Gervase Paynel, then living, and also of his father Ralf and his grandfather Fulk, the founder of the house ; and this seems to bring it very near the beginning of the twelfth cen- tury. Fulk Paynel is said to have been the son of Ralf Paynel, [1] who appears in the Domesday Survey and was founder of the priory of Holy Trinity at York near the close of the eleventh century.
Tickford Priory was originally a cell to the Abbey of Marmoutier at Tours [2] ; and this connection was a source of much difficulty during the thirteenth century. Very little is known of the history of the house during the twelfth century, except the names of a few priors, attached to documents of no great im- portance.[3] But early in the thirteenth cen- tury the question of jurisdiction came to the front, and the difficulty had reached an acute stage between 1220 and 1230.[4] It will perhaps be not unprofitable to describe its course and final settlement with some detail, as the exemption of Cluniac monasteries was not so clearly established and understood as that of the Cistercians and other orders of later date.
In 1220 Hugh of Wells, Bishop of Lincoln, visited the priory as diocesan and installed William, a monk of the house, as prior in the place of Hugh, who had just resigned.[5] This was probably resented by the Abbot of Mar- moutier as an infringement of his rights ; but he was not in a position at that time to assert any claim against the bishop, as the priory itself was in rebellion against his authority, and under the leadership of Prior William, protested against the payments exacted by the parent abbey from its cells. William was compelled to resign and to leave the house altogether in 1228, and some of the monks were imprisoned, because they would not accept a certain charter offered to them by the abbot ; but soon afterwards a composi- tion was made, which secured to Marmoutier the rights of visitation and correction, but remitted all payments which had hitherto been required of the English monks. [6]
In consequence, however, of these difficul- ties, no successor had been appointed at William's resignation ; and after six months the bishop collated John of Colne, a monk of Spalding.[7] When John resigned in 1233, the bishop came to the priory again, and had some very serious faults to find with the monks. He said the rule was so badly kept that the house was a scandal to other religious, and the number of monks was not even half what it should be. He enjoined them to keep their rule better in future, and to receive twelve more monks during the following year.[8] This would suggest that the proper number was about twenty.[9]
During the episcopate of Robert Grosse- tte, the Abbot of Marmoutier complained to the pope that the bishops of Lincoln were ex- ceeding their rights : by excommunicating monks of Tickford, contrary to the privileges of the order, and also interfering in the ad- ministration of the priory. William, Cardinal of St. Eustace, was appointed to inquire into the matter, and gave sentence for the bishop
- ↑ T. P. Bull, History of Newport Pagnel, 28. Several references to the external history of this priory are taken from this book ; but the author had obtained nothing from the Lincoln Registers except the names of priors.
- ↑ Round, Cal. of Doc. France, i. 444.
- ↑ Feet of Fines (Rec. Com.), i. 187, 190. Fulk Paynel seems to have placed one of his nephews in the priory. A charter of his is witnessed by Helias, monk, nephew of Fulk Paynel. Harl. MS. 2188, f. 125d.
- ↑ During the same ten years the prior of Newport was involved in a long suit relative to the church of Aston, Warwickshire, and the chapel of Yardley appendant thereto. In 1220 the chapel of Yardley was claimed by the abbot of Alcester, Ralf de Limesy, Giles de Ardington and the prior of Newport. The first two owned their claim to be unfounded, and the chapel was finally awarded to Giles till he should come of age : but he quit-claimed it to the prior. In 1230 the prior claimed the church of Aston, in virtue of a charter made by Thomas de Ardington, grandfather of Giles, and confirmed by Silvester, bishop of Worcester. The charters were pronounced to be false, and it was proved that the prior had not presented to the church in the time of Thomas de Ardington or his son Henry. So Giles de Ardington recovered seisin. Bracton's Note Book, iii. 347-8, and ii. 337. But Hubert, archbishop of Canterbury, in 1224 appears to have confirmed a charter of Gervase Paynel granting to the priory the church of Aston with the chapels of Yardley, Bramwig, and Overton (Harl. MS. 2188, f. 125). It had also been confirmed by Stephen Langton (ibid. I25d), and was confirmed again by Ralf de Somery when he married Hawise, heiress of the Paynels (ibid.). It belonged to Tickford in 1291, but was again disputed between 1324 and 1331 ; and was finally reckoned as part of the property of the priory at the dissolution (L. and P. Henry VIII, iv. 2167).
- ↑ Linc. Epis. Reg. Rolls of Hugh of Wells.
- ↑ Ann. Mon. (Rolls Ser.), iii. 109.
- ↑ Linc. Epis. Reg. Rolls of Hugh of Wells. It is simply said here that William had resigned : the chronicler of Dunstable explains that this was not a voluntary resignation, and that he was sent into exile.
- ↑ Ibid.
- ↑ In 1450 it was noted that the number should be sixteen. Sir G. F. Duckett, Charters and Records of the Abbey of Cluni, ii. 213.
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