31. JESUS COMMONS
Stow speaks of a number of priests who lived
together in Dowgate Ward in a house which
had been left to them for that purpose, and
which was well provided both with furniture
and books. They were known as Jesus Commons,
and were apparently a corporate body, filling up
gaps in their ranks as they occurred through
death or otherwise. (fn. 25) It is not impossible that
the college was connected with a fraternity of
priests to whom John Kyrketon, stockfishmonger,
left a bequest at the end of the fourteenth
century. (fn. 26)
Mention of it occurs in 1539, a priest reporting there words spoken by the parson of
St. Mary Aldermary, (fn. 27) and again in 1543 when
the parson of St. Ethelburga made to it a bequest of
7s. 6d. (fn. 28) It seems to have survived the changes
under Edward VI, and to have become extinct through lack of members in the reign of
Elizabeth. (fn. 29)
Footnotes
| 25 |
Stow, Surv. of Lond. (ed. Strype), ii, 201. |
| 26 |
Sharpe, Cal. of Wills, ii, 269. |
| 27 |
L. and P. Hen. VIII, xiv (2), 41 (3). |
| 28 |
Lond. Epis. Reg. Bonner, fol. 193b. |
| 29 |
Stow, op. cit. ii, 201. |