RELIGIOUS HOUSES anniversary of Dean Sleford ;'* in 1 410 a rent from a messuage in Bishopsgate Street for that of Canon Fulmere;'^ and ^20 bequeathed to them for the same purpose by Canon Adam de Chester- field, who also left them a large missal worth £11 6s. 8d., a great gradual worth £j 13J. ^.d., and a new ordinal worth £s i^^ ;{^5° 'ii 1425 for the annual obit of Canon Orgrave ; '* £4.0 in 1427 for the anniversary of Canon Merston ; 100 marks in 1471 for Dean Kirkham's anni- versary;*" £82 in 1478 for the anniversaries of two canons,*^ and tenements in Warwick Lane in 1498 for the anniversary of another canon.*^ Six houses in the staple of Westmin- ster were made over to the college in 1442 as the endowment of a chantry for the soul of William Prestwyk, one of the masters in chancery, either in the oratory of St. Mary of Pewe or in St. Stephen's.*^ A chantry of two priests was founded there in 1455 for the soul of William Lindwood, bishop of St. Davids,*^ who had been buried in the lower chapel in 1446,*' and who bequeathed to the college 600 marks of the money owing to him by the crown for the completion of the cloister and bell-tower.*^ A sum of ^100 was paid in 1 47 1 for an obit and a daily remembrance of Canon John Crecy and Thomas Lord Stanley,*' and in 1480 Richard Green gave to the college 200 marks to provide perpetual masses for his soul.** Among the bene- factors of the college were numbered also Walter Hungerford, knt., lord of Haytesbury and Homet, treasurer of England, and Ralph, Lord Cromwell, for whose anniversaries agreements were made in 1428 and 1437.*' The chapel had perhaps more need of these gifts and bequests than might be imagined. Its income of ;{^500 was certainly large for those days, but it could never have allowed much margin over the expenditure,'" since Edward III in 1360 gave the chapel £s ^ year more because the charges exceeded its revenues by that amount. In 1437, indeed, the dean declared that they needed at least ;^I00 a year more to dis- charge their obligations.'^ The rents derived from the houses in the Staple were no longer paid,'^ and the money due from the exchequer " Cott. MS. Faust. B. viii, fol. 16^. "Ibid. fol. 21. " Ibid. fol. 9^. " Ibid. fol. 8. "Ibid. fol. 18. "^ Ibid. fol. 36. »' Ibid. fol. 413, 47. "' Ibid. fol. 49. «> Ibid. fol. 28-32/J. ^ Doc. of D. and C. of St. Paul's, A. Box 76, No. 2001. «' L. and P. illus. the Wars of Engl, in Trance (Rolls Ser.), ii (2), 764. ^ Arch, xxxiv, 415. " Cott. MS. Faust. B. viii, fol. 37. «« Ibid. fol. 43-45^. »» Ibid. fol. 11,12, 263, »" Harl. 410, fol. 21. Harl. R.N. 19. " It was found in 1379 that they had in this way lost j^59 14;. ■>,d. a year for the last three years, and they were paid from the exchequer. Smith, Antii. oflf'estm. 95. was not obtained without a great deal of trouble. Henry VI, therefore, in place of these two sums, which amounted to ;^II0 75. i !«('., and for the observance of the anniversaries of his father and mother, granted to them the alien priory or manor of Frampton, co. Dorset, estimated at £ 1 31. d. per annum. Considering the close relations between the sovereign and a free chapel and the particular proof which the king had just given of interest in St. Stephen's, it is strange to find one of the canons, Thomas Southwell, accused in 1441 of aiding Roger Bolingbroke in his attempt to kill the king by necromancy at the instigation of Eleanor Cobham.'^ The king's favour to the rest of the college was, however, unaffected by this incident. He granted to the dean and canons in 1445 two fairs in Frampton." In 1453 he gave them the custody of the clock-tower in his palace with wages of 6(/. a day, and the houses within the precinct of the palace once occupied by Dean Sleford.'* Two years later they were deprived of the wages by an Act of Resumption, but they received them again in 1 46 1 from Edward IV, who besides confirming the grants made to them by his predecessors added to their posses- sions in 1469 the alien priory or manor of Wells and the rectory of Gayton, co. Norfolk,'^ and in 1466 gave them power to appoint con- stables, reeves, and bailiffs in their manors and fees, and exempted their men and tenants from being elected as constables or other officers of the king." The dean and canons followed the example of the vicars and clerks in 1479, and obtained permission from the king to form themselves into a corporate body with a common seal and power to acquire lands and to implead and be impleaded. They also received licence to acquire in mortmain lands, rents, knights' fees, and advowsons to the value of ;^ioo yearly, and were acquitted of the payment of fees or fines for royal letters or charters.'* The dean must have been in a special degree the confidential servant of the king. It was emphatically the case with the last two holders of the office, Wolsey," and his successor, John Chamber, who was chaplain and physician to the king.^* Chamber seems to have been wealthy as he spent 11,000 marks on building a cloister at St. Stephen's,^"^ and he sent twenty soldiers " Stow, Annals (ed. 1 61 5), 381. " Hutchins, Hist, of Dorset, ii, 297. " From the confirmation of various grants made by Edw. IV in 1461. Cal. of Pat. 1461-7, p. 163. ^ Ibid. 1467-77, p. 163 ; ibid. 172. " Cal. of Pat. 1461-7, p. 487. " Ibid. 1476-85, p. 172. L. and P. Hen. VIII, i, 5607. '° Ibid. He continued to be the king's physician ; ibid. XV, 861, and xvi, 380, fol. 109. "" DugJale, Mon. Atigl. vi, 1349. 569 72
