RELIGIOUS HOUSES Robert Hanslape, 1 elected 1509, resigned 1525 John Biggleswade, 2 elected 1525, died I53 1 Thomas Dey, 3 elected 1 53 1 The common seal of the priory repre- sented our Lady crowned, and standing with the holy Child in her arms; on the right St. John the Baptist, on the left St. John the Evangelist; the prior kneeling below. Legend : sigillum commu . . . oratus DE CALDEWELLE. 4 9. THE PRIORY OF BUSHMEAD The Augustinian priory of Bushmead 5 was founded some time during the reign of Henry II. by Hugh de Beauchamp, great- grandson of the Hugh of Domesday. 6 The exact date is difficult to determine, but it must have been before 1 187, as in that year the founder was slain at the Crusades. 7 Leland 8 says that the canons of Bushmead venerated a certain hermit as the founder of their house, and perhaps, like Beaulieu, it was built on the site of an old hermit- age; but the first prior was a chaplain of Colmworth named William. 9 The Beau- 1 Line. Epis. Reg., Inst. Smith; Harl. Ch. 83, A 29 (June, 1525). 1 Line. Epis. Reg., Inst. Longland; List of priors who attended convocation, L. and P. Hen. VIII. iv. 6047. 3 Line. Epis. Reg., Inst. Longland, 39d; Valor Eccl. (Rec. Com.), iv. 192. Acknowledgment of Supremacy, Rymer, Foedera, vi. (2), 198. 4 B. M. seals, lviii. 30. The same seal is attached to Harl. Ch. 83, A 29. A small seal in white wax of the twelfth century, representing a hand embrac- ing a crutch, with the legend sicill' prioris de caldewelle, is mentioned by Gorham, History of St. Neot's, II. lxxiv. 6 Besides the charters in Dugdale, Mon. vi. 280, there is a chartulary of the priory in the possession of W. Hugh Wade-Gery, Esq., of Bushmead, of which an abstract was printed in Beds N. and Q. iii. 130-45. All references to the chartulary given below are taken from this account. The genealogy followed here is taken from the chartulary of Warden (Add. MS. 24465, ff. 31b, 39), which states that Hugh of Domesday had two sons : Payn, baron of Bedford, and Simon, whose 9on Hugh married the heiress of Eaton, and founded the other line of Beauchamps; Hugh's son was Oliver, who had a son Hugh, founder of Bushmead Priory. The Bushmead foundation charters are granted by ' Hugh son of Oliver.' This genealogy is not the same as that in Dugdale's Baronage, 224-5. 1 Ibid. 225, from Roger of Hoveden. s Leland, Coll. i. 68. Named in the foundation charter (Dugdale, Mon. vi. 280). champs of Eaton Socon retained the patron- age of the house until the middle of the fourteenth century, when it passed to Sir John Engayne, 10 and later to the Braybrooks. 11 Sir Gerard Braybrook, who died in 1427, and was buried in Colmworth church, left directions in his will for the prior of Bush- mead to sing his requiem. 12 Other benefactors were Simon de Pateshull and several members of the family of Wildeboef of Eaton. 13 The earliest papal bull securing special privileges to the house was that of Innocent III. in 1198. 14 The canons were probably few in number even in the thirteenth century, as their total income in 1 291" was only about £25; a prior and three canons are mentioned in 1283, 16 and the same number appears in a charter of 1523, 17 and in the acknowledg- ment of the Royal Supremacy a little later. 18 The house has no history to speak of; it is only once mentioned in the Annals of Duns- table, under the year 1249, 19 wnen the prior was present, with the heads of the other Augustinian houses of the county, at the visitation held by Bishop Grossetete at Cald- well, and joined them in counselling Prior Eudo to resign. In 1283 the prior, Richard Foliott, and three of his canons, with four other persons, were accused by Agnes de Legh 1° Bushmead Chartul., No. 30 (dated 1346). Confirmation of Sir John Engayne (Add. MS. 24465, f. 31b). 11 Henry Braybrook was among the earlier bene- factors (Bushmead Chartul., Eaton Charters, Nos. 32, 69 [mentioned with Prior Joseph] ). 13 His will (in the Lamb. Lib.) is printed in Beds N. and Q. ii. 222. It has some interesting directions. On the day after his death was to be said a mass of our Lady and a requiem by note, with two wax tapers each of twelve pounds weight standing the one at his head and the other at his feet all through the service, and twelve poor men clothed in russet frieze, each of them holding a torch throughout the service. Every poor person at the funeral was to have 4^., and the prior of Bushmead to do the service and have for his travail 6s. 8d., and every canon of his house that was present y. d., and all other priests lid. 13 Bushmead Chartul., Eaton Charters, Nos. 34, 35, 56-61; Foundation Charter, Dugdale, Mon. vi. 280. » Bushmead Chartul. No. I. Other bulls were granted by Honorius III., Gregory VIII. and IX., and Innocent IV. is Pope Nich. Tax. (Rec. Com.) 18 Pat. 11 Edw. I. m.l3d. An appeal made against Richard Prior, and ' three canons of the house,' which does not necessarily imply that there were no more at that time. » Harl. Ch. 83, A 28. »« Rymer, Fcedera, vi. (2), 199. " Ann. Mon. (Rolls Series), iii. 178. 385 49
