45. THE COLLEGE OF ALL SAINTS, NORTHAMPTON
The fifteenth-century college of All Saints
is an interesting instance of a union of the
priests of an important town church for the
better and more economical church work of the
parish. The college held property in common,
the members lived and boarded together, and
owed obedience to their warden; but they had
no cloister nor chapter-house like other similar
foundations on a larger scale.
The object of the foundation of this union of
priests is clearly specified in the licence for its
creation on the Patent Rolls of 1460. It is there
stated that it was founded of the pious devotion
and religious purpose of William Breton, D.D.,
vicar of All Saints, who had already for a long
time lived a common life with other stipendiary
priests of the church, to the number of sixteen,
the chaplains of the fraternities of the Holy
Trinity, the Blessed Virgin, Corpus Christi,
St. George, the Rood, St. John Baptist, and
St. Katharine, and who desired that this system
should be kept up and definitely maintained in
the future. 'And because they, the vicar and
priests aforesaid, have spent and are spending
their lives—especially in the time of the said
vicar—away from the society of lay folk, constantly day and night observing (like fellow
members of a college) divers statutes, ordinances,
and laws, not only in the church, as is fitting,
but in a certain messuage or close, commonly
called the priests house (le Prestis house), the
vicar humbly entreated the crown to establish
them as a perpetual college, consisting of a
warden and fellows. Thereupon the petition
was granted, and it was ordained that the vicar
and his successors, and the fraternity chaplains
and their successors, should henceforth form a
perpetual corporate body, to implead and be impleaded under the title of 'The Wardens and
Fellows of the College of All Saints, in the town
of Northampton.' They were entitled to acquire
augmentation of their funds to the value of
20 marks a year, without any fine or fee, and
were empowered to make statutes and ordinances
among themselves for celebrating mass, for divine
service, for the observance of good morals, and
the extirpation of evil, and for the good estate of
the king and queen and Prince Edward, and for
their souls after death. (fn. 1)
The actual rules and statutes drawn up by
this self-denying band of town clergy have not
come down to us, but the kind of life they led
can be gleaned from some of the pre-Reformation wills cited by Mr. Serjeantson. Thus the
vicar of St. Giles, in 1531, left 'to every preste
dwelling within the college of all hallows goeing
to their comons a crysom to be ther napkyns.'
Agnes Tuttam, of All Saints parish, left, in
1517, 'to an honest preste to syng in Saynt
James' chapell for a whole yere, he to bord in
ye college and kepe dayly servyng as hys bretheren do, viii marks sterlyng.' In 1528
Richard Bott bequeathed 'to the colege a gardyn
that William Dixson hathe. I will that they
synge a diryge and masse for me every yere.
Also I will that the Mayr offer at the masse and
take up viijd. of the forsayd gardyn.'
The Valor of 1535 shows that the actual
clear annual value of the college (apart from the
stipends) in rents and dues was merely 39s. 4d.
From the same source we learn that the vicar,
who was also the warden, paid the college 16d.
for the privilege of having a private entrance. (fn. 2)
The College and Chantry Commissioners of
Edward VI. describe this college, 'or prestes
house,' as the place for the habitation and
boarding of the vicar and priests serving the
church, and give its clear annual value of
34s. 10d. (fn. 3)
The attenuated possessions of this college did
not save it from confiscation. The site of the
college was granted in 1548 to William Ward
and Richard Venables, and the fellows' garden
in College Lane, and another garden and stable
belonging to the college, were sold at the same
time to Francis Samwell; they only realised
18s. 4d. In the particulars of sale it is stated
'there is no leadde belonging to the seyd college,
but there is one bell which hangeth on the hall
to call the Prestes to Dyner praysyd at Vs.' (fn. 4)
Vicars of All Saints, who were Wardens of the College (fn. 5)
William Breton, S.T.P., died 1472
John Lumbery, S.T.P., died 1472
John Trentham, S.T.P., died 1475
Robert Medilham, S.T.P., died 1480
Hugh Myllyng, S.T.P., died 1511
John Bell, M.A., died 1530
Thomas Malory, died 1539
William Ermystead, S.T.P., died 1545