38. THE COLLEGE OF ST. MARY MAGDALEN, BATTLEFIELD
The principal object of Battlefield College was to
provide intercession for the souls of those slain in
the battle of Shrewsbury (1403), on the site of which
its church was built. (fn. 1) Although Henry IV provided
the bulk of its endowment and figured as founder in
1410 (fn. 2) the college owed its inception not to the king
but to Roger Ive, its first master. Ive, member of
a burgess family of Shrewsbury, had been Rector
of Albright Hussey, the parish in which Battlefield
lay, since 1398. (fn. 3) In 1406 he obtained licence to
acquire a two-acre site in Hateley Field from Richard
Hussey, the lord of the manor, with the object of
building a chapel there so that daily masses might be
celebrated by himself and a fellow-chaplain for the
souls of the slain. (fn. 4) The site was described in some
detail in 1410; (fn. 5) it was surrounded by a ditch with
two 20-foot entrances to the north and south and
within it was the large common grave in which
most of the dead from the battle had been buried.
The evolution of Battlefield as a college of priests
from its beginnings as a simple chantry chapel seems
to have been the result of negotiations, 1406-10,
between Ive, Hussey, and the Crown. In March
1409, when Ive had nearly finished building the
body of the church, (fn. 6) it was constituted a perpetual
chantry, to be served by 7 chaplains and a master,
and was to be independent of the mother-church of
Albright Hussey. (fn. 7) Licence was given for the chaplains to acquire lands and later in that year they
obtained a crown grant of the advowson of St.
Michael's-on-Wyre (Lancs.), with licence to appropriate it. (fn. 8) This scheme was evidently found unsatisfactory. Having surrendered the chapel to the Crown
early in 1410, (fn. 9) Ive obtained a fresh foundation
charter in May of that year. (fn. 10) This was addressed to
Ive alone, appointed him master, and reduced the
number of chaplains to five. It provided that Battlefield should be united with the benefice of Albright
Hussey and vested the office of master in successive
rectors of that church. The Crown increased its
original endowment by the addition of the advowsons of Shifnal (including Dawley chapel) and of the
chapel of St. Michael in the Castle, Shrewsbury
(including Shrewsbury St. Julian and Ford chapels),
both of which were to be appropriated. Further
clauses exempted the master from taxation on his
spiritualities and temporalities and granted him the
right to hold an annual fair at Battlefield on the
patronal feast day (22 July). It is perhaps significant
that a papal confirmation of October 1410 (fn. 11) refers
to Battlefield for the first time as a college and not
simply as a perpetual chantry. As patrons of Albright
Hussey the Hussey family were also patrons of
Battlefield and they maintained a close connexion
with the college throughout its history. Prayers for
their welfare were among the services required of
the chaplains of 1410 (fn. 12) and two members of the
family became masters in the early 16th century. (fn. 13)
Until his resignation in 1447 the college was
dominated by the strong personality of Roger Ive.
He seems to have regarded the endowments secured
in 1410 as adequate for its maintenance. A small piece
of land near the college in Harlescott was bought in
1421 (fn. 14) and in 1428 lands there and in Albright
Hussey were leased from Shrewsbury Abbey, (fn. 15) but
the only substantial addition was the township of
Aston in Shifnal, acquired before 1444. (fn. 16) Solvency
may, however, have been maintained at the expense of the college's obligations to its appropriated
churches, for there were complaints of neglect at
Ford in the 1440s. (fn. 17) Throughout its history the
college seems to have relied on alms to cover expenditure on the fabric of the church and its other
buildings. Indulgences to stimulate almsgiving were
obtained from the bishop of Hereford in 1418, (fn. 18)
from the Pope in 1423 (fn. 19) and 1443, (fn. 20) and from the
bishop of Lichfield in 1460, (fn. 21) while proctors of the
college are found collecting alms, nominally for
the fabric and new buildings, in 1461, (fn. 22) 1480, (fn. 23)
1484, (fn. 24) and 1525. (fn. 25)
The charter of 1410 had vested the site of the
college and its endowments in Roger Ive and he also
regarded as his property the furnishings and other
contents of the church and communal collegiate
buildings. In the years immediately before his
resignation he took steps to ensure that the college
should not suffer when it ceased to be a proprietary
establishment. By his will of 1444 (fn. 26) he directed that
he should be buried in a stone tomb near the high
altar, and he granted the church plate, vestments, and
service books, together with a dwelling house,
kitchen, and buttery with their furniture, to the five
chaplains as the endowment of a chantry for his soul.
The will also apportioned the revenues between the
master and chaplains and laid down rules of
conduct. The master was alloted the income from
the appropriated churches of Shifnal and Shrewsbury St. Julian and rents from Aston in Shifnal.
The chaplains, who were to pay 5 marks a year for
their board, were required to have dinner and supper
together in the hall, not in their own chambers. They
were not to absent themselves without leave and
were forbidden to keep women inside the college or
elsewhere on pain of expulsion. Their salaries, up
to that time 8 marks apiece, were to be drawn from
the revenues of St. Michael's-on-Wyre. An additional 2 marks apiece was to be paid them if they
celebrated daily for Ive's soul and kept an obit on
the anniversary of the battle of Shrewsbury for Ive,
members of the Hussey family, and others. They
might also receive the revenues of Ford chapel if
they celebrated a weekly requiem on Mondays for
the same intentions. The liturgy to be observed on
high feast days was set out in some detail.
The college's immunity from taxation, based on
the charter of 1410, was tested in what appears to
have been a collusive action in the Exchequer in
1445 (fn. 27) and confirmed later in that year. (fn. 28) There is
some evidence too that at about this time significant
additions were being made to the church fabric and
fittings. Although the tower at Battlefield church
was probably not completed until c. 1500, during the
mastership of Adam Grafton, (fn. 29) Ive's will makes it
clear that building there was in contemplation if not
actually in progress by 1444. (fn. 30) The stained glass
formerly in the church, depicting the arms of the
Hussey family, their relatives and neighbours, has
been dated to the years 1434-45 (fn. 31) and the oak statue
of Our Lady of Pity, still in the church, probably
dates from the same period. (fn. 32)
Ive resigned in 1447 on a pension of £10 a year (fn. 33)
and may have been dead by 1454. (fn. 34) His successors
appear to have made less impact on the life of the
college. Roger Phelips (master 1454-78) built six
chambers for the chaplains near the college gateway. (fn. 35)
These are thought to have stood within the present
churchyard to the south of the church and may have
replaced earlier quarters in a three-story building
adjoining the south wall of the chancel, of which
slight traces remain. (fn. 36) Adam Grafton, who took
some part in the completion of the tower, held a
number of other preferments, served as chaplain
to Prince Edward (later Edward V) at Ludlow, and
was successively archdeacon of Salop and Stafford. (fn. 37)
He seems to have been living at Withington in 1506 (fn. 38)
and it is unlikely that he was ever in residence at the
college. His successor John Hussey may also have
been non-resident, since he did not appear at the
bishop's visitation in 1518. (fn. 39)
No significant additions were made to the
endowment of the college after 1447. Its privilege of
spiritual jurisdiction in the parish of Shrewsbury St.
Julian was evidently called into question soon after
Ive's resignation, for the master was inhibited from
exercising such jurisdiction in 1454, (fn. 40) but his right
to prove wills there was confirmed in 1536. (fn. 41) By the
early 16th century the college no longer enjoyed the
exemption from taxation which Ive had gone to
such pains to procure. (fn. 42) The burden of taxation,
together with the pensions due to the former master
Adam Grafton, was the chief complaint of the
chaplains at the visitation of 1518. (fn. 43) The college
statutes were then said to be well observed but,
according to the master, they were no longer fully
observed in 1524. (fn. 44) The chaplains, however, were
obedient and of good character and he intended to
make the necessary reforms. One of the chaplains
complained that they were being held answerable
for the debts of a former master, and another alleged
that the present master had carried off the college
muniments.
In 1535 the college's gross income was said to be
£56 1s. 4d. (fn. 45) Of this sum £3 was derived from rents
in Aston, £50 14s. 8d. from the lessees of the rectories of St. Michael's-on-Wyre and Shifnal and of the
tithes of Dawley, Shrewsbury St. Julian, Ford, and
Albright Hussey, and £2 6s. 8d. from alms and
oblations. The master's salary was then put at £34 a
year and those of the five chaplains at £4 apiece,
but the former was said to be about £20 in 1546
and 1548, when the chaplains each received 8 marks
a year, (fn. 46) as had been the practice in the earlier 15th
century. There is no evidence that the additional
stipends offered in Ive's will were ever paid. If the
terms upon which Roger Mosse was admitted as a
chaplain in 1546 were typical each chaplain was
given the use of a garden and fishpond in the college
orchard in addition to a chamber. (fn. 47) Edward Shorde,
one of the chaplains, obtained a lease for life of the
chapels of St. Michael in the Castle and St. Julian in
1542 (fn. 48) and it is possible that this living, being close
to the college, was normally served by the chaplains
in person, but by 1548 the rectory of St. Julian had
been leased to the college's patron Richard Hussey. (fn. 49)
Ive's will contains references to an almshouse or
hospital at the college (fn. 50) and a deponent in a lawsuit
of 1581 recalled going to school there as a boy, (fn. 51)
but no expenditure is recorded under either of these
heads in or after 1535.
The formal dissolution of the college seems to
have taken place early in 1548, for a pension of 10
marks was assigned to the master in June of that
year, (fn. 52) but the master and five chaplains were still
in residence in November. (fn. 53) By this date the church
had replaced Albright Hussey chapel as the parish
church, (fn. 54) the parish being subsequently styled
Battlefield. Edward Shorde was retained as curate at
a stipend of £5 a year and was assigned quarters in
the 'curate's chamber'. (fn. 55)
The site of the college, the rectory of St. Julian,
Albright Hussey chapel, tithes in Harlescott, market
stalls near the college, and the tolls of Battlefield
fair were granted in 1549 to John Cowper and Richard
Trevor, (fn. 56) who conveyed the Harlescott tithes to
Thomas Ireland later in that year (fn. 57) and presumably
disposed of the remainder soon afterwards, for the
college site is found in the possession of the Hussey
family until 1638. (fn. 58) Lands in St. Michael's-on-Wyre
were also sold in 1549 (fn. 59) and the estate at Aston in
Shifnal in 1553. (fn. 60) Shifnal rectory and Ford church
were retained by the Crown until 1588 (fn. 61) and 1590 (fn. 62)
respectively and the rectory of St. Michael's-onWyre until the early 17th century. (fn. 63)
Apart from the feature on the south wall of the
chancel no remains of the college are now standing;
it was probably demolished soon after the Dissolution. Depressions in the field to the south of the
churchyard are thought to mark the site of the
college fishponds (fn. 64) but neither these nor the site of
the college buildings have ever been excavated. A
description of the church is reserved for a later
volume.
Masters of Battlefield College
Roger Ive, constituted master 1409, (fn. 65) resigned
1447. (fn. 66)
Henry Bastard, instituted 1447, (fn. 67) died 1454. (fn. 68)
Roger Phelips, instituted 1454, (fn. 69) died 1478. (fn. 70)
Adam Grafton, instituted 1478, (fn. 71) resigned by
1518. (fn. 72)
John Hussey, occurs between 1518 and 1521, (fn. 73)
died before 1524. (fn. 74)
Humphrey Thomas, occurs from 1524, (fn. 75) died
1534. (fn. 76)
John Hussey, instituted 1534, (fn. 77) surrendered
1548. (fn. 78)
An oval seal of the master, attached to a deed of
1530, (fn. 79) measures 21/8 × 15/8 in. It shows the Virgin,
with Child, standing under a canopy. There are
shields of arms to the right (Henry IV) and left
(Roger Ive) surmounted by swords erect, and
beneath is the kneeling figure of Roger Ive. Legend,
black letter:
SIGILLUM COMMUNE DOMINI ROGERI IVE PRIMI
MAGISTRI ET SUCCESSORUM SUORUM COLLEGII BEATE
MARIE MAGDALENE IUXTA SALOP
In his will Roger Ive directed that a new seal
should be made on the ground that the first seal had
been forged. This was to bear the same legend but
its device included figures of the Holy Trinity, St.
Mary Magdalen, and St. John the Baptist. (fn. 80) No
impression of such a seal is known and it may never
have been made.