to the former of which he gave likewise two excellent Cups de Mazaro with great Silver feet richly gilt and Covers to them one of which had the three Kings offering their gifts to our Saviour in the bottom of it He gave moreover to the said Refectory Nine great drinking Cups de Mazaro and four Table Knives with Ivory hafts He assigned Thurleby also to the Chamberlain from whence saith Swapham we have XII Coverlids of St. Alban and as many Coats He assigned also to the Chamber the house which Richard Crookman offered to St. Peter when he was made a Monk which yielded the yearly Rent of a Noble And when the Celleraria upon a time wanted Provision he fed the whole Convent from the Feast of St. Peter and St. Paul to the Feast of St. Andrew at his own charge And caused the Mill of Athelwalton to be repaired the Land to be ploughed and Sown and the Corn gathered which he caused to be brought into the Cellerary And out of his pitty to the infirm Monks who had no where to take the comfort of the air he gave them of his own accord without asking a part of his Vineyard where Rich. de Scoter afterwards planted a garden He also bought houses hard by St. Pauls London which cost him above two hundred and fifty Marks and in several of the Mannors belonging to the Church caused Halls Chambers and other edifices to be built as the Hall at Scottere the Hall at Fiskertune and divers other places which Swapham mentions He gave two hundred Marks to King John for his Charter of Liberties which is still remaining and discharged the house of above a thousand Marks in the Exchequer He recovered the Mannor of Walcote from Peter Son of Radulphus who had held it long and got many confirmations of it from the Kings of England as well as the Marsh between Singlesholt and Croyland mentioned by Mr. G. from which he received yearly by the consent and agreement of the Abbot of Croyland four Stone of Wax which he appointed to be imployed for Wax-Candles on the Feasts of the Saints of this Church They that have a mind may read the whole story of this recovery in the continuation of the History of Crowland lately put out at Oxford with Ingulphus c. P. 471 472. which tells us it was in the year 1202. not long after he came to the Abbotship But though the King himself then after many meetings and treaties and great expences made a final end as they speak yet the controversie was renewed again not long after as shall be shewed in its place His Constitution wherein with the consent of the Brethren he orders how the four Stone of Wax should be yearly spent is as follows That it should be delivered to the Keeper of the Altar of St. Mary who was to take care that in each of the 3. Festivals of St. Peter one Wax Candle of five pound weight should burn continually before the great Altar from the beginning of the first Vespers till after the completorium of the Festival In like manner in the four Festivals of St. Mary and in those of St. Oswald St. Kyneberge St. Kyneswithe and St. Tibbe What remained of the four Stone of Wax and was left after the completorium of those Festivals he was to take care should be spent every day ad missam Sanctae Mariae There is another agreement between him and the Abbot of Crowland which I find at the very end of the Book called Swapham whose title is this De bunda de Fynfet Be it knowen to all that be olyve and to all that shall come here after that the Bounde of Fynfete which is made mention of in the Fyne betwix Akary Abbot of Peterburgh and his Covent and Henry Abbot of Croyland and his Covent it is set in an Angyl besyde a Plot that is called now a days Nomansland betwix the waters of Weland and of Nene Wich water of Nene hath its course directly from thence until Croyland-Brig after the cours of water be the wich men rowe from Croyland unto Dowesdale on the South syde of a Crosse set there And the water of Weland hath his cours directly from Croyland Brig unto Nomansland Hyrum by a water called Twandam Dyke And there the water of Weland fallyth into Nene And the seid Hyrum is set at a barre and an Old Welow anens the Dyke by the wich men go to a place called Tutlakisland He bought Land at Stowe near Simpringham where Abbot Robert afterward built houses and the custom being that the Abbot should have the Auxilia Sancti Michaelis before mentioned from Alwallon and Flettune viz. twenty Mark he gave 15. to the Convent and left only 5. to his Successors which Abbot Robert also assigned to the Convent This goodness therefore of his saith Swapham deserves to be had in everlasting remembrance and yet it would be tedious to tell the persecutions he endured Which were exceeding great from a hard King and from untamed Tyrants from Forresters and other
Ministers the days then being very evil because there was great discord inter Regnum Sacerdotium between the Civil and the Ecclesiastical power For they that should have defended the Church took Arms against it and they who seemed to be friends of Religion endeavoured to destroy it There had been a Petition preferred by the Almoner of Burgh in his Predecessors time to Pope Clement showing that he having no Ecclesiastical benefice belonging to the Almonry whereby he might be able to keep good hospitality was willing to assign the Church of Makeseia to that use if the Abbot and Convent who had the right of presentation would consent Whereupon the Pope moved Hugo Bishop of Lincoln to use his Authority to perswade them to grant the said Parsonage to that use which Hugo did and Pope Celestine afterward confirmed the Grant of the Church of Makeseia and Normanby with all their appurtenances unto the use of the Almonry After which Acarius by the Petition and advice of the Convent setled all the Tythes of all their Lands for the maintenance of Hospitality except of those two Mannors de Stanewig de Irtlingburgh Which was afterward confirmed by William Bishop of Lincoln who recites the whole Charter of Akarius in his Fol. XCIII He granted also out of reverence and respect to this Church of Makeseia and at the Petition of Galfridus Son of Radulphus de Halone one of the Milites of Burgh and at the desire of the Parishioners that they would hereafter have no passage through the Church-yard of Makeseia for their Horses Oxen Cows Hoggs or other Animals nor by themselves nor Servants lay any thing in the Church-yard which might discolour or dishonour it saving to themselves only the herbage of the Church-yard and liberty to mow it c. Galfridus on his part giving the Eleemosynary of the Church of Burgh two Acres of Arable Land in the field of Makeseia so that the Church yard might be freed from all that filth which was caused by the Carriages of the Procurators of the Eleemosynary Both these Charters are remaining Swaph fol. CIII In another Charter this Abbot granted to the same Eleemosynary the offerings of the Chapel before mentioned of Tho. a Becket called there Capella Sancti Thomae ad Portam for the use of the Hospital which belonged to it Yet so as that on Festival days when the Parishioners of St. John Baptist were bound to make their Oblation at that Church none should be admitted to hear Mass in the Church of the Hospital to the prejudice of the said Church of St. John Baptist But if any man were so weak in Body that he could not go so far as the Parish-Church and therefore made his Oblation in the aforesaid Chapel two parts of three of such Oblation should be given to the Sacrist and the remaining third to the Chaplain of St. J. Baptist Upon other days if any body came out of devotion to this Chapel and made his offerings here they should be wholly applied to the use of the Hospital In like manner if Strangers came to pray there whether on Festival or other days and offered any thing or if any Legacy were given to the Hospital all should be intirely applied to the uses of the poor people there Fol. CIV and fol. CC. And accordingly an agreement was made and drawn in writing between the Sacrist the Chaplain of St. John Baptist and the Almoner In which the Festivals are expressed on which the Parishioners of St. J. Baptist were wont to offer and might not be admitted unless in case of weakness to hear Mass in the Chapel of the Hospital viz. All-Saints All-Souls Christmas Circumcision Epiphany Purification Good-Friday Easter Ascension Whitsunday St. John Baptist the Assumption and the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin and Saint Giles This Abbot did many other memorable things for the benefit of the Infirmary and of the Monks Chamber and many things were done by others in his time particularly Robert de Tot by the will and assent of Akarius whom he calls his Lord gave seven acres of Arable Land in Paston to the Chapel beatae Mariae de Parco which I cannot set down without inlarging this Supplement too much beyond the bounds to which I am confined One thing done in his time I must not forget which is a Bull sent from Gregory the IXth to the Bishop of Lincoln and him the Abbot of Burgh importing that the Abbot had represented to him how some Monks of his Church had incurred the sentence of Excommunication for laying violent hands one upon another and upon other both Secular and Religious persons and Secular Clergy and other Monks were under the same sentence for denying due obedience to the Abbot when they were corrected by him others because they had entred the Monastery by Simony and how some of these Excommunicated Persons had presumed to celebrate divine Offices not having obtained absolution For whose Salvation the Abbot being solicitous had petitioned the said Gregory that it might not be necessary for them to come to the Apostolical See for the benefit of absolution and dispensation he in confidence of his discretion granted him power to absolve them in all the forenamed cases except such enormous excesses in laying hands on any body as might seem fit to be referred to the See Apostolique after satisfaction made to those who had been injured And that he should proceed against the Simoniacal Monks according to the constitution in a General Council and suspend those who in contempt of Ecclesiastical discipline had officiated in the Church during their Excommunication for two years à suorum executione ordinum Which being finished he might mercifully dispense with them if they were of an honest Conversation and a better life Several compositions also made by him I must omit and conclude as R. Swapham doth that this good man governed the Monastery for about X. years and was such an example to all of order honesty kindness and bounty that from him posterity might learn how to behave themselves both in the cloyster and in the World And particularly he was extroardinary kind to the Convent unto whom he sent meat every day from his own Table for the consolation of the Brethren which the Prior divided among them The like he did to the domus infirmorum sending flesh-meat to those who were weak and would often say in the Convent Domini Domini nisi per quosdam vestrum stetisset c. My Masters my Masters had not some of you hindred I had done much good to you Which saying saith Swapham from which we may gather he lived in this time was not understood by us then but after his death we perceived why he said this and knew of whom it was meant But it is no matter saith he they are gone they lifted up themselves and the Lord hath cast them down As for this good man he never rendred evil for evil to any man but studied more
in favour by making a Resignation of his Abbey as many did under the common Seal into the Kings hands Which though I cannot find in the Augmentation Office yet there is a Grant there made by King Henry to Abbot Chambers which confirms me in this opinion It bears date 1 March An. 31 Hen. 8. which was 1540. before the Bishoprick was erected by which it is expressed that the Monastery of Peterburgh being dissolved the King out of his Grace and Favour did grant to the said late Abbot Chambers Two hundred and sixty pound thirteen shillings and four pence per annum during his life with an hundred Load of Wood out of the Woods called Eastwood and Westwood There were Letters which are now lost sent from the Duke of Somerset and others of the Council 1548. to examine the matter in Controversie between the Bishop of Peterburgh and one Acton concerning words pretended to be spoken against the Sacrament and concerning Images in the Church undefaced with Plate sold out of the Town-Church How it ended I cannot find nor have I any thing to add about David Pool who was made Bishop in Queen Mary's time Of Bishop SCAMBLER I might say much more than is in Mr. G. but have not room for it For before those Articles mentioned by Mr. G. there were Injunctions or Ordinations given to the Dean and Chapter by Thomas Yale Dr. of Law and Edward Leeds Licentiate and John Porey Dr. in Divinity being Visitors and Commissaries authorized by the Archbishop of Canterbury to exercise his Metropolitical Visitation c. They were in number Nine publicatae traditae octavo die Januarii 1560. in domo Capitulari Ecclesiae Cathedralis Petriburg The Injunctions also and Articles of Inquiry in several Triennial Visitations of Bishop Scambler are still remaining in the years 1561 1564 1567. in which year I find 21 Injunctions of his to the Dean and Chapter and other Ministers and 1570. In the next Visitation 1573. he delivered no Articles to be enquired of nor more Injunctions but only commanded them to keep their Statutes which were not against the Queens Majesty's Proceedings nor her Visitors c. In the last of these Visitations but one it was that the Tabernacles were taken down in the Ladies Chappel which was not done till the 12. of Elizabeth How this Bishop passed away the Lands of the Bishoprick wherewith King Henry had indowed it Mr. G. hath related in part Others have told us more and that he obtained his Translation to Norwich as a Reward of one of these Grants to a great man at Court RICHARD HOWLAND Bishop They that would read more of the History of Mary Queen of Scots may find a great many memorable things in the Memoires of Sir James Melvil a faithful Servant of hers and of his Country not long ago brought to light Bishop Morton in his Protestant Appeal L. IV. Cap. I. hath given the best account I meet with of that passage which the Apology of the Roman Church took out of Martin Prelate in the Bishop of Lincoln's Sermon at her Funeral which made a great noise among factious people who reported that he prayed his Soul and the Souls of all there present might be with the Soul of the Queen deceased But the truth of the Story he saith was this that the Reverend Bishop now mentioned understanding how that great and honorable personage in the last act of her life renounced all presumption of her own inherent righteousness and wholly affianced her Soul unto Christ in belief to be justified only by his satisfactory Justice did therefore conceive hope of her Salvation by vertue of that Cordial prescribed by the holy Apostle viz. that where sin aboundeth the grace of God doth super-abound Which the Apostle hath ministred for the comfort of every Christian who erring by Ignorance shall by sincere repentance especially for all known sins depart this mortal life having the heel or end of it shod with this preparation of the Gospel of peace not of the new Romish but of the old Catholick Faith which is the faith of all Protestants And this consideration of that our Preacher cannot but worthily condemn the Apologists of partial prejudice who chose rather to be informed concerning that Sermon by as they confess a reproachful traducer and libeller than which they might easily have done by testimony of a thousand temperate and indifferent hearers then present I referr the Reader to Sir John Harrington's brief view of the State of the Church c. for an account of Dr. Fletchers advancement from the Deanry of Peterburgh to the Bishoprick of Bristol and so to London which he himself could not justifie but was forced to cry Herein the Lord be merciful to me THOMAS DOVE The same Sir John Harrington saith he had known this Bishop to have been greatly respected and favoured by Queen Elizabeth and no less liked and approved in the more learned judgment of King James When the Queen first heard him she said she thought the holy Ghost was descended again in this Dove for he was a very eloquent Preacher In his time there was a Font erected in the Body of the Church where none had been before whereof there is this Memorial in the Register Book Baptisterium in Nave Ecclesiae Cathedralis de Burgo Sancti Petri Anno Salutis MDCXV gravissimorum virorum Georgii Dean Meriton meritò istius Ecclesiae Decani reliquorumque tunc temporis Paerbendariorum consilio extructum nam antea nullum in Ecclesia extiterat Reverendissimus in Christo Pater Dominus Thomas de Burgo Sancti Petri Episcopus in magna hominum Corona solenni processione illuc adductus consecravit scilicet Psalmo LXXXIV prius a Choro coetu decantato tum demum piâ eleganti fervidâ precatione Deo suppliciter invocato ut servis suis Baptizantibus Baptizandis omnibusque aliis infantes ad hoc sacrum Christi lavacrum adducentibus spiritu suo in perpetuum adesse velit Hac finita solennitate mox ad Baptismum allatus est venerabilis viri Mri. Jo. annis Bridgeman sacrae Theologiae Doctoris ac serenissimo Jacobo Regi à sacris in ista Ecclesia primam tunc Prebendam occupantis filiolus Qui imposito Henrici nomine sponsoribus praedicto Domino Episcopo Humfrido Orme milite Elizabetha Vxore D. D. Walter Waley in Christi familiam ascriptus est Cui omnibus in posterum baptizandis benedicat Deus Amen I must omit all the rest and only take notice of two or three things of later date which ought not to be forgotten Bishop Laney his benevolence mentioned by Mr. G. was this He gave an hundred Pound toward the repairing one of the great Arches of the Church Porch which was faln down in the late times Dr. Cosins Dean of this Church and after the Kings Restauration made Bishop of Durham by his last Will and Testament gave forty Pound for a Monument to be erected
that he had stollen out of S. Oswalds shrine certain Jewels and what he could elsewhere lay his hands on and given them to Women in the Town That one Reginald Bray what he was I know not but he is called Dominus should have a due proportion of Diet for number of Dishes That the Monks haunted a Tavern near the Monastery and gave themselves to singing and dancing in the Dormitory till 10 or 11 a Clock at Night to the trouble of the rest That at the Celebration of the Funeral of the late William Abbot of the Monastery there was withholden from every Priest 6 s. 8 d. and from every Monk 3 s. 4 d. which was used to be given at such times This Robert Kirton had great contention with his Tenants in Peterburgh about Pasturage in the Fenn called Burgh a little Fenn adjoyning to the Monastery which as the Inhabitants alledged the Abbot had overcharged with 1500 Sheep in two flocks complaining also to the King then Hen. 8. that he had suffered thirty Tenements in the street called Boongate-street to fall to utter decay and then emparked the same ground and made it a place The Park for his own Deer But notwithstanding these contests Abbot Robert forgat not to enlarge and beautifie the buildings of his Monastery for he built that goodly building at the East end of the Church now commonly known by the name of The New Building New buildings wherein he placed three Altars opposite to three pair of Stairs descending from the back of the great Altar The places of those Altars are yet discernable though their use be not known He built a Chamber in his dwelling House calling it Heaven-gate-Chamber which is extant and retaineth its name to this day Heaven-gate Chamber He made in his great Hall that goodly Bow window overlooking the Cloyster the memory whereof is fresh to this present age He set up in the Church the Crucifixerium or Rood-loft now standing at the entrance into the Quire though placed something lower than it was at its first erection He set up the Gate leading to the Deanry which is yet standing and retaineth the memory of the Builder in his Hieroglyphick of a Crosier with the letter R and a Church or Kirk placed upon a Tun which must be construed with the allusion thus Abbot Robert Kirk-Tun and so Kirton He beautified the Chappel of S. Mary or The Ladies Chappel with pictures and gilded work much of which was lately extant He maintained a long suit in Law against Margaret Countess of Richmond and Darby about Knights-service for Lands in Torpell Thorpe Watervile and Achirch wherein at last he prevailed I know not whether I have done well or ill in declaring the acts of this Robert but this must be according to the capacity of the Reader for I find Abbot Robert thus pleading for himself Legitur in historia scholastica quod Antipater Idumaeus M. Herodis pater in quodam praelio in servitio Imperatoris multis vulneribus confossus est qui tandem accusatus rejectis vestibus dixit Ego nolo me Domine Imperator excusare apud te sed ista vulnera quae suscepi pro te loquantur pro me si ego diligo te Sic ista parva praedicta loquantur pro me si aliqua feci digna Deo laude Si interrogaretur utrum haec manifestari vel celari debent nec carnalibus incredulis sunt revelanda nec devotis prudentibus vere fidelibus sunt abscondenda And when he had been Abbot about thirty two years he was buried in the said Chappel His Monument was in the year 1651. levelled with the ground above which it was erected some four foot and placed upon an hollow Arch where his body lay and at the head thereof was a fair Stone lying even with the pavement which covered a pair of stairs going down into the Sepulchre There let him rest if I may say he rested till we pass to his Successor the last of all the Abbots 45. JOHN CHAMBERS Was born in Peterburgh but what he was or upon what score made Abbot Records are wanting to inform us His advancement to the Abbatical Chair was Anno 1528. which might be the 19 or 20. of King Henry 8. In his first year Cardinal Wolsey came to Peterburgh where he kept his Easter upon Palm-Sunday he carried his Palm going with the Monks in procession and the Thursday following he kept his Maundy washing and kissing the feet of fifty nine poor people and having dried them he gave to every one of them 12d and three Ells of Canvass for a shirt he gave also to each of them a pair of shoes and a portion of red herrings On Easter-day he went in procession in his Cardinals Vestments and sang the High-Mass himself after a solemn manner which he concluded with his benediction and remission upon all the hearers In the seventh year of this John Katherine the first wife of King Hen. 8. and Mother of Queen Mary died at Kimbolton Castle in the County of Huntingdon Jan. 8. 1535. and was buried in this Church betwixt two pillars on the Northside of the Quire near to the great Altar her Hearse being covered with a black Velvet Pall crossed with white Cloth of silver which how it came to degenerate into one of meaner value is unknown to us yet this changeling was also taken away Anno 1643. with her Spanish Scutcheons affixed thereunto Some write that for her sake the Church of Peterburgh fared Lord Herbert in King Hen. 2 Kings 23. 18. the better at the dissolution of Abbys and was turned into a Cathedral as if King Hen. like King Josiah who favoured the grave of the Prophet should favour his Wifes grave in this place Be it so or no the goodly structure of the place convenient situation for a new erection with accommodations thereunto might make a fair plea for a reprieve from the stroke of that Ax which cut others down I have not as yet seen any Record showing how John Chambers demeaned himself towards King Henry or complied with him in that great dissolution of Abbys that the King should continue him in his place and not put him to death as he did some or depose him as he did others But probable it is that Abbot John loved to sleep in a whole skin and desired to die in his nest wherein he had lived so long and perhaps might use such means as might preserve if not his means to his Church yet his Church to posterity And now that we are come to those times wherein that great alteration in the Church and alienation of her Revenues hapned for our more orderly proceeding in the declaration thereof we shall first present the Reader with an Inventory of the Church-Utensils and of the Abbots domestick goods and then take him abroad to view the Mannors and Lands that he may understand what was taken from and what continued to the Church
of Peterburgh On the 30 of November 1539. being the 31 of King Henry 8. an Inventory was taken as followeth Imprimis One Cross set with Crystal silver and gilt Item One Cross of silver gilt with a staff of silver Item One Cross of Byrral with a staff of silver Item One old Cross plated upon wood Item Five staves of the Rectores Chori with heads of silver Item Two Candlesticks gilt Item Two Candlesticks parcel gilt Item Two Censors gilt parcel of them Item One Censor gilt Item One Ship gilt with a foot Item One little Bason and Ewre gilt Item Ten Chalices gilt with the Patens Item One little Chalice parcel gilt Item One broken Crewet gilt Item One holy water-stock parcel gilt Item A Ghospeller and a Superaltare garnished with silver and gilt Item Two Verge rods of silver ALTAR-Cloths Item One Altar-Cloth of two Kings and Bishops Item Two Altar-Cloths of Purple Velvet embroidered with Eagles and Flower de Luces Item Two Altar-Cloths of Bawdkyn Item Two Altar-Cloths of Cloth of silver Item Two Altar-Cloths of Bawdkyn with Leopards and Stars Item Two Altar-Cloths of white Bawdkyn Item One Altar-Cloth of white Diaper with a border embroidered with Bucks ALBES Red Albes for Passion-week 27. Item Eight Albes with Crowns and Moons Item Fourteen red Albes Item Forty blue Albes of divers sorts Item Seven and twenty other Albes to be worn on single Feasts Item Six Albes with Peter-Keys Item Six Albes called The Kydds Item Seven Albes called Meltons Item Six Albes called Doggs Item One old Albe richly embroidered Item Eight Albes with Apples of Cloth of gold Item Eight Albes with Apples of blue Tissew Item Five old Albes with red Tissew Item Eight Albes embroidered with Vines Item Five old Albes embroidered Item Fourteen Albes embroidered with divers sorts Item Thirty Albes of old Cloth of Bawdkyn Item Nine Albes embroidered with green Item Thirteen Albes of divers sorts Item Fourteen green Albes with counterfeit Cloth of gold Item Four Albes called Ferial White Item Seven Albes called Ferial Black VESTMENTS Item One suit of Crimson Velvet upon Velvet with a Cope and Albe suitable to the same Item One Chesible with an Albe called The Burgon Item One suit of blue Damask with a Cope and thirteen Albes to the same Item One suit of Purple Velvet embroidered with Flowers and Angels with a Cope and five Albes Item One suit of black Velvet with a Cope and four Albes with Flowers Item One suit of rich white Cloth of Bawdkyn with seven Albes Item One suit of blue Velvet with five Albes Item One suit of red Velvet with ragged staves with three Albes of green Bawdkyn Item One suit of Crimson Velvet with Flowers and one Cope and three Albes Item One suit of red Satin with three Albes Item One suit of red Tissew with three Tunicles Item One suit of blue Tissew with two Tunicles Item One suit of Cloth of gold with orphers of Tissew Item One suit called The Crowns with two Copes Item One suit called The Londus with four Copes Item One suit of Peter Keys with two Copes Item One suit of the Doggs with two Copes Item One suit of the Meltons so called with eight Copes Item One suit called Overtons with three Copes Item One white suit called Godfreys without a Cope Item One suit of white silk called The Georges with eight Copes Item One suit called the Kydds with four Copes Item One suit called Red Needle-work with two Copes Item One suit of green silk called Martyrs with four Copes Item One suit called The Squirrels with two Copes Item One suit of green silk called The Cocks with one Cope Item One suit of green Velvet with one Cope Item One suit of yellow silk with two Copes Item One suit of changeable silk with one Cope Item One suit called The Daysies with one Cope Item One suit called The Popinjays without a Cope Item One suit of Purple Velvet without a Cope Item One Vestment of black Velvet with one Albe Item Three Tunicles of black Woorsted Item One suit of course red without a Cope Item Three Tunicles with Peter Keys Item One Vestment called The Vines COPES Imprimis Eighteen of red Tissew Item Two Copes called The Burgons Item Three Copes called The Golds. Item Six Copes of red Velvet Item Three Copes of red Bawdkin Item One Cope of red Damask Item Six Copes of blue Tissue Item Two Copes of dun Tissue Item Nine blue Copes called The Roots Item Five Copes of blue Velvet Item Thirteen Copes of blue silk called The Georges Item Seven Copes of blue Bawdkin called The Hindes Item Four Copes of old black Bawdkin Item Seven Copes of Sattin of Cyprus Item Three Copes of red silk Item Three Copes of green silk Item Four Copes of red Needlework Item Four Copes of green Velvet Item Thirteen Copes of white Silk Item Two other Copes In the QUIRE Imprimis The high Altar plated with Silver well gilt with one image of Christs passion and a little shrine of Copper enameled for the Sacrament Item two pair of Organs and two desks of Latten seven Basins hanging with four Candlesticks and Banners of Silk above the Quire joyning to the Tomb where Q. Katharine lieth buried Item in the inclosed place where the Lady Katharine lieth buried one Altar Cloth of black Cloth one Pall of black Velvet with white cloth of Silver Crossed and one white Altar Cloth Item belonging to the same remaining in the Sacristy two Candlesticks of Silver parcel Gilt one Chalice and two Crewets gilt Item One pair of Vestments of black Velvet with an Albe to the same Item Ten Cloaths called Pedecloaths to lye before the high Altar Item Sixteen Cloaths to hang in the Quire Item At the upper end of the Church three Altars and upon every Altar a Table of the Passion of Christ Gilt with three stained Fronts In the Ladies CHAPPEL Imprimis An Image of our Lady with reddis Rissey set in a Tabernacle well gilt upon Wood with twelve great Images and four and thirty small Images of the same work about the Chappel Item a pair of Organs one Desk and four Seats one Tabernacle of the Trinity and one other of our Lady one Desk and one old Candlestick of Latten four Pedecoaths called Tapets Item Two Vestments of white Damask with Flowers one red vestment of Satten with Flowers and also Albes for the same Item One suit of Crimson Velvet with Orphers of Imagery of Gold and one Cope and four Albes Item Three white Altar Cloaths one of them Diaper with three old painted Fronts two Orfers eight Surplisses In S. Johns CHAPPEL Item A Table of Alabaster one front of painted Cloaths with two Images of Alabaster In S. James CHAPPEL Item One Table of Alabaster two Images of the same and one Front of painted Cloaths In the Rood LOFT Item One Table upon the Altar eighteen Images well