DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.6913#0146
78
ARCHITECTURAL ANTIQUITIES.
nobleman also instituted a Priory here, and placed therein a prior and canons of the
order of St. Augustine. He built the " Priory Church, and gave the Chapel of our
Lady all the ground within the site of the church, eight acres of land, with 20*.
rent per ann. out of his manor, if the yearly value of the offerings of our Lady did
not exceed five marks."* Numerous benefactions and grants rapidly succeeded the
original endowment, and conferred stability and opulence on the infant institution.
In the tenth year of Henry the Third the prior and canons obtained the privilege
of a market and fair ; " and in the thirty-fifth year of that king they had the grant
(or confirmation) of the manor of Walsingham Parva, and a fair for eight days." In
the twenty-first year of Edward the First they were found to possess temporalities
and spiritualities, to the value of £157- 13*. 8d. per annum, which in those days was
a very considerable sum. About seven years afterwards they acquired a grant of
free warren in this town, and in Holkham and Burnham. Edward the Second, at
the solicitation of his Queen, Isabel, granted them "license of mortmain to the value
of forty marks per annum, and in part thereof to appropriate the church of St.
Peter's in Walsingham-Magna, the patronage of the priory being then, and long
before, in the Earls of Clare."f The same king further granted them a patent for
acquiring additional lands and tenements to the amount of forty pounds annual rent.
His successor, Edward III. likewise granted this establishment several licenses for
the acquisition and exchange of property ; as did also Henry the Fourth and Sixth.
Hence, and from the liberality of devotees, this priory attained a more elevated
rank, and a higher degree of prosperity and wealth, than most other priories in
England. Among the privileges possessed by its priors was that of " a mortuary of
every parishioner in the parish of Walsingham, of the second best animal, and if
there was but one, then of that." At its dissolution, which took place in the thirtieth
year of Henry VIII. its annual revenues were estimated, according to Dugdale, at
£391. lis. 7d. ob. or, as Speed, at £446. 14*. Ad. That its fate was not unmerited,
nor prejudicial to the cause of morality, is sufficiently manifested by the report of
the visitors, from which it appears that no fewer than six of the canons " confessed
themselves guilty of notorious incontinency ; and that great superstition and much
forgery was found in their feigned, pretended relicks and miracles." J The site of
this priory was sold, shortly after its suppression, to Thomas Sydney, Gent, for the
sum of £90. The manor, town, and priory, now belong to Henry Lee Warner,
Esq. who has built a mansion here, on the site of the priory.
* Blomefield ubi sup. f Ibid. \ Compend. Compert. from Bloraefield ubi sup.
ARCHITECTURAL ANTIQUITIES.
nobleman also instituted a Priory here, and placed therein a prior and canons of the
order of St. Augustine. He built the " Priory Church, and gave the Chapel of our
Lady all the ground within the site of the church, eight acres of land, with 20*.
rent per ann. out of his manor, if the yearly value of the offerings of our Lady did
not exceed five marks."* Numerous benefactions and grants rapidly succeeded the
original endowment, and conferred stability and opulence on the infant institution.
In the tenth year of Henry the Third the prior and canons obtained the privilege
of a market and fair ; " and in the thirty-fifth year of that king they had the grant
(or confirmation) of the manor of Walsingham Parva, and a fair for eight days." In
the twenty-first year of Edward the First they were found to possess temporalities
and spiritualities, to the value of £157- 13*. 8d. per annum, which in those days was
a very considerable sum. About seven years afterwards they acquired a grant of
free warren in this town, and in Holkham and Burnham. Edward the Second, at
the solicitation of his Queen, Isabel, granted them "license of mortmain to the value
of forty marks per annum, and in part thereof to appropriate the church of St.
Peter's in Walsingham-Magna, the patronage of the priory being then, and long
before, in the Earls of Clare."f The same king further granted them a patent for
acquiring additional lands and tenements to the amount of forty pounds annual rent.
His successor, Edward III. likewise granted this establishment several licenses for
the acquisition and exchange of property ; as did also Henry the Fourth and Sixth.
Hence, and from the liberality of devotees, this priory attained a more elevated
rank, and a higher degree of prosperity and wealth, than most other priories in
England. Among the privileges possessed by its priors was that of " a mortuary of
every parishioner in the parish of Walsingham, of the second best animal, and if
there was but one, then of that." At its dissolution, which took place in the thirtieth
year of Henry VIII. its annual revenues were estimated, according to Dugdale, at
£391. lis. 7d. ob. or, as Speed, at £446. 14*. Ad. That its fate was not unmerited,
nor prejudicial to the cause of morality, is sufficiently manifested by the report of
the visitors, from which it appears that no fewer than six of the canons " confessed
themselves guilty of notorious incontinency ; and that great superstition and much
forgery was found in their feigned, pretended relicks and miracles." J The site of
this priory was sold, shortly after its suppression, to Thomas Sydney, Gent, for the
sum of £90. The manor, town, and priory, now belong to Henry Lee Warner,
Esq. who has built a mansion here, on the site of the priory.
* Blomefield ubi sup. f Ibid. \ Compend. Compert. from Bloraefield ubi sup.