FRIARIES
34. THE DOMINICAN FRIARS OF DUNWICH
The Dominican priory of Dunwich was
founded about the middle of the thirteenth
century by Sir Roger de Holish. It was situated
in the old parish of St. John, and was but 120
rods distant from the house of the Franciscans. (fn. 1)
The exact time of their settlement cannot now
be determined, but at all events considerable
progress was being made with substantial building prior to 1256. On 9 April that year
Henry III gave these friars of Dunwich seven
oaks for timber out of any of the royal forests of
Essex. (fn. 2)
After the house had been founded, difficulties
arose between the Black Friars of Norwich and
those of Dunwich as to the bounds which the
two houses were to traverse for spiritual and
eleemosynary purposes. Two friars of each
convent were elected to confer. Those chosen
for Dunwich were brothers, Geoffey de Walsingham and William of St. Martin. The four met
at the Austin house of St. Olave, Herringfleet,
on 10 January, 1259, when they chose a fifth
friar to act as arbitrator. The decision was to
the effect that the river which divides Norfolk
from Suffolk was to be the bound between the
two houses, save that two parishes, Rushmere
and Mendham, that were in both counties, were
to be assigned in their entirety to Dunwich. (fn. 3)
When Edward I visited Ipswich in 1227 he
sent 16s. to the Friars Preachers of Dunwich for
two days' food. This house benefited to the
extent of 100s. in 1291, under the will of
Eleanor of Castile. (fn. 4)
In 1349 a considerable addition was made to
the homestead of these friars; on 12 October
the king licensed John de Wengefeld to assign
5 acres to them for the enlargement of their
site. (fn. 5)
Thomas Hopman, a friar of this house, got
into trouble in 1355 for leaving the realm without licence. It is supposed that he was acting
as an agent at the Roman court on behalf of the
Bishop of Ely in the serious dispute between the
king and that prelate. A writ was issued in
August for his arrest when he returned, and for
his deliverance to the prior of the Friars Preachers
of Dunwich, there to be kept in safe custody.
Licence was obtained in 1384 by Robert de
Swillington, at the supplication of the Friars
Preachers of Dunwich, whose house was imperilled by the incursion of the sea, which had
already destroyed the greater part of Dunwich,
to alienate to them land at Blythburgh for building thereon a new house; with licence to the
friars to transfer their house thither, selling their
old site to any who would buy it. (fn. 6)
This translation to a site four miles distant
never, however, took place; the friars continued
in their old house.
Here the priory remained till its dissolution.
A letter written to Cromwell in November,
1538, by the ex-prior, who had been promoted
to be suffragan bishop of Dover, informed him that
he had suppressed twenty houses of friars, among
them being 'the Black and Grey in Dunwich.'
He further reported that the lead from the
roofs of these despoiled houses lay near the
water, and was therefore meet to be carried to
London or elsewhere. (fn. 7)
The possessions of these Black Friars then
consisted of the site of the convent with its
buildings, gardens, and orchard, and of two
adjacent tenements of the yearly value of
£1 3s. 4d. The site was at once let by the
crown at 10s. a year, and the tenements at
6s. 8d. each. (fn. 8)
The whole property was granted in 1544-5
to John Eyre, an auditor of the Court of
Augmentation. (fn. 9)
Amongst the distinguished persons who obtained interment in the church of the Black
Friars, Dunwich, were the founder, Sir Roger de
Holish, Sir Ralph de Ufford and Joan his wife,
Sir Henry Laxfield, Dame Joan de Harmile,
Dame Ada Craven, Dame Joan Weyland, sister
of the Earl of Suffolk, John Weyland and his
wife Joan, Thomas son of Robert Brews, knt.,
Dame Alice, wife of Sir Walter Hardishall, Sir
Walklyn Hardesfield, Austin Valeyns, Sir Ralph
Wingfield, Richard Bokyll of Leiston and his
two wives, and Sir Henry Harnold, knight and
friar, 'whose bones with the church and edifice
now lie,' as Gardner wrote in 1754, 'under the
insulting waves of the sea.' (fn. 10)