HOUSES OF AUSTIN CANONS
6. THE PRIORY OF DUNSTABLE
The Augustinian priory of Dunstable was
founded by King Henry I. about the year
1132, and endowed by him at the same time
with the lordship of the manor and town in
which it stood. (fn. 1) Tradition says that the
same king was also founder of the town, and
had caused the forest to be cleared away from
the point where Watling and Icknield Streets
crossed each other, on account of the robbers
who infested the highway. (fn. 2) However this
may be, he certainly granted to the priory all
such liberties and rights in the town of
Dunstable as he held in his own demesne
lands. His charter was confirmed by Henry II., (fn. 3)
who also granted to the prior and convent the
lordship of Houghton Regis; and before the
reign of Richard I. a great many of the
churches of the neighbourhood had been
granted to the priory by different benefactors, (fn. 4)
as many as thirteen, besides the chapel of
Ruxox, in the county of Bedford, with Cublington, North Marston and half Chesham,
Bucks, and Higham Ferrers with half Pattishall, Northants. Several of these gifts were
disputed before the century was out, (fn. 5) but most
of them were retained by the priory throughout its existence.
Bernard, the first prior of the house, was
closely associated with the introduction of
Austin Canons into England, for he had
accompanied his brother Norman (afterwards
prior of St. Botolph's, Colchester, and then of
Holy Trinity, London) to Chartres and Beauvais, in Anselm's time, to learn the rule of
St. Augustine, with a view to introduce it
into England. (fn. 6)
At the beginning of the thirteenth century, in the year 1202, Richard de Morins,
a canon of Merton, (fn. 7) became prior of Dunstable, and with his election the priory entered
upon the most interesting period of its history.
It was probably he who began the annals of
the house, and perhaps wrote part of them
with his own hand (fn. 8) ; he was evidently a man
of very varied interests, and considerable
capacity for affairs. Before he had been prior
a year he was dispatched on the king's business to Rome (fn. 9) ; and it was probably owing
to his influence that the lordship of Houghton
Regis, with other gifts, were confirmed to the
priory in 1203. (fn. 10) So far as we know, he only
went abroad once again, when he attended
the Lateran council of 1215, and remained
afterwards in Paris for a year to study at the
University; (fn. 11) but the annals show that he
maintained all through his life a keen interest
in the affairs of Europe and the East. In 1206 (fn. 12)
he was made a visitor for all the religious
houses of the diocese of Lincoln (except those
of the exempt orders), by the authority of the
papal legate; in 1212 he was appointed by
the pope to preach the cross (fn. 13) in Bedfordshire,
Hertfordshire and Huntingdonshire, and in
the same year was commissioned to make an
estimate of the losses suffered by the clergy
and the religious in the diocese through the
exactions of John. (fn. 14) In 1223 (fn. 15) and 1228 (fn. 16)
he was made visitor to his own order, first in
the province of York, and afterwards in the
dioceses of Lincoln and Coventry; and last of
all, in 1239, (fn. 17) when he must have been quite
an old man, he helped to draw up and submit to
the pope an account of the difficulties between
the Archbishop of Canterbury and his suffragans on the subject of visitation. During
his term of office, in the year 1219, (fn. 18) he
secured the right of holding a court at Dunstable for all pleas of the Crown, and of sitting
beside the justices itinerant at their visits to
the town: a privilege which brought him
into less happy relations with the townsmen,
and may have helped to hasten their revolt
against his authority in 1228. (fn. 19) He also
successfully established the right of his house
to Harlington church in 1223. (fn. 20) The priory
was twice visited by King Henry III. during
the time of Richard de Morins: once after
the siege of Bedford Castle, (fn. 21) and again in the
midst of the troubles connected with the
burgesses, whom he attempted to pacify, at
the prior's earnest request. (fn. 22)
In spite of the losses under King John and
the difficulties with the burgesses, the priory
seems to have enjoyed greater prosperity at
this time than at any later period of which
we have a clear account. In 1213 the conventual church was dedicated by Bishop Hugh
de Wells, a great concourse of earls and
barons, abbots and priors, assisting at the
ceremony. (fn. 23) The lordship of Houghton Regis,
though lost for a while in 1212, was recovered
in 1226 (fn. 24) ; and the gift of the church of
Bradbourne in the Peak, (fn. 25) with its chapels and
lands, (fn. 26) provided a maintenance for three
canons, (fn. 27) and formed a kind of cell to the
priory, besides increasing its income. The
death of Richard de Morins in 1242 (fn. 28) was
followed immediately by heavy losses. In
1243, 800 of the sheep belonging to the
priory in the Peak district died, (fn. 29) and a succession of bad seasons led to great scarcity;
Henry de Bilenda, the cellarer, upon whom
so much depended, was incapable or untrustworthy, and in 1249 fled to the Cistercians
at Merivale, rather than render an account of
his stewardship. (fn. 30) By 1255 the canons not
only had no corn to sell, but not enough for
themselves; (fn. 31) they had to buy all their food
at great expense, for two years after
this; (fn. 32) so that the Friars Preachers, when they
arrived in 1259, (fn. 33) were even less welcome
than they would have been at any ordinary
time. When Simon of Eaton became prior
in 1262, he found the house 400 marks in
debt, and all the wool of the year already
sold. (fn. 34)
But in spite of the pressure of debt and
poverty, which was not diminished during his
term of office, the prior was as much interested as his predecessors had been in the course
of public events. Like most of the clergy
and religious of the period, he was in sympathy with Simon de Montfort, whom he
looked upon as the champion of the Church;
and in 1263, when the earl visited Dunstable, the prior went out to meet him, and
admitted him to the fraternity of the house. (fn. 35)
In 1265 a council was held at Dunstable to
consider the possibility of peace with the defeated barons, and the king and queen visited
the house in the course of the year (fn. 36) ; but
though Simon de Montfort had been there
quite recently, and the sympathy of the
prior with his cause could not have been altogether a secret one, no fine was imposed
upon the priory on that account.
In 1274 a long and expensive suit was
begun between the prior and convent of
Dunstable and Eudo la Zouche, (fn. 37) who had
become lord of Houghton and Eaton Bray by
his marriage with Millicent de Cantelow.
Eudo refused to recognise the rights of the
prior (established not only by charter, but by
long custom) to a gallows and prison in
Houghton; he released one of his men from
the prison and overthrew the gallows. Under
the next prior, William le Breton, the gallows was restored; but Eudo still refused to
recognise the prison as the prior's right, and
presently erected a gallows of his own. The
dispute went on for some years, and, after the
death of Eudo, was continued by his wife
Millicent until the year 1289, when it was
finally decided in favour of the prior. (fn. 38) The
poverty and difficulties of the house went on
increasing, although great efforts were made,
after the deposition of William le Breton
and other officers of the monastery in 1279, (fn. 39)
to curtail expenses and get in ready money
for the payment of debts. Corrodies and
chantries were granted to several persons,
manors and churches were let out to farm,
and in the year 1294 the usual allowance
for one canon was made to serve for two. (fn. 40)
It was just at this time that the king was
asking for subsidies for his Welsh war.
By an accumulation of misfortune, in the
same winter the outer walls of the priory
had collapsed in the wet weather, and
their hayricks had been destroyed by fire; (fn. 41)
and the tithes due to the Hospitallers from
North Marston church were in such long
arrears that a new arrangement had to be
made to pay them off. (fn. 42) In 1295 the house
at Bradbourne was so poor that all the wool
produced there had to be granted to the support of the three brethren who served the
church and chapels. (fn. 43) The later pages of the
annals are a long story of poverty and struggle
to get clear of debt; and the continuous narrative ends dismally enough with the account
of the expenses of the installation of John of
Cheddington, which amounted (with the
addition of the debts of the previous prior) to
£242 8s. 4d. (fn. 44) Of the fourteenth century
there are only a few scanty notices, the only
events told at any length being those connected with the peasants' revolt in 1381,
when the prior, Thomas Marshall, appears
by his courage and moderation to have saved
his own house from serious loss, and his
burghers from punishment. (fn. 45) In 1349 an
attempt was made by Thomas de Beauchamp,
Earl of Warwick, and marshal of the kingdom, to prove that the prior held his lands
by barony; but the jury which was summoned at that time declared upon oath that
the lands had always been held in pure and
perpetual alms. (fn. 46) King Henry VI. visited
Dunstable in 1459, (fn. 47) but there is no record
of his relations with the priory; its history
during the fifteenth century is not recorded
in any way. But in the sixteenth century
it was again connected with an important
historical event, when on 23 May 1533, in
the Lady Chapel of the conventual church at
Dunstable, Archbishop Cranmer pronounced
the marriage between Henry VIII. and
Catherine of Aragon to be null and void. (fn. 48)
In 1535 the prior, Gervase Markham, with
twelve canons, signed the acknowledgment
of the Royal Supremacy, (fn. 49) and on 20 January
1540-1, he surrendered his house to the king
and received a pension of £60. (fn. 50)
There were only thirteen at this time besides the prior; eleven canons and two lay
brothers; in the early days there were probably more, though never a very large number. Between the years 1223 and 1275 only
twenty-five admissions to the novitiate are
recorded, (fn. 51) and thirteen deaths; but the
entries were perhaps not always made with
equal care, and the entrance of lay brothers
was not noticed at all. (fn. 52) Besides the religious there were a number of other inmates of
the priory; a 'new house for the carpenters
and wheelwrights within the court' was built
in 1250 (fn. 53) ; there was accommodation also
for the chaplains of the monastery, and for
boarders who had bought corrodies, as well as
pensioners in the almonry. The porter of
the great gate was sometimes a secular, (fn. 54) unlike the custom of Benedictine houses. (fn. 55)
There can be no doubt of the good order
of the house during the time of Richard de
Morins; he would scarcely have been chosen
twice to visit other houses unless he had ruled
his own with care and diligence. During his
forty years of office canons of Dunstable were
at least five times elected priors to other monasteries of the order—at Caldwell, St. Frideswide's, Ashby and Coldnorton. (fn. 56) Bishop
Grossetête visited the house once in 1236,
not so much to inquire into the daily life
of the priory as to investigate its title to
several appropriate churches; but he exacted
an oath on this occasion from all the canons
individually, and one of them fled to Woburn rather than submit to it. (fn. 57) The
bishop came again in 1248, while Geoffrey of Barton was prior; when the cellarer,
accused by many, fled before his coming to
Merivale (fn. 58) ; but he does not seem to have
found fault with the convent in general, and
his next visit in 1250 was for purposes of his
own. (fn. 59) Archbishop Boniface came in 1253,
but made no complaint. (fn. 60) In 1274 Bishop
Gravesend sent a canon of Lincoln to visit
Dunstable, who left his corrections in writing (fn. 61) ;
and in Advent of the same year he made a
personal visitation. (fn. 62) In November of 1279
Bishop Sutton came and discharged his office
'strictly and without respect of persons.'
The sub-prior and certain others were removed from their charge, and forbidden to
hold office in future, and certain 'less useful
members' of the household expelled; in May
of the following year he deposed the prior,
William le Breton, from all pastoral care. (fn. 63)
It seems most likely that these depositions
were on account of mismanagement rather
than for any personal failings; the great
necessity and heavy debts of the house called
for stringent measures, and William le Breton
had shown himself (like Abbot Richard of
Woburn in a similar case) unable to meet
the difficulty. There is no sign of any other
grave faults having been committed, nor of
anything like luxurious living. (fn. 64) The new
prior, according to the bishop's advice, set
himself to limit the expenses of the whole
house and assigned a fixed income to the
kitchen for the future (fn. 65) ; the deposed prior
had a proper maintenance assigned to him at
Ruxox. (fn. 66) The canons seem to have borne
no illwill to Bishop Sutton for his corrections,
and were ready on his next visit to their
church (which was made not officially but
only in passing) to praise him for his excellent
sermon. (fn. 67) Other visitations of his are mentioned in 1284, (fn. 68) 1287, (fn. 69) 1288, (fn. 70) and 1293 (fn. 71) ;
the last was only to confer orders. Archbishop Peckham came in 1284, but found all
well (fn. 72) ('as the bishop had been there quite
lately,' the chronicler naively remarks); and
Archbishop Winchelsea in 1293. (fn. 73) The only
serious charge that could be laid to the door
of the canons all through the thirteenth century was their inability to keep clear of debt;
and the record shows that this was often quite
as much their misfortune as their fault.
There are many incidental remarks of the
chroniclers which serve to show that the tone
of the house was thoroughly religious, and
that the canons were faithful in keeping their
rule. (fn. 74) It will suffice to instance, early in the
century, the generous treatment of the two
young canons (one only a novice), who
escaped by night through a window and went
to join the Friars Minor at Oxford. They
were indeed solemnly excommunicated and
compelled to return; but after they had done
their penance in the chapter house and had
been absolved, they were allowed a year to
consider the matter, and if after that time
they preferred the stricter order, they were
granted permission to depart; if not, they
might remain at Dunstable. (fn. 75) A good deal
later than this, in 1283, the apologetic way
in which the chronicler relates how the prior
went out to dinner with John Durant (fn. 76) is
sufficient to show that the ordinary rules and
customs of the order were not commonly
broken.
During the fourteenth century there were
several visitations. There is no notice of any
by Bishop Dalderby; but he commissioned
the prior of Dunstable in 1315 to visit the
nuns of St. Giles-in-the-Wood in his name. (fn. 77)
Bishop Burghersh in 1322 wrote to order the
prior and convent to take back a brother who
had been on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land,
and asserted that he did so with the permission
of his superior; and a little later the prior was
cited for refusing to obey this injunction. (fn. 78)
In 1359 (fn. 79) Bishop Gynwell, passing by the
priory, noticed 'certain insolences and unlawful wanderings' of the canons, and wrote to
reinforce the rule that none should go beyond
the precincts of the monastery without reasonable cause, nor without the permission of the
prior; and ordered further that such permission should not be too frequently given.
He also reminded them of the rule that none
should eat or drink outside the monastery, or
talk with seculars without permission.
In 1379 Bishop Buckingham confirmed an
important ordinance of Thomas Marshall, (fn. 80)
setting apart certain funds for the education
of one of the canons at Oxford. The prior
alludes to the poverty of his house, which was
so great that were it not for the help of
friends they would not be able to live decently
and honestly, and religion would be diminished.
Hitherto there had not been enough canons
nor enough money to set apart one for special
study; but the prior now wished to do so
(partly out of the profits of a chantry established by his own family), 'seeing the advantage of learning and the necessity of preaching, the priory being a populous place where
a great number of people come together.'
All this certainly points to a satisfactory state
of the priory under Thomas Marshall, and
accords well with what we know of his
character from other sources.
Bishop Grey's (fn. 81) injunctions are the only
notice that we have of the internal history of
the priory during the fifteenth century; they
do not indicate any special laxity, and only
repeat the usual orders as to silence, singing
of the divine office, the unlawfulness of eating
and drinking after compline, going to Dunstable or having visitors without permission.
And so again at the very end, just before the
dissolution, the silence of Bishop Longland, (fn. 82)
and the king's choice of the priory for the
solemn announcement of his divorce from
Catherine of Aragon, constitute an indirect
evidence in favour of the house. On the
whole the priory of Dunstable shows a very
good record in the matter of discipline and
order, with only a few lapses.
The original endowment of the priory
was, as already stated, the lordship of the
manor and town of Dunstable (fn. 83) ; to which
was added under Henry II. the lordship of
Houghton Regis, (fn. 84) and under John, the king's
house and gardens at Dunstable. (fn. 85) The manors
of Stoke and Catesby, and of Ballidon in
the Peak, (fn. 86) are mentioned in the annals as the
property of the priory during the thirteenth
century. In 1291 (fn. 87) the tithes of St. Peter
and St. Cuthbert, Bedford, Dunstable, Studham, Totternhoe, Chalgrave, Husborne Crawley, Segenhoe, Flitwick, Pulloxhill, Steppingley,
Harlington, Higham Ferrers, Newbottle, Cublington, a moiety of Great Brickhill, Pattishall
and Bradbourne belonged to Dunstable Priory, (fn. 88)
with pensions in other churches. The temporalities at this time were only valued at a little
more than £50; the annals of the house state
the total income in 1273 as £107. (fn. 89) The
knight's fees attributed to Dunstable in 1316 (fn. 90)
were half a fee in Husborne Crawley and
Flitwick, and another half in Pulloxhill, with
some small fractions besides; they are practically the same in 1346 (fn. 91) and 1428. (fn. 92)
The valuation of the whole property of the
priory in 1535 (fn. 93) amounted to £344 13s. 4d.,
the first report of the Crown bailiff to
£266 17s. 6¾d., including the manors of
Studham, Wadlow, Stokehammond, Gledley,
Grimscote, Catesby and Shortgrave, and the
rectories of Studham, Totternhoe, Pulloxhill,
Harlington, Husborne Crawley, Flitwick,
Segenhoe, Bradbourne, Newbottle, Pattishall
and Weedon. (fn. 94)
Priors of Dunstable
Bernard. (fn. 95)
Cuthbert. (fn. 96)
Thomas, (fn. 97) occurs 1185, resigned 1202
Richard de Morins, (fn. 98) elected 1202, died
1242
Geoffrey of Barton, (fn. 99) elected 1242, resigned 1262
Simon of Eaton, (fn. 100) elected 1262, died 1274
William le Breton, (fn. 101) elected 1274, deposed
1280
William de Wederhore, (fn. 102) elected 1280, resigned 1302
John of Cheddington, (fn. 103) elected 1302, died
1341
John of London, (fn. 104) elected 1341, resigned
1348
Roger of Gravenhurst, (fn. 105) elected 1348, died
1351
Thomas Marshall, (fn. 106) elected 1351, died
1413
John Roxton, (fn. 107) elected 1413, resigned
1473
Thomas Gylys, (fn. 108) elected 1473, resigned
1482
Richard Charnock, (fn. 109) elected 1482, resigned 1500
John Wastell, (fn. 110) elected 1500, died 1525
Gervase Markham, elected 1525, surr.
1540
The seal of the priory (fn. 111) used in the fifteenth
century (round and large) represents St. Peter
seated, holding the keys in the left hand, and
the right raised in benediction. Legend:
SIGILLUM ECCLIE SC . . PET . . LE.
The seal of Prior William (fn. 112) de Wederhore
(affixed to a document dated 1286) is the
same as above; the counter-seal has a king
and a saint (very indistinct), each standing
under a crocketted canopy, the prior kneeling
in prayer below. Legend: . . . . ILLUM
WILLELMI PRIORIS DE . . .