35. THE DOMINICAN FRIARS OF IPSWICH
The Dominican friars were established at
Ipswich by Henry III in 1263. For their
accommodation the king purchased a messuage
of Hugh, son of Gerard de Langeston, (fn. 1) and two
years later, at the instance of his confessor, John
de Darlington, the king granted them an adjacent
messuage, purchased of the same Hugh, for the
augmentation of their site. (fn. 2)
Their church and house, dedicated to St. Mary,
soon began to flourish. Robert de Kilwardby,
provincial of their order, who afterwards became
archbishop of Canterbury, took a particular
interest in this foundation; in 1269 he purchased a further messuage to add to their site. (fn. 3)
The crown issued a commission in May, 1275,
to John de Lovetot, to inquire whether it would
be to the injury of the king or town to grant
licence to the Friars Preachers of Ipswich to
build an external chamber extending from their
dormitory to the town dyke. (fn. 4) Further enlargement of their homestead was authorized in 1308
and in 1334. (fn. 5)
Pardon was granted to the Friars Preachers of
Ipswich for having acquired without licence
from John Harneys, for the enlargement of their
manse, a void place and a dyke 100 ft. square;
licence was at the same time granted them to
retain the lot without fine, providing the burgesses
and townsmen had full ingress to repair the walls
of the town for defence in time of war, and
whenever necessary. (fn. 6)
In February, 1348, the bailiffs and commonalty
of Ipswich unanimously granted the Black Friars
a plot of land south of their curtilage, which was
103 ft. in length. For this the friars were to pay
6d. a year rent and to keep up the town wall
opposite the plot, and also the two great gates,
one on the north and the other on the south of
their court; and through these gates the commonalty were to be allowed to pass whenever
any mishap fell on the town, or other necessity
required. (fn. 7)
By an inquisition of March, 1350-1, it was
adjudged that Henry de Monescele and two
others might assign three messuages to the
Dominicans for the extension of the site. (fn. 8)
These various grants gave to the Friars
Preachers a large site in the parish of St. Mary
at Quay, reaching in length from north to
south, from St. Margaret's Church to the church
of St. Mary at Quay (Star Lane), and in width
from east to west, from Foundation Street to
the town wall, parallel with the Lower Wash.
The convent accommodated, in the thirteenth
century, over fifty religious, as can be gathered
from the amount of the food grants made by
royalty. When Edward I was at Ipswich in
April, 1277, he gave the Dominicans an alms of
14s. 10d. for two days' sustenance. In December, 1296, the king gave four marks for the food
of four days, and in the following January one
mark for a single day's food. (fn. 9)
Father Palmer has set out a large number of
bequests to the Ipswich Dominicans of small
sums of money for masses, from the townsfolk
and others, from 1378 to the very eve of their
suppression. (fn. 10)
The following burials in this church are
recorded by Weever:—Dame Maud Burell,
Edmund Saxham, esquire, John Fastolph and
Agnes his wife, Gilbert Roulage, Jone Chamber,
and Edmund Charlton, esquire. He also adds
the following, whose names are on the martyrology register of the Black Friars' benefaction:—
The Lord Roger Bigot, earl-marshal, Sir John
Sutton, knight, Lady Margaret Plays, Sir Richard
Plays, and Sir Robert Ufford, earl of Suffolk, who
died in 1369. (fn. 11)
The name of one fourteenth-century prior of
this house is known. In June, 1397, the mastergeneral of the order declared that Brother John
de Stanton was the true prior here, and not Brother
William. (fn. 12)
In 1535-6 Edmund, the prior of the Dominicans of Ipswich, leased a garden next one of the
gates of their house to Henry Toley, merchant,
of Ipswich, and Alice his wife. (fn. 13)
Towards the end of 1537 the prior and
convent leased for ninety years a dwelling-house
and garden to Sir John Willoughby, knt., and
other dwelling-houses, including a building called
'le Fraytof,' to different persons. (fn. 14)
This action points to a considerable diminution
in the number of the friars, and also to an
expectancy of dissolution.
The suffragan Bishop of Dover (an ex-friar)
suppressed this house, as royal visitor, in November, 1538. (fn. 15)
On the expulsion of the community, William
Aubyn, one of the king's serjeants-at-arms,
became tenant of the site and buildings, worth
50s. 2d. a year; and the whole was sold to him
in 1541 for £24. (fn. 16)
The matrix of the thirteenth-century seal of
this priory is in the Bodleian Library. It bears
a half-length of the Blessed Virgin, with the
Holy Child in her arms, and in an arch below
the figure of a kneeling friar. Legend:—
S': CO'VENT: FR'M: PREDICATORUM:
GIPPESWICI (fn. 17)