RELIGIOUS HOUSES HOUSES OF AUSTIN CANONS 6. THE PRIORY OF DUNSTABLE The Augustinian priory of Dunstable was founded by King Henry I. about the year 1 132, and endowed by him at the same time with the lordship of the manor and town in which it stood. 1 Tradition says that the same king was also founder of the town, and had caused the forest to be cleared away from the point where Watling and Icknield Streets crossed each other, on account of the robbers who infested the highway. 2 However this may be, he certainly granted to the priory all such liberties and rights in the town of Dunstable as he held in his own demesne lands. His charter was confirmed by Henry II., 3 who also granted to the prior and convent the lordship of Houghton Regis; and before the reign of Richard I. a great many of the churches of the neighbourhood had been granted to the priory by different benefactors, 4 as many as thirteen, besides the chapel of 1 Foundation Charter, contained in the In- speximus of Richard II. (Harl. MS. 1885, f. 102). The date is fixed between 1131 and 1135 by the name of Robert, Bishop of Hereford, among the witnesses: he succeeded 1131 (Flor. of Wore. [Engl. Hist. Soc], ii. 92). 3 Dugdale, Mon. vi. 238. » Harl. MS. 1885, f. 102. The churches given below are all contained in this charter : those of SS. Peter, Mary and Cuthbert, Bedford, are there stated to be the gift of Henry I. ; St. Cuthbert's in another place (ibid. f. 73b) is stated to be the gift of Abel, son of Roland. The confirmations of nearly all these churches by different twelfth- century bishops and archdeacons are contained in fF. 20-4 of the same chartulary.
- The churches of St. Peter (Dunstable), St.
Mary and St. Cuthbert in Bedford, in the time of Henry I. ; the church of Cublington, Bucks, of the gift of Hugh, son of Jocelyn ; Segenhoe and Totternhoe, with Higham Ferrers and half the church of Pattishall, Northants, by Simon de Wahull and his son Walter ; North Marston, Bucks, of the gift of Thurstan of Hunderigg ; Flitwick, Husborne Crawley, and the chapel of Ruxox, of the gift of Philip de Saunvill ; Chalgrave, of the gift of Roger Loring, with the consent of Simon de Beauchamp ; Aspley Guise (finally assigned to Newnham Priory), of the gift of Roger de Salford ; Pulloxhill and Harlin^ton, of the gift of John and William Pirot ; Steppingley, of the gift of Richard of Steppingley ; Studham, of the gift of Alex- ander of Studham ; and half the church of Cries- ham, Bucks, of the gift of the abbot of Woburn. Henry II. 's own gift of the lordship of Houghton Regis is alluded to in Rot. Chart. (Rec. Com.), 5 John, m. 24. Ruxox, in the county of Bedford, with Cub- lington, North Marston and half Chesham, Bucks, and Higham Ferrers with half Pattis- hall, Northants. Several of these gifts were disputed before the century was out, 5 but most of them were retained by the priory through- out its existence. Bernard, the first prior of the house, was closely associated with the introduction of Austin Canons into England, for he had accompanied his brother Norman (afterwards prior of St. Botolph's, Colchester, and then of Holy Trinity, London) to Chartres and Bcau- vais, in Anselm's time, to learn the rule of St. Augustine, with a view to introduce it into England. 6 At the beginning of the thirteenth cen- tury, in the year 1202, Richard de Morins, a canon of Merton, 7 became prior of Dun- stable, and with his election the priory entered upon the most interesting period of its history. It was probably he who began the annals of the house, and perhaps wrote part of them with his own hand 8 ; he was evidently a man of very varied interests, and considerable capacity for affairs. Before he had been prior a year he was dispatched on the king's busi- ness to Rome 9 ; and it was probably owing to his influence that the lordship of Houghton Regis, with other gifts, were confirmed to the priory in 1203. 10 So far as we know, he only went abroad once again, when he attended the Lateran council of 1215, and remained afterwards in Paris for a year to study at the University ; " but the annals show that he maintained all through his life a keen interest in the affairs of Europe and the East. Ini2o6 12 he was made a visitor for all the religious « Harl. MS. 1885, fF. 20-4. Hunter, Feet of F. 5, 47- • See 'The Origin of St. Botolph's Priory, Colchester,' by J. H. Round (from whom this reference was obtained), in Essex Arch. Trans. (new ser.), iii. 270. 7 He was not made a priest until the Embertide following his election, and said his first mass on St. Michael's Day {Ann. Mon. [Rolls Series], iii 28). 8 Luard, Introduction to Ann. Mon. (Rolls Series), iii. There are a good many references to events at Merton Priory, e.g. Ann. Mon. iii. 44, 128 (notices of priors of Merton entering stricter orders), etc. » Ibid. 28. »° Ibid. ; Rot. Chart. (Rec. Com.), i. pt. I, 107. » Ann. Mon. (Rolls Series), iii. 46. « Ibid. 29. 371
