20. THE ABBEY OF LESNES OR WESTWOOD (fn. 1)
Richard de Luci, justiciary of England, on
11 June, 1178, laid the foundations of a conventual church in honour of St. Thomas the
Martyr in a place called ' Westwode.' (fn. 2) The
first abbot was blessed by Walter, bishop of
Rochester, in 1179; (fn. 3) and in the same year after
Easter the founder became a canon there, dying
soon afterwards. (fn. 4)
Besides the site the founder granted to the
abbey the churches of Newington and Marden.
Robert de Luci granted the church of Elmdon
in Essex; Roger son of Reinfrid the church of
Ramsden Bellhouse in Essex; Jordan the chamberlain the church of 'Coldreia'; and Fulk Painel
and Henry II the church of Rainham in Essex.
The same king also granted a charter of confirmation, (fn. 5) as also did Richard I on 3 July, 1190,
and John on 4 April, 1206; (fn. 6) and these charters
were afterwards confirmed by Edward II in
1317, (fn. 7) and Edward III in 1331. (fn. 8) Various
liberties are specified in the charter of John;
and in addition Edward I on 5 December, 1280,
granted to the abbot free warren in his demesne
lands of Lesnes, Tonge, and Acol. (fn. 9)
Several accounts, court rolls, &c., of the abbey
are preserved, in which its possessions are set out
in considerable detail. (fn. 10) In the Taxation of
1291 it is returned as owning temporalities
worth £7 6s. 8d. in the diocese of Canterbury,
£22 18s. 8d. in the diocese of Rochester, £1 in
London, £2 3s. 4d. in Essex, and £1 4s. 6d. in
Cambridgeshire, making a total of £34 13s. 2d.
yearly. The church of Wenden Lofts (fn. 11) in
Essex, and a moiety of the church of Godstone
in Surrey, belonged to it from an early period;
and the church of Aveley in Essex was acquired
from John de Brianzoun and appropriated by
licence of Edward II. (fn. 12) The abbot and convent
had licence in 1344 to grant a rent of 6 marks
(6s. 8d.) yearly from the manors of Lesnes and
Acol to the prior and convent of Rochester to
find a chaplain to celebrate divine service daily in
the cathedral for Hamo, bishop of Rochester, and
for his soul after death, the bishop having paid
them £106 13s. for this purpose. (fn. 13) In 1345
John de Whatton had licence to grant to them
the reversion of the manor of Nethewode on the
death of Joan, late the wife of William Faunt,
to find a secular chaplain to celebrate divine
service daily in their church for John and Joan,
and for their souls after death, and the soul of
William. (fn. 14) In 1432 they had licence (fn. 15) to exchange the manor of Tonge for land in Plumstead called ' Fulhammes Place.'
Archbishop Peckham wrote on 24 October,
1283, to Thomas, bishop of Rochester, that
when lately passing by the monastery of Lesnes
on his metropolitical visitation, he had found the
abbot notorious for injuring the property of the
house, and the latter when questioned had given
unsatisfactory answers. He ordered, therefore,
that three brethren of the house should be chosen
by the convent, and all the property of the
house, except that assigned of old to certain
offices, should come into their hands, the abbot
and other officials receiving the necessary expenses from them and giving accounts in return.
Further, he had found that the canons did not
eat flesh in the common refectory, but in chambers and other places; and he ordered that they
should eat flesh in the refectory on three days in
the week, as he had observed to be done in other
places of the order, unless this conflicted with the
custom of the house, in which case not more
than a third of the convent might leave the refectory. Nuns were on no account to pass the
night within the cloister. In other matters the
abbot was to be allowed full exercise of his
office. (fn. 16)
Archbishop Winchelsey also issued injunctions
after a visitation of Lesnes in 1299. The principal points were that all were to eat in the
refectory, no money was to be given for vestments, alms were to be properly distributed, only
professed canons were to be appointed to offices,
the statutes were to be read regularly, and women
were to be excluded. (fn. 17)
Abbot John was accused of immorality before
the bishop in 1336, and, acknowledging his fault,
was condemned to penance. (fn. 18) The bishop made
visitations of the abbey in 1340, when the
abbot was convicted of gross misgovernment and
deprived in consequence, and again in 1349,
when it was found to be so destroyed that it
seemed as though it could hardly be repaired by
the Day of Judgement. (fn. 19) Discipline was probably very slack about this time, for on three
occasions the aid of the crown was asked for the
arrest of vagabond and apostate canons, (fn. 20) John de
Hoddesdon (perhaps the late abbot) in 1341,
Edmund Baudri in 1344, and John de Garton
in 1349.
Pope Gregory XI in 1371 granted relaxation
of penance to penitents who at certain times of
the year should visit and give alms towards the
repair and decoration of the chapel of St. Mary
in the abbey. (fn. 21) Pope John XXIII in 1412
granted licence for Roger Palmeri, a canon of
Lesnes, to return to the priory of Christchurch,
London, in which he had originally been professed and from which he had come to Lesnes,
notwithstanding that he had taken an oath never
to return. (fn. 22) The abbey is here spoken of as
Arrouasian.
At the beginning of the fifteenth century the
abbey had fallen into a bad state of impoverishment and debt through the misgovernance of the
abbots, many pensions and corrodies having been
charged on it, and many of its possessions having
been indiscreetly demised at farm and otherwise
alienated; (fn. 22a) and the king, on 1 February, 1402,
sequestrated it, appointing the prior of Christchurch, Canterbury, and others to its custody,
with orders that all issues beyond the necessary
maintenance of the abbot and canons and their
servants should be applied to its relief. (fn. 23) The
resignation of the abbot in the next year (fn. 24) was
doubtless connected with this. The Commons
complained in Parliament that the abbot of Lesnes
and others sold annuities and corrodies under the
common seal of their houses, and then purchased
protections from the king in order to defraud the
buyers. (fn. 25)
Lesnes was one of the monasteries suppressed
by Wolsey: in accordance with the bull of
Clement VII, dated 11 September, 1524, and
the assent of Henry VIII on 1 October. (fn. 26) It
was dissolved by his agent, William Burbank, on
13 February, 1525, (fn. 27) and granted to Cardinal's
College, Oxford, on 10 February, 1526. (fn. 28) Its
spiritualities were valued at £75, and its temporalities at £111 5s. 8d. yearly; (fn. 29) and by an
inquisition (fn. 30) taken on 28 July, 1525, it was
found that there were at the monastery five
canons under the abbot, and that these had been
transferred to other places, and that it owned the
manors of Lesnes, ' Fantz,' 'Baudewyns ' and
Acol in Kent.
After Wolsey's attainder the site of the monastery was granted, on 5 March, 1534, to
William Brereton in tail. (fn. 31)
Abbots of Lesnes
Fulk, occurs 1197 (fn. 32)
Hugh, occurs 1237 (fn. 33)
Richard, occurs 1266 (fn. 34)
Robert, occurs 1279 (fn. 35)
Thomas de Sandwico, occurs 1315 (fn. 36)
Adam de Hanifeld, elected 1319, (fn. 37) died
1321 (fn. 38)
Roger de Derteford, elected 1321, (fn. 39) died
1327 (fn. 40)
John de Hodisdon, elected 1327 (fn. 41)
Robert de Clyve, occurs 1345, (fn. 42) died 1347 (fn. 43)
Richard de Gaytone, elected 1347, (fn. 44) died
1362 (fn. 45)
William de Hethe, elected 1362 (fn. 45)
John Haunsard, died 1386 (fn. 46)
Henry Heliere, or Holcote, elected 1386, (fn. 47) resigned 1403 (fn. 48)
William Sampson, appointed 1403, (fn. 49) died
1405 (fn. 50)
John Brokhole, elected 1405, (fn. 50) died 1423 (fn. 51)
John Elmedon, elected 1423, (fn. 52) died 1426 (fn. 53)
Thomas Plymton, appointed 1426 (fn. 54)
Adam Say, occurs 1455 (fn. 55)
John Colman, occurs 1472 (fn. 55)
William, occurs 1474 (fn. 56)
Thomas, occurs 1483 (fn. 57)
William Bright, occurs 1496 (fn. 58)
Robert Marten, appointed and died 1502 (fn. 59)
Henry Blakmore, elected 1502, (fn. 60) resigned
1513 (fn. 61)
William Tisehurste, elected 1513, (fn. 62) the last
abbot (fn. 63)
The seal (fn. 64) of the abbey (thirteenth-century)
is a pointed oval measuring 2¾ in. by 1¾ in.
Obverse—St. Thomas Becket full-length with
mitre and pall, lifting up the right hand in benediction and holding in the left a crosier. In the
field on each side a luce or pike haurient palewise (in allusion to. the arms of the founder), and
on the right also a pierced mullet of eight points.
Legend:—
SIGILL' ECL'IE S . . . . MARTIRIS DE LIESNES.
Reverse—A small round counterseal measuring
⅜ in. representing St. Thomas half-length.
Legend:—
SIGILL' SANCTI TOME MARTIRIS.