Dunstable Priory. (Part Three).

Print of Dunstable Priory.

Published 24 December 1819.

Longman & Lackington & Co

and Joseph Harding, London.

Illustration: THE VIRTUAL LIBRARY

Text from Wikipedia — the free encyclopædia,

unless stated otherwise.

Dunstable Priory.

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In spite of the losses under King John, and the difficulties with the Burgesses, the Priory seems to have enjoyed greater prosperity at this time than at any later period of which we have a clear account. 

In 1213, the Conventual Church was dedicated by Bishop Hugh of Wells. The gift of the Church of Bradbourne in the Peak (All Saints’ Church, Bradbourne, Derbyshire), with its Chapels and Lands, provided maintenance for three Canons, and formed a kind of Cell to the Priory.

The death of Prior Richard de Morins in 1242 was followed immediately by heavy losses. In 1243, 800 of the sheep belonging to the Priory in the Peak District (Derbyshire) died, and a succession of bad Seasons led to great scarcity. 

By 1255, the Canons not only had any corn to sell, but not enough for themselves; they had to buy all their food at great expense for two years after this; so, when the Friars Preachers arrived in 1259, they were even less welcome than they would have been at any ordinary time. 

Dunstable Priory.

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When Simon of Eaton became Prior in 1262, he found the Priory 400 Marks in debt, and all the wool that year already sold.[6]

But, in spite of the pressure of debt and poverty, which was not diminished during his Term of Office, the Prior was as interested as his predecessors had been in the course of public events. 

Like most of the Clergy and Religious of the period, he was in sympathy with Simon de Montfort (6th Earl of Leicester), whom he looked upon as the champion of The Church; and, in 1263, when the Earl visited Dunstable, the Prior went out to meet him, and admitted him to the fraternity of the Priory. 

In 1265, a Council was held at Dunstable to consider the possibility of Peace with the defeated Barons, and the King and Queen visited the Priory in the course of the year; but, though Simon de Montfort had been there quite recently, and the sympathy of the Prior with his cause could not have been altogether a secret one, no Fine was imposed upon the Priory on that account.[6]

PART FOUR FOLLOWS.