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 A HISTORY OF NORFOLK Priors of Molycourt Simon,* occurs 1248 Edward," occurs 1276 Robert,' occurs 1297 Andrew,* occurs 1306 William de Merstone,' elected 1316 John de Malteley,* elected 1320 David de West Dereham,' elected 1333 John de Dereham,*" elected 1369 Thomas de Walton,** elected 1390 Stephen Wyse,*'' elected 1427 HOUSES OF BENEDICTINE NUNS 12. THE PRIORY OF BLACK- BOROUGH Roger de Scales and his wife Muriel, about the year 1150, founded a small priory for monks {fratriius) at Blackborough in Middleton Parish, dedicated to the honour of the Blessed Virgin and St. Katharine. It was endowed with lands and woods, etc., in the immediate neighbourhood of the house. The confirmation and extension grant of Robert de Scales, son of the founder, shows that the establishment was at that time for the support of religious of both sexes [sororthus et fratribus), but the house was finally assigned about 1200 to the sole use of Benedictine nuns. Robert de Scales, great-grandson of the founder, confirmed to the nuns the churches of Middleton and Santon, with a moiety of the Church of Wetherden, Suffolk.* The taxation of 1 291 showed that the priory had property in twenty-five Norfolk parishes, to the annual value of ^^26 4^. 3j(f. In spirituali- ties they had the appropriated churches of Mid- dleton and St. Martin's, Rainham, valued respectively at ^^5 6j. id. and ^^ 10, and a portion of the church of Wetherden, worth ^^5. The total clear value for taxation purposes came to /36 191. id., because there were deducted from the full total £i^ 13J. 5^^. for habits for the nuns, 25J. for the fabric of their church, and 57^. jd. in payment to various lords. At that date, in addition to those entertained from time to time at the guest-house, the number of the nuns and their servants living in the priory was forty-four.^ The prioress and nuns of Blackborough ob- tained in 1329 a licence, by a fine of ten marks, for the alienation in mortmain by William de Salleford, chaplain of the advowson of the church of Paddlesworth, Kent, to find a chaplain to celebrate daily in Blackborough church for the ' Blomefield, Hist, of Norf. vii, 47. He is also mentioned in 1250 as predecessor of the then prior ; Assize R. 560, m. 35 a'. ' Blomefield, loc. cit. ' Ibid. • Ibid. ' The more important documents from a fourteenth- century chartulary of Blackborough, then in the possession of Mr. Hudson Gurney, of Keswick Hall, Norfolk, are given in full in Dugdale {Mon. iv, Z06-9), see Hist. MSS. Com. Rep. xii, pt. ix, 122. ' These particulars are given in the chartuLiry. good estate of Isabella de Scales and the said William in life and for their souls after death.*' In 1350 Robert de Scales confirmed to the prioress and convent the advowson of the church of Islington. In 1377 the church of Paddlesworth was. appropriated to the priory.** A return made to the crown in 1 41 6 of the appropriated churches of the diocese, names the following as belonging to the nuns of Black- borough, with the dates of their appropriation : — Illington (1388), Middleton (1360), South Keyn- ham (1370), and a medietv of Wetherden (1349)-'' The Valor of 1535 gave the clear annual value of the priory at ;^42 ds. 'J^d. Edward III, in 1347, pardoned the prioress- and nuns their share for two years and the tenths granted him by the clergy, because they were,, through no fault of their order, in so miserable and depressed a condition.*^ Margaret de Bristede, a nun of this house,, obtained an indult in 1352 to choose a confessor to give, if penitent, plenary remission at the hour of death.*' On 7 July, 1 5 14, the nuns were visited by Bishop Nicke. The prioress and five of the sisters were severally examined. Margaret Gygges stated that the day and night offices were duly said and silence observed and that her sole complaint was that the prioress, to save the expense of an auditor, did not present an annual statement of accounts. Margaret Hollins, sacrist, bore witness to the good repair of the manors, but said that the cloister and church were somewhat defective. Agnes Guy said that they had had no sub-prioress for four years, that they were ignorant of their foundation numbers,, that the prioress rendered no account, and that the house was said to be in debt. Margaret Cobbes said that the church porch was in ruins, that the prioress rendered no balance sheet, but gave the sisters a verbal account of the house^ ' Norw. Epis. Reg. i, 66. " Ibid, i, 83. ' Ibid, ii, 62. '» Ibid. V, 5. " Ibid, vi, 152. "Ibid, ix, 25. " Cal. of Pat. 1327-30, p. 400. " Cat. ofCamb. Unit: MSS. v, 482. '' Norw. Epis. Reg. viii, 127. '« Pat. 21 Edw. Ill, pt. i, m. 3. " CaJ. Papal Reg. iii, 451. 350