11. THE PRIORY OF FORDHAM
At the time of the Domesday Survey Fordham
was divided between the king and Count Alan, of
whom his part was held by Wimar the Steward. (fn. 1)
In 1204 King John as patron of the church gave
the perpetual vicarage to Henry the (Rural) Dean
of Fordham, reserving a pension of 5 marks to
Baldwin the rector; (fn. 2) and in 1227 Henry III
granted the church to the nuns of Sempringham. (fn. 3)
Meanwhile Henry the Dean had begun to build
a monastery in honour of St. Peter and St. Mary
Magdalene in a field which had belonged to
Aluric Grye, called Hallemclue croft, but had
not decided to what Order of religion he should
give it. Accordingly Hugh Malebisse, lord of the
fee in right of his wife Beatrice, heiress of
Wimar, confirmed to 'the brethren, of whatever
Order they be, dwelling or about to dwell' therein
a mill and the land which Richard Waleys and
Maisent his wife held of him in Fordham, with
the progeny of Richard and Maisent and her
children by her previous husband William the
Smith, and also gave them rights of common in
the meadows, marshes, and turbaries of Wicken,
Soham, and Fordham. (fn. 4)
Exactly when the Gilbertine canons were installed here is not known, but in March 1227
when Henry III confirmed the liberties granted
by John to Sempringham and its subordinate
priories he extended the confirmation to three
recently founded houses, of which Fordham was
one. (fn. 5)
By 1279 the prior was holding in Fordham of
Humphrey de Bassingbourne, then the representative of Wimar, the original endowment of
a messuage, a watermill, and 14 acres of arable; (fn. 6)
he also held in alms 125 acres given by various
persons; and from Walter son of Robert 60 acres
of arable and 5 of meadow, given by Walter's
ancestors, by service of maintaining 14 poor persons with food and clothing in the hospital of
Fordham. (fn. 7) The Prior of Fordham also held the
church of St. Andrew at Burwell, with 36 acres
of land, paying for it 40s. yearly to the alien
Priory of Stoke-by-Clare, (fn. 8) and its chapel of St.
Nicholas at Landwade, given with 50 acres by
the younger Robert de Hastings. (fn. 9) This church
was valued at 12 marks in 1254, (fn. 10) and at £12 in
1291, when the Stoke portion was entered at £3. (fn. 11)
In 1291 the temporalities of the priory amounted
to £31 15s.—the largest items being in Fordham
(£17 5s. 5½d.), Snailwell (£6 10s. 6d.), and
Landwade (£4 6s. 3d.). (fn. 12)
For the next two centuries the history of the
priory is a blank. In 1535 its estates were valued
at £40 14s. 4½d.; the rectory of Burwell St.
Andrew, with its chapel at Landwade, is entered,
but with no value assigned to it. (fn. 13)
Robert Holgate, a Gilbertine, was Cromwell's
chaplain, and some time before 10 June 1534 he
was made Master of Sempringham, doubtless
to arrange the future of the community in his
charge in accordance with the king's wishes. The
'general visitation' by Cromwell's commissioners
began at the end of October 1535, and Fordham
was one of the first houses visited. On 1 November Dr. Legh wrote to Cromwell from Ely that
there was 'a pryory namyd Byggyn (fn. 14) in the towne
of Fordham' where there was no community 'but
the prior and his moncke, (fn. 15) and the moncke is in
extreme age and at dethes door'—this last seems,
as in other cases, to have been an exaggeration.
He declared that the two had prayed him on their
knees to be dismissed from their religion 'which
they ar not able lenger to endure—but shuld fall
into dysperatyon or elles ronne awaye'. (fn. 16) On
4 November Edward Bestney wrote to Cromwell
that the 'little religious house' in Fordham had a
prior and one canon and a yearly income of £26
and that 'for their naughty observance of their
foundation and their enormities' they were likely
to fall into the king's hand; and that 'this house
and the land thereunto pertaining adjoineth to my
land so commodiously and pleasantly that if you
will help me to the farm thereof I shall esteem it
more than a thing more profitable'. (fn. 17) Legh had
also said that it was 'a propre house, and yt stand
commodyously and pleasauntly, and it may spend
xxx li. by the yere in temporall landes, besyde
spyrytualtyes, whyche ys a benefyce of xvi li. by
the yere'. On 20 March 1536 Richard Southwell,
who had spent the night at Newmarket, wrote
that he had met Bestney there, who 'asked me to
remind you of Lygyn and Syverney' [Byggin and
Spinney]. (fn. 18)
Earlier in this same month a Bill had been
introduced for the suppression of the lesser
monasteries, but although it was, as Legh himself
wrote 3 years later, impossible to find a poorer
house in all England, (fn. 19) Fordham was spared, the
whole Order being exempted from the operation
of the Act, possibly for the benefit of the master.
When in 1538 the surviving monasteries were
dissolved there was no resistance from the Order
of Sempringham. Holgate had become Bishop of
Llandaff in 1537 and was holding the mastership
of the Order and the priory of Watton in commendam. He did not surrender his own house
until 9 December 1539, but Fordham surrendered on 1 September 1538. (fn. 20) It is curious in
view of Dr. Legh's account of the priory in 1535
that three canons, Richard Brown, John Culey,
and William Taylor, as well as the prior, William
Baynton, signed the surrender. The prior was
assigned a pension of £13 6s. 8d. and the canons
£5 6s. 8d. (fn. 21)
Priors of Fordham
William, occurs 1246-7, 1257-8 (fn. 22)
Robert, occurs 1321 (fn. 23)
William, occurs 1365 (fn. 24)
John, occurs 1456 (fn. 25)
William Baynton, surrendered 1 Sept. 1538 (fn. 26)
A seal is attached to the deed of surrender, but
the device and legend are indecipherable.