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 A HISTORY OF NORFOLK The notorious visitors Legh and Leyton were here early in 1536, and alleged that they obtained confession of theft from one monk, and of un- cleanness from another,adding that they suspected confederacy, as so little evil had been confessed although they were seventeen in number.' On 26 March, 1537, Prior William wrote to Cromwell, in answer to his application for the preferment of his servant, John Myllsent, to their farm of Lynford. They begged to be excused, as their founder (patron), the Duke of Norfolk, had the custody of their convent scal.^ The Duke of Norfolk, the powerful patron of Thetford Priory, naturally looked with dismay upon the approaching destruction of this house and of the church, where not only his remote but more immediate ancestors had been honour- ably interred. His father. Sir Thomas Howard, earl of Surrey and duke of Norfolk, who died on 21 May, 1524, was buried before the high altar of the conventual church, where a costly monu- ment to himself and Agnes his wife had been erected; whilst still more recently, in 1536, Henry Fitzroy, duke of Somerset, had been buried in the same place. As a means of pre- serving the church and establishment, the duke proposed to convert the priory into a church of secular canons, with a dean and chapter. In 1539 he petitioned the king to that effect, stating that there lay buried in that church the bodies of the Duke of Richmond, the king's natural son ; the duke's late wife. Lady Anne, aunt to his highness; the late Duke of Norfolk and other of his ancestors ; and that he was setting up tombs for himself and the duke of Richmond which would cost ^^400. He also promised to make it ' a very honest parish church.' At first the king gave ear to the proposal, and Thetford was included in a list with five others, of ' collegiate churches newly to be made and erected by the king.' Whereupon the duke had articles of a thorough scheme drawn up for insertion in the expected letters patent, whereby the monastery was to be translated into a dean and chapter. The dean was to be Prior William,' and the six prebendaries and eight secular canons were to be the monks of the former house, whose names are set forth in detail. The nomination of the dean was to rest with the duke and his heirs. The scheme included the appointment by the dean and chapter of a doctor or bachelor of divinity as preacher in the house, with a stipend of But the capricious king changed his mind, and insisted on the absolute dissolution of the priory. The duke found that further resistance was hopeless, and on 16 February, 1540, Prior William and thirteen monks signed a deed of ' L. and P. Hen. Vlll, x, 144. '' Ibid, xli (i), 325. ' Styled William Burden, which was probably an oRas for Ixvvorth. surrender.' Two months later the site and the whole possessions of the priory passed to the Duke of Norfolk for j^ 1,000, and by the service of a knight's fee and an annual rental of j^59 5j. d. The bones of Henry's natural son, and of the late Duke of Norfolk and others, together with their tombs, were removed to a newly erected chancel of the Suffolk church of Framingham, and the grand church of St. Mary of Thetford speedily went to decay. Priors of Thetford Malgod,' appointed 11 04 Stephen,' appointed 1 107 Constantine,* occurs 1131 Martin,' occurs 1 189 Peter Vincent,'" occurs 1202 Richard, occurs 1226, died c. 1236 Stephen II," occurs 1240, killed 1248 '* William I," occurs 1262 Vincent,'^ occurs 1279, died c. 1300" Reginald de Montargi " al'iai de Eye, elected f. 1300 Ralph de Frezenfeld," appointed 1302 Thomas Bigod,^" appointed 1304 William de Ventodoro,^' appointed 1 308 Martin de Rinhiaco,"' appointed 131 1 Peter de Bosco,"' appointed 1316 James de Cusancia,"* occurs 1336 Geoffrey de Rochario,^' occurs 1355 Roger de Berton,^^ occurs 1370 John de Fordham," occurs 1372, 1395 John Ixworth,^* appointed c. 1400 Nicholas,^' appointed 1430 John Vesey,^° appointed 1438 Robert Weting, appointed 1480 Roger BaldrydeBermingham,'^ appointed 1 503 William Ixworth, appointed 1 5 18, last prior. ' Martin, Hist, of Thetford, App. xvii. ' Ibid. App. xxix, xxxii. " Ibid. ' Duckett, Chart. Rec. of Clun'i, ii, 201. ' Ibid. " Ibid. " Ibid. " Abbrev. Plac. (Rec. Com.), 106. " Duckett, op. cit. " Matth. Paris, Chron. Maj. (Rolls Ser.), v, 32. " Duckett, op. cit, il, 122-3. '« Ibid. 142. " Ca/. Papal Reg. i, 594-5. " Ibid, " M.irtin, Hist, of Thetford, 158. ™ Pat. 33 Edw. I, pt. 2, m. 10. " Ibid. I Edw. II, pt. I, m. 18. " Ibid. 5 Edw. II, pt. I, m. 5. " Close, ii, Edw. II, m. l d, d. " Ibid. 10 Edw. Ill, m. 30 d. '^ Martin, Hist, of Thetford, App. ix. '" Blomefield, Hist, of Norf ii, 108 ; Bp. of Durham, 1381, Ely, I 338. '^ Ibid. " Ibid. '" Ibid. ; Pat. 18 Edw. IV, pt. I, m. 28. " Pat. 20 Edw. IV, pt. 2, m. 21. ^ Martin, Hist, of Thetford, 159. » Ibid. 368
 * L. and P. Hen. Vlll, xiv (2), 152, 356.
 * Norw. Epis. Reg. Huydon, 10, 5-167.