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A HISTORY OF BEDFORDSHIRE was a real act of generosity on the part of the owner, as he thereby lost what was then and afterwards considered as a natural provision for the cadets of his own family ; and it was often resented by his imme- diate successors. A long series of suits on the subject of advowsons, between monasteries and lay patrons, begins in the twelfth century. The earliest we know of in Bedfordshire was between the abbot of Thor- ney and William Peverel, concerning the church of Bolnhurst, which lasted from 1113 to 1151 j 1 the priors of Dunstable, 3 Chicksand 3 and Newnham 4 had their rights to certain churches very early called into question. The chartularies of Newnham and Dunstable, both of which houses possessed a great many churches, point very clearly to difficulties of this kind ; every grant is fenced about with charters- — from the original grantor ; from his lord if he had one ; from the bishop or archdeacon ; and, if possible, from the king and the pope. The bishop's charters were indeed necessary to the validity of the grant since the Council of Westminster in 1 102, 6 which forbade the religious to possess themselves of parish churches without the consent of the diocesan. Suits are also recorded, though not in such numbers, between differ- ent religious houses ; both parties having received some grant of tithes which seemed to justify a claim to the advowson. The abbey of Elstow came in for a large share of these disputes ; both the abbot of Newhouse and the prior of Dunstable had to resort to a papal mandate before they could arrive at a peaceful settlement with the ladies, who seem to have been very determined in the effort to secure their rights. 6 The most interesting of these disputes in the twelfth century was the one which gave Luton church back again to the abbey of St. Alban's. It had been held, jointly with Houghton Regis church, by William the Chamberlain, who, though he may well have been in minor orders, yet held these churches and their lands by knight service, and transmitted them to his heirs under the same tenure. In the reign of Stephen they were no longer however held in capite, but of Robert, Earl of Glouces- ter ; the desire of this nobleman to put a kinsman of his own into Luton church, and the subsequent complications arising from the Civil War, led at last to the transference of the advowson to St. Alban's abbey. It cost the abbot however 110 marks before he finally secured it from 1 Dugdale, Men. ii. 6oz. 2 Hugh Britton impleaded the prior in 1 1 97 about the advowson of Studham (Feet of F. [Rec. Com.], p. 5)- 3 Elias of Astwick brought a suit against the prior and Simon de Beauchamp about the chapel of Astwick, 1198 (ibid. p. 21). 1 The prior recovered Hatley church from Adam de Port, 1 197 (ibid. p. 8). There was a suit also between the Hospitallers and Stephen of Souldrop about the church of Souldrop, 1197 (ibid. p. 17). 5 Rev. E. L. Cutts, Parish Priests and their People, p. 98. 6 The Bishop of Ely, by mandate of Alexander III., settled the dispute between Dunstable and Elstow concerning the churches of Flitton, Westoning and Pulloxhill (Harl. MS. 1885, f. 23b). The same pope issued a bull forbidding the nuns of Elstow to lay any further claim to a church which be- longed to the abbot of Newhouse (Harl. Charters, 43 G, 23, 24). The church of Melchbourne was also claimed both by the prior of St. Neot's and the prior of the Hospitallers (Gorham, History of St. AW/, II. cxiii.) 314