A HISTORY OF LONDON Robert Lincoln, appointed 1388,'" occurs 1399" and 1403*' Robert Dale, appointed 1423** Edward Atherton, appointed 1 43 7,*' occurs 1454*' Thomas Arundel, appointed 1457 Thomas Hervy, appointed 1459'" Thomas Browne, appointed 1459'^ John Smeathe or Sneethe, appointed 1470" John Davyson, removed 1479" Walter Bate and William Hobbs, appointed 1479" Thomas Maudesley, occurs 1485 ^' John Cavalary, appointed 1512'^ George Boleyn, appointed 1529" Peter Mewtys, appointed 1536'* Dr. Crooke, occurs 1629 and 1633 •" The seal of the priory is said to have repre- sented the Assumption of the Virgin,*^ FRIARIES II. THE BLACK FRIARS The first Dominicans to enter England arrived at Canterbury in 1221 in the train of Peter des Roches bishop of Winchester.* Three of these came to London in August of that year ^ and settled in Holborn near the Old Temple. Their chief benefactor appears to have been Hubert de Burgh,' who made them many gifts and be- queathed to them his mansion near Westminster. By 1250 they must have been established in buildings of considerable size, for at that date a general chapter was held there* at which 400 members of the order were present. Their resources were, however, unequal to the task of providing for such a number,^ and food was supplied on this occasion by various persons dwelling in or near London, among them the king and queen, the bishop of London, and the abbot of Westminster.* Henry HI evidently thought much of the Dominicans : in 1256 he chose the prior of Holborn, John de Darlington, " Cal. of Pat. 1385-9, p. 526. " Ibid. 1399-1401, p. 25.
- ' Chan. Misc. R. No. 276.
" Cal. of Pat. 1422-9, p. 135. " Dugdale, Mon. Angl. vi, 621. " Karl. Chart. 56, F. 48. " Dugdale, op. cit. vi, 621. '» Ibid. " Ibid. " Cat. of Pat. 1467-77, p. 233. " Dugdale, op. cit. vi, 622. But according to the Calendar of Patent Rolls, 1477-85, p. 166, it was on his demise that the next appointment took place. '^Cal.ofPat. 1476-85, p. 166. They received the custody of the hospital for their lives. " Pari. R. (Rec. Com.), vi, 372<j. '^ L. and P. Hen. Fill, i, 3099 ; ibid. 4201. " Ibid, iv, 5815 (27). He was made governor. '* Ibid, xi, 943 (17). He was a gentleman of the Privy Chamber. " Cal. ofS.P. Dom. 1631-3, p. 424. ^ Ibid. 1633-4, p. 22. °' It is described thus by Hearne in his MS. diaries in the Bodleian. Dugdale, Mon. Angl. vi, 621. ' Stow, Sarc'. ofLond. (ed. Strype), iv, 72. ' Rev. C. F. R. Palmer, ' Provincials of the Friars Preachers in England,' Areh. Joum. xxxv, 135. ' Stow, loc. cit. as his confessor,' and found him so usefiil in political affairs that he asked the provincial in 1265 * that he might be appointed to assist him again. The king's favour naturally extended to Darlington's house, which received from him at this time (1258-61) stone for its building operations, and lead for its aqueduct.' Perhaps because of this tie with the court, which appears to have continued unbroken until the reign of Henry IV,*" the Black Friars were never as popular as the Franciscans with the City.*' In 1255, indeed, the convent had aroused extreme resentment on the part of the citizens*' by inter- ceding on behalf of the Jews imprisoned on suspicion of complicity in the death of Hugh of Lincoln. It is possible that in witnessing the success of the Friars Minors the Black Friars may have felt that they were handicapped by their position outside the City. This disability was removed in 1276, when Robert Kilwardby, the Domini- can archbishop of Canterbury, obtained from the mayor and commonalty a commanding site on
- Monum. Ordin. Frat. Praedicat. iii, 48.
' Matt. Paris, Chron. Maj. (Rolls Ser.), v, 127. ' Stow, Surv. of Lond. iv, 72. ' Rev. C. F. R. Palmer, ' The King's Confessors,' Ant'iq. xxii, 115.
- Deputy Keeper's Rep. v, App. ii, 63.
' Hist. MSS. Com. Rep. i, App. {,95. '" Antiq. ut supra. Rev. C. F. R. Palmer says that the king's confessor was always a Dominican until the fall of Richard II. As regards this point, and the friars' employment in the king's service, see Cal. Pap. Letters, i, 243, 423, 426, 427, 436, and 437 ; iii, 34, 620 ; iv, 96 ; Cal. Pap. Petitions, i, 2, 244, 279, 284. " ' Annals of Burton ' in Ann. Mon. (Rolls Ser.), i, 34-7- " The list of celebrated persons buried in Black Friars Church shows the importance of the convent, see Stow, op. cit. iii, 180—1. They include Hubert de Burgh, Isabel wife of Roger Bigod earl marshal, Elizabeth countess of Northampton, the earls of March and Hereford, Elizabeth countess of Arundel, John of Eltham duke of Cornwall, Richard Lord St. Amand, the countess of Huntingdon, the duchess of Exeter, Lord Fanhope, Tiptoft earl of Worcester, Sir Thomas Brandon, &c. 498
