13. THE PRIORY OF SHULBRED (fn. 1)
The priory of the Blessed Virgin Mary,
St. Eustace, and the Holy Cross of Shulbred, or
Woolynchmere, was probably founded by Ralph
de Arden, who in 1200 bought 2 hides of land
in 'Wlenchemere,' and in 1207 had the priory
of 'Wlenchemere,' with all its possessions during
the king's pleasure. His descendant, another
Ralph de Ardenne, sold the advowson of the
priory to William Percy in 1239 for 65 marks;
and it accordingly remained in the hands of the
Percies until December, 1459, when Henry
Percy, earl of Northumberland, granted it to
Waynflete, bishop of Winchester, who probably
contemplated appropriating it to his college of
Magdalen, Oxford. (fn. 2) The priory, however, came
again into the possession of the Percies, and was
retained by them till its dissolution.
The original endowment appears to have consisted of lands in Linchmere and Mid Lavant,
but when William Percy acquired the patronage
he added a mill and rents in Tillington and
Petworth, in return for which the prior undertook to maintain five canons to celebrate divine
service for the souls of William and his heirs,
the right of presenting a fit clerk whenever a
canon died being reserved to William and his
heirs. It was probably by William Percy's
influence that Bishop Ralph de Neville (1227-43)
appropriated to the priory the church of Shulbred, with the consent of the abbey of Séez, of
whose church of Cocking it appears to have
been a daughter. A few small additions were
made to the endowment, but the total value of
the temporalities in 1291 was only £10 15s.
The advowson of the church of Up Marden
was obtained from Lewes Priory in 1340, and
next year the Nonae rolls show that Shulbred
then held property in Linchmere, Easebourne,
Yapton, Walberton, and Mid Lavant. In 1354
Edward St. John gave them the church of Mid
Lavant, but it was subsequently found that he
could produce no charter or other evidence of
having purchased it from the priory of Lewes,
so that the convent had to re-acquire it of the
priory in 1358, when the bishop granted them
leave to appropriate the church, the reason given
being their poverty, due to the death of many of
their servants in the great pestilence of 1350.
The chapel of Linch and manor of Rawmere
were also in their possession, and the Valor of
1535 shows a gross income of £79 15s. 6d., or,
after deduction of all reprises, £72 15s. 10½d.
clear.
The history of the house begins in 1263 with
a complaint (fn. 3) made by Godfrey Aguillon that
whereas his father John Aguillon on his deathbed left 8s. rent and 100s. in money, so that his
executors should place Godfrey in the priory of
Shulbred, in accordance with an agreement made
with John then prior, predecessor of the present
prior, by which the prior was to have the said
rent and money, to keep Godfrey for seven years
at school training for orders of clergy, and then
either to receive him as a canon or return to him
the rent and money; yet the prior had neither
received him nor returned the money to him.
At the end of the same century, in 1299, the
priory was visited by Archbishop Winchelsey,
who found that the prior had been very wasteful in
the consumption of the woods belonging to it,
and issued an order that more care should be
observed in future. The next year, however,
saw the election as prior of Robert de Glottyngs,
a man of powerful connexions but of evil life,
who had recently been deposed from the priory
of Hardham by the archbishop for adultery and
other grievous offences. (fn. 4)
A certain Reynold of St. Albans was sent by
the king to be quartered upon the priory in 1317,
but with the exception of this incident and the
fact that in 1380 there were six canons besides
the prior there is nothing to record until 1404,
when, upon the resignation of William Harethorn, John Coldell, sub-prior, was elected by
the convent—then consisting of himself, the late
prior, and four canons, two other canons having
been absent in apostasy for some years. When
visited in 1441 by Bishop Praty's commissary,
nothing was found to need correction; there
were considerable debts of long standing, but
there was every prospect of their soon being
cleared off. Nor did the visitation of Bishop
Story in 1478 show more than minor irregularities, the only injunctions issued being for the
keeping of silence and the avoidance of taverns,
and that the common seal should be kept under
two keys, of which the prior should have one
and the senior canon the other. General injunctions similar to those sent to the priory of
Boxgrove (q.v.) were issued to this priory in
1518, and indicate a certain laxity of rule.
In 1519 this obscure house was honoured by
the appointment as prior of John Young, suffragan of London, under the title of bishop of
Gallipoli, and dean of Chichester. That so
eminent a man should have paid more than
occasional visits to Shulbred is improbable, and he
only retained even the nominal headship of the
priory for a short time, resigning in the spring of
1521 to become warden of New College,
Oxford. (fn. 5)
At a visitation held in 1524 the prior and
three canons were present, three others being
absent, possibly officiating as parochial clergy,
and no irregularities were found; and the same
was the case in 1527, except that the prior
stinted his brethren in food and stipends. Yet
we learn from a letter of Layton's written in
1535 that about this time the bishop of Chichester endeavoured to suppress this monastery, but
was prevented by the patron, the earl of
Northumberland; there seems no reason to
doubt the truth of this statement, though little
charity is required to disbelieve the foul accusations brought against the canons in the same letter.
When the house was finally dissolved in 1536
the prior received an annuity of £10, while
the larger pension of £12 was awarded to
William Burrey, a former prior, then resident
at Tortington.
Priors Of Shulbred (fn. 6)
John, occurs 1242-9
Henry, occurs 1256
Thomas de Heriton, occurs 1299
Robert de Glottyngs, elected 1300 (fn. 7)
Roger, occurs 1320 (fn. 8)
John, occurs 1373 (fn. 9)
William Harethorn, occurs 1380, resigned 1404
John Coldell, elected 1404
Thomas Clune, occurs 1478
Nicholas Feversham, resigned 1519
John Yonge, elected 1519, resigned 1521
William Burrey, elected 1521, occurs 1524
George Walden, occurs 1529, last prior