114. THE COLLEGE OF BAILY END, OR GILD OF ST. MARY, THETFORD (fn. 1)
There was at an early period in Thetford a
gild dedicated to the Blessed Virgin, consisting
of brethren and sisters with their chaplains.
For this gild, in the time of Edward I, Sir Gilbert
de Pykenham founded a special chapel, or rather
collegiate church.
At first the establishment consisted of a master
or warden, who was to celebrate divine service,
an alderman, who was to receive and be
responsible for the profits of the house, and such
brothers and sisters as were duly admitted. The
master's stipend from the foundation until about
1325 was but a mark; it was then advanced,
with increased duties, to £3 6s. 8d., with a
chaplain at £1 13s. 4d. a year; and in the time
of Henry V the salary was augmented to
£6 13s. 4d, whilst each of the two chaplains
had £4 13s. 4d. Each member on admission
paid one or more quarters of barley, according
to their ability, as well as a money fee of 3s. 4d.
The annual revenue of the house in 1337
was £26 6s., mainly in rent from divers tenements in Thetford; certain rents were allotted
to support a perpetual lamp and other lights in
the chapel. The members of the gild at that time
numbered thirty-six. Among them were several
of the town clergy, including William Hard ing,
who had been master of two of the Thetford
hospitals. New members were admitted by the
vote of the majority of the gild, who had also
the power of expulsion, which was exercised in
1337 against one Edmund Caston.
In the time of Richard II the revenues of
the gild were materially increased; there were
two chaplains, one of whom served the chapel of
St. Bartholomew, in addition to the master.
The gild certificate of 12 Richard II, when
there was a general inquiry into such foundations
throughout the country, was to the following
effect: That the chapel of the Nativity in the
market-place of Thetford was founded time
beyond memory for the use of a fraternity of the
townsmen and outsiders; that the chapel was
about half a mile distant from the parish church
or any other churches, and was suitable for the
hearing of Mass by those who thronged to the
town on market days or days of pleas; that the
fraternity sustained three chaplains, one of whom
celebrated daily, another on Sundays, and the
third the Requiem Masses; that the anniversaries
and obits of each deceased brother or sister of
the gild were kept in free alms with all due
devotion and with candles burning; and that
Roger de Wortham, parson of the church of
Tittleshall, gave by charter in 1358 to John
de Thetford, parson of the church of Heyham,
and others, of whom two survive, a messuage in
Thetford worth 20s. a year, for Mass in the
chapel for the soul of Henry Chatrys, and for
the support of the chaplains and the general
sustentation of the chapel and fraternity. (fn. 2)
In 1416, the revenues were estimated at £40.
In that year nine new members were enrolled,
including Margaret Campleon, afterwards prioress,
of the Thetford nunnery. The expenses at the
annual gild feast amounted to 56s.
Henry VI in 1443 licensed William earl of
Suffolk and Isabel, wife of William Gallion, to
alienate to the mayor and commonalty of Thetford (as trustees for the gild) a messuage and
garden in Thetford, 240 acres of land, 600 of
pasture and heath, with four foldcourses in
Croxton, for the purpose of procuring two
chaplains to perform daily service for their souls
and those of their heirs in the chapel of the
Blessed Mary in Baily End. (fn. 3)
In 1446 the mayor and commonalty obtained
licence for alienation in mortmain on behalf of
the gild of £10 more per annum in mortmain,
and the small benefactions immediately increased.
The fraternity then appointed two chamberlains
to receive the rents, who had to pass their
accounts annually before the mayor.
This college or gild of St. Mary of Baily End
possessed burial rights, and accordingly various
legacies were left to it in the fifteenth century by
those who desired burial in the chapel or in the
yard by which it was surrounded.
Isabel Gallion, who died in 1472, made
notable bequests to the college, to which she
bequeathed her body to be buried at the entrance
to the quire. Besides church ornaments and
gifts of money Isabel also conferred upon the
house the advowson and the appropriation of the
church of Santon. This advowson was subsequently conveyed to the mayor and commonalty
of Thetford on condition that at every vacancy
they presented the master of St. Mary's, Baily
End, and that he received the profits of the
same.
The Valor of 1535 names John Pory as
master with a stipend of £6 13s. 4d., and
William Fletcher and John Gunnar the two
priests, each receiving £5 6s. 8d. a year. There
were also two clerks in receipt of a salary of
20s. each. The clear annual value was then
only estimated at £23 14s.
In 1538, the mayor and commonalty being
desirous of obtaining a charter of incorporation,
sold all the valuable plate of the gild chapel for
£54 15s. 5½d. towards the expenses of procuring
it. Though the corporation sold most of the
gild property about this date for a like alleged
reason the college remained technically unsuppressed during the reign of Henry VIII, being
eventually resigned into the hands of Edward VI
in 1547 by John Gunnel, the last master, who
had a pension of £5. The college, with its
chapel, was at once demolished; and the site
(with 80 acres of land and other messuages and
tenements) granted in 1548 in the first instance
to the Duke of Norfolk, but soon afterwards to
Sir Richard Fulmerston.