RELIGIOUS HOUSES charter further provided that if the founder, or the king, or any of their successors should here- after secure the conversion of the priory into an abbey, that then all tokens of subjection to St. Albans should cease. A near relative of the founder, Richard de Albini, was at that time abbot of St. Albans (1097-1119), and gave his formal assent to this arrangement. William de Albini, the founder, and Maud his wife, who was the daughter of Roger Bigod, earl of Norfolk, richly endowed the priory with lands, churches, tithes, and rents, chiefly at Wymondham, Buckenham, Happisburgh, and Snettisham. Soon after the completion of the church, the founder showed his practical in- terest in the worship there conducted, by aug- menting his original grant so that the monks should hold the meadows and lands before their church doors, and thus escape molestation during the time of divine service by the noise of passengers. For this purpose he obtained the royal licence to divert the highway which ran close by the church, and turned it by his own house. William de Albini, the grandson of the foun- der, confirmed all the original foundation, to- gether with the considerable additions made by his father, which included the advowson of the church of Besthorpe, and liberty of fishing one day and night in all his moats and new fisheries, namely the day and night before the anniversary or obit of the founder.^ The taxation of 1 29 1 assigned to the priory an annual income of ;^I53 is. 2^d. ; at that time it held property in no fewer than forty- three Norfolk parishes. Boniface IX in 1399 sanctioned the appro- priation to the prior and convent of Wymond- ham (whose endowments were formerly sufficient fortwentymonks,but were then greatly reduced) of the perpetual vicarage of St. Mary's, Wymond- ham. The value of the vicarage did not exceed thirty marks, and that of the priory 600 marks. Upon the resignation or death of the vicar, they might have the church served by one of their monks, or by a secular priest, removable at will by the prior. ^ The Valor of 1535 gives the clear annual value of the abbey at ^^21 1 lbs. 6^d. Nigel, the first prior, is named in the charter by which the founder gave to the monastery his manor and church of Happisburgh. This was granted at the time of the interment of his wife, and he confirmed his donation by offering upon the high altar a silver cross in which were ' There is a good chartulary or register of this priory at the B.M. (Cott. MSS. Titus C. viii), of which an analysis is given in the Monast'uon. Blomefield and Dugdale have made good use of it, and reproduced the more valuable parts ; but it has been carefully searched for the purpose of this sketch, more especially for the list of the priors. ' Pap. Reg. v, 192. 2 337 many precious relics, including a fragment of the true cross. Ralph de Miers, a monk of St. Albans, was chosen prior in 1160, through the influence of Robert, the eighteenth abbot of St. Albans, and imposed upon the priory. With this direct violation of the charter of the founder of Wymondham began the unhappy strife that kept breaking out for the next three centuries between the great abbey and its strenuous vassal. Ralph is described by the chronicler of St. Albans as a religious but passionate man. Soon after his appointment the tenants of Happisburgh refused their dues and services to the prior, upon which Ralph, with the convent servants, and aided by the servants of William de Albini, earl of Arundel, the founder's son, broke open the doors of the tenants, and seized the goods of some and the persons of others. Whereupon the tenants, with their broken locks, set off for St. Albans to represent their case to the abbot as their superior lord. The abbot proceeded to Wymondham with a considerable retinue and forcibly entered the priory, and was in his turn resisted by the earl of Arundel. Very full details of the dispute and of the consequent actions are given by Walsingham ; but the result was that the abbot mostly gained his way, set at defiance the enactments of the founder of Wymondham, and boldly claimed the right of the abbots to visit Wymondham just as often- and as long as they pleased, and to appoint the- priors, whom they henceforth nominated or recalled almost at pleasure, without reference tc» the convent of Wymondham or their patron.* In the time of Stephen, the prior obtained the grant of a three days' fair at Wymondham on the eve, day and morrow of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin, and also a confirmation of the weekly market. In 1 21 7 Alexander de Langley was appointed prior by William, twenty-second abbot of St. Albans, at the instance of the Earl of Arundel, but was soon recalled on the plea of unfitness for the post. In the place of Alexander the abbot appointed Ralph de Stanham, who was often called Ralph of Whitby, as he had formerly been a monk and then prior of that house.^ Soon after Ralph de Whitby's appointment. Abbot William visited Wymondham, with the result that Prior Ralph was speedily recalled on the plea of wasting the revenues of the cell, and court- ing the favour of the Earl of Arundel, the patron. Ralph retired to a hermitage assigned to him by his old priory of Whitby, and there ended his days after some years of holy living.' In the place of Prior Whitby, the abbot appointed William de Feschamp, but he was successfully objected to by the Earl of Arundel, as patron of the ' Gcsta Abbatum 166-75.
- Ibid, i, 260.
Mon. S. Albani (Rolls Ser.), i. Ibid. 272, 43 274.
