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Property Investment by Canterbury Cathedral Priory 1250–1400

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 January 2014

Mavis Mate
Mavis Mate*
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University of Oregon
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Extract

Henry de Eastry, prior of Christ Church, Canterbury from 1285 to 1331, has long been regarded as primarily responsible for the priory's financial health. On his accession, the monastery was deeply in debt. Eastry, by his reorganization of the administration and his far-seeing policies of adding to the convent's property and exploiting these resources to the fullest, was able to raise the priory “from a state of insolvency to what was probably the highest level of productivity in its history.” One reason that Eastry enjoys such an excellent reputation is that he left behind him several extremely significant records, including a register of his writs and a memorandum book in which he set forth his achievements with elaborate detail. Yet some of his predecessors and successors followed policies that were very similar to those pursued by Eastry. It is time to re-examine Eastry's role in the priory's history and to determine whether his contribution was indeed as outstanding as has been hitherto assumed.

The area that most lends itself to this investigation is that of property investment. R.A.L. Smith, in his pioneering study of the convent's administration only touched on this aspect. He stated that during Eastry's priorate the monks “made astute investments in land,” but gave few examples. Moreover he never tackled the problem of how the priory's activities were affected by the statute of mortmain of 1279, which, in theory at least, severely restricted property accumulation on the part of ecclesiastical institutions. Nor did he consider the question of whether the tremendous fall in population after 1348 hindered or facilitated the acquisition of lands and rents. A detailed analysis, over a fairly long period, of the policies pursued by the priory with regard to investment in land, rent, and building, can not only point out the contribution made by Eastry, but also shed light on the more general questions of the economic impact of the Black Death and the effectiveness of the statute of mortmain.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of British Studies , Volume 23 , Issue 2 , Spring 1984 , pp. 1 - 21
Copyright
Copyright © North American Conference of British Studies 1984

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References

1 I am grateful to the American Council of Learned Societies for providing a grant that made possible the completion of the research on which this article is based. Knowles, David, The Religious Orders in England (Cambridge, 1948) I, p. 49Google Scholar. Knowles was relying heavily on the book by Smith, R.A.L., Canterbury Cathedral Priory (Cambridge, 1943)Google Scholar.

2 The register of his writs is housed in Cambridge University Library, MS Ee V 31. His memorandum book is in the British Library, Cotton MS Galba E IV. A brief life of Eastry and a full transcription of the memorandum book is provided by Hogan, T. L., “The Memorandum Book of Henry of Eastry, prior of Christ Church, Canterbury,” (Ph.D. thesis, London University, 1966)Google Scholar.

3 Smith, , Canterbury Cathedral Priory, pp. 116–17Google Scholar.

4 For some recent discussions of the statute of mortmain, see Jones, E. D., “The Crown, Three Benedictine Houses and the Statute of Mortmain”, Journal of British Studies, XIV (1975), 1–22CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Raban, Sandra, “Mortmain in Medieval England,” Past and Present, 62 (1974), 3–26CrossRefGoogle Scholar and her book, Mortmain Legislation and the English Church, 1279–1500 (Cambridge, 1982)Google Scholar.

5 Cathedral Archives and Library, Canterbury (hereinafter referred to as C.A.L.C.) Register D, fo. 322. Three years later her son David also gave up his rights to this land.

6 Searle, Eleanor, Lordship and Community: Battle Abbey and its Banlieu, 1066–1538 (Toronto, 1974) pp. 124–25Google Scholar; Hockey, S. F., Quarr Abbey and its Land(Leicester, 1970) p. 91Google Scholar.

7 Adam de Stratton bought a block of rents at Cricklade worth 5s. for 35s., Accounts and Surveys of the Wiltshire Lands of Adam de Stratton ed. Farr, M. W. [Wiltshire Archaelogical and Natural History Society] XIV, Devizes, 1959Google Scholar. For a brief account of the life of Adam de Stratton see Young, N. Denholm, Seigneurial Administration in England (Oxford, 1937) pp. 77–84Google Scholar. For Stratton's dealings with the monastery of Bermondsey, see Graham, Rose, English Ecclesiastical Studies (London, 1929) pp. 5–102Google Scholar.

8 E.g., in 1253 after 1½ acres of land had been purchased at Hadleigh the farm increased by 3s. In 1255 five acres of land were purchased at Brook and one-sixth part of a mill at Godmersham for a total expenditure of £619s. 3d., almost ten times the revenue increase of 14s. Two years later, in 1257, seven acres of land and 6½d. rent were bought at Barksore for 70s. 8d., just under nine times the expected revenue increase of 8s.

9 C.A.L.C. Miscellaneous Accounts 1, fo. 93.

10 Lambeth Palace Library MS 242, fols. 26, 64v., 74. In 1277 the convent acquired 2½ acres, 1 virgate of land and the pasture of seven sheep and lambs, C.A.L.C. Register D, fo. 432v. In 1279 pasture was bought from the widow of William de Stone for 20s. 0d. and in 1281 Seman Sparre received 14s. 6d. for land bought from him.

11 E.G., in 1287, the treasurers bought 2½ acres of land for £5 5s. 5d., ½ acre and 2½ virgate for 36s. 8d. and 5 virgates with pertinences for 76s. 4d., C.A.L.C. Ms DIV, fols. 135–137v.

12 C.A.L.C. Ms DIV, fols. 138, 140. The 1295 purchase cost £513s. 4d. The rent was immediately increased to 3s. 6d., (see beadle's roll for 1296). William de Stone had been a tenant of the priory, paying 5s. 5d. as rent for the five acres. This money was, of course, lost when the land was leased by the priory. That it was willing to forgo this rent to acquire immediate use of the land suggests the urgency of its need.

13 C.A.L.C. Register A, fo. 89 records the licence to alienate into mortmain by Nicholas de Elvington of one messuage, 5 acres of land, and the pasture of 67 sheep. In 1294 the priory paid £18 14s. 3d. to all the heirs of Nicholas to be quit of their claim to his house, garden and five acres of land D IV, fo. 139v.

14 C.A.L.C. Register C, fols. 220, 220v.

15 C.A.L.C. Register I, fo. 348.

16 C.A.L.C. DIV, fols. 138v, 142v. Register A, fo. 89 mentions the acquisition of the arable land and the meadow, but does not mention the rents.

17 Cal. Patent Rolls, 1301–7, pp. 72–3; Register A, fo. 89; Cambridge Univ. Library MS Ee V 31, fo. 89.

18 For a full description of the lands and houses possessed by the Jews in Canterbury in 1290 see Adler, Michael, “The Jews of Canterbury,” Transactions of the Jewish Historical Society, 7 (1915), 9–59Google Scholar. Some of these possessions were later acquired by Edmund, Earl of Lancaster and William le Tailor, the queen's former robe-maker.

19 C.A.L.C. Eastry Correspondence, II, 60.

20 Ibid., II, 11.

21 Ibid., IV, 13.

22 C.A.L.C. DIV, fo. 138; Register A, fo. 161; Register K fo. 186v. The houses were burdened with rents owed to other people totalling £2 3s. 4d. (Register K, fo. 187v), but in 1322 one of these rents, worth 4s. 0d. and belonging to John de Hardres was sold by his son to Bertram de Twytham for 50s. 0d. Twytham then gave it to the convent “in return for participation in all the spiritual benefits belonging to the church,” Register A, fo. 361.

23 By the end of the twelfth century the monks of Christ Church had owned between a half to one-third of the domestic properties of the city, Urry, William, Canterbury under the Angevin Kings (London, 1967) p. 23Google Scholar.

24 C.A.L.C. D IV, fo. 140. It cost £13 6s. 8d.

25 William Thorne's Chronicle of St. Augustine's Abbey, Canterbury, ed. Davis, A. H. (Oxford, 1934) pp. 296–303Google Scholar; C.A.L.C. Register A, fols. 90, 190; Register C, fo. 285; Cambridge Univ. Library MS Ee V 31, fols. 212v, 213, 221, 221v.

26 C.A.L.C. Register A, fo. 161; D IV, fo. 143.

27 C.A.L.C. Miscellaneous Accounts 2, fo. 129v.; Literae Cantuarienses ed. Shepherd, J. B. (Rolls Series, London, 1887–1889), I, 103Google Scholar. Calendar Patent Rolls, 1327–1330 p. 447; Calendar Patent Rolls, 1330–1334 p. 74. The messuage in Stourstreet was next to a tenement of Agnes de Gore acquired in the 1270s before the statute of mortmain (C.A.L.C. Register I, fo. 202; Register A, fols. 361v., 362).

28 C.A.L.C. Miscellaneous Accounts 1, fols. 180v., 186, 202v., 209, 216; Miscellaneous Accounts 2, fols. 30v., 62, 70v., 80, 112v., 138v., 146v., 156v., 185, 213.

29 Urry, , Canterbury under the Angevin Kings p. 35Google Scholar.

30 In one instance the priory collected the rents owed by subtenants (C.A.L.C. Register B, fo. 237) and another time granted a group of London merchants the right to collect some arrears as part payment of money owed to them (Cambridge University Library MS Ee V 31, fo. 254v.) Among the witnesses to this agreement was a William Chaucer.

31 In the triangular area known as Westcheap stood the Standard, an ancient stone cross, with stalls clustered around it for butchers and sellers of fish and vegetables. The houses and shops that surrounded this market-place were inhabited by the goldsmiths, the pepperers, the mercers and the linen-armourers, Croniques de London ed. Aungier, George James [Camden Society, xxviii] (London, 1844) p. xiiiGoogle Scholar.

32 Calendar Patent Rolls, 1266–72 p. 523; The London Eyre of 1276 ed. Weinbaum, Martin pp. 60–61Google Scholar; C.A.L.C. Register K, fo. 188.

33 C.A.L.C. Beadle's rolls London, 1313/14.

34 British Library MS Galba E IV, fo. 108. The beadle's rolls for Walworth also record additional expenditure on carts and extra wages for the Serjeant on account of the “great labor for the house of the Cheap”. See also C.A.L.C. Miscellaneous Accounts 2, fo. 97v. In making this extension the priory encroached on the cemetery of the church next door. The parishioners complained that they had lost a piece of land 3 feet wide and 62 feet long. Finally, however, in 1326, they were persuaded to give up their claim for damages in return for a payment of £40. C.A.L.C. Register B, fo. 237v.

35 In 1291 five were leased out to Henry Graspeys for his life in return for a yearly rent of 33s. 4d. Cambridge Univ. Library MS Ee V 31, fo. 32.

36 This sum does not include the cost of lumber, which came from the convent's manor of Orpington. It was cut into planks there, carried by cart to Greenwich and thence by water to Southwark (C.A.L.C. beadle's rolls, Orpington).

37 In 1287 five acres of land was bought for £10 and in 1290 twenty eight acres of land was bought for £40. C.A.L.C. DIV, fols. 135v., 173. The licence to alienate into mortmain is recorded in Calendar Patent Rolls, 1281–92 p. 436.

38 Cal. Close Rolls, 1288–96 p. 497. British Library Harleian MS 636, fo. 220v. It is not clear when the negotiations began, but, in 1289, the prior spent £24 4s. 10d. on expenses concerning the agreement on the port of Sandwich (Lambeth Palace Library MS 242, fols. 110, 111).

39 “le rey se prendra a plus pres ke il purra pur fera le assez le prior e le couvent en les besoynes avandites,” C.A.L.C. Eastry Correspondence, II, 60Google Scholar.

40 For the revenues of Sandwich see Butcher, A. F., “Sandwich in the Thirteenth Century” Archaeologia Cantiana, xciii (1977), 29Google Scholar. The property included the manors of West Farleigh and Teston, together with the advowsons of the churches of Westerham and Westcliff. This property was estimated as worth £30 a year. At first the other £30 was paid out of the revenues of the manor of Westcliff, but in 1299 the manor itself was handed over. Two years later, however, the king changed his mind and gave Westcliff to his second wife, Margaret and in exchange, gave the priory the manor of Borley in Essex.

41 At Barton, Monkton, Schamelford, Agney, Small Chart (1½), Loose (2) and Bocking.

42 British Library, MS Galba E IV, fo. 102v. See also C.A.L.C. Miscellaneous Accounts 1, fo. 265.

43 In 1307 twelve quarters of wheat had been received, in 1309 ten quarters and in 1311 nothing (C.A.L.C. Beadle's rolls, Lydden).

44 C.A.L.C. Register I fols. 304v., 318, 327v., 339.

45 In return for the land the priory gave up a piece of meadow, next to the land of the hospital, C.A.L.C. Register C, fols. 56, 57. Cambridge Univ. Library MS Ee V 31, fo. 177.

46 It cost £12 19s. 0d. to move the mill, C.A.L.C. Miscellaneous Accounts 2, fo. 166v.

47 C.A.L.C. Beadle's rolls, Loose.

48 At Bocking the land cost 56s. 8d. and at Hadleigh 46s. 8d. C.A.L.C. MS D IV, fo. 142v.

49 The Chartham beadle's roll for 1272 records the expenditure of 68s. 0d. for the purchase of lands and rents, including one acre of meadow for 26s. 8d. At Hollingbourne the Serjeant in 1283 spent 6s. 8d. for land bought from John de Ludham and in 1290 paid 22s. 0d. for two acres of land bought. At Eleigh in 1286 half an acre of wood was bought for 20s. 4d. At Merstham in 1272 10d. of annual rent was bought for 5s. 0d. and in 1286 a courtyard was bought for 13s. 4d. At Milton in 1294 the Serjeant paid 20d. for 2d. of new rent from Stephen Potyn and the additional 2d. was included in the assized rents that year and in 1296 a further 1d. rent was bought for 10d.

50 Raban, , Mortmain Legislation, p. 189Google Scholar.

51 Cal. Patent Rolls, 1301–7 pp. 72–73 lists the names of vendors and places. C.A.L.C. Register A, fo. 89 gives the acreage of the individual purchases. Lambeth Palace Library MS 242, fo. 229 notes the payment of 32s. 9d. for the privilege of receiving the charters.

52 Raban, Sandra, “Mortmain in Medieval England,” Past and Present 62 (1974) 7–9CrossRefGoogle Scholar, Mortmain Legislation p. 109.

53 C.A.L.C. D IV, fols. 135v–147.

54 For the activities of some other monastic lords, see Raban, , Mortmain Legislation pp. 107–13Google Scholar.

55 Raban, Sandra, The Estates of Thorney and Crowland (Univ. of Cambridge, Dept. of Land Economy, Occasional Paper No. 7,1977) p. 77Google Scholar; Jones, , “The Crown and Mortmain” p. 17Google Scholar.

56 Kershaw, Ian, Bolton Priory: The Economy of a Northern Monastery (Oxford, 1973) pp. 113–15, 166Google Scholar. See also Dyer, Christopher, Lords and Peasants in a Changing Society (Cambridge, 1980) pp. 80–81Google Scholar.

57 Calendar Patent Rolls, 1324–7, p. 177. Each of these priests received a daily loaf of the monks' bread, a gallon and a half of the monks' ale, or 1½d. for ale if the convent should drink wine. In addition they were to receive each year from the treasury 30s. 4d. for their food and 20s. 0d. for their clothing and shoes. No priest was to remain more than three months in the almonry unless he could sing.

58 In 1321 the convent was granted 12 acres of arable, 7 acres of meadow and 5 acres of pasture, Calendar Patent Rolls, 1321–4 p. 29; in 1323 24 ½ acres of arable, 4 acres of meadow at Brook and 34 acres in Bishopsdenn in Great Chart (ibid. p. 275). See also C.A.L.C. Register I, fols, 371, 388.

59 C.A.L.C. Miscellaneous Accounts 2, fo. 121.

60 C.A.L.C. Register I, fo. 430v. There were 3½ acres at Monkton and 1¾ acres at Ruckinge.

61 Literae Cantuarienses, I, 104–5Google Scholar; C.A.L.C. Register L, fo. 125v.

62 C.A.L.C. Register I, fo. 407. The estimated value in this inquisition was £6 15s. 8d.

63 Eastry Correspondence, I, 53Google Scholar. Dart, J., The History and Antiquities of the Cathedral Church of Canterbury (London, 1726) p. 13Google Scholar, says that Reynolds made the gift on the condition that the monks remembered him on his anniversary.

64 Cambridge Univ. Library MS Ee V 31, fo. 249v. Literae Cantuarienses, I, 189Google Scholar. The attorney's fees were very low, just £4 6s. 8d. Lambeth Palace Library MS 242, fols. 369, 361v.

65 Snape, R. H., English Monastic Finances in the Later Middle Ages (Cambridge, 1926, reprinted 1968) p. 81Google Scholar.

66 Literae Cantuarienses 1, 167: 243–46Google Scholar. An earlier draft of this letter contained a reference to the mill of Lydden “totally and perpetually destroyed”. Since in fact the mill was merely moved, not destroyed, the complaint was omitted in the final version C.A.L.C. Register B, fo. 318v.

67 Ibid. 176, 184–8, 261–5; C.A.L.C. Register B, fo. 225; Miscellaneous Accounts 2, fo. 156v.; Lambeth Palace Library MS 243, fols. 2, 2v.

68 British Library MS Galba E IV, fo. 109.

69 “non est licitum ea quae juris Ecclesiae sunt alienare, neque in aliquo diminuere, sed potius ea pro viribus augere” Literae Cantuarienses, II, 144Google Scholar.

70 C.A.L.C. Miscellaneous Accounts 2, fo. 223 records the payment of the £46. See also DE 3, fo. 21v.

71 In 1334 a house at Oxford was purchased for £18 and in 1337 the priory inherited a messuage in the city of Canterbury from the rector of Westerham, Richard de Haute. He also bequeathed four books, including the Corpus Juris Civilis and 10 lbs. of silver. Literae Cantuarienses, II, 153Google Scholar.; C.A.L.C. Miscellaneous Accounts 2, fo. 232v.

72 For Oxenden's note see C.A.L.C. DE 3, fo. 17. Mot eventually sold the two pieces to the priory's nominee, Bertram de Twytham for £12, Register C, fo. 241.

73 C.A.L.C. MS D IV, fo. 144.

74 C.A.L.C. Register I, fols. 371, 388.

75 In 1333–4, under Oxenden, he was receiving an annual robe (CA.L.C. MS DE 3, fo. 32v) and in 1341 Hathbrand petitioned the pope for letters of legitimation for Hanekyn, plus the power to make him a notary public, Literae Cantuarienses, I, 243Google Scholar.

76 Harvey, Barbara, Westminster Abbey and its Estates in the Middle Ages (Oxford, 1977) pp. 103, 184–87Google Scholar; Raban, , Thorney and Crowland p. 71Google Scholar.

77 In March 1343 John, son of John Branche, leased to Hanekyn for eight years all the lands, houses and gardens that he had inherited after the death of his father, since he owed Alexander £20. It was agreed that so long as Hanekyn peacefully enjoyed possession of these lands, he would not seek repayment of his loan. In the end, however, the land was absorbed into the Chartham demesne. C.A.L.C. Register C, fols. 192–6 lists all the acquisitions by Hanekyn in the 1340s. See also fo. 201 for the leasing agreement with Branche.

78 Calendar Patent Rolls, 1358–61, p. 92: It was broken down as follows: Ickham 1 messuage, 8 acres, 3 roods, Westwell 15 acres: Mersham 1 mill, 7 acres, 1 rood: Small Chart 4½ acres meadow: Brook 1 acre, 1 rood: Hakynton 1 mill, 2 Vis acres and 1 acre meadow: Appledore 10 acres pasture: Agney 16 acres: Elvington 8 acres: suburbs of Canterbury 25½ acres, 5 acres meadow and 7½ wood: Great Chart 36 acres 1 rood, 6½ acres meadow, 25 acres pasture, 3s. 11d. rent, rent of 3 hens, 10 eggs 2 bushels, 3 pecks of salt: Chartham 69½ acres land, 3½ acres meadow, 4 acres wood, 5s. 8d. rent, rent of 4 hens, ½ messuage and a garden, C.A.L.C. Register C, fo. 101v.

79 Calendar Patent Rolls, 1354–8, p. 93. This licence cost them 40 marks and was for the acquisition of lands and rents to the value of £40.

80 68s. rent, 3 messuages, 3 cottages, 4½ virgates of land and the reversion of 2 crofts. Some of this land had originally belonged to Richard de Bovington and in 1352 he had granted it to Reginald de Bocking and William Parker. They in turn gave it to the priory's seneschal, Arnold Sauvage, and Alexander Hanekyn who made the actual alienation to the priory. P.R.O. C66/242 m. 7; Calendar Patent Rolls, 1354–8 p. 44; C.A.L.C. Register B, fols. 131–133.

81 C.A.L.C. Register B, fo. 131v.

82 C.A.L.C. Register I, fo. 311.

83 Robert de Rocheford at the end of 1324 owed £30. This debt was paid by the new holder of the farm, John de Newenton, C.A.L.C. Miscellaneous Accounts 2, fols. 141, 145v. At this time Alicia Serle, the daughter of Eleanor Southchurch and granddaughter of Peter de Southchurch quitclaimed any rights that she might have in the manor, Register B, fo. 88. When Newenton died in 1343, his son and heir, gave up his right in the manor to William Dersham and others.

84 C.A.L.C. Register B, fo. 92v.; Calendar Patent Rolls, 1353–8 p. 93.

85 C.A.L.C. Register B, fo. 163. It was part of the general licence for the sustenance of the seven chaplains.

86 Calendar Patent Rolls, 1361–1, p. 254.; Literae Cantuarienses, I, 423Google Scholar; C.A.L.C. Register B, fo. 41. Along with the manor came thirty one acres of land in Lambeth and four dells lying by the waters of the Thames. For a good account of the marital situation of Joan of Kent, see Wentersdorf, Karl, “The clandestine marriages of the Fair Maid of Kent,” Journal of Medieval History, 5 (1979), 203–231CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

87 Dart, , Antiquities, p. 14Google Scholar.

88 C.A.L.C. Register L, fo. 99.

89 In the 1360s Alexander Hanekyn acquired 4 small parcels, ranging from half an acre to 5 acres. In 1376 the treasurers spent £25 on the purchase of six acres of land and in 1377 they spent £13 6s. 8d. on the purchase of five acres of land and pasture, C.A.L.C. Miscellaneous Accounts 2, fols, 298v., 313. The formal licence to alienate into mortmain was acquired 14 March, 1381, Register D, fols. 452–454v.

90 In 1381 the priory received a licence to acquire 48 acres of arable, 18 acres of pasture and 9 acres of marsh, Calendar Patent Rolls, 1377–81, p. 603. Some of this land in Westwell had been acquired in the 1360s, Register D, fols. 304v. 424.

91 C.A.L.C. Register B, fo. 239v; Register H, fo. 128, Literary MS CXIV fo. 35, Lambeth Palace Library, Ed. 81.

92 C.A.L.C. Treasurers Roll 8. For a more detailed discussion see Butcher, A. F., ‘Rent and the Urban Economy: Oxford and Canterbury in the Later Middle Ages’ Southern History, I (1979) 11–43Google Scholar.

93 Dyer, , Lords and Peasants in a Changing Society, p. 59Google Scholar.

94 Holmes, G. A., The Estates of the Higher Nobility in FourteenthCentury England (Cambridge, 1957) p. 113Google Scholar.