A History of the County of Suffolk: Volume 2. Originally published by Victoria County History, London, 1975.
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'Alien houses: Priory of Creeting St Mary', in A History of the County of Suffolk: Volume 2, (London, 1975) pp. 153. British History Online https://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/suff/vol2/p153 [accessed 20 April 2024]
72. THE PRIORY OF CREETING ST. MARY
There are four adjacent Suffolk parishes of the name of Creeting, differentiated by the invocation of their respective churches, St. Mary, St. Olave, All Saints, and St. Peter. The first two of these had small distinct alien priories of Benedictine monks. The more important of the two was the priory of Creeting St. Mary, a cell of the abbey of St. Mary of Bernay, in the department of the Eure. Henry II, by charter of 1156, confirmed to the monks of Bernay all that they had held in England in the time of King Henry, his grandfather, including the manor of Creeting (Gratingis). (fn. 1)
The taxation of 1291 enters lands, &c., from Everdon, Northamptonshire (another cell of Bernay), as pertaining to the prior of Creeting; they produced an income of £6 7s. 6d. At the same time lands to the value of 2s. 10d. a year are entered as pertaining to this priory in Stonham Aspall, whilst the lands, stock, &c., of Creeting St. Mary and Newton were worth £10 15s. 5d. a year. (fn. 2)
The possessions of Bernay Abbey at Creeting in Suffolk seem to have continued under the same rule as those at Everdon, Northamptonshire. Thus, in a long list of alien priories, in 1327, mention is made of the prior of Creeting and Everdon; the two houses then formed a joint cell of the abbey of Bernay. (fn. 3)
In 1325 the goods and cattle of the manors of Creeting and Newton pertaining to this priory were valued by the crown at £18 15s. 10d. (fn. 4)
A commission was issued by the crown in 1378 to inquire touching waste and destructions by the late prior and farmers of the alien priory of Creeting, in the king's hands on account of the war with France, to the custody of which the king has appointed his clerk, John de Staverton. (fn. 5)
In 1409 John Stanton and John Everdon were acting as crown wardens of the joint priory of Creeting and Everdon, at a rent to the king of £26. The total receipts for that year were £39. (fn. 6)
Edward IV granted the possessions of this suppressed priory, in 1462, inter alia, to form part of the endowment of Eton College. (fn. 7)