26. THE HOUSE OF WHITE FRIARS
Nicholas de Meules or de Molis, formerly
custodian of Oxford Castle, granted the Carmelite Friars a place near the hospital in Stockwell
Street, in the parish of St. George, in 1256, and
on 21 August the provincial prior sent Friar John
of Rochester to take possession of the site and
make arrangements for the new friary. (fn. 1) Before
the following February they obtained from
Nicholas de Stockwell, sometime mayor of
Oxford, an adjacent plot towards the highway.
Having secured licence from the Bishop of
Lincoln to build an oratory, they came to an
agreement with the convent of Oseney, to whom
the parish church was appropriated, on 5 February, 1356-7. (fn. 2) The friars engaged that they
would not admit the parishioners of the abbot
and convent to any sacraments nor do anything
to prejudice their rights, without their consent.
On certain specified festivals they were to
announce publicly in their oratory these conditions. They were to pay yearly 10s. to the
said abbot and convent in lieu of tithes, and
every five years the prior of the friars was to
come to the abbey and swear to observe the terms
then set forth. The houses standing between
their area and the high road were to remain as
before, and if at any time the friars enlarged their
site they were to give due compensation to the
abbot and convent. The Bishop of Lincoln was
empowered to enforce the agreement by ecclesiastical censure. Friar John of Rochester was
authorized by the provincial prior to swear to
observe these conditions, which he accordingly
did before Richard the abbot and others at Oseney
on 15 August, 1257, and there is evidence that
his successors continued to take the oath. (fn. 3) The
Carmelites, notwithstanding this agreement, did
not refrain from hearing confessions, and paid no
attention to Archbishop Peckham when he prohibited them from so doing in 1280. (fn. 4)
The next addition to their area was a piece of
land with buildings on it extending from their
place to the king's highway, lying between the
land of Nicholas de Stockwell on either side. It
had been held of the canons of Oseney by Nicholas
the writer. (fn. 5) In 1269 they purchased from the
canons of Oseney for 10 marks the annual rent
of 10s. for tithes which they were wont to pay
them 'from the ground on which their oratory
was built, and from the adjacent plot towards
the south, which is 40 ft. wide, and extends in
length to the Thames.' (fn. 6) From the general inquisition made by Edward I in 1278 it appears
that these friars had bought from Nicholas de
Forsthull a house which used to render to the
prioress of Littlemore 3s.; 'and they have appropriated several tenements, in what way and by
what warrant is not known.' (fn. 7) In 1280 they
obtained the royal licence to receive, from any
persons willing to enfeoff them, as much of the
adjoining land as they required for the enlargement of their place, and to hold the same in
mortmain. (fn. 8) It was probably in virtue of this
licence that they acquired from Richard, 'called
Maydeloc,' a piece of ground, 60 ft. by 30 ft.,
lying between the land formerly of William de
Eynsham, and that formerly of Richard Lekam,
on which they built their gateway. For this
they agreed in 1282 to pay the convent of Oseney
16s. yearly as composition for all tithes and
offerings due to the church of St. George in the
Castle. (fn. 9)
Meantime the friars had been building their
church and houses. For their church they received gifts of oaks from Henry III in 1258,
1266, 1267, 1268, and for their houses in 1259. (fn. 10)
Edward I gave them oaks for the church in 1276
and 1286. (fn. 11) A commission of oyer and terminer
was issued to R. Fulconis and W. of Amersham,
in 1283, touching the evil-doers who broke the
door of the Carmelite Friars, beat, wounded, and
ill-treated some of the friars and perpetrated
other crimes. (fn. 12) This alleged attack may have
been connected with the foundation of Gloucester
College in 1283 on land claimed by the Carmelites. The prior of the Carmelites brought
an assize of novel disseisin against the abbot
of St. Peter's, Gloucester, in 1288, the result
of which is unknown. (fn. 13)
A chapter of the province was held here on
15 August, 1264, for which the king granted a
pittance, (fn. 14) and another in 1289, to the expenses
of which Edward I contributed £6 13s. 4d. (fn. 15)
The friars received an alms of 4 marks in 1291
from the executors of Queen Eleanor. (fn. 16) Towards
the end of the reign of Edward I Nicholas de
Cateby was charged with having received books
and other goods stolen from the house of the
Carmelites at Oxford; he was outlawed for not
appearing to answer the charge, and pardoned by
Edward II in 1307. (fn. 17)
The early history of the Carmelite school is
obscure. Peter de Swaynton is said to have been
the first member of the order to receive the
doctor's degree at Oxford; (fn. 18) and perhaps John
Chelmeston, William of Littlington and William
de Paul or Pagham studied there before the end
of the thirteenth century. (fn. 19)
In the general chapter of the order held at
London in 1312, 'many statutes were enacted
especially with reference to the studium at
Oxford.' (fn. 20) It would seem that the Carmelites
did not support the Friars Preachers in their
controversy with the university at this time; for
the Friars Preachers complained that Friar Robert
of Walsingham, master of the White Friars,
entered the schools to dispute at the time when
Hugh of Sutton, master of the Black Friars,
ought to have disputed; and John de Kerhamfrede, a Carmelite, had licence to incept, while
licence was refused to several Dominicans. (fn. 21)
Among Robert of Walsingham's pupils was John
Baconthorpe, 'the resolute doctor,' 'prince of the
Averroists,' who became the doctor of the
Carmelite order as Thomas Aquinas was the
doctor of the Dominicans, and Duns Scotus of the
Franciscan order. Baconthorpe, after studying
in Paris, returned to Oxford, where he seems to
have influenced Richard FitzRalph and to have
propounded views on the subordination of the
ecclesiastical to the royal power, which are
associated with the names of FitzRalph's contemporary Ockham and his follower Wiclif.
Baconthorpe was provincial prior 1329-33; and
died 1346. His writings were very numerous
and various; as an exponent and defender of
Averroes he seems to have had more influence
in Italy than in England. (fn. 22)
When Edward II was put to flight at Bannockburn he invoked the Virgin and vowed to found
a monastery for the poor Carmelites if he escaped
in safety. (fn. 23) The king appears first to have provided 120 marks a year from the exchequer for
the support of twenty-four friars of this order at
his manor of Shene, (fn. 24) and to have negotiated with
the Holy See through the provincial and the
prior of the Carmelites at Oxford for the foundation of twelve friaries; (fn. 25) but on 1 February,
1317-18, in fulfilment of his vow, with the assent
of the prelates and magnates of the council, in
spite of the dissuasions of Hugh le Despenser, he
granted to the Carmelites of Oxford the dwellingplace of his manor by the north gate of Oxford
beyond the walls, generally known as the palace
of Beaumont, with its closes and buildings to
hold in frankalmoin to them and their successors
celebrating divine service for the souls of the
king's progenitors, his own soul, and the souls of
all Christians. (fn. 26) On 10 February he removed
the friars from Shene to Oxford, and transferred
the grant of 120 marks a year to the new house. (fn. 27)
The friars seem to have taken possession at once,
for about Whitsuntide a scribe named Edward,
asserting that he was heir to the throne, came to
the royal palace of Beaumont and ordered the
Carmelites to depart. (fn. 28) The gift of the manor or
palace of Beaumont was confirmed by the pope
(May, 1318) and by the Parliament of York
(18 October, 1318), the friars being bound to
celebrate for the good estate of the king, Queen
Isabella, and their children. (fn. 29) The king further
gave them, on 28 June, 1318, a small piece of
vacant ground lying between their house and the
high road—probably Stockwell Street—and permitted them to make a passage, 50 ft. in length
and 10 ft. in width, under the high road connecting their new place with their old. (fn. 30) On
the same day the king conferred on them two
messuages on the east side of Stockwell Street, in
the parish of St. Mary Magdalen, which he had
acquired from the abbot and convent in Oseney
in exchange for a tenement in the parish of
St. Peter's in the East. (fn. 31) John XXII, when
confirming their new seat, authorized them
to sell or exchange their former dwelling-place
(May, 1318). (fn. 32) At the king's request the canons
of Oseney, as patrons of the church of St. Mary
Magdalen, gave them permission to celebrate
divine service, and the right of free sepulture for
themselves, their servants, and those who elect
to be buried there. Robert de Carsington, perpetual vicar of the same church, granted them
similar privileges. And all these rights were
confirmed by the Bishop of Lincoln 25 February, 1311-12, who shortly afterwards gave
the friars leave to have their new place consecrated. (fn. 33)
On 1 June, 1325, licence was granted
for the alienation in mortmain to the same
friars of the following lands in the suburb
of Oxford adjoining their dwelling-place; (fn. 34) by
Adam de Brom, king's clerk (founder of Oriel
College), 3 acres; by William de Burcestre of
Oxford, 2 acres; by the abbot and convent of
Oseney, ½ acre; by John de Shirbourn, 1 acre.
Further during this reign they acquired from
John de Croxford, Philip de Ewe, Richard le
Grasier, Isolda de Weston, and John Culvered,
divers plots in Oxford containing 1 acre; in 1337
they received pardon for entering on these without licence. (fn. 35) In 1342 the king relieved them
from the rent of 3s. 4d., due from cottages
acquired by them with licence of Edward II. (fn. 36)
The prior of this house came before the king
on 16 October, 1325, and sought to replevy his
lands which had been taken into the king's hands
for his default before the justices of the bench
against Richard Damory, the steward of the
royal household. (fn. 37) Richard, as tenant of the fee
farm of the hundred without the north gate, (fn. 38) had
probably claimed that the friars owed suit at the
hundred court. They obtained exemption from
this duty in 1342. (fn. 39)
The possession of the royal palace was confirmed to the friars on the accession of Edward III,
but the money grant of 5 marks a year for each
of the twenty-four friars was withdrawn; the
friars petitioned for its renewal in 1330, apparently without success. (fn. 40)
The purlieus of a royal palace were not altogether suitable for a religious house. In 1328
the mayor and bailiffs of Oxford and the bailiffs
without the north gate were commanded to
remove harlots and other women of bad character
from the neighbourhood of the house of the
Carmelite Friars, and to prevent houses being let
to such persons in future—the friars being hindered in the performance of divine service by the
clamour, night and day, caused by the resort of
men thither. (fn. 41)
The statutes of the general chapter of the
order contain a number of regulations concerning
the student friars at Oxford. In 1324 it was
enacted at Barcelona (fn. 42) that masters in England,
when reading the act, should receive in addition
to the board and lodging provided by the convent
100 grossi antiqui; bachelors reading the act, 80;
bachelors not reading but residing in the university, 50; other students in the English universities, 30 grossi antiqui. (fn. 43) Each province provided
for its students by means of an annual tax. (fn. 44)
In 1336 it was ordained (fn. 45) that no friar of the
English province should be sent to Oxford or
Cambridge unless six brethren, some of whom
must be priors, testified from personal knowledge to his good character; that no friar should
keep a servant, except the masters of Paris, the
regent masters in the English universities and
the English masters lecturing outside their own
province (these were allowed to keep one servant
each, to be fed at the expense of the convent);
that no master at Paris or in England should at
his inception spend more than 200 'black solidi
of Tours' on feasting and drinking; (fn. 46) further,
that every bachelor at Oxford and Cambridge
should continue his lectures on the Sentences for
two years on pain of losing his place and being
incapacitated from proceeding to the degree of
master. By a subsequent decree the provincial
prior and diffinitores of the provincial chapter had
power to dispense with this rule. (fn. 47) The English
masters, also, were not bound to take their meals
in the common refectory, (fn. 48) and were ex officio
members of the provincial chapter. (fn. 49)
In the latter part of the fourteenth century
the province was divided into four 'distinctions'
or sections—those of London, York, Norwich,
and Oxford—and to avoid local rivalries it was
arranged that a friar should be chosen from each
of these sections in turn to proceed to the degrees
of bachelor and master in theology. (fn. 50)
In 1396 Cardinal Landulph, protector of the
order, in reply to the complaints of the English
friars that some members of the order in England
obtained the degree of D.D. without being fit
for it, decreed (fn. 51) that every candidate should
(1) study arts for seven years, (2) study theology
for seven years, (3) lecture on the Sentences for a
year in a university, (4) as principal lecturer,
lecture on the Sentences for two years, (5) lecture
in the next year on the Bible, and (6) respond to
the doctors in the wonted manner and afterwards
proceed to the degree of master as is customary.
These decrees were confirmed by Boniface IX
in 1397. They are substantially in agreement
with the university statutes, except that the latter
demanded from the religious a preliminary study
of arts for eight years, of theology for six years. (fn. 52)
Magnates often brought pressure to bear on
the university in order to obtain degrees for friars
of their household. Thus in 1353 Henry duke
of Lancaster petitioned the pope for a faculty for
his confessor, William de Reynham, a Carmelite,
to incept in theology at Oxford, and after
inception to resign at will, any statutes of the
university and of the order of Friars Preachers
notwithstanding. (fn. 53)
In 1360, when the opposition to the Medicant
orders roused by Richard FitzRalph was still at
its height, John de Norton, a Carmelite, was
summoned before the chancellor's court for some
breaches of the peace, and refusing to appear,
was punished. With the support of his order,
he appealed to the pope; Edward III then came
to the help of the university and ordered the
provincial prior to stop all appeals against the
chancellor's jurisdiction. (fn. 54)
The Mendicant Friars were accused of stirring
up the Peasant Revolt in 1381, and the prior of
the Oxford Carmelites joined with the heads of
the other Mendicant convents at Oxford in an
appeal for protection to John of Gaunt; (fn. 55) their
letter appears to have been drawn up by Friar
Stephen Patrington.
The last quarter of the fourteenth century
was evidently a period of great intellectual activity
among these friars. At this time Richard of
Maidstone, confessor to John of Gaunt, was
writing numerous commentaries, translating the
Seven Penitential Psalms, taking part in the
controversy on evangelical poverty, determining
against John Ashwardby, the Wicliffite vicar of
St. Mary's. Robert Ormeskirk was writing in
defence of his order; Nicholas of Lynn composing his calendar, which Chaucer used in his
treatise on the Astrolabe. Richard Lavenham,
confessor to Richard II, was writing on logic and
physics, the revelations of St. Brigit, and
Wicliffite heresies; and John Kynyngham was
engaged in controversies with Wiclif and his
followers from 1363 till his death in 1399. (fn. 56)
The Carmelites took a prominent part in the
opposition to Wiclif and his followers. The
following members of their convent at Oxford
joined in condemning his doctrines in the council
of London: John Kynyngham, John Lovey,
Peter Stokes, doctors; John Cheselden, Stephen
Patrington, Thomas Legat, bachelors of
theology; and John Wrotham, regent of Oxford,
was one of the Carmelites at the council of
Stamford. (fn. 57) The archbishop commissioned Peter
Stokes, whom he knew to have laboured more
than all the others against the Lollards, to publish
the condemnation of Wiclif's doctrine at Oxford,
28 May, 1382. (fn. 58) The general feeling there was
strong in Wiclif's favour; Stokes and his
brethren went in fear of their lives, and when
the Carmelite doctor 'determined' against Philip
Repingdon on 10 June, men were seen in the
school with arms concealed under their clothes. (fn. 59)
Stephen Patrington, who was chosen twentysecond provincial prior in 1399, was employed
as commissary at Oxford against the Lollards in
1414, and was perhaps the original author of the
narrative which formed the basis of the Fasciculi
Zizaniorum. (fn. 60) This is generally ascribed to the
more famous friar, Thomas Netter of Walden,
who was a pupil of the Franciscan William
Woodford at Oxford, c. 1390, and later (c. 1410?)
was engaged in controversies with Peter Payne,
the Lollard, at that time principal of St. Edmund
Hall. Netter was confessor to both Henry V
and Henry VI, and succeeded Patrington as
provincial prior in 1417. (fn. 61)
Friar William Clerk of the diocese of Exeter,
being deputed lecturer in theology at Oxford,
was licensed by Pope Martin V in 1427 to hold
a benefice in commendam. (fn. 62)
When Eugenius IV called a general chapter
at Rome for the reformation of the Carmelite
Order in 1446, the following friars were chosen
to represent the 'distinctio' of Oxford—masters
John Walton, Walter Hunt, John Stanbery, and
the prior of Oxford. (fn. 63) The prior was probably
John Milverton (fn. 64) who was provincial 1456-65
and again from 1469 till 1482; he wrote against
Reginald Pecock, and was himself accused of heresy
and imprisoned by Pope Paul II for three years.
Walter Hunt is said to have been one of the chief
exponents of the Latin view in the negotiations
with the Greek church at the council of Florence,
1439. After this he returned to Oxford, where
he spent the remaining forty years of his life.
Stanbery was also a theologian of some distinction,
confessor to Henry VI, and bishop of Hereford
1453. (fn. 65) Friar Thomas Gloucester was degraded
and banished in 1462 for slandering two
honourable bachelors of theology in a sermon in
the Carmelites' church, to the great disturbance
of the university. (fn. 66)
In 1401 Henry IV granted to these friars the
land which he had of the grant of John Bokeland,
abbot of Oseney, without the north gate of
Oxford, between the friars' land on either side,
for the enlargement of their dwelling place,
which was strait and narrow. (fn. 67)
Henry VI used to stay in the Carmelites' house
at Oxford 'as in his own palace.' (fn. 68) The place
seems to have had a reputation as a health resort,
and persons of distinction took lodgings there
when in search of health. Thus John Twynning,
abbot of Winchcombe, 'coming to this place to
obtain health died among these brethren,' in
1488. (fn. 69) Reginald Pole, when a student at
Oxford, lodged at the White Friars, perhaps in
right of his royal blood. (fn. 70) It is possible, however,
that secular students had rooms in the friary. (fn. 71)
One 'Katherine Newcome, widow, living within
the house of the Carmelites' is mentioned
incidentally in the records of the chancellor's
court in 1527. (fn. 72)
Among those buried in the church were Friars
John Broxham, thirteenth provincial (1335),
Robert Ormskirk (c. 1382), Walter Hunt, (1478),
John Spyne (1484), Peter Keninghale, who was
prior of the convent 1466, and died 1494;
Richard Ferys, who was provincial 1514. (fn. 73) The
name of only one secular person buried here
seems to have been preserved—William Hampton,
burgess of Oxford, 1336. (fn. 74)
Among the benefactors of the house was
Thomas Heathfield, mechanic of Oxford, who
left to the friars by will in 1373 the tenement in
the parish of St. Peter's in the Bailey, after the
death of his wife, to the intent that it should be
sold and the money paid to the friars for his soul's
health. (fn. 75) Robert Mascall, a Carmelite friar and
bishop of Hereford, 1404-16, gave lands to the
abbeys of Westminster and Eynsham subject to a
pension of £4 and £3 respectively to the White
Friars of Oxford. (fn. 76) From Durham College,
Oxford, they received 10s. a year. (fn. 77) From Oseney
Abbey they had 4d. a week and the price of a
quarter of an ox at Christmas; (fn. 78) from Godstow
nunnery, 3s. 4d. a year and a bushel of oatmeal
and a bushel of pease in Lent. (fn. 79) Humphrey de
Bohun, earl of Hereford and Essex, left them
£10 in 1361, (fn. 80) and they received a large number
of small legacies: e.g. 3s. 4d. from John Malden,
provost of Oriel in 1401; (fn. 81) 20s. from John
Claymond, president of Corpus Christi College
in 1537. (fn. 82) Henry VIII gave them £13 6s. 8d.
in 1512 for the repair of their church. (fn. 83) The
Cordwainers at Oxford kept their light at the
White Friars—the payments towards the maintenance of the light appear to have been derived
from voluntary subscriptions and to have varied
greatly. (fn. 84)
Leland noted several books in the Carmelite
library; namely William de St. Amour's treatise
against the Mendicant Friars; William Woodford's treatise against the eighteen conclusions of
Wiclif, and his three determinations; Dr. Lavenham on the Physics of Aristotle; Robert
Walsingham's Quodlibeta, Quaestiones ordinariae
and commentaries on the Sentences; Dr. Robert
Greystone, a monk of Durham, on the Sentences;
the Epistles of Candidus the Arian to Marius
Victorinus; Baconthorpe's Commentaries on
St. Augustine's De Civitate Dei; the Moniloquium
of John of Wales; Irenaeus, bishop of Lyons, Adversus omnes Haereses, in five books; and Thomas
Walden's Doctrinale antiquitatum ecclesiae in two
volumes. (fn. 85) A volume in the library of Corpus
Christi College, Oxford, containing a Latin
translation of an Arabic astronomical treatise,
was written by order of Peter of Beccles, a
Carmelite at Oxford in 1380, (fn. 86) and a copy of
St. Jerome's commentaries in the Cambridge
University Library seems to have been given to the
convent by Friar Walter Hunt. (fn. 87)
On the eve of the dissolution the moral,
intellectual, and material condition of the White
Friars was far from satisfactory. In 1502 a
Carmelite was imprisoned by the proctor for
incontinence. (fn. 88) In 1533 a girl of thirteen
disguised as a boy was found by the proctors at
the White Friars 'in the cubicle of one Browne
scholar,' perhaps a secular student having rooms
in the friary. (fn. 89)
The long-standing hostility between the White
Friars and the monks of Gloucester College broke
out 1534-5, and both were bound over to keep
the peace. (fn. 90) Of the twenty-four Carmelite Friars
whose names appear in the university register
between 1505 and 1538, three were D.D.'s of
Cambridge and merely supplicated for incorporation at Oxford. The last who proceeded to a
degree was John Hurlyston, B.D., of Cologne,
who supplicated for the degree of D.D. in
December, 1534. From that time no Carmelite
appears in the register. (fn. 91)
When Dr. London visited the Oxford friaries
in 1538, he wrote (7 July) (fn. 92) that the White and
Austin Friars were most out of order, and in such
poverty that 'if they do not forsake their houses,
their houses will forsake them.' The White
Friars' house was ruinous. The prior had already
sold the annuity of £3 which the friary received
from the abbey of Eynsham to the abbot for £40
and divided the money, and he was now in
London trying to make a similar bargain with the
abbot of Westminster about the annuity of £4
paid by that abbey. Their land was let for
thirty years, and they had begun to sell the elms
which grew about their house. Two priors had
sold nearly all the jewels and plate, and apart
from copes and vestments the rest of their stuff
was not worth £5. They petitioned Cromwell
on 6 July for licence to change their habits and
surrender their house 'in consideration of their
poverty, which compels them to sell their jewels,
plate, and wood; and will, if they continue,
compel them to sell the stones and slates of their
house.' (fn. 93) They only waited for the return of the
prior to make their formal surrender.
The names of those desiring capacities
(31 August, 1538) were (fn. 94) Richard Chesse the
prior, John Tyndall and Lawrence Semar, B.D.'s;
Thomas Sydall, Bartholomew Blythman, Robert
Churleys, John Haynes, and John Bacon, priests;
Anthony Fozton and Robert Eston, not in
orders. They had not received their capacities
on 6 November, 1538, and had to be found in
meat and drink. (fn. 95)
The plate sent to London by the visitor consisted of three chalices, a silver ship, two silver
cruets, a silver-gilt pax, and a silver-gilt censer. (fn. 96)
There was little or no lead. (fn. 97)
Dr. London asked that Mr. Banaster, who
though mayor of Oxford had nothing but 4d.
a day of the king, might have the site of the
White Friars during his lifetime (he was now
growing old), and that after his decease it might
go to the town. (fn. 98)
This plan was not carried out. The site was
let at a rent of £3 4s., (fn. 99) until 1541, when it was
granted with the other lands to Edmund Powell
of Sandford, county Oxford, gent., for £388 5s.
and for certain lands in New Windsor which
Powell had given to the king. The site included, besides the house itself, a tenement and
garden adjoining the gate, another tenement and
garden within the precincts of the friary, a way
called the Entry which led from Magdalen parish
church to the friary, a stable, a close called the
timber-yard containing about 1 acre, 3½ acres of
land called Gloucester College close, another close
containing 2 acres lying to the south side of the
church. (fn. 100)
The greater part of the buildings was pulled
down by Powell and his children, much of the
stone being carried to St. Frideswide's in 1546;
the refectory remained standing till about 1596,
and was used as a poor-house for the parish of
St. Mary Magdalen; it was then demolished
and the materials used to enlarge the library of
St. John's College. (fn. 101)
Priors
John of Rochester, (fn. 102) 1256
Roger de Crostweyte, (fn. 103) 1278
Henry, (fn. 104) 1284
William, (fn. 105)
temp. Edward I
Hugh de Riseberge, (fn. 106) 1301
William, (fn. 107) 1317
William de Geyton, (fn. 108) 1338
William, (fn. 109) 1416
John Manning, (fn. 110) 1434
John Milverton, (fn. 111)
c. 1449
William Stapleherst, (fn. 112)
c. 1452
Peter Keninghale, (fn. 113) 1466, 1481
Richard Tertney, (fn. 114) 1499
Peter Nicholas, (fn. 115) 1510
Richard Feris, (fn. 116) 1511
Robert Lawe or Low, (fn. 117) 1521
Richard Chesse or Cheyfe, (fn. 118) 1532, 1538
The seal of the convent in the thirteenth century represents on the right Henry III in a
tabard of the royal arms of England, crowned,
in the left hand a sceptre, in the right hand a
church, which he is delivering to two friars; on
the left the Virgin, standing, crowned, the Child
on the left arm. Over her head an estoile of
six points, at her right side a flowering tree.
In base under an arch with carved spandrels an
ox passing a ford, to the right. Legend:—
S' COMVNE FRATRE ORDĪI BĒ MARIE DE
CARMELO OXONIE (fn. 119)
The seal of the prior, also of the thirteenth
century, is pointed oval, and shows the Virgin
seated in a canopied niche with trefoiled arch,
pinnacled and crocketed, with tabernacle work at
the sides; holding the Child on the seat, standing on the right. At the left, the prior kneeling
in prayer. In base, under a round-headed arch,
an ox couchant, to the right. Legend:—
S' PRIORIS OXONIE ORDINIS CARMELI (fn. 120)