conveyed lands here to the Priory, and there were many lands held of the Priory manor which laid in this town, both free and copyhold, which in the whole amounted to 2l. 8s. 3d. yearly rents, of which the master of the college paid a free rent for land given to his house of 16d. and there was the value of 4s. 10d. a year tithes, which belonged to the Priory manor, for all which the Prior was taxed at 46s.
The Prior of Wymondham was taxed for his temporals here 15s. 4d. they were divers small pieces of land given to the monastery by the Albanys and Tateshales. The Prior of St. Faith's was taxed 15d. for his temporals here.
The Terrier informs me that Mr. Nerford, late rector, founded a free school, and endowed it with 6l. per annum in lands, and also gave six two-penny loaves to the poor every Sunday, and tied the Rev. Mr. Beales's estate for it, that there are 30 pieces of town lands besides College Close, all which are settled to repair the church, and find its ornaments, for ever; and in the year 1651, I learn from the church-wardens account, it was then in the town's possession, though they were forced to employ some of its produce to contrary uses, viz. "to Richard Lawes for defacing the King's arms 6s." and it cost the town a good deal to repair the seats heads which were defaced at that time.
The College of the Holy Cross, otherwise called Atleburgh Chantry,
Was founded by Sir Robert de Mortimer, who was buried in 1387; he ordered Henry de Pakenham, senior, Simon, parson of Scoulton, and his other feoffees, to found and endow it, to the value of 2000 marks, which they received according to the will of Sir John de Herling, Knt. and Sir John Fitz-Ralf, Knt. who had married the granddaughters and heiresses of the said Robert; and accordingly King Henry IV. in the 7th year of his reign, [1405,] for 100 marks paid by the feoffees, granted them license to build a chantry of the Holy Cross in Atleburgh, for five chaplains, one of which was to be master, who should daily officiate in the church of Atleburgh, for the souls of Sir Robert Mortimer, Knt. and Dame Margery his wife, &c. and to amortise to the said chantry a messuage and 70 acres of land, 4 acres of meadow, and 2 of pasture, in Atleburgh, and the advowson of Great Elingham, provided there be a vicar sufficiently endowed, and a yearly sum of money given to the poor there; upon which, the surviving feoffee, by his deed, established it in the following manner, as I find it entered in the parish register, fol. 74.
Simon, rector of Scoulton, greeting. Know ye that Robert de Mortimer, Knt. son of Sir Constantine de Mortimer, Knt. granted and confirmed his manors of Scoulton, Totington, and Stanford in Norfolk, and Burghton, and Foxtone in Cambridgeshire, to Hugh De-la-Souche, Tho. Shardelowe, George Felbrige, Knts. Tho. Caus, Tho. Chaunteler, Will. at Wend, clerk, Henry de Pakenham, John Wotts, and me, the aforesaid Simon, and our heirs, on the following conditions, viz. that we should hold them to the use of him, the said Robert, son of Constantine de Mortimer, Knt. and Dame Margery his then wife, for term of their lives, and after their death, to me and
