The Early History of Christ's College, Cambridge: Derived from Contemporary Documents (Cambridge Library Collection - Cambridge)

Cambridge Library CoLLeCtion Books of enduring scholarly value

Cambridge The city of Cambridge received its royal charter in 1201, having already been home to Britons, Romans and Anglo-Saxons for many centuries. Cambridge University was founded soon afterwards and celebrated its octocentenary in 2009. This series explores the history and influence of Cambridge as a centre of science, learning, and discovery, its contributions to national and global politics and culture, and its inevitable controversies and scandals.

The Early History of Christ’s College, Cambridge First published in 1934, this book is a history of Christ’s College, Cambridge, from its foundation in 1437, though its relocation to its current site, up to the charter of 1505. The original college, founded by parochial rector William Byngham, was named God’s House and occupied a site which is now part of King’s College. It was given its first royal licence in 1446 and moved to its present site in 1448. The college received its present name and charter when it was refounded in 1505 by Lady Margaret Beaufort, the mother of King Henry VII. This book recounts the history of Christ’s during this period, using archival evidence and illustrations to offer a fascinating picture of the less well known early stages of the college’s development.

Cambridge University Press has long been a pioneer in the reissuing of out-ofprint titles from its own backlist, producing digital reprints of books that are still sought after by scholars and students but could not be reprinted economically using traditional technology. The Cambridge Library Collection extends this activity to a wider range of books which are still of importance to researchers and professionals, either for the source material they contain, or as landmarks in the history of their academic discipline. Drawing from the world-renowned collections in the Cambridge University Library, and guided by the advice of experts in each subject area, Cambridge University Press is using state-of-the-art scanning machines in its own Printing House to capture the content of each book selected for inclusion. The files are processed to give a consistently clear, crisp image, and the books finished to the high quality standard for which the Press is recognised around the world. The latest print-on-demand technology ensures that the books will remain available indefinitely, and that orders for single or multiple copies can quickly be supplied. The Cambridge Library Collection will bring back to life books of enduring scholarly value (including out-of-copyright works originally issued by other publishers) across a wide range of disciplines in the humanities and social sciences and in science and technology.

The Early History of Christ’s College, Cambridge Derived from Contemporary Documents A. H. L l oyd

C A M B R I D G E U n I V E R SI t y P R E S S Cambridge, new york, Melbourne, Madrid, Cape town, Singapore, São Paolo, Delhi, Dubai, tokyo Published in the United States of America by Cambridge University Press, new york www.cambridge.org Information on this title: www.cambridge.org/9781108008976 © in this compilation Cambridge University Press 2010 This edition first published 1934 This digitally printed version 2010 ISBn 978-1-108-00897-6 Paperback This book reproduces the text of the original edition. The content and language reflect the beliefs, practices and terminology of their time, and have not been updated. Cambridge University Press wishes to make clear that the book, unless originally published by Cambridge, is not being republished by, in association or collaboration with, or with the endorsement or approval of, the original publisher or its successors in title.

THE EARLY HISTORY OF

CHRIST'S COLLEGE CAMBRIDGE

Jtenry ^bh the rnediev-aL giass in. the Golleae GhajxcL

THE EARLY HISTORY OF

CHRIST'S COLLEGE CAMBRIDGE derived from contemporary documents by A. H. LLOYD sometime Fellow-Commoner of the College

CAMBRIDGE AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS 1934

PRINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN

PREFACE

T

o the University generally, Christ's College is known as an institution founded by the Lady Margaret, and with very few exceptions members of the college themselves would be startled to learn that in 1505 it was almost seventy years old, though the formal title, given by its charter in 1505 at the request of the Lady Margaret, makes the actual position clear enough when it opens 'Christ's College by Henry the sixth King of England first begun'. The history of the college from 1505 has been written by Dr John Peile (Master 1887 to 1910), but he gives the earlier period, prior to 1505, no more than eight pages, in the course of which he refers to 'The few documents concerning God's House which I have found in the Muniment Room'. It is the history of the college before 1505 that is here portrayed and it is drawn entirely from contemporary documents. In the main, the muniments of which use has been made have been discovered in the ownership of the college; they must be more numerous than Dr Peile has supposed, for I have examined at least 200, all of which are earlier than the charter of Henry the Seventh. In addition, the muniments of the University Registry, Trinity Hall, Clare, Corpus Christi, King's and Trinity Colleges have yielded information of greater or smaller importance, and the archives of the borough of Cambridge have been examined with some little success. Outside Cambridge, documents of value for the history of the college have been found in the Public Record Office, in the Diocesan Registries of Ely and Lincoln, in the Principal Probate Registry at Somerset House, and amongst the University Wills preserved in the District Probate Registry at Peterborough. The Bishop of London's Registers were examined with no result, but the records of the Dean and Chapter of St Paul's and the Court of Husting, Guildhall, each yielded something, as did the Cambridge documents found in the Bodleian Library. The manuscript collections of Baker and Cole in the British Museum, and of Baker and Adam Wall in the University Library, have been searched, but no use has been made of any statement of those writers

vi

PREFACE

unless it could be tested by examination of the contemporary document upon which it purported to be based. I have regarded as official and authoritative the three volumes of Documents relating to the University and Colleges of Cambridge, 1852, and, except in the case of the documents there published concerning Godshouse and Christ's College (of which I have read and transcribed the originals, both those preserved in the college and those only to be found in the national archives), I have not thought it necessary to trouble the caretakers of the documents to produce the parchments. I have drawn upon various printed sources in my endeavour to provide a suitable background, social, political and educational, against which the history of the college in the fifteenth century might be better seen and interpreted. Usually it has not been necessary to go behind such printed matter when it is commonly regarded as of high repute but, where confirmation seemed to be desirable, it has been sought in examination of original documents. In dealing with the history of other institutions, such as alien priories, and with persons not members of Godshouse I have here and there found reason to regard existing printed accounts as being incomplete or even inaccurate; in such cases I have gone in search of contemporary evidence and have presented a more complete, corrected or even an entirely new record. Certain explanations of medieval forms, words and procedure have been introduced in the hope that the book may so be made more widely useful to members of the college. The monumental volumes of Willis and Clark have been used with everincreasing respect and appreciation, but their history of the two sites of Godshouse has been subjected to a close re-examination with the aid of the documents in the muniment rooms of Christ's and King's Colleges. This has enabled me to produce revised site-plans and to fill one or two lacunae whose existence J. W. Clark had recognised, and from those and similar discoveries to shew that parts of the present buildings of the college were erected in the fifteenth century. The pleasure of writing this preface I find in the opportunity it presents of formal expression of thanks to those upon whose goodwill and knowledge I have drawn in the course of the research upon which the book is based, though I hope that my private expressions have

PREFACE

vii

already assured them of my sincere sense of gratitude. My thanks are due before all to the college for very special facilities given to me for that close study of the records without which this history could not have been written and, in particular, to the Master and to the bursar for their unfailing consideration. If I do not further elaborate my appreciation of indebtedness to the Master and fellows it is in the hope that they may discover its truest manifestation in the record of the society's earliest history now placed before them. I have to thank also the governing bodies of Trinity Hall, Clare, Corpus, King's and Trinity Colleges for access to their records and permission to use them so far as they contributed to my results; especially do I thank the custodians in each instance for much kindness and patience. To the Registrary and his courteous staff I am indebted for convenient access to the ancient records in their care. Of friends who by the wealth of their experience have special knowledge of sources of information I must mention particularly Dr G. G. Coulton, F.B.A., Dr W . M. Palmer of Linton and Canon C. W . Foster of Lincoln, whom I have found ever ready to sweep difficulties out of my path. I am indebted to the Syndics of the Press for the use of the Loggan block, which indeed is but one further addition to many courtesies I have received from the officials and the staff. There is one whom I have left until the last. It is difficult for me to give adequate expression of my profound obligation to my daughter, whose deep interest in the progress of the work, delight in each discovery concerning the history of the college, and fertility of suggestion in regard to matters of obscurity have been matched only by her scholarly, efficient and unsparing help in the wearisome labour of reading and re-reading the MS. and the proof, checking of references and making of the index. In particular, I owe her much for her help in the extension of the charters. A. H. LLOYD Cambridge July 1934

CONTENTS Preface

page v

List of Abbreviations Chronological Summary Chapter I. William Byngham, the First Founder

xii xvi I

II. The Dispute with John Langton

22

III. The First Royal Licence, 1439

35

IV. The Expansion of the Mike Street Site

44

V. The Royal Licences of 1442

50

VI. Marking Time: 1443 to 1446

57

VII. The Royal Licence of 1446 and its period

74

VIII. The Foundation Charter of the College of Godshouse and its period DC. The Relationship of Godshouse and Clare Hall X. The Last Days of William Byngham

86 105 121

XI. The Proctorship of John Hurte, 1451-1458, and of William Fallan, 1458-1464

139

XII. The Proctorship of William Basset, 1464-1477

171

XIII. The Proctorship of Ralph Barton, 1477-1490

189

XIV. The Proctorship of John Syclyng: Early Years, 1490-1496 XV. The Proctorship of John Syclyng: Later Years, 1496-1506

251

XVI. The Negotiations between Godshouse and the Lady Margaret

280

215

CONTENTS Chapter XVII. Sydyng's Death and Will

ix page 305

XVIII. The Buildings and Furniture remaining from the Godshouse period XIX. Godshouse and Christ's College

313 341

Appendix A. (a) A Chronological List of the Charters and other Royal Letters issued in favour of Godshouse (b) Transcripts of Various Documents B. (a) Register of Members of Godshouse (b) Biographical Supplement C. (a) The Sources of the Godshouse Revenues (b) The Rectories and Advowsons of Churches held by Godshouse

3 54 356 379 383 401 417

D. The Financial Position of the College at the Death of the Lady Margaret

430

E. The Council in the Marches of Wales: Documents from the Reign of Henry VII found in the College

436

Index

447

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS PLATES I. Henry the Sixth from the medieval glass in the college chapel II. Plan of Godshouse Site in 1443 III. The Seals of Godshouse, anno 1448

frontispiece between pages 44 and 45 facing

IV. A Lawyer's Indenture of Receipt, 1457

page 96 „

163

V. Plan of the Site of Godshouse, 1446-1506 between pages 182 and 183 VI. The Great Gateway from Saint Andrew's churchyard

facing page

VII. Buildings of Godshouse. The north side of the north range VIII. The Great Gateway from the court EX. The Autographs of the Lady Margaret, Syclyng and the Three Old Fellows X. Buildings of Godshouse.' The ij litill chapelles'

197

226 j>

276

3J

295

if

320

XL Christ's Collegein 1688, reduced fromLoggan's print between pages 330 and 331 XII. The Lady Margaret's Lodging, drawn in full scale from Loggan's print between pages 330 and 331 XIII. Buildings of the Lady Margaret. The south side of the south range facing

PaMe 35°

XIV. Petition to the Prince in Council

„

439

XV. Endorsements of ensuing proceedings

„

440

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

xi

FIGURES IN THE TEXT The arms attributed to Godshouse by Hamond

page 2

The arms of the Binghams of Nottinghamshire

3

Autographs of John Syclyng

252, 253

Autograph and seal of John Fisher as bishop of Rochester

281

'An holywater stokke' and one of 'xxiiij crosses at the halowynge of the chapelT

322

The blocked entrance doorway

324

The doorway to the demolished side chapel

326

The doorway made for the Master 'when he remov'd to his private Lodge'

332 0

The southern hah of the great gate

336

The great chest in the Treasury, for the money and the seal

338

Two of the chests bequeathed by Syclyng 338 The drawings reproduced in plates and figures are the work of Miss Ellen T. Talbot, other than that measured and drawn by Mr Hughes.

LIST OF A B B R E V I A T I O N S Add. MSS. Annals A. W. Baker Bekynton Biog. Reg.

Additional manuscripts in the British Museum. Annals of Cambridge, by Charles Henry Cooper, 5 vols. 1843-52,1908. Manuscript Collections of Adam Wall (Fellow of Christ's College 1756-98); preserved in the University Library, Mm. 5.40-54. Manuscript Collections of Thomas Baker (Fellow of St John's College), vols. 1 to 23, Harl. 7028-50, vols. 24 to 42, Univ. Lib. Official Correspondence of Thomas Bekynton (Chronicles and Memorials), edited by George Williams, 2 vols. 1872. The Biographical Register of Christ's College, by John Peile, 2 vols. 1911-13.

Bor. Arch. Bridges

The archives of the borough of Cambridge preserved in the Guildhall there. The History and Antiquities of Northamptonshire, by John Bridges, 2 vols. 1791.

C.C.R.

Calendar of Close Rolls in the Public Record Office, with reference to the volume and the page. Cal. Pap. Pet. Calendars of Papal Registers. Petitions to the Pope, vol. i, 1342-1419. Camb. Plans Old Plans of Cambridge, by John Willis Clark and Arthur Gray, 1921. Campbell Materials for a History of the Reign of Henry VII (Chronicles and Memorials), ed. by William Campbell, 2 vols. The Cambridge Antiquarian Society; Proceedings and CommunicaC.A.S. tions; Octavo Publications. Chr. Documents preserved in the muniment room of Christ's College, Cambridge, with further reference to the particular drawer in which the document is preserved. Badg. = Badgeworth. Camb. = Cambridge and Brazen George. Fend. = Fendrayton. Gh. = Godshouse. Help. = Helpston. Mast. = Masters' half-yearly accounts. Misc. = Miscellaneous. Mon. = Monmouth. Nav. = Navenby. N. Hyk. = North Hykeham. Clare The Master's Old Book, preserved in Clare College muniment room. Cole Manuscript Collections of the Rev. William Cole (1714-82), preserved in the British Museum, Add. MSS. 5798-5887, 5952-5962, 59925994, 6034-6035, 6057, 6151, 6396-6402. Conf. Ch. Confirmation Charters in the Public Record Office. Conf. Roll Confirmation Rolls in the Public Record Office.

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS C.P.R.

xui

Calendar of Patent Rolls in the Public Record Office, with reference to the volume and the page. Crosby Names of Incumbents in the parishes of the diocese of Ely, extracted from the episcopal registers by Canon Crosby, preserved in the University Library, Cambridge, Add. MS. 6380. D.N.B. Dictionary of National Biography. Documents Documents relating to the University and Colleges ofCambridge, 3 vols. 1852. E.CkP. Early Chancery Proceedings, in the Public Record Office, Lists and Indexes, xn. E.H.R. English Historical Review. Ely Episcopal Registers of the Diocese of Ely. GB. Grace Books, A and B (in two parts), containing the proctors' accounts and other records of the University of Cambridge (C.A.S. Luard Mem. 1897; 1903; 1905); T 1908 and A 1910, Cambridge University Press. Godfrey Notes on the Churches of Nottinghamshire, Hundred ofBingham, b y j . T. Godfrey, 1907. Harl. Harleian manuscripts in the British Museum. Harl. Soc. Publications of the Harleian Society. Hennessy Novum Repertorium ecclesiasticum parochiale Londinense, by George Hennessy, 1898. Hist. Reg. The Historical Register of the University of Cambridge, ed. by J. R. Tanner, 1917. Hostels The Mediaeval Hostels of the University of Cambridge, by the Rev. H. P. King's Stokes, LL.D., etc. (C.A.S. oct. publ. No. xnx, 1924). Lady Margaret Muniments The Lady Margaret, CharlesCambridge. Henry Cooper, 1874. of King'sbyCollege, Lamb A Collection ofLetters, etc. from the MS. Library of Corpus Christi College, by John Lamb, D.D., 1838. Line. Episcopal Registers of the Diocese of Lincoln. Lloyd Notes upon some Fifteenth Century Masters and Fellows of the College of Clare Hall, by A. H. Lloyd, preserved in the Library of Clare College. Lon. Chron. A London Chronicle, 1446-50 (Hatfield MSS.), in E.H.R., vol. xxix. Masters The History of the College of Corpus Christi, Cambridge, by Robert Masters, 1753. Maxwell-Lyte Historical Notes on the use of The Great Seal of England, by Sir Henry Maxwell-Lyte, 1926. Memorials Memorials of Cambridge, ed. by Charles Henry Cooper, 3 vols. 1860-6. Monasticon Monasticon Anglicanum, by Sir William Dugdale, ed. Caley, Ellis and Bandinel, 6 vols. in 8, 1846. Mullinger The University of Cambridge, from the earliest times, by James Bass Mullinger, 2 vols. 1873-84.

xiv Muskett N.E.D. Newcourt Nichols

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

Suffolk Manorial Families, by Joseph James Muskett, 1900. The New English Dictionary. Repertorium Ecclesiasticum, by Richard Newcourt, 2 vols. 1708-10. A Collection of all the Wills.. .of the Kings, etc. of England, by John Nichols, 1780. Not. Mon. Notitia Monastica, by Thomas Tanner, 1744. OldCambridge An Illustrated Catalogue of the Loan Collection of Plate, ed. J. E. Foster Plate and T. D. Atkinson, 1896. Otryngham The register book of John Otryngham, Master of Michaelhouse, preserved in the muniment room of Trinity College. Palmer Cambridge Borough Documents, vol. i, ed. by W . M. Palmer, 1931. Parker The History and Antiquities of the University and Colleges of Cambridge, by Richard Parker, 1721. Paston The Paston Letters, ed. by James Gairdner, Lib. edn. 1904. P.C.C. Prerogative Court of Canterbury, wills, or their transcripts, and administrations, proved or granted therein now preserved in the Principal Probate Registry, Somerset House, London. Peile Christ's College, by John Peile, Litt.D., 1900. Documents relating to St Catharine's College, by Henry Philpott, 1861. Philpott P.R. Patent Rolls, with reference to regnal year, part (as i, ii, etc.) and membrane (m.). Priv. Counc. Proceedings and Ordinances of the Privy Council of England, ed. by Sir Nicholas Harris Nicolas, 6 vols. P.R.O. Public Record Office. Proc. Ind. Proctors' Indentures, being annual audits of the University chest and other chests, cautions, etc., preserved in the University Registry. Proc. Soc. Ant. Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries bf London. Rackham Early Statutes of Christ's College, Cambridge, by Harris Rackham, M.A., priv. printed, Cambridge, 1927. Rashdall The Universities of Europe in the Middle Ages, by Hastings Rashdall, 2 vols. 1895. Reg. Reg. Registrum Regale. A list of the Provosts of Eton, the Provosts of King's College, etc. Eton, 1847. R.H.C. Rolls of the Court of Husting, preserved in Guildhall, London. Rotuli Parliamentorum. Rot. Parl. Sharpe Calendar of Wills,CourtofHusting, ed. Reginald R. Sharpe, 2 vols.1889-90. St Paul's Muniments of the Dean and Chapter of St Paul's, Chapter Library. Stow Stow's Survey of London, ed. C. L. Kingsford, 2 vols. 1908. Taxatio Taxatio Ecclesiastica P. Nicolai IV, circa 1291, printed 1802. Surtees Society, Testamenta Eboracensia, or wills registered at York, Test. Ebor. ed.J. Raine, 1836. Testamenta Vetusta, by Sir Nicholas H. Nicolas, 1826. Test. Vet.

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS Thoroton Univ. Cal. Valor Bales. Venn Vetus Liber V.C.H. Walker W. and C. York

xv

History of Nottinghamshire, Thoroton's, ed. J. Throsby, 3 vols. 1797. The Cambridge University Calendar. Valor Ecclesiasticus temp. Henry VIII. Alumni Cantabrigienses, by John andj. A. Venn. Part 1,4 vols. 1924-7. Vetus Liber Archidiaconi Eliensis, ed. C. L. Feltoe and E. H. Minns (C.A.S. oct. publ. No. xxvm, 1917). The Victoria County History. Biographical Register of Peterhouse, 1284-1616. The Architectural History of the University of Cambridge, by R. Willis and J. W. Clark, 4 vols. 1886. The archiepiscopal registers of the diocese of York.

The volume of a work referred to is indicated by a Roman numeral and the page by arabic figures. Dates are expressed in terms of the year beginning 1 January.

CHRONOLOGICAL SUMMARY 1423 June 23 1424 May 25 1436 August 8 1437 July 25

N37] [1438] [1439] 1439 July 13 1442 February 9 March 1 June 10 1444 August 27 1446 June 18 August 26 1447 September 3 1448 March 28 April 16 1449 January 26 1451 November 17 1451 1456 December 2 1458 October 8 1458 1462 November 4 1464 1468 August 27 December 6 1477 1484 February 9 i486 October 25

Byngham instituted to the rectory of Carlton Curlieu. Byngham instituted to the rectory of St John Zachary, London. Sara Becket's bond in favour of Godshouse when it shall have been erected. Tyled hostel acquired from Barnwell priory. Cat hostel bought. John Langton's petition against Byngham. The mansion of Godshouse built in Milne Street. Byngham's petition for licence to give Godshouse to Clare Hall. Licence of the king accordingly. Licence to found a completely independent college. Licence in mortmain for its specific endowments. Licence confirming and correcting that of March I. Helpston rectory and land acquired for the use of Godshouse. Acquisition of the Tiltey abbey property. Licence to found the college in le Prechour strete. The advowson of Fendrayton granted by the king. Acquisition of the Denney abbey property. Foundation charter of Godshouse. The advowson of Navenby and the hospital of St James of Magna Thurlow granted by the king. Byngham's death in London. John Hurte elected second Proctor. Acquisition of the Sempringham property. Acquisition of the Herrys tenement. John Hurte's retirement and William Fallan's succession as third Proctor. Confirmation charter of Edward IV. Fallan's retirement and Basset's succession as fourth Proctor. Acquisition of the Fishwick property. Second confirmation charter of Edward IV. Basset's retirement and Barton's succession as fifth Proctor. Confirmation charter of Richard III. Confirmation charter of Henry VII.

CHRONOLOGICAL SUMMARY

xvu

1490 Syclyng's succession to Barton as sixth Proctor. 1496 Sealing of the statutes of Godshouse. 1504 [between March 25 Terms of agreement reached between the Lady Margaret and August 22] and Godshouse. Licence of Henry VB for the continuance and extension 1505 May 1 of the college. Acceptance of the statutes of the Lady Margaret by the 1506 October 3 Proctor and fellows of the college. Death of Syclyng and succession of Wyatt as second Master circa December 1 of Christ's College. 1507 January 28 Lease of the 'great orchard' from Jesus College. August 28 Acquisition of the messuage lying between the college and Walls Lane. 1508 May Wyatt's retirement and his succession by Thompson as third Master of Christ's College.

IN PIAM MEMORIAM COLLEGII CHRISTI FUNDATORUM TRIUM

MARGARETAE COMITISSAE RICHMONDIAE ET DBRBIAE

HENRICI REGIS ANGLIAE POST CONQUESTUM SEXTI

WILLELMI BYNGHAM PERSONAE ECCLESIAE SANCTI JOHANNIS ZACHARIAE LONDINII

Chapter I W I L L I A M B Y N G H A M , T H E FIRST F O U N D E R

M

ost colleges have to be content with one founder, while some, like Gonville and Caius College, have two; Christ's College, however, has three. The earliest of the three is overshadowed by the royal splendour of his successors, but, though Christ's College owes most of its possessions to Henry VI and his niece, the Lady Margaret, it owes the fact of its existence to a plain parochial rector, William Byngham. We could wish to know something of the source whence Byngham issued, but, though there may be indications that point with some probability to his family, there are no documents to enable us to replace conjecture with certainty. Peile, untiring pursuer of biographical detail, has to admit 'nothing is certainly known of his birth: he may have been one of the Binghams of Carcolston, Notts.' l He gives no information concerning the basis of his supposition, but such straws as it has been possible to observe independently do seem to point in the direction of the Midlands. In the first place, the initial solid fact in Byngham's life-history is found in bis presentation to the rectory of Carlton Curly [hodie Carlton Curlieu], Leicestershire, to which he was instituted 23 June 1423; * Carlton Curlieu is near to Market Harborough and, in a direct line, lies about thirty-five miles from Carcolston. In the second place, a familiarity with the Midlands is indicated in his petition to Henry VI, 3 where he seems to speak with knowledge of the country when he says 'your poure besecher hath founde of late ouer the Est partie of the wey ledyng from hampton^ to couentre and so forth no ferther North pan Rypon, lxx scoles voide or mo J>at weren occupied all at ones within 1. yeres passed, bicause J>at }>er is so grete scarstee of maistresof Gramer'. In the third place, in Hamond's plan of Cambridge, bearing date 1592, 1 3

1HC

Biog. Reg. i, 1. V. infra, p. 356.

2 4

Line, xvi, f. 98 d. I.e. Hampton upon Thames. I

2

W I L L I A M B Y N G H A M , T H E FIRST F O U N D E R

Godshouse has attributed to it the arms of Bingham of Carcolston. This plan, of which the only complete copy is in the Bodleian Library, has a summary notice of all the colleges and shews their arms; while recognising the continuance of Godshouse in Christ's, it supplies a separate note, with arms, of Godshouse, which note has been translated as follows by the Master ofJesus: * College of God's House, first founded by William Bingham, Rector of the Church of S. John Zachary, London, within the precinct of the present King's College, in the reign of King Henry the Sixth in the year of Our Lord, 1442. Godshouse by Hamond* It was rounded tor the second time by the same King Henry the Sixth in Preachers' Street, opposite to the Church of S. Andrew, in the 24th year of his reign, and the year of Our Lord, 1445. It is now incorporated in Christ's College. The Master ofJesus adds: 2 The College had no arms, but Hamond shows a shield bearing arms intended for those of Bingham, namely: gold a Jess gules charged with three silver

water-buckets; but Mr Hope3 points out that there is no evidence that these were borne by him. The observation of the late Sir William Hope would apply to many other similar cases, and its general application would deprive heraldic bearings of much of their identificatory value. If there had been no great fire in the city of London, we might be able to find to-day a memorial brass in the church of St John Zachary with the arms of our Byngham emblazoned thereon, but it is doubtful if such a record would have more value than the testimony of Hamond, which, it is reasonable to suppose, reflected the traditional knowledge concerning Byngham, his family and arms, current in his college 140 years after his death. Hamond had no necessity for displaying a shield for Godshouse (which 1 Camb. Plans, p. 35. % Ibid. p. 35 sq. 3 C.A.S. Proc. and Comm. viii, 118. * The hatching used by Hamond does not bear any relation to the tinctures; he uses it as a scheme of decoration and it appears on his shields of the colleges generally. Hatching as a means of indicating tinctures was not evolved by heralds until the seventeenth century.

HIS FAMILY

3

so far as is known had no arms of its own), since he recognises its position as the nucleus of Christ's in his description of the College of Christ, the shield of which he also gives. The gratuitous inclusion by him, on his map, of a notice of Godshouse bearing, for lack of a corporate shield, the arms of Byngham, in an age when heraldic bearings were an open book to educated men, should be regarded as possessing authority at least equal to any such display by Byngham himself; short of an official record in the College of Arms, it is probably as good a piece of evidence as The arms of the Binghams could be expected. of Nottinghamshire Whether or not this was in Peile's mind, when he inclined to the possibility of Byngham's connection with the Nottinghamshire house1 of that name, this third point is the foundation upon which that supposition must be based, the first and second points being subsidiary to it. Cole (Brit. Mus. Add. MS. 5846, f. 164 sq.) gives to Byngham the arms belonging to a Dorset family which it is impossible to accept; the matter cannot be treated in this place, but the confusion upon which it is held to be based is discussed in a note at the end of this chapter, under the heading Thomas de Bingham.* The family name was Bugge, and~Thoroton3 opens the pedigree in the reign of Henry III with Rad. Bugge de Nottingham, who settled in Bingham; his eldest son retained the family surname (50 Henry III), but a younger took a territorial name as Richard de Willoughby. In the third generation, the eldest son has become Richard de Bingham, though a younger one is known as Galf. Bugg de Leek. Thereafter the name derived from the territorial estate is stabilised; the senior branch remained at Bingham and retained the form de Bingham, while the junior branch, hiving off to Colston, became Bingham de Colston,* and when, 1

Dr Peile's reference to Carcolston should be extended to cover the main stock at Bingham and any branch springing therefrom. 1 3 4 Infra, pp. 17 sqq. Thoroton, i, 272. Ibid, i, 272, 242. 1-2

4

W I L L I A M B Y N G H A M , T H E FIRST F O U N D E R

in the second year of Elizabeth, a descendant of this Carcolston family is resident in the county of Rutland, he in his turn is Johannes Bingham de Glaston.1 In Thoroton's day, the Bingham arms were still to be seen in an upper window of Carcolston church. By marriages with heiresses, the Binghams obtained a footing in various parishes in Nottinghamshire and neighbouring counties; their pedigrees are to be found in the pages of Thoroton's Nottinghamshire, Nichols's Leicestershire and in the Visitations of Nottinghamshire,* but in none of the sources has it been possible to trace a scion of the house whom we could identify with certainty as the William Byngham of St John Zachary, London, and of Godshouse, Cambridge. Dr Peile3 thinks 'it is not improbable that he was the canon of Thurgarton (Southwell) who was instituted vicar of Granby, near Bingham, Notts. 8 Sept. 1447: resigned, his successor being appointed 26 Feb. 144I'.4 That identification, far from being probable, is impossible; Thurgarton priory was a house of canons regular of the order of St Augustine, while William Byngham of Godshouse and St John Zachary, London, was a secular priest. The man of that name who was vicar of Granby was probably the canon of Thurgarton who became prior of that convent in 1471; 5 Austin canons often served the churches appropriated to their convents. The most outstanding member of the Bingham family was Sir Richard Bingham, justice of the King's Bench. He was a contemporary of William Byngham, and a contemporary also, in his earlier years, of William Paston, the 'Good Judge', justice of Common Pleas. Sir Richard, whose daughter married Stephen Scrope, stepson of Sir John Fastolf, is several times mentioned in the Paston Letters, a long letter of his to Fastolf being included therein (No. 308). Like the Pastons, though of older standing, the Binghams were of the smaller territorial magnates of their own counties, and their names are found on the commissions of the peace for the county of Nottingham constantly during the reigns of Henry VI and Edward IV.6 1

2 Thoroton, i, 243. Harl. Soc. vol. iv. Biog. Reg. i, 2. * Cf. Godfrey, p. 193. 5 Cf. V.C.H. ii, 125, quoting Harl. MS. 6972, ff. 41-2. 6 C.P.R. passim. 3

HIS E D U C A T I O N

5

Of William Byngham's date of birth, and of his education, it has proved impossible to discover any definite evidence, but deductions may be made upon both matters from our certain knowledge of him in his later years; and first as to his education. It was the practice of gentle families of standing to send their sons to the universities, as is seen in the case of the Pastons, whose sons were sent to Cambridge and even to the much more distant Oxford. The candidates for orders were subject to episcopal ordination and, if the necessity arose, bishops did not hesitate to postpone admission to the order of the priesthood until and unless the candidate had satisfied their requirements. But there is no need to labour the fact of Byngham's education, for the man who made it his main purpose in life to provide additional schoolmasters throughout the length and breadth of the land, and who became with his sovereign's approval the head of a college founded for that purpose, must clearly have enjoyed himself the benefits he sought to confer upon others. It is impossible to make a definite statement of the place of Byngham's education, for the records of the universities had not begun to preserve either matriculations or graduations in the early years of the fifteenth century, but the fact of his founding his college in Cambridge is in itself sufficient to justify the assumption that it was in Cambridge that Byngham took his own degree. And it may with equal probability be assumed that he did so as a member of Clare Hall, which would explain his association of the Master and fellows of that college with himself in the various royal licences he sought and obtained. Their friendship for him was so marked as to be extended to the college of his foundation, as he acknowledges in the tribute he pays to them when proposing that these be appointed with him to make statutes: William Millyngton, William Guile, Robert Wodlark, and John Tylney, lately fellows of the College of Clare Hall, Cambridge, whom togedier with the master of the same, now deceased,1 he always found prompt to aid in promoting the College of Godeshous.2 1 William Wymbill, Master of Clare, was living 6 July 1443 (Chr. Gh. K), but was dead before 10 May 1445 (Crosby, p. 231). C£ Lloyd, pp. 1 sqq. * Chr. Gh. 3.

6

WILLIAM B Y N G H A M , T H E FIRST F O U N D E R

Passing to consideration of Byngham's date of birth we find the first mention of him in a deed on the husting roll (151 (7)), dated 26 August 1422, where he is described as 'clerk' in a grant to him and seven others of the reversion of lands and tenements in the parish of St Michael le Quern in Westchepe. All that can with certainty be deduced from this document is that in 1422 he was of age and standing sufficient to justify his inclusion with responsible citizens as a trustee. Our earliest knowledge of him as priest is derived from the entry of the institution of William Byngham, priest, to the church of Carlton Curlieu on 23 June 1423.1 The identification is established by the entry of his institution to the church of St John Zachary, London, where he is described as William Byngham, rector of Carlton Curlieu.2 A clerk could not be received into priest's orders according to the canon law until he attained the age of twenty-five; if Byngham became priest at the canonical age and was immediately presented to Carlton Curlieu, his birth must be placed in the year 1398. Byngham was admitted to the rectory of St John Zachary in the city of London in May 1424, by the dean and chapter of St Paul's, and recognition of a very young man in the rectory of a city church by these powerful ecclesiastical patrons seems unlikely. It would appear to be more reasonable, in view of these fixed dates for important responsibilities, to regard Byngham's birth as occurring about 1390, which would make him, (a) on his appointment to the rectory of Carlton Curlieu, thirtythree years old; (b) on his appointment to the rectory of St John Zachary in London, thirty-four years; (c) on his earliest activities as a college founder,3 forty-five years. In dealing with the questions of Byngham's family, date of birth and place of education, conjecture and inference based upon the facts of his later life have alone been available, and the soundness of the conclusions reached must be judged accordingly. With his institution to the 1

Line, xvi, f. 98 d. He exchanges with the previous rector John Barnesley upon the authority of a commission of the archbishop of Canterbury, 25 May 1424 (St Paul's, W.D. 13, f. 95). 3 I.e. 1435; v. infra, p. 11 sq. 2

CARLTON AND LONDON

7

rectory of Carlton Curlieu, the firm foundation of contemporary record is available: 'William Byngham, priest, presented by the prior and convent of the house of Jhesu of Betheleem of Sheen, to the church of Carleton Curly, on resignation of Sir William Lychefeld, was instituted on 23 June 1423 V Nichols, in his Leicestershire, names no rectors of Carlton Curlieu between one of 1274 and one who died in 1472, and it seems desirable to place upon record in a note at the end of this chapter a such additional information as various documents have yielded. Here it is sufficient to remark that William Lychefeld, whom Byngham succeeded at Carlton, was in close association with Byngham in later years both in London and in Cambridge.3 Byngham's stay at Carlton was a short one, for on 25 May 1424 he became rector,* by exchange, of St John Zachary, London, a church burnt down in the great fire. It was situated in Maiden Lane, and after the fire the parish was annexed to that of St Anne, Aldersgate.5 Its churchyard still remains; it lies, almost surrounded by buildings, on the corner formed by Noble Street and Gresham Street, not far from the General Post Office, St Martin's le Grand. Stow says the monuments of the church were well preserved in his time, but, though he mentions Byngham, 'founder of Christ's College, Cambridge', as rector here, he makes no reference to a Byngham monument. Besant6 makes the statement that the church of St John Zachary was built by a monk named Zachary, for which the nearest approach to authority 1 4

Line, xvi, f. 98 d.

2

Infra, p. 20 sq.

3 y. infra, p. 397 sq.

Byngham is sometimes styled person, sometimes priest, sometimes rector, sometimes clerk, sometimes Sir [William Byngham], which last is dominus, a title constantly given to parish priests down to a much later date than Byngham's but strictly the style then, as now in academical surroundings, of a bachelor. It is desirable to bear in mind that in medieval times, and in formal documents down to modern times, person or parson (as it was also spelt in exemplification of its pronunciation) was the complete equivalent of rector. Blackstone says: 'A parson is one that hath full possession of all the rights of a parochial church He is sometimes called the rector'. Later, the term became debased and was used to signify any vicar, curate, chaplain or minister, but the earliest illustration of this less exact use given in N.E.D. is Shakespeare's Love's Labour's Lost, 1588. In the muniments of Christ's College, however, 'parson' is used of a vicar as early as 1532. 5 W. Besant, The Survey of London (Mediaeval London, vol. i), p. 28. The parish of St John Zachary, though united with that of St Agnes and St Anne, still has its own 6 churchwardens. Loc. cit.

8

W I L L I A M B Y N G H A M , T H E FIRST F O U N D E R

seems to derive from documents preserved in the chapter records, where there is mention of the church under the name St John Zachary in a visitation of 1181.1 There is a chirograph deed granting the church of St John Baptist to one Zacary in amis for the term of his life, provided that he visit the mother church [St Paul's is meant] at Christmas and at the feast of the Apostles Peter and Paul every year, offering in charity forty-two pence each time. There are fifteen or sixteen witnesses and the chirograph is countersigned by John, treasurer.2 This deed is of the twelfth century and there is also a contemporary enrolment.3 There is no foundation for the inherently improbable 'monk' of Besant, and so far is the name of the church from being due to this Zacary that it appears to be the obvious alternative to its dedicatory title of St John Baptist, as in the Cambridge church of that name formerly in Milne Street, which was removed by Henry VI to enlarge the site of his college. There can be no objection to the proposal that this St John Baptist church was called St John Zachary to distinguish it from the St John Baptist of Walbrook,* so long as that is not connected with the grant of it to Zacary, who may have been led to apply for the living by the appropriateness of the already established colloquial name. The years 1424 to 1435 were fruitful years for Byngham, years during which he was forming a wide circle of friends, and making acquaintance with the management of affairs which, whether that was his purpose or not, proved to be of great service in the setting-up of the College of Godshouse. The fifteenth century was a period when, owing to the state of medical science, short final illnesses were the rule, and when too, for the greater part, men postponed giving form to their testamentary wishes until they were conscious that the hour of death was nigh. To prepare for the next world meant, also, taking fitting leave of the present, and the priest called in to minister in spiritual things was at the same time frequently the dying man's guide in the final ordering 1

St Paul's, W.D. 4, f. 85. * Ibid. A. Box 12, No. 1137. 3 fad. W.D. 4, liber L. 4 F. Bond, Dedications and Patron Saints of English Churches, p. 193.

LEGATEE A N D L I T I G A N T

9

of his temporal affairs. Of the will drawn under the confessor's direction, who could be a more fitting executor than he whose duty it was to take care that the testator made proper provision for the house where his devotions had been paid in this world and for the welfare of his soul in the next? And so we find that by the will dated 28 May 1425 William Byngham, rector of St John Zaehary, and the wardens of the same church take a share of the estate of William Hope, goldsmith, in return for their prayers;1 and it appears that a few years later they do the same under the will, dated 25 July 1431, of Bartholomew Seman, 'goldbetere', who also, by will dated 12 March 1429,* leaves a certain tenement and rents to Michaelhouse, Cambridge, for two poor scholars to be known as 'Turkeschildren' (to pray for Sir Robert Turk, knight, his two wives and others). Herein we may perhaps see the influence of Byngham in the provision that, failing proper observance of the conditions by Michaelhouse, the bequest with its obligations shall pass to Clare Hall. Throughout his career as a London rector, duties of this character were discharged by Byngham and, especially in the cases of the larger estates, they often involved him in litigation. Thus, his name appears frequently in the proceedings of the Court of Chancery: William Byngham, parson of St John Zaehary, is a defendant along with his co-executors of Nicholas Conyngston.3 William Byngham, clerk, is plaintiff as executor of William Flete, merchant, in an action against Alexander Mede, respecting lands in Lincolnshire.4 William Byngham, widi other executors ofThomas Horley, late of Biggleswade, is defendant in an action brought by William Warboys, respecting messuages in Dunton, Bedfordshire,5 and William Byngham, with other feoffees of William Crosse, is defendant in an action brought by George, son of the said William, respecting lands in Bedfordshire.6 We see him, in 1428, as defendant in an action brought by the dean and chapter of St Paul's concerning an annual payment of twenty shillings due to them out of the rectory of St John Zaehary,7 where he 1 2

Sharpe, ii, 436. Ibid, ii, 459. Seman was buried in St John Zaehary (Stow, i, 305).

3 E.CkP. Bdle 11, No. 216. 4 ibid. Bdle 19, No. 195. 6 5 Ibid. Bdle 35, No. 75. Ibid. Bdle 24, No. 56. 7 W. McMurray, The Records of Two City Parishes, p. 269.

io

W I L L I A M B Y N G H A M , T H E FIRST F O U N D E R

was, perhaps, only defending a friendly action to put upon record in a court of law an already agreed position. Amongst the friends made by Byngham at this period was John Carpenter, town clerk of London from 1417 to 1441, member of parliament for the city in 1436 and again in 1439, and founder of the City of London School. The bond between the older man and the younger is probably to be found in their interest in education. Carpenter died about 1441, and his biographer says upon this matter: 1 'Master William Byngham, another distinguished promoter of learning, had this friendly notice taken of him by Carpenter', and he quotes the following passage from Carpenter's will: 'Also I give and bequeath to Master William Byngham, as a memorial of me, that book which Master Roger Dymok* made, contra duodecitn errores et heresesLollardomtn,

and gave to King Richard, and which book John Wilok gave to me'. Mention has already been made of Lychefeld, Byngham's predecessor 1

T. Brewer, Memoir of the Life and Times offohn Carpenter, pp. 66 sq. and 139. For this writer and the treatise here named v. D.N.B. xvi, 293. The work is known in three manuscripts, one in Paris in the Bibliotheque Nationale, another in the University Library, Cambridge, die diird in die library of Trinity Hall, Cambridge. The copy in the University Library (G.4.3) is in a hand of die middle of the fifteenth century and was of die gift of Archbishop Rodierham (1480). On f. 1 is written in a late seventeenth-century hand 'Cuius et alterum exemplar Ms. hoc multo vestustius, Et splendidius, in Bibhodi. Aule Trin. vide'. The Trinity Hall copy is No. 17 of Dr M. R. James's catalogue of die manuscripts of diat college, and is attributed by him to the late fourteenth century. It is written on vellum 10J x 7J, ff. 160+ 1. On die first page die initial has a portrait of King Richard II throned, and the royal arms (France ancient and England quarterly) are blazoned in colours on die right-hand margin, while on die bottom margin is his badge, two stags sejeant guardant gorged crowned and chained or. There are many illuminated initials and borders, and die writing is wordiy of its frame. Dr James regards it as a copy made for presentation to die king and, since Carpenter refers to the copy he bequeadied to Byngham as die one given by Dymok to die king, diere seems sufficient reason to conclude that die Trinity Hall MS. was once the property of Byngham. Robert Hare gave it to diat college and he received it from Andiony Rooper, grandson of Sir Thomas More, 12 June 1588. This work of Dymok was published for die first time in 1922 by die Wyclif Society, edited by H. S. Cronin, widi the tide Rogeri Dymmok Liber Contra XII Errores et Hereses Lollardorum. Cronin speculates (p. xx sq.) upon the ownership of die MS. between Richard II and Rooper, but die lacuna of 189 years is left unfilled by him. It is now possible pardy to fill in die gap and die complete known links in its chain of owners are King Richard II, John Wilok, John Carpenter, William Byngham widi, longo intervallo, Andiony Rooper, Robert Hare (d. 1611) and Trinity Hall. 1

L O N D O N FRIENDS

n

in the rectory of Carlton Curlieu. He was presented to a city rectory (All Hallows the More) in 1425 and was one of four city parsons who presented a petition to the king in parliament in the year 1447. As they were all friends of Byngham and were associated with him in various ways, three of them in connection with Godshouse, it is worth quotation in summary: Maistre William Lycchefeld,1 parson of die parish Chirche of all Halo wen the more in London; Maister Gilbert [Worthyngton],* parson of Seint Andrewe in Holbourne subarbs of the said Citee; Maister John Cote,3 parson of Seint Petre in Cornhull of London; and John Neell, Maister of the Hous or Hospitall of Seint Thomas of Acres, and parson of Colechirche in London for power to appoint a person in their respective parishes to hold and exercise a school. The king grants the petition 'so that it be done by thadvyse of the Ordinarie, otherelles of the Archebishope of Canterbury for the tyme beyng'.* It seems natural to connect this movement of his four friends with the influence of Byngham, whose own efforts to provide masters for such schools had been set on foot more than ten years earlier. Sir John Fray,5 second baron of the Exchequer from 1435, chief baron from 1437 till 1448, on the commissions of the peace for various counties and for the town of Cambridge from 1429 onwards, was in intimate connection with Byngham in various ways, and the friendship may date from this early period through friends whom we know to have been common to them both. Fray was one of the king's commissioners for the purchase of a site for King's College, and on that account may have been useful to Byngham. Byngham's active preparations for the founding of his college must have begun as early as 1436. There are two documents6 preserved in the college muniment room which suggest that even in the year before he may have been making his plans, and, by a third, we learn that as 1

Infra, p. 397 sq. * Infra, p. 399 sq. 4 Infra, p. 390 sq. Rot. Part v, 137. 5 Infra, pp. 393 sqq. Chr. Misc. F, 27 and Misc. B, 30, both relating to the will of one magister Robert Carlyon, Byngham being an executor along with John Druell. The documents belong to the years 1435, 1436; cf. infra, p. 390. 3

12 W I L L I A M B Y N G H A M , T H E FIRST F O U N D E R early as 8 August 1436, the design of founding Godshouse was so firmly established that Sara Beket entered into a bond for .£ 100 in the interests of its endowment.1 It may be said, without denying the existence of more altruistic motives, that the predominant incentive to found a college was the special place the founder always enjoyed in the devotions ofits members. It would be idle to claim that Byngham was indifferent to the prayers of the scholars he proposed to benefit, but the measures taken by him to secure such spiritual gain to himself were so inconspicuous, and their firm establishment by statute was so long deferred,2 as to suggest that such personal advantage from the foundation of the college was far from being his main purpose. Byngham's principal motive, the driving force which sustained him during the struggle for twelve years against adverse circumstance and powerful opposition, is to be sought in his profound conviction of the need of greater facilities for education in the grammar schools of England. It is the theme of his earliest surviving petition, it is prominent in the successive charters he obtained from the king; it was so engraved upon the minds of his contemporaries, and through them upon their successors, that it is the burden of the preamble to the statutes made forty-five years after his death. That the scholars of the college should become masters in grammar, and be bound to go to teach in any suitable school when so qualified, is the cardinal purpose of their training as set forth in the Godshouse statutes; and even in the Lady Margaret's statutes, by which Christ's College was governed until the middle of the nineteenth century, the Byngham tradition is maintained in the provision 3 that six pupils shall devote themselves to the rudiments of Grammar, and those things which best promote the teaching of Grammar, and shall take the first degree in the same, in order that diey may be able (if by chance they are ever called upon) to go forth competently to teach Grammar in any part of England. Which 1

Chr. Gh. Y; cf. infra, p. 99 sq. The first statutes of Godshouse were not formally given beforei495/6, and prayers for founders cannot be said to be firmly established without statutes to enforce them. Byngham had full royal authority to make statutes himself and they must have been in existence in essence long before they were formally sealed; cf. infra, p. 242. 3 Ch. XLI; Rackham, p. 107 sq. z

COLLEGE F O U N D E R S

13

duty none of them shall refuse (provided that an annual stipend often pounds be offered to him) under pain of the loss of every emolument in the said College.1 Before 1439 there were eight colleges in the university: Peterhouse, Michaelhouse, Clare Hall, King's Hall, Pembroke Hall, Gonville Hall, Trinity Hall, Corpus Christi, the latest having been founded in 1352. Two of the colleges had been founded by powerful bishops, one by a man who, as canon of York and of Wells, and chancellor of the Exchequer to King Edward II, was 'a man therefore of property and influence, who may be compared with Walter de Merton both in these respects, and in the prudent care with which he prepared and perfected his foundation'.3 Two colleges owed their existence to wealthy ladies of the highest rank, another to King Edward III; Corpus Christi was the foundation of two Cambridge gilds, and Gonville Hall was founded by one who, though described as rector of Terrington, was the son of a wealthy mother and held high offices under John, earl Warren and Henry, earl of Lancaster, in addition to ecclesiastical preferment. The much more humble rector of the London church of St John Zachary was of a different social order from any of these and, while the moral support of friends such as other London rectors of similar educational zeal must have been a great stand-by to Byngham, he had to cultivate the friendship also of those to whom he looked primarily to provide the material wealth without which his projected college could not have been established. The names of the more prominent of these it has been possible to discover: they were John Brokley, Johanna Bokeland and William Flete. In the period 1435-7 Byngham was acquiring land for his college, which was originally placed in Milne Street, then one of the principal highways of the town; a few years later, at the king's request, he sold the land and the buildings he had built upon it to commissioners acting for the king to enable him to enlarge the new royal college which we know to-day as King's. The deeds relating to Byngham's purchases passed to that college, and one of them provides the names of early 1 2

Rackham, pp. 107 and 109. W. and C. i, p. xxxviii.

14 W I L L I A M B Y N G H A M , T H E FIRST F O U N D E R benefactors of Godshouse. On 25 July 1437 Thomas Fordeham and Simon Randekyn confirmed by deed1 that they had conceded to John Brokelee alderman of London, William Flete of Rickmansworth gendeman, Johanna Bokeland widow of Richard Bokeland citizen of London, and to William Byngham rector of the parish church of St John Zachary London, a messuage with a garden at its eastern end, in the parish of St John [Zachary], Cambridge, with all its appurtenances. The property is described as lying between, on the north, a vacant and waste plot of land belonging to Barnwell priory upon which had formerly been a hostel known as Tyled hostel, which piece of land William Byngham had leased from the prior and convent of Barnwell, and on the south, another tenement of Thomas Fordeham and Simon Randekyn, and abutting on the west, upon the king's highway called 'Mylne strete', with a frontage thereto of twenty-two pedes pauli,* and on the east, upon a tenement of Robert Lyncoln, with a width there of twenty-one paul's feet. The deed proceeds to relate, in a manner quite modern, the title of the grantors derived from three successive owners, and states that their tenement bounding the site upon the south extends to Piron Lane. Since it is declared in the deed that Byngham already held on lease from the prior and convent of Barnwell the land to the north on which Tyled hostel formerly stood, it must be assumed that his acquisition of a site had begun some time before 1437, possibly even as early as 1435. The essential feature in the recital of boundaries in a conveyance of land is reference to facts well known, and Byngham's relationship to Tyled hostel must have existed long enough to fulfil that condition. Willis and Clark suggest 3 that he had already established his scholars in Tyled hostel before his purchase from Fordeham and Randekyn; without necessarily assenting to that proposition, we may reasonably conclude that Byngham's activities were already well known before 1437. It is desirable to state that the lease of Tyled hostel was for a long term, and 1

King's, A, 77b. * I.e. feet of the standard marked upon one of the piers of St Paul's, London. 3 W . and C. i, p. lv sq.

E N F E O F F M E N T T O USES

15

that it was distinguished from his purchase of the adjoining property mainly by the fact that he paid to the prior and convent a perpetual annual rent, a rent which we know from other sources1 to have been a quit rent of two shillings. The inclusion in the deed of John Brokley, Johanna Bokeland and William Flete as co-feoffees with Byngham is an example of a form of conveyance which had grown into great favour during the fifteenth century, principally to evade the burden of many of the incidents of feudal tenure. It was known as a feoffment to uses and it enabled the feoffees* to hold the legal estate, which alone was subject to feudal incidents of tenure, while dealing with the equitable estate in accordance with the dictates of the owner of that interest, who might be one of themselves or might be outside their number altogether. There must have been instances where the 'enfeoffment to use' method of conveyance would be chosen by benefactors for the protection of their interests, and this may have been one of such cases. This brings up the personal interest of the deed, for there can be no doubt that all three feoffees (besides Byngham) were benefactors of Godshouse. It is provided in the statutes of Godshouse 3 that daily prayers shall be offered for the soul of'John Brokley, formerly Alderman of London', and in the statutes of the Lady Margaret the names of William Byngham, priest, and John Brokley are specifically named, after her kindred,* for inclusion in the daily prayers of each fellow. The other two names 1

King's, A, 89; where, by a blunder, he is styled Johannes Byngham, ckricus; the reference to Byngham is, however, only incidental. 1 The feoffees were joint tenants, not tenants in common; they held, that is, each of them the whole estate so that, when one died, his interest passed not to his heirs but to the surviving feoffees. If, before the estate was alienated, all the feoffees died, it passed to the heir of the last surviving but, like the original feoffees, he held the legal estate only and was bound to deal with it under the instructions of him who held the equitable estate or his heir. In short, the feoffment to uses, amongst other advantages, provided a simple and efficacious means of appointing trustees. The trust might be abused, but anyone intending to avail himself or this mode of conveyance would choose the feoffees with care, and he had a remedy in case of misfeasance; the common law would deal with the legal estate only but the use could be enforced in the court of the king's Chancellor whose jurisdiction in equity was advancing with rapid strides at this period. 4 Ibid. p. 89. 3 Rackham, p. 39.

16 W I L L I A M B Y N G H A M , T H E FIRST F O U N D E R are merged in the ' many others besides whose names nevertheless we do not mention'. 1 From the statutes we learn that John Brokley, alderman of London, was a benefactor, but nothing of his history or of the date or extent of his benefaction has hitherto been available. It has been possible to gather from various sources some information concerning his history which is set out in the appendix,3 and in the light of the deed now being considered it is certain that the beginning of the benefaction for which he was to be remembered dates from at least as early as 1437. Johanna Bokeland (Buckland) was a benefactor as executrix of her husband's will.3 Some account of her life, as well as the romantic story of Richard Bokeland's varied career, will be found in the appendix,4 but here it is enough to say that he died in the autumn of 1436 (his will was proved 15 October of that year), having directed 'that therbe founden at the universitees of Oxenford or Cambrigg at the discrecon of my wyf and executors two gode honnest and vertuous preests.. .for xx yere praying for my soule... and full all I am bounden to pray for'. Johanna exercised her discretion in favour of Cambridge and, as she became a feoffee with Byngham for the site of Godshouse, we may reasonably suppose that she paid a lump sum down in return for an undertaking to secure the prayers of two priests for twenty years. The provision of a definite term of years would account for the absence of the Bokeland name from the list of benefactors mentioned in the Godshouse statutes. The third of Byngham's co-feoffees, "William Flete, was king's clerk to Richard II, Henry IV, Henry V and Henry VI successively, drawing an annual income from the issues of the county of Cambridge for the year 1399, and thereafter, till his death in 1444, from the county of Lincoln. He was placed upon numerous commissions in various counties, and in certain years was escheator for Essex and Hertfordshire. He was knight of the shire for his own county of Hertford, where he was lord of the manor of More in Rickmansworth; he held lands also in Lincolnshire. Nothing has been traced to throw light upon the 1

Rackham, p. 89. 3 P.C.C. 21 Luffenam.

2 4

Infra, pp. 383 sqq. Infra, pp. 386 sqq.

T H O M A S DE B I N G H A M

17

benefaction leading to his inclusion as co-feoffee in the purchase of the Godshouse land in 1437. His value at that time to Byngham and Godshouse may not have lain in any financial gift but in his knowledge of law and his experience of affairs; arising out of his will, it will be suggested that a benefaction came to the college which remained in its possession until disposed of in modern times.1 Note i T H O M A S DE B I N G H A M , M A S T E R O F P E M B R O K E H A L L There was another person named Bingham whose story linked Cambridge with Bingham in Nottinghamshire in a generation earlier than that of William Byngham. This was Thomas de Bingham, second Master of Pembroke Hall.2 Richard Parker made him first Master, 1343, doctor of divinity, and derived him from 'the noble family.. .of Bingham Melcomb, in the co. of Dorset'. 3 Carter says of him that he was S.T.P., first Master of Pembroke soon after 1343, resigned 1373 and died 1392.4 Cole recites these statements but degrades him from his doctorate; he gives him for arms Azure a bend cotised argent inter 6 cross crosslets or, which are practically those of the Dorset family. Putting aside these eighteenth-century writers, and basing ourselves upon contemporary documents, this is what we find. Thomas de Bingham was senior proctor of the university in the year 1362/3,5 and, while in that office, being then in priest's orders, he petitioned the pope for a benefice of the value of .£30 with cure of souls, or of JQ20 without, in the gift of the archbishop of York. The reply was Let him have one in the gift of the prior and convent of Spalding.6 He was rector of Westmill, Hertfordshire (upon presentation of the countess of Clare), 2 August 1367 to 22 March 1374;7 rector of Bingham, Nottinghamshire, 23 July 13698 to 30 March 1391;' rector of 1 3

% Cf. infra, pp. 63 sq., 392 sq. University Calendar. History ana Antiquities of the University of Cambridge (1721), p. 51. 4 The History of the University of Cambridge (1753), p. 71. 5 Proctors' Accounts for that year, preserved in the University Registry, I (2). 6 Cal. Pap. Pet. p. 405. ? Bishop Buckingham's register, quoted by R. Clutterbuck, History of Hertfordshire, iii.320. 8 Godfrey, pp. 15 sqq., quoting the Torre MS. Other rectors of Bingham, with Cambridge associations, were William Watnowe, S.T.P. (1453-82), resident in Peterhouse 1455-8 (Walker, i, 49 sqq.), and Richard Wyatt, S.T.P. (1508-22), the second Master of Christ's College. 9 Ely, Fordham, f. 26b; P.R. 17 March, 15 R. II, ii, 21. LHC 2

18 WILLIAM BYNGHAM, THE FIRST FOUNDER Gransden Parva, diocese of Ely, 30 March 1391 until his death, which occurred early in 1392/3, his successor at Gransden Parva being instituted 30 April 1393.1 The territorial form, de Bingham, bespeaks his connection with some place of that name; his holding for twenty-two years the rectory of Bingham, Nottinghamshire, points to that rather than the Dorset Bingham's Melcomb as the place of his origin, and that view gains further support when we find that, though he was presented to the rectory of Bingham by Sir Geoffrey de Stanton and Sir Simon de Leek, knights, those two persons held the presentation only for that turn. The patronage lay in the territorial Bingham, or squire of Bingham, who probably enfeoffed his two friends for that turn to avoid any accusation of simony. When we find that the patron who presented to the living in 1364 was Sir Richard de Bingham, knight, that he lived until 1387/8, having been married in 1344/5, and that his next brother was named Thomas, who died sine prole,3 it is difficult to resist the conclusion that we have established the place and family from which Thomas de Bingham issued. This plain recital of Thomas de Bingham's history leaves unexplained the attribution to him, by eighteenth-century writers, ofthe arms ofthe Bingham's Melcomb family. It is possible that this arises from a confusion of the Cambridge man with a contemporary Thomas de Bingham who was sub-dean of Wells, a confusion which has persisted down to the present time.3 The Wells man appears frequently in the patent rolls as a living person for several years after the death of the Cambridge man, having his estate as sub-dean of the cathedral church of Wells, with the prebend ofWythlakyngton therein, ratified 14 July I39O,4 when he is styled master in theology.5 He appears again in 1396,1398, 1400 and 14016 in the patent rolls, and his name is found in an inquisition ad quod damnum in 1401 ;7 he must have died about 1404, since there is an entry in the expenses of the communar of the dean and 1 2

Ely, Fordham, f. 38 b. Thoroton, i, 272 sq., in conjunction with Harl. Soc. iv, 144. 3 Cf. Venn, quoting The History ofFramlingham by R. Hawes, ed. Loder, p. 208 sq. 4 C.P.R. 1388-92, p. 298. 5 This degree is unknown to Cambridge; a man became bachelor (S.T.B.) and, if he desired to proceed further, the next and only stage was doctor (S.T.P.). Parker and Carter, if we may assume diem to be influenced by die mastership of die Wells man, got over the difficulty by making the Cambridge Thomas 'doctor'. But prior to the fifteenth century master, doctor, professor seem to have been interchangeable terms, especially on die continent of Europe, and doctor and professor so remained until recent times in Cambridge. We find that in 1470 Robert Wodlark was styled master in theology in a papal document addressed to him as provost of King's College (Cat. Pap. Letters, 1458-71, p. 753), but he was certainly S.T.P. in May 1448 (Christ's muniments, Camb. N.). Cf. infra, p. 136, n. 1. 6 C.P.R. 1396-9, pp. 34 and 426; 1399-1401, pp. 288 and 476. 7 P.R.O. File 431 (17), 28 March, 2 H. IV.

THOMAS DE BINGHAM

19

chapter for March 1408, which runs' [paid to] the escheator, for the exequies of Mr Thomas Byngham 3 rd year £ 1 . o. o'. 1 The comparative proximity of Wells to Bingham's Melcomb (they are about thirty miles apart) makes for the probability that the sub-dean of Wells was of the Dorset family, and therefore rightly entitled to the arms wrongly ascribed to his contemporary of Cambridge. When the confusion arose it is not possible to say; perhaps it was due to Fuller, who includes prominently amongst his Worthies Sir Richard Bingham, of Bingham's Melcomb (1528-99), the Elizabethan warrior whose memory was still green in Fuller's own day. The armorial confusion between the two persons named Thomas must be held responsible for the erroneous attribution by William Cole of the Bingham's Melcomb family arms to William Byngham.2 The Memoirs of the Binghams, by Rose E. McCalmont (1915), is specially concerned with the Somerset and Dorset family and its connections. On p. 167 it is stated that 'they must be dissociated from the other distantly connected [the connection is not shewn] branch which had originated in Nottinghamshire. Of these last the pedigree such as it is exists, but none of the Christian names contained in it will fit in with the Binghams of Melcomb Bingham who settled in London'. Failure to establish connection is to be expected, for, apart from the utter dissimilarity of the arms, the manner of acquisition of the surname is entirely different in the two cases. The Binghams of Dorset, found established there and in Sutton Bingham, Somerset, at least as early as the reign of Henry III, claimed descent from Sir John de Bingham of temp. Henry I; they imposed their name upon the place of their settlement, which became, in consequence, Melcomb Bingham or Bingham's Melcomb. The Binghams of Nottinghamshire bore the family name Bugge and the earliest records describe them as de Nottingham. They acquired estate and settled in the parish of Bingham about the end of Henry Ill's reign; in 1266, the head of the house is described as Radulphus Bugg. His eldest son is described as Richard de Bingham, miles, while his second son is Galfridus Bugg de Leek. Richard's son is William de Bingham, miles, in 1306, and thenceforward the Bingham branch is invariably known as de Bingham or Bingham.3 Thus the Dorset family, having possessed the family name Bingham, imposed it as an additional name upon the district in which it was settled; the Nottinghamshire family with the surname Bugge settled in the parish of Bingham and, shedding the plebeian Bugge, adopted the territorial de Bingham. The paucity of reference to Thomas de Bingham in academical documents makes it interesting to find that the Otryngham Book 4 places him amongst the list of benefactors to Michaelhouse for whom prayer is to be made. 1 Cat. MSS. Dean and Chapter of Wells, ii, 42 (Hist. MSS. Comm.). 2 Brit. Mus. Add. MS. 5846, ff. 164b and 165 a. 3 4 Thoroton, i, 272. Trinity College muniment room. 2-2

20 WILLIAM BYNGHAM, THE FIRST FOUNDER Note ii CARLTON CURLIEU,

LEICESTERSHIRE

The parish church was appropriated to the alien priory of Ware, a cell of the abbey of St Ebrulf in Normandy, whose temporalities were seized by Edward III.1 The presentation to the rectory thus passed into the king's hands and the following appointments appear on the calendars of the close and patent rolls: 10 February 1377. John de Friseby, parson of Carleton Curie, is mentioned.2 8 May 1383. Presentation of Richard Foxton, parson of Heryngeswell, diocese of Norwich. 3 25 April 1402. Presentation of John Norburgh, parson of Thorpe Edmer and prebendary of the sixth prebend in the collegiate church of Newark, Leycestre, to the church of Carleton Curly, in the diocese of Lincoln, in the king's gift by reason of the temporalities of the alien priory of Ware being in his hands, on an exchange of benefices with Richard Foxton.4 24 June 1403. Presentation of John Segevaux of the church of Leke,5 diocese of York, to the church of Carlton, in the diocese of Lincoln, in the king's gift on account of the war with France, on an exchange of benefices with John Norburgh. 6 This last exchange appears to have fallen through, for we find 21 August 1403. Presentation of Richard Foxton to Carlton on exchange with John Norburgh, thus restoring the position ante 25 April 1402.7 25 September 1414. Henry V founded the Carthusian house of Jesus of Bethlehem of Shene, and amongst its many endowments was the advowson of Carlton Curlieu church. The prior and convent of this house henceforth present to the rectory.8 1 November 1420. William Lychefeld, priest, presented by the prior and convent of the house of Jhesu of Betheleem of Shene, was instituted at Fotheringay to the church of Carleton, vacant.9 23 June 1423. William Byngham, priest, presented by the prior and convent [as above], was instituted at Lidyngton to the church of Carleton Curly, on the resignation of Sir William Lychefeld.10 1 2 Monasticon, vi, 1049. C.C.R. 1374-7, p. 519. 4 3 C.P.R. 13 81-5, p. 271. Ibid. 1401-5, p. 87. 5 Leek was the home of Galfridus Bugg, a Bingham who retained the original family name. He was the uncle of Thomas de Bingham, second Master of Pembroke Hall. 6 C.P.R. 1401-5, p. 238. 7 Ibid. p. 254. 8 Charter Rolls, 2 H. V, i, 8. 9 Line, xvi, f. 88 d. 10 Ibid, xvi.f. 98 d.

RECTORS OF CARLTON

21

There are no more institutions between this and that of Richard Hanson, below, either at Lincoln or at Lambeth (sede vacante), but 26 May 1424. John Bernesley, parson of St John Zachary, London, exchanged that rectory with Byngham for the church of Carl ton Curlieu.1 Following him must have been one Sir John Byllysfeld, for, on 8 February 1442. Richard Hanson, priest, presented by the prior and convent [as above], was instituted at Lidyngton to the church of Carlton Curie, on the resignation of Sir John Byllysfeld, for the sake of an exchange with the church of Nether Herdys, diocese of Canterbury.2 1 Hennessy, p. 96. John Bernesley was formerly rector of Greatham, Sussex. Though no relationship has been traced between him and Thomas Bemesley, first dean of the College of Stoke Clare, the connection of Byngham with both is suggestive of relationship. * Line, xviii, f. 155.

Chapter II THE DISPUTE WITH J O H N

LANGTON

B

efore Byngham could make use, for the purposes of his college, of the land bought from Fordeham and Randekyn (Cat hostell as it is seen to have been called1), he was confronted with a startling proposal, attractive enough to have induced him to give it serious consideration, though its adoption would have involved the surrender of his site and the selection of another some distance away. This proposal appears to have been made by the Chancellor of the University and, though it is of singular interest and had consequences of much importance both to Godshouse and the university, it has escaped the attention of all historians of both institutions. There is no record preserved of the preliminary conversations, though the Chancellor maintained that they had been brought to the stage of agreement between the parties. This is an ex parte statement and the Chancellor admits that there was no writing between the university and Byngham, and that he had no remedy at common law; he was driven to appeal to the Chancellor of England, and it is the fortunate preservation of John Langton's petition in the early chancery documents in the Public Record Office that allows this interesting controversy to be brought to light after an oblivion of nearly 500 years. After the present writer had found and read the original document he discovered that it had already been printed by Mr W. T. Barbour in vol. iv of the Oxford Studies in Social and Legal History (VinogradofF). Mr Barbour's purpose was to trace the development of the chancery's legal functions in the fifteenth century* and John Langton's petition is only one out of many selected for consideration; he was not concerned 1 1

An endorsement upon King's, A, 77 b. Preface, op. cit.

LANGTON'S PETITION

23

with its bearing upon the history of the University of Cambridge. The petition is No. 55 of bundle 39 of Early Chancery Proceedings. To the full reverent fader in god the bisshop of Bathe Chaunceller ofEnglond

Besechet lowely your pore oratour John Langton Chaunceller of the universite of Cantebrigge that where the seyd Chaunceller and universite by the assent and graunt of our soverain lord the Kyng have late ordeyned to founde and stablisse a college in the same toun it to called the universite college and to endowe it with diverses possessiouns in relevyng of the sayd universite and encresing of dergie ther And how late acorde took bytwix oon sir William Byngham that the seyd Chaunceller and scolers shuld have a place of the seyd sir William adioynyng on every side to the ground of the seyd Chaunceller and universite that they have ordeyned to bud her seyd college upon for the augmentation and enlargeyng of her seyd college and to edifie upon certein scoles of Civill and other faculteez and for to gif the sayd sir William a noder place therfor lyeng in the sayd toun bitwix the whit Freres and seint Johns Chirch and do it to be amorteysed suerly after the intent of the seyd sir William of the cost of the seyd Chaunceller and universite os the ful reverent fader in god the bisshop of Lincoln in whos presence this covenaunt and acorde was made wole recorde And it is so reverent lord that the seyd Chaunceller and universite acordyng to this covenaunt have ordeyned the sayd sir William a sufficeaunt place lyeng in the seyd toun of Cantebrigge bytwix the said whit Freres and seintJohns Chirch and extendyng doun to the Ryver of the same toun wyth a gardeyn therto which place is of better value then this other place is and profred to amorteyse it at her own cost acordyng to the covenaunt forseyd and therupon diverse costes and grete labores have made and doon late therfor And also required diverses cymes the seyd sir William to lepe * and performe on his party these seyd covenauntz the seid sir William now of self wille and wythoute any cause refusith it and will not doo it in noo wise Plese it to your gracious lordship to consider dies premisses and therupon to graunt to your seyd besechers a writ sub pena direct to the seyd sir William, to appere afore yow in the Chauncery of our lord kyng at a certein day upon a certein peyne be yow to be limited to be examened of these materes forseid and therupon to ordeyne by your gracious lordship that the said sir William may be compelled to do that trowth good feith and consciens requiren in this caas considering that in alsomich as there is no writing bitwix yowr seyd besechers and the seyd sir William thei may have noon accion at the comyn lawe and that for god and in wey of charite. 1

Query: a mistake for 'kepe'?

24

DISPUTE WITH J O H N LANGTON

The petition is undated and the editors of the Calendar attribute the contents of the bundle as a whole to '1467 to 1472 and perhaps 1433 to 1443'. Mr Barbour places the petition 'after 1433 '* and 'about 1433',2 of which the first is too indefinite and the second too early; and, as no guidance is to be obtained from the position of the document in the bundle where it finds a place, we are driven back upon its own internal evidence and upon our knowledge of local circumstance in our search for the year to which it belongs. We must place the petition during the period when John Langton was Chancellor of the University and John Stafford Chancellor of England simultaneously, which was from 1436 to 1443. The reference to the bishop of Lincoln gives no assistance, for he was translated from Norwich to Lincoln in 1436 and died as bishop of Lincoln in 1449. The king's commissioners bought land for his college of St Nicholas as early as 14 September 1440 (the site of the Old Court of King's, from Trinity Hall), and they bought Crouched hostel, owned by the university since 1432 and lying adjacent to Godshouse, on 19 October 1440. The conditions described in the petition to the Chancellor had therefore ceased to exist by October 1440 certainly, and most probably even earlier, since the king's intentions would be known before the dates of the conveyances. Moreover, since Byngham obtained the first royal licence for Godshouse on 13 July 1439, and thereby gained royal protection, the petition of John Langton must have been addressed to the Chancellor of England before that date. Byngham's petition, which produced the 1439 licence, makes mention of a 'mansion ycalled Goddeshous the which he hath made and edified in your towne of Cambrigge for the free herbigage of poure scolers of Gramer' and, since Langton's plaint made no reference to Godshouse, nor to any building on the site which he coveted and which was referred to as a 'plot', it must be accepted that the university's petition applied to a state of things existing before the 'mansion' had been built. In view of these various considerations, the most likely date for 1

Op. cit. p. 221.

J

Op. cit. p. 121.

ITS D A T E

25

Langton's petition in chancery is one between 1436, when he became Chancellor of the University, and 1438, when the buildings of Godshouse must already have been erected. For how long the dispute had been smouldering before the more powerful disputant sought to fan it into flame with a writ sub pena it is impossible to say; Langton may have inherited negotiations initiated by his predecessor. Alnwick, bishop of Lincoln at the date of the petition, may have acquired his qualifications as a witness while still bishop of Norwich (1422-36). It is not without interest, though too much must not be built upon it, that Alnwick conveyed a tenement and a garden, situated in the very area where lay the alternative site offered to Byngham, by a deed dated 25 April 1437.1 Had this tenement and garden been acquired by Alnwick2 with a view to satisfying Byngham and then, Byngham having refused to accept the proposed exchange, been sold by Alnwick because it was no longer of interest to him? In that case the date of Alnwick's deed of sale would provide 25 April 1437 as a terminus ante quern for the petition. As is usual in the case of these early chancery petitions,3 we are not given the defendant's reply and the judgement is not endorsed upon the petition, but it is necessary to assume from the subsequent history of the site that the final outcome was unfavourable to the petitioners, though whether that followed immediately from the rejection of their prayer, or was determined by the judgement of the court after the issue of a writ and Byngham's appearance thereto, remains hidden. It is possible that Byngham had promised to contemplate the surrender of his college site, but that when the Chancellor of the University indicated the particular site he proposed to give in exchange Byngham found the consideration offered to be inferior to that promised. He was a man of affairs with much experience of courts of law both as plaintiff and defendant,1* and was very unlikely to buy a pig in a poke or to submit tamely to the contention that he had done so. There are two statements 1 2

Trinity Hall, No. 59.

He was a generous benefactor to the university. Annals, i, 204. 3 Barbour, op. cit. p. 70. « E.CLP. Bundles 11 (216), 19 (195), 24 (56), 35 (75).

26

DISPUTE WITH J O H N

LANGTON

in the petition so direct that they must have had some substance, but there is no evidence remaining to support them. They are: (a) That the Chancellor and the university had the king's grant to found their proposed college. (b) That the 'plot' of William Byngham adjoined on every side the ground of the university. As to (a), it is to be observed that no grant to the university to found a college is to be traced in the patent rolls, but it must be remembered that letters patent do not themselves constitute a grant, or licence; they are the formal evidence that such and such a thing has been given, as is implied by the regular form dedimus et concessitnus, referring to something already done to which the letters patent bear witness. The Chancellor of the University may have received intimation that he could have a grant, which he postponed getting confirmed by letters patent with their attendant cost, until he saw the issue of his negotiations with, and later his petition against, Byngham. As to (b), the site which Byngham had acquired, i.e. Cat hostel and Tyled hostel, was bounded on the west by the neutral ground of Milne Street, and on the north by Crouched hostel, which had passed into the university's possession on n March 1432. Difficulty arises with regard to the east and the south. On the east was St Thomas's hostel which, at the relevant date, was in the possession of Thomas Fordeham; it passed to Byngham subsequently and was part of Godshouse when he conveyed the land and buildings to the king's commissioners. The land on the south side of Byngham's site lay between him and Piron Lane and is described in the deed of sale to Byngham and his co-feoffees, on 25 July 1437,1 as being the possession of Fordeham and Randekyn, though it passed to Byngham at some date after 24 March 1440.* In the case of these two tenements (both of them in the hands of Fordeham at the relevant date) the university may have had a preliminary agreement with Fordeham that would justify the claim that Byngham's plot adjoined on every side the ground of the university,3 but the contem1

King's, A, 77 b. * King's, A, 77 (18). An instance of such a preliminary agreement is that between the abbot of Tiltey and Byngham as revealed by the endorsement of the Strawey Lane garden lease now to be mentioned. 3

T H E SITE O F F E R E D

27

porary documents prove that, if this were so, the agreements were never implemented and the land never passed into the possession of the university. Though Byngham had an immediate triumph over his powerful adversary he was to learn, as we shall see later, that his success was dearly bought. If he had agreed with the Chancellor and university by accepting the offered site 'bytwix the whit Freres and seint Johns Chirch and extendyng doun to the Ryver', he would have had their good will instead of that opposition which delayed for years the fruition of his plans. And if Byngham's objection to the alternative site was its remoteness from the Schools,1 he was ultimately driven to the site without Barnwell Gate which was farther away still. It appears probable, however, that he did not lightly reject the proposed exchange, for there is preserved in the muniment room of Christ's College * a lease of the house and walled garden belonging to the abbot and convent of Tiltey (a Cistercian house in Essex) which was given to Robert Foxton and Alice his wife in 1408 for their joint lives and one year after the survivor's death. The plot referred to is marked on Willis and Clark's Plan of the Site of King's College, fig. 3, as 'Garden of Abbot of Tiltey'. The adjoining St Nicholas hostel was in the occupation of the same Robert and Alice Foxton and must have been enclosed by the area offered by the Chancellor to Byngham in exchange for his Godshouse site. An endorsement on Foxton's lease shews that its unexpired term had been acquired by Byngham and that he had an arrangement with the abbot of Tiltey of a conditional but favourable character. Though the lease is dated, the endorsement is not, but all the attendant circumstances point to the period of the negotiations which broke down. The abbot was Simon Pabbenham, known in 1438 and probably the unnamed abbot of Tiltey who received benediction in 1436 from Bishop Gilbert.3 He appears in the conveyance of the convent's Preacher Street property to Byngham in 1446.4 1 The region of the site offered to Byngham can be fairly clearly ascertained though not its dimensions. All that may be safely claimed is that it lay within the area indicated by the letter B on the plan between pp. 44-5, an area whose limits are necessarily no more than approximate. 2 Chr. Camb. (without number). 3 V.C.H. Essex, ii, 136. « Chr. Camb. C.

28

DISPUTE WITH J O H N LANGTON

To assess Byngham's reasonableness and judgement in rejecting the alternative site offered by the Chancellor and university, it is necessary to dismiss from the mind present-day conditions when Queens', King's, Clare, the Hall, Trinity and St John's all have buildings actually bordering, or very close upon, the river banks. 'The alluvial tract and the lowest part of the ground occupied by gravel, which passes under the alluvium, was in its natural condition unsuitable for buildings, and the ancient town did not encroach upon it. It was later utilised for the erection of monastic and collegiate buildings, and, as shown by Professor Hughes, the ground was extensively raised artificially for the purpose.' r 'There is evidence that all the colleges between Queens' and St John's have been built on ground which has been artificially raised, and that, before the erection of the second court of Queens' College [circa 1480], no attempt was made to build on the eastern bank.' 2 The bearing of Langton's petition upon the fortunes of Godshouse has been sufficiently considered, but the project there claimed to have been contemplated by the Chancellor and the university authorities comes before us so startlingly, after being lost to sight for 500 years, as to demand examination from that wider point of view also. It is amazing that the declared intention of the university, to found and endow a college to bear its name, should have passed into oblivion, leaving no impress in tradition or in internal record. That a scheme of this nature should have been contemplated by the university is the more surprising when we consider the unhappy fate of its former venture in the same field. The story of University Hall is as brief as it is melancholy. On 5 July 13 21, Edward II granted by letters patent power to the Chancellor and Masters: 'That they might obtain and hold advowsons of churches to the annual value of .£4.0 and assign the same at their discretion to certain houses which they intended to establish in the university for the support of scholars in divinity and students in the art of logic'.3 No action was taken under this licence, but, on 20 February 1326, Edward II 1 3 3

Prof. J. E. Marr, in Camb. Plans, p. xxxiii sq. The Master ofJesus, ibid. p. xv. C.P.R. 1317-21, p. 601; Documents, i, 6.

U N I V E R S I T Y HALL

29

granted by letters patent licence to the Chancellor and university to found a college and to assign two messuages which they have in the street called Milne Street, in the parish of St John, Cambridge, for the habitation of the scholars.1 These two documents do not appear to have been regarded as connected, either by Willis and Clark or by Mr Wardale, the historian of Clare College, but the licence obtained 27 March 1327, by the Master and scholars of University Hall, Cambridge, lately founded, to acquire lands, tenements, rents, and advowsons of churches to the value of ^ 4 0 per annum,2 does seem to establish that connection and to shew that the university project which resulted in the foundation of University Hall had been present to the minds of the Chancellor and Masters for some years, and that the first formal step had been taken by them as early as 13 21. The house thus constituted was called University Hall.. .but it was not successful, and, after languishing for about twelve years, the same Richard de Badew [Chancellor of the University when the college was founded], by a deed dated 6 April 1338, in which he styles himself 'Founder, Patron, and Advocate of the House called the Hall of the University of Cambridge', granted all his rights and tides therein to the Lady Elizabeth de Burgo (daughter of Gilbert de Clare), who refounded it, and supplied the endowments which it had previously lacked.3 This curious transaction, whereby Richard Badew as for himself and his co-founders parted with all the university's rights as 'Founder, Patron, and Advocate', is without parallel in the history of the university. There is no trace of any royal charter authorising the Badew-Clare transaction, though it appears to be tacitly approved in the letters patent 4 licensing the giving to and receiving by the scholars of the hall of Clare of sundry additions to their revenues, in one of which licences 5 the college is said to be founded anew. The same detachment from what has gone before is shewn by the foundress of Clare, who ignores the founders of University Hall abso1

C.P.R. 1324-7, p. 244; Documents, i, 7. C.P.R. 1327-30, p. 64; Documents, i, 8. 3 W. and C. i, p. xl. 4 C.P.R. 1334-8, p- 237; 1345-8, pp. 135 and 195. 5 Ibid. 1345-8, p. 195.

2

30

DISPUTE WITH J O H N

LANGTON

lutely. She provides in her statutes for prayers on behalf of Edward III, of herself and of three deceased friends, but with the spiritual wellbeing of the founders and benefactors of University Hall she has no concern. The Lady Elizabeth of Clare paid to the university its price for its rights as founder, patron and advocate of the house called the Hall of the University of Cambridge (whether it was in part a money payment or consisted solely in relieving the university of its liability we do not know) and entered into possession of the advantages and obligations, spiritual and material alike, in respect of this college. The failure of this venture in collegiate foundation by the university is not surprising. Institutional paternity is apt to be characterised more by initial fervour than by enduring force. That the main motive underlying the private munificence of college founders in the middle ages was the priority enjoyed by them in the daily prayers and celebrations of such institutions is clearly indicated by the terms in which Henry VI assented to the request of Byngham that he should become the founder of Godshouse in his own person in reality. The king says: Observing by divine inspiration that the founders of sacred places are most faithfully commended by the prayers and intercessions of the same before all the other benefactors and enjoy the same intercessions almost as first fruits for ever and resolving to alleviate by prayers and devotions the great dangers . . . for ourselves and the realm.... Know ye that we graciously assenting to the prayers and supplication of the said William Byngham.. .deign to found a certain perpetual college of a proctor and certain scholars in grammar and the other liberal faculties in our said town of Cambridge to study and to pray for our healthful state and that of William Byngham himself while we live and for our souls when we shall have departed from this light and for the souls of our most illustrious parents and progenitors sometime Kings and Queens of England and for the souls of me parents of the said William Byngham and of the other benefactors of the same College and of all the faithful departed. This prime motive of a particular place in the prayers of a college was absent in the case of so large a community as the university, always rather loosely bound together and composed, even in the middle ages, of a constantly changing body of individuals. It must be allowed that the prime purpose of the university in founding University Hall was the provision for maintenance of poor scholars rather than the spiritual

P O V E R T Y OF T H E U N I V E R S I T Y

31

reward of the founders, but the initial fervour of those directing the university at the time of foundation was not sufficient. No college proceeded from its founder's head and hand fully complete but was, in its early days especially, a continuous drain upon his resources. That drain, in the absence of the stimulus which fed it in the cases of individual founders, would not be met by the lightly knit, ever-fluctuating body of those forming the university; and the college that was founded by the benevolence of the university reached the end of its founders' charity in the short space often or twelve years. With this pitiful experiment before us, we may proceed to consider whether the essential conditions of successful permanent establishment had been secured by 1437. Had the university at that time emerged, even temporarily, from that condition of penuriousness which has, in the main, dogged its steps until modern times? In considering this matter, the story of the building of the Schools quadrangle (absorbed later in the University Library) is instructive, since it covers almost the whole period from the failure of University Hall down to 1470.1 The foundation of the north side of the quadrangle was laid about 1347, and the work proceeded slowly. In 1377, with a legacy of forty marks and some other help, the walls were carried up until they came almost to the level of the first floor, when building ceased for some years for want of funds. It is not known when the work was resumed, but it is said to have been completed in 1400. (This is the range in which the old Divinity School and the Catalogue Room remain to us to-day.) The west side (the Periodicals Room with the West Room above) was next taken in hand, but it is not known when this range was finished; it had been completed some time before 1438. The next step was taken by the formation of a syndicate in 1457 for building a new School of Philosophy and Civil Law or a Library on the south side. In 1458, the Chancellor, the two proctors and three others were appointed to supervise the work, and provision was made for collecting funds, the grace beginning with the preamble 'whereas the Schools of Philosophy and Civil Law are in a state of irremediable decay and ruin, and must shortly fall to the ground unless some remedy be speedily provided, the said 1 The summary whichfollowsis based upon W. and C. iii, ch. 11.

32

DISPUTE WITH J O H N LANGTON

schools are to be built...'. The work was begun immediately but progress was extremely slow, 'probably through want of funds', for, in 1466, the Chancellor went to London to solicit subscriptions and must have had some success, for the work proceeded and was completed in 1470 or 1471.1 We find also that shortly after the date (1437) to which we have seen reason to ascribe the chancery petition, the university addressed an appeal ad misericordiam to the king 2 and he responded with a grant in mortmain dated 10 July 1438,3 giving to the Chancellor, Masters and scholars of the University of Cambridge the reversion of the manor of Ruyslep, county Middlesex, with a plot called 'Northwode', to aid in supporting the charges for the schools for students of theology and both laws and of the common library, and for the support of chaplains to celebrate divine service every day 'in the chapel of great beauty' in the university for the good estate of the king while alive and for his soul after death, and for the souls of his parents, ancestors and progenitors and of all the faithful departed. It is reasonable to enquire if the financial conditions disclosed by these events encourage the view that the university had in 1437 the means seriously to undertake a repetition of the experiment of 1326; a repetition requiring funds sufficient to acquire an expensive site, to erect buildings thereon, and 'to founde and stablisse a college.. .called the universite college and to endowe it with diverses possessiouns'. Was there, about the year 1437, such pressing need for a new college as would justify the university in assuming again a burden which in the past had proved to be beyond its power to bear? Its own peculiar liability lay in the responsibility to provide for the proper discharge of the tuitional, administrative, judicial and ceremonial functions of the body expressed by its name, and it has already been shewn that its financial state was utterly inadequate to enable it to reach the standard it had set for itself in the erection of buildings for those purposes. Do the circumstances of the time reveal such outstanding need for the provision of eleemosynary accommodation for poor scholars as to 1

W. and C. iii, 13 sq. W. and C. iii, 11, and Hare MSS. (paper copy, in 3 vols.) ii, 128 b. 3 P.R. 10 July, 16 H. VI, ii, 13. 1

COLLEGE F O U N D A T I O N S

33

justify the university in allowing its course to be deflected from its primary obligations to satisfy it? By a college in the medieval university should be understood an institution making provision for poor scholars. For those students able to pay their way, there was, probably, sufficient provision in the existing hostels, for hostels were conducted for purposes of profit by those who directed them, or for the mutual economic convenience of the students by whom they were used; if more were required the supply automatically responded to the demand. The colleges, in the fifteenth century, were not primarily engaged in teaching; they were intended for the moral and spiritual supervision, together with eleemosynary maintenance, ofpoor scholars who attended lectures in the various faculties in the schools provided by the university. When University Hall was founded for such poor scholars in 1326, the only pre-existing colleges were Peterhouse (1284), King's Hall (1316) and Michaelhouse (1324); at that time there was, very likely, outstanding need for more. By 1437 the position had been altered by the founding of Clare (1338), Pembroke (1347), Gonville Hall (1348), Trinity Hall (1350) and Corpus Christi (1352). We need not doubt that there was room for further colleges; the number of scholars carried by the charitable funds of the existing eight colleges cannot much have exceeded one hundred (excluding perendinantes), and there was still great opportunity in 1437 for the pious liberality of the wealthy devout, as was seen in the establishment of Godshouse (1439), King's (1441), Queens' (1448) and St Catharine's (1473). It is manifest that there were at that period charitable souls ready to respond to the call for this expression of their piety, but there is nothing to explain this outburst of college foundation, providing after a sterile stretch of ninety years four new colleges between 1439 and 1473, unless it be the force of William Byngham's example, designed to supply masters to grammar schools in dire need. What we utterly fail to find, in the circumstances of the time, is any such pressing need as would justify the Chancellor and Masters of the University, in 1437, in undertaking the establishment of a new college when they already laboured under serious difficulty in providing for the university's own paramount needs. The site had been available before Byngham came to Cambridge, LHC

3

34

DISPUTE WITH J O H N

LANGTON

but the Chancellor and Masters took no steps to acquire it until Byngham had seen it suitable for founding a college thereon, and had bought it for that purpose. Byngham's purpose was not alien to the purpose of the university as declared in the petition to the king's Chancellor; his college would contribute to the 'relevying of the sayd universite and encresing of clergie ther' in the same sort as the hypothetical 'universite college', and that his plans involved no interference with the projected' edifieyng upon certein scoles of Civill and other faculteez' is abundantly proved by what was subsequently done in that way. The conclusion is inevitable that the real object of the Chancellor and Masters at that time was to prevent the erection of a college in such close proximity to what had already become the centre of the administrative and teaching work of the university.

Chapter III THE FIRST ROYAL LICENCE, 1439

T

he editors of Documents relating to the University and Colleges of

Cambridge had no knowledge of John Langton's dispute with Byngham, and they very properly introduced the Godshouse series with Byngham's petition to the king, which it is usual to attribute to the year 1439. The petition, as is customary at that period, does not beara date,but the king's licence of 13 July 1439 was obviously its outcome, and it is reasonable to ascribe to the petition a date late in 1438 or early in 1439 in order to leave adequate margin for the slow motion of the law machinery. Byngham's petition has been printed many times but always directly or indirectly from the same source, the only contemporary copy of the petition known being that still remaining in the muniment room of King's College. It is printed afresh in the appendix, immediately before the royal licence given in answer to it.1 It should be noted that the King's College document is not the original petition, as is generally implied, and sometimes specifically stated;3 the original would be sent to the king and retained. Such petitions occasionally remain amongst the Chancery Warrants, in immediate contact with the warrant for the licence if the prayer of the petition be granted. The warrant has been found in File No. 719 (4921 A), and runs: Henri par la grace de dieu roy etc. A loneurable pere en dieu levesque de Bath nostre Chanceller saluz. Nous volons de ladvis et assent de nostre counsail et vous mandons que selonc la conteneue dune copie quelle nous vous envoions dosee dedeins ycestes vous facez faire noz lettres patentes desoubz nostre grand seal en due fourme. Don souz nostre prive seal a nostre Manoir de Shene le xiij6 jour de Juyll Lan de nostre Regne dys et septisme. The 'copie' (No. 4921 B) adjoins, but the petition does not accompany the two documents. What is preserved at King's College is a con1 J

Infra, p. 356 sq. A. F. Leach, Educational Charters and Documents, 598 to 1909, p. 403. 3-2

36

FIRST R O Y A L L I C E N C E , 1439

temporary copy of the petition on parchment; it is in the muniment room, folded and enclosed in an envelope, within the table case against the north wall, west of the window. It is not easy to understand how this document came into the possession of King's College; even if it had been the original it could have had no value as evidence of title. Its presence there is the more remarkable (a) as the licence to which it was the preliminary never became operative but was surrendered to the chancery, and (b) as the confirmation of the grant of the site and buildings of Godshouse to the king's commissioners by Byngham, the one important evidence of title in writing, is no longer to be found amongst the college documents. It is clear from the words used in addressing the king that Byngham had already built his house or mansion and had named it Godshouse; we may be sure that he had already installed in his building such students as it was capable of accommodating for their instruction in grammar. For these purposes no royal licence was needed; others had erected buildings for the reception of those seeking to prosecute their studies in the university, or had adapted or used existing buildings for that purpose, mostly for private gain. Such buildings so used were known as hostels. The main advantages generally desired by those seeking a royal licence to form a corporate body were perpetual succession; right to sue and be sued as a corporation; right to transact business by means of a common seal; right to hold lands, buildings, rents, services, advowsons and all other property whatsoever to the value specified in the charter in perpetuity notwithstanding the Statute of Mortmain; power to make statutes and ordinances for its governance. The peculiar character of the licence sought by Byngham in his petition made some of these objects superfluous and they were not specifically mentioned; the licence of 9 February 1442 replacing that of 13 July 1439) being of an ordinary type, did provide for all the privileges of a corporation.

MEDIEVAL GRAMMAR S C H O O L S

37

The purpose behind Byngham's determination to found a college is clearly described in his petition to the king; it was his knowledge of the great lack of schoolmasters and his conviction of the profound injury inflicted upon the realm in consequence. He had discovered in the course of his own journeys between the Thames1 and Ripon that, in the part of England lying to the east of that line of march, no fewer than seventy grammar schools were without masters. To the generality of persons it will have seemed more likely that less than seventy grammar schools would have been found in the whole of England in the first half of the fifteenth century, but that belief, born of the absence of literature upon the subject until recent years, is no longer tenable, since the publication of the results of the life-long study of the evidence by A. F. Leach. He finds that There were 7 classes of Schools [prior to the reign of Edward VI], classifying them according to the institution with which they were connected. There were Schools connected with Cathedral Churches, with Monasteries, with Collegiate Churches or Colleges, with Hospitals, with Guilds, with Chantries, and lastly, independent schools, existing ostensibly and actually for themselves as independent entities.2 He writes also: The records appended to this book show that close on 200 Grammar Schools.. .existed in England before the reign of Edward VI, which were, for the most part, abolished or crippled under him. It will appear, however, that these records are defective... .They do not give, they could not from their nature give, a complete account of all the Grammar Schools then existing in England... .The Grammar Schools which existed were not mere monkish Schools, or Choristers' Schools, or Elementary Schools All were Schools of exactly the same type, and performing precisely the same sort of functions, as the Public Schools and Grammar Schools of to-day. There were indeed also Choristers' Schools and Elementary Schools.3 Others who have studied such questions are found to have reached similar conclusions; thus, Foster Watson writes: 'Without however attempting to determine the relative numbers of the different classes of 1 A. F. Leach, Educational Charters, p. xli, suggests with much probability that by Hampton we should understand Hampton upon Thames. J 3

English Schools at the Reformation, 1546-8, p. 7. Ibid. p. 5 sq.

38

FIRST R O Y A L L I C E N C E , 1439

schools, the evidence is clear that the number of schools was great in the later Middle Ages'; 1 while Hastings Rashdall's conclusion is 'the smallest towns and even the larger villages possessed Schools where a boy might learn to read and acquire the first rudiments of ecclesiastical Latin: while, except in very remote and thinly populated regions, he would never have had to go very far from home to find a regular Grammar School '.* It would be tedious to develop the matter further; enough has been given in the way of quotation to shew that the number of grammar schools was sufficiently large in the middle ages to establish the credibility of Byngham's statement. Leach sees in the college which Byngham had licence to found in 1439' the first secondary school training-college on record' 3 (as he finds Magdalen College, Oxford, to be the second*), and to this view we may readily assent, with the caveat that the curriculum did not include that specific course in the art of pedagogy which is expected in a modern training-college: a course the less necessary then, since the medieval university scholar in all faculties was required to give as well as to hear lectures at some stage in his career. Byngham's petition and the licence it obtained did not propose any novelty in university practice; he asked that licence might be given to 'fynde perpetually in the forseid mansion ycalled Goddeshous xxiiij Scolers for to comense in gramer', i.e. to be qualified for and to take the degree of master in grammar which was already one of the recognised degrees in Cambridge and other universities.5 The first founder of Godshouse did not lack new ideas, but they found expression within the walls of his own college, not in any interference with the established system of the university of which it formed part, though there is evidence that they were not without influence in that wider field.6 Not only did he declare in his petition that grammar 1

Foster Watson, English Grammar Schools to 1660, p. 14. Rashdall, ii, 602. 3 The Schools of Medieval England, p. 257; Educational Charters, p. xl. 4 The Schools of Medieval England, p. 270. 5 Documents, i, Statutes of the University, No. 117, p. 374; Rashdall, ii, 458. Apart from that development in university practice to be treated of later (the institution of college lecturers), we may be justified in attributing to Byngham's 2

A M A N OF T H E M O D E R N W O R L D

39

'is rote and grounde of all the seid other sciences', but in the licence it produced (no less his ipsissima verba, being a transcript of the 'cedule' he sent with his petition to the king), he used the words: * 'when that faculty [grammar] is weakened the knowledge and understanding, not only of sacred scripture and the Latin necessary for dealing with the laws and other arduous business of our said realm, but also of mutual communication and conversation with strangers and foreigners, are utterly lost'. As Leach writes: 'Here spoke the citizen of London and the man of the modern world', 2 with an early smouldering of that new humanist spirit which burst into flame with the residence of Erasmus in Cambridge seventy years later. Byngham's assertion that grammar was the only liberal science pursued in the universities for which there was no definite provision by way of endowment is equivalent to saying that the study of that subject, 'the which is rote and grounde of all the seid other sciences', was not encouraged in Cambridge. This may appear to be at variance with the presence there for centuries before Byngham's day, and for another century after his death, of a Master of Glomery (Magister Glomeriae) whose style, once held mysterious, has long been accepted as equivalent to master in grammar, not in the sense of any holder of that university degree but with a special significance. This official was usually,3 perhaps always, the holder of the higher degree of master of arts; he had the dignity of being attended by a bedell with mace, had certain prominence at the inception of masters in grammar,'* and had certain jurisdiction rights in causes affecting grammar school boys. In the second half of the thirteenth century the person so styled was the occasion of a dispute between the archdeacon of Ely and the Chancellor of the University of so serious an order as to demand the intervention of the bishop. The emphasis upon grammar, as the basis of sound scholarship, the admission to the degree of master in grammar, in the period following Byngham's death, of persons whose qualification lay partly in terms kept, partly in years of practical teaching (e.g. GB. B 1 , pp. 54. 99.134). . , 1 Translated from the Latin of P.R. 13 July, 17 H. VI, ii, 16, and Chr. Gh. E (v. infra, pp. 357 sqq.). 2 The Schools of Medieval England, p. 257. 4 3 Vetus Liber, p. 290. Documents, i, 374.

40

FIRST R O Y A L L I C E N C E , 1439

Magister Glomeriae and his office have been discussed frequently in recent years,1 but there is still more to be said before the early stages of the story can be regarded as complete. It would, however, be foreign to the purpose of this book for the task to be essayed here, and it must suffice to say that the Master of Glomery was not primarily an officer of the university, and had no place in the teaching of grammar to its students. His position therefore does nothing to qualify the impression made by Byngham's statements that the study of grammar in the university demanded further support in view of its fundamental importance. The licence of 13 July 1439 has not been published in Documents nor, apparently, elsewhere. It is printed in full in the appendix hereto * and the following summary contains its salient provisions. The king's letters patent recite that he has learnt from William Byngham, parson of the church of St John Zachary, London, and from other trustworthy persons, of the scarcity of grammar masters both in his universities of Cambridge and Oxford and throughout his realm. Realising the serious gravity of that state of things, and knowing that the said William desires to give a certain mansion in the town of Cambridge, newly erected by him at his own labour and charges, together with the adjacent gardens, etc. to the Master and scholars of Clare Hall and their successors by the king's licence to the effect that there may be in the said house for all time twenty-four scholars specially suited to remedy the said deficiency of grammar masters, with a chaplain competent in learning both to pray for the good estate of the king and of the other benefactors of the said house while they live, and for the souls of the king, his predecessors and his ancestors and the souls of the other benefactors after they have departed this world, in perpetuity, and to educate the aforesaid scholars to the degree of master in grammar and to the priestly order and thereafter to be sent out to such schools in divers parts of the realm as may need masters; such scholars and chaplain to be under the government of the Master and scholars of Clare Hall according to such statutes and ordinances as may be ordained by the 1

Rashdall, ii, 555; A. F. Leach, The Schools ofMedieval England, pp. 157 sq., 171 sq.; Vetus Liber, pp. 289 sqq.; Hostels, pp. 49 sqq. 2 Pages 3 57 sqq.

S U M M A R Y OF T H E L I C E N C E

41

said William or his executors or any one else thereto deputed by him in agreement with them, vacancies amongst the said scholars and chaplain from time to time being filled according to those rules and statutes. Realising also the great and heavy costs attendant upon this matter, the king has given licence to the said William and to any other persons whomsoever to give to the Master and scholars of Clare Hall for the time being and to their successors the said mansion called Godshouse, and lands, tenements, advowsons of churches, etc. not held in chief or by knight-service but by socage or burgage to the value of £50 per annum, to be held by the said Master and scholars and their successors in perpetuity for the maintenance in food, clothing and other support of the said twenty-four scholars and the chaplain; licence also to the Master and scholars of Clare Hall and to their successors to receive the said house and gardens, lands, tenements, etc. and advowsons of churches to that value from the said William or any other person or persons with power to appropriate the churches to their own use, without paying for these privileges any fee or fine for the benefit of the king or his heirs, and to hold the same in perpetuity according to the provisions of the agreed ordinances, the Statute of Mortmain notwithstanding. The licence winds up with other formal and usual provisions and reservations. Byngham's original design is made manifest by the words used in John Langton's petition in chancery 'acorde took.. .to gif the sayd sir William a noder place... and do it to be amorteysed suerly after the intent of the seyd sir William of the cost of the seyd Chaunceller and universite', and his ultimate realisation of his design is found in the licence of 9 February 1442. He desired a fully fledged college to be founded independently of any other, and with its endowments secured to it in perpetuity by amortisation, i.e. by licence of the king with the assent of parliament to over-ride the Statute of Mortmain. To secure those privileges what was in effect a private act of parliament * was necessary, and that entailed, as it would to-day, much expense, 1

This b only another way of expressing a licence conveyed by royal letters patent under the king s great seal with the advice and assent of his council. The actual words used in the chancery warrant for the issue of this very licence are 'Nous volons de ladvis et assent de nostre counsail et vous mandons', etc.

42

FIRST R O Y A L L I C E N C E , 1439

required influential support, and might encounter strenuous and possibly successful opposition. The Chancellor of the University had promised Byngham to provide what was necessary to secure licence and, failing agreement with him, not only would the expense of obtaining licence fall upon Byngham, but he must needs forgo that influential support of whose sufficiency the Chancellor was confident. As he did not fall in with Langton's wishes, we must conclude that the petition of Byngham met with his opposition instead of support, wherein lies the explanation of the repeated applications to the king ('he hath diuerse tymes sued unto your highnesse'), apparently in vain. It would appear that Byngham then conceived the plan of circumventing the Chancellor's opposition by petitioning for a licence to give Godshouse, with suitable endowment, to the century-old college of Clare Hall. A proposal to widen the activities and increase the endowments of an existing college, already possessing the royal licence, would probably be beyond the successful opposition of the Chancellor, and the licence of 13 July 1439 went forth in answer to Byngham's petition so modified. He sacrificed something to obtain even this measure of success, since his college was to become a branch of an existing college instead of acquiring an entirely separate existence. On the other hand, the 1439 licence enabled him to fulfil his obligations to his friends, the benefactors of Godshouse, in allowing him to provide there a chaplain to pray for them, and it permitted the continuance of the work of training his scholars not in Clare Hall but in the very house he had built for them. Moreover, the terms of the licence gave power to Byngham or any other persons to give to Clare Hall the land and buildings of Godshouse with the proposed endowments, and gave to him or to his executors or any persons deputed by him power to make the rules,

statutes and ordinances by which Godshouse should be governed even when it should pass into the possession of the Master and scholars of Clare Hall. It was precisely the lack of these powers which would make Byngham anxious to obtain his licence from the king. His scheme for training grammar school masters had already taken concrete form; for that he needed no licence. It was his fear lest death should overtake him before

ITS VALUE T O B Y N G H A M

43

he received his licence that would cause him grave concern, for, in that event, the college for whose permanent establishment he had lived and worked would have come to nought. Given the powers emphasised above in italics, it was simple to provide by will for the exercise, by such persons as he should indicate, of the privileges he had secured to himself by licence, and so to confer immortality upon his college. In a later chapter,1 it will be shewn conclusively that Byngham did not give Godshouse to Clare Hall under the 1439 licence, as common prudence would have required him to do immediately if he had not possessed the royal authority to delegate his powers to his executors or others. Possessing that authority to delegate, he proceeded instead to develop his plans with the assurance that, if he died before their maturity, he had provided by his choice of delegates (probably the Master and scholars of Clare Hall), by will or other instrument, for the perpetual continuance of Godshouse according to the licence. 1

'The Relationship of Godshouse and Clare Hall', ch. rx, p. 105.

Chapter IV T H E E X P A N S I O N OF T H E M I L N E S T R E E T SITE

T

he site occupied by the 'mansion', with gardens adjacent, on 13 July 1439 is described by Willis and Clark, vol. i, p. 337; it consisted of Tyled hostel, or St Giles's hostel, leased from the prior and convent of Barnwell, and Cat hostel, bought from Fordeham and Randekyn.1 The outlook for Godshouse must have improved when Henry VI determined to found his college of St Nicholas, for thereby he gave quietus to the scheme of a college to be founded by the university (if such a scheme had seriously been entertained), and the prominent place held by Langton in the carrying out of the king's plans would serve to dull the edge of his grievance against Byngham. The site of the Old Court of King's was acquired from various owners by Langton and two other commissioners, and was conveyed by them as a whole to the king on 22 January 1441. The negotiations had been conducted with three separate owners and may have occupied many months; we may assume, therefore, that the king's intentions would be known early in the year 1440, if not before; the deed conveying the Trinity Hall part of the king's site is dated 14 September 1440.2 The area of the site surrendered by Byngham in 1443 or later, to enable the king to carry out his plans for a larger college, is fixed by the conveyance of a large number of properties by the commissioners to the Provost and scholars of the college of St Mary and St Nicholas in one deed dated 25 July 1446.3 The conveyance included a messuage or tenement formerly called Goddeshous and anodier tenement called Saint Thomas hostel contiguous to the said messuage in the said town of Cambridge which hostel or messuage and tenement lie between the vacant plot of the prior and convent of Bernewell4 and the aforesaid college of the 1

King's, A, 77b. 3 King's, A, 68; cf. infra, p. 394 sq. King's, A, 84. 4 This Barnwell property had been part of Byngham s holding for Godshouse but, being held on different tenure by him, would be transferred separately; the quit rent upon it was released to King's College by the priory in 1448 (King's, A, 89). 2

ITS R E L A T I O N T O KING'S COLLEGE

45

blessed Mary and St Nicholas on the north and the said lane called Peron lane on the south which hostel messuage and tenement we recently acquired from William Byngham, clerk. The commissioners proceed to say that they have Byngham's deed conveying the property; that deed, unfortunately, is not to be found. The description given by the commissioners of the site surrendered by Byngham makes it clear that the words GODS HOUSE appearing on Willis and Clark's Plan of the Site of King's CollegeI do not adequately cover the area given up; they should stretch much farther to the east. Nothing has been found to throw light upon the character or extent of the building erected by Byngham, a building which was rased to the ground within eight or ten years from the date of its foundation to make way for King's College chapel, of which about three-fourths stands upon Byngham's site. The statement commonly made that Godshouse stood upon part of what is now the ante-chapel of King's does not take sufficient account of the ultimate area of Byngham's property; the Plan of Godshouse Site in 1443 drawn for this work is based upon Willis and Clark's Plan of the Site of King's College but shews the actual dimensions, making plain that the site extended from about the north and south porches on the west to a line equal with the second buttresses of the chapel from the east. The only guidance we have in estimating the size of the building that stood upon this site is found in Byngham's own words, in his second petition to the king * (circa 1445-6), 'in the wich sayd mansion calde Godeshous myght wel be logged. 1. [50] persones and so wern commynle'. The development of the site from that occupied by Tyled and Cat hostels, which Byngham possessed as early as 1437, into the much larger site indicated on the plan, took place after the issue of the 1439 licence, and circumstances favour the view that the growth occurred before 9 February 1442, when the king's second licence was granted for Godshouse. As the first purchase of land for the king's extension of his own college is dated 26 August 1443,3 and the king's purpose 1 2

Vol. iv, pi. 13. Chr. Gh. M; W. and C. i, p. lvii sq.; infra, p. 66.

3 W. and C. i, 337.

46

E X P A N S I O N OF M I L N E S T R E E T SITE

would, presumably, be within common knowledge much earlier, it is not credible that Byngham would wish to extend his site, or that he would have found a vendor if he had so desired, after the intentions of the king had become known. The only purchase for the extension of Godshouse of which there is record was made on 24 March 1440,1 and this was of the land lying between Cat hostel and Piron Lane, which had been described by Fordeham and Randekyn in their conveyance of Cat hostel to Byngham and others in the deed of 25 July 1437, as their own property forming the southern boundary of Cat hostel. The additional area was conveyed not to Byngham direct but to John Fray, chief baron of the Exchequer, John Cowper and John Coote, clerks, and the reasons for assuming their purchase on behalf of Byngham are that Fray and Coote were friends of and associated with Byngham in other matters, and that the land so bought by them was included in the site conveyed by Byngham to the king's commissioners.2 There is nothing in any document that has been discovered to shew when other purchases of land were made by or for Byngham, but the purchase of St Thomas's hostel must have been subsequent to 10 October 1440,3 when it belonged to Fordeham. During this period of site expansion, the period from July 1439 to the beginning of 1442, Byngham must have been acquiring his title to those endowments of his college which are specified in detail in the royal grants of 1 March 4 and iojune^ 1442. These consisted of properties and revenues formerly belonging to alien priories whose ownership had been cancelled by various parliamentary statutes. In some instances they were annual payments due from monastic houses in England to the mother house abroad, in others they were the actual manorial or similar properties from which such revenues were derived. The properties of the priories had been taken into the hands of the king on the ground of public policy during the wars with France, and especially with the view of preventing revenues drawn from England being applied by foreigners to purposes likely to support the enemy.6 These are measures easy to parallel in recent international history but, in the 1

3 King's, A, 77 (18). * King's, A, 84. King's, A, 72. 4 Chr. Gh. H ; P.R. 20 H. VI, iii, 16. 5 chr. Gh. I; P.R. 20 H. VI, iii, 28/27. 6 Fuller treatment of the subject of alien priories will be found on pp. 401 sqq. infra.

R E V E N U E S OF ALIEN P R I O R I E S

47

fifteenth century, the papal claims to consideration in such matters raised special difficulties. Henry VI would be particularly sensitive to any suggestion of secular application by him of revenues due to the religious, and in anticipation of the council of Bale in 1434, the English envoys were given specific instructions as to the line of argument to pursue in the event of the question being raised there with a possible demand for the restitution of the alienated properties. The envoys were to maintain at Bale that Henry V, instead of appropriating the revenues to his own private uses, as he might lawfully have done, had sought and obtained permission from Pope Martin V to devote them to the endowment of churches, monasteries and other pious uses, as in fact he had done,1 liberal compensation having been offered to the churches and monasteries in the kingdom of France and the duchy of Normandy for any losses they might have sustained.2 In pursuance of his father's design, and in accordance with the papal concession, Henry VI assigned the revenues of suppressed alien priories to the endowment of his new colleges. The king himself must have presented at his own charges to his own colleges of Eton and the blessed Mary and St Nicholas, Cambridge, the alien priory revenues he assigned to those societies, but it would be a mistake to assume that he did the like with regard to those assigned at this early stage to Godshouse. His licence confirming these possessions must not be so read; its purpose is to authorise Byngham and the others to alienate the specified revenues in mortmain, without fine or fee to the king, his successors or their servants, though there would, doubtless, be the usual legal charges, and the not unhandsome payments in hanaper.3 Moreover, both in the licences in mortmain to Godshouse and in the instructions to envoys above referred to, mention is made of compensation to the deprived churches and monasteries of France and Normandy; directly or indirectly that compensation would be paid, and, save in such special cases as those of Eton and King's Colleges, paid by the institutions or their benefactors to whom the 1 The monasteries of Shene and Syon were founded by Henry V and their vast possessions were principally so derived. 2 Cf. Bekynton, i, p. lxxxix sq. 3 Cf. the cost to the university in fees for their letters patent of 1459, infra, p. 68 sq.

48

E X P A N S I O N OF M I L N E S T R E E T SITE

alienated revenues were assigned. In other words, Byngham and his supporters, Brokley, Flete, Johanna Bokeland and, or, others bought and paid for the properties and revenues confirmed to Byngham by the charters of 1442, at prices presumably worth while, having regard to the income so secured.1 We have said that these purchases must have been arranged during the interval between July 1439 and early in 1442. There was some state office through which such matters were arranged, probably a department of the Exchequer. The office may not have advertised its wares, but it appears to have kept schedules of the revenues available that could be supplied on application to possible purchasers. That seems to be the reasonable interpretation to be placed upon a parchment preserved in the Christ's College muniment room, 2 which bears, amongst the particulars of various revenues formerly belonging to alien priories, the name and amount of one that was acquired by Byngham, namely, Ikham. The document includes many revenues far beyond Byngham's depth of purse, some whose individual amounts exceed the whole endowment income of Godshouse. The unexpected presence amongst the archives of the college of this parchment, which appears to bear details extracted from the Exchequer records, may not unreasonably be associated with the friendship between Byngham and John Fray, chief baron of that important court and department of state; it must have been connected with Byngham's search for endowments suitable to the needs of his college. How greatly would its interest to us have been increased if each item of the schedule had borne its sale price! The aggregate revenues set forth in the document amount to 2000 marks, and they are the details which were granted by letters patent of 14 July 1439 (17 Henry VI, ii, 8 and 93) to Humphrey, duke of Gloucester, the king's uncle, comprising that annual income. The order of arrangement on the patent roll is different from that in the college document, which is under counties, but careful comparison establishes 1

Even the king's particular darlings, Eton and King's, when they desired to add

to their possessions of alien priories, beyond those given in endowment by the king, had to purchase them, as may be clearly seen in the statute 29 H. VI printed in Rot. Parl. v, ai 8 b. 2 3 Chr. Misc. A, 55. C.P.R. 1436-41, p. 303 sq.

H U M P H R E Y OF G L O U C E S T E R

49

their agreement. The grants to Humphrey were for his life, and in 1441 and 1442 the reversions after the death of the grantee of some of the revenues were given by the king to other persons and institutions, notably to Eton 1 and King's Colleges.2 Humphrey at times, perhaps for the king's convenience, parted with portions of his income and received compensation^ but he appears also to have sold his life interest in others, as in the case of Ikham to Byngham for Godshouse, since, by the licence of 1 March 1442 to Byngham and others, that lordship or priory was given in possession, not in reversion. There is a curious document 4 remaining in the muniment room of the college, clearly from Byngham's period, which provides evidence of the close watch kept by the' ordainer' over the revenues of the house. It is a single sheet bearing three extracts from the pipe rolls for the 26th year of Henry VI, two from the county of Hereford, one from Devon. The extracts have been compared with the entries on the original rolls and they prove to be faithful copies. Under Hereford, one reads: The prior of the alien priory of Monmouth and his successors owed in time of peace ten marks per annum of ancient apport to the Capital House of the aforesaid priory in parts beyond the seas, which is owing from the 16th day of November in die first year of Henry iiijth. The Devon entry states that Brother Thomas Swynford prior of Totton [Totnes] and his successors owed in time of peace forty shillings per annum of ancient apport to the Capital House of the said priory in parts beyond the seas, which is owing since the eleventh day of February in die first year of Henry iiijth. If we might be justified in assuming that, when acquiring his revenues from alien priories for the college, Byngham became entitled not only to their current and future annual payment but also to the arrears, these annual sums, going back to the year 1400, would yield a large amount for the use of the college, and their collection would explain much of the litigation which Byngham had to face, of which that relating to the lands of Chepstow, discussed in chapter vi, is an example. 1 3

LHC

Rot. Parl.v, 49a. Ibid. p. 552.

a 4

C.P.R. 1436-41, p- 557Chr. Mon. 4. 4

Chapter V T H E R O Y A L L I C E N C E S OF 1442 n the short space of two and a half years we find Byngham obtaining a new licence for the College of Godshouse, and its terms go to shew that the difficulties confronting him in 1438 and 1439, leading to his acceptance of a licence more restricted in scope than he desired, had been overcome. The foundation of King's College, putting an end to any possibility of the university proceeding further with' the idea of founding a new college upon Byngham's site, may have led to the removal or qualification of Langton's active opposition to Byngham's plans, and this negative good may have been accompanied by the positive advantage of the frequent presence in Cambridge of Byngham's friend, and coadjutor in many trusts, John Fray, chief baron of the Exchequer, an influential public servant and a man of substantial means. We have seen that Fray, with others favourable to Byngham, had bought land adjoining Godshouse which went into Byngham's possession; and Fray and John Somerset, Chancellor of the Exchequer, were appointed with John Langton, Chancellor of the University, the king's commissioners for the acquisition of the land for his new college of the blessed Mary and St Nicholas (King's). Frequent co-operation of Byngham's powerful friend with Byngham's opponent in a common task may have put an end to the strained relations. The date of the letters patent for the new licence is 9 February 1442.1 After the preamble, it summarises the licence of 13 July 1439, 'which letters indeed William himself is in willingness to return to our Chancery to be cancelled', with the intention that the present licence should take its place. The letters proceed to say that the king has given licence to the aforesaid William Byngham, and to his beloved clerks, masters William Wymbill, William Millyngton,* William Gulle,3

I

1

P.R. 20 H. VI, iii, 15; Chr. Gh. G; Documents, iii, 155-8. The locus classicus for William Millyngton's life-history is the article by George Williams in C.A.S. Communications, i, 287 sqq. He doubts his being fellow of Clare, but that is put beyond all question by the Godshouse documents. Vide Lloyd, pp. 34 sqq. 3 Vide Lloyd, pp. 3 sqq. 1

S U M M A R Y OF T H E F E B R U A R Y L I C E N C E

51

1

doctors in theology and John Tylney, doctor in decrees, Master and fellows of Clare Hall, their heirs and any other person thereto designated by the said William Byngham, and to any One of them jointly and severally, to found a college of a priest and scholars to the number of twenty-five or less to be instructed in grammar in the tenement with gardens adjacent called Godeshous, to be called for ever by the name of 'The Proctor and Scholars of Godeshous'. It is to be founded according to ordinances, statutes and so forth made by the persons just named while they live, or by any other person or persons to that purpose designated by the said William Byngham, or by the more part of them, and, after the death of any one of them, by those who survive or the majority of them, or by their heirs or the heirs of any of them. The letters patent proceed to confer upon the Proctor and scholars of the College of Godeshous all the usual privileges of a corporate body. They permit Byngham and the others named or any other persons to give to the college the tenement and gardens and also other possessions to the value of ^50 per annum. Beyond this, they may give tithes and advowsons of churches to the value of ^ 5 0 yearly (notwithstanding that the king or his progenitors may have conceded such properties to any other ecclesiastical communities, secular or religious). These revenues may be given by a fine levied in the king's courts or in any other way, and they are to be given for the maintenance of the college and of the Proctor and scholars of the college. Licence is also given to the Proctor and scholars of the College of Godeshous to receive the properties so given and to retain them to themselves and their successors in perpetuity, without paying fine or fee to the king or his successors; and neither the persons giving nor the Proctor and scholars and their successors shall be troubled or hindered by justices, sheriffs, coroners, or other royal ministers. Finally, these things are permitted notwithstanding the Statute of Mortmain. This was not the conclusion of the matter. The licence to give and to receive properties up to the total yearly value of J£IOO did not specify all the particular properties which the licensees proposed to give, and this was an essential requirement for the safeholding of such properties. 1 Vide Lloyd, p. 32 sq. 4-2

52

R O Y A L L I C E N C E S O F 1442

The properties might be acquired piecemeal, and the balance of the maximum amount authorised by the licence might not be used for many years; in the present case, the balance never was used and became inoperative, because it was superseded by the licence for the larger amount of £300 given by Henry VI in his foundation charter of 1448. The history of other colleges shews that approximation to the maximum amount licensed by the original charters was attained only after long periods of years. The reason is that college founders, in dealing with the value of the endowment, and in some cases also with the numbers of their scholars, which they sought to have licensed by their charters of foundation, went to the extremity of their hopes for the future. With a licence to hold endowments to the amount of .£100, though only able to begin with a yearly sum of .£30 or ^40, they were dispensed from the need to apply for further licences to cover further benefactions, in larger or smaller amounts; all they needed in such cases of additional benefactions was a licence to hold the particular property forming the new benefaction, which licence would be granted automatically upon production of the original letters patent with proof that the particular licences to hold, already granted, left sufficient margin for the further benefaction for which licence to hold was being sought. There were instances where colleges, either through ignorance or through carelessness, did not obtain licence before accepting additional endowments (though within the maximum value authorised by their charter); they were probably liable to suffer forfeiture but escaped with a heavy fine. Hence there was the necessity for the licence of 1 March 1442,1 whereby the king recites that he had given licence for the founding of a college in the tenement called Godeshous to consist of a Proctor and scholars in grammar and the other faculties, with power to Byngham, Wymbill, etc. to endow the same college with lands, tenements, revenues, services and advowsons of churches to the annual value of £100. He pays a tribute to the great and strong desires that Byngham has, and has long cherished, for the increasing of masters of grammar 1

Chr. Gh. H; Documents, iii, 159-62; P.R. 1 March, 20 H. VI, iii, 16.

T H E L I C E N C E O F M A R C H FIRST

53

and, wishing himself that Byngham's desires and long labours in this matter should not in any way be frustrated but that his intentions should be fully carried into effect, he has deigned, graciously acting with him on this occasion, of his special grace and of his own certain knowledge, with the mature and deliberate consent ofhis council to give and concede1 for himself and his successors to Byngham, Wymbill, etc.: (1) The reversion of the annual payment due from the prior ioos. of Novus Locus super Acolme in Lincolnshire granted for life to one John Crook, clerk of the Exchequer. (2) The reversion of the annual payment often marks due 1335. 4
This licence has been styled a charter of dotation. That is a misdescription if taken to mean that the king was here giving the revenues described to die college at bis own charges; exercising his royal prerogative, he was confirming the possession to the college of die properties purchased by Byngham and odiers out of private funds.

54

R O Y A L L I C E N C E S O F 1442

To hold to themselves and their heirs for ever freely and quietly without any claim from or payments to the king or his heirs or successors. The king had given licence also to the said persons without payment to him, his heirs or successors, to give to the Proctor and scholars of the College of Godeshous when it shall have been established all the aforesaid rents, etc. besides all the other aforesaid lands, tenements, revenues, services and advowsons of churches, to the value of ,£100 per annum; and he has given special licence also to the same Proctor and scholars of the College of Godeshous that they might receive the said rents, etc. without fine or fee to the king or his successors from Byngham, Wymbill, etc. and might retain and enjoy them for themselves and their successors in perpetuity without any suit to be made before him or his successors.1 There follow formal clauses protecting Byngham and his co-feoffees, and the Proctor and scholars, against claims made under the king's own or his successors' subsequent revocations, or by any of his judges or other ministers or under the Statute of Mortmain, and from a wide range of other possible grounds upon which claims against them might be raised. Even so the licences were not complete, for, upon further consideration, it was discovered by Byngham or his legal advisers, or by the officers of the Exchequer, that a further licence was required, of much greater length, apparently to correct and supplement that of 1 March 1442, and thus we get the licence of 10 June 1442.* In essence, it is the same as its immediate predecessor, but it corrects one error therein, and it describes the properties there confirmed with a great wealth of names and other particularity of detail. After appropriate preamble, it recites that licence was given to found a college of a priest and scholars of grammar with endowment up to ^100 per annum by letters patent 1

It should be observed that the licence is threefold: 1st. Byngham, Wymbill and others are authorised in their personal capacity to receive possessions in trust for the use of the College of Godshouse. 2nd. The same persons are authorised to give such possessions so received to the Proctor and scholars of the College of Godshouse when it shall have been founded. 3rd. The Proctor and scholars are authorised to receive the said possessions. Each division of the licence or authorisation was an essential part of the whole. 2 Chr. Gh. I; P.R. 20 H. VI, iii, 28 and 27; not printed in Documents.

THE LICENCE OF J U N E T E N T H

55

dated 9 February 1442. And by letters dated 1 March 1442, amongst other concessions, licence had been given to Byngham, Wymbill, Millyngton, Guile and Tylney1 that they might found the college of a Proctor and scholars to be instructed not only in the knowledge of grammar1' but also in that of the other liberal faculties (non solum in facultate grammatice..

.set eciam in aliarum liberalium facultatum

sciencia

erudiendi).

The licence of 1 March is thenceforward quoted in full down to the point where the Proctor and scholars were authorised to receive the various properties. Then comes a fresh beginning dealing with the essential features of the March licence, confirming to Byngham, Wymbill, etc. the various properties with multitudinous varieties of nomenclature and in a different order; William Clerk is called' chaplain', and he has a fellow-tenant Thomas FitzHarry; the priory of Craswall in Wales is 'alias Carssewell in Wales, alias Carsswall in Wales, alias Crassewelle in Wales, alias Craswell in Wales, alias Crassewell in the lordship of Ewyas lacy in North Wales or by whatsoever other name the same Priory is styled', and so on right through the schedule. The end being reached, William Byngham, William Wymbill and the others, in order to rectify the above-noted error, are licensed to give the revenues, etc. to the priest or Proctor and scholars studying in the knowledge ofgrammar when the college has been founded. And licence is given to the same priest or Proctor and the scholars ofgrammar in the said College of Goddeshous to receive from Byngham, Wymbill, etc. the said revenues, etc. and to enjoy them for themselves and their successors in perpetuity. Having by this long insertion corrected the error and elaborated the descriptions of the properties, the wording of 1 March is resumed and the licence ends, the fourth within the space of less than three years. Notwithstanding the elaborate preparation to which the three licences of 1442 bear testimony, it is quite certain that Byngham did not constitute his College of Godshouse a corporation while it remained on the Milne Street site. We are compelled to connect this with the fact that he must have been apprised, very shortly after the issue of the 1 2

The words 'Master and fellows of Clare Hall' are not used here. This was the error that had to be corrected.

56

R O Y A L L I C E N C E S OF 1442

letters patent of 10 June 1442, that the king coveted the site upon which Godshouse was placed for the extension of the new college of the blessed Mary and St Nicholas. There are no surviving documents dealing specifically with that matter, but there are references to its influence upon the fortunes of Godshouse in the moving petition addressed to the king by Byngham about 1446,1 and its outcome is found in the conveyance of the king's commissioners to the Provost and scholars of King's College.* It is also mentioned in the king's licence to Byngham dated 26 August 1446: Considering neverdieless how that the said tenement with gardens called Godeshous is situated so near to our new college.. .lately erected by us in honour of the most blessed Mary the virgin and St Nicholas the confessor that without that tenement we were unable to proceed in building our aforesaid college and that at our special request the aforesaid William Byngham handed over and released to us to our special pleasure the same tenement for the enlargement of the site of our college. Byngham had at least one audience of the king 3 when they had speech together and it may have been upon this occasion that, since obstinacy on the part ofByngham would have prevented effectually the fulfilment of the king's grandiose scheme, the royal influence was possibly needed to overcome Byngham's reluctance to have the full realisation of his aims still further deferred. 1 2

Chr. Gh. M; W. and C. i, p. lvii sq. Printed in full infra, p. 66 sq. 3 King's, A, 84, 25 July 1446. Cf. infra, p. 92.

Chapter VI M A R K I N G T I M E : 1443 TO 1446

T

he description given to William Byngham, here and there in the documents during this period, is that of 'clerk and ordainer of a dwelling called Godeshous', and that comprehensive term ordainer1 does adequately represent his curious position. He had not yet handed over his authority to the Proctor and scholars, he had not arranged for a common seal, he had not made over to them the various rents and other properties vested in him and his co-feoffees to be given to the Proctor and scholars when that corporate body, with all its powers, privileges and responsibilities, had come into being. As ordainer he had complete control of everything pertaining to Godshouse; under him, in his benevolent despotism, must have been the priest prescribed in the first licence, that of 1439, to guide the scholars in their academical life to pray for the benefactors and to watch over the internal government of Godshouse in Cambridge, while the ordainer himself frequently pursued its interests in the outside world, as he also, we must assume, ministered to his London cure. On 15 March 1443, Byngham's name appears in this brief note on the proceedings of the king's council:* 'Sir William Byngham sute. Be ther maad lettres to my lady of Norff.' This lady was Katherine,3 duchess of Norfolk, widow of John Mowbray, second duke of Norfolk.* She was a daughter of Ralph Neville, first earl of Westmorland, 1 N.E.D. One who regulates, governs, directs, manages, conducts. And, one who establishes or founds by ordinances; refs. to eighteenth century, obsolete. It is interesting to find the temporary abode of Byngham's scholars bearing the name Godshouse transferred thereto from the original 'mansion' he had specially erected for them. It provides an illustration of early date of the habit of intertwining in ordinary parlance the name of an institution and its dwelling. 3 Cf. infra, p. 396 sq. * Priv. Counc. v, 245. 4 Nichols, p. 269, places his death on 19 October 1432, but that is the date of the will, which was proved 14 February 1433. The duke died in November 1432 (Chr. Gh. L) and, on the 24th of that month, Humphrey, duke of Gloucester, received the custody of his castles, etc. during the heir's minority. (Priv. Counc. iv, 132.)

58

M A R K I N G T I M E : 1443 TO 1446

and to whatever wealth she had from her father was added a great jointure upon her marriage with the duke, who also left her by will for life many estates, including some in South Wales.1 She had four husbands in all, and her third was John, viscount Beaumont, whom she married in 1440. The purpose of the letters written to Katherine by the king's command at Byngham's suit cannot be determined with certainty, but the large estates of the duchess in South Wales and the influence of the Norfolk house in that region offer a clue. There remains amongst the college muniments the copy of a petition* addressed .by John Hurte, second Proctor, to Katherine's son, the third duke, seeking to be allowed to enter upon the lands of the priory of Chepstow. It would seem not improbable that Byngham's suit to the king in council was concerned with obtaining that powerful support to secure the benevolent attitude of the duchess or to overcome her opposition. In the following year, her husband, John, viscount Beaumont, proves himself a friend of Byngham by becoming one of his co-feoffees in the matter of the rectory of Helpston.3 As confirming the view that the letter sent by the council in Byngham's matter had to do with the Chepstow lands, reference may be made to an endorsement of contemporary date on a parchment of an official character; the document is an extract from the records of the court of Exchequer of proceedings relating to lands in Gloucestershire formerly belonging to the priory of Chepstow,* and the endorsement runs (in Latin): 'Mem. that the duke of Norfolk husband of the wife of the viscount de Bello monte died in the month of November, 11 H. VI'. With this document, and the proceedings of which it was the culmination, we must now deal in some detail. There is evidence that Byngham was taking steps about this time (1443) to enter into actual possession of the Chepstow properties. Amongst the muniments is found an order of the sheriff of Gloucestershire^ dated 6 July 1443, directing bailiffs to put Byngham and his 1

2 Nichols, p. 266 sq. Chr. Gh. aAc, undated; cf. infra, p. 154. 4 3 Chr. Help. B. Chr. Gh. L. 5 Chr. Gh. K. The sheriff was Robert Leversegge, sheriff from 6 November 1442 to 4 May 1443; S. Rudder, History of Gloucestershire, p. 51, gives the form Leversey, with the erroneous year 1441.

CHEPSTOW PRIORY

59

co-feoffees Wymbill, Millyngton, Guile and Tylney into possession of the lands in that county which were formerly of the priory of Chepstow. It transpires from the record of proceedings before the barons of the Exchequer1 in the spring (Hilary term) of 1445, that Byngham had occupied the various tithes, lands, a tenement and other property, since 13 May 1443. All was not yet plain sailing, for the Exchequer court record relates that the Chepstow priory possessions were taken into the king's hands again, during the year 1444, in virtue of his title to the lands of alien priories. An inquisition was directed to be held in the city of Gloucester, and it was held on 3 November 1444 in the court of Maurice de la Rener, when twelve jurors testified that William Byngnam, William Wymbill, Millyngton, Guile and Tylney, clerks, had occupied a portion of the tithes of the church of Beggeworth [Badgeworth] of the value of thirty shillings clear, a portion of the tithes of the church of Downhatherley worth twenty shillings clear and a tenement with two gardens in Stonhous [Stonehouse] which were worth twenty pence per annum clear and sixteen acres of land in Stonhous worth per acre two pence clear with a certain annual rent of seven shillings from the tenement of Robert Bramiche2 in Whitch, and that they had received the proceeds since 13 May 1443. They testified further that the properties were in the county of Gloucester and that they were part of the possessions of the priory of Chepstow specified in the brief directing the holding of inquisition. As far as concerned the priory of Chepstow and its possessions, they declared that the priory was in the marches of Wales and that a certain Thomas Tybey, a monk, occupied it with all its possessions and received all its revenues, but the value of the priory was unknown to the jury. Whereupon the judgement of Maurice was that he took into the hands of the king on 4 November 1444 all the above recited tithes and other properties and ordered that Byngham, etc. must appear before the sheriffs of London and Middlesex 1

Chr. Gh. L.

* In another document (Chr. Misc. C, 14), Branche is the form the name takes. The sums here named by the jury are confirmed by the college-rental of the years 1443-7 {*nfra> P- 85), with the exception of the Badgeworth tithes which yield 405.

60

M A R K I N G T I M E : 1443 TO 1446

in the quindain of the Purification of the blessed Virgin [2 February 1445] and render account there to the king of the profits for the period 13 May 1443 to 4 November 1444. They did so appear, by their attorney Richard Forde, and complained that the properties had been unjustly seized and that they were aggrieved and troubled at being called upon to render account. They made their statement of their title and produced letters patent of the lord king dated 12 July 1443, addressed to the treasurer and barons of the Exchequer, in which, after reciting at length his letters patent of 10June 1442, he proceeded: ' W e therefore command you that you permit W.B. etc. to have and to occupy the aforesaid properties according to the tenour of our letters patent, not molesting W.B. etc. contrary to the tenour of the same'. Therefore, said Forde for Byngham and his co-feoffees, they do not conceive that the lord king wishes to disturb them by causing them to render account, and they seek that the king's hands be withdrawn from the properties and that they be restored to them. The barons of the Exchequer, having examined the letters patent and the other evidence, proclaimed that if any serjeants-at-law or attorneys of the king wished to inform them that the properties are not part of the priory of Chepstow they must appear and be heard and, no one so appearing, decree was made by the barons that the said portions, etc. be removed from the king's hands, and that they be restored to Byngham, etc. together with the issues and profits from the date of their being seized, and that both the said William Byngham, etc. and the said Mauricius de la Rener, formerly escheator, and any other whatsoever should be discharged from all issues and profits coming therefrom as regards the lord king and should rest quietly in virtue of these premises, and, lastly, that Byngham be excused from making the account. This document has been paraphrased at some length to indicate the nature of the vexatious actions to which at this period those holding properties were exposed. There is no reason to assume a special liability to trouble of this nature in Byngham's case, but there was, in regard to the priory of Chepstow, a certain element of complication inasmuch as that house strove, and apparently with success, to become denizen after being placed upon the list of alien priories, since its revenues are

ADVOWSON OF HELPSTON

61

1

included in Valor Ecclesiasticus as those of an active house. Whether the proceedings just described were in reality undertaken at the instigation of the prior, rather than upon the initiative of the king's officers, there is nothing to shew. But even in East Anglia in the fifteenth century, secular as well as ecclesiastical properties had frequently to be defended, failing success in appeal to law, by the strong right hand of the owner, as the Paston Letters reveal, and this action arising in the distant west was settled with a despatch to be viewed at that date with envy in Norfolk. That the weight of the duchess's influence went in Byngham's favour in these proceedings may not be definitely asserted, but the endorsement of contemporary date upon the transcript of the record suggests it. It was at about this period that negotiations were set on foot for the purchase of the advowson of the rectory of Helpston in Northamptonshire, and they were sufficiently advanced by the month of September 1443 for the execution of documents2 constituting a contract. The primary interest of the proceedings at this early stage lies in the names of the parties; as representing the vendors, Thomas Bernesley, archdeacon of Leicester and first dean 3 of the College of Stoke Clare, received an earnest of twenty pounds sterling from Byngham and gave his bond in acknowledgement, and amongst Byngham's co-feoffees was his old wealthy London friend, John Brokley, who was a co-feoffee also, as we have seen, in the grant of part of the original site of Godshouse. By the terms of the contract, Byngham had two years in which to determine whether or not to complete the purchase, an interval which may reflect some uncertainty as to the title of the property, which, indeed, is specifically mentioned as a matter upon which Byngham and his friends are to be satisfied. It will be shewn in the appendix 4 that the bishop of the diocese had found it necessary a few years earlier than this to issue a commission to discover the actual 1

iv, 372; cf. Monasticon, iv, 652. Chr. Misc. E, bond no. 16; Chr. Help. E. 3 He held the deanery until his death in 1454; he was buried at Stoke Clare and, as he died intestate, his estate was administered by William Wilflete, third dean of the college (Masters, app. 38). Bernesley composed the statutes of the College of 4 Infra, p. 426. Stoke Clare in 1422 (Monasticon, vi, 1417 sqq.). 1

62

M A R K I N G T I M E : 1443 TO 1446

position of things at Helpston, so it would appear that the Godshouse representatives did well to be cautious. In the end the examination made on their behalf must have proved satisfactory long before the expiration of the prescribed period of two years, since the college documents shew that the purchase had been completed by 27 August 1444. At that date a grant1 was made of an acre of land in Helpston and the advowson of the church there by Simon Alcock, S.T.P.,2 and Robert Parlynton, rector of PaykirkeS to William, bishop of Sarum,4 Richard, duke of York,5 John, viscount of Beaumont,6 Richard Newton, chief justice of the Common Bench, John Fray,' chief baron of the Exchequer, William Byngham, William Guile, Gilbert Worthyngton, John Horley and John Cote,7 clerks. Another document 8 is a declaration by John Kirton, abbot of Thorney, William Ryall, prior of Depyng, John Beck, Rector of the College of St Mary and All Saints, Oxford,? John Warby, rector of St Gutlac of Depyng, and Robert Ballard, rector of Helpston, that the grantors of the above-named document have sworn it in their presence and that seisin of the land and advowson was in their presence given to William Byngham personally as representing himself and his co-feoffees. Again, on the same date, there is an indenture 10 between the said John Beck and Byngham by which Beck gives bond to deliver peaceable possession of the premises to Byngham, and a similar indenture 11 from Thomas Bernesley to Byngham. The full story of Helpston, its rectory and its supposed chantry, before and after the acquisition is of no small interest but is too lengthy to be told here12 in detail. Attention must be drawn to the powerful 1

J Chr. Help. B. Vide D.N.B. i, 338. Peakirk, five miles north-east of Helpston. William Ayscough, 1438-50, not Master of Michaelhouse 1433-50, as declared in the University Calendar; the bishop had been fellow of Michaelhouse but the Master (from 1454 onwards) was another person of that name. 6 5 Father of Edward IV. Vide supra, p. 58. 7 Fray and Cote were feoffees of the land on the corner of Piron Lane which we have suggested was bought on Byngham's behalf. 8 Chr. Help. C. 9 I.e. Lincoln College; Beck, or Beke, was second Rector of the college, 1434-60. 10 Chr. Help. D. " Chr. Help. E. " Cf. infra, pp. 426 sq. 3 4

FLETE AS B E N E F A C T O R

63

co-feoffees of Byngham, especially to the first three names, the viscount of Beaumont being the husband of Katherine, duchess of Norfolk, whose interest Byngham had already sought through the king's aid in regard to the Chepstow property; he seems to have made excellent use of that introduction. Names such as these are clearly meant to obtain security from any attack upon the rights of Byngham, to whose use the land and advowson were held by him and his co-feoffees, as is plainly shewn by his taking seisin. Guile and Worthyngton are found in various Godshouse documents, while Horley is met later in the royal licence of 26 August 1446, but especial attention must be directed to Newton and Fray. It is understood in the college that the living of Helpston was given by Byngham himself to the society1 and this appears to derive from an old, but not contemporary, endorsement of a deed. Byngham must have given much in wealth as well as in work, but his gifts were probably made in the earliest days of Godshouse, those leading up to the licences of 1442. Byngham gave Helpston, as he gave all the other properties named in the charters, in the sense of making it over in his personal capacity to the Proctor (himself) and the scholars of Godshouse when the college was founded. That very purpose is indicated in the various charters as, e.g., in the king's gift of the church of Fendrayton,* where the grant is to William Byngham, 'clerk and ordainer of a dwelling called Godeshous', and others with licence to grant to the Proctor and scholars of the College of Godshouse 'when the same shall have been founded'. Though Byngham's direct personal gift of Helpston has to be denied, it is interesting to be able to trace the actual benefactor to whom it was due. William Flete,3 king's clerk, has already been mentioned as a co-feoffee with John Brokley, Johanna Bokeland and Byngham in 1437 of a portion of the site of the original building of Godshouse; he died in 1444. His will has not been found but the records of the Court of Hustings shew that Sir Richard Newton, chief justice, and John Fray, chief baron of the Exchequer, with William 1

Form of Commemoration of Benefactors; cf. Peile, p. 4. * Chr. Fend. B. 3 Supra, p. 16 sq.; cf. infra, p. 392 sq. * R.H.C. 173 (35-6).

64

M A R K I N G T I M E : 1443 TO 1446

Byngham, clerk, were its chief executors.1 His estate was long in being wound up and Byngham's name appears constantly in various matters relating to it. The absence of the will does not present any obstacle to the assumption that, with the almost invariable practice of the time, one of its latest clauses would provide that the residue of the estate should be applied at his executors' discretion for the benefit of Flete's soul. The occurrence of the names of Flete's three principal executors, of whom one, Sir Richard Newton, is not found in any other Godshouse connection, makes the assumption that the purchase of Helpston on behalf of Godshouse may have been made out of the funds of Flete's estate something more than a conjecture. It is true that Flete's name is not included specifically, as is Brokley's, amongst the benefactors to be prayed for according to the statutes, but neither are those of Richard and Johanna Bokeland. The Bokeland names are omitted for the obvious reason that Richard Bokeland had preferred to be prayed for intensively by two priests for the limited period of twenty years* rather than more diffusely in perpetuity, a choice fully justified by the abolition in the reigns of Henry VIII and Edward VI of all endowments for 'superstitious uses'. Flete's will, if it had survived, might have shewn a similar provision. Dr Peile describes John Hurte as vicar of Helpston,3 and says that he was presented by the bishop of Salisbury,4 but the document upon which, presumably, he bases these statements does not lend itself to this interpretation. There is a form of presentation? of Hurte by the bishop of Salisbury, the duke of York, viscount Beaumont and other of the feoffees, including Byngham as rector of St John Zachary; it bears the date of 3 July without any year and it is unexecuted. It is to be attributed to 1445, in which year there was a vacancy at Helpston, filled by the institution 12 November of Master Hugh Tapton, priest, upon the presentation of the bishop of Salisbury, die duke of York 1

There is preserved at Somerset House the transcript of the will of one William

Flete (P.C.C. 28 Luifenam) of this very period. It is not completely legible but enough remains to shew that it is not the will of William Flete, Byngham's friend. 2 Supra, p. 16. 3 Christ's College, p. 4. « Biog. Reg. i, 2. 5 Chr. Help. F.

HURTE AND HELPSTON

65

1

and others; the previous institution to be found in the registers of the bishops of Lincoln is that of Robert Ballard, priest, 29 October 1412.* It would appear that the intention to present Hurte was frustrated, and it may be suggested with a good deal of probability that the presentation was not carried out owing to events at Clare Hall, of which college Hurte was a fellow. That society was singularly unfortunate in its experience of destructive fires; its buildings were consumed in 1362 and rebuilt, and in 1525 a great part of the Master's lodging and the treasury were burnt down, the archives being destroyed.3 In consequence of this second disaster the local material for such details as dates of the Masters of the college is mainly lacking, though the use of external contemporary sources makes it possible to fill some of the lacunae of local records. Baker quotes,* with serious doubts, a table of Masters (penes Magistrum Coll.), and though the grosser inaccuracies of that table have in recent days been purged away, the list in the current issues of the University Calendar has serious blemishes in regard to the second and third quarters of the fifteenth century. William Wymbill, there given as Master 1421 to circa 1440, died in 1445; 5 he was certainly Master in June 14426 and probably until his death, being succeeded by William Guile. Such documentary evidence as does remain at Clare, principally the Master's Old Book, deriving from the days immediately following the fire of 1525, exhibits Hurte as occupying an important place in the management of the society's affairs, acting for some time as deputy for the Master during a vacancy; this may have occurred more than once, including a period when he was Proctor of Godshouse. If Hurte was called to fill such a position in 1445 it might account for his withdrawal from the proposal to present him to Helpston; it seems probable that he was much concerned then for Clare Hall with matters arising from the extension of the site of King's College. 1

J Bridges, ii, 516. Ibid. Annals, i, 107, 311, quoting Caius, Hist. Cant. Acad. p. 57; Memorials, i, 45. 4 Baker, xxxviii, 254. 5 Crosby, p. 331, quoting Ely, Bourchier, 5. For further notes upon Wymbill, v. Lloyd, pp. 1 sqq. 6 P.R. 10 June, 20 H. VI, iii, 28 and 27. IHC 5 3

66

M A R K I N G T I M E : 1443 TO 1446

It seems proper to place here the second of those petitions preserved to us out of the many which Byngham is known to have addressed to the king, to which reference has already been made. It is printed by Willis and Clark,1 though, contrary to their practice, they give no reference to their source. The transcript here produced is of the contemporary copy in the college muniment room 2 and, as it is not known elsewhere, this must be presumed to be the source also of WilHs and Clark: To the Kyng our sovereyng lord Beseches mekle your pouer prest and dayle bedman William Byngham to whome it lyked your good grace for to grant licence to have made A College for drawyng forth of maystres of gramer in a mansion of his in your vniuersite of Cambrige ecalled godeshous as it appers by your lettres patentes there of made vn to hym the which mansion afterward it lyked your graciouse hieghnesse to desir to have for enlargeyng of your worthy College of our lade and of seint Nicholase in the wich sayd mansion calde Godeshous myght wel be logged .1. persones and so wern commynle. For the wich mansyon it wase promysed your sayd besecher that he shuld have hade an other mansion redele ordeynd and bygged sufficiendy as large and larger as welle bygged and better as cler with owt Charge and better in alle Condycyons. And also your lettres patentes in his hande for foundyng of his College ther in the same mansion so ordeynd for hym of new with owt any labour or any cost vn to hym as my lordys of Salesbury3 and of Suff4 knawn wel both the wiche promyse as yet was not fulfylled your sayd bedman to fulgret labourse excessyfe werenes and all new costes to hym importable in his sute to gete a new patent at his own cost for the same mater. And over that thate he hyrd hym loginge for his scolers and for harbergach of his stor and hustilmentes for his howseholde by iij. yers to geder or euer he cowth get or purvey hym of any place to purchase to his ese vn to now late he with gret dimculte purveyed hym of a place wher for hym most for euer pay yerle xxjs. iiij
W. and C. i, p. lvii sq.

2

Chr. Gh. M.

Richard Neville, father of the 'Kingmaker'; brother of Katherine, duchess of Norfolk, in some sort a patroness of Byngham. 4 William de la Pole, created marquis in 1444 and duke in 1448. 5 This points to the Tiltey property.

BYNGHAM'S SECOND PETITION

67

Wher for pleise it your good grace for to consider the forsayd mat' and there vp on thurgh contemplacyon of these premysses for to grawnt to your sayd besecher sum supportacyon to relevyng of die sayd pouer1 College of Godeshous by such weyese and in such maner that shal in no wyse anyntyse1 nor munysch3 your tresur nor your coffures as your sayd besecher shal clerle shew to your gracyouse heyghnes whan it lyke your grace for to here hym for the lofe of god and in the way of chary te. It would be outside our present purpose to dwell upon the attractive features of this document, its archaic forms, its grammatical construction, the blending of Latin, French and old English speech and the quaint variability of its orthography. Nor is it necessary to provide a modern rendering; there are many words whose precise meaning may not be immediately obvious but the general sense is sufficiently clear. Of more interest in this place is the general tone of the petition, marked on the one hand by that over-statement characteristic of petitions addressed to the king and his courts at this period, and on the other by a restraint of language, reproaches and demands almost superhuman if the tale of grievances be accepted at its face value. The terms of the sale or surrender to the king of the original site and building of the college are known to us only from this document; they may have been broadly outlined in Byngham's audience of the king but their fulfilment was doubtless left to his commissioners, Langton being their local executive member A According to his petition Byngham was to receive (1) Another site; (2) A new building upon it, better in every way and fully equipped; (3) New letters patent for founding the college (necessary owing to the change of site); (4) All these to be done free of any cost to him. Fair dealing would seem to require that he should in addition have 1

On the use of the word poor c£. infra, p. 356, n. 2. * = anientise, annihilate; Wyclif, Rom. iv, 14, 'If thei that ben of the lawe, ben eyris, feyth is anentyschid' (N.E.D.). 3 = minish, to reduce in amount; Alphabet of Tales, 31, 'I remevid this stone in the feld to thentent that I wolde enlarge myne awn ground and mynys other mens 4 ground' (N.E.D.). This might in part account for the delay. 5-2

68

M A R K I N G T I M E : 1443 TO 1446

received at least a sufficient sum to pay for the' loginge' and' harbergach' in the meantime. That 'compensation for disturbance', which we may be sure he would have required from any other person, he was apparently willing to forgo for the satisfaction of doing pleasure to his king. At the time of the framing of his petition none of these conditions had been fulfilled by the commissioners, though Byngham had carried out his part of the bargain by surrendering his property to their use three years before. We should be under-estimating his business qualities if we did not observe that he probably abstained from giving conveyance of the hereditaments under his signature and seal until after the date of this petition,1 at a time when we may suppose that he had received something, we know not what, but perhaps some money payment of which no record has been found, which he was prepared to accept in part satisfaction of his claims. Two details in the petition call for remark, (a) The sum estimated as the cost of building the new Godshouse mansion is important as giving an idea of the size of the original building. Two hundred pounds then so expended would be equal to five thousand pounds or more now, 3 while if the sum be weighted by modern conditions of building, it would probably need now ten thousand pounds to erect buildings equal in size though necessarily different in kind, (b) The stress laid upon the cost of a licence may seem at first sight somewhat overdone, but it happens that there is an illustration to be found in the university proctors' accounts for the academical year 1458/9. Its Latin form may be seen under Expense in Grace Book A, p. 20, and it may be translated thus: Item paid to Lynde and two lawyers for drafting letters patent xs. Item to the clerk of hanaper3 viij/i, ixs. Total Item to Thomas Ive clerk of die crown xiiji. x/i. xyji. Item to Broke for vellum, wax and writing the letters patent vs. Item for enrolling the same 4 iiiji. 1 King's, A, 84, dated 26 July 1446, mentions Byngham's conveyance but does J not give its date. Cf. infra, p. 73, n. 1. 3 The hanaper was an office of the king's Exchequer. This line in the MS. is quite clear, for there is no de before clerico as in the printed transcript. 4 I.e. on the rolls of the Exchequer.

COSTLINESS OF LETTERS PATENT

69

It has proved possible to identify the letters patent, whose cost to the university in 1458/9 was ten pounds and sixteen pence; they are to be found enrolled on the patent rolls and are dated 12 April 1459.1 Ten pounds and sixteen pence five hundred years ago may be equated with two hundred or even two hundred and fifty pounds in these days,2 but the cost of letters patent for founding a college would be greater still than that for the short specific grant to the university, which was mainly concerned with administrative powers in a limited field. The principal charge might be similar in amount, but those for drafting, and for vellum, wax, writing and enrolling would be proportionate to length. Byngham might well be concerned at the failure so far to redeem the promise to provide him with' lettres patentes in his hande... with owt any labour or any cost vn to h y m \ Though this copy of Byngham's petition is undated, due regard to its various statements and references demands that it should be attributed to the early part of the year 1446. It refers to the purchase of the property for which rent of 215. \d. is to be paid yearly, and that must be the Tiltey site whose conveyance to Byngham is dated 18 June 3 in that year, but the purchase would antedate the written conveyance which, in itself, is only confirmation of a precedent transaction. The buildings of Godshouse appear to have been vacated by Byngham and his scholars early in 1443 and, presumably, surrendered to the king's commissioners at that period. It has been said already that the deed of conveyance does not remain, but the king's commissioners refer to it in their conveyance of this and other properties to the Provost and scholars of King's College dated 25 July 1446.4 Byngham declares that he had 'hyrd hym loginge for his scolers and for harbergach of his stor and hustilmentes for his howseholde' until the promised building was ready for their use. His lodgings for his scholars may have been in a messuage standing in the parish of Holy Trinity, opposite to what is now Sidney Sussex College, on the west side of Sidney Street (then Conduit Street), a little to the south of 1 P.R. 37, H. VI, ii, 16. 3 Chr. Camb. C.

2 4

Cf. infra, p. 73, n. 1. King's, A, 84.

70

M A R K I N G T I M E : 1443 TO 1446 1

Green Street; also, or alternatively, in the tenement at the southern end of the garden of Peterhouse bounded by Trumpington Street on the east and by the common pasture (Lammas Leys and Coe Fen) on the south and west, being a tenement formerly belonging to the prior and convent of the priory of white canons of the order of St Gilbert of Sempringham.* These properties are referred to later when the licence of 1448 is being considered; 3 it is probable that the shelter for the stores and furniture fhustilmentes') of his establishment removed from Godshouse was found in one or both of the same places. At this period we have no account of any further activity of Byngham in Cambridge; the training of his scholars to become masters in grammar would proceed in the ordinary course, in so far as the makeshift housing would permit, and, pending the fulfilment of the royal promise to provide him with 'an other mansion redele ordeynd.. .and better.. .in alle Condycyons', Byngham's tireless energy is seen in his efforts to secure and increase the endowments. Since Byngham had sunk large sums of money in the site and 'mansion' surrendered to the king for which, so far as we know, he received no money payment* (nor up to the date of his petition any other consideration), his purchase of the king's good will seems to have been an unfortunate investment; an income from the priories confirmed to him by the licences of 1442 might maintain his scholars, although it 1 This messuage was next to and formerly part of the tenement of John Beere, and situate almost opposite the conduit of the Friars Minor. Sidney Street was known for centuries as Conduit Street, and the conduit of the Franciscans was that which they led in 1327 from what is now known as Conduit Head to their house, then occupying the present site of Sidney Sussex College (cf. W. and C. ii, 427 sqq.). This water supply seems to have been used by die townspeople as well as by the friars (perhaps as an off-set to the disturbance caused to various streets, etc. during its repair), and die college known as King's Hall acquired in the second quarter of the fifteenth century the right to participate in its use. Following the Dissolution, all the rights were granted to the newly founded Trinity College where the fountain in die Great Court is still served by the same flow, which also supplies die hygienic needs of die surrounding ground-floor rooms. A stand-pipe outside die Great Gate, available to die use of the public, seems to preserve die memory of die former public use outside die house of die Friars Minor. 2 This site is die 'Volye Croft' of die Peterhouse plan of W. and C. fig. 1, now in part occupied by Grove Lodge. 3 4 Infra, p. 97 sq. But cf. infra, pp. 89, 288 sq.

B R O K L E Y AS B E N E F A C T O R

71

should be remembered that some of those endowments were reversions which would not fall in for some years. The question arises, however, whence came the funds to provide for the cost of removal to the 'loginge', the fitting of those temporary premises for their academical use, and, above all, for purchase of the Preacher Street property of the abbot and convent of Tiltey? No certain answer is possible owing to the disappearance of the written record, but it is probable that the source about to be suggested would have received ample confirmation if that record, John Brokley's will, had survived.1 John Brokley, formerly alderman of London, is specifically named in the statutes of Godshouse, together with Byngham and John Fishwick and his wife, to be prayed for daily by the chaplains.3 The only other persons mentioned by name are kings, queens and their royal relatives, all remaining persons being grouped in the phrase 'and of all the other benefactors of the said College'. While the twenty-first day of May is to be kept as the anniversary 'of the said King Henry the Sixth, Founder of the aforesaid College, and of all the other benefactors aforesaid', special days are set apart for Byngham and Brokley; the seventeenth day of November for Byngham, which we know to be the day of his death, and the last day of September for John Brokley,3 which there is reason to believe to be the date of his death. In the Lady Margaret's statutes, it is enjoined in chapter xxix* that daily prayers shall be made for us, and for the most illustrious King Henry VII, our son, and his children as long as we live, and also for our souls after we are dead; and that they [the fellows] do not accept any salary or stipend for praying satisfactorily for any one else. Nevertheless we wish certain persons now dead to be joined with us; whose names follow below: 1

Diligent search has been made for the will a"mongst the wills and transcripts of the Prerogative Court of Canterbury, the Commissary Court of London, the rolls of the Court of Husting, and in the archbishop's library at Lambeth. As the will was the subject of litigation, there is the possibility that its production was required in die Court of die King's Chancellor, but search and enquiry in the Public Record Office have been attended widi die same lack of result as followed die searches in the more obvious places. 2 Rackham, p. 39. 3 Jfc/rf. p. 39. 4 Ibid. p. 87; Documents, iii, 195-6.

72

M A R K I N G T I M E : 1443 TO 1446

Edmund, Earl of Richmond, my husband and father of the King my son; John, Duke of Somerset, 1 . ' Margaret, his wife, j Vr All our other progenitors; Elizabeth, wife ofthe King, our son; Henry VI, formerly King of England; Margaret, his wife; Edward, their son; William Byngham, priest; John Broklee. John Brokley's history, and the ground of his claim to special memorial by the college, are alike unknown to it in modern times and, probably, have been so since the sixteenth century; e.g. any account of him is sought in vain in the pages of Adam Wall. Official sources1 in London have very little knowledge of him, but it has been possible to put together some account of his life, drawn from various documents, which will be found in the appendix; * here we must be brief. He was a draper, being Master of the Worshipful Company 1441/2; member of parliament for the city, sheriff, alderman for eighteen years, mayor 3 1433/4; died 30 September 1444, leaving a widow, who does not seem to have been worthy of him, but no children. His estate was a large one, seeing that, in addition to household goods of every kind and a notable quantity of plate, his wife received three thousand pounds in money, while the residue, undistributed, was worth a much larger sum. Though his will has not survived, the names of his executors have been discovered, of whom one was that eminent person, William Tresham, speaker of die House of Commons. Brokley was concerned with Byngham, as has been shewn, in the purchase of Cat hostel for Godshouse in 1437, and he was a co-feofFee in the contract of 21 September 1443, relating to Helpston. He may have been the chief source of Byngham's financial strength from the 1

The Guildhall Library has a valuable MS. card-index of London personages which was examined ad hoc by its courteous custodian, but little of Brokley is there to be seen. 2 Infra, pp. 383 sqq. 3 The title of Lord mayor was not yet in use; it arose gradually in the sixteenth century and was not general before 1545.

BROKLEY'S GREAT W E A L T H

73

beginning until his death, for it is highly improbable that the large sums needed to buy sites, erect buildings, to furnish them and to purchase endowments can have issued to any large extent from Byngham's own resources. Something came to the college from Johanna Bokeland and from William Flete, but there is nothing to indicate the provision by them of any great sums. The exceptionally prominent position accorded to John Brokley in the prayers of the college by the statutes of Godshouse, still more that given to him by those of the Lady Margaret amongst the galaxy of royalties and their kin, demand that we should regard him as the principal source of the society's wealth, almost a co-founder with Byngham. The fact of the anniversary of his death being kept by the college makes it probable that his will made some provision for its well-being by specific legacy; moreover, as was usual, the testament directed his executors to apply the residue of his estate, at their discretion, for the welfare of his soul.1 The residue is said by his independent executors to have amounted to about five thousand pounds, and it is a reasonable conjecture that some small portion of that great sum may have found its way to Byngham and the scholars of Godshouse, making possible the gradual extension of the new site as opportunity offered; that extension began, as we shall see, with the Denney purchase completed in 1448 (when we may suppose that the Brokley will-litigation initiated in 1447 was determined), and continued until the site was completed in 1468. 1 Cf. infra, p. 384 sq. The total value of the estate expressed in terms of its modern equivalent would seem to be in the region of £250,000. On pp. 68 and 69, as also here and there later in the book, fifteenth-century amounts have been accompanied by a statement of their respective 1934 values. This has been done in the interests of the general reader, and no more is attempted than the presentation of an approximate equivalent. Exactitude in the calculation would be outside the present purpose, but the use of a multiplier of about twenty-five, for the conversion of mid-fifteenth-century values, is the outcome of careful consideration and probably does not greatly err by way of either exaggeration or understatement.

Chapter VII T H E R O Y A L L I C E N C E O F 1446 A N D ITS P E R I O D yngham's petition1 relates that he has been forced, by the failure . to carry out the promise of the provision to him of fresh letters ' patent free of cost, to make suit for those letters himself, and it may be assumed that the letters patent dated 26 August 1446* are the result of his direct efforts. The new letters patent were presumably needed because of the change of the site and buildings of the college, for there was a meticulously close interpretation placed upon the written word in many of the king's courts, particularly in that of the Common Bench, and we have already seen 3 evidence of the importance attached to very small details of description and nomenclature, leading to the repetition of the licence of 1 March 1442, with elaboration of such detail, in the licence of 10 June 1442. Much greater latitude was permitted in the court of the king's Chancellor, who would deal with suits affecting real estate even though documents were lacking, but in the court of Common Bench the written document itself was a condition precedent of suit being entertained. The licences, therefore, are filled with protective repetitive words, clauses and saving conditions designed to circumvent hair-splitting interpretations directed to defeat the obvious intent of the charters. The letters of the king begin by reciting the introductory paragraphs and general sense of the previous letters patent, and refer to the subsequent death of "William Wymbill. They proceed: considering nevertheless how that the said tenement with gardens called Godeshous is situated so near to our new college in our aforesaid town lately erected by us in honour of the most blessed Mary the virgin and St Nicholas the confessor that without that tenement we were unable to proceed in building our aforesaid college, and that at our special request the aforesaid William Byngham handed over and released to us to our special pleasure

B

1 1 3

Supra, p. 66 sq. Chr. Gh. O. Printed in Documents, iii, 162 sqq.; P.R. 24 H. VI, ii, 4. Supra, p. 54 sq.

ITS WIDER SCOPE

75

the same tenement for the enlargement of the site of our college, and the said William Byngham proposed as we have heard to ordain build and order another house for scholars of this kind of and in two cottages or a tenement which lately belonged to the abbot of Tiltey, and in another tenement which lately belonged to the abbess of Denney with the gardens adjacent, as they are together situate in le Prechour strete beyond Barnwelgate in the parish of St Andrew at Cambridge. The boundaries and measurements are described. 'Desiring graciously to act with the same William Byngham' we have given licence 'to the aforesaid William Byngham and Masters William Lychfeld, William Millyngton, William Guile, Gilbert Worthyngton, John Cote, professors in sacred theology, John Tilney, doctor in decrees and John Horley, bachelor in sacred theology' 1 to ordain, etc. and found a college, in those premises or part thereof, 'of a proctor and scholars to be instructed not only in the faculty ofgrammar but also in the knowledge of the other liberal faculties according to the ordinances and statutes to be made by the same William Byngham' and the others above-named. The licence, broadly speaking, follows the lines of its predecessors, but uses in description of the rights conferred an even greater prolixity than was employed in the letters patent of 10 June 1442. It is not necessary to paraphrase it throughout, and mention is here made only of those substantial differences which mark it out from the earlier licences. These are: (a) The scholars are allowed now by definite intent to be instructed not only in die faculty of grammar but also in the other liberal faculties. In the closing paragraph of the licence, words are used making it obvious that the premature mention of that extended purpose in the licence of 1 March 1442 was the reason for the issue of that of 10 June 1442, as we have already suggested. (b) The Helpston land and advowson, acquired since the issue of the previous licences, are mentioned and confirmed. (c) The permitted endowment is raised to ,£100, in addition to the advowson of Helpston and the tenements upon which the college may be erected. 1 Following the death of Wymbill, changes are made in the persons licensed with Byngham, Lychefeld, Worthyngton, Cote and Horley appearing for the first time. Biographical notices of the first three appear in the appendix, but Horley is not known to Venn except by his appearance in this Godshouse document and the writer has not traced any other mention beyond those of the Helpston documents (cf. supra, p. 62).

76

R O Y A L L I C E N C E O F 1446 A N D ITS P E R I O D

(d) Beyond the said limit of jQioo, other advowsons of churches may be received or acquired to the yearly value of a further ^100 clear, for the promotion of the members of the college when they shall be expert in knowledge for the teaching of grammar. The aggregate possible endowment is thus raised to £200 plus the value of the Tutey and Denney properties and the land, tithes and advowson of Helpston. (e) Seeing that certain of the endowments were in Wales and in the marches thereof, and in other parts distant from Cambridge, licence was given to exchange any of the endowments for any others nearer to Cambridge with any persons whatsoever. (/) The words 'the Master and fellows of Clare Hall' disappear; the significance which has been attached to this is discussed in a subsequent chapter. The tenements of the abbot of Tiltey* and of the abbess of Denney,3 respectively, were properties held by those two religious houses as part of their endowments. They were not places to which resorted the monks of Tiltey (still less the sisters of Denney), 'who came thither to study'. 4 The Tiltey property had been conveyed to Byngham and his co-feoffees on 18 June 1446,5 two months before the royal licence of that year, but the Denney property was not so conveyed until 28 March 1448, although in the same licence it is clearly implied that it has already passed out of the possession of the abbess ('which lately belonged to the abbess of Denney'). This is one instance of many confirming what has been said earlier, that beneficial occupation frequently antedated the written grants or conveyances. As in the earlier periods so also in 1447 we find evidence of Byngham's watchful vigilance over the revenues and other rights of his distant properties. One such instance is the entry on the patent rolls concerning ' ThomasBarell, late vicar ofthe church ofDounhatherley, co. Gloucester, 1 Taxatio, p. 40, gives the yearly value of Helpston in 1291 as J£IO, less £1. 6s. id. due to the abbot ofPeterborough, making ,£8. 13s. 4*/. dear. The land was not then attached to the living. 2 A Cistercian house in Essex. 3 A house of Minoresses founded by the countess of Pembroke in Cambridgeshire between the county town and Ely. She established a link between her college and her nunnery by requiring those elected to the fellowship of Pembroke Hall 'to be constant in their visits to this religious house, as their ghostly counsellors and instructors' (G. Dyer, History of the University and Colleges of Cambridge, ii, 95). 4 Parker, p. 123. 5 chr. Camb. C.

SAFE-CONDUCTS

77

for not appearing before the Justices of the Bench to answer William Byngham, William Millyngton, William Guile and John Tylney touching a trespass '.* And as in 1443 he was seen seeking the aid, through the king's council, of the duchess of Norfolk, so now we find him turning to that still more powerful noble her brother-in-law Richard Plantagenet, duke of York, father of Edward IV. From Henry Griffith, the duke's steward of the lordships of Ewyas Lacy, Usk, Trelleck and Caerleon in the marches of Wales, he obtained a safe-conduct or passport dated 14 July 1447 s for himself as rector of St John Zachary, London, for John Lufday [Loveday] and Robert Melton, clerks, and Richard Corlus, John Lincoln 3 and William Shether, litterati, and their servants, to go and come and return as often as they desire within the said lordships, without any molestation from the said steward himself or any other official or minister within the said lordships. This document seems to indicate that Byngham and his companions were proceeding to Gloucester and the marches of Wales to inspect their properties, and, as it was not by his co-feoffees that Byngham was accompanied, we may reasonably conclude that the five others were members of the college, especially as we find Melton (who became one of the fellows under the king's foundation charter, 1448) later presented successively to the livings of Fendrayton and Helpston, and Loveday appears otherwise in close connection with Godshouse; in which we may find confirmation of the view already formed from Byngham's second petition that the work of the college was in active progress. Seven months later, 22 February 1448, Byngham armed himself with an even more weighty passport, a parchment still bearing the seal and autograph signature of the duke ofYork himself,* throwing his powerful aegis over William Millyngton, professor of the sacred page, and William Byngham, rector of the parish church of St John Zachary, London, proprietor of the mansion of'Goddeshows' in the University of Cambridge. The protection is to have a validity of two years and is 1 a 3 4

C.P.R. 1446-52, p. 102, 15 October 1447. Chr. Gh. P; printed in full Infra, p. 373 sq. A kinsman of Byngham, as we learn from the latter's will. Chr. Gh. 11; printed in full infra, p. 374.

78

R O Y A L L I C E N C E OF 1446 A N D ITS P E R I O D

addressed to 'all and singular the sheriffs, stewards, constables, bailiffs, wardens, our officers and ministers whomsoever, within our lordships of Usk and of Cairleon and all our lordships in the whole of Wales', and is to give to the Cambridge men, their servants, their affairs and their possessions very wide protection. The document is dated at London and is eloquent of the conditions of its time, for it is not written in virtue of any royal authority at that period delegated to the duke, such as he had earlier held as the king's lieutenant in France, since his office at the time the passport was written was the lieutenancy of Ireland, a position held to be indicative not of royal favour but of banishment.1 It was rather the mandate of a great seigneur holding his territories nominally of his lord, the king, but wielding within their vast area an authority the king himself might envy in any part of his dominion. Wales and its marches were held for and from the king by the lords marcher, each holding wellnigh supreme power within his lordship; under a vigorous monarch the system had much to commend it, but under a weakling such as Henry VI the sovereignty of the king tended to be the shadow of a shade. By inheritance, particularly from his uncle, Edmund de Mortimer, fifth earl of March, the duke of York's Welsh and border territory was of great extent, and his personal prestige ranked very high; so long as he remained in contact with Wales or its border he was invulnerable. There his word or even his nod was law, but the king's writ ran not. It would appear, however, that Byngham had proper regard for principalities and powers dejure as well as for those de facto, in which we may see the influence of the counsel of his legal friends, such as Sir John Fray, chief baron of the Exchequer, and Sir Richard Newton, chief justice of the Common Bench, with whom he was in active co-operation as executor of William Flete's will. For we find Byngham addressing the king in a document, of which a contemporary copy has been found in the college muniment room, 2 upon this same matter in respect of which he had sought the aid of the duke of York. The copy 1 The formal appointment of the duke of York was dated 9 December 1447, but he delayed his departure for Ireland until July 1449 (D.N.B.). a Chr. Z, 40-1; printed infra, p. 438.

LAW AND ORDER IN THE MARCHES

79

is undated, but upon internal evidence it must be placed after 16 April 1448 and before 9 November 1448, on the second of which dates Sir Walter Dewrose [Devereux], to whom reference is made, ceased to be sheriff. It asks the king's aid against 'ryetowse men' in Wales (since 1535, actually in Herefordshire) 'wheryour comyn law hase no cowrs nor your sayd besechers any acoyntance'.1 Under the House of Tudor, the Council of Wales brought the authority of the sovereign into closer relation with that part of his realm, a development found as early as the reign of Henry VII.* In that of Henry VI, while the full substance and effect of royal authority were wanting in many parts of the kingdom (e.g. in East Anglia, as witness the Paston Letters, passim), the very form was lacking in Wales, which explains the importance to the college, in the time of Byngham and later, of cultivating the 'acoyntance' of those who had actual authority in and beyond the marches. It is interesting to find in this document the first formal communication made by Byngham on behalf of himself as 'procutour' and the 'scolers' of your 'pouer College ecalled godeshouse... Cambrige'; this is clearly the natural sequence of the actual foundation of the college by the king. In point of time, this last-quoted appeal to Henry VI belongs to the period of the next chapter, but it is introduced here as being complementary to the passport, or protection, issued by the duke of York, and as illustrative, along with the preceding documents, of Byngham's zealous care of the endowments. We have to return to the year 1447 to consider an effort he then made to extend the possessions of the college; this carries us to another petition to the king of which a contemporary copy3 remains in the muniment room. The copy is undated, but the tenour of the petition, supplemented by other internal evidence and the fact that the prayer of the petition was in part answered by the 1 The parliamentary records of this and earlier reigns bear eloquent testimony to the conditions in the marches, as in Rot. Parl. v, 155a, 27 H. VI. Cf. Commissions of the Peace, 1380-1485 (Bulletin of the Institute of Historical Research, vol. x, No. 29), p. 92. 1 The exceptional evidence yielded by documents preserved amongst the muniments of the college is produced and discussed infra, pp. 436 sqq. 3 Chr. Fend. A.

80

R O Y A L L I C E N C E OF 1446 A N D ITS P E R I O D

grant by letters patent of 3 September 1447,1 suggests a date in 1447 before September. The petition is here given in full: Pleise it you owr graciouse souereigne lord for to graunte theyse dire smale thyngs beneth foloying to your pouer prests and dayle bedmen William Byngham ordyner of the College of Godeshous in Cambryge and to maistres William Lychfelde William Millyngton William Guile and John Tilney with owt fyn or fe by your lettres patents ther of made by lernd concel of your lawe at dieyr awne propur costs the wich sayd Godeshous with all the gardynse there to belongyng your excellent heighnese desired for to have for enlargyng of your worthy College of our lade and seint Nicholase wheryn your sayd besecher Wilham Byngham made you astate after your blyssed desyre under promyse of recompensacyon made to hym by my lords of Salesbury and of Surf \ ffurst thavowson of a chirch that is not far frome Cambrige to thentent that the procuratour of Godeshous euermor for the tyme beyng may be person ther of and so both mynyster his cure and rewel the College of Godeshous the wich chirch is worth be yer abowt xix or xx marcs. Item thavowson of a chirch and the vicary ther of that was enproperd to a religiouse place in Itale be syd Rome and ietten to ferme for long yers to a religiouse place in Inglande the wich sayd place besyde Rome is vtterle desolate of religiouse persons and so ye ben entyded ther in by your comyn lawe of this your londe as your sayd besecher is enformed the wich chirch is worth be yer xiii or xiiii marcs. Item thavowson and the patronage of a priory Inglych wher in ben bot XX

iij old persons religiouse ij of theym eyther of iiij [i.e. fourscore] yers of age and lyke neuer to be mo of new made ther because of ruynoste febulnes of bygyng of the place and exilite of theyr Uflod wherfor they wold that it were anexed and put to relevyng of gramaryons in the sayd Godeshous if it pleise your grace to graunt that it may so be with license Also that your sayd besechers may gif the sayd avowsons with theyr appurtin' to the procuratour and scolers of the sayd College and to theyr successours. This petition was answered so far as its first request is concerned by the grant of Fendrayton, which had belonged to the abbey of Bon Repos and was then in the king's hands; there is the original and also a copy of the grant in the muniment room.* The 'religiouse place in Itale be syd Rome' named in the second request would suggest, as the only place answering the description, the hospital of the Holy Ghost in the Borgo Santo Spirito, founded for the benefit of the English, which 1 Chr. Fend. B; P.R. 3 September, 26 H. VL * Chr. Fend. B; printed in full infra, p. 360.

P E T I T I O N FOR F U R T H E R E N D O W M E N T

81

was sometimes called Hospitale Anglorum, sometimes St Mary de Saxia.1 But its English endowment, the church of Writtle, in Essex, given to this hospital by King John, had been bought from the hospital for the Warden and fellows of New College, Oxford, 14 Richard II.* About two years later than the date of Byngham's petition, on 26 January 1449,3 the College of Godshouse received the grant of the church of Navenby, Lincolnshire, which had belonged to the alien priory of St Martin de Sagio (Sees in Normandy), but which was claimed by the abbess and convent of Syon as against Godshouse. Has there been a confusion by Byngham between de Saxia and de Sagio; were the advowson and vicarage in the second request of the petition those of Navenby, and the religious place in England the convent of Syon ? The question can only be stated. The third request, that for the advowson and patronage of a priory English, was answered by the grant of the hospital or free chapel of St James in Magna Thurlow, which is clearly what Byngham had in mind in his petition. Priory English is used by him in contradistinction to alien priory and the use of priory for hospital need not disturb us. The words prior and priory were employed in the fifteenth century with much laxity4 and they should not be allowed to convey to us, save in clearly ascertained circumstances, a definite technical significance such as that we ascribe, e.g., to the words abbot and abbey. The heads of the Thurlow hospital are indifferently called masters, wardens, keepers, and Thomas Baker styles the heads of the hospital of St John Evangelist, Cambridge, 'Masters or Priors',5 Similarly Tanner writes: 'Besides the poor and impotent there generally were in these hospitals two or three Religious; one to be master or prior, and one or two to be chaplains and confessors; and these observed the Rule of St Austin \ 6 There could not be desired a closer approximation to Tanner's description of hospitals in general than Byngham's particular 'priory 1

St Mary de Saxia fulfils the requirement of Byngham's description; it was so ruinous that in 1471 it had to be rebuilt (P. Bonanni, Histoire du Clerge, etc. i, 330). 2 Monasticon, vi, 1057. 4 3 Chr. Gh. 9; infra, 372 sq. Cf. infra, pp. 401 sqq. 5 Thomas Baker, History of St John's College, p. 52. 6 Not. Mon. p. xxviii n. LHC

6

82

R O Y A L L I C E N C E OF 1446 A N D ITS P E R I O D

Inglych wher in ben bot iij old persons religiouse ij of theym eyther of fourscore yers of age and lyke neuer to be mo of new made ther because of ruynoste febulnes of bygyng of the place and exilite of theyr hflod', valuable only therefore for its exiguous endowment, its 135. 4J. per annum 'farm' with some wood thrown in, the whole having a conventional value of sixty shillings. The known conditions of the hospital of St James bear out Byngham's description; the Master in 1449 was that William Benet after whose death (or, doubtless, earlier compensation) the college was to enter into full possession, and as he was appointed Warden in 1409 he was likely to be one of those who in 1447 were fourscore years of age. The story of this decayed house seeking to be 'anexed and put to relevyng of gramaryons in the sayd Godeshous' presents a remarkable parallel to that of the Benedictine nuns of Rowney, who sought royal licence to convey their revenues to John Fray, that he might convert the nunnery into a chantry of one priest.1 The hospital of St James of Thurlow has an interest out of all proportion to its endowment value in 1449. Its history as related by Tanner 2 is meagre and it is repeated in the last (1846) edition of Monasticon without addition; even the recently published Victoria County History of Suffolk (vol. ii) adds but little to what is said by Tanner. This makes the contribution of the Christ's College documents of greater moment, and the account produced by their use and supplemented from other medieval sources will be found in the appendix.3 Byngham lost by death at this period several of those friends who had been connected with his work in founding and promoting Godshouse. The death of William Wymbill, Master of Clare Hall, in 1445, has already been mentioned.4 Early in August 1447, died Gilbert Worthyngton, S.T.P., parson of Saint Andrew in Holborn, 'a notable Clerke and a worthy prechour';5 Worthyngton's will 6 was proved 12 August and amongst his legacies were: 1 3 4 6

2 Infra, p. 394. Not. Mon. p. 532. Infra, pp. 412 sqq. Supra, p. 65. 5 Lon. Chron. p. 514. P.C.C. 35 Luffenam; v. infra, p. 399 sq.

D E A T H OF F R I E N D S

83

1

To the poor scholars of Godshouse in Cambridge 40s. To William Byngham, rector of St John Zachary, London, the book Gregorius super Ezechielem.

The commentary of St Gregory the Great upon the prophet Ezechiel was in the college library at Byngham's death,2 and, in 1486/7, Henry Sigar, questionist, deposited as his caution with the university proctors Gregorius super Ezechielem, whose second folio began eodem libro.l John Cote, or Coote, 'parson of Seint Petre in Cornhull', London ('And in the same yere [1447] dyed a worthy Clerke and a grete prechoure called Cote, parson of Seint Petres in CornhilT*), had been concerned with Byngham in various matters affecting Godshouse, and his interest in education in London is clearly shewn in his petition to parliament, made with three others, to be allowed to establish further schools despite the opposition of vested interests.5 His death is referred to in various documents of Godshouse, e.g. in the letters patent given by Henry VI on 16 April 1448.6 William Lychefeld died in 1448, before 5 May,? than which no more exact date is possible. Stow writes of him: 8 'there remaineth in the Quier [All hallows the More] some plates on graue stones, namely of William Lichfield, Doctor of Diuinitie, who deceased the yeare 1448, hee was a great student, and compiled many bookes both moral and diuine, in prose and in verse, namely one intituled the complaint of God unto sinfull man. He made in his time 3083 Sermons as appeared by his owne hand writing and were found when hee was dead'. The story of his association with Byngham and of other incidents in his life will be found in the appendix.9 But if the 'ordainer' of Godshouse was losing those old alike in friendship and in years, he was winning younger friends to the college, of whom one, John Hurte, he had intended to present to the living of Helpston as we have already seen. Hurte's name appears, along with that of Millyngton, in a grant, dated 2 February 1446, of a property in Preacher Street, which did not then come to the college but was 1 a 4 6 8

Of this use of poor, cf. infra, p. 356, n. 2. Chr. Gh. Ab. 3 GB. A, p. 208; cf. infra, p. 201 sq. Lon. Chron. p. 514. Infra, p. 362. Stow, i, 235.

5 Supra, p. 11. 7 Chr. Fend. C. 9 Infra, p. 397 sq. 6-2

84

R O Y A L L I C E N C E O F 1446 A N D ITS P E R I O D

presented to it by Dr Thompson, the third Master of Christ's. This property was an inn known as' the Brazen George', for many years used as an extension of the college, and still remaining, though no longer an inn of either academical or general character, a valuable item in the endowments of the college. The preservation of this grant, with Hurte's name as one of the feoffees, may not indicate a contemporary connection of Hurte with Godshouse, such as might foreshadow his subsequent proctorship; its presence amongst the muniments is more probably due to its place among the title-deeds of' the Brazen George' property when that came into the possession of the college seventy years later. Another contemporary who died in the year 1447 was John Langton, in whose relationship with Byngham there is nothing to liken to friendship. He had been appointed to the bishopric of St David's, probably in recognition of his services to Henry Vl's college of the blessed Virgin and St Nicholas, and died within a few days of his consecration. The reference in the London Chronicle1 is 'And in the same yere died maister Langton, Bisshopp of Seint Davyes'. To this period belongs the first bill of account3 that has been discovered. It is an indenture on paper and concerns the property of the alien priory of Chepstow only; as it relates to the four years ending 29 September 1447, before the college had become a corporate body, it is appropriately made out to William Byngham. It is in Latin, much abbreviated, and employs roman numerals; it has seemed advisable to translate the document and to present it with arabic numerals and in a form more readily understandable than the original: 1

Lon. Chrott. p. 514. He was living, apparently, on 19 May 1447, when his name appears in the charter of Queens' College (Ch. Roll 35/26, H. vi, 33). His contemporaries had mixed opinions as to his worth for, while his executor would have had prayers for his soul in King's College Chapel, as for a benefactor of that house, a record preserved in the King's College muniment room (Camb. Box No. 3) declares him to have been in debt to more than £300 to the college when he died (William Millington, by George Williams, C.A.S. Communications, i, 287 sqq.). Langton entered into a bond dated 20 November 1446 to pay 100 marks if he did not make certain streets as he had undertaken in consideration of the surrender to him by the mayor and burgesses of certain properties. The streets were to be made before Easter 1447, and Thomas Fordeham, baker, was joined with Langton in the bond (Bor. Arch. Box x). 2 Chr. Misc. C, 14.

A BILL OF ACCOUNT

85

Thomas Derehurste accounts by this indentured bill for divers monies by him received for William Byngham from the feast of saint Michael the xxijnd year [1443] to the same feast the xxvjth year [1447]. Item received for the portion of the tithes of Baggeworth for £ s. d. the same period, namely, for four years at 405. per year. 8 0 0 Item for the portion of the tithes of Dounehatherley for the same period, namely, for four years at 20.?. per year. 4 0 0 Item for the rent of Robert Branche1 for the same period, namely, for four years at 75. 180 Item [blank] of John ffeld for one year in the same place 4 0 Item of the vicar of Holy Trinity for William Symonds 5 o Total

13 17 o

Of which he accounts Item of monies admitted to have been delivered by .£ s. d. the aforesaid Thomas to the same William, namely 4 0 0 Item in divers payments made at the assizes at Gloucester2 1 16 0 Item for tithes paid for William Symonds 3 4 Item he accounts for xxs. paid to the same William Byngham by the hands of William Symonds for the farmer of Baggeworth 1 0 0 And he owes Whereof the farmer of Baggeworth owes for the last year xls. 2 0 0 Item for allowance to the same accounter for his attention during the same period 1 11 o And he owed net five marcs which he paid when accounting 3 6 8

£

s. d.

6 19 4 617

8

6 17 8

And is quit Memorandum. That the farmer of Baggeworth, namely the prior of Lanthony, owes as above xls. Item John ffeld owes altogether for four years at the price of iiijs. as above for one year. 1 2

Bramiche in Chr. Gh. L; v. supra, p. 59. The inquisition there 3 November 1444, v. supra, p. 59 sq.

Chapter THE FOUNDATION CHARTER OF THE COLLEGE OF GODSHOUSE AND ITS PERIOD

T

he editors of Documents relating to the University and Colleges of Cambridge have published, in vol. iii,1 several Charters of God's House, including the documents dated 9 February 1442,1 March 1442, 26 August 1446. That those royal documents are styled charters with no less justification than this of 1448 is readily admitted, but as they were charters giving licence to found which was not exercised, they have been generally designated licences in the preceding chapters, while the compound term 'Foundation Charter' 2 has been reserved for the royal charter dated 16 April 1448, which, while it gave licence to the Proctor and scholars to do many things which without licence they might not lawfully do, and gave licence also to many persons, named and unnamed, to do many things for the benefit of the college which without licence they might not lawfully do, did especially, and above all things else, found the college. The essential difference may be seen from comparison of the forms of words used respectively in the royal licence of 26 August 1446 and the foundation charter of 16 April 1448, now being considered. The 1446 document declares: We have conceded and given licence for ourselves our heirs and successors to the aforesaid William Byngham and Masters William Lychfeld WilliamvMillyngton William Guile Gilbert Worthyngton John Cote.. .John Tilney... and John Horley... and any other person or persons nominated for this purpose by the said William Byngham.. .that they might make create incorporate erect unite ordain establish and found.. .in the aforesaid two cottages or tenement and the tenement sometime belonging to the abbess of Denney with the gardens adjacent...a perpetual college of a Proctor and scholars.. .for all future time. The 1448 document declares: We have erected founded created and by the tenour of these presents we found and make we erect create and establish a perpetual college for all future 1 2

Op. cit. 155-74For the technical definition of a charter strictly so-called v. Maxwell-Lyte, p. 234.

C O N T R A S T E D W I T H L I C E N C E OF 1446

87

time.. .and we have instituted and appointed William Byngham.. .Proctor of that same college and John Lincoln, John Pycard, Robert Milton and Richard Corlus upon the nomination of the said William Byngham scholars of the same college (omitting the references to the Tiltey and Denney tenements and other unessential details). The licence of 1446 (or its predecessors) if it had been acted upon would have become the foundation charter upon which the corporate rights, powers, privileges and obligations would have been based, and by which the future history of the college in face of the outside world would have been controlled. These licences were not acted upon, by the deliberate intent of Byngham, and at his request they were superseded by the king's own foundation of the College of Godshouse in actual fact and in his own name by the foundation charter of 16 April 1448. As matters of history the royal licences had their value, and they were recited by successive sovereigns, down to Henry VII, in their charters of confirmation; as evidence of title to properties they were produced when necessary in courts of law after the date of the foundation charter as they had been so used in the years which preceded its issue. Though the date of the royal charter is 16 April 1448, there is evidence that its substance had been agreed upon at an earlier date. On 1 March in that year its issue had been anticipated in the release by Byngham to his co-feoffees of the Helpston, Fendrayton, Tiltey and Denney properties,1 but there remain moreover, in the muniment room, some sheets which are undoubtedly a draft of the foundation charter itself.2 The draft is incomplete and rough, but identifiable, and it is one of those early stages through which every such document must pass before it can finally emerge as a royal authority clothed with the assent of the king's council or his parliament, as the case may be. It is the applicant alone who knows what he requires and he, or his lawyer, must set down his wants in writing before he can reasonably ask for their consideration by the sovereign or, rather, by the officials through whom the sovereign must be approached and by whom his will is finally to be known. It was the practice therefore of colleges, monasteries, other 1 This release is explained infra, p. 96 sq. 2 Chr. Gh. 3.

88

F O U N D A T I O N C H A R T E R OF G O D S H O U S E

corporations and private individuals when seeking to obtain royal letters patent, or other evidences in writing of the favours they sought, to bring the facts before a clerk learned in the law, in London, to be by him set out in the form required by precedent. The draft would be taken to the appropriate office with the accompanying petition, where it would be the subject, possibly, of further amendment before it found its way to the royal chamber. Many draft documents accompanying their respective petitions are to be found in the Public Record Office in the classes of Chancery Warrants and Ancient Petitions.1 This draft has particular interest in those of its details which will be found described on a subsequent page; 2 here it is mentioned as additional evidence that the foundation charter, to which it was preliminary, had been the subject of negotiations whose final outcome had been foreseen and which must have been initiated in the year 1447. The charter's special interest lies in the testimony it bears to the foundation of the college by Henry VI himself, which was the predominant factor in the concern taken by the Lady Margaret in the fortunes of Godshouse, leading to that great bounty which accompanied her alteration of the style of its name to Christ's College. In form, Godshouse was equally the foundation of Henry VI as was his greater college of the blessed Mary the virgin and St Nicholas the confessor. In substance there were differences; it neither enjoyed his equal interest nor attracted an equal share of his royal bounty. The greatest ultimate advantage to Godshouse of its foundation by King Henry VI, the influence that fact had in attracting the Lady Margaret's bounty, cannot be attributed to intentional foresight by Byngham. We may assume that the Proctor desired the royal foundation for the sake of the protection it might be expected to provide for the college against officers of the crown and less powerful potential challengers of its rights and possessions. We may suppose more particularly that Byngham desired, by sheltering his house under the protection of royal foundation, to ward off contentions directed by various interested parties against those items of the college's endow1 For further details v. Maxwell-Lyte, pp. 90,223 sqq.; cf. Priv. Counc. vi, pp. xc sqq. * Infra, pp. 92 sqq.

E X T E N T OF T H E F O U N D E R ' S B O U N T Y

89

ment which were derived from the former revenues of alien priories. Some such reason is attributed to Archbishop Chichele in associating Henry VI with himself in the foundation of All Souls College,1 and Byngham may have profited by that example. It has proved impossible to discover the extent of the king's gifts to Godshouse, or even to form an approximate estimate of their value. So far as they consisted of such revenues as required confirmation by letters patent they are known in full, and are referred to above and hereafter in detail; their sum is not very great. So far as they took the form of money they are not known at all, and the lack of evidence of such gifts, in the college and national archives alike, tends to indicate their non-existence. There is one recently discovered piece of evidence, however, which suggests the contrary. In the draft of the tripartite agreement,* between the Lady Margaret, the University and the College of Godshouse, there occurs the statement: 'And so it is that the said holy blessed king henry after the tyme he had provided the grounde for the said Colleige'. Provided ought to imply bearing the expense of acquiring the 'grounde' by gift of the money paid for it, since the actual conveyances of the site were from the former owners direct to Byngham and others. It would not be profitable to pursue the matter, but this item ofnew evidence had to be produced in fairness to Henry VI, whose part in the college's foundation has not always had reasonable recognition. The inability of the king to do his part in providing adequate endowment for Godshouse awakened the pious compassion of his niece, who felt herself to be 'heir to all King Henry VI's godly intentions' ;3 her son, Henry VII, seems to have assumed similar responsibilities relative to the greater foundation of King's College,* his total contributions to the fabric of the chapel, in his lifetime and by will, amounting to £11,700. 1

E. F.Jacob in Bulletin of the John Rylands Library, vol. xvi, No. 2 (July 1932), p. 4651 Chr. Misc. A, 34; cf. infra, p. 287. : The History ofthe University of Cambridge, by Thomas Fuller (Prickett and Wright, 1840), p. 181.

* W. and C. i, 475-8; Will of Henry VII, ed. Thomas Astle.

90 FOUNDATION CHARTER OF GODSHOUSE This foundation charter, so pregnant of ultimate outcome of good to Godshouse, is not published in Documents relating to the University and Colleges of Cambridge, nor is it mentioned in Cooper's Annals, in both cases, probably, for the reason that the charter is not found enrolled upon the patent rolls; it is briefly summarised in Memorials of Cambridge.1 It is referred to in the confirmations to the college by subsequent monarchs, notably by Henry VII,S in whose charter to Christ's College 3 it is recited largely, though not in extenso. Fortunately, the letters patent themselves are still preserved in the muniment room of the college,4 and it is that document which has been here transcribed and published for the first time. Despite its importance, greater perhaps than that attaching to any other document before those of the Lady Margaret's period, the charter has so many features in common with the licence of 26 August 1446 that it will be unnecessary, seeing that it is printed in full in the appendix,5 to do more in this chapter than refer to the major points in which it supplements or varies the licence of two years before: The letters patent of 26 August 1446 are summarised and Worthyngton and Cote are referred to as now deceased. Those letters patent notwithstanding, Byngham had intimated to the king that he had deferred the foundation of the college until the present day [16 April 26th year], for the reason that he desired with all the ardent longing of his heart that the king might merit the increase of his glory and reward in yonder heavenly country through his personal foundation of the said College of Godeshouse, and humbly besought the king to carry out the business in his own proper person in reality. The king therefore, observing by divine inspiration that the founders of sacred places are most faithfully commended by the prayers and intercessions of the same, before all the other benefactors, and enjoy the same intercessions almost as firstfruits for ever, and being resolved to alleviate by prayers and devotions the great dangers weighing upon his shoulders for himself and the realm entrusted to him by God for his active government, the king graciously assented to the prayers and supplications of the said William Byngham, who was then more instandy urging his royal highness that he should deign to found a perpetual college of a Proctor and certain scholars in grammar and the other liberal faculties in his town of Cambridge, to study and to pray for the healthful state of 1 3

ii, 6 sq. Documents, iii, 127 sqq.

s

Conf. Roll, 2 H. VII, i, 15. 4 5 Chr. Gh. Q. Infra, pp. 361 sqq.

SUMMARY OF THE CHARTER

91

the king and of William Byngham himself as long as they should live, and for their souls when they should have departed from this light, and for the souls of the most illustrious parents and progenitors of the king, sometime kings and queens of England, and for the souls of the parents of the said William Byngham, and of the other benefactors of the same college and of all the faithful departed. The college was to be founded (1) in the tenement lately of the abbot of Tiltey, (2) in the tenement lately of the abbess of Denney, (3) in the messuage with its appurtenances in the parish of Holy Trinity, next the tenement of John Beere of which it was a parcel, situate almost opposite the acqueduct of the friars minor in Cambridge, (4) also in a certain tenement lying at the south end of the garden of the college called Peteres House, abutting upon the king's way called Trumpyngton Strete at its eastern extremity and upon the common pastures of Cambridge, which tenement belonged lately to the prior and convent of the white canons of the order of St Gilbert of the order of Sempringham in Cambridge, all of which properties William Byngham acquired for the erection and foundation of the said college therein by the king. On account of William Byngham's pious intention and long-continued labours and diligence, the innumerable outlays and expenses already made and incurred and to be made and incurred by him in the future, the king wished him with his heirs and successors to be considered and named second founders of the college. The king had founded in the said messuage and tenement and in any part or parts of the same and in the sense of these letters patent did erect, found, create, make and establish a college for all future times, appointing William Byngham Proctor thereof and John Lincoln, litteratus, and John Pycard, Robert Milton and Richard Corlus, priests, scholars of the college upon the nomination of William Byngham. The statutes were to be made by Byngham, by Lychefeld, Millyngton, Guile and John Holand,1 professors of sacred theology, and John Hurte and Robert Scolyse, bachelors in the same, and/or any others thereto nominated by Byngham. The king conceded that the Proctor and scholars so accepted and appointed by him, and their successors, might elect other scholars in accordance with the statutes to the number of sixty or less, and that on the death, cession or removal for any cause of the Proctor, the scholars should have power to elect another fit man in his place to be confirmed as Proctor by the Chancellor for the time being of the university, not by the king himself his heirs or successors, and so on, as occasion should arise, to elect others to be so confirmed without licence had or sought from the king, his heirs or successors, in perpetuity. On the death or cession of the scholars appointed by the king or any other scholars, the Proctor and scholars were given power freely to elect others 1 Cf. Venn; we may add that he was a fellow of Michaelhouse (Otryngham, p. 78, 2 June 1444).

92

FOUNDATION CHARTER OF GODSHOUSE

in their place to be admitted and confirmed by the Proctor for the time being without licence from the king and so in perpetuity, those so elected becoming Proctors, scholars and members of the college so founded by the king. The college was to be called the College of Godeshouse in Cambridge in perpetuity and the Proctor and scholars to be known and styled the Proctor and scholars of the College of Godeshouse in Cambridge. The king granted that in the event of a vacancy in the proctorship, the income and profits of all the possessions of the college should be retained by the scholars to be disposed of according to the statutes instead of reverting or being accounted for to the king, his heirs or successors. The king gave special licence to the Proctor and scholars to exchange with the prior of Tiltey and the abbess of Denney and the prior of Saint Edmund of Sempringham respectively, without fee or fine great or small, lands or rents, etc. equal in annual value to the rents charged upon their former properties now held by the college and the like licence to the abbot and abbess and'prior. When licence is given to Millyngton, Guile, Tylney and any others to give properties and incomes to the college of the annual value of ^"300 clear the names are added of 'a certain Anna, Prioress of the Priory of St James of Hynchyngbroke.. .and the Convent of the same place near Brampton, and Sara Beket of Canterbury'. Licence is given to the Proctor and scholars to receive and hold properties of all kinds up to a total annual value of £300 clear and to exchange them for any others. The charter ends with very full protection against the effect of errors, claims by officers of the king and others, against the statute of mortmain and the like as in the 26 August 1446 licence. The draft of letters patent submitted in the course of the negotiations for this foundation charter has been referred to above (p. 88 sq.); three disconnected passages are here translated. (1) Whereas however as is not unknown to us, not only by the intimation of divers of our household at our side, but also by the living utterance and assertion of the same William Byngham, from which it is clear that Byngham had friends about the king's person who were willing to advance his cause as opportunity served and that he himself had been given the privilege of an audience of the king in the course of which he pleaded the case of his college. (2) According to the ordinances and statutes of William Byngham and Masters William Lychfcld William Millyngton William Guile Robert

A PRELIMINARY DRAFT

93

Wodlark John Tylney lately fellows of the College of Clare Hall in Cambridge aforesaid whom he ever found prompt, together with the master of the same now deceased,1 to aid the promotion of the aforesaid College of Godeshous, from which it would appear that these negotiations were set on foot while Lychefeld was yet alive, and he was, as before, included amongst those deputed to make statutes, but his name was struck through hi the draft, as shewn, presumably because of the reference to fellows of Clare, which was not the case of Lychefeld, who was a Peterhouse man. In its place was inserted Robert Wodlark's name, but that does not appear in the charter itself while the name of Lychefeld does. We find Wodlark's name in two Godshouse documents, one of 18 June 1446,* the other 17 May 1448.3 His early history is not known with any certainty; he is said to have been esquire bedell circa 1440,4 but no authority is quoted, and the earliest date otherwise ascribed to him comes from the statement that he was one of the first fellows of King's College. 5 It is all the more interesting to learn from these draft letters patent that Robert Wodlark, third provost of King's and founder of St Catharine's Hall, was formerly a fellow of Clare,6 as was also William Millyngton, the first rector and the first provost of King's. The tribute of esteem and gratitude paid by Byngham to the Master and fellows of Clare in the closing lines of excerpt (2) is even more pronounced in (3): (3) Also the Master and scholars or fellows of Clare Hall aforesaid and their successors at the special request of the said William Byngham we wish to be named as second founders of the same college. The king did not consent to this last request; he reserved the distinction 1

William Wymbill, d. 1445. Chr. Camb. D. 3 Chr. Camb. N. 4 Hist. Reg. p. 60; Memorials, i, 329. 5 Reg. Reg. 1st ed. 1774, under 'Preliminary Observations'. The value of this statement is at least doubtful. Cloos and Holand, who are also stated to be of the first fellows, were certainly fellows of Michaelhouse as late as 2 June 1444 (Otryngham, p. 78). 6 Cf. Lloyd, p. 38 sq. 3

94

F O U N D A T I O N CHARTER OF G O D S H O U S E

of second founder for Byngham, his heirs and successors, leaving to the Master and fellows of Clare such advantage as they might derive from the knowledge of Byngham's affectionate gratitude, and from whatever place they might have in the prayers for 'other benefactors'. Important as this adoption and foundation by the king in his own name of Byngham's college must seem to us, it is necessary to view it in proper perspective. The training of scholars for the degree of master in grammar and, after 26 April 1446, if not before, for degrees in the other liberal faculties also, was not affected by the formality of the issue of a charter of foundation. Even in the buildings near Clare, where fifty or more residents lived at one and the- same time, the revenues were received, the fellows or scholars were boarded and lodged, and such payments as were due made; and there is no reason to suppose that the academical life which the scholars came up to pursue suffered any jar or experienced any enlargement upon the receipt of the charter. Byngham, ordainer of the College of Godshouse,1 became Proctor of the College of Godshouse, as he might have been, if he had chosen to use his earlier licences, at any time from 1442 onwards, and Lincoln, Htteratus, Pycard, Milton and Corlus, priests, were henceforth scholars of the same College of Godshouse without change to any of them in academical status. The real importance is to be found in the change produced by the charter in external relationships; in the emergence of a corporate body from a number of individuals whose one common link was William Byngham. He had obtained concessions for specific purposes and had secured the additions of other names as co-licensees, not so much to protect the king who gave the licence, nor the persons to be served by its exercise, from abuse of his powers by Byngham, as to secure the latter's purpose against failure in the event of his premature death. The charter of the king brought the body corporate into existence; on 16 April 1448, the parties named in the charter became thereby The Proctor and Scholars of the College of Godshouse in Cambridge in very fact and deed, clothed with all the powers and privileges and weighted 1 As in his petition of 1447, supra, p. 80; Chr. Fend. A.

T H E SEALS

95

with all the responsibihties set forth in the letters patent. The title of ordainer which, as we have found,1 was used of Byngham to express his anomalous position was employed in documents for the last time on 3 September 1447, in the letters patent of the king granting the patronage and advowson of the parish church of Fendrayton for the use of the college when the same shall have been founded. The ordainership was now, by the foundation charter, dissolved into two parts, one of which went to the king as founder, the other passing to Byngham as Proctor, which, in relation to all matters pertaining to the college, was the style by which he was henceforth known. The first requirement of the society was a common seal by which alone the college could transact business, a requirement so immediately necessary as to have been provided for, we may be sure, in advance. The college had, as was frequently the case with corporations, two seals, the foundation seal, used for matters of high importance, and the seal 'ad causas', used for the completion of more frequent affairs of minor business character. Both these seals have survived, the first in impression, the second in matrix; the late Sir William Hope 3 believed the matrix of the foundation seal to be in existence but he was, as is the college, ignorant of its whereabouts. A fine impression, somewhat broken at the sides, remains in the muniment room; one equally good, and fortunately complete, is in the collection ofthe Fitzwilliam Museum, from which the illustration has been taken by the kind permission of the Director. There is an impression in the museum also of the seal 'ad causas', but the matrix itself is in the possession of the college, not in its continuous physical possession since 1448 but returned to it after an absence of many days. It was found at BiUinghay,3 Lincolnshire, in 1869, and for many years was in the possession of the suffragan of Nottingham. It has since been restored to the custody of Christ's College. The illustration of the seal 'ad causas' is from an impression taken ad hoc from the matrix. 1

Supra, p. 57. * Proc. Soc. Ant. Ser. ii, x, 239. Billinghay has no connection with the college but it is only ten miles away from Navenby, where the college has had the advowson of the church since 1449 and was intended to have the right to appropriate. 3

96

F O U N D A T I O N C H A R T E R OF G O D S H O U S E

W. H. St John Hope, writing in 1885, describes the foundation seal in the words: Circular, ig inch diameter. Subject: Per fess, in chief the Ascension, in base the Nativity. Legend: Sigillum commune collegii de godeshous cantebrigie; and the seal ad causas in the words: Circular, if inch diameter. Matrix brass. Subject: A small gabled building, representing the 'God's House'. In base is a seven-leaved flower, and in chief what appears to be intended for the Ascension, under the form of two feet disappearing in die clouds. Legend: Sigillum: de: godeshouse: catebrigie: ad: causas.1 It might appear from the quoted words of Sir William Hope that the house is a representation of the actual building of Godshouse. In reality, it is a canting design, meant to produce the name of the college in its two component parts; a house in simple form, and, above, the Ascension of the everliving Christ, who in the middle of the fifteenth century was ordinarily 'God'. 2 This interpretation was probably in Sir William Hope's mind; it is emphasised here for the reason that the writer has been asked the question, relative to the seal's reproduction in the stained glass of the hall window of the college, 'Is that to be regarded as a sketch of our earliest building?' Sir William Hope attributes the two seals to 1442, because he, in common with all others, assumed the college to have been founded then. They are, however, the seals of 1448, when the college first became a corporation and so, for the first time in its history, needed seals. Provided with its seals, the college would be concerned to take over, as speedily as might'be possible, the various properties held for its benefit by Byngham and his co-feoffees. This involved the execution of a large number of documents (not seldom several for one small property) and the observance in many cases of the formality of taking seisin, i.e. the taking of physical possession, often reduced to such a symbolic form as the delivery and receipt of a sod of turf. Byngham being a feoffee, the first thing to be done was for him to divest himself as an individual of his legal ownership by releasing his rights hi the 1

W. H. St J. Hope, be, cit.

a

Cf. infra, pp. 345 sqq.

A L T E R N A T I V E SITES

97

several properties to his co-feoffees, who were then in a position to grant the properties to Byngham, qua Proctor, and the scholars of the College of Godshouse. This process was complicated by two facts: the properties were not all held in the names of the same feoffees, and many of the feoffees were resident at a distance. Such absentee feoffees had to give power of attorney to someone else to act on their behalf, and persons such as Richard, duke of York, John, viscount Beaumont, William, bishop of Salisbury, are obviously amongst those likely to be in that category; the college has many such letters of attorney amongst its title-deeds. We find these elaborate but necessary arrangements for putting the Proctor and scholars of the college into legal possession in a long series, beginning with Byngham's anticipatory release to his co-feoffees on 1 March 1448,1 and continuing as late as 23 June 1449.2 The charter provides for the building of the college upon the Tiltey and Denney properties, as did the licence of 1446, but it names the property formerly part of the tenement ofJohn Beere in Holy Trinity parish, and also a tenement at the south end of the garden of Peterhouse, as places upon which it may be erected. These two properties are not named in any of the earlier licences, nor is there any evidence that the power now granted to use them was ever exercised; it is desirable therefore to consider what purpose could have been served by their appearance here. The situation of the messuage formerly part of the tenement of John Beere and of that formerly belonging to the white canons of St Gilbert and situated to the south of Peterhouse are discussed above.3 Since they do not appear in any other document remaining in the college muniment room, it may be assumed that, when the charter of 16 April 1448 was issued, Byngham was not assured that he would be able to get for the purpose of the college sufficient land immediately adjoining the Tiltey and Denney properties, and therefore wished to have other strings to his bow, and so included the Beere and white canons properties in the letters patent to avoid having recourse to further letters if it 1

Chr. Camb. K. * Chr. Fend. B, C; Camb. M, N; Help. I; Gk W, X; Mon. A, B. 3 Supra, p. 69 sq. IHC

7

98

F O U N D A T I O N C H A R T E R OF G O D S H O U S E

chanced that these properties had to be used. The other possibility is that Byngham wished to build upon the Tiltey and Denney sites and meant to continue to use the other two properties until the new buildings were ready for occupation. In either case the inclusion of these outside places in the letters patent was desirable, and the fact that no deeds of title relating to them are to be found in the muniment room suggests that they were sold, possibly as soon as it was found that further properties could be acquired in Preacher Street. It is important that the Gilbertine property at the south end of the Peterhouse garden should not be confused with the tenement of that same priory in Preacher Street, sold to Godshouse in 1456, which has formed part of the site of the college ever since. Two other matters not self-explanatory referred to in the foundation charter, and only there, are the granting of licence to Anna, prioress of St James of'Hynchyngbroke', and the convent there, and to Sara Beket of Canterbury, to give additional endowment to the college. The priory was a small house of Benedictine nuns; it is said to have been removed to Hinchingbrooke from Eltisley, Cambridgeshire, by William the Conqueror, who therefore came to be regarded as the founder. Its remains he embedded in Hinchingbrooke House by Huntingdon, the seat of the earl of Sandwich, to whose ancestor, Sir Sidney Montague, the property was conveyed in 1627 by Sir Oliver Cromwell, grandson of Sir Richard Williams, alias Cromwell, the grantee in 1538, following the suppression of the house in 1536.l Anna, living in 1448 on the authority of the Godshouse charter, must be the Anne Chesterford who died in 1449.* It may have been that her death frustrated the fruition of the transaction that had been contemplated between her priory and the college. The clear yearly value 3 of the house at the Dissolution is given as ^ 1 7 . is. 4
Monastkon, iv, 388. 3 Monastkon, be. cit.

* V.C.H. i, 390.

SARA B E K E T

99

Sara Beket's connection with Godshouse is reflected in two documents and their duplicates preserved among the college records. The interest of the college was in a reversion, in certain circumstances, of a tenement known as Le Blakbole in Canterbury, but, apparently, nature intervened adversely to the interests of Godshouse, for the Canterbury property never reached the college. The documents do not tell the complete story, but they and their implications have been combined in the following reconstruction. One Robert Beket, citizen and notary public of Canterbury, dying some months, or even years, before August 1436, named as executors of his will (not discovered) his wife Sara, Thomas Mome and William Byngham, upon whom rested the charge of providing for the weal of his soul. Byngham, then contemplating the foundation of his college at Cambridge, proposed that institution for study and for prayer as the medium through which the executors might best discharge their duty, but Sara preferred immediate to deferred benefits for her husband's soul, and the resourceful Byngham made use of his friends, the Master and fellows of Clare Hall. It was arranged that Robert Beket's soul should be prayed for at Clare, and the Master, William Wymbill, and the fellows of that college received in consideration thereof, as bailees for Byngham and the College of Godshouse when it should be erected, a bond from Sara Beket pledging her to pay the sum of ^100 to them or their successors; this bond was dated 8 August 1436, and was executed before the mayor of the Staple at Westminster. In the course of the executorship there was vested in Sara, Thomas Mome and Byngham the legal ownership of a tenement in Canterbury called Le Blakbole, lying in the parish of St Mary Bredman between the inns known as the George, the Mitre and the Crown, with adjacent gardens injury Lane; when Sara had given bond by which the good estate of Robert's soul was satisfactorily provided for, her co-executors released to her their legal title in Le Blakbole. The formal foundation of Byngham's college on 16 April 1448, as the King's College of Godshouse in Cambridge, provided the appropriate occasion for calling upon Sara Beket to implement her bond, and the mention of her name in the charter indicates the intention, or at least the possibility, of her giving property 7-2

ioo F O U N D A T I O N C H A R T E R O F G O D S H O U S E to the college in discharge of her liability; but she appears to have found it inconvenient to do so and, after a delay of two years, she proposed, and Byngham and his friends accepted, a most speculative gamble in its place. Sara bound herself, by an indenture dated 16 April 1450,1 to William Wolflet [Wilflete], then Master of Clare, to execute her will and testament, to be enrolled in the court of the mayor and bailiffs of Canterbury, leaving Le Blakbole to her son Richard with reversion, if he should die without heirs of his body, to the Proctor and scholars of the College of Godshouse at Cambridge on condition of the payment by the college, within four years of succeeding to the property, of the sum of ^ 1 0 to two of her grand-daughters if they attained the full age of twenty years or became professed religious. If Sara so made her will she was to have back her bond for nothing. The will was executed and bears the date of 26 May 1450.* Sara made Thomas Mome, William Byngham, John Hurte and Robert Wodlark her executors, leaving to them all her goods and chattels not otherwise disposed of, charging them to provide for prayers for the souls of Robert and Sara Beket, William Byngham, Henry Romworth, their parents and benefactors and all the faithful departed; she left them 35. <\d. for their labours. And she received back for nothing her bond for J£IOO as agreed. Whether her son Richard Beket had heirs of his body, and so defeated the will honourably, or whether the fulfilment of this untrustee-like arrangement failed for lack of that watchful care for its observance by the Proctor for the time being, which it would have had from Byngham, had he survived, remains hidden. It is clear that Sara Beket's business talents were wasted in her domestic life in Canterbury, and the Proctor's zeal for the interests of the college should assure us that his acquiescence in this scheme would be due to such considerations as making the best of a bad job. Many instances have already been quoted of Byngham's assiduous care for the endowments, and others are found shewing its continuance. 1

Chr. Gh. Y. * Chr. Gh. Z ; this and Y are chirograph deeds in duplicate, both parts of each being among the college records, presumably, because the Clare responsibility ceased with the execution of the will.

A C T OF R E S U M P T I O N OF 1450

101

Thus, on 8 December 1450 he entered into an arrangement, recorded in a chirograph indenture,1 with Harry ap Griffith, 'Squyer and lord of Penewe maner otherwise called the new place by the abbey of Dore in the marche of Wales', recording that' "William Byngham Proctour, of the Kynges College of Goddeshouse of Cambridge' had delivered to Harry ap Griffith an indenture of one John ap Hopkyn to whom 'the Personag of Trellage had been graunted and leten to ferine' together with John ap Hopkyn's bond in the sum of .£10 to carry out his covenants under the lease. Here it is obvious that Byngham had obtained through one of his powerful friends an introduction to a local 'acoyntance' to secure his oversight of the college interests,in those outlandish parts of the realm where the king's 'comyn law hase no cowrs'.* In this year (1450) we discover Byngham's hand in his dealing with the first of those Acts of Resumption which for many years vexed this and other colleges and religious houses. Parliament, as representing the tax-payers groaning under the cost of providing for the foreign wars, petitioned the king to take back into his hands those gifts which had been made by him and his predecessors of lands, tenements, rents and other income and to use them for the purpose of discharging debts and to provide income to the relief of the people. The petition of the Commons excluded from their proposals certain institutions, notably those religious houses and colleges in which the king was personally interested, such as his college at Eton and that of the blessed Mary the virgin and Saint Nicholas the confessor in Cambridge; in giving his assent, the king made other exceptions. In later years, and under subsequent proctorships, Godshouse had to petition, after the event, for exclusion from such acts, and in one such case an oversight must have cost the college dear; but in 1450 Byngham, whether of his own initiative or upon the instigation of one of his friends about parliament or the court, seems to have procured the insertion of the exclusion of Godshouse in the act itself. The act is 1

Chr. Gh. 13. It is probable that this was the duke of York's seneschal who issued the safeconduct in his lordships to Byngham and others on 14 July 1447 as recorded in the previous chapter (p. 77). Henry Griffith, as he there styled himself, is the anglicised form of Harry ap Griffith. 1

102 F O U N D A T I O N C H A R T E R OF G O D S H O U S E printed in Rotuli Parliamentorum,1 and a contemporary transcript of that part which is relevant to Godshouse is preserved in the muniment room; * it had effect as from Lady Day 1451. The words 'oure College' used by the king before 'Goodehouse' in the act are employed in only six other cases (Eton and Ring's appear in another section): Syon; St Stephen in Westminster Palace; 'The Oriell Oxinford'; King's Hall, Cambridge; 'Foderinghey'; 'Susters Meneresses without Algate': and is indicative of the king's complete recognition of Godshouse as his own foundation. The style 'The King's College of Godshouse in Cambridge' was in constant use in the documents made in and after 1448, and none in that age had any lack of recognition of the facts. This is plainly seen in the royal charter of Henry VII, where the official style is declared to be ' Christ's College in the University of Cambridge by Henry the sixth King of England first begun and after his decease by Margaret countess of Richmond mother of King henry the seventh augmented finished and stablished', and is so used in that document throughout thereafter. In face of the chronological facts, it is as difficult to justify the place given to Christ's College in the list ofColleges in the University Calendar, as it is to understand, in view of the rank of its successive founders, its position in the presentation of its members to degrees in the Senate House. Two pieces of endowment, perhaps made by the personal bounty of Henry VI, were given to the college after its foundation by him and confirmed by letters patent bearing date 26 January 1449; they were the advowson of the church of Navenby, Lincolnshire, and the hospital or free chapel of St James, in the parish of Magna Thurlow, Suffolk. The letters patent granting these increases to the college are not found enrolled on the patent rolls of their year, though they are mentioned in the successive letters patent of subsequent kings; it is therefore doubly fortunate that the original is preserved in the muniment room. 3 It is in a bad state, the professional cataloguer had marked it 'too faded to be read', but it has yielded its secrets to patient study, and is printed in the appendix.4 1

v, 222. 3 Chr. Gh. 9.

z 4

Chr. Gh. Aa. Infra, p. 372 sq.

T H E KING'S GIFTS

103

With the advowson of Navenby, the college acquired more trouble than income; the story is told on subsequent pages. Despite much litigation during the fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries, the college still enjoys its annual revenue of forty shillings. Magna Thurlow, though in Suffolk, is only about sixteen miles, by road, from Cambridge. The hospital of St James there was a curious institution, of which little is known; it has been possible to extend the common knowledge by contributions from college and public records, which will be found in the appendix.1 The property was farmed to the vicar of Thurlow for an annual payment of 135.4
Infra, pp. 412 sqq. The quantity was expressed in wagon-loads of bundles (faggots). 'Wagon-loads' do not appear to have been a satisfactory basis of accounting, since we find, later, that the arrears are 100 bundles, which appear to have been the full quota for one year. Bigata, a wagon-load, is therefore equivalent to twenty-five bundles. 2

104 F O U N D A T I O N C H A R T E R O F G O D S H O U S E one of the fellows of Godshouse.1 Superficially, it is surprising that a church worth nineteen or twenty marks (X 12 - J 3 ^ 4 ^ - t o ^ X 3 - 6s- 8<£) should be given to a fellow; in the Lady Margaret's statutes* it is desired that John Syclyng, the first Master thereunder, in virtue of his holding the benefice of Fendrayton, shall therewith be content, so far as concerns his stipend, without claiming anything more for himself from the college. With that testimony to the value of Fendrayton we feel justified in assuming that Melton must out of his benefice have paid some pension to the college. 1

Chr. GL Q.

* Rackham, p. 57.

Chapter IX THE RELATIONSHIP OF G O D S H O U S E A N D CLARE HALL

T

he foundation of the college by Henry VI in his own person removed the need to connect with Godshouse in the charter the names of any outside persons, whether those of the Master and fellows of Clare Hall 1 or others. This seems to be a fitting point therefore at which to consider the meaning of their mention in the earlier licences, and to explain its true purpose in the hope of sweeping away the misconceptions with regard to it which, appearing first in the latter half of the eighteenth century, still maintain their hold to-day within the college itself, in Clare College, within the university and elsewhere generally. Intimate relationship did obtain between the two colleges, but its nature has been altogether misinterpreted. It is the purpose of this chapter to set free the letters patent from their glosses, and to produce newly discovered documentary evidence which will shew the facts to possess attractions wanting in the fictions. The king's licence to Byngham of 13 July 1439 has no parallel in the history of the university, for it is a licence not only to give land, the buildings erected thereon, and an income for their maintenance and for the support of their inmates, but one by which Byngham is authorised (a) to found a separate institution of a chaplain and twenty-four scholars, with statutes and ordinances and with possessions secured from the operation of the Statute of Mortmain, for the academical purpose of training schoolmasters and also to pray for the king and the other benefactors of the house and his and their ancestors and (b) to present the complete college so founded (for such an institution would possess the essentials of a collegiate foundation in contradistinction to a hostel) to the existing college of Clare Hall, to be administered by die 1 Their retention amongst others to make statutes is in accord with common practice in the charters of other colleges.

106

G O D S H O U S E A N D CLARE HALL

Masters and scholars of that society and their successors in perpetuity according to the statutes in that behalf provided which are to be agreed between them and William Byngham. This licence has been mentioned frequently by those who have written in recent years about Byngham's foundation whether from the standpoint of the historian of Christ's College, of Clare College, or of the university as a whole, but its exceptional character has not been the subject of remark by any of those writers. The subsequent licence to Byngham and others, dated 9 February 1442, and its complementary documents of 1 March and 10 June in the same year, to found a college not as an appendage of Clare Hall but standing firmly upon its own basis with every other college in the university, have also been accepted by modern writers without any evidence that those who have written about them found in this sequence of events matter of unusual character demanding comment and investigation. It will not be necessary to take account in detail of the observations of earlier writers, who give frequent evidence of perplexity,1 indicating that the multiplicity of the royal licences of 1439, 1442,1446 presented to them problems of which they saw no clear solution. Their opinions have little importance to-day, apart from that of reflecting the state of knowledge in their time concerning this and other matters of university history. The position is altogether different when the views are presented of Charles Henry Cooper, F.S.A., archivist, antiquary and for many years town clerk of Cambridge, whose training, profession and private inclination had led him to that long study of medieval documents which qualified him to speak with authority of their contents and their interpretation. His statements upon the relationship of Godshouse and Clare Hall must first be quoted, for they are identical with the opinions held universally at the present time, which, indeed, are founded upon them. He who seeks to confute the judgements of Cooper must approach his task with a full sense of responsibility. 1

Such are, Edmund Carter, History of the University of Cambridge, p. 227; R. Ackermann, History of the University of Cambridge, etc. ii, 45; G. Dyer, History of the University, etc., ii, 40 sq., 211 sq., who also refers to the Baker MSS.; Camden's Britannia (Gough), ii, 132 sq.

MODERN VIEWS

107

1

Cooper writes: this year [1439] William Byngham.. .petitioned the king in favour of his grammar scholars for whom he had erected a commodious mansion.. .called God's House and which he had given to Clare Hall. Again: 2 The preceding letters patent having been delivered up by Byngham to be cancelled, the king by other letters patent, dated 9th February [1442].. .gave licence to William Byngham and to William Wymbill, William Mulyngton and William Guile, doctors in divinity, and John Tylney, doctor in decrees, and the master and fellows of Clare Hall, that they and their heirs, or any other person or persons by Byngham to be named and assigned, might in a certain tenement with three gardens adjacent, commonly called Godeshous, found, erect, and establish a college of one priest and scholars in the science of grammar, to the number of twenty-five persons or more, who were thereby incorporated as the proctor and scholars of Godeshous, and were to be governed by ordinances, rules, and statutes, to be framed by Byngham, and by Doctors Wymbill, Millyngton, Guile, and Tylney; and so forth. Dr Peile, the historian of Christ's College, carried the story further, saying: 3 On 26 Aug. 1446 licence was granted to Bingham, the Master and Fellows of Clare, and certain persons nominated by Bingham to found a College on a new site (St Andrew's Street). Wardale,* MuUingerS and Willis and Clark 6 express in essentials similar views, and, as the story is interpreted by these writers, it demands assent to the statement that Byngham, with royal licence, presented his fully equipped college on 13 July 1439 to Clare Hall and that, one and a half years later, he withdrew his gift as does a child who repents the presentation of a cherished toy to a playmate in an excess of unbalanced generosity. We must also subscribe to the belief that Clare Hall not only agreed to this withdrawal, but lent its aid to the spoliation 1 Annals, i, 188. Cooper may have been led astray by Thomas Warton whose History of English Poetry, iii, 552 (should be vol. ii), he cites as his reference. * Memorials, ii, 3 sq.; cf. Memorials, i, 32. 3 Biog. Reg. i, 2; cf. Christ's College, p. 2; the italics in both quotations are those of the present author. * Clare College, pp. 16 sqq. 6 5 University of Cambridge, i, 349, 445. W. and C. i, p. lvi.

108

G O D S H O U S E A N D C L A R E HALL

of the then members of the society and their successors for all time, accepting in place of ownership a benevolent co-operation and supervision; that Clare Hall further acquiesced when Byngham, to give pleasure to the king, agreed to transfer the College of Godshouse from its home near the doors of Clare Hall to a position far removed, and, finally, when Byngham of his own desire decided to give Godshouse to the king so that he might become its founder, Clare Hall submitted tamely to be jostled out of the tenuous shadow of association which was all that had been left to it of the full ownership which we are asked to suppose was given to that society under the licence of 13 July 1439. That is the accepted and unchallenged view of the relationship of the two colleges, but, though we are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, it is to be remarked that they are all late in date, the earliest of the mid-eighteenth century and the others of the nineteenth or twentieth. Let us therefore appeal to the authoritative, because contemporary, testimony of the story told by the documents. The licence for the gift to Clare was in general terms; to give it full effect it would need to be supplemented by (a) a royal licence specifying the particular properties included in the gift in order to give them protection against the operation of the Statute of Mortmain;1 (b) an enfeoffment, or some form of grant by Byngham and his co-feoffees, conveying to Clare Hall the buildings and land of Godshouse, and the lands and other properties forming the endowment. No document of (a) or (b) character is known to exist, nor is ever referred to in any of the many charters by Henry VT and his successors. That such supplementary documents were essential is proved by the later case of Godshouse, as, e.g., where the licence of 9 February 1442 is supplemented by the royal documents of 1 March and 10 June in the same year. If it be assumed that the grants by Byngham to Clare Hall have been lost it must be remembered that other grants would have been needed 1

The penalty for failure to obtain such a licence had to be paid by Clare Hall itself in regard to Wrawby church, co. Lincoln, still within its patronage. In 1394 the college received pardon (to obtain which cost the society twenty marks) for acquiring in mortmain the advowson under its general licence of 30 September, 20 Ed. Ill, but without specific licence, although after inquisition ad quod damnutn.

NO DOCUMENTARY SUPPORT

109

from Clare Hall, returning the properties to Godshouse, when the latter was founded as a separate college by the letters patent of 9 February 1442; have they also been lost? Moreover, the fact that the properties had been given by Byngham to Clare and then returned by Clare to Godshouse would have required specific mention in the supplementary documents of 1 March 1442 and 10 June 1442. There is no such mention. These are fatal obstacles to the acceptance of the claim that Godshouse was once a part of the possessions of Clare Hall. Documents do get lost, and those of Clare in particular have suffered the calamity of a great fire, with the unfortunate result that but little remains of the archives of the fifteenth and earlier centuries of that college. Even so, the grants or reconveyances by Clare to Godshouse, if they ever existed, should be amongst the Christ's muniments, but there is no trace of them. And as to the royal licence, which might also be supposed to have been lost, the enrolment thereof should be found upon the patent rolls preserved in the Public Record Office; this also is wanting. The triple coincidence of loss of the same documents from the two colleges and from amongst the public records is inconceivable and the truth of the whole matter is that the College of Godshouse never was in any association with the College of Clare Hall except such as was due to the close friendship of Byngham and the Master and fellows of Clare. It was not given by Byngham to Clare and therefore never was taken back, while the absence of the documents is natural because the transactions to which they are required to bear witness did not take place. The statements that (a) the College of Godshouse was given to the College of Clare Hall in 1439, and that (b) its subsequent foundation charters were of a college affiliated to Clare Hall, are fictions of the nineteenth century 1 based originally upon uncritical interpretation of the documents and subsequently copied by writer from writer. 1 Or deriving from the eighteenth if we regard Cooper's error as due to the influence of Thomas Warton (History of English Poetry, 1st ed. 1774-81, ii, 419); cf. Annals, i, 189 n., where the reference is to the edition of 1840.

no

G O D S H O U S E A N D CLARE HALL

The royal letters patent of 13 July 1439 did undoubtedly grant Byngham licence to give Godshouse to Clare Hall, but they merely gave him permission, as is the nature of a licence; they did not order him to make the gift as would a royal mandate; and the licence was not used but was returned to the king to be cancelled. In the letters patent of 9 February 1442, the king recites his hcence of 13 July 1439 in some detail and then says ' as may appear more fully by our letters patent for the same William thereafter made [i.e. the concession itself is a precedent fact to which the letters patent bear witness] which letters indeed William himself is in willingness to return to our Chancery to be cancelled'. There are many cases on record where licences obtained by letters patent were not used and were later surrendered; here are three of local or personal interest: 5 July 14 Edward II licence obtained by the Chancellor and Masters of the University of Cambridge was surrendered 8 June 1440l because never executed in any part; the licence 8 June 1440 obtained by the Warden, fellows and scholars of Trinity Hall, Cambridge, was surrendered 'not having been executed 29janry 1445 '; 2 1 March 12 Henry VII [1497] licence obtained by the Lady Margaret, countess of Richmond, to found a chantry in St George's Chapel, Windsor, was cancelled 28 April 14 Henry VII [1499]3 'because she came before the King at Greenwich in his chancery and surrendered the said letters to be cancelled'. It should be noted that, in the case of Godshouse, it is the said William who surrenders the letters patent, not William and Clare Hall. The letters patent of 9 February 1442 are represented by Cooper 4 as giving licence to William Byngham and to William Wymbill, William Millyngton, William Guile, John Tylney and the Master and fellows of Clare Hall to found, but there is not in the document itself any' and' before ' the Master and fellows'. The document gives licence to 'William Byngham and William Wymbill, William Millyngton, William Guile, John Tylney, Master and fellows of Clare Hall'. Perhaps it is well here to quote the Latin of the document: quas quidem litteras ipse Willelmus in voluntate existat in Cancellariam nostram restituere cancellandas ad intencionem quod nos eidem Willelmo 1

C.P.R. 1436-41, p. 437. 3 Ibid. 1494-1509, p. 79 (note).

2 4

Ibid. 1441-6, p. 326. Memorials, ii, 3 sq.

C.P.R. MISINTERPRETATION

in

Byngham ac dilectis clericis nostris magistris Willelmo Wymbill Willelmo Millyngton Willelmo Guile doctoribus in theologia & Johanni Tylney doctori in decreris magistro & consociis aule de Clare predicte ac heredibus suis. The Calendar of Patent Rolls, Henry VI, 1441-6, published 1908, shews the same error. Thus, on p. 98, we read: March 1, 1442. Licence for William Byngham, parson of the church of St John Zachary, London, and others and the fellows of Clare Hall, Cambridge to grant the farms etc to the Proctor and scholars of Godeshous, Cambridge, founded by them of late. The ellipses are those of C.P.R., and the first stands for the names Wymbill, Millyngton, Guile and Tylney. By introducing the word 'and', not found in the original, C.P.R. confirms the error of Cooper, both being influenced perhaps by the mention, in the 1439 licence, of the Master and fellows of Clare in their corporate capacity. Neither C.P.R. nor Cooper has observed that, in the licences of 1442, it is four individuals who are brought in to aid Byngham, and that, since these four at that time were respectively Master and fellows (three out of a larger number) of Clare, that style was used for their description, a thing essential in a legal document. C.P.R. adds an error of its own in quoting the licence as declaring Godshouse to have been 'founded by them of late'; the letters patent distinctly refer to some future time, in words meaning 'when it shall have been founded'. It has been said above (p. 109) that the supposed dependency of Godshouse upon Clare Hall is a fiction of the nineteenth century and it is gratifying to find that Adam Wall (1728-98), fellow of Christ's College for forty-two years, was free from the heresy. He writes: 1 'The next licence relating to God's House is dated the ninth of February in the twentieth year of Henry 6th. It empowers William Byngham, William Wymbill Master of Clare Hall, William Millington and William Guile Doctors of Divinity and John Tylney Doctor of Decrees, fellows of the same college to found', etc. It must be clear upon a careful reading that 'Master and fellows of Clare Hall' is simply a description of the four immediately preceding 1

A.W. 49, P- 3-

H2

G O D S H O U S E A N D CLARE HALL

names, and from other sources there is incontestable evidence of the association of three of the names with that society. Wymbill was Master; he died in 1445,* and in the licence of 26 August 1446, in the recital of the 1442 licence, his name is followed by the words 'now dead'. Millyngton, though appointed Rector of the king's new college in 1441, was presumably still fellow of Clare (probably because King's was still in course of building).2 William Guile succeeded Wymbill as Master,3 and would be fellow in 1442, and Tylney was one of eight persons, obviously fellows, named together in the records of the college. Moreover, the recital of the names, with the words 'Master and fellows of Clare Hall' thereafter, is immediately followed by the words 'and their heirs'. Heirs cannot apply to the Master and fellows of a college in their corporate capacity, nor, indeed, to any corporation whether aggregate or sole. A corporation has in law not heirs but 'successors', and the omission of that word in addition to 'heirs' is a further indication that the individuals are mentioned in the licence in their personal capacity. It should be observed also that the licences give specific power to Byngham only and not to the others named to add to the number of those to whom the licence shall apply, as also to those to whom power is given to make ordinances and statutes; the words used after 'heirs' are 'and to any other person or persons whomsoever to be designated or assigned thereto by the said William Byngham'. The whole tenour of the licences implies that it is Byngham's college for the founding of which provision is being made; the addition of the other names is a well-recognised and much-used practice to secure against the accidents of life and death, of which enough has been said above (p. 15) under enfeoffment to uses. The absolute control of Byngham, unshackled by the action of any of the persons whose names are associated with his in the licences, is marked throughout; he neither offers their assent nor is it expected of him. This stands out clearly in the petition which Byngham addressed 1

Crosby (quoting Bourchier's Reg. 5), sub Shelford Parva. He may, however, have held both positions simultaneously as did Syclyng the proctorship of Godshouse with the fellowship of Corpus Christi. V. infra, pp. 203 sqq. 3 Clare, p. 36; P.R. 24 H. VI, ii, 26 (20 May 1446). 2

REAL N A T U R E OF T H E R E L A T I O N S H I P

113

1

to the king early in the year 1446, and also in the licence of 16 April 1448,* by which the king himself became founder, and where he states that Byngham had declared that he had deferred the foundation of the college because he had ardently desired that the king should acquire the merit associated with that pious work. The absence of reference in either of these documents to the Master and fellows of Clare Hall should dispose finally of the unfounded belief that the College of Godshouse was ever in the possession of Clare Hall, either absolutely or in any sense of affiliation or other form of dependency. What then was the nature of the relationship which obtained between Godshouse and Clare Hall, testimony to which is found in (a) Byngham's petition to be allowed to give Godshouse to Clare Hall; (b) The licence of 13 July 1439, agreeing to that request; (c) The inclusion of the names of prominent members of Clare Hall in die letters patent of 9 February, 1 March and 10 June of the year 1442, and again in those of 26 August 1446; (d) The retention in the charter of 16 April 1448 (where, as the king himself founded the college, no supplementary name for that purpose was needed) of the names of four men then or formerly of Clare Hall amongst diose authorised to make statutes; (e) The election of a fellow of Clare (John Hurte) to die proctorship or mastership of the college vacant by the death of Byngham; (/) The use of the statutes of Clare Hall as die basis of those for Godshouse; (g) The provisions in the statutes that made the Master and fellows of Clare the assessors of the Visitor and gave them certain responsibilities in the event of delay or indecision in filling a vacancy in the mastership ? The answer is that the relationship was that of pure friendship between William Byngham and the contemporary members of the college of Clare Hall. Whether the relations date from a time much earlier than Byngham's active preparations for his college we have discussed in chapter 1 and it is now proposed to shew that the co-operation with Clare Hall which has led to the misinterpretation of modern writers was born of Byngham's urgent need; that Byngham was fully sensible of the great kindness shewn to him is proved by the quotations from the draft for King Henry's foundation charter, from which it appears 1

LHC

Supra, p. 66 sq.

2

Chr. Gh. Q. 8

ii4

G O D S H O U S E A N D CLARE HALL

that he desired to place his gratitude to Clare Hall upon permanent record.1 The earliest direct statement that has come down to us of Byngham's intention to found a college is discovered in John Langton's petition addressed to the Chancellor of England, which we have given reason for dating not earlier than 1436.2 From the terms of the petition it is evident that Byngham desired and intended to seek a licence in mortmain for his 'place', in other words to obtain a licence to found a college as a corporation aggregate; it is equally clear that Langton and the university were satisfied that they had the influence to obtain such a licence for Byngham, and it scarcely seems to strain the language employed if we hold it to imply that without their aid Byngham might find it difficult and, with their opposition, perhaps impossible to obtain his licence. There is no mention of Clare Hall in Langton's petition nor any word to suggest Byngham's desire for any other than an independent college. Langton failed to dislodge Byngham, and we may reasonably suppose that the representative of the power of the university resented the defeat inflicted upon him by one who had no higher rank than that of rector of a London city parish, and who was digging himself in, where Chancellor and Masters might expect to be supreme, in defiance of their wishes. In such circumstances Langton and his friends would throw the weight of their influence against Byngham's application to the king for a licence, and they appear to have been successful in their opposition. That seems to be the significance to be attached to the words in Byngham's petition 'how that he hath diuerse tymes sued unto your highnesse\3 The exchange of the 1439 licence (empowering him to give his amortised Godshouse to Clare Hall) for the 1442 licence (to found a college independently) was made after the short period of nineteen months from the date of its first grant, and the movement to procure the wider licence must have been set on foot very shortly after the narrower one was obtained. Having everything in readiness, yet failing to achieve his full pur1

Supra, p. 93.

z

Supra, p. 24 sq.

3

Infra, p. 356.

P U R P O S E OF T H E 1439 L I C E N C E

115

pose, and being apprehensive of the fate of his institution if he should die before obtaining for it royal recognition and licence, we can see Byngham in conference with his friends at Clare Hall (as also with his numerous influential friends in the city and about the court) and taking their advice to secure immediate protection for his college by getting royal licence to give it to the college of Clare Hall. And that the proposal might have the greater prospect of royal acceptance he would be advised to limit its scope to taking his scholars to the degree of master in grammar. The giving of a foundation with the simpler aim to an existing college would be less likely to attract effective opposition than would an application for the independent college which we may gather from Langton's words was Byngham's original intention.1 The licence once secured, Byngham's foundation would be saved; not having abandoned hope of a fuller licence, he need not execute that of 13 July 1439 but could, by will, do all that licence gave him power to do and so provide against frustration by the possibility of death before the wider powers could be obtained. Whether the society of Clare Hall proposed this scheme to Byngham, or whether it was the product of the inventive brain of one of his many friends in high legal office, we cannot discover; the latter is more probable, for it was an age when lawyers were rapidly developing new forms of legal procedure and adapting the traditions of the law to meet more enlightened views as to the claims of society upon it. It is certain that Clare acquiesced in, if it did not originate, the plan; only so can we interpret the action of the Master and the leading fellows in standing by Byngham when, a few months later, it seemed possible to promote a fresh appeal to the king for a wider licence. In consenting to accept responsibility with Byngham for founding the college they were pledging themselves to carry on his work, if he should die or be disabled before it was finished. While he lived, they would only be lookers-on and advisers; they were second, third, fourth and fifth strings to be 1

Byngham's guiding purpose was the training of schoolmasters, but subsequent

events, e.g. the power obtained in the licences of 1446 and 1448, and the provision in die statutes permitting scholars to remain in the college for a year after becoming masters of arts (Rackham, p. 27), demonstrate that he did not regard the degree of master in grammar as the necessary limit of a schoolmaster's qualification. 8-2

n6

G O D S H O U S E A N D CLARE HALL

brought into action if the first snapped, as was their well-understood function in the practice of the time under trusts for uses.1 Attention should be drawn to the fact that Millyngton, fellow of Clare, was also Rector of the king's new college, to be Provost when Henry VI's expanding views demanded that change. In that capacity he would be brought into frequent contact with the Chancellor of the University, Langton, who was much engaged in work for the college on behalf of the king. And this was not the only contact between Langton and Byngham's friends; Fray was a fellow-commissioner with Langton and we have already spoken of his active assistance to Byngham in his plans. The ruling men of the university were a limited society and frequent intercourse would beget claims for service in return for service; there is no evidence of any rapprochement direct between Langton and Byngham, but the efforts of the latter's friends may have done something to remove the antagonism and opposition bred of the old dispute. In later licences Clare names still support Byngham, subject to the changes made necessary by death; thus, William Wymbill is mentioned in the 1446 licence as 'now dead'. With the foundation by the king himself, in 1448, no need for such support remains, but it is still necessary to provide those who shall be licensed to make statutes and ordinances for the college, and herein Clare names are still prominent, the latest and youngest added, John Hurte and Robert Scolyse, being those upon whose shoulders the task was actually laid after many days. The detailed examination to which the facts and the documents relating to them have been subjected has removed, it is hoped, the possibility of retaining the modern view of the relationship of Godshouse to Clare Hall: that of complete absorption in the first stage, followed by subjection and affiliation in the second, with what looks much like a revolt in the third and final stage. The obvious interpretation of the facts and documents is that of cordial friendliness between Byngham and Clare Hall, in which the men of the older college sought continuously to strengthen Byngham in his endeavour to found Godshouse after his fervent desire 'and do it to be amorteysed suerly, after 1

Supra, p. 15.

PROCTOR

A N D PRESIDENT

117

the intent of the seyd sir William'. The friendly intimacy is most clearly shewn in the quotations given above (p. 93 sq.) from Byngham's draft for the foundation charter, and the story of Sara Beket (supra, p. 99 sq.) provides an admirable example of its expression. Some have found in the name 'Proctor', as head of Godshouse, an outcome of the dependency of that college upon Clare Hall; Mr Rackham, for instance, writes: 1 'Proctor implies that the head of God's House administered it as the deputy of the Master and Fellows of Clare, under whose supervision it was placed by Byngham at its first foundation in 1439'. The interpretation of the Latin form 'procurator' as one who is appointed to be the deputy of another, or of others, as in proctors of the clergy in Convocation, has for its support that it is the sense in most frequent use, but it is not invariably the element in the word that is most prominent in the minds of those who employ it. The proctors of the university were, under the old statutes,* known as 'proctors' or *rectors'.3 They were proctors in the sense that they were delegated by their fellow-regents to rule the university, but having become proctors they were 'rectors' of the clerks of the university as a whole, their fellow-regents included. They were the principal executive and administrative officers of the university, the functions of the Chancellor being rather of an ecclesiastical and judicial order; the proctors having been elected it was their rectorial powers and functions that were in evidence,4 a position remaining even long after their alternative name of'rector' had ceased to be used. There is an interesting parallel to the name 'Proctor' as that of a 'head', in the contemporaneous but still surviving name of'President' as head of Queens' College. That was the description given to Andrew Doket in the charters of 1446 and 1447 by Henry VI, and there is no suggestion of a subordinate or representative quality in his office. There were presidents in other colleges, however, in whose cases the element 1 Rackham, p. 140; cf. Mullinger, p. 445, n. 3. 2

Documents, i, 338 sqq. (Statutes 53 to 57). 3 They were so styled when addressing external persons and bodies; cf. petitions of Chaterys and Pyemur to the pope in 1366 (Cal. Pap. Pet. p. 529). 4 Cf. Statute 84, De potestate procuratorum (Documents, i, 360).

n8

G O D S H O U S E A N D CLARE HALL

of representing the Master was conspicuous; the sense of'deputy' or 'representative' lying dormant in 'president' is seen prominently, e.g. in the fifteenth-century accounts of Corpus Christi College, where the man who is styled president is styled also, when discharging the same duties in other years, locum tenens for the Master. According to the ancient statutes of St John's and Magdalene Colleges, there must always be a president whose duties inter alia are those of a vice-master: his position is that o£vicarius of the Master and he is appointed by the college as a permanent officer. In other colleges, e.g. Christ's, Emmanuel, Sidney Sussex, a president is to be appointed ad hoc when the occasion arises for his services, as on the death of the Master, when he shall be appointed by the fellows, or in the intended absence of the Master, who may appoint whom he will. This last type of president, so appointed by the Master, is conspicuously prominent in the history of Christ's College, whose leases of the manor of Malton, from the sixteenth century down to the nineteenth, reserve to the Master or his president certain seignorial feudal rights; the personal relationship of his president to the Master becomes even clearer in the era when the Latin of the earlier leases gives place to English, where we read of the Master or his deputy. This sense of substitution occasionally met in the word president is unrecognised by modern ears (it is not indicated in any of the senses referred to in N.E.D.), the dominant modern idea being that of headship, as e.g. in the supreme ruling heads of the great modern republics.1 This digression into the consideration of the various uses ofpresident, a word yet common in every-day use, is introduced for its analogy with the case of proctor, a word surviving only in legal, ecclesiastical and academical circles. As in the fifteenth century, while the president of Corpus was the Master's locum tenens, the President of Queens' was a supreme head, so, also in the same century, while a proctor in Convocation was the representative of the clergy of a diocese or archdeaconry, 1 It is curious that the use of President by modern commercial and financial companies, though always carrying the attribute of high position, varies in the degree of authority implied. In one large company the President may be the figurehead while the Chairman is the person actually exercising authority; in another, for no obvious reason, the positions and titles are reversed.

GODSHOUSE NEVER A HOSTEL

119

the Proctor of Godshouse was a supreme head subject only to the statutes and ordinances of his college. Another error concerning the status of Godshouse, which has persisted from Dr Caius 1 in 1574 down to Canon Stokes in 1924,* is that the foundation prior to 1505 when the Lady Margaret took it in hand was a hostel, a view of the case that was corrected, apparently in vain, by Willis and Clark.3 The fundamental differences between hostels and colleges in Cambridge in the middle ages should have detailed treatment never hitherto received by them, but we must be content here with the categorical statements that (1) A medieval hostel was in essence a building in private ownership, let by its owner for the accommodation of students for the sake of die profit to be made out of diat use. (2) A hostel may in some cases have been erected specially for that purrose, but it was certainly sometimes a house originally used for other purposes and after serving as a hostel, went back again into other than academical occupation; the archdeacon's house, afterwards Borden hostel,4 is a case in point. (3) A hostel was not a litde college, and some hostels may have been larger than some colleges, the differences being of kind, not of size. (4) A hostel was not the abode of a corporation, it possessed no royal licence, had no statutes, no perpetual succession, held no possessions in mortmain, all of which privileges with others were the essential marks of a college, Godshouse amongst the rest. (5) If a parallel to a hostel must be found it should be sought in the inns of the town out of which, by differentiation, students' hostels and inns (smaller hostels) as places for the residence of students grew. (6) Byngham came to Cambridge not with the intention of building a mansion out of which he could make a profit by letting it to students but of founding a college, 5 an eleemosynary institution, in which poor scholars without cost to them should have livelihood, should pray and should be taught until they became masters in grammar; to use Byngham's picturesque phrase, Godshouse was 'edified.. .for the free herbigage of poure scolers of Gramer'. 1

2 Hist. Cant. Acad. pp. 50, 67, 73. Hostels, p. 78 sq. XXIV. 1, p. 4 Hostels, chs. n to x inclusive. 5 Cf. the petition of the Chancellor of the University, circa 1437, 'and do it to be amorteysed suerly after the intent of the seyd sir William'.

120

G O D S H O U S E A N D CLARE

HALL

(7) Royal licence after royal licence, in unbroken succession, refers to the college called Godshouse as do scores of other documents of a varied character. Not a single document has been discovered, either within the college or without, which uses in connection with it the word hostel or any kindred term. When, in 1505/6, the College of Godshouse became Christ's College there was in that respect no change whatsoever, nor indeed any other change of moment other than that of largely increased wealth.

Chapter X T H E LAST DAYS OF W I L L I A M B Y N G H A M

T

he latest dated document relating to the first proctorship is that of 8 December 1450l concerning the parsonage of Trellage, and the fewness of documents from June 1449 onwards is to be expected, following upon the spate of charters, grants, leases, surrenders and releases in the preceding years. The foundation of the college as a corporate body, the transfer to its perpetual ownership of the properties acquired for its home and for its endowment, and the letting upon lease of the latter, set the Proctor and scholars comparatively free to devote their attention to those internal affairs which while forming their main purpose have left little trace in records for the use of the historian. Byngham is said to have been proctor of the university in 1446, and the statement is found in the Historical Register,2 but it is inherently improbable. That official statement derives from the Introduction to Grace Book I\3 which in its turn gives Fuller as authority, but the only sources upon which absolute reliance for the names of fifteenth-century university proctors may be placed are the contemporary documents preserved in the University Registry. These are the manuscripts of the Grace Books from 1455 onwards, and those of the Proctors' Indentures, from 1430 with occasional lacunae but including an earlier sheet which supplies the names of proctors for 1362 and 1363. Fuller places three other heads of Godshouse in the lists of proctors of the university, namely, John Hurth [sic] for the year 1456, Fallan for the year 1461, William Basset for the year 1468, all of which no longer appear in the official list because they are not to be found in the manuscript sources above-named, where each of those years has its two proctors. Byngham's name remains in the official 1

Chr. Gh. 13.

2

Page 35.

3

Page xiii.

122

LAST D A Y S OF W I L L I A M B Y N G H A M

list under the year 1446 on the authority of Fuller because that year happens to be one of the lacunae in the Proctors' Indentures. The inherent improbability of Byngham's proctorship in 1446/7 is based upon these two considerations: (1) He was too old, being then between fifty and sixty years of age; the proctors were ordinarily elected from men in their early years of regency. (2) He was not only head of his college but was still (and until he died) rector of the parish church of St John Zachary, London, where the demand for his frequent presence would have made impossible his adequate discharge of proctorial duties. It is probable that Fuller's error, or that of his source, is due to a confusion between proctor of the university and Proctor of Godshouse. Byngham, Hurte, Fallan and Basset were all heads of Godshouse in the years in which Fuller makes them respectively proctors of the university, and it may well be that the blunders (admitted in the case of the last three) are due to an unconscious error of punctuation. Fuller saw, perhaps, a document bearing the words 'J°hri Hurth Proctor of the College of Godshouse' and he has punctuated it to read 'John Hurth, Proctor, of the College of Godshouse', assuming Proctor to refer to the only proctorship he knew, that of the university.1 Fuller wrote his history of the university 150 years after the last Proctor of Godshouse had exchanged his style for that of Master of Christ's College, and while he knew Godshouse by name, he thought it was a hostel, and he probably lived and died in ignorance that its head bore the style of Proctor, Master or Keeper'. Reference has been made to the claim of his rectory upon Byngham's time, but he had other responsibilities outside Cambridge. We have shewn that he was frequently called upon to serve his friends in the capacity of executor, and we may justly conclude from the evidence that he was the more willing to accept such duties in consideration of the opportunities they provided of serving his friends and his college simultaneously. There are entries for the year 1449 on the roll of the 1

Edmund Carter, History of the University of Cambridge (1753), p. 227, styles the head of Godshouse 'Provost', perhaps because of the difficulty he found in regarding 'Proctor' in any other than its university connection, and by way of correcting an assumed error.

HIS D E A T H A N D WILL

123

Court of Husting* in which he appears; e.g. one in which he and John Fray with others have a grant of houses and shops in the parish of All Hallows, and another 2 in which Thomas Parsons of Ely grants tenements in Gracechurch Street to John Fray, William Byngham, rector of St John Zachary, and others, where in both cases the grantees are almost certainly acting in their capacity of executors of William Flete, who has been shewn to be in all probability an important benefactor of the college. On the patent roll for the 30th year of Henry VI3 we find William Byngham, clerk, named as an executor with Fray and Brudenell (Newton and Frampton, found in other documents, no doubt deceased) of Flete's will; the executorship was a prolonged one and it continued till 1456 at least, five years after Byngham's death. William Byngham died seven days before the entry just mentioned; he was in London on one of his visits, in the interests of his rectory, his college or, possibly, of Flete's estate, and his end appears to have occurred suddenly, for his will bears the date of the day of his death, 17 November 1451, and its brevity and simplicity are in accord with such circumstances. The will 4 is printed in full at the end of this chapter 5 and the contents may be expressed here in a few words. Byngham desired to be buried in his own parish church before the rood, and he left to that church a double noble, a large silver spoon and a silver-gilt one. The spoon which he was wont to carry about with him he left to the College of Goddeshouse in Cambridge. To John Lyncoln, his kinsman, he left his best gown with hood and to his kinswoman Johanna Galen his next best gown with hood. All his other goods not left he gave and bequeathed to John Lyncoln, litteratus, dwelling at St Thomas of Aeon,6 and a certain Walter Potter, whom he made his faithful executors to dispose of them to speed his soul. Probate was obtained by John Lyncoln 20 November 1451, subject to the production of an inventory; Walter Potter renounced probate. The fact of a specific bequest to Godshouse, in the shape of an in1

Guildhall, London, Roll 179 (16). * Ibid. (39). P.R. 24 November, 30 H. VI, i, 20. Commissary Court of London, 45 Sharp. 5 Infra, p. 138. 6 The hospital so dedicated in London.

3 4

124

LAST DAYS OF W I L L I A M B Y N G H A M

timately personal article, is more worthy of remark than the probable smallness of its value. There can be no reasonable doubt that, though left to the discretion of the executors, the destination of Byngham's residuary estate was well understood by them to be the College of Godshouse, who might be expected to be more diligent in prayers for their founder's soul than would any other community. Moreover, John Lyncoln, litteratus, the acting executor, was that former member of the college whose name we have met in many documents from the king's foundation charter downwards. In this connection we must consider two documents which have been the subject of comment by Dr Peile, the inventories which he has believed to be those of the possessions of the college at two dates, fifty years apart.1 As Dr Peile gives extracts only, the two inventories are printed here in full, that which he esteems the older being placed first. Both are in a mixture of English and abbreviated Latin and the spelling is very irregular. It has therefore seemed desirable to produce their contents in modernised form with a few words or phrases within inverted commas where their retention seems to possess advantage. The larger document is of paper and bears, in the original, internal evidence of being the work of some servant of the house. The smaller is more scholarly in handwriting and in form, and may have been the work of a lawyer's clerk; it is of parchment, a fact possibly implying that, if it had been completed, it was intended for submission to the Commissary Court of London where the will had been proved. THE FIRST INVENTORY INVENTORY of the goods found in the College called Goddyshouse in the University of Cambridge after the deadi of William Byngham lately Proctor of the same. The Hall. In the Hall. An. old 'hallyng' of blue say3 hanging on the wall. A 'bankar' [a seat to lay upon a bench] of red and crimson, containing eight strips or widths in length. A long table, nineteen4 feet in length. A form of the same length. Another form of the same length. 2

1 3

Christ's College, pp. 6 sqq. A kind of serge.

2 4

Chr. Gh. Ac, on paper. Not nine as in Peile, p. 6.

THE FIRST INVENTORY

125

A round chair [the ancient form of armchair]. A covered chair or seat. A stool and a mat upon the stool. An ewer hanging thereby. A candlestick with three flowers [flower-shaped branches]. A bell. All the aforesaid remain in the Hall. The Promptuarium. In the Store-room. Two 'Bordeclothys' [table cloths]. Two towels. Two salt cellars. Two cups. A candlestick. An old breadpan. A table upon which the beer stands. A linen cloth to cover the beer. All the aforesaid remain in the store-room. The Kitchen. In the Kitchen. Four dishes of which one, the greatest holds gallons; 1 the second holds gallons; the third holds gallons; the fourth holds a gallon. Two bronze pots of whieh one holds gallons; the other gallons. Two cauldrons with iron hooking, of which one holds gallons, the other gallons. A broken 'urceolus, that is a broken posnette'* holding a quart. A 'sartago, that is, a frying panne', with a 'slyse' of iron.3 Two gridirons. Three long spits and a 'brydde spete'.4 A 'cobeyrne [the iron on which the spit turns]. A hanging of iron for pots in the chimney. A 'brondeyorne alias trevet'. Two stone mortars and two pestles. A grate for bread. 5 A pepper quern. The Chamber of the Proctor. In the Proctor's Chamber. Two mattresses. Two blankets. A coverlet of Blue, powdered with birds.6 Another coverlet of blue, powdered with yellow roses. Three old curtains of black say. An old ' selowre' 7 of black, lined with blue buckram. A piece of black cloth, striped with red, hanging before the press. 1

The blank spaces before 'gallons' are left so in the original. A posnet is a small metal pot for boiling, with handle and three feet. 3 A 'slyse' is an instrument for turning meat. 4 A spit for roasting birds. 5 A framework with pierced front and sides to permit a constant current of air; the seventeenth-century dole-cupboards remaining in some churches exhibit these features. 6 I.e. with birds closely woven in or worked thereon. 7 A canopy for the bed. 1

126

LAST DAYS OF WILLIAM BYNGHAM

A 'Jacke de defense', covered with silk.1 A black cape hooded with minever. Two bedboards nailed together. A great chest. An armchair and a single chair in the study of the said chamber. Six cushions. An old black gown. A basin and ewer of latten.2 Three new candlesticks and one old. Two urinals. A small bag containing about five thousand lath nails. Five thousand lath nafls which Geffrey Nevyll holds with the permission of John Loveday. Haifa thousand of five-penny nails in the said chamber. Two hundred of three-penny nails. A brass fire-pan. Three "Wyndelys otherwise called basketys'.3 Seventeen pewter dishes. Nine saucers. Four plates. Two chargers [meat dishes]. Four salt-cellars. Two 'glasses to drink in'. A brazen mortar. A great bronze pot holding ten gallons. A tin pot holding a potell. A garlic mortar. A great water tankard. A bucket to salt flesh in. A barrel for keeping salt. A dressing knife. A flesh-hook. A broken skimmer. A bread basket, or pan. An axe for chopping wood. Three iron wedges. A peck and a bushelf. Eight pewter platters. Twenty pewter dishes. Eight pewter saucers of divers sorts. In dorso. Memorandum that of the aforesaid D[ominus] John Loveday has a mattress and a pewter saucer. The reader has the armchair. Dfominus] Robert [Melton] has a cushion. The same d. Robert has an old basin. A small pot of a potell [size] is in the kitchen by permission of d. John Loveday. Marginal note of contemporary date: Inventory of the College for books and utensils. A note in an eighteenth-century hand (? Adam Wall): An Inventory of Chr. Coll. after y e death of Bingham. 1

A protective jacket, quilted; worn in lieu of metal body armour. Latten was an alloyed metal akin to brass. 'Windles' was in dialectal use for certain baskets in Norfolk in the nineteenth century, as also windle-straw. 1

3

THE SECOND INVENTORY 1

127

of the goods belonging to the College of Godeshouse. In primis hugucio 2 Item Johannes Crisostimus in opere inperfecto. „ Abvile in sermonibus dominicalibus. „ Gregorius super Ezechielem. „ Burleus super iiij libros phisicorum. „ Duo textus philosophicales. „ Priscianus in maiore et in minore. „ Biblia. „ Ovidius super metamorphosios. „ Galfridus in nova poetria. „ Alter liber gramaticalis que incipit Quo dicemus. „ Liber logicalis secundum magistrum Willelmum Brigymur. „ Liber sophisticalis. A hood duphcated [lined or perhaps reversible] with green sendell.3 A surplice. Two blankets. A mattress. A curtain of red. A great bronze pot. A basin and ewer of latten. A brass pan. A gridiron. Two brass pots. Two cauldrons. Three pans. A frying pan. A dressing knife. A flesh-hook. A skimmer. A pair of tongs. A pair of pot-hooks. Five spits, three great and two small. A charger. Ten platters, four whole, six broken. Twenty-six pewter dishes, 23 whole, 4 broken [sic]. Ten saucers, four broken, six whole. A trevet. A grater. An axe. A gridiron. A tankard. A cupboard. Iron wedges. A peck. Two stone mortars with two pestles. Four boardecloths [table cloths]. Four towels. Four candlesticks. Four saltcellars. A pint pot. A chair. A Well'.* A 'kymlyn' [ = kimnell, a tub for brewing, kneading, salting, etc.]. Two tables. Four trestles. Two forms. A handsaw. A 'pype' for bread [bread-pan]. Two 'v'geous barelhs [verjuice 5 barrels]. 1 Chr. Gh. Ab, on. a narrow strip of parchment. 2 The titles of the books are given here in the Latin of the parchment. For their identifications cf. Peile, p. 6 sq. 3 A silken fabric akin to sarsenette. 4 Probably a wooden settle rather than a piece of horse-harness. 5 Literally, 'green juice' pressed from unripe grapes, crabs, and other sour fruits. As a condiment much used then in cooking, and valuable in medicine for its astringent properties.

INVENTORY

128

LAST D A Y S O F W I L L I A M B Y N G H A M

There are few, if any, of those who habitually read fifteenth-century handwriting who would profess to distinguish from style of writing alone documents ten or even twenty years apart, but the number would be equally small, of those similarly qualified, who would hesitate to pronounce upon writing separated by fifty years. Dr Peile must have been misled when he placed that distance in time between these two lists which, unless there were some internal evidence other than handwriting to the contrary, should be regarded as nearly coeval. One is a rough draft, on thin paper, the other is a fair copy (not of the same draft though possibly using it) on parchment; both may be parts of separate wholes whose other fragments have not come down to us, but the first certainly is fragmentary, for it bears the endorsement (in Latin) at the side 'Inventories of the College for books and utensils', and there are no books included upon it. The headings are different; the first has 'Inventory of the goods found in the College called Goddyshouse in the University of Cambridge after the death of William Byngham lately Proctor of the same'; the second has for heading 'Inventory of the goods belonging to the College of Godeshouse'. The difference in form may mean that the first was a draft for the testamentary inventory required by the probate officer from Byngham's executor, and the second a part of the contemporary inventory of the goods in the ownership of the college itself;T the possibility may be mentioned but the foundations are too slight to justify more than a suggestion. Two conclusions stand out: (a) the lists are contemporary, and of the end of 1451 or early in 1452, (b) neither is complete in itself. The probability is that, even taken together, the lists do not present to us a complete representation of the extent of the movable possessions of the college in the middle of the fifteenth century. In support of this belief it may be advanced that (1) In about 1446, Byngham's petition to the king complains of the expense to which he has been put in finding 'harbergach of his stor and hustilmentes', a grievance somewhat lacking substance if diese inventories complete the tale. (2) There is entire lack of plate, a position of things incomprehensible in even a poor college at that date: there is not even a silver spoon. Dr Peile 1 Cf. the statutes, Racktam, p. 13 sq.

P U R P O S E OF T H E I N V E N T O R I E S

129

believed that from 1451 to 1505 things had 'gone from bad to worse' in which case things must have been better in 1451 than he thought, for there was silver plate in the college in 1492, so much of it that several pieces are noted at the Easter audit as missing.1 (3) Both lists include much that is trivial and usual while omitting much that was indispensable to the barest equipment of movables for even a very small college. Thus, there are various broken vessels, but no contents of scholars' chambers; verjuice barrels, but no beer barrels; an axe and a saw, but no timber; two drinking-vessels only; vessels of various kinds in the kitchen and store-room but no food or drink (the smallest house had its store of salted meat in winter); nails, but no other building material; no contents of porter's lodge (a gateway or other entrance control was indispensable); no garden implements, utensils or stock; no fuel; but there was a 'jacke de defense' in this house of clerks! In short, as the personal possessions of a Master residing partly in Cambridge, partly in London, including those articles which as first founder he may from time to time have provided at his own charges for college use, all of which, however trivial, had to be included in an inventory required as a condition of probate, the schedules are comprehensible. As the complete contents for the use of a college consisting of a head, four fellow scholars, servants and, as we must believe from other evidence, possible resident pensioners, they are incredible. Indeed, the college historian has misinterpreted the evidence as to the college in the fifteenth century. It was far from rich, but we shall see that it was not so poor as it seemed; it was small in numbers, but it was larger than some of its contemporaries. The views of Dr Peile are most to be regretted when he writes: 2 'Truly the time had come for a reconstitution of the College', where he seems to equate the position of the College of Godshouse with the plight of other institutions in Cambridge, one of which had already formed,3 and the other was shortly after to form,* the soil upon which entirely new colleges were to be erected. It is, moreover, inaccurate to write of 'a list of the assets to be taken over by the Lady Margaret'. 5 The College of Godshouse was not in liquidation,6 the relative positions of the Proctor and 1

Cf. infra, p. 223.

3 The convent of St Rhadegund.

5 Op. cit. p. 6. LHC

* Christ's College, p. 8. 4

6

The hospital of St John.

V. infra, p. 433 sq. 9

130

LAST D A Y S OF W I L L I A M B Y N G H A M

scholars and the Lady Margaret's council were not those of seller and buyer; as will be seen when that period of the story is reached they were high contracting parties, each of whom had something to offer which the other desired to possess, Godshouse, doubtless, being the more desirous of a satisfactory issue to the negotiations, in which the merchandise the countess sought was ghostly advantage not material possessions. In the larger inventory three names are found, John Loveday, d[ominus] Robert, and Geffrey Nevyll. Loveday was one of those included in the safe-conduct given by the seneschal of the duke of York x but was not of those named scholars in the foundation charter. He may have returned to the college in circumstances which there is nothing to explain; the inventory shews him to be in a position of authority and what has been discovered concerning him will be found in the appendix.3 Dominus Robert must be Robert Melton, one of the litterati made fellows by Henry VI. He became rector of Fendrayton in succession to John Otryngham, Master of Michaelhouse, who died between 1452 and 1454 while still Master of that college. Melton would still be a resident in Godshouse therefore in 1451. Geffrey Nevyll 3 was a neighbour of Godshouse when it occupied the original site, and his interests extended to the vicinity of the new, where he was owner of the property known as 'the Brazen George' which afterwards came into the possession of the college; his mention in the inventory seems to imply his residence close at hand to the college. The character of the equipment in the Proctor's chamber suggests that the first of the two inventories relates rather to his possessions within the college than to those of the society, and the discovery by its means that the Proctor's chamber had an attached study has its bearing upon the view here held and maintained throughout that the arrangements of Godshouse were not of such primitive character as has been supposed. The great chest mentioned may very well be that 1

Chr. Gh. P; supra, p. 77; infra, p. 373 sq. * Page 381. A man of substance, with varied business interests, and well able to look after his property. Cf. the agreement into which he entered with John Langton for sale of certain of his houses and land for the use of the King's College, A, 79 King's, quoted in W. and C. i, 339. 3

T H E READER'S CHAIR

131

which is preserved at this present time in the muniment room, its appropriate principal use still being the care of the college seal; it is quite definitely a chest which was made in the early fifteenth century, in contradistinction to the two other chests also preserved in the same room which derive from the latter half of the same century. These interesting links with pre-Lady Margaret days will be examined in greater detail with such parts of the present buildings as survive from the same era.1 Of all the features of interest provided in the inventories, the most striking, and at the same time the most important, is found not in the schedule itself but in one of the comments made in dorso, 'Item, lector habet cathedram', the reader, or lecturer, has the chair. In 'cathedra' we should perhaps see an armchair, possibly furnished with cushions, the type of chair whose use by a professor has led to the adoption of the word chair as the symbol of that office. Of such a chair there is a delightful, if crude, contemporary illustration in the 'White Book' of the College of Corpus Christi; the drawing was made about 1459 and is reproduced upon about one-half scale in Willis and Clark.* If 'cathedra' has its interest, it is the word 'lector' in this short sentence which gives it importance, for it proves that, as early as 1451 (and there is no obvious reason why it should not go back to 1439), there was a lecturer, or reader, in Godshouse. Mullinger draws attention to a feature in the Lady Margaret's statutes for Christ's College in 1506 which he has not observed in those of any college before that time. He writes: 3 ' In the course of study innovation is again apparent. A college lecturer is appointed who is to deliver four lectures daily in hall The other provisions, it is to be noted, also make a much closer approach towards bringing the college course into rivalry with that of the schools'. If Mullinger had been aware of the existence of the earlier statutes of the college, those known to us as the statutes of Godshouse,* he would have seen that Fisher, to whose 1 4

3 Infra, pp. 337 sqq. * iii, 5. The University of Cambridge, p. 459. This could scarcely be expected of Mullinger. The Godshouse statutes have always been in the possession of the college and they are transcribed in the Adam Wall MSS. (Univ. Lib. Add. MS. MM. v, 49), but they have not been published until recently,

9-2

132

LAST D A Y S OF W I L L I A M B Y N G H A M

wisdom he attributes the Lady Margaret's statutes, found in the earlier statutes some of the ideas with whose expansion he is very properly credited, while introducing several of his own. In particular the innovation discovered in the appointment of a college lecturer followed in close detail the practice of the college ever since the days of Byngham's proctorship. The provisions in the Godshouse statutes respecting the lecturer or reader 1 must be given in full: 3 And we appoint and ordain that whoever is henceforward elected and admitted Reader shall first be bound over to observe the rules written below: namely that on every day on which lectures are usually read in hostels, the bell having been previously rung in accordance with custom, he shall be obliged to read at least three lectures, or if the number of the Scholars so require, four, to the Fellow Scholars and others residing in the same, at the appointment of the Proctor, Master or Keeper, according to the following form. And three or at least two of these lectures he shall be obliged to read himself in his own person. Further we decree that one of these lectures shall be read in sophistry, a second in logic, a third in philosophy or in one or other of the two subjects aforesaid, according to the appointment of the Proctor [etc.]; but the fourth in some work dealing with the modes of signification, or some other grammatical, poetical or rhetorical work, according as it shall seem most suitable to the Proctor [etc.]. W e will moreover that the beforementioned Reader shall in each complete week hear three or at least two sophisms, one opposition and one problem, unless he be legitimately prevented, but in that case he shall substitute another competent person to hear and keep the same. And we have decreed that these acts shall be kept if the number of Scholars demands so many. Nevertheless we permit the same Reader, if reasonable cause requires, after asking and obtaining leave from the Proctor [etc.] to be absent from the aforesaid College for the space of one month once in a year, outside the three customary autumn vacations out of term: 3 on condition nevertheless that he provide a competent substitute at his own charges adequately to fulfil all the duties premised for the when Mr Rackham has printed them in the forefront of his Early Statutes of Christ's College, Cambridge (Cambridge, 1927), with notes and a translation. 1 There is no real difference; lectura and lectio are used with impartiality throughout Grace Book A, the university proctors' document of the second half or the fifteenth century. 2 The translation is from Rackham, op. cit. p. 29. 3 So Mr Rackham's translation. The Latin text reads ult* tres vacacoes ex? tnu autupnale usitat', which he extends ultra tres vacaciones extra terminum autumpnaks usitatas. The needs of the case seem to require the extension ultra tres vacaciones extra terminum autumpnalem usitatas, which may be rendered in addition to the three customary vacations, excluding the autumn term. Mr Rackham courteously accepts this emendation.

EARLIEST COLLEGE L E C T U R E S H I P

133

period of his absence. And since all labour ought to be requited by a just payment, we ordain that the same Reader shall receive as his payment from the funds of the College four marks annually. It will be observed (a) That the statutes provide in this matter not a new thing but regulations to govern in future an arrangement already operating in the college: 'And we appoint.. .that whoever is henceforward elected and admitted Reader shall first be bound', etc. (b) That they confirm the view that Godshouse stands alone amongst the colleges in having its own lecturer: 'that on every day on which lectures are usually read in hostels'. The colleges were eleemosynary institutions whose scholars had to be content with provision by the endowment of board and lodging together with religious and disciplinary oversight: their educational training could be had at the lectures given in the public schools for small fees. The hostels were places carried on for profit to which students with means could resort, finding accommodation suitable to their needs, and obtaining houseteaching for which also they paid, to supplement that of the lectures in the public schools.1 Godshouse provided this college teaching for its residents and so initiated a system which was adopted ultimately by all colleges, largely replacing the teaching given by university lecturers, and which remained the principal means of instruction until the position was reversed by the university statutes of 1926. (c) That others than fellow scholars on the foundation resided in the college: the lecturer is to read in the college 'to the Fellow Scholars and others residing in the same', that is, to pensioners, whether residing for a short period or for the full number of terms required for a degree.2 Here also the earlier statutes anticipate the provision in those of the Lady Margaret (chapter XLV) to which Mullinger draws attenti.on.3 (d) That the college lectures shall be continued during the autumn term. The reader is to have the three customary vacations but the autumn term is expressly excluded. This is another tribute to Byngham's common-sense; the long vacation in the university coincided with 1 2

This seems to interpret the Grace Book references to lecture aulares. 3 Cf. Rackham, p. 25, line 80; p. 33, line 108. Op. cit. p. 459.

134

LAST DAYS OF W I L L I A M B Y N G H A M

the vacations in the country schools,1 and schoolmasters, practising their profession in the country, could come up to the university in the vacation to extend their knowledge and to qualify for a degree. The Grace Books abound in instances where study during autumn terms shall count for the same, or a smaller, number of ordinary terms in qualifying for a degree.8 MuUinger provides the background for Cambridge against which Byngham's enlightened policy may be adequately viewed, but as against the contemporary background of Oxford also it is seen to be almost as far in advance of its time as it is at Cambridge. For Oxford, Rashdall is the obvious authority, and he tells us that by the statutes of Magdalen College (1479) Waynflete founded (Rashdall describes it as an innovation) three lectureships, in Theology, Moral and Metaphysical Philosophy, and Natural Philosophy respectively. He says 'it is probable that similar lectures were by this time not unknown in other Colleges'; that 'In the Statutes of the next Oxford College, Brasenose (founded 1509)5 i f is clearly assumed that this would be the case. Lectures continued to be given in the public Schools, but were more and more superseded by the Lectures of Halls and Colleges on the one hand and by Henry VHI's endowed Professorships on the other'.3 When we come to consider the statutes of Godshouse, it will be seen that there is uncertainty as to their actual date, though they obviously look back to an earlier period than their formal sealing by the ViceChancellor and the prior of Barnwell. It is the more gratifying therefore to have discovered a document which proves that the principle of college-lectureship derives from the date of Byngham's proctorship. This is an indentured form of agreement 4 made between William Byngham, Proctor of the College of Goddeshous in Cambridge, and the scholars of the same college of the one part and Ralph Barton, clerk, of the other part. This document seems to have interest sufficient to justify its publication in full in the Latin in the appendix; 5 its substance is given here in paraphrase as follows: Ralph Barton covenants that on every day on which lectures are wont to 1 2 4

A coincidence dictated perhaps by harvest needs. E.g. GB. B 1 , p. 54 (John Eccleston). Chr. Gh. As.

3 Rashdall, ii, 516. 5 Infraj pp. 375 Sqq.

AGREEMENT WITH LECTURER IN 1451

135

be given in the University of Cambridge, in the autumnal term as well as in the other terms of the year, he will give or cause to be given three lectures from the feast of St Michael next ensuing throughout his life within the said college to its scholars and thek successors and to others, coming to, adhering to or dwelling in the said college, [on certain specified subjects] with such variation including lectures upon the poets and orators as the needs for the time being of the scholars may make desirable according to his ability. That when he shall be promoted master of arts he will, during the whole of his regency, at his ordinary lectures given according to the custom of the university, receive and admit all scholars of the college and the others congregating there for the purpose of study, as well as other poor scholars who are disposed to hear him at his ordinaries, freely, gratis and without any money payment.1 That Ralph desiring from any reasonable cause to be absent for thirty continuous days may have permission if the Proctor approves, subject to the provision at his own charges of a competent substitute who shall hear in each complete week two sophisms, one opposition and one problem. That subject to and in consideration of the fulfilment of the lectures and the other premises, the Proctor and scholars shall receive and admit Ralph as a scholar [= fellow] of the college for the term of his life. That the Proctor and scholars shall pay Ralph from the feast of St Michael next tenpence sterling weekly for his commons, and forty shillings each year for his lectures in four equal portions on the feasts of the Nativity of the Lord, Easter, the Nativity of St John Baptist, and St Michael, for the rest of his life, the first portion to be paid on the feast of the Nativity of the Lord next ensuing. Also that the Proctor and scholars shall deliver to Ralph each Easter throughout his life for his livery in addition to six shillings and eightpence in cash four yards of woollen broad-cloth or eight yards of woollen narrowcloth, or else, six shillings and eightpence in lieu of the said woollen cloth. Except that whenever it shall happen that the said Proctor and scholars shall deliver livery to the scholars of the college generally, then Ralph shall receive for his livery for that year four yards of the same cloth if it be broad, or eight yards if it be narrow. It is provided also that if Ralph be ever promoted to an ecclesiastical benefice with cure of souls, without or within the said University of Cambridge, but shall continue to give the lectures and observe the other premises in the manner aforesaid, he shall not for the whole of that time be reckoned a scholar of the college nor receive anything of the tenpence per week after the first year of his promotion, but he shall receive the aforesaid forty shillings and livery. And if Ralph shall be promoted to the degree of bachelor or master of 1

This provision probably roused opposition, producing Statute 155, De magistris

qui gratis legunt (Documents, i, 391).

136

LAST DAYS OF W I L L I A M B Y N G H A M 1

theology, or be troubled with any infirmity so that the lectures and the other premises fail to be performed and observed in full, then he shall not receive anything of the forty shillings, or of the livery or the six shillings and eightpence in lieu of the livery aforesaid. And if Ralph bear himself dishonourably, irregularly or improperly towards the Proctor or scholars or any of them and shall not after a second warning by the Proctor and two scholars of the College reform, correct nor amend himself, or if he shall absent himself beyond the thirty days or otherwise be absent or prolong his absence, or fail to observe any of die premises in the form aforesaid, then all and every the grants and benefits conceded to him by the Proctor and scholars shall be of no force nor effect but shall lack all sanction and right unless the said Ralph submit himself to the judgement and arbitrament of the Proctor and scholars and their successors. This parchment is neither signed nor sealed, but it is prepared for such execution. It is not a draft nor a copy, but is the actual parchment, indented, so that each party thereto may have his identifiable counterpart. It is preserved in the college and the inventory 2 shews that there was a lector in the college at Byngham's death; Ralph Barton was a member of the college in after years and became its fifth proctor, remaining in that office for the space of about twelve years. There is therefore no reasonable ground to doubt that, though the indenture was not executed, the appointment it envisaged became effective in fact. Its general tenbur is in keeping with the provisions relative to the reader in the statutes, the main difference being the omission from the latter of references to livery, but there is ample compensation for loss of livery rights in the increase of the stipend from three marks per annum to four. The fact that Byngham is named Proctor in the agreement gives the date of 17 November 1451, the date of his death, as a terminus ante quern, and the date of 16 April 1448, when the Proctor and scholars of Godshouse first became capable of entering into legal agreements as a corporate body, provides a terminus post quern, and there is reasonable probability that the document was prepared before Byngham left Cambridge for London on that last visit from which death prevented his return. The appointment then was to take effect from 29 September 1451. The document itself is not the agreement, 1

For master of theology, cf. supra, 18, n. 5. The mention Jof the two degrees presents a technical problem too lengthy for discussion here. Supra, p. 126.

B Y N G H A M AS E D U C A T I O N A L R E F O R M E R

137

though it would be loosely so called to-day; the document is only the written record of that which has already become an agreement between the parties, a record that can be produced, in the event of difference of interpretation, for the information of the parties themselves or that of any others to whom they might need to submit it. The provision made for lectures in Godshouse, thirty or forty years before that was attempted in any Oxford college,1 fifty or sixty years before it was known in other Cambridge2 colleges, The arrangement that the subjects of the daily lectures should include not only sophistry, logic and philosophy, but also die works of die poets and orators, The condition that the lectures must be continued during the autumn term, that is during long vacation term, so that country schoolmasters might benefit therefrom, The stipulation that when the stipendiary reader or lecturer of die college should, during his regency, be giving his statutory ordinary lectures in die public schools he must admit all poor scholars of the university without requiring any payment from them, combine to make an achievement upon which Byngham might well sing his nunc dimittis. He was the last of that group of intimate friends, educational reformers in advance of their time, who brought muchneeded distinction to learning in the fifteenth century—John Carpenter, founder of the City of London School; Gilbert Worthyngton, William Lychefeld, John Cote and John Neell, who attacked through parliament the ecclesiastical prejudice and vested interests that were strangling education in the heart of the kingdom and of whose successful efforts the Mercers' School alone remains to-day. Byngham was laid to rest some time between the seventeenth and twentieth November in his own church of St John Zachary in London, where 150 years later Stow 3 says the monuments were well preserved. The church was destroyed in the great fire of London, 1666. The will of William Byngham as found in the transcript preserved in Somerset House4 reads as follows: 1

Rashdall, ii, 515 sq. Mullinger, p. 459; the Lady Margaret's statutes (ch. xxxvi) use the words 'in accordance with the customs observed in the scholastic hostels within the University', suggesting that the practice had not spread to the other colleges from Godshouse. Cf. 3 John Venn, Gonvilk and Caius College, p. 37. Ed. Kingsford, i, 305. 4 Commissary Court of London, 45 Sharp. 1

138

LAST DAYS OF WILLIAM BYNGHAM

In dei nomine Amen. Diem confecdonis presendum ac mortem et diem mortis mei perpendens imminere Ego Willelmus Byngham rector ecdesie sancti Zakarie Londonie michi diem extremum imminere intellego. In primis lego animam meam deo omnipotenti Corpusque meura sepeliendum infra ecclesiam sancti Johannis Zakarie coram crucifixo in eadem ecclesia cujus ecdesie operi lego unum nobile plicatum cum uno cocliare argenteo grosso et unum parvum cocliar deauratum. Et tercium cocliar quod solebam drcumferre in loculo meo Lego Collegio de Goddeshouse Cantebrigie Item lego Johanni Lyncoln cognato meo optimam togam meam cum capudo et Johanne Galen cognate mee tune proximam togam meam cum capudo. Ceteraque bona mea non legata do et lego Johanni Lyncoln litterato commoranti apud Sanctum Thomam de Aconia et cuidam Waltero Potter quos constituo et ordino michi fideles executores ut ipsi disponant de eisdem prout eis expedire viderint anime mee. In cujus rei testimonium presenti testamento meo sigillum meum apposui. Datum septimo dedmo die mensis Novembris Anno domini M°CCCC° quinquagesimo primo. Probatum fuit idem testamentum coram N.K. xx° die Novembris anno predicto et Commissa est administrado Johanni Lyncoln Reservata potestate cum Inventario. Postea tamen dictus Walterus ex certis causis nobis expositis Habet acquie- omnem administradonem virtute dicti testamenti seu aliter in se susdpere tanciam quovismodo coram dicto Nicholao Kene judidaliter renuit et recusavit et eidem renundavit in perpetuum et omnino.

Chapter XI T H E P R O C T O R S H I P OF J O H N H U R T E , 1451-1458, A N D OF W I L L I A M FALLAN, 1458-1464 J O H N HURTE

T

here is no record of the date of election of Byngham's successor; the bare statement is made in Henry VII's charter1 that a certain John Hurte was duly elected and appointed Proctor after Byngham's death. The statutes provide that the fellows shall meet on the day following that upon which a vacancy in the proctorship is known and, subject to waiting not more than ten days for the return of absent fellows, shall proceed immediately to fill the vacant place. The third week in November, in which Byngham's death occurred, was a time of the year when prolonged absence would be improbable and it is likely that election was made at the earliest possible moment. The choice of Hurte seems natural and may have been indicated beforehand by Byngham, or possibly on his death-bed by means of his executor John Lincoln. Byngham's authority must have been supreme over the other members of the college and his expressed wish would have the weight of law. Little is known of Hurte before he became Proctor of the college. He was a fellow of Clare Hall, and he was brought by Byngham into connection with Godshouse by his addition to those appointed to make statutes.2 We have shewn that, even earlier, it had been intended that he should be presented to the living of Helpston,3 and it has been suggested why that intention was not carried into effect. In the deed of presentation prepared for signature in July [1445], but not executed, he is styled bachelor in sacred theology, a degree to which the average member of the university could not be expected to attain before the age of thirty-five; there is no available means of discovering when he took the degree, but the fact of his selection as an arbitrator along with the Chancellor of the University, the Master of Michaelhouse and other 1

Documents, iii, 140.

* Supra, p. 91.

3

Supra, p. 64 sq.

140

J O H N H U R T E A N D W I L L I A M FALLAN

prominent men of the time, in that same year, 1445,1 would appear to justify the assumption that he was then of the age of thirty-five to forty years. The new Proctor then must have been forty-five years of age, or not much under, when he entered upon his duties in Godshouse late in 1451 or early in 1452. Glimpses are to be obtained of the management of the college properties, tantalising glimpses because they suggest without satisfying. To some extent this may be due to different methods of book-keeping, but that is only part of the mystification to which the investigator is subjected. In times when written contracts for purchase, leases and similar documents were not burdened with ad valorem duties payable to the state, there was no need to specify on the face of the documents the true consideration in respect of which the contracts had been made. If there was a continuing rent payable, whether for a term of years or in perpetuity, that was stated in full detail of necessity, for the enforcement of such a payment by process of law could be effected only upon production in the courts of the written document confirming the oral contract. If a sum of money had been paid at the making of the contract, or at the execution of its confirmation, as a consideration for the agreement, the fact of the payment having been completed made unnecessary any reference to it; henceforth the relations between the parties were those specified in the written deed. Until modern times this method obtained in the renewal of leases, rural and urban alike; the rents remained fixed by custom for centuries, but the fresh term was granted subject to the payment of 'fines', whose sum not seldom exceeded many times the aggregate amount of rent for the whole period of the renewed lease. Such fines were not mentioned in the leases; they were separate transactions whose existence, so far as the terms of the leases were concerned, was ignored. It is of the utmost importance to give due regard to these and similar customs if we are to avoid misconceptions of the financial position of the college. There is no possibility of discovering the sums received by Godshouse from fines, sales of wood and the like; there is, probably, no record of the kind available in any other college at so early a date, or for many 1 King's, A, 79, quoted in W. and C. i, 339.

R E V E N U E S A N D LEASES

141

years thereafter. Certain items in the Master's Old Book of Clare College led to an enquiry of Mr W. J. Harrison, bursar of Clare, who very generously gave much time to the extraction of figures from the records of that college for the earliest period for which they were available. These figures shew that the receipts from 'fines, seals and sales of wood' made additions to the income from the college estates of about i8"5 per cent, in the last quarter of the seventeenth century, and of about 27*5 per cent, in the first quarter of the eighteenth. These calculations are for periods remote in time from the fifteenth century and are given here only for such value as they may seem to possess as being the earliest evidence that has proved to be available. A lease of the tithes of the parish of Badgeworth,1 Gloucestershire, was granted 25 March 1453 by John Hurth, Proctor of the College of Godshouse, Cambridge, and the fellows of the same to Robert Bradford, chaplain, and Maurice Andreux alias Coteler of Gloucester, for a term of five years at the rent of forty shillings and twenty pence payable in equal portions on the feasts of St Michael and the Annunciation of the blessed Mary. A lease of the priory of Craswall* in the lordship of Ewyas Lacy in the marches of Wales was granted 2 December 1455 by John Hurte procurator domus sive CoUegii vocati Godeshous to Thomas FitzHarry3 for

the term of thirty years at the annual rent of 23s. 4*/. Thomas was joint farmer of Craswall for the term of ten years from 24 June 1438 at the rent of 465. 8d.; what happened between 1448 and 1455 there is nothing to shew, but the reduction of rent by one-half is suggestive of a commutation of that portion for a cash payment, which would be useful for the structural development of the college buildings. At this period of the college history we meet with a series, short and not continuous, of Master's half-yearly accounts or balance-sheets. The audits are made in the spring and in the autumn 4 and they are usually supplemented by a list of the debtors, with the amounts owing by each; 1

J Chr. Badg. 0 , 1 . Chr. GL Ad. Anglicising Thomas ap Harry = Thomas Parry. 4 A memory of this arrangement survives in the Easter term and Michaelmas term college feasts, of which the latter is still known as the 'audit feast'. 3

142

J O H N H U R T E A N D W I L L I A M FALLAN

from internal evidence it is obvious that only some of the accounts have survived and it is probable that their preservation is fortuitous, and not due to characteristics differentiating them from the others of the series which have perished. The earliest is dated 8 October 1453 and is given first in the language and form of the original: Hec indenture facta viij0 die mensis octobris anno regni regis henrici sexti post conquestum xxxij0 testatur quod magister Johannes hurdi procurator collegii de Godeshouse Cantebrigie computavit coram sociis suis ibidem secundum statuta died collegii predicto die Et summa omnium receptorum pro exhibicione a die xix° mensis Aprilis usque ad diem predictum est xj/i. ijs. xd. ob. Summa vero omnium expensarum est xiiij/i. Et expense excedunt recepta lvijj. jd. ob. Summa vero receptorum pro reparacione per idem tempus est xiij/i. xiij
X5.1

re ixs. ijd.1 vij/i. xvijs. ob.1 It may be assumed with confidence that the accounts were prepared by a clerk skilled in figures and that two indented sheets were made, one for preservation in the college chest, the other for the purposes of the Proctor; there is nothing to shew which has survived. Before seeking to derive from the accounts such general information as they seem capable of providing, it will be useful to transcribe into something approaching modern form the foregoing and the subsequent sheets of Hurte's period; there is nothing to gain in reproducing the original form of further sheets save in capitals and name spellings. 8 OCTOBER 1453

This indenture made the 8di day of October in the 32nd year of die reign of King Henry the sixth after the Conquest witnesseth that Master John Hurth Proctor of the College of Godeshouse Cambridge accounted before his fellows of the same according to the statutes of the said college on the day aforesaid 1 Notes found at the foot of the sheet.

MASTER'S HALF-YEARLY ACCOUNTS And the total of all receipts for exhibition1 from the 19th April to the day aforesaid is But the total of all expenditure2 is And the expenses exceed the receipts by But the total of the receipts for repairs for the same time is But the total of all expenditure [for repairs] And the expenditure exceeds the receipts by The names of the debtors of the college are: The abbot of Sawtre owes besides 10 marks in dispute The prior of Monmoght owes 10 marks The prior of Toteneys owes John Hamond 'farmer' of Ykam owes John Hyll of Webeley owes The vicar of Donehatherley owes Sir [the clerical dominus] John Clyffbrth owes Item there is owing for Craswell for two years crops Item sissor pannorum [? tailor] owes for a horse Item for a second livery

143 I s. d. 112 14 o 2 17 13 1 19 14 6 13

10^ 0 i\ i\ 7 5J

r

1

1 0 0 0 6 13 4 2 0 0 5 0 0 10 1 8 5 0 0 6 o 2 0 0 10 o [blank]

11 OCTOBER 1455

[The remaining three accounts are made according to 'the ordinances and statutes' of the college, not according to the statutes alone.] And the total of all receipts for exhibition from the 28th April to the day of preparing these presents is But the total of all expenditure for the same time and the arrears of the last account is And so the expenditure and arrears exceed the receipts by But the total of all receipts for repairs for the same time is The total of all expenditure and the arrears of the last account is And so the expenditure and arrears exceed the receipts by 18 MAY 1457 The total of all receipts for exhibition from the 6th November to the day of preparing these presents is But the total of all expenditure for the same time and the arrears of the last account is And so the expenditure and the arrears exceed the receipts by 1 2

s. d. 9 I 8 23 10 3* 14 8 1\

5

0

38 18 9* 38 13 9\ s. d.

I

9 16

0

39 2 29 6

I.e. for the maintenance of the fellows. Summaveroexpensarumhere; in other instances Summa vero solutorum. Expenditure,

payments, outgoings, even expenses in the old sense of money laid out.

144

JOHN HURTE AND WILLIAM FALLAN I

The total of all receipts for the same time for repairs But the total of all expenditure and the arrears of the last account is The names of the debtors are these: The abbot of Sawtre owes The prior of Monmought owes 20 marks The prior of Totteneys owes Item the vicar of Thurlowe owes and eleven cart-loads of faggots Item John Hyll owes and more [according to the account] Item John at Yarkyll owes and more Item Sir John ClyfForth owes Item the prior of Newstede owes

s- d. Nil

38 16 \\ J Lr s- d10 0 o 13 6 8 3 0 0 4 0 0 8 0 0 3 8 4 6 8

10

0 0

7 OCTOBER 1457

The total of all receipts for exhibition from the 18th May to the day of preparing these presents is But the total of all expenditure for the same time and the arrears of the last account is And so the expenditure and the arrears exceed the receipts by The total of the receipts for repairs for the same time as it appears And so the expenditure together with the arrears as in the last account The names of the debtors: The abbot of Sawtre The prior of Monmougth owes 20 marks The prior of Newsted owes The prior of Totteneys owes The 'farmer' of Ykam owes The vicar of Thyrlou owes and 13 cartloads of faggots John Hyll owes and more according to the account John at Yarkyll owes Sir John Clyfforth owes Item Symon, the tenant owes Item Others

I

s. d.

13 4 8

39 14 4 26 9 8 nil 38 16

I 135.

d.

4 13 6 8

10

0 0 5 0 1 10

0 0 0 0

0

0

10 2

10

3 8 4 6 0 3 4 3 0

CONSIDERATION

OF T H E A C C O U N T S

145

The accounts themselves are severely summarised; they were drawn from books of account, the equivalent of our modern day-books, as is manifest from the preservation of lists of debtors at the foot of three out of the four, and from the specific reference in the case ofJohn Hyll, who owes ten pounds 'and more according to the account'. The account books have not survived for any year of the Godshouse period, nor for any of the Christ's period before 1530, but their use is established not only ex necessitate ret but by direct statements found in the balancesheets of the 1505-30 period, where the phrase 'as appears from the examination of the book of accounts' is frequent; Syclyng uses the phrase utque in libro sue computations in his 1491 statement. Consideration of the four half-yearly accounts preserved from John Hurte's proctorship yields several interesting results of which the following stand out: (1) The smallness of the half-yearly receipts for 'exhibition' as compared with the substantial amount of the arrears is partly due to the lag between the due date and the date of actual payment; therefore, if the account had been struck a month later the receipts for the half-year would have appeared larger, the arrears smaller in amount each half-year. This interpretation of the accounts is confirmed by examination of the Christ's figures nearly one hundred years later where, stating the receipts and expenditure in the same manner as in Hurte's day, Henry Lockwood in October 1542 shews 'The total of the arrears this year not paid to the college and remaining in the hands of various farmers as appears by examination of the book of accounts, .£306. 8s. o\d.'; an amount, it is instructive to observe, that is one-fourth greater than the total income for the same period. (2) The receipts shewn would appear to be the actual cash received during the six months on account of the income accrued during that six mondis. (3) The income from arrears did not swell the income of the current six months but only reduced pro tanto the amount of arrears carried forward. (4) Consequendy it is impossible to derive from the half-yearly balancesheets reliable information as to the actual income of the college. It is important to remember that the income shewn is that yielded by the properties forming the endowments alone. The provisions in the statutes relative to the presence of 'strangers' as residents in the college give reason for the belief that other than fellows availed themselves of the educational advantages of Godshouse (how else are we IHC

10

146

J O H N H U R T E A N D W I L L I A M FALLAN

to interpret Byngham's statement, in one of his petitions to the king, that fifty persons 'wern commynle logged' therein?). Analogy with the practice elsewhere at that time, as also with the later practice in Christ's and in the university generally, supports the assumption of common-sense that rent for rooms and other income accrued to Godshouse thereby. Such income does not appear in Hurte's or any subsequent Proctor's half-yearly accounts, as is apparent in the fact that all the arrears shewn are of revenues of properties alone, and yet it is unthinkable that there were no arrears in payments for the rooms and commons of perendinantes or pensioners; such arrears there would be in the fifteenth century, as always since, but the Proctor's half-yearly account 'according to the ordinances and statutes' was not the place in which to shew them. If confirmation were needed of what must be sufficiently obvious, it is to be found in the fact that within the memory of living members of the college, there was sharp differentiation in the accounts between the income from endowments distributed as dividends ('exhibition'), and income from other sources. The income from endowments was placed to 'the living college', that from other sources, including pensioners' payments, was placed to 'the dead college'; certain classes of income in the nature of windfalls were often distributed in agreed proportions between the 'living' and the 'dead' college, but the accounts were always kept carefully distinct. The practice of keeping separate accounts for the two departments of college income and expenditure, which survived until recently, obtained also in the early days here being considered, as is shewn in the careful division of moneys relating to 'repairs' from those relating to 'exhibition' in the foregoing half-yearly statements. It has been suggested already1 that there were windfalls such as fines accruing to the college, and subsequent and recent treatment of such revenue, not only in this but in other colleges also, leads to the certainty that such items were excluded from the Proctor's half-yearly accounts. Moreover, it is not impossible that some of the revenues brought into the statements of half-yearly income may have been nominal, inasmuch as they dealt with customary payments which changes of tenants or 'farmers', expiry of leases and other opportunities had, in various ways, 1

Supra, p. 140 sq.

N O M I N A L A N D T R U E VALUES

147

allowed to be augmented. The words used in the accounts with regard to the arrears of John Hyll who 'owes £ 1 0 and more according to the account' seem to point to an instance of that nature. That such a state of things existed is implied by certain words inserted in the various charters of the college, whereby protection is given against successful challenge of their validity on the ground that 'express mention of the true annual value of the said priories, manors, lordships, dues, pensions, lands, tenements, rents, services, advowsons of churches, and other possessions whatsoever, with their appurtenances, is not made in the same Letters Patent'. The actual reasons for these divergences of nominal from actual values are hidden from us, but, apart from the causes suggested above, the increases may have been due to falls over long periods of years in the purchasing power of money, or to actual improvement in real values and yields as, e.g. by draining. It should not be overlooked, however, that the properties were in the main formerly in the possession of religious houses, and that some force may have been at work, for some advantage not obvious to-day, analogous to that favourable assessment known to students of Domesday l as beneficial hidation. An illustration is offered by the actual and nominal values of Fendrayton. In the seventh year of Henry VIII, 1516, the rent given in a college document is ,£18. 6s. 8d., but in 1546, after a period in which money values were steadily rising, the 'farm' of the rectory is returned by the commissioners of the king at the gross amount of £12, out of which 6s. Sd. was deductible in respect of payments to the bishop. For these various reasons all efforts to discover the real income of Godshouse at this period are hedged about with difficulties, and even if notice had been taken in the half-yearly statements, not of moneys received by the time of accounting, but of moneys accrued due, we should still find that expenditure exceeded income. This superficially incredible position was (a) neither peculiar to the college at this date, nor (b) peculiar to the college as opposed to others: (a) Returning to the half-yearly statement of Lockwood in 1542 already referred to,2 wefindthat the expenditure of Christ's College for diat half-year exceeded the income by £60. 125. 3 \i. or by 25 per cent. 1

F. W. Maitknd, Domesday Book and Beyond, pp. 264, 448, 466, etc.

2

Supra, p. 145. 10-2

148

J O H N H U R T E A N D W I L L I A M FALLAN

(b) The commissioners appointed by Henry VIII for that purpose presented to him in the month of February 1546 a statement of the income and expenditure of all the colleges of Cambridge, which shewed in every case, save that of Magdalene, an excess of expenditure over income.1 The king, having studied the document carefully, called for an explanation of this financial mystery, of which question, with the answer he gave, Mathew Parker supplies this account: 'and wher he asked of us, what it ment that the most part of Colleges shulde seame to expend yerly more than ther revenues amounted to, We answered that yt arose pardy of fynes for leases and indentures of the fermours renewing ther leasys, pardy of wood salys'.2 In the course of the negotiations of John Syclyng with the Lady Margaret the declaration is made that the lands and tenements given by Henry VI amounted to the annual value of ^ 3 3 . The document in which this appears is a draft of an agreement between the Lady Margaret and the college,3 and in so formal an instrument the statement should be regarded as technically correct. Nevertheless, a calculation shews that the direct annual receipts, apart from windfalls, from all the endowments of the college, including Fendrayton, which was apparently specifically hypothecated to the use of the Proctor, were not less than ^50. That properties were actually yielding higher rents in the later years of the fifteenth century is confirmed by the records of Clare Hall. In the year 1497, a house near St Edward's Passage let at 305. shews an increase of 35. 4J., and in the same year, the tenement in the parish of St Giles, farthest from the church,4 is let for twenty years at 255. per annum, which is 55. above the customary rent. In 1498, the rectory of Great Gransden is let for twelve years at jQzi per annum, being 205. above the ordinary rent. If similar half-yearly audit accounts to those of Godshouse still remained at Clare for the years 1497 and 1498 it is probable that their preparation would be based upon the old, ordinary or customary rents, and that the additions of 35.4J., 55. and 205. respectively, the advances set out in detail above, would be added to those other invisible items for 'fines, seals and sales of wood' of which there 1 2 4

Documents, i, 105-294; summaries on pp. 287-99. Lamb, p. 60. 3 Chr. Misc. A, 34. Still in the ownership of the college.

T H E P R O C T O R AS KEEPER

149

is abundant contemporary evidence elsewhere, and in Clare Hall itself, later. The Master's Old Book of Clare College possesses various items of interest relating to income and expenditure in the fifteenth century. In 1455, the college owed to sundry persons ^94. 2s. 6\L, but, at the same period, was itself owed a substantial sum by various people. There was difficulty in getting in accounts for rent, even in respect of property near at hand. Thus, William Roger, 'bocher', owes 50s. and denies it; he dies remaining a debtor for that sum. William Somer owes 405., which he denies, and claims a set off; he pays half and is quit. William Skymere of Chesterton owes 20s.; husband and wife are dead and have left no estate, so it is said. The vicar of Haslingfield owes 455. for the rent of Burdon hostel. William Eton owes 135. 4^., and will pay in two yearly instalments of 6s. 8d. each. The accounts have been dealt with at some length at this particular point where they first appear, partly because there was no material development in the extent of the endowment after Byngham's death; partly because the smallness of thefiguresofreceipts and the large amounts of arrears have probably been accountable in great measure for the view that the college was unduly pressed financially, and therefore ready to collapse at the beginning of the sixteenth century if it had not been rescued from its fate by the munificent bounty of the Lady Margaret. It would be a flagrant disregard of the facts to deny that the college in the days while it was still known as Godshouse was both small in number of fellows and poor in revenues; a still greater injury would be inflicted upon truth by failure to apply to the interpretation of those facts critical comparative methods in the endeavour to see them in the true perspective of their contemporary setting. The presentation of the half-yearly accounts is always made by the Proctor, and that aspect of his duties, as Rackham has observed,1 is indicated in one term of his full official title, Proctor, Master or Keeper. As Keeper of the college property, movable and immovable, it was his duty to discharge the functions of the modern bursar. The statutes of Godshouse require that 1

Rackham, p. 140.

i5o

J O H N H U R T E A N D W I L L I A M FALLAN

The Proctor, Master or Keeper of the said College shall also render an account twice in each year, namely within forty days after the Feast of St Michael and within other forty days after the Feast of Easter, in the presence of all the then existing Fellows of the said College, or of three or two to be specially assigned by the majority of the Fellows for this purpose. It is in obvious obedience to this requirement that Hurte recites in the indentures of the half-yearly accounts that he 'accounted before his fellows of the same college according to the ordinances and statutes of the said college', a declaration that must be borne in mind when we come to consider the statutes. In the statutes of the Lady Margaret, the head is still Keeper as well as Master and he is required twice in each year to render true and faithful account before the fellows of 'what he has spent, what he has received, and what remains to be received, what the College owes and what in turn is owing to the same'. It cannot be without interest to remark that, down to the fourth quarter of the nineteenth century, the Master of Christ's College continued to discharge these and all other bursarial duties, then much less onerous than now. In 1881 Dr Swainson, an elderly divinity professor, a member of Trinity College, became Master, and he was unwilling to undertake the performance of the part of the duties attaching to the keepership, which he therefore delegated to one of the fellows. The bursarship was not at first a full-time office, and its holder was merely the deputy of the Master, who paid half his stipend; the provisional character of the arrangement was also manifest in the re-appointment of the bursar annually.1 The growth of the bursarship business soon made necessary the erection of this office into the separate appointment which obtains in almost every other college. 'Repairs', when we first meet the statements dealing with Godshouse finance, are a diminishing obligation, though the work done in the past had left a burden of debt for future liquidation of not less than £38. 165. 4^d. When it is noted that the modern equivalent of that sum would be approaching one thousand pounds it will be manifest that 1

These facts were communicated by the late Prof. E. W. Hobson and by Mr H. Rackham out of their knowledge and experience as fellows during these changes.

C H A R A C T E R OF ' R E P A I R S '

151

only work of an extensive nature would account for a residuary debt of that size. The word 'repairs' must not be allowed by its exact and limited modern use to disguise from us its possible significance in the fifteenth century. Students ofmedieval architecture will recall numerous instances where words such as 'building', 're-building', 'destroyed', 'erected', 'ruined', in written and inscriptional records, are belied by the careful examination of the surviving monumental facts. While there is nothing remaining in the buildings of Christ's College to justify the statement that the word 'repairs' in John Hurte's accounts is not faithfully and accurately used to describe the character of the work done at that time, the amounts of the remaining debt shewn therein are sufficiently large to suggest that 'repairs' would be more accurately rendered to modern minds by a word connoting the adaptation of the tenements formerly belonging to the abbeys of Tiltey and Denney to the purpose of a college, than by one suggesting the making good of detailed defects so as to permit the continued use of those buildings in their former condition. Byngham and his successor do not appear to have been content until the two properties had been so modified as to be worthy in general form of housing the king's College of Godshouse. Passing from the college buildings to the endowments, we must direct our attention first of all to the rectory of Helpston. Dr Peile* says that 'before the charter was granted Byngham was partly possessed of the rectory and advowson of Helpston', a statement based no doubt upon the existence of three deeds2 relating to this property dated 20 October and 1 November 1454.3 The advowson of the church and its acre of land had been conveyed to the duke of York, the viscount of Beaumont, Byngham and the other feoffees in 1444 by all but one of the parties interested therein. The royal charter having founded the college in 1448, Byngham's co-feoffees within a month thereafter released the property to Byngham, as Proctor of the college, and the scholars thereof. The college actually had at that time, May 1448, full possession of the acre of land and the advowson of the church of 1 3

Peile, p. 4.

* Chr. Help. L, M, N.

The 1454 grant alone is referred to in the licence of 1505.

152

J O H N H U R T E A N D W I L L I A M FALLAN

Helpston, but, when documents of 20 October and 1 November 1454 are met, by which the same acre of land and the same advowson are granted by the abbot of Peterborough and his convent to feoffees that they may give them to the Proctor and scholars of Godshouse, it is not surprising that the second grant should rouse suspicion as to the validity of the first. The problem has, however, proved to be susceptible of a simple solution. A person buying a property bought it subject to the rights of the over-lord and of any other persons who had legal rights in it; frequently that fact is specifically mentioned in the deed confirming the purchase. For instance, if a rectory were acquired the purchasing institution would buy it subject to any vicarage that had been founded in the church. Sometimes a purchaser might be able to acquire the separate rights as well as the major interest of the property which he desired to possess, while in other cases that would not be possible or, if possible, not expedient. Now the abbot and convent of Peterborough had an interest in the Helpston acre and advowson yielding them an annual income of two marks (J£I. 6s. Sd.), which they had enjoyed for at least 150 years before Godshouse became concerned in the living. When the property was bought by Byngham and his co-feoffees for the college, the Peterborough interest remained unaffected, but ten years later, in 1454, the college for some reason or other, perhaps because it had money to invest, did actually purchase from the abbot and convent of Peterborough their Helpston income of two marks per annum, and the college could not have made more suitable investment, seeing that thereby all outside claims upon the land and rectory were extinguished. This story is not told by the deeds; those documents, after the fashion of the time, simply record the grant of the acre of land and the advowson, signifying that thereby the grantors conveyed their rights and revenues in the subject-matter. The taxatio of Pope Nicolas, however, makes the value of Helpston in 1291* ^ 1 0 per annum, out of which ,£1. 65. 8d. is payable to the abbot and convent of Peterborough, while Valor Ecdesiasticus of Henry VHP shews Helpston as worth nil to 1

Taxatio, p. 40.

2

Valor Eccles. iv, 286.

LITIGATION W I T H SYON

153

the abbot and convent because it is owned in its entirety by Christ's College and is to be accounted for by the college in the county of Cambridge.1 An occasion of ecclesiastical patronage fell to Hurte from a vacancy in the rectory of Helpston, to fill which he presented Dominus John Thorpe, who was instituted 25 October 1457 in succession to Magister Hugh Tapton, who had been instituted 12 November 1445 on the presentation of Byngham and his co-feoffees and who now resigned the living for the sake of an exchange for the church of Blankney, diocese of Lincoln.3 While the living of Helpston proved to be a comfortable one to hold that of Navenby was a source of anxiety to successive heads of the college. The rectory of this Lincolnshire parish was of considerable value,3 and the advowson was claimed by the wealthy and influential convent of Syon; whatever rumblings may have been heard at an earlier date, the storm broke when the church first became void after it was given to Godshouse, and that vacancy happened during Hurte's proctorship. The story is further related in the appendix,* and it is enough here to say that Syon asserted that the advowson had been given to them by their founder, Henry V. The church became void in 1455 and the bishop of Lincoln had before him two patrons, each claiming to present to the same church; they had to submit their claims to trial at law since, as bishop, it was not his duty to determine between them ex cathedra, though the disputants might appear in due legal form before him, as titular head of his diocesan court, under a writ of ius patronatus, the plea of John Hurte in which remains. There was also a remedy in the king's courts under writ oiquare impedit, which might originate or to which resort might be had by a disappointed litigant by way of appeal from the judgement in a trial of ius patronatus in the court of the bishop. A fragment of the case of the college in a writ 1 Valor Eccles. iii, 505, shews the total value of the colleges, without details. Christ's value is £190. 105. iojcf. * Line. (Chedworth) xx, f. I74d. 3 Valor Eccles. iv, 126, gives the value as £22, with outgoings £4. 105. zd. 4 Infra, pp. 427 sqq.

154

J O H N H U R T E A N D W I L L I A M FALLAN

of quare impedit remains in French (the iuspatronatus plea is in Latin), but there is no record of the outcome of the dispute other than the presentation by the college of Richard Burton, who was instituted 5 May 1456. It is probable that the two documents relate to different occasions and that Burton died not long after his institution, when Hurte presented one Robert Copnaye, notwithstanding the opposition of the abbess; Copnaye held the benefice until 1479. This should be regarded as a great triumph for the Proctor, in face of so formidable an opponent; and the success may be due to his claiming as 'Proctor of the lord king's College of Godshouse' which was duly emphasised in each of the proceedings. The priory of Chepstow, or Striguil, was the subject of a petition already referred to 1 addressed by Hurte to the duke of Norfolk; it is a copy and it is without date. The purpose of the appeal to the duke was to request his aid for the college that it might be put into possession of the priory which, together with all its belongings, had been included in the various royal licences. The matter is a complicated one and there is no trace of any outcome of Hurte's petition, but it is probable that it related to the actual site and surrounding lands of the priory, for its Gloucester lands had been the subject of litigation in the court of the escheator of the county of Gloucester, and also in that of the barons of the Exchequer, in 1443, the litigation ending in a complete victory for Byngham. There was this special difficulty in the case; the house of Striguil had been dealt with on the basis of an alien priory, but, since it survived down to the Dissolution as denizen,2 it is not unlikely that it was seeking at some time during Hurte's proctorship either to obtain a cancellation of the grant of its property to Byngham or, at least, making strenuous endeavours to obstruct its full exercise. The matter will appear again during the proctorship of William Basset.3 From time to time the beneficent interest of the king in the college of his foundation is shewn to its advantage, the Proctor for the time 1 Supra, p. 58; it is a letter very similar to that of Sir John Fastolf to the same duke at about the same time, 1455 (Paston, No. 277). 2 3 Monasticon, iv, 652. Infra, p. 176 sq.

T H E L O R D KING'S COLLEGE

155

being probably acting as his remembrancer. Thus, the Act of Resumption of 1451 has a clause1 exempting from its operation 'oure Collage of Goodehouse of Cambrig', its Proctor, scholars, present and future, its possessions of every kind by whomsoever granted, in all-embracing terms. There are drafts of petitions to the king at times when Acts of Resumption were in contemplation; they set forth the claims of the college to special consideration, the principal claim being that of the king's own foundation, and they close with a form of words which the Proctor and scholars propose should be used to give effect to their desires. One of these* is a fair copy, beautifully written, but undated; it is not unlikely that it relates to an act of 1455 in regard to which letters patent were issued to John Hurte, Proctor, and the scholars under date of 25 July 1457.3 In the course of the petition it is claimed that the possessions spiritual given by the king 'passe not the value of xl marcs yerely when thei ar best unto the saide College and som yere not xx/i\ (This statement refers only to such of the endowments as would come under the operation of the act.) Another example of royal favour is found in a pardon 4 addressed to Hurte as Proctor, and bearing date 26 May 1458, for all statutory and other offences committed by the college before 7 December 1457, with remission of penalties incurred before that date and of revenues and arrears owed to the king before 1 September 1454. It is a stately document, in very formal language, and preserves a splendid example of the royal seal. The Act of Resumption of 1451 brought with it not only the negative good to the college of exemption from its field of operations but also a positive gain that should be counted an uncovenanted mercy. Amongst the revenues confirmed to Godshouse by all the licences from 1442 onwards was the reversion of a pension of ten marks (£6. 135. 4J.) payable by the abbot and convent of Sawtry, in the county of Huntingdon, which the king, before 1442, had granted for life to one John 1

3 Rot. Pad. v, 222 a. Chr. Gh. T; printed infra, p. 173 sq. C.P.R. 1452-61, p. 434; Documents, i, 55. The patent roll places this document under the year 1458, owing to a fifteenth-century clerk's error, t Chr. Gh. Ae. 3

156

J O H N H U R T E A N D W I L L I A M FALLAN

Fowler, a clerk of the king's chapel. As a consequence of the act of 1451, the pension payable to John Fowler came into the king's hands of right but, in effect, it ceased to be paid by the abbot and convent, which therefore gained what was intended for the king's use. On 26 October 1454, however, the abbot of Sawtry had a rude awakening, for on that date the king issued an order 1 in which, after recital of the circumstances, the abbot was instructed to pay the pension with all arrears (and the abbot and convent of Sawtry made a speciality of arrears to all and sundry to whom they owed money) from 1 March 1442 to the then Proctor and scholars and so each year to them and their successors from time to time in perpetuity. The half-yearly accounts of John Hurte have shewn that the abbot paid, but that he was at best an obstinate debtor. It is during Hurte's proctorship that there was made the first purchase to extend the site of Godshouse beyond the tenements of Tiltey and Denney. The plans for this and subsequent extensions may have been formed by Byngham, for his ambitions for the college were not likely to have been content with no greater area than the two plots. However that may be, it was on 2 December 14562 that the prior and convent of St Edmund of Sempringham (with whom Byngham had already had contact in respect of their land lying in Trumpington Street to the south of Peterhouse) conveyed to John Hurte and the fellows a tenement or three cottages at that time held by John Fishwick, one of the bedells of the university, subject to a perpetual annual rent of thirteen shillings and fourpence. The Sempringham property did not adjoin the college property; it lay on the south side and was separated from the college by a tenement owned by John Fishwick, while on its other side lay a further tenement of Fishwick's, who is thus shewn to have had three plots with their respective buildings, of which he owned two and rented one, occupying the whole space between the college and Hangman's Lane 3 (otherwise known as Rokys [Rogues'] Alley). The acquisition for extension purposes of a property sandwiched between the two properties of a third party would seem somewhat unwise in the opportunities it gave the third party of making a profit 1 Close Roll, 33 H. VI, 34. * Chr. Camb. O. 3 cf. plan, infra, pp. 182-3.

E X T E N S I O N OF T H E SITE

157

out of the needs of the college but for our knowledge that Fishwick and Margaret his wife were friends of Godshouse, in whose prayers they were, according to the statutes, to be specially mentioned daily as benefactors. In Willis and Clark's history of the site the Sempringham plot is shewn as acquired in 1474; * J. W. Clark, however, at whose disposal the documents were placed by Dr Cartmell, either did not receive the 1456 conveyance or overlooked it. There are the two conveyances, sixteen years apart, with differing rents, each made to the Proctor of its date and relating to the same land, a fact of which the second offers no explicit explanation; the underlying reason for the second conveyance will be suggested when we are dealing with its period.* Another tenement came into the possession of feoffees for the college during Hurte's period; it was that of William Herrys who had, as an alias, his occupation-name, Fisher. Herrys and his co-feoffees conveyed their property not to the Proctor and fellows of Godshouse direct but to William Fallan, clerk, Thomas Burgoyne3 of Impington, gentleman, William Melynton* and John Hurte, clerks, and John Belton, burgess. The deed bears the date 26 May 1458; 5 there is also a power of attorney from Herrys to give seisin, but there does not remain in the college a grant from the feoffees, Fallan and others, to the college, which is to be regretted as it would have provided us with the name of the Proctor at a period when there is some uncertainty. The grant by Herrys to feoffees for the college is, however, suggestive; the college 1

2 ii, 189-90, also the plan. Infra, p. 184 sq. Thomas Burgoyne, gentleman, was an executor of John Brokley's will, and his position in relation to Godshouse property must be attributed to his important connection with the estate of that early and principal benefactor of the college. He died about 1470, and a simple brass of that date lies at the entrance to the chancel of Longstanton St Michael whereon he is described as 'armiger, patron of diis church'. He presented to the living twice and other members of his family before and after are found exercising the same function; they were people of some standing in and about Cambridge, having possessions in die town, in Dry Drayton and in Longstanton as well as in Impington. Thomas was succeeded at Longstanton by three generations of direct male descendants (Rot. Parl; Crosby; Visitations of Cambridgeshire; Palmer, Cambridge Borough Documents). 4 Our old friend William Millyngton, fellow of Clare, Provost of King's. 5 Chr. Camb. P. 3

158

J O H N H U R T E A N D W I L L I A M FALLAN

could only take a grant in its own name by its Proctor and fellows, and the grant to feoffees may have been due to its being made during an interregnum between two proctorships, a possibihty increased almost to probability by the inclusion amongst the feoffees of John Hurte, retiring Proctor, and William Fallan, succeeding. Having failed to establish by direct evidence the date of Hurte's surrendet of, and Fallan's accession to, the headship, it is proposed for facility of classification and indexing to assume the year 1458. The rent reserved by the grant is of interest for the smallness of its sum, two pence in good and legal English money to be paid on the feast of Saint Michael the archangel, and for the quaintness of its name, hauger gabula.1

In the early part of this chapter reference was made to the general absence of information respecting the amount of consideration for which properties were sold, with mention of some of the exceptions to the rule; the Herrys tenement provides another exception at a date twelve years before it came into the possession of the college. The deeds preserved begin in the tenth year of Richard II when the tenement was leased for sixty years at the annual rent of twelve shillings; it is reasonable to assume a lump sum payment in addition at the date of execution of the lease. On 29 September 1446, when the sixty years term had come to an end, the then owners of the property sold it for the sum of forty pounds, of which knowledge is preserved for us because the consideration was to be paid not in one lump sum but in six equal instalments of ten marks (.£6. 135. 4d.) at the feast of Easter next ensuing and at each successive Easter until the full purchase price of 1 The sum of two pence is the amount of hagable rent paid to the borough by Godshouse in respect of this particular part of the property in the year 1483, and the same amount at the same time was paid for one of Fishwick's tenements {Annals, i, 228). It is no part of the present writer's work to discuss such etymological questions but, as the meaning of hagable has been the subject of discussion, it seems desirable to place on record such evidence as the college records pertaining to this Herrys tenement supply. The complete phrase in the grant of 8 October 1458 is Reddendo inde annuatim Gazajilacio sive hauger gabule duos denarios legate monete Anglie adfestum sancti Michaelis archangeli si petatur pro omnibus serviciis exaccionibus et demandis. F. W . Maitlandhas discussed 'hagable', 'high-gable', 'haw-gavol' authoritatively and interestingly in Township and Borough, especially on pp. 180 sqq.

RESOURCES OF THE COLLEGE

159

forty pounds was completely discharged. In addition, the grantees covenanted to pay the hauger gabula if demanded. When the feoffees for the college bought the property in 1458 no purchase price was named, for the reason, we must assume, that the money value was paid on the execution of the deed of grant or upon the giving of seisin. Even if the purchase price of the Herrys tenement in 1458 was no greater than the forty pounds paid for it by others in 1446, it was a substantial sum for those days (about one thousand pounds in post-war time, taking account only of the relative general change in the purchasing power of money, and ignoring increased site values), whose provision indicates that Godshouse possessed large means itself, or had access to friends upon whose bounty it might draw at need. A similar suggestion of the possession of means is shewn in the Proctor's accounts where, as we have seen, there was owing the large sum of nearly ^ 3 9 as arrears for the cost of 'repairs'. It is improbable that such a sum was owing to the carpenters, masons, bricklayers, tilers and other tradesmen by whom the 'repairs' were done; the greater likelihood is that this amount of arrears was a book-keeping entry, the actual indebtedness being to the chest of the college to whose detailed accounts it had not then been allocated. In plotting the Godshouse site in the plans of The Architectural History of the University of Cambridge, Christ's College, fig. 1, J. W. Clark 1 shews the Herrys tenement, bought 1458, to be bounded on the north 3 (as stated in the deed of grant) by the messuage of Stephen Warwick; beyond the latter he marks a triangular plot without name or date. He also shews a strip marked 'Ground of Corpus Christi College, bought 1567', and in giving details of the Corpus ground he says:3 'It is unfortunately impossible to determine the exact position of this piece, as the conveyance from Peyrson has been lost. It is evident, however, that it must have been a portion of the triangular space between "The Dovehouse Close" and Stephen Warwick's house, the 1

It was he who made the 'collections' for the site of Christ's College; op. cit. ii, 187. The reference to the cardinal points are those of the deeds; they are remote from actuality, but, with aid of the plan, are unmistakable. 3 Op. cit. ii, 191 sq. 2

160

J O H N H U R T E A N D W I L L I A M FALLAN

date of the acquisition of which is equally unknown. This space seems to have been occupied by a number of small houses and gardens, of no importance or interest'. The lacunae J. W. Clark bemoans it is possible to fill. The Herrys tenement's deeds number ten in all, stretching from 1386/7 to 1458; they have all been examined by the writer for the present purpose, and not one supplies the dimensions of the plot. The distance from north to south was assumed by J. W. Clark to be the same as that of the Denney plot, but that is clearly wrong; it should be equal to that of Tiltey.1 The Herrys plot included what Clark calls the Stephen Warwick plot, while that properly bearing that name is the triangular piece for which Clark failed to find either name or date of acquisition. That triangular plot, the Stephen Warwick plot, is represented in the college muniment room by no fewer than twenty deeds stretching from 1378/9 to 1507, in which year, 28 August, it was conveyed by Dr William Crossley, bachelor of civil law, to Dr Richard Wyatt, Master of Christ's, and the college. As J. W. Clark says, the site consisted of a large number of gardens and houses of minute dimensions, and the deeds are records of successive amalgamations until all were brought together in the one plot acquired by the college in 1507. The piecing of the evidence together from these numerous deeds was an obviously impossible task for those engaged upon a work of the magnitude of the Architectural History, whose standard of accuracy is a source of marvel to those with whom it is in frequent use. The position is aggravated also by irresponsible changes of description used for the same plot, the Herrys tenement being sometimes referred to as Nicholas Potter's and the Stephen Warwick as that of Beilham or Baylham. The plan* of the site is based upon that in Willis and Clark's work but embraces the recent discoveries affecting the two plots mentioned. It has not been possible to delimit these properties with certainty, but the changes introduced in the Willis and Clark plan give their relation1

J. W. Clark anticipated the possibility of such errors when he wrote (W. and C. i, 121 note): 'as dimensions are rarely given in medieval conveyances their [the pieces] 2 Infra, pp. 182-3. relative size must depend in most cases upon conjecture'.

HURTE'S R E T U R N T O CLARE HALL

161

ships, and of set purpose as few modifications as possible have been made. The surrender of the proctorship by Hurte has been attributed tentatively to the year 1458; he is styled Proctor in a deed of 26 May,1 while in one of 8 October* of that year he and Fallan are named together, each as 'clerk'. The Master's Old Book at Clare preserves sixteenthcentury notes of fifteenth-century documents and transactions of that college in which Hurte's name occurs frequently; only two can be dated with certainty. The first is an entry of 10 January 1459 (old style, as in the book, 1458) recording his payment at Lincohi, on behalf of Clare, of the sum of .£20 to Nicholas Wymbych; the second is a payment in 1456 to Hurte for celebrating the Babington anniversary in Clare Hall and, as that duty was to be performed by a fellow, the continuance of Hurte as fellow of Clare while Proctor of Godshouse is a necessary deduction. The other dates are conjectural for, unfortunately, the pages of the volume are not in chronological sequence, but they all appear to be earlier, not later, than 10 January 1459. In one place Hurte is shewn as receiving, with two others, ,£4 for celebrating Babington's anniversary, in another the college owes him a sum for commons and he pays money to Magister Wilflett; in a third, the college owes him ^ 1 0 ex prestituto and for commons during the vacancy of the mastership. It is beyond doubt that Hurte returned to Clare Hall from Godshouse, and we have seen that he retained his fellowship there during his proctorship of Godshouse; strange as that may seem in modern days it was paralleled in the case of Syclyng in the colleges of Godshouse and Corpus Christi, in considering whose case another example will be adduced.3 The absence of any mention by Dr Peile of Hurte's date of retirement, or of any reference to his subsequent history, was disappointing, and it was impossible to find records of Clare Hall to fill the blank. His active participation in the affairs of that ancient society would have seemed to mark him out, if not as a successor to its mastership, at least as a candidate for preferment to one of its livings, but enquiry into 1 3 LHC

Chr. Gh. Ac Infra, p. 203 sq.

* Chr. Camb. P. II

162

J O H N H U R T E A N D W I L L I A M FALLAN

their occupancy shewed that this was not the door by which Hurte made his exit from the university. It has been gratifying therefore to be able to trace his later history by the discovery that he was instituted on 13 March 1462 into the vicarage of St Mary in Nottingham,1 upon the presentation of the prior and convent of the Cluniac house of Lenton on the outskirts of that town. At some date previous to his institution to that living, he had taken the higher degree of doctor of divinity (S.T.P.). In Nottingham, Hurte had as near neighbour his old friend and senior, Willidm Guile, formerly Master of Clare, who had been instituted into the rectory of St Peter, Nottingham, on 3 June 1445,* also on the presentation of the prior and convent of Lenton, while he was still Master of Clare. Guile shewed his friendship for Hurte while the latter was Proctor of Godshouse in nominating him to celebrate in the college chapel of Clare the anniversary of Sir William Babington, for which he received the sum of twenty shillings at Easter and at Michaelmas.3 The friendship was maintained in Nottingham, and when Hurte, presumably the younger man, made his will, he appointed Guile its executor and his residuary legatee. John Hurte died 14 September 1476, and by his will, proved 1 May 1477,4 he desired to be buried in the chancel of his own church below the pulpit at the step of the choir. He was a well-to-do man and possessed a valuable library, of part of which at least his will made careful disposition, including bequests of Three books to the University Library; Several to Clare Hall; To the royal college of St Mary and St Nicholas (King's) a book of Physic, namely Ysaac de Urinis, with others [bound] therewidi; To the College of Goddeshouse, Cambridge, one book called Egidius de Regimine Principum [bound] with others whose second folio thus begins, judicem; and a Doctrinale with Gressim in the same, whose second folio begins unus et ullus et nullus; To the Godiam chest in Cambridge, a book de Compositione Instrumentorum Astronomiae, widi others [bound] therein; 'which book, as I conceive, formerly belonged to diat chest'; 1 3

York, William Booth, f. 95 b. Clare, p. 39, circa 1456.

J 4

York, Kempe, f. 55 a. Test. Ebor. iii, 220 sqq.

HURTE'S D E A T H A N D WILL

163

To Master William Guile, books and a silver spice-spoon; To John, son of his brother William, his silver girdle, his silver knives, formerly his father's, his mazer (murra) which was his parents', and six silver spoons marked K;1 To the church of Snenton,2 a missal and a chalice; To Wragby church [11 m. N.E. of Lincoln] two books and his lesser silver cross; To the church of Ingham iuxta Lincoln [7 m. N. by W.], twenty shillings. This is a summary only of the will, and the bequests are not in the order there given; further details may be found in the York registry or in the Surtees transcript as above. The possibility of Hurte's having held priestly office at Wragby and Ingham churches has been considered, but search in the Lincoln episcopal registers for the fifteenth century shews an unbroken record of institutions in which his name does not appear; his testamentary care for these churches had some other foundation. It has seemed expedient to depart from chronological sequence with respect to Hurte's life after leaving Godshouse since, thereafter, he had no contact with the college, unless in the matter of its statutes; the association of his name with that very important body of rules for college governance presents a problem which must be stated but not solved when they become subject to consideration.3 It has been possible to establish that the document* illustrated opposite belongs to Hurte's period. It is undated and it bears the endorsement Indetura de compts Collegii de Goddeshows, which is not a very close description of its contents. The document is rendered into English below and there is set against each of the muniments received by Gerard de la Hay the modern reference to that self-same document in the college muniment r o o m : Memorandum that Gerard de la Hay has received from the Master of Goddeshouse in the University of Cambridge by the hands of Ralph Barton clerk a certain box with divers muniments concerning the College of Goddeshouse namely A certain deed of release of William Byngham of certain 1

K capital would be the London mark for 144.7/8, K small for 1467/8. * Sneinton, now within the boundary of the city of Nottingham. 4 3 Infra, pp. 238 sqq. Chr. Gh. 5. 11-2

164

J O H N H U R T E A N D W I L L I A M FALLAN

rents dues Priories etc. dated the tenth day of February in the 27th year of King Henry the sixth (= Chr. Gh. W). Item a certain deed made in favour of William Byngham etc. concerning the advowson of the church of Fendrayton dated the fifth day of May in the 26th year of King Henry the sixth (=Chr. Fend. C). Item a certain other deed in favour of William Byngham concerning a certain due which the Prior of Monmouth etc. dated the 23 rd day of June in the 27th year of King Henry the sixth (= Chr. Gh. X). Item letters patent of the lord King in favour of William Byngham William Wymbyll and others etc. dated the 9th day of February in the 20th year of King Henry the sixth (= Chr. Gh. G). Itemletters patent in favour of William Byngham and the scholars etc. dated the 16th of April in the 26th year of King Henry the sixth (= Chr. Gh. Q). Item letters patent in favour of William Byngham and others concerning the advowson of the parish church of Fendrayton dated the 3rd day of September in the 26th year of King Henry the sixth (= Chr. Fend. B). Item letters patent in favour of the present Proctor and others concerning divers rents etc. dated the 25th day of July in the 35th year of King Henry the sixth (not preserved in the college, but see below). Item he received from the same Ralph 40 shillings for the costs and expenses of the pleas of the same Proctor and College etc. The penultimate item is of considerable importance for dating this document; since the deed referred to is not preserved in the muniment room a search elsewhere was imperative in the hope of discovering (a) the purpose of the letters patent, (b) the name of the present Proctor, which last phrase might, however, be a literal quotation from the letters themselves.1 The Calendar of Patent Rolls refers to letters patent to John Hurte and the College of Godshouse of 25 July in the 36th year of Henry VI, which is a year too late. The coincidence of day and month was suggestive of error, and the examination of the roll itself led to the belief that the error was attributable to the chancery clerk of the fifteenth century, and not to Gerard de la Hay or Ralph Barton. Finally, a search amongst the Chancery Warrants to privy seal for the appropriate period produced, in the file for the 35th year, the warrant for the patent that is in the roll for the 36th year, giving the subjectmatter in extenso2 and so placing beyond doubt that Gerard de la Hay 1 As in the confirmation charter of Richard III which speaks of tune procurator and nunc procurator, but gives the name of neither. * The Public Record Office reference is C. 81/773/10377.

A P A T E N T ROLL E R R O R

165

1

gives the correct year. The question of how the fifteenth-century clerk came to blunder is of interest but its discussion here would be out of place. These letters patent of 25 July, 35th year of Henry VI, are to be found in the Public Record Office, the reference being Patent Roll 36 Henry VI, part ii, m. 1. They shew the Proctor to whom they were issued to be John Hurte and it follows from its reference to letters patent of the present Proctor that Gerard de la Hay's receipt was given during the proctorship of John Hurte. The purpose of the letters patent was to overcome the Act of Resumption passed in the parliament sitting in the 34th year of Henry VI,* so far as Godshouse was affected by its provisions. By it certain of the revenues of the college had been taken into the king's hands as from Michaelmas 1455, and these were to be restored by means of the authority of the letters patent to the Proctor and scholars. In some previous Acts of Resumption (the pressure of economic need made them numerous in this reign) we have seen that exclusion from their operation was granted to Godshouse in the words of the statutes themselves and, in regard to others, it would appear that the prompt appeal for exemption by the Proctor and fellows had met with a speedy response. The delay of nearly two years between the coming into effect of the 1455 act and the issue of letters patent to Godshouse to overcome it may have been due to laxity on the part of Hurte, but, more probably, to the disturbed conditions of the realm at the time and, particularly, to the renewed illness of the king. Whatever its cause, the delay must have been serious in its immediate effect, to say nothing of the dire outlook for the future of the college, until its endowments were secured once more by obtaining the king's authority to set aside the threat of the act to their continued enjoyment by Godshouse. It is natural to suppose that the proceedings to which Gerard de la Hay's receipt bears witness were the immediate outcome of the issue 1

The copy of C.P.R. in the Literary Searchroom of the Public Record Office has been corrected accordingly. 2 Printed Rot. Parl. v, 300-20. The parliament was summoned to meet 9 July 1455 at Westminster.

x66

J O H N H U R T E A N D W I L L I A M FALLAN

of the letters patent we have been considering. The revenues of the priories which should have come into the coffers of Godshouse we must suppose to have passed into those of the royal Exchequer, their extraction whence might have seemed hopeless. In this predicament we may suppose Hurte to have turned to de la Hay, who, whatever the result of his efforts, seemed well equipped for the task of attempting the semi-miracle. Gerard's favour with Henry is shewn by the inclusion of his name in the body of this very Act of Resumption amongst those to whom its provisions were not to apply. For Godshouse, his main qualification was that he himself was a clerk of the Exchequer, but he was otherwise a man with wide experience of affairs, and so gifted with diplomatic tact that, though a pensioner of Henry VI, he acquired an office of profit under Edward IV; other notes of his career will be found in the appendix.1 Gerard de la Hay's duties would keep him in London, whither we may assume Ralph Barton to have conveyed the documents and the forty shillings on Hurte's behalf. All the muniments save that of 25 July 1457 being still in the possession of the college, it seems likely that the lack of the last is due to some later accident; it is not recorded in the catalogue of Adam Wall (at the close of the eighteenth century) and, consequently, its loss is not recent. Now that its date is established as of the year 1457 it may be read in summary in C.P.R. for 1458, and in extenso on the patent roll itself.* The date of de la Hay's receipt must be placed in the autumn of 1457.

WILLIAM FALLAN The uncertainty in which is shrouded the actual date of Hurte's retirement from Godshouse necessarily attends that of the entry of his successor. His earlier and later history was unknown to Dr Peile, who says of him: 3 'appears as the third Proctor... .He appears 1462 in the licence of confirmation of Edward IV' and no more. Even his date 1

Infra, p. 395 sq. There is a reference to these letters patent in Documents, i, 55, but under the wrong year because based upon the patent roll. 3 Biog. Reg. i, 2. 2

FALLAN'S L O N D O N P R E F E R M E N T S

167

of entry, and the date and cause of his recession from his headship of the college, must be expressed with some uncertainty, though it is believed that the dates 1458 and 1464 have substantial approximation to the facts. The name seems to be uncommon, and since one is found bearing it whose career shews certain significant agreement in dates with those of the Proctor of Godshouse, and has in addition other points of contact, it is tentatively assumed here that William Fallan, who is first found as rector of St Mary le Strand, London, was the clerk who afterwards became Proctor of the college. The source of information concerning this William Fallan is Newcourt's Repertorium Ecclesiasticum (1710); the Novum Repertorium of

Hennessy is less satisfactory since the account confuses two separate persons, one of whom was prebend of the n t h stall in the Royal Chapel of St Stephen, Westminster, and died in 14501 and could not therefore resign a living in 1458. Adhering to Newcourt's account, we find3 that William Fallan was admitted to the rectory of St Clement Danes in 1431 (having been rector of St Mary le Strand since 1429, according to Hennessy);3 he resigned in November 1432 in favour of the rectory of St Andrew, Holborn, which he exchanged before the following September for the church of Hedingham Sible, Essex. This hving he held until 1438, when he exchanged it for the rectory of St Magnus, London, which he occupied until 1458 when he voided it by resignation, having in the meantime been collated to the archdeaconry of London in February 1442.4 The points for special notice are (a) that this William Fallan was rector of city churches from 1429 to 1458 and therefore contemporary with Byngham as rector of St John Zachary for twenty-two years (1429 to 1451), and (b) that he ceased to be a London rector in 1458 by resignation. As to (a), Byngham's intimate association with his 1

P.R. 29 H. VI, i, 20 (not part ii as in Hennessy). Vol. i, p. 61, sub Archdeacons oj London. 3 Page 313, quoting Bishop Gray's Register, f. 31. 4 Leic. vol. ii, pt 2, p. 514, sub Bringhurst. Nichols says that William Fallan, priest, was presented to that church by the abbot and convent of Peterborough upon exchange with the former rector, John Smyth, for the church of Hedingham Sible; he then proceeds to quote Newcourt. 3

168

J O H N H U R T E A N D W I L L I A M FALLAN

fellow parochial incumbents and their interest in his Cambridge enterprise are conspicuous, as has been shewn; it is not likely that the few names definitely known to us exhaust the list of those who admired his work and came under his influence: Fallan may well have been another. As to (b), a William Fallan is found rector of Shelford Magna, four miles south of Cambridge, about this period; 1 a William Fallan is admitted to Corpus in 1458 and is mentioned by Masters as being possibly the same as the man who was admitted archdeacon of London in 1442;* a William Fallan, clerk, is named first in a conveyance of property to Godshouse dated 8 October 1458,3 and he it is whom we have assumed to have become Proctor of the college shortly after that date in succession to John Hurte, whose name appears last in order in the same document. It is impossible to declare with any approach to certainty that all these documentary entries refer to the same William Fallan, but it may be said, at least, that it is not improbable, and it may fall to some future researcher to find an indubitable link. The period during which Fallan was at the head of the college was not productive of extensive impress upon the documentary history of the house. There was no acquisition of property either by way of endowment or by way of extension of the college site; on the contrary, there was a definite loss of income suffered following the accession of Edward IV which took place on 4 March 1461. It has been shewn* that, following the Act of Resumption of 1451, the sum often marks due from the abbot and convent of Sawtry, of which the reversion had been granted to the college by Henry VI subject to the life interest of John Fowler, came immediately under the king's control and was by his order, dated 26 October 1454,5 to be paid by the abbot and convent to Godshouse. That piece of good fortune was withdrawn on 7 February 1462, when Edward IV took away the ten marks which 'Henry VI lately in fact and not in law King of England formerly conceded to the Proctor and Scholars of the house or College called Goddishouse in the University of Cambridge' and gave it to John Fowler, one of 1

Crosby, quoting Gray, f. 53. Chr. Camb. P. 5 Close Roll, 33 H. VI, m. 34. 3

* Masters, A List of the Nantes, p. 19. Supra, p. 155 sq.

4

FIRST C O N F I R M A T I O N BY E D W A R D IV

169

the clerks of his chapel, in consideration of his past and future services, until the said John Fowler shall receive compensation of the same annual value from the king.1 Later in that same year, 4 November 1462, William Fallan received as Proctor confirmation3 from the king of the charter of 16 April 1448 and all the properties named therein, including the reversion of the ten marks to be received ad interim by John Fowler. The delay of one year and eight months may not have been due to neglect by Fallan. The confirmation proved to be insufficient and it was replaced, during Basset's proctorship, six years later. So far as documentary records extend that is the full account of Fallan's period of headship that has remained. There may have been active progress made with the work of building, following that extension of site by the acquisition of the Herrys plot whose grant provided the first occasion upon which Fallan's name is found in connection with the college; but of this, as of the progress of the educational work of Godshouse, it is rarely that we find any notice and there is no exception to that rule in Fallan's period. Whether this Proctor died while holding his office, or whether he resigned its responsibility, cannot be determined with any definite assurance, but the latter is perhaps the more probable, inasmuch as William Fallan resigned the vicarage of Shelford Magna early in the year 1464.3 His name ceases to be found in college documents, and is not to be traced later in any ecclesiastical office in the diocese of Ely; his successor's name as 'Master' of Godshouse is found as early as December 1465 in circumstances which would admit of his having already, at that date, held the office for some length of time.* The name of William Fallan, clerk, is found in an undated petition amongst Early Chancery Proceedings (P.R.O.), bundle 33, number 174, wherein the administrators of his goods and chattels seek a remedy against his former servant, John Bell. Fallan is declared to be 'late dead' and to have left considerable estate, but nothing is there found to fix the date and place of his death or to identify him as the sometime Proctor. 1 3

C.P.R. 1461-7, p. 117. Crosby, quoting Gray, £53.

* Chr. Mon. C; P.R. 2 Ed. IV, ii, 16. Cf. infra, p. 172 sq.

4

170

J O H N H U R T E A N D W I L L I A M FALLAN

William Fallan, if he was indeed the former archdeacon of London, came to Godshouse when he must have been approaching sixty years of age, and his retirement from the busy life of a city parson to the unexacting surroundings of the small village of Shelford Magna may have marked his consciousness of declining vigour, natural enough at his age at that period. His value to the college may have been greater than the paucity of record seems to imply, and the unsettled political conditions of the time would lead the head of a Lancastrian college to walk warily in the early days of a Yorkist king. We have seen that Edward IV withdrew from his predecessor's foundation the immediate enjoyment of one of its endowments, and an unaggressive programme in the outward relations of Godshouse, avoiding public prominence that would attract the attention of the usurper and his courtiers, might well be the definite policy of Fallan.

Chapter XII THE PROCTORSHIP OF WILLIAM BASSET 1464-1477

T

here is no possibility of declaring with certainty William Basset's family or the county whence he came. Dr Peile1 thinks he may have been 'a Bassett of Fledborough', Nottinghamshire, but he offers no supporting evidence, while, for reasons to be stated later, there is ground for suggesting as his place of origin the county of Northampton, where the Bassets were a numerous family of some importance. He is assumed to be the William Basset who comes before us as a questionist on the first page that has survived of Grace Book A, that for the academical year 1454/5,2 and in 1459 becomes inceptor in arts.3 In the year 1474/5 he has a grace as bachelor in divinity (S.T.B.),* which was the degree held by the Basset who was Proctor of the college. He did not proceed to the doctorate of divinity (S.T.P.), but, in the year 1478/9, he is mentioned once more in the Grace Book, 5 when he has a grace exempting him from attending university congregations unless specifically summoned thereto. One William Basset, priest, was instituted incumbent of Benefield, near Oundle, 23 April 1449, and remained there until the end of 1460, his successor being instituted 27 January 1461.6 If the Benefield man who surrendered that living in order to take the prebendal stall at Stoke by Clare, now to be mentioned, was the William Basset of Grace Book A, it would follow that he took or completed his university course after being ordained priest.7 The year 1461 for the removal 1

3 Biog. Reg. i, 2. GB. A, p. 1. 4 Ibid. p. 106. 3 Ibid. p. 17. 6 5 Ibid. p. 133. Bridges, ii, 398. 7 Dispensations for non-residence in order to attend 'school' at the university are found in episcopal registers in the fifteenth century. Many graces for degrees to rectors and vicars are seen in the Grace Books; some of these are clearly graces for higher degrees but others imply admission to the M.A. degree, such as those for the rectors of Bradley and Bever (GB. A, p. 41).

172

P R O C T O R S H I P OF W I L L I A M BASSET, 1464-1477

from Benefield and also for the appointment to Stoke by Clare is suggestive, and the possibility of the two men being one and the same is not lessened when we find that the Cambridge man had special association with Cotterstock and Glapthorn, both places in the immediate vicinity of Benefield,1 but certainty is impossible. Basset would give two years to the regency and that would set him at liberty to accept a piece of preferment offered to him in 1461, when he was appointed to the prebend of the third stall on the north side of the important collegiate church of Stoke by Clare in the county of Suffolk,3 in succession to Walter Blaket, who had held the stall since 1454.3 The dean of Stoke ht 1461 was William Wilflete, S.T.P.,4 who was also Master of Clare Hall, Cambridge, and was several times Chancellor of the University. It would seem not improbable that Basset was a member of Clare Hall and so came under the observation of Wilflete, while his membership of Clare would also bring him into contact with influences leading to his election to the proctorship of Godshouse. Basset first comes before us as Proctor on 9 December 1465, and that not from any document preserved in the college but from the register of John Chedworth, bishop of Lincoln.5 where we read that 'Will. Basset, A.M., Magister domus Goddeshows Cant.', was instituted to the incumbency of the church of Helpston. This being a living in the gift of the Proctor and fellows of Godshouse it would have been improper for Basset, as Proctor, to present himself, and the difficulty was overcome by the Proctor and fellows conceding the patronage for that turn to a very old friend of the college, William Millyngton. A church living being a freehold held by the priest for life, Basset would be presented only on the occurrence of a vacancy by death, or resignation; Bridges6 does not supply the occasion of the voidance, but reference 1

2 Infra, p. 188. Masters, app. p. 38. 3 This item concerning Basset reaches us by mere chance; Archbishop Parkers MS., from which it is derived, gives a list of deans, not of prebendaries, and Blaket was dean for twelve days, resigning the deanery then and being given the stall. The brief notice of Blaket as dean concludes with the name of his successor in the stall. 4 5 Lloyd, pp. 9 sqq. Bridges, ii, 516.

6

Loc. cit.

A C T S OF R E S U M P T I O N

173

1

to the episcopal registers at Lincoln shews it to have been due to the death of John Thorpe, who had been presented to the living by the Proctor and fellows in 1457. Therefore, though Basset's name as Proctor does not appear before December 1465, the improbability of a vacancy in the living arising simultaneously with the election of the new Proctor justifies the assumption that Basset had entered upon his duties as head of the college sometime previously, presumably in the spring of 1464, when there is reason to assume a vacancy arising from the resignation of Fallan. It may be added that there is no documentary record affecting the college, remaining either in the muniment room or in external sources known to us, between the date of Fallan's resignation of the vicarage of Shelford Magna, early in 1464, and the institution of Basset to Helpston in December 1465. As was the case with his predecessors, the new Proctor, in common with others enjoying the revenues formerly paid by alien priories to their head houses oversea (and other spiritual profits), was harassed by Acts of Resumption. There is a draft in the muniment room of a petition3 quoting the act of 7 and 8 Edward IV (1467) 3 and, though it is without date, it clearly is based upon the necessity of protection against deprivation which would become effective in default of a specific grant of exemption from the king. There are several documents of this character,4 all undated, some in draft, but one 5 a fair copy so beautifully written as to bear the appearance of being made for despatch to the appropriate office of state. Though obviously addressed to Henry VI, this document is given here in extenso as a model of the type of appeal which the college had to make repeatedly. To the Kynge our souerayne Lord. Please it unto your highnesse for to have in your tendre consideracion how be fore this time ye have blissedly and devoutely erect founded stablisshed and endowed your College called Goddeshous in your universite of Cambrigge of a Proctour and certeyn Scolers in Gramer and other facultees liberall to stodye and pray for your noble astate and for your soule when 1

Chedworth, Reg. xx, f. 184. Chr. Gh. Ag. * E.g. Chr. Gh. S and 10.

2

3 Rot. Parl. v, 572 sqq. * Ibid. Gh. T.

174

P R O C T O R S H I P OF W I L L I A M BASSET, 1464-1477

ye ar passed out of this worlde and thereto goven diverse possessions spirituel priories aliens porcions pensions rents apports hospitall frechapell and advowesons of Churches the which all passe not the value of xl. marcs yerely when thei ar best unto the saide College and som yere not xx/i. And uppon this consideracion of your most and noble grace by thadvys and assent of the lordes spirituel and temporell assembled in this present parlement for to excepte and forsprise out of the acte of Resumpcion made or to be made in the saide parlement your saide Oratours and their saide endowement after the fourme here folowyng and they shall specially pray god for your noble astate and for all the soules of your noble progenitours. Provided also that this acte of Resumpcion extende not nor be preiudiciall unto the Proctour and Scolers of our College called Goddeshous in the universite of Cambrigge that now er nor to their successours be cause of eny graunte of Priories aliens porcions pensions rents apports goyng out of Priories aliens advowesons of Chirches hospitall frechapell or other possessions spirituell grauntes by us unto theym or to any of theym or unto any other persone or persones to thair use but that their grauntes and lettres patentes theruppon to them made be gode and effectuell unto the saide Proctour and Scolers and to their successours for ever after the purport and tenoures of the same grauntes and lettres patentes the said acte of Resumpcion not withstandyng. On 6 December 1468 the Proctor and the college received from the king letters patent1 in which he recites the charter of confirmation given in his letters patent of 4 November 1462, Fallan being then Proctor, and says that, having been informed that those letters were not sufficient,* he confirms to Basset, now Proctor, and the college. It is not obvious in what respect the letters patent of 1462 were insufficient, but it seems possible that, because the grants thereby made were in large measure cancelled by the Act of Resumption of 1467, the letters patent of 6 December 1468 were issued as being the best means of overcoming the effect of the act, and that the confirmation charter of 1468 should be regarded as the king's reply to an appeal similar to the petition printed above. An important additional privilege was granted by the letters patent of 1468 in the licence to appropriate the churches of Navenby and Fendrayton. This licence, repeated by Richard III and ' Chr. Gh. Ah; P.R. Ed. IV, iii, 15. For an earlier example of words of a confirmation not being sufficient cf. Rot. Parl. i, 343 b (Ed. II, 1315), in the case of the Master and brethren hospitallers of St Lazarus in England. 1

LEASES A N D B O N D S

175

by Henry VII in their respective confirmations of 1484, i486 and 1505, was not exercised in the case of Fendrayton until 1509, and never in the case of Navenby because of the opposition of the abbess and convent of Syon. The passing of the Act of Resumption does not appear to have given Basset very grave concern since, between the date of that event and the issue of the 1468 letters patent, he was dealing with the properties as though the ownership of the college had not been prejudiced. The manor or lordship of Ikham,1 situated partly in the county of Lincoln, partly in that of Oxford, had been confirmed in the charter of 1442, but its value was not then expressed, though in the letters patent of Edward IV of 1462 it is said not to have exceeded in 1448 the value of ioos. In that curious document, which looks as if it were a list of alien priory revenues that were on offer,2 it is named as of the value of ^ 6 . 135. 4
Now North Hykeham.

3 Chr. Misc. F, 30 (4).

2

Chr. Misc. A, 55; v. supra, p. 48 sq.

176

P R O C T O R S H I P OF W I L L I A M BASSET, 1464-1477

lease for fifty years from Michaelmas next ensuing at a rent of eight marks to be paid at the Exaltation of the Holy Cross (14 September). There can be little room for doubt that, in granting so long a lease, the Proctor had in view the raising of a substantial capital sum which we must assume was exacted as its condition; its amount we are without the means of knowing, for, while in the former case we have the bond but lack the lease, in this instance we have the lease but not the bond from which to learn the inducement to the college for making a grant for so long a term.1 Another property respecting which negotiations were proceeding early in 1468 was the priory of Chepstow (otherwise Strigule or Striguil) in the county of Monmouth. It would appear from other evidence, in particular from the fact of its survival to be finally extinguished by Henry VIII, that Chepstow claimed to be denizen, not alien, and the difficulties of contesting such a claim would weigh with Basset. This, or some other consideration unknown to us, induced him to entertain a friendly arbitration of which notice remains to us in a series of documents preserved amongst the college muniments. The first is a bond 2 for twenty pounds entered into by William Basset, clerk, Proctor of the king's College of'Goddishouse' to submit to the arbitration of John Catesby, serjeant-at-law, and Richard Hervy all matters in dispute between him and the prior of Chepstow, with the proviso that the arbitrators deliver judgement by the octave of St John Baptist next following. There is nothing further until July 1470, which may indicate some obstacles to the smooth working of the proposed friendly arrangement, though the conditions of the bond must have been observed by Basset, seeing that its survival in the college documents implies its surrender to him. The delay was due, perhaps, to the Act of Resumption of 1467, since, if that had become operative, the priory's revenues would have reverted to the king, and Chepstow would have no purpose to serve in pursuing the negotiations with Godshouse. That something of the kind had occurred to influence and delay the proceedings seems to be implied by the fact that, in the final agreement, Basset and the college begin by reciting the confirmation charter of 1 2 Cf. infra, p. 193 sq. Chr. Gh. Af.

CHEPSTOW AND M O N M O U T H

177

1

6 December 1468, by which, as we have suggested, the Act of Resumption was overcome. The settlement is set forth in two deeds,* dated 3 July 1470 and 6 July 1470; in the first, the college surrenders its rights in the priory of Chepstow, saving its rights in the county of Gloucester. In the second, the prior, Richard Fowy,3 and the convent acknowledge that Basset, being unwilling to 'desolate' the priory, has given up all claims except to the lands, revenues, etc. in the county of Gloucester which the priory now warrants to him and the scholars or fellows; to this second document the seal of the priory of Striguil remains. Thus was the thorn removed which had given serious discomfort for many years to both houses. The priory of Monmouth owed to the College of Godshouse an annual pension often marks. Monmouth was a cell to the Benedictine house of St Florentius at Saumur, and was, therefore, counted amongst the alien priories whose revenues were seized by successive monarchs during their wars with France. Unlike others, Monmouth priory was one of those which, claiming to be denizen, seems to have succeeded in establishing its claim, since the house is found to have survived until the general suppression in the reign of Henry VIII.4 The grant of the pension of ten marks to Godshouse by the charters of Henry VI was, however, a permanency whose payment was due irrespective of the outcome of the claim to denizenship, but the priory seems to have held the view that the establishment of its status freed it from its obligation to the college. That was a claim which a strong Proctor such as Basset was bound to resist. The matter is dealt with at length in the record of proceedings in the Court of Exchequer in the Michaelmas term of 1467,5 wherein reference is made to an enquiry held before Simon Melburn, who was sheriff of the county of Hereford in the fourth year of Edward IV,6 and to other proceedings in the Court of Exchequer 1

J Supra, p. 174. Chr. Gh. Ak and Al. A prior whose name is not found in Monastkon, iv, 652. 4 Monastkon, iv, 595. 5 Chr. Mon. D ; the royal seal remains but is broken. 6 Melburn held office from 5 November 1463 to 4 November 1464, as well as in a later year not of interest in this matter. 3

IHC

12

178

P R O C T O R S H I P OF W I L L I A M BASSET, 1464-1477

in the year 1466. The decision of the barons is in favour of William Basset, Proctor, and the scholars of the college, and the document is the record bearing the royal seal confirming that decision. Though the form of the proceedings makes the king claim the pension often marks as against Godshouse, it is probable that the prime mover was the prior of Monmouth who, ifjudgement had been given against the Proctor and the scholars, would have proceeded to set up a claim to the recovery of the pension which the priory had paid to its mother house. Up to this point Basset had relied upon the letters patent issued to Fallan, being the confirmation of Edward IV of 4 November 1462, but the dispute was resumed at a later date; this is shewn by the preservation of an extract of that portion of the second confirmation charter of Edward IV, dated 6 December 1468, which relates to the Monmouth rent or pension.1 There is no trace of any litigation to which this document may have related and it is possible that it is to be associated with the settlement of all differences between the college and the priory by friendly arrangement in 1474. The agreement is made known by two documents, in one of which,2 dated 20 August 1474, ' Reginalds prior of the house or priory of the Blessed Mary and St Florence of Monmouth, and the convent of that place' recite that Edward IV on the sixth day of December 1468 gave inter alia the pension often marks to William Basset, then and now Proctor, Master or Keeper of the College of Godshouse, and the scholars thereof, which the prior and convent now confirm. In the other,* dated the 29th day of the same month, William Basset and the college on the one part and the prior and convent on the other agree that the latter shall pay the ten marks and that for their expenses in sending the money to Godshouse they shall receive or may deduct thirteen shillings and fourpence. Penalties are provided in the event of delay in payment at ratios increasing with the extent of delay. This appears to have been a final settlement, since the returns of the priory's net income, as shewn in Valor Ecclesiasticus 1

Chr. Gh. Ai.

* Chr. Mon. E.

3 There is no surname. Dugdale and his editors do not record any prior between the dates of 1412 and 1500 (Monasticon, iv, 595). 4 Chr. Mon. F; the seal of the priory remains attached to both documents, slightly broken in each case.

S A W T R Y ABBEY

179

of Henry VIII, take credit amongst the outgoings for an annual pension to the college called... [blank] in Cambridge, of .£6. 13s. 4J. Another monastic house sought in Basset's time to assert possession of property that had been granted to the college by Henry VI. This was the 'patronage and advowson or right of patronage of the parochial church of ffendrayton' confirmed by the king to Byngham 'ordainer of the mansion called Godeshous', and his friends and co-feoffees in the grant dated 3 September 1447.1 The claimants were the abbot 2 and convent of the Cistercian monastery of' Sawtre' (Sawtry in the county of Huntingdon), who had endeavoured in the previous century to establish their position as impropriators of the church, but the king, from the early years of the fifteenth century, presented to the living by reason of the possessions of the alien house of Bon Repos being in his hands because of the war with France. With supreme impudence, Sawtry included Fendrayton in a grant, bearing date 12 December 1475, of sundry churches 3 to one Thomas Jenney for life.4 As the annual payment to be rendered by Jenney was no more than forty shillings it is probable (1) that the Sawtry claim to the other churches had no surer foundation than their claim to Fendrayton and (2) that the real reward looked for was the reversion to the abbot and convent of the various churches at Jenney's death in the event of his succeeding to establish at law his title based upon the abbot and convent's grant. It was a hopeless quest founded perhaps upon the double chance that a layman might succeed where a religious house claiming in succession to an alien house might fail, and that the courts of Edward IV might hold the scales of justice weighted against grantees of Henry VI whom they were wont to style 'king in fact but not in law'. There is no evidence whatsoever that the attempt succeeded in respect to Fendrayton, 1

Chr. Fend. B. The name of the abbot was Thomas Yaxle or Yaxley. 3 The others were Bamburgh, Ringland and Bedford Holkham, and the sincerity of the Sawtry claim may be estimated in the light of the fact that none of them was part of the abbey's possessions in the return to Valor Eccles. 4 Chr. Fend. D ; Jenney was an eminent lawyer of his day (Edward Foss, Judges of England, iv, 488) with a still more prominent brother, Wilham, who was justice of the King's Bench from 1481. They were of a Norfolk family whose name is frequently mentioned in the Paston Letters. 1

12-2

180

P R O C T O R S H I P OF W I L L I A M BASSET, 1464-1477

but the presence in the muniment room of this document reciting the grant to Jenney may indicate that it was brought to Basset's notice, and certain changes in the holding of the college livings suggest that he deemed it prudent to fortify the position of the college to meet the threatened attack. The grant of Fendrayton to the college was in response to Byngham's petition for an advowson 'of a chirch that is not far frome Cambrige to thentent that the procuratour of Godeshous euermor for the tyme beyng may be person ther of and so both mynyster his cure and rewel the College of Godeshous'. The evidence for the incumbents of Fendrayton in the fifteenth century is scanty in the episcopal registers at Ely, but their deficiencies have been made good, to a great extent if not completely, from other sources; John Otryngham, vicar of 'Tyryngton', was instituted 3 December 1424, on exchange with John Gryme, LL.B., rector of Fendrayton,1 after which there is a blank until an incidental reference shews that dominus Robert Melton held the living in 1472.* It is certain that Otryngham lived until after 1447, when the advowson came into the possession of Byngham for the college, and that Melton was his immediate successor; Melton was one of the early fellows or members of Godshouse and comes before our notice in 1447 in the safe-conduct given by the steward of the duke of York to Byngham and other scholars of the college,3 and he is there described as clerk, but in the following year, 1448, in the royal charter of 16 April, he is one of the four original scholars of the royal foundation, when his style is 'priest'. He was never Proctor of Godshouse and so did not hold the living of Fendrayton in virtue of that office. Otryngham, who was Master of Michaelhouse 1423 to 1452-4, died during the proctorship of Hurte,* who, being an active fellow of Clare Hall as well as Proctor of Godshouse, may not have desired to extend his responsibilities. In such circumstances the presentation of one of the older scholars of the college would be natural. 1

Crosby, quoting Archbishop Chichele, f. 253 a. Ibid. Ely, Gray, f. 85 b. 3 Chr. Gh. P; supra, p. 77. 4 Univ. Cat. puts the mastership of Otryngham as 1423-33, but careful examination of the Otryngham Book makes it certain that he was still Master in 1452 and, possibly, till 1454. There are other errors in regard to dates and persons of subsequent masters of Michaelhouse as given in that and other publications. 3

A D D I T I O N S T O T H E SITE

181

When Basset became Proctor, Melton was presumably rector of Fendrayton and, the proctorial living being already filled, Basset was instituted to that other important college rectory, Helpston in the county of Northampton, when it was voided by death in 1465. The grant of the advowson of Fendrayton by the abbot and convent of Sawtry to Thomas Jenney in December 1475 was very possibly the reason for an exchange of livings between Basset and Melton two months later. On 10 February 1476, William Basset, S.T.B., was instituted to Fendrayton upon the resignation of Robert Melton,1 and on the same day Robert Melton was instituted to Helpston upon the presentation of William Basset, the Master, and the scholars of' Goddeshouse', the vacancy being due to the resignation of William Basset. By this means, the Proctor was put into the cure that was intended for his office by reason of its proximity to Cambridge, but the exchange might for that reason have been made when the living of Helpston became vacant in 1465; the fact of the exchange being made in February 1476, only two months after the first step was taken by Sawtry to attack the possession by Godshouse of the Fendrayton advowson, may be reasonably regarded as an answer to that attack. The living of Fendrayton would be more effectively defended by the college when occupied by its Proctor for whose special benefit in his relation to the college it had been granted by the late king. The proctorship of Basset saw important additions to the college site, consisting of the two Fishwick tenements, one of which was on the corner of Rogues' Lane, Hangman's Lane or Christ's Lane, all which names at various dates it has borne, the other separated from the first by the tenement formerly owned by the priory of St Edmund, whose acquisition has already been discussed.2 The two tenements now added were of importance by their actual area, being equal to about onethird of that portion of the site already acquired, but their importance was greater still because the possession of the new sites made it possible to utilise the Sempringham plot which had hitherto been separated by one of them from the original acquisitions of Byngham, the Tiltey and 1

Ely, Gray, f. 94b.

* Supra, p. 156 sq.

182

P R O C T O R S H I P O F W I L L I A M BASSET, 1464-1477

Denney plots.1 By these last purchases Godshouse attained its full site dimension and, which is not commonly recognised, that remained the site upon which all the college buildings were erected prior to the Fellows' Building in 1640-2; to which claim the only exception is to be found in the outbuildings along Hobson Street wall, being stables and the like accommodation, pertaining to the Master's Lodge and never used for college purposes. The boundaries of the new purchases are shewn in the plan of the site, and the deeds confirming the grants are preserved in the muniment room. These documents are two in number, both bearing date 27 August 1468,* and they confirm the grant by 'Bryan ffysshewyke clerk and next heir ofJohn ffysshewyke, formerly bedel', of the respective tenements and gardens to William Basset, William Stoyle, Andrew Dockett,3 Robert Melton, Thomas Boteler, clerks and Robert Essex, burgess. There is no price nor any rent named, but the grantees are acquiring the tenements with liability for what was due by custom to the chief lord. Two days later, 29 August, Bryan Fishwick executed another document,4 a letter of attorney to Robert Cowper, clerk, to give to the grantees the two messuages, etc. named in the documents. So much was known to J. W. Clark when writing the History of the Site,5 but another document6 remains in the college, bearing the same date as the letter of attorney, 29 August 1468, which is of singular interest because it supplies the price of the property now acquired and the mode of payment. This is a bond by which William Bassett, clerk, William Comays of Cambridge and Richard Ade7 of Chesterton, yeomen, are bound to pay to Alice fFysshewyke and Bryan flysshewyke, clerk, the sum of forty marks in lawful English money on the feast of the Purification of the blessed Virgin Mary next ensuing to which payment they bind themselves joindy and severally and their respective heirs and executors. 1

Cf. the site-plan adjoining. Chr. Camb. W , X. Virtual founder and first President of Queens' College. 4 Chr. Camb. Y. 5 5 W. and C. ii, 187 sqq. Chr. Misc. F, 30 (1). 7 Richard Ade's name appears also in connection with the purchase of the Herrys tenement in 1458. 3 3

P A Y M E N T BY I N S T A L M E N T S

183

In dorso is the condition, the essential accompaniment of a bond, and it provides that If Bassett, Comays and Ade pay or cause to be paid to Alice and Brian ffysshewyke on the penultimate day of August next after die date of die bond [that would be on die morrow] twenty marks And on die feast of the Purification of the blessed Virgin Mary in the year 1469 eight marks And on the natal feast of saint John Baptist 1469 six marks And on the natal feast of saint John Baptist 1470 six marks, all in lawful English money, then this present obligation shall be treated as null, otherwise it shall remain in its full strength and virtue.1 From this it appears that the price paid for the two Fishwick tenements was forty marks, i.e. twenty-six pounds, thirteen shillings and fourpence, equivalent now to nearly seven hundred pounds, and that half the amount was paid at once while the other half was to be spread over nearly two years in three instalments, of which two fell so close together as to suggest that the due dates were arranged to coincide with dates upon which funds were expected to be received by the college.* We seem to possess in this series of documents a valuable illustration of one of the modes in which property in real estate was conveyed by vendors to purchasers, with certain qualifications due to the fact that the beneficial purchaser was a corporation. A grant of the property is executed by the vendors on 27 August in favour of co-feoffees consisting of the Proctor of Godshouse, Robert Melton, formerly and possibly still a fellow, William Stoyle,3 Andrew Dockett, President of Queens' College, and two others whose names are new to us. On 29 August, power of attorney is executed by the vendors to a person who is to give seisin of the property to the purchasers, and in so doing he received from them the bond of Basset and the two yeomen, giving in exchange the two grants and the letter of attorney which was proof of his power to act. Thereafter the two tenements were the property of the feoffees 1

This is a rough summary in English of the Latin original. It may be useful for comparison to say that the site of the Old Court of King's College was bought from Trinity Hall by Henry VI's commissioners, in 1440, for toe sum of eighty pounds; v. infra, p. 394 sq. 3 William Stoyle is not known save in this document. Thomas Stoyll or Stoyle was at this period Master of Clare Hall and, for four years, Vice-Chancellor. Cf. Lloyd, p. 31 sq. 2

184

P R O C T O R S H I P OF W I L L I A M BASSET, 1464-1477

in trust for the use of the college; no failure to pay the purchase money could affect their possession, which had become absolute by the giving of seisin. If the purchase money were not paid in whole or in part the vendors' remedy lay against Basset and the two yeomen who had given the bond which induced them to part with their property. It was because the purchase price was not to be paid over upon the giving of possession that the grant was not made to the college; a bond given by three private persons of substance was a much more attractive security, far easier to enforce, than any that could be properly given by a religious corporation protected by its charter and its statutes, and it would be so to-day. That Basset as Proctor, the keeper of all the goods of the college, should give his bond we can understand, but the motive, whether of friendship or interest, weighing with Comays and Ade when giving theirs is hidden from us. The family of the vendors of the two tenements, ffysshewyke or Fishwick or even Physwick, with other variants, was one of old standing in Cambridge with direct connection with the university by the holding of the office of bedell in successive generations.1 John Fishwick and Margaret, father and mother of Bryan and Alice, have a prominent place in the statutes of Godshouse amongst those benefactors of the college for whom daily prayers must be offered;2 the form and extent of their benefaction is not known. Another deed 3 affecting part of the college site belongs to Basset's period; it bears the date of Easter 1474 and relates to the tenement lying between the two Fishwick messuages. The plot referred to in this deed was confirmed to William Basset, Master or Keeper of the College of 'Goddyshous' by James Bolton,4 prior of St Edmund's of the order of Sempringham in Cambridge, but it had already been granted by Richard,4 prior of the same priory, to John Hurte in 1456 and has been mentioned in the chapter dealing with his proctorship.5 At first sight the existence of these two documents eighteen years apart, passing the 1

H. P. Stokes, The Esquire Bedells of the University of Cambridge, p. 63. * Rackham, p. 39. ^ 3 chr. Camb. Z. 4 No prior of St Edmund's is known to Dugdale or his editors; the house was very small, its net income at the Dissolution being less than fifteen pounds. 5 Supra, p. 156 sq.

A GILT E D G E D I N V E S T M E N T

185

same property from the same vendors to the same purchasers, seems inexplicable, but upon examination an adequate solution presents itself. The first grant of the property reserved to the priory the annual rent of thirteen shillings and fourpence, the second reserves the annual rent of ten shillings, and the difference between those two amounts is the key to the problem. The first deed contained the provision that the college might offer other rent in exchange for the rent due out of the property conveyed by it, or might offer tenements or lands elsewhere (within certain limits) of equal value. It would appear that in 1474 Godshouse found itself in a position to make use of this provision in part, and was able to offer to the priory other rent or other property of the annual value of three shillings and fourpence. The priory accepted this offer and it became necessary to give recognition to the fact that the rent in future was reduced to ten shillings per annum. In our own time such an arrangement might be recorded in a supplementary deed which would recite the facts or, possibly, by an endorsement upon the original, but, when no ad valorem duty fell to be paid upon the passing of property between vendor and purchaser, it was found simpler and no more costly to ignore the confirmation of 1456 and to execute a new one in 1474 by which the reduced rent was reserved. That is the explanation of the two deeds still remaining in the possession of the college, and it should be added that the provision to exchange the rent for other rents, tenements or land was repeated in the second. The rent of ten shillings was ultimately extinguished by purchase but not until the priory had ceased to exist. The purchase was made in the last year of Edward VI, and the rent of thirteen shillings and fourpence formerly due to the abbot of Tiltey was purchased at the same time.1 Leaving now the site itself and passing to those who occupied it, we find that it is rarely possible to recover fifteenth-century names of the members of the various colleges; names of members of the university are to be found in the Grace Books from 1455 onwards, but it is 1

A. W. 49, f. 2i, where the curious blunder is made of placing the Sempringham tenement on the corner of Hangman's Lane. The ground rent of 10s. upon the Sempringham property and that of 135. 4J. upon the Tiltey property were bought from the king for the sum of Sprj, a price equal to twenty-three years' purchase. Cf. A.W. 48, f. 41.

186

P R O C T O R S H I P OF W I L L I A M BASSET, 1464-1477

not often that they are coupled with the name of a college. It is therefore gratifying to discover four members of Godshouse, three by name, referred to at this period. Two have been found in the Proctors' Indentures preserved in the University Registry, they are: A questionist of Godshouse admitted the twentieth day ofJune 1470, who gave as caution the book Abvile in sermonibus super epistolas pauli et evangeleas

dominkalibus, whose second folio begins fieuit, a book included with a shortened tide in the inventory made at Byngham's deadi;1 no name is given in the entry; a questionist named Catur admitted the fifth day of April 1471 who, though not described as of Godshouse, was clearly of that College since he gave as caution the same book by Abvile, with its second folio beginning^ewif. The third name comes from the will of Richard Pearson, rector of Garforth, who left to 'Robert Spensar of Godshouse the sum of two shillings'.2 Pearson's will was proved 4 March 1474, so we have in the years 1470,1471 and 1474 a certain body of evidence that the college was active in discharging the functions for which it was founded. The two questionists were probably scholars of the foundation, seeing that the college lent them one of its important books to be deposited as a caution; nothing has been discovered of Robert Spensar's history and he may have been a scholar, scarcely a perendinant (pensioner). The fourth is Thomas Boteler, whose name appears along with those of Basset, Melton, the President of Queens' and others, as feoffees of the Fishwick properties for the college. Boteler was B.A. in 1463, M.A. in 1467, and so young a man would only be likely to be chosen as cofeoffee if he had the close connection of membership of Godshouse. The death of John Hurte in September 14763 broke one of the few remaining links with the foundation period of Godshouse; he had been vicar of St Mary's, Nottingham, for fifteen years and had retired from the proctorship of the college in 1458. He bequeathed to it certain of his books.* Two references to Basset found in Grace Book A belonging to the academical years 1474/5, J478/9, where he is styled S.T.B., have already 1 3

Supra, p. 127; cf. Peile, p. 7. Ibid, iii, 220-2.

2 4

Test. Ebor. iii, 208. Supra, p. 162.

HIS LATER H I S T O R Y

187

1

been mentioned. Before the latter date, Basset had retired from the proctorship of Godshouse, an event which it is impossible to date exactly but which must have occurred before 1 November in the year 1477, when Ralph Barton comes before us as Proctor in a lease2 of one of the college properties in the county of Gloucester. Basset may have ceased to be Proctor in 1476, since after 10 February in that year we have no evidence of his continuing in office, but, as no documents have been discovered either within or outside the college relating to any events between 10 February 1476 and 1 November 1477, it will be convenient to regard his resignation as taking effect in the latter year. Basset retained the rectory of Fendrayton, the special endowment for the head of the college, till his death in 1495; its nominal annual value was about thirteen pounds but it was actually worth much more; its loss was one the college could ill afford. Once he was appointed, there was no possibility of disturbing Basset in the living, and it is possible that he may have made some payment to the college, in recognition of his continued enjoyment of the benefice without yielding that service to Godshouse which it was intended the holder of Fendrayton should provide. He was a rather determined pluralist; we have seen that he held the rectory of Helpston concurrently with his proctorship and, after he had ceased to be Proctor of Godshouse, we find him presented by John Knyvet and Robert and John ffynge3 to the rectory of Boxworth,4 in the county of Cambridge, which he held concurrently with Fendrayton till his death. He became a benefactor of St Catharine's Hall in 1487, founding a fellowship 5 there out of property in Babraham; the Master and fellows of that college covenanted inter alia, in con1

Supra, p. 171. * Chr. Badg. O, 3. Not by Godshouse as in Venn. 4 Crosby. He was instituted I June i486. 5 Philpott, pp. 34 sqq. The fellowship was to be held by a fellow-priest to pray and say masses for ever for the welfare of the souls of Basset, his parents and benefactors. For the sermons (to be preached in the chapel of St Leonard of Glapthorn on the feast of St Matthew, and in the church of St Andrew in Godirstoke [Cotterstock] on the feast of St Petronilla the virgin) the priest was to receive one mark or at least ten shillings Basset's choice of these two churches for his commemorative sermons is part of the ground for deriving him from the county of Northampton, as against Dr Peile's attribution of him to Fledborough, in the county of Nottingham. 3

188

P R O C T O R S H I P O F W I L L I A M BASSET, 1464-1477

sideration of this benefaction, to cause two sermons to be preached annually in the parishes of Glapthorn and Cotterstock in the county of Northampton. Any other connection with St Catharine's is unknown and as, in the event of a failure to perform the covenants on the part of St Catharine's Hall, the property and its obligations were to pass successively to (i) Clare Hall, (ii) Corpus Christi College, with no mention of Godshouse, a suspicion of strained relations with the Proctor and fellows of his former college suggests itself. However that may be, Basset seems to have made certain bequests by his last testament to Godshouse; he died in 1495.1 His will is not known, but that its bequests may have been substantial seems possible, since his executors required of Syclyng a formal acknowledgement or quit-claim under the college seal that they had fully discharged their duty to the college as executors of Basset's will. That discharge, which we should expect to have passed into the keeping of the executors, remains in the college muniment room,* with the seal attached, the only example of an impression of a contemporary date of the seal of Godshouse known to the writer. William Basset came into the proctorship of Godshouse at a critical date in its history and his services were of great value to the college. He made peace between the college and the priories of Chepstow and Monmouth, and checked the designs of Sawtry abbey upon Fendrayton. He carried the site of the college to its natural boundary at Christ's Lane and was, possibly, prevented from doing the same at the Hobson Street side only by the fact that the much divided holdings there were not then ripe for acquisition. There is no proof that he added to the buildings of Godshouse but that is more likely than not; for it is improbable that he purchased the Fishwick properties without having a building scheme in view, and we shall find that one of the Fishwick tenements had become, by the year 1483, 'part of the College of Godshouse', which we may interpret to mean merged in its buildings. 1 Syclyng succeeded him at Fendrayton 15 February 1496, but the rectory of Boxworth was filled by the institution of John Butler, S.T.B., 7 October 1495 (Crosby, p. 29). 2 Chr. Creek Abbey drawer, not catalogued or numbered.

Chapter XIII THE PROCTORSHIP OF RALPH BARTON 1477-1490

W

hen Byngham entered into the agreement, whose confirmation he did not live to execute, whereby Radulphus Barton was to be appointed college lecturer to Godshouse for life, Barton was described as 'clerk', and, in view of the reference there made to the time when he should be promoted to the degree of master of arts, it may be reasonably assumed that he had already reached such a stage in his qualifications as made his degree purely a question of completing the formalities. He would therefore be about twenty or twenty-one years of age in the early autumn of the year 1451, to which date we have ascribed the indenture recording the conditions of his agreement with Byngham. His age upon entry to the college would be thirteen or fourteen, and that would bring his admission into the period during which Byngham, having surrendered his 'mansion' to the king, was housing his scholars wherever he could find accommodation. There is very little material to guide us in determining Barton's place of origin or parentage; what has been discovered points in more than one direction. The name itself has possible topographical relations so common that certainty is impossible in a period when men were frequently identified by placing after their baptismal name that of their native town or village, even to the displacement of their previously acquired surnames.1 There is a document in the college which at first sight suggested Gloucestershire as Barton's county: it is a lease of the Gloucester lands given by Ralph Barton, as Proctor, and the fellows of the college to one William Barton,* and it seemed likely that the lessee 1 Grace Books A and B abound in examples; that of Thomas Scot of King's College, bishop of Rochester and later (1480-1500) archbishop of York, who was called Rotherham because he was born in that Yorkshire town, is a well-known instance. 3 Chr. Gh. Am, 14 September i486.

P R O C T O R S H I P OF RALPH B A R T O N , 1477-1490 would be a local person who would be brought into this contact with Godshouse through the possible relative who was head of the college. But the discovery that a William Barton was named with John Loveday in a power of attorney by the duke of York and the other feoffees to give seisin of the land and advowson of Helpston to John Hurte and the college* seems to vitiate the value of the deduction to be made from the former document. There remains the possibility that Ralph Barton may have come to Cambridge from London and that he owed his original connection, as well as his subsequent preferment, to the introduction of William Byngham. Bartons were prominent citizens of London in the first half of the fifteenth century, and they are mentioned in connection with Byngham and with his parish of St John Zachary; amongst them was one who bore the name Ralph, of a generation earlier than that of the Proctor of Godshouse. The particulars are as follows: John Barton, senior, was a co-feoffee with Byngham in connection with the will ofJohn Fraunceys.2 Henry Barton, skinner, mayor of London 1416/7 and 1428/9,3 had houses, shops, etc. in the parish of St John Zachary, London, which he left to his wife by way of dower. He made his brother, Ralph, an executor of his will and bequeathed to him certain silver and textile articles.4 Ralph Barton, skinner, alderman of Farringdon Without, 1416-36, and sheriff 1418/19.5 Walter Barton, London, gendeman, was one of the feoffees with Ralph Barton and three described as consocii, who received one of the Fishwick messuages from William Basset and others 14 September i486.6 Taking everything into account, there seems to be some ground for regarding Ralph Barton of Godshouse as a connection of the London family with which Byngham had contact, and for attributing his membership of Godshouse and his promotion to the lectureship to the 1 2

Chr. Help. N, 1 November 1454; cf. supra, p. 152.

R.H.C. 151/7 and 161/15. 3 A. B. Beaven, Aldermen of the City of London, ii, 3. 4 R.H.C. 11 September 1432, enrolled 1441; 31 July 1434, enrolled 1436; Sharpe, ii, 477 sq., 492 sq. 5 Beaven, op. cit. ii, 5; Rot. Part iv, 192 a. 6 Chr. Camb. Aa.

A LIFE F E L L O W

191

interest felt by the first founder in his education and career. Evidence to turn the possibility into certainty has not been found. By the agreement made between him and Byngham, which there is no reason to doubt was honoured by the college, Barton became the only 1 life-fellow of Godshouse. It was provided in the indenture of agreement that promotion as to one of the degrees in theology, or to an ecclesiastical benefice with cure of souls, would automatically put a term to the fellowship, but there is no evidence that either eventuality came about. There is very little in the documents to establish Barton's continuity in office from 1451 until 1477, when he would necessarily vacate it upon becoming Proctor; the only specific mention of him during that period is in the indenture acknowledging receipt by Gerard de la Hay of documents and money from the Proctor of Godshouse (John Hurte) 'by the hands of Radulphus Barton'.* These were delivered in London, and his part in the transaction shews that Barton was the obvious person to act as Hurte's 'president' or deputy. The important part taken by Hurte in the affairs of Clare, carrying him even as far afield as Lincoln, leads to the assumption that Ralph Barton may frequently have had the responsibihty of being president for Hurte in the conduct of the affairs of Godshouse. It might be expected that when the Herrys tenement in 1458, and the Fishwick tenements in 1468, were granted to feoffees for the use of the college, Barton should be included in their number if he were still a member of Godshouse. It is not unlikely, however, that the device of a large number of feoffees was inter alia a provision against the loss caused by death, and it may have been felt wise to spread the choice over a wider area to diminish the danger from a common accident such as plague, then very frequent, which might carry off simultaneously all those feoffees who dwelt together. An examination of the names of those made feoffees from time to time in the various transactions of the college, whether they concern the properties forming the site or those constituting the endowments, favours this view, and, the absence of his name from the lists 1 A parish priest might have his fellowship prolonged beyond the time prescribed for ordinary fellow-scholars but the length of the prolongation is not specified. 3 Chr. Gh. 5; supra, p. 163 sq.

192 P R O C T O R S H I P O F R A L P H B A R T O N , 1477-1490 of feoffees apart, there appears to be no reason to doubt that Ralph Barton held his office of college lecturer or reader during the successive proctorships of Hurte, Fallan and Basset; that is to say, from 1451 to 1477, when he was elected Proctor of Godshouse in his turn. It is in connection with one of the properties forming the endowment of the college that Barton's name as Proctor is first met. An indenture dated 1 November 1477 records1 that Radulphus Barton, clerk, magister collegii de domo dei and the consortes of

the same college grant to lease to James Robyns a toft called Eylowys in the parish of Stonehouse in the county of Gloucester with its appurtenances to be held by James and his assigns for the term of ninety-nine years on the conditions of (a) making payment to the Master and fellows and their successors of a rent of four shillings at Michaelmas in each year with the usual provision as to re-entry if the rent be in arrear in whole or in part for a quarter of a year; (b) discharging and acquitting all dues and services to the king and the chief lord according to ancient custom; (c) erecting in a good and competent manner a new 'mansion' upon the said toft widnn twenty years; (d) maintaining (himself and his assigns) the mansion thus well built in a sufficiendy repaired state from year to year during the whole of the said term and in that state to deliver up the same at the end of the term; (e) paying, for possession upon entry into the toft, the sum of six shillings and eightpence as a fine; (f) payment of the like amount in the name of a heriot upon his death whenever it shall happen; (g) payment in like manner by the assigns of the said James whenever assignment shall take place of three shillings and fourpence in the name of a heriot. This building lease has been described somewhat fully because of its resemblance in several features to modern practice, and because it illustrates in detail what has already been said as to the sources of revenue enjoyed by the college in fines, heriots and the like windfalls inuring to its use but not appearing in any annual or other formal statement of its income, its rent-roll or its accounts. An entry in the patent roll calendar under the date of 22 October 1 Chr. Badg. O, 3. The original is in Latin of which the English of the text is a brief but sufficient summary.

T H U R L O W AND IKHAM

193

1478* requires explanation, since William Basset, here appearing as a complainant against Thomas Groome, the vicar of Great Thurlow, is described as Proctor of the College of Godshouse. This seems to point to an overlapping of dates in the proctorships of Basset and Barton; but a reference to the roll 2 itself makes the matter clear. Basset, during his proctorship, had proceeded for himself and the college against Thomas Groome, vicar of Great Thurlow and tenant of the college for the hospital of St James there, in respect of a trespass. Groome was summoned to appear before the justices of the King's Bench but failed to come and, for his contumacy, was made an outlaw. The grave inconveniences thereupon ensuing (they probably included a visit of some duration to gaol) brought Groome to his senses; he purged his contumacy, probably made amends to the college and, finally, was pardoned and his outlawry was removed. It is the pardon with the removal of the outlawry that is dealt with on the patent roll; the full series of events would occupy a long time and they first began during the proctorship of Basset, before 1 November 1477, when we have found Ralph Barton in that office. Basset's name appears in the patent roll of 22 October 1478 only in the recital identifying the proceedings which culminated in the pardon of Groome on that date. Ikham [North Hykeham] is another property whose affairs engaged Barton's attention, as is found in the counterpart of a lease 3 by Ralph Barton, Proctor, Master or Keeper, to William Toft of the lordship of North Hykeham with all its lands, etc. for six years at the annual rent of six marks (four pounds sterling) to be paid at Cambridge at Michaelmas. We have already seen* that Basset in 1472 let the same property to the same tenant for fifty years at eight marks and it is not clear why this new lease at a lower rent should have been required when the old lease for fifty years had only run eight years of its course. Of the possible explanations that which the writer offers is that the college needed ready money (it was undoubtedly building during Barton's time, as we shall see later) and reduced Toft's rent for six years by two marks per annum, taking an immediate payment of perhaps ten marks 1

C.P.R. 1476-85, p. 82. 3 Chr. N. Hyk. 1 (bis). LHC

3 4

P.R. 18, Ed. IV, i, 27. Supra, p. 175 sq. 13

194 P R O C T O R S H I P OF RALPH B A R T O N , 1477-1490 as the discounted value of two marks per annum for six years. If the amounts seem small and the procedure cumbersome, it must be remembered that ten marks in 1480 would be represented for the purposes of building by about £170 to-day, and the making and executing of a simple lease at that period would involve only a trivial cost. Sawtry abbey was giving trouble now as always; Barton had obtained from King Richard III, 9 February 1484,x confirmation of all the rights of the college, but his experience of Sawtry led him to obtain twelve days later a letter from the king, addressed to the abbot and convent, reciting the letters of 2 Edward IV and 8 Edward IV and ordering him to pay to the Proctor and scholars of Godshouse the pension of ten marks from time to time with all the arrears due since the 8th year of Edward IV.2 On the accession of Henry VII the same need for general confirmation arose and the Confirmation Charter 3 of 25 October i486 recites the charters of 1462 and 1468 and confirms them in the briefest possible form. Barton obtained two days later an order from the king, addressed to the sheriff of the county of Hereford and the prior of the alien priory of Monmouth and the receiver of the ancient pension rent or tribute of ten marks, requiring them to pay the same to Godshouse together with all arrears; * mutatis mutandis the like order was issued to the sheriff of Devon and the prior of Totnes, as also to the abbot of Sawtry. 5 The Fabian policy of Sawtry apart, it was not unreasonable that alien priories on the accession of a new monarch should suspend such payments as those under consideration; if they had been made without sufficient authority, and if the college had either failed to seek or, seeking, failed to obtain confirmation, the alien priory might have been in the unhappy position of having to pay twice over. Confirmation was not always absolute and, where the king had reason to know of 1 Chr. Mon. G; P.R.O. Confirmation Charters, 1R. Ill, ii, 19. For this confirmation the college paid four marks in the hanaper. 2 Chr. Mon. 2, 21 February 1484. 3 Conf. Roll, 2 H. VII, i, 15, not found in the muniment room; for this Barton paid four marks into the hanaper (Orig. Roll, 2 H. VII, m. 49). 4 Campbell, ii, 46 sqq.; Close Roll, m. 4. 5 Ibid.

P R O P E R T Y IN B O R O U G H G R E E N

195

disputed ownership, he might take care in his charters of confirmation to avoid doing anything to prejudice issues which were, or might become, the subjects of litigation in his courts of law. The convent of Syon provides an illustration; the king's Inspeximus and confirmation of various grants to Elizabeth, the abbess, and the convent of Syon gives them inter alia the advowson of Navenby (long in dispute with Godshouse), but in regard to this and other gifts reserves to the king's subjects all title they may have in the possessions of the said monastery.1 The agreement made by Basset with the priory of Chepstow in 1470 seems to have placed the position of Godshouse with regard to the possessions of the college in the county of Gloucester upon a firm footing, since there is a lease,2 dated 14 September i486, of all lands, tenements, rents, services, titles, etc. belonging to the college in that county to William Barton at the rent of sixty shillings per annum for the term of twenty years. A property in Cambridgeshire makes its appearance for the first time during Barton's proctorship, when a virgultum (a copse) called 'Goddyshowse Grove' in the parish of Borow is granted to Barton and others for the use of the college by William Basset and others. How it came into Basset's hands is not revealed by the documents,3 but the name by which it was known when Basset gave it over to the college in i486 implies that it had been associated with Godshouse in the minds of the people of Borow for many years. Borow is a parish on the Suffolk border of the county, known in modern times as Borough Green; it was one of the homes of the powerful family of De Burgh, and the church still possesses six stone monumental effigies of members of that house of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries.* The annual rent was 1

7 July, 1 H. VII (Campbell, i, 484). Chr. Gh. Am. 3 It is noteworthy, however, that many deeds remain in the college relating to land in Borow to which John Loveday and others of that name were parties. John Loveday was a member of Godshouse in 1447 and prominent in the society immediately after Byngham's death. He was named attorney to deliver Helpston to the college in 14544 Adam Wall did not know how this little property came to Godshouse and he calls it a 'croft', perhaps confusing its character with another property, a house and a croft, which reached the college in Philip and Mary's reign (A.W. 49, f. 19). 1

13-2

196 P R O C T O R S H I P OF RALPH B A R T O N , 1477-1490 five shillings and the grove was leased to the vicar of Borow for life in the 24th year of Henry VII.1 In the middle of the sixteenth century the Master appears to have held the grove for we find, under the heading of Borow, 'receyved of the master for his wood vs.' The property disappears from the college rental early in Elizabeth's reign, when both the grove and the later acquisition of a house and croft2 were sold.3 When Basset granted 'Goddyshowse Grove' at Borow to Barton and the fellows, he included in the same deed the two Fishwick tenements whose tenure by him and his co-feoffees, Robert Melton and Thomas Boteler, pending the discharge of the purchase price by Godshouse, was discussed in the last chapter.* The deed 5 was executed 14 September i486 and was witnessed by John Ryplyngham,6 then Vice-Chancellor, John 7 Fitzjohn and John 7 Babington, then proctors of the university, John Carsey, bedell, and Henry Kele, burgess (he was borough treasurer in 1489), and many others. We have maintained that the site of Godshouse was completed by the purchase in 1468 of the two Fishwick tenements, and there is reason to believe that they had been absorbed into the general lay-out of the college buildings before Basset formally made them over to Barton and the fellows in i486. This we should expect, but there is a curious and interesting confirmation in the borough accounts under the year 1483, where, amongst the 'high gable' rents then collected, are found the following items from Preachers Ward: The Master of God's house, for part of the same college, late of Walter Essex, id. The same Master, for other part of the same college, late of John Fysshwyk, id* 1

2 Chr. Misc. C. See note 4 on p. 195. That is the obvious implication of the receipt by the college in the second year of Elizabeth of £ 1 8 in money and a bond for £ 1 0 (A.W. be. cit). 4 Supra, pp. 182 sqq. 5 Chr. Camb. Aa. 6 This gives an earner date for Ryplyngham as Vice-Chancellor than the Historical Register; he appears to have held office from i486 to 1488. ' Thus the document; the Grace Book gives the proctors' names as William and Henry respectively. 8 Annals, i, 228; Bor. Arch., Box X, 71 (Treasurers' Accounts, Richard III to Henry VII); also Palmer, pp. 57 sqq., where other years are quoted. 3

T H E COLLEGE B U I L D I N G S

197

The absorption of the properties 'late of Walter Essex' and 'late of John Fysshwyk' must be inferred by the words 'for part of the same college' used in the entry of the borough treasurer's accounts. 'Absorption' is used here to signify that the various properties were brought within the college precincts and not retained as separate entities to be used at some indefinite date in the future. It is unlikely that any radical scheme of rebuilding on the site as a whole was undertaken prior to the Lady Margaret's period. Indeed, one of the Fishwick tenements, that on the corner of Hangman's Lane, remained a garden in Adam Wall's time x and it is largely open still; its front to Preacher Street (St Andrew's Street) was not built upon until the new library was erected in 1895.2 Such building operations as were undertaken by successive Proctors of Godshouse were not upon a grand scale but consisted largely of the necessary adaptations of the pre-existing buildings to their new purpose, with such additional work as would bring them into one co-ordinated whole. On the other hand, it is impossible to believe with Dr Peile3 that 'perhaps they lived in tenements already existing when the land was bought', which would accord neither (1) with Byngham's having built before 1439 on his original site a mansion where he housed more than fifty persons, (2) with the known practice of the time in other colleges, and even in hostels, nor (3) with the documentary references to the actual buildings of the college existing between 1451 and 1505.

Godshouse had in 1451 a hall, a kitchen, a storeroom (or buttery), chambers and, we must suppose, a gateway, which together comprised all that was essential to a college of the fifteenth century; later in that century it had also a chapel of its own, thus possessing a luxury unknown at that date to colleges of much older foundation, e.g. Peterhouse and Corpus. There is no evidence of a library, though, since all the references to the buildings appear incidentally, and not in any catalogue ad hoc, the negative evidence relative to a library cannot be stressed unduly; it is probable that the number of books would not be too great for accommodation in some bed-chamber or study (near to that of the 1

A.W. 4.9, f. 21.

2

Peile, p. 291 sq.

3

Ibid. p. 5.

198 P R O C T O R S H I P OF RALPH B A R T O N , 1477-1490 Proctor or the reader for facility of control) set apart for the purpose rather than a building erected specially. The evidence for the existence of hall, kitchen and buttery appears as early as 1451; 1 the gateway is mentioned in the instrument of the notary public,2 on 3 October 1506, in circumstances pointing to the old gateway of Godshouse. Chambers need no reference to establish their existence but they are mentioned in the inventory of 1451 (the Proctor's), and in the Godshouse statutes, where it is provided that every two of the fellows shall have a separate chamber, that the best shall be kept for the Proctor and that in thenassignment the Proctor shall have regard both to the merits and the seniority of the fellows.3 The chapel's existence has been deduced from references in the accounts of the Lady Margaret's executors,* but evidence will be quoted from a will of earlier date which places the matter beyond conjecture.5 The extent of the buildings in the time of Barton's proctorship is uncertain; their form would be that of a single court as was the practice of the age, of which Buckingham College, the first court of Queens', the Old Court of King's, the destroyed court of Clare (W. and C. iii, 254, fig. 3) were notable examples.6 The fourth side of the court of Godshouse, the eastern side, may have been open until the Lady Margaret's day, thus leaving the course clear for the building by her of the hall and her own lodging, which last, beyond all question, was the first work undertaken by her and was completed in her lifetime; indeed, it seems to have been ready for her occupation by 3 October 1506,7 and the existing inventory, recently discovered, of her furniture delivered to Richard Fox, bishop of Winchester, one of her executors, proves that it was actually used by her.8 In taking the view that successive Proctors adapted the buildings of the tenements they acquired between 1446 and 1468 to the needs of 1 2

The inventory at the death of Byngham, Chr. Gh. Ab.

3 Rackham, p. 123. Ibid. p. 27. 4 W. and C. ii, 196 sq.; Peile, p. 5 sq. 5 Infra, p. 277. 6 Cf. W. and C. iii, 247 sqq. 7 The date of signing die statutes; cf. Rackham, p. 52, cameris primariis ad nostrum usum edificatis. 8 Chr. Z 3, Z 4; published C.A.S. Proceedings, xxxiii, 75.

EARLY B U I L D I N G S AT KING'S

199

the college, it has been borne in mind that occasion has arisen in the course of these chapters to note that purchases have been made, obligations have been entered into, indicating the expectation o£ accessions of income or of capital. The future has been seen to have been pledged to the extent of creating a debt on 'repairs' account to the amount of nearly ^40, shewing knowledge of sources of revenue which were beyond 'exhibition' needs and yet far from being sufficiently large to suggest ambitious building de novo schemes. A good example of the type of adaptive building attributed here to Godshouse is found in what was done in the Old Court of King's College. Henry VI had scarcely founded his original college, on ground bought from Trinity Hall, before he designed that vast increase to the south, of which the chapel and the area of the site are the only concrete reminders that have come down to us. In these circumstances, he seems to have arrested the erection of his new work on the first site and made use of pre-existing buildings of half-timber type, and to have added others of similar character. The appearance of these is well seen in the views in Willis and Clark: of the interior on p. 324 of vol. i, of the exterior opposite p. 326 of the same volume. Later, when it became evident that the chapel would absorb all available resources, leaving nothing over for the buildings on the extended site which were intended to balance it, the work on the south and west sides of the Old Court was resumed and completed, with the exception of the gateway tower, which was never finished but whose lowest storey alone remains to bear testimony to a quality of work 'greatly superior to any previous work in the university'.1 There never was in the Godshouse buildings any work equal in quality to the best of the Old Court of King's College but, towards the end of Barton's proctorship, a new departure in building was made involving an expenditure so large as to cause the college to make a public appeal for funds. The bishop of Ely, John Alcock, on 20 November 1488,* granted forty days' indulgence to all who should contribute towards the sustentation, improvement or repair of the house 1

W. and C. i, 326.

* Ely, Alcock, f. 37.

200 P R O C T O R S H I P O F R A L P H B A R T O N , 1477-1490 or college commonly called 'Goddys howse' in Cambridge.1 This would be an enterprise near to the heart of that educationally inclined bishop, founder of Jesus College, benefactor of Peterhouse and supporter of many schools, of whom we read that building was almost a passion with him.* The amount yielded by this appeal is not recorded, nor is its application a matter of sure knowledge, but certain indications have been found in the Master's account of 1491 and will be considered later in their bearing upon this matter.3 Having dealt with the buildings of Godshouse we may now proceed to relate what has been discovered concerning the members of the society housed therein at this period. If John Fisher, bishop of Rochester, had ever been a student of the college it would have been at this period, and his outstanding place in the history of the university and the country calls for consideration of that 'tradition' before approach is made to the list of those more ordinary persons the fact of whose membership is assured. It has been suggested that Fisher, 'according to tradition came to Cambridge as a student of God's House', 4 but that tradition does not appear to have been known to Adam Wall, at least it is not mentioned by him. He notes 5 that in 1484 Fisher was a student at Michaelhouse, a statement he could not have made without qualification if he had believed, or even known, the tradition of his having begun his Cambridge career in Godshouse, proceeding thence to Michaelhouse. Fisher had a grace in grammar in 1483,6 and it is possible that this fact may have led those to give credence to the tradition who have looked upon grammar degrees in Cambridge as specially linked with, if not introduced by, the foundation of Godshouse. The granting of degrees in grammar, however, goes back to the earliest days of the university, and the degree of master in grammar must have been taken by many 1 A parallel to this may be found in 1457 (Ely, Gray, f. 21b), where forty days' pardon is offered to all who contribute to the repair of the church of St Mary and St Rhadegund; and another in 1491 when Alcock grants an indulgence for the chapel of St John Baptist, near the gate of the hospital of St John Evangelist, Cambridge (Ely, Alcock, f. 72 sq.). a W. and C. ii, 117, n. 3. 3 lnfra> p. 226. 4 Peile, p. 13; cf. The Lady Margaret, p. 100. 6 5 A.W. 48, f. 81 b. GB. A, p. 174.

FISHER N E V E R OF G O D S H O U S E

201

members of various colleges before and after Godshouse was founded. There is in the college a copy of a deed by which the Master and fellows of Christ's College accept from John Fisher an endowment to provide for his perpetual communion in the daily prayers of the college, and for special celebration in perpetuity of the anniversary of his death. In the preamble to their solemn undertaking, there is recited his connection with the college through his influence used on its behalf with the Lady Margaret, as well as by his gifts out of his own resources to its adornment and embellishment, and further, by establishing laws and institutes for its right living.1 If Fisher had ever had membership of the college, whether on the foundation or as pensioner, the fact would not have been omitted in this statement, and that negative evidence should serve to dispose finally of the 'tradition' to the contrary. Names of members of the college during this proctorship yielded by documents preserved in the muniment room are John Syclyng, James Benlesse and John Sterr, who were all fellows in i486.* It appears to have been assumed 3 that this is an exhaustive list at that date, but, as those persons appear as feoffees in a grant of part of the college site, they would be fellows who had attained an age sufficient to justify their inclusion in a transaction of some importance, while those of more tender years would be omitted. There is evidence external to the college documents to shew that there was a foundation member of the college outside these three in i486; one Henry Sigar (also Sygar, Syger), a questionist, gives as caution in 1487 Gregorius super Ezechielem,* a work of St Gregory the Great, of which a copy was bequeathed to Byngham by Gilbert Worthyngton and which was in the college at Byngham's death. This is the only time the book appears amongst the Grace Book cautions; it is improbable that a youth of seventeen or thereabouts would possess and bring with him to the university a theological work of this nature, and it is not a far-fetched assumption that the questionist depositing was a member of Godshouse to whom the book had been 1 2 3 4

Rackham, pp. 126-33, where it is printed in full for the first time and translated. Chr. Camb. Aa. E.g. in the form of commemoration of benefactors; cf. Peile, p. 5. GB. A, p. 208.

202 P R O C T O R S H I P OF RALPH B A R T O N , 1477-1490 lent by the Proctor for that purpose. A questionist of 1487 would be admitted to the college perhaps at the age of thirteen in 1483, and would be too young in i486 to be amongst the feoffees of college property. Sygar incepted in arts in 1490,1 when he gave as caution una pixis pro speciebus, a spice-box which, to be of sufficient value, would certainly be of silver. James Benlesse was probably, as Peile suggests,* the Bendlays who incepted in 1490,3 presumably in arts, when his caution was an antiphonary whose second folio began qui accedentes; he was also the Benglace mentioned more than once below.4 John Sterr is not found in the Grace Books unless he be the same as Stern who had a grace in civil law in 1493; 5 he has not been traced further. Walter Barton, London, gentleman, a feoffee with the fellows,6 does not appear again either in the college documents or in the university records.7 It has been suggested at the beginning of this chapter8 that the presence of his name in the grant of property to the college, of which Ralph Barton was Proctor, may be due to relationship, but that in itself is scarcely enough to account for his participation with the Proctor and three fellows of the college, and no others, in a deed which grants property forming part of the college site. He cannot have been a foundation member of Godshouse, for in that case his name would have followed immediately after those of the other three, and the word consocii would have followed his name and so been applied to all four. His description as 'of London, generosus' differentiates him from the three fellows, while his juxtaposition links him with them and the Proctor and may mark the first fellow-commoner of the college whose name has been preserved.9 The services of Walter Barton as feoffee 1

2 GB. B 1 , pp. 24, 26. Biog. Reg. i, 2. 4 GB. B 1 , p. 24. Infra, pp. 220, 252 sq. 5 GB. B 1 , pp. 59, 61, 66. Chr. Camb. Aa. 1 The Walter Burton, questionist of 1485 (GB. A, pp. 188, 192), is not likely to be the same person; Berton and Barton are variants of the same name but not Burton. 8 Supra, p. 190. 9 Fellow-commoners were known at Gonville Hall at about this time, and Venn gives the names of some from the bursar's books of 1513 (John Venn, Caius College, p. 30 sq.). 3

SYCLYNG OF CORPUS A N D G O D S H O U S E

203

may have been used because no more than three fellows had attained competent legal age. The most important member of Godshouse during this Proctorship has been left until the last; this was John Syclyng, whose admission to the college was the greatest event in its history since the time of Byngham. There are many manuscript and printed references to him in his connection with the university and the two colleges of which he was a member.1 His story is a complicated one and possesses features to which no parallel is known; it is told here after a careful examination of the Grace Books and of the documentary evidence in the two colleges and other original sources. Where it differs from earlier accounts it is only after due consideration of the points of difference. Syclyng's name is spelt in a great variety ofways, Sykylyng, Cykelyng, Sykelyng, Sykelin, Syklyng, Sycling, Syclynge, Siclyng, Sycling, Suclyng, Sukling amongst them. There are several extant examples in his own handwriting and each of these has the form Syclyng, which, therefore, is used here as being authoritative. Syclyng is said to have been simultaneously fellow, president and bursar of Corpus Christi College, fellow, president, and later Proctor (Master) of Godshouse, proctor of the university, rector of Fendrayton. Cole writes: 2 'I am apt to suspect that Mr Baker must be in a mistake as to his keeping his Fellowship of Benet [Corpus] College with his Mastership of God's House; both as it seems improbable that he should be member of two societies in the same Place at the same time; but also because I find him in the year 1495 Feb. 15 being then A:M: admitted to the Rectory of Fen Drayton at the Presentation of the Master and Fellows of God's House; except there should be two persons of that name in that Society at that time'. Thomas Baker, to whose account of Syclyng Cole refers, had to face a similar position in his account of Robert Shorton, first Master of St John's College, of whom he writes:3 'Whilst he was master here, he held his fellowship at Pem1 E.g. Josselin, Historiola, Masters, History of the College of Corpus Christi, C. H . Cooper, Athenae Cantabrigienses, Peile, History of Christ's College and Biographical

Register, Cole (British Museum, Add. MS. 5821), Thomas Baker, History of St John's College, J. J. Muskett, Suffolk Manorial Families, a list far from exhaustive. 2 Cole, Brit. Mus. Add. 5821, f. 48. 3 History of St John's College, p. 79.

204 P R O C T O R S H I P OF RALPH B A R T O N , 1477-1490 broke hall (at least some part of the time), which was no new thing; for John Sideling, last master of God's house and first of Christ's college, held that preferment with a fellowship of Benet'. There is no parallel in modern practice to these instances of the same man being simultaneously and for many years a fellow of more than one college. The dining rights which may be possessed by the fellow of a college in another of which he is an ex-fellow, and the position of the fellow of a college who is at the same time honorary fellow of another, are not germane to this problem. Syclyng's name is first found in the records of the university where we read, under the date of January I482,1 communa domini Sykylyng Inceptoris in grammatica xijJ. communa domini Sykylyng questioniste xij
GB. A, p. 162.

2

Ibid. p. 166.

3

Test. Ebor. iii, 228 n.

B R O T H E R S W I T H T H E SAME N A M E

205

'I have been able to discover some litde information about the testator's family. It appears he had a brother of the same name as himself (a common thing in those days)'. (2) Sir William Babington, chief justice of the Common Bench (will proved at York, 10 October 1454—not published), whose anniversary at Clare Hall was for some years celebrated by John Hurte, Proctor of Godshouse, mentions 'his wife and William, Robert and Robert [sic], his sons'.1 (3) 'Raph [Bingham] had two Brodiers both named John, whereof one might possibly be the father of Sir Richard Bingham, the Judge.. .3 E. 4'.* This was the family of William Byngham, first Proctor of Godshouse. (4) Sir John Paston, knighted in 1463, had a brother John, who was in frequent correspondence with him, and was himself knighted in 1487. (5) John Leland, the antiquary, a member of Christ's College circa 1520, 'had an older brother also named John'.3 (6) Finally, John Syclyng's family was given to the practice, for his will makes it clear that he had two sisters named Jane, both then living.4 Knowledge of this practice, the simultaneous double references to ' Sykylyng' in the Grace Book, coupled with the suspicion expressed by Cole, made it desirable, as a preliminary to any serious account of Syclyng's life, that the question of one or two John Syclyngs should be settled once for all. There is no reference in the Christ's documents to Syclyng's connection with Corpus; the fellowship thereof the man who was afterwards Proctor of Godshouse is asserted by Corpus historians, including Josselin, who wrote within two generations of Syclyng's death, and his memory was kept alive in that college not only by tradition but also by his stained glass windows. An examination of the Corpus documents seemed to be indicated and the evidence so obtained was overwhelming in its proof of the concurrent membership of John Syclyng of both societies, while qualifying the view that it obtained until his death; there nothing was found to support the idea that there may have been two persons of that name. In several of the details supplied by Josselin and Masters there are errors; in particular, there is no foundation for the statement that Syclyng was a member of Corpus from the beginning of his life in the university; he did not join that society until he became fellow, late in the year 1487, while we have 1 3 4

Test. Ebor. iii, 93-4 n. Itinerary, ed. Toulmin Smith, i, p. viii. Cf. Syclyng's will infra, p. 307.

* Thoroton, i, 240.

206 P R O C T O R S H I P OF R A L P H B A R T O N , 1477-1490 seen that he was described in a formal legal document as fellow of Godshouse in September i486. Having regard to the statute regulating the choice of fellows of Godshouse there is no room for doubt that Syclyng became a member of the college when he entered upon his course of study in the university, being then elected fellow or scholar. Syclyng was a native of Suffolk,1 possibly of Sudbury, in and near which town he possessed land and houses at the time of his death.2 Although he incepted in grammar and became questionist in arts in January 1482, performances normally presupposing the age of seventeen or eighteen, it is probable that he was born not later than 1459, since he was in priest's orders before 14 July 1484.3 There must be some exceptional reason for his coming into university residence at the age of eighteen or nineteen, but other such cases are known, amongst them that of John Fisher who, said to have been born in 1459,4 incepted in grammar a year later than Syclyng, and became questionist in arts in 148 8. Syclyng had a grace in the academical year 1483/4 that one formal lecture should suffice for him as against the requirement of the complete lecture Ubrorum posteriorum,* which fact may point to recognition of claims upon his time by his collegiate or, possibly, his parochial duties. In the summer term of 1485 he paid his commons and gave his caution (the same bible as when he was a questionist) as inceptor in arts.6 Syclyng is mentioned in an interesting manner in the will of one Gilbert Nevyle, a copy of which is preserved in the college muniment room,? 1 Muskett, ii, 177 sqq., derives him from the family of Suckling of Norfolk and Suffolk. That Syclyng = Suckling is not impossible, but more evidence than that is needed to establish family connection. Muskett gives no pedigree which includes John Syclyng, and does not link him with any particular branch of the Suckling family, whose arms, moreover, bear no resemblance to those attributed by academical historians to Syclyng. Muskett's treatment of John Sydyng's position in the university does not inspire confidence in his less easily checked statements. * Sydyng's will in the University Wills preserved in the District Probate Registry, Peterborough, infra, p. 307. 3 Assuming that he was not admitted to priest's orders before the canonical age. This comes from Nevyle's will; infra, p. 207. 4 A. W. 48, f. 81 b ; but cf. infra, p. 391 sq. for discovery made after the above was in type. 6 5 GB. A, p. 184. Ibid. pp. 190, 195. 1 Chr. Camb. drawer, in an endorsed envelope.

SYCLYNG AS FATHER C O N F E S S O R

207

its presence there being due, doubtless, to Syclyng's part in it. Nevyle possessed property in St Andrew's parish, including that known as 'the Brazen George' which lay opposite the college and came into its possession early in the sixteenth century; he was a member of a wellto-do burgess family whose association with Godshouse and its affairs began in Byngham's period, when 'Geffrey Nevyll' had property in Milne Street, a little to the south of the original site of the college.1 Gilbert Nevyle's will bears the date 14 July 1484, and is witnessed by John Syclyng, curatus tneus, and Thomas Loveday; the term 'curate' in the fifteenth century signified one who had a cure of souls2 (compare the word cure in France to-day) and its use by Nevyle would seem to imply that Syclyng was his father-confessor, whether as chaplain attached to his parish church or chaplain of his gild it is impossible to say.* No more suitable or usual witness to his will than his father-confessor could a man find, and Syclyng's appearance in that capacity clearly indicates that he was then in full priestly orders. The evidence of Syclyng's age and priestly status is of no small importance in determining his position in Godshouse after he incepted in arts; as parish priest (a somewhat elastic term which might include either type of chaplain mentioned above) he might still remain a fellow of the college without violating the provision in the statutes requiring every fellow save the reader and a parish priest to vacate his fellowship on the completion of the first year of his regency in arts.3 We shall find reason to believe that, even after election as a fellow of Corpus Christi College, John Syclyng still retained his fellowship of Godshouse until he was elected into the higher dignity of Proctor of the college. There is no document preserved amongst the muniments, nor any external reference to events at Godshouse, later than the date of the indulgence granted by John Alcock, bishop of Ely, 20 November 1488, within the remaining period of the proctorship of Ralph Barton. When 1 2

Supra, p. 130. N.E.D. provides these illustrations of similar use of the word at the date of Nevyle's will: (1483) 'Also this Deane is curate and confessour of all this houshold'; (1493) 'To my Curate, vicar of the saide Church, iiij mesures of wode'. 3 Rackham, p. 27. Cf. Annals, v, 261 and note (d) for numerous instances of special consideration shewn to parochial clergy studying in universities.

208 P R O C T O R S H I P OF RALPH B A R T O N , 1477-1490 we come to the proctorship of his successor, we shall be led to infer that Barton fell ill and appointed as his president John Syclyng, who held that office whilst still retaining his fellowship of Corpus. In the latter part of the year 1490, between Michaelmas and Christmas, Barton's illness ended in death, or so incapacitated him that his proctorship came to an end after he had been connected with Godshouse, as scholar, reader, Proctor, for more than forty years.1 It is remarkable that Cole was ignorant of Barton's proctorship of Godshouse. In his account of Christ's College, after dealing with the licence of Henry VII, 1 May 1505, he interpolated a list of the Proctors of Godshouse in which Barton's name does not appear, and in which Syclyng comes as fifth Proctor, immediately after Basset.2 Before proceeding to deal with the history of Godshouse under Syclyng, the last Proctor, it is desirable to consider the curious duality of position which he is related to have filled in Godshouse and in the College of Corpus Christi. As this state began in 1487, while Barton was Proctor of Godshouse, it seems appropriate to set forth in this chapter what it has been possible to discover concerning John Syclyng as fellow of his other college. Thomas Cosyn, fellow of the College of Corpus Christi, became Master in October 1487,3 and, in the following month, John Syclyng was elected a fellow of the college; he may therefore be said to have taken Cosyn's place as fellow. His name is found in the Fellows Commons Book for the first time in November 1487, and it appears weekly in such of those accounts as remain (there are lacunae of several weeks together) until March 1489, when the accounts cease. They are not found again until the year 1516, beginning with the month of September, nearly ten years after Syclyng's death. This most direct of all evidences of the tenure of his fellowship at Corpus fails us after he had held his preferment for not more than sixteen months; but for that period it 1 The unsigned agreement with Byngham implies that in 1451 Barton was not far from attaining the degree of master of arts and, consequently, that he may have become a member of Godshouse in 1445. 2 Cole, Brit. Mus. Add. 5846, ff. 157 sqq. 3 Masters, p. 53.

SYCLYNG AS F E L L O W OF C O R P U S

209

provides the useful information that during some weeks his commons extended over two days and that in other weeks he was not in commons at all, a state of things likely enough if he had the right to commons in Godshouse also. It should be added that the same variation is found from time to time in the case of the Master and other fellows. The full weekly commons of a fellow of Corpus at that period appears to have been twelve pence. What the Fellows Commons Book lacks in continuity is to some extent supplied by other register books of the period preserved in the college, though, by their nature, the references to Syclyng, and the fellows generally, are incidental. The first of these to be mentioned is the Register Book of the Billingford Chest at Corpus, an account of whose foundation is given by Masters;* it must not be confused with the chest Billingford founded for the use of the members of the university at large.2 The Corpus chest had three keepers and they were allowed to advance to the Master and fellows such small sums as they needed from time to time, taking from each borrower and putting into the chest a proper caution. The initial sum so placed at the disposal of the college was twenty pounds, a sum occasionally increased and occasionally diminished by the accidents of fortune in the carrying out of the purposes of the founder. In October 1490 the chest was worth .£20.175.6d.; of this J£I. U5. icd. was in money and £19. ss. 8d. in pledges, from which it would appear that its facilities were freely used. The Register Book of the Billingford Chest shews that Syclyng used his privileges, borrowing at various times (beginning as early as 1488) sums of twenty-five shillings and thirteen shillings and fourpence, and giving various books as 'cautions'; he also pledged a ryal3 and some spoons. The rules for the working of the chest were not known in Masters's period,4 but of the three keepers it may be supposed that they retired in rota periodically in favour of others. Syclyng was one of the keepers in 1490, and again in 1496, when his name appears first in order; it is not found later. 1 3 4

Page 36 sq. * Cf. Hist. Reg. p. 17, and GB. A, p. xlii. Or royal, a gold coin worth then ten shillings, first struck in 146s. Masters, p. 37. LHC 14

210 P R O C T O R S H I P OF RALPH B A R T O N , 1477-1490 Another Corpus book which has yielded information about Syclyng is labelled College Accounts 1479 to 1509. It begins, however, with 1469 but, unfortunately, it ceases to record payments to fellows on the 'Morrow of St Thomas, the Apostle, 2 Henry VII' (21 December i486). It continues for other purposes and it shews John Syclyng as the receiver of rents from the Cambridge tenants from Christmas 1489 to 1494, in which last year he styles himself president. In the following year Seyntwary takes his place. The book labelled Accounts of Landbeach i486 to 1510 shews Syclyng in a similar position to that occupied by him relative to the Cambridge rents, beginning in the same year, the first entry of his opening thus (but in Latin): Memorandum of Receipts by me John Syclyng president of the College of Corpus Christi etc. anno domini 1489 of the arrears of Landbeach. In the entry for 1494 he is described as the locum tenens of Master Cosyn (the head of the college) and he does not appear in these accounts from 1495 onwards. It is upon these entries, it is to be assumed, that the statement is based that John Syclyng was president and bursar of Corpus; and with that conclusion we may agree if it be recognised that he was (a) Bursar qua president and (b) President in the sense of deputy of Cosyn. The Master of Corpus was its bursar in virtue of the mastership; there was no statutory officer known as president, but that was a convenient term by which to describe the fellow to whom the Master delegated his duties as a whole during his absence, or in part (for his bursarial duties) during his presence.1 This personal relationship to Cosyn is well brought out in the entry in which Syclyng is styled locum tenens Magistri Cosyn, and the same form is used of the fellow, Seyntwary (variously spelt), who succeeded him. Cosyn was rector of Landbeach and on 1 The continuance of the same fellow in receipt of rents for four or five years seems to imply his acting as locum tenens in that matter during the Master's presence. The statement by Canon Stokes (Corpus Christi, in the College Histories series, p. 237) that there were presidents, generally the senior fellow, finds an exception in die case of Syclyng, who was one of two junior fellows.

D U R A T I O N OF THE CORPUS FELLOWSHIP

211

that account was probably frequently absent. A letter from him to Seyntwary 'President of Corp. Chrisri Colleg and ower Ladyes' is printed by Masters1 and its terms make clear that the deputy of the Master had a wide range of authority and power subject to reporting details, especially of expenditure of money, to him from whom he derived his authority. After the calendar year 1496 John Syclyng does not appear, in the books of Corpus likely to offer such evidence, in any capacity implying activity in the conduct of the business of that college. Masters writes: J ' he is said to have continued in his Fellowship here for some time, till Margaret, Countess of Richmond and Derby, the Mother of Henry VII took it [i.e. Godshouse] under her protection', i.e. for ten years after he is found discharging official duties at Corpus. Masters says that this arrangement was due to the 'low state' of Godshouse at that time, but its financial condition was probably better during Syclyng's proctorship than it had been previously; and from 15 February 1496 Syclyng became rector of Fendrayton, a preferment so valuable that the Lady Margaret, in confirming his enjoyment of that benefice, said 'with these emoluments (so far as concerns his stipend) we desire him to be content, and not to claim anything more for himself in our College aforesaid'.3 The fact that Syclyng's accession to the rectory of Fendrayton (following the death of Basset) coincides so closely in point of time with his disappearance from the books of Corpus in any administrative position in that college, does raise the question of its being the occasion of his surrendering the fellowship which he obviously held at Corpus from November 1487 until the spring of 1496. If the tradition preserved by Masters that he held his fellowship at Corpus until 1506 be accepted, it would appear to have been held by him without any recorded discharge of duties as a consideration for his privileges. Josselin4 gives a clear account of Syclyng in which reference is made to his simultaneous fellowship in Corpus and mastership in Christ's without saying anything that would not accord with either 1

App. p. 30 sq. * Page 56. Rackham, p. 57. 4 Historiola Collegii Corporis Christi, ed. by John Willis Clark (Cambridge Antiquarian Society, 1880), p. 20. 14-2 3

212

P R O C T O R S H I P O F RALPH B A R T O N , I477~I49O

possibility above referred to. He preserves one matter of some interest in relating that all the windows of the passage from Benet College to Benet church were adorned with glass at the charges of Syclyng;1 Masters, who wrote nearly 200 years later than Josselin, says that the windows were glazed by the joint contribution of Thomas Sampson, Robert Beddingfielde and John Syclyng.* From Masters also we get the arms borne by Syclyng: Argent on a pile gules 3 trefoils sliped of the field;! Cole gives the same arms4 which he obtained from the same source, the Table of Masters at Christ's, which, even in Cole's day, was in a state of decayS and has long since disappeared. Though Syclyng's work as president and bursar of Corpus is not to be traced later than 1496, his name is found at intervals in one of the books of that college until a much later date, the last being 23 September 1511, nearly five years after his death. It may well be that a casual glance at these entries, without any special effort to appreciate in detail their purpose and significance, may be responsible for the tradition of his continued fellowship after 1496, and also for vague ideas as to the date of his death.6 These later entries are found in the Accounts of Landbeach i486 to 1510 and they record a series of transactions between the acting bursar and other persons in the purchase and sale of building material. They are of surpassing interest and it is much to be hoped that at some date, not too long deferred, some resident member of Corpus will decipher, transcribe and publish these and similar accounts of the college relating to the fourteenth, fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries. Such a work might make an important contribution to the social and economic history of the university during that period. The account of these enterprises seems to begin with a purchase of 'Thak? tyles' on the vigil of St Nicholas, bishop (Decembers) 1497, from Peter Goldoppe of Barvey,8 the bursar paying $s. 6d. per 1000. Of these he appears to 1

Historioh Collegii Corporis Christi, p. 20. 3 Masters, p. 55. Ibid. p. 56. 5 fad. 5821, f. 47b. • Cole, Brit. Mus. Add. 5821, f. 45b; 5846, f. 165. 6 Masters, p. 56, says he was succeeded as Master of Christ's in 1507 'but whether upon his Death or Removal is uncertain'; Lamb, in his edition of Masters, writes (p. 311), 'the date of his death June 9, 1509' without quoting his authority. 8 7 Thatch= roof. ? Barway, near Little Thetford. 2

D E A L I N G S BY COLLEGE B U R S A R S

213

have sold 1620 to Syclyng at the rate of 6s. 6d. per 1000. Syclyng's purchases from, and sales to, Corpus continue from 1497 to 1504, and they include poles, planks, 'splents',1 'joysts', 'pelers', a 'lath nayles', 'sixpenny nayles', 'fourpeny nayles',3 'bryks' and other building material. Some of them were at 'le segge hall', 4 from which it may be inferred that they had been delivered by boat, which had discharged its cargo on the quay or hithe adjacent to the building so named, a structure which was not taken down until the first decade of the twentieth century. Syclyng bought tiles for the chapel in his college ('rwffe tyle pro capella in collegio suo') for eighteen pence and he bought 3600 'rodds' for 'le doffehows'. The nature and size of the purchases suggest that the two officers of Corpus and Godshouse respectively were keen business men, like college bursars of the present day, and that they bought their stores first-hand in substantial quantities. When one had what the other had not they were ready to supply each other's need, not objecting to make a little profit out of the transaction as in the 'thak tyle' deal above-mentioned. 1

Split rods for filling in the spaces between the main timbers of half-timber buildings. * Pillars.

3 I.e. 100 for fourpence and 100 of a larger size for sixpence; cf. GB. B 1 , p. 154, 'pro C. clauis de 4 d nayle.. .iiij d> ; thus under 1481, Nottingham Records, ii, 320: 'de dimidio centum de forpeny nayl ad valentiam i j i ' (N.E.D. under' penny'), but under 'fourpenny', N.E.D. uses a portion of this quotation to support an entirely different interpretation. 4 This ancient building lay close upon the right bank of the river, not 100 yards below the great bridge. Dr Stokes (Hostels, p. 98, No. 105) treats it as a university hostel, but he overstates his authority. It is more probable that it was connected either by use or proximity with the sale of sedge as suggested in Vetus Liber, p. 223, note (d) of p. 25. It would be difficult to overestimate the importance of this abundant fen-product to medieval Cambridge; it was used in building (walls and thatch), as fuel, being especially employed in the old style baker's-oven, for making baskets, horse-collars and even coarse clothing for rough work. In the year 1410 the constables of every ward were ordered to oversee the 'seggerekes' [sedge-ricks] placed in the town and, if any should be so placed as to be a nuisance, to order their removal within fifteen days under the penalty of 40J. (Annals, i, 152). Sedgehall adjoined Sedge Yard, and persons now living remember seeing sedge and turf from Burwell delivered on the quay-side adjacent to those places as recently as fifty years ago. It appears that Sedgehall was in the possession of Corpus Christi College, as is seen from the Hagable and other rentals, in 1488, in 1561/2, and circa 1600 (Palmer, pp. 74, 83 and 142). The site does not now belong to the college.

214

P R O C T O R S H I P OF RALPH B A R T O N , 1477-1490

The transactions between Syclyng and the bursar of Corpus were not the only ones in which the latter officer engaged; Mr 'ffaune',1 'bowcer' of Queens' College, 'owes for 200 6 peny nayle', the prior of Barnwell owes for 1000 'lath nayles' and 1000 'thak tyles'. Other buyers are Mr Baldyston of St Catharine's Hall, Mr 'Principal' of St Paul's hostel, Mr Palin of Peterhouse, and there are transactions with Jesus College, 'Gunwyle' Hall, King's College and others.2 Those between Syclyng and Corpus, however, overshadow in number all the others, and they are in both directions; they are a tribute perhaps to the past and continuing intimacy of Syclyng with his former cofellows. Credit is long, there is no evidence of the principle that short reckonings make long friends; but, curiously enough, it is not Godshouse that is the college with the greater outstanding debt. Syclyng's last deal was in the year 1504 (a significant date if we may assume that the Lady Margaret began to take a hand in Godshouse finance before the full settlement of the arrangement between her and the college), but the payment in clearing up accounts between Corpus and himself was not made in his lifetime; it fell to his executors to make the settlement, when it proved that Syclyng owed Corpus seventeen shillings while Corpus owed Syclyng between three and four pounds. 1

Fellow of Queens' 1495-1513, Vice-Chancellor 1512-14 (Venn). In the year 1490, the treasurers of Cambridge town 'paid for three carts of stones, called paving-stone bought of the President of the College of Corpus Christi for the reparation of the hill in the market, 35. 6d.' {Annals, i, 238); Syclyng was then president. 3

Chapter XIV T H E P R O C T O R S H I P OF J O H N S Y C L Y N G EARLY YEARS, 1490-1496

H

urte, Fallan and Basset were elected into the proctorship of Godshouse from outside, Hurte from Clare, Fallan from his archdeaconry of London and his rectory of St Magnus there, Basset from his prebendal stall in the college of Stoke Clare. Byngham, from being in its early days the head of the college, under the name of 'ordainer', became its first Proctor when its royal founder issued his charter. Barton, fellow and lecturer, succeeded to the proctorship in the natural order of promotion, and was followed by Syclyng, a son of the house who had served his apprenticeship to the position as president of his predecessor. This last item of information comes from a statement made by John Syclyng himself in a formal document prepared under his instructions, if not written by his own hand, and used by him on a formal occasion in accordance with the statutes of Godshouse. In presenting the half-yearly statement of account to the fellows of Godshouse on 18 April 1491,1 he says that he does so 'for the whole time in which he was occupied in the said office of Proctor and for the whole time in which he was occupied as president ofMaster Ralph Barton in the aforesaid office ofProctor immediately preceding \ As Syclyng was the last Proctor of Godshouse (the name of the college being changed to Christ's, and the description of its head to Master in his time) there were six Proctors in all, of whom three were chosen from within the college and three from without. From Syclyng's statement just quoted it follows (a) that his fellowship of Godshouse continued during his fellowship of Corpus, (b) that he became president of Godshouse at some date subsequent to Michaelmas 1490. 1

Chr. Mast. 5.

216

P R O C T O R S H I P OF J O H N SYCLYNG, 1490-1496

The conclusion (a) is based upon the requirement in the statutes that during a vacancy in the office of Proctor of the college, in whatever manner, 'the oldest and most discreet Fellow of the same present therein, shall during the time of such vacancy freely exercise all powers in things spiritual and temporal, as and so far as they can or ought in any wise to pertain to the Proctor.. .and the same during the said vacancy shall be obeyed in all things as the Proctor, Master or Keeper'.1 Though the particular occasion of Syclyng's appointment as locum tenens was not a vacancy, but the absence or some disability of the Proctor, there can be no doubt that the same provision would apply in that case which, though not specifically mentioned in the statutes, was of more frequent occurrence than a vacancy.2 The conclusion (b) also derives from the statutes; they provide that the accounts shall be presented twice in each year, once within forty days after Michaelmas, once within forty days after Easter.3 Barton may have been unable from illness or other sufficient cause to keep up this laudable requirement in practice, and the accounts may have fallen into arrear, but the business-like Syclyng would, both out of regard for the statutory provision and for his own protection, present a statement of account at the end of the first half-year which occurred after he became responsible for them, whether as president or Proctor. The fact that his first presentation is for the half-year ended at Easter 1491 may be regarded as proof that his responsibility as president began in the course of that half-year, as did also his proctorship. The total of the receipts and that of the expenses were so much larger than usual as to imply that for some cause or other Barton had not presented a statement of account for more than one half-year, but the receipts were probably much swollen as a result of the indulgence given at the end of the year 1488 by the bishop, and the work of repair and building to which they were applied accounted for a large increase in the expenditure. Syclyng's headship of the college falls naturally into two uneven 1

Rackham, p. 11. The Lady Margaret's statutes make provision for a deputy in the event of die Master's absence, as also during a vacancy (v. Rackham, p. 59). 3 Rackham, p. 15. 2

HIS VARIED R E S P O N S I B I L I T I E S

217

portions whose division is marked by his promotion to the Proctor's living, the rectory of Fendrayton, following the death of Basset. It is convenient to treat of these two periods separately, and similarly to divide the account of the activities of Syclyng in the administrative work of the university in which, from 1491 onwards, he was intimately concerned. During the whole of the earlier of the two periods, from 1490 to the beginning of the year 1496, he was a fellow of Corpus and bursar of that college as the president of its Master, Thomas Cosyn, as well as Proctor of Godshouse. This duality of responsibility it is reasonable to attribute to economic necessity following upon the continued occupation of the living of Fendrayton by the last Proctor but one, William Basset, whereby the college of Godshouse lacked the provision for the maintenance of its Proctor which it had received by the grant of Henry VI for that express purpose in the year 1447. The paucity of incident in the life of Godshouse as reflected in the documents surviving from the period 1490 to 1496 may be coincident with, and not a result of, Syclyng's pre-occupation elsewhere, though it is perhaps natural to link them together. The documents first to be discussed are the Master's accounts, the earliest of which is that to whose survival is due the discovery that Syclyng, before he was elected Proctor, was the president (deputy) of Ralph Barton. The accounts are in Latin, and follow closely the form of those already introduced in chapter xi under the proctorship of John Hurte. Those belonging to the first part of Syclyng's headship are here set forth in English as was done with those of Hurte, the capitals and name spellings of the original being followed. 18 APRIL 1491

This Indenture made the 18th day of the month of April Anno Domini mcccclxxxxj the sixth year of Henry the Seventh Witnesseth that Master John Syclyng Proctor of the College of Goddshows Cambridge accounted before the fellows of the same according to the statutes of the said College on the day aforesaid and made not only a particular account but a general one namely for the whole time in which he himself was occupied in the said office of Proctor and for the whole of that time in which he himself was occupied as president of Master Ralph Barton in the aforesaid office of Proctor immediately preceding

218

PROCTORSHIP OF JOHN SYCLYNG, 1490-1496 I

*• <*•

The total of all receipts from the goods of the College during the whole of the said time was, as in the book of his account 134 15 But the total of receipts by gift for newly making four chambers on the north part of the College was 14 o The total of all expenses for exhibition, repair, building and for other necessaries for the said College during the whole 168 5 of the said time 21 4 And so the expenses exceed the receipts 21 4 And so finally the said College owes to the said Proctor Item In the common chest there remains 12s. 4d. in groats

1J 10

4*1

o 0

repagulatis vel stipatis'* And 2s. Sd. in bronze pennies. 3

The names of the debtors are these The Abbot of Saltreia [Sawtry] owes to the said College Item William Toft owes at the preceding feast of Michael Item William Barton owes at the feast of Easter Item the Prior of Monmothe owes at the said feast Item the Prior of Totneys owes at the said feast of Michael Item for Webley Mawnsel4 7

MAY

29

7 10 5 6 8 6 5 10 10 13 4 4 0 0 I

0

0

1492

This Indenture made the seventh day of the month of May Anno Domini mcccclxxxxij And the seventh year of the reign of King Henry the seventh after the conquest of England Witnesseth that master John Sydyng proctor master or keeper of the College of Goddshows Cambridge Accounted before the fellows of the same according to the Statutes of the said College on the day aforesaid and £ *• dThe total of all Receipts since the last account is 7 5 10 But the total of all expenses 8 6 5 And so the expenses exceed the receipts 107

1 As a mere matter of arithmetic this should be ,£19. 9s. sd. * These are not technical numismatic terms. Dr G. C. Brooke of the British Museum suggests as their meaning that the groats were done up in rouleaux, as are copper coins in banks nowadays. 3 Bronze pennies as we know them were not struck until the reign of Henry VIII. These of Syclyng's accounts were perhaps false 'silver' pennies of base metal; cf. the 'bad' pennies in the University Chest, infra, p. 227 and GB. B 1 , p. 37. 4 Weobley is the modern form of the name of this ancient borough in Herefordshire; there are two Mansells, Mansell Lacy and Mansell Gamage, each 5j miles from Weobley.

HIS HALF-YEARLY STATEMENTS [In dorso]

219

1

There were missing Item the basen and ewer ij Standingc [sic] Item the nest of goblets with the covers ij playne bowles with the covers also the nutte 20 APRIL 1493. [The introductory words of this and the subsequent statements follow the form of that of 7 May 1492.] The total of all Receipts since the last account But the total of all Payments And so the total of Payments exceeds the total of Receipts

£7 11s. d. 5 7 3 6 15 10

14

9 OCTOBER 1493

The total of all Receipts since the last account But the total of all payments And so the Receipts exceed the payments And everything taken into account the College owes to the proctor master or Keeper Item the Abbot of Saltreya owes the College at the feast of saint michael last Item the Prior of Monmoth owes at the same feast Item the Prior of Totneys owes at the same feast Item John Cosyn and his sons owe at the same feast Item William Dove owes at the same feast Item Thomas Tofte at the same feast Item William Barton owes from the old debt Item Mawncell2 owes for three years at the same feast Item Yarkyll 2 owes for three years at the same feast Item the tenants in Webleya owe for the old debt Item the tenants of the same town owe for three years Item there is owing for many years for six acres of land in the same town Item there remain in the Common Chest in groats stipatis And in bronze pennies which Master James Benglace received as [?] Item the College owes the master proctor in addition one mark 1

8 5 0 8 8

13

1 0 1

20

1 10

43 6 8 20

0 0

14

5

7

0 0

0 0 0 0 0

13

6

0 1

0 0

6 1 2 1 1

16

5

0

0

12 2 2

4 8 0

13 4

This endorsement is discussed below, pp. 222 sqq. Le. the tenants of these places; the Yarkhill, Mansell and Weobley properties and revenues were all part of the Herefordshire possessions of the alien priory of Craswall. 2

220

PROCTORSHIP OF JOHN SYCLYNG, 1490-1496

6 NOVEMBER 1494

The total of all Receipts since the last account But the total of all expenses And finally everything taken into account the College owes the said proctor The Abbot of Saltreya owes the College at the feast of saint michael last The Prior of Monmoth owes at the same feast Master James Benglace1 owes at the same feast John Cosyn and his sons owe at the same feast William Dove owes at the same feast The Prior of Totneys owes at the same feast The tenants of Yarkyll owe at the same feast Ralph Sherman owes W. Seys owes at the same feast John Ale owes at the same feast and for lands and for debt Richard Gloucester owes for one acre of land In the Common Chest there remain in groats stipatis in bronze pennies The College owes in addition one mark 25 MAY 1495 The total of All Receipts since the last account But the total of All Expenses And so the total of Receipts exceeds the total of Expenses And finally the College owes the said proctor everything taken into account

s. d. I33 14 7 42 11 11 28 19 3

43 6 8 11 13 4 7 13 9 11 6 4 5 6 8 4 0 0 14 0

4 0 6 4 11 7 12

4 4

13 4 17 17 i\ 12 12 9 | 5 4 10 23 14 5

The system adopted in these half-yearly statements has been discussed to some extent in connection with those ofJohn Hurte.* The form has undergone no change in the intervening forty years and it is of the simplest possible character, being purely a cash account shewing gross receipts, gross expenditure and the balance due to or from the person accounting. The statements were intended to satisfy the persons inter1 Benglace, whom as Benlesse we find to have been a fellow of the college (supra, p. 201), appears, from the large amount here shown as owing by him and from the place he and his relatives occupy in the memorandum transcribed in chapter xv (p. 252 sq.), to have acted in some fiduciary capacity for the college in regard to its western properties. * Supra, pp. 145 sqq.

P U R P O S E OF T H E S T A T E M E N T S

221

ested (which was what the statutes required) that the college income and expenditure had been dealt with properly. They were not prepared in the interests of subsequent ages, and many details, record of which would greatly add to the present value of those documents, were unnecessary to the fellows to whom the accounts were submitted, partly because they were within their personal knowledge and partly because other material was at hand, in the books of account from which the statements were prepared, to supplement the information presented in the indentures. It is made clear moreover" by the statutes that the audits represented much more than the production of the indentures: 'In the presence of all the same Fellows... he [the Proctor] shall give a clear account of the estate of the aforesaid College in all things that he knows to pertain to his own administration; and at these audits two indentures shall be made'. 1 It is obvious that the Easter statement was of an interim character, since that for the Michaelmas accounting period (presented in October or November) had much more detail, including a list of debtors and the amounts owing by them.3 This was reasonable, for the bulk of the income of the college was due at Michaelmas, and the cursory nature of the Easter accounts goes to suggest that they were prepared principally to satisfy the statutory requirements.3 Deductions of value which might be drawn if the series of accounts were complete are impossible owing to the lack of continuity. That the accounts were presented regularly there is no reason to doubt, and the survival of some and the absence of others during the Syclyng proctorship would appear to be due to the accidents of time rather than to neglect of the statutory requirement. This judgement depends upon the facts that (a) none survives for the proctorships of Fallan, Basset and Barton, (b) some of Syclyng's Michaelmas indentures are missing, while the relatively unimportant Easter 1

Rackham, p. 15. The account of April 1491, because it was the first half-yearly statement presented by Syclyng, was exceptional in this matter. 3 Further proof of die relative importance of the two accounting periods is found in Dr Thompson's statements for Michaelmas 1510 and Easter 1511. The sums at Michaelmas are said to be received 'since the last account', those at Easter are received 'since the great account at Michaelmas term*. 2

222

P R O C T O R S H I P OF J O H N SYCLYNG, 1490-1496

ones remain, (c) the same discontinuity is found for some of the early years following the adoption of the Lady Margaret's statutes, where the larger number of fellows, of more mature years, would be likely to ensure the fulfilment of the statutory provisions. It may be observed that the sums owed to the college by its debtors at the various dates were April 1491 56 13 8 October 1493 97 2 7 with extras not expressed in money November 1494 85 3 oj with extras not expressed in money and the amounts owing to the Proctor by the college on those dates were respectively £

'• &•

April 1491 21 4 o October 1493 20 1 10J November 1494 28 19 3

It would appear therefore that the debts owing by the college were not in any exact relationship with the totals of the sums due to it and that after meeting all its expenditure the amounts owing to it were, on the average, more than three times as great as the sums the college owed. The statutes ordain *' that the money which shall happen to remain... at the two great Audits.. .shall at once be put away in the common chest', a requirement reflected by the statement in the indentures of the Michaelmas audit of 1491 that 'In the common chest there remains 125. 4J. in groats and 25. Sd. in bronze pennies', whatever the last may mean at a time when the only lawful penny known was a silver coin. There is another provision in the statutes whose observance also is shewn by one of the indentures: 'And all the jewels, treasure and muniments existing in the said chest shall be visibly displayed to all the Fellows then present, and in their presence shall be similarly replaced in the same chest '.* This being done to the satisfaction of the fellows there would be no necessity to make any record, but if the fellows were not satisfied that all was right due notice would presumably be taken of 1

Rackham, p. 13.

* Ibid. p. 15.

T H E COLLEGE PLATE

223

the matter. It is an experience of that kind which is recorded on the dorse of the indenture dated 7 May 1492, in the following words: Defuerunt Item the basen and ewer ij standinge [sic] Item the nest of goblets with the covers ij playne bowles with the covers also the nutte. There is nothing in this note to indicate that the absence of the plate detailed in it was more than temporary, but neither is there anything that would not cover a permanent loss; defuerunt,' were missing', would meet either case. No note relative to the plate occurs on any subsequent indenture and we may not know therefore whether the missing plate, which may have been lent, came back in due time to the college. The statutes provide that the treasure (store of money) shall on no pretext be lent to any one, and that the books or jewels shall not be alienated, but lending is not necessarily alienation, and it has been shewn1 that the college did lend its books to its fellows to be used by them as cautions for the performance of their university obligations. The plate missing at the Easter audit of 1492 may therefore have been lent and may in due time have been restored. It seems to be implicit, in the form the 1492 endorsement takes, that there was then other plate in the possession of Godshouse. This is to be expected, for it was a period when plate was largely owned even by individual members of the colleges. Large numbers of students, including those of Godshouse, possessed plate during their course of study in the university which they deposited as cautions with the proctors as occasion arose; apart from their practical uses, pieces of plate were a convenient and popular form of storing wealth. The colleges have been very careless in past centuries in the matter of plate preservation, Christ's not more than others. Not only has the entire Godshouse treasure disappeared (with the possible exception now to be mentioned), but the college has been bereft also of all, save a minute portion, of the very great quantity bequeathed to it by the Lady Margaret. 1

Supra, pp. 186, 201 sq.

224

P R O C T O R S H I P OF J O H N SYCLYNG, 1490-1496

Of the plate missing at Easter 1492, the 'basen and ewer' need no explanation; none survives in Cambridge of earlier date than the seventeenth century. Of 'the nest of goblets with the covers' Professor E. Alfred Jones writes (26 July 1931): 'I cannot refer you to any nests of goblets in existence today They were probably beakers fitting into each other like the Dutch set at Caius at the Exhibition.1 Nests of drinking cups of the late 16th and early 17th centuries are to be seen in Germany'. Of the 'ij playne bowles with the covers' the same authority says: 'It is impossible to suggest from the meagre description the precise form', while 'The nutte was obviously a cocoa-nut cup mounted in silver like those at Caius'.2 The ij standinge may refer to standing cups, salts or even mazers. The fact that this item is cancelled in the endorsement appears to suggest that the two 'standing' articles, thought at first to be missing, had been discovered or been returned before the fellows' audit actually took place. Concerning this last item an interesting possibility presents itself. Christ's College possesses two standing gilt salts and covers which were catalogued as nos. 9 and 10 in Old Cambridge Plate, one of them being illustrated on plate V of that publication, and as no. 12 of the 1931 Exhibition catalogue. In the earlier catalogue they are said to be probably a part of the foundress's bequest of plate, in the later they are attributed to that source without qualification. The authority for both statements seems to be a list3 preserved in St John's College of the Plate, etc. bequeathed by the Lady Margaret to Christ's College, of which one item is ij round gilt saltes with oon cover all pondering xxxviij vnces dimidiam at iijs. viijd. le vnc. vijli xiiijd. A striking fact in the history of the salts which tends to support their identification with those of the Lady Margaret's bequest is that, though they now possess two covers, they had only one until about 1841, when a second was made by copying the original. There are, however, two 1 No. 379 in the Catalogue ofan Exhibition of Silver Plate in the Fitzwilliam Museum 5 June to 5 July 1931, and described and illustrated by E. A. Jones in The Old Plate of the Cambridge Colleges, p. 30, pi. XXXIII. 3 Ibid. nos. 5 and 7; Old Cambridge Plate, pi. II; E. A. Jones, op. cit., p. 27, pis. XXVII, XXVIII. 3 R. F. Scott in C.A.S. Proceedings, ix (1896), 349 sqq.

T H E F O U N D R E S S ' S SALTS

225

important respects in which they differ from the description of the salts of the foundress's bequest: (1) the existing salts are not round but six-sided, (2) they are appreciably heavier than the weight given in the Lady Margaret's list. If (1) stood alone it would not be wise to press its significance unduly, since the rounded outline of each foil-face might conceivably seem to excuse the use of' round' to describe the general outline; yet, in medieval wills and inventories, such particularity of detail is found as justifies doubt of such careless use, in a very formal document, of'round' for a six-sided article. The weight, however, is on a different footing; what the early sixteenth-century inventory says about weight must be accepted, especially seeing that its 38J ounces is confirmed by the calculation of 35. Sd. per ounce producing the correct total value of £7- is. id. The aggregate weight of the two existing salts, each with its cover, is given in Old Cambridge Plate as 47*35 ounces. For the purpose of this note they were recently weighed in the Christ's College combination room by Messrs Munsey and Co. of Cambridge, who confirm that weight, making it, indeed, 47*5 ounces. From the total of 47*5 ounces must be deducted the weight of the modern cover and, in doing this, there is no possibility of error, since each cover, the old and the new, weighs 4-25 ounces. If from 47-5 we deduct 4*25, we obtain as the total weight of two salts and one cover 43 '2$ ounces, shewing that, if they be those of the Lady Margaret's bequest, they have gained in 420 years no less than 4^75 ounces. There are two possible explanations: an original error in weight in the ancient inventory, or the erroneous modern equation of the two hexafoil salts with the two round ones of the Lady Margaret's bequest. An error of the magnitude of twelve and one-half per cent, in weighing articles of precious metal may be ruled out, especially as a copying error is excluded by the agreement of weight with the total value sum. We are driven to the conclusion that the true explanation of this large difference in weight, supplemented by the lack of agreement in form, is conclusive of a modern error in identification of the hexafoil salts with the round salts of the bequest of the Lady Margaret. IHC

15

226

P R O C T O R S H I P OF J O H N SYCLYNG, 1490-1496

If this reasoning based upon the facts be accepted it does not seem to be going too far to suggest that the college may possibly possess in its two hexafoil standing gilt salts and the one original cover the 'ij standinge...' which were missing, and later found by the head of Godshouse, at the Easter audit of 1492. The facts were submitted to Professor Jones, who adds to his expert knowledge of ancient plate in general specific acquaintance with the medieval pieces of Christ's College; it was suggested to him that perchance the knops upon the stems had been added since the Lady Margaret's day, so accounting for the increased weight. He replied: 'One fact may be definitely ruled out, that there can be any gain in weight, except of course by the addition of new parts. I feel sure that the knops on the stems of the salts are contemporary'. He also wrote: 'If your two salts catalogued as c. 1500 were acquired not earlier than 1490, then the assumption may not be too rash that they were the ij standing pieces'.

It is not without interest to observe that the weights of the two salts and one cover are given in the college plate book in the sixteenth century as 43 ounces 5 pennyweights, the same weight as to-day. The accounts of April 1491, the first presented by John Syclyng, indicate that there was a substantial response to the appeal sent out at the end of the year 1488 with the bishop of Ely's indulgence to support it. There is nothing in the statement to shew how the proceeds were expended, but it is not unlikely that they were devoted in whole or in part to the building of the chapel which Godshouse did possess and •which still largely remains in the chapel of Christ's College. There was also some building of living rooms at this period, since the accounts make special mention of a gift of fourteen pounds and tenpence (equal to about three hundred and fifty pounds to-day) for four chambers newly made on the north side of the college. These also have come down substantially to the present day though, as is the case with the Lady Margaret's buildings, they have undergone much alteration on the front towards the court. Otherwise they still retain features differentiating them from the early sixteenth-century buildings, as will be made clear when the question of still-subsisting material remains of the Godshouse period is being considered.

I N C O M E OF T H E U N I V E R S I T Y

227

It may serve to put the receipts and expenditure of Godshouse in a not unuseful perspective if the figures of receipts and expenses of the university be given for the year 1491/2. Syclyng and Wall had delivered to them from the receding proctors:

£

60 0

Receipts 1491/2 Expended 1491/2

s. 6

11

Total 71 6 10 16

Delivered to the incoming proctors

60 10

d.

n 2 J

7f 2|

Unfortunately, it would not be true to say that 'They took no one in, those good old men, in the far off middle ages', for Syclyng and Wall inherited from previous years, and passed on to their successors, a certain amount of bad money; it took various forms, as they relate in the following statement (translated): Memorandum diat of the aforesaid monies in the common chest are

I s- A-

Fifteen shillings in gold partly broken

15 o

A noble [nominally a gold coin worth 65. 8
6 8 18 4 3 6 2 3 6

It has been remarked in an earlier chapter* that Fuller was wrong in placing Byngham, Hurte, Fallan and Basset amongst the proctors of the university. That office, however, was held by John Syclyng shortly after he became Proctor of Godshouse, namely in the academical year 1491/2 (he held it again in 1500/1), and in discharging its responsibilities he revealed to his contemporaries qualities so exceptional as to lead to his being called into service in the conduct of university business 1 The Oxford proctors' accounts provide an interesting though not absolute parallel, since the receipts there included sources of revenue not found in Cambridge and the reverse may also be true to some extent. The Oxford receipts for the year 1492 amounted to ,£29. 3s. i\d. (Mediaeval Archives of the University of Oxford, ii, 273, H. E. Salter). * Supra, p. 121 sq. 15-2

228

P R O C T O R S H I P OF J O H N SYCLYNG, 1490-1496

on many occasions in subsequent years, especially in those major matters where negotiating skill and gifts of diplomacy were qualifications of supreme importance. He was senior proctor and had as junior proctor John Wall, of whom nothing else is known; the records of this proctorial year stretch over eleven manuscript pages of the Grace Book and rather more than twelve pages of its printed form (Grace Book B, pt. i, pp. 32-44). Above the heading of the first manuscript page, a later hand has added 'Hoc anno Johannes Siding fuit socius Collegii Corporis christi', unaware, it is to be supposed, that he was also that year head of the College of Godshouse. In the payments of this year there is mention of repair to the University Library, by which we must understand the upper floor of the south range of the university buildings,1 known as the 'south room' of the library, for which also there is some expenditure upon the chaining of books. One small item of payment has an interest out of all proportion to its amount, pro claue hostii universitatis xd.? 'for a key of the door of the university', indicating a transference of the name of the institution to the buildings in which it functioned. This use of University, to represent its buildings, general abroad, has never taken hold in Cambridge3 owing, probably, to the residential system so peculiarly English, which has made the academical buildings almost co-extensive with the town. College, on the other hand, had before Syclyng's time come to signify either the society of scholars properly so-called, or the buildings they occupied,4 a duality of meaning which has continued to the present time with a preponderating use of the transferred sense. The pre-occupation of Syclyng with college and university affairs is recognised in a grace obtained by him in his proctorial year 5 in the 1

2 Built between 1457 and 1470. GB. B 1 , p. 43. The phrase 'he was at the University of Cambridge' may superficially appear to contradict this statement, but it certainly does not relate to the little group of buildings between King's College chapel and Great St Mary's. 4 Cf. infra, p. 343 sq. 5 GB. B 1 , p. 41; the position in the book occupied by the grace indicates that it was obtained towards the end of his proctorial year. There is evidence that proctors in the fifteenth century might have deputies (cf. Documents, i, 348, 394), and indeed a payment to such a deputy was made by Syclyng himself in his second term of office (GB. B 1 , p. 154)3

HIS U N I V E R S I T Y P R O C T O R S H I P

229

words (translated): 'It is conceded to Master John Syclyng that if it happen to him to absent himself out of negligence from exequies, masses or congregations he shall not incur any penalty'. During this year also he records a grace to the Master of Corpus Christi College, Thomas Cosyn, permitting him to absent himself from congregations except such as are called nulla excusante causa.1 Another domestic item recorded by him is the admission of John Scott (of Godshouse) as questionist, from whom he receives his commons of twelvepence* and his caution,3 the latter being two books, ofwhich thefirstwas Reymond 4 and the second a book of confessions. Scott's career as a student was unusually prolonged; he became master in grammar in 1501, was B.A. in 1503, M.A. in 1507, junior proctor in 1510/11. He was one of the fellows, senior fellow apparently, who along with Syclyng accepted the Lady Margaret's statutes 3 October 1506. This extended period of study may imply that Scott's proceeding to the successive stages in his degrees was deliberately deferred in order that he might avoid the operation of the statute requiring the vacation of a fellowship after the first year of regency: Sydyng's pre-occupation with his external duties would make the continuity of an older scholar in Godshouse a matter of prime necessity. It would be in his capacity of senior proctor that Syclyng was present in the cathedral church of Ely on 13 April 1492 when before the bishop of Ely's commissary John Sewall, of the parish of St Benedict in Cambridge, was purged of the crime of homicide in the slaying of Richard Harryson. The purgation was made by Syclyng and twelve other clerks.5 Purgation was a process in canon law whereby the accused sought to clear himself by a declaration upon oath of his innocence of the crime which was laid to his charge; his compurgators were those who either swore to his innocence of their own knowledge, or to his 'GB.B 1 , p. 37. * Ibid. p . is4 Ibid. p. 32. Cf. ibid. p. xii. 5 Annals, i, 241; Ely Dioc. Reg. Alcock, f. 80. The others were: Richard Sogborne, D.D., Thomas Wardall, M.A., Henry Warde, M.A., William Rudston, M.A., John Thomason, LL.B., George Dynkale, vicar of Wycheford, John Rudston, chaplain, William Thomlyn, chaplain, Christofer Wryght, chaplain, John Burne, litteratus, William Monsy, litteratus, and Edward Bestney, litteratus. 3

230

P R O C T O R S H I P OF J O H N SYCLYNG, 1490-1496

credibility when he purged himself by oath. The defence of purgation was akin to that of wager-at-law in the secular courts. The Chancellor of the University had no cognisance even of clerks in matters of 'mayhem 1 and felony', which must go to the bishop's official, but the jealous regard of the university for those under its ordinary jurisdiction seems to have led to the provision in this case of the necessary compurgators out of the members of its own body, headed by its chief administrative officer and including a doctor, four masters of arts and a bachelor of laws. There is no evidence that John Sewall was himself a member of the university, but the jurisdiction of the Chancellor extended over the servants of the university, of the hostels and colleges, and even over the servants of the members of these places and bodies. The privilege of this protection was sought and obtained by some who served the university and its members only as tradesmen, who would readily sell their wares and their skill to burgesses as well as to clerks.* It is not improbable that Sewall was a servant or quasi-servant who so attracted the interest of the university in his defence. Syclyng vacated the office of senior proctor of the university in October 1492, but his services in the business of the university were in frequent demand thereafter, particularly in the conduct of its external relations. The earliest reference to his engagement in such matters is found in the year 14943 when, amongst the expenses incurred by the Vice-Chancellor, William Stockdale (who is styled also precedens, as is the Chancellor dominus precedens), in London, in the matter of the controversy between the university and the mayor of Cambridge, there appears a payment to Syclyng for boat hire, amounting to i\d. The controversy was not a passing incident but was based upon a deep-rooted difference concerning questions of privilege, jurisdiction, control of markets, fairs and trading generally. The university on the one hand, the town on the other, had obtained respectively from succes1 2

An obsolete lawformof'maim'.

Cf. Annals, i, 104, 270. 3 GB. B 1 , p. 75. This was the year in which John Fisher, then fellow of Michaelhouse, was senior proctor; it is the earliest period at which, so far as we know, Fisher was brought into that contact with Syclyng of which the enlargement of Godshouse by the Lady Margaret was the ultimate outcome.

T O W N AND G O W N

231

sive sovereigns concessions whose bearing upon prior concessions to the other party was not duly weighed, and the resultant duality of authority had divided town and gown since the middle of the thirteenth century.1 These differences continued, being appeased and adjusted from time to time, and long after Syclyng's day they provoked outbreaks of hostility as each party exercised some right the possession of which was contested by the other. In Elizabeth's reign the union of the two corporations, university and town, was mooted, but the mayor was sworn to refuse his assent to that proposal.* The part played by Syclyng in dealing with the controversy was not apparently a prominent one in 1494, but in the following year it occupied much of his attention, he and the Vice-Chancellor being entrusted with litigation and negotiation which took them to London each term and kept them there for many weeks together.3 The ViceChancellor was under the necessity of returning to Cambridge for that great function, the Commencement, during the continuance of the proceedings and, during his absence, Syclyng was left alone as chargi d'affaires. We must assume from the numerous visits to Lambeth as well as to Westminster, and also to the Doctors of the Court of Arches, who are repeatedly entertained, that aid of the ecclesiastical courts was sought in addition to that of the secular. This indeed should be expected, seeing that the" Chancellor and, of course, his deputy, the ViceChancellor, had jurisdiction of ecclesiastical character, as witness the power, often exercised in pre-Reformation times, of excommunication and that of testamentary probate* which continued until 1857, when all 'peculiar' probate courts were extinguished by an act of parliament.5 The immediate outcome of their prolonged and costly labours in London is not revealed, but it is clear that no permanent settlement was attained, and the matter became acute again a few years later, when Syclyng was once more called upon to bear his part. The Grace Book for the period of Syclyng's activities yields much detailed information 1

2 3 Cf. Annals, i, 45, sub 1249. Ibid, ii, 242. GB. B 1 , pp. 83-95. Cf. Annals, iv, 109-25, for a triumphant contest in this matter with the diocesan authorities in 1713. 5 20/21 Victoria, c. 77. 4

232

P R O C T O R S H I P OF J O H N SYCLYNG, 1490-1496

upon the methods of travel and mode of life which these duties at a distance imposed upon him and those associated with him in those important negotiations. The route between Cambridge and London followed by the members of the university is ascertained from the details of the expenses shewn in the proctors' accounts in the Grace Books. They travelled by Barkway, Ware and Waltham, spending the night at Barkway, having meals at Ware and Waltham, and reaching London the second night. Likewise, two days were occupied on the return journey, the night being passed at Ware; on one occasion a break is made at Fowlmere for a drink. The distance was fifty-two miles and two days appears to be the regular time taken; in one case, Doctor Rudd 1 covered the whole distance in one day, having three horses and, presumably, one servant. He 'baited' in Barkway, had a meal at Ware, and supped in London, his total expenses, including supper and 'horse food', being 25. 6%d. He would take his spare horse light to Ware and leave his servant there to bring on the two spent horses on the morrow. In 1494 the university representatives were lodged at Symson's* in Fleet Street, and the 'Sword' was another place of abode, but in the next year they appear to have stayed at another inn, also in Fleet Street, probably the 'George'; they used Symson's that year for meals occasionally. They did not make en pension terms at this inn but engaged rooms and beds only; the sum paid 'for room and use of bed clothes for three weeks' is 35. 4*/., but the economic value of that statement is weakened by the failure to state the number who occupied the room; on another visit when three persons, Syclyng, the Vice-Chancellor and the then senior proctor, stayed for three weeks and a half the sum of 55. 4J. was paid 'for the hire of [bed] clothes and the use of beds'. The more part of the horses were not kept in London but were returned to Cambridge; the retention of some is to be inferred from the charges for horse food at the inn. There is much travel from the city to West1

Henry Rudd, LL.D., was Vice-Chancellor in the year 1496/7. The possibility that the well-known Simpsons in the Strand might be the descendant of Symson's in Fleet Street is not supported by the facts ascertained by enquiry. The modern Simpsons came into being in 1828, not by removal but by foundation on its present site. 2

TRAVELLING EXPENSES

233

minster, to Lambeth and to Shene, the journeys being generally made by boat, at varying costs, according perhaps to whether a single or return journey is made and, in the latter case, the time of waiting. The servants are fairly numerous, but some returned to Cambridge with the horses and it does not seem probable that the members of the party, other than the Vice-Chancellor perhaps, retained in London more than one each. When horses are hired the charge is 4*/. per horse per diem; the hirer seems to provide the food. The regular meals werejantaculum and cena, and they could reasonably be expressed in the words 'dinner' and 'supper' as they are, normally, equal in value and no other meal is ordinarily mentioned. There is a period when Syclyng is alone and he renders account ofjantaculum and cena together, day after day, for i^d.; each of these, when shewn separately, has the price of zd. set against it. Syclyng's charges seem very moderate, he and Abot his companion paying i\d. between them for dinner at Waltham, but an extra halfpenny was distributed in alms, and supper for the two at Barkway the same day cost $d. These normal costs of meals are greatly increased at times when guests are entertained, and such entertainment is given at inns in Tower Street, in Paternoster Row (to the Doctors of Arches), at the sign of the King's head and that of the head of St John Baptist. The usual meal included in its price the table-ale, but when guests were being treated wine was provided as a costly addition; wine allowed on one occasion to the Doctors of Arches cost as much as izd. There is an instance in which Syclyng returns the cost of supper 'nil' because he was entertained by Master Robert Castell. It is probable that the representative of the university had much hospitality in return but, as that involved no charge to the university, it is not expressed in the bill, the sole instance abovequoted excepted. Some food is described more generally as 'meals' and 'food', and there are occasional charges for 'baiting', and for drink, for 'a certain refreshment after supper' and also during the night. Fuel is charged for separately in the inns and costs from zd. to 4.J., being paid for by quantity renewed according to need. Candles cost id. but, since when the party are travelling they seem to last more than

234

P R O C T O R S H I P OF J O H N SYCLYNG, 1490-1496

one night, it does not transpire how many are provided for that sum. Amongst other items of expenditure may be noted: The despatch of the Vice-Chancellor's servant to Cambridge to bring the letters for the doctors1 at a total cost of 55. id. Carrying of the 'malys'2 between London and Cambridge for lid. Barbitonsor and laundress [length of service not shewn] are paid 4<jf. Medicament for the back of a horse costs \d. A 'garcion' has for his labour about the horses at Shene id. A very early use of 'city' as the equivalent of London is met with in these accounts; the passage runs Expense doctoris Rudd equitantis versus ciuitatem et versus Cantahrigxam?

where city is used of London in general, not in contradistinction of the city and its outlying suburbs; it is, in fact, used as a Cambridge man to-day might use 'town' when expressing his intention of going to London from Cambridge for the day. There were constant gifts of fish and wine in London and also in Cambridge itself to judges,4 bishops and other highly placed clerics.5 In London, apart from frequent entertainment of legal persons likely to promote the cause committed to the university's representatives, there are numerous gifts in money which it is reasonable to regard as 'refreshers', differing from those legitimate and proper fees to counsel under that style to-day because they were quite commonly given to judges of the king's courts and to others occupying prominent public office. It was done openly and the practice continued for long after the close of the fifteenth century. Thus, in the Christ's College accounts in Henry VIII's days, we find Given to Mr Cromwell6 in a reward by Mr Wiat for the quicker expedition in our college business .£3. Given to Mr Cromwell's servants to remember our business 55. Given to Dr Lee the archdeacon to solicit the matter 205. 1

? Doctors of Arches. GB. B 1 , p. 88; on p. 87 pro vedione ly malys lundinum versus et converso iiijs.; cf. p. 94 ly ij malys lundinum versus et Cantabrigiam xij d. From which we may infer that the baggage of the representatives of the university was in these instances conveyed by special carriers; cf. GB. A, p. 185. 3 4 Ibid. p. 94. Ibid. p. 93. 5 Ibid. pp. 96, 97, 105, 138, 155, 173. Thomas Cromwell, later lord great-chamberlain of England (1539) and earl of Essex (1540); executed in 1540. 2

R E L I G I O U S O B S E R V A N C E IN TRAVEL

235

and the same archdeacon has frequent gifts of a gallon of wine at eightpence the time.1 We should know, without evidence, that those of the university's representatives who were in holy orders faithfully discharged their solemn obligations at the altar, but, here and there, proof is not lacking in the accounts. Thus, in 1494, on leaving London they take credit for twenty pence paid for the use of altars in the church of saint 'Brigitte' and for bread, wine and wax.* The due observance of the rites of holy Church was a solemn obligation which must have brought worshippers and revenue to those churches which lay on the great roads. The importance attached to sufficient provision for the spiritual needs of travellers is strikingly shewn by a licence conceded 26 October 1402 by John de Fordham, bishop of Ely, to John Reydon for a chapel in his inn at Babraham (on the direct route then from Norfolk to London) in which many nobles and other wayfarers stayed, and were not able to attend the parish church because of its distance and the badness of the roads.3 Information of Syclyng's activity in the proceedings following the dispute between the university and the town is found in the Grace Book only; no echo of his service in that matter has been found in the muniment room. On the other hand, the knowledge that he had been deputed by the university to obtain gifts from its friends towards the cost of rebuilding the church of St Mary the Great, St Mary by the market as was its contemporary description, is not found in the Grace Book but is discovered by the preservation of the actual commission under the great seal of the university in the college muniment room, 4 by which 'Magister John Syclyng, master of the seven liberal arts, our brother and master or keeper of the nourishing college of Godshouse situated in our university', is appointed special commissary to seek the contributions of the fathers, brothers and friends of the university towards the new building of the university's public church now dilapidated to the ground and lying desolate. For which reason the university asks for the same John Syclyng, chosen as its special 1

Chr. Audit Book, 1533. 3 Ely, Fordham, f. 194.

% 4

GB. B 1 , p. 78. Misc. F, 15.

236

P R O C T O R S H I P O F J O H N SYCLYNG, 1490-1496

representative and commissary, the fullest and most entire trust of all those whom he shall approach in this matter. This document is dated on the Ides of June but without any year; it is of parchment and the seal of the university is still attached. The lack of the year is not surprising if the commission was to have prolonged effect, a not unlikely provision seeing that the work of rebuilding the church extended over forty-one years, from 1478 to 1519. Sydyng is not described as university proctor but as Master of Godshouse and, excluding therefore his two years as senior proctor, we must place the period of this commission's issue either after 1492 and before 1500, or after 1501 and before bis death in 1506. Baker states that during the year 1492 £6. 135. ^d. was received for the building, during 1493 £s- 2s. z\A} and then nothing until 1499, when ^ 3 . 05. od. came in, after which there is another blank until 1502, when the receipt of £ 5 . 155. $d. is recorded; from 1503 (£40) to 1506 (£53. 7*- &/.) the flow of funds is much stronger. Baker (xxiv, 213-17) * gives these amounts under yearly dates from the proctors' accounts, and also under names of benefactors from some other source; it would appear, from comparison of the totals, that not all the sums passed through the proctors' accounts. The contributors are in large measure bishops and the heads of religious houses such as Syclyng would be likely to meet during his numerous visits to London. Though this interesting document is mentioned here it is possible that it was not supplied to Syclyng until the beginning of the sixteenth century when, as we shall find later, university business again required his frequent presence in the 'city'. It is not suggested that his were the sole efforts directed to the provision of building funds, but the statement3 as to 'the proctors being for many years accustomed to ride about the country in order to solicit contributions' seems to lack proof since it is only in relation to the year 1493 that any evidence of such riding is to be found in the Grace 1

Baker, xxiv, 216. In actual fact this was the amount paid for the junior proctor's travelling charges in riding to collect funds and other attendant expenses; it was not a sum received towards the cost of building, as stated by Baker. Cf. GB. B 1 , p.6 3 sq. 2 Lamb, p. 7 sq., is less complete. 3 Memorials, iii, 297; cf. Annals, i, 243.

T H E D E A T H OF BASSET

237

1

Books. There are many payments for the composition and writing of letters in various years, frequently without mention of the purpose of the letters or of the name of the persons to whom they were to be delivered; it is possible that some of those may have been sent to request the benevolence of well-to-do friends of the university for its church. The document appointing Syclyng the university's representative may not be without parallel, but if any other has survived, it does not appear to have been published; it is printed in full in the appendix.* Syclyng was a witness of the will of Gilbert Nevyle, as is shewn by the copy of that document found amongst those preserved in the Cambridge drawer,3 though as witness there was no obvious reason for his possession of a copy. The purpose is clearer when we find that six years afterwards (the will was made 4 July 1484) Master Martin Colyns4 and Johanna Nevyle, executors of the will, received a peremptory summons from the archbishop of Canterbury5 to repair to his court at Lambeth within fifteen days thereafter to answer complaints of breaches and impediments in respect of their duties under the will alleged by one Thomas Ward. 6 The citation is the original and its seal remains, though broken; 7 its presence amongst the college muniments suggests that the executors brought it to Syclyng as a witness, perhaps as man of affairs, for his help and advice. The death of William Basset, fourth Proctor of Godshouse, occurred in 1495 and probably in the early autumn,8 since his rectory of Boxworth, voided by his death, was filled by the institution, 7 October 1495, of John Butler, S.T.B.9 The institution of Syclyng to Fendrayton was not made until 15 February 1496,10 a delay due possibly to the 1

GB. B 1 , p. 63 sq. * Infra, p. 377Unnumbered; supra, p. 206 sq. 4 One of this name, archdeacon of Cleveland, paid his commons on admission in 1497/8 (GB. B 1 , p. n o ) . 5 John Morton. 6 There are two of this name in Grace Book B 1 , one is B.D. of Gonville Hall, the other a labouring man. 7 Third Chest, bottom drawer, unnumbered. 8 Supra, p. 188. 9 Crosby, p. 29. 10 Ely, Alcock, f. 108; at Ely House, Holborn, at a time when Syclyng's presence in London might be deduced from Grace Book B 1 , p. 83. He was to be inducted by die archdeacon. 3

238

P R O C T O R S H I P OF J O H N SYCLYNG, 1490-1496

pre-occupation of Syclyng with university business which, as has been shewn, must have left him little time for the affairs of GocUhouse during the academical year 1495/6. The effect of Basset's death upon the affairs of Godshouse was of no small importance. The income of the rectory of Fendrayton came to the use of the college, not to its general fund but to the immediate use of the Proctor, as was the intention of Henry VI in making this gift to Godshouse. It relieved the college, we may suppose, of any stipendiary charge for its Proctor, it enabled Syclyng to surrender his fellowship of Corpus Christi College and, since it was post hoc, we may suppose it to be propter hoc that Godshouse became possessed of that collection of its statutes in writing, solemnly sealed by the Vice-Chancellor of the University and the prior of Barnwell with their respective seals of office, which still remains. The statutes of Godshouse are preserved in a case in the college library; they were copied by Adam Wall 1 but had not been printed until Mr Rackham published his Early Statutes of Christ's College in 1927. They were unknown to Mullinger, who therefore was led to regard as innovations in any Cambridge college statutes certain provisions in those of the Lady Margaret for Christ's which had in fact already found a place in those of Godshouse. The statutes were given by John Hurte and Robert Scols,* two of several persons authorised for that purpose in the royal foundation charter of 16 April 1448. Relying upon this date of authorisation, Dr Peile3 says they were drawn up in 1448; Mr Rackham, more cautiously, says4 'they are presumably not earlier than the licence of 1448'. Both these writers appear to have overlooked the important fact that the statutes were attested and sealed by William Stockdale, Vice-Chancellor of the University, and William Cambrige, prior of Barnwell, which gives us a still later and more certain date. William Cambrige did not receive the temporalities of Barnwell priory until 18 December I495,5 1

A.W. 49, ff-31-53 ind. So spelt in the statutes; elsewhere Scolyse and otherwise. 3 4 Biog. Reg. i, 2, sub Hurt. Rackham, p. ii. 5 C.P.R. 1494-1509, p. 43= 11 H. VII, i, 16 (10). The priory did not receive the king's conge d'elire until 5 December. 2

SEALING OF T H E S T A T U T E S

239

which date becomes a terminus post quern for the statutes, seeing that his seal of office, affixed by him, would not be available earlier. The sealing by William Stockdale tells a similar story; he was certainly Vice-Chancellor in the academical year 1494/5, as witness the agreement between King's College and Trinity Hall, bearing date 15 March 1495l (O.S. 1494). If Stockdale's term of office did not extend beyond that one year, it would expire 10 October 1495, which would be more than two months earlier than the succession of "William Cambrige to the priory of Barnwell. The Historical Register of the University restricts Stockdale to the year 1494/5 and places John Dolman in 1495, Henry Rudd in 1496;2 it gives no authority for those attributions which, however, may be assumed to be certain entries in Grace Book B 1 , viz. pp. 87 and 95 for Dolman, p. 93 for Rudd, where the respective names follow 'Vice-Chancellor'. Thus (p. 87) we have: Expense Magistri vicecancellarii Doctoris Dolman Magistri Jacobi denton procuratoris et Magistri Morgon, where Doctoris Dolman may have been regarded by the compiler of the list in the Historical Register as being in apposition to vicecancellarii.

The context makes that impossible: its assumption makes Dolman and Rudd overlap, and otherwise creates difficulties which those who examine the pages of Grace Book B 1 for the relative years will discover. It seems necessary to give Stockdale another year of office, during 1495/6, seeing that he used the Chancellor's seal,3 and described himself as Vice-Chancellor in so doing, in or after December 1495.4 There is some satisfaction in the knowledge that the questions which trouble twentieth-century members of the college presented difficulties also to the Lady Margaret and her council in the early years of the 1

GB. B 1 , pp. 71 sqq. * Hist. Reg. p. 22. It was made about 1300 and its first known impression is that in Harl. m e , f. 25 (Proc. Soc. Ant. Ser. ii, x, 228). 4 There is the alternative that if Stockdale ceased to be Vice-Chancellor in October 1495, he may have used the seal as pro-Vice-Chancellor. The Vice-Chancellor was much in London in the year 1495/6 (cf. GB. B 1 , pp. 83 sqq.), and we find that there was a deputy to the Vice-Chancellor in 1502/3 during the like absence (cf. Lownde, GB. B \ p. 185). In that case it might be expected that his description would indicate that he was pro-Vice-Chancellor or locum tenens of the Vice-Chancellor. For further biographical details of Stockdale v. infra, p. 398 sq. 3

240

P R O C T O R S H I P O F J O H N SYCLYNG, 1490-1496

sixteenth. For, in the course of the negotiations between Godshouse and the Lady Margaret, the Proctor was asked 'Yf Mr Byngham made eny statutes or ordinances or yf ther were eny other made then be expressed in the copyes Delyuered unto my lady's grace'. 1 The answer made by Syclyng was 'The seid M[aster] seith that M[aster] Byngham ner noe nother M [aster] after hym of that College made noe nother Statutes ner ordinances but such as he hath shewed to my laydys grace and to her CounceU'.2 Such store of negatives should carry conviction despite the passage of four centuries since their use. The apparent absence of statutes for Godshouse until many years after the foundation of the college by Henry VI is not without parallel elsewhere in the university at that period, as may be seen in the case of Queens' College,3 whose foundress had provided in 1446, in 1447, and again in 1448, for their making by certain named persons as had Byngham for his college. The reasons for the delay in giving statutes for Queens' College are outside our scope, but it is noteworthy that Margaret of Anjou entrusted the making of ordinances and statutes for her college to seven persons who did not include Andrew Dockett, its originator and first President. King Henry VI on the other hand, in his foundation charter for Godshouse, placed the provision of its ordinances and statutes in the hands of Byngham by setting him at the head of the seven persons named for that purpose, and by providing that the ordinances and statutes might be given by any of those seven persons or by any other persons appointed for the purpose by Byngham. This seems to indicate that Byngham's intention was to give the statutes himself but that the other names were joined with his to ensure that, if death or illness intervened to prevent the carrying out of his intention, they should be given by persons in whom he had confidence. The additional names were added, that is, under the same influence that had led him to add other names to his own, as trustees for the property and endowments of Godshouse, in the earlier licences obtained for its establishment in 1442 and 1446. 1 3

Chr. Gh. 6. Cf. infra, p. 284. * Chr. Gh. Aq. Cf. infra, p. 285. Documents, iii, 10 sq.; J. H. Gray, The Queens' College ofSt Margaret and St Bernard,

p. 11.

T H E DELAY IN SEALING

241

That Byngham did not himself give effect to his intention may be assumed from the tenour of Syclyng's reply to the Lady Margaret's enquiry, and from the fact that the statutes were ultimately given at the hands of two of the seven persons named, Hurte and Scols. The reason for his delay in making statutes can only be surmised. The college, though firmly founded by the king himself on 16 April 1448, was only the nucleus of Byngham's desires whether in site, buildings or endowment. He may have had in mind such developments as occurred under his successors, or even others more extensive, and he may have deferred giving statutes until the achievement of his ambitions for his house enabled him to bring his kingdom and the laws to be observed therein into appropriate relation with one another. Apart from expectations of further royal bounty it is not unlikely that the ultimate devotion of much of the great wealth of the residuary estate of John Brokley was in Byngham's mind as a possible source for the aggrandisement of his college; and if that had come about the statutes might have needed a different framework from that which would be fitting for those intended to regulate the life of a house established in the two tenements of Tiltey and Denney only. Byngham died suddenly in 1451, and the residuary estate of Brokley did not come in any large measure, if at all, to Godshouse; whether these things had bearing upon the matter or not, it is beyond question that statutes in full form were not given by Byngham. While a great increase in the size and wealth of the college through Brokley's estate may reasonably have been a possibility influencing Byngham in postponing the making of statutes, there seems to be no reason for attributing such expectations from that quarter to Hurte or those who came after him. Successive Proctors may, however, have had grounds for anticipating further bounty from Henry VI; that intention of the king is implied in the terms used by the Lady Margaret in the draft indenture1 of agreement between her and the Master and fellows of Godshouse to which the university was a third party. The words there used are: And so it is that the said holy blessed king henry after the tyme he had 1

LHC

Chr. Misc. A, 34. 16

242

P R O C T O R S H I P O F J O H N SYCLYNG, 1490-1496

provided the grounde for die said Colleige and provided and put a Maister and certain felowes in the same Colleige and yeven to theim lands and tenaments to die yerely value of xxxiij li Decessed before the said Colleige was buylded or the hole nowmber or Scolers ther provided or any statutes or ordinaunces made for their contynuawnce in the same. The expectations born of the king's intentions, so recorded for our information, may have influenced Hurte, Fallan and Basset in succession to defer the issue of formal statutes. After the king's death in 1471 that reason or excuse for delay disappeared, and we have to seek other explanation for the statutes not being formally given until 1495 or 1496. Whether the College of Godshouse possessed before 1495 formal statutes or not, it is incredible that any corporate body could function without some clear code of rules by which it would be guided in the conduct of its daily life and in dealing with the inevitable sequence of events creating problems needing fixed standards and rules for their solution. Some such rules it is certain Godshouse had; it would be impossible otherwise to understand the statements made by Hurte when Proctor in submitting for audit the half-yearly accounts that he did so in accordance with the statutes of the college, and the similar statement in the like circumstances by Syclyng, in the period 1491 to 1495, before the statutes were formally sealed. As ultimately given, the statutes bear strong likeness to those of Clare Hall, and this fact confirms the authorship of the two Clare men, Hurte and Scols, by whom they profess to have been given and who were two of those to whom the king, at Byngham's request, entrusted the task. It is natural to assume that statutes were not^tVen until they were formally sealed, but the assumption does not seem to be necessary. The power to give lay in Hurte and Scols, and there is no direction in the charter as to any formality of delivery by sealing or otherwise. If Hurte and Scols did actually frame the statutes shortly after Byngham's death, we can understand their abstaining from public delivery if the college cherished expectations of further bounty from the king or others. It would be a simple matter to make substantial changes in the statutes before public delivery, but changes thereafter would probably have involved new statutes with renewed formalities.

R E C E N S I O N S OF S T A T U T E S

243

The Godshouse statutes contain within themselves certain indications of additions to an existing framework to meet political changes and the march of other events. Thus, after the provision that daily prayers shall be said for 'King Henry the Sixth, Founder of the said College, and Queen Margaret his Consort and Prince Edward their son', there is inserted the like for Edward IV and his queen; then comes the same provision for the souls of Richard, duke of York, and Edmund, earl of Rutland, father and brother respectively of Edward IV. These two last died in 1460 and the additions relating to the members of the house of York were presumably made as anticipatory of the confirmation of the Godshouse charter by Edward IV in 1462. Then there is found the fixing of 'the anniversary of King Henry the Sixth, Founder of the aforesaid College, and of all the other benefactors aforesaid, on the twenty-first day of the month of May', a date which obviously could not be fixed until after Henry's death in 1471. Since there is no reference to prayers for Edward V or Richard III (who confirmed the Godshouse privileges in 1484) nor yet to Henry VII (who did the same in i486) we must conclude that the form as it has come down to us, as sealed in 1495 or 1496, is that assumed before the death of Edward IV in 1483 and probably, therefore, before the death of John Hurte in 1476. It is not superficially obvious why the statutes were not formally given prior to Hurte's death, but it may have been due to the survival of Hurte by Scols. The foundation charter provides that any one of the seven persons entrusted with the task of giving statutes to the college might do so alone, but it is clear that the reference is to any one last survivor, as in the similar provision in the appointment of persons as feoffees of the land and endowments for the college in the early royal licences. If Scols was living when Hurte died the giving of statutes could only be done prior to Hurte's death by the two as joint survivors of the original seven. All we know of Hurte presents him as a man of affairs, and we are driven to regard the delay, at least after 1471, as being due to some unwillingness or disability of Scols to provide the necessary co-operation. There are several strange features in the facts and circumstances attending the sealing of the statutes by the Vice16-2

244

P R O C T O R S H I P OF J O H N SYCLYNG, 1490-1496

Chancellor and the prior of Barnwell. It has been shewn that this ceremony cannot have taken place before 18 December 1495. Hurte, who had been dead for nearly twenty years, and Scols, who was first and last heard of in connection with Godshouse on 16 April 1448, reappear and, speaking as if being then present, request the sealing of the statutes with the seals of the 'Chancellorship and the prior'. Why was the sealing done by these extra-mural officials (if the reason offered that Hurte's and Scols' seals were not known does not satisfy us); why was it done in 1495/6 instead of immediately after Hurte's death in 1476; where had Scols been in the intervening half-century since 1448; why was the prior of Barnwell brought on the scene to participate in a purely university function? To take these puzzling matters in their order, it may be said that the sealing of documents of first-rate importance, by persons not parties to them, but bearing seals of office, is still required in certain circumstances to-day, as in the case of mayoral seals to documents relating to transactions in foreign countries, and even in England to those affecting British nationals in regard to real estate transactions in the Isle of Man. It is not surprising therefore that in the medieval period examples are to be found in Cambridge itself. Thus, in 1359, Thomas de Sutton, Chancellor of the University, affixes the official seal to the statutes of Clare Hall at the request of that college, and similarly, the Chancellor of 1352 to those of Trinity Hall. In 1349 the Gild of Corpus Christi, Cambridge, requested William Horwood, the mayor of the town, to affix his seal of office, as better known than that of the gild, to one of their deeds.1 The three instances chosen to illustrate the practice should suffice to shew that its adoption in regard to the statutes of Godshouse was not unusual. In facing the problem of the request to the Vice-Chancellor and prior by Hurte, twenty years after his death, we may assume it to be possible that when giving the statutes he also gave to the Proctor of the time his written request that one or both of the outside authorities should seal. When Hurte died in 1476, William Basset was Proctor; if we are driven to assume that the survival of Scols presented difficulty 1

Annab, i, 100; cf. also Masters, p. 3.

T H E P R O B L E M OF R O B E R T SCOLS

245

in the way of giving effect to Hurte's request, it is not unreasonable to suppose that the request may have remained, with intent or otherwise, in the keeping of Basset. The death of Basset, in 1495, brought his executors in relation with Syclyng, since the College of Godshouse became a beneficiary under Basset's will,1 and it would be natural that the executors should deliver to Syclyng all papers relating to the college that had remained in Basset's possession; instances of the kind are found in the documents of the college even as late as the seventeenth century. This suggested explanation must be judged upon its merits for there is no documentary evidence to support it; it rests upon the facts (1) that Hurte, according to the statement of the Vice-Chancellor and prior, did make the request, (2) that Basset died late in 1495, (3) that the statutes were sealed after 18 December 1495. It has been assumed until now that Hurte passed into oblivion after he ceased to be Proctor of Godshouse,* but in the researches conducted for the present history it has been discovered that he lived until 1476, and it has been possible to trace his career after he surrendered his proctorship down to the date of his death. It has, unfortunately, been otherwise with Robert Scols. All we know of him is that he was a fellow of Clare Hall and that in 1448 he, with Hurte, when they were both of the degree of S.T.B., was added by the king to those authorised to give ordinances and statutes to Godshouse. He is mentioned in the Master's Old Book of Clare3 in surroundings pointing to about 1450, and he then disappears from view, not only in Godshouse and Clare Hall but in the university as a whole. Search in the episcopal Registry of Ely, and in wills and all the other sources which proved successful in the case of Hurte, have been unavailing. His only subsequent appearance is when he requests the Vice-Chancellor and prior of Barnwell to seal the statutes, and he, as well as Hurte, had in the meantime taken the higher degree of S.T.P. We know now that Hurte had been dead for almost twenty years when the statutes were sealed, but we have no such knowledge of Scols and, indeed, it is not unlikely that he was still living at that later date, and that it was his survival until 1495/6 1 3

Supra, p. 188. As Robert Stolys.

2

Cf. Biog. Reg. i, 2.

246

P R O C T O R S H I P O F J O H N SYCLYNG, 1490-1496

which made it possible to give the sealed statutes under the authority conferred by the foundation charter of Henry VI. For that view, and for the argument upon which it is based, we must turn to the consideration of the position of the prior of Barnwell in his appearance for the first and last time in the affairs of Godshouse. In each of the examples produced above, in which intramural documents of colleges and gilds were sealed with the official seals of Chancellors of the University and the mayor respectively, the seal of one authority sufficed. For the primary purpose of giving unquestionable validity to the fact of sealing nothing more can have been needed than the affixing of the Chancellor's seal of office. If it had been desired to give importance to the event by using a second seal, it would have seemed natural to have called upon the Master of Clare or the Master of Corpus for that service, seeing that both had mention in the statutes themselves as those upon whom call should be made in the interests of Godshouse in certain circumstances.1 If the fact of a second sealing authority is unusual, the choice of the prior of Barnwell for the purpose is prima facie amazing. The prior of Barnwell was not an officer of the university at this or any other period. The religious dwelt within the university area, as in the case of the canons of Sempringham and the various orders of friars, and in its vicinity, as in the case of the Augustinian canons of Barnwell. Some distant houses of monks also sent their young members to Cambridge and provided dwellings there for them, as in the case of Buckingham College (technically a hostel). The university admitted all the religious to the courses of study in the various faculties and also to the respective degrees, even to the doctorate, but they were not allowed to hold university office and, because of the special disabilities under which the religious lay through their complete surrender in obedience to the will of their spiritual superior, special provisions were made by the university with regard to them. In short, the monks, canons and friars were persons governed by conditions so different from those affecting secular persons that, save for purely educational purposes, they were a body apart. Seeing then, that the choice of two 1

Rackham, pp. 9,17.

AUGUSTINIAN CANONS

247

sealing authorities was unusual and that the one naturally chosen by the college and by Hurte would be the Chancellor or Vice-Chancellor, it seems necessary to regard the prior of Barnwell as in some special sense the choice and representative of Scols. The disappearance from sight of Scols, and his return to participation in Godshouse affairs under the aegis of the prior of Barnwell, could be understood if he had become a canon of that house. There is no direct evidence for or against this possibility, for the witness of visitations which might provide the information is lacking for the period. If he had become a canon of Barnwell he would, under the rule concerning proprietas, have rendered himself incapable of lawful and binding participation in any such undertaking as the sealing of the Godshouse statutes. The rule of St Augustine under which the canons lived may be found in J. Willis Clark's Customs ofAugustinian Canons, and the implications of the rule as to proprietas are conspicuously seen on pp. 9,13,15 of that work. The observance of this principle of poverty and consequent non-participation in personal worldly affairs was an abiding feature in the direction and correction of the life in Augustinian houses. Dr G. G. Coulton quotes1 from Innocent III 'the abdication of private property, like the custody of chastity, is so firmly annexed to the monastic Rule that not even a Pope can grant licence to the contrary'. The extent to which the observance of this principle was an active factor in the common life of the canons is well displayed in the accounts that remain of various chapters-general, for the observance of the rule as to proprietas was one of the matters upon which visitors were charged to make specific enquiry.3 Finally, the rule of another order, based upon the rule of St Augustine, makes the importance attached to this matter unmistakable when it declares that, if a brother die without having disclosed his possessions to the master, no divine office shall be celebrated for him but he shall be buried as if he had been excommunicated.3 It would appear that this principle in practice had worked to the disadvantage of the university, and that provision had been made by 1

Five Centuries of Religion, i, 214 n. Cf. H. E. Salter, in Chapters of the Augustinian Canons, pp. 76, 190. 3 Regola Dei Frati Di S.Jacopo D'Altopascio, ch. xx. 2

248

P R O C T O R S H I P O F J O H N SYCLYNG, 1490-1496

various statutes to prevent repetition of its abuse.1 One quotation will suffice: 'Also, that no monk [religiosus includes canons regular] of any profession or order shall borrow money from the University chest, without first showing that he has the power of depositing the caution, and of taking an oath under the seal of the convent, the prior, or the warden, which we wish to remain in the hands of the Keepers [of the chest] until its final redemption'.2 The relative statutes of the university, which could be supported by many illustrative examples of their operation from entries in the Grace Books and Proctors' Indentures, are eloquent in their testimony to the fact that the normal procedure in the case of secular persons had to be supplemented by special provisions when the members of monastic houses were brought in to bear a necessary part. The principle against whose operation and abuse protection had to be taken by a body so influential as the university could not fail to be serious in effect upon the relations of smaller institutions, and also of private individuals, with members ofAugustinian houses. Ordinarily, such institutions and persons would protect themselves by abstaining from entering into contractual intercourse or trustee relationship with monks or canons regular. When, however, such relations had been established by secular persons with one who was in the world at the time, but afterwards entered the cloister, or when these relations developed by hereditary succession, the secular persons would be compelled to seek such protection as they might obtain by the goodwill of the religious person's spiritual superior. It is here suggested that such circumstances had arisen in the relationship of Godshouse with Scols while he was still in the world as a fellow of Clare and that, having entered the cloister of Bamwell, he could only discharge his duty to Godshouse with the consent and through the active participation of his prior. No proof can be offered that Scols did become an Austin canon of Bamwell, but the suggestion is offered as being the only explanation of the prior's participation in sealing the statutes. The suggestion is offered with the greater confidence because there 1 Cf. Documents, i, 379, Statute No. 128, Quod religiosi gradum accepturi deferant literas submissions, and Heywood's Early Cambridge Statutes (cxxvn), p. 84; also Documents, i, 410, Statute No. 183, De cistis universitatis, lines 24-31, and Heywood, op. tit. pp. 117 sq. * Heywood, be. cit.

PROPRIETAS

IN P R A C T I C E

249

remains amongst the muniments of Christ's College a series of documents, to none of which the College was a party, in which the process offered as explanatory of the participation of the prior of Barnwell is seen unmistakably at work in all its details, at the very same period as that in which the statutes were sealed. Though not essential to the history of Godshouse, it is of sufficient interest in its bearing upon the problem here being discussed, and also for its general illustrative value for the influence of proprietas in monastic houses in secular affairs, to justify publication. The deeds in question are the series appertaining to the title of a piece of land which came to the college on 28 August 1507, a piece of land whose acquisition by the college J. W. Clark was unable to trace.1 The land lies with its frontage upon Hobson Street and has always borne the outbuildings of the Master's lodging, part of his drive and part of his garden. It is not necessary further to describe the property, nor yet to refer to all the numerous deeds relating to it; they are found in the Cambridge drawer, under letter A, and only such are here mentioned as are required to shew continuity. By the deed lettered A 43, dated 8 May 1410, a certain plot, forming part of the site, was acquired by John Warwyk. At his death it passed to his executors, including Alice his wife and John Warwyk junior, his son. By deed A 51, dated 11 December 1427, these conveyed the plot to Stephen Warwyk, another son ofJohn Warwyk senior. It then passed to other Warwyks, of whom one, Thomas Warwyk, died leaving a son and heir Gye Warwykke who, by deed A 66, dated 20 April 1492, gave his power of attorney to Alice Warwykke and John Wardall. Acting upon Gye's power of attorney, Alice Warwykke by deed A 68, dated 27 March 1493, conveyed the plot to Anna Wardall, widow of John Wardall. By the deed A 69, dated 30 March 1493, Anna Wardall sold the property to Master William Crowe, clerk, and Andrew Mitchell, burgess. By the deed A 70, dated 24 September 1495, Godwin Bury, prior of St Mary of Ixworth, in Suffolk, and Gye Warwyk, canonicus, son of Thomas Warwyk, conveyed the property to Anna Wardall (who had already sold and conveyed it two years earlier). By the deed A 72, dated 6 October 1501, Anna 1

W. and C. ii, 191 sq.; cf. supra, p. 159 sq.

25o

P R O C T O R S H I P O F J O H N SYCLYNG, 1490-1496

Wardall, 'who had recently acquired it from the prior of Ixworth and Guy Warwyk, canon of that place', conveyed the property again, this time to Robert Ryplyngham1 and William Ryplyngham. Since Guy Warwyk had already given his power of attorney (deed A 66) to Alice Warwyk to sell, and as Alice conveyed to Anna Wardall (A 68), and she in turn to William Crowe and Andrew Mitchell (A 69), the deeds A 70 and A 72 seem to imply that Crowe and Mitchell were dissatisfied with the title of the land conveyed to them and repudiated the purchase. Thereupon, Anna Wardall prevailed upon Guy's prior to join with Guy in conveying the property to her, so making good the defect of Guy's own power of attorney, made upon his own authority after he had become a canon of the Augustinian priory of Ixworth. Her title was then good in law and she was able to sell again, this time effectually, to the Ryplynghams. The solution here offered of the problem presented by the sealing of the Godshouse statutes with the official seal of the prior of Barnwell is not put forward as being necessarily the complete interpretation of that puzzle; it is offered with due diffidence as the only explanation that has presented itself after exhaustive documentary search and after prolonged deliberation. It is not the outcome of discovering the deeds telling the story of Guy Warwyk and the prior of Ixworth; it was evolved independently before that discovery was made, and the only value attributed to those documents is the testimony they seem to yield to the reasonable character of the solution that has been offered. The suggestion that the disappearance of Robert Scols from all university and diocesan record after about 1450 may be due to his having entered religion as a canon of Barnwell, and that the inhibitions so imposed upon him by the rule as to proprietas account for the appearance of the prior in a capacity otherwise unparalleled in university history, may present various difficulties to various minds. The sum total of those difficulties seems to shrink before the major obstacle of finding an alternative explanation of the prior's function in this galley. 1

He was of King's Hall, doctor of decrees; William, who was perhaps his brother, is described as gentleman. The property passed from them to William Crossley, B.C.L., who by deed (Chr. Camb. Ab), dated 28 August 1507, conveyed it to Richard Wyatt, S.T.P., Master of Christ's.

Chapter X V T H E P R O C T O R S H I P O F J O H N SYCLYNG LATER YEARS, 1496-1506

T

he recovery of the rectory of Fendrayton to its proper use (the maintenance of the head of Godshouse in return for his ministrations to the parish) enabled Syclyng to give to his own college much of the time and energy which he had devoted to the presidency and bursarship of Corpus Christi College. His sense of duty as rector of the parish led him to enter into partial residence at Fendrayton, as is made clear by the terms of his will,1 whereas it would have satisfied the conditions of the grant if he had taken a less conscientious view of his obligations by riding out and home, from and to Godshouse. As parson of Fendrayton, however, he would be a less busy man than as bursar and president of Corpus, and the exchange of duty was followed not only by the enjoyment of a larger income, but also by freedom to devote to the management of the properties of Godshouse time which, until 1496, had to be given to the like duties on behalf of his other college. The result is seen in a visit which Syclyng paid about this time to the properties of Godshouse lying in the west of England and in the marches of Wales. Knowledge of that visit is derived from references made to it in a paper document which is such a memorandum as the keeper of the college accounts and guardian of its income would need to make either in a rough day-book or on loose sheets. The contemporary value of such loose sheets was ephemeral, a fact which makes the example which has survived of singular interest in itself and would seem to justify its present publication even apart from the nature of its contents. The intermixture of Latin and English is not a peculiarity of the document or its writer but rather a characteristic of the period; examples are to be seen in the Grace Books, cf. B 1 , p. 95, line 36. 1

'Myfederbed the wych ys att Drayton.'

252

PROCTORSHIP OF JOHN SYCLYNG, 1496-1506

The document referred to is written on both sides of a sheet of paper; its muniment room reference is Misc. D, 9: Memorandum Quod Johannes Benglace Recepit de Nycholao ffelpotte de Yarkyll pro Antiquo debito Collegii de Goddshows Cantabrigie Anno regni regis henrici vijml xiij0 viijs. Memorandum Quod Dictus Johannes Benglace herfordie Recepit de Willelmo ap Gryffyth ap Maddocke Anno predicto in partem solucionis xs. maioris summe pro redditu de Crassewall Memorandum to bye a Teke1 ffor a fFether bedde ffor Roger pawntwall at london or Stybryg fFeyer Memorandum Quod Ego J^ffi^

(JVCT\rHQ~>

2

computavi cum

Collegio pro receptis per magistrum Jacobum Benglace scilicet pro priore de monmoth iij/>. per manus Johannis Castott sibi deliberatis una predicto Jacobo soluta marca xiijs. iiij
I.e. a tick, a bag made of linen cloth so closely woven as to 'turn' the feathers. It has seemed of interest to reproduce in facsimile Syclyng's autographs found in this document. 3 This and other like references are relied upon to establish the fact of Syclyng's visit to the Welsh and other western properties.

A SHEET OF M E M O R A N D A

253

wyffe of John Gowgh at the fest invencionis sancte crucis et sancti mychaelis equis porcionibus vji. viijrf. Memorandum that John Benglace receyved of Roger pawndyn for the fyrst ij yeres after myn departyng xxviijs. Item Alys Benglace receyved of the seyd Roger for die thyrde yere after myn departyng xiiijs. Item the seyd Roger owyth for the laste yere xiiijs. solut Also the seyd Raffe schall pay to Roger pawntwyn at die ffeste of seynt mychyll nexte commyng for ij yeres rente xvs. ijftPJ*t$'^

recepi de Rogero

pawntwall die domenica in Ramis palmarum xiiijs. unde solui eidem pro Avenis pro tribus septimanis et duobus diebus quolibet die dimidio modii iijs. Item eidem Rogero pro feno per idem tempus xij^. Item ffiho eiusdem pro adequitacione equorum et labore iiiji. The blending of English and Welsh nomenclature is a reflection of the intermixture of peoples in a part of the marches which has lain for 400 years past in the county of Hereford, the typically Saxon Scherman being found alongside the no less typically Cymric William ap Gryfiyth ap Maddocke. The numerous Benglaces are possibly of Welsh origin, bearing a territorial name derived from the place-name Penglas, and the name James Benglace is that of the fellow of the college who as Benlesse is first mentioned in the records during the proctorship of Ralph Barton. If we were inclined to hesitate about this connection the doubt should be reduced when it is observed that in each reference to James his name is preceded by the academical Magister.1 It is an early instance of the observance of the requirement by the statutes* in the election of fellows that 'other things being equal we will that those shall be preferred to the others for such adoption who were born in places where the said College may possess rents or revenues'. 1 The identification is put beyond all question by the discovery in the Bodleian manuscripts of the accounts of various bailiffs, etc. of Christ's College with the Master, Thomas Thompson, in the first year of Henry VIII. There, Master James Benles acknowledges die receipt of monies from tenants in die marches of Wales and he is described as 'lately one of die fellows of die College when it was called Goddyshouse' * Rackham, p. 23, line 73. (Rawlinson, D 917, f. 71a); cf. supra, p. 201.

254

P R O C T O R S H I P OF J O H N SYCLYNG, 1496-1506

If these rough notes with their references to the first, second and third years 'after myn departyng' had not survived, it would have been possible to infer such a visit from the active measures taken to deal with the western properties in the year 1496. Syclyng's visit was made in the spring of that year and it bore fruit in a lease,1 dated 22 August 1496 by John Syclyng master or keeper of the College of Goddes howse in Cambridge and the fellows to Dominus William Scaltocke, vicar of the parish church of Downehatherley in the county of Gloucester of one portion of the tithes of the lordship of Downhatherley to be held by him as long as he shall remain vicar of the said church, yielding therefor annually thirty three shillings and fourpence to the said College in Cambridge at Michaelmas. If the said rent be in arrear in whole or in part for fifteen days, die said William Scaltocke shall forfeit forty shillings and the College shall have die right of re-entry. The witnesses to this counterpart lease (Indenture on parchment, seal missing) were Thomas Hert, alderman of the town of Gloucester,* William Vaghan alias Ferrour, Thomas Gylmyn and odiers. The other two parts of the tithes of Downhatherley were leased 21 June 14993 to John Cosyn, husbandman, for the term of twenty years at forty shillings per annum. Cosyn had already been a tenant of the college and unpleasantly known for his slowness in payment; it was deemed prudent therefore to take from him a bond 4 to secure the payment of the rent. Other outcomes of the Welsh visit are found in a bond of Thomas Jones of Stonehouse (Gloucestershire) for ^ 1 0 in favour of Syclyng, clerk, Master or Keeper, dated 29 June 1504,5 and one dated 10 April 1500, given to Syclyng as Master or Keeper and the fellows by one Thomas Deswall in security for his serving the college as its 'true bailiff' for the rents, etc. in Craswall.6 Another, dated 24 July 1503, from Thomas Hert, the alderman of Gloucester already noted, will be more suitably dealt with later. The visit paid to the Welsh marches by .Syclyng in 1496 did not completely remove the difficulties of the college concerning the collection of its revenues from that part of the country. The disturbed 1

Chr. Badg. O, 2, paraphrased. * We shall meet him later as a tenant of the college, infra, p. 259. 3 Chr. Badg. O. * Chr. Misc. F, 30 (6). 6 5 Chr. Badg. 2. Chr. Gh. Ao.

RESULTS OF T H E W E L S H VISIT

255

conditions on the Welsh border were favourable to the defaulting debtor and the Master found that it was necessary, in dealing with the most obstinate of the tenants, to evoke the aid of the law to supplement his direct personal efforts. At first he addressed himself to the ecclesiastical courts, and a citation from John [Morton], archbishop of Canterbury, of 25 June 1496,1 summons to his court within fifteen days under penalty for non-appearance Howell ap Thomas ap Jevan Gwyn, Henry ap Philip Gwyllem [sic], Richard ap Jevan and John ap Henry ap Garlith, of the diocese of St David's, in a complaint by John Syclyng, Proctor of 'Goddeshous', relative to the withdrawing of oblations or ecclesiastical dues. The outcome of this action does not appear. There are other citations of the archbishop; one* summoning Sir William Newman, chaplain of Downhatherley, Sir Richard Petite, chaplain of Stonehouse in the diocese of Worcester, William Morys and Radulphus Sharman, in the diocese of Hereford; another bearing date 8 October 14963 recites that Radulphus Sherman and Nicholas Philpot ofthe diocese of Hereford, not having appeared as summoned, Hugh Payntwyn,4 doctor of laws, the archbishop's auditor (i.e. hearer of causes, the judge in the archbishop's court), had pronounced them excommunicate and this sentence the archbishop now confirmed and commanded to be proclaimed. On 24 July 1499 5 a mandamus was addressed at Syclyng's instance by the archbishop to the bishop of Worcester in regard to the subtraction of tithes due to Godshouse by persons in his diocese. A fragment of paper torn in two and preserving not more than half or perhaps one-third of its writing is clearly an acknowledgement by Nycholas ffelpotte and some other person (presumably Sherman) of their obligations in respect of the 'farm' of these tithes which binds them to make payment to J. Syclyng, Mast[er]. This recovery from an old-time waste-paper basket has been numbered Z 8. So far the ecclesiastical courts, where it may be assumed that the Master and fellows were successful, as no further action is shewn to have been taken; but the college had other rights in Herefordshire and 1

2 Chr. Gh. 2. Chr. Misc. B, 15. 3 chr. Gh. 1. Archdeacon of Canterbury, a Cambridge man, vide infra, pp. 267, 272. 5 Chr. Gh. 12. 4

256

P R O C T O R S H I P OF J O H N SYCLYNG, 1496-1506

the marches which could be enforced only by the secular law, and the king's writ ran in that region with less success than did the mandamus of the archbishop, supported by its terrible spiritual sanctions. For the invocation of the secular arm recourse had to be made to the prince's council in the marches of Wales, and there are several documents preserved in the muniment room which shew that the aid of the prince in council was frequently sought. It has seemed desirable to publish these in detail in the appendix,1 and here it is sufficient to refer to proceedings in which Henry ap Phillip Gwillim, one of those against whom the archbishop issued his mandamus on 25 June 1496 in respect of tithes and other ecclesiastical dues, was the respondent in a suit before the commissioners at the relation of Syclyng, in respect of lands and a tenement in Ewyas Lacy in the county of Hereford. Syclyng received his order against Henry on 8 September 1504, and his success is reflected in a series of bonds obtained in that month securing the following payments: (1) 10 Sept. 1504 Nicholas Philpott and others to ensure payment of 45. 6d. out of Yarkhull (Chr. Gh. Ap.). (2) 15 Sept. 1504 Thomas Seobald to ensure payment of 205. from Ewyas Lacy (Chr. Misc. E, 4). (3) 15 Sept: 1504 William ap Griffith and othets to ensure payment of 165. 8d. from Ewyas Lacy (Chr. Misc. E, 8). (4) 15 Sept. 1504 Richard ap Thomas of Peterchurch in the county of Hereford and Hugh Bygell to ensure payment of 405. (Chr. Misc. F, 30 (3)). The college property at Thurlow Magna in the county of Suffolk, being the free chapel or hospital of St James there together with a certain wood called 'lumbardeswood', was leased 24 September 1496* by Syclyng to John Fox, perpetual vicar of the church of Thirlawe magna, for as long as he could canonically hold his church, at the rent of 135. 4J. per annum (payable half-yearly in equal portions at Ladyday and Michaelmas) and four wagon-loads of faggots (bigata fassiculorum) payable about the Nativity of John Baptist. Lumbards' Wood has disappeared from Thurlow, and the ordnance survey and the parish authorities shew no knowledge of it or its whereabouts. In these 1

Infra, pp. 436 sqq.

2

Chr. Gh. An.

A LETTER FROM C O L Y W E S T O N

257

circumstances it has been gratifying to find its approximate situation from the continuation of its name in 'Lumbards' Wood Farm', a derelict building lying 300 or 400 yards to the right of the road from Thurlow to Withersfield; the building, of about the second half of the seventeenth century, stands upon a site of an acre or so and is surrounded by a rush-grown moat fed by a natural flow of water. The value of the annual delivery of wood to the college may be judged from the fact that, after the title of the college had been the subject of dispute which was submitted to arbitration about 1533, the college was awarded the considerable sum of two payments of £6. 135. 4^. in compensation.1 Sawtry abbey is represented at this period by a bond given in 1503 or 1504 bearing the signature of 'Robert abbot de Sawtre'. It is a mere fragment discovered in the scrap-box and has been numbered Z 5. It bears the regnal year xix and twenty-five other words or parts of words from which may be deduced an undertaking to pay at the feast of the Annunciation. The mention here of this fragment is to shew that the struggle between successive abbots and successive Proctors of Godshouse, begun with Byngham, continued also during Syclyng's headship; indeed it was a frequent source of trouble to the Masters of the Lady Margaret's extended foundation. A letter3 catalogued as from John Morgan has proved upon examination to be of singular interest from various points of view, and is introduced here because it bears inter alia upon matters affecting college property. The first name of the signature is abbreviated and may have been read as Jhe to which it has some resemblance, though the abbreviation in actual fact is Phe = Phelip,3 recognition of which lifts the writer from a state of obscurity into the position of a well-known Cambridge man. Philip Morgan was senior proctor 1481/2, esquire bedell 1

A list of twenty-six names of jurors in the suit of Thomas Thompson (Master of Christ's), clerk, and John Fox of Magna ' Thyrlowe', chaplain, is preserved and was doubtless connected with the litigation ending in this settlement (Chr. Misc. A, 12); cf. infra, p. 416. 2 Chr. Misc. D, 28. 3 The writer was a Welshman and Phelip was until modern times a local form of the name. Vide. D.N.B. sub Phelips. LHC 17

258

P R O C T O R S H I P OF J O H N SYCLYNG, 1496-1506

for many years, doctor of medicine 1506, and physician to the Lady Margaret, to whom the university sent a testimonial on his behalf.1 He and Syclyng, during the senior proctorships of the latter, were brought into close contact,2 from which it may be assumed that the friendship developed which is indicated by the cordial terms of the letter below. Morgan became physician to the countess in 1501; after her death he was largely used by her executors in the great work of administering and distributing her estate.3 He was instituted to the rectory of Toft, Cambridgeshire, 1512/13, and, dying there (resigning according to Crosby 4 ), was succeeded 29 March 1516. Maister Siklyng I hardly recomende me unto you. Sir it is so that my sister Thomas Harts wiffe is nowe at Colywesrin and wolde gladly speke w* you for suche mater as is betwyxt here husbande and you I am right sory he is so ferre behynde w* you and I am moste sory for here for shee is undone in a maner Nathelesse shee is willing to content you and other and that is the cause of here comyng Also sir5 Davy Sissel of Stanfide a riche man hathe moved me to write unto you for youre for youre [sic] livelode in powes lande he offerithe to take hit of you for yeres and to geve you asmoche as any man will: or ells to by hit of you or to make eschange and to provide as moche in value as that is now [? to] you. My [? me] thinketh it were wel done ye spake w* hym my servaunt shal wayete upon you to Colywesrin on tuysday. And so fare you well writen in hast at Colywesrin the xxviij of may _ , •> ' By youre lover Phe Morgan. [Endorsed] To the honorable sir Maister John Siklyng maister of godes hows in Cambrige. The letter bears the date 28 May 'at Colywestin', without year; since Morgan was probably not in attendance upon the Lady Margaret until some period during 1501 after May, the letter may have been written in May of 1502 or of 1503; there is nothing to assure us of her residence there in May 1504, but she appears to have been at Colyweston in May of each of the two previous years, though there is no certainty 1

2 GB. B \ p. 154Ibid. pp. 43. 1534 Lady Margaret, p. 183, etc. Crosby, p. 271. 5 This is not a title prefixed to Davy Sissel's name but a vocative addressed to Syclyng; cf. its use in the second sentence of the letter and in the endorsement. 3

T H E D A T E OF T H E L E T T E R

259

1

as to 1501. In 1502 she dated a charter on 14 May in her manor there, and the journeys of the representatives of the university in the matter of the grave dispute with the town, in which both parties had resolved to appeal to the countess, were made to Colyweston, probably at that time, seeing that the award made by the arbitrators was dated 11 July 1502. Syclyng was one of the seven commissioners charged by the university with the care of its interests in those important negotiations, and his expenses appear in the Grace Book* in immediate neighbourhood of those of the senior proctor for his journeyings to Colyweston. Thomas Hert, whose wife's presence at Colyweston prompted Morgan's letter, was that alderman of Gloucester whom we have already met as a witness of the counterpart lease signed by William Scaltocke.3 He was a tenant of Godshouse and had fallen into arrear with his rent. There is a bond in the muniment room 4 by which Thomas Hert of the town of Gloucester, mercer and tanner, binds himself in the sum of ^20 to 'John Syclyng, clerk, maister or Keeper of the College of Goddeshouse and the Fellowes or scolers of the same college' to secure delivery to them of three indentures, relating to property in Gloucester including that in which he dwells as security for a debt (presumably arrears of rent). This bond bears date 24 July 1503, and is sufficiently likely to be the outcome of the interview of Syclyng with Hert's wife in response to the letter of Morgan dated 28 May as to settle the date of that letter as 28 May 1503. It is evident that Syclyng was about to pay a visit to the countess at the end of May 1503, for Morgan's servant had instructions from his master to wait upon Syclyng in his journey to Colyweston on the following Tuesday.5 There is no evidence to.shew the nature of Syclyng's business with the countess unless we may suppose, as is not unreasonable, that even then the preliminary audiences were being given to him which laid the foundation for the Lady Margaret's great benefaction to his college. The preliminaries of so great a matter would require the presence of the members of her council, and we learn from 1

Lady Margaret, p. 79.

3 Supra, p. 254. 5 The 28th May 1503 fell on Sunday.

J 4

GB. B 1, p. 174. Chi. Misc. A, 21. 17-2

260

P R O C T O R S H I P OF J O H N SYCLYNG, 1496-1506

the Grace Book 1 that some of them were in Cambridge during the Easter term of that year. She kept at Colyweston great state, which enabled her to receive her son, and his children, with royal splendour. Leland describes it in the words:* 'The house of Coly Westeton as sum sey was first begon by a gentilman that gave 3 sylver belles in a felde of sables to his armes, and that he was first a paroche clerke, as it is said, of Coly Weston self or thereaboute: and that the Lord Crumwelle3 augmentid it: and that the lady Margaret, King Henry the vii mother, augmentid it'. 4 Her position in the country, though she was never queen, was greater than that of even most queens consort; her influence with her son based upon their mutual affection was deeper than that of any of her contemporaries. She had immense wealth in lands, manors, houses and treasure; she gave to those she desired to befriend with lavish hand, her deeds of gift partaking of the character of the king's own charters. Her advice was sought and followed, as by the university and the town of Cambridge for the settlement of their disputes and, if we find two fellows of Queens' College, Jenyns and Powell, riding to Colyweston to speak with the king's mother because of the resignation of the head of that college,5 we need not wonder that Syclyng, friend of her confessor Fisher, who had already had many audiences as senior proctor and commissary of the university, should seek her aid and guidance in the needs of his house. Morgan's references to 'Davy Sissel' and the Godshouse 'livelode in powes lande' are worth dwelling upon. For 'powes lande' we must read 'Powys land', that central kingdom of Wales of ancient days 1

3 GB. B 1 , p. 184. Itinerary, ed. Toulmin Smith, iv, 91. Ralph, Lord Cromwell, made his will there, 18 December 1451; William Guile (Master of Clare Hall) was an executor. Test. Ebor. ii, 198. 4 A manuscript in StJohn's College refers to ' the chappell, the lybrary, the skaldinghouse, the new chamber over the gate, the jewel house, the spycere, the vestrie, the brewerry, the bakhouse, the chamber over the lady Bray's chamber, the pastrye, the contyng howse, the dok howse in the gret tower, the kechyne, the wette larder, the quene's chambre, Harry Clegg's and Whytyngton's chamber, the grete parlour, the wel by the syde the bakhows', and it is obvious that this extensive list leaves many other apartments to the imagination and does not nearly complete the tale. (Cf. App. 1st Report Hist. MSS. Comm. pp. 74 sqq.) 5 W. G. Searle, The History of Queens College, p. 125. 3

T H E F O U N D E R O F T H E C E C I L FAMILY

261

which divided north from south Wales and had itself an indeterminate frontier which ebbed and flowed with success or failure in war with neighbours. 'The Principality of Wales and the Marches' was a convenient term to express control over a fluid political entity, and many documents, such as the charters by successive kings to Godshouse, clearly indicated that Herefordshire was regarded as being in large part situated in 'WaUia' or 'north Wallia'. In Morgan's letter we must understand the 'livelode in powes lande' as referring to the lands, tenements and manorial rights, etc. which the college, in succession to Craswall priory, had acquired in Ewyas Lacy, Yarkhill, Peterchurch and elsewhere in the county of Hereford, all lying towards the western border of the county. Davy Sissel, the riche man of Stanfide whose eyes had been cast in longing upon this livelode in Powys land which Morgan, knowing the care and anxiety its possession had given to Syclyng, thought the Proctor of Godshouse might be willing to lease, sell or exchange, was none other than the ancestor of the Cecils, grandfather of William, Lord Burghley, the great minister of Queen Elizabeth and Chancellor of the University. Stamford was only z\ miles distant from Colyweston, and the letter bears testimony to that intercourse between David and the household of the Lady Margaret which might also be inferred from the success which he and his son had in obtaining possession after her death of privileges which had been enjoyed by her servants.1 Davy Sissel lived in St George's parish on the south side of the church; he was made freeman of the town in 1494, was alderman or mayor in 1503/4 and twice later, and represented the borough in several parliaments.2 William, Lord Burghley, one of the foremost Englishmen of his day by reason of native ability, was not content with his personal achievement but desired to establish in the eyes of his fellows a claim by birth to a place in the queen's counsels, and his assertion of ancient descent 1

E.g. in 1511 he was made bailiff of Whitdesey and keeper of the swans there and in the counties of Huntingdon, Cambridge, Lincoln and Northampton (P.R. 3 H. VIII, i, 6), the first of several generations of his family to hold that office. 1 O. Barron, Northampton Families, p. 25.

262

P R O C T O R S H I P OF J O H N SYCLYNG, 1496-1506

was the subject of their gibes.1 Apart from certain wild impossibilities claimed for him by sycophantic admirers, Burghley had descent from a family of gentle birth though of no great fame. His Saxon contemporaries and critics must have been unaware of that tribal organisation of the Welsh in former times which made it a prime necessity, upon economic grounds, for every Welshman of free birth to preserve an exact knowledge of his relationships to the ninth degree. Burghley claimed that his descent came from Richard Seyceld, of Allt yr Ynys, on the Welsh border of Herefordshire, through Davy Sissel his son, later of Stamford, who went out of Raglan with Henry VII in company with Sir David Philipp.3 Richard Seyceld died in 1508, and it is natural to regard him as that Richard Cecile who, in 1460, had a patent for life as master forester of Ewyas Lacy 3 with the usual fees, wages and profits. So far Barron goes in defence of Burghley's claim; 4 but this letter of Philip Morgan's carries the matter further. It records the enquiry of Davy Sissel, undoubtedly the grandfather of Burghley, as to the Godshouse 'livelode in powes lande', which can be none other than the Craswall priory property, including the income from Ewyas Lacy, lying no more than eight miles distant from Allt yr Ynys. The interest thus displayed by Davy Sissel, seventeen years before the birth of his distinguished grandson, goes to suggest that the latter's reputation for frailty in regard to his claims to ancient gentle descent may have been undeserved. There the letter must be left. Syclyng's financial statements, of which those down to May 1495 are to be found in the previous chapter, do not survive thereafter until that for April 1497, leaving a blank of two years; and that closing the earlier and that beginning the later series are both of the less important interim statements made at Easter. For the whole period, 1497 to 1505, only five remain, and they are here printed. 1

It was a weakness of that age; Mostyn MS. 172, now in the National Library of Wales, includes a genealogy of the kings of England down to Henry VII from Adam (Bulletin of the Institute of Historical Research, vol. x, No. 30, p. 206). 2 In 1506 Davy Scissilde proved the will of Sir David Philipp of Stamford (P.C.C. 13 Adeane). 3 4 C.P.R. 1452-61, p. 554. Op. cit. p. 22.

F U R T H E R HALF-YEARLY S T A T E M E N T S

263

10 APRIL 1497. [The introductory words are omitted as in the earlier series.] I The total of All Receipts since the last account is But the total of All Expenditure since the last account And so finally the College owes to the proctor or master 3 NOVEMBER 1497.

The total of All Receipts since the last account is But the total of All Expenditure since the last account And so the total of Receipts exceeds the total of expenditure And finally there Remains in the Common chest everything taken into account the day and Year aforesaid The Names of the Debtors are these The Abbot of Saltreya owes the aforesaid College at the feast of saint Michael last The same Abbot owes upon pledge of a crater for the Old debt The Prior of Monmouth owes at the same feast and for the Old debt John Cosyn and his sons owe for the Old debt Thomas Herte Alderman of the town of Gloucester owes for the portion of Begorde at the same feast Dominus William Scaltocke Vicar of Downehatherley owes for the like at the same feast The same William owes for the portion of two parts of the tithes of the desmesne lands for the past year Dominus Richard petyte vicar of Stonehows owes for the like at the aforesaid feast The heir of Bramiche1 of Wychester owes for the Assigned Rent and the relief after the death of the said Bramiche James Bocher owes from the same feast for a tenement and 16 acres of land William Dove of Northehyckham owes at the same feast and for the old debt The Prior of Totneys owes at the same feast and for the old debt The tenants of Yarkyll owe at the same feast and for the old debt Hugh pawntewyn of Maunsell owes at the same feast and for the old debt 1

The form is Brache.

5. i.

6 13 6 II 7 5 4 13 I I

I

s.

d.

2 2 15 16 0 6 15

9 7 2

8 15 8

16 14 4 4 0 0 11

00 5 2 0 2 0 0

1 13 4 168 10 0 14 o 4 o 6 6 8 6 0 0 186 180

264 PROCTORSHIP OF JOHN SYCLYNG, 1496-1506 £ s. d. The tenants of webley owe for the past Year and this Year Ralph Scherman owes for the old debt The bailiff of Crassewell owes for the past Year and for this Year Magister James Benglace owes for bronze pennies Dominus John ffoxe vicar of the church of Thyrlowe magna in the County of Suffolk owes and 100 faggots Memorandum That the College owes in addition one mark Item Rawlyn of Chesterton owes Item Robert ffynge of Drayton 1 owes 6 NOVEMBER

1498.

The total of All Receipts since the last account But the total of All Expenditure since the last account And so the Total of expenditure exceeds the total of receipts And Finally the College owes the aforesaid proctor master or Keeper beyond 565. z\d. of the last account* The sum total which is owed to the aforesaid proctor master or Keeper The Names of the Debtors are these The Abbot of Saltreya owes to the aforesaid College on the Feast of saint Mychal last The same Abbot owes upon the pledge of a Crater for the Old debt The Prior of Monmouth owes at the same Feast and for the Old debt John Cosyn and his sons owe for the Old debt Thomas herte Alderman of the town of Gloucester owes for portions in the same etc. for the aforesaid year And he owes for the past year Dominus Richard petyte vicar of Stonehows owes for the portion of the itftds3 tithes of the desmesne lands for the past year The heir of Bramiche of Wychester owes for the Assigned Rent and the relief after the death of the said Bramiche 1

14 0 2 o [blank] 2 0 6 4

13

5 5

I 2

4 0 0

I

s. d. 25 4 1 1 3O

0

2

4 15

3

415

3

711

si

16 o 10 40

o

14 o o 5 2 0 5 0 0 8 o 10 o 14 o

I.e. Fendrayton. * This refers to the interim account of April or May 1498, which has not survived. 3 The cancellation is original.

HIS LATEST HALF-YEARLY STATEMENTS 265 I s- *.

James Bocher owes from the same Feast and for the Old debt for a tenement and 16 acres of land William Dove of Northhyckhatn owes at the same Feast and for the Old debt The Prior of Totneys owes at the same Feast and for the Old debt The tenants of Yarkyll owe at the same Feast and for the Old debt Hewgo pawntevyn of mauncell lacy owes at the same Feast and for the Old debt The tenants of Webleya owe for three years at the aforesaid Feast Ralph Scherman owes for the Old debt The bailiff of Crassewell owes for three years DomiMHsJohn ffoxe vicar of Thyrlow magna in the County of Suffolk owes for the past year and this And 100 faggots Item Rawlyn of Chesterton owes Robert ffynge of Drayton owes Magister James Benglace owes for bronze pennies memorandum That the College owes in addition one mark 10 APRIL 1502.

The total of all receipts since the last account The total of all expenditure from the same account And so the total of receipts exceeds the expenditure And finally the aforesaid proctor master or keeper owes to the college with the arrears of the last account

4 o 6 6 8 6 0 0 1 15 6 2 2 0 1 1 o 2 o [blank] 13 4 I

I

8

2

5

0

8 13 4 2

I

s. d.

12 12

0

10 12

5 7

I

19

14 9 8

11 MAY 1506. [This, the last surviving statement of the Godshouse series, is printed in full.] This indenture made the eleventh day of the month of May in the twentyfirst Year of the reign of King henry the seventh Witnesseth that the Master proctor or keeper of the college of Goddishowse Cambridge accounted before his fellows of the same according to the statutes and ordinances of the said college the day and year aforesaid The total owed by the college to the master The total of the arrears is shewn by the indenture in the last account

42 11 6 \

266 PROCTORSHIP OF J O H N SYCLYNG, 1496-1506 I The total of receipts since the last account But the total of expenditure since the same And so the total of Receipts exceeds the total of expenditure And so finally the college owes to the master or keeper of the aforesaid college

s- d.

17 o o 9 2 10 7 17 2 34 14 4£

Fragmentary as is the information preserved of the finances of the college during the fifteenth century by the survival of the few halfyearly statements, it would perhaps be justifiable, as it would certainly be possible, to remark upon many of the details they reveal. But only a small number of points must be mentioned here. The preservation of the two statements for 1497 is fortunate, since they shew the marked contrast between the proportions of revenue falling into the half-years ending at Easter and Michaelmas respectively. They also shew the impossibility of deducing from their details any information as to the general financial status of the college, owing to their being restricted to a declaration of the totals of amounts received and expended, with the addition of a declaration of the difference between those two amounts. A more helpful contribution for our purpose than that simple calculation would have been a statement of the details making up the totals, but that should not be expected since it was not required by the statutes. There is sufficient to prove, what has already been claimed,1 that not all receipts are taken into account in arriving at the totals presented in the half-yearly statements. Thus, in April 1497 the college owes the Proctor .£4. 135. nd.; in November of that year the statement shews an excess of receipts over expenditure amounting to £6. 155. zd. If from that surplus for the half-year the debt owing to the Proctor were deducted, we should expect to find as the balance stated to remain in the chest £2. is. 3d., but there is actually ^ 8 . 155. 8d., shewing that receipts have been at least £6. 14s. sd. greater than is shewn in the second of the two half-yearly statements. The receipts may have been larger still, since the expenditure may also, from our standpoint, have been incompletely stated. The general explanation of these apparent vagaries need not be repeated* but, as being 1

Supra, pp. 145 sqq.

3

Cf. ibid.

F L U C T U A T I O N S IN COLLEGE F U N D S

267

exemplificatory of what has been said about the exclusion of items belonging to the 'dead college', such as rent of rooms, reference may be made to a document recently discovered and already used for another purpose in this chapter.1 In that document for the year 1510, whose general purpose is described as the accounts of various bailiffs, etc. with the Master, Thomas Thompson, there is recorded that Thomas Tasker, dericus, owes for a year's rent of a chamber within the college since the year 1506 (21 of Henry VII) the sum of 135. \d? The account for November 1497 shews that the abbot of Sawtry had been compelled by Syclyng's pressure to take a step that he must have found disagreeable; he had to give a pledge of a silver crater (a large two-handled bowl) as security for an old debt of -£4 (debet super pignus unius crathere pro Antiquo debito iiij li.).

Hugh Pawntewyn of Maunsell Lacy (Herefordshire) appears as a debtor and it seems natural to assume a connection, if not identity, with the archdeacon of Canterbury of that name at this period; it will be seen later3 that he was a colleague of Syclyng in university matters. In the penultimate surviving statement, that for April 1502, the Proctor is shewn to owe to the college £14. 95. Sd.; in the last, May 1506, he is shewn to have advanced to the college at Michaelmas 1505 £42. 115. 6\d., which has been reduced by May 1506 to .£34. 14s. 4%d. It would have been of interest to know how this debt to Syclyng was liquidated; it may even have been owing at his death and have been recovered by his executors. The amount of ,£42. 115. 6^d. owing to him at Michaelmas 1505 is so great as to suggest that some substantial outlay, perhaps upon buildings, had been incurred since 1502 when the college had a claim upon him for the sum of ^14. 95. Sd. Attention should be given to the fact that, in the statement of May 1506, the balance-sheet is still presented by the Proctor of the College of Godshouse to the fellows of the same according to the statutes and 1

Supra, p. 253, n. 1. Bodleian MS. Rawlinson, D 917. GB. B 2 , pp. 36, 37, shews dominus Tasker to have been B.C.L. in the year 1514/15, but without indication of his college. 3 Infra, p. 272. 1

268

P R O C T O R S H I P OF J O H N SYCLYNG, 1496-1506

ordinances of the said college, notwithstanding that the charter of Henry VII was issued 1 May 1505. We must examine the bearing of this later.1 There is no half-yearly statement surviving after Syclyng's of May 1506 until that of Thomas Thompson for 29 October 1510. Wyatt must have presented them, for he was a cautious man; retiring from the mastership in June 1508, he took an indentured acquittance (of which the duplicate remains),2 dated 26 June 1508, from the fellows that he had made 'a good hole trewe and feithfull accompte of alhnaner detts and duties belongyng to the said College and also hath delivered unto the same ffelowes all and singuler goods money plate Implements utensills and hostilments of the said College and also all the Juells ornaments and Reliquis belongyng to the Chapell and Revestry within the same College'. So careful a keeper would not be lacking in the cardinal statutory duty of presenting the half-yearly statement. The indenture, of which the essential part is quoted above, will be useful in considering what remains of the Godshouse chapel in the buildings of to-day.3 It is convenient to pass at this point from the consideration of these intra-mural matters to the examination of Syclyng's activities in the wider field of university affairs. Controversy between the university and the townsmen was always smouldering at this period, and occasionally the latent fire broke out into flame, as we have seen in the earlier part of Syclyng's headship of Godshouse. He was in London on that business in the long vacation of 1497,4 perhaps in connection with whatever settlement was attained in 1496, or following some new minor outbreak. The Proctor of Godshouse seems to have been the refuge of the university in time of trouble of this nature, and when relations with the town became acutely strained again, in the academical year 1499/1500, he is found spending much time in London on its behalf. In the Michaelmas term (1499) his expenses were £ 4 , in the Hilary term (1500), £ 4 . 145. io^d., in the Easter term, 85. 8d., in the Trinity term, .£3. 6s. nd., making the total for the year of 1 3

Infra, pp. 292 sqq. Infra, p. 317, n. 3.

z 4

Chr. Misc. A, 9. GB. B1, p. 104.

S E C O N D T E R M AS S E N I O R P R O C T O R 1

269 2

.£12. 105. $%d. On 16 May 1500 he returned £1. 10s. 4c!., but he received other sums amounting to ^ 8 . 6s. nd.3 There is nothing to shew that he was accompanied during those labours by other members of the university, but he and the junior proctor were in London together at some time, perhaps towards the close of this year, when the junior proctor, Robert Becansall, charged his accounts with £1. 17s. $d. spent in riding to and from London on the business of the university with master Syklyng and their respective servants.4 The controversy was probably the reason for the university's asking Syclyng to become senior proctor again for the academical year 1500/ 1501, nine years after his first term in that office. Though others had held the office more than once, it was without parallel for the same man to be proctor twice with an interval between of nine years and, if we add to that the pre-occupation of Syclyng with his duty to his college, it must be obvious that only work of an exceptional character which he was best fitted to perform would explain his second term as senior proctor. The printed edition of the Grace Book has twenty-five pages devoted to this proctorial year,* the MS. record has twenty-two pages. This space is largely occupied with details of expenses incurred by Syclyng, the Vice-Chancellor and others going to and from London and remaining there, and in visits at Huntingdon and elsewhere to Sir Reginald Bray whose prominence in the service of the king and his connection with the Lady Margaret through his high office in her second husband's service, suggest that his aid was being sought in the business arising out of the dispute. Much time was spent at Westminster, probably about the courts, and they remained in London on one visit as long as eighteen days, in the course of which they frequently entertained John Skelton, the poet who had been made laureate by the university in 1493/4 a s he had also been at Oxford and overseas. The arrangement of the matter in the Grace Book, the erroneous spelling of Syclyng's name in various places, and other details indicate that the senior proctor's work, during this year, lay without rather than within the university town; indeed, he had a deputy in Cambridge.6 1

GB. B 1 , p. 130. < Ibid. p. 138.

2

Ibid. p. 132. 5 Ibid. pp. 140-64.

3 ibid. pp. 137,138. 6 Ibid. p. 154.

270

P R O C T O R S H I P OF J O H N SYCLYNG, 1496-1506

The retention of William Byngham's name in the Historical Register amongst the proctors of the university has been attributed to Fuller;1 it was shewn that he placed Hurte, Fallan and Basset also amongst the proctors, and it was suggested that Fuller, not recognising 'Proctor' as one of the names for the head of a college, had blundered in regard to Byngham as in regard to his successors. That this practical difficulty presented itself to the college and the university in Syclyng's day also, is shewn in the tendency during his headship to depose 'Proctor' as the name for the head of Godshouse in favour of 'Master'. Even in Barton's time there is evidence that 'Master' was being preferred to 'Proctor'. The lease of Ikham given by Basset to William Toft had described Basset as 'Proctor or Keeper', and when Barton in his turn came to grant a lease of the same property to the same lessee he handed Basset's lease to the college attorney as a model but he wrote his own name above Basset's and 'Master' over 'Proctor'.* It is a tendency which becomes stronger as time goes on; the form of 'Master or Proctor' is found in the last two half-yearly statements of the college accounts (having occurred also in April 1497), whereas before that time it had been Proctor or Master, while in Hurte's days it was Proctor alone. In external documents it has become Master, as in the appointment of Syclyng by the university to receive contributions to St Mary by the market and in Philip Morgan's letter, amongst many others. The difficulty presented by varieties of nomenclature for the same type of institution has other exemplifications in the university, of which one will suffice. In 1500 parliament had levied a subsidy from which colleges of the university were exempted. The collectors refused to extend the exemption to the hospital of St John and to Peterhouse as not being colleges by the evidence of their names; the heads of those two houses petitioned the king, who told the barons of the exchequer that they were in fact colleges.3 The controversy with the town was not settled during Syclyng's senior proctorship; it might be more correct to say that within that year it seems to have assumed a new aspect, when the Vice-Chancellor, 1 3

Supra, p. 121 sq. Annals, i, 254, quoting Baker.

* Chr. N . Hyk. I (bis).

FRESH C O N T R O V E R S Y W I T H T H E T O W N

271

Jackson the commissary, Carsey the bedell and four servants went from Cambridge about the 1st of August to appear before the king and his council at Richmond, Greenwich, Eltham, London and elsewhere in the matter of Hugh Rankyn.1 At the close of the year reference is made to divers expenses incurred after the feast of St John Baptist in connection with the new controversy between the university and townsmen before the king and his council concerning the meadow of Hugh Rankyn.2 The details leading to this new dispute are not preserved, which is probably not material; the steel and tinder were there and it mattered little who produced the spark. Rankyn was a Cambridge name of old standing; Simon Rankyn [Randekyn] owned, with Thomas Fordeham, part of the site in Milne Street on which Byngham built the mansion of Godshouse. Hugh Rankyn was a fishmonger;3 he was treasurer of the town in 14944 and one of the bailiffs in 1501.5 He may have been a somewhat provocative person, or else an unfortunate one, since there was trouble in 1490 between him and certain members of the university for which two of the latter were fined as disturbers of the peace against him.6 Except that the new dispute related to Rankyn's meadow there is no detail preserved in the Grace Book nor yet in the accounts of the town, where, also, reference is made to 'the matter pleaded between the University and town' when the mayor gets one hundred shillings7 and, later, to 'the matter of Hugh Rankyn'when a breakfast is given at a cost of 25. xod. and twenty shillings is paid to two persons 'for their expenses to London, with the same supplication to be shewn to the King'; various persons again receive similarly forty shillings for their expenses to London to prosecute the same matter before the king and his council. As with the university so with the town, the processes of law are lubricated with breakfasts and presents to certain persons, the king's solicitor amongst them, and where the great man himself is beyond reach, the gentleman's gentleman receives the douceur} 1

GB. B 1 , p. 156. 3 Annals, i, 250, 254. 5 Ibid, i, 257. 7 Annals, i, 255.

* Ibid. p. 163. Ibid, i, 243. 6 GB. B 1 , p. 29. 8 Ibid, i, 256.1 4

272

P R O C T O R S H I P O F J O H N SYCLYNG, 1496-1506

Cooper tells us that both parties sought the intervention of the Lady Margaret, who advised them to nominate arbitrators, which in her presence they did, binding themselves under penalty of 500 marks to observe the award. 'The arbitrators met several times before the Countess, and in London and elsewhere, and after hearing both parties and great deliberation, they on the n t h July [1502] made an award under their seals and the seals of the Countess.'* In the following year, 12 May 1503, a deed of covenant embodying the award was executed by the representatives of the university and town; it is a document of great length, printed in full by Cooper.3 The college muniment room supplies a link in the chain of events by which this desirable conclusion was reached. It is found in an indenture on parchment which still retains its seal though in a broken condition;3 it is dated from the new chapel of the university on the 29th day of May in the year 1501, more than twelve months before the award of the arbitrators. George Fitzhugh, the Chancellor, and the regents and non-regents appoint Henry Babyngton, [D.D., Vice-Chancellor], Hugh Payntwyn, [LL.D., archdeacon of Canterbury], Henry Horneby, [D.D., Master of Peterhouse], [John] Smyth, [D.D., ? the former Vice-Chancellor], Gabriel Sylvester, [D.D., Master of Clare Hall], Edmund Jakson, [? D.C.L., the commissary], John Syklyng, M.A.,4 to be syndics with powers plenipotentiary to deal with all matters in general and in particular with those in dispute between the university and the mayor, bailiffs or commonalty of the town of Cambridge. This influential body is clearly that which was responsible for treating with the representatives of the town before the Lady Margaret and afterwards with the three arbitrators chosen by her recommendation. 1

2 3 Annals, i, 258. Ibid, i, 260/270. Chr. Misc. C, 11. The document does not supply the offices held by the syndics; the first six names are followed by the title 'doctors' and Syclyng's by 'master of arts'. Babyngton resigned his fellowship of Peterhouse 22 May 1501 and probably at the same date his term of office as Vice-Chancellor. He was followed by Fisher, 15 July 1501. Jackson was B.C.L. 1491/2; he probably left Cambridge and took his doctorate elsewhere, and on returning in 1500 was incorporated D.C.L. (GB. B 1 , pp. 144, 145). 4

AN IMPORTANT SYNDICATE

273

The document is not a letter of attorney given to each syndic separately but is a commission of appointment addressed to the syndicate as awhole, and would be produced as its authority to act on behalf of the university, for the assurance of the Lady Margaret, the representatives of the town, and the arbitrators. It passed into the possession of Syclyng, who, being senior proctor, probably served as secretary to the syndicate. When the award was made, followed later by the complementary indenture of covenant, the syndicate had completed its task, and the commission of appointment which, having regard to the high quality of the syndicate personnel, may not have been produced more than once, remained in the hands of Syclyng. He by that time had long ceased to be senior proctor, and so it came, happily, to be preserved for our information by being placed with the college muniments. As no similar deed has been pubhshed, if one ever existed, it seems necessary to print this in full in the appendix.1 There is no reference in the Grace Book to the deed, nor to the very important syndicate whose appointment it certifies, which is to be expected when the limited fiscal purpose of the Grace Books of the fifteenth century is clearly appreciated. There are two other matters to discuss concerning Syclyng's relation to the university outside his own college. Grace Book B, part I, edited by Miss Mary Bateson, shews on p. 202, amongst the proctors' receipts for the year 1504/5, the following: Item a Magistro Suclyng pro pacts turbacione xxs. The editor has so indexed this entry as to propose for its interpretation (with a query, it is true) that Syclyng had been fined twenty shillings for 'brawling'. Dr Peile, biographer of the college and successor of Syclyng, endorses this interpretation1 in the words 'a curious entry... i.e. for brawling as Miss Bateson suggests'. Turbacio pads is the phrase generally rendered in the Grace Books as perturbacio pads, an offence covering details as wide as those represented by the modern 'disorderly act'. In Oxford it was used even for overt acts of rebellion against the king.3 It would certainly carry the meaning 'brawling', for that par1 Infra, p. 378. a Biog. Reg. i, 5. 3 Mediaeval Archives, The University of Oxford, H. E. Salter, ii, 277 sqq. LHC

18

274

P R O C T O R S H I P OF J O H N SYCLYNG, 1496-1506

ticular offence would doubtless involve a disturbance of the peace, but it is not the most likely form of breach to be made by a reverend senior, head then and for fifteen years past of a college, a priest for twenty or more years and at that time rector of a parish, to make no mention of his own double period of service in that office of all others in the university whose holder is responsible for the correction of such offences. The simple explanation of this entry, which in reality is neither 'curious' nor obscure, is that the payment was made to the proctors by a person who was in a position of authority which caused him to have imposed fines, or to have received them, to that amount from members of the university for whom he was responsible who had disturbed the peace. The Grace Books provide many other such instances; there is no need to go further afield than the same page where, eleven lines lower, we read Item a Magistro vicecancellario pro pacts perturbatione xxxs. where surely we must not suppose that the Vice-Chancellor had been brawling! The proctor has been shortening his style of statement in the entries on p. 202, for the more complete and normal form is seen, e.g., on p . 185: In primis de doctore lownde occupante vkem vicecancellarii pro duobus perturbatoribus pacts iijs. iiijrf. Item de eodem per manus Willelmi pykerell pro duobus aliis perturbatoribus iijs. iiiji. There is a statute (No. 19, De assistentia doctorum vice-cancellario in

correctionibus)J which specifically lays this type of responsibility upon all doctors and masters of colleges. Moreover, if there be still doubt in any mind as to the correct interpretation of this 'curious entry', it should be said that twenty shillings is not the correct fine for any perturber of the peace who has a benefice or any annual income of one hundred shillings; such a person was to pay forty shillings, those without benefice were to pay forty pence. Consequently, the payment of twenty shillings to the proctors would appear to be in respect of 1

Documents, i, 317 sq.

GRACE BOOK ENTRIES MISUNDERSTOOD 275 six unbeneficed members of the university, in all probability persons in statu pupillari.1

Lest this be regarded as a piece of special pleading by one in private duty bound, it may be said that the entry associated with Syclyng's name on p. 202 has no connection with him whatsoever. In that page of Grace Book B 1 there is a footnote to 'Suclyng' which reads: 'This name has been scratched out and is almost illegible'. A close examination of the MS. Grace Book confirms that statement but it also shews that the almost illegible name is one of three syllables of which only the middle portion, lyng (or byng), is clearly to be read. The name may be Colyngwod (as on pp. 171, 203, 212, 213, etc. of the Grace Book), Poklyngton (as on p. 200) or even Babyngton (as on pp. 155,238,248); one name it cannot be is Syclyng or even Suclyng. The other matter arises out of an entry in the index to Grace Book B, part II, also edited by Miss Bateson: Suckling, Syclyn, Cykelyn, Seklyn [John], proctor, bad debt, pp. 28, 58, 66, 72 etc. This might be taken to mean that Syclyng was someone's victim; experience has proved that by some it is taken to imply that Syclyng made a victim of someone else. Neither is true, as is clear upon reference to the pages of the text. In the year 1513/14 the Grace Book begins to shew annually the amounts owing to the university from individuals for various matters, including the use of the schools; some of these debts are quite recent, others go back for many years and, for the purpose of indicating the date when a particular debt was incurred, the proctors use a calendar of their own, namely, the proctorial year identified by the names of the senior and junior proctors. All that the entry means then is that in the year when Syclyng was senior proctor, the year 1500/1, a certain Dr Candelyn incurred a liability to the university of twenty shillings for the use of the schools of civil law; he had a similar liability for each of the two following years when there were, of course, other senior andjunior proctors. Candelyn may have disputed these various liabilities since he made four appeals in the last of those three years, for which he paid the statutory sum of four shillings, one 1

Documents, i, 320 sq., Statute N o . 25, De pacis perturbatoribus. 18-2

276

P R O C T O R S H I P OF J O H N SYCLYNG, 1496-1506

shilling each; he made another appeal in the year 1508/9. These are interesting entries to which the index references draw attention, but to call them bad debts of the respective proctors is misleading; if the regnal year had been used to shew the respective dates it would have been scarcely more unreasonable to describe them as bad debts of Henry VII. Returning with Syclyng to Godshouse after time spent in tracing his doings in extra-mural responsibilities, we must give our attention to the work of building upon which he engaged. His building operations began at least as early as 1497 when, as has been shewn in a previous chapter,1 he was buying building materials and supplementing these with minor purchases from Corpus, whose bursar, in turn, made the like use of Syclyng in his own need. In so far as can be judged from the Corpus entries (there is no such material preserved in the Christ's muniment room), the work was proceeding at Godshouse during 1497-1500 and in 1504, and the intervening period, 1500-3, when no building is going on, is just that stretch of time occupied by Sydyng's second term as senior proctor and by his work in the negotiations between the university and the town. There is no possibility of estimating the extent of his building, for the purchases he made from Corpus, like those of the bursar of Corpus from him, would be no more than convenient supplements to much larger supplies that would be needed for any complete structure, even of small dimensions; there was no special type of material amongst the purchases such as would be indicative of the class of building for which it was intended. There is mention however of two buildings, the chapel and the dovehouse. It has been known that Godshouse possessed a chapel from certain entries in the accounts of the Lady Margaret's executors: Item to Thomas Ward for the hyre of a howse to ley in the slate that couered the old chapell for i yere and an halfe vij*. vj
Supra, p. 212 sq. W. and C. ii, 192. The present writer has anxiously desired to examine the executors' accounts for himself! They are preserved in St John's College, whose late Master had courteously desired to produce them, but they had been mislaid for the tjme being amongst the great mass of documents of which St John's College is the fortunate possessor. 3

WORK UPON COLLEGE BUILDINGS

277

[29 March 1510] XX

To Thomas Peghe glasier for viijxv fotes di' of glasse with Imageric at xijrf. the fote viij/i. xvs. v\d. Item to the same for settynge up of all the old glasse in the chapell by hymselfFe and his seruant by viij dais at vjd. the day viijs.1 An old organ is mended. March, 1510: Item for i skynne for the organs iiiji. Item for charcoll at the mendyng of thorgans ijd.

There were presses in the vestry of the old chapel: [29 March 1510] Item a lokke with Gemows* for another presse in the Revestrie (for ther be iiij new presses) iiijs.3 [where old presses seem to be implied as pre-existing] To these may be added the Corpus reference: [Not later than 1504, possibly earlier] Item idem [Magister Syclyng] debet pro 12 rwffe tyle4 pro capella in collegio suo xviij
2 W. and C. ii, 196. Gemows are hinges. 4 3 W. and C. ii, 197. I.e. ridge tiles, a large price. 5 Baker MS. VI (Harl. 7033), f. 203 a; also P.C.C. 4 Adeane. 6 W. and C. ii, 14.

278

P R O C T O R S H I P OF J O H N SYCLYNG, 1496-1506

the date of a somewhat plain, simple building of the second half of the fifteenth century, to attempt very close limits of variation, we may regard 1470 as being about the probable date in this instance, if we admit the possibility of a margin of error down to 1490. Not the vestries or chapels only are of the Godshouse period but also the more part of the main building of the chapel. This conclusion, with the evidence upon which it is founded, is discussed in detail below, where also will be found what has to be said concerning the dovehouse.1 It seems convenient to present at this point the following list of members of the College of Godshouse during Syclyng's proctorship. It has been compiled from various contemporary sources and it includes those who were fellows and those who were pensioners or perendinantes; such details of their histories as it has been possible to discover will be found in the appendix3 under their respective names. They are arranged here in alphabetical order. Anstie, John Rycheman, Thomas Artweke, Edward Scott, John Benglace, James Smyth, Dominus Brigges, William Story, Robert Fabbe, John Sygar, Henry Fowke, Edward Tamworth, Christopher Nunne, Thomas Watson, Richard Pycard, Richard Worthyngton, William Reynolds, Richard Two of Domus Dei give cautions in 1502 (GB. B 1 , p. 165), one as master in grammar (p. 168), the other as master of arts (p. 169). The absence of name, here as in many other cases, provides further evidence that the primary importance of the early Grace Books was fiscal. Magister de domo dei (pp. 168 and 169) is, of course, not the Master of that college but a member of the college taking the degree of master. William Barker (Biog. Reg. i, 5) is excluded from this list as having no obvious connection with the college before or after 1506. Thomas Leson (Biog. Reg. i, 5) is excluded since he was not a member of the college, or even a Cambridge man.3 John Fabbe or Fabe is known 1 3

Infra, p. 339 sq. * Infra, pp. 380 sqq, Cf. Christ's College Magazine, Lent term 1931, pp. 87 sqq.

N A M E S OF C O L L E G E M E M B E R S

279

1

as a member of the college by his will alone, of date 10 August 1504. As John Fabe he is mentioned in 1494 as questionist;3 he has a grace to incept in arts in 1497, a fact disguised by the rendering of his name in the printed Grace Book as ffake;3 in the MS. it is ffabe. By his will he bequeaths, in addition to the two books 'to the Chappell of Godds House' already mentioned: Item to the building of the same College

6s. Bd.

Item to the communytie of the same Item to Mr Scott [John Scott, fellow] a boke Item to John Anstie all his Bokes of grammer and humanitie Item to Mr Will. Worthington a Boke etc.

35. ^d.

As the bequest to the 'Chappell' of books implies its pre-existence, so that to the building of the college suggests that work was then in progress. The legacies to Godshouse and its members are so numerous as to make it probable that Fabbe had been a member of the college; there is a bequest of his 'dowfs' (doves) to Mr Nime, which may be a misreading by the copyist of the will for Nune. 'Sir Robynson', and 'Sir Strymsser' also have bequest of books, but, while there is not sufficient reason for assuming their membership of the college, John Anstie is in somewhat different case since he is to receive 'all my Bokes of grammer and humanitie' as well as others. Anstie is not found in the Grace Books; since Fabbe omits any prefix, as dominus or Mr, before his name he may have been a young student who, owing to death or some other reason, did not proceed to a degree and it is reasonable to assume that he also may have been a member of Godshouse, but his claim must not be put on a higher plane than that of possibility. 1 2

P.C.C. 4. Adeane, as also in Baker, ut supra. 3 GB. B 1 , p. 67. Ibid. p. 107.

Chapter XVI THE NEGOTIATIONS BETWEEN GODSHOUSE AND THE LADY MARGARET t has been shewn in an earlier chapter1 that the indebtedness of the college to Fisher for guiding the Lady Margaret's bounty towards the advancement of the fortunes of Godshouse was handsomely recognised by the society while he was yet living. His part in the great work done by the foundress for the college has never ceased to hold high honour in the private thoughts of its members, as well as in formal and official celebrations such as annual commemorations and less frequent observances. It was maintained also* that Fisher was not at any time a member of the college, and there is need therefore to indicate, if it may be found, the connection with Godshouse which led to his recommendation to his royal mistress that produced so great promotion of its interests. It must not be overlooked that the foundation of Godshouse by Henry VI, uncle to the Lady Margaret, gave the appeal for its advancement a powerful claim in her eyes, but it is more possible to regard that fact as an argument used by Fisher to enforce his recommendation than to look upon it as constituting his prime motive. There were in all thirteen colleges in Cambridge in 1503, and of every one it might truthfully be said that it could have shewn good cause for the extension to it of any additional bounty that might be available, while several might have proved that their numbers and their revenues fell far short of the pious intentions of their founders, one at least being poorer than Godshouse. Two of the colleges, Queens' and King's Hall, could have offered opportunity to the Lady Margaret for manifesting her pious devotion to earlier members of the royal house, and there is scarcely room to doubt that her son, Henry VII, whose sluggish generosity to the king's college of the blessed Mary and St Nicholas she had stimu-

I

1

Supra, p. 201.

* Supra, p. 200 sq.

I N T I M A C Y OF FISHER A N D SYCLYNG

281

lated, would have been willing to surrender in her favour the combined privilege and responsibility of completing the work of Henry VI in the foundation of King's College. There must therefore have been some point or line of contact, not superficially obvious, between Fisher and Godshouse which made him the advocate of its claims. That contact is to be found in his close association during many years with the Master or Proctor of Godshouse, who was somewhat his senior in the university. The blessed John Fisher was not born into high estate or of gentle family; he was the son of respectable well-to-do parents living in Beverley and his father died when he, the eldest son, was still of tender years.1 The character of the canting arms given to him on the parliamentary roll of 1504, a play upon 'fish' and 'ear', 2 lends colour

Autograph and Seal of John Fisher as bishop of Rochester

Drawing of the Seal, x 3

to the possibility that they were not inherited but were granted to him as a spiritual peer following his election as bishop of Rochester. John Syclyng on the other hand was a man of gentle, though not high, birth and also of some property, as witness not only the estate he left 1

Cf. infra, p. 391 sq. His seal illustrated here and his autograph as bishop of Rochester are reproduced from a document in Christ's College (Camb. Ag) dated 1525. 1

282 G O D S H O U S E A N D T H E LADY M A R G A R E T at his death but also the large sums which his half-yearly accounts shew him to have advanced to his college. In the very hmited society of Cambridge in the fifteenth century (the university statutes conceived the possibility that there might be fewer than twelve regent masters in residence)1 Fisher and Syclyng must have had close acquaintance, and in the succession of degree and office Fisher may have had much to admire in and many occasions for gratitude to his senior, fellow of one college, Master of another and senior proctor of the university while he, Fisher, was yet in his first year of regency. The sequence of events in the careers of the two men is best seen if set out in tabular form: John Syclyng John Fisher Master in Grammar Bachelor of Arts Master of Arts Senior Proctor Master of Godshouse Master of Michaelhouse Senior Proctor (2nd term) Vice-Chancellor Chancellor

1482 1482

1485 1491/2 1490/1

1483 1488 1491

1494/5 1497

1500/1 1501 I5O4-35

Fisher was created D.D. (5 July 1501), as befitted one so high in the counsels of the mother of the king, to say nothing of his impending election (it occurred ten days later) into the office of Vice-Chancellor.* Syclyng never proceeded beyond M.A. When Fisher as senior proctor was in London in 1495, Syclyng was his companion, and in 1501, when Fisher had become Vice-Chancellor, Syclyng was senior proctor for the second time. The close association which the holding of their respective offices normally entailed between those university dignitaries, in ancient times as now, became closer still at that particular period when the perennial controversy with the town had reached a stage so acute that the two disputants had determined to invite the mediation of the Lady Margaret. Syclyng, as we have seen from our examination of the university's brief appointing the special syndicate of 1501, was the executive officer of the syndicate, 1

Stat. Antiq. No. 53 (Documents, i, 338).

* GB. B1, p. 162.

SYCLYNG K N O W N T O T H E F O U N D R E S S

283

and in that capacity would be much in Fisher's company and both would have frequent need of audience of the Lady Margaret during the period between June 1501, when the syndicate was appointed, and 12 May 1503, when the final indenture of covenant was sealed by the university and the town. The audiences with the Lady Margaret gave her the opportunity of using with regard to Syclyng her keen judgement of men which was so conspicuous a feature in her character and, as Fisher's advancement in her favour is attributed to the favourable impressions he made during his visits to court while senior proctor, we may conclude that her experience of Syclyng's qualities, during the arbitration proceedings of 1501 onwards, stood him and the college in good stead when the adoption of Godshouse by the Lady Margaret came to be considered. Whether Fisher suggested that plan to Syclyng or the latter to Fisher matters little; what stands out prominently from the circumstances of the long and close association of these two men is that therein may be found the two-arched bridge uniting the Lady Margaret's interest to the fortunes of Godshouse. When discussing the letter1 addressed to Syclyng by the Lady Margaret's physician, Philip Morgan, reasons were produced for assuming that it was written in May 1503, and it seems not improbable that amongst the matters then calling Syclyng to Colyweston may have been included that relating to the Lady Margaret's interest in Godshouse. Matters of such grave moment move slowly and two years for the intermediate stages which led to the charter of Henry VII bearing the date 1 May 1505 would not seem too long a time. Two of those stages have been preserved for us in contemporary written records found in the college muniment room. We have to assume that the countess required the production of a summary of the history of the college, copies of its charters and their confirmations, a list of its endowments, a statement of its revenues, a copy of its statutes, 1

Supra, pp. 257 sqq.

284 G O D S H O U S E A N D T H E LADY M A R G A R E T and, possibly, many other evidences, including proof that good use had been made of its limited resources, such as a person whose bounty is solicited might properly require in order to be satisfied as to the worthiness of the object. Whatever the countess required was supplied, and possibly in duplicate, for we find that the Master of Godshouse 'hath shewed to my laydys grace and to her CouncelT the various matters required of him.1 After due consideration of these documents (and the deliberations of such a body must have taken some time in view of their number and their other avocations) six enquiries were addressed upon them to Syclyng, of which the following is a transcript from a contemporary paper copy preserved in the muniment room:* Remembrances made for the maister of the Colage of Goods house of Cambrige to instructe and to ascerteyn my ladys Councell of diem flyrst that the last letter pattentes of King henry the vj be shewed yf they do accorde w th the copyes delyuered to my ladys grace Item yf Mr Byngham made eny statutes or ordinances or yf ther were eny other made then be expressed in the copyes Delyuered unto my lady's grace Item yf the said Collage have nowe the rents and possessions wiche the same Kyng henry graunted to the said Mr Byngham and be expressed in the said letters patentes Item what other lands or possessions the said Collage hathe by die same Mr Byngham or by eny other to them graunted 1

Chr. Gh. Aq. The council of the Lady Margaret seems to have consisted about this time of John Fisher, later bishop of Rochester (1504-35), Hugh Oldham, her chaplain, later bishop of Exeter (1504-19), Henry Horneby, her chancellor, Master of Peterhouse, Sir John Saint John, her chamberlain, Hugh Assheton, controller of her household, canon and prebendary of St Peter's, Westminster, Sir William Knyvett, Sir David Phillipp, Humphry Conyngsby, serjeant-at-law, Robert Brudenell, serjeant-at-law, Robert Barnard, Master of Fotheringhay College, Gabriel Sylvester, Master of Clare Hall, John Fotehed, later Master of Michaelhouse (1505-20), James Whitstones, William Bedell, her treasurer. 2 Chr. Gh. 6.

INTERROGATORIES AND ANSWERS

285

Item to see the Euydences of the graunts [of the] same londs and tenements made to the same Collage Item to see the coppyes of the writts of ad quod Dampnum and the inquisitions founde uppon the same retornyd in to the chancerye uppon the mortesyng of the same londs The matters dealt with in this document are put in six sections; they are not numbered, but they are taken in order as 'furst, seconde, thrid, iiijth, v and sext articles' in Syclyng's replies to these 'Remembrances' which are preserved on another sheet of paper.1 They do not adhere rigidly to the order of the items in the 'Remembrances', after the first and second; the master blends the third and fourth items together in his reply To the thrid Article, and the fifth is answered by his To the iiijth article, the sixth by his To the v article. This economy leaves him clear space in his To the sext article for the expression of pious intentions in general, savouring perhaps somewhat of impatience with this series of interrogatories. The paper was meant to be a fair copy but it was altered in one particular, which probably accounts for its remaining in the ° ' To the furst Article The seid master seith that is [sic] lettres patentes and the Copyes of the same agre and that he is redy and shall be att all tymes to bryng the seid lettres patents and shewe theym to my laydes grace and her honorable Councell att theyr desire etc. To the seconde Article The seid M [aster] seidi that M' Byngham ner noe nother M' after hym of that College made noe nother Statutes ner ordinances but such as he hath shewed to my laydys grace and to her Councell.* To the thrid Article The seid M' seith that he is seased and possessyd of divers landes tenementes Rents anutees pordons avowsons fre Chapeles hospitalles howses meases and other heredatamentes ecept a fre chapelf in Thorlow which fre chapell is by the myght of Mr Lucas the Kynges Solicitor ^ witholden from the seid M' A by the vicar of the same town and by the comforth of M' Lucas the Kynges Solicitor4 And over this except the prior 1 Chr. Gh. Aq. 1

Cf. supra, pp. 239 sqq. 3 The cancellation is original. Thomas Lucas, solicitor-general, is found in that office as early as IS03. It is likely that he was the villain ofthe piece since he is said to have acquired in 15 Henry VII from Battle abbey the advowson [to the vicarage] of Thurlow Magna, and we may 4

286 GODSHOUSE AND THE LADY MARGARET of Chepestow priory in Wales for the which the seid M' hath of the seid priory divers porcions howses and Rentes to the yerly value of iiij/j. xviis. by the yere And also except an anuell pencon and Rent of v/i. goyng out of the priore of Newstede upon ankull in lyncolne Shire Item except the hole priory of Creswell in Walys of the which the Master now hath to the yerly value of iiij/i. Item except the vowson of the Church of Nanby in the Counte of Lyncolne which the abbas and covent of Syon witholdyth from the seid M' 1 To the iiijth article The seid M' seith that he is and wilbe att all tymes redy to shewe and to bryng to and before my ladis Councell all feofmentes grauntes and other titles which he hath pertainyng or belong to the same College * To the v article The seid M' seith that he hath nor knowith off eny writt of ad quod dampnum ner eny Inquisicion takyn upon the same for the amortassyng of eny landes To the sext article The seid M' seith that he is and shalbe redy at all tymes to shewe the Statutes of the same College and to do further all thyng that stondes with reason and gode consciens. There is nothing remaining amongst the muniments to shew whether or not the Lady Margaret's council required the production of the original documents; they may have accepted Syclyng's statement of his readiness to exhibit them as sufficient evidence that, if seen, they would prove to be faithfully reproduced by the copies that had been delivered. There does not seem to have been any hitch in the negotiations; Syclyng and the Lady Margaret came to an agreement of which therefore assume that in supporting the vicar he was engaged in improving permanently a living in his own gift (A Supplement to the Suffolk Traveller, Augustine Page (1844), pp. 684 and 900). Lucas died 1531, and Valor Eccles. shews that the two shillings of pension due to Battle out of the vicarage was being paid by his heirs. 1 The purport of this paragraph is to say that die college is denied the income from the free chapel of Thurlow, and the enjoyment of the advowson of Nanby; but that, as regards Chepstow and Craswall, the formal rights of the college have been varied: by agreement or otherwise. The position as to Newstead upon Ancolme is unknown; its rent never appears as a debt and is not included in the revenues returned to Henry Vni's commissioners. 3 We are to assume that he is willing to bring in person the originals if desired but not to send them by other means.

A TRIPARTITE DRAFT I N D E N T U R E 1

287

4

no fewer than three drafts, two in English, one in Latin, are preserved. They are incomplete, they may never have been engrossed, but they are valuable for their testimony to the nature of the negotiations and to the development during their course of varying views as to the numbers for whom the countess wished to provide. They reveal also that the university was to be a party to a tripartite indenture, a fact not hitherto known but yet not surprising when it is borne in mind that Fisher was Vice-Chancellor at the time. As all three drafts are similar only one is here transcribed, its various alterations and cancellations being shewn as in the original. There is a marginal note on the other English draft which is introduced into the margin of this transcript. The drafts were prepared by the legal advisers3 of the countess as is shewn by an endorsement borne by one of them, in the same hand as the body of the text, 'A Copie of thindentur for goddeshouse in Cambrige no bills of charges of the same': This Indentur made the day of the yere of our lorde god m1v°iiij the xixth yere of the Reigne of the most excellent and most cristen prince king henry die vij th betwene the most excellent princesse Margarete Countesse of Richmond and Derby moder to our said souverain lord of the oon partie and the Chaunceller Maisters and Scolers of thuniversitie of of Cambrige of the ij"18 partie and Maister and felowes of die Colleige called goddeshouse in the same universitie of die dirid partie Wyttenessedi diat wher the right holy and devoute king henry die vjth of his blessed and vertuouse disposition for thincrease of vertue conyng and cristen faith founded the said Colleige and intended to have had and enstablisshed therin grete nowmbre of wele disposed Scolers and for the same cause entended to have provided and gyffen to theim sufficient lands and tenaments for their exhibicion and fynduig And so it is that the said holy blessed king henry after the tyme he had provided die grounde for the said Colleige and provided and put a Maister and certain felowes in the same Colleige and yeven to theim lands and tenaments to the yerely value of xxxiij/i Decessed before the said Colleige the hole was buylded or any certain nowmber of Scolers ther provided or any statutes or ordinaunces made for their contynuaunce in the same So that the said Colleige is not founded stabillesshed ne ordered according to the said holy and devoute mynde of the said holy king henry the sext nother in buylding 1 Chr. Misc. A, 34. * Chr. Misc. B, 3. 3 The solicitor of the countess was Mr Soper.

288 GODSHOUSE AND THE LADY MARGARET nowmbre of Scolers ne lands ne tenaments provided for their exhibition ne statutes and ordinaunce made for their contynuaunce in the same The said princesse considering the devoute and holy mynde of the said king henry the yj*11 And alsoe havyng like mynde to the pleasure of allmyghty god and for thincreace of lernyng conyng vertue and of cristen feith and of dyvyne service ther to be perpetually had and doon to the laude and prayse of almyghty god hath at hir great cost and charge purchased and obteyned of the said king nowe our souverain lorde special! licence unto hir and hir executors to gyffe and graunt to the said Maister and felowes and their successors lands and tenaments to the yerely value of Cli.. .over all charges And by reason of the same licence hath yeven to the said Maister and felowes and their successors lands and tenaments of the same yerely value to the use and intent that with the same lands and tenaments so gyffen and with the said lands and tenaments gyffen to the said Colleige by the said king henry the vj t h the said Maister and felowes and their successors shall perpetually susteyne and kepe in the same Colleige perpetually whyle the world shall xiij preests -x»j-vij vij ther as -iiij-ij xlvij scolers m < l u r e ^ A preests and A** Scolers to be A felowes and v A other pore Scolers being no preosts in such maner forme and order and according to such ordinaunce and statutes as hereafter ensueth That is to sey that oon of the said preests shall alwey be had and reputed and takenasMaisterandgouvenerof the vj aid Colleige And that the other -sej- of the said preests shall withoute laufull impediment dayly sey masse either in the parisshe church of Saint Andrewe ther or in the chapell within the said Colleige for the good and prosperouse estate of the said princesse during hir lief And also for the good and prosperouse estate of the said king our souverain lorde king henry the vij t h during his lief And for the soule of the said princesse after hir decesse And It also for the soule of our said souverain lorde after his decesse And oon of the said preests to sey masse every Sonday of the holy trinitie [here the M S . ends

abruptly]. One complete draft would have been preferable to three incomplete, a number we must assume to have been needed for the three parties. It is possible that the missing part of the draft indenture had proved acceptable from the beginning of the proceedings, and that the earlier portion has by chance survived solely because it was the subject of discussion and adjustment. As is proper in a draft, the day and month are not inserted but, by supplying both the year of our Lord and the regnal year, the draft enables us to place the. intended date of the indenture within the period

B E N E F A C T I O N S OF H E N R Y VI

289

lying between 25 March and 22 August 1504. The definite statement is made that King Henry VI 'provided the grounde for the said Colleige', a fact not revealed by any other document. The ground referred to must be that forming the Denney and Tiltey properties, which was the only portion of the site acquired in Byngham's lifetime; their combined area was about one-fourth to one-third greater than that surrendered in Milne Street. The amount of the additional endowment is one hundred pounds, the sum which, though afterwards increased, was in fact the original endowment provided by the Lady Margaret. Reference is made to the college chapel in words that confirm the evidence that has been adduced to shew that Godshouse possessed a chapel.1 The governing motive, elsewhere* expressed by her declaring herself 'heir to all King Henry's godly intentions', pervades this draft especially when the countess recites that the college is not founded, established nor ordered according to that holy king's holy and devout mind either in buildings, number of scholars, endowments or statutes; and her own elaborate provision in statutes is in implicit condemnation of those of Godshouse, though those features which strike a note of originality in the earlier are in fact preserved in the later statutes. In default of evidence that the indenture of agreement was engrossed and executed by the three parties, the letters patent of Henry VII provide the next surviving chapter in the negotiations. These letters, the charter of foundation of Christ's College, bear date 1 May 1505, and they are preserved in the college. They have already been published,3 and it is sufficient to present here a summary of their salient features, emphasising those which place beyond question the fact that licence is being given by them for the continuance of an existing college with a transformation of name, subject to the assent and consent of the Master and other members of the college. The king recites the charter of 16 April 1448 and others given by Henry VI, and he does the same with the confirmation charter of 1

Supra, p. 276 sq.; cf. also infra, pp. 314 sqq. History of the University of Cambridge, by Thomas Fuller (Prickett and Wright, 1840), p. 181. 3 Documents, iii, 127. a

XHC

19

290 G O D S H O U S E A N D T H E LADY M A R G A R E T Edward IV, 6 December 1468. He takes no account of his own confirmation of 25 October i486, but he now approves the foundation and confirmations of and by his predecessors in all their details, and ratifies, confirms, gives and concedes the same to Master John Syclyng, now Proctor or Master, and to the scholars of the college and to their successors. Then, having learnt by the information of his most dear Mother and others that the pious and devout intention of Henry VI in this matter is too much diminished and frustrated, and considering that his most dear Mother on account of the sincere love which she bears to the aforesaid King, his great uncle, desires to augment finish and stablish the college, he now grants his licence that she or her executors or any of them may order and stablish the aforesaid college perpetually according to the ordinances and statutes which she or they may give. Also, that she or they may augment, with the assent and consent of the present Proctor or Master and the Scholars of the aforesaid College or their

successors, the number of Scholars to whatever number they desire not exceeding sixty, including the aforesaid present Proctor or Master and the Scholars. He further gives licence to the present Proctor or Master and Scholars to receive and adopt the persons so to be added by his Mother or her executors to be instructed, to study, and to pray for his most dear Mother, for himself, for various others named and for all the faithful departed. And at the request of his Mother on account of her singular devotion to the most glorious and most holy name of Jesus Christ, and by the assent and consent of the Proctor or Master

and Scholars aforesaid, he has transferred and transformed the name of the College into the name of Christ's College in the University of Cambridge by Henry the sixth King of England first begun and after his decease by Margaret countess of Richmond Mother of King Henry the sevendi augmentedfinishedand stablished, and the name of the Proctor or Master of that College and the Scholars of that College into the name of The Master or Keeper and the Scholars of Christ's College (and so forth, as above). He concedes and ordains, with the assent and consent of the aforesaid present

THE LICENCE OF HENRY VII, 1505

291

Master or Keeper and of the Scholars, that his Mother shall hereafter be

reputed, named and held as foundress of the same College. Various formal provisions follow and his Mother or her executors are given power with the assent and consent of the aforesaid present Master or Keeper

and the Scholars and their successors to oversee all and every the ordinances and statutes of the aforesaid College made in any way whatsoever before these times and to correct and emend the same and to change them for the better, and also to make other ordinances and statutes by the same assent and consent. Power is given to the Master or Keeper and Scholars to appropriate to their own use the parochial church of Fendrayton, to serve it by a scholar priest or fellow of the college or by another suitable priest, without endowing a vicar or distributing in alms. They may also appropriate the parochial churches of Helpston and Nanby provided that the vicars of those two last churches be sufficiently endowed and that certain adequate sums be distributed annually amongst their poor parishioners. It is needful to distinguish the purpose of these letters patent of Henry VII from those letters patent of Henry VI, of 16 April 1448, which did per se create the College of Godshouse with a named Proctor and named fellows, making them at that moment a body corporate, with power to add to their numbers, having perpetual succession and capable of exercising and enjoying all the privileges of such a body, without any further step needing to be taken by the members of the college, or by any other persons, to implement the charter of foundation. The letters patent of 1 May 1505 were analogous in purpose to those of Edward IV, Richard III and Henry's own of i486 in so far as they ratified the earlier letters and confirmed John Syclyng, the present Proctor or Master, and the scholars of the College of Godshouse and their successors in all the rights conferred by the charter of Henry VI, by his subsequent letters patent and by those of Edward IV. When they reached that point, the letters of Henry VII changed their character; in all that followed they became permissive, giving licence to 'our most dear Mother or her executors' to order and stabUsh the college and with the assent and consent of the present Proctor or Master and the scholars to increase its numbers to not more than sixty including the existing 19-2

292 G O D S H O U S E A N D T H E LADY M A R G A R E T number, and they also gave licence to the present Proctor or Master and the scholars to acquiesce in this extension. In their nature, the letters patent of Henry VII, in so far as they related to the future, were of the character of the earlier hcences of Henry VI for Godshouse, those of 1439, 1442 and 1446. If the countess had finally decided to abandon her scheme because of the intractability of the Proctor and scholars, or if the Proctor and scholars had found her conditions too exacting and had refused their assent and consent, the king's licence would have become inoperative and it provided no penalty for the case of its nonexercise. In brief, there was needed some specific act of the countess and some specific act of the Proctor and scholars to make the king's letters effective as a charter of foundation. Those acts might conceivably have taken some other form, but they were, in fact, the giving of the statutes by the foundress, and their formal acceptance by the Proctor and scholars. That is the ground upon which, in introducing the subject of the charter of foundation,1 it was described as a chapter in the negotiations; and the complementary, completing chapter was so long in coming into being, its final page not being written until 3 October 1506, that we must assume its framing to have been the most difficult of all, since it presented obstacles which delayed completion for a year and five months. Moreover, the provision in the statutes, accepted generally by Syclyng's signature for himself and his successors, that a bond should be entered into not to seek apostohc dispensation from any of them, and specifically for himself by actually entering into such a bond, is an entirely new feature in college statutes in Cambridge. And the closing words of the last chapter of the statutes relating to (1) the special treatment of the 'old Fellows, namely, John Scott, Edward Fowke, and Thomas Nunne', (2) the reservation by the Foundress of 'audiority to change any of the above Statutes.. .or to add others at our discretion, widi die express consent of the Master and Fellows aforesaid; those Statutes alone excepted which are not reformed in certain indentures subscribed by our hand and theirs which they have utterly entrusted to our good pleasure',* are phrased in language suggesting that agreement upon the details of the statutes had not been easily attained. 1

Supra, p. 289.

z

Quoting Rackham, p. 121.

CONCURRENT USE OF GODSHOUSE AND CHRISTS

293

The history of the college in the interval between 1 May 1505 and 3 October 1506 presents curiously suggestive confirmation of the state of negotiation relating to the statutes which we have felt justified in assuming. There is a conflicting use of the names Christ's College and Godshouse; Christ's College is the style employed by the countess and her agents, Godshouse by the Master and fellows. Two months after the issue of the letters patent there appears in one of the Lady Margaret's household books preserved in St John's College1 the following entry: ' [delivered] by Jamys Morice to master Sikcling M* of crystes collage in the vnyuersite of Cambrigge towardes the making of die newe bildinges there by the comaundement of margarett moder vnto our soueraigne lord king henry the vij th countess of Richemond and Derby. Firste paid to the said M' Sikcling die xxvijtu daye of June [1505] as apperith by a bill of his owne handwriting. Summa lxvj11 xiij8 iiijd The payment of this sum of one hundred marks apart there is no other documentary evidence of any kind, internal or external, for the year 1505 after 1 May. Documents are fairly abundant for the whole of the year 1506 and they point to the co-existence of Christ's College, with Syclyng as Master, side by side with Godshouse, the one in relation to external matters affecting the new endowment, the other in regard to internal affairs, both of finance and of membership. On 3 October 1506, with the formality of the acceptance of the statutes, and it was indeed a particularly solemn occasion, Godshouse blossomed into Christ's College and the older form of the name disappeared from use save for the occasional reference to 'Christ's College, lately called God House'. 2 The evidence for the duality deserves presentation in full; thus, taking first the entries using the new form of the name, we have: 8 February 1506. Syclyng as Master of Christ's College is named in writs ad quod damnum issued by the king to die escheators of the counties of Essex, Leicester and Cambridge, returns to which are made 26 March, 28 April and 10 May respectively.3 1

Quoted W. and C. ii, 193 sq. E.g. will of Master Thomas Colier of Michaelhouse, Harl. 7033, f. 203 b (Baker, vol. vi). 3 P.R.O. Inquisitions Post Mortem, etc. Ser. ii, vol. xx, Nos. 77/78/79. 2

294 GODSHOUSE AND THE LADY MARGARET 20 February 1506. The Countess's deed of gift of the properties to Christ's.1 20 February 1506. Letter of attorney from Syclyng, Master, and the college to receive the manors of Malton, etc.* 26 March 1506. A Court is held for Roydon manor on behalf of John Syclyng, Master or Keeper of Christ's College.3 Then of those using the original form, Godshouse, we have: 7 February 1506. Conceditur Edwardo ffowke communi lectori in domo Dei, being a grace 'to exonerate his conscience'.4 11 May 1506. [John Syclyng] The Master, Proctor or Keeper of the College of Goddishowse, accounts before his fellows of the same according to the statutes and ordinances of the said college.5

That is the last date upon which the name of Godshouse is found in any official document, but there is none remaining with either name until 5 September 1506. John Syclyng gives his bond 'for the observing of the Foundresses Statutes, by not procuring or causing to be procured, or not using being procured, any Dispensation from the Apostolic See, or (as much as in him was) not suffering his Fellows to make use of them'.6

The giving of his bond by Syclyng marks the final settlement of any difficulty there may have been regarding the statutes, and in making his will, which bears date nineteen days later, 24 September 1506, Syclyng describes himself as 'Master and 7 Keeper of Crist's College in Cambrigge'. The ceremony of the final act by which the king's College of Godshouse became known henceforth as Christ's College under the letters patent of Henry VII, of 1 May 1505, and the statutes given by the Lady Margaret, countess of Richmond and Derby, mother of the king, cannot be so fitly described as by quoting the instrument of the notary public then present, as translated by Mr Rackham:8 In the name of God Amen. Be it clearly known unto all men by the present public instrument that in the one thousand five hundred and sixth 1

2 Chr. Diseworth H. Chr. Malton drawer. 3 Chr. Roydon I. * GB. F, p. 41. 5 Chr. Masters's half-yearly accounts, ut supra, p. 265. 6 Funeral Sermon of Margaret Countess of Richmond and Derby, ed. Thomas Baker (London, 1708), Preface, p. xi. 7 Sic, but it must be remembered that it is only a transcript, though a contemporary transcript, diat is available; in the original or might be found. 8 Rackham, pp. 123 and 125.

INSTRUMENT OF NOTARY PUBLIC

295

year according to the course and reckoning of the Anglican Church from the Incarnation of the Lord in the tenth Indiction in the third year of the Pontificate of our most holy Father and Lord in Christ Lord Julius by divine providence of this name the second and on the third day of the month of October in a certain upper chamber of the wise Master John Siclyng Master or Keeper of Christ's College in Cambridge in the diocese of Ely near the gates in the same place and in the presence of me Notary Public and of the witnesses undersigned the venerable Master John Fotehed1 Bachelor in Sacred Theology present in person on behalf of and in the name of the most noble Lady Lady Margaret Countess of Richmond and Derby mother of the most illustrious King of England Henry VII did then and there hand over and deliver to the before mentioned John Siclyng as Master or Keeper of the said College certain Statutes for the said College as being the true and undoubted Statutes ordained by the same Lady Countess and entitled by her name at the beginning of each book of the befbresaid Statutes To W H I C H Statutes and to each book of the same made at the request of the said Master John Fotehed on behalf of and in the name of the said Lady Countess the before mentioned Master John Siclyng Keeper or Master of the aforesaid College did at the end of each openly publicly and expressly in his own hand subscribe his own name To THE SAME Statutes also moreover at the end of each book thereof then and there as stated the three ancient Fellows to wit Masters John Scott Edward Fowke and Thomas Nunne did subscribe their names severally in the form of a file and each of them did so subscribe his name with his own hand as evidently appears in those several books at the end of the Statutes in express and evident approval and ratification of the beforesaid Statutes so far as in them lies To THE C O N F I R M A T I O N and witnessing of which things all and sundry alike the before mentioned venerable Master John Fotehed and the said Master John Siclyng asked and requested and each of them by himself separately asked and requested me the undersigned Notary Public to make for them one or more public instrument or instruments for the perpetual memory and more evident proof thereof THESE THINGS all and sundry were done as above written and recited under the year of the Lord indiction pontificate month day and place aforesaid there being then and there present the venerable Masters Thomas Appilton* Bachelor in Sacred Theology and Giles Cowper^ Master of Arts of the dioceses of York and Norfolk specially called and invited as witnesses to the foregoing And I Thomas Gotson4 literate of the diocese of Lincoln by apostolic authority Notary Public was present in person together with the witnesses 1 Master of Michaelhouse in succession to Fisher, and a member of the Lady Margaret's council. 2 4

M.A. 11 March 1496; S.T.B. 1504/5. M.A. 1497; B.C.L. 20 June 1500; D.C.L. 1507/8.

3

M.A. 1501.

296 G O D S H O U S E A N D T H E LADY M A R G A R E T beforenamed at the showing handing over and delivering of the beforesaid Statutes at the requisition and signature or signatures of the names in die form above written and at die odier foregoing transactions all and sundry while they were being transacted and done in the foregoing manner under the year of the Lord indiction pontificate month day and place beforesaid and that diose diings all and sundry did so take place I saw and heard wrote published and reduced to this public form or present public instrument and signed with my usual and accustomed sign1 and name and subscribed myself hereto having been asked and requested to confirm and attest the foregoing transactions all and sundry. The Lady Margaret's statutes to which the assent of the Proctor and fellows of Godshouse was thus formally testified were published in Documents, vol. iii, from a copy of about 1600 which contains additions made at various dates. The original form of the statutes, certified by the autograph of the Lady Margaret and by those ofJohn Sydyng and the three 'old Fellows', has been used for the recently published critical edition2 by Harris Rackham, M.A., now senior fellow of the college. Mr Rackham writes: 'The Treasury Copy is the only original copy known to me to exist'3 but, happily, there is a copy preserved in the Public Record Office, bearing the papal confirmation of Julius the second, with the date 4 Kal. March 1508. It is in book form of fortyfour pages in all, of which the first three and part of the fourth contain the papal preamble while the actual words of confirmation are found on the final page; the bulk has disappeared. The statutes are recited in full but the countess's power to alter is limited by words inserted, doubtless at the direction of the papal authorities, providing that the changes she may make shall be reasonable and proper and not contrary to the sacred canons. The words "those Statutes alone' down to 'our good pleasure' inclusive4 are omitted entirely, as also the form of acceptance by the Master and fellows, thus agreeing with the Chapel copy.5 The latter omission is to be expected, for the acceptance had 1

la the margin of this paragraph is the signature Gotson Thomas laudem deo dicit in an elaborate design. 2 Early Statutes of Christ's College, Cambridge, 1927. 3 Op. cit. p. v. 4 Cf. supra, p. 292. 5 Rackham, pp. vi, 120.

PAPAL C O N F I R M A T I O N OF T H E S T A T U T E S

297

no relation to any matter needing papal confirmation but was a legal formality which we have shewn to be the culminating act of the foundation. On the other hand, the four clauses noted by Mr Rackham as added in the Chapel copy 1 are found also in the confirmation copy, from which it is obvious that these alterations and additions were made in the lifetime of the Lady Margaret. The preamble is interesting generally, but the only feature to which reference need here be made is the privilege conceded to the Master and fellows jhat each of them might have a portable altar upon which they might celebrate in the college and elsewhere, for themselves and their servants, even in places under interdict. The book is beautifully written on vellum in a hand characteristic of the curia at the period, and the spelling is more correct than that of the Treasury copy with which it is contemporary. There are no autographs of the Lady Margaret or the Master and fellows, and there is none of the illumination in which the Treasury copy is so rich; the opening or title page, however, is decorated by a beautiful initial and with elaborate floral scroll work. The pope's family arms (della Rovere), crowned with the papal tiara, are introduced, and at the foot of the page is seen a shield of the royal arms of England (not differenced), supported on the left by a tudoi rose within which is the sacred monogram, and on the right by a portcullis, all three being crowned. The binding is simple and dates from the end of the eighteenth or the beginning of the nineteenth century. Mr Rackham's edition includes both the foundress's and the earlier statutes, with a translation of both, and this, together with his introduction and notes, makes it unnecessary to print them here. He compares the Christ's with the earlier statutes, and both with those of Clare Hall, upon which the statutes given by Hurte and Scols were largely based, and leaves small occasion for further comment. As bearing, however, upon the view expressed above that there were prolonged discussions, and even differences arising from the discussions, between the foundress and her representatives and the Proctor and fellows of Godshouse whose assent and consent were required to give the statutes 1 Rackham, p. vii sq.

298 G O D S H O U S E A N D T H E LADY M A R G A R E T validity, consideration must be given to internal evidence clearly indicating their production under three separate influences. It is customary to attribute the actual work of preparing the statutes to Fisher,1 with the assistance of Erasmus according to some,3 but room should surely be found for the controlling influence of the Lady Margaret. To those who have given any serious consideration to the character of the Lady Margaret the tender side of her nature derives greater force from a clear recognition of her outstanding strength of will, and for them it is easy to believe that the expression of her dominating personality is likely to be found in the statutes she gave to the college. Although Christ's was her first college foundation it was not the first institution for which she provided statutes: Her owne housholde with mervaylous dylygence and wysedome this noble Prynces ordered, provydyng reasonable statutes and ordynances for them, which by her Officers she commanded to be rede four tymes a Year.3 A woman pre-occupied with many affairs, and concerned with the management of vast personal estates and the direction of numerous matters of public interest, she had the wisdom to attach to her service some of the ablest men of her time, but she was too deeply interested in all her concerns to delegate to others, without her own supervision, such a work as the making of statutes for her great new venture, in respect of some of whose details her authority and experience must have been greater than theirs. To Fisher must be attributed the more part of the statutes, and he may have been responsible for the phrasing of other parts, but the curious may see the hand of the foundress in certain portions.4 As to some of the salient features of the Christ's 1 3 4

1 Peile, p. 14; Rackham, p. ii. Peile, p. 18; Mullinger, i, 453, 470. Funeral Sermon, ed. Baker (London, 1708), p. 14. Such are, Ch. vi. Fisher to use her rooms. Ch. xxvi. Richmond to count as a separate county. Chs. vi and xun. Two in a room. Ch. xxix. Clean surplice. Ch. xxxi. A woman nurse. Ch. xxxiv. Country residence in time of plague. Ch. XIIV. Domestic details (admired by Fisher in her own household). Ch. XLVI. Fisher made visitor for life.

A D V A N C E D IDEAS IN T H E EARLIER S T A T U T E S 299 statutes in which Mullinger, for example, has seen originality, their true source is to be found in the portions of the statutes of Godshouse which those of the Lady Margaret reproduce; to some of these we now direct attention. (a) The basic purpose of the foundation of Godshouse, the making of masters in grammar to become masters of grammar schools, is continued, alike in the order of study to be pursued1 and in the provision that six pupils shall prepare themselves to be grammar school masters and shall take such posts when offered.2 (b) Those candidates are to have preference in elections of pupils and fellows who were born in places from which the college derives revenue.3 This was an addition made by the foundress before the acceptance of the statutes (Mr Rackham's comment, p. 151, leaves this uncertain), upon the representation, it is to be presumed, of Sydyng and the three 'old Fellows'. An instance of the operation of this provision during the Godshouse period has been noted.4 (c) The reader's, or lecturer's, office is maintained, as is the requirement that he shall be in residence during the long vacation,5 that admirable provision for giving opportunity to country schoolmasters to pursue their studies and qualify for degrees while their schools are closed for harvesting work. Mullinger has supposed the college lecturer to be an innovation in the foundress's statutes for Christ's 6 but the actual originator of this enlightened arrangement, with its momentous consequences, was William Byngham, as is shewn by his agreement with Ralph Barton made just before Byngham's death in 1451,7 an agreement reflected and perpetuated in the Godshouse statutes. Byngham initiated a movement which spread to other colleges, until college teaching finally displaced that of the university schools, a movement which has been reversed in stages during the last eighty years, culminating in the arrangements of the present time, whereby all college lecturers have now become university lecturers.8 1 3

Cf. Rackham, p. 25 for Godshouse with ibid. p. 99 for Christ's. Cf. Rackham, pp. 25-7 with ibid. pp. 107-9. 4 3 Cf. Rackham, p. 23 with ibid. pp. 119-21. Supra, p. 253. 5 Cf. Rackham, p. 29 with ibid. pp. 99-101; supra, p. 137. 6 7 Mullinger, i, 459. Supra, pp. 135 sqq. 8 This is not meant to indicate that the colleges have forfeited rights to the university but refers only to existing practice. Colleges still have the power to appoint college lecturers, a right safeguarded by their recent statutes in every instance: it may even be that in some special subjects the appointment of a college lecturer is still made, as by Trinity Hall of its law lecturer, but the broad fact is that die lectureships by which the teaching of the university is given are held by university lecturers appointed, controlled and remunerated by the university through boards deriving authority from it.

300 G O D S H O U S E A N D T H E LADY M A R G A R E T ((/) Pensioners or perendinantes had been found in various colleges before the sixteenth century1 though Mullinger knew of no recognition of them in college statutes earlier than those of Christ's% (ch. XLV); but the foundress in that chapter only gave more elaborate form to an arrangement already existing at, and recognised in the statutes of, Godshouse.3 (e) Byngham and Brokley are brought forward from the statutes of Godshouse amongst those to be prayed for, though the Fishwicks are no longer given specific mention and, as might be expected, Edward IV and his family are ignored.4 In so far as Mullinger finds reason for seeing the hand of Erasmus hi the clause providing 'for the study of the poets and orators of antiquity' it is clear that, if Mullinger had known the Godshouse statutes he would have seen that the supposed Erasmic touch had there been anticipated; it was certainly an original provision of Byngham's,5 and the statutes of Hurte and Scols provide, that after two or three years given 'to sophistry and logic.. .the Scholars shall return once more to learn the subtler and deeper parts of Grammar, namely to study hi the books of Priscian and of Virgil and other poets and hi the science of metrification and versification and hi the other like matters'. 6 Mr Rackham has observed7 that 'Proctor' has been omitted from the title of the head of the college and he has connected that fact with the loss o f the last trace of dependence on Clare Hall'. It has been shewn that there never was any dependence of Godshouse upon Clare Hall,8 and it has also been shewn that, for fifteen years previous to the date of the Christ's statutes, the title 'Proctor' had been dropping into the background because of its liability to confusion with the university officer of that name.9 Latterly, 'Master' had been taking its place, and even hi those formal statutory documents, the half-yearly statements of audited accounts, at Easter 1497, 1502 and 1506, Master is placed first, the form hi these documents being Johannes Syclyng Magister, procurator 1 2

Mullinger, i, 624, n. 2; cf. John Venn, Early Collegiate Life, pp. 49, 66.

Mullinger, i, 459. 3 Cf. Rackham, pp. 29, 33 and 115. 4 Cf. Rackham, pp. 37, 39 and 89. 5 Indenture of Agreement with Ralph Barton (1451), infra, pp. 375 sqq.; cf. supra, pp. 135, 1376 Rackham, p. 25; cf. his comment, p. 149. 8 7 Page 142. Supra, pp. 105 sqq. 9 Supra, p. 270.

NEWFEATURESOFTHEFOUNDRESS'S STATUTES301 sive custos collegii de goddishowse. In his comment upon ch. xv, where the Chancellor is now substituted for the Master of Clare, Mr Rackham writes that the change is consequent upon the same disappearance of dependency.1 The abandonment of any reference to the Master of Clare and his fellows, and those of Corpus, as assessors is rather to be attributed to changed personal relationships; Byngham introduced the former because of his own connection with Clare and Syclyng had, quite naturally, introduced Corpus in the same way. That the Lady Margaret should use the Chancellor (at that time Bishop Fisher), the Master of Michaelhouse (then Fotehed, a member of her council) and the Provost of King's College and their successors is as might be expected, and for similar reasons of choice. The Master of the college is better housed under the new than under the old statutes. He now has all the rooms below those of the foundress, whereas formerly he had but one, 'the principal or best room of the said College being always reserved for the Proctor, Master or Keeper'; * we have seen that Syclyng's room was 'a certain upper chamber.. .near the gates'.3 Chapter xix 4 of the statutes provides a form of oath to be taken by the Master immediately after election, but this could not apply to Syclyng, who was never elected Master of Christ's but became so in virtue of his mastership of Godshouse; the name of the house was changed but there was no vacancy of mastership involved. It was perhaps owing to this peculiar position that the arrangement for a bond to be given by the Master was devised ;5 Syclyng could not have taken the oath without discrediting his position as Master qua Master of Godshouse, but he was induced to give the bond.6 There is the possibility that Syclyng's reluctance to assent to some of the provisions in the new statutes may have disposed Fisher to introduce this novel requirement. Much has been made of the clause in their oaths binding 1

2 Rackham, p. 144. Ibid. p. 27. 3 Instrument of Notary Public, Rackham, p. 123. 4 5 Rackham, p. 69. Ibid. p. 71. 6 Thomas Baker, History of St John's College, p. 57. Fisher found this device of a bond to be good and he introduced it into die statutes of St John's College.

302 G O D S H O U S E A N D T H E LADY M A R G A R E T Master and fellows to abstain from seeking a dispensation to over-ride the statutes,1 but this does not appear to be more than one of those elaborations in phrase of which there are numerous instances in the Christ's statutes. The relevant part of the oath of the Proctor-elect of Godshouse runs 'and he will not do or procure to be done anything by remedy of appeal or of any law, or otherwise in any manner, to prevent the Ordinances and Statutes of the said College from being able to remain in force in every part of them'; 3 the wording would seem to extend to cover even an appeal to the Roman curia. Dispensation had become an increasingly grave scandal as the fifteenth century advanced; there had been loud complaints of the abuse of this papal privilege at the reforming councils of Constance and Bale, but nothing of moment was done to check a system entrenched behind the finance of the curia. Pope Adrian VI, that earnest reformer, found himself helpless to arrest the abuse because the issue of dispensations had been farmed out for a term of years by his predecessor, Leo X. It is not surprising that a man of Bishop Fisher's character should, in such circumstances, be moved to mention specifically in the forms of oath and bond a mode of over-riding the statutes which, in less evil days, had been included in the more general terms of the form of oath provided in the statutes of Godshouse; he may even have welcomed the opportunity of recording in this way his protest against the abuse. It has been maintained above that the letters patent of i May 1505 did not constitute in themselves alone the foundation of Christ's College, but that they required the complementary and completing acts of the giving of statutes by the foundress, and their formal acceptance by the Master and fellows of Godshouse,3 in order that the licence and purpose of the letters might be fulfilled. Those acts having been done on the third day of October 1506, it would appear that it is from that day the foundation should be reckoned, the day on which the bud of the College of Godshouse burst into the full flower of the College of Christ. Thomas Baker took some such view two hundred years ago when he wrote: 1

George Peacock, Observations on the Statutes of the University, p. 99 and n. r; Mullinger, i, 456 sqq. 2

Rackham, p. 11.

3 Supra, p. 291 sq.

A C T U A L F O U N D A T I O N D A T E OF CHRIST'S 303 This foundation has been plac'd in the year 1505, the Statutes were not given nor the Foundation perfected, till the year following. The original Obligation of John Sydyng (last Master of God's House and first Master of Christ's College) is yet extant under his Hand and Seal, for die observing of the Foundresses statutes.. .bearing date Sept. 5 Ann. 22 Hen. 7, [1506] from which Day and Year, I suppose and not sooner, the Government and Statutes of that College took place and begun to be in force.1 It is no small pleasure to have a conclusion reached independently confirmed by the judgement of so acute and accurate an observer as this distinguished antiquary. Baker was apparently not aware of the instrument of the notary public, Thomas Gotson, which alone supplies the actual date of the presentation by the foundress of the statutes and their acceptance by Sydyng and the three 'old Fellows'. If that document had been known to him, he would have seen that Syclyng's bond given on 5 September was anticipatory of the formal acceptance of the statutes four weeks later and the two conclusions would have been literally, as they are none the less substantially, in agreement. The mention and participation of the three old fellows {yeteres socii, antiqui socii) in the statutes and their acceptance, as also in the instrument of the notary public, deserves consideration. Oldfellows clearly has no reference to age but rather to fellows of the old foundation then about to be merged in the new, and yet age would be a factor amongst others in their choice, since none other than those of legal age would be competent to take part in such formal legal matters upon whose due completion great issues would hang. Mention has been made previously 2 of three fellows being feoffees and of a fourth who was a perendinans or pensioner being called in to complete the tale; it was there assumed that use of a person outside the foundation might have been resorted to because the fourth fellow then in the college was below the age of legal competence. It may be confidently held that there was a fourth fellow of Godshouse at the date of the formal assent being given to the statutes; any other belief would involve the assumption that the Lady Margaret, whose great purpose was the enlargement of the college in numbers no less than in income, was content to look on while its numbers diminished. It seems possible to go further and believe that, 1

The Funeral Sermon of Margaret Countess of Richmond and Derby, ed. Thomas

Baker (London, 1708), p. xi.

* Supra, pp. 190, 20a.

304 G O D S H O U S E A N D T H E LADY M A R G A R E T consequent upon the countess's beneficent intervention in the affairs of the College of Godshouse, an even larger number of fellows might have been added than previously found therein. They could not be of the new foundation for, as we have shewn, that did not possess statutory existence until formal assent was given to the statutes of Christ's College; there was, however, no obstacle to overcome, save that of inadequate provision for exhibition andfinding,to the addition of numerous fellows to Godshouse. The limit to the number of fellows under the charter was sixty, and under the statutes of Godshouse twentysix, in both cases the Proctor being included, and the bounty of the countess would allow of the election up to the statutory number, by the removal of the only obstacle. That such action was taken under the old foundation, during the year or more immediately preceding the signing of the statutes on 3 October 1506, cannot be definitely asserted, but it would be a likely step for the foundress to take; no person who may have been so appointed has been included in the number of those whom we have traced in the Grace Books as being of Godshouse,1 and who are found later of Christ's College. Such beneficent action would be in harmony with the words used by the countess relative to Christ's College in the last chapter of her statutes: We reserve to ourselves, as long as we live, entire authority to elect all Scholars, alike Fellows and Pupils, and also the Master himself; and we desire that no one else be deemed as Master and Fellows by the aforesaid Master and the three beforesaid Fellows, whom we shall not have approved by name. If the countess did so use her wealth, and did so exercise a very reasonable and proper prerogative, as to provide new fellows of Godshouse while awaiting the complete foundation of its extension, those, though fellows of Godshouse, would be new fellows in contradistinction to the three oldfellows who alone could give that formal assent to the statutes which we have shewn to be the concluding stage of the negotiations between the Lady Margaret and Godshouse, and the condition precedent to the emergence in full complete and legal stature and form of Christ's College. 1

Infra, pp. 379-83.

Chapter XVII SYCLYNG'S D E A T H A N D WILL

J

ohn Syclyng has been supposed to have ruled Christ's College for little more than a year, and in arriving at that conclusion Dr Peile1 presumably calculates from i May 1505. He dates his death 9 June 1507; Masters, ed. Lamb,* gives it as 9 June 1509, from which it may be supposed Cooper copies in Aihenae, but none supplies his authority. Syclyng was still Master of Christ's in a document bearing the date 28 November 1506,3 by which all the properties given to the college by the foundress are granted to John Syklyng, Master, and the college. Eleven days later, 9 December 1506,4 Richard Wyatt is Master and his name appears again 28 January 1507,5 in a lease of the great orchard, now Fellows' Garden. It is disappointing not to possess exact knowledge of the date upon which the college suffered the loss by death of this great Master. His will bears the date 24 September 1506 and it was the practice of the great majority of people of his period to make their testaments on the visible approach or threat of death. The important function attending the presentation and acceptance of the statutes was observed 'in a certain upper chamber of the wise Master John Siclyng Master or Keeper of Christ's College.. .near the gates in the same place'; and when it is remembered that he was waited upon there by the foundress's representative, the Master of Michaelhouse, by the notary public, and by two independent persons specially called as witnesses to represent the university, it is impossible to resist the conclusion that Syclyng was at that time a very sick man; in any other condition he and his fellows would have been required to wait upon the Master of Michaelhouse as representing the Lady Margaret. A Master of a college was neces1

Christ's College, p. 41; but cf. Biog. Reg. i, 4. History of Corpus Christi College (1831), p. 311. 3 Chr. Diseworth K. * Chr. Misc. B, 18. 5 Chr. Master's House, A.

2

LHC

20

306

SYCLYNG'S D E A T H A N D W I L L

sarily an unmarried man, and in ill-health he had nowhither to retire; if Syclyng's illness had any semblance of being a passing one, a locum tenens was provided for by the statutes to act for him during his incapacity but, as has been shewn, a successor in the office of Master was acting on 9 December 1506. The alternative available to-day, of the resignation of a Master stricken with fatal illness, is not likely for the beginning of the sixteenth century; men resigned to take other offices (Syclyng's two immediate successors did so) but the sick Master remained, having his duties performed by a deputy, until death bore him away. It is to be assumed therefore that Syclyng died at the end of November, or very early in December, 1506. Syclyng's will was copied by Baker; l this copy has been collated with the contemporary transcript in the Vice-Chancellor's register of wills,2 from which it differs in certain small details, mostly orthographical.' For the present purpose the contemporary transcript has been used and is reproduced below; it is unfortunate that it bears no copy of the certificate of probate since that would have given more exact guidance as to the date of the testator's death. The transcript in the register follows immediately after that of the will of Laurence Elvered, dated 22 July 1506, and is itself followed by that of Laurence Lyster 26 September 1508. The original will is not at Peterborough, or known elsewhere. In Dei nomine Amen. The 24m daye of September the yer of owr Lord rn.ccccc.vj the yere of the raynge of Kynge Henry the VIIth XXIIth I Jhon Sylynge [sic] Master and Kepper of Crists college in Cambryge beyng in good and nolle rnynd^ make my Wyll in thys maner. fyrste I bequeydie my sowle to almyty god to owr lady sent Mary and to all the holye company of hevyn. my body to be beryde within the chapell of crysts college to the wych chapell I gyve my beste coverlytt to ly on the hersse and to hange on die chapell wall att hye fests. Also to the sayde college I gyffe my beste brasse potte my best caudorne my best pane my best spett and iij grett chests4 the Decreys and die Decretalls w4 a manuell and iiij auter dothys. Also I gyffe to the hye Auter of sent Andrewys chyrche in Cambryge 1 1 3 4

Harl. 7033, ff. 204 sqq. (Baker, vol. vi). Now in the District Probate Registry at Peterborough. There is no mention of health of body. Two of these survive, cf. infra, pp. 337 sqq.

TRANSCRIPT OF THE WILL s

d

307 d

iij iiij for tythys and offeryngs forgotyn and to Mr Nell xx And to the vikar of Waddon xx"1. Also the reparacyon of the sayde chyrche.vj8 viij*. To the universyte vjs viijd Also to the hye auter of sent benetts vj8 viijd to benette College my best potte so on [sic]l and lykewyse a pane. Also to the hy auter of sent Peters in Sudbery yjs viijd my sauter my processyonary a latyn basyn a chest the wych ys in the kepyng of maute gren. [? Maude Green]. Also to the ymage of owr lady a payer of bedds* of [?] with a rynge of sylver with ij bedds of aumber a broche of gold with a rynge wyth a safer3 Also to the hy auter of all halowse in sudbery iij8 iiijd to the freers of sudbury iij8 iiijd. Also to M r Thomas Nunn fer a yeres seruyse to be sunge in Cambryge for my sowll & for the sowlls of my ffader & of my moder of Sr Jhonffullarhys fader & hys moder & crysten sowlls v11 vj8 viijd Also to George my broder iij11 vj8 viijd the wyche he owthe to me. Also I gyffe to hym a dublett clothe of worsted to hys wyffe a payer of beds and to Jhon hys sone my godson a portowse4 and ij sylver sponys Also to Jhen my syster of Medam xx8 the wyche she owthe to me. Also I gyffe to hyer a gold rynge and a payer of bedds. Also to Jhen my older syster, vj8 viijd a coverlett a blankett a payer of shetts & a payer of bedds Also to Thomas ' thyrlbern the elder my feder bed the wych ys att Drayton during hys lyffe or hys wyffs & after ther Dethe to remayn to Jhon hys sone the yonger. Also I gyffe a gowne to the sayd Jhon the wyche was M r lewyngs And to thomas thyrlbern the yonger a nother gowne & a payer of shetts And to rose thyrlbern a nother payer of shetts. Also to Edward Artweke I gynffe all his sysyngs the wyche he owthe to me att thys tyme & xx8 to hys Determynaryon & the beste of thys ij gownyse a must'd delerS & a vyolett. & to Thomas hudson the toder. Ako to M r Stevynson a sengell vyolett gown Also to mekellan aldyngfeld6 chyrche to by a processyonary iij8 iiijd Also to M r skotte vj8 viijd the wyche he owthe for hys sysyng to Jhon ward a nold short gowen. The resedew of All my gods nott afor bequethde as well moveabull as onmoveabull howse & londe with therpertynents that ys to seye iij tenements in Sudburye & a bowt ij acrese off londe lyng in mych cornerd7 I gyffe and bequaythe to my exequitors that thay dysposse them to the plesur of god & the helthe off my solle hom I make my crew and 1

Baker has 'spoon'. * I.e. beads. I.e. sapphire. * A portable breviary. 5 A word variously spelt referring to a doth, and often to a colour so called from that of a cloth, manufactured formerly in die town of Montivilliers (in medieval times Moustervillers) in Normandy. 6 Great Waldingfield, a few miles north-east of Sudbury. The medieval clerk has misread the initial ' w ' as 'an', adding those letters to mekell; 'mekelT is a variant of mickle, great. Muskett's (Suffolk Manorial Families) suggested identification with Little Waldingfield cannot be accepted. 7 Great Cornard, near Sudbury. 3

20-2

308

SYCLYNG'S D E A T H A N D WILL

faythfull executors Mr Roberd Chapell Felow off Peterhowse M r Symeon fiyncham parson of benett chyrch And Mr Thomas Nunn ffelow of crysts College to all thyese premisays wytnes M r Jhori Scotte Sr Edward Aurtweke Jhon thyrlbern Thomas Hodson & other mo. From the will comes such knowledge as remains of the family of John Syclyng. It was of the county of Suffolk (a branch of the Suckling family according to Muskett),1 being domiciled in and about Sudbury. The testator mentions his brother George, his nephew and godson Tohn; his sister Jane, and his older sister Jane. He was a man of means if not of wealth, but the non-survival of the inventory denies us the opportunity of estimating the testator's financial position. Syclyng left money legacies amounting to more than .£13. 105. od., besides those which took the form of jewelry, books, silver, ecclesiastical textiles, household utensils, furniture and personal clothing. The value of the residue of his estate is unspecified but it was substantial; we know for instance that the college was in his debt six months before his death, in the sum of .£34. 145. 4.^., having previously owed him a larger amount, which almost necessarily implies that he had other moneys available out of which to finance the elastic requirements of Godshouse. The modern equivalent of his money legacies may be put down as over three hundred pounds and, while disclaiming any power to gauge with exactitude the total value of his possessions, we may safely conclude that, on the plane of modern values, his estate would be expressed in terms of thousands of pounds. Such an estate, including money out on loan, tenements and lands, would take long to realise and it was not until 1508 that the small bequest to the university was received by the proctors at the hands of Thomas Nunne. 8 The settlement with Mr Seyntwary, bursar of Corpus Christi College, was not made until 23 September 1511, when Simeon Fyncham, another 'executor of Mr Sekelyng', accounted for sums due by Syclyng to that college, and Seyntwary with Fyncham for sums due to Syclyng's estate by Corpus, the balance being about three pounds in favour of the estate. The residue must have been far larger than the portion of the estate 1

Op. cit. ii, 177 sqq.

J

GB. B 1 , p. 232.

LEGATEES I D E N T I F I E D

309

specifically distributed by the testator and, in accordance with custom, it was bequeathed to his executors to their discretionary use for the benefit of his soul. There is nothing to shew how they discharged that trust, but they must have known his desires since they were his personal friends, resident in Cambridge, one of them a fellow of his own college. In the circumstances, it seems probable that the residue would be employed to the advantage of the college to which he had given his life and in whose chapel he wished to be buried. What form the benefit to the college took there is no evidence to shew, but it was not that of a perpetual obit or other service. The executors obeyed the direction as to burial, and they placed upon the tomb slab a monumental brass of which the effigy alone exists to-day. Some of the names mentioned in the will are identifiable in the records of the college, of Corpus Christi and other colleges, and of the university. Scott and Nunne were fellows of Godshouse and of Christ's (Fowke is not named); Simeon Fyncham was not only rector of St Bene't church but had been Syclyng's co-fellow at Corpus.1 Artweke is shewn by the will to have been a pensioner in Godshouse and in Christ's, as was possibly the case also with Thomas Hudson and John Ward. The absence of any description attached to the names of Mr Stevynson and [the late] Mr Lewyng may be due to a similar connection making description unnecessary. The Thyrlberns are not found in any lists of the members of the college or of the university; there are five members of the family, and the context suggests that they may have been parishioners of Syclyng at Fendrayton. This assumption is supported by the discovery, in a schedule* of the arrears due to the college about 1509, that Thomas Thyrlbern was fanner at that time of the rectory of Fendrayton. The name of the vicar of Whaddon is not supplied in 1

Fyncham was elected fellow in i486, a year before Syclyng (Corpus documents);

he was instituted to St Benedict 17 September 1498 (Ely Ale. f. 117)- He was M.A. in 1485 (GB. A, p. 200), and was in London with Syclyng on university business in 1496 (GB. B 1 , p. 92). He was granted dispensation from attendance at certain congregations on account of his ecclesiastical duties in 1501 and again in 1505 (GB. B 1 , p. 160 and GB. V, p. 38). He became bachelor in theology in 1504 (GB. Y, p. 29) and died in 1512 (Masters, app. p. 7). 2 Chr. Misc. E.

310

SYCLYNG'S D E A T H A N D W I L L

the will but it was Thomas Taverner; 1 and we are left guessing as to the personality of'Mr Nell', with a feeling that he may have been connected with the church of St Andrew. So indeed he was, but he is not found there in Crosby's Incumbents; he is described as curate of St Andrew in Cambridge in John Fabbe's will,3 8 August 1504, where his name is given as 'Mr Richard Nelle', successor in that office to 'Mr Roger', who likewise was not known to Crosby. The history of a small college must of necessity partake largely of the history of its heads in their relation to its affairs; Masters's History of Corpus Christi College is a sufficient illustration. This general truth is especially applicable to the case of a college whose fellows were required by its statutes to be of undergraduate standing when elected, and were compelled to vacate their fellowship on completion of their first year of regency at latest. It is owing to such circumstances that Syclyng's story has been narrated in detail, for the history of the college during his sixteen years of headship could not have been told otherwise. If the detailed presentation of Syclyng's life and work has not enabled the reader to form an estimate of his character, no summary that could be attempted here could be expected to succeed. His industry, his many-sided activities, involving not the pluralist's enjoyment of sinecures but the simultaneous discharge of duties in various offices, each of which would have demanded from many men their whole-time attention, have caused historians such as Baker and Cole to discuss the possibility that the offices may have been occupied by two contemporary persons of the same name. The year 1491/2 saw him fellow and bursarpresident of Corpus, Proctor or Master of Godshouse, and senior proctor of the university; the year 1500/1 Proctor or Master of Godshouse, rector of Fendrayton, and senior proctor of the university. Moreover, the manner of his discharge of the responsibilities of this multiplicity of offices is best seen in the fact that, whenever the Chancellor, Vice-Chancellor and Masters of the University needed help in difficult matters where tact, judgement and knowledge of affairs were required it was to the capable head of Godshouse that they turned. 1 2

Crosby, p. 293, derived from a visitation. P.C.C. 4 Adeane.

A GREAT MASTER

311

With these qualities he blended a gift for friendship and brought all into account in the service of Godshouse. While aiding Stockdale in the difficult tasks of 1495/6 he established claims which possibly enabled him to find the solution for the awkward problem of the Godshouse statutes; and in his lifelong friendship with Fisher, helped by that good man's appreciation of his virtues and his services in the settlement of the controversy between the university and the town, he laid the foundation upon which was built the Lady Margaret's interest in her uncle's smaller college. Well might he be styled by that experienced lawyer, Thomas Gotson, 'the wise Master John Sidyng'. Byngham planted, Hurte, Fallan, Basset and Barton watered, but the increase came through the labours of Syclyng by divine influence working in the heart of the Lady Margaret. Under the royal founders, the good-natured, superstitious Henry, the saintly, generous, tender but virile Lady Margaret Beaufort, there stand, pre-eminent over all others, the triumvirate Byngham, Fisher, Syclyng. Byngham the college knows and Fisher it knows, and each has such honour in stained glass and commemoration as the college has in its power to give; but Syclyng has been only a name and he finds not a place in the omnium gatherum of distinguished persons who crowd the window of the hall. Time has been kinder in one respect, however, to him than to Byngham; his executors buried his body in the college chapel as he directed, and his monumental brass effigy, remaining for centuries unidentified, has lately been established for what it is.1 The inscription setting out his name, his quality, and his virtues as seen by his contemporaries, has gone, torn away perhaps by the arch-iconoclast Dowsing because those whose eyes rested on the slab were invited to pray for Syclyng's soul. His effigy as a priest remains, attired in academical costume, his hands upraised in prayer in a manner peculiar to monumental brasses of the time in which he lived. The figure lies on its original tomb slab on the floor within the altar rails, in or near the position where Syclyng must frequently have stood and moved when engaged in those solemn rites which it was his duty as priest and Master 1

Lloyd, C.A.S. Proceedings, xxxiii, 78-82.

312

SYCLYNG'S D E A T H A N D W I L L

to observe. His aspect is benign, his long locks fall upon his shoulders; the figure is that of a man in middle life and has character enough to be a portrait. To members of the college it is a striking presentation of a devoted son and head of the house upon which they may gaze, remembering the while that they owe to him more than they can pay, so observing the spirit, if not the letter, of the appeal to their charity that once lay in words inscribed on the plate placed by his executors at his feet. John Syclyng died at the age of about forty-seven, an age which, even in those days of shorter average life than now, was comparatively early; his friend and contemporary, the blessed John Fisher, lived till the age of at least sixty-five,1 and then met a martyr's death. Nevertheless, Syclyng saw the fruit of his labours before passing to his reward, though some of the developments which engaged his attention in his last months of life were not formally completed until after his death. Such are the licences of the bishop of Ely conferring greater privileges upon the chapel and its exemption from visitation, dated 6 December 1506, and the lease, perpetually renewable, of the 'great orchard', now Fellows' Garden, signed by Syclyng's successor, 28 January 1507. That triangular piece bounded by Walles Lane, the Corpus strip and the chapel area, the date of whose conveyance Willis and Clark failed to trace, came to the college 28 August 1507, being conveyed2 to Richard Wyatt, then Master of Christ's. Wyatt's reign was a short one; he succeeded Syclyng in December 1506, but held office for only eighteen months; he resigned in June 1508,3 having been instituted 11 May that year to the rectory of Bingham, Nottinghamshire,4 the parish where lived the family of William Byngham. He was followed in the mastership by Dr Thomas Thompson. The history of these successors of Syclyng must not be pursued here since, for the purpose of this book, the early history of Christ's College must end at the point where it ceased to be styled by the earlier, equivalent name, Godshouse. 1 2 Cf. infra, p. 391 sq. Chr. Camb. Ab. 3 Chr. Misc. A, 9, cf. infra, p. 317, n. 3, p. 328, n. 1. It is clear that his dates of mastership should be 1506-8, and Thompson's 1508-17, instead of as in Univ. Cat. 4 Godfrey, p. 16.

Chapter XVIII THE BUILDINGS AND FURNITURE REMAINING FROM THE GODSHOUSE PERIOD

T

he purchase of the Fishwick tenements by Basset in 1468 completed the site of Godshouse; thereafter it neither gained nor diminished in area up to the advent of the Lady Margaret. Even more may be said, for all her buildings were comprised within its space and the first structure placed upon land outside the Godshouse site was Fellows' Building, erected in 1640-2. The area thus attained in 1468 was nearly equal to the present open space of the Great Court of Trinity; to be more exact, the Great Court has an area of about ten thousand square yards while the site of Godshouse occupied about nine thousand. The development since 1448, when the tenements of Tiltey and Denney alone were possessed, becomes impressive when it is recognised that, at the date when the Lady Margaret's statutes were given and accepted, the college possessed and had possessed for nearly forty years a site which already had absorbed the full frontage to Preacher Street (St Andrew's Street) which it has to-day, from Walks Lane (Hobson Street) to Hangman's Lane or Rogues' Alley (Christ's Lane); included the whole area of the present first court and ran back behind it to the watercourse, shewn in the plan, a few feet to the west of Fellows' Building; included sufficient space behind the north range of the court to provide a marginal area between that range and the triangular space acquired 28 August 1507.1 Of the buildings on this ground during the Godshouse period, there is evidence for the existence of a gateway in the present position; a range of chambers on each side of the gateway; 1

Cf. site plan between pp. 132-3.

314

BUILDINGS AND FURNITURE

a chapel in the present position; a range of chambers between the wrest end of the chapel and the range on the north side of the gateway; a hall and a kitchen, essential buildings which are known to have existed in Byngham's day, presumably on the eastern side of the court; a dovehouse, as shewn in Loggan's print of 1688. How the south side of the court was occupied could only be the subject of a guess; it is quite likely that the buildings found there when the various plots were acquired were still serving in their makeshift, adapted forms. There remains alone to be considered what portions of the house which formed the home of the College of Godshouse, at the time when the Lady Margaret began to be interested in its welfare, form part of the outward dwelling of the College of Christ as we see it to-day. These are: (a) the chapel; (b) the gateway; (c) the chambers between the gateway and the chapel, forming the north-west angle of the court; with the following fittings: (d) the lectern; (e) the great chest of Byngham's period; (/) two of Syclyng's chests. Syclyng's monumental brass in the chapel, and the Fowler brass in the ante-chapel, though laid down during the Lady Margaret's lifetime, are just too late for inclusion with the above.1 Treating of these six features in detail, we shall be able to shew that the claim to a Godshouse date is based in each case upon solid grounds. (a) It has been thought that the buildings of Godshouse included a chapel,3 though the author of that belief has been shy of its logical application when considering the licence of James Stanley, bishop of Ely, granted in December 1506. No one hitherto has had the temerity 1

Cf. infra, p. 339.

2

W. and C. ii, 192.

T H E E V I D E N C E FOR A G O D S H O U S E C H A P E L 315 to suggest that any portion of the Godshouse chapel survives to-day, and the claim about to be made that the chapel of Christ's College, despite many changes and adaptations to the artistic tastes and ritual needs of successive centuries, is in essence the chapel of Syclyng's proctorship, and possibly of Basset's, will call for the fullest possible proof. That there was a Godshouse chapel is clearly established by the references in the building accounts of 1510 to (1) 'the slate that couered the old chapelT, (2) the 'settinge up of all the old glasse in the chapelT, (3) 'the mendyng of thorgans', (4) an old 'presse in the Revestrie'. This was not a chapel built by the Lady Margaret in 1506, since there is sufficient documentary evidence to shew its existence in 1504; thus, Syclyng buys in or before that year 'rwffe tyle for the chapel in his college', and John Fabbe of Burwell, clerk, leaves by his will dated 10 August 1504 two books 'to the Chappell of Godds House'. A chapel was in existence on 12 December 1506, when James Stanley, bishop of Ely, stepson of the Lady Margaret, gave licence for the celebration of divine service there, saying that she, foundress of the College of Christ, had constructed, erected and built in the same college a certain suitable chapel in honour of Christ and had caused it to be consecrated. Willis and Clark can understand the terms of this licence only by suggesting that it is anticipatory of the erection of the chapel which they say was completed in 1511; and they proceed to say that such licences were often granted soon after the laying of the foundation stone or even before.1 There are such difficult instances to be encountered elsewhere, and the suggestion of Willis and Clark is that ordinarily employed for their interpretation, but resort to it is never satisfying and, in this case, it fails to explain the very definite statements of the chapel having been built and, especially, of its having been consecrated. Licences, whether episcopal or royal, when given in advance make their anticipatory character clear: as in the royal charter to Godshouse of 26 August 1446, where licence is given that the college may be established and that, when so established, it shall be called in perpetuity the College of Godeshous in Cambridge and may do and 1

W. and C. ii, 200.

316

BUILDINGS AND FURNITURE

enjoy certain things. If the licence of the bishop of Ely had looked forward to a chapel still to be erected, which was not in fact consecrated until more than three years later, it would have used such words as would express that meaning. The actual form implies that the countess herself had built the chapel and caused it to be hallowed, but that is due to the circumstances. She asked for a favour from her stepson for a college of which she had become the foundress; to him it was her college, and it was her chapel that was already built and had been already consecrated. That the chapel was in being and was hallowed, was all that mattered to the bishop.1 The will of John Syclyng, dated 24 September 1506, directed that his body should be buried within the chapel of Christ's College; wills in those days were rarely made before the time when death was more or less imminent and Syclyng's was not an exception. It is difficult to believe that he had in prospect his burial in a chapel which was not yet begun, and was not in fact consecrated (burial in unconsecrated ground was unthinkable) until three years or more from that date. Syclyng's testamentary reference was to Godshouse chapel which, with the college as a whole, was then becoming Christ's. The Godshouse chapel was on the site of the present chapel. We find included in the building accounts of 1510 a sum of 75. 6d. paid to hire a house for a year and a half in which to lay the slates that covered the old chapel.* If the old chapel had been on another site its slates would have remained on its roof until the new chapel roof was ready to receive them; the college by that arrangement would have enjoyed the use of its own chapel for divine service for a year and a half longer, and the rent of the hired house would have been saved. We shall see later how interim provision for services was made when the need arose, and it will be clear that the slates were removed so long before because 1 The licence obtained by Godshouse for die chapel when first built and consecrated has not survived. As in the cases of odier collegiate chapels, it would be given as to a private chapel and subject to limitations, which varied even from college to college. The licence to the Lady Margaret must have widened the privileges of the Godshouse chapel, but it is obvious that it already enjoyed the right of sepulture. Willis and Clark have a valuable section upon Collegiate Chapels in their third volume, pp. 484 to 524. * W . and C. ii, 192, n. 2.

EXPENDITURE U P O N THE CHAPEL

317

the site they covered was the one destined for the new chapel. The site of the present chapel is that which the chapel of Godshouse would naturally occupy. Every college chapel in Cambridge of medieval date, with the single exception of Gonville and Caius,1 stands on the north side of the first court. It would be a mistake to suppose that the chapel of Godshouse was an insignificant edifice such as a simple room adapted from other uses to serve as an oratory. The hire of a house at 55. per annum, say ,£6. 1 os. od. to-day, to receive the roof slate argues a building of considerable size, and though the Lady Margaret's chapel was not consecrated until June 1510, and not finished until 1511,* there was in June 1508 a chapel with a vestry, equipped with jewels, ornaments and other religious furniture thereto belonging.3 The chapel of the Lady Margaret's providing was the last of her buildings to be erected. When the accounts begin to deal with the chapel in 1510 they refer incidentally to the library, the hall, the kitchen, the muniment room over the gate of entrance and the great chambers, meaning the foundress's chambers now the Master's Lodge, all as being completed buildings. They then proceed to specify details of expenditure upon the chapel, beginning 5 January 1510, and the nature of the work is described in the significant words: 'Paymentes.. .abowte the perfitement and fynysshynge of the chapell with in the said College and other to dyuerse artificers and laborers as herafFter folowith'.4 There ensues a series of items of money laid out on glazing (including setting of the old glass), making of images, mending the organs, altar curtains, additional presses for the revestry, a portal (in the screens) and stalls, a seat from the entrance door to the turret stair (i.e. along the full length of the present ante-chapel west wall), 'waynscott' for 1 The chapel of Gonville Hall obtained its position on the south side because the buildings existing on the north side when the site was acquired were adaptable to other purposes, while the south side was free. a W. and C. ii, 197, 200. 3 Misc. A, 9. Richard Wyatt, second master of Christ's, retired in June 1508 and he thought it wise to take an acquittance from die fellows diat he had 'delivered... all... goods money plate Implements utensills and hostilments of die said College and also all die Juells ornaments and Reliquis belongyng to die Chapell and Revestry 4 Quoted in W . and C. ii, 196. widiin die same College'.

318

BUILDINGS AND FURNITURE

'the selynge of the quere', 1 carving, painting, the Easter sepulchre, and an especially large sum for the pavement which was partly of marble. There is no reference to any work or to any expenditure that suggests the erection of a building de novo; everything set forth points to the 'perfitement and fynysshynge' of a pre-existing building. There is clear evidence that the roof was removed in the statement that a house was hired for a year and a hah0in which to store 'the slate that couered the old chapell'. That payment, recorded as made in 1510, indicates that the old roof had been stripped late in 1508. The evidence so far has been directed to shew that the accounts and other documents are opposed to the belief hitherto held that the Lady Margaret and her executors built an entirely new chapel. The critical examination of the building brings evidence which supports that of the documents. The Master's Lodge, formerly the foundress's dwelling, was built later than the chapel; its north wall is formed by the south wall of the chapel and its gable rests upon the chapel wall and rises above it. If there had been an open space to the north when the Lodge was being built, the north wall of the Lodge would have been an independent feature, and similarly, if the chapel had been erected as an entirely new structure after the building of the Lodge, its south wall, projecting east and west far beyond the north wall of the Lodge, would also have been separate. Since the chapel walls are slighter by about 6 inches than the east and west walls of the Lodge and since, as we shall see, the erection of the latter blocked windows in the south side of the chapel, it is also impossible that both can have been built simultaneously. Confirmation of the sequence and manner of building here described is found in the story of the doorway still remaining behind the panelling of the south side of the chapel,* and in the adaptation 3 of the upper part of the ante-chapel to the Master's use. By the building of the Lodge into the south wall of the chapel, space 1

The 'quere' is the chapel as opposed to the ante-chapel; its 'selynge' shews that the actual roof-timbers were not open, though this may possibly have applied only to the eastern part of the 'quere'. 1 Infra, pp. 325 sqq. 3 Infra> p. 3 3 2 sq.

T H E L O D G E LATER T H A N T H E C H A P E L

319

and cost were alike economised, But incidentally that economy entailed a large outlay. The Lodge blocked windows in the south wall of the chapel,1 which would make it so dark as to necessitate the raising of the walls to permit the insertion of larger windows in the north wall and in the eastern end of the south wall. The raising of the walls involved the renewal of the roof which, however, was in the main a question of labour, since we have seen that the slate from the old roof was reused, and the old timbers would also be employed in the new roof. Though these alterations were due to the method employed in building the Lodge it is clear that other considerations would have their weight, amongst them the use of the space over the ante-chapel for the Master's closet. Moreover, while the Godshouse chapel was a far more important building and more decorously equipped than has been supposed, the splendid addition to the fortunes of the college which the bounty of the Lady Margaret provided called for a more sumptuous treatment of the chapel than had been permitted by the slender resources of the house before her interest in it began. The raising of the walls gave added dignity to a building which it had been decided to lengthen, and also to beautify with marble pavement, carving of wood and of stone, further 'glasse with Imagerie', and a bell turret. We may now proceed to set in chronological order the development of the Godshouse chapel into that of Christ's, deriving the evidence partly from the executors' accounts and partly from the building as it remains to-day, premising that the two chapels are in essence the same and that, until the internal alterations in the early years of the eighteenth century, and the ashlar facing of the ante-chapel on the side towards the court in the third quarter of the same century, the main characteristics of the Godshouse chapel were preserved in that of Christ's, 1

Without discussing the use of the 'Prayer Room' which is asserted by the modern

construction of an oriel window on the south side of the chapel, above die panelling, it is permissible to say that die only evidence upon which that use has been assumed (there is no record of a tradition) was die discovery in 1899 of mullions found lying on their sides one above the other in the window between die chapel and die prayerroom (Peile, p. 212). There is no room to doubt diat the window, whatever its subsequent use, was one of die original windows of die Godshouse chapel blocked by die erection of the Lodge by the Lady Margaret in the manner here described.

320

BUILDINGS AND FURNITURE

in appearance as well as in fact. The work upon the chapel might well be the last upon which the Lady Margaret and her council planned to engage, for the domestic buildings, in view of the increase in the number of those on the foundation, would call immediately for enlargement. The determination to take the chapel in hand assumed form at least as early as the spring of 1508 and, as it was then intended to remove the roof, provision had to be made for carrying on daily divine worship (according to the statutes) in the meantime. The device adopted was the ingenious one of connecting the 'ij litill chapelles', each of which hitherto had been an entirely independent building with its own door, in one case to the chapel and in the other to the ante-chapel. A wall was carried from the north-east angle of the one chapel to the northwest angle of the other, it was furnished with a window matching those in the chapels and, with a lean-to roof, a new chamber became complete. It remained only to pierce the west wall of one and the east wall of the other of the original chapels and there was provided a chapel, a sanctuary and, beyond the latter, a revestry and sacristy. The altar would be placed in advance of the east wall of the middle chamber and access to the revestry and sacristy obtained from behind it. The original base-moulding runs round the three inner walls of this improvised enclosure and the survival of the moulding and of the diagonally placed buttresses tells the history of the adaptation. It was a temporary expedient, as is indicated by the crudity of the doorways and the retention of the buttresses; if from the first it was meant to be a permanent alteration, we should have expected to see the western wall of the new chamber replaced by an arch and each of the two diagonal buttresses, now partly buried in the later wall, rebuilt at right angles to the wall plane.1 The retention of the temporary device until to-day we must suppose to have been dictated by its utility for the minor conveniences of the chapel. Owing to its new use, the western chapel was found to have an inconveniently narrow doorway, and an arch was turned over the whole space occupied by the south wall. The large span (nearly fourteen feet) of this arch in relation to its height recently gave rise to question 1 Moreover, the added chamber was not panelled as were the 'ij litill chapelles', as we learn from the painting of their 'Batons' (W. and C. ii, 199).

A D A P T A T I O N OF T H E C H A P E L

321

of its stability, because its condition is disguised by a comparatively modern casing of wood; on the removal of a part of the casing the arch, turned in brick, was found to be as sound as when new. There is an interesting reference to the widening of this doorway in the building accounts under date of 24 August 1510, and the whole entry, printed by Willis and Clark,1 is worth quoting: Item to William Swayn for the makynge of a thresshold at the chapell dore in cristes college An holywater stokke the largienge of the vestrie dore And the makynge of A wyndowe in the M' studie And die enbatillenge of die clokke toure and for his reward for the lengthenge of the chapell by halffe a fote and in height ij fotes ouer and beside his old couenantes and for the makynge of xviij chaptrelles with other necessaries as apperith by his indenture x/i. This is a bill of extras; from it we infer that upon carrying out the scheme of alteration it was found desirable to heighten by 2 feet and lengthen by half a foot beyond the original plans. How the total lengthening was done is not indicated, but it must almost certainly have been in part at the western end, and the reference to a new threshold supports that probability by implying the removal of the chapel doorway which still remains, though hidden, at the extreme south-west corner. By a happy chance, the 'holywater stokke' has been revealed recently (Christmas 1933) behind the panelling of the ante-chapel immediately to the east of the medieval doorway. The front of the basin projected beyond the wall face and was cut away, perhaps by William Dowsing in 1644,* but the niche is otherwise perfect. Above it, at a height of about 7 feet 6 inches from the present floor level, is a consecration cross painted in red upon the plaster; the accompanying drawing of both features makes unnecessary any further description. It was the re-consecration of the enlarged, beautified chapel, of 'the halowynge' of which frequent mention is made in the executors' accounts, that gave occasion for the painting of the cross; it must be one of those referred to in the entry: [3 Aug. 1510] Item to [Thomas Peghe, glazier] for the makynge of xxiiij crosses at the halowynge of the chapell ijs.3 1

ii, 200. * As he did in the church of St Giles (Annals, iii, 366). LHC

3 W . and C. ii, 197. 21

322

BUILDINGS AND

FURNITURE

The 'lengthenge' referred to in Swayn's account may have included, and even been partly determined by, the provision of the 'clokke toure' 1 and the Master's rooms to which the tower also gave access, that

'An holywater stokke' and one of' xxiiij crosses at the halowynge of the chapelT. 1 The 'clokke' may at that date have been of the type including a mechanical device for striking the hours, or it may have been a bell sounded, at the necessary intervals by human means. A bell that could be rung was clearly part of the equipment, for behind the panelling in the ante-chapel a niche remains, having an opening in its apex through which the bell rope passed in the thickness of the wall; the modern mode of passing the rope down the vice would have been impracticable when that stair was- constantly used by the Master, passing from his closet to the chapel.

E X I S T I N G C H A P E L T H A T OF G O D S H O U S E

323

accommodation being contrived by the insertion of a ceiling in the ante-chapel at a much lower level than that of the chapel or 'quere'. In making provision for the Master's lodging in part if not in whole at the west end of the chapel building, the executors of the Lady Margaret were, mutatis mutandis, proceeding as were other contemporary builders in adapting to collegiate uses pre-existing buildings. We may cite the work of Bishop Alcock in contriving the Master's Lodge of Jesus College out of the nave of the chapel of the nuns of St Rhadegund,1 while the Lady Margaret's executors themselves adopted the same method, in their treatment of the western part of the nave of the chapel of the hospital of St John, where indeed they also built a turret stair for the Master's use.2 To sum up, the present chapel of the college is the Godshouse chapel, whose walls were lengthened and raised by the Lady Margaret and her executors. This Godshouse origin applies to the main building (the chapel proper), to the eastern part of the ante-chapel and to the two small chapels (the present vestry and the former sacristy, now the undercroft of the organ-chamber) but not to the upper part of the organchamber. The two small chapels had no connection with each other originally but the intervening space between vestry and sacristy was walled and roofed-in prior to the alterations to the main building and, though intended originally for temporary use, this chamber has remained unaltered. The turret stair from the ante-chapel was built between 1508 and 1510 and, during that period also, the main entrance doorway, formerly in the west wall,3 was removed when that wall was taken down in order that the space between it and the north range of chambers could be added to the area of the chapel. The west doorway was re-used, being placed in the extreme western end of the south wall and, though it has been blocked inside and out since the eighteenth century, it can 1

W. and C. ii, 124, and iv, pi. 17. Ibid, ii, 281 sq., 312 sq. and iv, pi. 21; C. C. Babington, The History of the Infirmary and Chapel ofthe Hospital and College of StJohn the Evangelist at Cambridge, p. 19. 3 The original form of Godshouse chapel at its western end was that still retained by the old chapel of Queens' College, which has a passage along the west front from the Front Court to "Walnut Tree Court, into which passage its doorway opens. z

21-2

324

BUILDINGS AND FURNITURE

OOTHIC WW-L IH

y A

Ft l_t_t K« StCTlOH

AT P.-P.

PLAN

The blocked entrance doorway.

H I D D E N MEDIEVAL F E A T U R E S

325

1

still be seen with its elaborate arch-mouldings behind the swing-panel made for that purpose. In the north wall, beneath the organ and behind its casing, is the original doorway to the sacristy, and slightly to the east, also beneath the organ, are traces of the Easter sepulchre which was elaborated, if not erected, in 1510 with carvings 'of thymage of crist with the iiij knyghtes and the sepulcre with themage of oure ladie'. At the east end of the south wall, behind a swing-panel, is the piscina niche, with credence shelf and part of the drain-bowl, for the high altar of Godshouse; to the west of it, opposite the doorway to the sacristy, there has recently been revealed behind the panelling a doorway and a door with lock and latch furniture complete.* This doorway, on the side away from the chapel, gives on to what is now a passage in the Master's Lodge, where it has been blocked by plasterfilling3 since the memory of man runs not to the contrary. The character of the doorway marks the opening as belonging to the second half of the fifteenth century or to the early part of the sixteenth century at latest, while the remarkable state of preservation would suggest, in the absence of other considerations, that the blocking towards the chapel was done not long after its insertion in the party wall. Let us consider first its original purpose and then its later, secondary use. The doorway presents its moulded archway and jambs to the chapel side; its inner face, with the rebate against which the door lies, is on the Lodge side, a provision which shews the door to have been made to open outwards from the chapel. This arrangement implies that the doorway was first made in order to give entrance from the chapel into a chamber which formed part of the structural entity of the chapel; for it is found in practice to be a rule that while all the entrances into a church or college chapel from without have doors opening into the building, all the doors leading from a church or chapel into subsidiary chambers used in connection with it, such as vestry, chantry chapel, tower stairway, open outwards from the main building into the sub1

The drawing was prepared by Mr H. C. Hughes, F.R.I.B.A., of Peterhouse. Now (1933) made permanently accessible for inspection by the provision of two swinging panels. 3 The filling was removed at Easter 1934; no modification of what is here written is required. 2

326

BUILDINGS AND FURNITURE

Section

The doorway to the demolished side chapel.

SIDE C H A P E L S I N C O L L E G E CHAPELS

327

sidiary chambers. The rule may be seen exemplified in the chapel of King's College, where the north, south and west doors all open into the ante-chapel, whereas all the side chapels in both ante-chapel and choir have doors opening outwards from the main building into them. So also in any parish church still possessing a medieval vestry, unaltered, on the north side of its chancel, with a priest's door on the south side, the priest's door will be found to open inwards to the chancel, the vestry door outwards from the chancel. Under the application of this rule it would appear that the original purpose of the doorway and door now found in the Christ's chapel was to give access from the Godshouse chapel into a side chapel. Save the chapels in King's College, no side chapel in any Cambridge college chapel remains to-day, except in that of Christ's. Of the preReformation college chapels surviving in Cambridge, those of Pembroke, Trinity Hall, Gonville and Caius have been so greatly altered internally and externally as to render their negative testimony valueless; Queens' and Magdalene provide no evidence, while Jesus College chapel lies outside the enquiry, as being that of a conventual house. There was, however, a college chapel from the year 1511 to 1869 which contained side chapels, as did the chapel of Godshouse, with the difference that it had four in all, of which two lay on the south and two on the north side. This was the old chapel of St John's which the college acquired upon its foundation by succession to the chapel of St John's hospital, a house which had itself become recognised for fiscal purposes as a college.1 The chapel of the hospital was well suited for adaptation to serve the purpose of the newly founded college, which it continued to do, with necessary changes to meet altered conditions, until it was taken down following the building of the new chapel more than sixty years ago. The four side chapels were all chantry chapels, of the foundation ofBishop Fisher, Dr Thompson, Dr Keyton and Dr Ashton respectively, and they were all built well within half a century of the date to which we ascribe the building of the chapel and side chapels of Godshouse. Dr Thompson, whose chantry chapel was built near the southeastern corner of St John's College chapel, was the third Master of 1

Annals, i, 254.

328

BUILDINGS AND

FURNITURE

Christ's, succeeding to the office about two years after the death of Syclyng, the first Master.1 The doorway into his chantry chapel was similar to that now under consideration.2 It may appear to some that their close institutional connection might have led to the Lodge's being regarded as a subsidiary chamber of the college chapel, but there is no analogy known to the present writer to support that possibility. The cloisters and churches of monasteries had close institutional connection, but doorways from the cloisters of monastic churches, although the cloister was the home of the brethren who served the church and for whose daily observances it existed, invariably have their doors opening into the churches. If an exception should exist it would prove to have for its reason some peculiarity of site or other circumstance so rare as to serve by its rarity to confirm the rule. The conclusion seems to be inevitable that the recently discovered doorway on the south side of Christ's College chapel is that of an original side chapel of the college chapel of Godshouse, making, with the two original chapels still remaining on the north side, three subsidiary chambers in all. The chapel on the south side interfered with the building of the Lodge and was taken down as being no longer of use since, if it had been retained, it would have been enclosed on three if not on all four sides. This must have happened at least as early as 1506 since, when the statutes were sealed on the 3rd of October that year, the Lodge had already been built.3 Having dealt with the original purpose served by the doorway, let us now proceed to consider its later, secondary use. Although the side chapel was taken down, the doorway was allowed to remain, and that course must have been dictated by the value of the opening as a means of entry from the Lodge into the chapel for the convenience of the Lady Margaret and her successors in the use of the Lodge; otherwise the obvious plan would have been to remove doorway and door and 1 Dr Wyatt, the second Master, vacated the office in 1508, not in 1510 as in Peile and in Univ. Cal.; Dr Thompson's name as Master is found in documents at least as early as May 1509. * History ofthe Infirmary and Chapel of the Hospital and College ofSt John the Evangelist at Cambridge, C. C. Babington, pi. 4; W. and C. ii, 290, fig. 18. 3 Rackham, p. 53, 'below the first-floor rooms built for our use'.

LATER USE OF D O O R W A Y

329

make good the wall. The main chapel-building we know to have been the subject of much alteration by heightening and lengthening, and of great expenditure upon its artistic embellishment, changes not completed until nearly two years after the death of the foundress.1 But, as we have seen, she had already made provision for these conditions by adapting the two side chapels on the north, and making them into a fitting place for celebration of the sacred offices. Passing out of the Lodge through the surviving doorway she could cross the few paces of the width of the old chapel, then undergoing alteration, and enter the adapted chapel by the vestry doorway which also still remains, though it is now blocked by the organ framework. That the Lady Margaret did so use the doorway it is impossible to declare with certainty, but it is possible and even probable that it did so serve her convenience. Her declaration that she had built the firstfloor rooms of the Lodge for her own occupation,2 and the charming Lente, lente story preserved for us by Fuller, have for centuries been the basis of a firmly held tradition that from her own rooms she did watch over the carrying out of her plans for the enlargement of the college. Since the recent discovery of the draft inventory of her personal possessions, such as bedding, remaining in the college at her death,3 it is beyond all reasonable question that the Lodge was from time to time her home; and to have any doubt that, if she lived in the college, she would use the chapel for her devotions would be to shew entire misunderstanding of her character and habits. Whether the doorway served the purposes of the Lady Margaret or not, there remains evidence that it did serve the convenience of her successors in the use of the Lodge, the Masters of the college and, later, their families, down to the closing years of the seventeenth century. First of all it must be remarked that the countess had provided two turret staircases giving communication between the ground floor and the two upper floors, her own piano nobile and the servants' floor above. Both these turrets were on the garden side and the southern, that 1 2

W. and C. ii, 200. Rackham, p. 53. 3 Chr. Z3/Z4, published in C.A.S. Proceedings, xxxiii, 75.

330

BUILDINGS AND FURNITURE

adjoining the hall, still remains; the second turret staircase was at the northern end of the garden front of the Lodge, adjoining the chapel. That second staircase provided an obvious means of access for the foundress from her chambers to the now blocked doorway which stood close by the foot of the stairway, and its desirability as freeing her from needing to use the entrance common to the sixty members of the college needs no emphasis. The second stairway and the turret enclosing it have long since disappeared, apparently without leaving any trace behind even in tradition. The evidence for the turret is found in Loggan's view of the college, where it is quite unmistakable, being indeed more conspicuous than its fellow which still stands. The view from Loggan (pi. XI) is from the block used by Willis and Clark, and the parapet of the still remaining turret may be seen behind the roof-ridge, at its junction with the roof of the hall, just over the sundial and enclosing as it were the tall chimney. The parapet of the turret since removed is seen over the ridge at the opposite end of the Lodge roof, quite near to the chapel. To make the position still clearer a drawing of the relative part of Loggan's view on his scale is given for comparison, where the parapet of the existing turret is marked A, and that of the turret which has disappeared B. The second turret seems to have escaped the notice of Willis and Clark, unless their reference (p. 218, n. 2) to a 'line of battlements' is meant to apply to the parapet. If it does, their suggestion of a porch in two stories is an impossibility; a porch whose top could be seen peeping over the roof-ridge would have had the incredible height of four stories. This turret staircase, still in being when Loggan made his drawing (circa 1688), seems to have been taken down not many years thereafter. This is the obvious interpretation to be placed upon a passage in a long statement found in John Covel's correspondence preserved in the British Museum.1 The statement is a most valuable account of the Master's Lodge in Covel's time (he was Master from 1688 to 1722) and his predecessors'; it was written by a clerk but bears Covel's signature, a fact accountable probably for the obliqueness of some of its passages. 1

Add. MS. 22911, f. 228b.

R E M O V A L OF T U R R E T

331 1

Willis and Clark have printed the statement in full, but they do not appear to have observed the significance of the following passage as bearing upon the history of the Master's Lodge in this particular: When the Master did eat in y8 Hall, he came always down Mr Maynard's stakes;2 and then if he took any of y6 Fellows home w th him they all return'd y6 same way. There remains yet a door way (now walled up) by w011 y6 Master and his Family went down into his private garden whilst he kept in these Lodgings, but when he remov'd to his private Lodge3 the Stone Stairs were made down4 from y8 Sizar's Chamber 5 under ye Soudi side of die Chappell.6 The doorway leading from the Master's Lodge into the chapel cannot have been in use since the present panelling was put against the chapel walls in 1703. It is permissible to assume that through this doorway came the Master and his family into the chapel while they were still able to descend from their rooms by the turret stair to whose' makingdown' Covel bears testimony. When those stairs were removed, the Master and his family had transferred themselves to the Master's 'private Lodge' on the far side of the chapel yard, in order that the Master might augment his income by letting the principal rooms of his 'public Lodging' to noblemen, fellow-commoners and gentlemen pensioners, as he did to the above-named Mr Maynard who was afterwards sixth baron Maynard. From the 'private Lodge' on the north side of the chapel the only approach to the latter would have been through the Master's gateway into Hobson Street and so through the great gateway and across the first court. This as a permanency was unthinkable, and so a doorway with square head was made through the north wall of the vestry, and its still clear-cut MDCXC provides us with unmistakable evidence of the date at which these Master's Lodge changes were made; it is illustrated overleaf. The wide archway above the present entrance to the vestry was inserted to meet the needs of the college during the alterations to the 1

J W . and C ii, 212-15. The turret staircase still remaining. This was across the yard from the north side of the chapel, the gable end abutting upon Hobson Street. It is clearly shewn by Loggan. 4 = taken down; a similar use of 'make' survives in the expression 'to make away with'. 6 5 On the top floor. Transcribed direct from the Covel MS. 3

A N C I E N T C H A N G E S I N T H E GREAT GATE

333

that has no structural association with it. The turrets serve the purpose of buttresses which, apart from any architectural effect they may be held to possess, is their only value. The ground through the gateway has been raised, as may be seen by the two-step descent to the lowest step of the winding-stair, and the dumpy, ill-proportioned effect of the gateway is thus explained; when it was built, as the gateway of Godshouse, its height from ground to apex was from 1 ft. 6 in. to 2 ft. greater, with distinct benefit to its proportions. It was cased in the Lady Margaret's day and again, this time in ashlar, in the eighteenth century. The gates have suffered the same shortening as the gateway, shewing that they derive from the period before the raising of the ground level. The lowest panels have been reduced in height to the injury of the appearance of the gates; they were undoubtedly similar in height originally to the two upper series.1 There is no evidence of change of wooden gates revealed by the hinge-hooks in the jambs, and they would appear superficially to be co-eval with their setting, but there was an expenditure in 1545/6 pointing to renewal at that date: It. to a carpenter for maykyng the brode gayts and for stuffe to the same as appereth by a byll xs. viijrf. It. to the smytn for yron work and for the same as appereth by a byll xxjs. iiijtf.2 The renewal in 1545/6 must have replaced, in all probability, the gates of the fifteenth century, for gates set up by the Lady Margaret in 1505/6 would scarcely require renewing in the short space of forty years. Those of the mid-sixteenth century appear to have stood for close upon 400 years though they have doubtless undergone repair and, certainly, a reduction in height. (c) The range of chambers in St Andrew's Street to the north of the gateway, and those eastward thence to the chapel, have various features distinguishing them from the other buildings in the court. In the Master's accounts presented to the fellows by Syclyng in April 1491 there is the entry Summa vero receptorum ex dono pro quatuor Cameris noviter fiendis ex parte boreali eiusdem Collegii fuit xiiij/i. xd. 1

Drawing on p. 336.

J

Chr. Account Book, A, f. 288.

334

BUILDINGS AND

FURNITURE

Chambers newly made in the last decade of the fifteenth century were not likely to be replaced in 1505-10, and examination of the buildings supports this view, especially as it is already seen that the chapel is in essence also of the Godshouse period. The gifts for the specific purpose of building new chambers were noted in the accounts within two or three years of the issue of the brief of Bishop Alcock in aid of the buildings of the college, the brief supported by an indulgence. It is evident therefore that the years about 1490 were a building period for the college. How much money was received under the stimulus of the indulgence is unknown, nor can we determine the manner in which it was expended, but it is not unlikely that the whole of the north-west angle of the court was then rebuilt, for it still displays homogeneous features. Examination of the plan of the court shews at a glance differences of depth of building from back to front between the range on the north side and that on the south; the depth varies in the north block from 22 ft. to 23 ft. 9 in., while on the south side it is uniform at 26 ft. 6 in. throughout. The variation in the one case as against uniformity in the other is as striking as the actual difference in measurement. The structure of the wall at the backs of the respective ranges (it is only at the back that original work is seen, that of the court side being hidden by the eighteenth-century facing) differs materially. The wall is unbroken on the north but that on the south has projecting provisions for the staircases. At first glance, the north range shews no base-table, a feature at that date indispensable in however simple a building; actually, it does exist but below the ground level, where its set-off is discovered at a depth of 6 inches. The plan of the court has an irregularity of form not due alone to the shape of the complete site; that might, on a virgin plot, have been overcome. It is an irregularity so pronounced that, having regard to the large area not built upon, the conclusion is inevitable that the peculiar shape, an irregular trapezium, is due to pre-existing buildings which either circumstances or considerations of cost made it inadvisable to destroy. What course the foundress herself might have taken relative to the Godshouse buildings if she had lived to see the completion of her own new buildings in the court can be only a matter of conjecture. The west range, between

DIFFERENT DATES OF NORTH AND SOUTH RANGES 335 the gateway and the north range, is also of the Godshouse period; the same level of base-table is found about its north gable wall as has been seen along that of the north range, indeed the two walls melt into each other.1 The set-off of the base-table at the foot of the gable wall is visible through a grid near the Master's great gate. So also along the St Andrew's Street front, the set-off is found at about the same level, while on the south side of the gateway it is much higher and at the back of the wall of the range on the south side of the court it rises to about 3 feet. The explanation of these varying heights of base-tables is doubtless to be found in varying levels of the site, but if all the buildings of the court had been erected simultaneously, or even if they had been designed as parts of the same plan of laying-out the site, those differences of ground level would probably have been met by keeping the set-off at one level throughout, leaving the height of the plain part of the base thickening to adjust itself by its varying depths to the ground-level inequalities. It seems also that the variations in the levels of the site compelled a rise by steps from the western part to the eastern part of the court, whether the rise occurred at the exit from the gateway or further forward in the court itself. This rise proved to be inconvenient and was overcome by raising the ground level in the western quarter and even through into the street; for while the set-off of the base-table is completely buried along the Master's drive, its height was much reduced along St Andrew's Street, with the effect of burying also 1 ft. 6 in. or 2 ft. of the jambs of the gateway. This major convenience brought in its train minor inconveniences, including a mutilation of the wooden gates and a descent by at least two steps to reach from the gateway the base of the turret stair, since the top of the doorway leading to it could not be raised without damage to the stair itself. The views of the court (plates VI and VIII facing pp. 197, 276) reveal unmistakably a shortened proportion in the height of the gateway which it would be unfair to attribute to the medieval designer; and the accompanying drawing of the southern half of the great wooden gate tells the same story, shewing panels cut down in the lowest series 1

The bonding of the two walls in some parts of their height is not to be taken as original; it is due to subsequent repair.

BUILDINGS AND

336

FURNITURE

and a retention of the complete original wicket only by cutting down the panels forming the upper part of its setting. It is not known at

JllMilH

o o

The southern half of the great gate.

what date the raising of the ground level was done, but the fact that it was found necessary goes to prove that the buildings surrounding the court were erected at different periods. (d) The lectern has been described by Mr C. C. Oman in the Journal of the Royal Archaeological Institute.1 He finds 43 brass eagle lecterns in 1

Vol. lxxxvii (1930), Medieval Brass Lecterns in England, pp. 117 sqq.

THE A N C I E N T CHESTS

337

England and divides these into three series, No. I with 7 examples, No. II with 3 examples, No. Ill with 33 examples. He places the Christ's lectern in No. I, of which series he says that it may range in date from 1471 to 1505. He remarks upon the peculiarity that the lectern rests upon four couchant greyhounds (a badge of the Beauforts) and that they are of a redder metal than the lectern itself, suggestive of their being later additions. Dowsing records that he removed ' Orate pro animabus on the brasen Eagle' 1 but, unfortunately, he does not proceed to say whose souls were so desired to be prayed for. (e) In the inventory which was made at the time of Byngham's death 'a great chest' was included.2 Whether it belonged to the college or, as has been suggested above,3 to Byngham himself, is not material, for it was kept in Byngham's own chamber in the college, a very suitable place if, as is probable, the muniment room over the gateway was not then built. The 'common chest' under the keeping of the Proctor is mentioned in the statutes4 as the place of deposit for the treasure of the college, for its muniments, its statutes and its seal. There is in the muniment room a great chest whose present-day function is the keeping of the college seal, access to which still demands the production of three keys as prescribed by the Godshouse statutes. It is veritably a great chest; of oak, rectangular in shape with a flat cover. It measures 5 ft. 10 in. at the top, 6 ft. 1 in. including the cover, and it is 1 ft. 8 in. wide and high; it is clearly a chest of the first half of the fifteenth century and may very possibly be the one used by Byngham. (/) But Syclyng left by will to the college 'iij grett chests' and there are three such still remaining in the muniment room. One of them, however, we have just described and have supposed to be that used by Byngham and referred to in the inventory of his possessions in the college. He did not bequeath it to Godshouse and it may have passed by purchase, or by right of proctorial succession, to the Proctors who came after him, to become, finally, one of three bequeathed by Syclyng. The other two remaining are deal boxes with rounded lids; they are 1

Baker, xxxviii, 456. 3 Supra, p. 129. LHC

a 4

Chr. Gh. Ac. Rackham, p. 13. 22

338

BUILDINGS AND FURNITURE

The great chest in the Treasury, for the money and the seal.

Two of the chests bequeathed by Syclyng.

M O N U M E N T A L BRASSES

339

a type characteristic of the period of circa 1500. The smaller measures 4 ft. 3 in. in length, 4 ft. 5 in. including the cover, 2 ft. in height, 1 ft. 7in. in depth; the larger is 4 ft. 9 in., 4 ft. 11 in., 2 ft. 5 in. and 1 ft. 10J in. respectively. Each has at one end an internal box divided into two compartments, -with lids hinged on wooden pins formed by an extension of the lid surface. The larger chest has lost one of its internal box lids, but it has an uncovered box, in addition to and at the opposite end from the double-lidded one. Though not falling strictly within the Godshouse period the monumental brass of Syclyng already referred to may not inappropriately be mentioned amongst the college survivals, as also the brass in the ante-chapel to Thomas and Edith Fowler, the only medieval brass to husband and wife that is to be found in any college chapel in Oxford or Cambridge. This was placed here in the Lady Margaret's lifetime, owing we must assume to her influence. Edith Fowler was one of her gentlewomen and greatly trusted by her; after the countess's death she accounted for money and jewelry left by her royal mistress in her keeping. In pious imitative memory of her mistress she left provision for an annual obit at Christ's, buying for that purpose a small property at Roydon, Essex, adjoining the great manor of Roydon given to the college by the foundress. Edith Fowler's obit ceased at the Reformation but her little property remained in the possession of the college until 1914 when it was sold.1 Near to the Fowler monument is a slab with the matrices only of chalice and inscription plate. There is no possibility of identification of the person commemorated but the chalice is of the type in use about 1500. It might be the slab of Ralph Barton (d. 1490) but, if not, it might fall into the early Christ's period and commemorate not a Master but a fellow. THE DOVEHOUSE

For any knowledge of a dovehouse as part ofthe Godshouse buildings, we are indebted to one single entry in the records of Corpus Christi College: [circa 1499] 'Mr Sekelyng has 3600 rodds for le doflfehows'.2 1 2

V. Lloyd, C.A.S. Proceedings, xxxiii, 61-78. Book labelled Accounts of Landbeach i486 to 1510. 22-2

340

BUILDINGS AND

FURNITURE

The number of rods then bought seems to be so large as to suggest the erection of the house at this date. Loggan shews a building having all the appearance of a dovehouse both in his view of the college and in his general map of Cambridge, though in neither is it lettered. In the map he shews it in block plan occupying a position in line with Fellows' Building, but in the view he places it nearer to the chapel and it would appear necessary, since the two representations conflict, to regard the more detailed and specific as the more accurate. Willis and Clark have followed the Loggan map of Cambridge, placing the building well within Dovehouse Close; 1 if they are correct in so doing, Loggan's dovehouse was not that of Godshouse, for Dovehouse Close was not acquired until 1567. It is tempting to regard the plot of land called Dovehouse Close as that containing the dovehouse, but it must be observed that the name was not used in the conveyance of the land in 1567 but only in an endorsement thereon in a later hand. That a dovehouse should be found in a small plot of pasture formerly a grove of trees belonging to a private citizen who was not even a resident of Cambridge is in the highest degree improbable, since such buildings were privileges appendant to manor houses, monastic houses and granges, and dwellings of still higher dignity. Dovehouse Close may have been so-called by the college before and after its acquisition because it immediately adjoined the dovehouse, just as Christ's Pieces are and were so known, not because they ever belonged to Christ's College but because they adjoin it. The Hfe of a dovehouse might well be expected to be 200 years or more and it is permissible to assume that Loggan's building in the view of 1688 is identical with the Godshouse dovehouse built in 1499; there are constant entries, year by year, in the account books of the college, of payment for food for the doves and for repair of the dovehouse. 1

W. and C. iv, Christ's College,fig.1.

Chapter XIX G O D S H O U S E 1 A N D CHRIST'S C O L L E G E

G

odshouse and Christ's College are one and the same body, the . two names representing the stages of youth and man's estate respectively. The story of the development has been told at length in the preceding pages and it is summarised in the authoritative words of the letters patent of i May 1505, where Henry VII gave, as was customary in such documents, the title by which the college as a legal entity was in future to be known: Christ's College in the University of Cambridge by Henry the sixth King of England first begun and after his decease by Margaret countess of Richmond mother of King Henry the seventh augmented finished and stablished That complete title the college on formal occasions regularly employed, it is found in legal documents drawn by order of the college as early as 1508, and it so continued to 1850 or later. Those words fix beyond all question that it was Christ's College that was begun by Henry VI, the same college which the Lady Margaret augmented, finished and stablished. The facts of identity and continuity were clearly known to the university in the early sixteenth century, as is sufficiently seen in that the college was referred to during the years 1505 and 1506, now as Godshouse, now as Christ's College, indifferently; even so late as 4 January 1537 a charter of Henry VIII was addressed to 'Henry Lockwode Master or Keeper of Christ's College lately Goddyshouse'. There is, however, in the form of the title used in the charter of i May 1505 something more than the assertion of identity and continuity; the declaration, without any reference to Godshouse, that Christ's College was begun by Henry VI, signifies that, to Henry VII and the 1

The form Godshouse used elsewhere throughout this book follows the fifteenthcentury practice which is retained until the present day in the case of Peterhouse. The Latin form was Domus Dei and the occasional use of God's House' in this chapter is dictated by the quotations here employed, or is chosen to emphasise the particular argument.

342

G O D S H O U S E A N D CHRIST'S C O L L E G E

world of his day, the forms Godshouse and Christ's College were variations in nomenclature used in expression of the same facts. To later generations, those coming after the disruption of the Reformation and other changes of the mid-sixteenth century, the apparent difference in name became a puzzle which various persons sought to solve in their respective empirical fashions. Thus, in the later sixteenth, and in subsequent centuries even down to the present day, we find Godshouse described by divers writers, according to their several flights of fancy, as a hostel, as a grammar school, as the School of Glomery and as a monastery, the last being adopted by no less an authority than the first issue (in 1796) * of the University Calendar. That it was none of these things but was from the beginning, what it still is to-day, an ordinary college of the university, which was founded for the education of poor scholars who were to pray for their benefactors and to study to become masters and doctors in the various faculties, being provided meanwhile with maintenance, seems to have been so simple an explanation as rarely to have obtained a thought. Far from being a stumbling-block, the juxtaposition of the names Christ's College and Godshouse should have yielded the solution, for they are entirely interchangeable and they bear in themselves such pritna facie evidence of identity and continuity as should have sufficed to establish those truths even if there had been lacking the additional evidence provided by fact and documentary record. Since the two forms have in recent centuries however spelt diversity not unity, it is necessary to consider them in the light of illustrations drawn from contemporary life, thought, belief and use. For that purpose it is desirable to split the two names into their component parts and to examine the relationship of (1) house and college, (2) God's and Christ's. There is no need to spend much time in reconciling 'house' and 'college'. Strictly speaking, the college consists of Master, fellows and 1 Page 48: 'The Lady Margaret.. .was the foundress of this college on the scite of a monastery, which was called God's house, founded by Henry VI'.

T W O F O L D USE OF ' C O L L E G E '

343

scholars; the buildings are not the college, they are the hall or house in which the college meets and functions. This was fully recognised in the nomenclature of the past when Pembroke Hall, Clare Hall, and others until comparatively recent times, swelled the list of which Peterhouse and Trinity Hall have the distinction of being the sole survivors. In formal instruments Godshouse itself is described as 'the College commonly called Godeshouse'1 and also 'the King's College called Godshouse '. Even in the fourteenth century, changes were at work tending to remove the distinction in common speech between the colleges and their houses or halls. In Cambridge, the first institution to be commonly called 'college' was Corpus Christi, and it is not unlikely that the circumstances of its foundation were responsible for the departure from local custom. This college was founded by two gilds, those of Corpus Christi and St Mary, and 'Each of these societies had common seals... likewise common halls, with other apartments adjoining, wherein they met for the choice of their officers, for going in procession on certain days to their churches, and for transacting the rest of their business'.2 The use of the word 'hall' in such circumstances would have obvious disadvantages leading to much confusion and it is not surprising that 'college' superseded it. But even Corpus was founded as the house of scholars of Corpus Christi and the blessed Mary, and its colloquial designation Bene't College was not commonly used until the end of the fourteenth century. At Corpus there is at least one instance of the use of domus when collegium would be more natural. It is in the donation of the advowson of St Benet's church, preserved in Corpus Treasury Box 31, No. 71, a donation which must, of course, be made to the society or college, not to its house. The great change in Cambridge practice came about in the middle of the fifteenth century. Henry VI is usually regarded as having drawn much of his inspiration in founding Eton and King's from the great linked institutions of Wykeham, at Winchester and Oxford. Those were known as colleges and this designation, emphasising the societies occupying the buildings rather than their house, was the one adopted both at Eton and at King's. Henceforth, 'at Cambridge the term 1

Documents, iii, 155-9.

2

Lamb's ed. of Masters, p. 9.

344

G O D S H O U S E A N D CHRIST'S C O L L E G E

college was similarly applied... to every succeeding case except the modest foundation of a Master and three fellows termed the "Hall ofS. Katerine'". 1 As early as the first half of the fifteenth century confusion of college with college buildings is found in a document for which the Chancellor of the University is responsible; he writes in a petition addressed to the Chancellor of England 'the ground of the seyd Chaunceller and universite that they have ordeyned to bild her seyd college upon', 2 where college seems clearly to point to college buildings. This confusion between hall and college is prominent in the documents of St Catharine's. Robert Wodlark's account of its foundation begins Memorandum de aula sanctae Katerinae virginis.. .fundata super uno magistro et decem sociis.. .ut auctoritate apostolica eadem aula erigi possit in collegium per nomen et sub nomine aulce sanctce Katerince virginis?

where aula is not the building but the body associated with the building. Collegium sive aula is used several times in connections where the reference is to the society,4 but where an attestation is given in Collegio sive aulaf the building must be indicated. The charter of Edward IV uses the words concessimus.. .quod dicta aula.. .sit unum collegium,6 in

which place aula clearly refers to the society not yet formally constituted a college. Collegium sive aula and 'College or Hall' continue to the middle of the seventeenth century; in 1661 there is the form 'St Catharine Hall College' and then, to the middle of the eighteenth century, 'College or Hall'. Examples from other colleges would tell the same story, but these instances are sufficient to establish beyond question that the Lady Margaret, when making that enlargement of Godshouse which occasioned new statutes and additional endowments, and permitted larger numbers and more buildings, was doing no more than recognising existing custom in changing its style from house to college. 1 W . and C. i, p. xviii. * E. Ch. P. Bdle. 39, No. 55; supra, p. 23. 3 philpott, p. 6. 4 Ibid. p. 6 sq.; a similar confusion with regard to university is mentioned supra, p. 228. 6 5 Ibid. p. 8. Ibid. p. 9.

'GOD'S' AND 'CHRIST'S'

345

In considering 'house' in its relation to 'college', we have not been confronted with an isolated instance but have been able to view it in relation to parallel changes in the cases of Clare, Pembroke and St Catharine's (to say nothing of the absorbed Michaelhouse and King's Hall) as well as to take account of Peterhouse and Trinity Hall, where the ancient form still survives. The relationship of the other elements, 'God's' and 'Christ's', presents a problem suigeneris. To people of to-day, in the university and even in Christ's College itself, the accepted meaning of'God's House' is the house of the Deity. If further defined, it would almost certainly be described as the house of the first Person of the Trinity. It is so treated by Warren in his Book,1 where he describes a crowned, bearded head at that time to be found under a chamber window of Driver's House, standing between Trumpington Street and the west end of St Edward's church. Warren used to think that the head was meant to represent Edward the Confessor as' St Edward's Church has commonly been taken to be St Edward the Confessor's Church'. But he learns that the dedication is in fact to St Edward, king and martyr, a boy of eighteen, whom the beard would not suit and he is therefore persuaded that the head was' originally designed for the representation of the First Person in the Blessed Trinity acording to the old Popish unwarrantable custom. And I think it probable that Driver's House was once called Domus Dei*. Warren wrote between 1730 and 1743. Dr H. P. Stokes takes the same view as Warren. In his Mediaeval Hostels, p. 79, n. 1, while treating of God's House, he mentions the head described by Warren in the following words: 'A curious piece of carving which formerly ornamented the front of this "ancient house " was removed by Dr Farmer to Emmanuel College and placed outside the Library there... .It probably represents God the Father'. The carving was in the north wall of Emmanuel old Hbrary facing Emmanuel Street but has recently been placed within that chamber over the entrance door. It is of wood, painted, and in fine state of preservation. In the present writer's opinion it is unmistakably intended for the head of an earthly king. The sole purpose in quoting these 1

Warrens Book, ed. A. W. Dale (1911), p. 137 sq.

346

G O D S H O U S E A N D CHRIST'S C O L L E G E

paragraphs from Warren and Dr Stokes is to shew that the view held by them is that God's House = the House of God the Father. In holding that view these two writers are in agreement with general modern opinion, and it is probable that the colloquial use of 'God', and even its literary use in other than theological and philosophical writings, would carry to Christian people in this country, other perhaps than some of the Roman Catholic faith, the significance, if unaccompanied by any contextual direction, of either the undivided Godhead or God the Father. It is just that modern use of which we must divest ourselves if we are to discover the word's meaning at the time of the foundation of God's House in the middle of the fifteenth century. For that was not the colloquial, pastoral or even literary use of God in the middle ages. Under 'God', the New English Dictionary gives (II, 5, e): In M.E. often used without addition for Christ. Wyclif, and pan he receyves God gosdy. Chaucer, Clerk's Tale, By god that for us deyde. Lindesay, 16c, in the Year of God, One thousand four hundred and fiftythree Years. Again, N.E.D. Ill, 14, a, God's body, crown, blood, gown, harte, dere nayls, passion, rood, marks, tokens are mentioned as examples in which God's = Christ's. This use of God = Christ is said in N.E.D. to be obsolete, which, in the main, must be agreed, but there are many exceptions, colloquial and literary alike. In the leases of Christ's College, even as late as the middle of the nineteenth century, we find the phrase 'at the Feast of Christmas, commonly called the Nativity of our Lord God'; and the phrase 'God died for me' is common still in religious use in this country, in hymns and exhortation both. Another form, in our own and many other languages, when the only possible reference is to the second Person of the Trinity, is 'Mother of God'. Such present use of God = Christ, though common in its own places and contexts, is relatively rare, but in the fifteenth century it was well-nigh universal, and it is in its medieval significance that we must seek the interpretation of the name of God's House then founded. We shall find some guidance in the nomenclature attending that

'GOD'

IN M E D I E V A L U S E

347

great feast of the Church, Corpus Christi. This feast of the Body of Christ was instituted by Pope Urban IV in 1264 and is observed with specially elaborate ceremony at Orvieto, not many miles from Bolsena, where the famous miracle took place. The festival, known to us as Corpus Christi and to the Italians as Corpus Domini, is celebrated in France as la Fete-Dieu. In England, on Corpus Christi Day, they carried the silver pyx under a canopy of silk and cloth of gold, borne by four men preceded by a pageant. The pyx was the vessel of silver, ivory, or other material in which was kept at the altar the reserved Host; it was commonly called 'God's House'. Sir Thomas Cumberworth's will,1 made 1451, includes this bequest: I will the prior of Bridlington have the Box for goddes body with the Coveryng ouere hit that hingys in the chapyll. John Cole of Lyme Regis in his will made 1505 a provides an example of a common phrase in the words 'almighty god and his blissed moder mary'. Even in the most formal legal documents the use in the fifteenth century of' God' for the second Person of the Trinity is constant. Thus, in giving licence for divine worship in the chapel of St Catharine's Hall, the official of the archbishop of Canterbury, cardinal legate, uses the words In laudem et honorem omnipotentis Dei ac beatae Mariae virginis genetricis ejusdem,! and the licence of 13 July 1439 by Henry VI for Godshouse provides the apropos illustration of the like phrase oh reverenciam dei omnipotentis ac matris sue Marie Virginis gloriose. The term God's House as a name for an institution probably came to this country from France, where a Maison-Dieu, or HStel-Dieu, of medieval origin is still found in many towns and cities, the most famous being the Hotel-Dieu of Paris. They were founded as hospitals for the 1 2

Lincoln Diocese Documents, E.E.T.S. (1914), p. 50. P.C.C. 4 Adeane. 3 Philpott, p. 31-

348

G O D S H O U S E A N D CHRIST'S C O L L E G E

reception of the infirm and sick, and so they still remain, and their special devotion and dedication to the second Person of the Blessed Trinity is clearly indicated in the closing words of the vows taken by the sisters of the HStel-Dieu de Pontoise: 'et me promets dez maintenant pour Jesus-Christ Serjant des pauvres malades '.* An example of an Hotel-Dieu actively serving its purposes as a hospital but preserving, little changed, its medieval features, still exists at Beaune in Burgundy. There was a God's House at Dover and there, appropriately enough, we find direct evidence of the French origin of the name; writing of Dover, Leland says: 'There is also an hospitalle called the Meason Dew' and of this the name, and in part the building, endure to this day. A distant God's House with Cambridge associations was that at Ospringe, Kent; a patent of 7 Henry VIII granting to St John's College the advowson of the hospital of St Mary (or God's House, commonly called 'le meason dieu') remains in the archives of that society.3 Hospitals of the like name were found in many places, Bury St Edmunds and Thetford amongst them, while other more distant towns provided by pious founders with a God's House were Southampton, Portsmouth, Arundel, Beverley, Elgin and Hull; and that their use was not exclusively intended for sick persons is seen by such statements as that Sir Richard de Abberbury founded at Donnington (Berks.) 'a Maison Dieu for certain poor', and (Entick, London) 'The same house to be called for ever God's-house or almes-house'. At Hull the dedicatory inscription reads: Deo & pauperibus D. Michael de la Pole A.D. 1384, recalling

the words of the vow at Pontoise quoted above; in seaport towns the hospitality of the God's House was extended to poor priests and other travelling pilgrims. The Carthusian convent of Henton or Hinton in Somerset, commonly called Hinton Charterhouse, provides us with a variant form; it had for its title the house of Locus Dei of Hinton.3 The Cambridge God's House difFered in the details of its purposes 1

Leon Le Grand, Statuts D'Hotels-Dieu, etc., p. 14a sq. Lady Margaret, p. 137; Thomas Baker, History of St John's College, p. 73. 3 C.P.R. 1441-6, pp. 170, 327, 397, 447. a

C U L T OF T H E N A M E OF J E S U S

349

from all other examples known, but it had underlying it the same general principle of providing for the needs of the poor. William Byngham, in his petition to Henry VI, set forth the great need in the country for teachers, saying that he found 'no ferther North than Rypon seventy scoles voide or mo that weren occupied 'all at ones within fifty yeres passed, bicause that there is so grete scarstee of maistres of Gramer'. That need he proposed to relieve so far as he might by founding God's House to train the teachers so sorely needed in the schools. It is interesting to observe that in the name he chose for the house Byngham was reflecting the spirit of a movement which, beginning in the previous century, was now in full course and was to find its culmination in the great spiritual revolution of the following century. The setting up of a cult of the person and name ofJesus was to be met throughout the land, not only in the foundation of God's Houses for various purposes but in the establishment ofJesus altars, chapels, gilds, and in the embellishment of ecclesiastical buildings with windows and other furniture in which the story and worship of Jesus were prominent to a degree not hitherto known. A notable example is the foundation in 1414 by Henry V of the convent of Jesus of Bethlehem of Shene with great wealth of endowment, and the words used in the preamble to his charter of foundation1 are clear proof that he was moved by a depth of feeling in his choice of dedication which far transcended the influence of a prevailing fashion. The foundation of Jesus College, Cambridge2, by John Alcock in 1496, and of Jesus College, Oxford,3 by Queen Elizabeth in 1571, bear witness to the same devotion.4 This atmosphere of renewed and specialised devotion to the divine Son of Our Lady of Sorrows was particularly grateful to the Lady Margaret, whose love for her own son is one of the most marked characteristics of her nature, happily preserved to us in her correspondence with him. Moreover, the last twelve years of the countess's 1 Monasticon, vi, 31. * Arthur Gray, Jesus College, p. 39. 3 E. G. Hardy, Jesus College, p. 8 sq. 4 For the feast of the Name ofJesus in the fifteenth century, the article by Canon Jenkins on Morton's Register in Tudor Studies (ed. R. W. Seton-Watson), p. 39, may be consulted.

350 GODSHOUSE AND CHRIST'S COLLEGE life are full of expressions in speech and in deed of her passionate devotion to Jesus Christ. Thus, there is in St John's College,1 a papal bull of confirmation of a sanction which she had obtained from the archbishops and other clergy to hold on the Ides of August, each year, 'a feast of our most sweet Saviour Jesus'; on the first of March 1497 she obtained from her son licence* to found and endow in the collegiate church of Wimborn a perpetual chantry to be called the chantry of the Blessed Jesus and annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary; on the same day she received licence3 to found in the college of St George in Windsor, a perpetual chantry of four chaplains or more, to be called the chantry of the Blessed Jesus and St Mary the Virgin; on the seventh of February 1504 she obtained licence4 to found a perpetual chantry in the university of Cambridge in the diocese of Lincoln [sic] to be called 'the chantry in honour of the name ofJesus and of the annunciation of St Mary the virgin'. The same spirit breathes in the opening words of her vow to her confessor, and in her oft-repeated appeals to the 'Blessyd Jhesu' for succour, as she lay in pain upon the bed of suffering from which she was to be delivered only by death; as also in her last declaration of faith which Fisher has preserved for us.5 The very text chosen by Fisher for the sermon at her month's mind is in itself eloquent of his recognition of her ruling passion: Dixit Martha ad Jhesum. 'That this noble Prynces had full fayth in Jhesu Cryste, It may appere, yf ony wyll demande thys questyon of her she that ordeyned two contynuall Reders in both die Unyversytyes to teche the holy Dyvynyte ofJhesu; she that ordeyned Prechers perpetuall to publysh the Doctrine and faythe of Chryste Jhesu; she that buylded a College Royall to the honour of the name of Cryste Jhesu'.6 The lady Margaret caused William Atkynson, D.D.,7 to translate Books i-iii of the Imitatio Christi from Latin into English, which translation was printed in 1502 and later in various editions by Wynkyn de Worde and Richard Pynson.8 Two years later, she herself translated Book iv from French into English, which was printed separately and also with Books i-iii of Atkynson's translation;' copies of various editions may be seen in the Cambridge University Library. Henry Horneby, the countess's chancellor, afterwards Master of Peterhouse, wrote a History of the Name of Jesus10 which he dedicated to his royal mistress. 1

Hist. MSS. Comm. appendix to first report, p. 77. C.P.R. 1494-1509, p. 79. 3 [bid, 4 ibiJ, p_ j 7 I 5 The Funeral Sermon, Baker's ed. London (1708), pp. 21, 34. 6 Ibid. p. 33. 7 Pembroke Hall, canon of Windsor, died 1509. 8 Thomas Tanner, Bibl. Brit.-Hib. p. 56. I0 9 Ibid. p. 510. Ibid. p. 413. 2

E V I D E N C E F R O M C H A R T E R OF H E N R Y VII

351

It is manifest from this accumulation of evidence that the countess's work for the enlargement of Godshouse was not an isolated act of devotion but the crown of all her efforts during the later years of her life to shew her love for and faith in Jesus Christ and to spread that devotion amongst her fellows. Henry VII, in the charter of Christ's College, recites the legal history of the College of 'Goddeshouse' and acknowledges the petition of his mother, from the love she bore to her uncle Henry VT, to be given his licence to augment, finish and stablish the said college her uncle's part in which had fallen short of his intention. After granting the licence, the charter proceeds that at the special request of the king's most dear mother, on account of her singular devotion to the most glorious and most

holy name of Jesus Christ, the name of the said college is changed to 'Christ's College in the University of Cambridge by Henry the sixth King of England first begun and after his decease by Margaret countess of Richmond mother of King Henry the seventh augmented finished and stablished'. From sincere love for her uncle, the countess chose rather to complete his foundation than to make a new; from her devotion to the name of Jesus Christ she chose to retain the old name in a modern form rather than to name the college afresh with some title in itself commemorative of her own noble benefaction. In using 'college' for 'house', and so emphasising the society rather than its dwelling, she was expressing the practice of her day; and in preferring 'Christ's' to 'God's' College she was also following the religious usage of her time. It is not unlikely that she would have chosen 'Jesus' if she had not been forestalled by the name commonly given to Alcock's college founded nine years earlier. In 'Christ's College' she found a form reflecting as clearly the spiritual movement and tendency of her age, and the wider range and purpose of the institution which received her bounty, as did the latinity of her statutes, as compared with that of the earlier ones, the progress of the new learning. She chose a new form of an old name and so proclaimed her ambitions for the future while retaining the continuity with the past.

APPENDICES

APPENDIX A (a) A CHRONOLOGICAL LIST OF THE CHARTERS AND OTHER ROYAL LETTERS ISSUED IN FAVOUR OF GODSHOUSE Date of the Document

Publication, if any

Subject-matter

Enrolment, if known

Licence to William Byngham to P.R. 17 H. VI, ii, 16 give his mansion etc. to Clare

1439, July 13

Printed below (pp. 357 sqq.) for the first time

1442, February 9

Printed: Documents, iii, 155 Licence to Byngham and others to sqq. found a college without reference to Clare Hall Printed: Documents, iii, 159 Grant of the endowments to Byngham and others Referred to in Documents, i, Grant in amplification and correction of 1 March 43-4 Printed: Documents, iii, 162 Licence to found a college on the present site, with confirmation sqq. of the grants Printed below (p. 360) for Grant of die patronage and advowson of the parish church of Fenthe first time drayton for Godshouse when the same shall have been founded Neither published nor King Henry VI's foundation mentioned in Documents. charter, himself as founder Printed below (pp. 361 sqq.) for the first time

Reference to the originals in the College Muniment Room Gh. E

W11

1442, March 1 1442, June 10 1446, August 26 1447, September 3

1448, April 16

1449, January 26

1454, October 26

1457, July 25

1458, May 26

1462, November 4

1468, December 6 1484, February 9 i486, October 25

1505, May 1

P.R. 20 H. VI, iii, 15

Gh. G

P.R. 20 H. VI, iii, 16

Gh. H

P.R. 20 H. VI, iii, 28/27 P.R. 24 H. VI, ii, 4/3

Gh. I

P.R. 26 H. VI, i, 28

Letters patent; not found enrolled but recited by date and substance in subsequent royal charters down to 1 May

Gh. O

Fend. B

Gh. Q

1505

Not mentioned in Documents. Printed below (p. 372 sq.) for the first time

Grant of the hospital of St James Letters patent; not Gh.9 of Magna Thurlow and the adfound enrolled but vowson of the parish church of quoted by date and Navenby substance in subsequent royal charters down to 1 May 1505 Brief abstract in Documents, An order to the abbot of Sawtry to Close Roll 33 H. VI, No copy found in the college; the 34 pay to Godshouse the pension of i,53 original would go ten marks with all arrears to Sawtry P.R. Not found in the col36 H. VI, ii, 1 Brief abstract in Documents, Grant to Godshouse to overcome but referred lege (enrolled in error: the effects of an Act of Resumpi, 55 to in the contemshould be 35th tion porary Gh. 5 year) Gh. Ae Pardon to John Hurte, Proctor, and Letters patent; not Not published found enrolled but the scholars of statutory and endorsed irrot. on other offences committed before the seal tag 7 December last and remission of penalties incurred before that date and of revenues and arrears owed to the king before 1 September 1454 Mon. C Brief abstract in Documents, Inspeximus and confirmation to P.R. 2 Ed. IV, ii, 16 William Fallan, Proctor, and the U 59 scholars of the college called Goddishouse founded by King Henry VI, ofthe various revenues Gh.Ah Mentioned in Documents, i, Recites the foregoing and confirms P.R. 8 Ed. IV, iii, 15 87 and 88 and extends die privileges Mon. G Mentioned in Documents, i, Richard in recites his brother's Conf. Roll 1 R. HI, ii, 19 letters and confirms all privileges 83 Mentioned in Documents, if Henry VII recites the letters of 1462 Conf. Roll 2 H. Vn, Not found in the college and 1468 of Edward IV and con83 and 88 firms to Ralph Barton, Proctor, and the college all the privileges Printed: Documents, iii, 127 Henry VII confirms to John RR. 20 H. VII, ii, n The original, bound in velvet in book Sydyng, Proctor, and the colto 153 lege the former charters with all form, is kept in their privileges; he then prothe plate safe; a contemporary ceeds to give licence to his mother to found Christ's Colcopy is in'the botlege tom drawer of the third chest'

356

APPENDIX A

{b) TRANSCRIPTS OF VARIOUS DOCUMENTS Byngham's petition transcribed anew from the contemporary document preserved in King's College Cf. supra, pp. 35 sqq. Unto the kyng our souerain lord Beseecheth ful mekely your poure preest and continuell bedeman William Byngham person of seint John zacharie of london, unto your souerain grace to be remembred how J>at he hath diuerse tymes sued unto your highnesse shewyng and dedaryng by bille how gretely jpe clergie of this youre Reaume, by the which all wysdom konnyng and gouernaunce standeth in,1 is like to be empeired and febled by the defaute and lak of Scolemaistres of Gramer, In so moche pat as your seid poure besecher hath founde of late ouer the Est partie of the wey ledyng from hampton to couentre and so forth no ferther North J>an Rypon Jxx. scoles voide or mo J>at weren occupied all at ones within .1. yeres passed bicause J?at J>er is so grete scarstee of maistres of Gramer where of as now ben almost none nor none moweri be hade in your Universitees ouer those J>at nedes most ben occupied still there: Wherfore please it unto your most souerain highnesse and plenteuous grace to considre how that for all liberall sciences used in your seid Universitees certein lyflode is ordeyned and endued savyng onely for gramer the which is rote and grounde of all the seid other sciences: And there upon graciously to graunte licence to your forseid besecher pat he may yeve withouten fyn or fee [the] mansion ycalled Goddeshous the which he hath made and edified in your towne of Cambrigge for the free herbigage of poure* scolers of Gramer and also }>at he and whatsomeuer other persone or persones to J»at wele willed and disposed mowen yeve also withouten [fyn or] fee lyflode as londes tenements rents and services such as is not holden of you immediately by knyght service or advousons of churches J?ough thei ben holden 1

W. and C. (i, p. lvi) and Cooper [Annals, v, 262) have 'standeth' only, but the reading given above is unquestionable. The same form is to be found in Chaucer (1380) and in Larimer (15J0). 2 This word should not at all times be interpreted too literally, particularly in documents of the fifteenth century. It was largely used by speakers and writers depreciatingly of themselves, of which convention a characteristic example is found in the petition of the Chancellor of the University addressed to the Chancellor of England, where die petitioner describes himself as 'your pore oratour' (supra, p. 23). Especially is die word written in such modest or apologetic sense in regard to scholars, a use mentioned by Richard Bradiwayt in his Comment on Two Tales, where, in reference to Chaucer's poor scholar, he observes: 'This Poor hadi been an Epidiete, it seems, for Scholars in all Ages' (Chauc. Soc. PubL 1901, ed. C. F. E. Spurgeon, p. 8).

TRANSCRIPTS OF VARIOUS DOCUMENTS 357 of you or of ony other by knyght service to the value of .1. li by yere or elles to suche yerely value as may please unto your gode grace unto the maister and scolers of Clarehall in your universitee of Cambrigge and to J>eir Successours and also to graunte licence to pe same maistre and scolers and pax Successours for to resceyve withouten ony fyn or fee J>e same mansion and the seid other londes tenements rents and services and aduousons to pe seid value after pc forme of a cedule * to this bille annexed to J»entent J>at pe seid maister and scolers mowe fynde perpetually in pe forseid mansion ycalled Goddeshous xxiiij scolers for to comense in gramer and a preest to gouerne fern for reformacion of pe seid defaute for pe love of god and in jj?e] wey of charitee. Licence to William Byngham to give his mansion etc. to Clare Hall (Christ's College muniments, Godshouse E) Cf. Chapter m Henricus dei gratia rex Anglie et Francie et dominus Hibemie Omnibus ad quos presentes littere pervenerint Salutem Sciatis quod cum ex lamentabili insinuacione Willelmi Byngham persone ecclesie sancti Johannis Zacharie Londonie aliorumque fidecredulorum nobis sit intimatum quod ubi in quampluribus regni nostri Anglie partibus scole grammaticales ohm in numero non modico floruerunt et exinde excellentes grammatici grammaticeque magistri egregii processerunt Jam pre parcitate huiusmodi magistrorum facultas grammatice tam in Universitatibus nostris Cantebrigie et Oxonie quam ahbi per totum regnum nostrum predictum quod dolendum est fere permanet desolata non solum in tocius cleri et ecclesie regni nostri predicti vehemens detrimentum verumeciam in animositatis talium in ahis facultatibus studere optancium subtraccionem manifestam Nos scolarum predictarum ruinam intime contemplantes ac advertentes qualiter attenuata facilitate ilia nedum sacre scripture ac latini necessarii pro iuribus et aUis negociis arduis died regni nostri pertractandis set eciam mutue communicadonis et colloquii cum extraneis et Alienigenis sciencia et intellectus penitus deperirent qualiter eciam predictus Willelmus parcitati grammaticorum memorate intime compaciens quandam mansionem in Villa Cantebrigie que de nobis in burgagio tenetur ut dicitur Godeshous vulgariter nuncupatam sumptibus suis laborious et expensis noviter constructam et erectam cum gardinis adiacentibus et aliis pertinenciis magistro et scolaribus Aule de Clare Universitatis nostre Cantebrigie predicte et successoribus suis mediante licencia nostra dare intendat et assignare ad finem et effectum quod continue futuris temporibus viginti et quatuor adolescentes scolares in requisites pro reformacionis presentis negocii 1

The schedule is the draft of the licence desired by the petitioner and was submitted by him with his petition.

358

APPENDIX A

effectu notabiliter dispositi ac unus Capellanus ydoneus sciencia competens tam ad exorandum pro salubri statu nostro aliorumque benefactorum eiusdem mansionis dum vixerimus et pro anima nostra cum ab hac luce migraverimus et pro animabus inclitorum antecessorum et progenitorum nostrorum omniumque aliorum benefactorum mansionis predicte imperpetuum quarn ad predictos scolares ad gradum magistralem in grammatica et ad ordinem sacerdotalem educandos et eos deinde ad diversas partes regni nostri predicti ubi scole grammaticales in presenti existunt desolate in tante necessitatis et desolationis consolationem sub gubernacione et disposicione predictorum magistri et scolarium et successoram suorum mittendos iuxta ordinaciones regulas statuta et composicionem inter eos et predictum Willelmum vel executores suos aut ahos per ipsum Willelmum ad hoc deputandos et assignandos in hac pane ordinanda prefigenda et statuenda ac quod quilibet scolaris huiusmodi et Capellanus qui loco alicuius predictorum viginti et quatuor scolarium et Capellani decedentis promoti ammoti sive a predicta mansione expulsi pro dicto negocio iuxta ordinaciones regulas statuta et composicionem predicta imperpetuum continuendo eligendus fuerit sive recipiendus mansionem predictam inhabitare possint et possit ac morari in eadem Attendentes insuper dictum negocium non absque magnis et gravibus sumptibus et expensis posse sortiri effectum Volentes proinde ob reverenciam dei omnipotentis ac matris sue Marie Virginis gloriose sponseque eiusdem et matris nostre ecclesie sancte militantis in hac parte benigne agere et pro sustentacione eorundem uberius providere De gratia nostra speciali et ex certa nostra sciencia concessimus et licenciam dedimus pro nobis et heredibus nostris quantum in nobis est prefato Willelmo Byngham predicte mansionis Godeshous vulgariter nuncupate constructori et quibuscumque aliis personis seu cuicumque persone aliqua aHa terras tenementa sive redditus eisdem magistro et scolaribus aut eorum successoribus magistro et scolaribus Aule de Clare dicte Universitatis nostre Cantebrigie pro tempore existentibus ea de causa dare concedere assignare seu legare volentibus aut volenti quod dictus Willelmus Byngham dictam mansionem cum gardinis adiacentibus et aliis pertinenciis necnon quod tam idem Willelmus quam ipse persone aut ipsa persona terras tenementa et redditus cum pertinenciis aceciam advocaciones ecclesiarum cum pertinenciis de illis que immediate de nobis non tenentur in capite per servicium militare set solomodo de illis terris tenementis redditibus et serviciis cum pertinenciis ac advocacionibus ecclesiarum cum pertinenciis que de nobis vel de aliis personis quibuscumque tenentur per socagium vel per burgagium usque ad valorem quinquaginta librarum per annum prefatis magistro et scolaribus Aule de Clare eiusdem Universitatis nostre Cantebrigie qui nunc sunt vel qui pro tempore fuerint dare concedere et assignare per finem inde levatum in Curia nostra aut heredum nostrorum vel sine fine levato in eadem Curia seu alias legare possint et possit absque fine vel feodo ad opus nostrum vel heredum nostrorum inde capiendo

TRANSCRIPTS OF VARIOUS DOCUMENTS 359 Habenda et tenenda eisdem magistro et scolaribus et successoribus suis in auxilium sustentacionis predictorum viginti et quatuor scolarium et Capellani in dictam mansionem per magistrum et scolares antedictos et successores suos admittendorum et posterorum suorum pro victu et vestitu atque supportacione onerum eis et mansioni predicte incumbencium ut prefertur imperpetuum Et eisdem magistro et scolaribus Aule de Clare dicte Universitatis nostre Cantebrigie et eorum successoribus quod ipsi huiusmodi mansionem terras tenementa et redditus cum gardinis adiacentibus et aliis pertinenciis ac advocaciones predicta cum pertinenciis usque ad valorem predictum de predicto Willelmo et de personis aut persona predictis de tempore in tempus recipere et percipere et ecdesias illas appropriare et eas sic appropriatas in proprios usus suos una cum terris tenementis et redditibus predictis cum pertinenciis absque fine vel feodo ad opus nostrum vel dictorum heredum nostrorum inde capiendo habere et tenere possint sibi in forma predicta imperpetuum et secundum quod ordinaciones regula statuta et composicio predicta expressam facient mencionem usque ad valorem predictum tenore presencium similiter licenciam dedimus et concessimus specialem Statuto de terris et tenementis ad manum mortuam non ponendis edito aut eo quod expressa mencio aliorum bonorum et concessionum regiorum eisdem magistro et scolaribus Aule de Clare et successoribus suis ante hec tempora factorum sive eo quod expressa mencio de vero valore mansionis et gardinorum adiacencium predictorum cum pertinenciis iuxta formam statuti inde editi in presentibus facta nullatenus existit non obstante Dumtamenper inquisidones inde capiendas et in Cancellariam nostram vel heredum nostrorum rite retornandas compertum sit quod id fieri possit absque dampno sive preiudicio nostro vel heredum nostrorum aut aliorum quorumcumque Nolentes quod predictus Willelmus et alie persone predicte vel heredes sui aut predicti magister et scolares Aule de Clare Universitatis nostre Cantebrigie antedicte vel successores sui racione premissorum vel alicuius eonindem per nos vel dictos heredes nostros Justiciaries Escaetores Vicecomites aut alios Ballivos seu ministros nostros vel heredum nostrorum predictorum quoscumque molestentur in aliquo seu graventur Salvis tamen nobis et aliis capitalibus dominis feodorum illorum serviciis inde debitis et consuetis In cuius rei testimonium has litteras nostras fieri fecimus patentes Teste me ipso apud Manerium nostrum de Shene tercio decimo die JuHi Anno regni nostri decimo septimo1 per breve de privato sigillo

Bate

1 As usual at this period, the spelling and grammar of this and other Latin documents transcribed are often irregular; the words are here reproduced as they are found in the original.

360 APPENDIX A Grant of the patronage and advowson of the parish church of Fendrayton (Christ's College muniments, Fendrayton B) Cf. supra, p. 79 sq. Henricus dei gratia Rex Anglie et Francie et Dominus Hibernie Omnibus ad quos presentes littere pervenerint salutem Sciatis nos dedisse concessisse ac per presentes litteras nostras patentes pro nobis heredibus et successoribus nostris confirmasse Willelmo Byngham clerico ac unius mansionis vocate Godeshous Cantebriggie ordinatori magistris Willelmo Lychfeld Willelmo Millyngton Willelmo Guile et Johanni Tylney heredibus et assignatis suis patronatum et advocacionem sive ius patronatus ecclesie parocbialis de Fendrayton alias dicta Fennedrayton quocumque nomine censeatur cum omnibus et singulis suis perrinenciis habenda et tenenda eisdem Willelmo Willelmo Willelmo Willelmo et Johanni heredibus et assignatis suis imperpemum Insuper concessimus et hcenciam dedimus pro nobis heredibus et successoribus nostris predictis Willelmo Willelmo Willelmo Willelmo et Johanni heredibus et assignatis suis et eorum cuilibet et persone ac personis aliis quibuscumque coniunctim et divisim quod ipsi et eorum quilibet absque fine vel feodo magno vel parvo nobis heredibus vel successoribus nostris reddendo vel faciendo dare concedere et confirmare poterint etpoterit quilibet eorundem patronatum et advocacionem sive ius patronatus ecclesie predicte quocumque nomine censeatur cum perrinenciis suis Procuratori et scolaribus Collegii de Godeshous Cantebriggie predicta erigendi creandi fundandi cum idem Collegium erectum creatum et fundatum fuerit et successoribus suis habenda et tenenda eisdem imperpetuum necnon predictis Procuratori et Scolaribus et successoribus suis quod ipsi predicta patronatum et advocacionem sive ius patronatus cum perrinenciis suis sepedicte ecclesie de Fendrayton alias dicta Fennedrayton quocumque nomine censeatur cum perrinenciis suis ab eisdem Willelmo Willelmo Willelmo Willelmo et Johanne ac de persona vel personis aliis quibuscumque recipere admittere habere et rerinere poterint habenda et tenenda sibi et successoribus suis imperpetuum absque fine vel feodo magno vel parvo nobis heredibus vel successoribus nostris reddendo vel faciendo eciam hcenciam dedimus specialem Statuto deterriset tenemenris ad manum mortuam non ponendis aut eo quod de aliis donis et concessionibus per nos vel per progenitores nostros perantea factis predictis Willelmo Willelmo Willelmo Willelmo et Johanni vel eorum alicui per se divisim vel cum aliis personis coniunctim vel eo quod de vero valore predicti patronatus advocacionis sive iuris patronatus mencio in presentibus non sit facta aut aliqua alia restriccione vel ordinacione incontrarium facta in aliquo non obstante In cuius rei testimonium has litteras nostras fieri fecimus patentes Teste me ipso apud Westmonasterium tercio die Septembris Anno regni nostri vicesimo sexto per breve de privato sigillo et de data predicta auctoritate parhamenri Sprotley

TRANSCRIPTS OF VARIOUS DOCUMENTS 361 King Henry VI's foundation charter (Christ's College muniments, Godshouse Q) Cf. Chapter vm Henricus dei gratia Rex Anglie et ffrancie Dominus Hibernie Omnibus ad quos presentes littere pervenerint salutem Sciatis quod cum nuper ex lamentabili insinuacione multorum fidedignorum acceperimus quod in quampluribus regni nostri Anglie partibus ubi ante hec tempora infra paucos annos scole grammaticales in numero non modico floruerunt et ex eisdem grammatici grammaticeque Magistri egregii processerunt iam pre parcitate huiusmodi magistrorum facultas ilia tam in Universitatibus nostris Cantebrigie et Oxonie quam alibi per totum dictum regnum nostrum quod dolendum est fere permanserit desolata nedum in tocius deri et ecclesie regni nostri antedicti vehemens detrimentum verum edam in animositatis talium in aliis facultatibus studere optandum subtracdonem manifestam unde nos scolarum grammatice predictarum ruinamet Magistrorum eiusdem facultatis carenciam intime condolentes et advertentes qualiter quidam Willelmus Byngham persona ecdesie Sancti Johannis Zacharie Londonie pardtati grammaticorum memorate intime compadens quandam mansionem in Cantebrigia prope Aulam de Clare Godeshous vulgariter nuncupatam in supportadonem grammaticorum disponendam fecerit et ordinaverit cui quidem Willelmo Byngham ac dilectis clericis nostris Magbtris Willelmo Myllyngton Willelmo Guile doctoribus in theologia Johanni Tilney decretorum doctori ac Willelmo Wymbyll iam defuncto et heredibus suis ac persone et personb quibuscumque aliis per dictum Willelmum Byngham ad hoc nominandis et assignandis et eorum cuilibet coniunctim et divisim ex certa sdenda nostra et ex assensu consilii nostri litteras nostras patentes quarum data est nono die ffebruarii Anno regni nostri vicesimo concessimus et licendam dedimus pro nobis heredibus et successoribus nostris quantum in nobb fuit quod ipsi de uno presbitero et scolaribus in sdenda grammatice erudiendis ad numerum viginti et quinque personarum vel dtra in quodam tenemento cum tribus gardinis eidem tenemento adiacentibus in Villa nostra Cantebrigie Godeshous vulgariter nuncupato unum Collegium de et in dicto tenemento cum gardinis predictis de novo fundare creare incorporare erigere unire ordinare et stabilire per nomen procuratoris et scolarium de Godeshous semper nuncupandum poterint et quilibet eorundem potent iuxta modum ordinadones regulas et statuta eorundem regendum et gubernandum perpetuis futuris temporibus duraturis Pensantes nichilominus postmodum pia consideradone qualiter novo Collegio nostro regali in Vula nostra predicta per nos in honorem beate Marie Virginb et Sancti Nicholai confessoris nuper erecto dictum tenementum cum gardinis vocatum Godeshous adeo contiguum situatum fuerit quod absque illo tenemento nobis habiliter in edificandum nostrum predictum Collegium procedere nequivimus et quod ad rogatum nostrum spedalem prefatus Willelmus Byngham idem tenementum in ampli-

362

APPENDIX A

ficacionem fundi Collegii nostri antedicti in complacenciam nostram singularem nobis tradidit et dimisit dictusque Willelmus Byngham ut accepimus et cercioramur unam aliam mansionem pro huiusmodi scolaribus educandis ordinare edificare et disponere proponit de et in duobus cotagiis sive uno tenemento que quondam fuerunt Abbatis de Tyltey et in alio tenemento eisdem contiguo quod quondam fuit Abbatisse de Denney cum gardinis eisdem adiacentibus prout simul situantur in le Prechurstrete extra BaronWellgate in parochia Sancti Andree Cantebrigie inter quandam mansionem Johannis ffysshWyke quondam Bidelli Universitatis Cantebrigie quam inhabitavit et tenuit in feodo suo ex parte australi et dictam puplicam viam vocatam le Prechurstrete ex parte occidentali et tenementum Willelmi fryssher Burgensis Cantebrigie ex parte boreali et extendit se versus terram Priorisse Sancte Radegundis Cantebrigie ex parte orientali Que quidem cotagia sive tenementum continent in latitudine iuxta communem viam predictam novemdecim virgas de virgis ferreis nostris et aliud tenementum quod erat Abbatisse de Denney cum gardinis situatum a dictis cotagiis sive tenemento immediate versus boriam continet in latitudine iuxta viam predictam undecim virgas de virgis ferreis nostris et in longitudine utrumque eorum tenementorum continet a predicta via pupplica vocata le Prechurstrete versus terram predicte Priorisse inter occidentem et orientem Centum et unam virgas de virgis nostris ferreis volentesque proinde ne labores affecciones et expense eiusdem Willelmi Byngham graves et diutini in ilia parte aliqualiter frustrarentur concessimus et licenciam dedimus pro nobis heredibus et successoribus nostris eidem Willelmo Byngham Magistris Willelmo Lychfeld Willelmo Millyngton Willelmo Guile in sacra theologia professoribus Johanni Tylney decretorum doctori Johanni Horley in sacra theologia Bacallario et Gilberto Worthyngton ac Johanni Cote iam defunctis heredibus et assignatis suis et eorum cuilibet ac persone seu personis ahis quibuscumque per dictum Willelmum Byngham ad hoc nominandis sive assignandis quod ipsi et eorum quilibet et heredes sui de et in predictis duobus cotagiis sive tenemento quondam Abbatis de Tyltey et tenemento quondam Abbatisse de Denney cum gardinis adiacentibus ad hoc per dictum Willelmum Byngham ordinatis et adquisitis tribus duobus vel uno eorum vel quacumque parte vel quibuscumque partibus eorundem tenementorum cotagiorum sive gardinorum unum Collegium perpetuum de uno Procuratore et scolaribus non solum in facilitate grammatice set eciam in aliarum facultatum liberalium sciencia erudiendis secundum ordinacionem et statuta eorundem Willelmi Byngham Willelmi Lychfeld Willelmi Myllyngton Willelmi Guile et aliorum prenominatorum in hac parte facienda facere erigere stabilire et fundare sive sic fieri erigi stabiliri ac fundari perpetuis futuris temporibus duraturis procurare poterint et poterit quilibet eorundem prout per litteras nostras patentes quarum data est vicesimo sexto die Mensis Augusti Anno Regni Nostri vicesimo quarto eisdem Willelmo Byngham Willelmo Willelmo

TRANSCRIPTS OF VARIOUS D O C U M E N T S

363

Millyngton Willelmo Gilberto Johanni Johanni Tylney et Johanni Horley inde factas plane liquet Ac per eandem cartam dedimus concessimus et confirmavimus supradictis Willelmo Byngham Willelmo Millyngton Willelmo Guile et Johanni Tylney heredibus et assignatis suis quendam redditum sive antiquum apportum decem marcarum per annum quem Prior Prioratus de Monemuth Alienigeni in Marchiis Wallie alias dicta Monemouth quocumque nomine idem Prioratus censeatur et successores sui debuerunt et solvere tenebantur Capitali domui Prioratus predicti in partibus transmarinis tempore pads quendam annuum redditum sive apportum quadraginta solidorum quem predecessores Prioris illius qui tune fuit Prior Prioratus de Tottofi in Comitatu Devonie alias died Prioratus de Totteneys in Comitatu Devonie quocumque nomine idem Prioratus censeatur tempore pads annuarim solvere solebant sive solvere debuerunt de antiquo apportu ad Capitalem domum Prioratus predicd in pardbus transmarinis et ille qui post tune fuit Prior Prioratus predicti nobis annuarim reddere tenebatur reversionem annualis pensionis redditus sive apportus quocumque nomine censeatur Centum solidorum per annum quem Prior de novo loco super Aucolum alias dictum Acolum alias dicto Acolme in Comitatu Lincoinie alias dictus Prior de Neustede super Aucolum in Comitatu Lincoinie quocumque nomine censeatur olim annuarim reddere tenebatur Abbari et Conventui de Longvillers alias dicta Longevillers alias dicta Longeville in ffrancia quocumque nomine censeatur post tune nobis reddere debuit et portare annuarim tenebatur per nos nuper concessum Johanni Crooke uni dericorum Scaccarii nostri durante vita sua post mortem eiusdem Johannis Crooke reversionem annue Pensionis firme redditus sive apportus decem marcarum quos Abbas de Sawtre alias dictus Abbas de Sautre quocumque nomine censeatur una cum quinquaginta -mards pro ecdesia de frulburn anas dicta ffoulbourne et ecdesia de Honyngham alias dicta Honyngton quocumque nomine eedem ecdesie censeantur annuadm reddere tenebatur et quos annuam pensionem firmam redditum sive apportum decem marcarum Johannes ffouler alias dictus ffowler unus clericorum Capelle nostre ad tune habuit pro termino vite sue ex concessione nostra cum aedderit post mortem eiusdem Johannis ffouler alias died ffowler annuam firmam sive annuum redditum quadraginta sex solidorum et octo denariorum quos Willelmus Clerke Capelknus et Thomas ffitzharry post tune nobis solvere tenebantur annuadm pro custodia Prioratus de Carswell in Wallia alias died Prioratus de Carsewell in Dominio de Ewyas Lacy in North Wallia quocumque nomine idem Prioratus censeatur una cum reversione eiusdem Prioratus cum perrinendis cum aedderit post finem decem annorum proxime sequendum festum Narivitaris Sancri Johannis Baptiste quod fuit anno regni nostri sexto dedmo quem quidem redditum sive firmam predicti Willelmus Clerke Capellanus et Thomas ffitzharry nobis post tune debuerunt de custodia Prioratus predicti ratione cuiusdam dimissionis per nos eisdem Willelmo Clerk et Thome fBtzharry nuper facte habende eis a dicto

364

APPENDIX A

festo Narivitatis Sancti Johannis Baptiste usque ad finem decem annorum ex tune proxime sequencium reddendo nobis inde annuatim quadraginta sex solidos et octo denarios ad festa Natalis domini et Nativitatis Sancti Johannis Baptiste equis porcionibus Prioratum de Chipstowe Alienigenum quocumque nomine idem Prioratus censeatur cum omnibus terris tenementis redditibus serviciis firmis pensionibus porcionibus et possessionibus aliis ac ecclesiarum advocadonibus eidem Prioratui qualitercumque spectantibus Prioratum Maneria sive dominia de Ikham in Comitatibus Lincohiie et Oxonie una cum advocadonibus eorundem Prioratuum de Carsewell Chipstowe et Ikham ac omnibus et singulis terris tenementis redditibus feodis Militum et aliis possessionibus quibuscumque una cum warennis serviciis theoloneis piscariis pratis pascuispasturis molendinis boscis subbosds pannagiis visibus franciplegii Curiis custumis consuetudinibus pensionibus pordonibus obladonibus decimis advocadonibus ecclesiarum Vicariarum Capellarum Hospitalium benefidorum et ofSdorum quorumcumque ecdesiasticorum seu secularium predictis Prioratibus Dominiis Maneriis terris tenementis et aliis possessionibus quomodolibet spectantibus sive pertinentibus quibuscumque nominibus predicta redditus apportus firme Prioratus terre possessiones Maneria Dominia pensiones pordones tenementa reversiones censeantur eorumve aliquod censeatur qualitercumque quandocumque et quacumque ex causa eadem redditus apportus firme Prioratus terre possessiones Maneria Dominia pensiones pordones tenementa et reversiones cum suis pertinenciis ad manus nostras progenitorum vel predecessorum nostrorum devenerint vel devenire debuerint eorumve aliquod devenerit seu devenire debuerit habenda et tenenda sibi et heredibus et assignatis suis a primo die Martii Anno regni nostri vicesimo imperpetuum libere et quiete ab omni exacdone et servido seculari ac sine apportu firma compoto vel ratiocinio aut alio proficuo quocumque nobis heredibus vel successoribus nostris inde reddendo vel faciendo prout in predictis Litteris nostris plenius apparet Attamen sepedictus Willelmus Byngham prout nobis intimavit predicti Collegii erecdonem et fundadonem usque in presentem diem duTerre non postposuit ob id quod nostri glorie et premii in ilia celesti patria ampUadonem per personalem dicti Collegii de Godeshouse fundadonem mereremur toto cordis annelitu ardenter affectavit atque pro eodem negodo in persona nostra propria reahter exequendo nobis humiliter supph'cavit Quodrca divino animadvertentes instinctu sanctorum locorum fundatores predbus eorundem et sufFragiis devotissime pre cunctis ceteris benefactoribus commendari eisdemque suffragiis quasi premiciis vel fructibus semper frui primitivis grandiaque drca nos et rem nostram pupplicam a deo nobis traditam strenue gubernandam pericula regie nostre magestatis humeris incumbencia predbus et devodonibus alleviare cernentes Sdatis quod nos gradose annuentes votis et supplicadonibus dicti Willelmi Byngham iam instandus nostram regiam pulsantis celsitudinem ut ex assensu consensu ac ad specialem

TRANSCRIPTS OF VARIOUS DOCUMENTS 365 eiusdem Willelmi supplicacionem quoddam dignaremur Collegium perpetuum secundum harum seriem regendum et gubernandum de uno procuratore et certis scolaribus in grammatica et aliis facultatibus liberalibus in dicta Villa nostra Cantebrigie ad studendum et orandum pro salubri statu nostro et ipsius Willelmi Byngham dum vixerimus et animabus nostris cum ab hac luce migraverimus et animabus darissimorum parentum et progenitorum nostrorum quondam Regum et Reginarum Anglie ac pro animabus parentum died Willelmi Byngham ceterorumque benefactorum eiusdem Collegii et omnium fidelium defunctorum de et in prefatis tenemento sive cotagiis nuper Abbatis de Tyltey et tenemento nuper Abbarisse de Denney in Cantebrigia predicta ac de et in messuagio cum pertinendis in parochia Sancte Trinitatis Cantebrigie iuxta tenementum Johannis Beer unde idem messuagium fuit parcella situato quasi ex opposito aqueductui fratrum minorum Cantebrigie aceciam in quodam tenemento iacente ad finem australem gardini Collegii vocati Peteres House in Cantebrigia predicta et abuttante super viam regiam vocatam Trumpyngton strete ad caput orientate et super communem pasturam Cantebrigie quod tenementum nuper fuit Prioris et Conventus Prioratus Alborum Canonicorum ordinis Sancti Gilberti ordinis de Sempryngham in Cantebrigia que tenementa sive cotagia et messuagia predictus Willelmus Byngham pro predicto Collegio inhibi per nos erigendo et fundando perquisivit quem ac heredes et assignatos suos ob piam intencionem suam ac diutinos labores et assiduitates innumeros sumptus et expensas in eodem negocio per ipsum factos et impensos ac imposterum faciendos et impendendos tanquam alteros fundatores eiusdem Collegii haberi et nominari Volentes de et in predictis tenemento sive duobus cotagiis ohm Abbatis de Tilteia et tenemento nuper Abbarisse de Denney ac de et in predicto messuagio in parochia Sancte Trinitatis et in tenemento nuper Prioris et Conventus Alborum Canonicorum predictorum in dicta Villa nostra Cantebrigie et in qualibet parte et quibuscumque partibus eorundem ereximus fundavimus creavimus ac tenore presencium fundamus et facimus erigimus creamus et stabilimus unum Collegium perpetuis futuris temporibus duraturis ac predictum Willehnum Byngham ex certa nostra scienda et ex causis notabilibus nos ad hoc moventibus Procuratorem et pro procuratore ipsius Collegii sic per nos erecti et fundati ac per nos nunc institutum et prefixum Johannem Lincohi litteratum ac Johannem. Pycard Robertum Milton et Ricardum Corlus presbiteros scolares eiusdem Collegii per dictum Willelmum Byngham nobis nominatos et ad hoc per nos nunc assumptos secundum ordinadones et statuta predictorum Willelmi Byngham et Magistrorum Willelmi Lychfeld Willelmi Millington Willelmi Guile Johannis Holand sacre theologie professorum Johannis Hurte et Roberti Scolyse in eadem Bacallariorum et cuiuslibet eorum vel aliorum quorumcumque per predictum Willehnum Byngham ad hoc nominandorum et assignandorum regendos corrigendos privandos et ammovendos prefidmus

366

APPENDIX A

creamus et ordinamus per presentes Volentes et concedentes quod ipsi Procurator et scolares eiusdem Collegii sic per nos ut premittitur assumpti et prefixi et successores sui Procuratores et scolares eiusdem Collegii futuri secundum ordinaciones et statuta predicta eligere congregare et admittere poterint sibi plures scolares usque ad numerum sexaginta personarum vel citra secundum ordinaciones et statuta predicta regendos corrigendos privandos et ammovendos quos et successores suos sic eligendos congregandos et admittendos tanquam scolares et membra eiusdem Collegii secundum predicta ordinaciones et statuta esse haberi nominari et reputari volumus imperpetuum Preterea volumus et concedimus per presentes quod decedente predicto Procuratore cedente vel eo quacumque de causa inde ammoto seu privato scolares eiusdem Collegii pro tempore existentes secundum formam et efFectum statutorum et ordinacionum predictorum alterum ydoneum hominem in Procuratorem et pro Procuratore eiusdem Collegii sic per nos ut premittitur erecti et fundati eligant et eligere possint quern in Procuratorem et pro Procuratore eiusdem Collegii per Cancellarium Universitatis Cantebrigie predicte et successores suos Cancellarios eiusdem Universitatis pro tempore existentes et non per nos nee heredes neque successores nostros admitti et confirmari secundum ordinaciones et statuta predicta regendum corrigendum privandum et tenore presencium duximus ammovendum Et sic decedentibus huiusmodi Procuratoribus cedentibus aut eis quoquo modo inde privatis vel ammotis infiiturum died, scolares Collegii per nos ut premittitur erecti et successores sui habeant et habere possint iuxta ordinaciones et statuta predicta liberam eleccionem de novis Procuratoribus quos ut supradictum est admitti confirmari regi corrigi privari et ammoveri volumus et eos sic in Procuratores electos admissos et confirmatos Procuratores esse perpetuos eiusdem Collegii absque licencia de nobis heredibus vel successoribus nostris inde petenda seu prosequenda et non alios neque alio modo volumus et concedimus pro nobis heredibus et successoribus nostris quantum in nobis est imperpetuum Volentes eciam quod decedentibus vel cedentibus scolaribus antedicti Collegii sic per nos ut premittitur erecti seu eorum aliquo decedente vel cedente aut eis vel eorum aliquo ex inde privatis vel ammotis privato seu ammoto in futurum semper habeant Procuratores et scolares dicti Collegii per nos ut premittitur erecti et successores sui pro tempore existentes imperpetuum iuxta ordinaciones et statuta predicta liberam facultatem et potestatem ad eligendum novos scolares vel scolarem et in eorum vel eius loco ponendos vel ponendum ac quod quilibet scolarium sic de novo eligendus sit admissus et confirmatus per predictum Procuratorem vel successores suos pro tempore existentes quos Procuratores et scolares sic electos admissos et confirmatos absque licencia inde de nobis heredibus vel successoribus nostris petenda prosequenda vel habenda in futurum et non alios Procuratores scolares et membra esse eiusdem Collegii per nos ut premittitur erecti secundum ordinaciones et statuta

TRANSCRIPTS OF VARIOUS DOCUMENTS 367 predicta regendos corrigendos privandos et ammovendos Volumus et concedimus pro nobisheredibuset successoribus nostris imperpetuum Volentes ulterius et concedentes per presentes quod dictum Collegium per nos sic erectum Collegium de Godeshouse Cantebrigie sic vocetur nominetur et imperpetuum nuncupetur et quod died Procurator et scolares in idem Collegium nunc pre&ri sive assumpti et successores sui imperpetuum Procurator et scolares Collegii de Godeshous Cantebrigie sint nominentur et vocentur Et quod dicti Procurator et scolares et successores sui pro tempore existentes sint in re facto nomine et in lege unum corpus et una Communitas perpetua et corporata imperpetuum habeantque successionem perpetuam et commune sigilfum pro negociis suis communibus serviturum Et quod ipsi et eorum successores sint persone habiles et capaces in lege imperpetuum ad impetrandum recipiendum perquirendum et adquirendum terras tenementa redditus servicia proficua advocaciones ecclesiarum emolumenta iura et possessiones temporalia et spiritualia tam de nobis heredibus et successoribus nostris quam de aliis personis ecclesiasticis tam secularibus quam regularibus ac de personis aliis secularibus quibuscumque licet ea immediate de nobis heredibus vel successoribus nostris seu personis aliis per servicium Militare aut alio modo quocumque teneantur eorumve aliquod teneatur sine aliqua alia licencia nostra heredum vel successorum nostrorum ad hoc imposterum postulanda perquirenda vel impetranda habenda et tenenda eisdem Procuratori scolaribus et successoribus suis imperpetuum Et quod ipsi Procurator et scolares et successores sui per predictum nomen procuratoris et Scolarium Collegii de Godeshouse Cantebrigie placitare et implacitari possint et prosequi omnimodas causas querelas et acciones reales personales et mixtas cuiuscumque generis sint vel nature ac respondere et defcndere responderi et defendi in eisdem tam coram nobis quam coram quibuscumque Justiciariis nostris et Judicibus Ecclesiasticis et secularibus quibuscumque Et ulterius de gratia nostra speciali pro nobis heredibus et successoribus nostris remisimus quietum damavimus et relaxavimus eisdem Procuratori et scolaribus ac successoribus suis imperpetuum omne ius dameum et titulum que habemus habuimus seu quovismodo infuturum habere poterimus in omnibus predictis tenementis cotagiis et messuagiis ac omnimoda corrodia pensiones annuitates et alia quecumque que nos heredes vel successores nostri aut aliquis alius ad nostrum mandatum vel rogatum ratione fundacionis nostre antedicte ab eisdem Procuratore et scolaribus sive Collegio de Godeshouse Cantebrigie et successoribus suis predictis vel aliquo eorundem exigere aut vindicare possimus aut possit infuturum et eos inde excusatos et quietos esse volumus et concedimus per presentes perpetuis temporibus duraturis Concessimuseciam eisdem Procuratori et scolaribus et successoribus suis imperpetuum quod quocienscumque et quandocumque predictum Collegium de Godeshouse Cantebrigie de Procuratore per mortem cessionem privacionem seu resignadonem aut alio modo quocumque vacare contigerit scolares eiusdem Collegii

368

APPENDIX A

pro tempore existentes habeant et percipiant omnia fructus proficua et emolumenta de quibuscumque terris tenementis redditibus serviciis Prioratibus ecclesiis rectoriis pensionibus apportibus porcionibus etpossessionibus eiusdem Collegii seu eidem Collegio spectantibus durante huiusmodi vacacione proveniencia secundum ordinaciones et statuta predicta disponenda que tempore ac ratione huiusmodi vacationis ad nos heredes vel successores nostros pertinent seu pertinere poterint infuturum absque compoto ratiocinacione seu aliquo alio nobis heredibus vel successoribus nostris inde reddendo seu solvendo Ita quod nos heredes et successores nostri Escaetores et alii Ministri nostri quicumque ab omni custodia seisina et possessione eiusdem Collegii aut terrarum tenementorum reddituum serviciorum ecdesiarum rectoriarum et aliarum possessionum quarumcumque eiusdem Collegii seu eidem spectancium seu pertinencium durante huiusmodi vacacione simus exdusi imperpetuum per presentes Concessimus eciam et licenciam dedimus specialem prefato Procuratori et scolaribus et successoribus suis quod ipsi absque fine vel feodo magno vel parvo nobis heredibus vel successoribus nostris inde reddendo solvendo vel faciendo integre particulariter simul aut per vices dare concedere remittere seu relaxare poterint Abbari de Tyltey et successoribus suis imperpetuum terras redditus servicda ad valorem viginti sex solidorum et octo denariorum per annum ultra reprisas Et Abbarisse de Denney et eiusdem loci Conventui et successoribus suis imperpetuum alia terras tenementa redditus et servicia ad valorem viginti solidorum per annum ultra reprisas et prefato Priori et successoribus suis imperpetuum alia terras tenementa ad valorem viginti septem solidorum per annum ultra reprisas Et eisdem Abbati de Tyltey et eiusdem loci Conventui et Abbarisse de Denney et eiusdem loci Conventui ac prefato Priori et successoribus suis imperpetuum quod ipsi separatim possint recipere perquirere et habere de prefatis Procuratore et scolaribus et successoribus suis dicta terras tenementa redditus et servicia habenda et tenenda preiato Abbari et successoribus suis ad valenciam viginti sex solidorum et octo denariorum et predicte Abbarisse et successoribus suis ad valenciam viginti solidorum imperpetuum ac predicto Priori et successoribus suis imperpetuum ad valenciam viginti septem solidorum per annum ultra reprisas absque fine vel feodo magno vel parvo nobis heredibus vel successoribus nostris inde reddendo solvendo vel faciendo similiter licenciam dedimus specialem Insuper concessimus et licenciam dedimus per presentes pro nobis heredibus et successoribus nostris prefato Willelmo Millyngton Willelmo Guile et Johanni Tylney heredibus et assignaris suis quod ipsi et quilibet eorum absque fine vel feodo magno vel parvo nobis heredibus vel successoribus nostris inde reddendo solvendo vel faciendo omnia predicta Prioratus Alienigenos et eorum advocaciones ac apportus pensiones terras tenementa redditus servicia ecdesias ecdesiarum advocadones dominia Maneria reversiones una cum warennis serviciis theoloneis piscariis pratis pascuis pasturis molendinis boscis subboscis pannagiis visibus franci-

TRANSCRIPTS OF VARIOUS DOCUMENTS 369 plegii Curiis custumis consuetudinibus franchesiis libertatibus prisonis bonis felonum et proditorum pensionibus porcionibus oblacionibus decimis advocacionibus ecdesiarum Vicariarum Capellarum Hospitalium beneficiorum et offidorum quorumcumque ecdesiasticorum seu secularium cum omnibus aliis pertinenciis predictis Prioratibus dominiis Maneriis tenementis et aliis possessionibus predictis eorumve alicui spectantibus sive pertinentibus dare concedere remittere relaxare et confirmare poterint et poterit dictis Procuratori et scolaribus et successoribus suis imperpetuum per finem in Curia nostra heredum v d successorum nostrorum inde levandum vel alio modo quocumque Et quod tarn predicti Willelmus Millyngton Willdmus Guile et Johannes Tylney ac quedam Anna Priorissa Prioratus Sancti Jacobi de Hynchyngbroke quocumque nomine idem Prioratus censeatur et eiusdem lod Conventus prope Brampton et Sara Beket de Cantuaria et eorum quilibet quam persona et persone alie quecumque seculares et ecdesiastice tam regulares quam seculares absque fine vel feodo magno vel parvo nobis heredibus v d successoribus nostris inde reddendo solvendo vel fadendo dare seu legare remittere relaxare concedere et confirmare integre particulariter simul sive per vices poterint et possit prefatis Procuratori et scolaribus et successoribus suis imperpetuum Alia terras tenementa redditus Prioratus et eorundem advocadones servida ecdesias et ecdesiarum advocadones aliaque possessiones et emolumenta cum suis pertinenciis ad valorem tricentarum librarum per annum ultra reprisas Insuper concessimus et licendam dedimus pro nobis heredibus et successoribus nostris predictis Procuratori et scolaribus et successoribus suis imperpetuum quod ipsi omnia predicta Prioratus Alienigenos et eorum advocadones ac apportus pensiones terras tenementa redditus servicia ecdesias et ecdesiarum advocadones feoda Militum et possessiones alias quascumque predictas una cum warenis serviciis theoloneis piscariis pratis pascuis pasturis cum molendinis boscis subbosds panagiis Visibus frandplegii Curiis custumis consuetudinibus franchesiis libertatibus prisonis bonis felonum et proditorum pensionibus pordonibus obladonibus dedmis advocadonibus Prioratuum ecdesiarum Vicariarum Capellarum Hospitalium benefidorum et omdorum quorumcumque ecdesiasticorum seu secularium predictis Prioratibus dominiis Maneriis terris tenementis et aliis possessionibus eorumve alicui quomodolibet spectantibus sive pertinentibus ac alia terras tenementa Prioratus et eorum advocadones redditus servicia ecdesias ecdesiarum advocadones feoda Militum proficua et emolumenta cum suis pertinenciis perquirere habere redpere tenere ac sibi et successoribus suis imperpetuum appropriare et in proprios usus tenere et possedere ac retinere possint sibi et successoribus suis imperpetuum absque fine vel feodo magno vel parvo nobis heredibus vel successoribus nostris inde reddendo solvendo vel fadendo Insuper concessimus et licenciam dedimus pro nobis heredibus et successoribus nostris predictis Procuratori et scolaribus et successoribus suis imperpetuum quod ipsi absque fine vel feodo magno vel IHC

24

370

APPENDIX A

parvo nobis heredibus vel successoribus nostris inde reddendo solvendo vel faciendo predicta Prioratus apportus pensiones et eorundem Prioratuum advocaciones terras tenementa redditus servicia ecdesias et ecclesiarum advocaciones feoda Militum ac possessiones quascumque alias tarn temporales quana spirituales per nos per personam seu per personas quascumque alias eisdem Procuratori scolaribus et successoribus suis in primeva fundacione eorum vel quocumque tempore alio data concessa vel collata sive infuturum danda concedenda sive conferenda cum aliis personis quibuscumque secularibus et ecclesiasticis tarn regularibus quam secularibus pro aliis Prioratibus apportibus pensionibus terris tenementis redditibus serviciis ecclesiis seu ecclesiarum advocacionibus cum omnibus suis pertinenciis infra regnum nostrum Anglie Et eisdem personis tam secularibus quam ecclesiasticis regularibus sive secularibus quod ipsi huiusmodi Prioratus Alienigenos et eorum advocaciones apportus pensiones terras tenementa redditus servicia ecdesias et ecclesiarum advocaciones et possessiones quecumque alia cum prefatis Procuratore et scolaribus vel successoribus suis pro predictis Prioratibus et eorum advocacionibus ac predictis apportibus pensionibus terris tenementis redditibus serviciis ecclesiis et ecclesiarum advocacionibus ac possessionibus quibuscumque aliis et quolibet eorundem mutare cambire in escambium ponere dare concedere et permutare poterint et poterit quelibet earundem et tam personis secularibus quam ecclesiasticis regularibus et secularibus illis quibuscumque que cum predictis Procuratore et scolaribus eorumve successoribus huiusmodi Prioratus Alienigenos et eorum advocadones ac predicta apportus pensiones terras tenementa redditus servida ecdesias et ecclesiarum advocaciones ac possessiones quecumque alia eorumve aliquod permutaverint sive in escambium posuerint quod ipsi predicta Prioratus et eorum advocadones apportus pensiones terras tenementa redditus servida ecdesias et ecclesiarum advocadones feoda Militum ac possessiones ilia quecumque et quodlibet eorundem per predictos Procuratorem et scolares eorumve successores eis in escambium ut predidtur danda concedenda permutanda sive in escambium ponenda ab eisdem Procuratore et scolaribus eorumve successoribus quam eisdem Procuratori et scolaribus et eorum successoribus quod ipsi ab huiusmodi personis secularibus ecclesiasticis tam regularibus quam secularibus predicta huiusmodi Prioratus et eorum advocadones apportus pensiones terras tenementa redditus servida ecdesias et ecdesiarum advocadones ac possessiones quecumque alia et quodlibet eorundem per eas eisdem Procuratori et scolaribus et eorum successoribus in escambium quod predidtur danda concedenda permutanda sive in escambium ponenda integre particulariter simul aut per vices perquirere redpere habere et tenere possint et possit quilibet eorundem ac eisdem pacifice gaudere sibi heredibus et successoribus suis imperpetuum absque ulteriori prosecudone alicuius alterius licende nostre heredum vel successorum nostrorum penes nos heredes vel successores nostros aliqualiter ex causis supradictis facienda

TRANSCRIPTS OF VARIOUS DOCUMENTS 371 absque incursu alicuius forisfacture sive pene erga nos heredes vel successores nostros infuturum hiis occasionibus quovismodo similiter licenciatn dedimus spedalem absque fine vel feodo magno vel parvo nobis heredibus vel successoribusnostris inde reddendo solvendo vel faciendo Nolentes quodpredicti Willelmus Millyngton Willelmus Guile et Johannes Tylney Anna Priorissa et Sara Beket eorumve aliquis aut eorum heredes seu predicti Procurator et scolares aut eorum successores vel persone alie seculares sive ecclesiastice seculares vel regulares aut eorum successores vel heredes predicti qui cum dictis Procuratore et scolaribus vel successoribus suis huiusmodi terras tenementa Prioratus apportus pensiones redditus servicia ecclesias et ecclesiarum advocadones ac possessiones quascumque alias eorumve aliquod permutaverint sive in escambium posuerint permutaverit sive in escambium posuerit ratione premissorum aut eorum alicuius per nos heredes vel successores nostros Justidarios Escaetores Vicecomites Coronatores Ballivos aut alios Ministros nostros heredum vel successorum nostrorum quoscumque futuris temporibus impetantur inquietentur molestentur in aliquo seu graventur nee aliquis eorum impetatur inquietetur seu gravetur non obstantibus aliquibus statutis restriccionibus provisionibus aut ordinadone incontrarium premissorum eorumve alicuius factis vel faciendis licet predicta Prioratus apportus terras tenementa redditus iura feoda Militum servicia possessiones ecclesias Prioratus et ecclesiarum advocadones eorumve aliquod per nos vel per progenitores nostros seu per personam vel personas quascumque anas perantea aliquibus persone aut personis loco aut lods ecclesiasticis secularibus vel regularibus aut Communitati cuicumque et eorum successoribus in eorum primeva fiindadone vel alio tempore quocumque collata concessa seu confirmata fuerint eorumve aliquod concessum coUatum seu confirmatum fuerit Statuto de terns et tenementis ad manum mortuam non ponendis edito sive aliquo alio statuto de huiusmodi Prioratibus et possessionibus Alienigenis facto aut eo quod predicta firme pensiones Prioratus Maneria dominia terre tenementa redditus servicia apportus reversiones ac Prioratuum et ecclesiarum advocadones cum pertinendis in manibus nostris ratione et occasione guerre seu causa alia quacumque extiterint aut eo quod predicta firme pensiones Prioratus dominia terre tenementa redditus servicia apportus reversiones ac Prioratuum et ecclesiarum advocadones cum pertinenciis suis quibuscumque de dono progenitorum nostrorum sive per eos Cantariis Hospitalibus vel ad alia pietatis opera sustinenda supportanda et facienda data quandocumque extiterint sive aliquo alio statuto sive resumpdone generali vel speciali Prioratuum Alenigenorum vel alia ordinadone incontrarium facta vel fadenda sive eo quod expressa mencio de vero valore annuo dictorum Prioratuum Maneriorum dominiorum apportuum Pensionum terrarum tenementorum reddituum serviciorum ecclesiarum advocadonum et aliarum possessionum quorumcumque cum pertinenciis sive eo quod expressa mendo de nominibus capitalium domorum predictorum apportuum Prioratuum de Chipstowe 24-2

372

APPENDIX A

Monemuth Totteneys et Carsewell eorumve alicuius contra formam statuti inde editi in presentibus facta non existit aut eo quod de aliis donis concessionibus sive confirmacionibusspecificatis inpredictislitterisnostris quarum data est vicesimo sexto die Augusti Anno regni nostri vicesimo quarto vel de aliis donis concessionibus et confirmacionibus nostris seu alicuius progenitorum antecessorum vel predecessorum nostrorum eisdem Willelmo Byngham Willelmo Lychfeld Willelmo Millyngton Willelmo Guile Johanni Tylney Johanni Holand Johanni Hurte et Roberto Scolyse vel alicui eorum per se vel cum personis aliis perantea factis in presentibus mencio facta non existit aut eo quod pax finalis inter regna Anglie et ffrancie reformata fuerit seu eo quod predicta firme pensiones Prioratus Maneria dominia terre tenementa redditus servicia apportus reversiones ac Prioratuum et ecclesiarum advocaciones cum suis pertinenciis de nobis in capite tenentur Aut eo quod Abbatibus Prioribus sive quibuscumque presidentibus aHis ecclesiasticis quibuscumque nominibus censeantur sive successoribus suis domorum sive locorum religiosorum seu secularium ecclesiasticorum de regno fFrancic vel de partibus aliis transmarinis quibus predicta firme pensiones Prioratus Maneria dominia terre tenementa redditus servicia apportus reversiones ac advocaciones Prioratuum et ecclesiarum cum pertinenciis pertinent sive ab antiquo tempore perdnuerunt per prefatos Willelmum Byngham Willelmum Millington Willelmum Guile et Johannem Tylney aut per predictos Procuratorem et scolares vel successores suos per rationabilem concordiam inter ipsos in hac parte faciendam infuturum sumcienter recompensatum et satisfactum non fuerit aut eo quod in scriptura presencium titterarum patencium nostrorum per vitium vel impericiam scriptorumearundem aliqua discrepancia litterarum a recordis in Cancellaria aut Scaccario vel in aHis Curiis nostris existentibus compertum fuerit aliquo aho iure. titulo et interesse seu alia causa quacumque que nobis in hac parte heredibus vel successoribus nostris infuturum perrinere poterit non obstante In cuius rei testimonium htteras has nostras fieri fecimus patentes Teste me ipso apud Westmonasterium sexto decimo die Aprilis Anno regni nostri vicesimo sexto per ipsum Regem et de data predicta auctoritate parliamenti Nayler

Grant of the hospital of St James ofMagna Thurlow and the advowson of the parish church ofNavenby (Christ's College muniments, Godshouse 9) Cf. supra, p. 102 sq. Henricus &c Omnibus &c Salutem Sciatis quod ex mero motu nostro ac in puram et perpetuam elemosinam dedimus concessimus et hac presenti carta nostra confirmavimus Willelmo Byngham Procuratori Collegii nostri de Godeshouse Cantebrigie per nos pro exnibicione et educacione Magistrorum

TRANSCRIPTS OF VARIOUS DOCUMENTS 373 et Scolarium grammatice facultatis et aliarum facultatum liberalium nuper erecti fundati et stabiliti et eiusdem Collegii Scolaribus et successoribus suis reversionem hospitalis sive libere Capelle sancti Jacobi de Thirlaw {sic) magna in Comitatu SufFolcie quocumque nomine idem hospitaleseucapellacenseatur post mortem Willelmi Benet quocumque nomine censeatur Magistri et possessoris eiusdem et post decessum alterius persone cuiuscumque ius vel titulum ex quacumque nostra concessione pretendentis et obtinentis in eodem hospitali seu libera Capella una cum advocacione eiusdem habenda et tenenda predictis Procuratori scolaribus et eorum successoribus in proprios usus et ad eorum sustentacionem imperpetuum aceciam advocacionem ecclesie de Naanbi alias dicta Nanbi in Comitatu Lincolnie quocumque nomine censeatur Concessimus eciam et licenciam dedimus pro nobis heredibus et successoribus nostris predictis Procuratori et Scolaribus et successoribus suis quod quandocumque predictum hospitale seu Capella vacaverit bene liceat eisdem in illud sive ulam intrare et ingredi et penes se retinere et habere et eisdem gaudere imperpetuum absque prosecucione alterius processus sive brevis de ad quod dampnum penes nos et successores nostros quomodolibet faciendi statuto de terris et tenementis ad manum mortuam non ponendis aut eo quod de aliis donis et concessionibus predicto Willelmo Byngham separatim per se vel coniunctim cum aliis personis ante hec tempora factis aut eo quod de vero valore annuo predicti hospitalis sive capelle et ecclesie predicte eorandemque advocacionum specialis mencio in presentibus facta non existit aut eo quod per impericiam vel negligenciam scriptoris presencium aliqua discrepancia in scriptura nominum virorum hospitaUs seu Capelle ecclesie vel ville predictorum a scriptura contenta in recordis Curiarum nostrarum earumve alicuius comperta fuerit aut alio iure ritulo ordinacione vel interesse nostris heredum et successorum nostrorum in aliquo non obstantibus In cuius rei &c Teste me ipso apud Westmonasterium vicesimo sexto die Januarii Anno regni nostri vicesimo septimo

Safe conduct for Byngham and others (Christ's College muniments, Godshouse P) Cf. supra, p. 77 Omnibus Christi fidelibus ad quos presens Scriptum pervenerit Henricus GrifEth Senescallus domini Ricardi ducis Eboraci dominioram suorum de Ewyas Lacy Usk Trellek et Caerlion in marchiis Wallie Salutem Noveriris me prefatum henricum dedisse et hoc presenti Scripto meo concessisse Willelmo Byngham Rectori ecclesie Sancti Johannis Zacarie Londinii Johanni Lufday Roberto Melton Clericis Ricardo Corlus Johanni Lincoln et Willelmo Shether litteratis ac eorum cuilibet necnon eorum servientibus salvum et securem conductum ad veniendum equitandum morandum

374

APPENDIX A

et redeundum tociens quociens et quandocumque eis placuerit in dominiis predictis cum eorum membris bonis et catallis suis absque impeticione gravamine aut molestacione aliquali eis servientibus seu eorum bonis vel catallis suis per me predictum Senescallum seu per quemcumque alium omciarium vel ministrum infra dominia predicta inferendo imponendo vel faciendo A die confectionis presentium donee per me vel per deputatum meum per viginti dies perantea de contrario premuniti fuerint vel eorum aliquis premunitus fuerit In cuius rei testimonium presentibus Sigillum meum apposui Datum quarto decimo die mensis Julii Anno regni Regis Henrici sexti post conquestum vicesimo quinto

Safe conduct for Millyngton and Byngham over the hand and seal of Richard, duke of York (Christ's College muniments, Godshouse n ) Cf. supra, p. 77 sq. Ricardus dux Eboraci Comes Marchie et Ultonie Dominus de Wyggemore et de Clare Omnibus et singulis vicecomiribus Senescallis Constabulariis Ballivis Prepositis ofSciariis et ministris nostris quibuscumque infra Dominia nostra De Usk et De Caireleon ac per omnia Dominia nostra per totam Walliam Salutem Sciatis quod nos in nostram Defensionem suscepimus et proteccionem Venerabiles et circumspectos viros magistros Willelmum Millyngton sacre pagine professorem ac Willelmum Byngham Rectorem ecdesie parochialis sancti Johannis Zacharie Londinii proprietarium mansionis de Goddeshous in Universitate Cantibriggie necnon et omnia res redditus servientes bona et catalla sua ac possessiones ubicumque infra dominia nostra predicta iam ad presens sint aut fuerint in futurum Quare vobis omnibus et vestrum cuilibet tenore presencium precipimus firmiter et mandamus quatinus predictos magistros Willelmum et Willelmum necnon et omnia res redditus possessiones servientes bona et catalla ipsorum ab omnibus placitis querelis exaccionibus et domandis contra ipsos seu eorum alterum mods seu movendis levatis seu levandis habitis seu habendis manu nostra protegatis defendatis et quietos esse libere permittatis Et ab omnibus huiusmodi placitis querelis exaccionibus et domandis si que sint aut fuerint omnino supersedeatis et superseded eciam continuo faciatis non inferentes eis nee quantum in vobis est inferri permittentes inuriam molestiam dampnum aliquod seu gravamen Et si quid eis iniuriatim fuerit id eis sine dilacione emendari eciam faciatis Proviso semper quod hec nostra proteccio nobis non cedat in preiudicio in futurum In cuius rei testimonium has litteras nostre proteccionis post biennium a data presencium minime valituras sigillo nostro fedmus sigillari Date Londonie vicesimo secundo die Februarii Anno Regni metuendissimi domini nostri Regis Henrici sexti post Conquestum anglie vicesimo sexto R. York (autograph)

TRANSCRIPTS OF VARIOUS DOCUMENTS 375 Form of agreement concerning college lectures, circa 1451 (Christ's College muniments, Godshouse As) Cf. supra, pp. 134 sqq. Hec indentura Facta inter Willelmum Byngham procuratorem Collegii de Goddeshous Cantabrigie et scolares eiusdem Collegii ex una parte et Radulphum Barton clericum ex parte altera testatur quod idem Radulphus concedit prefatis procuratori et scolaribus et successoribus suis per presentes quod ipse qualibet die ad lecturas in universitate Cantabrigie legendas usitata adeo bene in termino Autumpnali sicut aliis terminis anni A Festo Sancti Michaelis archangeli proxime futuro Durante vita sua iuxta scire suum leget aut legi faceat infra dictum collegium scolaribus eiusdem Collegii et eorum successoribus ac illis illuc venientibus sive adherentibus et infra idem Collegium existentibus tres lecciones sive tres lecturas videlicet unam inde de sofestria alteram inde de logica et terciam inde de philosophia vel unam duas earum prout affluencia et copia scolarium huiusmodi ad eas audiendas dispositorum exposcent et requirent Et si contingat ipsum Radulphum aliquo die huiusmodi post dictum festum Sancti Michaelis archangeli aliquam prefatarum leccionum propter carenciam scolarium omittere sive minime perimplere et in sciencia grammaticali rethoricali vel poeticali erudiri et sufficienter informari extunc idem Radulphus loco huiusmodi leccionis sive leccionum propter carenciam scolarium omissarum sive minime perimpletarum leget scolaribus superius recitatis unam lecdonem vel duas lecciones grammaticales rethoricales vel poeticales in quibus ipsum Radulphum adtunc erudiri et sufficienter informari contegerit Ita quod tres lecciones huiusmodi ad minus cotidie scolaribus predictis si affluxerint perlegantur Et insuper cum idem Radulphus ad gradum magistratus in ambus promotus fuerit extunc idem Radulphus durante tota regencia sua ad ordinarium eius suum iuxta modum Universitatis predicte tarn omnes scolares dicti Collegii quam alios ad dictum Collegium causa erudicionis connuentes quam alios pauperes scolares ad ordinarium eiusdem Radulphi audiendum dispositos gratis et libere absque solucione monete aliquali recepiet et admittet Proviso semper quod bene licebit prefato Radulpho causa racionabili exegente et licencia procuratoris vel eius successoris aut eorum locum tenentium prius optenta a collegio predicto per triginta dies continuos semel in anno ultra tres vacaciones in dicta Universitate extra terminum Autumpnalem usitatas et se absentare Ita quod sufficientem sostitutum ad premissa contingentia et eorum quodlibet durantibus dictis triginta diebus sufficienter perimplenda Idem Radulphus sumptibus suis propriis inveniat et exhebiat ita quod duo sophismata et unam opposicionem et unum problema audiat omni septimana integra si affluencia scolarium tot exposcat Pro quibus quidem lecturis et aliis premissis per ipsum Radulphum ut prefertur exequendis

376

APPENDIX A

et adimplendis prefatus procurator et scolares Collegii de Goddeshous supradicti prefatum Radulphum in scolarem eiusdem Collegii pro termino vite sue tenore presencium receperint et admitterint et eidem Radulpho decem denarios sterlingorum septitnanatim a dicto festo Sancti Michaelis archangeli proxime futuro durante vita sua pro communis suis Ac quadraginta solidos sterlingorum pro lectura sua in forma predicta perimplenda annuatim durante vita sua Ad festa natalis Domini Pasche Nativitatis Sancti Johannis Baptiste et Sancti Michaelis Archangeli equis porcionibus solvere concedunt primo termino solucionis eorundem quadraginta solidorum incepiente ad festum natalis Domini proxime futurum aceciam idem procurator et scolares concedunt quod ipsi prefato Radulpho quolibet anno durante vita sua erga festum pasche quattuor virgas panni lad lanei vel octo virgas panni lanei stricti pro hberata sua praeter sex solidos et octo denarios vel sex solidos et octo denarios pro eodem panno dileberabunt Excepto quod quotiens contingat ipsos procuratorem et scolares liberatam suam huiusmodi generaliter scolaribus eiusdem collegii dispensare sive providere ex tune idem Radulphus quattuor virgas eiusdem panni si pannus ille latus fuerit vel octo virgas eiusdem panni si strictus exstiterit pro hberata sua huiusmodi illo anno de eisdem procuratore et scolaribus recepiet duntaxat et habebit proviso semper quod si dictus Radulphus aliquo tempore futuro ad aliquod beneficium ecclesiasticum cum cura animarum extra vel infra universitatem Cantebrigie promoveatur et lecciones predictas et aUa premissa in forma supradicta legat et observet ex tune ipse Radulphus pro toto illo tempore quo sic promoveatur ut scolaris died Collegii non reputetur nee aliquod de dictis decem denariis per septimanam ut prefertur recepiendis recepiet nee habebit ultra annum primum sue promocionis sed tamen dictos quadraginta solidos et predictam liberatam in forma ut prefertur recepiendos et habendos recepiet et habebit Et si ipse Radulphus ad gradum baculariatus vel magistratus in theologia promoveatur Aut cum aliqua infirmitate vexatus fuerit Ita quod predicte lecciones et alia premissa ex parte sua in forma predicta per ipsum minus legantur seu perimpleantur ex tune ipse Radulphus nihil de dictis quadraginta solidis sive liberatura predicta seu de dictis sex solidis et octo denariis pro eadem liberatura sibi ut prefertur concessis recepiet seu habebit Et si prefatus Radulphus versus dictos procuratorem et scolares et successores suos seu eorum aliquem inhoneste inordinate aut male habuerit sive gubemaverit et post secundam monitionem per prefatum procuratorem et duos scolares dicti Collegii seu eorum successores sibi inde factam se non reformaverit correxerit nee emendaverit aut si idem Radulphus a dicto Collegio ultra dittos triginta dies continuos aut alias se absentaverit sive prolongaverit vel premissa seu eorum aliquod ex parte sua modo et forma predicris minime observaverit et perimpleverit ex tune omnes et singules concessiones et beneficia per ipsos procuratorem et scolares prefato Radulpho ut prefertur concessa nullius sint

TRANSCRIPTS OF VARIOUS DOCUMENTS 377 vigoris nee effectus sed omni iure robore tune careant et virtute nisi idem Radulphus se subiciat et offerrat iudicio et arbitrio predictorum procuratoris et scolarium et successorum suorum In cuius rei testimonium Commission of the university appointing Syclyng special commissary (Christ's College muniments, Misc. F, 15) Cf. supra, pp. 235 sqq. Universitas Cantebrigie cum cetu regentium et non Regentium omnibus qui presentes has litteras inspexerint: Salutem in domino Jesu Quam nulla respublica in terris tarn maxima est: nulkque tarn adeo parvaque maiorum vestigia et pristorum sapientissimorum hominum exempla in suam utilitatem et decorem non convertat: fit ut antiquissimorum hominum more et veterum rerumpublicarum consuetudine Commissionem hanc nostram et dilucidam et robore (quantum valemus) firmatam sic constituerimus Nam ut a sapientissimis et vetustissimis hominibus accepimus in illis que levius fortasse et negligenrius attendi solent: homines errare labi atque decipi possunt Quarum propter hanc commissionem nostram certain claram et providam esse curavimus Namque primum oramus et obsecramus eos patres confratres et quoscumque universitatis amicos ad quos Magister Johannes Siklynge artium septem liberalium magister confrater noster et almi collegii Domus Dei in nostra universitate situari magister sive custos atque huius cause commissarius specialis cum his nostris presenribus litteris publico sigillo universitatis appendente maxime corroborate et in membrana perscripris accesserit: ac huius Commissionis virtute et auctoritate eorum misericordem in novam fabricam ecdesie nostre publice et nunc humi dilapidate et miserabiliter iacentis elemosinam petiverit: ut eidem Magistro Johanni Syklynge speciali huius cause procuratori et publice a nobis commissario Deputato fidem integerrimam et plenissimam in hac causa adhibere velint Oramus preterea: ut eidem pecunias et eorum misericordes quascumque elemosinas in hanc vel piissimam vel iustitissimam causam bono animo tradant Est eciam decretum apud nos ut idem Commissarius noster omnium et singulorum nomina conscribat Nam volumus singulorum patrum filiorum et confratrum et amicorum universitatis ac nostri omnium piissima Dona et devotissimas elemosinas cum nominibus consignari atque (ut ita dicamus) ordine registrari* Itaque ipse procurator et commissarius noster ea omnia ad nos in solemnem et publicam Regencium et non Regencium congregacionem referet Eo pacto et laudem: et nostras preces ad omnipotentem Deum in tanta necessitate universitatis et nostri omnium adiutores apertissime merebuntur Date Cantabrigie Idibus Juniis 1

Cf. GB. B1, pp. 97, 159.

Appendix B (a) REGISTER OF MEMBERS OF GODSHOUSE It seems desirable to collect together the names of those found to be members of Godshouse between the years 1439 and 1505, during which it was so called. A tentative list was presented by Dr Peile in his Biographical Register but it has been possible to offer a longer one, forty-two names in all, based upon independent research. Some of Dr Peile's names it has been necessary to omit for lack of evidence for the connection of those persons with the college, whether as fellows or as pensioners. Peile's system of indicating fellowship by a single asterisk, proctorship by two, has been retained; some of those not so marked may have been fellows though others were certainly perendinants or pensioners. In the few cases where the association with the college is not definitely established, a query precedes the name. There are twenty-four names of fellows, adding to which the names of the six Proctors we thus obtain those of thirty persons who were on the foundation. The usual duration of fellowship was about six years, since by the Godshouse statutes a man must ordinarily retire after his first year of regency. Dividing sixty-six years (1439-1505) by six we get eleven periods, and that multiplied by four (the greatest number of fellows at one time) yields a maximum number of forty-four names of fellows during the sixtysix years. There would be some whose period offellowship would be shortened by death or other accident, as also by the statutory obligation to accept, if required, the mastership of a school upon attaining to the degree of master in grammar, say after four years. On the other hand there were those who as college lecturers (Barton was fellow and lecturer from 14.52 until 1477) or parish priests (Sydyng held his fellowship, being parish priest, from circa 1479 until 1490) or by prolongation of their course of study (Scott may have been fellow from circa 1488 until 1506, when he signed the new statutes and so became fellow of Christ's College) had a term greatly in excess of six years. It would appear therefore that an average of six years would be a reasonable estimate. If we add to the assumed forty-four the names of those Proctors who were never fellows (Byngham, Hurte, Fallan, Basset), we obtain a possible total of forty-eight names of those who were on the foundation, and in recovering thirty of these we have secured a large percentage even ignoring the possibility that some of those not marked with an asterisk may have been fellows, not perendinants or pensioners. If a suggested maximum of forty-four fellows in sixty-six years should seem a small number, it should be remarked that, until the sixteenth century, it is probable that the average total of those upon college foundations in Cambridge was not largely in excess of one hundred. Until 1439, when Godshouse was founded, there were only eight colleges; by 1475 there were

38o

APPENDIX B

only twelve and, until the founding of St John's in 1511, only thirteen. The average number of fellows in each college was small because the funds for exhibition were small. Corpus Christi in 1487 had seven fellows, besides the Master, St Catharine's had three, Queens' four; at Gonville Hall, about 1480, is recorded the foundation of two fellowships in addition to the original four. The total number of students in the university was much greater, for the colleges accepted not only fellows but also those who paid for their board and lodging; while to these again should be added the much larger number of persons who resided entirely at their own charges, in the numerous hostels and inns, which then flourished though they became extinct about the middle of the sixteenth century. In using the following register, reference should be made to the index for direction to the pages of the text where the individual names are mentioned, as also to D r Peile s Biographical Register. ? Anstie, John Artweke, Edward **Barton, Ralph Barton, Walter **Basset, William *Benglace, James *Boteler, Thomas

*Brigges, William

*Burton, Richard **Byngham, William *Catur, J. *Copnaye, Robert *Corlus, Richard *Fabbe, John **Fallan, William

Mentioned in John Fabbe's will, 1504. Mentioned in Syclyng's will, 1506. B.A. 1507, M.A. 1510, B.D. 1520, D.D. 1528. University preacher 1514 and 1528, auditor 1527 and 1529. Dr Peile's remark that he is not found in GB. A should be viewed in the light of the fact that he probably became M.A. in 1452, two years before GB. A begins. Master in grammar 1490; living in Herefordshire as late as 1509. B.A. 14 May 1463, M.A. 31 May 1467. Chaplain, Papworth St Agnes, 25 July 1466 (Ely, Gray, f. 61); vicar, Gransden Magna, 16 October 1466 until 1478, when he resigned and went to Harwoid [Harrold] vicarage (list of vicars at Gransden Magna church). Brydges and odier variants are found. In 1499, Robert Fynge of Fendrayton by his will (P.C.C. 32 Home) appointed Sir William Brydgis to 'synge' for him for five years at Cambridge and provided ,(,4 yearly therefor. Brydges witnessed the will and was obviously a Fendrayton man. Master in grammar 1501, B.A. 1503, M.A. 1508. Presented by Godshouse to the rectory of Navenby, 5 May 1456 (Line. Reg. xx, f. 125 d). Proc. Ind. 1471. Presented by Godshouse to the rectory of Navenby, circa 1458; he died in 1479 (Line. Reg. xxi, £ 22 d). Litteratus, 1447 (Gh. P).

REGISTER OF MEMBERS OF GODSHOUSE 381 *Fowke, Edward

? Hudson, Thomas **Hurte, John ? Lewyng, Master *Lincoln, John *Loveday, John

*Melton, Robert

*Nunne, Thomas

*Pycard, John Pycard, Richard

Reynolds, Richard

*Rycheman, Thomas

He was an intimate friend of William Sowode, Master of Corpus Christi College (1523-44), and through him a friend of that college. Cf. Masters, pp. 64, 66, who (p. 74) quotes Fox for his authority in asserting that Fowke 'was a great favourer and furtherer of the truth in the dark days of Henry VIII'. College lecturer in 1506 (GB. T, p. 41). Syclyng's will. B.A. 1506 (GB. B \ pp. 208, 216). Syclyng's will. Litteratus, 1447 (Gh. P). In 1451 he was a member of the house of St Thomas ofAeon, London (Byngham's will). He was a member as early as 1447, when he was styled ckricus, and is mentioned in college documents until 1459 (Misc. F, 7). Between 20 November and 22 December 1448 he resigned the chaplaincy of Bateman's chantry in Burgh [Borough Green] church (Ely, Bourchier, f. 20). Clericus is his description in 1447, and he is an active participant and co-feoffee in college documents as late as 1468. Rector of Fendrayton from circa 1454 to 1476; rector of Helpston 1476-? Date of death unknown. University preacher in 1512/13. The editors of Grace B o o k r (Introd. p. xxxi) treat him as admitted' bachelor' of grammar in 1502, but that degree, though provided for by Univ. Star. No. 116, does not appear to have been taken in Cambridge in the period subsequent to 1454, when such records of the university begin (cf. GB. A, Introd. p. xxiiisq.); in Oxford that stage of grammar degree persisted until the sixteenth century (Rashdall, vol. ii, pt. ii, p. 599). The argument on which is based the decision here given that he was master, not bachelor, in 1502, is too technical for elaboration in this place, but consideration of the ancient statutesandof GB. F, pp. 3 and 23, seems to place the matter beyond doubt. Priest in 1448 (Gh. Q). His will (1513) describes him as fellow of Christ's; since his place in the B.A. list of 1502/3 immediately follows the names of Scott and Nunne there is some probability that he was then of Godshouse, if not a fellow. Fellow of Christ's in his will, 14 April 1521. Questionist 1504/5, B.A. 1505/6, M.A. 1508/9, when he had an interesting grace (GB. F, p. 72). His position in Godshouse is not certain. As Rychmond he paid one shilling for commons in 1496/7, presumably as master in grammar; B.A. 21 January 1502/3 as it domo dei. He had a grace in 1502/3 (GB. F, p. 11) that three autumn terms might serve

382

*Scott,John

*Shether, William *Smyth, Dominus *Spensar, Robert *Sterr, John ? Stevynson, Mr Story, Robert

APPENDIX B for two ordinary terms for his form as questionist, shewing a return, as in other cases, to residence in Cambridge in the intervals of employment, perhaps as a schoolmaster. This grace explains the long interval between bis mastership in grammar and his admission as B.A. An interesting man; Peile postulates two John Scotts, one a questionist in 1491, the other inceptor in grammar 1500/1, but the editor of GB. B 1 relates both entries to the same person and that seems likely. Though a questionist should determine within two years, the penalty for non-compliance was only one mark, and the Grace Book entries relating to Scott suggest exceptional conditions, the grace for inception (GB. B 1 , 162), and the personal security of the senior proctor (GB. B 1 , 147) amongst them. Scott was a man. of business capacity and Syclyng may have found it convenient to prolong his academical career in order to retain him in fellowship. He became master in grammar during Syclyng's second period of senior proctorship, 1500/1, B.A. in 1502/3, and was still bachelor when he signed the statutes in 1506. His progress thereafter was rapid, fellowship being now no longer necessarily vacated after the first year of regency. He became M.A. in 1507, junior proctor in 1510, university preacher in 1510/11 and 1513/14, S.T.B. in 1516/17; he was largely used by the foundress's executors in connection with work on the buildings about 1510/11. Litteratus, 1447 (Gh. P). De domo dei, B.A. 1502/3. Mentioned in a will, 1474. Mentioned in i486 (Camb. Aa). Mentioned in Syclyng's will. M.A. (GB. B 1 , pp. 228,232; in each place his name is found in close proximity to those of other members of the college). M.A. 1505/6; ordained Lincoln 1506/7 under title from Christ's.

**Syclyng, John *Sygar, Henry B.A. 1486/7, M.A. 1490/1. Tamworth, Christopher The name is variously spelt, once as thomworthe. He had a grace in 1502/3 that two autumn terms should count as two ordinary terms (GB. T, p. 11). B.A. Michaelmas term 1504/5, M.A. 1507/8. Peile says that he was ordained, Lincoln diocese, sub-deacon 17 February 1506/7, deacon 1 March 1506/7, priest 3 April 1507, under title from the college. The rapid passage to priesthood points to a student of more than ordinary age in 1507, and the grace obtained in 1502/3 may indicate that he was a schoolmaster.

BIOGRAPHICAL SUPPLEMENT

383

*Tapton, Hugh

M.A.; priest, presented to Helpston in 1445 by Byngham and his co-feoffees, which rectory he resigned in 1457 in exchange for Blankney, Lincolnshire. Had a grace to incept in canon law in 14.60/1 (GB. A, p. 29). Tasker, Thomas Cferiois;mentionedasresidingini5o6(Rawnnson,D9i7). One of this surname was B.Civ.Law 1514/15. ? Ward, John Sydyng's will. B.A. 1503 (GB. B 1 , pp. 180, 186; GB. T, p. 12). One *Watson, Richard of this name was instituted rector of Childerley Magna in 1546 (Ely, West and Goodrich, f. 186); he resigned and was instituted rector of Lolworth, 1556, dying within a year (Ely, Goodrich, f. 35). *Worthyngton, William Spelt also Wurlyngton. Mentioned as a legatee in John Fabbe's will. B.A. 1499/1500, M.A. 1502/3. He had some skill in writing, for the exercise of which he was paid by the university proctors in 1495/6 (GB. B 1 , p. 96). In 1502/3 he had a grace pro exoneracione consciencie (GB. T, p. 18). Wylson, Henry Incorporated B.A. 1506/7, proceeded M.A. 1507/8; his grace (GB. T, p. 63) seems to point to residence in the college during the Godshouse period. Presented to Helpston as vicar by the Master and fellows April 1507; the dear value of the living to him was ^ 8 yearly (H. Salter, A subsidy collected in the diocese of Lincoln in 1526, p. 137).

(b) BIOGRAPHICAL SUPPLEMENT In this appendix will be found further information, beyond that which it seemed proper to include in the narrative, concerning persons who were of service to the college, or were connected with it, without being at any time members of the society. Names to be found in the Dictionary of National Biography, or in Venn's Alumni Cantabrigienses, are included here only if the college documents or other sources have produced matter not to be discovered in those standard works of reference. J O H N BROKLEY Cf. supra, pp. 15 sq., 71 sqq. This name (Brokle, Brokelee and other variants are found) is of Suffolk origin,1 Brockley being a village seven miles south of Bury St Edmunds. One of Brokley's associates in London was Nicholas Wyfold, who bore another Suffolk village name,1 and the two may have had these surnames conferred upon them on their arrival in London as indicating their places 1 British Family Names, by H. Barber (1903); Dictionary of Surnames, by C. W . Bardsley (1901).

384

APPENDIX B

of origin, after the manner of that time. Brokley was one of the wealthiest London citizens of his day; he was a draper, and Master of that Worshipful Company in the year 1441/2. As early as 1421 he was member of parliament for the city, and in 1425/6 was sheriff. He became alderman for Aldersgate Ward in 1426 and retained that office until 1434; * since that was the ward in which the church of St John Zachary was situated we need seek no further for the circumstances bringing him and William Byngham into that friendship which introduced Brokley's wealth into the service of the College of Godshouse from the year 1436 onwards. From 1434 to 1438 Brokley was alderman for Candlewick Ward, 1 and for Walbrook Ward from 1438 to 1444.1 He was mayor of London for the year 1433/4. His presence as alderman for Walbrook is recorded on 31 July 1444,2 and on 19 October 1444 he was succeeded in that office by Simon Eyre.2 These dates fit in with the date of his death on 30 September 1444, as derived from the statutes of Godshouse, Rotuli Parliamentorum and other sources. He was much in demand as a man of wealth and business capacity for service in the offices of feoffee, executor and the like, and his name is found frequently in Early Chancery Proceedings in such positions; there are many entries relating to his name in the Calendar of Letter Books of the city of London (R. R. Sharpe). He does not appear to have been survived by any child, but he left a widow, Katherine, who married his sometime associate, Nicholas Wyfold, already mentioned. The will of John Brokley has evaded discovery, despite diligent search in Somerset House, Lambeth, Guildhall and other possible sources; that is a serious loss but one less to be regretted inasmuch as a petition to parliament in 1447 has provided us with the names of his executors and given us some idea of the magnitude of his fortune and the manner of its disposal intended by him. The petition is printed in Rotuli Parliamentorum v, 129 sq., and is of the year 1447. The executors appointed by Brokley were his widow, Sir William Tresham, speaker of the House of Commons, Thomas Burgoyne, gentleman, and William Edy, draper, and it was the last three of these who petitioned the Commons against the first and principal of their number, the widow. The ground of their petition was the failure of Katherine to apply the residue of the estate as directed by the testator for the benefit of his soul, and it was probably because of the damage thereby done to the public weal, and because of the magnitude of the estate concerned, that they sought this particular remedy. So much seems to stand out from the words of their address: To the full wyse and discrete Communes of this present Parliament; Please it youre wise discretions, by wey of charite, and for grete helpe of grete almusdedus to be done, to considre howe etc. 1 1

A. B. Beaven, Aldermen of the City of London, ii, 7. Ibid, ii, 217.

BIOGRAPHICAL SUPPLEMENT

385

The petitioning executors proceed to recite 'that a litell before Michelmasse was thre yere' (i.e. just before his death, the day after Michaelmas 1444) Brokley made the said four his executors and by his testament demised to Katerine all the stuff of his Houshold, Halle, Chambre and Kychyn, with all his Plate which amounted to a grete and a notable summe; and over that MMM li. of money, to be taken of the stuf of his Shope, and of his Dettouts, and also made other diversez Legatez to diversez persones grete and notable: which summe of MMM li., with all summes of his seide Legate and moche more, the saide Katerine long tyme passed hathe receyved. They say that after the payment of all bequests and debts and all alms done for the testator's soul before Katherine's marriage to Nicholas Wyfold, there remains due to the executors the sum of seven or eight thousand marks (,£4666 to ^5333) in money received by her, which should be disposed for John Brokley's soul by his executors: for which soule, litell or nought be hir, in whos kepyng the Bokes, sureteez and godes in substaunce holy remaigne, hath ben done, als fer as can be conceived, sithen that she was laste weddud, which is passud the space of two yere, nor is like to be doo, withouten remedy purveyud in this behalfe. The three executors pray the king to ordain by the authority of the present parliament that the Chancellor of England have power to summon them and also Nicholas Wyfold and Katherine his wife to appear in the king's chancery before him in their proper persons, each bringing such books and other evidences as they have in their possession and that the Chancellor have power to do all things that in his discretion seem needful that the balance of the testator's estate may be disposed for his soul 'by way of almes and of dedus of charite'. The petition was granted, Fiat prout petitur, but there the story ends and all efforts to trace the outcome of the proceedings before the Chancellor have failed. Tresham died in 1450, Katherine about 1453, and Nicholas Wyfold in 1456; Thomas Burgoyne lived until 1470 and was a feoffee in relation to the Herrys portion of the Godshouse site.1 Wyfold was clearly the villain of the piece; he married after Katherine's death a third wife, also a widow, Margaret, daughter of Thomas Catteworth, another prominent citizen, sometime mayor, and, like Wyfold, a grocer, of which Worshipful Company he was twice Master. Margaret survived Nicholas and married for her third husband John Howard, first duke of Norfolk of that house (the Jockey of Norfolk). The will of Wyfold, dated 28 June 1456, remains in part (P.C.C. 8 Stokton); it shews him to have been a man of much substance, mentions his deceased wives Alice and Katherine as also his daughter Isabel, but his executors' names do not remain, having been in that part of the will which has not survived. As the will was proved at Lambeth 28 October 1456, the death of Wyfold is shewn to lie between 28 June and 28 October of that year. 1 Supra, p. 157LHC

25

386

APPENDIX B

Fuller details concerning Brokley, Wyfold and the others named in this note would be inappropriate here, but those desiring further information may consult with advantage Sharpe's Calendar of Letter Books, Beaven's Aldermen, Rolls of the Court of Husting, Early Chancery Proceedings, Rotuli Parliamentorum (vi, 317) and similar sources. RICHARD AND JOHANNA BUCKLAND Cf. supra, p. 16 Bokeland, Bukeland and other variants of the name are found. Richard's early calling in life was that of a fishmonger and we seem to find in him an out-standing example of the good apprentice, for his wife, Johanna, was the daughter of Agnes and Richard Gyfford, her father being styled fishmonger in her mother's will1 (dated 12 June 1423). In his chosen avocation Buckland contrived to acquire wealth enough to enable him to contribute largely in means and services to Henry V and his son, and still to find freedom from the cares of his trade sufficient to permit him to promote the interests of the kingdom at home and abroad in the course of an adventurous and varied career, far removed from the ordinary associations of a fishmonger's life. His name occupies a large space in the patent rolls from 1416 until 1436, when he died, and his affairs have their reflection in the rolls for some years after that event. The date of his birth has not been found, nor his place of origin, but by 2 September 1415 he had become collector of customs in the port of London, and he is named as having lent 200 marks to the king to maintain the siege of Harfleur, and at about the same time is commissioned with others to take ships for the victualling of the king in foreign parts. Four years later he is styled 'victualler of Calais' and supervises the passage of troops to that port; and on 18 December 1423 he is required to pay to the executors of Henry V £300 of which he and another have possession as the result of making or providing tiles. Bokeland's first recorded service (20 May 1425) under Henry VI is that of making inquisition in Northamptonshire, in which county he had by that time acquired a landed estate, and on 20 August 1426 he and John Melbourne were granted repayment of ^30 lent by them jointly to the king. Melbourne was associated with Bokeland in many enterprises and was one of the executors appointed by his will. On 1 June 1426 he entered upon a new phase of service, being appointed with others to hear and determine an appeal upon an action in the Court of Admiralty; but his foreign service proceeded also, suggesting intercourse with France sufficiently easy to permit the current conduct by the same person of duties at home and abroad. From 1424 for several years he was 'warden of the King's exchange in Calais', otherwise 'King's esquire, treasurer of 1 Sharpe, ii, 450.

BIOGRAPHICAL SUPPLEMENT

387

Calais'. In that capacity he was appointed with two others by the garrison of that town in February 1427 to prosecute their claim for arrears of pay before the king's council (Priv. Counc. iii, Pref. pp. xlii sq., 242 sq.). On 24 February 1432 he was described as 'King's esquire, captain of the King's castle of Banelyngham in the parts of Picardy', which, despite his range of accomplishments, is somewhat surprising until we learn that ne was 'engaged in victualling the said castle'. From time to time we are afforded a glimpse of his private affairs as when (2 June 1434) he took proceedings, as citizen and fishmonger, against John Walsh, merchant, esquire or 'gentilman', of Westchester in the county of Chester, who owed him ^ 8 8 . 125. gd. In this description of Walsh we appear to have an instance, such as Bokeland's own career provides, of the opportunities yielded by the troubled conditions of the fifteenth century for the entry of enterprising traders and burgesses into the ranks of the territorial classes. The service of the king and participation in the conduct of the war, if not in the actual fighting, were apparently still to be Bokeland's chief occupation. He was commissioned with others, 10 February 1434, to take muster of that redoubtable warrior John de Talbot 1 and of 140 men-at-arms in their armour, and the 780 mounted archers of his company, then at Dover intending to proceed to France. He had a similar appointment in July of the following year. In 1434 and again in 1436 his name appeared on commissions of the peace and for raising loans to the king in what had become the county of his adoption, Northamptonshire. He appears 23 January 1437 as Richard Bokeland, citizen and fishmonger of London, in a plaint against one John Aberhale of Gillowe, Herefordshire, who owed him £ 8 6 . 125. o
388

APPENDIX B

A far more serious and, incidentally, more interesting affair was the capture by le Antony of a ship called the Caldarone of Santander in Spain. The wares and merchandise of the Spanish vessel were carried off and the matter came before the Court of Admiralty, presumably as a prize court, when John Tylney,1 bachelor in laws, sitting as commissary for the Admiral of England, gave judgement in favour of Bokeland, Melbourne and others, merchants of London, and John Scot of Calais. The owners of the captured wares, etc. appealed and, on 23 November 1436, a special court was formed including Thomas Bekyngton, afterwards (1443) bishop of Bath and Wells. Apparently the appeal was dismissed, for the appellants appealed once more, possibly on the ground that the case had not received a fair trial as the court could not understand their tongue. Another court was constituted on 25 April 1437, when Bekyngton was replaced as president by Master Zenobius de Mulakinis and two other changes were made in its membership. We now learn the full names of the appellants and are not surprised that they had interests in Genoa and Spain; they were Lewis de Alzate, Benedict Lumbardi, Constantine Sigola, James de Riparialo, Stephen Barbo, Gabriel de la Bancha and Peter Scot appealing in their joint and several actions against Richard Bokeland since deceased, John Melbourne, Robert Home, Roger Talbot and William de Limes, merchants of London, and John Scot of Calais, touching the taking of wares and merchandise late being in a ship called the Caldarone of Santander in Spain. And this time the appellants succeeded. Bokeland had married into a trading family, however, and his widow did not lightly accept defeat. The case appears again when a court is commissioned 24 July 1439 to hear an appeal by Joan, relict of Richard Bokeland, and the other executors against judgement given for their adversaries by Master Zenobius de Mulakinis. Certain differences of names of those forming the court occur in later documents (12 and 15 October 1439), then all is blank, leaving us to speculate as to the final result. Richard died between 5 August 1436, the date of his will, and 15 October in the same year, when it was proved. The effect of his will upon the fortunes of Godshouse has been considered on p. 16 and need not be further dealt with here; the will may be read in detail in Somerset House (P.C.C. 21 Luffenam). The significant fact to Godshouse was the appointment of his widow Johanna, or Joan as she is frequently named, as executor with several others, including Richard Quatermayns and John Melbourne. In that capacity much was left to her discretion, besides the choice which she exercised in favour of Godshouse; we have seen that her husband's activities involved her in much litigation after his death, and she had to administer his estate both in London and in Northamptonshire. Her parentage has 1

This was the name of the fellow of Clare Hall who appears in various documents of Godshouse as doctor of decrees, five or six years later than the date of the trial.

BIOGRAPHICAL SUPPLEMENT

389

already been named and it is not unlikely that the early business experience gained within her father's and mother's household did much to prepare her for assuming a task to which she appears to have been fully equal. Apart from the legal transactions already detailed, she and her co-executors sought and obtained on 11 July 1439 a general discharge so far as pertained to the king that they had duly accounted for the time when Richard Bokeland was treasurer and victualler of Calais. The discharge was obtained by them purely for their own satisfaction in regard to being hindered by malicious actions in divers courts, to prevent them recovering money due to them as executors, by certain creditors of the testator and by others of their private enemies. On 22 November 1443, Johanna claims under her husband's will against a debtor named John Assheby, of Ashby StLegers, Northamptonshire, and seven yean later is a creditor in her own rights, but thereafter her name does not appear in the patent rolls. Johanna s direction to her co-feoffees to her use of the manorial estate is to be found in Somerset House (P.C.C. 12 Godyn). It is a peculiar, indented, undated document, dealing mainly with the estate of Ochecote [Edgcot] bought by her husband, in which she displays full recognition of her responsibility, as also of her power as beneficial owner of the manor, and takes full advantage of the fact that her co-feoffees are enfeoffed of the manor to her personal use. She provides, in certain eventualities, for the distribution of her estate into three parts and, remembering probably that her husband had left it to her discretion to have prayers offered for his soul in Oxford or Cambridge, and having chosen Godshouse in Cambridge immediately following his death, she now orders that one-third shall be given to the 'finding' of scholars in Oxford. This curious document is printed in full by Bridges (i, 118), and various details of the manor, with its earlier and later history, may be found recorded by that author; it provides an admirable illustration of that enfeoffment to uses of which something has been said in chapter 1. The testament of Johanna Bokeland is printed in Lincoln Diocese Documents, edited by Dr Andrew Clark for the E.E.T.S. It was made 6 May 1450 and proved at Oxford 16 June 1462. It is of interest to record, though the nature of the benefaction underlying it is not known, that the names of Richard and Joan Bokeland are included in the Otryngham Book amongst those of the benefactors of Michaelhouse whose souls are to be remembered in prayer. Much of the information concerning the Bokelands has been derived from the patent rolls, but the tediousness of numerous references has been eschewed in view of the admirable indices provided to the calendars of those documents.

390

APPENDIX B

ROBERT CARLYON Cf. supra, p. I I , n. 6 It is probable that Magister Robert Carlyon was also a benefactor of the college, for it is difficult otherwise to account for the preservation of two documents in the muniment room in which his name as a testator is the salient fact and connecting link. The first is an acquittance1 of Byngham and John Druell as executors of Robert Carlyon i n respect of the sum of 135. 4
4 5 6 8

E. F.Jacob in Historical Essays in Honour of James Tait (1933), pp. 121 sqq. Ibid. p. 121. Worthies of All Souls, Montagu Burrows, p. 70. Paston, iv, 102-4, 181, 236, 245. 7 GB. A, p. 67. Documents, iii, 164.

BIOGRAPHICAL SUPPLEMENT

391

Venn says 'perhaps rector of St Peter, CornhilT, but this seems to be beyond doubt. In that capacity he was one of the four city rectors who petitioned parliament in 1447 to be allowed to found schools in their parishes.1 Cote was in the service of Henry VI as one of his commissioners to acquire land for the purpose of King's College, and he appears in that role along with Langton, Chancellor of the University and Master of Pembroke, and others in a grant of certain tenements and other possessions to the Provost and scholars on 25 July 1446.* Earlier still, 28 January 1441, one William Coote received a grant from the king, for good service done to him, of ^ 1 0 per annum for life payable by the Chancellor of the University.^ William Coote does not appear in the records of the university and he may have been an outsider, but the payment of his annual £ 1 0 by the Chancellor suggests a connection with the university and the possibility of a confusion of William and John. The help he rendered to Byngham in his founding and extension of Godshouse is first discovered in 1440, when he acquired with Fray and John Cowper land which passed into Byngham's possession.4 He was a co-feoflee with Byngham on 27 August 1444 of the advowson of Helpston and an acre of land there, 5 both probably acquired by use of the residue of William Flete's estate.6 This participation in the growth of Godshouse was quite naturally followed by Cote's inclusion amongst those named with Byngham to found the college and give statutes to it in the licence of 1446.? He died in 1447, and the chronicler makes useful addition to our knowledge of Cote in the words 'And in the same yere [1447] dyed a worthy Clerke and a grete prechoure called Cote, parson of Seint Petres in CornhilT.8 J O H N FISHER, bishop of Rochester Cf. supra, pp. 206, 282, 312

Fisher's date of birth is shrouded in uncertainty. John Lewis, in his Life? quotes dates varying from 1458 to 1461, but himself favours the year 1465. A discovery recently made by the writer amongst the papal archives presents direct evidence enabling Fisher's birth to be ascribed to the year 1469. The evidence consists of a dispensation by Pope Innocent VIII to John Fisher, fellow of Michaelhouse, to take priestly orders though under the canonical age, and the entry found in the register under June 1491 quotes Fisher's own authority for his being then in his twenty-second year. The author hopes to deal more fully with the subject elsewhere and, perhaps, to print the transcript of the dispensation. This discovery confirms the statement of 1 J Rot. Parl v, 137; cf. supra, p. 11. King's, A, 84. 3 Annals, i, 189, quoting MS. Hare, ii, 136. 4 King's, A, 77 (18); supra, p. 46. 5 Chr. Help. B. ' Documents, iii, 164; Chr. Gh. O; supra, p. 75. 9 Life of Dr John Fisher, ed. T. H. Turner (1855), i, 1 sq.

6 8

Supra, p. 63 sq. Lon. Chron. p. 514.

392

APPENDIX B

the bishop of Faenza in a letter1 of 22 June 1535 where he wrote of Fisher, with whom he had personal relations, 'The English.. .say., .that he is 90 years of age, and very ill, giving him 25 years more than he has'. Since Fisher became master in grammar in 1483, when fourteen years of age, precocity in the acquisition of knowledge should be added to his other qualities. WILLIAM FLETE (OR FLEET) Cf. supra, pp. 16 sq., 63 sq. This benefactor of Godshouse must have been a person of mature years in the year 1437, when he was joined with Byngham and others as co-feoffee of land forming the site of the college in Milne Street, seeing that he was the recipient of a grant of £10 for life, as king's clerk, as early as 8 January I399-2 There was the proviso that the grant was 'for life or until he be promoted to a church benefice without cure of .£20 a year'. In October of the same year Henry IV, inspecting his predecessor's grant, confirmed it and, in order that Flete might not suffer from the change of sovereign, gave him also the grant of all arrears.3 There is no evidence that the ecclesiastical benefice ever came to Flete; the £10 per annum, to be received at first from the issues of Cambridgeshire, was ordered almost immediately to be received from those of Lincolnshire4 and Flete died in 1444 while still receiving the sum from that source.* Apart from any routine duties which were appropriate to his clerkship he was constantly engaged on commissions of various kinds, mostly in his own county of Hertford, to enquire about waste and dilapidations in 1416, to raise a loan to the king in 1419, to assess a grant in aid in 1431, and again to raise a loan for the king in 1434. He is on a commission de wallis etfossatis for certain parts of'Holand' [Lincolnshire], and later on one de kidellis for the river 'Colneystreme' and its tributaries in the counties of Hertford, Middlesex and Buckingham. In 1426 and 1427 he holds inquisitions as escheator for the counties of Essex and Hertford.6 According to Clutterbuck,7 he was knight of the shire for his native county and was lord of the manor of More in Rickmansworth, in which connection an entry on the patent roll for 1426 has special interest.8 He is there named with the bishops of Winchester and Durham and others in a charter to enclose, crenellate, enturret and embattle, with stones, lime and 'brik', their manor of More in Rykmersworth and to empark 600 acres of land in wood in that place and Watford, with grant also of free warren there with reservation of the 'metes' of the king's forest. 1 2 4 6 8

Vide Letters and Papers, Domestic and Foreign, Henry VIII, vol. viii, nos. 909-10. C.P.R. C.P.R. C.P.R. C.P.R.

1396-9, p. 460. 1399-1401, p. 230. 1422-9, pp. 385-99. 1422-9, p. 351.

3 C.P.R. 1399-1401, p. 29. 5 C.P.R. 1441-6, p. 252. 7 History of Hertfordshire, i, pp. xxvi and 191.

BIOGRAPHICAL SUPPLEMENT

393

There are posthumous references to him in the patent rolls, from one of which the date of his death is deduced. There is a grant of 15 May 14441 in survivorship to William Estfeld, knight, and the king's Serjeant, Robert Osbern,1 for good service, of £10 yearly from the issues of Lincolnshire, in the king's hands by the death of William Flete, who had the same for life by grant of Henry IV. The entry is repeated for the same date on another membrane.3 Flete's will has not been found but, as many actions were based upon it, the names of his executors are known. The estate was long in being wound up; thus, on 28 April 1456,4 licence in mortmain was obtained by his surviving executors, John Fray and Edward Brudenell (Byngham and Newton being dead), in favour of the prior and convent of the hospital of St Mary, Elsyng Spetell, London, of various properties some of which had been acquired as investments since Flete's death.5 He was obviously a man of substantial means. In the various records relating to his estate it transpires that Flete's parents were named John and Anneys, and his wife, Alice. In this connection it is well to say that there is in Somerset House (P.C.C. 28 Luffenam) a will of one William Flete who also died in 1444. It is badly faded, but the mention of Isabella his wife and many other details establish beyond question that it is not the will of William Flete of Rickmansworth. SIR J O H N FRAY Cf. supra, pp. 11, 46, 50, 63, 82 This friend of William Byngham and his college of Godshouse was second baron of the Exchequer from 8 February 1435 until 9 February 1437, when he became chief baron; he laid down the latter office about 1448.6 He was placed on the commissions of the peace for the county of Huntingdon at various dates from 9 July 1428 to 4 March 1441, for that of Cambridge from 28 April 1429 onwards, and for the town of Cambridge from 24 November 1429 to 14 November 1441.7 He died 1 July 1461.8 Fray was a friend of Abbot Wheathamstead of St Albans, to which monastery he gave certain manors in 1439;' he was a Hertfordshire man and 1

C.P.R. 1441-6, p. 252. Osbern is one of Byngham's 'pledges' in a petition in chancery, wherein, as executor of William Flete, he desires a writ 'under a payn' to be addressed to Alexander Mede. 3 C.P.R. 1441-6, p. 283. * C.P.R. 1452-61, p. 283. 5 Cf. also C.P.R. 1446-52, p. 502, and Hustings Roll 173, No. 35/36. 6 R. Clutterbuck, Hertfordshire, i, 391 sq. 7 C.P.R. 1422-9,1429-36,1436-41, 1441-6. 8 Cal. Inq. P.M. i Ed. IV, n. 28; will proved 23 July 1461 (P.C.C. 23 Stokton). 9 Bekynton, i, p. xxvii. 2

394

APPENDIX B

had other connections with monastic houses in tha county. With Agnes, his wife, he was seised of the manor of Munden Furnival and the advowson of the church of the same and of the priory of Rowney.1 As to this priory, the curious story is told in Dugdale 2 that 'Anne Selby, prioress of the Benedictine Monastery of St John baptist of Mundene, alias Rowney, and the nuns of the same, finding their revenues insufficient for their maintenance and the necessary repairs, and to comply with John Fray, their patron, who would apply the said revenues to the pious uses for which they were designed by the Founder, surrendered into his hands the said priory with all the possessions belonging to the same. King Henry VI in the 37th year of his reign, granted leave to the said John Fray to convert the said nunnery into a chantry of one priest'. The priory had been founded by Conan, duke of Brittany and earl of Richmond. The important office of chief baron of the Exchequer brought Fray into active connection with affairs of state reflected in a great number of entries on the patent rolls, but with these it is not our concern here to deal. There is, however, one exception, which affects the price paid for a piece of land acquired for King's College, and that, as it happens, the earliest portion obtained for that purpose. Those who are familiar with the processes by which the great area we know as the site of King's College was built up in the course of nine years, need no reminder that information is very rarely to be obtained of the consideration given for any of the innumerable pieces of which the site is composed. The first portion bought was acquired from Trinity Hall and formed the'greater part' of the site of the Old Court of King's. It was bought on the king's behalf by John Fray, John Somerset and John Langton.3 It now appears that for this 'garden opposite to*Clare Hall, sold to King Henry VI in 1440, to form the greater part of the site of his proposed College', 4 the sum of eighty pounds was paid. The evidence for this statement is found in an entry on the patent roll under date 10 July 19 Henry VI (1441), iii, 9, and the following is the summary of the entry as found in the Calendar :$ Whereas by the petition of John Fray, chief baron of the Exchequer, the King has understood that whereas the King founded his college of St Nicholas in the University of Cambridge on ground which he had of the gift of the said John, John Somerseth and John Langton, clerk-, the greater part6 whereof the said John Fray bought for 80/., the whole with the houses thereupon being then worth 4 marks yearly and more, and the King before this rime by letters patent granted to Humphrey, duke of Gloucester, for life 52s. of quit rent yearly in London, 3 5s. thereof issuing out of a 1

Clutterbuck, be. cit. Monastkon, iv, 342; the quotation is from the English of 1718, p. 64, bu the essentials thereof can also be seen in the 1846 edition, be. cit. 3 4 W. and C. i, 317 sq. Ibid, i, 212. 5 C.P.R. H. VI, 1436-41, pp. 565 sq. 6 For the italics here and above the present writer is responsible. 2

BIOGRAPHICAL SUPPLEMENT

395

tenement late of Agnes Worstede in the burial-ground of St Laurence in Old Jewry, London, and now ofJohn Fray, 55. out of the tenement of John Chayham alias John Keyham in the same burial-ground and 12s. from the prior of St Mary Overey in Southwerk for certain tenements by Billyngesgate, which rent of 52s. was parcel of the alien priory of Okeborne and for certain causes came into the King's hands:—the king has granted to John Hotoft,1 esquire, Richard Riche* and John Byrom and their heirs the reversion of the said rent after the death of Humphrey to the use of John Fray and his heirs in compensation for the ground aforesaid. By p.s. and dated etc. The land so bought and the buildings erected thereon served King's College for nearly 400 years, remaining in use until 1828. In 1829 the Old Court was sold to the university for ,£i2,ooo,3 and is now covered by the western court of the old University Library and a portion of CockerelTs building. Though this story has no relation to Godshouse, it has seemed to be worth recording, since it is not to be found in the printed or manuscript records of King's College, or Trinity Hall, or in the all-embracing pages of Willis and Clark or any other university record. Fray's friendly association with Byngham is seen in operation in Cambridge and in London. He acquired on Byngham's behalf for Godshouse in 1440 land for its extension to Piron Lane,4 and was a co-feoffee with him in the matter of the advowson and land at Helpston acquired in 1444. They were co-executors of William Flete's will 5 which, indeed, led to their joint share in the acquisition of the Helpston land and advowson, these being bought for Godshouse out of the residuary estate of Flete. There is testimony to Fray's intimacy within Byngham's circle in his witnessing the will of Gilbert Worthyngton, 6 with whom also, and William Lychefeld, he acted as arbitrator in the dispute between Corpus Christi College and the prior and convent of Barnwell in 1446, relative to the rectory of St Botolph.7 GERARD DE LA HAY Cf. supra, p. 165 sq. He was a member of a Huntingdonshire family and is mentioned in C.P.R. as early as 1443 as being on the commission of the peace for that county; later he is to be found in that capacity in the county of Cambridge. Between the years 1443 and 1465 his name is found in C.P.R. at least twenty times, 1

Chamberlain of the receipt of the Exchequer, formerly treasurer of the household; otherwise associated with Fray. 2 Associated with Fray on various commissions. 3 W. and C. i, 333. 4 King's, A, 77 (18); supra, p. 46. 5 Hustings Roll 173, No. 35/36, 23 H. VI=i444; P.R. 24 November, 30 H. VI, i, 20; 34 H. VI, m. 14. 6 P.C.C. 35 Luffenam. 7 Masters, p. 20.

396

APPENDIX B

frequently as the holder of some office of profit. His principal calling in life was that of clerk in the king's Exchequer, which position he seems to have held under Henry V and his son and also, for a few years, under Edward IV. In recognition of his good service he was granted under privy seal on 28 November 1452 for life 'a buck of the season of grease and a doe of the winter season, and six trees called rowers yearly in the forest of Wabugge, co. Huntingdon, by the hands of the keeper thereof, and of 4 ells of cloth of wool or ingrain for his vesture yearly at the great wardrobe, and exemption of him for life, because of his great age, from being put on assizes, juries and a vast number of other public offices, services, etc'* Notwithstanding his exemption he filled many such offices for many years thereafter, and, despite his great age in 1452, he lived until 1466. His will is enrolled in P.C.C. 13 Godyn. KATHERINE, DUCHESS OF NORFOLK Cf. supra, p. 57 sq. 'My lady of Norff' to whom letters were sent by the king in council in 1443, was Katherine, duchess of Norfolk, widow at that time of the second duke. She was of the powerful Neville family, daughter of Ralph, first earl of Westmorland. Her first husband was John Mowbray, second duke of Norfolk, who died in November 1432.* She had on her marriage a jointure of nearly thirty manors, or portions of manors, in Norfolk and six other counties,3 and by her husband's will she received for life all his estates in the Isle of Axholme and in Yorkshire, with the castles and honours of Bramber (Sussex) and Gower (South Wales).4 It was the great power and influence of the Norfolk family as lords marcher which made Byngham desire her support. Katherine married for her second husband, Thomas Strangways, and as they omitted to obtain for their nuptials the prior licence of the king, the couple were fined J£IOOO. The date of Strangways' death has not been found but it was probably about 1440, and his widow took for her third lord, John Beaumont, created viscount Beaumont in 1440, being the first Englishman to bear that title. He was a widower, his first wife, Elizabeth, having died before 14 December 1441; 5 the date of his marriage to the duchess of Norfolk has not been found. Beaumont died in 1460 but Katherine had not yet finished with matrimony; under the influence of 1

C.P.R. 1452-61, p. 66. Nichols gives the date as 19 October, but that was the date of the will which was proved 14 February following. The duke died in November (Chr. Gh. L, in dorso) and on 24 November his castles, etc. were conceded to the duke of Gloucester during the heir's minority (Priv. Counc. iv, 132). 4 3 W. Dugdale, Baronage, i, 131. Nichols, p. 266 sq. 5 C.P.R. 1441-6, p. 41. J

BIOGRAPHICAL SUPPLEMENT

397

Edward IV, when she was nearly eighty years of age, she married her fourth and last husband, the queen's brother, Sir John Wydeville, a youth of twenty, a proceeding which provoked even in that age strong condemnation. She was still living in 1478.

WILLIAM LYCHEFELD (Lichfield and other variants) Cf. supra, pp. 7, 10 sq., 83 He was of Peterhouse, was admitted fellow when B.A., 15 December 1404 (Ely, Fordham, f. 87), and so remained until 1422, his successor being admitted 26 June in that year (Walker, i, 32). There is much other information to be found in Walker and Venn but in neither is mention made of his preferment to the church ofCarlton Curlieu, to which he was instituted 1 November 1420, resigning that parsonage before 23 June 1423, at which date his successor was instituted. When his name is first found in the Godshouse documents (1446) he is S.T.P. Lychefeld maintained close connection with Cambridge for more than twenty years after surrendering his Peterhouse fellowship, notwithstanding his holding London rectories. In 1446 he was appointed, along with those other friends of Byngham, Gilbert Worthyngton and John Fray, as arbitrator chosen by both sides in a dispute between the prior and convent of Barnwell and Corpus Christi College, relating to rights claimed by both in the church of St Botolph (Masters, p. 20). As parson of All Hallows the More in the city of London, he received with Sir John Joyce, priest in the same church, a bequest under the will of Richard Bokeland,1 proved 15 October 1436 (P.C.C. 21 Luffenam). He seems to have held the rectory of St Mary Magdalene, Old Fish Street, as well as All Hallows, from 1441 till his death (cf. Hennessy); to his part in the petition with three other city rectors in 1446, to be allowed to found schools in their respective parishes, reference has already been made.* His will has not been found but he was probably a man of means as, indeed, his frequent participation in Cambridge affairs, despite his London cures, would suggest. At some period after 1444 John Fray, one of the executors of William Flete who died in that year, took, along with William Byngham and others, feoffment of property in the city of London whichFlete's executors had bought from William Lychefeld.3 According to Walker and Venn he died 24 October 1447, but Stow 4 places his death in 1448 and he is named in the Godshouse foundation charter of 16 April 1448 amongst those appointed to make statutes for the college. 1

Supra, pp. 16, 388. 3 C.P.R. 1452-61, p. 283 sq.

a 4

Supra, p. 11. Ed. Kingsford, i, 235; ii, 321.

398

APPENDIX B

By the fifth day of May in that year he was already dead1 and it would seem reasonable to conclude that the death took place within the intervening period, though it must not be overlooked that the event may have occurred between the original draft and the sealing of the charter. WILLIAM STOCKDALE Cf. supra, p. 238 sq. He was a fellow of Peterhouse,* elected 1474, was senior proctor of the university 1478/93 and became S.T.P. in 1488.4 His date of office as ViceChancellor has been considered already and reason was given to shew that he filled the office for the two academical years 1494/5 and 1495/6.5 This may be supplemented by the statement that he was placed on the commission of the peace for the town of Cambridge 5 November 1494,6 as Vice-Chancellor. The commissions were biennial for the town in Stockdale's period and he is next found on that issued 6 November 14967 as William Stockdale, clerk, which, from the analogy of other instances in the commissions for the town, indicates that he had then ceased to be Vice-Chancellor. Cooper makes him Vice-Chancellor in 1493,8 but that is at variance with the university records, which shew William Rawson to be then (1493/4) m office.' The date given by Cooper to the petition of the town should be therefore not 1493 but 1494-6.10 Stockdale died in the autumn of 1500 and his will is found in Somerset House;11 it is dated 28 July and was proved 15 October. It contains no suggestion of his connection with Cambridge, either in the description given to him or in the specific bequests made, beyond the fact that he is styled 'Doctor of Divinitie', but his identity is established by the discovery that, of the eight names of those who were executors or witnesses, five are found recorded as members of the university in Grace Books A and B; a sixth is a relative, Robert Stockdale. William Stockdale and others founded a fellowship in St Catharine's Hall, as recorded by a tripartite indenture executed 20 August 1506." Cooper has assumed from this the survival of Stockdale until that year13 but, in fact, the fellowship was founded by his executors, under the bequest to them of the residue of his estate for the health of his soul. This becomes clear when it is 1

s Chr. Fend. C. Walker, i, 72 sq. 4 3 GB. A, p. 131. Ibid. p. 217. 6 5 Supra, p. 239 sq. C.P.R. 1494-1509, p. 632 sq. 8 7 Ibid. Annals, i, 242. 9 Hist. Reg. p. 22. Cf. C.P.R. 1485-94, p. 483. 10 The reference to the petition is Bor. Arch. Box X/40. 11 P.C.C. 19 Moone. " Philpott, pp. 53 sqq. 13

Athenae, i, 11.

BIOGRAPHICAL SUPPLEMENT

399

seen that among the names mentioned in the deed there are three out of the four executors, namely, Robert Sympson, Richard Stable and John Penyton (Penyngton in the will). This foundation at a college of which the testator was not a fellow recalls the fact that, at the same college, William Basset, fourth Proctor of Godshouse, also founded a fellowship,1 and other examples might be quoted. Stockdale held important preferments outside his university. He was instituted vicar of West Mersea, Essex, 6 June 1480, on the presentation of the Master and fellows of Higham Ferrers,2 and rector of St Leonard's, Colchester, 20 February 1487, on the presentation of the abbot and convent of St John baptist, Colchester.3 He was vicar and rector respectively of these two churches at the bishop's visitation in 1495.4 He became dean of the College of Newark, or St Mary the Greater, at Leicester, in 1499. This was 'a very noble foundation', of the net value at the Dissolution of ^595- 7s- 4^-!5 m hi8 wu^> Stockdale is described as 'Dean of the College of Leicestre'. He appears to have been dean also of the College of St Mary, Warwick, where he succeeded 13 July 1498, and was replaced there by Edward Hasely 10 December 1498.6 On 8 July 1500 he was presented by the king to the canonry of St Peter in the collegiate church of St Mary and All Saints, Warwick, upon the death of Master John Gilbert.? He never entered upon this office, being prevented probably by illness, resulting in his death. This seems to be the explanation of another entry on the patent roll, five months later, when presentation is recorded of Thomas Brent8 to the same canonry void by the death of that John Gilbert whose death had been the occasion of Stockdale's presentation. GILBERT W O R T H Y N G T O N (variously spelt) Cf. supra, pp. 11, 62, 75, 82 sq. His college is not known and he died too early for his name to be found in the first surviving Grace Book, which begins in 1454. Search in the Proctors' Indentures in the University Registry, where names of a few proctors and other members of the university remain for a small number of earlier years, has likewise been unproductive. He was S.T.P., as appears in the 1446 licence for the foundation of Godshouse.9 Although he was rector from 1439 to 1447 of a London parish, St Andrew's, Holborn, he was much in Cambridge during those years, as 1 2 4 6 7

Philpott, p. 34; supra, p. 187. 3 Newcourt, ii, 415. Ibid, ii, 173. Ibid, ii, 173 n., 415 n. 5 Monasticon, vi, 1397. W . Dugdale, Warwickshire, 1765 ed., p. 314. 8 C.P.R. 1494-1509, p. 196. Ibid. p. 220.

9 Documents, iii, 164; supra, p. 75.

400

APPENDIX B

is seen in his appointment as arbitrator to assess the value of the property acquired for King's College by the king's commissioners from Geffrey Nevyle in 1445,' and in the dispute between Barnwell priory and Corpus Christi College in 1446.2 His name is found amongst those who were to make statutes for St Bernard's (Queens') College 19 May 1447.3 With three other London parsons he petitioned parliament to be allowed to establish a school in his parish,4 and is otherwise found co-operating with his co-petitioners in educational matters. Worthyngton, Cote, Lychefeld, William Byngham and John Fray, chief baron of the Exchequer, are met in association, two or more, in documents relating to various colleges. The friendship of Worthyngton with Byngham may have been brought about in the first instance by some bond of an institutional character between the parish churches of St Andrew in Holborn and St John Zachary. This possibility is based upon a petition to parliament in 1378, the preamble to which recites that certain properties, consisting of houses, shops, a garden and rent had been given in the reign of Edward III to find three chaplains to sing in perpetuity in both churches for the soul of Gilbert de Clare, earl of Gloucester and Hertford.5 Worthyngton's family was seated at Worthington Hall, Standish, in Lancashire.6 His will? shews him to have been well-to-do, and helps to fix very nearly the date of his death; it was executed 28 July 1447, and probate was given 12 August in that year. His elder brother, Hugh Worthyngton, is named, as are two others, Walter and Rafe. John Fray was a witness to the will and John Pycard, chaplain, one of those named fellows of Godshouse in the foundation charter of 1448, was an overseer thereof. His bequests to Godshouse and Byngham are set forth on p. 83, supra. 1

W . and C. i, 339. 3 Charter Rolls 25/26 H. VI, m. 33. 5 Rot. Parl. iii, 51b sq. ' P.C.C. 35 Luffenam.

2

Masters, p. 20. Rot. Parl. v, 137; supra, p. 11. 6 Newcourt, i, 274.

4

Appendix C (a) THE SOURCES OF THE GODSHOUSE REVENUES Dr Peile in dealing with this matter writes: ' The revenue of God's House consisted chiefly of pensions from "alien priories" appropriated by Henry V during his war with France'. After giving certain particulars of amounts, he proceeds: 'An income more unsatisfactory and more difficult of collection in the fifteenth century can hardly be imagined'.1 Here and there in the foregoing pages it has been maintained that such difficulties as the college encountered in getting in its revenues have been greatly overestimated, that some arrears were only technically such, due in large measure to the date of making up the college accounts, and that instances are found in the records of other colleges of rents and other income due to them from places in and near Cambridge falling into arrear and involving ultimate loss, no less than those arising from sources far afield. The patent rolls of the fifteenth century, and other documents throwing light upon its social conditions, such as the Paston Letters, abound in evidence that the collection of payments due from secular persons and properties was no less difficult than their collection from alien priories. It would seem not unlikely that lack of information as to the true nature of alien priory sources of income is responsible for attribution to them of difficulty in collection far in excess of the facts and, in particular, there is a vagueness and prejudicial suggestiveness about the term 'alien priories' which would tend to disappear (i) by the use of the more exact 'possessions of alien priories', (2) by some account of their history leading up to their final suppression. Something of the kind is attempted here but, of necessity, with a brevity which makes it impossible to give more than a very tenuous sketch. The term 'alien priories' is often employed in such a manner as to imply that the priories so called were always conventual houses established in England arid Wales by aliens. It is true that there were alien priories of this kind but, even in the case of the small proportion of such, it is desirable to understand how they came into being. In a very large number of instances, however, what were styled alien priories in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries were no more than titles to incomes and profits arising out of English and Welsh rectories, advowsons, manors, lands, rents and the like, enjoyed by foreign religious houses. That is, the alien priories were the foreign or alien houses which had the use of these English and Welsh profits. 1

LHC

Peile, p. 3 sq. 26

402

APPENDIX

C

The Conqueror, his sons, their Angevin and Plantagenet successors and the followers of all these, impelled by pious motives, bestowed upon the monastic houses with which they had association, or for which they had special devotion, in the places of their origin (in Normandy, Brittany and elsewhere in France), a share of those lands and possessions to which they became entitled as the result of the conquest of England and its settlement in the 150 years following thereon. In the nature of the case, the gifts to the foreign monastic houses varied as greatly in extent and character as did the power, wealth and. generosity of the benefactors. Some persons founded monasteries in England and Wales and bestowed them in their fully founded state upon foreign abbeys, some even prescribing the exact conditions of the dependent relationship. Some great estates, which might either lie all together in something like a ring fence or be spread over many counties, were so extensive and valuable as to lead the foreign house to found on some portion of the property a conventual priory, over whose prior and other obedientiaries it exercised right of appointment which made an important preferment for brothers of its own house; in some such cases the right of appointment deteriorated into that of veto. Where the benefaction was of smaller extent, consisting of one or more churches, one or more manors, a brother of the foreign house might be appointed to the rectory and to act as business supervisor or manager of the estate; such a person was often called locally, and even in state documents, prior, though having under his care no conventual appurtenance of either buildings or institution. Some estates, smaller still, consisting of only one church or one manor, were entrusted to the care of a sister English monastery, preferably of the same order, or were managed by an English layman for the foreign house. The original arrangements as time went on tended to change to meet altered conditions; in general it may be said that the connection between the English house and its mother monastery abroad became less and less that of child and parent, approximating more to that of tenant and landlord, with the solvent of a fixed annual payment in current coin of the realm. In many instances, the revenue due from a single manor, still more the payment, pension, rent or apport out of a manor or smaller estate, was received and transmitted by an English agent upon a commercial basis. At times when the French possessions of the English kings were seats of rebellion leading to a state of war, steps were taken to prevent intercourse between French monastic houses and their English daughters, cells and other properties, with the double purpose of preventing the conveyance of information to the enemy country and of cutting off supplies which would be useful to its forces. This could be most effectively achieved by the taking into the English king's hands the lands, revenues and other possessions yielding funds to foreign houses, which was first done in the reign of Edward I. The measure was temporary, for the duration of the war; while it lasted it was all-

SOURCES OF GODSHOUSE REVENUES

403

embracing, vacancies in benefices, in farmerships of manors and all other profitable occupations being filled by the king, but at the making of peace the ownership and its future enjoyment reverted to the foreign house, the real 'alien priory'. It is important to distinguish the regular taking of alien priories into the king's hands on the outbreak of successive wars, and even their final suppression in the early years of the fifteenth century, from the dissolution of the smaller monasteries in 1535, the larger in 1539. It is certain that the treatment of the alien priories involved hardship (it is one of the inevitable evils of war that it should bring suffering upon the innocent), but the steps directed against them were necessary for the proper conduct of military affairs. The recent actions of this and other countries throughout the world in dealing with enemy property and enemy persons make it unnecessary to offer defence of the medieval practice. There was in the actions taken with regard to the alien priories no motive of a religious or ecclesiastico-political character. Moreover, the local persons concerned were treated with consideration; thus, in the act of 1363,1 it is provided: 'That because of this war all Lands and Possessions of Religious and other Persons Alien Enemies be seized into the hands of the King and let to farm to the Priors Procurators of the same, rendering to the King as shall be agreed between the King's Council and the farmers by certain and sufficient surety therein made by the King and his Council'. The frequent occurrence of war between England and France, with the inevitable break in continuity of possession and enjoyment, supplemented by the effect of weakened ties between the English king and his dominions beyond sea, led to measures being taken by many alien priories, in one or other of the intervals of peace, to divest themselves on the best terms that could be arranged of their English possessions. Some English properties were sold by their foreign owners to English houses; some priories in England delivered themselves from every vestige of foreign taint by becoming denizen, one might say in modern phrase by becoming naturalised, making doubtless some capital final recompense to their alien former mother house. So unsatisfactory a position could not continue indefinitely and an end was put to the rights of enemy houses by the wholesale suppression of 'alien priories' by Henry V in 1414. Henry very largely devoted the proceeds of the confiscation to religious purposes, particularly in his foundation of the great English monasteries of §hene and Syon, as his son devoted others to the endowment of the educational foundations, Eton and King's.2 1

Rot. Pad. ii, 302 a. Alien priories was a description used of such sources of income for generations after the suppression by Henry V, even in reference to conventual priories still allowed to continue because they had achieved denization, e.g. St Mary and St Florentius of Monmouth in i486 (infra, p. 408). 2

26-2

404

APPENDIX

C

This present short note is intended to convey to those entirely unacquainted with the subject some idea of what is meant by an 'alien priory', and to provide them with means of forming a judgement of the character of the revenues accruing from such sources to Godshouse. Its brevity may excuse statements which the writer would have desired to qualify if he had been dealing with the subject at greater length. It would add unduly to the size of this book if any attempt were made here to give account of all that is known of the various 'alien priories' which contributed to the revenues of Godshouse. It must suffice to offer a very brief note of a character to indicate the particular type of'alien priory' which each source of income represents, rarely proceeding beyond that save when the documents still preserved in the muniment room seem to yield information not hitherto known, or at least not hitherto published. CHEPSTOW PRIORY1

was confirmed to Byngham by the charter of Henry VI, dated 10 June 1442, in the words 'the alien priory of Chepstowe with all the lands, tenements and possessions and advowsons of churches in anywise belonging to the same priory'. There is evidence that every feature of property there described did actually yield revenue to the college, but there is no means of ascertaining the extent of its contribution since there is no statement of its worth in any of the charters.* The circumstances are such as would point to a considerable excess over the conventional value which would form the basis of the reputed income of Godshouse. The efforts made by the successive Proctors of the college to establish their hold upon the priory, with their successful issue, are sufficiently set forth in the body of the book, but it may be added that Chepstow priory, more formally known as the priory of Striguil (with variant spellings), was a dependent house of the Benedictine monastery of Cormeille in Normandy.3 It was obviously a priory conventual which somehow or other, although suppressed to the extent that its possessions were acquired by Godshouse (the grant to which did become effectual),'' was able to obtain sufferance to survive until the Dissolution under Henry VIII, when the house had three religious and an income of ^32. 35. od, clear. 5 1

Cf. supra, pp. 53, 58 sqq., 84 sq., 154, 176 sq. * Syclyng, in his reply to the countess's enquiries (? 1504), states the value as ^4. 175. od. {supra, p. 286). 3 Monastkon, iv, 652. 4 Tanner, quoted by Monasticon, he. cit., notwithstanding. 5 Chester W. New is wrong in stating that its ultimate disposal was confiscation to Christ's College (History of the Alien Priories in England to the Confiscation of Henry V,

Chicago, 1916, p. 87).

SOURCES OF GODSHOUSE REVENUES 1

405

CRASWAIX PRIORY, to give the modern form of the name, is variously styled in the college documents Craswell, Creswell, Carswell, etc. It is situated on the western border of Herefordshire in a remote position and the ruins of the church and the domestic buildings remain, having been largely, though not completely, cleared by the excavations conducted by the Woolhope Field Club in the early years of this century.2 It was one of the three houses of the order of Grandmont to be founded in this country and, as was the case with the cells of that order in general, was in a state of obedience and dependency to the mother house at Grandmont in the Limousin. Each house had both clerks and lay brothers, the head of the clerks having the official title 'corrector', the head of the lay brethren that of 'curiosus'; there was much dispute and rivalry between the two classes of inmates for many years, which it required the intervention of papal authority to determine. The English houses were controlled by the mother house, which appointed their heads and removed them at its pleasure. These correctors or priors were required to attend chapters at Grandmont and to bring with them the annual payments due to the mother housed The priory was founded by Walter de Lacy, late in the reign of John or early in that of Henry III; he was the sixth baron of his line and was Henry's sheriff for Herefordshire from 1216 to 1223, a time when the conditions of the Welsh marches required that so important an office should be held by a great territorial magnate, such as de Lacy, or at least by his nominee. Holme Lacy and Ewyas Lacy still bear in their names witness to the holdings of this powerful family, and it was of his lands in that region that Walter gave 600 acres as an endowment to the prior and brethren of Grandmont for the cell to that house which he founded at Craswall. His charter of confirmation to the community of Grandmont and the brethren of the newly founded cell is preserved in the college muniment room, still retaining de Lacy's seal,4 and it recites in much detail the extensive privileges of common and other rights which his bounty had conferred upon them. The provision was to maintain a house of ten priests and three clerks and, as Miss Graham says, 5 'in accordance with the custom of the Order, there would be at least an equal number of lay brethren'. Walter added to his original gift 204 acres in his manor of Holme Lacy and, in a third charter also preserved in the college,6 he gave an important endowment in Ireland (he was earl of Meath). In 1253, Reginald, the corrector of Craswall, sold the manor of Holme Lacy, with the approval of the pope, parting in so doing with the richest 1 Cf. supra, pp. 53, 55, 141 sqq.; infra, pp. 438 sqq. 2 A. W. Clapham, in Archaeologia, lxxv, 189 sqq. with plan, views and account of the existing remains. 3 Miss Rose Graham's article in Archaeologia, vol. lxxv, 'The Order of Grandmont and its Houses in England', is most valuable and has much detail to which the reader 4 is referred and the writer is indebted. Chr. Gh. C. 6 5 Op. cit. p. 173. Chr. Gh. B.

406

APPENDIX C

part of the endowment but one which had given the house endless trouble almost from the beginning. The intimate connection of the English cells with the French mother house of Grandmont caused their seizure as 'alien priories' into the king's hands during the reign of Edward III, but the escheator of Craswall had orders from the king in 1341 and 1342 to provide adequate maintenance for the prior and brethren. With the renewal of war under Richard II Craswall was again seized, and it followed the fate of other alien priories in 1414, yielding its revenues for her life to Joan, queen and widow of Henry IV and, after her death, to Humphrey, duke of Gloucester. The next, and ultimate, incident in the history of Craswall is that of its confirmation in 1442 by Henry VI to William Byngham as part of the endowment of Godshouse, in which connection, doubtless, the two charters of Walter de Lacy came into the possession of the college. The value of this endowment cannot be determined from the charters but Syclyng gives it as four pounds.1 The priory had been given in June 1438 by Henry VI to William Clerk for ten years, subject to a payment to the king of 465. %d. per annum; that rent was diverted by the king from the Exchequer to Byngham and his co-feofFees for the benefit of Godshouse and they were granted the reversion of the priory when the ten-year concession of William Clerk fell in. The king's lease to Clerk was to secure him some advantage for which the annual payment of 465. 8d. was an acknowledgement of the crown's possession, and it is possible that Clerk released (for some consideration as was not infrequently done) the unexpired balance of his term to the grantee of the reversion, possibly in 1442. It is more probable that Clerk's grant ran to its full limit, for we find Byngham petitioning the king in 1448 * to send his letters to the sheriff, Sir Walter Devereux, for aid in obtaining possession of parts of the estate, and of bulls, charters, deeds and other muniments withheld from him by 'ryetowse men'. It is not unlikely that these turbulent persons were dispossessed brethren of the priory, or people professing to claim under them, encouraged by expectation that the house of secular clerks into whose hands the property was then passing would prove to be an easy prey. This brief story makes dear that Craswall was a conventual house with a complete, if not large, body of monks and lay brethren. Its dependency upon its mother house for the appointment of its corrector or prior, and its liability to his removal, no less than its obligation to make payments annually to Grandmont of amounts which do not appear to have been fixed sums, made it in very deed an 'alien priory' and pre-eminently liable to suppression. The college rights acquired by the acquisition of the possessions of the priory extended into Yarkhul, Weobley, Maunsell, Peterchurch, Ewyas Lacy and the township of Craswall itself (distant from the priory buildings x\ miles). They included lands and buildings as well as tithes and a certain due called 1 2 Supra, p. 286. Supra, p. 78 sq.

SOURCES OF GODSHOUSE REVENUES

407

the 'ninth sheaf. The successful efforts of the college in securing its Craswall revenues from time to time are described elsewhere in this volume, and it is again maintained that such difficulties as they experienced (and overcame) were not special to holdings of former rights of alien priories but were due to the social and political conditions of the age, and especially those of the Welsh marches. The sum of two pounds, said by Dr Peile to be the revenue derived by Godshouse from Craswall,1 is without authority and underestimates the income derived from this source. IKHAM PRIORY* provides an illustration of an 'alien priory' which never had a prior and was not a religious house. It owes its description of' alien priory' to the presumed fact that the revenue from its property had been payable to some foreign religious house whose name appears not to have been known even in the first half of the fifteenth century. The full style of this property as found in the letters patent is 'The alien priory, manor or lordship of Ikham jn the counties of Lincoln and Oxford'. Nothing answering to this description has been found in the county of Oxford but there is Hykeham in the county of Lincoln, and leases and court rolls remaining in the muniment room make it abundantly clear that Ikham is North Hykeham 3 (as now spelt), a parish four miles south-west of Lincoln, and the property there yielded revenue to Godshouse in the mid-fifteenth century and still remains in the possession of the college. The works of Dugdale and Tanner do not help, nor does the Victoria County History,* and there is no evidence amongst the college documents to solve this interesting question of whether there ever was a priory at Ikham, nor is there anything to shew to which foreign house the property formerly yielded revenue. However much this may be regretted, there is no reproach attaching to failure to discover this information; indeed it might have been forgiven if the effort had not been carried outside the four walls of the muniment room, for it is obvious that it had equally eluded the search of Byngham and the clerks of the Chancery and the Exchequer of his day. Such vague descriptions as 'The alien priory or manor or lordship' were forms to be eschewed, if at all possible, as they were prolific of trouble and litigation; that they were employed in this case is in itself proof that Byngham had no means of knowing a more exact description. Moreover, the name of the foreign house formerly interested in Ikham should have been inserted in the licences if known, for it was a statutory requirement that the capital house of an alien priory should be mentioned, as is clearly shewn in the saving clause in the various letters patent for Godshouse, whereby it is provided that the properties shall be enjoyed notwithstanding that 'express 1 3 4

2 Peile, p. 3. North Hykeham; cf. supra, pp. 53, 175 sq. Variants are Ickham, Yckham, Hykham, Northikam, without exhausting die list. V.C.H. Lincoln, ii, 244.

408

APPENDIX C

mention of the names of the capital houses of the aforesaid dues of the Priories of Chipstowe, Monemuth, Tottenays and Carssewell or any one of them contrary to the form of the statute published therefor is not made in the same Letters Patent'. 1 The leases of this property and their contribution to the thesis that nominal values are widely different from true values and yields have been fully discussed* and the leases give a fairly full conception of the property in North Hykeham owned by the college and let by them to ' farm'. It consisted of pastures, meadows, arable land, tenements and a mill, indeed the usual accompaniments of a manor, including the privilege of holding a court leet, which also was transferred to the lessee. There is no further history of this property in the college records until 1506, when it may have been in hand, for in that year a court was held in the name of John Syclyng, Master of Godshouse,3 amongst those names appearing then being the priory of St Katherine outside Lincoln which, from other sources, is known to have had a grange in North Hykeham.4 Fragments of court rolls remain for the years 1533 and 1536, during the mastership of Henry Lockwood, preserving nothing worthy of note. In the return to the commissioners of Henry VIII the rent is shewn as six pounds.5 MONMOUTH PRIORY,6 otherwise the alien priory of St Mary and St Florentius of Monmouth, was a house founded in the eleventh century in the interest of the abbey of St Florentius at Saumur. The connection had not meant more apparently than the annual payment to the mother house of the apport of ten marks, the amount of the annual sum which Godshouse had granted to it. The priory was conventual and apparently, though technically alien, was able to establish its essentially English character, for it survived until the Dissolution under Henry VIII. Nevertheless, even so late as i486, it was described as 'the alien priory of Monmouth', in an order addressed by Henry VII to the sheriff and the prior and receiver of the ancient pension rent or tribute of ten marks, to pay the same with all arrears to Goddishous\7 On p. 178 mention has been made of a prior named Reginald in the year 1474, whose name is yielded by the college documents, and another 8 is one 'Thomas episcopus Lacherensis? and prior of Monmouth', who with the convent thereof gives a bond to Richard Wyatt, Master, and 'Christ College late called Goddys hows' on 21 April 1508. 1 Documents, Hi, 173. * Supra, p. 175 sq. 3 Chr. N. Hyk. D. 4 V.C.H. Lincoln, ii, 188 sq. 6 5 Documents, i, 210. Cf. supra, pp. 53, 177 sqq. 8 7 Campbell, ii, 46 (27 October i486). Chr. Mon. 3. 9 Lacherensis refers to a titular bishopric, its eponymous site unknown. Gams, Series Episcoporum, does not give this title but it appears in the papal registers, with elections from 1453 to 1540. Thomas was elected 6 June 1505, but that volume of the register has been missing for many years; the seventeenth-century index gives his surname as Fowler.

SOURCES OF GODSHOUSE REVENUES

409

1

NEWSTEAD PRIORY in the county of Lincoln, near Glanford Bridge, is described in the documents as Novus Locus on Acolme or Ancolme, with many variants. The annual income from this source to which the college was entitled was 100 shillings and it is interesting to note that the grant refers not to an alien priory but 'the annual payment.. .which the prior of Novus Locus.. .owes and is bound to render and bring to us annually' without any reference to its source. Newstead was a priory of that exclusively English order of St Gilbert of Sempringham and was founded in 1171 and remained until the Dissolution, when its income was returned as being ,£38. 135. $&. It was of course not an alien priory but it became concerned in the various acts by which the possessions of alien priories were taken into the king's hands in successive reigns in time of war, in the following circumstances. The abbey of St Mary of Longueville, a Cistercian house, was possessed of certain lands and rents in Gamelsthorp (Casthorp), Hibaldstow and Kirton in Lincolnshire, given to them in the twelfth century by Reginald, count of Boulogne and Ida, countess of Boulogne, which the abbot and convent made over to the prior of Newstead in exchange for an annual payment to them of 100 shillings.* This annual payment would be diverted from time to time by the successive acts taking the possessions of religious houses overseas into the hands of the king, and one specific instance is found on 3 July 1369 (C.C.R. 1369-74, p. 44), when the prior of Newstead was ordered to retain for the king's own hands the 100 shillings payable yearly to the abbot of Longueville. Following the suppression by Henry V the abbey of St Mary of Longueville was dispossessed of the annual rent, which became payable to the king, who ordered the prior of Newstead to pay the annual rent of 100 shillings to the queen mother (C.C.R. 1413-19, p. 157, 12 November 1414). Later, Henry VI granted the rent as a life pension to one John Crook, a clerk of his Exchequer, and by his letters patent of 1 March 1442 he granted its reversion after the death of Crook to Byngham and his co-feoffees for the use of Godshouse in perpetuity. At some time between 16 April 1448 and the year 1455 Crook died or otherwise ceased to be entitled to the annual pension for, on 18 May 1457, Newstead is shewn to be debtor to the college for nearly two years' rent. It is possible that the Act of Resumption of 1451 dispossessed Crook, as we have shewn it to have deprived Fowler of his annuity.3 In any case, in his letters patent of 4 November 1462, Edward IV confirmed the pension to the college as a payment due from the prior of Newstead without making mention ofJohn Crook's name. There is a docu1 2

Cf. supra, p. 53. Cf. Monastkon, vi, 966 sq., and V.C.H. Lincoln, ii, 197 sq., the latter being an article by Dr Rose Graham, the principal authority upon.the Gilbertines and their houses. 3 Supra, p. 155 sq.

410

APPENDIX

C

1

ment amongst the college muniments, undated but in writing of the midfifteenth century, which is a transcript of the 'evidences' of the church of St Mary of' Longewillars' of the lands, etc. for which they received in exchange the annual payment of ioo shillings; from the fact that the rent is referred to in the heading as given by Henry VI to the College of Godshouse, it seems not unlikely that this is a document which passed to Byngham upon his making that compensation to the dispossessed house which we have shewn* to be obligatory upon the concessionaires in such cases, or it may have been obtained to counter the action of Newstead priory now to be mentioned. It is by no means clear what the ultimate position of the college was with regard to this income offivepounds. In 1463 the prior appealed to Edward IV for relief and he, ready to be generous at the expense of others and not overtender to Godshouse as a foundation of him to whom he ever referred as de facto et non dejure Rex, relieved the prior of the yearly rent of five pounds formerly paid to the abbey of Longueville as the prior declared that the lands were not worth more than ten shillings.3 Nevertheless, Edward IV in his letters patent of 1468 confirmed the rent to Godshouse. Sydyng was not receiving it in 1504 and as no income from Newstead is shewn in the statement made by the college to Henry Vffl's commissioners in 1546, and as the priory is not credited in Valor Ecclesiasticus* with any outgoing under that heading, it is probable that the rebate to the priory by Edward IV permanently deprived the college of this income. Such other information as is known concerning the priory of Newstead may be found in V.C.H. Lincoln, ii, 52. SAWTRY ABBEY5 (Sautre, Saltreya and numerous forms are found), a Cistercian house whose negligible ruins, mainly foundations overlaid with debris and soil, are to be found about five miles north-west of Huntingdon, was without any dependent relation upon any foreign house. Some account of it may be found in Monasticon and in V.C.H. for Huntingdonshire, and could be augmented from the interesting case found in the Year Book 1 Chr. Gh. 8. The document bears the contemporary endorsement Evidentia pro C. solid' de Newsted super Alnecoh. It must have been obtained from Longueville by Godshouse, for it is in fact a transcript of two deeds constituting that abbey's tide to the Lincolnshire lands, etc. which they gave to Newstead in consideration for the annual payment of 100 shillings; in one of them the lands, woods, fens, water-mills, fisheries, services, etc. are specified in great detail. It transpires that the gift originated with Matheus, count of Boulogne, father of Ida, Reginald becoming count probably in right of marriage to Matheus's heiress. The second document is the confirmation of Ida after her father's death of the gift so specified as being in exchange for the lands that were originally given by Matheus, those having been found unsuitable for permanent holding by the church and the monks. Ida's confirmation was made in the year 1200. 2 Supra, p. 47 sq. 4 iv, 71 sq.

3 C.P.R. 1461-67, p. 269. 5 Cf. supra, pp. 53, 156, 179 sqq.

SOURCES OF GODSHOUSE REVENUES

4«

17/18 Edward III, and from the long story of the litigation with the alien house of Bon Repos as revealed by the close rolls of Edward III, 34th to 38th years, as well as by the action brought by Sawtry against Bon Repos in the King's Bench in 1388. But we must content ourselves here with shewing the nature of the obligation of Sawtry to make an annual payment to Godshouse, and even so cannot avoid some duplication of what is related in the account of Fendrayton.1 The Cistercian abbey of Bon Repos had appointed its English sister Sawtry to farm its English churches and to remit certain definite sums annually to Bon Repos. Amongst these was a payment of ^ 4 0 per annum which was the 'farm' of the churches of Fulbourn, in Cambridgeshire, and Honingham, in Norfolk; Sawtry would make what profits she could out of the management of the tithes, etc. of these churches and, subject to paying the annual pension, farm, revenue or due to the French abbey, would keep the balance herself. With the suppression of alien priories the annual ^ 4 0 was due to the king; he dealt with it, in the period with which we are here concerned, by allocating £ 3 3 . 65. 8d. (50 marks) to the Warden and scholars of King's Hall and the balance of £ 6 . 135. ±d. (10 marks) to one John Fowler, one of the clerks of his chapel. In 1442 the king granted the reversion of the said ten marks, after Fowler should die, to Godshouse. In other words, the ^ 4 0 originally paid to Bon Repos was divided and transferred, without any loss or disadvantage to Sawtry, to King's Hall and Godshouse. The payment might be regarded as in the nature of a tithe-rent charge, the ownership of which might be passed from person to person successively without detriment or cause of grievance to the person from whom it was due. The abbot and convent of Sawtry wriggled and evaded* whenever they could, sometimes successfully. They were past masters in the art of falling into debt and the patent rolls bear abundant evidence of that fact; in regard to this particular rent, they began with its originator their sister house, and they continued, so far as concerned the / 6 . 135. 4J. part of it due to Godshouse, almost to the Dissolution. They allowed arrears to accumulate and, finally, induced the college as the result of an arbitration to forgive the arrears under a bond to pay in future; this was in the twelfth year of Henry VIII. Two facts stand out; first, the £6. 13s. \&. was not at the date of its grant to Godshouse a payment due out of an 'alien priory' but was rent owed to the king by an English abbey out of two English churches; second, the rent had not the remotest connection with the church of Fendrayton, as some have supposed. The only real connection between those sources of income is that Sawtry, having at one rime managed both for Bon Repos, sought by all sorts of stratagems, not excluding fraud, to appropriate both. There was no 'alien priory' difficulty of collection here, but only that created by the general conditions of the time and the facility they offered for the successful practice of dishonest devices. 1

Infra, pp. 417 sqq.

412

APPENDIX

C

1

THURLOW MAGNA HOSPITAL, or free chapel, of St James has left no local trace of its existence, not even in legend or tradition. Monasticon has so little, and the V.C.H. for Suffolk scarcely more, that it seems necessary to give space here, altogether disproportionate to the importance of the house, for what it has been possible to trace of its history. The parish of Great Thurlow lies close upon the Cambridgeshire border, four miles to the north of Haverhill station and between that place and Newmarket. From Cambridge the distance by road is about sixteen miles. The date of foundation of the hospital has not been ascertained, nor has the name of its founder come to light, unless it be the hospital of St James of Altopascio by Lucca to which it is declared here and there in the patent rolls to belong; this attribution obtains some support from the dedication to St James.* The first appearance of the hospital in the national records is in the patent rolls of Richard II, 5 July 1382, if we set aside the note in Taxatio of 1291 which has by some been claimed to apply to this hospital. The form of the note is App'at' Hospital', which has been interpreted by Dr J. C. Cox 3 to mean appropriated to the hospital of Magna Thurlow. There is upon other grounds reason to believe that the hospital was founded even earlier than 1291, but the meaning given by Cox to the Taxatio reference should be rejected. It means more probably appropriated to a hospital and it might, if taken by itself, signify, even as elsewhere in the same record, appropriated to hospitallers. Since the hospital is not mentioned elsewhere in Taxatio the note would need to read appropriata hospitali ibidem in order to carry the sense given to it by Cox and others.4 But actually the parish church of Magna Thurlow was appropriated to the hospital of St James of Altopascio in the diocese of Lucca in LombardyJ as is clearly stated in the patent rolls more than once. The church had been given by William Rufus in 1095 to Battle abbey and involved that monastery in much litigation; the abbot and convent granted it to another house in 1237 and it would be interesting upon some other occasion to trace the course of the rectory's history in full. Curiously enough, Battle reserved to itself the vicarage and drew from it a pension of two shillings down to the Dissolution.6 If the supporters of Cox's interpretation are unconvinced it would be useful to know how they explain the fact that the Thurlow hospital, having the appropriation of the parish church, could be worth no more than sixty shillings per annum.? This statement is 1 2

Cf. supra, pp. 81 sq., 102 sq., 256 sq., 285 sq. The supposed foundation by an earl of Boulogne (Suffolk Institute of Archaeology, xix (1927), 206) has unfortunately no actual authority behind it. 3 V.C.H. Suffolk, ii, 155. 4 E.g. Morley in Suffolk Institute of Archaeology, loc. cit. 5 C£ C.P.R. 13 81-5, p. 224; for Lombardy v. infra, p. 413 sq. 6 Valor. Eccles. iii, 473. 7 2Virf. Mon. p. 532.

SOURCES OF GODSHOUSE REVENUES

413

made by Edward IV in 1462, in these words: Dedimus Hospitale sive liberam capellam sancti Jacobi de Thirlowe Magna in comitatu Suffolcie cum suis pertinentiis que sexaginta solidos per annum non excedit.1

Returning to the basal fact of the mention of the hospital of Magna Thurlow in the national records for the first time in 1382, we find that it is brought into the light of events through the presentation by the king of one of his clerks to the wardenship of the hospital. There is nothing to shew why he did this but it has been said that the hospital was in his gift by reason of the war with France and, indeed, that was the ground specifically mentioned in the letters patent making a grant of the wardenship in 1398. There are various difficulties, however, in accepting that statement: (1) The house, when it sought to be acquired by Godshouse, gave as its only reasons poverty, decay of buildings, extreme old age of its immates. (2) It was described by Byngham in 1447, when he communicated its desire to the king, as a priory Inglych, and it was alien priories only that came into the king's gift by reason of war. (3) Its mother house of Altopascio was not in the power of the king of France nor in a country at war with the king of England. (4) Despite the mistaken statement of 1398 that it was in the king's hands owing to the war with France (a type of mistake met with quite frequently in the patent rolls) the hospital continued to survive through the suppression of its fellows under Henry V and came to an end, and that of its own desire, as a living institution in 1449 or later. (5) The parsonage of the parish church, which was definitely admitted to be in the ownership of the mother house of the Magna Thurlow hospital, was declared in 1382 to be falsely reported as being in the king's gift. These being the facts, if we seek to discover the reason why the king began to appoint to the wardenship of the hospital in 1382, and continued to do so through the suppression by Henry V in 1415 and thereafter until the house itself sought its acquisition by Godshouse, we can do no more than surmise and suggest. It is not impossible that the position was the outcome of some arrangement with the mother house of St James of Altopascio. It has been shewn that the brethren of that hospital were said to be of Lombardy; that was a mistake, of course, for they were of Tuscany, as they were also at other times described, but it was a frequent mistake. The clerks of the Exchequer and the Chancery were not travelled men and they, in common with Englishmen of their time generally, were prone to regard all Italians as Lombards. (That the brethren were so regarded locally at Thurlow is shewn in the name lumbardeswood, part of the property acquired by the college with the hospital in 1449 and still remaining to-day, as a name, in the local Lumbards' Wood Farm.) Lombards were a bugbear to the people of 1

P.R. 2 Ed. IV, ii, 16.

414

APPENDIX C

England at that period; they were said to be spies, and great complaints were made concerning them in various matters, accompanied by loud demands for their banishment (cf. Rot. Parl. in the years 1376 and 1378). The brethren of Altopascio had themselves been the subjects of strong representations and had been objects of aggression (C.P.R. 1367-70, p. 265; 1381-5, pp. 224 and 261). Regarded as belonging, rightly or wrongly, to a people so unpopular, they may have found their labours, which consisted of collecting alms for their order, so difficult and unproductive as to lead them to compromise by giving up their home and base of operations in Thurlow and returning to their own country with the prospect of remaining undisturbed in the appropriation of the rectory of the parish church. Again, Benedict di Lucca, described in 1382 as proctor-general for the master of the hospital of St James of Altopascio in Lombardy, is described in 1383 as master of Hautpaiis. Now Hautpais, more properly Hautpas, was the chief French house of the order of St James of Altopascio; it was situated in Paris, where it gave its name to a parish. The order in France had several houses and the Hautpas master was commander-general of the order in that country subject to his obedience to the mother house at Altopascio by Lucca. If the affairs in England of the mother house were supervised by a brother from the French house, the position at a time of war when all alien priories of French associations were being confiscated would become intolerable and would, in that case also, bring about a desire for arrangement. We may go further and say that a house supervised by a Frenchman, even if he were so only by adoption and temporarily, would be technically alien and justly taken into the king's hands by reason of the war with France. It is not a little significant that the brethren of Altopascio, after a career of activity in England reflected in the patent rolls for 150 years, disappear entirely from the scene after 1383. It is time to abandon conjecture and to return to the realm of fact based upon documentary evidence; whatever the reason, the king appointed the wardens of the hospital from 1382 onwards. The following are the names which have been discovered from the calendars of the patent rolls: John Menhyr, king's clerk, 5 July 1382, C.P.R. 1381-5, p. 149. Thomas Miltecombe, 24 September 1382, ibid. p. 168. He appears to have obtained also the presentation to the parsonage of the parish church for, on 14 February 1383, that was revoked on the ground of his false pretences, C.P.R. ibid. p. 224. He must have been superseded for a time in the wardenship of the hospital and the appointment is found of John Beauchamp, alias John de Holt, 14 October 1382, C.P.R. ibid. p. 172. He was a powerful personage, steward of the household to Richard II; beheaded 1388.1 Mutecombe seems to have got back again, since, 1

D.N.B. iv, 29; T. F. Tout, Chapters in Mediaeval Administrative History, iv, 204.

SOURCES OF GODSHOUSE REVENUES

415

Robert Dovorr, king's clerk, is appointed 15 May 1385 on the resignation of Thomas Miltecombe, C.P.R. ibid. p. 560. Peter Hermodesworth, king's clerk, 20 April 1388, C.P.R. 1385-9, p. 433William Bonetemps, king's clerk, on resignation of Peter Hermodesworth, 11 November 1393, C.P.R. 1391-6, p. 328. Robert atte Hyrn, chaplain, 19 November 1398, C.P.R. 1396-9, p. 450. John Arondell,1 kings clerk, 23 February 1400, C.P.R. 1399-1401, p. 204. William Benet, king's clerk, 4 May 1409, C.P.R. 1408-13, p. 70. He is found already (1406) holding the much more profitable wardenship of the hospital of the Holy Innocents, alias le Maladerie, by Lincoln, and his rights in both were ratified by Henry V, 8 May 1415, C.P.R. 1413-16, p. 323. He was the last warden to receive the grant of the hospital from the king, and William Benet is mentioned in the charter 2 of Henry VI to Godshouse as the warden at whose death the college was to enter into possession of the hospital. The king's college of Godshouse appears to have enjoyed its interest in the hospital through 'farmers', of whose names or status the following have been preserved, either by surviving leases or by incidental reference: The vicar of Thurlowe.3 The vicar of Thyrlow.4 Thomas Groome, clericus, of Great Thurlowe.5 John Fox, perpetual vicar of Thurlowe.6 Dominus John Foxe, vicar of the church of Thyrlowe magna in the County of Suffolk.? In John Syclyng's statement8 of the revenues of the college to the Lady Margaret and her council, he says that 'the fre chapell in Thorlow.. .is withholden from the seid master by the vicar of the same town and by the comfbrth of Mr Lucas the Kynges Solicitor'. This is the first intimation remaining to indicate serious difficulty in getting in the 'farm' of Thurlow, and the advent of the king's solicitor upon the scene probably brings us knowledge of the root of the trouble. There is a document' marked 'Remembrances for Christ's College', dated 1

Tout, op. tit. v, 71, 74, 80. Arondell was a crony of Hoccleve; Tout has an interesting section upon the clerks in vol. v, especially pp. 60-112. 1 Chr. Gh. 9 and U. 4 3 Chr. Mast. 3, 18 May 1457. Ibid. 4, 7 October 1457. 5 6 C.P.R. 1476-85, p. 82. Chr. Gh. An, 24 September 1496. 7 Chr. Mast. 12, 3 November 1497; ibid. 13, 6 November 1498. 8 Chr. Gh. Aq, circa 1504. 9 Chr. Misc. D.

416

APPENDIX

C

2 August, 23 Henry VII (1508), which has this item amongst its other memoranda: to folowe suytte of an obligacon agens Sir William Foxe vicare of Mich Thurlowe in the countie of Suffolk whiche witholdyth by the helpe of Mr Lucas the Kyngs solicitor the yerely valowe of the chapell of seynt James there which was goven to godds howse by Kyng Henry the sixte & nowe of Right belongyth to crists college which obligacon is in the kepynge of my ladis solicitor and is in suyte. A blank in our information follows until detailed presentations of income and expenditure are met in the account book begun by Dr Henry Lockwood (Master 1530-48), in the 22nd,year of Henry VIII. Each of the properties of the college is set down, Thurlow amongst them, but that endowment has no figure of receipts set against it for the first two years. In the Easter term of 1532 there appears on the expenditure side 'Item, to Mr joy for procuring a writt against the parson1 of Thyrlow v s> . In the same book, amongst the receipts for the year 24 Henry VIII (1533), we discover the three amounts: It. recevyed of the vicare of thyrlow the ward \ . ...a....,, 1 uu and arbitrament for lumberds wood/ It. — — — — — — vi xiiis iiiid It. resayved for pentions and interest xlix8 iiiid From these it would appear that, though deprived for the future of the rent and other cash proceeds of the 'farm', the college had been able to establish before arbitrators its title to liquidated damages for the cessation of the payments to it in kind, while the third amount may represent payment of the rent down to a fixed date, long past. Henceforth Thurlow disappears from the account books of the college and is not shewn in the return of commissioners appointed by Henry VIII in the 37th year of his reign (Documents, i, 200 sqq.). All traces of the hospital, even also of its site, have disappeared, and the references of sixteenth and seventeenth century antiquaries, while slender enough in regard to the institution, do nothing to satisfy our curiosity concerning the situation of the building and its material remains in their day. TOTNES PRIORY2 was a small Benedictine house in the diocese of Exeter. It was conventual, and owed forty shillings per annum to the abbey of SS. Sergius and Bacchus of Angers, which sum was granted to Godshouse in 1442. The house survived until the Dissolution, and in i486 (27 October) 'the alien prior and convent of the alien priory of Totton alias Totteneys', Devon, were formally ordered by the king to pay to 'Goddishous' College a certain rent or tribute.3 In Valor Ecclesiasticus it is shewn as paying forty shillings per annum to 'the college of the lord King in Cambridge called Gods Howse'.* 1 2

A very early use of this word for one who was not a rector. 4 Cf. supra, p. 53. 3 Campbell, ii, 47. Valor Eales. ii, 367.

417

(b) THE RECTORIES AND ADVOWSONS OF CHURCHES HELD BY GODSHOUSE The churches held by the college also contributed, directly or indirectly, to its revenues. Thus, the rectory of Fendrayton was held by the Proctor, and its income was so large as to relieve the college of the necessity to provide him with any stipend, though he would doubtless receive commons. 1 Since they added to these resources of the college, it seems necessary to include the churches in any account of the revenues, but they are all grouped together here apart from the less homogeneous sources. THE RECTORY OF FENDRAYTON Cf. supra, pp. 80, 103 sq., 174 sq., 179 sqq. The earliest reference which has been found to this parish church is undated but it should be placed in, or very soon after, the year 1184. In that year, 23 June, Alain Illvicomtede Rohan founded the Cistercian abbey of Bon Repos (Bona Requies) in Brittany, amongst its endowments being the churches of Fulbourn, Costessey, Bamburgh and Honingham.2 A separate charter of dotation from the same donor gives the church of Fendrayton in the diocese of Ely to the abbey but this is not even referred to by Lobineau,^ nor by Morice,4 which is not indeed surprising, since these writers made their collections in the eighteenth century while the charter giving the church of Fendrayton to Bon Repos has lain in the possession of Christ's College since the fifteenth century, and is still to be found in the muniment room;5 it retains the seal of Alain, a much finer example than the one illustrated by Lobineau and by Morice, No. XDC of their plates. The church of Fendrayton was farmed by the abbot and convent of Bon Repos to the abbot of St Sergius of Angers, who enjoyed it through their local representative the so-called prior 6 of Swavesey; the arrangement was a convenient one, since the parish of Swavesey lay alongside that of Fen1

This arrangement is definitely provided with regard to Syclyng in the Lady Margaret statutes (ch. EX) and if the college, after the large addition of her bounty, was so relieved, we must suppose diat the Proctor would not be a greater burden upon it in its Godshouse days. 1 Charter of Foundation; Lobineau (Gui Alexis), Histoire ie Bretagne, ii, 157 sqq. 3 Op. cit. 4 Pierre H. Morice, Preuves a VHistoire EccUs. et Civ. de Bretagne, i, 697 sq. 5 Chr. Fend. 1. 6 There never was a conventual priory of Swavesey. The brother of St Sergius sent from France to serve the parish church and to watch over that monastery's possessions was styled prior locally, and by courtesy in some royal documents. Cf. supra, p. 402. IHC 27

418

APPENDIX C

drayton. It would appear that the rights of Alain of Rohan in Fendrayton church were not complete since one Ansell, and Ingrithe his wife, released in 1198 to the prior etc. of Swavesey their claim to the advowson of the church of Fendrinton [sic].1 The story is not continuous, but before long the local curators of the interests of the Cistercian abbey of Bon Repos are found to be the sister house of that order, the abbey of Sawtry. In 1232 the church was vacant and William de Godesdon, clerk of Stephen de Sedgrave, was presented by letters patent, the right of presentation belonging at that moment to the king.2 Again in that reign, Richard de Ouere was presented, this time by the abbot of Bon Repos, 3 and, also in the reign of Henry III, John de Creyk was presented by Laurence, abbot of Sawtry, as proctor of the abbot of Bon Repos,4 who early in Edward I's reign (1278) had to meet an attempt of the abbot of St Sergius of Angers and the prior of Swavesey to recover their interest. The ultimate issue to that litigation was to establish the rights of Bon Repos.5 The dispute was finally settled by a fine between Ralph, abbot de Bona requie, acting through Adam, abbot of Sawtry, and Hamelin, abbot of St Sergius, acting through Nicholas le Porter, of the advowson of the church of Fendrayton.6 In the reign of Edward I Philip de Lacy,? in that of Edward II (between 1310 and 1316) John de Crek 8 and Walter de Dodyngton, were presented by abbot Richard of Sawtry acting, as the court of Common Bench held, in each case as the proctor of Bon Repos.' Walter was the son of Gervase de Dodyngton; he was rector of Fendrayton in 1327, when he was accused with others of assault,10 and is mentioned in a matter of executorship in 1340." At some time during his incumbency, Walter gave to the church a portiforium in two volumes, which was found still there in the inventory taken between 1365-90." He died in 134313 and his death was the occasion of a bold-faced attempt on the part of the abbot and convent of Sawtry to lay claim to the advowson as against the king to whom the right of presentation had passed 1 Pedes Finium, ed. by Walter Rye (C.A.S. Oct. publ. xxvi (1891), p. 2, No. 19; William Farrer, Feudal Cambridgeshire, p. 39 sq. 2 C.P.R. 1225-32, p. 464. The name of the church is Drayton but the association of the de Sedgrave family seems to point definitely to Fendrayton, as they held land there in 1279, 1284-6 and in 1316. 3 Chr. Fend. 2. 4 Year Book 17/18 Ed. Ill, 271/3 (note). 6 5 Rot. Parl. i, 12. Pedes Finium, ed. by Walter Rye, p. 51 sq. 7 Styled John de Lacy in the order of court of 11 R. II. 8 There does not appear to be confusion here with the John de Creyk of Henry Ill's reign. 9 Year Book 17/18 Ed. HI, p. 273 (note). 10 23 April, C.P.R. 1327-30, p. 151. 11 Crosby, citing Montacute's Reg. February 1340. I3 " Vetus Liber, p. 135. Year Book 17/18 Ed. HI, p. 268.

RECTORIES AND ADVOWSONS

419

in virtue of the lands of the religious of the power of France being in his hands because of the war.1 During Walter of Dodyngton's incumbency, apparently in 1338, the king had taken into his own hands the lands, rents and other possessions in England of the religious houses 'of all the power of the King or France', with whom he was then at war, and under this ordinance the Exchequer had laid hands upon the yearly 'farm' of sixty marks payable by the abbot and convent of Sawtry for the churches of Fulbourn All Saints, Cambridgeshire, and Honingham, with a pension out of the church of Costessey, both the latter in Norfolk, a few miles west-north-west of Norwich. Whereupon the abbot of Bon Repos represented to the king that his house was not in the power of France but in the duchy of Brittany* [with which the king was not then at war] and besought him to provide a remedy. The king having learned from trustworthy testimony that the abbot of Bon Repos and his house were of the duchy of Brittany issued an order to the treasurer and the barons of the Exchequer to supersede the demand made upon the abbot of Sawtry in respect of the 'farm' of sixty marks and its arrears.3 There is no mention here of Fendrayton, but Tanner 4 (quoted in Monasticon, vol. v, in the note on p. 521, under Sawtry) adds Fendrayton to the other churches named as amongst those out of which the sixty marks were payable by Sawtry to Bon Repos, giving this very close roll entry for his authority. In view of the claim immediately thereafter set up by Sawtry to the advowson of Fendrayton it is necessary to correct Tanner's error. Following the death of Walter of Dodyngton the king presented his clerk, John Elys of Hilton,* and the abbot of Sawtry prevented his institution by obtaining under pretext an inhibition from the court of Canterbury directed to S[imon de Montacute] bishop of Ely as diocesan, against his admission. The pretext was that the advowson lay in the abbot and convent of Sawtry in their own right, and did not come under the statute vesting the lands of alien religious in the king's hands. The inhibition from the court of the archbishop of Canterbury was immediately countered by a writ of quare impedit in the court of Common Pleas, where the matter was argued at length, the effective issue being whether in their presentations in the reigns of Henry HI, Edward I and Edward II, which were not denied, being certified by the bishop of Ely, the abbot and convent of Sawtry had presented as in their own right or as the procurators of Bon Repos. The case is worth reading in 1 2

28 June 1343, C.P.R. 1343-5, P- 45-

Cf. C.P.R. 1340-3, p. 73 (10 December 1340). 3 C.C.R. 1339-41, p. 429 (6 July 1340). 4 Not. Mon. p. 194. 5 C.P.R. 1343-5, p. 45, repeated p. 106. By this time, 1343, the area of war had been extended into Brittany, cf. C.P.R. 1343-5, p. 212 (15 February 1344) and Foedera, vol. n, ii, 1242 (23 December 1343). 27-2

420

APPENDIX

C

1

full; it is sufficient here to say that the court held that Sawtry had presented in the right of Bon Repos and therefore judgement went to the king. The abbot of Sawtry was not content to accept defeat in the court of Common Pleas, but sought for long to obtain by other proceedings support for his fraudulent claim. Mandates for the arrest of various persons taking proceedings in derogation of the judgement of the court were issued by letters patent on 25 November 1343,2 and on 20 December of the same year.3 Eighteen months later, 1 April 1345,4 Sawtry was still endeavouring to upset the judgement, for on that date orders to arrest agents of the abbot were issued to the king's serjeant-at-arms, William de Welham, and others including one John Salkyn of Dover, with instructions to bring them before the Chancellor and others of the council with any bulls and processes in their possession to receive judgement. The steps then taken seem to have put an end to the unlawful proceedings, since the matter does not appear later in the patent rolls. The litigious abbot of Sawtry was, beyond question, seeking the support of the court of Rome and, inter alia, the inclusion ofJohn Salkyn of Dover amongst those ordered to make arrest is significant in that connection. The king's clerk, John Elys of Hilton, notwithstanding these strenuous efforts to prevent his institution, enjoyed the rectory for several years, but he was seeking a change of scene in 1355. Crosby 5 cites Newcourt (ii, 67) for placing in the rectory of Fendrayton one John de Waltham in May of that year6 but, as John de Waltham was presented by the king to Cortenhale in the diocese of Lichfield, 16 June I355,7 it is not likely that he was instituted to Fendrayton. And in fact John Elys de Hilton was there until 24 November 1356, when the king presented John de Lenne, parson of the church of Haverhill, diocese of Norwich, to Fendrayton, on an exchange of benefices with John de Hilton.8 The king presented, 28 January 1357, William Albon,' who was still in the rectory of Fendrayton when he exchanged benefices with William Croucher, warden of the chapel of Totehull, diocese of London,10 1 March 13 71. William Croucher's estate as parson of the church of Fendrayton was ratified 4 July 1373," and the date of his departure is not known. On 9 July 1376, however, William Tamworth, parson of the church of Fendrayton, is accused with others by the countess of Norfolk of trespass and poaching.1* It is to be borne in mind that William Croucher may be the same 1

Year Book 17/18 Ed. HI, pp. 266-78. C.P.R. 1343-5, p. 178. 4 3 Ibid. p. 185. Ibid. p. 503. 6 5 Sub Fendrayton. Cf. also C.P.R. 1354-8, p. 222. 7 8 Ibid. p. 245. Ibid. p. 475. 10 9 Ibid. p. 503. C.P.R. 1370-4, p. 5511 Ibid. p. 300. " C.P.R. 1374-7, p- 32<5. 2

RECTORIES AND ADVOWSONS

421

person as William Tamworth (William Croucher de Tamworth), just as John Elys and John de Hilton (above) are one and the same person. There is no authority for a successor to William Tamworth until the year 1399, but there is the possibility that the church became vacant in 1378 and again in 1388. In the earlier of those two years the abbot and convent of Sawtry brought an action in the court of Common Pleas to assert their right to the advowson of Fendrayton as against the abbot and convent of Bon Repos. They got judgement in their favour in circumstances which there is no room to discuss here; the matter is mentioned simply as tending to shew that a new rector was appointed in 1378, for it must be supposed that only upon a vacancy would legal action be taken. Ten years later, 12 March 1388, the abbot and convent of Sawtry obtained from the Chancery an exemplification of the record and process of this suit under the great seal and it is natural to suppose that this was required for production to the bishop when institution was sought for the clerk whom the abbot and convent presented following anothervacancy. We may assume therefore that the church was vacant in 1388. These two possible presentations come to our knowledge from the above-mentioned exemplification which, with a fine example of the great seal attached, remains in the college muniment room. 1 There is nothing to suggest the name of the presentee of 1378 but the rector of 1388 may have been John Smyth. The name of Dominus John Smyth as rector of Fendrayton occurs incidentally in September 1399 as the person charged with the duty of inducting to the church of Conington.* The connection of these two churches 535 years ago in the persons of their priests has some little interest in view of the amalgamation of the two benefices in the year 1934. King Henry IV presented John Love to Fendrayton 9 February 1413,3 the living, referred to as of Bon Repos, being in his hands owing to the war; this occupancy was a brief one, as Henry V on 3 December 1413 * presented John Rodbourne. He was succeeded by John Gryme, LL.B., at some period before 1424, since on 20 November of that year Henry VI presented John Otryngham,5 vicar of Tyryngton in the diocese of Norwich, to the church of Fendrayton on an exchange with John Gryme, warden of the hostel or free chapel of Armeston in the diocese of Lincoln;6 Otryngham was instituted 3 December 1424.7 The next rector whose name is found is Robert Melton of Godshouse, but 1

Chr. Fend. 2. * Crosby, citing Ely, Fordham, f. 64 b. 3 C.P.R. 1408-13, p. 462. • C.P.R. 1413-16, p. 140. 5 Otryngton is also found, but the correct form seems to be Otryngham; he was the famous Master of Michaelhouse. 6 C.P.R. 1422-9, p. 236. 7 Crosby, citing Archbishop Chichele, f. 253 a.

422

APPENDIX

C

as his presentation and institution have escaped discovery until now it is not possible to say with certainty whether he followed immediately after Otryngham (as is probable) or if another or more intervened. Melton was one of the original fellows of Godshouse appointed by the king under the charter of 16 April 1448, and his presentation to Fendrayton must be subsequent to that date. He was rector there in 1472,1 but he resigned in order to make room for Basset, the Proctor of Godshouse, who surrendered to him the rectory of Helpston, 10 February 1476.* William Basset, S.T.B., became rector of Fendrayton in virtue of his headship of Godshouse, 10 February 1476,3 and he probably made this arrangement with Melton in order to defeat another effort of the abbot and convent of Sawtry to capture the advowson (if not to appropriate the church) of Fendrayton for themselves. Sawtry sought to achieve this by granting sundry churches, including Fendrayton, to Thomas Jenney for life, the grant4 bearing date 12 December 1475, two months before the Proctor of Godshouse clothed himself with his special prerogative, the rectory of Fendrayton. Sawtry's efforts failed with regard to Fendrayton, and the same ill-success attended their designs upon the other churches which they purported to grant to Jenney since none of them is recorded as belonging to Sawtry amongst the returns in Valor Ecclesiasticus.

William Basset was a pluralist, for on 1 June i486 he was inducted to the rectory of Boxworth.S which he held until his death in 1495. John Sydyng, M.A., Proctor of Godshouse, was instituted to the rectory of Fendrayton in succession to Basset 15 February 1496,6 and he held it until his death early in December 1506. Sydyng appears to have resided in part at Fendrayton, for his will makes mention of 'my feder bed the wych ys att Drayton', and to have been on friendly terms with his parishioners, to some of whom he made bequests. He mentions several members of the Thyrlbern family, a name found in the Christ's College accounts in later years as that of the 'farmer' of Fendrayton rectory. Syclyng was the last master of the college to hold the rectory in person; after his death the church was appropriated by the college, in accordance with the king's licence. The college, not its master, became the rector and the church was henceforth served by curates with occasional joumeyings thither by fellows of the college to take duty 1 2

Crosby, citing Ely, Gray, f. 85 b. Line. Reg. 21, f. 47. 3 Ely, Gray, f. 94b. 4 Chr. Fend. D. Thomas Jenney was an eminent lawyer and his brother William was a distinguished judge; they wereof a Norwich family and are frequendy mentioned in die Paston Letters, Thomas being named in Nos. 841 and 886. He is found in C.P.R. 1467-77, p. 387 (16 March 1473), and C.P.R. 1476-85, p. 171 ( n February 1480). He was on the commission of the peace for Norfolk in 1485. 5 Crosby, quoting the Archdeacon's Induction Book, £ 37. 6 Ely, Alcock, f. 108.

RECTORIES AND ADVOWSONS

423

in the absence, presumably, of the curate. Long after the College of Godshouse became known as Christ's College, the abbot and convent of Sawtry continued to offer trouble, but matters were brought to a head during the mastership of Thomas Thompson, in the 12th year of Henry VIII, when all questions in dispute between Sawtry and the college were submitted to the arbitration of Sir Humphry Conyngsby, justice of the King's Bench, and Sir Richard Broke, justice of Common Pleas. Their award is recorded in a parchment preserved in the muniment room 1 and it gives, as it could not fail to give, the church of Fendrayton wholly to the college, and it requires Sawtry to surrender to the college all the 'evidences' upon which the abbey had based its claim. There is preserved also the deed of Sawtry accepting the award, and releasing to Christ's College all right, title and interest in the advowson of the church and its tithes, etc.* It is clear beyond all possibility of doubt that the 'evidences' were surrendered, as required by the terms of the award; that is the obvious explanation of the preservation in the muniment room of the twelfth-century deed of Count Alain of Rohan giving the church of Fendrayton to his newly founded abbey of Bon Repos,3 as well as the exemplification of the judgement of the court of Common Pleas, 1 Richard II,4 above-mentioned. The arbitration dealt also with the annual payment of £6. 135. 4
Chr. Fend. F. Chr. Fend. 2.

2

Chr. Fend. H. 5 Chr. Fend. G.

3 chr. Fend. 1.

RECTORS OF FENDRAYTON Name

Date of Presentation

Patron

Cause of Vacancy

Date

William de Godesdon Richard de Ouere

22 February 1232 In reign of Henry III

John de Creyk

In reign of Henry III

Philip de Lacy

In reign of Edward I

John de Crek Walter de Dodyngton John Elys of Hilton

Between 1310 and 1316 Between 1316 and 1327 28 June 1343

John de Lenne William Albon

24 November 1356 28 January 1357

William Croucher William Tamworth

1 March 1371 The same Was described as parson 9 July 1376 Was described as rector September 1399 9 February 1413 3 December 1413 3 December 1413 The same (By act of parliament in the second year of King Henry V, i.e. in 1415, the advowson of Fendrayton was pennanently taken: Tom the abbey of Bon Repos into the king's hands for reasons of state) After 1413 Exchanged with the vicar 20 November 1424 of Tyryngton 20 November 1424. In- The king stituted 3 December (By his letters patent datec 1 3 September 1447, King ]-lenry VI gave the patrona ;e and advowson of the parish church of Fendrayton to the College of Godshouse, Cam bridge) Probably in 1454 The Proctor and fellows Exchanged fbrthe church 10 February 1476 ofHelpston, near Peterof Godshouse borough Before October 1495 10 February 1476 The Proctor and fellows Death of Godshouse

Dommws John Smyth John Love John Rodburne

John Gryme, LL.B. John Otryngham

Robert Melton, priest, fellow of Godshouse William Basset, S.T.B., fourth Proctor of Godshouse

John Sydyng, M.A., the last Proctor or Master of Godshouse and the first Master of Christ's College

15 February 1496

The king The abbot and convent ofBonRepos.Brittany Laurence, abbot of Sawtry, as proctor for the abbot of Bon Repos Richard, abbot of Sawtry, as proctor for the abbot of Bon Repos The same The same The king, the patronage being in his hands because of the war with France The same The same

The Proctor and fellows of Godshouse

Death Death Death Death 1343 Exchanged for the church 24 November 1356 of Haverhill, Suffolk

Exchanged for the wardenship of the chapel of Totehull, diocese of London

Death

1 March 1371

About 1 December 1506

426

APPENDIX C

THE PARISH CHURCH OF HELPSTON Cf. supra, pp. 61 sqq., 151 sqq. The advowson of this church was anciently possessed by the lords of the manor and in that right Sir Robert de Thorpe 1 presented in 1364. In 1373 licence was obtained by Robert's executors (who included Richard de Treton, second Master of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge) to found in the church a chantry of a warden and two other chaplains to pray perpetually for the souls of Robert de Thorpe and his relations, and to assign to the chaplains an acre of land there. Licence was given to the warden and chaplains to appropriate the church.2 In 1391, on the presentation of the executors, a rector was instituted to the 'church or chantry', and the same form was used at the next institution in 1412. In that year, however, the bishop of Lincoln issued a commission to institute to the church or chantry 'if there is a church and if there is a perpetual chantry' and, further, to enquire whether the rectory is vacant.3 Canon Foster tells the author that the return to that commission stated that the vacancy occurred through the death of the last incumbent in the rectory house, but did not deal with the question of the status of the church or chantry; furthermore, that there does not appear to be any document in the Lincoln registers by which the bishops authorised the appropriation of the church to the chantry. The institution which next followed, that to the vacancy in 1445 due to the death of the person instituted in 1412, was to the church, the words 'or chantry' having disappeared never to return. It would seem that the formal founding of a perpetual chantry of three priests never took place, although an inquisition ad quod damnum held in 1373 bears additional testimony to the intention. The acquisition by purchase of an acre of land and the advowson of the church adjoining, by Byngham and his co-feoffees, is particularly so described without any reference to a chantry, and it would appear that the words 'a chantry' found in the terms of the 1391 and 1412 institutions must have been a tribute to known intentions which may perchance have reached the stage of nominating and even supporting chaplains but never attained, possibly for lack of adequate funds, to formal foundation of a perpetual chantry. It is to be observed that in 1444 the College of Godshouse acquired the acre of land and advowson only; it did not obtain the right to appropriate. That privilege was given in the charter of Henry VII, of 1 May 1505, to the college enlarged by his mother and, in the meantime, Godshouse presented its fellows or Master as opportunity served. The consent of the bishop of 1 Chief justice Common Pleas 1356, Chancellor of England 1371, d, 1372; first Master of Pembroke Hall, benefactor to the building of the Divinity Schools and the University 'New Chapel', Cambridge, which his brother William completed. 2 C.P.R. 1370-4, p. 270. 3 Line. Reg. 14, £ 255.

RECTORIES AND ADVOWSONS

427

Lincoln and other ecclesiastical authorities which was needed for appropriation was obtained while Syclyng was Master and is recorded in a range of documents in book form, bound in crimson velvet, bearing dates in 1506 down to August of that year; the volume is at present preserved in one of the show cases in the college library. The bishop's sanction was given, as indeed was the authority of the king in his charter, subject to the sufficient endowment of a vicar. That endowment was made possible by the special bounty of the Lady Margaret; she purchased seven acres of land in Helpston, and presented them to the college, with which to enfeoff in perpetuity the vicars of Helpston. Her conveyance to the college with that obligation remains, and retains a beautiful seal impression,1 and there is found with it the deed of the college to Henry Wylson, vicar of Helpston, conveying the land to him and his successors in perpetuity. The full range of documents are those lettered Helpston, P, Q, R, S, all of them dated May 1509. Wylson was instituted to Helpston two years earlier, 16 April 1507; no cause of vacancy is mentioned in the bishop's register,2 but it is scarcely likely that it was due to the death of Robert Melton, who was instituted in 1476 and was one of the fellows of the college appointed by the charter of Henry VI in 1448. By the appropriation the college obtained the right to apply to its use the profits of the living, subject to the obligation to endow the vicarage and provide alms in charity for the poor of the parish. The earliest account book of Christ's College (1530-44) shews that the tithes, etc. were farmed and that they yielded annually during that period ^ 5 . 35. $d. ('from Mr Byrd our farmer there'); that is the amount shewn also in the return of the commissioners to Henry VIII in the 37th year of his reign.3 Over and above these direct profits the college enjoyed the presentation to the vicarage as a preferment for its fellows. A list of rectors from 1230, and of vicars from 1507, may be seen in Bridges, ii, 515 sq. Neither the rectory nor the advowson has been owned by the college for more than a century past, the sole memory of the ancient connection being certain liabilities with regard to the chancel of the church.

THE R E C T O R Y OF N A V E N B Y Cf. supra, pp. 81, 102 sq., 153 sq., 174 sq.

Navenby is in the diocese and county of Lincoln, being about eight miles to the south of the city. Of old, the rectory was in the gift of the abbot and convent of St Martin of Sagio (Sees), and from time to time, on the outbreak of war with France, was taken into the hands of the king along with 1

Chr. Help. Q, 16 May 1509.

3

Documents, i, 209.

3

Line. Reg. 23, £ 210.

428

APPENDIX C

the other English possessions of that alien house. A vacancy occurred in 1407, when Henry IV presented John Marschall,1 and on the occasion of the next vacancy he presented John Carpenter, 17 May 1412.* Carpenter seems to have held the rectory for more than forty years, and in the meantime Henry V took permanent possession of the various properties of the religious houses beyond the seas. He founded two great monasteries, with one of which we are especially concerned, the convent of Syon, granting them vast possessions out of the former belongings of the 'alien priories'. His son, Henry VI, gave the advowson of Navenby, by his charter dated 26 January 1449,3 to the College of Godshouse founded by him in the previous year. When Carpenter died, the then Proctor of the college presented Richard Burton, but the institution was blocked by a claim to present put forward by the monastery of Syon. The abbess and convent could not produce in support of their claim any evidence of a specific gift to them of the advowson, but they asserted that their founder, Henry V, had given them the manor of Arthyngton in the county of Sussex, and they maintained that the advowson of Navenby was appendant to that manor. The Proctor responded that the advowson was not appendant to any manor but was an advowson en gros which the College of Godshouse had derived by direct gift from their founder, King Henry VI,4 whose charter they could, of course, produce. There ensued the two hearings before the ecclesiastical and secular courts as already detailed,5 with the results favourable to Godshouse as there described. The college presented Richard Burton in 14566 and, circa 1458, Robert Copnaye. The next vacancy occurred with the death of Copnaye in circa 1479,7 and on that occasion the presentee of Syon, Thomas Breton, was instituted.8 There is no evidence that Godshouse accepted this defeat as more than temporary, and what may be an echo of the dispute has been found in an external source. In the Inspeximus and confirmation of Henry VII, 7 July i486, of various grants to Elizabeth, the abbess, and the convent of Syon, including inter alia the advowson of Navenby, there is reserved 'however, to the King's subjects all title they may have in the possessions of the aforesaid monastery'.' The victory of Syon was a sore grievance to Godshouse, for the living was a valuable preferment whose loss entailed hardship; moreover, it was confirmed to them by Henry VII in his charter of 25 October i486 10 (as also by Richard in 1484)," and all the charters from that of Edward IV in 1468 1

3 5 7 9

11

C.P.R. 1405-8, p. 311. Chr. Gh. 9. Supra, p. 153 sq. Line. Reg. 21, f. 22 d. Campbell, i, 484 sqq. Chr. Mon. G.

* C.P.R. 1408-13, p. 397. 4 Chr. Nav. aA, N. Line. Reg. 20, ff. 125 c!, 173 d. 8 Ibid. 10 Conf. Roll. 2 H. VH, i, 15. 6

RECTORIES AND ADVOWSONS

429

had given licence to appropriate. The grievance forms the burden of a complaint addressed to the Lady Margaret, circa 1504, 'the vowson of the Church of Nanby in the Counte of Lyncolne which the abbas and covent of Syon withholdyth from the seid Master'.1 The first sign of action taken by the countess seems to be reflected in instructions to Syclyng, to send the college 'evidences' to Mr Soper, the countess's solicitor, which he appears to have carried out on 31 January 1506; other documents were sent t o ' Mr Conysbie'* (knight and justice of the King's Bench in 1509). As was the countess's practice, arbitration was preferred by her to litigation and the dispute was referred to Sir John Fyneux, chiefjustice of the King's Bench, and Sir Robert Reede, chief justice of Common Pleas. They made award 28 November 1508,3 in which they declared that the college shall not 'impropere' but shall nominate three or two persons to the abbess and convent within four months of a vacancy, of whom the abbess and convent shall appoint one within twenty days. The abbess and convent shall covenant (1) that forty shillings shall be paid out of the rectory to the college by all subsequent rectors in perpetuity and to require, so far as it is in their power to obtain, the same from the present rector; (2) to obtain the licence of the bishop of Lincoln and the chapter thereof for the issue of the grant out of the rectory. The covenants were observed to the full and the award became effective, as the documents still preserved amongst the muniments, Navenby C, D, E, F, G, all dated in March 1509, bear witness. Sir William Treton, presentee of Syon, was then rector; he resigned in 1513 and Edward Fowke, on the nomination of Christ's College, was presented by Syon and instituted 6 October 1513.4 The pension of forty shillings out of the rectory of Navenby, no more no less, still belongs to the college; the abbess and convent also took forty shillings per annum.5 It is not known what happened to the Syon pension after the Dissolution save that it did not accrue to Godshouse and it is well to record these two entirely different payments of the same amount lest at some future time they should be regarded as one and the same. Although the profit out of the rectory to the college was so small, and a poor set-off to the right to 'impropere' which they surrendered, it was no small gain to obtain the right to present for all time. The assessable value of the living in 1526 is known from the following record: Nawnby. Mag. Edward Folke rec. daro [Apart from which his curate had] Dom. Nicholaus Bennet. cur. 1

xvJ. iijs. iiiji. vZ. vjs. viiji.6

Chr. Gh. Aq. * Chr. Misc. D. 4 3 Chr. Nav. C. Line. Reg. 23, £ 147. 5 Valor Eccks. iv, 126, i, 425; Valor styles the college Corp. Xfl. 6 H. Salter, A Subsidy collected in the Diocese of Lincoln in 1526, p. 75.

Appendix D THE FINANCIAL POSITION OF THE COLLEGE AT THE DEATH OF THE LADY MARGARET An interesting document of 1509 yielding authoritative information on this subject has been discovered amongst the manuscripts preserved in the Bodleian Library; the reference it bears there is Cambridgeshire Charters, No. 39, and the short particulars given of it by Mr Madan in Notes on BodleianManuscripts relating to Cambridge,1 p. 31, are 'Christ's College, Roll of receipts and expenditure, 1508-9'. There is no duplicate found in the muniment room of the college, and the writer is under obligation to Dr W . M. Palmer for providing him with a rotograph of the beautifully written original. The document is on paper and measures about 350 X 250 mm., being of similar size to others of about the same period relating to arrears, etc. which are preserved in the muniment room of the college; it is written in abbreviated Latin and a rough translation preserving all the figures and other essentials is here given. It must be noted that we are not dealing with an end-of-year statement of actual receipts and actual expenditure; nor are we confronted with one of those half-yearly statements of account which it was the Master's duty to present to the fellows for audit, of which many have been transcribed in the foregoing pages. This document presents a statement for the complete year ending at Michaelmas 1509 of the aggregate annual values of all lordships, manors, lands and tenements belonging to the college (without regard to the question of whether they have been received or remain in whole or in part in arrear), and of all outgoings to be taken therefrom in respect of those upon the foundation, Master, fellows, scholars and servants, their stipends, commons and clothing. It presents, in short, the endowment income due to the college and all those charges for 'exhibicion and fynding', as the foundress expresses it in her will, for which the income from endowment was specially and primarily liable. As a statement it is necessarily hypothetical. The income would in the main be received, though not all in the year in which it fell due, since there are unavoidable delays, leading to arrears, in the payment of moneys due from property; broadly speaking, however, what failed to be received in one year would come to hand in subsequent years. Indeed, the income might be expected to exceed substantially the sum set down in the statement, for the details of which it was composed were conventional, not necessarily true, 1

C.A.S. Oct. publ. No. lii, 1931.

FINANCIAL POSITION OF THE COLLEGE The sum total of the value of all and" singular die lordships, manors, lands Christ's Coland tenements appertaining to the col- ,£ s. d. lege widiin the lege aforesaid as well of die new as of f250 1 1 9 viz.University of die old foundation for one complete Cambridge year ending at Michaelmas of die first year of die reign of King Henry VM < Commons of the master and 12 fellows | s. d. at die rate of 12J. each per week, f33 16 o namely, per annum . . . J Commons of 47 scholars at die rate of 1 5 8 "jd. each per week, namely, per annum/ Commons of the master's servant, onel manciple, 2 cooks at die rate of jd. J- 6 1 4 each per week, namely, per annum .J In increase of the commons of the aforesaid master and 12 fellows in 30 120 days of pittance at die rate of 2
£64. 95.

431

New foundation 218 6 5 Old foundation 32 5 4

15 6"

186 2 2

6 8J

432

APPENDIX D

values and moreover, as we have shewn in previous pages, the receipts were enlarged by fines, sales of wood and like sources of increase. Taking everything into account, we may reasonably assume that any permanent loss suffered from bad debts would be off-set by receipts from windfalls such as fines, heriots and sales of wood, and we are entitled to view the estimated sum of ^250, set down in the statement, as being one likely to be justified in the result. The outgoings on the other hand would certainly be smaller than stated, for not all the fellows nor all the scholars would be in residence during the whole of the year. The private affairs of some would bring breaks in continuity of residence; it is provided in the statutes that in such cases commons should not be payable, and the account books of thirty to fifty years later give evidence that the provision was faithfully observed, with the result that aggregate actual payments for commons fall well below the maximum. Again, vacancies created by death in the ranks of those on the foundation could not be filled without delay and a consequent diminution in the year's charge for stipend (in the case of a fellow) and of commons in the cases of both fellow and scholar. With these observations, we may now view the figures of the statement, when the most outstanding and challenging is found in the large sum of ^ 6 4 remaining as a surplus. This would be available for other purposes, such as maintenance of chapel services, maintenance and repair of buildings, legal charges (a large and constant drain in the sixteenth century) and miscellaneous expenses. Of the details of outgoings nothing further need be said, since the figures are self-explanatory, but the income of ,£250. 115. 9J. calls for attention. That sum is conveniently divided for us into two unequal parts of a most interesting character; it is shewn as arising in part (,£218. 6s. $d.) from the new foundation, in part (,£32. 55. 4*/.) from the oldfoundation, and this division probably gives us the clue to the occasion and purpose of the document, a parallel to which is not found at any later date. The new foundation is those sources of enlarged income provided by the Lady Margaret under the licence granted by Henry VII, the old foundation relates to the endowments derived from benefactors and founders of the college while it was still known as Godshouse. In actual fact the incomes from the two sources were merged, following the licence of 1505, into one common sum for one common purpose, just as were the buildings of Godshouse into those added by the foundress. As soon as the statutes had received the formal assent of Syclyng and the three 'old fellows' everything became Christ's, and the only trace of the old foundation, surviving for a time not only in colloquial but also in literary and formal use, was the style 'Christ's College lately known as Godshouse'. For this resurrection of the old foundation three years after the transformation

FINANCIAL POSITION OF THE COLLEGE 433 it seems natural to seek a cause, and nothing can be more reasonable than to discover it in the fact of the death of the Lady Margaret, which occurred on 29 June 1509. Her executors found that her work upon the college buildings remained unfinished and we know from their accounts that they had to lay money out upon them until the year 1511. Careful men, handling an enormous estate, varied in kind and wide in distribution, they would need to be furnished with full information relating to the institution so handsomely benefited by the testator; we may not be far astray in assuming that the unparalleled document we are considering was meant to supply a link in the chain of information they required. It might indeed seem to be a direct outcome of the instructions given by the foundress to her executors in her will, from which the following words are extracted: 'And also we specially desire and requyre our executors, and every of them, that they, according to the confidence and truste that we have putt in them, and in every of them,...see and cause the maister and scolers of the said college called Crist's College, to be orderid, rewlid, and governed according to our saide will, mynde, and entent, and according to the said statuts and ordinaunces'. The document has some evidence to offer as to the 'poverty stricken' position which Godshouse has had attributed to it by Dr Peile1 and others. The income from the old foundation is seen to be more than one-seventh of that additional income which the Lady Margaret had provided (^32.55.4
28

APPENDIX D

434

the rate for commons and clothing of Master, fellows and servants, and we do not know what stipends were received by the servants. If we assume that the college provided commons and clothing for its Master and fellows at the same rate as in Christ's, and if we give the manciple and cook stipend and commons at the rate provided in Christ's, we shall avoid any danger of weighting the evidence in favour of the old foundation, and we shall have a basis which, when combined with such actual figures as are derived from the Godshouse statutes, cannot depart greatly from the complete facts if they had been fully known to us. We obtain this result: Income from lordships, manors, lands and tenements (as pro-\ £ s. d. vided by the Bodleian document) J32 5 4

£'•

d.

Commons of Master (as in Christ's) 2 12 o~\ Commons of 4 fellows at the rate otud. per week\ 0 (as in Christ's') per annum jio 8 o Commons of manciple and cook at id. per week\

Outgoings -

(as in Christ's) per annum Stipend of Master,1 as provided by the statutes Stipend of ireader,3 as provided by the statutes Stipends of manciple and cook (as in Christ's) Clothing of Master (as in Christ's) . Clothing of 4 fellows (as in Christ's) The remaining surplus being

/

o o 13 13 1 o 2 13

26 o 8

6 4 8

The definite figures provided by the Bodleian document are useful in enabling us to check statements made to the effect that the incomes of Cambridge fellows were of distinctly smaller value than is here shewn. Thus, W. H. Woodward, in the Cambridge History of English Literature, iii, 429, says that the colleges tended to suffer by the competition of the new schools; his words are: 'As a Cambridge fellow rarely received so much as £6, including his allowance for commons, the new schools tended to attract promising material to their staff'. The document shews however that a fellow of Christ's, as early as 1509, had £6. 17s. od., being

£ for for for for

stipend clothing commons pittance

s.d.

3 6 13 2 12 5

8 4 o o

6 17 o 1

In 1451, that important fellow die reader or lecturer had no more than ioi. per week, and his co-fellows cannot have received more for he was definitely their senior; the first whose name is known held the office for more than twenty years. 1 He had in addition the rectory of Fendrayton worth above £12 per annum, 3 He was the only fellow who received a stipend.

FINANCIAL POSITION OF THE COLLEGE 435 There is no reason to suppose that Christ's men were treated with any exceptional generosity; on the contrary, at Peterhouse in 1510 commons amounted to ^ 3 . 05. Sd., and at Corpus to £3. 9s. 4
Published by John Strypc, Annals (1724 ed.), iii, 439 sq. * Twelve as the coefficient for 1580 is based upon material provided by the college accounts, and it has not been raised to a larger number as it well might be in consideration of the present shorter working day. 3 Cf. Peile, p. 21 sq. 28-2

Appendix E THE COUNCIL IN THE MARCHES OF WALES: DOCUMENTS FROM THE REIGN OF HENRY VII FOUND IN THE COLLEGE Cf. supra, pp. 78 sq., 254 sq. ' The scantiness of the material for the early history of the Council in the Marches prevents any detailed description of its procedure before the reign of Henry VIII', 1 and where so little remains in the aggregate it seems to be a duty to present whatever additional matter may come to light. The prince's council had existed ever since the time of the first Prince of Wales 2 but our knowledge of its history before the reign of the first Tudor monarch is singularly slight. Its primary function was concerned with the administration of the prince's estates, but such duties, in a disturbed area controlled by an unwelcome, alien authority, must have involved the exercise of judicial functions in very large measure. The prince's council had jurisdiction ordinarily within the principality alone, but that limitation should not be taken too literally. The area of the principality had extension eastward in the middle ages beyond that which it possesses in modern times, and it was liable to important fluctuations due to expansion and contraction following alternating failure and success of the Welsh in revolt under popular leadership, of which ample illustration may be found in the volumes of Rotuji Parliamentorum and The Statutes of the Realm. Thus, the estates where the college suffered the injury and damage which gave rise to the complaints expressed in these documents, though lying then partly within the borders of Herefordshire, are constantly described in royal letters patent of Henry VI as lying in Wallia 3 or in North Wallia.4 Although, until the enlargement of the prince's council in the reign of Edward IV into that of the Council in the Principality of Wales and the Marches thereof,5 there was no constituted authority for the exercise of juris1 The Council in the Marches of Wales, by C. A. J. Skeel (1904), p. 217; cf. W. S. Holdsworth, History of English Law, 1922 ed., i, 117 sqq. and ch. vi for the history of the council. 2 Cf. The Statutes of Wales, Ivor Bowen (1908), p. hod. 3 P.R. 20 H. VI, iii, 16. 4 Ibid. m. 28/27, where both Wallia and Northwallia are used. In 1535 all the estates so described were brought entirely within the county of Hereford. 5 There was great variety of style in the nomenclature of the council, and die occasional use of die form 'prince's council' continued alongside those more elaborate.

THE COUNCIL IN THE MARCHES

437

diction in the marches, it is beyond question that great influence could be and was brought to bear, outside their own area and beyond their authorised functions, by persons of outstanding prestige constituting the council of the prince. In the reign of Henry VIII it was the practice of the courts at Westminster to remit causes raised before them affecting property in Wales or in the marches to the prince's council, and there would appear to have been even greater need for such devolution, if its machinery had existed, in earlier reigns. In the days of Henry VM the council was firmly in the saddle and the procedure of remission of a cause from one court to another was simple in its application to the court of the council in the marches. In the middle of the fifteenth century there was not found in the marches any court, directly or indirectly under the control of the king, to which remission could be made.1 The usual description of a lordship marcher is ubi breve regis rum currit, or ubi rex non apponit manum suam,t or, as in the concrete illustration provided by our first document, 'wher your comyn law hase no cowrs'. In such circumstances the complainant, having no remedy in law, was driven to seek aid from those whose personal authority was sufficiently powerful to demand on his behalf such satisfaction of the dictates of right and conscience as would be obtainable, at least in principle, in other parts of the realm. Though the history of the college provides no instance where such application was made to leading members of the prince's council, it does afford examples of appeal for support of that kind not only to the king in council, an example of which we shall shortly see, but also to Richard, duke of York, father of Edward IV, Katherine, duchess of Norfolk, widow of the second duke, and her son John Mowbray, third duke, as has been set forth in earlier pages.3 The documents to which this note relates are all written upon paper; in every case save one they have been torn into two or more parts, otherwise mutilated and cast aside amongst a multitude of pieces from other documents, related and unrelated. Since their discovery recently they have been carefully examined, sorted and assembled, the reconstruction yielding four separate documents so far as affects this particular matter. Further fragments provided interesting documents dealing with other concerns of the college and its founder; but there were still more, some of them clearly relating to actions in the court of the prince's council, which it was not possible effectively to restore. Where pieces were missing, and the words lacking could be supplied with reasonable certainty, they have been added within square brackets; wherever there was doubt, the spaces have been left blank. The first document here transcribed has been referred to already; 4 it stands 1

Cf. Holds-worth, op. cit. i, 121. 3 Supra, pp. 57 sq., 77 sq., 154.

* Skeel, op. cit. p. 7, quoting Eyton. Supra, p. 78 sq.

4

438

APPENDIX E

apart from the rest, both in time and in the fact that it is not connected with proceedings before the court of the council of the prince. The reason for its inclusion here is two-fold: firstly, it concerns the same estate as do those which were addressed directly to the prince's council and it relates a similar grievance; secondly, it seems to provide an admirable illustration of the kind of remedy which had to be sought by complainants in the days before the jurisdiction of the prince's council was extended to embrace the area of the marches. The date is not found in that portion of the document which remains but the year is fixed by the mention of Sir Walter Dewrose (Devereux), who was sheriff of Herefordshire from 9 November 1447 until 9 November 1448. Since Byngham speaks of himself as Proctor of the college by the king's highness founded a date is indicated subsequent to 16 April 1448 (the date of the royal charter of foundation). Two fragments on paper.1 To the Kyng [oure] soveragne lorde [Besecheth mjekle your pouer prest and dayle bedman Willia[m Byjngham Whome ye have ordeyned and made procutour of your pouer College [ecalled] godeshouse and the scolers of the same in Cambrige ther now lateward in your univ[site by] your gracyouse hieghnese erect and fowndede for drawyng forth of maystres of gramer to thendowyng Whereof ye have grawn[ted am]ong other smale parcels the priory alieyn of Crassewell in Walles Wher your comyn law base no cowrs nor your sayd besechers any acoyntance Of [the wi]ch priory som parcels ben ocupied by ryetowse men witowte profeite to yowr sayd College and also bulles Charters dedes and other munymenfts djrawn from the sayd priory and withholden as now by a man of lawe calde plese your grace for to do writ and adrese your lettres un to sir Walter Dewrose 2 Walles willyng theym for to do and to shew fauoure gud wile and assistence [ ]pyng of the ryght perteynyng to the forsayd priory And also to the sayd delyuerey to your sayd besechers of the forsayd Charters and munyments with owt any at this tym for to writ your lettres at the swt and enformacyon of your sayd besechers to of the ryght and for the [ ]ren for profet of your forsayd College for the luf of god and in [The document abruptly ends]. It is to be assumed that this petition was addressed to the king in council, for it was that authority alone which might be expected to move the sheriff 1

Chr. Z 40, Z 41. Sheriff of Herefordshire 1448; his daughter Anne married William Herbert, first earl of Pembroke of that family. (Lewys Dwnn, Heraldic Visitations of Wales, ed. S. R. Meyrick for the Welsh MSS. Soc. i, 293, n.2.) His son Walter became Lord Ferrers of Chartley, from whom descended the viscounts of Hereford, earls of Essex. 2

THE COUNCIL-IN THE MARCHES

439

of an English county in a matter standing outside his jurisdiction. Moreover, this was a remedy with which William Byngham was already familiar, for he had sought it, and had received from the king in council a favourable response, in the year 1443, as has been shewn.1 There is nothing to inform us of the outcome of Byngham's petition. So far as the acts of the Privy Council might be expected to bear their testimony, it happens unfortunately that no records of the proceedings of that body remain for the year 1448 until 30 October* and, since Devereux was to vacate his office as sheriff on 9 November, it is probable that the petition was presented before the autumn. Nor is there anything remaining in the college muniment room connected with the name of Devereux, or relating to the Craswall property at that particular moment, suggesting the character of the petition's result. There are, however, 'bulks Charters dedes' concerning the foundation of the priory and the period before it came to Godshouse which might reasonably be regarded as those of whose withholding the Proctor complained, and whose presence in the muniment room of the college might be attributed to successful action ensuing from the petition. After Byngham's death in 1451 there is found no document indicative of legal or quasi-legal action concerning the college property in the marches until the mastership of John Sydyng. He found in the prince's council an instrument ready to hand by whose use he had direct approach to a court of law having authority in that country of the marches where the college property lay. The council had extension of its jurisdiction into the marches conferred upon it during the reign of Edward IV, but this was not made permanent until the reign of Henry VII; 3 the development was due in large measure to the passing into the hands of the crown during that reign of all the important marcher lordships beginning with those of the earldom of March, in 1485, on the death of Richard III. The documents of Syclyng's period are, therefore, stricdy documents addressed to or issuing from the council in the marches of Wales; they all fall, within the dates 1498-1504 and they concern properties which are described as lying within the county of Hereford. The earliest is a petition 4 addressed 'To the Prince'; it is not a draft but is the actual petition presented to the court, and it bears on the dorse the statements of the proceedings before the court, one for each of three separate days on which the parties were called to appear. Each day's report is signed by one of the commissioners, the middle one by the president, the bishop of Lincoln; the petition is without date but the sum of the debt said to be owing to the college by the tenants of 'Yarkulle' suggests the year 1498, though the evidence does not suffice to establish the date with certainty. 1

Supra, p. 57 sq. 3 Skeel, op. cit. p. 19 sq.

4

* Priv. Counc. vi, p. xxii. Chr. Gh. 7.

440

APPENDIX E

To the Prince Humbly shewen unto youre grace youre contynual Orators John Sycling maister of the Collage of Goddshowse in Cambrige being of youre foundacion with his felowes of the same That where as he and his predecessors as in the right of the said Collage have bene possessed of a dude called the ix t h shefe in a towne called Yarkulle1 in the Countie of herford for the which he and his said predecessors have been used to receive yerely vij8 of rent paied by thands of certayn fermors there which dutie hath been alweis paied unto of late that one Nicholas philpot William Bryt & Richard Atkyns refuse to content the same which afor they as fermors there have paied upon whom resteth the somme of xxxvij8 viij d due unto youre said Orators whereof the said fermors refuse to make payment contrary to right & conscience May it therefor pleas youre grace to commaunde theym by youre gracious lettres to content and pay the same dude Or ells to appere afore your noble Counsaill to shew for their discharge therof At the reverence of god. On the dorse of this plea are found the following: A lettre to content or appere the xvij day of March. Uvedale sir W.* A lettre to William Byrt to appere the fFurst day of apryll uppon payne of X/J recityng the former disobeysaunce. W . Lincoln.3 The parties appered the fFurst day of apryll and the defendaunt prayed an ayde of Roger Bodenham 4 whych was than present & agrede to entre in to the suite & the morow after to put yn hys answere. W . Grevell.5 Mr John Siding. 1 1

Now Yarkhill, about midway between Hereford and Ledbury. Sir William Uvedale, knight, 1455-1524. 3 William Smith, or Smyth, bishop of Coventry and Lichfield, 1493-6; bishop of Lincoln until his death, 2 January 1514. He was made Lord President of Wales 22 August 1501, but had already presided for some years at Prince Arthur's council; he retained the office of Lord President to the end of his life. 4 Cf. the next document. He was sheriff of Herefordshire 1487, and was placed on the commission of gaol delivery for Hereford 14 June 1502 (C.P.R. 1494-1509, p. 294). Bodenham's value to the defendants is made clear in the next document here published, wherein it appears that he held part of the tithe of which the whole was formerly of the Lacy ownership, and might therefore speak with weight in the matter of title. His experience of affairs gained in the office of sheriff and in serving on the king's commissions with the bishop of Lincoln, Uvedale and Grevyll must have made him seem a useful ally. 5 William Grevyll. He and Uvedale were on commissions of the peace, etc. (cf. C.P.R. 1494-1509, p. 295). Grevyll ceased to be on the commissions for Herefordshire after 1503/4 and attained the rank of sergeant
THE COUNCIL IN THE MARCHES

441

This is the only document of the series that was preserved intact and had its appropriate place within the muniment room press reserved for matters of the period and property it concerns. In the age to which the foregoing and the subsequent documents are to be attributed, it is probable that the court of the prince's council was not a court of record. Instructions were issued by Queen Elizabeth in 1574 that a register should be kept 1 by the clerk of the council, of all orders, decrees and proceedings, from which copies might be had by the public, and though, as Flenley suggests, that may be a reiteration of former like instructions, it is improbable that a register was kept in the reign of Henry VII, otherwise the constantly growing importance of the council's work, during the sixteenth century, would have led to a continuance without royal reminder of the practice. The inherent probability of this supposition seems to derive support from the endorsement of each day's decision, signed by a member of the court, on the back of the petition itself. At the foot of the endorsements, the document is addressed to Sydyng; there is no evidence surviving to shew the ultimate outcome of the proceedings. The next document here transcribed consists of two fragments found in the scrap-box; the petition is without date and it has not been possible to discover means whereby its year can be fixed, nor can it be said with, certainty that it is rightly placed here as following its predecessor. Two fragments on paper:* To the Prince Humbly shewen unto youre grace youre contynual Orators John Sycling Maister & Keper of the Collage of Goddeshows in Cambrige & the felowes of the same being of the foundacion of youre noble progenitor King henry the vj t o That Whereas he and his predecessors as in the right of the said Collage called Godishows stablished tyme owte of mynd sithen the foundacion thereof have be peasably possessed of a dewtie called the ix t o sherFe called Crassewall tithe that some tyme were to be perceived by the all lords both Sir Water lacye3 & afterward Sir Gilbert lacye 3 son unto the said Sir Water in Yarkill now eqally devided as in thands of the Bang's grace & of Roger justice of Common Pleas 1509; his will (1513), P.C.C. 12 Fetiplace, describes him as of Cheltenham, Gloucestershire. Margaret, his daughter and heiress, married Sir Richard Lygon of Madresfield, Worcestershire. 1 Ralph Flenley, The Register of the Council in the Marches of Wales, 1569-1591, p. 2. 2 Chr. Z 24, Z 26. Some words are interlined in a rough script; their reading is not certain. 3 Walter de Lacy, the sixth baron, was sheriff of Herefordshire, 1216-23. He founded the priory of Craswall in the reign ofJohn or that of Henry HI and presented it to the alien house of Grandmont; his charter refers to his son Gilbert (Monasticon, iv, 1035). De Lacy charters relating to the priory, with fine seals, remain in the college muniment room.

442

APPENDIX E 1

Bodenham ffor the which ix t h sheffthe said John & his predecessors have used to receive yerely of the tenaunts of the Kings parte iiijs and of the tenaunts of the said Roger Bodenham likewise yerely iiij8 unto of late that one William Bryte now tenaunte & fermor to the said Roger hath refused to pay the said iiij8 & that by the tyme & space ofvj yeres expired at Mighelmas last passed notwithstanding the seid William Bryt diverse yeres afore that paied to the said John & his attorneys the said iiijs yerely peasibly upon whom resteth now the somme of xxiiij8 for the said vj yeres due unto your seid Orators Wherfor beseching youre grace that the said Roger Bodenham & William Bryt his said tenaunt may be commaunded to appere afore youre noble Counsail there to make payment of the said dutie & that hereafter your said Orators may perceive yerely the said iiij8 onles the said Roger & his tenaunte can shew a lawful cause to the contrary thereof And this at the reverence of God & in the wey of charite &c. The remaining document of the series is not the plaint of Sydyng but is the actual order which he obtained from the court over the signatures of three of its members. It consists of two pieces into which it had been torn and, as was the case with others mentioned, was rescued from the scrap-box. Two fragments on paper:* Made at Lud[l]owe xviij*11 day of Septembre anno xx° h. seprimi Upon [a] raport by way of complaint there made unto the Kings Commissioners by John Syclyng [blank] maister of the Colleyge of Gofddeshows] in the Universety of Cambrugge That contrary to a decree by [hym] affore tyme taken at hereford oon henry ap phellip GuiUim of Crasewall in Ewyas lacy held and occupied a certain tenement [and] lands there belongyng to the said Colleyge which henry by rea[son] of the same Decree taken at hereford as above shuld ad[uoyd] thereupon and so was bounden also by obligation to have [aduoyed] hym from the possession and occupacion of the said tenements and had not so doon for the whyche cause he appered the day above specifFyed affore the said Commissioners by their commaundements and than agreed eftsone taduoyd [the] said possession And moreover the said Maister raported that divers other personnes held and occupyed other lyke tenures in the said Ewyas lacy and Crasewall without graunts or leasses contrary the mynds of the said Maister and the ffellowes of the said Colleyge paying thair Rents therfor but at their pleasurs far under a reasonable extent to the value [of] the said tenures wherein the said Maister alleygeth that the said Colleyge is preiudiced and hindred It was ordered by the said Commissioners for the reformacion of the premisses and weale of the said Colleyge that aswell the said henry above named shall furthwith aduoyd his possession of the tenements and lands so by hym lately kept and occupyed and noo further to medle therwith as all such othre personnes ther as occupye their 1

Cf. supra, p. 440.

* chr. Z 19, Z 27.

THE COUNCIL IN THE MARCHES

443

tenures in manner above recyted onles they agree with the said Maister in that behalve according to ryght and conscience And on this the said Commissioners have graunted the said Maister the prince lettres1 and theirs to be dyrected to Richard harbert* Stuard of Ewyas lacy forsaid and to henry Myle3 Stuard of the said Crasewall to gyve unto hym their lawfull assistence according to the tenoir and effect of this present ordre (Signed) W . lincoln* G. Co. et lich.5 T. Englefild6 The three signatures to this order illustrate the rule that three members of the council were required to make a quorum, and of these the president or vice-president must be one.7 In this case the signatories are the three most prominent members of the council, the president, the vice-president and Englefield ('for lerninge and discrete modest behavoor comparable with anie in the Realme'). 8 The order made at Ludlow, on 8 September 1504, refers to a decree in the same matter which had been obtained from the court of the council when sitting at Hereford. It does not follow of necessity that these were the only occasions when the matter was before the court, for the plaint upon which the Hereford decree issued may itself have been the subject of various 1

The phrase 'the prince lettres' is interesting as shewing that Henry, as Prince of Wales, took in regard to the council the place occupied by Arthur until his death in April 1502. Henry was made Prince of Wales somewhat more than a month after Arthur's death (Edward Hall's Chronicle, ed. 1809, p. 497) and is so described in letters patent of 22 June 1502 (C.P.R. 1494-1509, p. 258). Hall, indeed, speaks with two voices, the second of which declares that Henry was created Prince of Wales 18 February 1503, which is the date given in D.N.B. The patent roll reference here given, with various others later in the year 1502, seems to establish the claim for the earlier date. * Richard 'harbert' of Ewyas was an important person. He was an illegitimate son of William Herbert, first earl of Pembroke of the first creation, and the father of William, first earl of Pembroke of the second creation (who became Lord President of the council in the reign of Edward VI and again in that of Mary) and of Sir George Herbert of Swansea, both of whom died in 1570 (Lewys Dwnn, i, 292 sq.; ii, 55). 3 Sheriff of Herefordshire 1499,1508 and 1512. 4 William Smyth, or Smith, bishop of Lincoln, Lord President of the council. 5 Geoffrey Blyth, bishop of Coventry and Lichfield, 1502-33, Warden of King's Hall, Cambridge, 1498-1528. 6 Sir Thomas Englefield, member of council in 1501 and until his death at Bridgnorth, 28 September 1537 (Letters and Papers of the Reign of Henry VIII, vol. xii, pt ii, No. 770). 7 Ralph Churton, Lives of William Smyth Bishop of Lincoln and Sir Richard Sutton, p. 67. 8 State Papers, Domestic, Elizabeth, vol. cvii, No. 10; for this reference the writer is indebted to Miss Skeel.

444

APPENDIX E

adjournments; the case of the [?] 1498 document (Godshouse 7) shews how skilful defendants were then, as they have often been since, in abusing the latitude of the court in the effort to secure delay. The fact of the decree having been obtained at Hereford does not assist enquiry as to its date; the sessions in Hilary and Michaelmas terms were holden at Ludlow, but at other times at whatsoever place the commissioners thought proper,1 Hereford and Bewdley amongst them. The sitting at Ludlow on 8 September 1504 seems to have been one of the occasional sessions. The 'raport' is made by the Master of the college, presumably by his proctor, a lawyer following the court. While the immediate named defendant is one Henry ap phellip Guillim, it is clear that this is a test case by the result of which others must abide; they are referred to as being complained of by the Master under the description 'divers other personnes [who] held and occupyed other lyke tenures in the said Ewyas lacy and Crasewell' without the assent of the Master and fellows of the college. The order is made therefore not only against 'the said henry above named' but equally against 'all such othre personnes ther as occupye their tenures in manner above recyted'. It is seen that Sydyng (the Master) was not suing for an ejectment order; what he required was the payment of the rents and other dues. The defendants are ordered therefore to 'aduoyd' unless they agree with the Master according to right and conscience. It is of no little interest to observe that the court directed the letters to the stewards of Ewyas Lacy and Craswall respectively, so using the local representatives of the king in those lordships, presumably as successor to the Mortimer lordships,1 to enforce the council s orders by the weight of their personal authority. This seems to accord rather with the use of the Privy Council, when in 1443 letters were sent to the duchess of Norfolk on behalf of Byngham, and to his plea to that same authority in 1448, to use on his behalf its influence with Sir Walter Devereux, than with the practice following the act (27 Henry VIII, c. 26) which turned the marcher lordships into shire ground. With the order of 8 September 1504 this matter ended so far as concerned the court but, although the petition and the decree leading up to the order have not been preserved, it happens that there is contemporary evidence of a very speedy and, we may suppose, complete and satisfactory result following the despatch of the letters of the prince and the commissioners to the stewards 3 of the two lordships. These are not documents addressed 1

Churton, op. cit. p. 67. * Skeel, op. cit. p. 291. 3 The stewards were permanent officers of the lordships marcher, standing immediately after their respective lords in the machinery of administration; they were frequently men of much local influence. One Henry Griffidis, ouierwise Harry ap Griffith, was steward of the lordship of Ewyas Lacy, as also of three other lordships of Richard, duke of York, in 1447 (Christ's muniments, Godshouse P); he was named a commissioner for Herefordshire and the adjacent march of Wales in 1450 (C.P.R.

THE COUNCIL IN THE MARCHES

445

to or issued by the court and they are therefore not published in full. They consist of four bonds remaining in the college muniment room, of which the following summary though given already1 is repeated here: 10 September 1504, bond of ^ 1 0 from Nicholas Philpott and others to ensure payment of 45. 6d. out of Yarkhull. 15 September 1504, bond of 5 marks from Thomas Seobald to ensure payment of 205. out of Ewyas Lacy. 15 September 1504, bond of 5 marks from William ap Griffith and others to ensure payment of 165. Bd. from Ewyas Lacy. 15 September 1504, bond of ,£io from Richard ap Thomas of Peterchurch in the county of Hereford and Hugh Bygell to ensure payment of 405. These are not necessarily all the results that accrued to the college but they are all of which evidence survives. They offer proof thatjustice as administered by the council of the prince in the marches of Wales in the reign of Henry VII could be both speedy and effective. The few documents now published are what remain out of a probable large number; they were neither appreciated nor understood at some period of the past, as witness their mutilation, and some which have survived are in a condition which prevents reconstruction. The latest three of those published are contemporary with actions brought by the Master, relating to the same and neighbouring properties, in the courts Christian, in the years 1496 and 1499, in regard to matters where the remedies of the spiritual courts were more suitable. Those are outside the scope of the present note and they have, moreover, been sufficiently described.2 1446-52, p. 377). Following the forfeiture of their estates by the duke of York and Richard, earl of Warwick, Griffiths was confirmed for life by the king in his stewardship of Ewyas Lacy, with all the accustomed fees and profits, on 22 March 1460 (C.P.R. 1452-61, p. 554). It seems likely that he was the Henry ap Griffith named in a commission by Edward IV on 28 March 1465 (C.P.R. 1461-7, p. 451). By the act of 1534 (26 H. VIII, c. 6), the stewards of die lordships marcher were confirmed in dieir actual authority and placed under the control and direction of the council of die marches for die purposes of the administrative system. 1 2 Supra, p. 256. Supra, p. 254 sq.

INDEX Places and institutions in Cambridge and London have, as far as possible, been grouped under the general headings, Cambridge University, Cambridge Town and London. Aberhale, John, 387 Abot [ ], 233 Accounts, books of detailed, kept, 145,221 Godshouse, compared with university accounts of Cambridge and Oxford, 227 half-yearly, or Masters', 216, 242, 300 sq. John Hurte's, 141-4, 217 John Syclyng's, 217-20, 262-6, 333 discussed, 145-51, 215 sq., 220-7, 266-8 Easter interim, Michaelmas final, 221 Ade, Richard, 182 sq. Alain III de Rohan, 417, 418, 423 his seal, 417 Albon, William, 420 Alcock, John, bishop of Ely, 199 sq., 207, 323. 334. 349, 35i Simon, 62 Aldgate, Minoresses of, 102 Ale, John, 220, 252 Alien priories, 46 sq., 401-4, 409 sq. purchase of their possessions, 48, 403 revenues assignea as annuities, 48 sq., 53, 406, 409, 4 " denizenship of, 60, 154,177, 403, 408 compensation of mother houses, 47 sq., 403, 410 see also Chepstow, Craswall, Ikham, Monmouth, Newstead, Tomes, Ware Allt yr Ynys, 262 Alnwick, William, bishop of Norwich (1422-36), Lincoln (1436-49), 23 sqq. Alzate, Lewis de, 388 Andreux, alias Coteler, Maurice, 141 Angers, abbey of SS. Sergius and Bacchus, 416, 417, 418 Hamelin, abbot of, 418

Ansell, and Ingrithe his wife, 418 Anstie, John, 278 sq., 380 Antony, le, of London, 387 sq. Appilton, Thomas, 295 Arches, Doctors of the Court of, 231, 233. 234 Armeston, diocese of Lincoln, 421 Arondell, John, 415 Arthur, Prince of Wales, 443 n. 1 Arthyngton (Sussex), manor of, 428 Artweke, Edward, 278, 307, 308, 309, 380 Ashby St Legers, Northamptonshire, 389 Ashton (Assheton), Dr Hugh, 284 n. 1, 327 Assheby, John, 389 Atkyns, Richard, 440 Atkynson, William, 350 Audits, two great, prescribed in the statutes, 222 sq. see also Accounts Augustinian canons churches served by, 4 rule of, 81, 247 proprietas under the rule, 247 sqq. restrictions imposed by ancient statutes of the university, 246, 247 sq. see also Barnwell priory Axholme, Isle of, 396 Ayscough, William, bishop of Salisbury, 62, 97. 390 sometime fellow of Michaelhouse, 62 n. 4 cofeoffee with Byngham, 62, 64 Babington (Babyngton), Henry (John), junior proctor, 196 Vice-Chancellor, 272 Babington, SirWilliam, 205 anniversary at Clare Hall, 161 sq. Babraham, Cambridgeshire, 187, 235

INDEX

448

Bad money in the fifteenth century, 218, 227

Badew, Richard de, Chancellor of the University, 29 Badgeworth, Gloucestershire, 59, 85,141 Baker, Thomas, on contributions to the university church, 236 on foundation date of Christ's College, 302 sq.

on hospital of St John Evangelist, 81 on simultaneous fellowship at two colleges, 203 sq. on Syclyng as fellow of Corpus, 203, 310

Baldyston [Richard], 214 Bale, Council of, 47, 302 Ballard, Robert, 62, 65 Bamburgh church, Northumberland, 179 n. 3. 417 Bancha, Gabriel de la, 388 Banelyngham, castle of, 387 Barbo, Stephen, 388 Barbour.W. T., on the date of Langton's petition, 24 Barell, Thomas, 76 Barker,William, not of Godshouse, 278 Barkway, 232, 233 Barnard, Robert, 284 n. 1 Barnesley (Bernesley), John, 6 n. 2, 21 Thomas, 21 n. 1, 61 Barnwell priory, 14, 44, 246, 395, 397, 400

prior of, 214 sealing of statutes by, 134, 238, 244, 246 sqq. Scols possibly canon of, 247, 248, 250 Barton, Henry, 190 John, 190 Ralph, skinner, 190 Ralph, fifth Proctor of Godshouse, 136, 187,189-208, 215, 216, 379, 380 agreement as college lecturer, 134 sqq., 208 n. 1, 299; summarised, 134 sqq.; transcribed, 375 sqq. family, 189 sqq. president of Hurte, 163 sq., 166, 191 Syclyng his president, 208, 215 sqq. death or retirement, 208

Barton, Ralph (cont.) monumental slab, 339 casual references, 221, 253, 277, 311 Walter, 190, 202 sq., 380 William, 190 William, college tenant, 189,195, 218, 219

Barvey, 212 Basset, William, fourth Proctor of Godshouse, 171-88, 422 benefactor to the college, 188, 245 benefactor to St Catharine's Hall, 187 sq., 399 death in 1495, 188, 217, 237 sq., 245 retirement in 1477, 187 rector of Fendrayton, 103, 181, 187, 188, 217, 422 rector of Helpston, 172 sq., 181, 187, 422

wrongly described as university proctor, 121 sq., 227, 270 casual references, 154,169,193,195 sq., 215, 221, 242, 244, 277, 311, 315, 379, 380 Bassetts of Fledborough, Nottinghamshire, 171, 187 n. 5 Bateson, Miss Mary, on 'brawling' and 'bad debts,' 273 sqq. Bath, bishop of, see Bekyngton, Stafford Battle abbey, 285 n. 4, 412 Beauchamp, alias de Holt, John, 414 Beaumont, Elizabeth, 396 John, viscount, 58, 62, 63, 64, 97,151, 396 Becansall, Robert, 269 Beck, John, second Rector of Lincoln College, Oxford, 62 Beddingfielde, Robert, 212 Bedell, William, 284 n. 1 Begorde, untraced college property in the west, 263 Beilham (Baylham), tenement of, 160 Beket, Richard, 100 Robert, 99 sq. Sara, 12, 92, 98 sqq., 117 Bekyngton, Thomas, bishop of Bath and Wells, 388 Bell, John, 169

INDEX Belton,John, 157 Benefactors, commemoration of, 63 n. 1, 201 n. 3 prayers for, 12, 15,16, 30, 64 daily, 15, 71 sq., 157,184, 201 for limited period, 16, 64 early, 13 Benefield church, Northamptonshire, 171 sq. Benet,William, 82, 103, 415 Benglace, Alice, 253 Harry, 252 (Benlesse, etc.), James, fellow, 201 sq., 219, 220, 252 sq., 264, 265, 278, 380 John, 252 sq. Bennet, Nicholas, 429 Berford Holkham church, Norfolk, 179 n. 3 Bernesley, see Barnesley Bestney, Edward, 229 n. 5 Bewdley, 444 Biggleswade, Bedfordshire, 9 Bill of account, fifteenth-century bailiff's, 84 sq. Billingford chest, of Corpus Christi College, 209 of university, 209 Billinghay, Lincolnshire, 95 Bingham, family of Bingham and elsewhere in Nottinghamshire, 1, 2, 3, 4, 19, 312 Raph, 205 Richard de (diirteenth century), 3, 19 Sir Richard de (d. 1387-8), 18 Sir Richard (fifteenth-century judge), 4,205 Thomas de, Master of Pembroke Hall, 3, 17-19, 20 n. 5 benefactor of Michaelhouse, 19 de Glaston, Rutland, 4 (Bugg) de Leek, Staffordshire, 3,19,20 Bingham, family of Bingham's Melcomb, Dorset, and of Somerset, 3,17,18,19 Sir John de {temp. Henry I), 19 Sir Richard (1528-99), 19 Thomas de, sub-dean ofWells, 18 sq. IHC

449

Bingham, Nottinghamshire, 3,17,18,19 rectors of, 17,18, 312 Bingham's Melcomb, 17,18,19 Blaket, Walter, 172 Blankney, diocese of Lincoln, 153, 383 Biyth, Geoffrey, bishop of Coventry and Lichfield, 443 Bocher, James, 263, 265 Bodenham, Roger, 440, 442 Bokeland (Buckland), Johanna, early benefactor, 13, 14, 15, 16, 48, 63, 64, 386-9 Richard, 16, 386-9, 397 prayers for, 16, 64, 389 Bolton, James, prior of St Edmund (St Gilbert of Sempringham), 184 Bon Repos (Bona Requies), abbey of, 53, 80,179, 411, 417 sqq. Ralph, abbot, 418 Bonetemps, William, 415 Books in the college library, 83,127,128, 162, 197 sq., 201 sq. Borough Green (Borow), college property in, 195 sq. 'Goddyshowse Grove', 195,196 Boteler, Thomas, fellow, 182, 186, 196, 380 Boulogne, Matheus, count of, 410 n. 1 Reginald, count of, 409, 410 n. 1 Ida, countess of, 409, 410 n. 1 an earl of, 412 n. 2 Boxworth, Cambridgeshire, 187 sq., 237, 422 Bradford, Robert, 141 Bramber, Sussex, 396 Bramiche, Robert, 59, 85 heir of, 263, 264 Bray, Sir Reginald, 269 Brazen George inn, Cambridge, 84, 130, 207 Brent, Thomas, 399 Breton, Thomas, 428 Brigges,William, fellow, 278, 380 Brittany, 402 abbey of Bon Repos in, 417 sqq. duchy of, 419 Conan, duke of, 394 Broke, Sir Richard, 423 29

450

INDEX Buildings, Fittings, etc., chapel (cont.) lectern, 314, 336 sq. monuments, 314, 339 'Revestrie' presses and other fittings, 315. 317 clock, 322 n. 1 chests great chest for the money and the seal, 126, 130 sq., 314, 337; illustrated, 338 Syclyng's chests, 131, 314, 337, 339; illustrated, 338 dovehouse, 213, 276, 314, 339 sq. bequest of doves, 279 Foundress's and Master's lodgings Foundress's lodging, 198, 317 sqq., 328 sqq.; illustrated, pis. xi and xn, between 330 and 331 Master's lodgings, 249, 301, 317, 318 sq., 322 sq., 328 sqq.; destroyed turret, 329 sqq.; 'Prayer Room', 319 n. 1; 'private Lodge', 331 gateway, 197 sq., 305, 313, 332 sq., 335 sq. level of court raised, 335 sq.; illustrated, pis. vi and vm, facing 197, 276 consequent effect on great gate, 335 sq.; illustrated, 336 22 hall and kitchen, 124 sq., 197 sq., 314, mainly that of Godshouse, 314 sqq. reconsecration, 321 317 surviving side chapels on north, h'brary andmunimentroom,i97sq., 317 320 sq., 323, 329; illustrated, pi. x, plate, 128 sq., 223-6 facing 320 reader's chair, 126, 131 demolished side chapel on south, Burghley, William Cecil, lord, 261 sq., 325, 327 sq.; its doorway, 325, 435 327 sqq.; illustrated, 326 Burgoyne, Thomas, of Impington, exedoorway of 1690,331; illustrated, 332 cutor of Brokley's will, 157, 384, blocked entrance doorway, 323, 325; 385 illustrated, 324 Burne, John, 229 n. 5 Easter sepulchre, 318, 325 Bursarial duties attaching to mastership, piscina niche, 325 149 sq., 210 sq. holywater stoup and consecration Bursars, buying and selling by, 212 sqq., cross, 321; illustrated, 322 276, 277 bell and clock turret, 319, 322, 323 Burton, Richard, fellow, 154, 380, 428 bell ringing niche, 322 n. 1 Walter, 202 n. 7 ancient window glass, 315, 317, 332; Burwell, Cambridgeshire, 315 illustrated, frontispiece Bury, Godwin, prior of Ixworth, 249 sq.

Brokley, John, alderman of London, a principal benefactor, 13, 14, 16, 48, 71 sqq., 157 n. 3, 241, 383-6 anniversary in the college, 71 daily prayers for, 15, 71 sq., 300 feoffee of original site, 14, 15, 63 in Helpston contracts, 61 Brokley (later Wyfold), Katherine, 72, 384 sq. Brothers with the same baptismal name, 204 sq. Brudenell, Edward, 123, 393 Robert, 284 n. 1 Bryt (Byrt),William, 440, 442 Buckland, see Bokeland Bugg, Galfridus, de Leek, 3, 19, 20 Radulphus, 19 Bugge, original family name of Nottinghamshire Binghams, 3, 19 Buildings, Fittings and Furniture, 150 sq., 197-200, 216, 226, 276, 313-40 buttery or storeroom, 125, 197 sq. chambers Proctor's, 125 sq., 197 sq., 301, 305 fellows', 198,226, 313, 314,333 sqq.; illustrations, pi. vn, facing 226, pi. xm, facing 350 chapel, 197, 213, 226, 276-8, 306, 314-

INDEX Butler, John, 188 n. I, 237 Bygell, Hugh, 256, 445 Byllysfeld, John, 21 Byngham, William, original founder of Christ's College, chs. 1 to x passim family and arms, 1-4 confusion with the Dorset family, 3,19 date of birth, 5, 6 education, 5 rector of Carlton Curlieu, 1, 6, 7, 20 rector of St John Zachary, London, 6, 7 sqq., 21, 122 sq., 167 not a canon of Thurgarton, 4 not vicar of Granby, 4 relations with chapter of St Paul's, 6, osq. wide circle of friends, 8 - n , 13, 15-17, 82 sq., 92 sq-, 137. 395. 397. 400 executor of Robert and Sara Beket, 99 sq. legatee ofJohn Carpenter, 10 passion for advancing learning, 12, 37, 132 sqq. land acquired for his college in 1435-7, 13-15, 26 sq. dispute with John Langton, 22-34, 67 n. 4, 84, 114 sqq. petitions to the king circa 1439, 1, 35, 42, 114, 349; transcribed, 356 sq. circa 1446, 56, 66 sqq., 74, 112 sq.; transcribed, 66 sq. in 1447, 79 sqq., 413; transcribed, 80 in 1448, 78 sq., 437 sqq.; transcribed, 438 audience of the king, 56, 67, 92 'sute' in the Privy Council, 57 sq., 439 'ordainer' of Godshouse, 49, 57,94 sq., 179, 215 Proctor of Godshouse from 16 April 1448, 94 sq., 438 wrongly described as university proctor, 121 sq., 227, 270 expenditure in founding his college, 41, 47 sq., 63, 66, 68, 70 sq., 91 establishment of college reader, 131-7 intention to give statutes, 240 sq.

451

Bingham, William (cont.) influence on foundation of other colleges, 33 death and will, 123 sq., 137; transcript of will, 138 buried in StJohn Zachary, London, 137 inventories at his death, 124-31, 337 to be prayed for daily in the college, 15, 71 sq., 300

anniversary in the college, 71 wrongly styled Johannes, 15 n. 1 casual references, 151, 154, 190, 191, 208 n. 1, 215, 242, 300, 311, 379, 380, 390, 391, 392, 393, 39<S, 404, 407, 409, 426 Byrd, Mr, 'farmer' of Helpston, 427 Byrom, John, 395 Caerleon, 77, 78 Calais, 386, 387, 388, 389 Caldarone, the, of Santander, 388 Cam, its banks, 28, 213 Cambridge town and commonalty treasurers buy from bursar of Corpus Christi College, 214 n. 2 university controversies with, 230 sqq., 268-73, 282 sq. churches and parishes St Andrew, church of, 288, 306sq.; curates of, 310; parish of, 75, 207 St Benedict (Benet), church of, 307, 343; parish of, 229; rector of, 308, 309 St Botolph, church of, 390, 395, 397 St Edward, church of, 345 St Giles, church and parish of, 148, 321 n. 2 St John Baptist, chapel of, 200 n. 1 St John Zachary, church of, 8, 23, 27; parish of, 14, 29 Holy Trinity, parish of, 69 sq., 91 lanes and streets Christ's Lane, see Hangman's Lane Conduit Street, 69 sq. Green Street, 70 Hangman's Lane or Rogues' Alley, 156,181,185 n. 1,188,197, 313 Hobson Street, 5eeWalles Lane 29-2

452

INDEX

Cambridge town and commonalty, lanes Cambridge University, buildings {cont.) public schools, 27; erection of, 31 sq., and streets (cont.) Milne Street, 8,13,14,26,29,55,207, 34, 426 n. 1; royal grant for, 32; absorbed in library, 31 271, 289, 392 shortage of funds for building, Piron Lane, 14, 26, 45, 46, 62 n. 7, 32 395 organised efforts to raise money for Preacher (St Andrew's) Street or building, 31 sq., 235 sqq. Ward, 27, 71, 75, 83, 98, I9<5 sqq., 'key of the door of the University, 313 228 St Andrew's Street, 107, 197, 335 colleges St Edward's Passage, 148 Buckingham College (technically a Sidney Street, see Conduit Street hostel), 198, 246 Strawey Lane, 26 n. 3 Christ's College, see separate heading Trumpington Street, 70,91,156, 345 Clare Hall, see separate heading Walks Lane (Hobson Street), 182, Corpus Christi College, see separate 188, 249, 312, 313, 331 heading places Emmanuel College, 118, 345 Barnwell Gate, Cambridge outside, Gonville Hall, 13, 33, 214, 237 n. 6, 27,75 3i7n. 1,380; fellow commoners at, Beere, John, messuage of, 70 n. 1,91, 202 n. 9 97 sq. Gonville and Caius College, 1, 224, Christ s Pieces, 340 Coe Fen, 70 317. 327 Jesus College,200,214,323, 327,349, Conduit, the, of the Franciscans, 70 n. 1,91; public use still represented, 351 70 n. 1 King's College, see separate heading Grove Lodge, 70 n. 2 King's Hall, 13, 33, 70 n. 1, 102, Lammas Leys, 70 250 n. 1, 280, 345, 390, 411, 443 Volye Croft, 70 n. 2 n. 5; see also Druell religious houses Magdalene College, 118, 148, 327 Barnwell priory, see separate heading Michaelhouse, see separate heading Franciscans (Friars Minor, Grey Pembroke Hall, see separate heading Friars), 70, 91 Peterhouse, see separate heading Hospital of St John Evangelist, 81, Queens' College, 28, 33, 84 n. 1, 129 n. 4,2oon. 1,323,327; declared 117 sq., 198, 240, 260, 277, 280, to be a college by Henry VII, 270 323 n. 3, 327, 380, 390, 400 'Mr ffaune, bowcer,' 214 St Rhadegund, 129 n. 3,200 n. I, 323 see also Doket, Fisher, RyplyngSempringham, order of St Gilbert of, see separate heading ham White Friars or Carmelites, 23, 27 St Catharine's Hall, 33, 93, 187 sq., Cambridge University, n o , 350 214. 344, 345, 347, 380, 398 sq.; buildings see also Druell,Wodlark 'chapel of great beauty,' 32 St John's College, 28,118, 203, 224, library, 31, 228, 395; books be276 n. 2, 327 sq., 348, 350, 380; queathed, 10 n. 2, 162 see also Fisher, Shorton public church, 235 sqq., 270; comSt Nicholas and St Mary's College, mission to collect for transcribed, see King's College 377 Sidney Sussex College, 69 sq., 118

INDEX Cambridge University, colleges (cont.) Trinity College, 28, 70 n. 1, 150; acknowledgments, vii Trinity Hall, see separate heading University Hall, 28 sqq., 33; sold to the Lady Elizabeth of Clare, 29 sq. Ely, relations with see of, 39,229 sq., 231 n. 4 hostels, fundamentally different from colleges, 33, 36,119 Borden (Burdon) hostel, 119,149 Cat hostel, 22, 26, 44 sqq., 72 Crouched hostel, 24, 26 St Nicholas hostel, 27 St Paul's hostel, 214 St Thomas's hostel, 26, 44, 46 Tyled, or St Giles, hostel, 14 sq., 26, 44,45 officers Chancellor, dominus precedens, 230 functions, 117 jurisdiction, 230, 231 official seal, 244 visitor of Christ's College, 301, 435 Vice-Chancellor, precedens, 230 a deputy of the Vice-Chancellor, 239 n- 4. 274 see also Babington, Fisher, Rawson, Rudd, Ryplyngham, Smyth, Stockdale, Stoyle proctors, alternatively styled rectors, 117 accounts, 227 names of certain, 117 n. 3, 121 sq., 196, 227, 270 a deputy proctor, 228 n. 5, 269 party to agreement between Godshouse and the Lady Margaret, 287, 305 Sydyng's bequest, 307 sq. town controversies, 230 sqq., 268-73, 282 sq.

important syndicate, 272 sq., 282 sq. letterof appointment transcribed, 378 University Calendar (1796), on Godshouse, 342 current, on chronological position of Christ's College, 102

453

Cambridge University, University Calendar, current (cont.) on Masters of Clare, 65 on Masters of Christ's, 312 n. 3, 328 n. 1 on Masters of Michaeihouse, 62 n. 4, 180 n. 4 University College, proposal to found (circa 1436), 23 sqq., 28 not seriously intended, 32 sqq. dispute with Byngham, 22-34 University Hall, foundation and failure, 28 sqq. see also Colleges, Degrees Cambrige, William, prior of Barnwell, 238 Candelyn, Dr, debt and appeals, 275 sq. Canterbury, 99 inns, 99 Jury Lane, 99 Le Blakbole, 99 sq. St Mary Bredman parish, 99 archbishop of, Henry Chichele, 89, 390 John Morton, 237, 255 Mathew Parker, 148 archdeacon of, Hugh Payntwyn, 255, 267, 272 Carcolston (Colston), a home of the Binghams, 1, 3 arms in the church, 4 Carlton Curlieu rectors and rectory, 1, 7, 20 sq., 397 Carlyon, Robert, 11 n. 6, 390 Carpenter, John, 428 John, founder of City of London school, 10,137 Carsey,John, bedell (i486), 196, (1500-1), 271 Castell, Robert, 233 Casthorp, Lincolnshire, 409 Castott,John, 252 Catesby, John, 176 Catteworth, Margaret, 385 Thomas, 385 Catur, J., fellow, 186, 380 Cecil,William,lord Burghley, 261 sq.,435 Cecil family, ancestor of, 261 Cecile or Seyceld, Richard, 262

454

INDEX

Chancellor, see under Cambridge Uni- Christ's College, finance (cont.) as compared with Godshouse, 433 sq. versity, officers foundation Chapel in an inn, bishop's licence for, three founders, 1 235 two royal founders, 1, 311 Chapell, Roberd, 308 Byngham styled founder by Stow, 7 Chapels, medieval, in Cambridge colleges, real date of Lady Margaret's founda317, 327 sq. tion, 302 sq. Godshouse and Christ's College, see legal title, 102, 290, 341, 351 under Buildings and Furniture Godshouse and Christ's College, Gonville Hall, 317 n. 1, 327 Jesus, 327 341-51 King's, 327 identity with Godshouse, 120, 341 Magdalene, 327 letters patent ofHenry VII, 102,289 sqq., Pembroke, 327 341, 351 Queens', 323 n. 3, 327 summarised, 289 sqq. St John's, 327 discussed, 291 sqq. Trinity Hall, 327 casual references, 90, 139, 151 n. 3, Chaterys [John], 117 n. 3 175, 208, 268, 283, 426, 432 Chayham, alias Keyham, John, 395 Master's lodging, 249,301, 317, 3i8sq., Chedworth, John, bishop of Lincoln, 172 322 sq., 328 sqq. Chepstow (Striguil) priory, 49, 53, 58, plate, 224 sqq., 268 63, 286, 404, 408 site became denizen,*6o sq., 154, 404 in relation to Godshouse, 313 Gloucester lands additions in 1507, 249 sq., 305, 312, legal action against the college, 59 sqq. 313 order of the sheriff, 58 sq. additions in 1567, 159, 340 bailiff's account (1443-7), 84 sq. statutes later arbitration, 176 sq., 188 Lady Margaret's, 131 sqq., 296 sqq. leased toWilliam Barton, 189,195 Master and fellows' acceptance, 293, Chepstow priors, Thomas Tybey, 59 294 sqq., 328 Richard Fowy, 177 notary public's instrument, 294 sqq., Chichele, Henry, archbishop, founder of 303 All Souls College, 89, 390 oath of Master to observe, 301 sq. Christ's College provision for daily prayers, 15,71 sq., arbitrations 300 Sawtry, 423 threefold source, 298 sqq. Syon, 429 Godshouse features, 12 sq., 299 sq. respecting Thurlow, 415 sq. importance as chapter in negotiations, bailiff's account, 253 n. 1, 267 292 Brazen George inn, 84, 130, 207 autographs of participants, pi. DC, buildings of Lady Margaret, 198, 226, facing 295 313, 315 sqq., 328 sqq., 332, 333, papal bull of confirmation, 296 sq. 334 sq. casual references, 137 n. 2, 150, expenditure upon, 276-7, 293, 315, 198 n. 7, 216 n. 2, 229, 238 317 sq., 321 Syclyng's bequest, 306 finance, 145 sqq., 153 n. 1, 427 University Calendar, position in, 102 financial position after Lady Marand in presentation for degrees, garet's death, 430 sqq. 102

INDEX

455

Colier, Thomas, 293 n. 2 College, the institution and the building, 228, 342 sqq. 'living' and 'dead,' 146, 267, 435 College founders, classes of, 13 their predominant incentive, 12, 30 sq. College lecturer or reader, 131 sqq., 134, 299 Byngham's agreement with, 134 sqq., 208 n. 1; transcribed, 375 sqq. provision for, in the Godshouse statutes, 131 sqq. in the Lady Margaret's, 131 sq., 299 must lecture also in long vacation term, 132 sqq., 137, 299 Colleges in the university basic purpose, 33 characteristics as corporate bodies, 36 not originally teaching institutions, 33 eight in number before 1439, 13 four founded between 1439 and 1473,33 113. 242 fundamentally different from hostels, Byngham's association with, 5, 9, 40 sqq., 99 sq., 113 sq., 301 33, 3<5, 119 tribute to Master and fellows, 5, number of fellows before 1439, 33 92 sq., 113 sq. fellows' incomes in fifteenth and sixGodshouse and, 40 sqq., 55 n. 1, 76, teenth centuries, 434 sq.; examples 92 sqq., 99 sq., 105-18,242,300 sq. from Christ's College, 431-5 Hurte as fellow, 65,113,116,139,180, Colston, see Carcolston 191, 215 Colyns, Martin, 237 his bequest, 162 Colyweston near Stamford, seat of the casual references, 13,28,33,108n. 1,188, Lady Margaret, 258 sqq.; her great state there, 260 198, 272, 284 n. 1, 343, 345. 394 Sydyng's visits to, 258 sq., 283 see also Babington, Guile, Hurte, Millyngton, Scolyse, Stoyle, Sylvester, Comays, William, 182 sqq. Compurgation, 229 sq. Tylney.Wilflete.Wodlark.WymConan, duke of Brittany, 394 biil Clark, J.W., on the Godshouse site, 44,45, Conington church, Cambridgeshire, 421 Conyngsby, Humphry, 284 n. 1,423,429 157,159 sq-. 182 Conyngston, Nicholas, 9 Clerk,William, 53, 55, 406 Conysbie, Mr, see Conyngsby, Humphry Cloos [Nicholas], 93 n. 5 Cooper, Charles Henry, F.S.A., town Clyfibrth, John, 142,143,144 clerk of Cambridge, on the relaColchester, abbey of St John Baptist, 399 tionship of Godshouse and Clare rectory of St Leonard, 399 Hall, 106 sq. Cole, John, 347 William, on Bingham arms, 3, 17, 19 Coote (Cote), John, rector of St Peter, on Syclyng as fellow of Corpus, Cornhill, 46,137, 390 sq., 400 petitions parliament, 11, 391 203, 205, 212, 310 cofeoffee with Byngham, 62, 391 unaware of Barton's proctorship, 208

Christ's College (cont.) general references, 118, 151, 153, ^ 234 sq., 404 n. 5, 408, 417. 422 ' City' used as synonym for London, 234 Clare, Gilbert de, ninth earl of Gloucester, 29; tendi [?] earl, 400 the Lady Elizabeth de Burgo, countess of, 17, 29, 30 Clare Hall, 29 sq., 148 sq., 161, 172, 245 acknowledgments, vii destructive fires, 65, 109 Masters, dates, 65,112 functions in Godshouse statutes, 246, 301; not repeated in those of Lady Margaret, 301 prayers for foundress and others, 30 receipts from fines, seals and sales of wood, 141 statutes, 30, 244 influence on those of Godshouse,

45<5

INDEX

Coote (Cote), John [cont.) named in the 1446 licence, 75, 86, 391 death, 83, 90, 391 Coote.William, 391 Copcot, Dr John, 435 Copnaye, Robert, fellow, 154, 380, 428 Corlus, Richard, fellow, 77, 87, 91, 94, 380 Cormeille, Benedictine monastery of, 404 Cornard, Great, Suffolk, 307 Corpus Christi, feast of, 347 gild of, 343 deed sealed by mayor, 244 Corpus Christi College, 118,131,208-14, 343, 380, 435 acknowledgments, vii founded by two gilds, 13, 343 Sydyng as fellow, 112 n. 2,161,203-5, 208-12,217, 238, 251, 310 Billingford Chest at, 209 buying and selling by bursars, 212 sqq., 2 7 6 ^ . , 308, 339 Sydyng's bequest, 307 place of its Masters in the Godshouse statutes, 246, 301 land sold to Christ's College, 159, 312 casual references, 33,188,197,309,395, 397, 400, 426 see also Cosyn, Fyncham, Seyntwary, Syclyng, Treton Corpus Christi day, 347 Corpus Domini, feast of, 347 Cortenhale, diocese of Lichfield, 420 Costessey church, Norfolk, 417, 419 Cosyn, John and his sons, 219, 220, 254, 263, 264 Thomas, Master of Corpus Christi College, 208, 210 sq., 217, 229 Coteler, alias Andreux, Maurice, 141 Cotterstock church, Northamptonshire, 172,187 n. 5,188 Coulton, Dr G. G.,. acknowledgments, vii on proprietas in monastic life, 247 Covet, Dr John, Master of Christ's College (1.688-1722), 330 sq. Coventry and Lichfield, Geoffrey Blyth, bishop of, 443 William Smyth, bishop of, 440 n. 3

Cowper, Giles, 295 John, 46, 391 Robert, 182 Craswall, alien priory of, 53, 55,141,142, 143,252,254,405 sqq., 408,438 sq. situated in Wales and North Wales, 55, 261, 286 Reginald, corrector of, 405 bailiff of, 264, 265 township of, 406 Crek.John de, 418 Creyk, John de, 418 Cromwell, a/iasWilliams, Sir Richard, 98 Thomas, 234 Sir Oliver, 98 Ralph, lord, 260 n. 3 Crook, John, 53, 409 Crosse, George, 9 William, 9 Crossley, Dr William, 160, 250 n. 1 Croucher, William, 420 Crowe, William, 249 sq. Cumberworth, Sir Thomas, 347 Curate, die word in medieval use, 207 De Burgh family, monuments at Borough Green, 195 Deeping (Depyng) priory, 62 rector of St Gudac, 62 Degrees, exceptional graces for, 38 n. 6 qualification partly external, 38 n. 6, 134

residence in long vacation terms counting towards, 134 bachelorship in grammar discussed, 381 mastership in dieology discussed, 18 n. 5, 136 n. 1 De la Hay, Gerard, 163, 165 sq., 191, 395 sq. Denney abbey, 76, 92 tenement of, 73, 75, 76, 86, 91, 97 sq., 151, 156,160,182, 241, 289, 313 Demon, James, 239 Derehurste, Thomas, 85 Deswall, Thomas, 254 Devereux, Sir Walter, 79, 406, 438 sq., 444 Anne, 438 n. 2

INDEX Devon, college property in, 49, 53, 194, 416 see also Tomes Doctors of the Court of Arches, 23 r, 23 3, 234 Dodyngton, Gervase de, 418 Walter de, 418, 419 Doket(Dockett),Andrew,H7,i82sq.,240 Dolman, John, not Vice-Chancellor, 239 Dominus, its academical and clerical use, 7n. 4 Dove, William, 219, 220, 263, 265 Dovehouse Close, part of the college site, 159 meaning of the name, 340 Dover, 387, 420 Dovorr, Robert, 415 Downhatherley, tithes of the church, 59, 85, 254, 263 vicars, 142, 143, 254, 263 trespass by vicar, 76 sq. chaplain, 255 Dowsing, William, his work at Christ's, known and assumed, 311, 321,337 Driver's House, 345 Druell, John, All Souls College, Oxford, 11 n. 6, 390 John, King's Hall, Cambridge, 390 Dry Drayton, Cambridgeshire, 157 n. 3 Dunton, Bedfordshire, 9 Dymok, Roger, 10 Dynkale, George, 229 n. 5 Edgcot (Ochecote), 389 Edmund, earl of Richmond, daily prayers for in the college, 72 earl of Rutland, daily prayers for, 243 Edward II, licences for University Hall, 28 sq. Edward III, to be prayed for at Clare Hall, 30 Edward IV, 168, 170, 300, 396, 397, 410, 437 confirmation charter 1462, 166, 169, 178,194. 243. 291. 409, 413 confirmation charter 1468, 174 sq., 176 sq., 178, 194, 291, 410, 428 daily prayers for him and his queen, 243

457

Edward, Prince of Wales, son of Henry VI, daily prayers for, 72, 243 Edy, William, 384 Elizabeth, Queen, 349, 441 wife of Henry VII, daily prayers for, 72 Eltham, journeys to, by Syclyng and others, 271 Eltisley, Cambridgeshire, 98 Elvered, Laurence, 306 Ely, bishops of, see Alcock, Fordham, Montacute, Stanley university relations with, the see of, 39, 229 sq., 23 m . 4 bishops' indulgences, 199 sq. bishop's licences for the college chapel, 312, 314 sqq.

Elys, John, de Hilton, 419, 420, 421 Enfeoffment to uses, 15, 112, 389 Englefield, Thomas, 443 Erasmus, 39 his reputed participation in the statutes, 298, 300 Errors of fifteenth century clerks, 15 n. 1, 155 n. 3,164 sq., 196 n. 7, 307 n. 6 Essex, Robert, 182 Walter, tenement of, 196 sq. Estfeld, Sir William, 393 Eton, William, 149 Eton College, 47, 49,101 sq., 343, 403 purchase of possessions of alien priories, 48 n. 1 Ewyas Lacy, lordship of, 55, 77,141, 405, 443, 444 n. 3 college property in, 256,261, 262,442, 444,445 Exeter, Hugh Oldham, bishop of, 284 n. 1 Eyre, Simon, 384 Fabbe, John, fellow, 278 sq., 380 his bequests, 277, 279, 315 Faenza, bishop of, 392 Fallan, William, third Proctor of Godshouse, 157 sq., 166-70, 173, 174 wrongly described as university proctor, 121 sq., 227, 270 casual references, 215, 221, 242, 277, 3ii, 379, 380 Fastolf, Sir John, 4,154 n. 1, 390

458

INDEX

Feld, John, 85 Fellow-commoners, at Godshouse, 202 at Gonville Hall, 202 n. 9

Fisher, John (cont.) adviser of Lady Margaret, 131 sq., 230 n. 3, 280 sqq., 283, 298 see also Perendinantes contact with Sycryng, 230 n. 3,281 sqq., Fellows, preference in election to those 3" from college properties, 253, 299 great services to Christ's College, 201, number of, in Godshouse, 303 sq., 379 280, 311 meaning of'three oldfellows' discussed, his part in the statutes, 298 sqq. daily prayers for, 201, 280 303. 304 chapel in St John's College, 327 Fellows' Building, 182, 313, 340 funeral sermon for the Lady Margaret, Fellows' Garden, originally the Great Orchard, 305, 312 350 Fellowship, simultaneous, in two colleges, Fisher, Robert, 204 sq., 281 203 sqq., 207 Fishwick, John, 71, 156 sq., 182, 184, of one college simultaneously held with 300 headship of another, 112 n. 2,161, Margaret, his wife, 71, 157, 184 203 sq., 207, 310 Alice, 182 sqq. Felpotte, see Philpott Bryan, 182 sqq. Fendrayton parish, 251, 309, 417 sq. tenements in Preacher Street, 156 sq., Fendrayton rectors, 424-5 158 n. 1, 181 sqq., 186, 188, 190, Fendrayton rectory, 87,103 sq., 147,211, 191, 196 sq. 264, 265, 309, 411, 417-23 FitzHarry, Thomas, 55, 141 grant to the college by Henry VI, 63, Fitzhugh, George, Chancellor of the Uni80, 179; transcribed, 360 versity, 272 perquisite of the Master, 80, 104, 148, Fitzjohn, John (William), 196 180, 181, 187, 217, 238, 251, 417, Flete, Alice, 393 434 n. 2 Anneys, 393 value, 80, 104, 147, 187, 434 n. 2 Isabella, 393 licence to appropriate, 174 sq., 291 John, 393 appropriated, 422 sq. William, 9. 78, 391, 392 sq. Sawtry's effort to steal, 179 sqq., 188, early benefactor, 13, 14, 15, 16 sq., 418, 422 48, 63 sq., 73, 392 sq. Fite-Dieu, la, in France, 347 death in 1444, 63, 393 Fines, seals and sales of wood as sources of executors known, will not found, revenue, 140 sq., 146 sq., 148,192, 63 sq., 123, 393, 397 432, 435 Helpston rectory bought out of his Fisher, John, bishop of Rochester, 204, funds, 63 sq. 206, 272 n. 4, 284 n. 1, 302 Forde, Richard, 60 his family, 281 Fordeham, Thomas, 14, 22, 26, 44, 46, date of birth, 312, 391 sq. 84 n. 1, 271 arms, 281 Fordham, John de, bishop of Ely, 235 autograph and seal illustrated, 281 Foster, Canon C, W., acknowledgments, academical career, 200, 230 n. 3, 282, vii, 426 391 sq. Fotehed, John, 284 n. 1, 295, 301, 305 never student at Godshouse, 200 sq., Fotheringhay College, 102, 284 n. 1 Fowke, Edward, fellow, 278, 292, 295, 280 Vice-Chancellor, 272 n. 4, 282, 287 309, 381, 429 Chancellor, 282, 301 college reader, 294

INDEX Fowler, Edith and Thomas, 339; her obit, 339 John, 53, 155 sq., 168 sq., 409, 411 Thomas, prior of Monmouth and bishop, 408 Fowlmere, 232 Fowy, Richard, prior of Chepstow, 177 Fox, Richard, bishop of Winchester, 198 John, 256 sq., 264, 265, 415 "William, 416 Foxton, Richard, 20 Robert, and Alice his wife, 27 Frampton [Robert], 123 France and Normandy, payments to churches and monasteries in, 47 sq., 402 sq. Fransham, William, 390 Fraunceys, John, 190 Fray, Sir John, chief baron of the Exchequer, 82, 393 sqq., 397, 400 commissioner of Henry VI for King's College, II, 50, 116, 394 sq. executor of Flete's will, 63,78,123,393, 395 friend and cofeoffee with Byngham, 11,46,48, 50,62,78,116, 391, 395 Agnes, his wife, 394 Friseby, John de, 20 Fulbourn All Saints church, Cambridgeshire, 411. 417, 419 Fullar, Sir John, 307 Fuller, Thomas, on names of university proctors, 121 sq., 227, 270 Fyncham, Simeon, 308, 309 Fyneux, Sir John, 429 Fynge,john, 187 Robert, 187, 264, 265 Galen, Johanna, 123,138 Garforth, 186 Gifts to prominent (and useful) persons, 234 sq., 271 Gilbert, John, 399 Robert, bishop of London (1436-48), 27 Gild, of Corpus Christi in Cambridge, 244. 343 of St Mary in Cambridge, 343

459

Gilds as college founders, 13, 343 Gillowe, Herefordshire, 387 Glanford Bridge, Lincolnshire, 409 Glapthorn church, Northamptonshire, 172, 187 n. 5, 188 Glomery, Master of, 39 sq. School of, Godshouse confused with, 342 Gloucester, college property in city and county of, 58 sqq., 76 sq., 141,154, 177,189 sq., 192,195,251 sqq., 259 see also Badgeworth, Chepstow, Downhatheriey, Stonehouse Gloucester, Richard, 220 'God' in medieval usage, 346 sqq. Goddyshowse Grove at Borow, 195,196 Godesdon, William de, 418 Godshouse, the College of; never a hostel, 119 sq. active preparations for, in 1436,11 sq.; perhaps earlier, 14 arms attributed to, 2 benefactions of Henry VI, 89, 102 sq., 217, 241 sq., 287 sqq., 428 benefactors, early, 13 bequests of Basset, 188, 245 of Byngham, 123 sq., 138 of Fabbe, 277, 279 of Hurte, 162 of Worthyngton, 83, 400 building, cost of, 66, 68 buildings, see separate heading Milne Street site, 14 sq., 22, 44 sqq., 271, 289, 392; coveted by university, 22 sqq.; alternative offered, 22 sqq., 25, 27 sq.; extent, 45; plan pi. n, between 44 and 45 'mansion' built 1438 or earlier, 24 sq., 36; its size, 45, 68, 197; surrendered to Henry VI, c. 1443, 13, 36, 44. 5<5, 66, 69. 74 sq., 80; the consideration promised, 66, 67 sq., 70,80; temporary accommodation, 66, 69 sq., 98 Preacher Street site, 27,66,73, 75,76, 86, 91, 97 sq., 156 sqq., 181 sqq., 169 sq., 289; full extent attained in 1468, 182, 313; area compared

4<5o

INDEX

Godshouse, buildings, Preacher Street site Godshouse, licences, etc. (cont.) (cont.) 1 March 1442, summarised, 52-4; with great court of Trinity Colgeneral references, 46, 75, 106, lege, 313; plan, 159 sqq., pi. v 108, 109, i n , 113, 409, 411, 416 between 182 and 183 10 June 1442, need for, 54; summarchurches, power to appropriate, 174 sq., ised, 54 sq.; general references, 46, 75, 106, 108, 109, 113, 404 291, 426, 428 sq. Clare Hall, relations with, 40 sqq., 55 26 August 1446, need for, 74; sumn. 1, 76, 92 sqq., 99 sq., 105-18, marised, 74 sqq.; general refer242, 300 sq. ences, 56, 86, 87, 90,113,115 n. 1, college at work before 1439, 36; no 116, 399 break in continuity, 69 sq., 94 16 April 1448, foundation charter of training college for teachers, 38 sq., Henry VI, 86 sqq.; summarised, 90-2; transcribed, 361-72; essen115 n. 1, 299 tially different from earlier licences, finance 86 sq.; licence to exchange lands or capital needs and resources, 70 sqq., rents, 92; draft for, 5, 88, 92 sq., 159, 199 sq. 113 sq.; general references, 52, indulgence from bishop of Ely and 113, 115 n. 1, 116, 180, 241, 291, its proceeds, 199 sq., 216, 226 397. 422, 427. 438 revenues, 70 sq., I4osq., 145 sqq., 155 4 November 1462, confirmation sq., 165 sq., 401 sqq., 430 sq. charter of Edward IV, its insuffireal as opposed to nominal values, ciency, 174; general references, 166, 140 sq., 146 sq., 175 sq., 404. 408, 169, 178, 194, 243, 291, 409. 413 430, 432 6 December 1468, confirmation financial position, 129, 149, 159, charter of Edward IV, need for, 266 sq., 431 sqq.; compared with 174; appropriation of churches, Christ's College, 433 sq. licence for, 174 sq., 428; general audits half-yearly, see Accounts references, 176 sq., 178, 194, 291, Godshouse and Christ's College, 120, 410 293 sq., 302, 34i-5i t inventories at Byngham's death, 1249 February 1484, confirmation charter of Richard III, 164 n. 1, 174, 31. 198, 337 194. 243, 291, 428 lecturer or reader, college, 131 sqq., 294, 299 25 October i486, confirmation of agreement with, summarised, 134 Henry VII, 175,194,243,291,428 sqq.; transcribed, 375-7 1 May 1505, licence of Henry VII, licences and other royal letters and charincluding confirmation of the priters, 86 sq., 105 sqq., 291 sq., 354-5 vileges of Godshouse, 90,102,139, 13 April 1439, 35 sqq., 105 sq., 151 n. 3, 175, 208, 268, 283, 291, 113 sqq.; summarised, 40sq.; tran341, 351,426; summarised, 289-91 scribed, 357-9; purposely restrictMargaret, the Lady, negotiations with, ed character, 42 sq., 50, 115; sur129 sq., 240, 241, 259 sq., 280-304 rendered for cancellation, 50, n o ; draft agreement with (between 25 general references, 24, 347 March and 22 August 1504), 89, 9 February 1442, 50 sqq.; summar148, 241 sq., 286 sqq.; transcribed, ised, 50 sq.; general references, 36, 287 sq. 45,106,107,108,109, nosq., 113, name modernised to Christ's College, 114 351

INDEX Godshouse (cont.) names, register of members', 379 sqq. plate, 128 sq., 219, 223-6 seals, 95 sq., 188 illustrated, pi. m facing 96 statutes, 238-50 date of sealing discussed, 238 sqq.; after 18 December 1495, 238 sq., 244 sq.; in use probably long before, 242 foundress's enquiry concerning, 240, 284; and the answer, 240, 285 resemblance to those of Clare, 113, 242 largely used in those of Lady Margaret, 131 sqq., 238, 289, 299 sq. successive recensions, 243 final form before 1476, 243 oath of Proctor-elect to observe, 302 general references, 12,15, 16, 71, 91, 131 sqq., 134, 149 sq., 157. 198, 216, 221, 222, 253, 311, 337 God's Houses, widespread, 347 sq. at Arundel, Beverley, Bury St Edmunds, Donnington, Dover, Elgin, Hinton (Somerset), Hull, Ospringe, Portsmouth, Southampton, Thetford, 348 Goldoppe, Peter, 212 Gotham Chest, die, 162 Gotson, Thomas, notary public, 295 sq.,

461

Grammar Schools (cont.) Leach, A. R, upon, 37 sqq. masters, students of the college bound to become, if required, 12 sq., 299 Granby, vicar of, 4 Grandmont and its monastic order, 405, 406, 441 n. 3 Gransden, Great, 148 Gransden Parva, rectors, 18 Gray, Arthur, Master ofJesus College, 2, 28 Great Comard, Suffolk, 307 Great Court of Trinity College and Godshouse, 313 Great Orchard, now Fellows' Garden, 305, 312 Greenwich, journeys to, by Sydyng and others, 271 Gregory the Great, Saint, his book upon Ezechiel, 83, 127, 201 sq. Grevyll, William, 440 his daughter Margaret, 440 n. 5 Griffith, Henry, steward of Ewyas Lacy, 77, 101, 444 n. 3 safe-conduct issued by, 77, 130; transcribed, 373 sq. Groome, Thomas, 193, 415 Gryme, John, 180, 421 Guile, William, 260 n. 3 Byngham's tribute, 5, 92 sq. Master of Clare Hall, 65, 112 303, 305, 311 cofeoffee with Byngham, 59, 62, 63, Gower, Norfolk castles in, 396 77,80 Gowgh, John, 252 rector of St Peter, Nottingham, 162 wife of, 252 executor of Hurte's will, 162 Elyn Alee, formerly wife of, 252 Hurte's bequest, 163 Grace Books, purpose mainly fiscal, 273, named in Godshouse licences, 50, 55, 278 75. 86, 91, 92,107, n o sq. Grammar, study of, in the university, Gyfford, Agnes, 386 38 sqq., 200 sq. Johanna, 386 mastership in, 38 sq., 200 sq., 381 (sub Richard, 386 Nunne) Gylmyn, Thomas, 254 Grammar Schools, 12, 37 sqq. abundant in middle ages, 37 sq. large number closed for lack of masters, Hamond, John, arms attributed to Godshouse by, 2 i,37 John, college tenant, 142,143 petition by London rectors to be Hampton upon Thames, 1, 37 n. 1 allowed to establish, 11

462

INDEX

Hanaper, an office of the Exchequer, 47, 68, 194 nn. 1, 3 Hanson, Richard, 21 Hare, Robert, 10 n. 2 Harfleur, 386 Harrison, W. J., bursar of Clare College, acknowledgments, 141 Harryson, Richard, 229 Hasely, Edward, 399 Haslingfield, vicar of, 149 Hauger gabula, the charge of, upon the college property in Preacher Street, 158 sq., 196 sq. Hautpais, hospital of, in Paris, 414 Haverhill, 412, 420 Hedingham Sible, Essex, 167 Helpston (Northamptonshire), rectory and acre of land, 58, 61 sq., 64 sq., 72, 75 sq., 83, 87,139, 391. 42<5 sq. option to purchase (September 1443), 61 uncertainty as to title, 61 church or chantry ?, 426 purchased (August 1444), 62, 395, 426 Peterborough interest acquired (1454), 151 sqq., 190 not personal gift of Byngham, 63 licence to appropriate and appropriation, 291, 426 sq. endowment of vicar, 427 rectors Ballard, Robert, 62, 65 Basset, William, 172 sq., 181, 187, 422 Melton, Robert, 77, 181, 381, 422, 427 Tapton, Hugh, 64, 153, 383 Thorpe, John, 153, 173 vicar, Henry Wylson, 383, 427 Henry III, 405 Henry IV, 392, 393, 406, 428 Henry V, 386, 396, 413 and alien priory revenues, 47,401, 403, 409, 428 founder of convent of Shene, 20, 47 n. 1, 349, 403 of Syon, 47 n. 1,153, 403, 428

Henry VI, 78 sq., 166, 386, 394, 409,410 instructions to envoys at Council of Bale, 47 use of alien priory possessions, 47, 403 as founder of Christ's College, 1, 47, 52,88,102,130,240,241,351,404. 406,427,428, 438 the reasons influencing him, 30, 90 daily prayers for, 71 sq., 90 sq., 243 his anniversary in the college, 71,243 his gifts, 89, 102 sq., 217, 241 sq., 288 sq., 428

mainspring of the Lady Margaret's interest, 88 sq., 280, 289, 311, 351 his licences etc. for Godshouse, see under Godshouse as founder of King's College, 44, 47, 88, 199. 281. 343. 391. 394 Henry VII, 89,262, 408,428, 441 confirmation charter of Godshouse (i486), 175, 194, 243, 291, 428 licence or charter for Christ's College (1505), 90,102,139,175, 208,268, 283, 289 sqq., 341. 351, 426, 432 summary, 289-91 daily prayers for, 71 gifts to King's College, 89, 280 sq. Henry VIII, charter for 'Christ's College lately called Goddyshouse,' 341 commissioners of, 148,408,410,416,427 dissolution of monasteries under, 403, 404, 408, 409. 4 " , 412, 416, 429 foundation of professorships by, 134 as Prince of Wales, date of creation, 443 n-1

Henry, earl of Lancaster, 13 Henry ap Philip Gwyllim (variously spelt), 255, 256, 442, 444 Heraldry, knowledge of by educated men in the sixteenth century, 3 Herbert, William, first earl of Pembroke, 438 n. 2, 443 n. 2 Anne, 438 n. 2 Walter, lord Ferrers of Chartley, 438 n. 2 (Harbert), Richard, 443 William, first earl of Pembroke of second creation, 443 n. 2

INDEX Herbert, Sir George, 443 n. 2 Hereford, city of, 252, 442, 443, 444 county of, 261 college property in, 49, 79,177,194, 219 n. 2,251 sqq., 255 sq., 261, 436 sqq. see also Craswall, Ewyas Lacy, Maunsejl, Peterchurch, Weobley, Yarkhill diocese of, 255 Hermodesworth, Peter, 415 Herrys, alias Fisher, William, his tenement in Preacher Street, 157 sqq., 160,169, 191, 277, 385 Hert, Thomas, alderman of Gloucester, 254, 259, 263, 264 his bond, 259 his wife, Philip Morgan's sister, 258,259 Hervy, Richard, 176 Heryngeswell, diocese of Norwich, 20 Hibaldstow, Lincolnshire, 409 Higham Ferrers, Master and fellows, 399 Hinchingbrooke House, 98 Hinchingbrooke priory and Anna, prioress, 92, 98 Hobson, the late Professor E. W., on the development of the bursarship, 150 n. 1

Hoccleve, Thomas, 415 n. 1 Holand, John, fellow ofMichaelhouse, 91, 93 n. 5 Honingham church, Norfolk, 411,417,419 Hope, Sir William, on the arms attributed to Godshouse, 2 on the seals, 95 sq. Hope, William, 9 Hopkyn, John ap, 101 Horley, John, named in Godshouse licences, 63, 75, 86 cofeoffee with Byngham, 62 Horley, Thomas, 9 Home, Robert, 388 Horneby, Henry, Master of Peterhouse, 272, 284 n. 1, 350 Horwood, William, mayor of Cambridge, 244 Hospitals, Thomas Tanner upon, 81 Hautpais in Paris, 414

463

Holy Ghost in Rome, 80 sq. Holy Innocents, Lincoln, 415 Hospitale Anglorum in Rome, 81 Maison Dieu at Dover, 348 Maladerie, le, Lincoln, 415 St James in Magna Thurlow, see Thurlow Magna St James of AJtopascio, 247 n. 3, 412 sqq. St John Evangelist, Cambridge, 81, 129 n. 4, 200 n. 1, 270, 323, 327 St Lazarus in England, 174 n. 2 St Mary de Saxia in Rome, 81 St Mary Elsyng Spetell, London, 393 St Thomas of Aeon (or Acres), London, 11,123

see also God's Houses Hostels, see Cambridge University Hotel-Dieu, of Beaune, 348 of Paris, 347 de Pontoise, 348 Hotoft, John, 395 Howard, John, first duke of Norfolk of that name, 385 Margaret, his wife, 385 HoweU ap Thomas ap Jevan Gwyn, 255 Hudson (Hodson),Thomas, 307,308,309, 38i

Humphrey, duke of Gloucester, 48 sq., 57 n. 4, 394 sq., 396 n. 2, 406 Huntingdon, visit to, by Syclyng and odiers, 269 Hurte, John, second Proctor of Godshouse, 139-66 petition to third duke of Norfolk, 58, 154 petition for exclusion from Act of Resumption, 155, 173 sq. royal pardon, 155 retirement from proctorship, 161 fellow of Clare Hall, 65,113,116, 139, 161, 180, 191, 215

while Proctor of Godshouse, 161, 180, 191

intended presentation to Helpston not carried out, 64 sq., 83, 139 an executor of Sara Beket, 100 to make statutes, 91, 116, 238

INDEX

464

Hurte, John (cont.) statutes given by, 238,241,242 sqq., 300 wrongly described as university proctor, 121 sq., 227, 270 vicar of St Mary, Nottingham, 162 doctor of divinity, 162 death and will, 162 sq., 186 casual references, 103,168,184,215,311, 379, 381 Hurte, John, junior, 163 William, 163 Hyll.John, 142, 143, 144, 145, 147 Hyrn, Robert atte, 415 Ikham (North Hykeham), 48,49, 53,142, 143, 144, 263, 265, 407 sq. bonds and leases, 175 sq., 193 sq., 270 an 'alien priory' that was never a religious house, 407 Impington, Cambridgeshire, 157 Income, see finance under Godshouse and under Christ's College Indulgence from the bishop of Ely for Godshouse, 199 sq., 216, 226, 334 for the convent of St Rhadegund, 200 n. 1

for the chapel of St John Baptist, 200 n. 1

Ingham church, Lincolnshire, 163 Inventories of 1451, 124 sqq., 197 sq. Inventory of the foundress s furniture in the college, 198 Ireland, 78, 405 Ive, Thomas, 68 Ixworth priory and prior, 249 sq. Jackson, Edmund, 271, 272 Jenney, Thomas, 179 sqq., 422 William, 179 n. 4., 422 n. 4 Jenyns [John], 260 Jesus, special cult of the name of, in the fifteenth century, 349 devotion of the Lady Margaret to, 349 sqq. of Henry V to, 349 Joan, queen and widow of Henry IV, 406 John, treasurer of St Paul's, 8 John ap Henry ap Garlith, 255

Jones, E. Alfred, on the college plate, 224, 226

Thomas, of Stonehouse, 254 Joy, Mr, 416 Joyce, John, 397 Katherine, duchess of Norfolk, 57 sq., 61, 63, 66 n. 3, 77, 396 sq., 437, 444 Keeper, as alternative style for Proctor, 149 sq. Kele, Henry, 196 Kene, Nicholas, 138 Keyton, Dr, his chapel in St John's College, 327 King's College, 47, 49, 101 sq., 301, 343, 403 acknowledgments, vii site, 8,13,24,44 sqq., 50,56, 69, 74 sq., 80,130 n. 3,183 n. 2,199, 394 sq., 400 Old Court of, 24,44,183 n. 2,198,199, 394 sq. purchase of possessions of alien priories by, 48 n. 1 bequest of Hurte, 162 gifts of Henry VII, 89, 280 sq. place of the Provost in the Lady Margaret's statutes, 301 casual references, 28, 33,84,88,93,112, 116,214,239,327, 391 see also Cloos, Millyngton, Morgan, Rotherham, Wodlark Kirton, John, abbot of Thorney, 62 Kirton, Lincolnshire, 409 Knyvet, John, 187 Knyvett, Sir William, 284 n. 1 Lacherensis, Thomas Fowler, prior of Monmouth, and episcopus, 408 Lacy, Gilbert de, 441 Philip de, 418 Walter de, 405 sq., 441 his seal, 405, 441 n. 3 Lacy, Ewyas, see Ewyas Lacy Holme, 405 sq. see also Maunsell Lacy Lambeth, 231, 233, 237 Landbeach, rectory of, 210

465

INDEX

Legal and quasi-legal forms, etc. (cont.) lease within a lease, reduced rent for part of term, 175 sq., 193 sq. building lease for term of 99 years, with feudal incidents, 192 letters patent discussed, 86 sq., 291 sq. in effect a private act of parliament, 41 sq. petitions for, accompanied by draft of the letters sought, 39, 87 sq., 357 n. I warrant for issue accompanied by a 'copie,' 35 sq. themselves evidence of privileges already agreed, 26, 87 their costliness, 47, 66, 67, 68; concrete examples, 68 sq., 194 nn. 1, 3 licence sought in excess of immediate needs, 52 licence in mortmain required for each separate property acquired, 52,108; penalty in default, 108 n. 1 voluntary surrender, 50, n o passports or safe-conducts for the marches of Wales, 77 sq.; transcribed, 373 sq. purchase and delivery of lands, tenements, advowsons of churches, etc. contract for option to purchase within two years, 61 consideration not ordinarily stated 22 sq., 74 in grants, 140, 158 sq.; examples petition to the Chancellor tranof exceptions, 140,158 sq., 182 sqq. scribed, 23 common law requirement of docugrant supplemented by another mentary evidence, 22 sq., 74,140 grant of the whole (by different council in the marches, pleas and grantors) on the purchase of a charge, 152 judgements, 436 sqq. ecclesiastical courts, actions in jus grant reserving an annual rent with power to the grantee to offer an patronatus, 153 sq., 419 equivalent, 184 sq.; the power actions for withholding oblations, exercised in part, 184 sq. and tithes, 255 king's courts, actions in quare impedit, certificate by third parties of the swearing of a grant, 62 153 sq., 419 sq. leases certificate of witnesses to the giving of seisin, 62 acquisition of unexpired term, 27 agreement to grant extension in bond of third parties guaranteeing certain events, 27 peaceful possession, 62

Landbeach (cont.) tenants of Corpus Christi College at, 210 sqq. Langton, John, Chancellor of the University, 50, 84 n. 1, 344 commissioner for site of King's College, 44, 50,67,116,130 n. 3, 391, 394 petition against Byngham, 22 sqq., 41 sq., 114sq., l i o n . 5 death as bishop of St David's, 84 Lanthony, prior of, a college tenant, 85 Leach, A. F., on medieval grammar schools, 37 sqq. on Byngham as a man of the modern world, 39 Lectures, college, established by Byngham, 131 sqq., 299 in the Godshouse statutes, 132 sqq., 299 in the Lady Margaret's statutes, 299 their spread to other colleges, 299 lectures in the public schools displaced by, 299 Lee, Dr, the archdeacon, 234 sq. Leek, Galfridus Bugg de, 3, 19, 20 n. 5 Sir Simon de, 18 Leek, Staffordshire, 20 Legal and quasi-legal forms and procedure chancery, claims in equity entertained,

LHC

30

466

INDEX

Legal and quasi-legal forms, etc. (cont.) bond of individuals for price of a tenement conveyed to a corporation, 182 sqq. beneficial occupation preceding written grant, 68, 69, 76 inadequacy of title dependent upon deed executed by Augustinian canon, and the remedy provided, 249 sq. rectory, formalities in appropriation of, 427 endowment of vicar a condition of appropriation, 291, 427 appropriation without endowment of vicar, 291 pensions out of rectories, paid voluntarily, 104,187; paid widi authority and consent of all parties, 429 uses trusts for, 15, 112, 116 enfeoffments to use, 15, 112, 389 Leicester, College of Newark, 20, 399 Leland, John, 205 Lenne, John de, 420 Lenton, prior and convent, 162 Leson, Thomas, not of Godshouse or Cambridge, 278 Letters patent, see under Legal and quasilegal forms, etc. Letters patent for Godshouse, see Godshouse under licences Leversegge, Robert, 58 n. 5 Lewyng, Mr, 307, 309, 381 Licences, see under Godshouse Lidyngton, 20 Limes, William de, 388 Lincoln (Lyncoln), John, fellow, 77, 87, 91, 94,123, 138, 139, 381 Lincoln, bishop of, see Alnwick, Chedworth, Smyth city, 161 priory of St Katherine outside, 408 hospital of the Holy Innocents alias le

Lockwood, Henry, Master of Christ's College (1530-48), 145. 147. 341. 408, 416 Loggan's print of the college circa 1688, 314,330 illustrated, pi. xi, between 330 and 331 Loggan's evidence as to the Dovehouse, 340 Lombards and Lombardy, the names wrongly applied, 412, 413 Lombards, jealousy of, 413 sq. London, Robert Gilbert, bishop of, 27 London journeys to and from and stays in, 232 sqq., 268 sq., 271 the route, 232 the meals, 232 sq., 271 the inns, 232 sqq. details of expenses, 232 sqq., 271 gifts to expedite business in, 234 sq., 271 parishes and churches All Hallows the More, 11, 83, 123, 397 Colechirche, 11 St Agnes and St Anne, 7 and n. 5 St Andrew in Holborn, 11, 82, 167, 399, 400 St Clement Danes, 167 St John Baptist, Walbrook, 8 St John Zachary, 2, 6, 7,9,122,123, 137, 167, 190, 384. 400; burnt in great fire, 7, 137; meaning of the name, 7 sq.; monuments mentioned by Stow, 7,137 St Laurence in Old Jewry, 395 St Magnus, 167, 215 St Mary le Strand, 167 St Mary Overey, Southwark, 395 St Mary Magdalene, Old Fish Street, 397 St Michael le Quern, 6 St Paul's, 6,8, 390; dean and chapter, 6,9 Maladerie, 415 St Peter in Cornhill, 11, 83, 391 county, college property in, 53,81,102, St Stephen, Westminster, 167 175, 286, 407, 409 sq., 427 places see also Ikham, Navenby, Newstead Aldersgate, 7

467

INDEX London, places (cottt.) Billingsgate, 395 Cornhifl, n , 83, 391 Ely House, Holborn, 237 n. 10 Fleet Street, 23a Gracechurch Street, 123 Gresham Street, 7 Holborn, 11, 82,167,237 n. 10., 399, 400 Maiden Lane, 7 Noble Street, 7 Old Fish Street, 397 Old Jewry, 395 Paternoster Row, 233 Strand, 167 Tower Street, 233 Walbrook, 8 Westchepe, 6 wards Aldersgate, 384 Candlewick, 384 Farringdon Without, 190 Walbrook, 384 Long vacation, or autumn, term, 132 sqq., 137 college lecturer must reside in, 132,137, 299 Longstanton St Michael, Cambridgeshire, 157 n. 3 Longueville, Cistercian abbey of St Mary of, 409, 410 Lord Mayor, a tide not used until the sixteenth century, 72 n. 3 Love, John, 421 Loveday.John, fellow, 77,126,130,190, 195 n. 3, 381 Thomas, 207 family, 195 n. 3 Lownde, Doctor, pro-Vice-Chancellor, 239 n. 4, 274 Lucas, Thomas, solicitor general to Henry VII, 285, 415, 416 Lucca, city and diocese of, 412, 414 Lucca, Benedict di, 414 Ludlow, 442, 443, 444 Lumbardeswood in Thurlpw Magna, 256, 413, 416 Lumbardi, Benedict, 388

Lumbards' Wood Farm, 257, 413 Lychefeld, William, 395, 397 sq. named in Godshouse documents, 75, 80, 86, 91 connection with Byngham, 7,10 sq., 20 rector of Carlton Curlieu, 7, 11, 20, 397 petitions parliament, n , 137, 397, 400 death, 83, 92 sq., 397 sq. Lygon, Sir Richard and his wife Margaret, 440 n. 5 Lyncoln, Robert, 14 Lyster, Laurence, 306 Malton, a college manor, 118, 294 Margaret, queen of Henry VI, daily prayers for, 72, 243 foundress of Queens' College, 240 Margaret Beaufort, the Lady, countess of Richmond and Derby, foundress of Christ's College 'heir to all king Henry's godly intentions,' 88 sq., 280, 289, 311, 351 devotion to Jesus, 349 sqq. Imitatio Christi, her translation of, 350 negotiations with Godshouse, 89, 129 sq., 240, 241, 259 sq., 280304 tripartite agreement, draft of, 89, 148, 287 sqq. its date, 288 sq. her foundation formally completed 3 October 1506, 292 sq., 294, 302 sq. her bounty probably exercised earlier, 214, 303 sq. statutes of, see under Christ's College her own part in framing, 298 for her own household, 298 to be prayed for daily, 71, and her kindred, 15, 71 sq. her buildings in the college, see under Christ's College her personal residence in the college, 198, 329 sq. Helpston vicarage endowed with land, 427 other foundations, n o , 350 30-2

468

INDEX

Margaret Beaufort (cont) mediation in university's controversy with town, 272 sq., 282 sq. preference for arbitration, 272, 429 her gentlewoman, Edith Fowler, 339 death and will, 433 funeral sermon by Fisher, 350 plate bequeathed by, 223, 224 sqq. autograph, pi. rx, facing 295 her executors, 198, 276, 433 her council, 130, 239 sq., 259 sq., 284 sqq.

their names, 284 n. 1 general references, i, 119, 149, 201, 269, 301, 305, 344 Marr, Professor J. E., 28 Marschall, John, 428 'Master,' gradually replaces 'Proctor,' 270, 300 sq.

Masters' Accounts, see Accounts Masters' lodgings in Cambridge colleges, 323 Mastership in Theology, meaning of, 18 n. 5, 136 n. 1 Maunsell (Mansell, Mawncell, etc.), college property in, 218, 219, 263, 265, 267, 406 Maunsell Lacy, 265, 267 Maynard, Charles, sixth baron Maynard, 33i Mede, Alexander, 9, 393 n. 2 Medlyngham, Suffolk, 390 Melbourne, John, 386, 387, 388 Melburn, Simon, 177 Melton (Milton), Robert, fellow, 77, 87, 91, 94, 103 sq., 126, 130, 180 sq., 182 sq., 196, 381, 421 sq., 427 Menhyr, John, 414 Merton, Walter de, as college founder,

Michaelhouse (cont.) Thomas Colier, 293 n. 2 see also Ayscough, Cloos, Fisher, Fotehed, Holand, Otryngham Millyngton,William, Rector and Provost of King's College, 59, 77, 80, 83, 116, 157, 172 named in Godshouse licences, 50, 55, 75, 86, 91, 92, 107, n o sqq. Byngham's tribute, 5, 92 sq. certainly fellow of Clare Hall, 50 n. 2, 92 sq., 116 Miltecombe, Thomas, 414, 415 Mitchell, Andrew, 249 sq. Mome, Thomas, co-executor with Byngham, 99 sq. Money, bad, in fifteenth century, 218, 227 Monmouth, prior and priory of, 49, 53, 188, 403 n. 2, 408 as debtors of the college, 142, 143, 144, 177 sqq., 194, 218, 219, 220, 252, 263, 264 prior Reginald (1474), 178, 408 prior Thomas Fowler (1505 and 1508), episcopus Lacherensis, 408

Monsy, William, 229 n. 5 Montacute, Simon de, bishop of Ely, 419 Montague, Sir Sidney, 98 More, Sir Thomas, 10 n. 2 More, the manor of, 16, 392 Morgan, Philip, 239, 257-62 physician to the Lady Margaret,258,283 his letter to Syclyng, 257 sqq., 270, 283 his sister, 258 sq. Morice, James, 293 Mortimer, Edmund de, fifth earl of March, 78 Mortimer lordships, 444 Morton, John, archbishop of Canterbury, 13 Michaelhouse, 13, 19, 33, 139, 284 n. I, 237, 255 Morys, William, 255 345, 389 Masters, 62 n. 4, 180 n. 4; place in the Mowbray, John, second duke of Norfolk, Lady Margaret's statutes, 295, 301, 57. 396, 437 305 death in November 1432, 58, 396 Turkes children, 9 John, third duke, 58, 154, 437 Fisher's fellowship, 200, 230 n. 3, 391 Mullinger, J. Bass, on college lecturers in Fisher's mastership, 282, 295 n. 1 Oxford and Cambridge, 134

INDEX Mullinger, J. Bass (cont.) on innovations in Christ's College, 131 sqq., 299 on the statutes of Christ s, 131 sqq., 238, 299 sq. Munden Furnival, 394 Munsey and Co., Messrs, 225 Myle, Henry, 443 Navenby, Lincolnshire rectory, 95 n. 3, 427 sqq. grant of, 81, 102 sq.; transcribed, 372 sq. licence to appropriate, 174 sq., 291, 428 sq.

possession contested by Syon, 81, 153 sq., 175, 195, 286, 428 sq.; referred to arbitration, 429; the award, 429 two payments of 40 shillings each out of, 429 rectors Breton, Thomas, 428 Burton, Richard, 154, 380, 428 Carpenter, John, 428 Copnaye, Robert, 154, 380, 428 Fowke (Folke), Edward, 429 Marschall, John, 428 Treton, William, 429 curate (1526), Nicholas Bennet, 429 Neell, John, Master of St Thomas of Acres, 11,137 Nell, Mr Richard, 307 curate of St Andrew's church, 310 Nether Herdys, 21 Neville, Ralph, first earl of Westmorland, 57.39*5 Nevyle (Nevyll), Geffrey, 126,130, 207, 400 Gilbert, 206 sq., 237 Johanna, 237 New learning, Byngham as a pioneer, 39, 137. 300 Newman, William, 255 Newmarket, 412 Newstead (Novus Locus), prior and priory, 53, 144, 286, 409 sq.

469

Newton, Richard, chief justice of the Common Bench, 78 cofeoffee with Byngham, 62 executor of Flete s will, 63 sq., 123, 393 Nime, probably an error for Nunne, 279 Nominal, as opposed to real, values, 140 sq., 146 sqq., 175 sq., 404. 408, 430, 432 Norburgh, John, 20 Norfolk, see Howard, Katherine and Mowbray Northamptonshire, college property in, 61 sq., see also Helpston North Hykeham, see Ikham Norwich, bishop of, see Alnwick Notary public, 294 sqq., 303, 305, 311 Nottingham, church of St Mary, 162,186 church of St Peter, 162 Nunne, Thomas, fellow, 278, 279, 292, 295. 3°7. 308, 309, 381 Ockham, John, 390 Okeborne priory, 395 Oldham, Hugh, bishop of Exeter, 284 n. I Oman, C. C , on the lectern, 336 sq. Ordination, canonical age, 6, 391 Osbern, Robert, 393 Otryngham, John, Master of Michaelhouse, 130, 180, 421 n. 5 rector of Fendrayton, 421, 422 Otryngham Book, 19, 91 n. 1, 93, 389 Ouere, Richard de, 418 Oxford University, 16, 269, 389 a Paston sent to, 5 proctors' accounts, 227 n. 1 All Souls College, 89, 390 Brasenose College, 134 Jesus College, 349 Lincoln College, 62 Magdalen College, 38, 134 •New College, 343 Warden and fellows, 81 Oriel College, 102 Pabbenham, Simon, abbot of Tiltey, 27 Pacts perturbacio, its significance in Grace Books, 273 sqq. statutory penalties For, 274 sq.

INDEX

470

Palmer, Dr W. M., acknowledgments, vii, 430 Papal confirmation of the Lady Margaret's statutes, 296 sq. Papal court, intended appeal to, 420 Papal dispensation, 302 bond and oath not to seek, 292, 294, 302 obtained by Fisher, 391 Parker, Mathew, archbishop of Canterbury, 148 Parlynton, Robert, 62 Parson, ancient and modern uses of the word, 7 n. 4 used of a vicar in 1532, 7 n. 4, 416 Parsons, Thomas, 123 Passports, or safe-conducts, to the marches of Wales, 77 sq., 373 sq. Paston, Sir John, 205 William, the 'Good Judge,' 4 family, 4 members sent to Cambridge and to Oxford, 5 Paston Letters, 79, 401 on appeals to force in East Anglia, 61 Pawntewyn, Hugh, 263, 265, 267 Pawntwall (Pawntlyn.Pawntewyn.Pawntwyn), Roger, 252, 253 Payntwyn, Hugh, archdeacon of Canterbury, 255, 267, 272 Peakirk (Paykirke),Northamptonshire, 62 Pearson, Richard, 186 Pedes Pauli, 14 Peghe, Thomas, 277, 321 Peue, Dr John, Master of Christ's College (1897-1910), and its historian on Byngham'sorigin and history, 1,3,4 on die relationship of Godshouse and Clare Hall, 107 on the inventories, 124, 128 sqq. on the buildings, 197 on the rectory of Helpston, 151 sq. on the presentation of Hurte to Helpston, 64 on the date of the Godshouse statutes, 238

on Syclyng's 'brawling,' 273 Pembroke, the countess of, 76 n. 3

Pembroke Hall Robert de Thorpe, first Master, 426 Thomas de Bingham, second Master, 17-19, 20 n. 5 William Atkynson of, 350 connection with Denney, 76 n. 3 casual references, 13, 33, 327, 343, 345, 391 see also Coote, Langton, Shorton Penyton (Penyngton), John, 399 Perendinantes, or pensioners, and fellowcommoners.in the fifteendi century at Godshouse, 133, 145 sq., 202, 300 at Gonville Hall, 202 n. 9 at Peterhouse, 17 n. 8 Peterborough, abbot and convent of, 152 sq., 167 n. 4 Peterchurch, county of Hereford, college property in, 256, 261, 406, 445 Peterhouse, 270, 435 a fifteenth-century perendinans at, 17 n. 8 garden of, 70, 91, 97 sq., 156 Mr Palin of, 214 Mr Roberd Chapell, fellow, 308 casual references, 13, 33, 197, 200, 272, 341 n. 1, 345 see also Horneby, Lychefeld, Stockdale, Watnowe Petite, Richard, 255, 263, 264 Philipp, Sir David, 262, 284 n. 1 Philpott (ffelpotte), Nicholas, 252,255 sq., 440 excommunicated, 255 gives a bond, 255, 256, 445 Pipe rolls, extracts from, 49 Plate in the college, 128 sq., 223 sqq. missing in 1492, 223 sqq. Poor, use of the word as applied to scholars, 356 n. 2 Popes Urban IV, 347 Martin V, 47 Innocent VIII, 391 Julius II, 296 Leo X,302 Adrian VI, 302 Porter, Nicholas le, 418

INDEX Potter, Nicholas, tenement of, 160 Walter, 123,138 Powell, 260 Powys land, college property in, 258, 260 sq.

Prayers for college founders, 12, 30 President, various uses of the word, 117 sq., 210 sqq. of Godshouse under the statutes, 216 Priest as testator's guide, 8 sq., 207 Priests, parish, studying in the university, 171 n. 7, 207 n. 3, 379 Priory and prior, wide meaning and application, 81, 402, 417 n. 6 see also Alien priories Priscian, included in course of study, 300 Privy Council proceedings, 57, 439, 444 Proctor, meaning and uses of the word, 117 sqq., 300 'Proctor' as style for head of Godshouse gradually replaced by 'Master,' 270, 300 sq. Proctors, university, names of certain, 117 n. 3,121 sq., 196, 227, 270 alternatively styled rectors, 117 a deputy proctor, 228 n. 5, 269 Proprietas, its prominence in rule and practice, 247 sqq. examples of its influence from the University Statutes, 247 sq. example found in deeds of the college, 249 sq. its bearing upon the problem of the Godshouse statutes, 247 sqq. Pycard, John, fellow, 87,91, 94, 381,400 Richard, 278, 381 Pyemur, Ralph, 117 n. 3 Pykerell, "William, 274 Quatermayns, Richard, 388 Rackham, Harris on the date of Godshouse statutes, 238 on the development of the bursarship, 150 n. 1 on the implication of 'Proctor' as head, 117, 300 his Early Statutes of Christ's College referred to passim

Raglan, 262 Randekyn (Rankyn), Simon, 14, 22, 26, 44. 46, 271 Rankyn, Hugh, fishmonger, treasurer of the town, 271 Rashdall, Hastings, on college lectures, 134 Rawlyn, of Chesterton, 264, 265 Rawson, William, Vice-Chancellor, 398 Real, as opposed to nominal, values, 140 sq., 146 sqq., 175 sq., 404,408, 430, 432 Rectors, an alternative style for university proctors, 117 Reede, Sir Robert, 429 Religious observances by travellers, 235 Religious orders, members of, in university matters, 246 sqq. Rener, Maurice de la, 59 sq. Resumption, Acts of, 101 sq., 155 sq., 165 sq., 168,173 sqq., 176 sq., 409 Revenues, see finance under Godshouse and under Christ's College Reydon, John, innkeeper, has licence for a chapel in his inn, 235 Reynolds, Richard, 278, 381 Richard II, a portrait of, 10 n. 2 Richard III, confirmation charter, 164 n. 1, 174, 194, 243, 291, 428 Richard, duke of York, 78, 130, 444 n. 3 a cofeoffee with Byngham, 62, 64, 97, 151 safe-conduct from, 77 sq., 79, 437; transcribed, 374 daily prayers for, 243 Richard, earl of Warwick, 444 n. 3 Richard ap Jevan, 255 Richard ap Thomas, 256, 445 Riche, Richard, 395 Richmond (Surrey), journeys to by Sydyng and odiers, 271 Rickmansworth, 14,16, 392, 393 Ringland church, Norfolk, 179 n. 3 Riparialo, James de, 388 Ripon, 1, 37 Robyns, James, 192 Robynson, Sir, 279 Rochester, bishops of, see Fisher, Rotherham

472

INDEX

Rodbourne, John, 421 Roger, William, 149 Rome, Borgo Santo Spirito in, 80 St Mary de Saxia, 81 Romworth, Henry, 100 Rooper, Anthony, grandson of Sir Thomas More, 10 n. 2 Rotherham, or Scot, Thomas, bishop of Rochester, archbishop of York, 10 n. 2, 189 n. 1 Rowney, convent of, 82, 394 Anne Selby, prioress of, 394 Roydon, a manor of the college, 294, 339 Edith Fowler's gift of property at, 339 Rudd, Dr Henry, Vice-Chancellor, 232, 234. 239 Rudston, John, 229 n. 5 William, 229 n. 5 Ruyslep manor, Middlesex, 32 Ryall, William, prior of Depyng, 62 Rycheman, Thomas, fellow, 278, 381 sq. Ryplyngham, John, Vice-ChanceEor, 196 Robert, 250 William, 250 Safe-conducts, or passports, to the marches of Wales, 77 sq., 373 sq. Sagio, St Martin de, 81, 427 St Albans, abbot of, 393 St David's, diocese of, 255 bishop of, John Langton, 84 St Ebrulf, abbey of, 20 Saint John, Sir John, 284 n. 1 St Stephen, Westminster, 102 Salisbury, bishop of, William Ayscough, 62, 97, 390 earl of, Richard Neville, 66, 80 Salkyn, John, 420 Sampson, Thomas, 212 Sandwich, earl of, 98 Santander, Spain, 388 Saumur, Benedictine abbey of St Florentius, 177 sq., 408 Sawtry abbot and abbey, 410 sq., 418 sqq. Fowler's pension, 53, 155 sq., 168 sq., 194, 411

Sawtry (cont.) attempts to rob the king, Bon Repos and Godshouse of the rectory of Fendrayton, 179 sqq., 188,418 sqq., 423 specialists in arrears, 142, 143, 144, 156, 194, 218, 219, 220, 257, 263, 264, 267, 411 arbitration with Christ's College, 4ii. 423 abbots Adam, 418 Lawrence, 418 Richard, 418 Robert (circa 1503), gives a bond, 257 Thomas Yaxle, 179 n. 2 Scaltocke, William, 254, 259, 263 Scolyse (Scols etc.), Robert, fellow of Clare Hall to make statutes for Godshouse, 91,116, 238 statutes given by, 238, 241 sqq., 300 survival assumed until 1495, or later, 245 sqq. possibly canon of Barnwell, 247 sqq., Scot, John, 388 Peter, 388 Scott, John, fellow, 229, 278, 279, 292, 295, 307. 308, 309, 379, 382 Scrope, Stephen, 4 Seals of office used for external purposes, 244 Sedge Yard, 213 n. 4 Sedgehall, 213 Sedgrave, Stephen de, 418 Segevaux, John, 20 Selby, Anne, prioress of Rowney, 394 Seman, Bartholomew, 9 Sempringham, Order of St Gilbert of, 409 Newstead priory, 409 sq. priory of St Edmund, Cambridge, 92, 246 their tenement in Trumpington Street, 70, 91, 97 sq., 156 their tenement in Preacher Street, 98, 156 sq., 181, 184 sq. prior of, James Bolton, 184 Seobald, Thomas, 256, 445

INDEX

473

Stafford, John, bishop of Bath and Wells, Sewall, John, 229 sq. Chancellor of England, 23,24, 35 Seyccld, Richard, 262 Stamford, 258, 261 see also Cecil, Sisscl Seyntwary, John, bursar of Corpus Standish, Lancashire, 400 Stanley, James, bishop of Ely, 312, Christi College, 210, 211 settlement with Sydyng's executor, 308 314 sqq. Seys, W., 220 Stanton, Sir Geoffrey de, 18 Shelford Magna, diocese of Ely, 168, Statutes, see under Christ's College and under Godshouse 169 sq., 173 Shene, convent ofJesus of Bethlehem of, Sterr, John, fellow, 201 sq., 382 Stevynson, Mr, 307, 309, 382 foundation, 20, 47 n. 1, 349, 403 Stockdale, Robert, 398 patrons of Carlton Curlieu, 7, 20 William, 230, 238 sq., 398 sq. manor, 233 Vice-Chancellor 1494/5,1495/6, 239 Sherman (Scherman), Ralph, 220, 252, Syclyng's association with, 311 253, 255, 264, 265 Stoke by Clare College, 21 n. 1, 61, excommunicated, 255 171 sq., 215 Shether, William, 77, 382 Shorton, Robert, Master of St John's Stokes, the late Canon H. P., on God the Father and God's House, 345 sq. College, 203 sq. Stonehouse (Gloucestershire), college Sigola, Constantine, 388 property in, 59, 254, 263 Sissel, Davy, 258, 261 a toft called Eylowys, 192 ancestor of the Cecils, 261 sq. chaplain or vicar of, 255, 263, 264 Skeel, Miss C. A. J., on the Council in Story, Robert, 278, 382 the Marches of Wales, 436 sqq. Stourbridge (Stybryg) fair, commission acknowledgments, 443 n. 8 for Syclyng at, 252 Skelton, John, 269 Stoyle, Thomas, Vice-Chancellor, 183 Skymere, William, 149 Smyth, Dominus, fellow, 278, 382 n. 3 John, Vice-Chancellor, 272 William, 182 sq. John, rector of Hedingham Sible, Strangways, Thomas, 396 167 n. 4 Striguil, see Chepstow John, rector of Fendrayton, 421 Strymsser, Sir, 279 William, bishop of Lincoln, 439 sq., Sudbury, Suffolk, 206, 307 All Hallows church, 307 443 Friars of, 307 Sneinton church, Nottingham, 163 St Peter's church, 307 Sogborne, Richard, 229 n. 5 Suffolk, William de la Pole, marquis Somer, William, 149 (1444) and duke (1448) of, 66, 80 Somerset, John, duke of, and Margaret county of, college property in, 102 sq. his wife, daily prayers for, in the see also Thurlow Magna College, 72 John, Chancellor of the Exchequer, 50, Sutton, Thomas de, Chancellor of the University, 244 394 Soper, Mr, solicitor to the Lady Margaret, Sutton Bingham, Somerset, 19 Swainson, Dr C. A., Master of Christ's 287 n. 3,429 Southwell, 4 College (1881-7), 150 Spalding, prior and convent, 17 Swavesey, parish of, 417 sq. Spensar, Robert, fellow, 186, 382 prior of, 417, 418 Stable, Richard, 399 Swayn, William, 321

INDEX

474

Swynford, Thomas, prior of Tomes, 49 Syclyng, John, sixth Proctor of Godshouse, first Master of Christ's College, 201-312 passim, 379 early years as Proctor of Godshouse, 215-50 later years as Proctor of Godshouse, 251-79 rector of Fendrayton, 188 n. 1, 203, 211, 217, 237 sq., 251, 422 president of Ralph Barton, 208, 215 sqq. visit to the western properties, 251 sqq. sheet of memoranda, 252 sq. letter from Philip Morgan, 257-62 actions in court of council of marches, 256,439-45; in ecclesiastical courts, 255 building operations, 267, 276 sqq., 293, 315, 333 sq-, 339 sq. Lady Margaret, audiences with, 259 sq., 283 enquiries from, 240, 284 sq. his replies to, 240, 285 sq., 406, 410, 415 contact with Fisher, 230 n. 3, 281 sqq., 311

statutes, his bond to observe the, 292, 294, 301 sq., 303 services to the college little known, 311 fellow of Corpus Christi while fellow (later Proctor) of Godshouse, 112 n. 2,161,203 sqq., 207, 251, 310

fellowship at Corpus, 203-12, 251, 310 Corpus Christi fellowship vacated in 1496, 2 i i , 217, 238, 251 dealings with Corpus, 212 sqq., 276, 277. 308, 315, 339 sq. academical career, 204,206, 282 senior proctor of the university, 227 sqq., 282, 310 second term, 268-73, 282 sq., 310 services to the university, 230 sqq., 268 sqq., 282 sq., 310 frequent journeyings, 230 sqq., 236, 268 sq., 283

Syclyng, John (cont.) commissary to collect for university's public church, 235 sqq., 270, 377 member, perhaps secretary, of important syndicate, 272 sq., 282 sq., 378 supposed' brawling' explained, 273 sqq. supposed 'bad debts' explained, 275 sq. arms, 212 autographs, 252, 253, pi. ix facing 295 spelling of name, 203 date of death, 212, 305 sq. probable age, 312 will, 305, 306-310, 316, 422; transcribed, 306 sqq. bequests to the college, 306, 337 burial in the chapel, 306, 311 sq., 316 monumental brass, 311 sq., 339 casual references, 103, 145, 188, 328, 382, 408, 427, 429. 432 Syclyng family, 206 n. 1,281 sq., 307,308 George, 307, 308 Jane, of Medam, 307, 308 Jane, 'my older syster,' 307, 308 John, 307, 308 Sygar, Henry, fellow, 83,201 sq., 278,382 Sylvester, Gabriel, Master of Clare Hall, 272, 284 n. 1 Symonds (Symon), William, 85, 144 Sympson, Robert, 399 Syndicate of the university, letter of appointment, 272 sq.; transcribed, 378 Syon, convent of, 102 foundation, 47 n. 1, 153, 403, 428 claim to advowson of Navenby, 81, 153 sq., 175, 195, 286, 428 sq.; arbitration and award, 429 Inspexitnus of Henry VII, 195, 428 abbess of, Elizabeth (i486), 195, 428 Talbot, John de, earl of Shrewsbury, 387 Roger, 388 Tamworth, Christopher, 278, 382 William, 420, 421 Tanner, Thomas, on Hospitals, 81 Tapton, Hugh, fellow, 64, 153, 383 Tasker, Thomas, 267, 383 Taverner, Thomas, 310

INDEX Terrington (Tyryngton) church, Norfolk, 13,180, 421 Thomason, John, 229 n. 5 Thomlyn, William, 229 n. 5 Thompsoft, Dr John, third Master of Christ's College (1508-17), 84,221 n. 3, 253 n. 1, 257 n. 1, 267, 268, 312, 423 date of succession, 312, 328 n. 1 his chapel in St John's College, 327 sq. Thorney abbey, 62 Thorpe, John, 153,173 Sir Robert de, 426 William de, 426 n. 1 Thorpe Edmer, 20 Thurgarton priory, 4 Thurlow Magna college property in, 103, 256 sq., 413, 416 lumbardeswood in, 256 sq., 413, 416 Lumbards' Wood Farm, 257, 413 vicars of, 144, 193, 256, 257 n. 1, 264, 265, 285 sq., 415, 416 arbitration with Christ's College, 257. 416 rectory, 412, 413 vicarage, 285 n. 4, 412 Hospital of St James in, 81 sq., 193, 285, 286 n. 1, 412-16 grant of, 81 sq., 102 sq.; transcribed, 372 sq.

wardens of, 82,103, 414 sq. Thyrlbern, John, 307, 308 Rose, 307 Thomas, the elder, 307, 309 the younger, 307 Thyrlbern family of Fendrayton, 309,422 Tiltey, abbot and convent of, 76, 92,185 garden by the river, conditional arrangement for lease, 26 n. 3, 27 their Preacher Street property, 27, 66 n. 5, 69, 71, 75, 76, 91, 97 sq., 151, 156, 160, 181, 185, 241, 289, 313 Simon Pabbenham, abbot, 27 Toft, William, 175 sq., 193 sq., 218, 270 Toft (Cambridgeshire), rector and rectory, 258

475

Tofte, Thomas, 219 Totehull chapel, diocese of London, 420 Totnes, prior and priory, 49, 53,142,143, 144, 194, 218, 219, 220, 263, 265, 408, 416 Thomas Swynford, prior, 49 Training colleges for teachers in the fifteenth century, 38 Travel in the fifteenth century, 232 sqq., 268 sq., 271 Trellage parsonage, 101,121 Trelleck, 77 Tresham, Sir William, speaker of the House of Commons, 72 executor of Brokley's will, 72, 384, 385 Treton, Richard de, 426 William, 429 Trinity Great Court and Godshouse, areas compared, 313 Trinity Hall, n o , 244, 345 acknowledgments, vii Dymok's manuscript preserved in, ion. 2 sale of the site of the Old Court of King's College, 24, 44, 183 n. 2, 394 sq. its law lecturer, 299 n. 8 casual references, 13, 28, 33, 239, 327, 343 Trusts for uses, 15, 1:2, 116 Turk, Sir Robert, to be prayed for at Michaelhouse, 9 'Turkeschildren' at Michaelhouse, 9 Tybey, Thomas, a monk, ? prior, of Chepstow, 59 Tybey (Tilney), John, 59, 77, 80, 388 Byngham's tribute, 5, 93 named in Godshouse licences, 51, 55, 75, 86, 107, 110 sqq. Tyryngton see Terrington University, see Oxford and Cambridge Usk, 77, 78 Uvedale, Sir William, 440 Vaghan, alias Ferrour, William, 254 Values, nominal and real, 140 sq., 146 sqq., 175 sq., 404, 408, 430, 432

476

INDEX

Vandeleke, Gerard, 387 Vice-Chancellor, see under Cambridge University, officers Virgil, included in course of study, 300

Warwick, College of St Mary, 399 Watford, 392 Watnowe, William, 17 n. 8 Watson, Richard, fellow, 278, 383 Welham, William de, 420 Wabugge, forest of, co. Huntingdon, 396 Wells, cathedral church of, 18 sq. Waldingfield, Great (Mekellan Aldyng- Weobley (Herefordshire), college property in, 142, 143, 218, 219, 252, feld), 307 264, 265, 406 Wales, marches of, 261, 407 administration, 78 sq., 254 sqq., 436-45 West Mersea, Essex, 399 documents from Christ's College, 436- Westchester, co. Chester, 387 Westmill, Hertfordshire, 17 45 college property in, 59,77,79,251 sqq., Westminster, 99, 231 sqq., 269 Whaddon, vicar of [Thomas Taverner], 260 sq. 286, 436-45 see also Chepstow, Craswall, Ewyas 307, 309 sq. Lacy, Weobley, Yarkhill church, 307 legal actions against tenants, in the Wheathamstead [John], abbot of St civil court, 256, 439-45; in the Albans, 393 ecclesiastical courts, 255, 256 Whitch, Gloucestershire, 59 Syclyng's visit to, 251 sqq. White Friars, in Cambridge, 23, 27 Wall, Adam (1728-98), fellow Whitstones, James, 284 n. 1 on the licence of 9 February, 1442, i n Wiat [John], fellow 1523, 234 on the Borough Green property, 195 Wilflete, William, Dean of the College n. 4 of Stoke by Clare, 61 n. 3, 172 Wall, John, 227 sq. Master of Clare Hall, 100,161, 172 Walsh, John, 387 Chancellor of the University,^172 Waltham, 232, 233 William ap Gryffyth ap Maddocke, John de, 420 252 sq., 256, 445 Warboys, William, 9 Willis and Clark on the bishop's licence Warby, John, 62 of 1506, 315; see also Clark, J W. Ward, John, 307, 309, 383 Willoughby, Richard de, 3 Wills, making of, in the fifteenth century, Thomas, 237, 276 Wardall, Anna, 249 sq. 8 sq., 207, 305 John, 249 Wilok, John, 10 Thomas, 229 n. 5 Wimborne (Dorset) .collegiate church, 350 Warde, Henry, 229 n. 5 Winchester, Richard Fox, bishop of, 198 Ware, 232 Winchester College, 343 Windsor, College of St George, n o , 350 alien priory of, 20 Withersfield, Suffolk, 257 Warren, John, earl, 13 Warren (Warrens Book), on the name Wodlark, Robert, Provost of King's, founder of St Catharine's, 18 n. 5, 'Domus Dei,' 345 sq. Warwick (Warwyk), Alice, 249 sq. 93.344 Guy, canon of Ixworth priory, 249 sq. fellow of Clare Hall, 5, 92 sq. John, senior, 249 Byngham's tribute, 5, 92 sq. junior, 249 executor of Sara Beket's will, 100 Stephen, 249 Woodward, W. H., on the incomes of tenement of, 159 sq., 249 sq. Cambridge fellows in the reign of Thomas, 249 Elizabeth, 434 sq.

INDEX Woolhope Field Club, 405 Worcester, diocese of, tenants in, 255 bishop of, tnan^amiit tO, 255 Worstede, Agnes, 395 Worthyngton, Gilbert, 137, 397,399 sq. petitions parliament, 11, 400 cofeoffee with Byngham, 62, 63 named in Godshouse licences, 75, 86, 399 death and will, 82 sq., 201, 400 bequests to Godshouse and Byngham, 83, 201

Worthyngton, Hugh, 400 Rafe, 400 Walter, 400 William, fellow, 278 sq., 383 Wraby, John, 390 Wragby (Wrawby) church, Lincolnshire, 108 n. 1, 163 Writtle, Essex, 81 Wryght, Christofer, 229 n. 5 Wyatt, Richard, second Master of Christ's College (1506-8), 160,250 n. 1, 305, 312, 408 his acquittance, 268, 317 n. 3 date of resignation, 268, 312, 328 n. 1 rector of Bingham, 17 n. 8, 312 Wycheford, 229 n. 5 Wychester, college property at, 263, 264 Wydeville, Sir John, 397

477

Wyfold, Alice, 385 Isabel, 385 Katherine, 384 sq. Margaret, 385 Nicholas, 383 sqq. Wykeham, William of, 343 Wylson, Henry, 383, 427 Wymbill, William, Master of Clare Hall (1421-45), Chancellor of the University (1426), 59, 65, 112 Byngham's tribute, 5, 93 named in Godshouse licences, 50, 52, 53, 54. 55, 107, n o sq. death referred to, 5 n. 1, 74, 82,93 n. I, 112, 116

Wymbych, Nicholas, 161 Wydilakyngton, prebend of, 18 Yarkhill (Herefordshire), college property in, 144, 219, 220, 252, 256, 261, 263, 265, 406, 439 sqq., 445 due called 'ninth sheaf' in, 406 sq., 441 sq. Yaxle, or Yaxley, Thomas, abbot of Sawtry, 179 n. 2 York, Richard, duke of, father of Edward IV, see Richard Zachary, 'a monk named,' 7, 8 Zenobius de Mulakinis, 388

CAMBRIDGE: PRINTED BY WALTER LEWIS, M.A., AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS