29. HOUSE OF CARMELITE FRIARS, SHOREHAM
The only establishment of Carmelite friars in
Sussex was the house of the Blessed Virgin
founded at Shoreham by Sir John de Mowbray (fn. 1)
in 1316. The founder's father-in-law, William
de Braose, shortly afterwards gave them a messuage
adjoining their house, (fn. 2) and in 1348 Sir John de
Mowbray obtained leave to give them a further
1½ acres extending from their dwelling to the
High Street on the north. (fn. 3) They also obtained
from the Hospitallers in 1326 a house and
chapel in Shoreham which had formerly belonged to the Templars. (fn. 4) Some fifty years after
their foundation they appear to have enlarged
their church, as in 1368 Sir Michael de Poynings
left £20 to the Carmelites of Shoreham towards
building their church. (fn. 5) They were also the recipients of numerous other, but small, legacies.
Towards the end of the fifteenth century the
inroads of the sea threatened to sweep away the
friars' house, and accordingly in 1493 they
removed to the vacant buildings of the priory of
Sele, which had been suppressed and made over
to Magdalen College, Oxford, by permission of
whose fellows the friars were allowed to take up
their quarters there. (fn. 6)
These Carmelites appear to have been at the
time of the dissolution the poorest of all the
Sussex friars, against none of whom could
charges of luxury be levelled. The other houses
all contrived to struggle on in poverty till
suppressed, but when the bishop of Dover came
in July, 1538, to the White Friars of Sele, he
found 'neither friar nor secular, but the doors
open'; there was no prior, 'nor none to serve
God,' and had not been for some time; the
house, chapel, and 4 acres of land belonged to
Magdalen College, being only leased by the
friars, and with the exception of choir stalls
valued at 20s., and a bell in the church steeple
which the parish claimed, the furniture of the
priory, including 'a sorry bell' and some ragged
vestments, was valued at only 3s. 4d., and that
the bishop considered 8d. too much. (fn. 7)
Priors Of Shoreham
Nicholas de Bedynge, occurs 1329 (fn. 8)
Nicholas, occurs 1342 (fn. 9)
John Bromlee, before 1383 (fn. 10)
John Crawle, occurs 1414 (fn. 11)