A HISTORY OF NORFOLK fixed the possessions of the see as well as those of the priory.' The taxation roll of Pope Nicholas, 1291, yields ;^489 Js. 2d. as the total annual value of the priory. Of this sum £^6 is. came under spiritualities, consisting of portions or pensions from twenty-eight parish churches in the arch- deaconries of Norwich, Norfolk, and Suffolk, varying in amount from 41. to ^^4. Of the temporalities, £1,^ 91. <,d. came from different parishes in the city of Norwich. The five places that yielded the largest incomes outside the city were — 'Sechford,' £-jb i8j. ^d. ; Hemsby and Winterton, £j^i ls. 2d. ; and Hindol- veston, ^TiS OS. J^d. The Fa/or EccUsiasticus shows a great advance in the annual value of the priory during two and a half centuries, for the income was then esti- mated at ;^i,o6i 14;. 2ti^- The increase largely arose from the considerable number of appro- priations of churches that had been gained during that period by the priory. In the county of Norfolk the priory then held the appropriations of thirty rectories, as well as of two moieties of rectories. These produced an income of ;^207 65. 10^^., the largest being Bishops Lynn ^^38 13J. 4^/., and the smallest contents ; a somewhat more extended description is to be found in Hist. MSS. Com. Rep. i, 881-9 '■ — 1. A small folio, written about 1300, but with later insertions. It contains the history of the foundation of the monastery and the estab- lishment of the see at Norwich, and tran- scripts of royal charters, papal bulls, grants from benefactors, and general title deeds up to about the end of Edward I's reign. 2. The Almoner's Register, chiefly of the time of Edward II and Edward III, and in the main concerned with properties pertaining to the almoner's office. 3. A register, written about the end of the fifteenth century, treating of the liberties of the priory, particularly against the city of Norwich. 4. A small quarto volume chiefly devoted to charters and grants by bishops of Norwich to the priory. 5. A small quarto volume, known as the ' Celerer's Boke,' mostly in the writing of Ralph de Elingham, cellarer, in 1282. 6. Another small quarto, known as the Chamber- lain's Book, of about the same date as the last. 7. A small register giving the charter of founda- tion and other charters and bulls ; this is also of Edward I's reign. 8. A paper volume of copies of deeds, the oldest of them transcribed in the fourteenth century. 9. Proficuum Maneriorum Prioris et Conventus, compiled in the reigns of Edward II and Edward III. 10. A miscellaneous collection of deeds, ttmp. Edward I and Edward IV. 11. An interesting volume of various dates, known as the Sacrists' Register. 12. Miscellaneous deeds temp. Edward III. Riston £^ 13;. s^d. They also held three small rectories in Suffolk, which added £^<^ 6j. bd. to their income. In addition to this they possessed the city rectories of St. Paul, St. James, St. Gregory, St. Giles, St. Martin Coslany, St, Martin at the Palace Gates, St. John Berstreet,. St. John de Sepulchre, St. George Colegate, and St. Peter Parmentergate ; these together with the tithes of the gardens of the Carmelites, produced an income of £1. 1 I s. %d. The commissioners made an entry to the effect that the priory also held the city rectories of All Saints Fybridge, St. Vedast, St. Saviour Fybridge, St. Cross, St. Mary the Little, St. Cuthbert, and St. Etheldreda, but that no claim had been made for many years on the parishioners of these churches in consequence of the poverty of the inhabitants. A further sum of ;^23 s. 40'. issued from over thirty pensions from religious- houses to which churches had been appropriated ;. a small pension to the cathedral being the usual condition of episcopal licence to appropriate. Old established portions or pensions from different parishes brought in ^^16. The small sum of ^^3 1 3$. Zd. represented the offerings made that year at three shrines in the hands of the priory, viz. £2. 19/. "jd. at the The Ledger Books begin in 1538, and the Chapter Act Books in 1566. The two large folio volumes of Tanner's MS. collections for Norwich diocese contain valuable excerpts from the episcopal registers and from many other documents (some of which have since dis- appeared), arranged according to parishes. Tanner was chancellor of Norwich and archdeacon of Norfolk before he became bishop of St. Asaph. At the British Museum there is a single manu- script of some value pertaining to the history of the priory, namely, Stowe MS. 936, a terrier or rental of Norwich Priory, covering 1 1 5 folios, and of early four- teenth-century date. It is imperfect at the begin- ning ; the lands specified are all in the county of Norfolk, viz. Hindringham, Hindolveston, Newton,. Eaton St. Andrew, Taverham, Elmham, Catton,. Plumstead, and Martham. The names and hold- ings of the tenants are set forth in full detail. The manuscripts given by Archbishop Parker to- Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, included a valuable customary of this Benedictine Priory. In Stanley's catalogue of this library, printed in 1722,. it is thus described : ' N. xxxvi. Consuetudines Ec- clesiae Norviccnsis seu Ordinare vel Brevarium Nor- vici in usu per annum, cum Calendario ad initium libri.' The old customary has not been printed, but an expert states that it is on much the same lines as the- customaries of Westminster and Canterbury, recently edited by Sir E. M. Thompson for the Henry Brad- shaw Society. Reference is made later on to the fine collection of Obedientiary Rolls of this priory extant at Nor- wich, and to a few of the same series now at the Bodleian. ' Hist. Eccl. Nor. Bodleian MS. 8 B xvi, 2, cited in Dugdale, Mon. iv, 15-16. 318
