Some Aspects of the History of Barnwell Priory: 1092-1300
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SOME ASPECTS OF THE HISTORY OF BARNWELL PRIORY: 1092-1300 JACQUELINE HARMON A dissertation submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy UNIVERSITY OF EAST ANGLIA SCHOOL OF HISTORY SEPTEMBER 2016 Contents Abstract iii Acknowledgements iv Abbreviations v-vi Maps vii Tables viii Figures viiii 1. Introduction 1 2. Historiography 6 3. Harleian 3601: The Liber Memorandorum 29 The Barnwell Observances 58 Record Keeping at Ely 74 Chronicles of local houses contemporary with the Liber 76 4. Scribal Activity at Barnwell 80 Evidence for a Library and a Scriptorium 80 Books associated with the Priory 86 The ‘Barnwell Chronicle’ 91 The Role of the Librarian/Precentor 93 Manuscript production at Barnwell 102 5. Picot the Sheriff and the First Foundation 111 Origins and Identity 113 Picot, Pigot and Variations 115 The Heraldic Evidence 119 Genealogy and Connections 123 Domesday 127 Picot and Cambridge 138 The Manor of Bourn 139 Relations with Ely 144 The Foundation of St Giles 151 Picot’s Legacy 154 i 6. The Peverels and their Descendants 161 The Peverel Legend 163 The Question of Co-Identity 168 Miles Christi 171 The Second Foundation 171 The Descent of the Barony and the Advowson of Burton Coggles 172 Conclusion 178 7. Barnwell Priory in Context 180 Cultural Exchange in the Tenth and Eleventh Centuries 180 The Rule of St Augustine 183 Gregorian Reform and the Eremetical Influence 186 The Effects of the Norman Conquest 190 The Arrival of the Canons Regular in England 192 The Early Houses 199 The Hierarchy of English Augustinian Houses 207 The Priory Site 209 Godesone and the Relocation of the Priory 212 Hermitages and Priories 214 8. Barnwell Priory and National Affairs, 1092 – 1300 220 Stephen and Matilda 221 The Angevins 225 The Farming of Chesterton Manor 1194-1304 227 The Tallage of Chesterton 233 The Barons’ War 234 Chesterton and Vercelli 236 Barnwell and the Quincys 238 Chesterton and Walter de Merton 239 Baronial Rebellion under Henry III 240 Relations with Sheriffs and Royal Officials 243 The Reign of Edward I 247 9. Conclusion 251 Appendix of Unpublished Texts and Images 257 Bibliography 322 ii ABSTRACT The Augustinians in England have been described as both ‘under-researched’ and as a ‘neglected’ order, often passed over in favour of other groups such as the Benedictines or the Cistercians. Recently, scholars have moved to address this lacuna, bringing into play new information and insights. In these terms, the history of Barnwell Priory on the outskirts of medieval Cambridge, once a large Augustinian house, has been touched since John Willis Clark edited its cartulary (or Liber Memorandorum) in 1907. Any attempt at a history of the priory, in whatever form, must of necessity begin with Clark's edition of this manuscript (BL ms. Harley 3601). Here copies of official documents jostle with the personal opinion and prejudices of the manuscript's author. For the present thesis, the manuscript has been allowed to set chronological parameters, from the foundation to the manuscript's composition c.1294. The present thesis for the first time brings together a selection of the surviving early source materials not included in the Memorandum Book. Elsewhere, it adopts a thematic approach, dealing in turn with the existing historiography, with the Book and its author, with the Priory's founders (Pictor the Sheriff, and Pain Peverel), with the broader context of Augustinian evolution, in Britain and Europe, and with Barnwell's dealings with kings or the impact of national upon local affairs. This study seeks to discover how much interaction took place between Barnwell and a series of interlocking communities, questioning significant this was to both parties. This is considered in terms of reciprocity: the provision of education, for example, or availability of food and accommodation to travellers, both religious and secular. That this relationship was not always mutually beneficial is unsurprising, and the Barnwell Liber contains many examples of litigation. The founders, and the date of the foundation retain many of their mysteries, and cannot be considered definitively to have been established. What I hope I have proved here is that the foundation was by no means the simple or linear process described in the Liber. In an Appendix , I have gathered together roughly 30 texts, almost all of them previously unpublished, that affect our understanding of the priory in its first two centuries. iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS First, and foremost, I should like to thank my primary supervisor Professor Nicholas Vincent for his patience and encouragement over the last ten years. Without his continuous help I am quite certain this thesis would not have reached submission. I should also like to thank my second supervisor Professor Stephen Church who, along with Dr Tom Licence, recommended I be allowed to upgrade from an MPhil to a PhD. I should also like to thank Dr Licence for sharing his knowledge of hermits and hermitages and how these were often involved in the foundation of priories. I owe a great debt to both the National Archive and the British Library for access to original documents. To be able to study these treasures is always a great privilege. My thanks must also go to the staff at the Cambridge University and Seeley Libraries who were always on hand to offer assistance and to the archivists at Christ’s, Jesus and King’s Colleges, Cambridge, Merton College, Oxford and Arundel Castle, Sussex for answering my questions and providing copies of the manuscripts I have needed. Friends have also been a source of great support and, whilst I cannot mention them all here, I would particularly like to thank Dr Hilary Walker, without whose good counsel and infinite moral support I would have been lost. Finally I would like to thank my family. My long-suffering husband, Michael, who has experienced the highs and lows along with me; my son James and his wife Suzy, my daughter Saskia and her husband Danny, all of whom have listened patiently to my ramblings; my mother and sister, both huge sources of support and last, but by no means least, my beautiful Jennifer, who has decorated many a notebook in her own inimitable style. Cambridge, September 2016 iv List of Abbreviations Regesta Regesta Regum Anglo-Normannorum: The Acta of William I (1066-1087), ed. D. Bates (Oxford, 1998) BL British Library, London LE Liber Eliensis, ed. E.O. Blake, Camden 3rd series 92 (1962) Liber Liber Memorandorum ecclesie de Bernewelle, ed. J.W. Clark (Cambridge, 1907) Observances The Observances in use at the Augustinian Priory of Barnwell, Cambridgeshire (Cambridge, 1897) CCR Calendar of Close Rolls CPR Calendar of Patent Rolls CUL Cambridge University Library DB Domesday Book seu liber censualis Willelmi Primi, ed. A. Farley, 4 vols (London, 1783-1816) EEA English Episcopal Acta EHR English Historical Review Monasticon Sir William Dugdale and Roger Dodsworth, Monasticon Anglicanum, ed. J. Caley, H. Ellis and B. Bandinel, 6 vols in 8 (London, 1846) ODNB The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, ed. H.C.G. Matthew and B. Harrison (Oxford 2004, here citing the electronic version at http://www.oxforddnb.com) Pipe Roll Pipe Rolls of the reigns of Henry I - Henry III, published by the Pipe Roll Society PRO Public Record Office (now The National Archive). PRS Pipe Roll Society Regesta Regesta Regum Anglo-Normannorum, ed. H.W.C. Davis, C. Johnson, H.A. Cronne and R.H.C. Davis, 4 vols. (Oxford, 1913-69) v TNA London/Kew, The National Archives VCH The Victoria County History v Maps 4.1 Site of 2010 excavations post-demolition of the old Cambridge Regional College buildings 84 5.1 Lands held in chief by Picot in Cambridgeshire 134 5.2 Lands held of others by Picot in Cambridgeshire 135 5.3 The village of Bourn, c,1400 143 vii Tables 3.1 The ownership of the Liber manuscript, 1538-present 72 4.1 Works associated with the Priory library 88-89 5.1 Picot: suggested genealogy 126 5.2 Picot’s antecessors in Cambridgeshire 129 5.3 Sheriff Blacuin’s lands 133 5.4 Picot’s lands as recorded in Domesday Book 158-60 6.1 Peverel suggested genealogy 170 6.2 The division of the Peverel barony 173 viii Figures 3.1 Picot’s foundation charter (Bourn A) 55 3.2 The south transept, Church of St Mary and St Helen, Bourn 68 3.3 Tomb slab of Robert Hagar the Younger, c,1710 69 4.1 Rectangular copper-alloy, folded shap-end 84 4.2 Triangular copper-alloy mount 85 4.3 CUL MS Add. 6865 Cover 87 4.4 CUL MS Add. 6865 Contents page 87 4.5 CUL MS Add. 6865 Heading on folio 81 87 4.6 A Roman reading before a press 94 4.7 Plan of Worcester Cathedral 95 4.8 Wood-lined, recessed book press, Tossa Nuova 96 4.9 Ezra writing, Codex Amiatinus 98 4.10 Mausoleum of Galla Placidia, Ravenna 99 4.11 Mausoleum of Galla Placidia, Ravenna (detail of mosaic) 99 5.1 Auchinleck Manuscript, folio 105v 118 5.2 Tomb of Benjamin Pigott, St Mary’s, Lower Gravenhurst 120 5.3 Pigott coat of arms c.1606 121 5.4 Picot coat of arms, Tabula Eliensis 121 6.1 The church of St Thomas à Becket, Burton Coggles, Lincs 175 viiii 1. Introduction Established first in Cambridge Castle, and then transferred to the outskirts of the town, Barnwell Priory was not only one of the very earliest Augustinian foundations in England but amongst the richest and best documented. The present study has developed from an MA thesis in which I supplied a brief account of the Priory's foundation.