Colleges: Ruddington

A History of the County of Nottingham: Volume 2. Originally published by Victoria County History, London, 1910.

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'Colleges: Ruddington', in A History of the County of Nottingham: Volume 2, (London, 1910) pp. 149-150. British History Online https://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/notts/vol2/pp149-150 [accessed 18 March 2024]

20. THE COLLEGE OF RUDDINGTON

William Babington, son of Sir William Babington and Margaret his wife, obtained the licence of Henry VI in 1459 to found a college at Ruddington for a warden and four chaplains; two of the chaplains were to officiate in the chapel of St. Andrew within the church of St. Peter of Flawforth (fn. 1) and two in the chapel within the manor of Chilwell. They were to pray for the good estate of Henry VI, Margaret his queen, Edward Prince of Wales, William Babington the founder and Elizabeth his wife, and for the souls of the founder's parents, of Robert Prebend sometime Bishop of Dunblane, (fn. 2) and of Richard, Hugh, and Robert Martell. The lands assigned to this chantry or college were of the value of £25 at the time of its foundation. (fn. 3) Richard Martell of Ruddington and Hugh Martell of Chilwell had previously established a chantry at Flawforth, early in the preceding century.

When the Valor was taken in 1534 it was found that the lands at Chilwell, Bramcote, Lenton, Clifton, Clapton, Beeston, and Ruddington pertaining to the college were then worth £30 a year. Henry Scott, the warden, drew a stipend of 8 marks; Edward Ersden, who celebrated at Ruddington, and William Holome, who celebrated at Chilwell, each drew 7 marks. The two other chaplaincies, the one for Ruddington and the other for Chilwell, had both been vacant for some time. (fn. 4)

When the chantry and college commissioners of Henry VIII made their survey of this county in 1545-6 they reported of Ruddington that there were divers chantries founded there by the ancestor of Edward Sheffield esq., but no foundation was shown them. Their value was declared to be £24 13s. 4d. a year. Henry Scott was warden at a stipend of £5 6s. 8d.; two chantry priests ought to have been each in receipt of £4 13s. 4d., but for two years (on a vacancy) Edward Sheffield had retained in his hands the stipend of one of these priests, and since then the other had died. The rural dean of Bingham and the vicar of Ruddington said that the warden did nothing for his salary, but the warden himself deposed that he did duty at Chilwell. The chalice, &c., had been taken away (from Flawforth) by the warden. There was a mansion house in Ruddington, then partly in decay, where the warden and priests used to dwell. (fn. 5)

Footnotes

  • 1. Near Ruddington, now decayed.
  • 2. Robert de Prebenda was consecrated Bishop of Dunblane (Scotland) in 1258. Archbishop Wickwane about 1280 gave commission to Robert, Bishop of Dunblane (parochianus noster), who had constructed an altar in honour of God and the Blessed Virgin andthe Apostle St. Andrew and All Saints, in the new chapel which he had erected at Flawforth, the place of his birth, to dedicate it at any time he pleased. York Epis. Reg. Wickwane, fol. 44; Harl. MS. 6970, fol. 78.
  • 3. Inq. a.q.d. 37 Hen. VI, 4022; Thoroton, Notts. i, 126-7.
  • 4. Valor Eccl. (Rec. Com.), v, 168.
  • 5. Coll. and Chant. Cert. Notts, xiii, 5.