HISTORY OF ST. BOTOLPH'S PRIORY
THE Priory of St. Julian and St. Botolph, Colchester, was founded between 1093 and 1100 under the following circumstances. Before this date there existed here a church of St. Botolph, doubtless from its dedication of Saxon origin, served by a small company of priests. Such a small community might in Saxon times be known as a minster, though its inmates were "secular" priests, belonging to no monastic order. In 1093 one Ainulf was the head of this community in the church of St. Botolph, and to him there came a Kentishman called Norman, who having studied in France at the monastery of Bee in Normandy under Anselm, came with him to England on his translation to the See of Canterbury. Whether through Norman's influence, or at their own suggestion, it was decided that the community should join a religious order, and Norman advised the adoption of the Augustinian rule, proposing that two of their number should be sent abroad to learn it, as it was at that time unknown in England. Provided with a letter of recommendation from Archbishop Anselm to the abbot of Mont St. Elois, Norman and one other went to France, and studied the rule at Chartres and Beauvais. On their return the priory was founded, the actual date being uncertain, but as William Rufus granted to the canons a charter of protection, it must have taken place before that King's death in 1100. Ainulf became the first prior, and in this way was started the first house of Augustinian Canons in England. Its endowment seems to have been small at first, consisting probably of nothing more than such property in Colchester as had belonged to the church of St. Botolph, but Henry I granted to the canons the whole tithes of his demesne at Hatfield Broadoak, and the third part of the mill called Midelmelne under the castle of Colchester, and confirmed to them other grants. By the end of the twelfth century their possessions were considerably increased, as recited in a charter of Richard I, dated 4 December 1189, and in the taxation of Pope Nicholas IV, 1291, the yearly income from temporalities is set down at £42 16s. 512d., with spiritualities amounting to £10 15s. 4d.
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