Dunstable Priory. (Part Two).

 

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.

Foundation to Dissolution.

Available on YouTube

HERE

Several of these gifts were disputed before the Century was out, but most of them were retained by the Priory throughout its existence.[6]

Dunstable Priory was a Daughter House of Holy Trinity Priory, Aldgate, London, which itself had been Founded from Saint Botolph’s Priory in Colchester.[5] 

Bernard, the first Prior of the House, was closely associated with the introduction of Austin Canons into England. His brother, Norman, became Prior, first of Saint Botolph’s Priory, Colchester, Essex, and then of Holy Trinity Priory, Aldgate, London. 

They had travelled to Chartres and Beauvais, both in France, to learn the Rule of Saint Augustine, with a view to introducing it into England.

Dunstable Priory.

Work on Priory House.

Available on YouTube

HERE

At the beginning of the 13th-Century, in 1202, Richard de Morins, a Canon of Merton Priory, Surrey, became Prior of Dunstable. 

From 1210, he took over as Dunstable’s Chronicler.[7] He was evidently a man of very varied interests. Before he had been Prior a year, he was dispatched on the King’s business to Rome; and it was probably owing to his influence that the Lordship of Houghton Regis, Bedfordshire, with other gifts, were confirmed to the Priory in 1203.

During his Term of Office, in 1219, he secured the Right of Holding a Court at Dunstable for all Pleas of the Crown, and of sitting beside the Justices, itinerant at their visits to the Town: A privilege which brought him into less happy relations with the Townsmen and may have helped to hasten their revolt against his authority in 1228. 

He also successfully established the Right of his Priory to the Harlington Church in 1223. The Priory was twice visited by King Henry III during the time of Prior Richard de Morins: Once, after the Siege of Bedford Castle, and again in the midst of the troubles connected with the Burgesses, whom he attempted to pacify, at the Prior’s earnest request.[6]

PART THREE FOLLOWS.