ADVOWSONS
The church of St. Paul belonged to secular canons, certainly
before the Conquest, and is mentioned in the Survey as having been unjustly defrauded of 1 hide of land in Bedford. (fn. 1) On the
foundation of Newnham Priory St. Paul's formed
part of the endowment, and so remained till the
Dissolution. (fn. 2) The advowson was retained by the
Crown until 1587–8, (fn. 3) when it was bought up by
Edward Downing, a well-known fishing grantee. (fn. 4)
He appears to have sold it almost immediately to
Nicholas Luke, who presented in 1605. (fn. 5) He died
in 1614, when the advowson passed to his son
Oliver Luke, (fn. 6) remaining in the Luke family certainly
till 1671. (fn. 7) Between this date and 1689 it passed
to George Carteret Baron Hawnes, who then presented. (fn. 8) The Carterets retained the advowson
until the middle of the 19th century. (fn. 9) The Rev.
W. G. Fitzgerald owned the advowson in 1865, and
it passed c. 1880 to the Bishop of Ely, who exercises
the right of presentation at the present day. (fn. 10) The
rectory of St. Paul's followed the same descent as the
advowson until 1617, when Sir Oliver Luke, kt.,
transferred it to Nicholas Spencer and others. (fn. 11) By
them it was alienated, in 1623, to John Godfrey alias
Cooper, (fn. 12) by whom it was retained till 1655. He
then conveyed it to Thomas Christie, (fn. 13) a descendant
of whom, bearing the same name, gave the great
tithes in 1697 to the vicar of St. Paul's and his successors, charged with a rent to the almshouses built
by him. (fn. 14)
The church of St. Cuthbert was granted to Dunstable Priory some time during the early 13th century by Abel son of Roland. (fn. 15) At the Dissolution
the rectory of St. Cuthbert was worth £6, (fn. 16) from
which the prior drew a small pension. (fn. 17) The
advowson then became Crown property, and has so
remained, the right of presentation being exercised at
the present day by the Lord Chancellor. (fn. 18)
In 1200 the church of St. Mary was claimed by
the Bishop of Lincoln and the Prior of Dunstable
respectively, the former producing a charter of William I,
with confirmations by Henry I and Henry II, and the
latter a charter of Henry I confirmed by Henry II. (fn. 19)
The matter was settled by the bishop retaining the
advowson, whilst granting the prior a yearly pension
of 20s. from the church. (fn. 20) This tax, which was paid
in 1291, (fn. 21) was remitted by the prior to the bishops
in 1334. (fn. 22) The advowson has since been retained
by the Bishop of Lincoln, (fn. 23) who at present exercises
two turns, Balliol College, Oxford, having exercised
one turn (fn. 24) since the middle of the last century.
The church of St. Peter, Merton, was granted
some time early in the 13th century to Merton Priory
(co. Surrey), whose prior presented in 1220. (fn. 25) The
rectory was worth £12 at the Dissolution, when it
became the property (fn. 26) of the Crown, with whom
the right of presentation has since remained. (fn. 27)
The parish church of St. John was early consolidated with the hospital whose history down to the
Dissolution has already been traced. (fn. 28) Prior to that
time the right of presenting the master, who was also
rector of the parish church of St. John, had been the
property of the mayor and burgesses, but during the
16th and 17th centuries numerous disputes arose, their
rights being frequently contested by persons claiming
houses and lands belonging to the hospital under
grants from the Crown. The mayor and corporation
were, however, always successful. (fn. 29) Of late years the
advowson has passed away from the mayor and corporation, and is now vested in the trustees of F. Aldridge
Clark.
The church of St. Peter, Dunstable, was granted in
1218 by Ralph Clerk, Julia his wife and Columba
her sister to Dunstable Priory. (fn. 30) In 1291 the
prior had a pension of 6s. 8d. in the church, (fn. 31) and
in 1334 received a licence to alienate this pension
together with the advowson of the church to the
Bishop of Lincoln. (fn. 32) The church was then declared
to be worth 6 marks. Before the Dissolution it
had been annexed to St. Mary's parish in the same
town, (fn. 33) and in 1545 the parishioners were permitted by Sir Edward North, chancellor of augmentations, to pull down St. Peter's, on condition of their
using such materials as were not wanted for the repairs
of St. Mary's (to which they had lately added a new
aisle) in mending the streets and repairing the bridge. (fn. 34)
The church formerly stood on a void place directly
opposite St. Mary's, the site being in 1802 the property of Mr. Sheppard, landlord of the Royal Oak. (fn. 35)
First mention has been found of the church of All
Saints or All Hallows, Bedford, in 1291, when the
Prior of Newnham had a pension of 12s. there. (fn. 36) In
1406 William de Cotherstoke and others received
licence to grant William Hert, parson of the church of
All Saints, a messuage in the town for a house for himself
and his successors. (fn. 37) It appears to have belonged to
Newnham, and was situated on the north side of the
river. (fn. 38) It followed the same descent as St. Paul's
after the Dissolution, but no reference has been found
to the advowson later than 1614, (fn. 39) nor the rectory
after 1655. (fn. 40) Lysons and other writers make no
reference to this parish, which possibly, as in the case
of St. Mary and St. Peter, Dunstable, became absorbed
in the larger and adjacent parish of St. Paul's.
The advowson of Holy Trinity, a modern ecclesiastical parish formed from St. Paul's in 1860, is in
the gift of the vicar of St. Paul's, Bedford.
St. Leonard, formed in 1889, is in the gift of the
rector of St. Mary's, Bedford.
St. Martin, formed in 1896, is in the gift of the
Bishop of Ely.
About the year 1331 certain men of the town of
Bedford built an oratory on the bridge over the
Ouse, known as St. Thomas' Chapel. A chaplain was appointed who was to act as keeper of
the oratory and bridge, and to receive alms from
passengers for the repair of the bridge. (fn. 41) The right
of appointment of such chaplain was claimed by the
mayor and townsmen, and this right being violated
by the sheriff, who in 1332 appointed John de
Derby in the king's name and ejected the chaplain
elected by the borough, led to disorderly scenes,
in which Nicholas de Astewood, mayor of the town,
and others assembled by ringing of the town bell
and assaulted the king's nominee. (fn. 42) In 1336 the
justices were commissioned to make inquiry as to the
foundation and endowment of the chapel, whether it
was built on the king's soil and all the circumstances
of the case. (fn. 43) The town's candidate, John de
Bodenho, is found petitioning Parliament in 1338
stating that the oratory was built by the good people
of Bedford over (hors de) water belonging to Lord
Moubray with his permission, and that neither the
king nor his ancestors ever had any part in it, for
those who built it were still alive. (fn. 44) The men of
Bedford complained in the same year that the case of
the election, which had already lasted five years, was
still pending, and the bridge meanwhile falling into
decay. (fn. 45) The dispute was still unsettled in 1344. (fn. 46)
It would appear to have been settled in the king's
favour, however, for during the remainder of the
century the appointments are made to 'the king's
free chapel of St. Thomas.' (fn. 47) A chaplain was
appointed in 1432, (fn. 48) but no further mention has
been found of the chapel, and the absence of any
entry on the chantry certificates seems to indicate
that it had been allowed to fall into decay before the
Dissolution.
The chantry of Corpus Christi, also called Joye's
Chantry, was founded in the parish of St. Paul by
William Joye and others to find a priest to sing mass
daily and say dirges for the souls of Henry VII,
Elizabeth his queen, and the founders. (fn. 49) The
clear value of the chantry at its dissolution was
£8 7s. 4½d. (fn. 50) ; its lands lay in the parishes of both
St. Peter and St. Paul, and it was served by the
chantry priests, the vicar and the Trinity priest. (fn. 51)
In 1612–13 the lands belonging to this chantry were
granted to Francis Philipps and others. (fn. 52)
The chantry of the Brotherhood of the Holy
Trinity was also in the parish of St. Paul. Their
lands, which were of the clear value of £8 13s. 1d.,
were given by the Mayor, bailiff and burgesses of
Bedford to the use of the chaplain who sang mass in
the parish church, 'but the said priest hath no
perpetuity, but is removable by the mayor and town
of Bedford.' (fn. 53) The lands attached to this chantry
were also granted by patent in 1612 to Francis
Philipps and others. (fn. 54)
The chantry of St. Cuthbert was founded in 1320
by Peter Wymund and Robert de Ashby, chaplains,
to provide a chaplain to say mass daily for their
souls and those of all Christians in the church of
St. Cuthbert, Bedford. It was endowed with five
messuages, six gardens, 24 acres of land and 8s. rent
in Bedford, worth in all 73s. 4d. (fn. 55) At the dissolution of the chantry this original endowment is
quoted, and the note added, 'of which messuages
the priest lacketh two, and of the said 24 acres
of land he lacketh one'; the yearly value was then
53s. 2d. (fn. 56) In 1590 these lands, amongst many
others, were leased for twenty-one years to Richard
Threkeston and John Wells, having previously been
leased to the Mayor and burgesses of Bedford. (fn. 57)
Bedford has a Bunyan Meeting House, founded
in 1650. The present edifice was built in 1849,
and replaced one erected in 1707. It seats 1,100
persons, and has bronze doors, modelled by Frederick
Thrupp with ten subjects from Bunyan's Pilgrim's
Progress, which were presented to the chapel by
the Duke of Bedford in 1868. (fn. 58) The Howard
Congregational Chapel, founded by John Howard the
philanthropist and others in 1772, was enlarged in
1849. The Mill Street Baptist Chapel was founded
in 1793 and enlarged in 1869. Other Nonconformist places of worship in Bedford include four
Wesleyan chapels, a Catholic Apostolic church, three
Primitive Methodist chapels, three Moravian chapels
(the earliest established in 1745), one Theistic
church, one Zion chapel, a Christadelphian church,
and a Salvation Army hall.