39. THE TRINITARIAN FRIARS OF MOTTENDEN IN THE PARISH OF HEADCORN
The earliest reference to this priory is a royal
writ issued 18 January, 1235-6, to inquire if
the prior of Mottenden Was seised of certain rents
of the gift of Robert de Rokel or Rokeslay. The
jurors returned that the prior was in seisin of
14s. 6d. and eight hens rent of the gift of Robert,
out of a tenement which he held at Ospringe
for two years before his death; also of 11 seams
of barley from his tenement in Plumworth.
But of the entire domain.which Robert had in
Plumworth, they say the prior had no service therefrom
before the death of Robert as, they believe; but the
prior had seisin of the rents homages and other pertinencies to the said domain two years before the death
of the said Robert as abosve. (fn. 1)
By grant of Sir Robert de Rokeslay the friars
were entitled to receive 60s. a year from the
abbot of Boxley for a marsh and mill outside
Sandwich. The sum was reduced to 50s. with
the consent of Sir Robert's son and heir Richard,
and subsequently to 40s. The friars are found
asserting their rights in the court of the mayor of
Sandwich as late as 1474. (fn. 2) Sir Robert de Rokeslay, seneschal of the archbishop of Canterbury,
who died between 1230 and 1235, is called by
Leland the original founder of the house, (fn. 3) though
this title was afterwards given to Sir Michael de
Ponynges, knt. (fn. 4) The friars of this house are
sometimes described as of the ' Order of the Holy
Cross,' or Cruciferi; (fn. 5) the confusion arose from
the Trinitarian or Maturine friars wearing a blue
and red cross on their habits. The friars of this
house are first expressly mentioned as Trinitarians
March, 1253-4, when Henry III granted them
the right to hold a fair every year on the vigil
and feast of the Holy Trinity and six following
days. (fn. 6) The jurors in the great inquest of 1275
said that the friars of Mottenden had appropriated
40 acres or more, whereby the king lost 5s. a
year. (fn. 7) In 1276 William de Welles and three
other brethren of the house obtained a writ of
protection for five years, probably while soliciting alms. (fn. 8) The minister and brethren having
fallen into ' great mischief and poverty,' owing to
the siege of Leeds Castle (1321) and the bad
years and murrain of their beasts, petitioned the
king for licence to acquire 10 librates of lands
and rents. (fn. 9) Licence to acquire lands and rents
to the value of 40s. a year was granted in 1337. (fn. 10)
The house received several additions to its property in the fourteenth century. Robert Golde
in 1325 granted to John le Bray, the warden,
5 acres of land in Aylesford, to celebrate divine
service daily for the souls of Richard and John de
Rokele, their ancestors and successors. (fn. 11) In July,
1338, Robert de Stangrave and Joan his wife
granted to the ministers and friars 80 acres of
land and 10 acres of meadow in Staplehurst and
Frittenden, of the yearly value of 26s. 9d. (fn. 12) In
1347, at the request of Sir. Michael de Ponynges,
the king granted the friars licence to acquire in
mortmain 30 librates of land and rent not held in
chief. (fn. 13)
In 1362 Sir Michael de Ponynges, knt.,
Richard de Cressevill, parson of Rolvenden, and
Robert Botillere, gave the friars half an acre of
land in Lancing and the advowson of the church
of Lancing, for finding two chaplains to celebrate
divine, service daily in their house of Mottenden,
for the good estate of the king and the souls of
the grantors and others. The grant was confirmed by John de Mowbray, lord of Bramber. (fn. 14)
In 1374, in part satisfaction of the grant of
30 librates, the king authorized the following
gifts to the friars:— (fn. 15) John Wilde, parson of the
church of Buckland, 100 acres of land, 250 acres
of wood, and 11d. of rent in Cranbrook and
Benenden; (fn. 16) John Parmenter, John Mascal, and
William Waterman, I messuage, 104 acres of
.land, 10 acres of pasture, 2½ acres of wood,
9/14d. of rent, the rent of I quarter of barley, and
' the rent of one hen and three parts of a hen,' in
Ospringe and Preston near Faversham; William
Benge, I messuage and I acre in Ospringe and
Faversham; William Waterman and William
Bishop, 16 acres in Sutton Valence; John Parmenter, 2s. 10d. of rent in Staplehurst; the value
of the whole being £7 18s. 11¼ d. a year. In
further satisfaction of the grant of 30 librates,
Richard II, in January, 1393-4, permitted Stephen Norton of Chart, by Sutton Valence, and
Stephen his son, John Herberfield, and John
Blecche, to confer on, the minister and friars of
Mottenden
two messuages, 91 acres of land and 9 acres of meadow,
rents to the value of 34s. 4d. and the rent of one cock
and four hens, with their appurtenances, in Staplehurst
and Headcorn and Boughton Monchelsea.
The annual value of the whole is certified by the
jurors to be only 34s. 2d. (fn. 17)
About 1384 the temporalities of the ministry
of Mottenden were reckoned at 100s. a year. (fn. 18)
In 1387 the prior and chapter of Christchurch,
Canterbury, as lord of Hollingbourne, permitted
certain tenants to alienate lands in the manor to
these friars; (fn. 19) and in 1394 an agreement was
made between the prior and the minister as to
some questions in dispute between them. (fn. 20)
Each house of Trinitarian friars had originally
as a rule seven inmates—the minister, three clerks,
and three lay brethren—but the number was
afterwards increased. A third part of the income
of the house from all sources had to be devoted
to the redemption of captives imprisoned by the
pagans for the faith of Christ. (fn. 21) The friars sometimes served chapels in different parts of the
country; thus the office of warden of the chapel
of St. Laurence, Crediton, generally held by a
Trinitarian friar of Hounslow, was in 1332
conferred by Bishop Grandison on William de
Allertone in Shir wood, priest and friar of Mottenden. (fn. 22) Generally the friars of Mottenden seem
to have been drawn from the immediate neighbourhood, or from the estates of the house. (fn. 23) In
1372 the minister of Mottenden was appointed
provincial of England in a general chapter of the
order 'for the correction of abuses'; on his
claiming jurisdiction over the house at Easton,
Wiltshire, arid summoning the minister of Easton
to appear at a chapter of the order to be held in
London on 3 May, 1382, Henry Sturmy, the
patron of the house at Easton, denied his right,
and caused him to be attached in the common
pleas, 'and he is under mainprize to appear from
day to day.' He petitioned the king to set him
free. (fn. 24) Richard Lyming, a friar of this house,
having unlawfully left his order, was admitted to
the Cistercian monastery of Boxley, but subsequently returned to Mottehden. (fn. 25) In 1404
Richard de Berham brought an action against
the minister to compel him to carry out an
agreement made between Geoffrey of Sissinghurst and William de Bottune, late minister,
whereby the latter engaged to supply two friars
to celebrate in the chapel at Sissinghurst. (fn. 25a)
Several letters of fraternity issued by the minister
of this house are extant; thus in 1477, John
Prince, lord of the manors of Theydon Gernon
and Theydon Bois, and Lucy wife of William
Margyte, having aided in an expedition against
the Turks, were admitted as brother and sister
of the order by Richard of Lancing, minister of
Mottenden. (fn. 28)
This Richard of Lancing added to the library
one of the two volumes (fn. 27) known to have belonged
to Mottenden, namely MS. Bodley 643, which
contains works on logic and grammar by Burley,
Duns Scotus, Albertus Magnus, and John Esteby,
with the note: 'Bought by Friar Richard de
Lancing 1467, price 26s. 8d., but it is worth
more.' (fn. 28) Richard was provincial and minister of
Mottenden in 1488, when he induced the mayor
and commonalty of Oxford to restore to the
Order the chapel and tenements of the Trinitarian
friars without the east gate of that city; (fn. 29) this
land was at the Dissolution reckoned among the
possessions of the friars of Mottenden. (fn. 30) Richard
held the same offices in 1494, when he received
John Davy and Elinor his wife, and John Dering
of Surrenden Dering, esq., benefactors of the
Order, to the privileges of confraternity. (fn. 31) pne
of the chief privileges of these confratres was the
right to choose their own confessor.
Peter Husey, archdeacon of Northampton, by
will made 31 December, 1499, left his body to
be buried in the choir of this church; he seems
to have died in this priory. (fn. 32)
On Trinity Sunday the friars were accustomed
to hold a solemn I procession and pageant, the
chief feature of which was an attack on the holy
company by some one arrayed like a devil, and
his repulse by the use of holy water. Of this
pageant, 'some lately alive in this shire have
been eyewitnesses,' wrote Lambarde in 1570. (fn. 33)
The minister returned the net annual value of .
the property in 1535 as £60 13s. o½d. According to the figures given in the Valor Ecclesiasticus
however, the correct total, allowing for all deductions and adding 8d. received from the chantry
of Headcorn, would be £58 1s. Among the
deductions were charges for the obits of Robert
Stangrave and Joan his wife, Richard Lyle, and
William Appledorefield. The oblations in the
church were wont to be worth yearly 40s., but
were ' now scant worth 5s.' (fn. 34)
Early in 1538 Cromwell was warned that
Sir Edward Neville was endeavouring to persuade
the minister of Mottenden secretly to surrender
his house. (fn. 35) But Cromwell, who was how, after
the death of the earl of Northumberland in 1537, (fn. 36)
honoured with the title of founder of the priory,
had marked its property for his own. In November, 1538, Neville was sent to the Tower for
complicity in the conspiracy of the Poles, and a
patent was issued to Cromwell confirming his
estate, possession and interest in the site of the
late priory, of Mottenden, and the manors of
Mottenden, Plushenden, Plomford, and Delmynden in Kent; the rectory of Lancing, Sussex,
and all tithes thereto belonging; the advowson
of the parish church of Lancing and the vicarage
of the same church; a saltmarsh in Canwynden
(? Canewdon) alias Derwishop, Essex; and all
lands, &c., in the counties of Kent, Sussex, and
Essex, late of John Gregory alias John Harietsham, late minister of the Trinitarian priory of
Mottenden. (fn. 37)
After Cromwell's attainder much of the property, comprising 361 acres with some woods, was
leased in 1540 to Sir Anthony Aucher of Swingfield, Kent, esq., for twenty-one years at a rent
of £25 a year, and in Tune, 1544. the site and
the greater part of the Kentish possessions of the
house, valued at £39 5s. ofrac34;d. a year, were purchased by him for £806 12s. 3½d
(fn. 38)
At the time of the Dissolution the priory held
a messuage in Hertford called ' le Trinytie ' and
lands in the fields of Hertford, and in the parishes
of Digswell, Hatfield, and Amwell, Hertfordshire;
these were in the tenure of John Andrewe and
Anne his wife, and were sold in August, 1540,
to Anthony Denny. (fn. 39)
In February, 1555-6, four friars of this house
were still in receipt of pensions: John Hendyman, £4; William Barker, Richard Broklehurst, and Andrew Pyttenden, 53s. 4d. each. (fn. 40)
Ministers
William, 1289 (fn. 41)
John le Bray, 1325
William de Bottune, c. 1400 (fn. 42)
Thomas, 1404 (fn. 43)
Richard Lancing, 1477, 1494
Richard Sutton, alias Baker (fn. 44)
John Gregory alias John Harietsham, 1532,
1538 (fn. 45)
The seal of the priory, engraved in Hasted's
Kent, represents the Almighty with nimbus,
seated, holding in front of Him the crucified
Saviour; below a cross patée. Another seal of
the priory has the Almighty with nimbus, seated,
in a niche with triple canopy, with both arms
upraised; on each side a saint or attendant
holding up one of the divine hands; in base,
a prior, half length, in prayer, to the left.
Legend:—
S COMMVNE DOMVS ORDINIS SANCTE TRINITATIS
D . . . . YNDENNE . . . . CIA (fn. 46)