HOUSES OF AUSTIN FRIARS
20. THE AUSTIN FRIARS OF LUDLOW
Some years after the foundation of Woodhouse (fn. 1) a
community of Austin friars was established a few
miles away in Ludlow, just outside the Galford Gate.
Capgrave assigns the building of their house to
1254 (fn. 2) and this is borne out by architectural evidence. (fn. 3)
It is not known who helped their settlement. One of
their earliest benefactors was Brian of Brampton,
lord of Kinlet, who had a letter of confraternity from
the provincial chapter in 1279, but he was remembered for his help in alleviating the poverty of the
brethren and enlarging their house, not for founding it. (fn. 4) His family was allied by marriage to the
Turbervilles, traditionally associated with the
foundation of Woodhouse. (fn. 5) There may have been
some benefactions from the Beauchamp family also;
some 14th-century tiles found on the priory site
were decorated with the Beauchamp arms. (fn. 6) At the
time of the establishment of the friars Ludlow was a
growing market town with only one parish church:
their help was probably welcome and there is no
record of any difficulties with the secular clergy. In
1290 Bishop Swinfield gave them a pittance of 4s.,
which possibly indicates a community of 12 friars,
and in 1299 he successfully denounced a violation of
sanctuary there. (fn. 7) They received sufficient support
for the extension of their property and the enlargement of their buildings: in 1284 they were licensed
to enclose a lane by their property between Old
Street and Galford, (fn. 8) and in 1326 they acquired 2½
acres of meadow south of their site. (fn. 9) Fragments of
some sedilia with ball-flower pattern indicate that
building was not finished before 1340. (fn. 10) The church
when completed was a spacious building with nave
and north aisle together measuring 90 feet by 50 feet
and a smaller choir 70 feet by 30 feet. (fn. 11) Between
choir and nave was a multiangular enclosure, which
probably corresponded to the 'walking place' in
other friars' churches. (fn. 12) Usually the steeple was
erected over this space; since at Ludlow there was a
tower at the north-east corner of the choir the two
larger bells may have been placed there. (fn. 13) The
cloister lay south of the nave, measuring 110 feet by
70 feet, and was surrounded by substantial buildings.
Of the internal life of the priory little is known.
Different groups of Austin friars wore black, white,
or occasionally grey habits; those at Ludlow appear
to have worn black. (fn. 14) The house was important
enough for at least one provincial chapter to have
been held there, in 1426. (fn. 15) There may have been a
falling off in prosperity after the town was sacked by
the Lancastrians in 1459, when some churches
suffered, (fn. 16) but the town records for the early 16th
century reveal only one or two actions for debt and a
few affrays: there is no sign of serious poverty or
disorder. (fn. 17) Some evidence for the condition of the
house in the later Middle Ages comes from the
Dissolution records. The friars of Ludlow, like other
groups of Tuscan hermits, held property communally
and their gardens, orchards, and meadows, extending
to over 12 acres, were then leased for £4 16s. 4d. Their
moveables were meagre but they may have succeeded
in hiding or selling property in advance. The choir
had newly-built stalls and there were two fair bells
and a little bell in the steeple. One chalice and a
copper cross, which was in pledge, were valued at
£6 14s. 1d. The inventory seems incomplete: only
the sacristy, choir, hall, buttery, and kitchen are
mentioned yet the ground-plan of the house reveals
more than a dozen rooms with a staircase to an
upper floor. (fn. 18) If the other parts of the convent stood
bare and empty much must have been sold before
the arrival of the commissioners.
The prior and three other friars surrendered to
the Crown in August 1538. (fn. 19) The site and gardens
were leased to Richard Palmer in December 1539
and were granted to Robert Townsend in 1547. (fn. 20) In
1572 Townsend's widow Alice sold the stone steeple
of the late Austin Friars to the corporation with
licence to cart away all stone for 21 years. (fn. 21) In spite
of these quarrying operations considerable portions
of the buildings, including part of a massive precinct wall and an arched gateway, were still standing
in the early 19th century. These were pulled down in
1817 but in 1861, before the site was developed as a
cattle market, the foundations were surveyed by a
local architect. (fn. 22)
Priors
William Man, occurs 1520-8. (fn. 23)
William Mentpace, occurs 1531. (fn. 24)
Giles Pickering, occurs 1538. (fn. 25)
No seal known.
21. THE AUSTIN FRIARS OF SHREWSBURY
Within a year of the establishment of a house of
Austin friars at Ludlow, Capgrave relates, another
house was begun in Shrewsbury. (fn. 26) This dates the
origins of the Shrewsbury friary as 1254-5 and
proves conclusively that the friars called 'the poor
brethren of Coulon' in a number of royal letters were
Augustinians: presumably a group of the Tuscan
hermits whom the king had welcomed in 1249. (fn. 27) In
September 1254, in response to a petition from
the burgesses of Shrewsbury and particularly the
parishioners of St. Mary's, (fn. 28) Henry III granted the
brethren of 'Coulon' an area outside the town of
Shrewsbury where the dead had been buried during
the Interdict. (fn. 29) 'Coulon' was probably 'Cowlone' or
'Cowlonde', north of the castle, (fn. 30) which lay in St.
Mary's parish. When the friars first moved to their
'new place' outside the town walls, near the Welsh
Bridge on the other side of the town, they held
services in a simple chamber while their church was
being built. (fn. 31) In 1269 the king gave 10 marks
towards their building fund and in 1283 a pittance of
13s. 4d. (probably for 2 days), which suggests the
presence of 20 friars in the community. (fn. 32) Building
was in progress in the 1290s; in 1292 the Bishop of
Lichfield granted an indulgence to all contributing
to the building and repair of their conventual church
or houses, (fn. 33) and in 1298 Geoffrey Randolf gave them
a plot of land outside the walls, near the postern of
Rumboldsham (Barker Street), for building purposes. (fn. 34) The church had been finished by 1300, when
they leased the chamber where they had formerly
celebrated divine service, (fn. 35) and the precinct was
steadily enlarged during the next forty years. In
1337 the friars obtained from the borough a grant of
the 'New Work', a stone wall 120 ells long running
from their convent to the river, on condition that
they built a substantial embattled house there and
allowed the 'New Work' to be garrisoned in time of
war. The friars were also allowed to have a postern
gate through the wall to Rumboldsham. (fn. 36) A further
18 acres were acquired in 1363. (fn. 37) At the Dissolution
rents from various gardens and other lands amounted
to 36s. 7d. and the convent site was valued at
12s. 1d. (fn. 38)
The house, which was in the limit of Lincoln, (fn. 39)
was an important one in the late 14th century. At
least three provincial chapters were held there, in
1383, 1389, and 1400, (fn. 40) and John Shipton, one of the
twelve doctors who condemned Wycliffe in 1381,
was for a time a member of the community. (fn. 41)
Among its benefactors was Richard, Earl of Arundel
(d. 1397), a lifelong friend of the order. (fn. 42) Standards
declined in the later 15th century; in 1456 there were
only six friars there (fn. 43) and the last century of its
existence was continually disturbed by violence. In
1472 one of the friars killed a man in self-defence:
he sought sanctuary in the church and during the
scuffle while the angry burgesses attempted to drag
him out another man was killed. The king intervened to punish the violation of sanctuary; the
church was reconsecrated and the friars and citizens
were reconciled by the mediation of the Bishop of
Carlisle and Thomas Mynde, Abbot of Shrewsbury. (fn. 44)
Between 1500 and 1538 the borough records show
the friars involved in at least 13 cases of affray, sometimes fighting in taverns or amongst themselves, in
13 cases of trespass or unlawful detention of goods,
and in 26 cases of debt; (fn. 45) the general picture is one
of poverty and disorder. Richard Lyneal, who was
called 'the great Sir Richard' and was regularly reelected as prior for many years before 1527, (fn. 46)
appears in the records as a high-handed and passionate man who dominated the house and he may have
been responsible for many of its troubles. In 1522 a
Shrewsbury draper went surety for him on condition
that he should not dissipate the goods of the house
before the next visitation of the Provincial of the
order. (fn. 47) The outbreak of plague in 1525, which
reduced the alms on which the brethren depended,
with their small rents, for their livelihood, was one
cause of distress: nonetheless, the two other friaries
in the town weathered these troubles. The borough
made some modest provision for the needs of the
Austin friars by granting them £5 in 1528 and a
further £4 for the repair of their houses in 1536. (fn. 48)
Discipline was evidently at a very low ebb in 1530,
when the prior, William Man, came to blows with
the former prior, John Towne, and was bound over
to keep the peace. (fn. 49) In 1536 the burgesses found
that John Skinner and others were carting away
stones from the Austin friary and resolved that the
prior, Richard Alate, who was selling the goods of
the house, should be committed to prison. (fn. 50) John
Towne returned to office as prior for a year of
unsuccessful struggling against debt. (fn. 51) In August
1538 the commissioners found the house in a sorry
state: the buildings ruinous, goods of a total value of
26s. 8d. at most, and no bedding, food, or drink.
The prior was a man 'like to be in a frenzy' and there
were only two friars, both Irishmen, with him. (fn. 52)
The Bishop of Dover discharged the prior, who sued
unsuccessfully for his house in London. He also
ordered the Irishmen back to their own country,
but they remained, and in September 1539 were
granted their capacities with two other friars. (fn. 53)
The house, after being leased to John Reynolds in
1540, (fn. 54) was sold in 1543 to Richard Andrews and
Nicholas Temple. (fn. 55)
In the early 19th century some ruins of the house
were still standing: Owen and Blakeway noted the
lower part of a square building of red stone with two
pointed doorways. (fn. 56) The upper floor had a range of
handsome windows and may have been the refectory; another doorway with recessed mouldings was
discovered during alterations to the house. All these
have since been pulled down. Some foundations
were uncovered during the building of the Priory
School. (fn. 57)
Priors
William Witham, occurs 1403. (fn. 58)
Thomas Wharton, occurs 1456. (fn. 59)
John Wall, occurs 1473. (fn. 60)
Thomas, occurs 1481. (fn. 61)
Thomas Lyneal, occurs 1497. (fn. 62)
Richard, occurs from 1505 to 1510. (fn. 63)
Richard Lyneal, occurs from 1519 to 1527. (fn. 64)
John Townsend alias Towne, occurs 1529. (fn. 65)
William Man, occurs 1530-1. (fn. 66)
John Halybred alias Stokes, occurs 1532-5. (fn. 67)
Richard Alate, occurs 1536. (fn. 68)
John Towne, recurs 1537-8. (fn. 69)
A copy of a seal attached to a deed of 1300 has
been printed from an 18th-century drawing. It
shows the seated figure of a friar, teaching; in the
upper right background a star. Legend, lombardic:
SIGILLUM COMMUNE ORDINIS SANCTI AUGUSTINI
SALOP. . . (fn. 70)
22. THE AUSTIN FRIARS OF WOODHOUSE
The hermitage of Woodhouse was one of the two
earliest English foundations of the friars hermits of
St. Augustine. Capgrave's confused account of the
beginning of the order in England at least makes
plain that Gilbert, Earl of Gloucester, was a friend
to the hermits and that the first two houses were
built at Clare and Woodhouse. (fn. 71) There is corroborating evidence of the appearance of a group of
Augustinian hermits of Tuscany in England in
September 1249, when they were welcomed by
Henry III. (fn. 72) Some of these may have provided the
first two communities; by 1250 certainly there was a
settlement at Woodhouse, about two miles northwest of Cleobury Mortimer. (fn. 73) This remote spot,
uncultivated and extra-parochial, was perfectly
suited to the early ideals of the order, which aimed
at retreat from the world to attain full union with
God. If there was a founder, his identity is uncertain. Dugdale derived from Tanner an unsubstantiated statement that the land was originally
given to the hermits by members of the Turberville
family; (fn. 74) this is not impossible since the Turbervilles were under-tenants of the Earls of Gloucester
and were connected by marriage with the Bramptons of Kinlet, (fn. 75) known to have been benefactors of
the Austin friars of Ludlow. (fn. 76) Later the house
received gifts from local families in Hopton Wafers,
Woodhouse itself, and Cleobury Mortimer. (fn. 77) Like
the other two Austin friaries in Shropshire, it was
founded before the union in 1256 of the most
important groups of friars following the rule of St.
Augustine. After that date the organization of the
order more closely resembled that of other friars.
Houses were normally established in towns or moved
there (fn. 78) but Woodhouse was one of the few to remain
in its original solitude. Since the Tuscan hermits
had never aimed at absolute poverty it held communal property from the beginning (fn. 79) and its rural
situation made some lands necessary to supplement
the scanty alms available in the neighbourhood. By
the Dissolution the estate comprised some 50 acres,
principally pasture and woodland. (fn. 80)
The community was always small, with an estimated number of seven friars in the late 13th
century. (fn. 81) The friary belonged to the limit of
Lincoln. (fn. 82) Nothing has survived from the library
to indicate the state of learning there but there is
some circumstantial evidence to support a local
tradition that William Langland, author of Piers
Plowman, was either a member of this community
or received his early education there. (fn. 83) If he was
born at Kinlet, as some of the evidence indicates,
and had wished to enter the order he would presumably have done so at Woodhouse, the friary
nearest to his place of birth. In the early 15th century
the house had a good reputation for observance. (fn. 84)
After the dissolution of the smaller religious
houses in 1536 a number of the Shropshire priors
hid or sold the goods of their houses, probably in an
effort to save them from the impending confiscation.
In January 1537 Bishop Rowland Lee complained to
Cromwell that the prior of Woodhouse had sold the
goods of the house and changed his habit. (fn. 85) Lee had
him imprisoned and urged Cromwell to send him to
his provincial and either appoint another prior or
authorize Lee to do so. (fn. 86) When Woodhouse was
finally suppressed in August 1538 it was governed
by one Ridley, who seems to have been acting as
prior, but by what title is not clear. Three other
friars received their capacities in 1540. (fn. 87) The site
and estate were first leased to the bailiff, John
Neveth, and were sold in 1554 to Thomas Reeve
and George Cotton, (fn. 88) who sold them to Thomas
Harvard later in the same year. (fn. 89) In the early 19th
century an old moated house with the remains of a
chapel was used as a farm-house. (fn. 90) The house was
evidently rebuilt in the mid 19th century and no
medieval features were visible externally in 1969.
A considerable part of the large rectangular moat
survives. (fn. 91)
Priors
Thomas, occurs 1481. (fn. 92)
. . . Ridley, occurs 1538. (fn. 93)
No seal known.