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Rh John Horwood, occurs 1388, died 1410 William Horwood, elected 1410 John Wells, elected 1492, died 1503 Thomas Wright, elected 1503, resigned Robert Boston, elected 1504, resigned 1515 John Ashby, last prior elected 1515

Pointed oval seal, one side of which is chipped, attached to a charter bearing the date 1209, represents the prior standing on a corbel holding a book. Legend, partly de- faced, runs :. . . ILL' PRIORIS DE BRADEWEL.

There is no record of the existence of this priory earlier than 1219 ; and the charter of confirmation granted by Henry III. in 1228 names Ralf Martel as the founder, and donor of the demesne land with the chapel of Tat- tenhoe. Several smaller benefactions were confirmed at the same time, but they are not connected with any well-known names. The priory was dedicated to St. Leonard, and it is probable that it was never intended to sup- port more than about half a dozen monks. Like the other Benedictine houses of this county, it has very little history. A visita- tion of Bishop Burghersh, dated 1321, de- scribes it as so poor that the monks had scarcely the necessaries of life, and had to beg even for these ; an indulgence was granted at this time to those who should contribute to their support. Again in 1490 the prior of Snelshall was presented to the archdeacon for not paying tithes to Shenley Church for lands which lay in that parish. In 1529 Bishop Longland visited the house and evidently found some irregularity amongst the two or three monks who remained. He ordered the prior, William Maltby, on pain of deprivation, to observe the purpose of the foundation and to see that others did the same : and enjoined him also within ten days to dismiss all women, married or unmarried, from the precincts of the monastery, retaining only two of more than forty-eight years and of unexceptionable character as servants. There were to be three brothers in the house besides the prior, and no strangers were to be entertained except in the way of hospitality.

In 1535, after the passing of the first Act of Suppression, the local commissioners reported that there were only three monks in the house, two priests and one only a novice, and none of them guilty of immorality ; that there were eight servants also living in the monastery, as well as the prior's father and mother, who had brought all their goods with them, and hoped to spend their old age there. The house was said to be ' wholly in ruin ' : but it was not in debt.

William Maltby, the prior, with two monks had signed the Acknowledgment of the Royal Supremacy in the same year. At the sur- render of the house, which must have been before 28 July, 1535, he received an annual pension of £5 The original endowment of the priory by Ralf Martel comprised the land on which it stood, with ' husbote and haybote ' in the woods of Tattenhoe, sufficient for fuel and building purposes, and of underwood enough for making bread and beer, and quittance of pannage for hogs. The chapel of Tattenhoe was also granted to the monks with a virgate of land, and some small parcels of land in the neighbourhood and in Northamptonshire.

The temporalities of the priory in 1291 amounted to £8 14s. 8d. ; the chapel of Tattenhoe seems only to have been worth 13s. 4d. A taxation of 1383 only amounted to £6 19s. 3d. besides the chapel. The commissioners of 1535 reported the clear value of the monastery to be £18 1s. 1d. ; on