The Church in Medieval Greenwich

THE CHURCH IN MEDIEVAL GREENWICH MICHAEL EGAN It is, of course, difficult to be precise about the nature of any vill or township in the medieval period, particularly in the earlier part. But Greenwich does have the advantage of at least being mentioned in early records from the time of King Alfred the Great (849-899). His possessions included Greenwich, 1 which passed to his daughter Aelfthryth (also known as Elfrida or Elstrudis), who died in 929. St Dunstan (c. 909-988), when Archbishop of Canterbury, is also named in a document specifically concerning the vill,2 and the vicious martyrdom of St Alphege (954-1012) in Greenwich ensures that the place appears again in national records of the late Saxon, preConquest era. This article will follow up some of the information provided by these and other sources dating from the periods before and after the Norman invasion, and using documents dated up to the 1480s. 3 It describes the growth of the medieval settlement before going on to discuss the history of the Church in Greenwich - that of the Alien Priory and the Parish church. Growth of the Medieval Settlement The foreshore at Greenwich was a belt of flood-plain gravel at the base of the hill on which Greenwich Park now sits, and the early settlement is thought to have occupied this riverside area, and the Billingsgate area (west of where the Cutty Sark is now docked) from where in Roman times a ford may have allowed people to cross to the Isle of Dogs. The waterfront would have offered a hard standing for boats needing to be beached, greatly assisting the work of fishermen and ferrymen. It must also have been attractive to the Danes who came as invaders in their longboats, and were encamped hereabouts at inter- vals from 994 until 1017 - possibly on the drier ground of the hill- side. Their presence must have become Jess threatening after Canute became king of Wessex and Mercia in 1017. Professor de Montmorency argued that Greenwich was already a royal domain before the ninth century and had become the admin- 233 MICHAEL EGAN istrative centre for this area.4 He concluded that Alfred continued to use Greenwich in this role. Indeed, in the Domesday survey, the townships in the vicinity of Greenwich are listed as being in the Hundred of Grenviz, indicating that Greenwich had been the principal town or meeting place in the locality prior to the Conquest. (But Lewisham may well have become more important, temporarily at least, during the period of the Danish landings - see below.) As. such, it would have certainly had a local church, possibly a minster, perhaps from before the ninth century. For reasons which will be discussed below, the details for Greenwich are included with those for Lewisham in the Domesday Book. Their total number of taxable inhabitants or heads of household was only 62. A fair estimate of the number living in both places is obtained by multiplying this figure by 4.5, the generally accepted average size of household taking account of large and small families. This amounts to only 280 residents or thereabouts, and perhaps there were around 100-150 living in each vill, if Greenwich had again become a safe place to live by the time of the Conquest. The inhabitants of Greenwich at the time of Domesday may have occupied up to 35 houses. The mariners' homes would presumably have clustered near the foreshore, close to any existing wharves or jetties (Map 1). Agricultural settlement may have ranged along the roads/tracks to Deptford and Lewisham, and along the routes eastwards to Woolwich. One or two families may have been close to the hall of the Alien Priory (see below), so as to work the priory's Greenwich home farm and land in the marshes on the Greenwich peninsula. The hall was to· the east of the vill. As the population increased in the thirteenth and early fourteenth centuries the increasing number of maritime families, along with associated tradesmen and merchants, would have concentrated near the waterfront, forcing those working on the land to move further away from the centre of the town along the principal roads, and even up the hillsides to the south. Greenwich became a significant port, required in 1328 to provide all its vessels of 40 tons or more, to join the king's seaborne defensive forces.5 The waters of the Thames have always loomed large in the history of the town, being economically productive yet producing serious flood damage, as well as allowing ready access alike to royal visitors and to Viking raiders. From documents of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, it seems that around one-third of the townsmen were mariners of some kind. The number of adults (of 15 and over) who paid the Poll Tax of 1377 in Greenwich was 399 (cf. 227 in Lewisham, 147 in Eltham),6 equating to a total population of around 600 individuals. This in turn 234 f-­ ToLondon THE CHURCH IN MEDIEVAL GREENWICH GREENWICH -::::::::::===::::::::=;::;::::::::::::::==:::::::::::: Wailing Street Map 1 Sketch map of the Greenwich area showing the main locations mentioned in the text. suggests that there might have been up to 1,000 people living in Greenwich in the early years of that century, before the ravages of the Black Death. From 1218, documents were increasingly referring to the manors of Greenwich and Lewisham - previously, Lewisham was given priority- indicating perhaps that the pendulum had swung back to Greenwich as being the most important town in the Hundred. 7 Doubtless, the pace of life in the township quickened in the 1430s when Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester and brother of King Henry V, acquired the land to create Greenwich Park; he was also licensed to crenellate his mansion house,8 which was transformed into the sophisticated palace of Bella Court. (Later to become the site of Henry VII' s Palace of Placentia, and - in modern times - of the Royal 235 MICHAEL EGAN Naval College.) Humphrey was devoted to the Church, and would surely have had his own chaplain to serve a private chapel in the palace. The Alien Priory Lewisham, Greenwich, Woolwich, Mottingham and Coombe were several vills in this area which Princess Aelfthryth had apparently acquired by the time of Alfred's death. Her husband was Baldwin II, Count of Flanders, who died in January 918, and a document records that in September of that year, Aelfthryth gave the churches, chapels and lands which she owned in these places to the Benedictine abbey of St Peter in Ghent, in memory of her husband and other departed members of her family.9 In this charter, she speaks of 'hereditatem meam', but there is debate both as to the authenticity of the deed, and whether or not she may have been granted Greenwich, say, as a dowry. Suffice to say that other genuine charters - of King Edgar in 964, and of St Edward the Confessor in 1044 - mention Aelfthryth when confirming the benefaction to the abbey in Ghent of lands in Gronewic, Liefesham and Uuluuic (Woolwich). 10 King Edgar was persuaded, at the request of St Dunstan, to give written confirmation of the princess's benefaction. This was endorsed by the Crown and the Papacy during the next 150 years but, after the Conquest, only Lewisham and Greenwich are specified as belonging to Ghent. The other places had been allocated to friends of the new regime. In each of these confirmations, Lewisham always precedes Greenwich in the text, suggesting that as far as the Abbey was concerned, Lewisham was the more important place. Perhaps Greenwich had become such a dangerous area during the Danish attacks, that the townsfolk had moved inland, conceding rank to Lewisham once the Abbey had placed its representative there. The Flemish monastery appointed one of their monks to become their bailiff or prior to manage these embryonic manors and their churches. This 'Alien Priory' was only a small 'cell', comprising the prior' s own residence with room for perhaps another one or two companions, 11 and may have contained a small chapel for their own use. Possibly it was close to the parish church in Lewisham. It would have acted as the manor house of Lewisham, where manorial courts and business was conducted, and have had barns and other farming outbuildings to hold the tithes and produce of the home farm of the manor. Likewise, a manorial hall or court house was established in Greenwich. In a report on the Abbey's holdings written in 1396, we 236 THE CHURCH IN MEDIEVAL GREENWICH find that it was the first house as one approached Greenwich by river from Flanders (Map I ). 12 It was well kept and was also used as a guest house, with a gatehouse which was tiled (rather than turfed or thatched?), as were some of its other buildings. Its caretaker was then Henry Brioul, recorded as a one-eyed man. In various other sources, this house is referred to as the Old Court, the Parsonage and the manor house. Initially, the general responsibilities of the prior seem to have been similar to those of any resident steward or bailiff acting on behalf of a tenant-in-chief. The Priory was the tenant of the whole of what was later known as the parish of Greenwich - an area of approximately 1,700 acres (including about 500 acres of marsh on Greenwich peninsula) - and thus held the lordship of the manor. The prior would also have nominated the parish priest. Some of the Greenwich estate was held as a demesne or home farm, and a document of 1281 in Belgian archives, gives the size of several fields in this farm, totalling around 125 acres. 13 Much of this land lay in the marshes. In a Greenwich rental list taken at Michaelmas 1284, 14 the names are given of the tenants of Egidius de Halle (?Giles of the Hall). Giles is given as the Proctor or prior of the abbey who was in Lewisham from 1266. 15 Conceivably, this was one and the same monk. An extent of the prior' s landholdings in Greenwich taken in 1370, reports that 60 of these acres had been submersed under flood waters from the Thames - a frequent hazard before effective river walls and embankments were finally constructed. Increasingly, the Priory's lands in Greenwich were let out to various sub-tenants, and in times of war with France all its English property could be taken into the king's hands, thus preventing revenues from being passed out of the kingdom. Eventually, the possessions of every alien priory in the country were sequestrated, and in 1415 Ghent's land in Greenwich was granted to the newly established Carthusian priory at Sheen, as part if its endowment. 16 In 1531, the manor was returned to the Crown, in exchange with Sheen for lands elsewhere, 17 formerly in the possession of Cardinal's College, Oxford. The Location of the Saxon Parish Church There is a very definite mention of a church in Greenwich to be found in Textus Roffensis. 18 This collection of Rochester Diocese records is probably no later than 1115; possibly it was pre-Conquest. In a list of churches and chapels, the mother church in Greenwich is shown as having a dependent chapel in Combe. This may have been West- 237 MICHAEL EGAN combe, which lay on the eastern side of Greenwich parish. Presumably, this chapel would have been used by those working farmlands in the area, or on the Greenwich marshes. Its precise location is unknown. There is also uncertainty about the location of the Saxon mother church in Greenwich. If Alphege was being held by the Danes under 'house arrest' in the parish church, then this could have been the site of his murder, which took place a week after Easter Sunday in I O 12. 19 However, he was being held for a large ransom, and contemporary sources say that he was kept in chains both of which details suggest that he was closely guarded in the Danish encampment. Since he is said to have been murdered during a drunken revel of the Danes, it seems possible that they were roistering near their vessels, close to the waterfront. There seems little doubt that the new church would have been built over the site of the martyrdom, rather than at the location of the earlier Saxon church. Alphege was finally buried in Canterbury Cathedral in 1023. At this period the waters of the Thames came further into the town than they do nowadays. The Highest Astronomical Tide in the eleventh century could well have brought river waters up to the present line of Creek Road and Greenwich Church Street. (The present St Alphege church is about 6m above OD.) Several fifteenth- and sixteenth-century wills make bequests to the Rood chapel in Greenwich, which also seems to have had the name of All Saints chapel. This is believed to have given its name to Rood Lane, and to have been approximately 20m to the north of the eastern end of College Approach, on land now just above the 5m contour line. Was this perhaps the site of the earlier, smaller, wooden, parish church, near the foreshore - which was retained as a chapel, after the parish worship moved to St Alphege Church? In 1330, a penitent from Plumsted was required to pay a visit to the Holy Cross chapel in Greenwich,20 while in 1377 the Brotherhood of the Holy Cross are referred to as active in the church of St Alphege.21 This fraternity is not mentioned in any wills of the late fifteenth century. Possibly this guild had transferred to All Saints chapel, resulting in it being colloquially known as the Rood chapel. Both the church and the Rood chapel are curiously far from the Greenwich manorial hall of the Alien Priory, which was well to the east of what we now see as the centre of medieval Greenwich (Map 1 ). One would expect that such a building, with its function as a place for meetings of the whole community, might have been nearer to the church of an ancient parish. If there had been a ninth-century centre of administration for the Hundred,22 and perhaps a royal residence, these may have been deliberately set somewhat apart from the townsfolk, on a vantage point giving a good look out for vessels coming 238 THE CHURCH IN MEDIEVAL GREENWICH upstream from Blackwall Reach. As early as 1268, it was referred to as 'the Old House' .23 The Priory may have wished, or felt obliged, to be seen to inherit that royal location. The Fabric of St Alphege Church The first church of St Alphege is presumed to have been built in the eleventh century soon after the martyrdom. The availability of building materials and the technology of the time may have dictated a thatched, wooden church, capable of holding a congregation of up to 200 parishioners. Given that the saint did not have the reputation of being a major miracle worker, and that pilgrimages in the eleventh century would have been somewhat hazardous, then donations from pilgrims, and others, may well have been very limited. The cult of a saint tends to develop at the burial place. Such a structure would have been inadequate and, in any case, unbecoming for parochial pride as the population grew which suggests that a larger, stone-built, St Alphege may have been erected in, say, the thirteenth century. This might have been concurrent with the decree of 1218 by Benedict, the Bishop of Rochester -.whose diocese included Greenwich - who asked the Abbey of Ghent to make a 'competency' or financial provision for the vicar of Greenwich. 24 The arrangement was to be implemented after the death of the incumbent Nicholas, who was still alive in 1239. This second St Alphege Church collapsed in 1710 (to be replaced by the present structure) so that little of its fabric survives; fragments, however, can be seen inside the tower. Luckily, however, two drawings made in 1558 by Anton van der Wyngaerde (both in the Ashmolean Museum) of the royal Palace of Placentia and its surrounding buildings in Greenwich, offer views of the lost church (Fig. la). The view from the north clearly shows a spire (covered in wooden shingles?) on the tower of the church, at the west end of a Gothic nave, which does not seem to have aisles with separate, lower roofs. The second view from Greenwich Park (Fig. lb) has a similar steeple. Further important evidence of the shape of medieval St Alphege's is provided by a major survey of the manor of Greenwich conducted by Travers, who produced a detailed map in 1697.25 It shows St Alphege Church with a rectangular ground plan. It appears to have two small doorways offset from each other on the north and south sides of the church. Conceivably, they were transepts inaccurately drawn. At the west end are two curved features, possibly stairways giving entry through the west door, which was at a higher level to prevent flooding by high tides. The length of the building is only half as much again as 239 MICHAEL EGAN Fig. 1 Details from Anton van der Wynegaerde's views of Greenwich, 1558. (Complete copies are in Greenwich Local History Library.) 240 THE CHURCH IN MEDIEVAL GREENWICH its width, suggesting that the ground plan was of roughly the same proportions as that of the present church, which may indeed have been built using the same foundations. Fig. 2 is a conjectural plan of St Alphege in the fifteenth century based upon available documentary evidence. The Interior Usually, medieval churches had a chancel with the altar and choir stalls at the east end, traditionally orientated so as to face towards the Holy Land. The nave area might have been separated by a crosswise passage or transept, perhaps with a door on the north and south sides. Typically, there would have been an altar on each side of the chancel, one dedicated to the Blessed Mary the other to a popular saint of the region, probably facing into the length of the nave. The ground plan shown by Travers (see above) may suggest that these side altars were in line with the high altar, against the east wall of the church. That could leave room for other secondary altars, backing onto the north and south walls, extending into the two side aisles. Useful details of the interior of the church are available in the wills of Greenwich parishioners of the late medieval period, who made benefactions of one kind or another to the church. Thirty-three such testaments from the years 1430-1499 have been studied, as well as a further thirty-seven which were written between 1500-1530 before the Reformation began to change the old order. From the evidence of these wills it is clear that the church had a central aisle, with outer aisles leading up to two side chapels. There are references to the north door in 1481,26 and in 147427 to the new south door porch-known as the Wedding Door in 1547/8.28 The Lady Chapel was at the east end of the north aisle, with the south aisle leading to the Chapel of the Holy Trinity, and also dedicated to St Anne. Typically in the fifteenth century, there would be a rood screen across the entrance to the chancel and high altar area. These screens normally supported statues of a Crucifixion scene, with Mary and John at the feet of the dying Christ. A door in the screen allowed the clergy into the sanctuary, and there were regional variations in what the congregation could see through the screen of the elevation of the Host and Chalice. The screen also was used to hold candles and tapers during the mass and other services - essential in the darkness of winter and in the evenings. The wills also indicate that there were 'side' altars on the north and south walls dedicated to various saints, which probably featured a statue or painting of the saint. There seem to have been altars commemorating St Thomas of Canterbury, St George, and possibly St 241 G ! North Aisle Screen: 0 0 0 F :,,, Q 􀀁 ... A􀀈 \'.> r Chancel I 0 0 a􀀂 G So11d1Aisle Screen.! a c􀀂 Er a G I Fig. 2 Conjectural plan of St Alphege Church, Greenwich, c. 1470, with modern road names. Scale c. I: 300. (A - High Altar; B - Lady chapel; C - St Anne's chapel; D - Great North door and porch; E - South ('Wedding') door; F - Font; G - Graveyard; H - Palm cross;/ - Tower and spire; J - Vestry(?); a - (?)Fraternity and side altars). THE CHURCH IN MEDIEVAL GREENWICH Agnes, in addition to the principal Lady and Trinity altars. Among the statues recorded are those of Our Lady of Pity (i.e. a Pieta), Our Lady of Grace, Saints Alphege, Anne, Thomas Becket, Erasmus, Clement and perhaps also of the Archangel Michael; St George was shown in a painting. It was usual for the statue of the patron saint of the parish to be placed in the chancel, close to the high altar, and so we find that in his will of 1486, 29 Edmond Russell, late vicar of the parish church, asked 'to be buried before the image of St. Alphey in ye quere'. Another testator asked to be buried in the 'middle space' between the baptismal font and the bell tower, at the west end of the building. 30 The 'new bell being at the founders' is mentioned in the 1474 will, and there is a request for 'knocking of the Great Bell and ringing of the others bells' and for a payment of two shillings to the bellringers, after a death in 1524.31 By the mid fourteenth century, seating was normally provided in churches and chapels. The churchgoers of Greenwich occasionally referred to them in their wills: 'in our Lady's ile where i was wont to sit' (1517), and rather later in 1568 - 'to be buried against the pew-door where I sit'. A feature of many of the wills are the requests for 'lights' (candles), sometimes llb. weight of wax, to be lit before the statue of one's favourite saint, or on an altar. The light from the candles was often a necessity in order to see the statues or paintings if the church was poorly lit. The flickering flames had a visually pleasing and symbolic sense of 'reminding' the saint of the donor's needs in life or in death. It was a form of prayer which asked that the saints should themselves pray to God for the donor's well being. Many churches and chapels in the early part of the Middle Ages are believed to have had frescos and other forms of wail painting and decoration, to encourage reflection on biblical or hagiographical themes. They might have been pictures or texts. As stained glass became available, such illustrations moved into the windows. In 1610, an antiquarian recorder of stained glass which showed heraldic devices, visited St Alphege church. He sketched and described several such items. 32 In the 'East Chancell window', there were three coats of arms: of St Edward the Confessor, the post-1405 shield of King Henry IV, and that of Thomas Arundel, Archbishop of Canterbury (from 1396 to 1414, with interruptions). His shield impales on the dexter a pallium, the Papal stole which he would have received when appointed Archbishop of York in 1388. Since he acquired the manor of Westcombe and Spitelcombe in 1395 (and disposed of it a year later), the glass may date from these last years in that century. There was other glass in the south aisle of the 'Quyer' showing the arms of Norbury and of Mayhew, families that were prominent in Greenwich around 1400. 243 MICHAEL EGAN As the chancel window must have been a principal feature of the church, one assumes that it contained largely religious scenes, and only had these three sets of arms as a subsidiary tribute to those concerned. Does this suggest that a refurbishment or reconstruction of the chancel window (and of the church itself), took place in early years of the fifteenth century? Duke Humphrey was to be seen in one of the south windows 'nere the belfry', kneeling in prayer on a large cushion, and on 'eyther syde' his shield quartering the arms of England and France, and that of his wife Eleanor Cobham. Presumably, the Duke and his household supported the church (as well as his private chapel) in the 1430-40s, and was commemorated accordingly. Many bequests were made to aid repairs to the church, and add to its contents. In 1506, a lady left 'a standyng cuppe of sylver under ys condicion that every bride yt shalbe mareid in the church shal have the sayd cuppe to be boryn afore them att ye mariage yff yer come to ye church wardens and dezier it'. A more mundane offering was 'bedding for poor women in childbirth and a clost to keep it, plus 6 sheets to serve for the burial of drowned men, or other poor men that shall be unburyed by default'. In 1305, Archbishop Winchelsey ordained that every church should possess a lengthy list of ecclesiastical vestments and altar cloths, missals and other service books, processional and altar crosses, a pyx or tabernacle ( often suspended above the altar on a pulley system) to house the consecrated Bread, and so forth. 33 There was an exact division between the priest who was responsible for equipping and maintaining the chancel area, and the parishioners who looked after the rest of the fabric, the churchyard and the surrounding walls. An inventory was made in 1552 of parish church goods throughout Kent.34 It provides what is effectively a final balance sheet of the contents of St Alphege Church at the end of the medieval period. The list includes 'chalices of sylver parcel! gilte with the patents', copes and vestments of 'red gold bawdekin with orpheras embrodred with Venys gold' and others of 'blewe velvet with aungells & flowres of gold'. There were altar cloths and herse cloths, corprax cases, and 'coveryngs of white satten'; there were 'smale basens of pewder', 'a pix and candlestikks of latten', and 'iiij bells the greatest mesured frome brymme to brym iij fote vij inches di'. The printed list fills four pages of AS paper. Congregations over the years had clearly provided craftsmanship of a high standard for their parish church. Death and Burial Many of the wills which have been examined expressed preferences about where the person would like to be buried. In the period up to the 244 THE CHURCH IN MEDIEVAL GREENWICH Black Death in the middle of the fourteenth century, the feudal society ensured that most knew their relative place in the world with great precision. In later wills, most are clear whether they can expect to be interred in the chancel (priests and the rich), or in the body of the church (those reasonably well-off and their spouses and children). Poorer people in the parish may not have made wills, and fewer speak of the churchyard, which must have been re-used after a suitable interval, with the bones of those long buried perhaps being placed in a charnel house (of which no mention has been found). During the early Middle Ages many burials in the churchyard were simply shrouded rather than interred in coffins. 35 Several asked to be buried near the holy water stopp or stok (i.e. font), or near 'the great stone without the chancel of Our Lady of Grace'. Perhaps this was a special spot where parishioners crossed themselves with holy water in a symbolic cleansing before entering the church, and customarily said a prayer for the departed. Another group were anxious to be laid to rest close to the 'stone cross' or the 'Palm cross' in the churchyard. Such crosses were the starting point for the processions on Palm Sunday as part of the Lenten liturgy, in preparation for Easter. One (helpfully) specifies that he would like to be buried between the church on the east and the cross of the said church on the west;36 this seems to position the cross at some distance from the west door of the church - say, where the church hall stands now. Many testators leave money or goods for religious purposes. All were very concerned that they and their relatives should be remembered in the prayers of the parish, after death. There are many legacies for 'obits' of masses and dirges to be said, and lights to burn on altars at intervals after their burial. Frequently bequests take the form of practical help for the poor of the parish. Thus bread, kilderkins of good ale, cheese, 'befe' and even a barrel of herrings are to be provided for them 'while the world endureth', on the anniversary of the death. Agnes Harding's will bequeathed 'to the poor of the town in the fervent cold of the winter season, 3/4d in wood and coal, because they shall have the less cause to brek mens heggs (hedges)', i.e. to gather firewood.37 And one donor leaves 3s. 4d. a year to be spent on the Rogation Days on 'ye cross a thisside Depforde in this parish' .38 This was probably one of the boundary marks which were visited when beating the bounds of the parish. It may have been the point where the beaters took to boats to row up the centre of Deptford Creek, which was the median line between the parishes of Greenwich and its neighbour. Land ownership and its delineation has always been taken very seriously. 245 MICHAEL EGAN Fraternities Many of the Greenwich layfolk were members of fraternities or brotherhoods, which were dedicated to a special saint or devotion, for example to the Holy Cross. They would attend masses at the altar of the saint concerned and provide for candles to be lit, altar cloths, and so forth. Sometimes they supported a priest who would act as chaplain to their confraternity, and perhaps say mass daily at the saint's altar. Members would be particularly anxious to pray for the eternal rest of their departed brethren, in the expectation that they too would be remembered after dying. In 1349 John Page who 'was of the fraternity of the Sacred Cross', offered surety on behalf of two Greenwich fishermen accused of using fishing nets with too small a mesh;39 possibly they were fellow members of the same brotherhood. These guilds also had the function of a Friendly Society. They looked after their sick and poor members, provided dowries for brides, and helped those who had lost possessions or animals, by theft, disease or fire - and generally supplied a safety net of insurance. The Priests of Greenwich The right of Advowson - of appointing the parish priest - was in the hand of the lord of the manor, who might be resident, but the lordship could equally be held by a distant monastery (see Alien Priory above) or nobleman. Thus the parson was a vicar, acting on behalf of these other interests. Every parish priest as supposed to have an assistant, who might be a deacon preparing himself by understudy for ordination. The owner of the advowson (the rector) received the greater tithes (of corn, hay, pulse and wool), and the vicar's remuneration came in part from the smaller tithes (of animals and other produce). The vicar would normally receive a stipend from the rector, of around £10, while a curate might have £5 p.a. - not much more than a skilled craftsman. Both would have some 'altarage' - offerings on the major feast days, and when taking special services, such as christenings, marriages and burials. In the early medieval period, the country parson would Jive in two small rooms like his parishioners, and would work the glebe land owned by the church, as his kitchen garden or meadow. Part of the glebe in Greenwich was in the marsh, known as Vicar's Acre, reached along Vicar's Lane. In his 1923 booklet on St Alphege Church, de Montmorency gave a full list of the known parsons of the parish, apparently based on the list in Drake's Hasted. For completeness sake, it is repeated in Appendix 1, but without giving the full source references. Since this 246 THE CHURCH Il'1 MEDIBV AL GREENWICH study has produced the names of several other medieval Greenwich priests, these men are indicated and referenced in the list (which is extended into the Tudor period to include further names). It also became clear that there were others referred to as 'parish priests'. The phrase seems to mean 'priests within the parish', since several are mentioned concurrently with named vicars. They may have been assistant curates, brotherhood chaplains or chantry priests. One is specifically described in 1517 as the Morrow Mass Priest,40 who presumably said the dawn mass on a regular basis. In 1265 a priest called Simon was vicar of All Saints chapel (see above), confirming that the chapel had its own independent existence, and warranted a vicar. There were three 'stipendiary clergy' in the parish in 1405, in addition to the vicar. In July 1415 the Bishop of Rochester provided for the king, a Certificate of Clergy available for the defence of the Realm, which included two Greenwich chaplains. Three 'clerks' are named in a land transaction in the parish in 1492. Only in a conveyance of 1371 is there any hint of a school in the town, since Richard Schoolmaster witnesses the deed;41 otherwise there is no known reference to education in Greenwich. Possibly, the vicars or one of the junior priests taught the brighter and keener children as best they could. Even by the sixteenth century, there was no endowed grammar school in the whole of the Hundred of Blackheath.42 In March 1344, a licence to ordain priests in Greenwich was granted to Richard Ledrede, the Bishop of Ossory (Ireland).43 Knowles gives him as Richard Leatherhead, a Franciscan, who was the bishop from 1318 to 1360.44 Again, in 1346, the Bishop of Cardi ea (Cardigan?) was given similar permission, and a year later, Hugh, the Archbishop of Damascus (a titular see?), was also licensed to conduct ordinations in Greenwich.45 (In 1349, 'owing to the lack of priests due to the present mortality' - i.e. the Black Death - any Catholic bishop was authorised to hold an ordination 'at any lawful time before Easter next' in the parish church ofEltham.) It may seem odd that the bishop of an Irish see, was invited to ordain in Greenwich before the peak of the plague. But according to the Patent Rolls of the time,46 Leatherhead was 'staying in England' in February 1344, and in June 'the temporalities of Ossory' were in the king's hands. His name sounds English, and he may have been one of the bishops put into ·an Irish see, who found it difficult to cope with the language and traditions in Ireland, who came home and looked for the role of an assistant bishop.47 Archbishop Hugh seems to have acted also as a suffragan to the Archbishop of York.48 Of interest among the list of names is John Morton, vicar from 1444 to at least 1447. Other authors have presumed he was the man who 247 MICHAEL EGAN was to become Cardinal Morton. However, there seem to have simply been two priests with the same name, since the future cardinal was not ordained until March 1458.49 Dean (or Master) John Gunthorpe, although not in the list, was a priest who first settled in Greenwich in 1467, when he was appointed chaplain to Elizabeth Woodville, the queen of King Edward IV. He was to become Dean of Wells in 1472, but retained a house in Greenwich,50 on the site of the present power station. Active in the king's diplomatic service, he became Master of the Rolls and Keeper of the Privy Seal in 1483, and died in Wells in 1498. Another prominent priest, Dr Richard Hatton, who was named as vicar in a 1496 will,51 had been at Eton and King's, Cambridge (becoming Provost in 1508, the year before he died), and took a D.C.L. and an LL.D., 52 and was thus a 'doctor of both laws', one of 'a foreign university'. Like Gunthorpe, he was a pluralist, who held so many benefices, that Greenwich is not even mentioned in his entry in Emden. Curiously, the Venns' earlier list of Cambridge graduates,53 which Emden used, does give Hatton as vicar here in 1496. There is record of a 'Richard Hatton, clerk' (clericus, i.e. clergyman) in Greenwich in 1492, and he may have been the vicar by then. Master Richard Hatton became a senior civil servant. He held several canonries, and was the king's chaplain by 1494. Possibly that post brought him to Greenwich, although he could not have devoted much time to his pastoral duties in the parish. His name appears as vicar only once (1496). In such circumstances, an absentee vicar was expected to provide a parish priest to do the work for him. This may explain why Sir William Wyott/Wyatt appears four times (as beneficiary or witness), and Edward Boydone once, described as parish priests, in wills dating from the years when Dr Hatton held the benefice. The title 'Sir' was the anglicised equivalent of dominus, akin to today's 'Father'. Other Chapels and the Friary It was suggested above that Duke Humphrey almost certainly had his own chapel, and in the Tudor period, there was definitely a royal chapel at the east end of Henry VIII' s palace. The names of some Deans and sub-deans are known, who are likely to have been ordained. Possibly there was also a small chapel or oratory in the Greenwich house of the Alien Priory, for the prior's use on visits from Lewisham, or for monks coming from Flanders as guests. Notably, in 1482 the foundation stone was laid of the Observant Franciscan friary, which was built on land abutting the west wall of 248 THE CHURCH IN MEDIEVAL GREENWICH the palace. Before the friary church was completed in 1494,54 the community are believed to have used the Rood chapel for their services, which were open to the public; the names of some of the first community are recorded. They were to achieve considerable popularity both with the Court, and residents of the town.55 Many of the Greenwich laity made legacies to the Friary, and several Tudor wills ask for the deceased to be buried 'among the friars' or in their church. Henry VIII and Catharine of Aragon were married in the Friars' church, and their daughter Mary was christened there. John Heywood (?1497-?1580), dramatist and epigramatist (see D.N.B .), used the phrase 'By Our Lady of Crome ...... .' in his The Mery Play, between Johan the Husbande, Tyb the Wife and Syr Jhan the Priest of 1533. He made another reference to Marian devotion at Crome in The Four P's - a mery interlude of a Palmer, a Pardoner, a [a]Potycary and a Pedler. It has been suggested that these may refer to Crooms Hill. However, this seems a tenuous link with Greenwich but is included more as a footnote, for completeness sake. Finally, there was St Catharine's hermitage at the east end of Deptford bridge, i.e. at the western end of the Greenwich township. It had a house and a chapel, with a garden and orchard adjoining the three acre Hermitage Meadow, which was intended for the support of such poor person who inhabited the site. The Augmentation Office later recorded 'that masses had always been celebrated at divers times in the chapel', but it is uncertain whether or not the hermit was in holy orders.56 He may have been more a bridgekeeper, rather than a spiritual solitary. But clearly, one way or another, the faithful of Greenwich were well supplied with priests in the late fifteenth century. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The author is most grateful for assistance received from Julian Watson and colleagues at the Greenwich Local History Library, and from Anne Power, Julian Bowsher, John Coulter and Peter Worden, in preparing this paper. ENDNOTES 1 van Lokeren, A., 1868, Cliartes et documents de l'abbeye de Saint Pierre .... a Gand, Tome I, pp. 20-21 (copy in Lewisham Local History Centre). 2 Kimbell, J., 1816, Charities of Gree11wich, pp. 8-10. 3 These include: Florence of Worcester, vol. I, p. 164; The Anglo Saxon Chronicle; Shaw, F. (ed.), 1999, Osbern's Life of St. Alphege. 249 MICHAEL EGAN 4 de Montmorency, J.E.G., 1923, A Brief History of the Church of St. Alphege, Greenwich and Lewisham Antiquarian Society [GLAS) Special Publication No. I. 5 Calendar of Close Rolls, 1327-30, p. 39. 6 PRO, Lay Subsidies, E l 79, 123/37. 1 Registrum Hamonis de Hethe, vol. I, pp. 38-40. 8 Calendar of Pate/It Rolls, 1429-36, pp. 240, 250. 9 See note l . 10 See note 2. 11 Martin, A.R., 1927, 'The Alien Priory of Lewisham', GLAS, vol. III, 103-127. 12 van Lokeren 1868, op. cit. (see note I), Tome Il, pp. 150-1. 13 Ibidem, Tome I, pp. 415-423. 14 British Library, Add. MSS, 6164, fo. 416. 15 Martin 1927, op. cit. (see note 11). 16 Calendar of Patent Rolls, 1413-16, p. 367. 17 Calendar Letters & Papers Henry VIII, vol. Va, p. 200. 18 Centre for Kentish Studies, Drb/Ar 1/Reel 8, K 136/152. 19 Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. The Laud (Peterborough Chronicle (E)) 1 OJ J, pp. 140-42. The ASC does not in fact specify Greenwich as the place of death. 20 Reg/strum Hamonis de Hethe, vol. II, p. 439. 21 Calendar of Close Rolls, 1374-77, p. 483. 22 de Montmorency 1923, op. cit. (see note 4). 23 Drake, H.H. (ed.), 1886, Hasted's History of Kent, Part J, The Hundred of Blackheath, p. 43, n.7. 24 Registrum Hamonis de Hethe, vol. I, pp. 38-40. 25 Brit. Lib., Maps MR 253, Manor of East Greenwich. (Copy Greenwich Loe. Hist. Liby.) 26 Will 1481; H. Newerke. CKS Drb/PWr 6, fo. 11. 27 Will 1474; T. Buck. CKS Drb/PWr 9, fo. 190b. 28 Will 1547/8; S. Symmons. Drb/PWr I I, fo. 21b. 29 Will 1486; E. Russell. PRO Prob 11/7, 26 Logge, fo. 196a. 30 Will 1444; W. Gardener. CKS Drb/PWr I, fo. 23 (also circled 24 in ink). 31 Will 1524; T. Astley. CKS Drb/PWr 7, 285a. 32 Brit. Lib., Landsdowne MSS, 874, fo. l I 2/123; Drake p. 96, n.6. 33 Gasquet, F.A., 1906, Parish life in Medieval England, p. 33. 34 Archaeologia Cantiana, vm, 1872, 159-163. 35 Rodwell, W., 1981, The Archaeology of the English Church, p. 152. 36 Will 1457; R. Crackhall. CKS Drb/PWr 2, fo. 86a. 37 Will 1501; A. Harding. CKS Drb/PWr 6, fo.79. 38 Wi II I 521; J. Wheler. CKS Drb/PW r 7, fo. 238. 39 GLAS, vol. I, 1914, p. 358. 40 wm 1517; W. Grygge. PRO, Prob 11/9, 33 Holder. 41 Drake 1886, op. cit. (see note 23), p. 277. 42 GLAS, vol. III, 1924, p. 25. 43 Registrum Hamonis de Hethe, 20 March 1344. 44 Knowles, D., 1957, The Religious Orders in England, vol. Il, p. 372. 250 THE CHURCH IN MEDJEV AL GREENWICH 45 Registrum Hamonis de Hethe, 15 April 1346; 20 September 1347; 24 February 1349. 46 Calendar of Patent Rolls, 1343-46, pp. 200, 272. 47 Moody, T.W. & Martin, F.X. (eds), 1967, The Course of Irish History, Cork, p. 171. 48 Hierarchia Catholica Medii Aevi, vol. I, 1913, sub Damascus. (Copy in Lambeth Palace Library.) 49 Emden, A.B., 1963, Biographical Register of the University of Cambridge to 1500. so Kirby, J.W., 1948, 'Two XV Century Greenwich residents', GLAS, vol. IV, 122/3. 51 Will 1496; T. Ustwayte: PRO, Prob 11/11, 7 Horne. 52 Emden 1963, op. cit. (see note 49). 53 Venn, J. & J.A., 1922, Alumni Cantabrigie11sis, vol. II. 54 Egan, M .. 1993-4, 'The Observant Friary at Greenwich' ,J. Green. Hist. Soc., vol. I, 99-106. 55 Martin, A.R., 1923, 'The Greyfriars of Greenwich', Archaeological Journal, vol. XXX, 81-114. 56 Calendar of Pate111 Rolls, 1543-48, p, 409; Drake 1886, op. cit. (see note 23), p. 63, note. OTHER SOURCES USED: Duffy, E., 1992, The Stripping of the A /tars. Duffy, E., 2001, The Voices of Morebath. Duncan, L.L., 1907-9, 'The Church of St. Alphege, Greenwich', GLAS, vol. I, 54-60. Emden, A.B., 1974, Biographical Register of the University of Oxford to 1501-40. de Montmorency, J.E.G., 1907, 'Early and Medieval Records of Greenwich', GLAS, vol. I, 13-33. de Montmorency, J.E.G., 1925, 'Greenwich in the Thirteenth Century', GLAS, vol. III, 51-61. Sharp, A.D., 1936, 'Saint Alphege', GLAS, vol. IV, 6-16. Steadman, K. et al., 1992, The Bridgehead and Billingsgate to 1200, London & Middx Archaeological Soc., Sp. Paper No. 14. 251 MICHAEL EGAN APPENDIX 1 GREENWICH CLERGY TO THE MID 16TH CENTURY VICARS OTHER CLERGY Temp. Hen. Jordan II c.1189-98 Richard - 1218-39 Nicholas 1250- Henry (vicar elect) [GLAS I, p.312) - 1260 - Richard [GLAS I, pp.154, 204} - 1265 Simon, vicar All Saints [GLAS I, p. 204} - 1274 - Simon (same as 1265?) - 1274 John, parish chaplain [GLAS I, o. 209] [GLAS I, o.312} - 1279 -1305 RanuJph 1293 William le Despencer, ? at - All Saints [GLAS I, oo. 154, 2141 - I 317 Nicholas de Herlawe 1317-21 John de Fresyngfeld (XWA) 1321-22 Nicholas de Castello (XWA) 1322-42 John de Brampton 1327-8 Richard le Prest (?ord.) (XWA) [GLAS I, p.291] 1342 John Frankelvn 1342-49 William Russell Pre-1347 *John, previously Chaplain (XWA) [Reg. Ham. Hethe, vol. II, p. 966] 1349-71 John Jewcock /Gevecok (DIP) 1371-74 John Baron/Baroun 1374-75 * John Frere (XW A) [Cal. Pat. Rolls, 1374-77, p.22} 1375 * Willian Crese (XW A) [Cal. Pat. Rolls, 1374-77, p.113) - J 391 John Wynter 1391 John Burwell (XW A) - 1396 John Hals 1396-99 Walter Multon (XW A) 252 1HE CHURCH IN MEDIEVAL GREENWICH VICARS OTHER CLERGY 1399-1410 Richard Cosyn (XW A) 1405 Simon Hawthorn, Geoff. Mosard, John Bemowe; stipend.clergy [GLAS I, p. 312] 1410 Robert Popynjay (XWA) 1410-11 Geoffrey Medowe (XWA) 1411-13 Phillip Hoke (XW Popynjay) 1413 - * John Lockhawe 1415 ** Nicholas & William, (XWA) [Cal. Pat. Chaplains. [Clergy available Rolls, 1413-16, p. 150] for Defence of the Realm: PRO, SCl/57/61B1 1419 John Salby [GLAS I, p.296] John Louvin (died 1429) - 1429 - John Bradley 1422-23 John Prata (XW A ?) 1423 William Swan (X.W A) -1440 Edmund Pirre (DIP) 1440- Richard Rysshton 1444-47 - John Morton - 1454 - John Hore 1459-68 William Skypwith (DIP) • 1474 - John Wellis - 1482-86 Edmund Russell (DIP) 1483 John Spinkes (will of Gough) PP 1487 - * Daniel Hille. Named 1489 Robert Houghton (will of in will of T. Paterich Stamer) PP 1492 Robert Howthyn (will of Burden) • 1492 - (Richard Hatton - see 1492 Thos.Barowe, W. Morland, other clergy) & R. Hatton, Clerks [PRO, Ft of Fines, 7 Hen VII, Hi!., no. 5] • 1496-1509 Dr Richard Hatton 1496 William Wyott (will of (DIP) (see Houghton, Ustwayte) PP Howthyn - Other Clerev) fEmden; Venn) 253 MICHAEL EGAN VICARS OTHER CLERGY 1499 Sir Wm.Wyatt - same? (wills of Herst & Foster) 1501 William Wyott (will of Agnes Hardin):() 1506 Edward Boydowe (will of Shebv) PP 1509-26 Wm Derlyngton, MA 1513 Sir Robert Meir (will of (Oxon) [In Emden, Ancatel) Priest ore-15001 1517 Robert Mein (will of Grv1rne) 1523-4 Sir Christ Canon (will of Goff; and own) 1526-35 Thomas Hall (RES) 1529 Sir Richard Ridght (will of Thatcher) 1531 Same (will of Style). Curate. 1535-40 - John Cowde, MA 1540 4 unnamed priests [Drake, p.111] 1543-54 Henry Hall. Deprived 1545 Sir Thomas Dale. Curate of post. Sir John Selbye; and Sir John, Chapleyn. [GLAS I, o.306] 1547 (Richard Wheatley; or 1550 Sir Thomas Rowles, Priest PP? (In Symmons will, [Drake, p.111 ] as vicar). 1554-57 Robert Thompson. In 3 1554 * Sir John Roberte, Clerke wills fDrake o.1111 [In his own willl Notes: * = Additional to Priests named in published works referenced at endno tes 4 and 23 DIP= Died in post RES = Resigned XW A = Exchanged with above PP = Pa rish Priest ord. = ordained 254