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 A HISTORY OF NORFOLK Margaret Brctom,' elected 1329 Beatrix de Lystone/ elected 1330 Danetta de VVakethorp,' elected 1339 Margaret Campleon,'' elected 1396 Margaret Chykering," elected 1418 Alice Wesenham,* elected 1420 Margaret Copynger,* elected 1466 Joan Eyton,^ elected 1477 Elizabeth Mounteneye,'" elected 1498 Sarah Frost," elected 1 5 19 Elizabeth Hothe," or Both,'^ occurs 1535, last prioress.^^ HOUSES OF CLUNIAC MONKS 15. THE PRIORY OF CASTLE ACRE The Earl of VVarenne, the founder of the great Cluniac house of Lewes, founded a priory of the same order at Castle Acre between 1087 and 1089, making it subject to Lewes, as Lewes was subject to Cluni. The founder endowed this priory of St. Mary with the Norfolk churches of Castle Acre, Methwold,Wickmere, andTrunch, and the church of Leaden Roding, Essex, to- gether with two parts of the tithes of his de- mesnes in Grimston.' William, the second earl, confirmed his father's grants, together with a considerable amount of additional gifts. The first church had been within the castle area ; but the monks, finding it inconveniently small, had begun to build a monastery on the present site before the second earl drew up his charter. Therein he granted them the two orchards and all the cultivated ground between the orchards and castle, where they had founded their new church with his help and encouragement, and further gave them his serf Ulmar the stonemason to work on the new church. The church and cloister were not finished until after the death of the second earl. They were consecrated by William Turbus, bishop of Norwich from 11 46 to 1 1 74, in the lifetime of the third earl, who died in 1 148. The Norfolk churches and portions of tithes or ecclesiastical pensions that came into the hands of the monks of Acre at an early date were very numerous. Bishop Ebrard of Norwich confirmed to them no fewer than twenty-six churches or portions about the year 1 140. Henry L confirmed to the priory the churches of South Creake and Newton, and Henry IL the church of Fleet. The taxation of 1 291 gives the annual value of the priory's temporalities in seventy-eight Norfolk parishes at ;^i30 ijs. S^d., in two Suf- folk parishes at p. 4^., and in Lincoln diocese at £2 lOs. The Norfolk diocese spiritualities ' Norw. Epis. Reg. ii, 33. ' Ibid. 36. ' Ibid, iii, 39. ' Ibid, vi, 223. ^ Ibid, viii, 36. ' Ibid. 57. ' Karl. MSS. 21 10, fbl. i. This is an admirably arranged fourteenth-century chartulary of Castle Acre ; a full synopsis of its contents is given in Dugdale, Mm. V, 46-8. The original has been consulted for the information given in these pages. were of the annual value of £^2 Js. ; those of London diocese, ly. ^d. ; those of Lincoln, £"] ; and those of Ely, £1 2s. This yields a total annual value of ^^215 14.S. ^^d. Order was issued in January, 1325, to the treasurer and barons of the exchequer to cause the priory of Castle Acre to be restored to the prior, the prior having given the king to under- stand that the keepers of alien priories in Norfolk and Suffolk had taken the house into the king's hands by virtue of a general order affecting the lands of aliens in the power of the king of France ; whereas the late king, in 1306, had made exception in favour of Castle Acre, having learnt from John de Warenne, earl of Surrev, and others, that the prior and convent were Englishmen and not aliens, and that they did not pay any tax or pension to any of the power of France, and were not bound by obedience or affinity to any one of that power, save that the abbot of Cluni used to visit the priory when he came to England, and that the prior and convent in such visitations received their profession from the abbot." In the following April this order was repeated ; everything was to be restored to the priory, saving to the king the corn and other goods taken for his use for the expedition to the duch)' of Aquitaine." Protection for a year was granted to the prior of Castle Acre on 14 August, 1337, because he was not by birth of the power of the king of France, paid no cess or pension to any religious alien house, and was bound in obedience to none save to the abbot of Cluni when visiting this kingdom. ^^ Nevertheless the king claimed to present to the advowsons of the priory on account of the war with France ; thus on 8 December, 1338, he presented, on that ground, to the church of St. Andrew, Tattersett.'' A formal charter of denizenship or naturali- zation was granted by the crown to Castle Acre Priory in the year 1351.^' ' Norw. Epis. Reg. xi, 158. ' Ibid, xii, 55. "Ibid. 203. " Ibid, xiv, 153. " L. and P. Hen. Fill, xiii (i), 576. " Valor Eccl. (Rec. Com.) iii, 313. " Close, 18 Edw. II, m. 19. '^ Ibid. m. 9. " Pat. 1 1 Edw. Ill, pt. ii, m. 10 ; Close, 1 1 Edw. Ill, pt. ii, m. 42. " Pat. 12 Edw. Ill, pt. iii, m 4. '* Duckett, Chart, and Rec. 0/ Cluni, i, 31. 356