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and by the fifteenth century the Arrouasian name, where it was still retained, was little more than a convenient excuse for escaping attendance at general chapters and other ordinances of the regular life.^[1]

All the best known names in the county of Buckingham are found amongst the early benefactors of Missenden Abbey : Richard de Urvill the archdeacon, Walter Giffard, Walter de Bolebec, Turstin Mantel, Manasser Dan- martin, Simon de Gerardmoulin, Hugh de Gurnay, Robert Mansel, the Turvilles and Cheinduits, and many others. The house was never among the greater abbeys of Eng- land, but it was fairly well endowed from the beginning, and was one of the most important monasteries in this county. The number of canons was probably soon increased, and even in the fifteenth century there were as many as twenty. ^[2] It seems likely that a later William of Missenden added to the original endow- ment in the thirteenth century, and so came to be reckoned as founder, and this would ex- plain the result of the inquisition made in 1332, which reported that the house was founded as recently as 1293.^[3] Yet another William of Missenden in 1336 was buried in the abbey with the honours of a founder ^[4] : and perhaps these later benefactions obscured the memory of the earlier ones.

At the end of the twelfth century the Abbot of Missenden was proctor to the Abbot of Arrouaise, and had to act for him in a diffi- culty which arose in connection with the priory of Harrold in Bedfordshire. The priors of this house had been nominated at first by the Abbot of Arrouaise, without con- tradiction ; but near the end of the twelfth century, the nuns, under the leadership of a certain brother ' B.' and Gila the prioress, tried to escape from all subjection to the parent abbey. They tried to get a privilege from the pope for this purpose : the Abbot of Arrouaise indeed alleged that they had forged one, and was inclined at first to believe that the Abbot of Missenden had aided and abetted their plots ; but he afterwards cleared the latter of all blame. It was finally arranged that the nuns should pay half a mark yearly to the Abbot of Missenden and be free in future of all subjection to Arrouaise. After this agreement, which took place about the year 1188, ^[5] there is no record of any further connection between Missenden and Arrou- aise.

This house is mentioned early in the thir- teenth century in connection with a few suits of no great importance ; in two of these the abbot was convicted of putting forward un- warrantable claims. In 1225 he appeared against Hubert de Burgh the justiciar, and brought forward a charter from Walter de Penn, which granted to him the advowson of Oulton Church in Norfolk, but Hubert was successful in proving that Walter never had any right to make the gift, and the abbot was fined in consequence. ^[6]

In 1231 the abbot was successful in proving his claim to the chapel of Muswell,^[7] but in 1245 he was again convicted of wrongfully exacting a pension from the rector of Taplow.^[8]

We hear from the chronicler of Dunstable that the convent of Missenden suffered some kind of persecution from Ralf Brito, the king's treasurer, before 1232, but no details are given. </ref><Ann. Mon. (Rolls Ser.), iii. 130. /ref> In 1239 Isabel, the wife of Gilbert de Clare, Earl of Gloucester, desired that a part of her body should be buried in this abbey. ^[9] The Close Rolls of the reign of Ed- ward I. show the abbots to have been some- what involved in debt at this time.^[10] And to- wards the close of the thirteenth century the abbey seems to have fallen into great poverty, for in 1281 Henry Huse and Walter de Agmo- desham were appointed to take it under the king's special protection for four years, as it was in danger of dispersion and ruin by murrain among sheep and horses, failure of crops, and accumulation of debts, ^[11] and in 1286 a similar order was issued to Master William de Luda, king's clerk, for a period of time unnamed.^[12] In 1276 Abbot William of London received 50 marks from the king to establish a chantry in the

1. Cott. MS. Vesp. D, i. f. 64.
2. Pat. 2 Edw. IV. pt. i, m. 14d.
3. Inq. p.m. 5 Edw. III. n. 5 in Dugdale, Mon. vi. (I), 548.
4. John Tofts' book, in Dugdale, Man. vi. (i), 848. John Tofts was alive though not prior in 1463 (Pat. 2 Edw. IV. pt. i, m. 14d)
5. Harl. MS. 3688, ff. i6od-i63. What is here told helps to explain the account of the final concordia in the Chartulary of Harrold priory, Lansd. MS. 391, ff. l8b, 19, which supplies the date, and the fact that the Abbot of Missenden was proctor to the Abbot of Arrouaise. This is further evidence for the generally reliable character of Harl. MS. 3688.
6. Bracton's Note Book, m. 92 ; De Legibus et Consuet. Angliae, iii. 246-7.
7. Cal. of Pap. Letters, i. 125.
8. Ibid. 217.
9. Ibid. i. 113.
10. Close, 2 Edw. I. m. gd, m. 7d ; ibid. 3 Edw. I. m. 17d ; ibid. 6 Edw. I. m. 2d. The largest sum mentioned is £151.
11. Pat. 10 Edw. I. m. 21.
12. <Pat. 14 Edw. I. m. 12.

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