11. THE PRIORY OF ST. GEORGE, THETFORD
There was an old religious house on the Suffolk side of Thetford founded by Uvius, the first
abbot of Bury St. Edmunds in the days of Cnut.
It was said to have been founded in memory of
the English and Danes who fell in a great battle
near by between King Edmund and the Danish
leaders Ubba and Hingwar. It was served by
canons who officiated in the church of St. George
as a cell of St. Edmunds. About the year 1160,
in the days of Abbot Hugh, Toleard and Andrew, the two surviving religious of this cell,
depressed with poverty, visited the abbot and expressed their strong desire to withdraw. At
their suggestion the abbot and convent of St.
Edmunds resolved to admit to the Thetford
house certain Benedictine nuns who were then
living at Ling, Norfolk. The bishop of Norwich, the archdeacon of Canterbury, and the
sheriffs of Norfolk and Suffolk gave these ladies
and their prioress Cecilia an excellent character,
and the change was solemnly effected.
The abbot assigned to these nuns, at the time
of the transfer, the Thetford parish churches of
St. Benedict and All Saints, his rights in Favertin
Fields, and whatever else belonged to the abbey
of Bury within the limits of Thetford. As an
acknowledgement of this, the nuns were to pay
yearly 4s. to the abbey infirmary. The prioress
undertook to be in all respects faithful and obedient to the abbot. (fn. 1)
Maud, countess of Norfolk and Warrenne gave
to these nuns in her widowhood a rent of three
marks out of her mill at Cesterford, Essex, towards their clothing. (fn. 2)
Pope Nicholas's taxation gave the annual
value of the temporalities of this house as
£72 9s. 4d. (fn. 3)
The 1535 Valor gave the spiritualities in Norfolk as £4 15s. 1d., and those in Suffolk at
£13 16s. 8d., the temporalities in the two counties as £31 14s. 11¼d.; but from this sum there
were various deductions, the largest of which
was £5 6s. 8d. to their chaplain, so that the clear
annual value only amounted to £40 11s. 2½d., (fn. 4)
which was a great drop from the earlier valuation. The reason for this depreciation becomes
clear from the statement made by Martin with
regard to the taxing of the religious houses in
the reign of Henry VI. At that time the nuns
of Thetford were excused; their petition for
relief stated that their revenues both in Norfolk
and Suffolk were much decreased by recent mortality and had so continued since 1349, and that
their possessions in Cranwich deanery had suffered
much from inundations. (fn. 5)
In 1214 the abbey of Bury granted the nuns
seven loaves and 2d. in money, to be given them
every Sunday by their almoner for the corrody
of Margaret Nonne. (fn. 6)
From the first establishment of the nuns at
Thetford, the cumbersome plan had been adopted
of sending weekly supplies from Bury St. Edmunds (a distance of about twelve miles) not only
of bread and beer but even of cooked meat
(fercula). The thirteenth-century custumary of
the abbey states that thirty-five loaves and ninetysix gallons of beer were sent weekly to Thetford. (fn. 7) Owing to the not infrequent robberies
and assaults on the servants and wagons of the
convent conveying this weekly dole on a long
journey, and to the occasional unsatisfactory state
of the provisions on arrival, it was agreed in 1369
that henceforth, instead of forwarding bread,
beer, and dressed provisions, the abbey should
grant annually ten quarters of corn, twenty
quarters of barley, and 62s. in money. (fn. 8)
One of the few early notices preserved of this
priory tells how in 1305 William de Fornham,
clerk, Walter de Trofton and John Cat, chaplains, one night after dark climbed over the
priory wall and went into a house in the courtyard to talk with one Joan de Fuldon, a servant,
and how, when the light shining under the door
had attracted the notice of some of the nuns, the
gay clerks rose up and fled back over the wall
the way they came. (fn. 9)
There was a long lawsuit in 1438 between
Alice Wesenham, prioress, and Robert Popy,
rector of Ling. When the nuns first removed
from Ling they held a messuage where they
dwelt, close to the chapel of St. Edmund in
Ling, together with 60 acres of land and 30 of
meadow adjoining, and rents of 5s. 9d. and two
hens. From that date for a long period they
had received the profits; and out of them had
paid a chaplain at Ling, who was sometimes
called the prior of St. Edmund's chapel. But
for some years past the prioress had let all to the
rector of Ling, who undertook to serve the
chapel, and the dispute arose as to the amount of
rent and the rights of the prioress. Eventually
it was decided that the king should license the
prioress to convey the chapel and all the premises
to the rector and his successors for ever, they
paying to the prioress a clear annual pension of
four marks. (fn. 10)
The nunnery was visited in November, 1492,
by Archdeacon Goldwell, as commissary of his
brother the bishop. Joan Eyton the prioress,
six professed nuns, and four novices were severally and privately examined. The visitor found
nothing needing reformation. (fn. 11)
The only suggestion made by the visitor in
1514 after examining the prioress and eight
nuns was that the books required repairing.
Two of the nuns expressed a fear that the
prioress was about to receive as nuns certain unlearned and even deformed persons, particularly
one Dorothy Sturghs, who was both deaf and
deformed. (fn. 12)
The visitation of 1520, undertaken by the
bishop in person, simply resulted in an entry that
the nunnery was very poor; there was clearly
nothing amiss. (fn. 13) Nor was there anything to
correct at the visitation of 1526, when there
were six professed nuns and four novices, in
addition to the prioress, in attendance. (fn. 14)
The last visitation, held in July, 1532, was
attended by the prioress and nine nuns. The
state of the house and the observance of religion
required no reformation. There was, however,
an irregularity pertaining to a corrody, for one
Thomas Forster, gentleman, was receiving support for himself, his wife, three children, and a
maid. The infant daughter of John Jerves was
in the priory, and he was paying nothing for its
support. Silence was scarcely observed as well
as it ought to be in the refectory. (fn. 15)
The house was dissolved in February, 1537. (fn. 16)
Elizabeth Hothe, the prioress, obtained a pension of £5; (fn. 17) this pension the prioress was still
enjoying at the age of 100 in the year 1553,
when she was living 'as a good and catholich
woman,' in the parish of St. James, Norwich. (fn. 18)
Prioresses of St. George, Thetford
Cecilia, (fn. 19)
c. 1160
Agnes, (fn. 20) occurs 1253
Ellen de Berdesette, (fn. 21) elected 1310
Margaret Bretom, (fn. 22) elected 1329
Beatrix de Lystone, (fn. 23) elected 1330
Danetta de Wakethorp, (fn. 24) elected 1339
Margaret Campleon, (fn. 25) elected 1396
Margaret Chykering, (fn. 26) elected 1418
Alice Wesenham, (fn. 27) elected 1420
Margaret Copynger, (fn. 28) elected 1466
Joan Eyton, (fn. 29) elected 1477
Elizabeth Mounteneye, (fn. 30) elected 1498
Sarah Frost, (fn. 31) elected 1519
Elizabeth Hothe, (fn. 32) or Both, (fn. 33) occurs 1535, last
prioress (fn. 32)