THE DOMINICAN FRIARS OF CHESTER (fn. 1)
The Black Friars were established in Chester by 1237
or 1238 when the appearance of the Grey Friars
alarmed their patron, Alexander Stavensby, bishop of
Coventry and Lichfield. So vehement was his reaction
to the prospect of the two orders competing for alms
that he has been thought responsible for establishing
the Dominicans in Chester, although there is no definite evidence and it is equally possible that they came
there under the patronage of Ranulph III, earl of
Chester. (fn. 2) Stavensby, however, almost certainly presented them with the books which formed the nucleus
of the convent's library. (fn. 3) The friary was established
on the south side of Watergate Street and probably the
friars at first used the nearby chapel of St. Nicholas;
that would explain an early reference to the 'Friars
Preachers of St. Nicholas'. (fn. 4) A supply of water for the
friary was secured in 1276 when the friars were
permitted to pipe water from Boughton through the
city wall. (fn. 5) In 1361 they were licensed to acquire a plot
of land next to their garden, perhaps an indication of
an extension of their buildings at a period when the
other two orders were also extending theirs. (fn. 6) Certain
'necessary' buildings were still lacking in 1467 when
Cecily Torbock bequeathed £10 towards their cost (fn. 7)
and some rebuilding was undertaken in the community's last years: Sir Ralph Egerton bequeathed the
Black Friars 20s. in 1526 'towards the building of their
fratrye', (fn. 8) and a few years earlier Margaret Hawarden
left 6s. 8d. and some pieces of lead for the repair of the
church. (fn. 9)
In 1274 Edward I ordered the justice of Chester to
continue a payment of 40d. a week to the Friars
Preachers of Chester and those 'ancient alms' of £8
13s. 4d. were still being paid in the reign of Henry
VII. (fn. 10) The fact that by 1501 it was believed that the
alms were first granted to the house by Ranulph III,
earl of Chester, suggests that they had been paid from
its foundation. (fn. 11) During the Welsh campaign of 1277
Edward I sent £3 13s. to the friars for food and there
were further payments during his stay in Chester in
1284. (fn. 12) Besides the continued payment of the 'ancient
alms' there were a few further signs of particular royal
favour: in 1291 the convent received 100s. from
Queen Eleanor's executors and in 1312 when the
provincial chapter of the order met at Chester the
usual alms were granted with the addition of 100s. for
the soul of Piers Gaveston. (fn. 13) No further royal grants in
money or kind are recorded apart from grants of alms
in 1353 and 1358 from the Black Prince which were
made indiscriminately to the three orders of friars in
Chester. (fn. 14) When, however, the friars were granted in
1384 the privilege of grinding their corn and malt free
of toll at the king's mills for ten years, the friary was
said to be a royal foundation and under royal patronage; in 1395 the privilege was extended in perpetuity. (fn. 15)
Some of the early benefactors of the house were
more eminent than those of the other friaries, possibly
as a result of royal patronage. Fulk de Orreby, a
former justice of Chester, gave half a mark for the light
before St. Mary's image in St. Nicholas's, the church of
the Friars Preachers, c. 1264 and Thomas, earl of
Lancaster, gave 20s. sometime after Michaelmas
1305; a bequest was also received from Henry, earl of
Lincoln, on his death in 1311. (fn. 16) The Dominicans do not
appear, however, to have been as popular as the other
two mendicant orders were with the inhabitants of
Chester and the surrounding area in the later Middle
Ages. They are mentioned in only 25 out of 53
surviving local wills in the period from 1400 to 1540,
compared with 30 bequests to the Grey Friars and 35
to the White Friars. (fn. 17) Bequests continued, however,
until a few years before the dissolution of the house
and ranged from a bushel of barley in 1526 to all the
theological books of a priest in 1505. (fn. 18) Although there
are few surviving references to burials in the church or
precincts of the friary they evidently soon became
common enough to cause alarm to the monks of St.
Werburgh's and the canons of St. John's. Early in the
history of the house the Black Friars agreed not to
encourage the citizens of Chester to seek burial with
them and to take only a third of the burial dues of
those who wished to be buried within the precincts but
would customarily have been buried in the graveyards
of St. John's or St. Werburgh's; the friars were to keep
all legacies and to be entitled to all the oblations of
non-citizens and strangers who chose to be buried by
them. (fn. 19) When Henry de Bernham was buried there the
king replaced, in April 1295, the cloth of gold which
the friars had used from their store. (fn. 20)
The friary, which was in the visitation of Oxford, (fn. 21)
does not appear to have been a large house. It was
certainly the smallest of the three Chester friaries at
their dissolution: only five members witnessed the act
of surrender. (fn. 22) An estimate that there were 38 friars in
the house in the early 14th century would seem to be
an exaggeration, (fn. 23) although the numbers of those
ordained in the diocese of Coventry and Lichfield
indicate that the house was probably at its most
numerous at about that time: 15 members received
orders during the episcopate of Roger Northburgh
(1321-58), compared to only four under Robert Stretton (1358-85). (fn. 24) The number of ordinations remained
low for the rest of the Middle Ages and the names of
those ordained indicate mainly local recruitment. (fn. 25)
Two notable Dominican scholars had connexions with
the Chester convent in its first half century: William of
Macclesfield, who won an international reputation as
a defender of the doctrines of St. Thomas Aquinas, is
said to have been a member of the Chester convent
early in his career and Henry de Esseburn, a noted
philosopher and theologian, is said to have spent his
leisure when prior of the Chester convent producing
scholarly works. (fn. 26) Some vestiges of intellectual activity
remained in the 15th century: in 1476 Thomas Robison, who had studied theology at Bologna, was
allowed to transfer from Chester to his native Glasgow
to teach the liberal arts. (fn. 27) The house was evidently
regarded as well-disciplined in 1356 when an unruly
friar was transferred there from King's Langley 'to be
chastised according to the rule'. (fn. 28) With the citizens of
Chester and with their fellow religious, however, the
friars' relations were not always happy. In 1384 the
prior and convent brought charges against two citizens
of Chester before the conservator of the order's
privileges in England (fn. 29) and in 1464 a member of the
house was accused of killing a baker at the gates of the
friary. (fn. 30) In the mid 15th century the Black Friars were
involved with the Carmelites in riot and in 1454 the
prior and several friars of the Dominican convent were
accused of attacking a servant of the abbot of Chester;
the feud was still active nearly 10 years later when the
prior was bound over to keep the peace towards the
abbot. (fn. 31) There was also some rivalry with the Carmelites and at the end of the century one of the Dominicans was charged with stabbing the Carmelites'
prior. (fn. 32)
The friary was surrendered to Richard Ingworth,
bishop of Dover, on 15 August 1538. Ingworth
removed a chalice, some sealed leases and other documents, including a bill of debts totalling £15 16s. 4d.,
before handing the property over to the mayor. As
with the other friaries in the city there was very little
lead on the site: only half the choir and two 'payns of
the cloeyster' were leaded. (fn. 33) Although the vestry contained many copes and vestments, probably accumulated bequests, the house as a whole was
impoverished. The inventory drawn up by Ingworth
lists contents only for the choir and the vestry, perhaps
an indication that the rest of the church was ruinous
and disused. (fn. 34) Other buildings mentioned in the inventory and later documents are the old hall, the chapter
house, the frater, the dorter, the prior's chamber, the
sub-prior's chamber, the chamber over the church
door, the new chamber, the kitchen, the buttery, and
the old buttery. (fn. 35) The visitor noted that the convent
had an annual income from rents of £5 6s. 8d. and in
the years before the dissolution the prior had made
long leases of the gardens, orchards, and tenements
surrounding the house, two of which were made only a
few weeks before the surrender of the friary. (fn. 36) In 1537
some ruinous buildings, gardens, and orchards to the
north and east of the house and church were leased to
Ralph Waryne for 101 years; in 1539 Waryne
petitioned for a lease of the convent, which lay at the
back of his house. (fn. 37) The conventual buildings were,
however, leased to Thomas Smith of Chester in July
1543 for 21 years at an annual rent of 13s. 4d. and the
whole property was acquired by John Cokkes of
London in February 1544; in 1561 the site came into
the possession of the Dutton family. (fn. 38)
The friary occupied c. 5½ a. bounded by Watergate
Street to the north, Nicholas Street to the east, Walls'
Lane (or Black Friars) to the south, and the city wall to
the west. (fn. 39) The precinct was bisected by an alley
(known as Grey Friars in 1978) leading from the east
gate to the west gate. (fn. 40) The discovery of human
remains indicates that the graveyard, and possibly the
church, lay in the south-west section of the site but no
traces of the buildings remain. (fn. 41) Part of the site,
however, was excavated between 1976 and 1978. (fn. 42)
Priors
Henry of Spalding, occurs 1238, 1241. (fn. 43)
John, occurs 1262. (fn. 44)
Henry de Esseburn, died c. 1280. (fn. 45)
John Arneway, occurs 1292-3. (fn. 46)
William of Melbourne, occurs 1344. (fn. 47)
William of Bury, occurs 1352. (fn. 48)
Thomas Belot, occurs 1380-1. (fn. 49)
Richard Runcorn, occurs 1395, 1408-10. (fn. 50)
Richard Torbock, occurs 1415-16. (fn. 51)
Robert Lancelyn, occurs 1435. (fn. 52)
Thomas Wooton, occurs 1443-4. (fn. 53)
John Brown, occurs 1452-5. (fn. 54)
Robert Holt, occurs 1457-8, 1459. (fn. 55)
John Browne, occurs 1463-4. (fn. 56)
John Holland, occurs 1468-70. (fn. 57)
Matthew Eves, occurs 1473. (fn. 58)
Thomas Waterton, occurs 1480-1, 1496. (fn. 59)
Matthew Eves, occurs 1506. (fn. 60)
Hugh Brecknock, occurs 1537, surrendered the
friary in 1538. (fn. 61)
A defaced impression of the priory seal on a document dated 1506 (fn. 62) is described as vesica-shaped 'bearing two priestly figures'. The legend, also defaced,
is said to read: SIGILLUM PRIORIS PREDICATORUM.