4. THE PRIORY OF SANDWELL
Sandwell Priory in West Bromwich was evidently preceded by a hermitage associated with the
spring, still in existence, from which the priory took
its name. Nothing more, however, is known of this
stage of religious life at Sandwell. The founder of
the priory was William, son of Guy de Offeni, a
principal tenant of Gervase Paynel, lord of Dudley. (fn. 1)
The date usually given for the foundation is about
1190, (fn. 2) but there seems no reason why it could not
have been at least ten years earlier. (fn. 3) Sandwell was a
house of Benedictine monks dedicated to St. Mary
Magdalen (fn. 4) with the successive lords of West
Bromwich manor as patrons. (fn. 5)
No foundation charter is known to have survived,
but a confirmation of William's foundation by
Gervase Paynel gives details of the original endowment of the priory. (fn. 6) William gave the monks
dwelling in the hermitage by the spring called
Sandwell all the land round the spring, some of his
tenants in West Bromwich, 'Wavera' (perhaps a
weir or horse-pond) in Handsworth, the assart of
'Ruworth', 'Duddesrudding', land between 'Petulf
Greene' and the king's highway as far as 'Waver'
and the stream called 'le Burne', a well or pit
(puteum) at 'Wich' (presumably West Bromwich),
and a mill at 'Grete' (near Greets Green in West
Bromwich). He also granted the monks tithes of his
pannage, hunting, mills, bread, ale, and dishes
(ferculorum) from the kitchen of his house, wood for
fuel and timber, and pasture throughout his manor
of West Bromwich at all times of the year for all
animals. Finally he gave them the church of
Ellesborough (Bucks.) and a dwelling there, 'as
much as is of our fee of the barony of Dudley' — in
fact a moiety of the church. (fn. 7)
In the 13th century the priory was involved in
disputes with three generations of the Parles family.
In 1211 William de Parles sued the prior for 10 acres
in Sandwell and in 1212 for 10 acres in Handsworth.
Richard, son of the founder and advocate of the
priory, was called upon by the prior to warrant his
title and duly did so. The result of the Handsworth
dispute is not known, but in 1222 William de Parles
remitted his claim to the 10 acres in Sandwell and
Richard gave him £5. (fn. 8) In 1224 William de Parles
sued Richard's brother and heir William for half the
advowson of the priory and claimed to have presented Prior Reynold during the reign of King John.
On the death of the defendant in the same year, with
a minor as his heir, the case was adjourned sine die. (fn. 9)
More serious for the monks themselves was the
dispute between John de Parles and the Prior of
Sandwell over the advowson of Handsworth, which
Sandwell claimed to share with Lenton Priory
(Notts.). Here John de Parles was successful, and in
1230 the Prior of Sandwell acknowledged his right
to half the advowson. For abandoning his claim he
was compensated by John de Parles with a messuage
in Birmingham yielding 1 mark a year. (fn. 10) The climax
of the priory's relations with the Parles family was
reached in 1260 when William de Parles led an armed
band of assailants against the prior, who was
fortunate to escape. (fn. 11) An inquisition of 1280, however, taken after William had been hanged for
felony, shows that he had enfeoffed the priory with
20s. rent from his mill at Hamstead (in Handsworth). (fn. 12)
The priory also had some difficulty during the
13th century in maintaining its rights in distant
Ellesborough where by the 1220s Alan de Maidewelle was claiming half the advowson. In 1224,
however, he renounced his claim. (fn. 13) In 1276 Richard
de Seyton and his wife claimed the advowson of
Ellesborough against the prior as the heirs of
William Brito who had presented in the time of
Henry II. They lost the case not because they had
no right but because their moiety of the church was
not then vacant. (fn. 14)
In or shortly before 1230, however, the priory
made an important acquisition when the church of
West Bromwich was farmed to it in perpetuity by
the monks of Worcester for an annual payment of 6
marks and responsibility for maintaining the church,
providing books and ornaments, and paying dues to
the bishop and archdeacon. This was confirmed in
1230 by the bishop, who also allowed the church to
be served by a chaplain appointed by Sandwell, and
in 1283 the Pope added his confirmation. (fn. 15) In 1291
the church was valued at £4, the exact equivalent
of its farm. The priory's share of the church of
Ellesborough was valued at £6 13s. 4d., and the
monks also received £1 13s. 4d. from the other
half. The priory's temporalities at Sandwell were
assessed at £4 16s. 8d. (fn. 16) In the constitutional crisis
of 1297 the priory's lay fees were confiscated by royal
order, but they were restored on payment of the
subsidy. (fn. 17) The prior contributed £1 9s. towards the
tenth of 1306. (fn. 18)
A glimpse of the internal life of the priory is given
by the provision made for an aged prior, evidently
Richard de Eselberg in 1330. (fn. 19) After receiving the
prior's resignation during a visitation, the bishop
ordered that he was to have the newly built chamber
next to the dormitory, attendance, and the food of
two monks, the 'broken meat' being given to the
poor; he was also to have 20s. a year for clothing. In
addition he was to be assigned some land near the
graveyard with a fishpond and dovecote; after his
death these were to be used for the support of the
brethren in the infirmary.
The history of the priory is undistinguished save
perhaps for its turbulence. In the 14th century at
least three of the elections of a prior were annulled
by the bishop, (fn. 20) while the death of the prior in 1349
(presumably of the plague) and in 1361 left only one
other in the community on each occasion and the
bishop duly appointed him to the vacancy. (fn. 21) In a
poll tax list of 1377 only the prior is mentioned. (fn. 22) In
1380, however, there was one other monk besides the
prior, and when the prior resigned in that year the
right of appointment was granted to the bishop who
brought in a monk from Shrewsbury to fill the
vacancy. In 1391 there was only one monk at
Sandwell; he elected a monk of Shrewsbury as
prior, but the bishop quashed the election and
brought in a monk of Coventry. (fn. 23) After the resignation of the prior in 1487 the monks claimed to be
unable to proceed to an election because of their
'simplicity' and the bishop once more appointed;
with a new vacancy the following year the monks
again appealed to the bishop to appoint. (fn. 24)
It is thus not surprising to find disorders within
the priory. About 1324 the bishop addressed a stern
letter to the monks admonishing them to show
proper obedience to the prior. He also stated that
one of the brethren was wandering about in secular
garb under pretence of a visit to the papal Curia. (fn. 25)
By 1355 the administration of the priory left much
to be desired, and the bishop complained that the
monks were committing waste of woods and hedges,
granting long leases, and alienating their property. (fn. 26)
By the 1370s Prior John de Kyngeston's position
was being challenged by Richard Tudenham who
claimed to be the rightful prior; it was probably in
this connexion that John de Kyngeston was attacked
by five men in 1370 and shot in the arm with an
arrow. (fn. 27) This was followed by a dispute with the
Abbot of Shrewsbury, against whom John de
Kyngeston started legal proceedings. The nature of
the dispute is not known, but it may be that an
attempt was being made to subordinate the priory
to the abbey. In 1379 the Abbot of Shrewsbury,
two of his monks, the Rector of Handsworth, and
others forcibly removed John de Kyngeston from
Sandwell to Sleap (Salop.), a manor belonging to
the abbot, and there compelled him to resign the
priorate before a notary public and to abandon the
proceedings which he had initiated against the
abbot. (fn. 28) In 1380 Richard Westbury, one of the
Shrewsbury monks involved in the attack on John
de Kyngeston, was appointed prior by the bishop. (fn. 29)
Tudenham, however, had not abandoned his hopes
of the office and in the meanwhile had procured a
papal provision to the priory. He therefore began an
action against Westbury in the ecclesiastical courts,
hoping to displace him. But the supplanter of John
de Kyngeston proved more than a match for
Tudenham. The little-applied Statute of Provisors
of 1351 was invoked and Westbury's rival was
arrested and brought before the Council. (fn. 30) What
may be termed the Shrewsbury party suffered a
reverse in 1391 when the election of a monk of that
abbey, William Pontesbury, as Westbury's successor
was annulled by the bishop, and a monk of Coventry,
John of Tamworth, was appointed. (fn. 31) In 1397 Tamworth was ejected by Alexander Leddesham, described as an apostate monk and abetted by a warlike
band; by the following year, however, Tamworth
was back in office. (fn. 32) In 1401 John de Acton, a monk
of Shrewsbury, was appointed as his successor by
Archbishop Arundel during his visitation of the
diocese. (fn. 33) In 1436 John Atton, also a monk of
Shrewsbury, was elected. (fn. 34)
Relations with laymen were also stormy. About
1324 the prior obtained letters of excommunication
from the bishop against 'certain sons of iniquity'
who had invaded the priory lands, taken fish, cut
wood, and oppressed the tenants and were also
detaining tithes and burial fees. (fn. 35) In 1341 the prior
and his priest were among several people whose
arrest was ordered by the Crown because of their
attempted interference in the appointment of a
prebendary of Codsall in the king's free chapel of
Tettenhall. (fn. 36) Relations with the advocate of the
priory had degenerated by 1387 when John Marnham sued Prior Richard Westbury to secure delivery
of a bond. (fn. 37) In 1414 the prior was accused of
sheltering murderers and robbers; together with
others similarly accused he was admitted to bail and
pardoned. (fn. 38)
On the credit side Sandwell was extending its
property in the later 14th century. In 1365 it
acquired a messuage and virgate in Padbury
(Bucks.). (fn. 39) Between 1388 and 1390 Prior Westbury,
with some help from William Pontesbury, the monk
of Shrewsbury who nearly succeeded him as prior,
attempted to obtain the farm of the alien priory of
Alberbury (Salop.), which was in the royal custody.
Although he achieved some temporary success, the
original keeper, Geoffrey Stafford, a canon of
Ranton, was restored in 1390. (fn. 40) In 1398 Prior
Tamworth obtained papal sanction for the appropriation of the priory's share of Ellesborough
church, which it was to be allowed to serve with one
of its own monks or a secular priest on the death of
the existing rector. Whatever the advantages to
Sandwell of this appropriation it certainly did not
redound to the benefit of the inhabitants of Ellesborough. By 1519 the church had fallen into decay
and services were rarely held, there being no vicar,
but the priory drew regularly 10 marks a year
and 4 quarters of wheat. In the 15th and 16th
centuries the advowson and half the rectory were
leased out by the priory. (fn. 41) In the 1450s the priory
owned a fulling-mill at Fazeley which it leased
out. (fn. 42)
Sandwell was among the 21 religious houses
scheduled for suppression in 1524 for the benefit of
Cardinal Wolsey's Cardinal College at Oxford. (fn. 43)
The suppression took place in February 1525;
provision, however, was made for the continuance
of religious services. The prior and one other monk
only made up the community, and they were transferred to other Benedictine houses. (fn. 44) The possessions
of the priory then consisted of buildings and lands
in Sandwell, the advowson and tithes of West
Bromwich, two water-mills at West Bromwich, the
advowson and half the rectory of Ellesborough, and
lands and rents in Sandwell, West Bromwich,
Dudley, Tipton, Great Barr, Little Barr, Harborne,
'Wernell', 'Coston' (presumably Coston Hackett,
Worcs.), Wombourn, Wednesbury, Handsworth,
and 'Feccham'. The spiritualities were valued at £12
and the temporalities at £26 8s. 7d. (fn. 45) The priory and
its property were conveyed by the king to Wolsey in
January 1526 and by Wolsey to the Dean of Cardinal
College in February; a further double transaction
involving more property took place in 1528. In 1530
the college drew £31 7s. from the Sandwell property. After the fall of Wolsey the property reverted
to the Crown. In 1530 Thomas Cromwell and
William Burbank stayed five days at Sandwell and
sold goods there for £21; the bells were valued at
£33 6s. 8d. In 1531 the manor of Sandwell was
granted to Lucy Clifford and the advowson of
Ellesborough to the Carthusian priory of Sheen
(Surr.). Another portion of the property seems to
have been granted to St. George's Chapel, Windsor,
by 1532.
A survey of Sandwell's possessions in 1526 included the priory buildings which by then were
largely ruinous. (fn. 46) The chancel was 41 feet long and
18 feet wide, while the nave was 57 × 18 feet with a
south aisle 9 feet wide. Between chancel and nave
was a 'bellframe', presumably a tower, 18 × 16 feet,
on the north side of which were two chapels. (fn. 47) The
cloister and priory buildings lay north of the church.
These included a house adjoining one of the side
chapels and measuring 80 × 20 feet; it had three
'low' parlours, three upper chambers, and a
chimney. There was a hall adjoining the cloister;
'buylded chaumber wise', it was 57 × 21 feet. A
building at the west end of the hall, 60 × 21 feet,
included the kitchen and two upper chambers with
various outhouses. Other buildings included a
gatehouse and chamber, a barn 72 × 24 feet, an
adjoining hayhouse 64 × 21 feet, a kilnhouse, a
stable, and a water-mill built of timber and thatched.
To the west of the priory was a dried-up moat with
an overgrown orchard inside it. (fn. 48)
Priors
John, occurs some time between 1194 and 1218 (fn. 49)
and is probably the Prior John who occurs in
1218. (fn. 50)
Reynold, admitted temp. King John. (fn. 51)
William, occurs 1230 and is probably the Prior W.
who was appointed a judge delegate by Archbishop Langton (1206-28). (fn. 52)
Richard, predecessor of Thomas. (fn. 53)
Thomas, occurs 1293 and is probably the Prior
Thomas who resigned 1316. (fn. 54)
John de Duckebroc, appointed by the bishop 1316,
resigned by March 1323. (fn. 55)
Richard de Eselberg, appointed 1323, resigned
1330. (fn. 56)
William de la Lee, appointed 1330. (fn. 57)
William Harell, appointed 1333. (fn. 58)
Richard le Warde, occurs 1341, died 1349. (fn. 59)
Nicholas de Cumpton, appointed 1349. (fn. 60)
William del Ree, died 1361. (fn. 61)
Henry of Kidderminster, appointed 1361. (fn. 62)
John de Kyngeston, occurs 1370, resigned 1379. (fn. 63)
Richard Westbury, appointed 1380, occurs to
1390. (fn. 64)
John of Tamworth, appointed 1391, resigned
1400. (fn. 65)
John de Acton, appointed 1401. (fn. 66)
Richard Dudley, occurs 1413 and 1416. (fn. 67)
William Pruyne, resigned 1436. (fn. 68)
John Atton, elected 1436, occurs 1461. (fn. 69)
John Newport, occurs 1484, resigned 1487. (fn. 70)
Thomas Wynnysbury, appointed 1488, resigned
same year. (fn. 71)
John Sawer, appointed 1488. (fn. 72)
William, occurs 1518. (fn. 73)
John Baylye, surrendered the priory in 1525. (fn. 74)
A 15th-century copy of a 12th-century matrix
belonging to Sandwell Priory has survived. (fn. 75) It is of
bronze, pointed oval about 3 by 2 in., and depicts
Our Lord with cruciferous nimbus, seated with His
right hand raised in benediction and holding an
open book in His left hand. Legend, lombardic:
SIGILLUM COMMUNE SANCTE MARIE MADALENA
DE SANDWELLE