40. THE PRIORY OF LAPLEY
In 1061 Burchard, son of Alfgar, Earl of Mercia,
fell ill at Rheims on the return journey from Rome
whither he had accompanied Aldred, Archbishop
of York, on an embassy. When he realized that he
was dying Burchard expressed a wish to be buried
in the Benedictine abbey of St. Remy at Rheims and
promised that land should be given to the abbey on
his behalf. Very soon after his son's death Earl
Alfgar gave to St. Rémy four estates in Staffordshire — Lapley, Hamstall Ridware, Meaford, and a
hide at Marston in Church Eaton — and one in
Shropshire — Silvington — for the welfare of Burchard's soul. (fn. 1) It was stated in 1415 that the original
grant was made to St. Rémy 'to find two chaplains
celebrating divine service daily in the infirmary of
the abbey before the infirm there'. (fn. 2)
Henry I confirmed St. Remy in its property at
Marston and in Shropshire and granted the monks
exemption from attendance at hundred and shire
courts. (fn. 3) He also confirmed the church of Lapley,
with tithe and burial rights, to the monks after
Godric, a monk of St. Remy, had gone before the
king at Tamworth and proved the claim against
Robert, a royal chaplain; Godric contended that the
church had formed part of Alfgar's grant. (fn. 4) St. Remy
secured confirmation of all its possessions from
Pope Alexander, probably Alexander III (1159-81);
the English property comprised Lapley with the
church, Wheaton Aston (in Lapley parish), the hide
at Marston, 'half of Wilnifort, Wilifort, and the vill
of Ridware', all in the diocese of Chester, and
Silvington and the tithe 'de Roniaco' in the diocese
of Hereford. (fn. 5) Although Meaford was not mentioned,
it continued among the abbey's possessions. (fn. 6)
A medieval abbey which held distant estates
normally administered them by establishing a small
cell or priory of two or three monks to manage a
manor or group of manors and send the profits to the
mother-house. The hide at Marston was held in
1086 by two men of St. Rémy, (fn. 7) and this may
indicate that a cell of two monks had already been
established by St. Rémy in England. The Godric
of Henry I's reign may well have been an early prior.
Lapley, the most central of the manors and the one
in which St. Rémy also held the church, was the
natural place for the monks to establish a priory.
It is not, however, until the time of Peter of Celle,
Abbot of St. Rémy (1162-81), that the existence of a
priory at Lapley can be proved. (fn. 8) The priors of
Lapley administered all the English possessions of
their mother abbey and were normally instituted by
the Bishop of Coventry and Lichfield on the presentation of the Abbot of St. Rémy. (fn. 9)
Unlike the outlying manors Lapley and the land
at Marston were never leased out; Marston in fact
probably came to be regarded as part of Lapley
manor. An inquiry in 1272, made on a complaint by
the prior that his privilege of exemption from the
courts of hundred and shire was being infringed,
showed that for the hide in Marston the monks of
St. Remy owed suit, worth ½ mark a year to the
Crown, to the county court every month and the
hundred court of Cuttlestone every three weeks; for
Lapley and Wheaton Aston, however, they had never
done suit, being acquitted by royal charters from
time immemorial. For a long time they paid nothing
for this exemption. After 1248 the sheriff sometimes
took 10s. 'by extortion', and from 1258 he exacted
5 marks a year. (fn. 10) Hamstall Ridware, Meaford, and
Silvington were leased out, presumably being too
far from the priory to be worked directly by the
monks. (fn. 11) Ridware was held by serjeanty, the tenant
being bound to come to the priory each Christmas
Eve and perform the service of marshal there on 24,
25, and 26 December; on the 27th he placed 5s. 4d.
on the table and left after breakfast. (fn. 12)
It was part of Godric's claim in the early 12th
century that Earl Alfgar had given a church at
Lapley with the vill; certainly Henry I recognized
the appropriation of the church. (fn. 13) A vicarage had
been ordained by 1266 when the bishop, having
found it inadequately endowed, secured a more
generous provision for the vicars from the prior. (fn. 14)
The right of presenting the vicar lay with the prior,
but during the long periods of the 14th century when
alien priories were in the king's hands the presentation was made by the Crown. (fn. 15) The priory's right to
the church and also to a dependent chapel at
Wheaton Aston was confirmed by the bishop in 1319
after a visitation. (fn. 16)
The prior paid 3 marks towards the tallage of
1199, although he did not complete payment until
1201-2. (fn. 17) To the aids of 1235-6 and 1242-3 he paid
4 marks and 40s. (fn. 18) In 1291 the temporalities in
Lapley and Wheaton Aston were valued at £28 19s.
and Lapley church at £13 6s. 8d. (fn. 19) The king granted
a new charter in 1292, conferring on the abbey of St.
Rémy a Tuesday market and a fair on 31 July and
1 August in the manor of Aston and free warren in
all the demesne lands in Lapley, Aston, Edgeland
(in Lapley), and Marston. (fn. 20) In the following year,
however, when the prior was called upon to show his
title to pleas of the Crown, free warren, a fair, and a
gallows in these places, he claimed free warren in
Marston only and the right to view of frankpledge
and a gallows in Lapley manor and its members,
Edgeland and Aston. He produced the charter and
the king allowed it, also accepting the view of
frankpledge since the sheriff received 5 marks a
year for it. (fn. 21)
As an alien priory Lapley was frequently in: he
hands of the king. After the loss of Normandy in
1204 King John seized the priory, and in 1205-6 the
prior acknowledged that he owed three palfreys as a
fine for recovering seisin and paid 10 marks in
respect of two of them; in the following year he paid
off the remainder of the fine, 5 marks. (fn. 22) In 1288 the
escheator was ordered to take the priory into the
king's hands because the prior had gone overseas
without licence; (fn. 23) in 1318 the prior was granted
letters of protection to go abroad. (fn. 24) Presumably
these journeys were visits to the mother abbey. In
1325, after the outbreak of war with France the
previous year, the priory was again in the king's
hands; the prior secured restoration by agreeing to
pay the Crown 55 marks a year. An inventory made
at the restoration shows the priory in possession of a
store of grain, pots and pans, a psalter, a missal, and
the furnishings of the chapel. (fn. 25) During the Hundred
Years' War the priory was repeatedly seized by the
Crown.
Shortly before the outbreak of war in 1337 the
priory was troubled by a dispute between two rival
claimants to the office of prior, Baldwin de Spynale
and Gobert de Lapion. Gobert and another monk,
John Lange, had evidently been sent by the Abbot of
St. Rémy to administer the priory, (fn. 26) but in 1334
Baldwin upheld his claim in the bishop's court and
Gobert was excommunicated. (fn. 27) Each of them, however, received a grant of royal protection for one
year in 1335, and each was described as Prior of
Lapley in his grant. (fn. 28) In the same year the king
appointed a commission of inquiry as a result of
Baldwin's complaint that a number of people,
including the Vicar of Lapley, had broken into his
house and driven off 40 oxen, 15 bullocks, 15 heifers,
and 40 swine, cut down trees, broken 12 chests and
carried off 30 deeds and other muniments. (fn. 29) Later
in 1335 Baldwin complained of a further raid; this
time Gobert, his clerk and his servant appear
amongst the raiders, and their presence shows the
real reason for the raids. The king thereupon
appointed a second commission of inquiry, (fn. 30)
followed by a third two months later, (fn. 31) but the
dispute continued.
With the outbreak of the Hundred Years' War in
1337 the Crown seized Lapley as an alien priory and
committed it to Gobert and Robert de Shareshull
as the proctors of the Abbot of St. Remy for a farm
of 55 marks. (fn. 32) Baldwin petitioned the king and in
1338, after another inquiry, not only obtained
possession but also secured a reduction of the farm
to £26 5s. 7½d., this being the value placed on the
property by the commissioners; knights' fees and
advowsons were reserved to the king. The bishop
stood surety that Baldwin would pay the farm, be of
good behaviour, not withdraw the goods of the
priory, and not send revenue abroad. Two months
later the farm was reduced to 10 marks on the ground
that the priory had suffered severely at the hands of
the previous keepers; the prior had to meet the cost
of supporting the monks and servants of the priory. (fn. 33)
The farm was raised to 20 marks in 1341. (fn. 34) A month
later the king announced that others were offering
30 marks for the custody of the priory but that he was
unwilling to remove the prior provided he paid as
much. (fn. 35) The prior, however, surrendered the priory
which was then committed to Henry, Earl of Derby,
still at 20 marks. (fn. 36) By the end of 1342 Robert de
Shareshull again held the custody, (fn. 37) but in 1346 it
was once more committed to Baldwin, still at a farm
of 20 marks. (fn. 38) The grant was made at the request of
Isabel, the queen mother, and it was perhaps her
patronage that enabled Baldwin to survive as prior.
In 1347 the king summoned him to France 'upon
certain special affairs', and he was allowed to defer
the payment of his farm. (fn. 39) Later the same year £18
arrears were remitted altogether. (fn. 40)
In 1354 Baldwin claimed that he was impoverished
as a result of the recent plague and a fire which had
burnt down all the priory buildings except for one
chamber and three barns; the church too had
suffered. He was promptly pardoned arrears
amounting to £77 13s. 3¾d. and granted a new
inquiry. This revealed that the total annual value of
the manor of Lapley, including 6 marks from the
church, was £11 14s. 10d., and a further half-year's
farm was remitted. (fn. 41) In 1356, again at the request
of Queen Isabel, Baldwin was excused payment of
the farm for three years, after which he was to pay
10 marks instead of 20. (fn. 42) Finally in 1357 he was
excused another 40 marks of arrears. (fn. 43)
In 1361 after the restoration of peace with France
the prior was allowed to resume full possession
without payment and the arrears were remitted. (fn. 44)
Baldwin probably died the same year: the priory
became vacant in November 1361, and Peter de
Gennereyo, monk of St. Rémy, was presented to
Lapley by the abbot and instituted the following
January. (fn. 45) The resumption of the war in 1369 once
more brought alien priories into the king's hands,
and the prior was given custody of Lapley at the old
farm of 20 marks; this was raised to 25 marks in
1377. (fn. 46) The prior was evidently among those exempt
from the expulsion of foreign monks in 1378.
Another general survey was made of the priory's
possessions in 1379. Their total annual value was
given as £26 17s. 8d. from demesne lands, rents and
other revenues at Lapley, Wheaton Aston, Bickford
(in Lapley and Penkridge), Marston, Hamstall
Ridware, and Silvington. (fn. 47) In 1384 the king granted
the priory for the duration of the war with France
to his esquire, Robert de Hampton, rent free. (fn. 48)
Peter, 'sometime prior', secured a lease from
Hampton two years later at the greatly increased
farm of £40 13s. 4d. (fn. 49) In 1388, however, the king
once more committed Lapley to Peter as prior at a
rent of £20 for the duration of the war. (fn. 50) It was
committed to Peter and to Geoffrey Stafford, canon
of Ranton, in 1397, and later the same year to Peter,
John Bally his fellow monk at Lapley, and Thomas
Marton, clerk. (fn. 51) The £20 farm was assigned to
another royal esquire, William Walshale, for life in
1398, a grant which was confirmed in 1404; he was
still receiving the £20 in 1413. (fn. 52)
In 1402 Prior John Bally, who had succeeded in
1399 after the death of Prior Peter, was summoned
before the Council to show whether his priory was
conventual and so not liable to be taken into the
king's hands with non-conventual priories. (fn. 53) He was
unable to do this, and in 1403 the priory was
committed to him and two others at a farm of
40 marks. (fn. 54) In 1413 it was committed to Bally,
William Kanc his fellow monk, and Richard
Knightley of Brough in Gnosall at a farm of 42
marks. (fn. 55) Ten marks from the farm was granted to
the queen in 1409; this was raised to 12 marks in
1414, whilst in 1415 the remaining £20 was granted
to another esquire, John Vale. (fn. 56)
In the 14th century the connexion with the mother
abbey of St. Rémy must have been less important
to the priors than their relations with the Crown. In
1367 during the period of peace the prior gave a
bond for 120 marks to St. Rémy, (fn. 57) but the abbey
can have had little profit from its English lands. The
history of the priory ended in 1415 when all its
possessions were granted to Tong College (Salop.),
founded in or soon after 1410 by Isabel, widow of
Sir Fulk Pembrugge. (fn. 58) In 1417 the king pardoned
John Bally and other late keepers of the priory all
arrears. (fn. 59)
The priory buildings evidently adjoined the
church on the north side, and part of the site is now
occupied by the timber-framed Old Manor House.
The church itself contains much 12th-century
work. The priory site and the church were enclosed
within a moat. (fn. 60)
Priors
Godric, possibly prior temp. Henry I. (fn. 61)
P., prior at some time between 1162 and 1181. (fn. 62)
Absalon, replaced Prior P. by 1181. (fn. 63)
Inganus, occurs by 1181 and in 1206-7. (fn. 64)
John, presented 1233. (fn. 65)
Walcher, occurs 1266. (fn. 66)
Reynold, occurs 1297. (fn. 67)
Peter de Passiaco, resigned 1305. (fn. 68)
John de Tannione, admitted 1305, resigned 1320. (fn. 69)
Gobert of Brabant, admitted 1320, resigned
1322. (fn. 70)
John de Aceyo, admitted 1322, resigned by
1328. (fn. 71)
Baldwin de Spynale, prior probably from 1328 and
certainly from 1332; occurs to 1357, probably
in office until November 1361; Gobert de
Lapion occurs as rival prior 1334 to
1337. (fn. 72)
Peter de Gennereyo, admitted 1362; he may be
the Peter Romelot who occurs as prior from
1377 and was dead by 1399. (fn. 73)
John Bally, admitted 1399; prior until the suppression. (fn. 74)
No seal is known.