A HISTORY OF NORFOLK to the castle of Mettingham, where it remained until its dissolution.^ Richard Shelton, the master, and nine chap- lains, signed their acknowledgement of the royal supremacy of 28 September, 1534.^ The Valor of 1535, when Richard Skelton was master, gives the clear annual value of the temporalities in Suffolk and Norfolk of the col- lege of the Blessed Virgin of Mettingham as £,i<)i lOJ. d., and of the rectories of Ravening- ham and Norton as jTio ijs. ^d., giving a total clear annual value of jTaoa "]$. <,d. It also appears from the Valor that the college supported fourteen boys in the house and gave them education as well as board, lodging, and clothes, at an annual charge of ^^28. The college was surrendered to the crown on 8 April, 1542. The surrender was signed by Thomas bishop of Ipswich, as master or warden, with the consent of his fellows or chaplains.' On 14 April of the same year the college with all its possessions was granted to Sir Anthony Denny.* This Denny was clerk of the Privy Chamber and keeper of Westminster Palace, and profited much by monastic and collegiate plunder. A letter from Robert Dacres of the Privy Council to Anthony Denny, dated 13 May, 1542, states that his profit had been advanced as well among the chaplains of the college as the tenants. There were secured for him two great chalices and a great pix of silver and parcel-gilt, divers rich corporas cases, and nineteen massive silver spoons, as well as palls of silk, &c. The college, notwithstanding the obsequious and servile wording of the ' voluntary ' surrender, had made some endeavour to conceal certain church goods and other property from the legalized marauders ; but 'one simple priest being well examined gave light to all these things, and then all the other priests confessed.' ' Masters of Raveningham College' Thomas Boyton, 1349 Alexander de Boyne, 1355 Adam Wyard, 1 36 1 John de Carlton Rode, 1375 Roger Wiltey, 1380 113. THE COLLEGE OFRUSHWORTH' Sir Edmund de Gonvile, founder of Gonvile Hall, Cambridge, was both rector and patron of ' Pat. 18 Ric. II, pt. i, m. 14. ' Dep. Keeper's Rep. vii, App. 2, p. 86. ' Rymer, Foedera, xiv, 746-7, where the document is cited at length.
- Pat. 33 Hen. viii, pt. vi, m. 3.
'L. and P. Hen. VIII, xvii, 322. " From Blomefield, corrected by the episcopal Registers. ' ' The College of St. John Evangelist of Rush- worth,' A'or/: ^rc^. x, 277-380, a most able and exhaus- tive paper by Rev. Dr. Bennet, F.S.A. ; Blomefield, Hist, of Norf. i, 286-93 ; Dugdale, Mon. vi, 1 385-7 ; Taylor, Index Monastkus, 49, 50. Rushworth (now Rushford), when he formed the plan of making Rushworth a collegiate church. On 7 May, 1341, he obtained licence for the alienation in mortmain of a messuage in Rush- worth, and the rectory of the church for two chaplains to celebrate daily for his good estate in life, and for his soul after death, and for the souls of his ancestors and heirs.* In 1342, Sir Edmund resigned the rectory of Rushworth, and was instituted to that of Terrington, where he died in 1350. On his resignation the college was ordained on a larger scale than was at first intended, and consisted of a master or warden and four brethren or fellows. The fellows were to elect the master and present him at Larling, the principal seat of the Gonvilles, to the founder's heirs if there were any there residing ; he was then to be presented to the bishop and installed by mandate to the archdeacon. The church was appropriated to the college without any endowment for a vicar, for the cure of the parish was laid upon the master, who had to pay eight marks for firstfruits at the time of his appointment. The master and fellows were to lodge and board in the same house, and always to use a common table save when hindered by sickness. For other necessaries, such as clothing, the master was to have an annual stipend of 50J. and each of the fellows 30J. Any fellow leaving the college was to assign half his goods to the house. All were enjoined to lead honest, modest, quiet, peaceable, and chaste lives, quatenus humana per- mittit fragilitas. Offences were to be corrected by the master in chapter, more religiosorum. Collects for the founder and for their bene- factors, living and dead, were to be said daily in chapter after Mass. All the brethren, or at least four, were to rise at dawn and say mattins of Our Lady without music in the church of Rush- worth, and afterwards to sing mattins and the other canonical day hours according to the use of the diocese. There were to be four daily Masses : namely. High Mass, Lady Mass, and Mass for the departed, in the church ; and the Mass of the Holy Trinity, in the chapel annexed to their dormitory. The anniversary of Edmund Gonville was to be solemnly observed. All from the college, when- ever they were in the church, were to wear a white mantle or cope with hood or amice, save those who were in surplices or other ecclesiastical vestments. Outside the church they were to conduct themselves in gesture, dress, and in every particular as became honest clerks. They were forbidden to stay a single night away from the college without the express leave of the master or his deputy. The master was to present a complete balance-sheet every Michaelmas.' " Pat. 15 Edw. Ill, pt. i, m. 10. ' Dr. Bennet gives the original statutes of 1342 in Norf. Arch, x, 50-64. They were slightly revised in 1360 by Bishop Percy. The revised statutes are given in Archbishop Islip's Register, fol. 1631J, and are cited in the Monasticon, vi, 1386-7. 458
