ALIEN PRIORIES
34. THE ALIEN PRIORY OF STEVENTON
A small alien priory was established at Steventon in the time of Henry I, when the manor
was granted by that king to the great abbey of
Bec, Normandy. (fn. 1)
In 1294 the king caused a complete survey
to be made of the lands and goods throughout
England owned by abbeys subject to French
government. According to that return the
priory manor of Steventon had a garden and two
dovecotes within the precincts, worth yearly
12s. 8d. Also 1,500 acres of arable land, worth
£21 10s. a year, at 6d. an acre; 220 acres of
meadow, £6, at 12d. an acre; twenty acres of
pasture for sheep and oxen, worth 17s. 8d. at
10d. an acre; two water-mills, worth 57s. 2d.
a year; total, £31 17s. 6d. There were sixtythree customary tenants, whose labour was worth
£25 7s. 5d. a year, in addition to rents of
£18 17s. 9d., and cocks and hens worth 67s. 1d.;
total, £47 12s. 3d. The income from the appropriated church was £20, so that the full annual
income amounted to £99 11s. 9d.
The goods of the priory of Steventon, according
to the same return, included a silver cup on a
foot, worth 16s.; another silver cup, 5s.; three
masers, 5s.; ten silver spoons, 8s.; also a palfrey,
60s.; another horse, 40s.; four cart-horses, 36s.;
a colt, 20s.; eight oxen (a team), 53s.; eight
oxen, 50s.; a third team, 53s.; two teams, 86s.;
a sixth team, 60s.; six cows, 27s.; eight cows,
38s. 8d.; five heifers, 15s.; twelve calves, 9s.;
two boars, 3s. 4d.; nine sows, 9s.; thirty-nine
yearling pigs, 39s.; four little pigs, 12d.; a
hundred sheep, 66s. 8d.; three wethers, 3s.; a
hundred lambs, 91s. 8d.; two peacocks, 2s.;
and eight geese, 16d.; total, £37 8s. 8d. Other
household utensils were estimated at 20s. 7d.
A hundred and sixty acres of sown corn were
valued at £29, at 3s. 6d. an acre; forty acres of
winter wheat at 46s. 8d., or 14d. an acre; fiftyeight acres of drage at £7 5s.; thirty acres of
oats, 60s.; thirty acres of beans, 60s.; thirtyfour acres of pease, 56s. 8d.; and hay, 40s. The
full total amounted to £87 17s. 7d. besides
tithes (in kind) which averaged £20 a year. (fn. 2)
The Patent Rolls afford certain other particulars relative to this priory in the reign of
Edward I. In 1302 a commission was issued to
John de Batesford and Roger de Suthcote,
touching the persons who had reopened a way
in Steventon which the prior had stopped for the
enlargement of his court by the king's licence,
after inquisition had been made by the sheriff of
Berkshire that such closing of the way would
damage no one. (fn. 3)
Although the advowson of the vicarage of
Steventon was in the hands of the prior on behalf
of the abbey of Bec, Edward I, in consequence
of the wars with France, took the advowson into
his own hands, and presented both in 1303 and
1304. (fn. 4)
Pardon was granted to the prior of Steventon
on 8 May, 1305, in consideration of a fine made
by him in Chancery, for acquiring without leave,
in mortmain to himself and his house, a messuage
in Steventon from John Braundiz, and a moiety
of an acre of land there from John de Sale, and
others, which for that reason had been taken
into the king's hands, but were at that date
restored to him. (fn. 5)
When the difficulties as to alien priories were
renewed in the latter part of the reign of
Edward III, the abbey of Bec was allowed to
sell the valuable manor and impropriated rectory
of Steventon, with the advowson of the vicarage,
to Sir Hugh Calveley. (fn. 6) After Sir Hugh Calveley's
death his trustees conveyed it to John, bishop
of Salisbury, and Roger Walden, and they in
their turn granted it to Richard II, who bestowed it on the abbot and convent of Westminster. This gift was confirmed by Henry IV
in 1400. (fn. 7)