17. THE PRIORY OF ST. THOMAS NEAR STAFFORD
The priory of St. Thomas the Martyr on the north
bank of the Sow two miles east of Stafford was
founded about 1174 by Gerard fitz Brian, who was
evidently a burgess of Stafford. (fn. 1) Gerard's foundation charter (fn. 2) shows that he had obtained some
canons from Darley Abbey in Derbyshire and
provided them with a site on land which he held
from the bishop. Gerard stipulated that the house
should be independent of any other and that he
should be its patron and protector. The charter
cannot be later than 1175 since it was witnessed by
Ralph, Archdeacon of Stafford, who ceased to hold
office in that year; (fn. 3) it cannot be much earlier since
St. Thomas of Canterbury, to whom the priory was
dedicated, was canonized in 1173.
Gerard's original gift consisted of almost 70 acres
called Sheepwash Meadow and as much of the River
Sow as belonged to it. (fn. 4) The only land, apart from
this, which Gerard gave the priory was some
property in Stafford subject to a yearly rent of 8s.
due to his heirs. (fn. 5) It seems that, although Gerard
lived for some years after the foundation of St.
Thomas's and continued to take an interest in it, (fn. 6)
he did not finish what he had begun. His foundation
was completed by Bishop Richard Peche (1161-82)
who referred to it in a grant as 'the church of St.
Thomas the Martyr of Stafford . . . which we have
founded'. (fn. 7) Later, in his confirmation of the canons'
possessions, the bishop referred to the site of the
priory as 'that place ... in which, by Gerard's
own concession, we have founded their church'. (fn. 8)
In 1182 Bishop Peche resigned his see, took the
habit of a regular canon of St. Thomas's, and was
buried there the same year. (fn. 9) By later chroniclers
he was regarded as the founder and builder of the
priory, (fn. 10) and the patronage of the house remained
with his successors in the see of Coventry and
Lichfield.
The bishop's first grant to the canons (fn. 11) consisted
of a burgage in Lichfield; housebote, (fn. 12) haybote, and
firebote from his woodland in Cannock Forest;
common of pasture in his manor of Baswich; and
'the whole River Sow' from Stafford to the 'Watur
Wending' (fn. 13) (evidently a grant of fishing rights) with
a marshy place called 'le Kocholme' and a thicket
near the confluence of the Sow and the Penk. By the
time the bishop confirmed the canons' property a
few years later (fn. 14) his benefactions to the priory had
increased, and the canons had received from him
land called 'Estmora' in Baswich on the opposite
bank of the Sow from the priory, land at Orberton
(in St. Mary's, Stafford), another burgage in
Lichfield, and quittance of pannage in Baswich
manor. Another of the bishop's gifts recorded in
this confirmation is noteworthy as indicating the
improving activities of the canons. The bishop had
given them a meadow which had belonged to his
manor of Eccleshall and which was 'often ruined by
frequent flooding'; in return the canons 'by their
own labour reclaimed to [the bishop's] use another
meadow ... in Eccleshall better and more fertile'.
The canons had by this time acquired the right to
fish the River Penk as well as the Sow and had also
been allowed to construct fish-ponds on the Sow and
the Kingston Brook.
It seems clear from the bishop's confirmation of
their property that the canons possessed two mills
in the immediate neighbourhood of the priory from
an early period. One of these stood on the Sow at the
south-west corner of the precinct and was erected by
permission of the bishop. The other stood on the
Kingston Brook, less than half a mile north-west of
the priory; it was erected with the permission of local
landowners who had rights in the area. (fn. 15)
Much of the priory's early landed endowment,
listed in the bishop's confirmation and in a papal
confirmation a few years later, (fn. 16) came from local
manorial lords or lesser landowners, typical members of the class which patronized the Augustinian
order in the later 12th century. (fn. 17) Thus Alan of
Hanyards gave a cultura beside the Kingston Brook
and another on Tixall Heath; (fn. 18) Nicholas de
Mauvesin, lord of Coton (in St. Mary's, Stafford),
gave 7 acres of land there; (fn. 19) Eudes (or Ives) de
Mutton gave 6 acres of land in his manor of
Ingestre; (fn. 20) Reynold le Waite, of Rickerscote (in
Castle Church), gave meadow there; (fn. 21) Alice de
Hopton and her son, Robert de Bek, gave lands and
pasture rights in their manor of Hopton (in St.
Mary's, Stafford); (fn. 22) and Robert de Whyston gave 3
acres of land with a house and garden in Oulton (in
Stone). (fn. 23) The priory also acquired property in
Orberton, (fn. 24) Stafford, (fn. 25) and Donisthorpe (Leics., then
in Derb.), (fn. 26) near Gnosall, (fn. 27) and in 'Falmerisham'. (fn. 28)
The canons continued to receive small benefactions of this sort; before 1194 they had acquired
land in Acton Trussell and Bishton (in Colwich), (fn. 29)
and about the same time a rent in Callowhill (in
Kingstone). (fn. 30) In the early years of the 13th century
Simon the cook gave the canons land in Stockton
(in Baswich). (fn. 31) On the basis of half a virgate in
Whitgreave (in St. Mary's, Stafford) which they
bought for 5½ marks from Walter Geri, the canons
built up quite an important estate out of small gifts
and purchases during the earlier 13th century. (fn. 32) One
William, son of Adam de Whitgreave, gave them an
acre of land in Whitgreave about 1210. (fn. 33) Clement,
son of Herbert de Whitgreave, sold the canons 8
acres of land there about 1220 and gave them another
3 acres; (fn. 34) a little later Avice de Sogenhull gave 10
acres in Whitgreave which she had bought from
Clement. (fn. 35) About 1252 Philip le Poer, a canon of
St. Mary's, Stafford, gave the priory another 3
acres of land there. (fn. 36) At the end of the 13th century
the estate at Whitgreave was evidently worked in
demesne as a member of the priory's grange at
Orberton. (fn. 37)
In 1194 the canons acquired their first considerable property when, for 35 marks, they bought the
manor of Drayton (in Penkridge) from Hervey Bagot
and his wife, Millicent de Stafford. (fn. 38) More large
properties were acquired during the course of the
13th century. About 1200 Walter de Gray gave the
canons that half of the vill of Fradswell (a detached
portion of Colwich parish, near Chartley) which he
held as one-tenth of a knight's fee. A condition of
Walter's gift was that the canons were to receive
him and his three children in concilio suo and were
to keep them in food and clothing. (fn. 39) In the later
13th century the priory acquired lordship over the
whole of Fradswell. (fn. 40) Another important estate
acquired in the earlier 13th century lay at some
distance from St. Thomas's, in the north-west of
the county at Maer. Eudes de Mere gave the priory
all his lordship there and his capital messuage with
an orchard, a garden, buildings, fishponds, and the
wood, meadows, and pastures belonging to the
lordship. (fn. 41) This was probably a quarter of the manor
of Maer of which Eudes seems to have been one of
four coparceners; (fn. 42) the canons later acquired
another quarter of the manor from Thomas, Rector
of Standon. (fn. 43) Eudes also gave the priory half of the
advowson of Maer church; (fn. 44) the other half was later
acquired by the canons from two of his coparceners. (fn. 45) In 1203 Oliver Meverell gave the priory
land in Drointon (in Stowe). (fn. 46) Other property was
acquired there during the 13th century; Oliver's
daughter Alice gave the priory a rent of 10s. and one
Geoffrey de Drengeton and his son Robert gave land
there. (fn. 47) In 1257 Hugh, lord of Weston-underLizard, granted the priory 2¼ virgates of land,
various smaller properties and all his common
pasture rights in his lordship of Newton (in Blithfield) just over a mile south-east of Drointon. (fn. 48) About
1275 the canons acquired a small estate in Lea about
a mile to the south of Drointon. (fn. 49)
By the mid 13th century the priory had received
other small grants in Billington (in Bradley),
Blithfield, Bradley, Brocton (in Baswich), Chorlton
(in Eccleshall), Colton, Dilhorne, Stowe (in St.
Chad's, Lichfield), and Silkmore (in Castle
Church). (fn. 50) Outside the county it acquired an estate
in Quinton (then in Glos.) from Philip de Mutton,
the grandson of an earlier benefactor. (fn. 51)
The priory also received gifts from the Crown.
In 1245 Henry III gave the canons £10 to buy a
chasuble of red samite with orphreys; (fn. 52) in 1255 and
1269 he gave them six timber oaks from Teddesley
Hay in Cannock Forest and in 1272 ten from Kinver
Forest. (fn. 53) In 1257 the priory was exempted on account of its poverty from providing transport for
the expedition against Llewelyn, Prince of Wales, (fn. 54)
in 1263 it received a grant of protection, (fn. 55) and in
1272 it was exempted from jury service in the
county. (fn. 56)
During the Barons' Wars in the later years of
Henry Ill's reign the priory received a number of
grants from Robert de Ferrers, Earl of Derby, a
leading opponent of the king. (fn. 57) In 1261 the earl
granted the priory a considerable estate at Pendleton
(in Eccles, Lanes.). (fn. 58) About two years later he gave
the advowson of the church of Stowe-by-Chartley
with 2 messuages and 17 acres of land in Chartley
and expressed a wish to be buried in the priory; in
1278 the church was appropriated to the canons by
the bishop. (fn. 59) Other small grants followed, (fn. 60) including a toll which had belonged to the Hospital
of St. John the Baptist, Ashbourne (Derb.), and
which the earl had obtained by force during the
wars. (fn. 61) The priory's connexion with the earl,
however, seems to have been without any harmful
consequence; the canons retained the property at
Ashbourne, (fn. 62) and the earl's other gifts were
ultimately confirmed to them. (fn. 63) Moreover the
priory continued to receive gifts from the Crown
and other marks of royal favour. In 1275 Edward I
gave the canons 10 timber oaks for the roof of their
church, and in 1290 another 6 for the same purpose. (fn. 64)
The priory was again exempted in 1282 from
providing transport for a royal expedition into Wales,
and in 1294 it received a grant of protection. (fn. 65) In
1284 the Crown granted the canons free warren in
all their demesne lands providing these were not
within the royal forest. (fn. 66)
The priory acquired a number of important
estates in the later 13th century. William de
Caverswall gave the canons land and houses in
Caverswall and also the advowson of the church
there. (fn. 67) He also gave them the manor of Coton
which he had bought from Saer de Mauvesin. (fn. 68) In
1277-8 John de Pendeford sold his manor of
Pendeford (in Tettenhall) to the priory. He had
recently committed a serious forest offence and fled
abroad, but by the time of the sale he seems to have
returned and to have sought refuge in the priory. It
was evidently a condition of the sale that the canons
should keep John in food and clothing and pay him
a pension of 40s. a year. (fn. 69) In 1281 Archbishop
Pecham granted the church of Audlem (Ches.) to
the priory. In April and July of the previous year
he had stayed at the priory in the course of his
visitation of the diocese, (fn. 70) during which he had
evidently found that Audlem church had long been
vacant. By presenting one of his own clerks the
archbishop had obtained the advowson and the
rectory; he granted the advowson to St. Thomas's
Priory and shortly afterwards allowed the canons to
appropriate the church. (fn. 71) About 1285 Philip de
Mutton, descended from a family who had been
benefactors of the priory in the earlier 13th century, (fn. 72)
gave estates in Reule (in Bradley) and Apeton (in
Gnosall). (fn. 73) The canons never seem to have obtained
effective possession of Reule, (fn. 74) but the manor of
Apeton was retained until the Dissolution. (fn. 75)
In the Taxation of 1291 the annual value of the
priory's possessions was given as £49 0s. 9d.; (fn. 76)
temporal estates were worth £20 0s. 9d. while the
appropriated churches of Audlem, Caverswall,
Maer, and Stowe-by-Chartley were worth £29.
These figures, however, give an incomplete notion
of the priory's endowment; its temporal estates in
Ashbourne, Donisthorpe, Quinton, and Pendleton
are not mentioned, and in 1535 the last of these was
the priory's most valuable single possession. (fn. 77) It
was thus one of the wealthier houses of the order in
Staffordshire. At the quo warranto inquiry of 1293
the prior claimed the right of free warren in Coton,
Orberton, Hopton, Fradswell, Drointon, Haywood,
Lea, Colton, Whitgreave, Maer, Drayton, Stockton,
Acton, Pendeford, and Shredicote (in Bradley). (fn. 78)
As a result either of conditions attached to various
gifts made during the 13th century or of agreements
with benefactors, an unusually large proportion of
the community came to be nominated by outside
patrons. In the earlier 13th century Sir Adam de
Mutton and his heirs were granted the right to
present a canon to the priory who was to celebrate
mass for the soul of Philip de Mutton. (fn. 79) Similar
agreements were made about 1260 with Giles de
Erdington, (fn. 80) in 1281 with Thomas de Audlem, and
in 1292 with Rose de Standon. (fn. 81) The size of the
early community is not known before the 14th
century. Including the prior it numbered 13 in
1342, (fn. 82) 7 in 1377, 6 in 1381, and 11 in 1389. (fn. 83)
Although the priory was not a royal foundation
requests for a corrody were made from time to time
by the Crown. In 1316 the canons were asked to
receive William Deuros, an infirm royal servant,
into their house and to feed and clothe him during
his lifetime. (fn. 84) A similar request was made on behalf
of William le Ferour two years later. (fn. 85) A demand
was made by Bishop Meuland that the priory should
grant a 40s. pension to his barber; in 1280, however,
Archbishop Pecham forbade the prior to pay this
and castigated such use of monastic revenues as
sacrilegious. (fn. 86)
In the later Middle Ages St. Thomas's Priory
seems to have increased its possessions rather more
than might have been expected. About 1300 the
priory was given a rent of 10s. from the mill of
Bupton (in Longford, Derb.) by Sir Geoffrey de
Gresley, a former companion in arms of Robert de
Ferrers, Earl of Derby. (fn. 87) In 1335 the Crown granted
the canons a licence to acquire property worth £10
a year. (fn. 88) Small acquisitions followed. In 1347 grants
of land in Hopton and Pendeford were permitted by
the Crown; these were worth 5s. a year. (fn. 89) In 1383
the Crown allowed the acquisition under the
licence of 1335 of various properties worth altogether
£1 a year; (fn. 90) these included messuages, shops,
gardens, and 6s. rent as well as arable land and
meadow and were situated in Stafford, Salt (in St.
St. Mary's, Stafford), Hanyards (in Tixall), Silkmore, Walton-on-the-Hill (in Baswich), and Acton
Trussell and in Amerton (in Stowe), Lea, and
Newton. (fn. 91) The licence of 1335 was not used up until
1404 when the priory was allowed to acquire lands
worth £3 6s. 8d. in Salt and Enson and in Stafford. (fn. 92)
The annual value of the lands granted under the
original licence was thus a nominal £10; in reality
they were worth only £4 11s. 8d. Nevertheless the
priory did acquire other more valuable properties
during the 14th century under separate licences from
the Crown. In 1351 Ralph, Earl of Stafford, gave
the priory a messuage and an acre of land in
Bushbury and also the advowson of the church; (fn. 93)
the church was appropriated to the priory in 1356
by Bishop Northburgh. (fn. 94) In 1389 Sir Robert
Ferrers gave the priory the advowson of the church
of Weston-upon-Trent and also stipulated that the
brethren should receive 52s. a year from its revenues
to augment their pittances every Wednesday by 1d.
each. The church was appropriated to the priory
in the following year. (fn. 95)
Bishop Northburgh visited the priory in March
1347 and found much to criticize. The frequent
absences of the subprior on business had led to a
breakdown of regular discipline and had encouraged
waste and needless expense. No accounts and no
inventory of the priory's goods were available. Three
of the canons had kept hounds in the priory and gone
hunting in the company of laymen. Some canons,
considering themselves better born than their
brethren, had adopted worldly fashions in their
dress and had gone about in tunics and peaked boots
and with knives at their belts. The bishop forbade
the prior to employ the subprior on business outside
the priory and ordered that annual accounts were to
be kept by the obedientiaries and by any canon who
was given charge of the priory's goods. In future no
canon was to hunt or keep hounds or hawks and all
were to adopt the regular dress. Any canon wishing
to visit his family or friends was to do so only once a
year for eight days, and only if accompanied by one
of his brethren. The bishop also ordered that his
visitation decrees were to be read in chapter four
times a year. The prior's resignation later the same
year was presumably a consequence of the unsatisfactory state of affairs which the visitation had
revealed. (fn. 96)
In 1400 a papal indulgence was issued to penitents
who visited the priory church and gave alms for its
support. (fn. 97) The priory continued to acquire property
in the 15th century. (fn. 98) In 1408 Bishop Burghill gave
the canons the advowson of the vicarage of Baswich
church; a few days later he appropriated it to them
and allowed them to serve it either by a suitable
secular chaplain or by one of their own number. (fn. 99)
The bishop's grant states that the priory was
poverty-stricken and burdened with much almsgiving being situated on the road to Stafford. In
1411 Henry IV, who had stayed in the priory before
his victory at Shrewsbury eight years previously, (fn. 100)
granted the canons licence to acquire property
worth £10 a year; once again the grant was made on
account of the poverty of the house. (fn. 101) In 1414 the
canons received property in Rickerscote, Orberton,
and Stafford under this licence, (fn. 102) and in 1416 they
purchased land in Stafford and Marston from Sheen
Priory (Surr.). (fn. 103)
Little is known of the priory during the last
century before the Dissolution. An early-15thcentury book of Augustinian observances, once
belonging to St. Thomas's Priory, (fn. 104) is one of only
three such English custumals to have survived.
Apart from this and the records of lawsuits (fn. 105) there is
no light on the internal history of the community
before the visitation of 1518. (fn. 106) The community then
numbered 8 including a novice; according to the
subprior this was one below the complement of
brethren. The officials were the subprior, precentor,
and sacrist. The prior ruled the house autocratically
but well. He gave the income of the priory as £140
a year, which he claimed to have increased by 20
marks a year. The house was £49 in debt but was
owed £100. He stated that the standard of observance was satisfactory, and that there was daily
reading of the Benedictine constitutions as well as of
the Augustinian rule. (fn. 107) According to the precentor
the prior relied too much on the advice of Richard
Hervy, one of the brethren. (fn. 108) The truth behind this
complaint may be that a few senior brethren had
obtained an undue influence over the prior's
conduct of business; the subprior stated that the
inventory of the priory's goods was not read out
before the whole convent, while the prior himself
admitted that his account 'was delivered each year
to the senior brethren, not before the whole convent'. A few irregularities were noted: some brethren
did not sleep in the dormitory; the canons had
ceased to use the refectory for meals and ate each
day with the prior; (fn. 109) according to the precentor the
prior's servants did not show proper respect towards
the brethren, and since the last visitation the number
of hunting dogs had increased. The visitor ordered
the prior to render his annual account before the
whole convent, to make a new inventory of the
priory's goods, to take the advice of his brethren
only and not that of laymen, and to secure payment
of the debts owed to the priory, if necessary by
process of law. The number of brethren was to be
increased; three of them were to eat with the prior
each day, the other five eating in the refectory. The
prior's servants were to behave more suitably
towards the brethren and the hunting dogs were to
be removed. Another visitation in 1524 shows that
some of the instructions of 1518 had not been
complied with: (fn. 110) some brethren still did not sleep
in the dormitory, the complaint about the neglect
of the refectory was repeated, some of the servants
were alleged to be dishonest, the number of brethren
had not increased, and the prior did not render an
account or keep an inventory. Nevertheless the
prior's rule was praised by his brethren, and the
visitor merely repeated his previous instruction
about rendering an annual account.
In 1535 the Valor Ecclesiasticus gave the gross
annual value of the priory's possessions as £180 18s.
9½d., a figure which made it the wealthiest house of
the order in the county. (fn. 111) Gross temporal income
amounted to £130 16s. 5½d. and was derived mainly
from estates within the county; the most valuable
single estate, however, was the manor of Pendleton
valued at £18 18s. 6d. Net income from temporalities
amounted to £115 12s. 6½d. after deductions which
included an annual fee of £4 to Lord Ferrers, of
Chartley, steward of the priory's Staffordshire
manors, and one of £1 to Sir Alexander Ratclyffe,
steward of Pendleton manor. Gross spiritual income
amounted to £50 2s. 4d., but various payments
reduced this to £26 0s. 72/3d. Total net income was
thus £141 13s. 21/6d., almost exactly the figure given
by the prior in 1518. An extent of most of the
priory estates, (fn. 112) made early in 1543 after they had
passed to Brian Fowler, gives the gross annual
income from the property as £208 5s. 2d. The
spiritual possessions, then worth £47 10s. 8d. a
year, consisted of the appropriated churches of
Stowe-by-Chartley, Bushbury, Caverswall, Westonupon-Trent, Gayton, Maer, and Audlem, and the
appropriated vicarage of Baswich. The temporal
property, producing £160 14s. 6d. a year, consisted
of the priory site and the demesnes belonging to it
(by then known as Lees Grange), Orberton Grange,
the manors of Coton, Drayton, Maer, Apeton, and
Pendleton, and lands and rents in Stafford, Marston
(in St. Mary's, Stafford), Tillington, Amerton,
Drointon, Grindley (in Stowe-by-Chartley), Newton, Lea, Acton Trussell, Hopton, Shredicote,
Whitgreave, Admaston (in Blithfield), Rickerscote,
Lichfield, Bishton, Oulton, Marchington (in Hanbury), Bednall, Walton-on-the-Hill, and Stockton
(all in Baswich), Ashbourne, Kniveton (Derb.),
Donisthorpe, Quinton, Nantwich (Ches.), Westonupon-Trent, Charnes (in Eccleshall), Stowe-byChartley, and Audlem. The extent does not include
the manors of Fradswell and Pendeford which had
by this time passed to William and James Fowler
respectively, or the priory lands in Colton and Salt
which had passed to Roland Fowler; (fn. 113) in 1535 the
gross annual value of these properties had been
£29 12s. 4½d. (fn. 114)
Early in 1536, when the dissolution of the priory
seemed imminent, there began a scramble for its
property. In April Rowland Lee, Bishop of Coventry
and Lichfield and patron of the priory, wrote to
Cromwell:
... I pray you remember my suit for the priory
of Saint Thomas, and if it shall stand the king's
highness shall have not only a certain sum but you
also for your goodness. And if that will not be,
then my trust is that forasmuch as the demesnes
came from the mitre that I may have the preferment of the house and demesnes for one of my
kinsfolk . . . (fn. 115)
By June Lee had evidently received assurances that
he would obtain the priory's lands. (fn. 116) In July,
however, St. Thomas's was exempted from suppression under the Act dissolving the lesser
monasteries, (fn. 117) probably in return for the £133 6s. 8d.
which the canons had promised to the Crown for
'toleration and continuance'. (fn. 118) The payment of this
large sum, almost a whole year's net income,
evidently created difficulties. In 1537 the prior sent
Cromwell £20; in an accompanying letter he
recalled that £60 had been sent earlier in the year
and asked for another £20 to be respited. (fn. 119) It was
perhaps the canons' efforts to buy exemption which
led to Bishop Lee's accusation in 1538 that the prior
was making 'unreasonable waste'. The bishop
repeated his request for the possessions of the priory
'at an easy rent that the poor boys my nephews may
have some relief thereby'. (fn. 120)
In October 1538 Prior Whytell and five canons
surrendered the priory and its possessions to the
Crown. (fn. 121) The prior received an annual pension of
£26 13s. 4d. and the five canons pensions ranging
from £6 to £5. One other canon, William Boudon,
did not sign the surrender; he received the smallest
gratuity of any of the brethren and no pension.
Gratuities were paid to 29 servants of the priory as
well as to the prior and brethren. (fn. 122) The following
year the ex-prior became Vicar of Audlem, and he
retained this living until his death some 18 years
later. (fn. 123) On the day following the surrender Bishop
Lee paid over £87 for part of the fabric of the priory
church, the cloister, and the chapter-house, for the
furnishings and fittings of the priory, for timber and
hay there, and for grain, farm implements, and
cattle at the nearby granges of Baswich and Orberton. (fn. 124) Plate weighing 28½ ozs. remained unsold while
other plate had been mortgaged for more than £43,
doubtless to raise the money for continuance. (fn. 125) Lead
worth £40, four bells worth £54, and the fabric of
certain buildings within the priory precinct also
remained unsold. (fn. 126) The priory's debts amounted to
almost £236. (fn. 127) In October 1539 the priory and all its
landed possessions and churches were granted in fee
to Bishop Lee. On his death in 1543 the site and
most of the property passed to his nephew Brian
Fowler under a settlement of 1540; three other
nephews received most of the remainder. (fn. 128)
The present entrance to Priory Farm is almost
certainly on the exact site of the medieval entrance
to the precinct. (fn. 129) The most considerable remains are
those of the conventual church and the western and
southern ranges of the cloister court. (fn. 130) Part of the
conventual church is to be seen in a stretch of walling
some 39 feet long on the north side of the garden of
Priory Farm. The work is without doubt of the
earlier 13th century and is part of the north wall of
the north transept; two main features of the wall are
a respond standing to full height with its original
capital and, immediately to the east, a plain aumbry.
These were probably parts of a chapel against the
east wall of the transept. (fn. 131) The west end of the
church may have been in line with the west wall of
the present house. (fn. 132) The cloister lay on the south
side of the church and was almost certainly — and
unusually—rectangular rather than square. (fn. 133) Priory
Farm incorporates medieval features and rooms
which probably belonged to the western range of the
cloister. The inventory of 1538 mentions the Water
Chamber, the Great Chamber, two inner chambers, a
chamber over the chapel, and the carter's chamber, all
of which were probably in or near the western range.
The Prior's Parlour, also mentioned in the inventory,
was probably on the first floor of the western
range. Of the southern range of the cloister
the best preserved part is its south wall, the greater
part of which remains to about first-floor level.
This range evidently projected well beyond the
western range of the cloister and probably contained the buttery, kitchen, brewhouse, and bakehouse mentioned in the 1538 inventory. The frater
was probably on the first floor at the east end of the
southern range. Nothing is now to be seen of the
eastern range of the cloister, which probably contained the chapter-house and dorter and through
which a passage led to the cemetery near the east
end of the church. (fn. 134) At the south-western corner of
the precinct the bridge (which retains a little
medieval work) and the present Mill Farm certainly
stand on medieval sites. (fn. 135)
Priors
Walter, occurs by 1181 and at some time between
1184 and 1197. (fn. 136)
Adam, possibly occurs at some time between 1189
and 1216. (fn. 137)
Robert, occurs at some time between 1198 and
1208 and in 1199. (fn. 138)
Ralph, occurs 1203. (fn. 139)
Philip, occurs probably at some time between
1215 and 1225, in 1221 and 1227, and at some
time before 1242. (fn. 140)
Richard, occurs 1248. (fn. 141)
Nicholas, occurs 1255 and 1276. (fn. 142)
Richard, occurs 1277 and 1277-8. (fn. 143)
Nicholas of Aspley, occurs 1278 and 1294. (fn. 144)
Richard of Hilderstone, occurs 1295, died
1343. (fn. 145)
Thomas of Tittensor, elected 1343, resigned
1347. (fn. 146)
Robert of Cheadle, elected 1347, occurs 1358. (fn. 147)
Richard de Mere, elected probably in 1365. (fn. 148)
Nicholas de Huxton, occurs 1374 and 1403-4. (fn. 149)
Thomas Swyneshede, elected 1405, died 1412. (fn. 150)
Richard Bowyer alias Stafford, elected 1412,
occurs 1445. (fn. 151)
Richard Colwich, elected 1447, resigned 1478. (fn. 152)
William Chedull, elected 1478, occurs 1488. (fn. 153)
John Messyngham, occurs 1504 and 1533. (fn. 154)
Richard Whytell, occurs 1534, surrendered the
priory 1538. (fn. 155)
A seal of the priory in use by about the end of the
13th century, possibly a counterseal, (fn. 156) is a pointed
oval, 1 by 1½ in. It depicts the martyrdom of St.
Thomas Becket by the four knights; in the base
under a trefoiled arch is the head and shoulders, in
right profile, of an ecclesiastic praying. Legend,
lombardic:
[TRINE DEU]S PRO ME MOVEAT TE PASSIO
[THOME]
A seal in use in 1433-4 (fn. 157) and at the time of the
surrender (fn. 158) is a pointed oval, 1½ by 2½ in. It depicts
St. Thomas seated on a panelled throne under a
three-arched canopy; his right hand is raised in
blessing and his left hand holds a crozier. In the
base is a corbel. Legend, black letter:
SIGILLUM COMMUNE PRIORATUS SANCTI TH[OME]
MARTIRIS IUXTA STAFFORD