assigned to Michelham. The rental in this valuation is given much more in detail, and what is comprehended in the "Taxatio" under the general head of Marsh is here given in its several detached portions, as Shaldmershe, Fothermershe, Brode (broad) mershe, &c., names which, so far as I can find, are no longer recognized.
The annual profits of the priory mill are put at £2. 13s. 4d., and the mill at Mayfield let for one pound.
It would be too much to suppose that the brotherhood were left in quiet enjoyment of their possessions during those turbulent times, when kings and potent barons, and even their powerful subordinates, had little scruple in laying hands upon ecclesiastical property on any plausible pretext. So early as 1249 (33º Henry III) Robert de Fulham, Constable of the Exchequer, obtained a writ of distringas on the lands and goods of the Prior of Michelham and Robert le Hus' for a debt of 40s., which (as is alleged) ought to have been paid in the octaves of St. Peter and St. Paul, and is now ordered to be forthcoming within three weeks from the feast of St. John the Baptist.
In 1275 complaint was made that the Prior of Michelham had withdrawn the suits and services of twenty-five tenants in his manor of Chyntynge, which tenants were accustomed to do suit and service for the hundred of Faxberewe (Flexborough); that these services were worth vs. per annum, and had been withholden vj years, to the detriment of the said hundred. Also that the prior had the assize of bread and beer in the manor of Chyntyng, by what warrant was unknown.[1]
In consequence of this probably it was that in 1279 the prior brought forward his claim before the Judges of Assize, John de Ryegate and others, on circuit at Chichester, on the day after St. John Baptist, to have exemption from shires and hundreds and their suits, &c., pursuant to the charter of Henry III, as he and all his predecessors had therefore enjoyed it; when the verdict was in his favour.[2]
During this reign of Edward I also the Prior of Michelham had to bring his action against Johanna de Caunvil, lady of
