Page:The History of the Church & Manor of Wigan part 1.djvu/41

 moreover to have held lands and manors in more than half a dozen counties, most of which were afterwards given by Simon de Montfort to his son Simon.

He founded a house of regular canons at Romney in Kent, and also a priory for regular canons of the order of St. Augustine at Bilsington in the same county, to whom he gave his manor of Bilsington superior or East Bilsington, all his lands at Polre and Gozehale, and also his lands at Ecche, and of which he nominated William as the first Prior.

It is probable that he was a benefactor to the University of Oxford, for the executors of John Pontysera, bishop of Winchester, gave to that University the sum of two hundred marks for the use of the Masters and Scholars, on the following conditions, namely, that on the eve of St. Nicholas annually, the said bishop should be commemorated in a mass for the dead, with special remembrance made of John Maunsell and John, nephew of the bishop, and that every year the priest making circuit of the schools with the bedel should recite the names of the aforesaid persons; and that at the commencement and close of each term, and in processions and masses celebrated by the University, special remembrance should be made of the said persons. A chest should be provided for the money so bequeathed, and needy scholars of all faculties should be allowed to borrow from the chest as follows: "A regent Master may borrow forty shillings, a non-regent two marks and a half, a bachelor two marks, a sophist one mark, and every scholar thus borrowing shall be bound to say for the souls of the aforesaid persons the Lord's prayer and the Ave Maria each five times." The University accepted the bequest and promised to fulfil the conditions.

At an inquisition taken on the death of John Maunsell lately deceased, in 1265, with respect to certain houses of his in London, the jury stated that they were ignorant who was his nearest heir,