A HISTORY OF NORFOLK According to confessions made by one John Tumour of Old Buckenham on 2+ May, 1537, before Richard Southwell and others, a week before the previous Palm Sunday, lie had been told by John Lok that Hugh Wilkinson had offered him an angel noble to kill the king's visitors in their beds that night at Buckenham Abbey. Other confessions made at the same time seem to show that there was no plot of the kind, but merely some vague talk reflecting a certain amount of popular indignation at the suppression.' Immediately on its suppression. Sir Edmund Knevett, of Buckenham Castle, obtained a lease of the priory site and demesne lands.^ Priors of Old Buckenham William,' occurs 12 16 Walter,^ elected 1 22 I Hugh,' elected 1269 Richard de Otteley,* elected 1286 John de Multon,' elected 1307 Nicholas de Cotton,' elected 1327 Hugh de Brom,' elected 1329 William de Spykeworth,'" elected 1354 William de Bonham," elected 13S1 Roger Carleton,'- elected 1402 John Norwich, elected 1437 "Bartholomew Melles," elected 145 I John Whalley," elected 1458 John Bukenham,^^ 1480 John Plattynge,*' elected 1493 John Millgate,'* occurs 1514, last prior 25. THE PRIORY OF COXFORD William Cheney founded a priory of Austin Canons, temp. Stephen, in the church of St. Mary, East Rudham. About the beginning of the reign of Henry III the priory was removed to the eastern boundary of the parish at a place called Cotesford or Coxford. John Cheney, the nephew of the original founder, granted to the canons the churches of East and West Rudham, together with land, mills, fishponds, &c., in those parishes. This charter is undated ; but the witnesses prove that it was between 1 1 46 and 1 149." Hervey Beleth, lord of East Rudham, whose mother was the daughter of John Cheney, gave the manor of East Rudham and lands in several ' L. and P. Hen. Vlll , xii (
- 0. 579-
' Aug. Off. Bks. ccix, fol. 8 5- ' Blomefield, Hist. 0/ Nor/. i, 387-
- Ibid.
Ibid. ' Ibid. ' Norw. Epis. Reg. ■ i, 26. » Pat. I Edw. Ill, pt. i, m. 16. ' Norw. Epis. Reg • 11, 29. » Ibid, iv, 154. " Ibid. vi, 75- " Ibid. 282. " Ibid. X, 9. " Ibid, xi, 27. Ibid. 105. " Ibid, xli, 79. " Blomefield, Hist. ofSorf. i, 388. " lessopp, No/TV. Visit. 44. " Dugdale, Mon. vi, 369 i Blomcfi eld, Hist, oj Nor/.vn, 153. other townships, about 1215, to these canons, and placed the maintenance of the hospital for poor folk of his founding at Boycodeswade in their hands.^ In 1227 Henry III granted the prior a fair on the feast of the Translation of St. Thomas of Canterbury and the two following days.-' A yearly fair was also granted to the priory in 1 25 I on their manor at Rudham, on the vigil, morrow and feast of St. Barnabas."^ The hundred rolls of 1273-4 show that the prior of Coxford claimed a lete in Rudham, and held certain tenements in both East and West Rudham, together with the churches and the church of Houghton in free alms, as the gift of Hervey Beleth. He also held thirty acres of land, the gift of Nicholas de Beriner, which had been alienated to him in the time of Henry III." The taxation of 1291 showed that this priory had rents, &c., in forty-two Norfolk parishes, which were reckoned at the annual value of j^i44 1 9 J. i,d. In 1293 William de Say, son and heir of Geoffrey Lord Say and Alice his wife (who was one of the daughters and co-heirs of Sir John Cheney), died seised of the patronage of the priory. Geoffrey Lord Say had confirmed to the canons all the gifts of William and John Cheney, and William de Say added to them the church of St. Margaret at Thorpe Market." Licence was granted in 1326 for the aliena- tion by Maud de Tony to Coxford Priory of 3 messuages, 100 acres of land, 100 acres of pasture, and ioj. rent in Grimston, Congham, Roydon, Weavling, and Appleton, to find a chaplain to celebrate daily in the chapel of St. Katherine, lately built by her in the church- yard of Appleton for the souls of Maud, Robert her husband, and all the faithful ; in lieu of a licence granted her in 1320 to assign the same to West Acre priory.-' The Valor of 1535 gives the gross anniail value of the priory as ;^I53 "Js. iti., and the clear annual value ;^I2I i8j. io|^i^. Archbishop Peckham visited the priory in January, 1 28 1, and found so lax a state of dis- cipline that he subsequently sent the prior a long letter,-^ in which he says that he had found him lacking in religious zeal, not attending divine service regularly, and failing to control his sub- ordinates, so that by his negligence the canons go out coursing with hounds, attend banquets, chat with girls, and bring the house into contempt, causing it to be a scandal and a jest to the neigh- bourhood. Nor did he show care or diligence " Blomefield, Hiit. o/Norf. vii, 153. " Chart. R. 1 1 Hen. Ill, pt. i, m. 7. " Ibid. 35 Hen. Ill, m. 10. " Hund. R. (Rec. Com.), i, 452-3, 535. " Dugdale, Baronage, i, 5 1 1 . " Pat. 19 Edw. II, pt. ii, m. 22. '* Reg. Efts. Peckham (Rolls Scr.), i, 162-5. 378
