21. THE DOMINICAN FRIARS OF NEWCASTLE-UNDER-LYME
There were Dominican friars in residence at
Newcastle-under-Lyme by July 1277 when Edward I,
then nearby at Eccleshall, sent them alms of
6s. 8d. for one day's food in the ensuing week. As the
cost of one day's food was 4d. a head, the community
then numbered at least twenty. (fn. 1) Twelve was the
minimum necessary for a priory, but most of the
houses had a larger community than that required
by the Constitutions. (fn. 2) It is not known how long the
Newcastle house had been in existence or who
founded it. (fn. 3)
Nor is much known about the progress of the
Newcastle friars. Edward II, on a visit to the town
in 1323, found only 12 friars there — he bestowed
4s. for one day's food; (fn. 4) this, however, may mean no
more than that others normally resident were
temporarily absent on their ordinary avocations.
The house belonged to the 'visitation', or administrative division, of Oxford. (fn. 5) It received two early
endowments. Nicholas de Audley in his will left the
friars £8 8s. 6d. owed to him by the Crown, though
they had some difficulty before securing this in
1280. (fn. 6) In 1291, after the death of Queen Eleanor,
the prior provincial received £5 for the Newcastle
house from her executors. (fn. 7) Between 1351 and 1361
Henry, Duke of Lancaster, gave the friars licence to
buy 'for the enlargement of their house' 3¾ burgages
adjoining it, and released to them the annual rent of
3s. 9d. by which the property was held of the duchy.
The grant was confirmed by John of Gaunt in 1363,
and both grant and confirmation were ratified by
Henry IV as Duke of Lancaster in 1404. (fn. 8) In this
instance the friars profited from having settled in a
town which had been within Lancastrian territory
since Henry III created the earldom of Lancaster
for his son Edmund in 1267. There is no evidence,
however, that the friars were ever involved politically
on the Lancastrian behalf or that use was made of
their services as preachers to assist Lancastrian
propaganda. The energies of the house were newly
stimulated in 1390 when the master general
appointed William de Barleton his vicar with power
to gather into the Newcastle house 'the devout
brethren of the Observance' — friars belonging to
the section within the order which clung to original
standards and rejected later mitigations. (fn. 9) The
provincial chapter met at the priory in 1471. (fn. 10)
By the time of the dissolution in 1538 the house
was very poor. The visitor, Richard Ingworth,
Bishop of Dover, found the priory 'all in ruin and a
poor house, the choir leaded and the cloister lead
ready to fall down, the rest slate and shingle'. All
that could be done with most of it was to 'save the
lead and slate and take the profit of the ground'.
Income from rents came to 40s. (fn. 11) The friars owed
over £14 to various people and stated that for this
'all their substance lay in pledge, and yet all not
worth the debt; so that no store was in the house
but all gone'. (fn. 12) Earlier the same year most of the
buildings and lands were leased to Henry Broke,
who already held property in the area in right of his
wife. (fn. 13)
Ingworth came to Newcastle on 10 August 1538.
In the presence of the mayor, the two bailiffs, and
others he received the surrender of the priory. He
took a small chalice, five little spoons, and 'two
narrow bands of masers' for the king's use but left
everything else in the hands of the bailiffs. (fn. 14)
The surrendered buildings were leased to John
Smith, a yeoman of the guard, and Henry Broke at
an annual rent of 13s. 4d. (fn. 15) The other lands were let
to various tenants for 32s. 1d. a year. The inventory
taken of the priory's goods and chattels reflects its
poverty. Apart from three sets of silk vestments, only
two of which were complete, everything in the
church was old, or of inferior material, or in some
way defective. The furnishings included a 'fair table
of alabaster' for the high altar, one notable coppergilt crucifix, with Mary and John, a latten censer,
and a latten holy-water stoup, but most of the other
ornaments were poor and old. There was a pair of
organs and two bells in the steeple. In the bedchambers the friars had two old feather beds, with
an old bolster and coverlet. The hall contained two
tables, two forms, and four trestles. The kitchen and
brewhouse had a minimum of crockery and utensils.
A closing memorandum stated that all the property
detailed was in the hands of the bailiffs and also
mentioned three chests of documents, 'the one of
the king's, the other of other gentlemen's, the third
of the convent's'.
A sale held a few weeks later brought in £3 11s. 2d.
for the goods, £7 6s. 8d. for the materials from
superfluous buildings, and 12s. 4d. for lead from
small pieces which pilferers had melted down but
afterwards returned. (fn. 16) In John Smith's keeping there
remained the two bells (weighing 2 cwt. and valued
at 40s.) and the lead of the choir and part of the
cloister (valued at £30). The lead had been estimated
at 9 fodders, each worth £3 6s. 8d., but in fact in
June 1540 John Scudamore, receiver for the Court
of Augmentations, was able to have cast from it no
less than 13 fodders 8 cwt. 3 qrs. Meantime in May
1540 a grant for life, rent-free, of this and other
church property and buildings had been made to
John Smith and his son Richard, backdated to
Michaelmas 1539. Within the site, besides the
conventual buildings and their gardens, orchards,
barns, and stables, there was a hall called Kingsley
Hall and a chamber adjoining the church and called
the New Chamber, with buildings above and below.
The New Chamber was occupied by Henry Broke,
who was also still the tenant of the Friars' Wood, the
Friars' Meadow, and other plots of land. A tenement
with gardens was let to Thomas Byrkes, another to
Ellen Browne, widow, and a barn and garden to
Ralph Harrison. The grant to the Smiths also
included 'the interest and term of years' which the
king had in a tenement in Lower Street, now
occupied by Richard Brette, which used to belong
to the friars. The property of the former friary was
valued at £2 5s. 5d. gross in 1538-9.
The site of the priory lay a little to the east of the
castle in the angle at which Blackfriars Road on the
south-west meets Goose Street on the south-east
and where the Smithfield Cattle Market is now
situated. (fn. 17) Adjacent streets are known as Friarswood
Road and Friars Street, the name given in recent
years to what used to be Friars Lane. The Lyme
Brook, a tributary of the Trent, is believed to have
flowed through the friars' precinct. (fn. 18)
Priors
William of Bromley, occurs 1282-3. (fn. 19)
Thomas de Hunstretton, occurs 1323. (fn. 20)
William Peppelowe, occurs 1406. (fn. 21)
No seal is known.