HOUSES OF PREMONSTRATENSIAN CANONS
42. THE ABBEY OF WEST DEREHAM
Hubert Walter, dean of York, who afterwards became successively bishop of Salisbury
and archbishop of Canterbury, founded at his
birthplace of West Dereham, in the year 1188, an
abbey for Premonstratensian canons, which was
colonized from Welbeck. The canons were to
pray for the souls of the founder and his parents,
his brothers and sisters and all his relatives and
friends, as well as for the souls of Ralph de
Glanville, justiciary of England, and Bertha his
wife. (fn. 1)
King John, on 7 September, 1199, confirmed
all the grants made to the abbey by the founder
and by other early benefactors; at the same
time, at the request of the founder, who was
then archbishop of Canterbury, he conferred on
the abbey and its tenants exemption from all
kinds of service, tolls and dues. (fn. 2) In the same
year John granted to the abbey a weekly Wednesday market, and an annual fair of four days,
namely on the festival of St. Matthew and the
three following days, (fn. 3) and in 1201, the king
confirmed to them the grants of half the church
of Holkham and of the church of Ringland. (fn. 4)
Peter, son of Peter de Nerford, granted in
1280, to the abbot and canons of St. Mary of
Dereham, Richard de Ayssepele, Simon le
Wodewide, and Simon the carter of Saham,
with their tenements, belongings, and services,
and 12d. of rents; to hold the same in free alms
for the sustentation of one canon to celebrate in
the abbey of Dereham for the souls of the
faithful departed. (fn. 5)
The abbot and convent obtained leave in
1285 to enclose eight acres of land in West
Dereham, adjoining the abbey on the west side,
to wit from the stone bridge of West Dereham
to the end of their close called Fishercroft, for
the enlargement of their site. (fn. 6) Other grants of
lands and rents were made by various benefactors
so that by 1291, when the ecclesiastical taxation
roll was drawn up, the endowments of this
abbey were considerable, being of the clear
annual value of £169 3s. 8½d. Their chief
possessions were in Norfolk, scattered over thirtythree parishes, but they had also property in the
dioceses of York, Ely, and Lincoln.
Elizabeth de Burgo, the king's kinswoman,
had licence in 1336 for alienation in mortmain
of 7 messuages, 112 acres of land, 8 acres
of meadow, 10 acres of pasture, and 10s. 8½d. of
rent in West Dereham and adjacent towns of
Norfolk, together with the fair of Wynwale, to
the abbey of Dereham, to find a chaplain
to celebrate daily in the chapel of St. Wynwale
for the soul of Gilbert de Clare, late earl of
Gloucester, and for the souls of herself, her
ancestors, and heirs. (fn. 7)
Boniface IX, in 1399, sanctioned the appropriation to this abbey of the church of Grimston,
value not exceeding 90 marks, and that of the
monastery, not exceeding 400 marks. On the
resignation of the rector the church might be
served by one of their canons. (fn. 8) In the same
year the pope confirmed the decision made by
the late bishop of Ely with regard to a dispute
between the abbey and the priory of Barnwell
as to the tithes of the sheaves of 'Nunne Court
fee' pertaining to the church of Holy Trinity,
Cambridge. The decree ordered the priory to
pay 30s. yearly to the abbey for these tithes.
The pope completed the ordinance by enjoining
the priory to keep the chancel of Holy Trinity
in repair and to pay synodals. (fn. 9) Two years later,
September, 1401, this Cambridge church was
fully appropriated to the abbey, by sanction of
Boniface. At the same time the two parishes of
St. Peter and St. Andrew, West Dereham,
situate close together in one churchyard, were
united. It was stated that St. Peter's was so
diminished in income that a priest could not be
maintained. The convent and the parishioners
of St. Peter's were freed from the repair of the
church and chancel, and considered parishioners
of St. Andrew's. (fn. 10)
Another church about the possession of which
the abbey had some little trouble and litigation
at an earlier period, was that of Holkham, which
had been given them by Aymer de Valence, who
had made good his claim to it against the abbot
of. Viterbo. In 1341 the latter abbot endeavoured to reclaim it from the abbot of West
Dereham, and the king ordered the prior of
Walsingham to do justice in the case, (fn. 11) which
was evidently decided in favour of the Norfolk
house as they are found in possession of the
rectory in 1535.
When the abbey was visited in 1478 by
Richard Redman, bishop of St. Asaph and abbot
of Shap, and by Hubert, commissary-general of the
abbot of Prémontré, it was reported that the abbey
held five churches, the cures of which were
sometimes held by canons in perpetuity, sometimes by seculars, and sometimes by canons
removable at pleasure. (fn. 12)
When the Valor Ecclesiasticus was taken in
1535 the clear annual value was declared to be
£228 0s. 0¾d.
On 20 September, 1323, Canon Geoffrey de
Driffield, from the abbey of Egleston, was sent
to Dereham by the king, with the request that
he might stay with them for a time, as the
house of Egleston had been so destroyed by the
Scotch rebels that the canons could no longer
live there. At the same time, seven other
canons of Egleston were distributed among the
like number of Premonstratensian houses, including the Norfolk abbey of Langley. (fn. 13)
In May, 1325, the county escheator was
ordered not to further intermeddle with this
abbey, which he had taken into the king's hands
on the death of the last abbot on the plea that the
lands that belonged to Aymer de Valence, late earl
of Pembroke, were in the king's hands. The king
had learnt by inquisition that the abbey was of
the advowson of the earl as of the inheritance
of Monchesney, and that from the time of its
foundation until then the patrons of the abbey,
when it was vacant, had no custody there, and
that the convent did not seek licence to elect
from any patron, and did not present him whom
they had elected to the patron before the installation. It was further ascertained that the
patron did not receive any profit at the time
of voidance, but that whenever a patron died,
the abbot and convent celebrated mass and distributed alms for his soul on the same scale as at
the death of an abbot, namely each canon-priest
of the house celebrated three masses, and each
canon not a priest said a psalter, and each lay
brother (conversus) said 150 Our Fathers and as
many Hail Marys, and they distributed to the
poor daily for thirty days after his death a loaf,
a gallon of ale, and a dish of meat or fish, such as
a canon is wont to receive daily. (fn. 14) In 1328 protection was granted for the abbey of Dereham,
which was of the advowson of the heir of John
de Hastings, deceased, a minor in the king's
custody, in consequence of its being impoverished
and in debt through injudicious management.
Richard Coppe, a parson of the church of
Oxborough, and Richard de Depham were appointed custodians, under whose direction the
abbot was to apply the revenues to the payment
of the debts, saving a reasonable sustenance for
himself and the canons and their servants. (fn. 15)
In 1325 the abbot of Dereham was prohibited
by the king from leaving the kingdom to attend
the general chapter at Prémontré, (fn. 16) but in
September, 1327, Bartholomew de Burghersh,
constable of Dover Castle, was directed to permit the abbot of Dereham to cross the seas from
that port to attend the chapter general at Prémontré, and to allow him 20 marks for the
expenses of himself and attendants. (fn. 17) On
26 June, 1328, an exactly similar order was made
for a like purpose, save that £20 instead of 20
marks was contributed for expenses. (fn. 18)
On 15 May, 1325, John, abbot of Welbeck, as
father abbot of Dereham, wrote to the bishop of
Norwich to inform him of the death of the late
abbot, Paul de Tilney, and of the election of
John de Rutham, in his presence and that of
the abbots of Seiston and Wendling, and to ask
for his episcopal benediction. (fn. 19) Although the
White Canons were specially exempt from
diocesan visitation, and their elections were held
independently of the bishop, it was usual for
the abbot-elect, after he had been chosen by his
convent and installed by the father abbot of the
house, to promise canonical obedience to his
diocesan, saving all rights of his order, and to
ask for episcopal benediction. In the case of
John de Rutham, the bishop's blessing was
given on 21 May.
In 1344, Mary de Sancto Paulo, countess of
Pembroke, obtained the sanction of Clement III,
on behalf of the Premonstratensian abbot of West
Dereham, for faculty to confer the office of notary
public on six persons to be nominated by the
countess. (fn. 20) Pope Urban V, in 1366, granted,
during ten years, an indulgence of a year and
160 days to penitents visiting the chapel of
the Holy Trinity in this monastery on the
principal feasts. (fn. 21)
William de Holt received the episcopal benediction as abbot on 6 April, 1368, in the manor
chapel of Heningham, and promised canonical
obedience, saving the rights of his order. (fn. 22) His
obedience, however, seems to have been somewhat incomplete if he is the person referred to
in 1387, when the crown appointed seven
officials to arrest William Holt, an 'apostate
vagabond canon' of Dereham Abbey, signified as
such to the king by John, abbot of Barlings,
and George, abbot of Welbeck, visitors of the
English Premonstratensian houses. If arrested,
he was to be delivered to his abbot, or to one of
the visitors or their attorney. (fn. 23)
Abbot John Saresson alias Wygenhale acted
as vicar-general to the bishop in 1436, as well as
on many later occasions. In 1444 he was
collated to the deanery of the college of St.
Mary-in-the-Fields, Norwich, as well as to the
rectory of St. Mary's, Great Massingham;
which preferments he held in conjunction with
the rule of the abbey. He died about 1455,
and is particularly memorable on account of the
survival of the precatory or mortuary roll that
was issued by his convent at the time of his
death. It is a class of documents of which very
few examples are extant. On the death of a
religious, and more especially of a religious
superior, a roll was prepared on which was
written a statement of the death, together with
some eulogy or description of the deceased, with
religious reflections, and a request for the prayers
by other houses. The roll was then carried
round, sometimes only to neighbouring houses,
or those of the same order, but in the cases of
superiors or distinguished personages these brevia
or briefs were multiplied, and sent about throughout the kingdom at large. The monk or canon
who carried the brief was termed a breviator, and
on its reaching each monastery it was inscribed
with the titulus or description of the house,
accompanied by a promise of their prayers for the
departed. On Abbot Wygenhale's death a
beautiful roll was prepared. That which now
remains (but it was doubtless originally longer) is
4 ft. 5½ in. long by about 12 in. wide, formed of
two membranes. On the upper membrane is an
illuminated architectural design divided into three
compartments. At the top is the Eternal Father
supporting a crucifix, and at the right side is the
small figure of an abbot kneeling, with a scroll
asking the divine protection and guidance for
John Lynn, who was the abbot that succeeded the
deceased. In the centre is the Blessed Virgin.
At the base is the scene of the interment of John
Wygenhale, most interestingly portrayed. (fn. 24)
The encyclical letter from the abbey of West
Dereham, which follows the illumination, is a
warm eulogy of the deceased. The terms were
probably not entirely complimentary, or as a
matter of course, for Abbot Wygenhale was
evidently highly esteemed outside his convent.
When he attended the bishop in 1449 as vicargeneral, at the ceremony of making the priory of
Wymondham into an abbey, he is described by
John of Whethamstede, the chronicler of St.
Albans, as vir altae discrecionis et suorum gravitate
pollens. (fn. 25)
The tituli or descriptive endorsements that
can now be traced on the back of the roll are
those of the Austin house of Christ Church,
Hampshire; of the Premonstratensian abbey of
Titchfield, Hampshire; of the great abbey of
Bury St. Edmunds; of the Cistercian monastery
of Lowth Park, Lincoln; of the Benedictine
abbey of the cathedral church of Worcester;
and of the Austin house of St. James, Northampton.
Bishop Redman's first visitation of West
Dereham occurred in June, 1475; he arrived at
the abbey at the dinner hour on the 26th, and
left for Wendling on the 28th. (fn. 26) The visitation
of 1478 extended from 28 to 30 June, when he
found everything in good order. The visitor
enjoined the presence of a deacon at the high
altar daily; also that on recreation days the
brethren were to go out and return unless otherwise ordered by the abbot: anyone leaving the
precincts without permission was to be punished
the same as an apostate.
There was an abundant supply of all
necessaries, and the debt was but slight. In
addition to John Lynn, the abbot, and John
Harnes, the sub-prior, thirteen other canons
were present at the visitation. (fn. 27)
On 23 July, 1482, William abbot of Welbeck
wrote to Bishop Redman to tell him of the
death of John Lynn alias Clerk, abbot of Dereham, in which he pleaded the poverty of his
daughter-house of Dereham as a reason for
pressing on with the new election with all
possible speed, and asking that on this occasion
only he might proceed without delay in ordering
a new election, and in admitting and installing
the abbot elect. (fn. 28) Accordingly at the next visitation in August, 1482, the election of William
Maxey as abbot took place in the bishop's
presence.
At this time he ordered that silence was to be
better observed. Nineteen canons, including the
abbot and prior, were present on this occasion. (fn. 29)
The bishop's next visit was on 22 June, 1486,
when he arrived at West Dereham at suppertime. The house was formally visited on the
morrow, and he tarried there quietly over
24 June for the solemn observance of the feast
of St. John Baptist, supping at Walsingham on
the 25th. (fn. 30)
At a visitation just two years later, John
Martyn, abbot, William Maxey, the late abbot,
eleven other priests, and three deacons were
present. The visitor reported that the abbot
was provident and circumspect; that the debt
of £200 at the time of his election had been
reduced to £100; and that there was a good
supply of stores and cattle.
George Lytylport, priest, was found in prison
for theft and other sins; he was penitent, but
ordered to remain in prison until next general
chapter. (fn. 31)
The next visitation was on 22 September,
1491, when John Wysbech, abbot, William
Maxey, late abbot, nine other canons, and a
novice were present. The novice, William
Faryeley, had struck a brother and flung him
into the grate; the visitor ordered him forty
days of bread and water, and then to be sent to
Halesowen; but at the unanimous prayer of the
abbot and convent the last part of the sentence
was revoked. (fn. 32)
In 1494 the house was again visited, when
John Martyn (an alias of Wysbech), the exabbot, and ten others attended. The visitor
reported well of the house. (fn. 33) Again, in October,
1500, the visitor was at this house, when John
Wysbech is entered as the abbot. The report
was quite excellent.
The last recorded visitation took place
10 August, 1503; the same abbot and ex-abbot
were present, and fourteen other canons. Bishop
Redman found several insufficiently taught;
therefore he recalled Brother Robert Watton
from the university, to be joined in office with
the prior, and diligently to teach his brethren.
Thomas Fychele was removed from the subpriorship for his negligence in his duty; otherwise the condition and discipline of the house
were good. (fn. 34)
Legh and Ap Rice, Cromwell's tools and
visitors, surpassed themselves in their comperta
as to this abbey, on which they reported in
1536; according to their preposterous return
the canons were all incontinent, and were ready
to confess themselves as such, longing to marry,
and believing that the king had been divinely
sent on earth to bring this about. (fn. 35) John Ap
Rice, in whose handwriting these comperta were
drawn up, made earnest suit for a grant of this
house, which it was thus his interest to vilify.
In 1538 he petitioned Cromwell for the lands.
He pleaded that there was no fee attached to his
office; that he had been concerned in drawing
up divers great instruments in the process of
divorce of Queen Anne; and that he wrote to
the king the abridgements of the comperta of
the late visitation. He stated that the manor of
West Dereham was worth £52 12s. 8d., and the
residue of the rent was £200, and the movables
worth £600. He promised if his petition was
granted to retain only £50, giving Cromwell
the other £200 a year, and movables to the
value of £400 or £500. It is scarcely necessary
to say that the chance of so great a share of the
spoils was accepted by Cromwell, and the
slanderous visitor obtained his grant. (fn. 36)
It is not in any way credible, if the visitors'
report of the condition of this house had been
true or credited, that Abbot Roger, who presided
over a convent charged with these outrageous
offences, would have been assigned the unusually
large pension of £66 13s. 4d. This pension, as
well as smaller sums to five of his canons, was
granted on 6 November, 1539. (fn. 37)
Abbots of West Dereham
Augustine, (fn. 38) appointed 1188
Ralph, (fn. 39) occurs temp. Richard I, John, Henry
III
Remigius, (fn. 40) occurs 1231
Angerius, (fn. 41) occurs 1232
Roger, (fn. 42) occurs 1268
Denis Walter, (fn. 43) occurs 1286
Simon, (fn. 44) occurs 1304
Walter de Donton, (fn. 45) elected 1306
Paul de Tilney, (fn. 46) elected 1313
Bartholomew, (fn. 47) occurs 1316
John de Rutham, (fn. 48) elected 1325
Nicholas de Dereham, (fn. 49) elected 1339
William de Holt, (fn. 50) elected 1368
Constantine, (fn. 51) occurs 1393
John Flete, (fn. 52) occurs 1398
John, (fn. 53) elected 1412
Robert, (fn. 54) occurs 1428
John Wygenhall alias Saresson, (fn. 55) elected 1429
John Lynn, (fn. 56) elected 1455
William Maxey, (fn. 57) elected 1482
John Martyn (fn. 58)
alias Wysbech, (fn. 59) occurs 1488
William Norwich, (fn. 60) elected 1511
Roger Forman, (fn. 61) elected 1522, last abbot