A HISTORY OF NORFOLK Burnham,' who also received a legacy of 26s. 8^. from Nicholas Esthawe in 1457.^ Robert Bale, the most distinguished literary Carmelite of the English province, was a friar of this house. He used to pass a part of every year at the Carmelite houses of Oxford and Cambridge for the purposes of study. His chief work was the annals of his own order. He died prior of this house in 1503 and was here buried.' When rumours of the approaching dissolution of the friars were rife, Jane Calthorp wrote to Cromwell, on 17 May, 1538, asking him to obtain the king's leave for her to purchase the White Friars, Burnham, as it was near Polsted Hall, which manor had been granted to her and her heirs male. In the letter she stated that she had only one poor house to dwell in at Norwich, where she was often driven by the plague. The letter also stated that there were only four friars left at Burnham, and as they were too poor to sustain the charge and repairs of the house they were willing to part with it.* A paper drawn up towards the end of 1538 enumerating the friaries that had not been
- defasede ne rasede,' states that the houses of the
White Friars, Burnham, were not sold, but re- mained as left by the visitor (Richard Ingworth), on account of an order not to meddle as Sir Richard Gresham had the preferment of the house at the king's hands.' Among the spoils of church plate from the religious houses of Norfolk were ' 3 oz. gilt, 58 oz. white and a nutt garnished with silver,' from the White Friars of Burnham.^ 48. THE DOMINICAN FRIARS OF LYNN The priory of Friars Preachers was founded at Lynn, towards the end of Henry Ill's reign, by Thomas Gedney, on the east side of the town, between Clow Lane and Skinner Lane. The church was dedicated to St. Dominic, and the house was large enough to accommodate forty religious as early as the beginning of the reiijn of Edward I.^ The priory site was enlarged in the fourteenth century.* The house was supplied with fresh water from a spring called Brookwell, at Middle- ton, nearly four miles distant ; the site of the -well being the gift of William Berdolf.' ' Anct. D. A. 12352. ' Ibid.. 13389. ^ Diet. Nat. Biog. vol. iii. ' L. and P. Hen. Fill, xiii (i), 374. ' Ibid. (2), 508. * Ibid, xvii, 139. ■ Rel'tquary (new ser.), vol. ii, p. i. This .irticle, pp. 1-8, is by the late Father Palmer. " Cal. Inq. a.q.d. 3 Edw. II, No. 57 ; Pat 3oEdw. JII, pt. ii, m. 9. ' Cal. Inq. a.q.d. 21 Edw. I, No. 71. When Edward I was at Gay wood in 1 27 7 he sent these friars 135. d. for a day's food, and also ii. for another day. John de St. Omer, mayor of Lynn, in 1285, gave them wine to the value of lu. for the feast of St. Dominic. When Edward I passed through Lynn in 1300 he sent an alms of 155. for a day's food. Edward II on arriving at Lynn in 1326 gave a like sum for the day's food of forty-five friars ; and Edward III, when passing through the town in 1328, sent 14/. 8^'. to the forty-five friars who were then in the house. Father Palmer also sets forth at length numerous bequests to the four orders of friars of this town, and to the Black Friars in particular up to the year 1505. Provincial chapters of the Dominicans are known to have been held here at this house in 1304, 1344, and 1365 ; on the first occasion Edward I gave 20 marks towards the expenses, whilst Edward III gave ^^15 on the second occasion, and ;^io on the last.'" About the year i486 the priory suffered severely from fire. Twenty years later the buildings were not fully restored, and the master- general, on 24 June, 1476, empowered the prior for five years to admit as many as he would to the benefits and suffrages of the order, pro- vided their alms were applied to the repair of the convent. When the Valor of 1535 was drawn up there was but rare mention of friars, as their only property was, as a rule, the land on which their house and church stood. In this case, Thomas Lovell being prior, the Dominicans held a tenement in Lynn let at lOx. a year and a parcel of meadow at 8j.'- This community was destroyed in 1538. The day and month are left blank on the surrender, which is signed by Thomas Lovell, prior, Robert Skott, bachelor, and trustees of the order. Priors (Mentioned by Father Palmer) William de Bagthorpe, 1393 John Braynes, 1488 William Videnhus, 1497 Thomas Lovell, 1535 The site of this house, as well as of the other three friaries of Lynn, was granted by the kino- to John Eyre, who was one of the king's auditors or receivers. Eyre obtained a large share of monastic lands, including much of the great abbey of Bury St. Edmunds ; but he did not prosper and died childless." '" Reliquary (new ser.), ii, 4. " Reg. Mag. Gen. Ord. cited by Father Palmer. Various minor particulars as to fifteenth-centur)- friars of th.s house are also given from this source from the same chronicle. " Falor Eccl. (Rec. Com.), iii, 397. " Dep. Keeper's Rep. viii, App. 2, 30. '* Spelman, Hist, of Sacrilege, ij^-j. 426
