ALIEN HOUSE
20. WARE PRIORY
The foundation of the Benedictine priory at
Ware was due to Hugh de Grentemaisnil's gift
of the church, tithe and 2 carucates of land
here (fn. 1) to the abbey of St. Evroul in Normandy. (fn. 2)
There is no evidence when the house was built,
but the large amount of property in England
granted by the Conqueror's Norman followers
to St. Evroul's must soon have made the
establishment of a cell expedient, if not necessary. (fn. 3)
Apparently the earliest reference to the house
occurs in a charter of William Bishop of Lincoln
c. 1203-6, (fn. 4) ratifying as a grant of Earl Robert
of Leicester to Hubert Prior of Ware a gift
that had been made by the earl's mother,
Parnel, to St. Evroul's. (fn. 5) But it seems likely
that the Prior of Ware had long transacted
the abbot's business in England, for from
this time onward he is spoken of as the owner
of the English possessions of the Norman
monastery. (fn. 6)
Of the priory there is never much information.
Something, however, is heard of its relations
with its patrons, the manorial lords, in the 13th
century. Through the marriage of Parnel,
Hugh de Grentemaisnil's great-granddaughter,
Ware Manor had passed to the Beaumonts. (fn. 7)
Robert Earl of Leicester (fn. 8) dying without issue
in 1204, it fell to his sister and co-heir Margaret
wife of Saher de Quency Earl of Winchester.
The Countess Margaret built in the priory a
great hall, a large chamber, and a chapel for
her greater convenience when she chose to stay
there, and in this hall she held her manorial
courts. (fn. 9) Her son Roger, (fn. 10) who succeeded her
in 1235, (fn. 11) made the same use of the priory, as
did also his brother Robert, to whom he transferred the manor. (fn. 12) In 1271 Robert's daughter
Joan, wife of Humphrey de Bohun, became
lady of the manor of Ware. (fn. 13) The inconvenience to the monks of a semi-public hall
must by this time have become apparent, for
the prior built a small one for their own use
during Humphrey's frequent visits. (fn. 14) After
her husband's death Joan added another
chamber to ensure herself better accommodation
during residence at Ware. She died in November 1283, (fn. 15) and when the escheator arrived at
the priory to take possession of her property in
the king's name he found the windows and
doors of these houses in the close barred against
him by the prior. Afterwards with the help
of the Earl of Gloucester's men a forcible
entrance was effected, but meanwhile the prior
had had Joan's new chamber pulled down, and
a suit was brought against him in consequence
by Joan's heir, her sister Hawise Wake. (fn. 16)
The prior's action seems unjustifiable, but it
may have been a protest against the patron's
real or supposed encroachment.
The head of an alien priory was not in an
easy position. The fulfilment of his duty to his
superior sometimes meant unfairness to the
people among whom he was living; on the
other hand, if he did not uphold his rights
firmly he might certainly have lost them all.
The pension of 10 marks demanded by the
prior from the vicar of Ware made it almost
impossible to get a priest to serve the church.
The parishioners therefore appealed to Pope
Gregory IX, and the Bishop of London and
Dean of St. Paul's, appointed by him to settle
the matter, decided in 1231 that the prior was
not to require the pension in future, and if he
did the vicar should have certain tithes. (fn. 17)
In the dispute between Fulk Prior of Ware
and the Abbot of Cumbermere in 1281-2 over
the church of Drayton, in Hales, co. Stafford, (fn. 18)
the abbot was undoubtedly in the wrong. After
judgement had been given by the Archbishop of
Canterbury for the prior, he was dispossessed of
the church by the secular authority through the
abbot's misrepresentations. However, he won in
the end, (fn. 19) for the church figures in the list of the
Prior of Ware's property in 1297. (fn. 20)
Fulk's predecessor, William, had been excommunicated by Archbishop Kilwardby, but
the reason is not disclosed. (fn. 21) Archbishop
Peckham absolved him in August 1279, the
penance enjoined being that every sixth day to
the number of forty he should fast on bread,
fish and ale, feed ten poor, and on that day and
the following say fifty psalms.
During the war with France, 1295-8, the priory
was taken into the king's hands. (fn. 22) In these
circumstances a warden was put into the house
to see that the monks had no communication
with France, to answer at the Exchequer for the
issues of the property and receive from the
Exchequer what was necessary to maintain the
convent. (fn. 23) Ill-feeling with France in 1324
caused Edward II to seize the priory's possessions. Two men were appointed to account to
the Crown from 8 October to 10 December for
the monastic manor and the church at Ware,
but these, it was found, had been previously let
on lease. (fn. 24) The prior at this time was probably
in difficulties, (fn. 25) because in July 1319 the king
had borrowed of him 100 marks which he did
not repay. (fn. 26)
Under Edward III the war with France
stopped for a long while the usual relations
between the priory and the abbey. The transmission of money to St. Evroul's was forbidden
in January 1337, (fn. 27) and the property of the house,
then in the king's hands, was farmed, with the
exception of the advowsons, to the prior for
£230 a year. (fn. 28) In April 1348 the king at Queen
Isabella's request and on payment of 100 marks
granted the prior the advowsons, (fn. 29) but from
September 1349 Edward again presented to the
convent's livings, (fn. 30) a fairly sure proof that the
prior had fallen a victim to the Black Death. (fn. 31)
The farm due to the king seems to have been
sometimes in arrears (fn. 32) because the prior's
tenants did not pay, and between 1342 and
1356 payment of rents to the priory had more
than once to be enforced by collectors appointed
by the Crown. (fn. 33) On the Peace of Brétigny in
1360 royal control over Ware ceased, (fn. 34) but when
the war was resumed in 1369 the priory was
taken into the king's hands and again committed
to the prior at a rent. (fn. 35)
Richard II in November 1377 made William
Herbert, the prior, custodian of the house for
£245 a year, (fn. 36) and on 20 May 1381, at the
request of the Princess of Wales, (fn. 37) confirmed the
grant to him for life or as long as the war continued. But when the princess, his patron,
died in 1385 Herbert's rights were disregarded,
and the custody was given at the same rent to
John Golofre, one of the gentlemen of the
king's chamber. (fn. 38)
In March 1398 the king assigned the house
during the war to his nephew, Thomas Holland
Duke of Surrey, without rent, (fn. 39) and it was
probably the duke (fn. 40) who made it over to
Mount Grace Priory, co. York. (fn. 41)
Henry IV in February 1400 gave the Abbot
of St. Evroul leave to grant in mortmain the
priory of Ware with all its property to the
abbey of St. Mary, Leicester, (fn. 42) but this cannot
have been done, for in December the king gave
Philip Repyndon, Abbot of Leicester, for life
the rent paid by the Prior of Ware as farmer of
his house. (fn. 43)
In August 1405 Queen Joan received the
custody of the priory, valued at £240 a year. (fn. 44)
The prior, Nicholas Champene, in February
1410 had licence to bring a monk from St.
Evroul's with a servant to live in the priory for
life for the maintenance of divine service. (fn. 45)
Ware was leased on 24 November 1413 to
Champene, a fellow-monk of his called Richard
Baussain, the Earl of Arundel and others for
400 marks a year, (fn. 46) but in 1414 it was suppressed with other alien priories, and finally
passed to the king, who granted it and all its
possessions on 1 April 1415 to his new foundation at Sheen. (fn. 47)
The establishment at Ware appears at one
time to have been fairly large, for the prior was
accompanied on a journey to France in 1343
by ten of his household. (fn. 48) Of the convent
nothing is known, but it is probable that it
dwindled considerably during the 14th century. (fn. 49)
The property of the priory was valued in
1297 at about £200 per annum, (fn. 50) but as this
amount at least was paid for its custody in the
14th century it must then have been worth
more.
Priors of Ware
Richard (?), occurs 1174 (fn. 51)
Hubert, occurs c. 1203-6 (fn. 52)
A., occurs 1219 (fn. 53)
William, occurs 1231 (fn. 54) and 1234 (fn. 55)
Nicholas, occurs c. 1235-9 (fn. 56)
John, occurs January 1259-60 (fn. 57)
William, occurs 1278-9 (fn. 58)
Fulk, occurs 1281-2 (fn. 59)
Ralph, occurs June 1297 (fn. 60)
Hugh, occurs 1327-8 (fn. 61)
William Herbert, occurs November 1377 May 1381 (fn. 62) and 1385 (fn. 63)
Nicholas Champene, occurs February 1410, (fn. 64)
24 November 1413, (fn. 65) and at the dissolution
of the priory (fn. 66)
A seal, a pointed oval in shape, attached to
an agreement of 1260, (fn. 67) shows the prior vested
for mass and standing on a carved corbel with
a book in his hands. Legend: s' IOHANNIS :
PRIORIS : DE : WARE.
On the seal of Ralph, prior of this house, (fn. 68)
two figures are represented standing in a
double niche under a canopy, the one a
king, the other a bishop or abbot; in the
field on each side are three roses. In the
base, under a pointed arch the prior kneels
in prayer. Legend: . . . M : RADVLPH . . .
ORIS : DE . . .