40. THE AUSTIN FRIARS OF CLARE
Richard de Clare, earl of Gloucester, was the
first to introduce the Friars Heremites of St. Austin to this country, and it is generally assumed
that the first establishment of the Austin Friars
was at Clare, and that they were brought here in
the year 1248. (fn. 1)
The Austin Friars, like the rest of the
mendicant orders, were not permitted by their
rules to hold other property save the site of their
house; but in this instance the rule was interpreted in a somewhat liberal sense. Houses of
friars, owing to their freedom from the cares of
property, appear to have seldom possessed anything of the nature of a chartulary; but in the
case of Clare there is a fairly long chartulary
extant, containing transcripts of nearly two
hundred separate deeds. (fn. 2) The high position of
the founder and his posterity, coupled with the
fact that Clare was the parent house of the
order in England, placed this friary in a somewhat exceptional position, particularly as Clare
was a favourite residence for royalty in the
thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. The
majority of the numerous grants in the chartulary were for quite small plots of meadow land,
or of adjoining small lots of buildings, which
were added to the site for enlargement, and
would have been lawful for any friary. Other
charters are mere evidences of the title to small
properties on the part of benefactors. Others
again are the recital of indulgences and various
privileges, or the record of particular events.
But a few of them are undoubtedly in direct
antagonism to the usual mendicant rule, and
involve grants that would not have been accepted
save by the consent of the provincial and of the
general chapter of the province. Thus in 1349,
John, prior of this house, accepted the gift of the
manor house of Bourehall from Michael de
Bures. (fn. 3)
The most noteworthy record of abnormal
gifts is the first entry of the chartulary, headed
Carta mortificationis, which recites the licence of
Edward III, in 1364, for the alienation in mortmain, to the prior and brothers of the Austin
House at Clare, of Ashen and Belchamp St. Paul,
for their benefit and for the enlargement of their
manse. (fn. 4)
Many of the small grants of adjoining property
were from Maud, countess of Gloucester and
Hereford, for the repose of the soul of the
founder, her husband, who died in 1262.
In 1278 William bishop of Norwich granted
a licence for any bishop of the Catholic Church
to consecrate the cemetery round the friars'
church. (fn. 5) In the following year Anianus, bishop
of Bangor, when on a visit to Clare, granted a
forty days' indulgence from enjoined penance to
penitents contributing to the enclosure of the
cemetery, or the construction and repair of the
buildings of the priory. In the same year
William archbishop of Edessa granted a like
indulgence. (fn. 6) The bishop of Bangor also granted
an indulgence, at the same time, for all who
should say an Our Father and a Hail Mary there
for the repose of the soul of Richard de Christeshale, whose body was buried in the friary
church. (fn. 7)
On 10 May, 1305, died Joan of Acre, and
was buried in the conventual church of the friars
of Clare, in the presence of Edward II and most
of the nobility of England. Joan was the
second daughter of Edward I and Queen
Eleanor, and took her name from the eastern
town where she was born in the first year of her
father's reign, when he was fighting the Saracens.
She was married at the age of eighteen to
Gilbert, earl of Clare and Gloucester, grandson
of the founder of the priory, to which she was a
benefactor, building the chapel of St. Vincent as
an adjunct to the conventual church. She outlived the earl, and took for her second husband,
Ralph Mortimer. Her daughter Elizabeth, by
her first husband, who became the wife of
Sir John de Burgh, built a new chapter-house,
dormitory, and refectory for the friars, about
1310-14. Ralph, bishop of London, in 1307,
granted a forty days' indulgence to all penitents
saying here an Our Father and a Hail Mary for
the soul of Joan of Acre. (fn. 8) Thomas, bishop of
Worcester, when at Clare in the first year of his
consecration (1318), granted a like indulgence; (fn. 9)
and so also did Stephen bishop of London in
1319, (fn. 10) Benedict, bishop of 'Cardic,' in 1338, (fn. 11)
and John, bishop of Llandaff, in 1347. (fn. 12)
In 1324 Bishop Rowland, formerly archbishop of Ordmoc, granted an indulgence to all
penitents contributing to the fabric and ornaments of the church. (fn. 13) Benedict, bishop of
Cardic and suffragan and commissary for the
Bishop of Norwich, granted in 1338, forty days'
indulgence to penitents visiting this church and
contributing to the fabric fund on the solemn
dedication day. (fn. 14) The same bishop in 1340
granted a like indulgence to those saying an
Our Father or a Hail Mary for the soul
of Brother John of St. Edmunds, D.D., of
good memory, whose body was buried in this
church. (fn. 15)
Prior Robert of this house, on 3 August,
1361, formally assigned in the chapter-house to
Brother John Bachelor, for use at the altar in
the newly-built chapel of the Annunciation, a
great missal, a silver chalice weighing twentyseven shillings with a silver spoon weighing six
pennies, a green velvet chasuble and set of vestments with gold orphreys and apparels, various
cushions, a green carpet four ells long, two necklaces set with precious stones and a silver necklace,
nine gold rings, a small chest containing four
silk veils, &c. (fn. 16)
Edward Mortimer, son of Joan of Acre by
her second husband, was buried in this church
by the side of his mother. Further celebrity
was given to the friars' church by the burial,
before the high altar, after long delay, of the
body of Lionel, duke of Clarence and earl of
Ulster, son of Edward III. He died at Alba
Pompeia, Piedmont, in 1368, and was first buried
at Pavia. Eventually the body was exhumed
and re-interred in this chancel. The sum of
ten marks was paid to the prior and brethren, in
the chapter-house, on 12 September, 1377, for
their share in the funeral expenses. (fn. 17)
In 1373, a dispute that had arisen between
the Austin Friars of Clare and of Orford, as to
the seeking alms in the Isle of Mersea and other
places, was settled at the provincial chapter held
in August at Newcastle-on-Tyne; the upper
gate of Colchester was to be a bound between
the two houses. (fn. 18) A similar difference between
the Austin Friars of Clare and Thetford was
settled in 1388, when a list of the parishes
where they might severally visit and seek for
alms was drawn up. (fn. 19)
On St. Agatha's Day (5 February), 1380,
William, bishop of Pismon, suffragan of the
bishop of Norwich, dedicated the new cemetery without the walls of the church, extending
from the west gate to the footbridge to the
castle, together with the re-built cloister and
chapter-house. (fn. 20) William, bishop of Norwich
in 1381, granted twenty days' indulgence from
enjoined penance to those contributing to the
fabric. (fn. 21)
Robert, bishop of London, in a communication to the prior of the Austins of Clare, withdrew the excommunication of Sir Thomas
Mortimer, knt., who with his assistants had
dragged out from the friary church one John de
Quinton, who had escaped there for a certain
theft, thus violating sanctuary; provided that
Sir Thomas, on the first Sunday in Lent, after
evensong, came to the church bareheaded and
barefooted, carrying a taper, and presented both
the taper and a silk cloth valued at £3, at the
altar. (fn. 22)
Weever printed in 1631 a curious rhymed
descent of the lords of Clare, in both Latin and
English, from a roll which was then in the
possession of his friend the Windsor herald. (fn. 23) A
drawing at the head of the roll shows a table
tomb, on the one side an Austin friar and on the
other a civilian, engaged in conversation. The
heading to this rhymed descent is:—
This Dialogue betwix a Secular as asking, and a
Frere answerying at the grave of Dame Johan of
Acres shewith a lyneal descent of the lordis of the
honoure of Clare, fro the tyme of the fundation of
the Freeris in the same honoure, the yere of our
Lord MCCXLVIII unto the first day of May the
year MCCCLVI.
A MS. of Robert Aske's, temp. Henry VIII,
gives:
The names of the nobles buried in the Frere
Augustyn's of Clare. Sir Richard Erle of Clare;
Lionell Duke of Clarence; Dame Joan of Acres; Sir
Edmond Montbermer, son of the said Joane; John
Weyburgh; Dame Alice Spencer; Willm. Goldryche;
Sir John Beauchamp, knight; John Newbury,
esquire; Willm. Capel and Elianor his wyfe; Kempe,
esquire; Robert Butterwyke, Esquire; the Lady
Margarete Scrope, daughter of Westmoreland; Joan
Candyssle, daughter of Clofton; Dame Alianor
Wynkeferry, Sir Edmund, last of the Mortimers,
Erle of Marche, Sir Thomas Gily and his furste
wyfe; Lucy, wife of Walter Clofton; Sir Thomas
Clofton and Ada his wyfe. (fn. 24)
There is but little information with respect to
these friars during the fifteenth century. The
details as to their suppression in 1538 were in
the hands of Richard Ingworth, then suffragan
bishop of Dover. Writing to Cromwell on
29 November of that year, Ingworth said that
he had received at Clare the Lord Privy Seal's
letter instructing him to deliver that house and
its 'implements' to Richard Frende, which had
been done. The implements did not suffice to
pay the debts and at the same time save the lead
and plate for the king. The jewels were pledged
for £33 2s. 6d. and he had redeemed them for
the king with other money. He had left the
house and its contents in Frende's custody under
indenture. The lands besides the orchards
were thirty-eight acres, only worth at clear
annual value 48s. 10½d. There were fifteen or
sixteen fother of lead (on the church), and the
house, which was tiled, was in much decay. (fn. 25)
In August, 1539, Richard Frende obtained
grant in fee from the crown of the site, soil,
circuit, and precinct of the late priory of Austin
Friars of Clare, which lay in the parishes of
Clare, Ashen, and Belchamp St. Pauls (of the
annual value of £3), to hold at a rent of 2d. a
year, in as full a manner as John Halybud, the
late prior, and the brethren thereof held the same. (fn. 26)
Priors of the Austin Friars of Clare
Adam de la Hyde, occurs 1299 (fn. 27)
John, occurs 1349 (fn. 28)
Robert, occurs 1361, &c. (fn. 29)
John Halybud, occurs 1538 (fn. 30)