to him "one parcel of ground or croft, with the appurtenances, called St. Michael's church-yard, together with one lane at the west end thereof, lying and being together in the parish of St. Peter in the town of Leicester." St. Michael's churchyard was then in the parish of St. Peter, for it was not until 1591, the year of this deed, that St. Peter's parish was united with that of All Saints.
It is stated by Nichols that part of the land comprised in "this conveyance was sold about the beginning of the 18th century" to the parishioners of All Saints, "in addition to their church-yard." The site was identified by Throsby, whose friend Mr. Cobley owned a house which had been built upon part of the old churchyard, and Cobley had among his titledeeds the conveyance to Dethick. The church is believed to have stood near the present Vauxhall Street and Causeway Lane. The position assigned to it, near the Castle, in the Plan of Leicester that is published in the first volume of the Borough Records, is manifestly erroneous.
(4) THE CHURCH OF THE GREY FRIARS.
St. Francis of Assisi died in 1226. A year or two before his death. Friars of his Order, or Friars Minor, who were called sometimes, from the colour of their garments, the Grey Friars, came into England. Their Priory at Leicester is said to have been founded by Simon de Montfort, the second of that name, who was Earl of Leicester from about 1238 to 1265. The Priory church seems to have been built about 1255, for in that year Henry III granted 18 oak-trees in the King's Hay of Alrewas to the Friars Minors of Leicester "to make stalls and wainscote their chapel."[1] They had certainly become established, and their church had been completed some time before 1292, when one of the boundaries of a messuage in St. Martin's parish was described as "the lane which leads to the church of the Friars Minors." The priory and church stood south of St. Martin's
- ↑ Alrewas is in Staffordshire, and there is still an "Alrewas Hay Farm" near to it. After a great quantity of timber had been blown down by the violent gale which swept over England in 1222, King Henry III. addressed letters of instruction to the officials of the Royal Forests. His Staffordshire forests were then described as "Kenifer," (Kinver), "Canoe," (Cannock Chase), "Alrewas and Hopwas." See J.C. Cox, "The Royal Forests of England," (London, 1905,) p. 6.
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