Redressing the Balance: Boxley 1146-1538; A Lesser Cistercian House in Southern England

THE UNIVERSITY OF WINCHESTER Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences Redressing the Balance: Boxley 1146-1538 A Lesser Cistercian House in Southern England Elizabeth Eastlake Doctor of Philosophy December 2014 This thesis has been completed as a requirement for a postgraduate research degree of The University of Winchester The word count is 75,850 words 1 THE UNIVERSITY OF WINCHESTER ABSTRACT FOR THESIS REDRESSING THE BALANCE: BOXLEY 1146-1538 A LESSER CISTERCIAN HOUSE IN SOUTHERN ENGLAND ELIZABETH EASTLAKE FACULTY OF HUMANITIES AND SOCIAL SCIENCES DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY DECEMBER 2014 The primary aim of this thesis was to investigate the history of the Cistercian Abbey at Boxley in Kent (1146-1538) through its surviving written archive to provide a comparison to existing studies of individual houses that have focused on larger Benedictine houses. The documents considered include early deeds in addition to household and estate accounts that date to the late fourteenth century. Founded by William of Ypres, who had left England and returned to Flanders by 1157, initially Boxley Abbey had only a moderate endowment of lands. With an absent founder who had left no heir, it fell to the early abbots to build up estate holdings by any means. The surviving deeds reflect this. The abbey acquired land, piece by piece through grants, purchases and exchanges. By the beginning of the fourteenth century, they had established nine granges. They also established strong ties with a number of local families. The estate and household accounts reveal the considerable impact that The Black Death had on the economy and administration of this small house and the subsequent response of the Boxley monks to it. The Black Death opened up career opportunities for a small group of capable young monks who held all of the main offices of the abbey in the years following it. Boxley used the same system of accounting employed by large monasteries, the obedientiary system, but adapted it for a small house with fewer monks who were capable of holding office. A partially centralised bursars’ office administered the bulk of the Boxley revenues to maintain both abbot and convent. A significant figure was John Herrietsham, who first entered the abbey in 1345, was abbot of Boxley by 1357, and held this post for at least the next fifty years. He led a number of important changes in the internal economy of the abbey His attempts to maximise the revenues of the estates and limit spending within the household culminated in the 1360 Assessment of Revenues. An unexpected finding of this thesis was the income of the Boxley rood of grace, recorded in the late fourteenth-century bursars’ accounts. This income emerged in the accounts at a critical time in the Boxley economy and provided the monks with a valuable, and probably not therefore wholly typical, source of revenue. The abundant accounts of the bursars, sub cellarers, kitchener and granator are further analysed to reveal the positive impact their disposable income had upon lifestyle and diet within the abbey and household and they reveal just how far it had moved the monks of Boxley Abbey away from the original Cistercian ideals by the end of the fourteenth century. 2 CONTENTS PAGE Abstract 1 Contents 2 Abbreviations 4 Figures 5 Tables 6 Appendices 7 Declaration 8 Acknowledgements 9 Chapter 1: The Current State of Monastic Studies 1. Introduction 10 2. Secondary Literature 11 3. The Monastic Economy 19 4. Conclusion 28 Chapter 2: The Foundation and Endowment of Boxley Abbey 1. Founder, Patrons and Benefactors 31 2. The Acquisition of Land 38 3. Land Acquired around Boxley 43 4. Land Acquired in North Kent 53 5. Land Acquired in South Kent 62 6. Land Acquired in East Kent 64 7. Land Acquired in Surrey 66 8. Later Benefactors of Boxley Abbey 67 9. Conclusion 71 Chapter 3: The Operation of the Boxley Abbey Estate 1. Introduction 76 2. The 1360 Assessment of Revenues 77 3. The Boxley Estate Accounts 78 4. The Role of the Boxley Estates 80 5. Lay and Monastic Personnel on the Boxley Estates 88 6. The Response of Boxley Abbey to the Black Death 97 7. Conclusion 104 3 Chapter 4: The Internal Economy of Boxley Abbey 1. Introduction 107 2. The Abbot of Boxley 108 3. The Boxley Bursars 118 4. The Office of Cellarer 139 5. The Office of Sub Cellarer 148 6. The Office of Warden of the Bakery and the Granator 168 7. Conclusion 175 Chapter 5: Conclusion. Redressing the Balance: An Assessment 176 Appendices 183 Bibliography 212 4 ABBREVIATIONS Arch.Cant Archaeologia Cantiana. CCA Canterbury Cathedral Archives. CChR Calendar of Charter Rolls. CCR Calendar of Close Rolls. CKFF Calendar of Kent Feet of Fines to the end of Henry III’s Reign, Churchill, R. Griffin, R, and Hardman, F, W., eds., (London, 1922). CPR Calendar of the Patent Rolls. CRR Curia Regis, vol. 2, John, 3-5 (HMSO, 1925). Hasted, Kent Hasted, E., A History and Topographical Survey of the County of Kent, 12 vols (Canterbury, 1778-99). Knowles, MO Knowles, D., The Monastic Order in England (Cambridge, 1940). Knowles, RO Knowles, D., The Religious Orders in England, 3 vols (Cambridge, 1948, 1955, 1959). Pipe rolls, Henry II The Great Rolls of the Pipe for the Second, Third and Fourth Years of the Reign of Henry the Second, AD. 1155, 1156, 1157 and 1158, Hunter, J.,ed., (Record Commission, 1844). Regesta Regesta regum Anglo-Normannorum, 1066-1154. Facsimiles of Original Charters and Writs of King Stephen, the Empress Matilda, and Dukes Geoffrey and Henry, 1135-1154, Cronne, H. A., and Davis, R. C., eds., 4 vols (Oxford, 1969). Rotuli chartarum T. D. Hardy, ed. Rotuli Chartarum in Turri Londinensi Asservati, 1199-1216. vol. 1. Part. 1 (Record Commission, 1837). Red Book The Red Book of the Exchequer, Hall, H., ed., (London, 1896). Taxatio Taxatio Ecclesiastica Angliae et Walliae auctoritate P. Nicholai circa A.D. 1291. Astle, T., Ayscough, S., and Caley, J., eds., (Record Commission, 1802). TNA The National Archives. Valor Valor Ecclesiasticus temp. Henr. VIII auctoritate regia insitutus, Caley, J., and Hunter, J. C., eds., 6 vols (Record Commission, London, 1810-1834). VCH Victoria County History. 5 LIST OF FIGURES PAGE Figure 1: TNA SC 6/889/5. Extract of petitions of the sergeant at Chingley. 79 showing the hand of auditors in 1351. Figure 2: TNA SC 6/893/25. Stock Account from the 1354 account of 80 Newenham recording the loss of chickens to a fox. Figure 3: TNA SC 6/892/8. Extract from Hoo 1348 naming Brother Peter 81 as a conversus. Figure 4: TNA SC 6/886/10. Upper grange account of 1337 listing profits of the estate. 83 Figure 5: TNA SC 6/889/3. Expenses at Chingley 1343 for the Abbot and his friends. 85 Figure 6: TNA SC 6 897/4. Costs of the sheep at Sharpness 1374. 87 Figure 7: TNA SC 6/892/1. Ham Stock account 1393. Descriptions of flooding and 91 subsequent disease of animals there. Figure 8: TNA SC/6/889/5. The earliest reference to auditors in a Boxley account. 113 Figure 9: TNA SC 6 /1253/11. Title of 1360 Assessment of Revenues. 115 Figure 10: TNA SC 6 /1253/11. Warning to the bursars to abide by the 1360 budget. 115 Figure 11: TNA, SC 6/1254/1. Clothing bought for the Abbot’s household in the 1373 116 Bursars account. Figure 12: TNA SC 6/1253/11. Expenses of the Bursars in the 1360 Assessment of 127 Revenues. Figure 13: TNA SC/6/1253/15. The cost of new bells in the 1364 account of the Bursars. 132 Figure 14: TNA SC/6/896/20. Inventory for the office of Cellarer 1349. 141 Figure 15: TNA SC 6/892/1. Repairs that took place after flooding at Ham 1393 147 ‘per visum’ John Chatham. Figure 16: TNA SC/6/896/20. Inventory for the office of Sub Cellarer. 149 Figure 17: TNA SC/6/1253/11. Weekly and daily budget allowed to the sub cellarer. 151 Figure 18: TNA SC 6/1253/7. Extract from the Sub Cellarer account of 1357 recording 159 the purchase of a ferret. Figure 19: TNA SC/6 1254/6. Account of Kitchener 1377 listing ingredients for flawns. 162 Figure 20: TNA SC 6/1255/17. Granary Account 1394 recording the purchase of 170 medicine for a sick mill horse. Figure 21: TNA SC 6/1253/11. Allowance of grain each week for various breads in the 171 1360 Assessment of Revenues. 6 LIST OF TABLES PAGE Table 1: Numbers of dead sheep after flooding at Ham in 1393. 91 Table 2: Ordination records for Boxley monks. 111 Table 3: Boxley Bursars 1351-5. 111 Table 4: Obedientiaries named in the inventory lists TNA SC 6/896/20. 112 Table 5: Offerings made to the Holy Cross at Boxley Abbey. 125 Table 6: Payments to the sub cellarer from the bursars. 128 Table 7: Revenues from sales of kitchen/animal by products 1347-8. 150 Table 8: Revenues from sales of kitchen/animal by products 1379-1460. 150 Table 9: Boxley sub cellarer weekly/daily expenses 1347-72. 152 Table 10: Boxley sub cellarer weekly/daily expenses 1373-78. 152 Table 11: Grain allowed to the sub cellarer by the granator for potage. 154 Table 12: Produce due to Boxley Abbey from its manors as specified in the 1360 158 Assessment of Revenues. Table 13: Total numbers of livestock sent from the Granges to the sub cellarer 160 1372-1400. Table 14: Total numbers of livestock consumed 1372-1400 as recorded in the sub 161 cellarer accounts. Table 15: Number of swans in sub cellarer accounts. 162 Table 16a: Spices purchased by the sub cellarer 1347-1378. 165 Table 16b: Spices purchased by the sub cellarer 1378-1405. 166 Table 17: Types of bread and ingredients in the granary accounts 1331-1395. 172 Table 18: Type and quantity of grain used and the potential volume of 174 ale made 1331-1394 (gallons). 7 APPENDICES PAGE Appendix 1. Lambeth MS 1212 ff. 128. List of lands held by Boxley Abbey on Romney 183 Marsh 1202 naming William of Ypres as their founder. Appendix 2. Land transactions. 2:1 Table of lands acquired in Boxley area. 184 2:2 Table of witness in deeds relating to lands in Boxley area. 186 2:3 Table of lands acquired outside of Boxley area. 187 2:4 Table of witnesses in deeds relating to lands outside of Boxley area. 189 2:5 Table of leases and sales. 190 2:6 Chronological list of all deeds relating to acquisition of land by Boxley 191 Abbey. Appendix 3. Boxley Obedientiaries. 3:1 Obedientiaries 1349-55. 196 3:2 Obedientiaries 1360-85. 197 3:3 Obedientiaries 1400-1408. 198 Appendix 4. Surviving Estate Accounts of Boxley Abbey. 199 Appendix 5. Surviving Obedientiary Accounts of Boxley Abbey. 200 Appendix 6. Food consumed in 1400 according to sub cellarer account 202 TNA, SC 6/1256/9. Appendix 7. Quantities of spices purchased by the Sub Cellarer. 203 Appendix 8. Fish purchased in the Sub Cellarer Accounts. 206 Appendix 9. Fish sent to Boxley Abbey from the Medway Fishery. 209 Appendix 10. Map 1. Location of Boxley Abbey. 210 Appendix 11. Map 2. Landholdings North of Boxley Abbey. 211 8 DECLARATION No portion of the work referred to in the Thesis has been submitted in support of an application for another degree or qualification of this or any other university or other institute of learning. I confirm that this Thesis is entirely my own work Copyright in text of this Thesis rests with the author. Copies (by any process) either in full, or of extracts, may be made only in accordance with instructions given by the author. Details may be obtained from the RKE Office. This page must form part of any such copies made. Further copies (by any process) of copies made in accordance with such instructions may not be made without the permission (in writing) of the author. 9 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to express my heartfelt appreciation to my PhD supervisors Professor Michael Hicks and Professor Tom James for being so consistently generous with their time and knowledge throughout this project. I am grateful not only for the direction they have given me but for their endless patience, support, and encouragement. I am indebted to the AHRC for the part time PhD studentship I received from them in 2007 without which this thesis could not have been completed. On a personal note, thank you to my fellow research students especially Dr Cindy Wood, Dr Jillian Hawkins and Dr David Cousins and to the advanced Latin group at the University of Winchester for their continued support and friendship. A huge thank you goes to Tom Olding for his expertise in helping me to decipher and understand the most challenging manuscripts of the Boxley archive. I am grateful to Dr Sheila Sweetinburgh and Dr Gillian Draper of the University of Kent, for encouragement and advice received during the course of this thesis. My gratitude goes to The National Archives at Kew for allowing such open access and permitting me to take photographs of the Boxley Abbey documents there. I am also indebted to The British Library and to Lambeth Palace Library. I have faced a number of personal challenges while researching and writing this thesis and during this time, my family and friends outside of University have been an immense support. Thank you to all of you, too numerous to name individually but especially to my good friend Carole Nixon. Above all thank you to my husband Paul. 10 CHAPTER 1. THE CURRENT STATE OF MONASTIC STUDIES Introduction This study considers the history of the abbey of St Mary at Boxley in Kent from its foundation to its dissolution. It concentrates especially on the administration and economic management at Boxley in the fourteenth century for which the surviving records are particularly rich, varied and informative. Boxley was a Cistercian abbey, the only medieval Cistercian foundation in Kent. It was founded in 1146 by William of Ypres as a daughter house of Clairvaux Abbey in France during the abbacy of St Bernard. The abbey was dissolved in 1538. Boxley Abbey has not been the subject of any previous historical study. A limited archaeological excavation of the site that was undertaken in 1971 established the layout of the abbey church and claustral remains.1 The primary focus of this study is the surviving archive for Boxley which is held at The National Archives. The archive consists of deeds documenting grants of land or rents made to and by the abbey of Boxley, rent rolls, deeds of the manorial courts of the abbot of Boxley, estate accounts from the granges of Boxley Abbey and, most uniquely, internal obedientiary accounts. The archive is far from complete, and many of the deeds are damaged. However, the range of documents, which has survived for the late fourteenth century offers an exceptional opportunity to shed light upon the internal and external operation not just of a small religious house in the middle ages, but also the operation of a smaller Cistercian monastery in the south of England two centuries before the dissolution of the monasteries. This thesis specifically excluded records of the courts of the abbots of Boxley, concentrating instead on the deeds, the estate accounts and the internal household accounts. In addition to the Boxley archive, this study has utilised deeds relating to Boxley at the British Library and Lambeth Palace, as well as relevant episcopal and papal records and the limited records on the material remains of the abbey. Any study of the history of medieval monasticism or an individual medieval religious house like Boxley depends upon the survival of historical records or archaeology, thus the nature of any study is inevitably guided by the scope of surviving material. In this case, therefore, perspectives covered by existing literature have been defined by the nature, quality and 1 P. J. Tester, ‘Excavations at Boxley Abbey,’ Arch.Cant. vol.88, 1973, pp. 129-158. 11 quantity of surviving primary sources accessible to and utilised by the researcher. These include both archaeological, material and documentary sources. In monastic studies, sources produced within the monastery commonly include monastic cartularies, surviving accounts of obedientiaries, estate accounts, rentals and monastic chronicles. Documents produced outside of the monastery include surviving episcopal visitation records for non-exempt religious houses, and the records, statutes and ordinances of individual religious orders. Regrettably the data for most individual houses is fragmentary and incomplete in terms both of the quality and quantity of the material. In addition, the surviving sources do not evenly represent all the religious orders or houses of different size and wealth. English medieval monasteries had many universal characteristics in terms of their architectural design, their economic management and their internal administration. Different orders however were guided by their own hierarchical structures. Individual monasteries like Boxley modified the guidelines and statutes of their orders, and adapted to local conditions as they occurred. Consequently, the monastic experience was variable. Unsurprisingly, those houses with the greatest amount of source material have been better represented in monastic historiography than those without: existing works on medieval monasticism have all too often concentrated upon large male Benedictine abbeys and cathedral priories because they have a greater survival of both documentary records (often still in original muniment rooms) and buildings (often still in use). This has resulted in large Benedictine houses, such as Westminster Abbey, and Cathedral priories such as Canterbury, Durham, and Winchester being more fully represented in monastic studies than their lesser non-Benedictine counterparts. In 1535, Boxley was categorized as one of the greater monastic houses, but with a gross value of £218 19s.10d. it only just met the wealth criteria for this group, which required that it be valued at more than £200 per annum. This was in stark contrast to other great houses such as Christchurch Canterbury, valued at £2, 349 in 1535, or Westminster Abbey, valued at £2, 827 in 1535. In terms of wealth, Boxley Abbey was more typical of a lesser religious house. Secondary Literature Although a great deal of research has been undertaken on this subject during the last 30 years, the most authoritative texts for the general history of English medieval monasticism are still the four volumes written by David Knowles on The Monastic Order and The 12 Religious Orders in England,2 which were completed in 1959. Through these Knowles provided a comprehensive chronological framework and overview of monasticism, order by order, from 943 to 1540, tracing the advent of religious orders and religious houses across England from the continent, their subsequent spread throughout England and integration into English society, and some of the key developments that took place within them or influenced them throughout the period. Highlighting the theoretical and practical differences between the orders at their time of foundation, Knowles outlined the ideal to which religious houses and monks could aspire, through their adherence to the legislation which governed them: from the universal Rule of St Benedict, the Regularis Concordia and Statutes of Lanfranc to the numerous statutes issued by individual orders throughout the period as they were compelled to modify and adapt their governing legislation to keep pace with changing circumstances. Alongside this, he placed the monasteries in the context of English history, illustrating the internal and external pressures to which they were subjected throughout the period. The Monastic Order and Religious Orders in England encompassed a wide range of themes associated with the history of monasticism. While Knowles’ research led the way towards further research however, the nature of the primary sources that he utilised placed a number of major constraints on his conclusions. His reliance upon institutional legislation for his history of the orders, and narrative sources, particularly monastic chronicles and biographies of abbots and saints, for the lives of monks and life within the monastery, meant that the histories of cathedral priories and large houses of black monks dominated his work because sources for them were more abundant and more accessible. Other orders and lesser religious houses and foundations such as Boxley Abbey were less well represented. Monastic lifestyle and internal household administration were presented primarily through the ideals of legislation such as The Rule of St Benedict and the Regularis Concordia, and through monastic chronicles, which had been produced in large Benedictine houses such as Abingdon, Ely and St Albans.3 The monastic economy during the late fourteenth and fifteenth centuries has been viewed largely through the single archive of Durham Cathedral priory.4 Analyses of surviving internal accounts such as the obedientiary 2 D. Knowles, The Monastic Order in England, Cambridge, 1940: D. Knowles, The Religious Orders in England, 3 vols. Cambridge, 1948, 1955, 1959. 3 Knowles. MO, pp. 427-471. 4 Knowles. RO, vol. 2, pp. 309-330. 13 and estate records from the archives of smaller, non-Benedictine houses such as Boxley Abbey are therefore a significant contribution to existing knowledge. Throughout his work, Knowles presented portraits of extraordinary religious such as Thomas de la Mare, Simon Langham,5 John Islip,6 Thomas Chillendon, John Wessyngton and John Whetamstade.7 All were Benedictine monks who were outstanding in their personal careers or their temporal achievements for their monastery, either initiating large building programmes or considerably enhancing the wealth of their house during their periods of office. Knowles considered the contribution made by monks, particularly the friars, to the intellectual life of medieval England as scholars, theologians and philosophers, from the founding and funding of the universities in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries,8 to the part played by individual religious in the development of doctrinal, philosophical and theological thought and their roles in challenging orthodoxies of faith. These he analysed through portraits of individual extraordinary religious and the controversies that surrounded them – men such as Robert Kilwardby and John Pecham in the thirteenth century,9 and William of Ockham10 and Uthred of Bolden in the fourteenth century.11 This study focuses upon ordinary religious, like Abbot John Herrietsham of Boxley Abbey, who were more representative of the monasticism in the many small monasteries that were so typical of religious life in medieval England. The final volume of Knowles’ Religious Orders was devoted almost exclusively to the process, practice and consequences of the Dissolution. Leading up to this the first two volumes had considered aspects of the criticism levelled at monks and mendicants through the tracts, treatises, sermons and literature of theologians such as Wycliffe, and authors such as Chaucer and Langland, attacking monks and mendicants for their declining standards and laxity in their adherence to the monastic rule.12 Criticism from within the orders was considered through analysis of the chapter records of the black monks and the episcopal visitation records of houses of mainly Benedictine monks and Austin canons. 5 Ibid. pp. 39-61. 6 Ibid. pp. 96-99. 7 Ibid, pp. 185-204. 8 Ibid. pp. 14-28. 9 Knowles, RO, vol. 1, pp. 218-232. 10 Knowles. RO, vol. 2, pp. 74-81. 11 Ibid. pp. 48-54. 12 Ibid. pp. 98-108. 14 These included records from the dioceses of York, Worcester and Hereford in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries13 and Lincoln in the fifteenth century.14 Visitation records, by their very nature concerned with breaches of conduct and disciplinary affairs, offered limited opportunities to shed light on any positive attributes of religious houses, especially as frequently only the injunctions of the visitor survived. For the discipline and organisation of non-Benedictine houses such as the Cistercians, Knowles’ work relied upon the institutions and statutes of the orders, and letters such as those sent to Cîteaux regarding the findings of the Cistercian commissioners that, by their very nature, had set out to identify instances of poor discipline. 15 The nature of these sources made it difficult to draw a balanced conclusion in relation to disciplinary standards, degrees of laxity in the rule, the administrative competence of obedientiaries and monastic superiors, or the routine and quality of life in a typical monastery. In his depiction of the relationship between religious houses and medieval society, the main focus of Knowles’ work highlighted the links between the monastery and their patron, the appropriation of local churches, and the role of the abbots in dispensing justice at the local courts. There were further areas of study that were not covered relating to the role of monasteries as employers, as landlords, as providers of spiritual benefits to their patrons and of their benefactors. Analysis of more localised sources such as land charters and wills from more modest foundations such as Boxley Abbey provide an opportunity to expand upon this. In recent years, a more holistic approach to monastic studies, using a greater range of source material, has emerged. In 1969, Colin Platt examined the evolution and development of the monastic grange, using archaeological and documentary sources to shed light upon not only the physical buildings of the grange but also the changes that took place in staffing it.16 In her 1977 study of the Westminster Abbey estates, Barbara Harvey utilised a range of household and manorial accounts combined with burial and chantry records, rentals and cartularies to consider the changing relationship of the abbey with its estates and tenants over five hundred years.17 Neil Stacey published six surveys of the 13 Knowles, RO, vol. 1, pp. 87-112. 14 Knowles, RO, vol. 2, pp. 204-218. 15 Knowles, RO, vol. 3, pp. 28-38. 16 C. Platt, The Monastic Grange in Medieval England, London, 1969. 17 B. Harvey, Westminster Abbey and its Estates in the Middle Ages, Oxford, 1977. 15 estates of Glastonbury Abbey in 2001.18 In 1994 Janet Burton’s Monastic and Religious Orders in Britain 1000-1300 updated much of Knowles’ work, with less focus on intellectual developments or the part of individual monks of great abbeys.19 She utilised more recent studies, such as studies of female religious houses, and the role of women as founders and patrons. In addition excavation records of monastic precincts have revealed the lives of monks outside the cloisters by considering daily life in the functional buildings of the monastic precinct. Burton’s work, however, only covered the period up until 1300. A number of publications has considered the general histories of individual, smaller non- Benedictine monastic orders in medieval England. Patrick Greene explored the archaeology of medieval monasteries in the British Isles in 1992. This study interpreted material remains found through excavations of monastic houses to demonstrate the ways in which archaeology could be used not only to reveal the building phases of individual religious houses, but also to consider daily life within the monastery through diet and industry.20 Brian Golding wrote a history of the only English order, the Gilbertines, (ten of whose twenty-four successful houses provided for both nuns and canons) in 1995. This study utilised surviving cartularies and individual charters in addition to the thirteenth-century vita of St Gilbert of Sempringham.21 In 2001, Gribbin reconsidered the history of the English Premonstratensians, which numbered just thirty houses in total, using the visitation records of Richard Redman, the commissary-general of the abbot of Prémontré.22 Such visitation records naturally highlighted instances of dissent and disobedience, sexual and moral deviation from the rule and examples of poor management of the economic assets of the houses. The spirituality of the monks, illustrated through surviving ordinals, focused upon the liturgical customs of the houses. No internal accounts have survived to illustrate daily life in these small monasteries. In 1998 a general history of The White Monks: the Cistercians in Britain 1128-1540 by Glyn Coppack considered the archaeology and evolution of the conventual buildings within a 18 N. E. Stacey, Surveys of the Estates of Glastonbury Abbey c. 1135-1201, British Academy, Records of Social and Economic History, 33, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2001. 19 J. Burton, Monastic and Religious Orders in Britain 1000-1300, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1994. 20 J. Patrick Greene, Medieval Monasteries, Leicester University Press, Leicester, 1992. 21 B. Golding, Gilbert of Sempringham and the Gilbertine Order c 1130-1300, Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1995. 22 J. A. Gribbin, The Premonstratensian Order in Late Medieval England, Boydell Press, Woodbridge, 2001. 16 range of Cistercian houses.23 Coppack examined the changes in liturgy through the evolution of church architecture, hence largely from an architectural perspective. Coppack and Aston examined the history of the nine successful English Carthusian houses from a largely archaeological perspective in 2002.24 The excavation of individual sites demonstrated the layout of the monks’ cells, kitchen areas and claustral buildings, while excavation of material remains and personal items and architecture shed light upon the lifestyle of the monks. The excavation of Norton Priory in Cheshire by Patrick Greene provided material evidence for the building phases, lifestyle and diet of the monks at this small Augustinian priory. In addition, it revealed information on the topographical changes in the landscape around the monastery.25 In 2000, Mick Aston made a more holistic assessment of the impact of monasteries on the landscape and of the landscape on the monasteries from the earliest Anglo-Saxon foundations up until the Dissolution of the monasteries. This study considered the visible landscape changes effected by the monastery outside of the monastic precinct in the form of the monastic estates, farms, fisheries and changes brought about by land drainage.26 At the village of Shapwick in Somerset Mick Aston and Chris Gerrard traced the changes brought about in this one village over eight hundred years by the abbot and monks of Glastonbury Abbey who held the manor there.27 To date the most comprehensive archaeological study of the relationship between the medieval monastery and the landscape is that undertaken by James Bond in 2004.28 Bond analysed every aspect of monastic life both within and outside of the monastic precinct in terms of its surviving physical presence, and used documentary evidence to interpret it. The resulting work laid bare the multiplicity of themes for the student of monastic history. The larger Cistercian houses in the north of England have been the subject of a number of individual archaeological and historical studies. One reason for this is that their standing remains are more abundant than those of their southern counterparts. The building and re- 23 G. Coppack, The White Monks –the Cistercians in Britain 1128-1540, Tempus, Stroud, 1998. 24 G. Coppack and M. Aston, Christ’s Poor men – the Carthusians in England, Tempus, Stroud, 2002. 25 P. Greene, Norton Priory- The Archaeology of a Medieval Religious House, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1989. 26 M. Aston, Monasteries in the Landscape, Tempus, Stroud, 2000. 27 M. Aston, C. Gerrard, Interpreting the English Village, Windgather Press, Oxford, 2013. 28 J. Bond, Monastic Landscapes, Tempus, Stroud, 2004. 17 building of Fountains Abbey in Yorkshire has been demonstrated through archaeological excavations.29 Surviving documentary sources illustrate particular aspects of monastic life. A timeline for the build-up of the Fountains Abbey estates and its relationship with its benefactors was traced in detail through the surviving thirteenth- and fifteenth-century cartularies of the abbey and through its abundant surviving charters.30 The survival rate of monastic cartularies and individual deeds is variable but the many published editions are a valuable asset to the researcher either for analysis of a particular house, or for comparison when evaluating other houses. There are many published editions of cartularies and collections of charters, particularly from Benedictine houses. There are also a small number of published cartularies of English Cistercian houses including those for Beaulieu Abbey (f. 1203) in Hampshire,31 Byland Abbey (f.1134/77) in Yorkshire32 and Sibton Abbey (f. 1150) in Suffolk.33 Over five hundred individual charters from Quarr Abbey (f. 1132) on the Isle of Wight have also been published in a single volume.34 These offer valuable data on the build up of monastic estates, the formation of monastic granges and the patronage and benefaction of Cistercian houses throughout the medieval period, resulting in full studies of the estates of a number of Cistercian houses including those at Quarr,35 Beaulieu36 and Fountains.37 The history of these large foundations relied upon source material that has not survived for most small monasteries. Linda Rasmussen argued that conventional monastic histories of large foundations that were reliant upon sources such as narrative histories, cartularies and large archives inevitably concluded that such houses had played a more significant role in the national history than smaller houses because of their extensive land holdings and influence.38 She highlighted the work of antiquarian writers, compiling histories of smaller houses that focused upon founders, notable benefactors, notable abbots and any scandals 29 G. Coppack, Fountains Abbey – the Cistercians in Northern England, Tempus, Stroud, 2003. 30 J. Wardrop, Fountains Abbey and its Benefactors 1132-1300, Kalamazoo, 1987. 31 S. F. Hockey, ed, The Beaulieu Cartulary, Southampton Records Series, 17, 1974. 32 J. Burton, ed. The Cartulary of Byland Abbey, Surtees Society, 83, 2004. 33 P. Brown, ed, Sibton Abbey Cartularies, 4 vols, Suffolk Record Society, 17, 1985-88. 34 S. F. Hockey, ed. The Charters of Quarr Abbey, Isle of Wight Record Series, 3, 1991. 35 S. F. Hockey, Quarr Abbey and its lands 1132-1631, Leicester University Press, Leicester, 1970. 36 S. F. Hockey, Beaulieu. King John’s Abbey, Pioneer Publications, Woking, 1976. 37 J. Wardrop, Fountains Abbey, 1987. 38 L. Rasmussen, ‘Why Small Monastic Houses should have a History’, Midland History, vol. 20, 2003. 18 relating to the house. The Victoria County History of Kent entry for Boxley Abbey fits this model. The founder, William of Ypres is described as ‘a man of evil reputation’, and after relating the scandalous story of the Boxley Rood of Grace, it was concluded that ‘probably nothing was more damaging to the case for the monasteries’.39 Rasmussen concluded in contrast to this view that, although the archives of small houses were deficient in large sources such as narratives and cartularies, their surviving sources reveal the significant influence that small religious houses had in local society and local history. Using a small cache of household accounts from the nunneries at Catesby and St Michael’s outside Stamford, she was able to compare the administrative structures of these small houses to that of nearby Peterborough Abbey. In her study of charters from the priory of Chacombe Rasmussen drew attention to the importance of smaller houses in serving the piety of ‘groups of lower social and economic standing’.40 Even with relatively few surviving deeds, this study of Boxley Abbey demonstrates that in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries Boxley attracted just that type of benefactor. Through analysis of grantors and witnesses, it is possible to trace groups of local people and families who affiliated themselves to the abbey through the generations. In his study of the 143 Benedictine and Augustinian dependent priories in medieval England, Heale utilised a range of sources to reveal the impact, both positive and negative, of these small communities on their localities, concluding that they were undeniably an ‘important part of the fabric of local religion’.41 As dependent priories, they could appeal to their mother house in times of crisis and this is a fundamental difference between such houses and small independent monasteries such as Boxley. However, they faced the same challenges and had to find solutions when faced with economic hardship. The community at St Leonard’s, Norwich had a miraculous image of their patron saint in the priory church. This attracted pilgrims and by the late fourteenth century, the priory was reliant upon offerings to the shrine, which at its height brought in between £30 -£40 a year.42 Although the popularity of the cult declined after 1425, it intensified again after 1437. Heale found that the monks at St Leonard’s, unlike those at Boxley, spent almost all of the proceeds 39 VCH, Kent, vol. 2, p. 154. 40 Rasmussen, ‘Small Monastic Houses’, 2003, p. 16. 41 M. Heale, The Dependent Priories of Medieval English Monasteries, Boydell Press, Woodbridge, 2004. 42 M. Heale, ‘Veneration and Renovation at a small Norfolk Priory: St Leonard’s Norwich in the Later Middle Ages’, Historical Research, 76, 2003, pp. 431-449. 19 from their shrine on improving, adorning and renovating the fabric of the priory buildings, inside and out, rather than on improving lifestyle for the inhabitants.43 The Monastic Economy The surviving records for Boxley Abbey include a range of household accounts compiled by the bursars, cellarers, sub cellarers and granators, as well as more than 100 estate accounts. These offer an opportunity to contribute significantly to historical understanding of the fourteenth-century monastic economy there. The internal domestic records of individual houses are a record of daily life and the internal management of a monastery from the perspective of the individual house, whilst also demonstrating themes in monastic administration that were common to many houses and orders. When St Benedict laid down a framework for the spiritual life of the monastery, he also constructed a hierarchical system for managing the temporal affairs of the house. In the Rule of St Benedict (c540), the abbot was responsible for the maintenance of discipline and order within the monastery. The rule required him to display ‘all that is good and holy in his actions as much as in his words’.44 The rule allowed for the appointment of deans and a prior to help the abbot. The monastic cellarer, answerable to the abbot, had a far more practical job description. He was required to have ‘care of everything’.45 He was responsible for the care of the sick, children, guests and the poor. He was the provider of food and drink, in charge of overseeing the kitchen and of the distribution of food.46 The rule stipulated that the cellarer could have assistants to help him in his many tasks. Ultimately, the responsibilities depicted in the rule of St Benedict of the abbot, cellarer and their assistants became those that developed into the main offices of the monastic obedientiary system. From the twelfth century, the internal economy of English monasteries was administered through the obedientiary system. Within this system, the affairs of the house were divided into departments or obediences, and administered on a day-to-day basis by monk officials or obedientiaries. Offices that came with financial responsibilities required the obedientiary to present accounts in chapter at specific points during the year for audit. The Customs of the Augustinian Priory of St Giles and St Andrew at Barnwell, Cambridgeshire offers a unique in-depth view for a smaller house, of the obedientiary system in operation 43 Ibid. 44 RSB, 2. 45 RSB, 31. 46 RSB, 31, 35, 36, 39. 20 there in 1295-6 with a description of the roles of 17 obedientiaries.47 It is clear from their titles that the majority of the offices that dealt with functional aspects of monastic life had effectively grown out of the role of the original cellarer envisioned by St Benedict. Alongside the chief cellarer, there was a sub cellarer, kitchener, fraterer, grainger, hosteller, chamberlain, almoner and infirmarer. Two priors assisted the prelate at Barnwell in managing the discipline and spiritual life of the monks, while the precentor, succentor and two sacrists had care of the church, books and services. The obedientiary system opened up the opportunity for a gradual delegation of powers in the internal administration of religious life, household provision and the external interests of the monastery, at a time when many houses had benefited from increased prosperity, in areas such as land endowments, and business affairs. However, the system was never universal and different forms of administration evolved locally throughout the late medieval period. Miranda Threlfall-Holmes has broadly categorized these into three main groups. In the first group, obedientiaries were allocated revenues from specific lands of the house, received an income directly from them and were responsible for their administration, in addition to the duties of their office. In the second group, one official, most frequently a bursar, became a central treasurer and received all sources of income into his office. He then allocated it wherever it was needed. The third group was a combination of the first two, where each office had its own income, but all unallocated revenues went to a central official and were then redistributed by him.48 What is not clear is why a particular strategy of financial administration was employed and how this related to regional variables such as the size of a monastery, the size of the revenue of a house, or the preferences of a monastic superior. It is clear, however, that throughout the period religious houses were constantly subject to internal pressures such as attempts from individual obedientiaries to gain too great a degree of economic control, as well as external forces such as disease and market prices. All of these issues contributed towards the continual evolution and adaptation of economic administration which is found in studies of individual houses. This is evident in the Boxley household accounts, where the obedientiary system was adapted to meet the challenges faced by this monastery in the late fourteenth century. 47 J. Willis Clark, ed. The Observances in use at the Augustinian Priory of S. Giles and S. Andrew at Barnwell Cambridgeshire, Cambridge, 1897. 48 M. Threlfall-Holmes, Monks and Markets, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2005, pp. 17- 18. 21 R.A.L. Smith, in his study of Canterbury Cathedral Priory, used the surviving internal sources to trace the way that the monks of Canterbury managed the internal economy of their house. This study established that in the mid twelfth century the monastic finances at Canterbury were divided between three obedientiaries, the cellarer, chamberlain and sacrist, each of whom had their own endowment.49 By the late twelfth century however, a treasurer had been appointed and a more centralized system of financial management was being enforced, whereby the treasurer allotted each obedientiary the money required for his office from a central treasury and any excess debts were paid off from the treasury at the end of each year.50 The account for the year 1299-1300 recorded that the treasurers were in receipt of almost the entire revenue of the house.51 In addition to this, restrictions were placed upon the financial power that could be wielded by any single monk to prevent any attempt towards autonomy. Each obedientiary could only hold one office at a time, the money allocated to an office by the treasury was frequently allocated for specific expenses and the most powerful offices, such as that of cellarer, were frequently shared between more than one monk.52 For example, the treasurer’s account for 1221-2 recorded that three different monks had held the post of cellarer during a single year.53 Four monk wardens replaced the manorial serviens in 1289 and conducted on site audits of the manors.54 Thus the monks of Canterbury strengthened their direct control of the manorial revenues, a strategy which appears to have been mirrored at nearby Boxley where monk wardens were also operating by the mid fourteenth century. Similarly, at Peterborough Abbey during the thirteenth century, the account rolls show that there were two monk wardens, who, along with a lay steward, were responsible for running the abbey’s estates.55 At the same time that the finances of Canterbury were being brought under a centralised system of control, a system of annual audit was also introduced, whereby all of the obedientiaries with financial responsibilities presented annual accounts to a group of 49 R.A.L. Smith, Canterbury Cathedral Priory, Cambridge University Press, 1943, p. 14. 50 Ibid. 51 R.A.L. Smith, ‘The Central Financial System of Christ Church, Canterbury, 1186-1512’, English Historical Review, vol. 55, 1940, p. 358. 52 Smith, Canterbury Cathedral Priory, p. 21. 53 Smith, ‘The Central Financial System of Christ Church’, p. 358. 54 Smith, Canterbury Cathedral Priory, pp. 22-3. 55 Burton, Monastic and Religious Orders p. 252. 22 senior monks who then produced a general account for the year – the Assisa Scaccarii.56 The Assisa Scaccarii also estimated the monetary value of all the produce received by the priory. In this way the monks were able to calculate the monetary value of each office and control its expenditure.57 By the fourteenth century this group of senior monks, the seniores ad scaccarium, had superseded the traditional authority of the chapter in some areas of economic administration and were issuing ordinances relating to economic policy at Canterbury.58 This system continued at Canterbury, but was adapted by successive priors as necessary. Smith found that after 1391 the role of prior had been combined with that of treasurer: the priors at Canterbury had ‘asserted their financial control with no uncertain emphasis.’59 For any monastery, the ability to monitor, control and plan the budget was essential in order for the house to remain solvent. At Canterbury the Assisa Scaccarii performed this function. Using surviving fifteenth-century episcopal visitation records for the Premonstratensian abbey at Cockersand in Lancashire, Gribbin also found evidence of a tight budgetary control where the amount of food consumed was listed on a weekly and annual basis.60 C. M. Woolgar has drawn attention to the surviving Account of Revenue of 1360 for Boxley Abbey, in which the anticipated annual revenues of the house in cash and produce were calculated and then set out office by office, in order to plan the spending for the year ahead of each office on a weekly or even daily basis.61 In this way, it was possible to have a tight control over income and expenditure. This study of Boxley Abbey will show the full significance and accuracy of this single account of revenue and place it within a wider context. The consequences of mismanagement could be disastrous and were recognised in legislation. The importance of implementing a financial system of central receipt of monastic revenues combined with a system of regular auditing by a central committee of senior monks had been underlined by the injunctions of the archbishop of Canterbury John 56 R.A.L. Smith, ‘The Regimen Scaccarii in English Monasteries’, Transactions of the Royal Historical Society, 4th series, vol. 24, 1942. 57 Smith, Canterbury Cathedral Priory, p. 20. 58 Smith, Canterbury Cathedral Priory, p. 61. 59 Smith, ‘The Central Financial System of Christ Church’, p. 367. 60 Gribbin, The Premonstratensian Order, p. 84. 61 C. M. Woolgar, ed, Household Accounts from Medieval England, Part 1, British Academy Records of Social and Economic History, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1992, pp. 45-6. 23 Pecham during the late thirteenth century.62 However, R.A.L. Smith, in his study of the financial system at Rochester Cathedral, demonstrated that that this system was not implemented universally, or even by monasteries in the same region. For example, while the earliest treasurers’ account at Christ Church Canterbury survives from 1198,63 records of archiepiscopal visitation and the surviving accounts from nearby Rochester revealed that for much of the medieval period financial power in the monastic economy at Rochester was dominated by individual obedientiaries. The records show that they mismanaged the revenues of the house and accrued wealth within their individual offices up until the mid fourteenth century.64 It was not until circa 1380 that the prior attempted to take control, began to receive the bulk of the monastic revenues and became, in effect, a partial treasurer.65 The priors of Rochester never achieved the same degree of control as their counterparts at Canterbury.66 Within the obedientiary system, the centralisation of the monastic economy was adapted to suit the preferences of an individual house. In contrast to the financial systems in use at Canterbury and Rochester at the Benedictine abbey of Peterborough, the financial power wielded by the office of abbot’s receiver was far greater than that of the treasurer.67 R.B. Dobson’s study of Durham Priory revealed that from the late thirteenth century the bursar was the key financial official.68 The Durham bursar received approximately two-thirds of the total revenue of the house and then re- distributed it to the other obedientiaries.69 The prior also received his income directly from the bursar’s office and had no separate endowments for his household.70 There were 25 obedientiaries at Durham in the fifteenth century, but neither of the two key domestic offices, the cellarer or the granator had any source of private revenue: both were reliant upon the bursar for the total income of their 62 R.A.L. Smith, ‘The Financial System of Rochester Cathedral Priory’, English Historical Review, vol. 56, (224) 1941. p. 590. 63 Smith, ‘The Central Financial System of Christ Church,’ p. 354. 64 Smith, ‘The Financial System of Rochester Cathedral,’ p. 589. 65 Ibid. p. 594. 66 Ibid. p. 595. 67 J. Greatrex, ed, Account Rolls of the Obedientiaries of Peterborough, Northamptonshire Record Society, 1984, vol. 33, p. 108. 68 R.B. Dobson, Durham Priory 1400-1450, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1973, p. 257. 69 Ibid. p. 257. 70 Ibid. p. 118. 24 office.71 As at Boxley Abbey, the granator at Durham only ever received produce for his office, never cash.72 Eleven obedientiaries presented annual accounts of all their income and expenditure for audit each June.73 Although revenue not allocated to the bursar was received by seven other offices, in reality it had already been allocated for specific expenses within that office,74 which left little room for the mismanagement or misappropriation of funds by the obedientiary concerned. This system placed a huge financial responsibility on one person and relied upon the priory being able to find a willing and capable accountant from amongst their own monks. Dobson found that during the first half of the fifteenth century an inexperienced bursar, Thomas Lawson (1418-53), had left the priory with large debts due to maladministration of the house’s resources.75 After this, in 1438, the bursary was divided between three obedientiaries for a short period because no single monk would take on the job, but this proved an unpopular reform with the monks of Durham. In 1445 the previous arrangement was resumed.76 Even in the absence of obedientiary accounts, surviving records underline the importance of a competent financial manager. Gribbin found evidence in the fifteenth-century episcopal visitation records for Welbeck Abbey in Nottinghamshire of economic ruin owing to the misappropriation and mismanagement of funds by the abbot, who was subsequently sent away: thereafter the finances of the abbey recovered.77 At the Cistercian abbey of Sibton in Suffolk, the obedientiary system was in use prior to the Black Death, with rents received by individual obedientiaries for their office.78 The system was replaced with a more centralised system after 1349 with a bursar in control of all revenues,79 although the surviving account for 1508 shows that it was resumed again at a later date, presumably once the economy was more stable.80 71 Ibid. p. 262. 72 Ibid. p. 263. 73 Ibid. p. 255. 74 Ibid. p. 254. 75 Ibid. pp. 285-88. 76 Ibid. p. 290. 77 Gribbin, Premonstratensian Order, p. 88. 78 A. H. Denny, ed, The Sibton Abbey Estates, Suffolk Records Series, vol. 2, 1960, p.16. 79 Ibid. p. 16. 80 Ibid. pp. 131-148. 25 The monastic economy relied upon revenues derived from both temporal and spiritual sources, and the balance between these two influenced the long-term land management policies of a religious house. Dobson argued that at Durham the spiritual income of the priory, which included grain produce and cash tithes, and constituted almost a third of the revenues, declined considerably after the Black Death.81 At the same time, the temporal revenues of the house were also in decline. The result of this was that the priory began to lease some of their demesne manors for cash at this time.82 The leasing of manors continued and intensified during the fifteenth century, so that by 1416 all but two of their manors were leased.83 Simultaneously, the priory converted areas of land that had previously been cultivated into land that was subsequently used for pastoral farming.84 Individual houses were clearly required to adapt their methods of land management in order to maintain their income, and the same changes in land management can be seen in the surviving records of other houses. Barbara Harvey found that at Westminster Abbey in the decades which followed the Black Death, many of the demesne manors of the abbey were leased because this was a more profitable system of land exploitation for the monks than directly farming the land themselves.85 From the estate records of Sibton Abbey, Denny found that prior to 1349 the economy of the abbey was based upon a system of demesne farming.86 In the decades after the Black Death however there was a sharp increase in the amount of land which was being leased, and by the middle of the fifteenth century the abbey relied almost entirely upon rents.87 The Cistercians had been prohibited from leasing land to tenants. However, there had been a number of statutes by the Cistercian general chapter in the thirteenth century that modified the ban. These allowed granges to be leased under certain conditions, and the surviving evidence from some Cistercian houses including Fountains, Furness and Meaux shows that granges were leased in the years that preceded the Black Death, as early as 1286 in the case of Meaux.88 This is an area of debate because it was a time when other 81 Dobson, Durham Priory, p. 269. 82 Ibid. p. 272. 83 Ibid. 84 Ibid. p. 276. 85 B. Harvey, Westminster Abbey and its Estates in the Middle Ages, p.151. 86 Denny, The Sibton Abbey Estates, p. 12. 87 Ibid. p. 12. 88 Burton, Monastic and Religious Orders, p. 256. 26 orders were doing exactly the opposite. The reasons for this may relate to the particular economy of the individual abbey, or perhaps to a need to preserve discipline of the lay brothers or monks on the distant granges.89 More recently, analysis of archives from individual religious houses has revealed a more realistic picture of daily life throughout the period. Internal sources, for example the records of obedientiaries, have opened a window onto the ‘wide range of human activity’90 with which monks and monasteries were associated. This has enabled not only an opportunity to assess the internal lives of the monks but also their local and national economic impact, their interaction with society and the physical impact they had, both transient and enduring, upon the landscape. The accounts of the cellarers at Battle Abbey for 1275-1513 cast light upon the changing role of the cellarer throughout this time, his role in the financial administration of Battle Abbey as well as the varied diet of the monks.91 The range of surviving household accounts for Boxley Abbey allows an opportunity for comparison, as well as an opportunity to consider the visitors to Boxley Abbey, the employees of the house, wages and the activities of the monks of Boxley outside the bounds of the monastic precinct. Through her analysis of the records of Westminster Abbey, in particular the day books of the kitchener for the period 1495-1525 and the accounts of the pittances paid by the infirmarer 1375-1529, Barbara Harvey traced parallels between the diet of the Westminster monks during the late medieval period and their secular contemporaries.92 The unique detailed records of the kitchener and infirmarer enabled her to assess the nutritional and calorific values of the monks daily diet and the resulting positive and negative effects this may have had on the physical health of the monks throughout this period.93 Throughout the late medieval period, there were gradual divisions of the physical space within the monastery brought about by changes in the monks’ daily diet as well as their everyday lives. These included changes in eating habits which resulted in the creation of the 89 Ibid. p. 256. 90 Dobson, Durham Priory, p. 389. 91 E. Searle and B. Ross, eds. Accounts of the Cellarers of Battle Abbey 1275-1513, Sydney, 1967. 92 B. Harvey, Living and Dying in England 1100-1540: The Monastic Experience, Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1993. 93 Ibid. pp. 72-111. 27 cawagium and use of the misericord for the consumption of meat,94 changes in common sleeping arrangements resulting in the creating of separate cells for approximately 45% of the community in the later middle ages,95 and an increase in the number of offices held by individual monks, which resulted in the creation of workspace and separate apartments for some obedientiaries.96 Barbara Harvey found that at Westminster Abbey the monks were divided into two distinct groups: cloister monks who carried out the spiritual duties of the house by participating in the daily round of services, and monks who held office or were university students and so were exempt from some of their duties.97 At Boxley, a Cistercian house, there was no division of monastic revenues between the abbot and convent. Cistercian statutes provided legislation that allowed free abbatial elections in houses at times of a vacancy. All Benedictine houses followed the guidelines of the Regularis Concordia, which stipulated that elections should take place with the consent of the king. This meant that the King could and often did attempt to delay elections particularly at the larger wealthier houses of royal patronage. During the vacancy, the revenues of the house reverted to the king and so it was an easy source of income for him but it left the monks vulnerable to loss of their income. Separation of finances and the division of revenues between abbot and convent was designed to counter this. It protected and safeguarding the revenues required to maintain and sustain the convent because the king only had access to those revenues allocated to the abbot. At some of the larger monasteries such as Abingdon Abbey, Westminster Abbey and Peterborough Abbey, specific revenues were diverted directly to the abbot or prior’s household completely bypassing the conventual treasury. It was not always a harmonious process. For example at Abingdon, division of revenues led to a number of twelfth-century litigation cases between the abbot and convent over the rights to certain manorial revenues.98 At Bury St Edmunds in 1279, the king’s representative took over both abbatial and conventual revenues after the death of Abbot Simon because there was no clear distinction between the two.99 By 94 Ibid. pp. 41-2. 95 Ibid. p. 77. 96 Ibid. p. 101. 97 Ibid. p. 77. 98 A. Pike, The Obedientiaries of Abingdon Abbey 1322-1479, Unpublished MA, University of Winchester, 2011, pp. 64-70. 99 A. Gransden, ‘The Separation of Portions between Abbot and Convent at Bury St Edmunds: The Decisive Years, 1278-1281’, English Historical Review, vol. 119, 2004, p. 383. 28 1281, the monks of Bury St Edmunds had obtained a royal confirmation from Edward I that only the abbot’s portion could be taken during future vacancies.100 In the surviving Boxley accounts, the abbot always received his portion of the revenues from the bursary. This simplified the centralisation of finances into the hands of the bursars and it enabled the abbot to maintain a guiding hand in managing the financial affairs of the house alongside them. The bulk of the revenues coming into the abbey went through the bursars who re-allocated it to the relevant offices, where it was used to provide essentials such as food, medicine and clothing for the monks. This system echoes that at Battle Abbey where the treasury acted as a central receiving office from where money was distributed to obedientiaries ‘under the supervision of the abbot.’101 Conclusion The estate and household accounts under study here reveal detail about the administration of the Boxley economy during the fourteenth century. The range and quality of the surviving documents is exceptional. It allows study in sufficient detail that can redress the over-emphasis on Benedictine monks in the current understanding of English medieval monasticism. Most significantly the surviving cache of Boxley records at The National Archives relates not to immediately before the Dissolution as elsewhere, but to the mid fourteenth century, a time when monasticism was at its high point and long before it was coloured by fears of the Dissolution. The documents date almost exclusively to the abbacy of John Herrietsham. His significance in the economic history of Boxley Abbey is explored more fully in Chapter 4. The history of this small house offers a contrast to the histories of larger foundations but it also show the aspirations of the monks of Boxley to be more like their greater Benedictine neighbours. This thesis exploits the archive of Boxley Abbey in order to contribute towards a more complete understanding of medieval monasticism and help redress the imbalance in monastic historiography. The second chapter will examine the surviving early deeds and rental records to shed light upon the foundation of Boxley Abbey. The deeds have been analysed to illustrate the acquisition of land by the abbey, the build-up and location of their monastic estates and the development of their granges in Kent and elsewhere. They reveal 100 Ibid. 101 Searle and Ross, Accounts of the Cellarers of Battle Abbey, p. 14. 29 information about the relationship between this abbey, the only Cistercian foundation in Kent, and its benefactors. The third chapter considers the surviving estate accounts to analyse the administration and exploitation of the Boxley estates over time. The evolution of a more accountable system emerges through the introduction of auditing, visible in the accounts in the years immediately following the Black Death. The estate records underline the purpose of the manorial account and the role of the monastic estate in supplying food for the Abbey larder. In addition, they offer detail about the logistics of transporting food and livestock and the day-to-day practicalities of running a typical grange. They are supplemented by the 1360 Assessment of Revenues, a document that condenses in a single document the cooperative relationship that existed between Boxley and its estates in that year. The estate accounts shed light on the role of the monks as employers, the developing role of the Boxley cellarer in administering the abbey lands and the willingness of the abbey to cope with unforeseen challenges such as the Black Death, subsequent plagues, and natural disasters such as the effects of catastrophic storms. In the fourth chapter of this thesis, the surviving obedientiary accounts have been analysed to illuminate the fourteenth-century internal household structure and administration, with particular attention to the role of Abbot John Herrietsham in the changes that took place. The accounts of the bursars reveal a significant addition to the sources of income for the abbey from 1371 with the introduction of the shrine of the Rood of Grace. This had a dramatic influence on lifestyle at Boxley because it gave the monks a disposable income not previously available to them. The accounts of the sub cellarer and granator provide an insight into the varied diet of the Boxley monks throughout the period and to the impact the success of the shrine had on this. They offer a detailed picture of the organization required to maintain the abbey larder throughout the year in order to sustain the abbot, convent and household. Finally, the results of this study have been evaluated in terms of their wider significance, to consider the regional significance of this religious house in terms of the local landscape, economy and Kentish society and to consider whether the experience of Boxley Abbey was representative in comparison to that of other smaller religious foundations across the country. Although the records of daily life at Boxley Abbey are less comprehensive than some other institutions particularly those archives of larger houses, the range of surviving 30 documents allows a glimpse of fourteenth-century life at a regional, smaller non-Benedictine house which was more typical of foundations in medieval England. 31 CHAPTER 2. THE FOUNDATION AND ENDOWMENT OF BOXLEY ABBEY Founder, Patrons and Benefactors. In England and Wales more than a thousand religious houses had been founded by 1300. Only a small number of new monasteries were established after this date.102 The founders of these houses fall into three categories. First and most influential was the Crown. English Kings had founded the majority of the oldest houses in England as well as many of the post-Conquest houses. In addition the Crown had inherited the patronage of houses when the founder left no heir to maintain and support the house.103 Second, a number of houses were also founded by the bishops of England and Wales and by the heads of existing houses. Third were the lay men and women founders who, collectively in the post-Conquest period, established the largest number of monasteries and nunneries which were distributed throughout the country. In the twelfth and thirteenth centuries the emergence of new orders of religious houses offered potential founders of modest means, especially lay founders, greater diversity when founding a religious institution. New orders such as the Savignacs, the Carthusians, the Augustinian canons and the Cistercians in the twelfth century, and the friars in the early thirteenth century, offered a greater choice in terms of both the cost of founding and maintaining a monastery and meeting the spiritual aspirations of the founder. The cost of founding a house of Augustinian canons or Cistercian monks was low when compared to the cost of a Benedictine monastery. The fact that it was affordable meant that there was a chance for a greater number of pious lay men and women to make a valuable earthly down payment towards their eternal salvation. However, a relatively small initial endowment of land and money required a religious house subsequently to attract generous patrons and benefactors, to acquire more land, and to establish a strong community in order to sustain it and survive independently. This was one of the early challenges faced by the monks at Boxley. The primary expectations of a founder were concerned with the salvation of his soul. A founder expected to be included in the prayers of the inmates and that they would be a source of intercession for him between this world and the next. Initially the monastic ideal 102 K. Stöber, Late Medieval Monasteries and their Patrons: England and Wales c1300-1540, Boydell Press, Woodbridge, 2007, p. 27. 103 Ibid, p. 25. 32 was that monks performed penance on behalf of the world by leading an ascetic life of prayer while renouncing worldly goods for a life of simplicity. The prayers of the monks on behalf of the founder, his family and friends, facilitated his passage to heaven after death. Founding a monastery also gave the founder status in his community. He might expect to receive hospitality from his monastery, be afforded loans by the monks, have burial in the monastery for himself and his family and be able make appointments within the monastery. Some founders also had care of the monastery during abbatial vacancies. In return, the founder of a monastery was expected to offer the monks an initial endowment of land on which to found and build their house, to continue support in terms of money or material goods, and to act as an advocate and protector for his monastery. The first Cistercian house in England was founded at Waverley in Surrey in 1128, by William Giffard, bishop of Winchester. Of the 73 twelfth-century Cistercian foundations in England and Wales, 61 were founded by lay men and lay women.104 Although the motivation to establish a Cistercian house is often unstated, many of the founders of Cistercian houses were powerful men, close to the king, commonly earls or men who had successful careers at the royal court.105 The founder of a Cistercian house might also be influenced by those with whom he had tenurial connections or was closely associated.106 Robert de Beaumont, Earl of Leicester, founded Garendon Abbey in Leicestershire in 1133, his twin brother Waleran of Meulan, founded Bordesley Abbey in Worcestershire in 1138, and Robert’s steward Arnold de Bois founded Biddlesden Abbey in Buckinghamshire in 1147. These two later foundations were daughter houses of the original house at Garendon. The founder of Boxley Abbey was William of Ypres (d. 1164/5). A list of the lands that made up the estate of Boxley Abbey at La Chene on Romney marsh, compiled 1202-1205 described him as ‘fundator eorum’.107 He had been an outstanding military commander during the reign of King Stephen, and had witnessed a number of grants made by King Stephen and his wife Matilda of Boulogne to Cistercian houses in England and France. Both were ardent patrons of the Cistercian Order. Given his close association with the King, it is therefore not surprising that William of Ypres proceeded to establish a Cistercian house of his own. One motivation for founding an austere Cistercian house was to make amends for 104 Stöber, Late Medieval Monasteries and their Patrons, p. 40. 105 Burton, Monastic and Religious Orders, p. 71. 106 Ibid, p. 71. 107 Appendix 1, p. 183: Lambeth MS 1212, f. 128. 33 misdeeds in life and this is exemplified by Sibton Abbey in Suffolk which was founded by William Chesney founded in 1150. William had made a promise to his brother John, as John was on his deathbed, that he would found a Cistercian house in atonement for John’s sins.108 In addition, it was not unheard of for the Cistercians themselves to initiate the process of a new foundation.109 Both criteria were applicable to William of Ypres. During his military career William was alleged to have stolen money from Abingdon Abbey whilst acting on behalf of King Stephen in the years prior to 1144.110 Theobald Archbishop of Canterbury described him as ‘that notorious tyrant and persecutor of our church’ in a letter to Pope Adrian IV in 1156-7.111 Gerald of Wales (1146-1223) wrote that William of Ypres, who had been the virtual ruler or ‘dominator’ of Kent under King Stephen, was offered absolution for his sins by the Cistercian order, if he gave them the manor of Boxley as an act of charity, allowing them to found a monastery there; he subsequently did this for the good of his soul.112 According to Gerald, William had been given the manor of Boxley by King Stephen as a reward for his loyal service.113 The precise foundation date of Boxley Abbey has not been established with any certainty. The Waverley Chronicle stated that William of Ypres founded Boxley Abbey in 1143,114 while a more local source, the thirteenth-century Rochester Chronicle, placed the foundation of Boxley in 1144.115 The chronicle of Louth Park gave the year of foundation as 1146.116 Gervase of Canterbury (1141-1210) gave the founder as William of Ypres, but the year of foundation as 1154.117 Angelo Manrique (1577-1649) recorded that the abbey was founded by William of Ypres on 28 October 1146.118 The foundation year of 1146 was also 108 Brown, ed. Sibton Abbey Cartularies, 1, p. 17. 109 Burton, Monastic and Religious Orders in Britain, p. 73. 110 J. Stevenson, ed, Chronicon Monasterii de Abingdon, 2 vols, Rolls Series, London, 1858, p. 292. 111 A. Saltman, Theobald, Archbishop of Canterbury, London, 1956, p.43. 112 J. S. Brewer, ed, Giraldi Cambrensis, ‘Speculum Ecclesiae’, Opera, Rolls Series, London, 1861-91, iv. p. 201. 113 Ibid. 114 H. R. Luard, ed, Annales Monastici,. 5 vols, Rolls Series, London 1864-9, ii, p. 230. 115 BL Cotton MS Vespasian A XXII, p. 29. 116 E. Venables and A.R. Madison, eds, Chronicon abbatie de Parco Ludae: the chronicle of Louth Park Abbey 1066-1413, Lincolnshire Record Society, Vol. 1, 1891, pp. 29-31. 117 W. Stubbs, ed, The historical works of Gervase of Canterbury, 2 vols, Rolls Series, London, 1879-90, ii, p. 77. 118 A. Manrique, Annales Cistercienses, ii, Lvgdvni: sumpt. Haered. G. Boissat & Lavrent, Anisson, 1642, pp. 48-9. 34 cited by Bishop Tanner (1674-1735) in his Notitia Monastica.119 William Camden (1551- 1623) gave the founder as William of Ypres, whom he termed earl of Kent, and the foundation year as 1145.120 John Leland (1506-1552) wrote that Boxley Abbey had been founded by Richard I.121 The foundation documents for Boxley Abbey, if they ever existed, have not survived.122 There was clearly some confusion over the identity of the founder during the fifteenth century. On 9 June 1414, Henry V commissioned Henry Hoorne, William Cheyne and the escheator in the county of Kent to enquire into a report that ‘divers lands of the abbey of Boxle, of the foundation of the king’s progenitors and of the king’s patronage, have been withdrawn from it.’123 A further commission was ordered for the same purpose on 20 June 1414.124 Two more groups of commissioners were dispatched, both of which included William Cheyne, on 11 July 1422125 by Henry V, and by the regents of Henry VI on 27 Nov 1422,126 with a subtle change in the phrasing of their task. In both of the later entries the commissioners were sent to enquire ‘whether or so the abbey of St Mary, Boxele is of the foundation of the king’s progenitors, and of the kings patronage, and whether any persons have entered on lands belonging to the foundation of the said abbey and forcibly ejected the abbot and convent from such lands or from lands of the said abbot.’127 The evidence pinpoints 1146 as the most likely year of foundation and that William of Ypres was certainly the founder. Although he is sometimes given the title earl of Kent it is unlikely that he ever held this title. William of Ypres was close to King Stephen and witnessed over 50 royal deeds of the king and queen. These included two royal charters of 1143-1147, in 119 T. Tanner, Notitia Monastica, VII, Cambridge, 1787, pp. 213-4. 120 W. Camden, Britannia, 2nd edition, 4 vols, London, 1806, 1, p. 311. 121 J. Leland, Antiquarii de Rebus Britannicis Collectanea, 6 vols, ed. T. Hearne, London, 1770, 1, p. 87. Leland may have been misled by the 1189 confirmation charter from Richard I which confirmed to the abbey the land they possessed at this time. 122 D. Postles, ‘Defensores Astabimus’, Monasteries and Society in Medieval Britain, ed. B. Thompson, Stamford, 1999, p. 105: David Postles suggests that at Garendon Abbey the foundation may have been an oral disposition and there may not have been a written foundation document, which is why the monks relied upon the later royal confirmation charters. The same might apply at Boxley. 123 CPR 1413-16, p. 221. 124 Ibid. p. 223. 125 CPR 1416-22, p. 446. 126 CPR 1422-9, p. 36. 127 Ibid. 35 which William of Ypres and Lambert, the first abbot of Boxley, were co-witnesses.128 He also witnessed a number of deeds issued by Theobald Archbishop of Canterbury.129 In his own right, he also granted land to Clairmarais Abbey in Flanders in a deed dated 1143 X 47, which was witnessed by Matilda, wife of King Stephen, and her son Eustace.130 In 1153, he also granted the two churches of Chilham and Throwley in Kent to an alien priory at Throwley, a cell to the abbey of St Bertin at St Omer in France.131 In 1151-2, William of Ypres granted land at Queenshythe in London to the canons of the Holy Trinity, Aldgate, a grant, which was confirmed by King Stephen.132 It is significant, however, that he was never styled earl of Kent in any of these surviving deeds. Instead, he was always named simply as William of Ypres.133 Tanner stated that William of Ypres left England and returned to Flanders shortly after the accession of Henry II in 1154 and he died in the mid 1160s as a monk at Laon.134 However, he granted rents in Tarentford and Dartford to the monks at Bermondsey Abbey in 1154,135 and was still in England in 1157 when he was recorded on the Pipe Rolls for that year.136 The Red Book of the Exchequer entry for 1157 recorded that William of Ypres gave the monks of Boxley Abbey land in Boxley, which was valued at £55 a year.137 This was a substantial grant, considering that the temporal revenues of the house were valued at just £75 in 1291. It seems likely that this grant to the abbey was the manor of Boxley.138 In later years, the monks of Boxley may have found it beneficial to stress a royal connection in preference to an unpopular and absent foreigner who had left no heirs to benefit them. It is notable that in the confirmation charter of Richard I, which gave confirmation to the 128 H. A. Cronne and R. C. Davis, eds, Regesta regum Anglo-Normannorum, 1066-1154. Facsimiles of original charters and writs of King Stephen, the Empress Matilda, and Dukes Geoffrey and Henry, 1135-1154, 4 vols, Clarendon Press, 1969, 4, p. 73. 129 R. Eales, ‘William of Ypres, styled count of Flanders (d. 1164/5)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004, http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/29465, accessed July 2009 states that the charters witnessed by William of Ypres dated 1138-1148. 130 Cronne and Davis, Regesta regum Anglo-Normannorum, p. 73. 131 VCH, Kent, vol. 2, p. 239. 132 Cronne and Davis, Regesta regum Anglo-Normannorum, p. 187. 133 Oxford DNB states that William exercised the powers that were given to earls in other counties under King Stephen but there is no evidence that he was made an earl. 134 Tanner, Notitia Monastica, VII. 135 Annales Monastici, vol. 3, p. 437. 136 Pipe Rolls, Henry II, 9, p. 102. 137 Red Book, p. 681. 138 See above note 113, p. 33. 36 abbey of the lands with which they had been endowed at their foundation, no reference was made to either King Stephen or William of Ypres.139 In the libertates abbatis de Boxeley of 1278 the liberties which were being claimed by the abbot of Boxley were stated to have been granted by charter from the time of Henry II, and to have been confirmed by Richard I and Henry III.140 This may be because the first substantial grant that the monks of Boxley received did not come about until 1157, during the reign of Henry II, which is almost certainly the time they received the manor of Boxley from William of Ypres, or the first written grant of it. The patron of a monastery has been described as the direct or indirect heir of the founder, a person or persons removed from the original founder who had inherited the religious house or taken over responsibility for it through death, marriage or by gift.141 In contrast to a benefactor, a monastic patron attained a religious house involuntarily.142 The role of the patron was to act as a protector, advocate and supporter of a monastery. He may also have had custody during vacancies. Like the founder, a patron had expectations of their monastery. These included hospitality, gifts, prayers during their lifetime, and prayers after death, obits, sometimes burial in the monastic church. Monastic patrons might also be granted loans, have rights of nomination, claim the right to present corrodians or request a corrody for themselves. A strong patron might also give grants to the monastery and specify the purpose, such as the funding of a chantry. The connection between a religious house and its later patrons may have been less personal than its relationship with the founder, but in many cases was still present.143 Some houses had more than one patron and some patrons had connections to more than one religious house. At many houses the line of the original founder had died out within a few generations. Some like Boxley had confusion over the identity of the founder. Some were incorporated into the patronage of the king if the founder could not be identified. The crown was a lasting patron and this could be a benefit to a smaller house. However it also came with costs and brought with it obligations, many of which were not welcome such as providing hospitality for the king and his retinue, and providing corrodies for the king’s staff. The king 139 TNA, C 53/45, m 9. 140 Placita de quo warranto, ed. W. Illingworth, Record Commission. 1818, p. 344; CChR, Henry III, 37, and 53, p. 79 and p. 98. 141 Burton, Monastic and Religious Orders, p. 211. 142 Stöber, Late Medieval Monasteries, p. 2. 143 Ibid, p. 111. 37 claimed corrodies at Boxley Abbey, which indicates that patronage of the abbey had escheated into the hand of the crown by the fourteenth century. In 1331 Edward III tried to present John Maunsel, king’s yeoman, to Boxley for a corrody such as Andrew Traytour, who had died, had possessed. The monks presented evidence that they held their lands in free alms and refused to accept him. 144 Again in 1432 Thomas Barton, clerk of the king’s hall was sent to Boxley for a corrody such as that of Richard Durant, deceased, had possessed.145 If the patron was the direct heir of the founder then it is difficult to identify any early patrons of Boxley Abbey with any certainty, because when William of Ypres returned to Flanders, he left no direct heir.146 It is possible, however, to establish some of the benefactors to the abbey, through surviving deeds which recorded land grants and land transactions, through references in the patent, fine and charter rolls and requests and bequests in surviving wills. Benefactors were local notables or neighbours of a religious community who chose to support it.147 The support of the benefactor was voluntary. Benefactors therefore had a choice for their benefaction. Their decision to offer support to a particular house had to be advantageous to them. Monasteries, especially smaller houses, needed to offer incentives to encourage benefaction. Out of more than 70 medieval religious foundations in Kent, Boxley was the only Cistercian house. The abbey was situated in the Rochester diocese, approximately three miles north of Maidstone, seven miles south east of Rochester and 25 miles west of Canterbury. The temporalities of Boxley Abbey were assessed at over £75 in 1291 and the gross revenues of the abbey were valued at just over £218 in 1535, thus it just came into the category of a greater house. There were a variety of religious communities in the surrounding area, some of which were founded before Boxley while others were later foundations. Although the Benedictine cathedral at Rochester had been an Anglo- Saxon royal foundation, Rochester cathedral church was rebuilt under Archbishop Lanfranc (1070-1089) and was consecrated 144 CPR 1330-34, p. 190. Evidence that the King presented corrodians to Boxley. 145 CCR 1429-35, p. 188. 146 E. Hasted, The History and Topographical Survey of the County of Kent, 12 volumes, Canterbury, 1778-99, vol. 1, p. 136, and vol 7. p. 466. According to Hasted William of Ypres’ sister Matilda was married to Norman Fitz-Dering, sheriff of Kent during the reign of King Stephen, and their grandson, Deringius Morinis, and great-grandson, Wymund Fitz-Dering, were buried at Boxley Abbey. However, no reference has been located to substantiate this. 147 Stöber, Late Medieval Monasteries and their Patrons, p. 2. 38 by Archbishop William de Corbeil (1123-1136) in 1130. The temporalities of the cathedral priory were assessed at just over £134 in 1291, and its gross value was assessed at just over £455 in 1535. Nearby at Leeds there was a priory of Austin canons which had been established in 1119 by Robert de Crevequer. Although the temporalities of the priory were valued at just over £37 in 1291, its gross value in 1535 was more than £362. Close by, other early foundations included the hospital of St Bartholomew at Chatham, which was founded by Gundulf Bishop of Rochester (1077-1108). The annual value of its possessions was assessed by inquisition on 1346 at just over £6 but the house was too poor to be given a value in 1535. Gundulf also founded an abbey of Benedictine nuns at Malling prior to 1099. The abbey at Malling was assessed at over £83 in 1291, and was valued at more than £245 in 1535. Later foundations close to Boxley included a house of Trinitarian friars at Mottenden, which had been founded circa 1235 and was assessed at just over £60 in 1535, while the revenues of the small Carmelite friary at Aylesford, which had been founded by Richard de Grey in 1241-2, were assessed at just 42s. in 1535. A house of Augustinian canons at Bilsington on Romney Marsh was founded in 1253 by John Mansel, provost of Beverley, and its temporal revenues were assessed at just over £33 in 1291, while its gross value was assessed at £122 in 1535. In addition close by at Maidstone was the hospital of Sts Peter and Paul which had temporal assets valued in 1384 at just £5 10s. 5d. and was subsequently re-founded as the college of All Saints Maidstone in 1395. There was, therefore, a choice available to local people for religious benefaction. However, when it came to acquiring land, there was also a choice for the religious house in the method of acquisition. The Acquisition of Land Four points of reference in the historical record for the estates of Boxley Abbey are the 1189 confirmation charter the abbey received from Richard I, the placita de quo warranto of 1278-9, the Taxatio Ecclesiastica of 1291, and the Valor Ecclesiasticus of 1535. Through these it is possible to identify some of the main temporal possessions of the abbey at specific points in its history. In 1189, Richard I had confirmed to the monks the manor of Boxley with all its appurtenances, including tenants of the manor.148 This source may be why Leland mistakenly cited Richard I as the founder of Boxley Abbey. The charter confirmed to the 148 TNA, C 53/45. 39 monks land above and below the hill at Boxley, and land at Wavering and Tattlemelle which had been sold or leased to them by John de Horepole and his sons, by Edward de Burlegh, and by the sons of John de Capella.149 The charter also confirmed to the monks land at huvenellam (Ovenhelle) which they had bought from William of Allington for 60 marks (£40) as well as land with pasture at Chessington in Surrey, which had been given to them by Robert Chessington by charter. In addition, there were properties in Hoo, a house in London which they had been granted by Paris the archdeacon of Rochester,150 a house with messuage in Dover which was granted to them by Anselm deacon of Sandwich151 and marshland at Romney which was held from the archbishop of Canterbury.152 The charter confirmed their right to hold a market at Hoo, the donation of Matilda de Canvill.153 The landholdings of the abbey were largely concentrated in the vicinity of the monastery, in Boxley, Wavering and Tattlemelle, with a large area of marshland on Romney Marsh and a small number of additional properties and unspecified parcels of land in outlying areas. These were the early landholdings of Boxley Abbey. Quo warranto proceedings of 1278-9 referred to lands held by Boxley Abbey at Boxley, which included the manor of Boxley, where the abbot had free warren, but also stated that that the monks had possession of the manor of Hoo.154 The abbey also held land within the hundred of Maidstone, marshland at Romney in the hundred of Newchurch and the hundred of St Martin’s, land which lay in the hundred of Cranbrook, and land at Chingley, which was in the Kent Weald.155 This is evidence that the monks had already begun to expand their landholdings within the boundaries of Kent during the thirteenth century. In 1291 Taxatio Ecclesiastica valued the temporal revenues of Boxley Abbey at £75 15s. 4d. Of this the manor of Boxley was assessed at £62 14s. 7d.156 while temporalities in Hoo were 149 Ibid. 150 Lambeth MS 1212, ff. 208, 209. 151 TNA, E 210/6715. 152 Appendix 1, p. 183: Lambeth MS 1212, f. 128 provides a list of over 1000 acres of marshland which was held by Boxley Abbey on Romney Marsh by 1205 as part of their manor of La Chene. 153 TNA, C 53/45. 154 Placita de quo warranto, p. 344. Hasted in The History and Topographical Survey of the County of Kent, vol. 4, p. 10, states that this was the manor of Little Hoo, known as Abbot’s Court. 155 Ibid. 156 Taxatio, p. 4. 40 worth £9 4s. 10d.157 The monks still held land at Chessington (Chissendon) in Surrey which was worth just £1 4s.158 Revenues from two properties in the city of London, at St Mary Axe and St Michael Cornhill, were valued at £1 18s. 8d.159 The monks had added a house and fishery at Northtown (Nortvilla) Little Yarmouth (parva Gernrmut) in Suffolk, to their holdings which was valued at 13s. 4d. This may be the land granted by William of Winchelsea jointly to Boxley Abbey and its daughter house at Robertsbridge in Sussex.160 Northtown in Yarmouth flooded during the fourteenth century and there are no subsequent documentary references for the fishery or any other properties at Little Yarmouth. However in 1364, a dispute between the monastery and a mariner, John Burgeys took place over the profit and loss of a farcost which had been ‘engaged in carrying red herrings from Yarmouth to the monastery at Boxley and in other trading.’161 Presumably, the fishery was for drying herring and other fish before returning to Kent. Boxley Abbey had been granted a licence in 1225 to send a boat to Berwick in order to buy herring for the use of the monastery.162 In the same period, the Cistercian houses of Beaulieu, Quarr, Rievaulx, and Byland all held fish drying sheds at Northtown. Properties held by Beaulieu Abbey at Northtown in Little Yarmouth were lost during this period due to flooding and are not mentioned in documentary sources after 1357.163 This may explain the lack of further references in the Boxley archive.164 The evidence of the Taxatio Ecclesiastica indicates that the landholdings of Boxley abbey had not significantly altered from a century before. However, it did not include all of the land held by the abbey at this time., The named possessions were concentrated around Boxley in the area of the monastery, with unspecified temporalities further north at Hoo. The monks still held a small amount of land and property at Chessington in Surrey and in London. Fortunately other sources expand upon the evidence of the Taxatio. While it referred to the temporalities of the abbey of Boxley at Hoo, it did not include the 157 Ibid. p. 8. 158 Ibid. p. 206. 159 Ibid. p. 12. 160 B.L Egerton Charter 396, William of Winchelsea granted jointly to the abbeys of Robertsbridge and Boxley all of his land at Little Yarmouth. 161 Calendar of the plea and memoranda rolls of the city of London, 1364-1381, ed. A. H. Thomas, Cambridge, 1929, pp. 9-10. 162 CPR 1216-25, p. 505. 163 Hockey, The Beaulieu Cartulary, p. xliii. 164 S. F. Hockey, Beaulieu King John’s Abbey, Pioneer Publications, Woking, 1976, p. 53. Hockey states that Northtown is now under Breydon water. 41 spiritualities held by the abbey there. Boxley Abbey had been granted the appropriation of the parish church at Stoke in Hoo by Richard Wendene, Bishop of Rochester (1238-50), in 1244.165 This was confirmed in 1246166 and 1248167 by Boniface, archbishop of Canterbury, (1241-70) and again in 1267 by Pope Clement IV (1265-68).168 Taxatio also omitted to include the temporalities held by the abbey in the Kent Weald, which had been included in the placita de quo warranto. Nearly 250 years later the gross revenues of Boxley Abbey were assessed by Valor Ecclesiasticus in 1535 at £218 19s. 10d. before deductions.169 More than half of this income came from land, mills, tenements or court profits derived from within the parish of Boxley, and over £21 came from both the manor and land at Hoo. The abbey owned the same two properties in London that they had possessed in 1291 at St Mary Axe and St Michael Cornhill, which were valued at 13s. 4d. Their land at Chessington was at this time described by Valor as the manor of Friern in Surrey, valued at £6.170 Kent, however, was the prime location for the lands of Boxley Abbey and their possessions in Kent were concentrated in three main areas. First, the abbey held land and tenements around the Boxley area. Second, the monks now held land in north Kent, comprising of the manor of Ham at Upchurch, the manor of Hoo, land at Hoo and two appropriated churches, at Stoke on the Hoo Peninsula and at Eastchurch on the Isle of Sheppey. Third, the abbey held land to the south of Boxley and in the Weald of Kent at Goudhurst, where they possessed the manor of Chingley and land at Marden and Staplehurst. In addition, there were outlying tenements around Maidstone and Sandwich and an area of marshland in excess of 1,000 acres on Romney Marsh in Kent. It fell to the early abbots and community to consolidate the initial endowments of the abbey and create successful working estates on which their economy, and ultimately their survival, would depend. At many houses the founder and his descendents continued to support the monks with grants of land and this is seen in the surviving deeds at both Sibton 165 Thorpe, J., ed, Registrum Roffense: a collection of ancient records, charters, etc. illustrating the history of the diocese and cathedral church of Rochester, London, 1769, p. 620. 166 Ibid. p. 621. 167 Ibid. p. 621. 168 Ibid. p. 620. 169 Valor, p. 80. 170 Ibid. p. 79. 42 Abbey and Quarr Abbey.171 However it was also necessary to attract new benefactors and acquire land by means other than grants. Land could be acquired through a number of means. The pious benefaction of land to a religious house by local people was one method of acquisition but could not be wholly relied upon to provide for the needs of a monastery. It was not uncommon during the twelfth and thirteenth centuries for monks to pursue a deliberate policy of acquisition. This required them to buy or exchange specific tracts of land in order to build up their landholdings in a particular area, and to establish profitable estates, often augmenting a large grant of land which served as the nucleus for a grange, with many smaller subsequent acquisitions. There are limited sources to demonstrate this at Boxley, with no surviving cartulary. However the surviving deeds, records of fines, and surviving references in the patent rolls and charter rolls do allow some insight into the early benefactors of Boxley Abbey, and the consolidation of the initial endowments of the abbey lands. The estates of Boxley Abbey between foundation and Dissolution were largely contained within Kent, but it is clear that during this period within Kent they had expanded considerably upon their original endowment which, essentially, had been the manor of Boxley with a few small parcels of outlying land. By 1535 three manors in Kent were listed among the possessions of Boxley Abbey, at Hoo, Chingley, and Ham, along with the Upper Grange at Boxley, a farm at Newenham in Boxley, profits from the abbots’ courts at Boxley, Chingley, Halstow and Teston, three mills in Boxley172 and two churches at Stoke and Eastchurch. In addition, they held a large number of tenements, lands, woods and marshes, which were concentrated in their stronghold area of mid Kent but also extended out to south and east Kent at Romney, Sandwich and Willsburgh. The gradual acquisition of these possessions, which allowed the abbey to consolidate their assets into units of maximum revenues during the fourteenth century, was a process which may be traced in part through the surviving deeds for Boxley Abbey. It is indicative of an ongoing relationship between the abbey and local society. What follows will examine the Kentish possessions of Boxley Abbey around Boxley, in north Kent and the Hoo peninsula, in east Kent at Romney Marsh and to the south of Boxley in the Weald of Kent. 171 Brown, Sibton Abbey Cartularies, 1, p.24: Hockey, Quarr Abbey and its lands 1132-1631, p. 67. 172 Comprising a fulling mill (Pollmill) and two corn mills (Sandling and Overlott). 43 Land acquired around Boxley The earliest land known to have been held by Boxley Abbey in Boxley was granted in 1157 by the founder of the abbey, William of Ypres, who gave the monks land in Boxley that was assessed at £55.173 The Domesday survey had assessed the manor of Boxley at £55 in 1086 and it is likely that this was the endowment granted to the monks by William of Ypres in 1157.174 At the time of the Domesday survey the manor of Boxley was in the grant of Odo Bishop of Bayeux but leased to Robert Latin, and the land consisted of twenty carucates of arable land, three mills, twenty acres of meadowland and wood for the pannage of thirty hogs.175 By 1360, when a surviving account of revenue for Boxley Abbey lists the income of all the abbey lands for a full year, the land in Boxley had been consolidated into three main units of production: the upper grange, which was located above the hill at Boxley, the lower grange, which was located below the hill, and the grange at Newenham Court to the east of Boxley.176 Between them these three granges supplied the abbey with produce to the value of £67 12s. 16d. in 1360 in the form of wheat, barley, rye, oats, poultry, capons, geese, pigs and cows. These were either directly consumed by the abbey or sold for cash. The lower grange (sub montibus) situated closest to the monastery below the hill, and most likely the home farm, was the largest provider in terms of variety of produce and in the volume of production, supplying the abbey with annual revenues worth £40 in 1360. In addition a rabbit warren, which was situated above the hill at Boxley, provided 600 rabbits in 1360.177 The indication is that parcels of land which had been purposely acquired during the thirteenth and early fourteenth centuries, had augmented the original grant from William of Ypres and had been successfully organised into granges by the middle of the fourteenth century. The most valuable of these were situated closest to the abbey. For the upper and lower granges at Boxley, twenty-eight ministers’ accounts have survived at The National Archives, with a further five for Newenham Court. In Chapter 3, analysis of the estate accounts provides evidence of the acquisition, development and management of the land 173 Red Book, p. 681. 174 The Domesday Book of Kent, trans. L. B. Larking, London, 1869, p. 33. 175 Ibid. 176 TNA, SC 6/1253/11. 177 TNA, SC 6/1253/11. The location of the warren is given by Hasted, The History and Topographical Survey of the County of Kent, vol. 4, p. 326. Boxley warren is still marked on modern day maps. Appendix 10, p. 210. 44 immediately around Boxley Abbey throughout the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries and the economic and physical impact of these farms on the local area. There are a number of surviving deeds at The National Archives, which recorded sales and grants of land to Boxley Abbey during the thirteenth and early fourteenth centuries. These are supplemented by surviving rentals and accounts of revenue, which listed the sources of income of the abbey, along with their value for a complete year. In addition, transactions have survived in the patent rolls. These include a number of licences in mortmain, granted during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, along with two royal pardons (which were granted to the monks after payment of a fine) for land which had been acquired after 1279 without a licence in mortmain. The first of these pardons was granted to the monks of Boxley Abbey by Edward II in 1309 for land that had been acquired prior to 1307 during the reign of Edward I.178 The second pardon was granted by Edward III in 1329 for land that had been acquired prior to 1327 during the reign of Edward II.179 These documents allow an insight into the acquisition of land in the two centuries that followed the foundation of Boxley Abbey.180 The evidence of the deeds indicates that during the thirteenth century, the monks of Boxley pursued a deliberate policy of acquiring land in specific areas in order to strengthen their holdings in Kent. Of the thirty surviving deeds in which Boxley Abbey acquired land, twenty-three of them relate to land or rents acquired in or around Boxley close to the abbey, while only five included tenements or messuages in the wording. Land, rather than property was the key factor in the transactions.181 In 1189, the monks held the manor of Boxley with land above and below the hill at Boxley. The surviving deeds show overwhelmingly that the monks sought land that had boundaries with the monastery or to existing lands of the monastery and acquired it gradually in small measures in the century that followed.182 In some instances, it was granted to the monks, but was also acquired by sale or by the exchange of one piece of land which they owned for another which they desired. For example, Henry Welles, rector of Boxley parish church in 1238, gave the monks of Boxley 5 acres of land in Weavering. The deed stated that the land lay in the same field 178 CPR 1307-13, p. 153. 179 CPR 1327-30, p. 367. 180 See Appendix 2:1, pp. 184-5. 181 Ibid. 182 Ibid. 45 as the monastery gate, and was given in exchange for 5 acres and half a virgate of land in another area of Boxley, and other small parcels of land in the Boxley area.183 Godwin Waidegrun (1279 X 1307) sold the abbey one acre of land in Boxley above the hill which lay between the land of the abbey to the north and the land of Laurence Burle to the south for the annual rent at the abbey gate of one costard apple.184 Roger, son of John Anger (1238 X 1246) granted to the monks half an acre of land which lay between the land of the abbey towards the south and west, and the land of Laurence de Burle to the north.185 William Wych (1279 X 1307) sold the monks one virgate of wood at Pinenden which joined the monks’ woods to the north for the annual rent of one costard apple.186 Geoffrey Sharimolde (1307 X 1329) granted the monks a piece of woodland in Boxley called Sultingmarlinge which lay next to their land.187 Thomas Mareys and his wife Margery (1238 X 1246) sold the monks one messuage with house and woods which lay towards the abbey’s meadow on the northern side.188 In 1196 Abbot Robert and the convent of Boxley quitclaimed to Osbert and Avelina Longchamp all of the abbey’s rights at Ovenhelle in Boxley.189 The monks had bought this land from William of Allington some time before 1189, for 60 marks (£40), paying back 5 marks (£3 6s. 8d.) annual rent to him and his heirs.190 There is evidence of an ongoing dispute with Boxley Abbey over this land at Ovenhelle as two years earlier the abbot of Boxley had appeared in court to complain that Osbert and Avelina had not taken up his chirograph over an unspecified land dispute.191 This was probably related to the land at Ovenhelle. Osbert did not appear in court at that time but the dispute was settled in 1196. Avelina was the daughter and heiress of William of Allington, and the niece of Paris, archdeacon of Rochester (1145 X 1192). In 1185, aged 15, she was a ward of the king as the heiress of the manor of Stisted in Essex and the manor of Ovenhelle in Boxley.192 She was 183 TNA, E 326/5422. 184 TNA, E 326/642. 185 TNA, E 210/5725. 186 TNA, E 326/2912. 187 TNA, E 326/8764. 188 TNA, E 326/644. 189 CKFF. p. 3. For the location of Allington see Appendix 10, p. 210. 190 Ovenhelle and William of Allington were named in the 1189 confirmation charter of Richard I, which was confirmed again in 1252 by Henry III: TNA, C 53/45. 191 CKFF. p. cxiii. 192 A. Conway, ‘The owners of Allington Castle Maidstone,’ Arch.Cant. vol. 29, 1911, p. 16. 46 given in marriage to Osbert Longchamp between 1190 and 1191 when she was aged approximately 21.193 Osbert was a brother of William Longchamp, Bishop of Ely, who was also chancellor up until 1191. Osbert was sheriff of Yorkshire in 1190, sheriff of Westmorland in 1190 and 1191, and sheriff of Suffolk and Norfolk in 1194.194 In return for the quitclaim of the land at Ovenhelle, Osbert and Avelina paid the monks 6 marks sterling and 2 shillings of rent from the mill called Cucidemille,195 reserving the right to grind flour for their own household at Allington. They also gave the monks 2 shillings of rent from land at Oxfrid,196 quitclaimed all rights to the house of Paris on the Thames in London,197 gave up their rights to a tenement in the park at Boxley, and granted the monks free and peaceful fishing on the Medway opposite their land at Allington.198 It appears that Robert, abbot of Boxley traded what he had, the land at Ovenhelle, for something that he wanted, the quitclaim to the house of Paris in London. In addition he gained valuable fishing rights on the Medway. Fish was an important part of the monastic diet, and two of the early sources refer to land being acquired with fishing rights on the Medway. A fishery on the Medway was later mentioned in the 1360 account of revenue, where it was valued at £4 10s.199 The monks gained further fishing rights in this area in 1202 from Alfred of Gore.200 The Medway fishery provided large numbers of fresh fish, particularly eels, for the abbey at Boxley throughout the period and this is discussed in more detail in chapter 4. The house of Paris was described in the surviving charters as lying above the Thames in London, presumably the upper Thames area. Paris granted it to the monks some time before 1189, for the good of his soul as well as the souls of his parents and his uncle Robert 193 Ibid, p. 20. 194 Ibid. p. 21. 195 Ibid. Conway found evidence of a mill at Boxley which was still known by the name Cuddymill, which is similar to Cuiddemille, in 1911: TNA, E 210/6505 records a lease made by the monks in 1370 to John Degher and his wife Alice of a house and curtilage at Cuttemell in Boxley. It may also be the same as the place called Tattlemelle named in the 1189 confirmation charter of Richard I: TNA, C 53/45. 196 A farm named Oxfrith appears in The Assessment of Revenue for 1360 valued at 15s. 4d. and a farthing. 197 See footnote 150, p. 39. This property was mentioned in the confirmation charter of Richard I. 198 CKFF, p. 3. 199 TNA, SC 6/1253/11. 200 See below, pp. 58-9. 47 Pullen (1142 X 1146) who had been Archdeacon of Rochester before him.201 The confirmation charter of Richard I substantiated this grant to the monks in 1189. That Osbert and Avelina quitclaimed all their rights to this property in 1196 may indicate that there was some ongoing dispute about ownership of this property. Two other properties in London, one in the parish of St Mary Axe and the other in the parish of St Michael Cornhill, were named in the confirmation charter of 1189. Both of these reappeared in the later records of the taxation of Nicholas IV in 1291,202 and in the dissolution records for the abbey. In contrast to this, the monks did not keep the house of Paris for long. In 1202 Abbot Robert and the monks of Boxley Abbey granted the house of Paris to Hubert Walter, Archbishop of Canterbury, in exchange for 205 acres of land at Romney Marsh with which they were able to increase the land at their grange of La Chene.203 The original deed for the agreement between Osbert and Avelina Longchamp has not survived and the evidence of the fine is not so much evidence of benefaction, but more as a business transaction. The land at Ovenhelle consolidated the landholdings of Osbert and Avelina close to Allington while the monks had secured their rights to the house of Paris in London and, in addition, had gained valuable local land and privileges. No spiritual requests from Osbert and Avelina were noted in the fine of 1196. This is in contrast to other deeds with which they are associated. For example, in an undated charter they made a grant to the monks at Rochester Cathedral of rent and land in the vill of Stisted in Essex. In return they were received into the martyrology of the cathedral with an annual service for themselves and their ancestors.204 Avelina also granted Rochester Cathedral land in free alms close to Stisted mill.205 Although there are only 30 surviving deeds that record the acquisition of land by the monks in the Boxley area, there are indications that local families in Boxley acted as benefactors to the abbey through more than one generation. Much of the land close to the monastery appears to have been held by the Burle family. One of the areas in the parish of Boxley, listed in a common rental for 1317, was called Burghle.206 Just above Boxley lies the 201 Lambeth MS 1212, ff. 208-9. 202 Taxatio, p. 12. 203 Lambeth MS 1212, ff. 207, 209.The grange at La Chene was valued at £6 6s. in 1360. TNA, SC 6/1253/11. 204 BL MS Cotton Charter Domitian. A.X., No. CXXIII, in Conway, ‘Allington Castle’, pp. 23-4. 205 Medway Archives and Local Studies Centre, DRc_T333_1 206 TNA, SC 11/335. 48 modern day hamlet of Boarley which may be the same area.207 Edward de Burlegh was named in the confirmation charter of Richard I in 1189 as having granted or sold land to the monks.208 His descendants appeared as benefactors to the abbey, and were also named as witnesses to 12 of the 23 surviving charters that relate to land at Boxley.209 Odo de Burle (1238 X 1277) and his wife Emma granted the monks all of the rights and claims they had of their land above and below the hill at Boxley.210 Adam Essebi and his wife Juliana de Burle released their right to a rent of 4d. in Millfield (Meilfield) in Boxley to the monks in 1246.211 William (1238 X 1244), son of Peter de Burle (1238 X 1246), gave the monks half an acre of land at Boxley for an annual rent of a costard apple.212 Later charters from Margery, daughter of Laurence de Burle, (who was a son of Odo) and one from Richard de Burle, son of Reginald de Burle, granted the monks specific pieces of land close to the monastery at Burleghfield and Millfield (Maylefield). In 1314 Margery granted all of her land in Burleghfield and Millfield (Maylefield) to the abbey.213 The land was bordered by the abbey on two sides. A married sister Margery Loth, who was another daughter of Laurence de Burle, granted them a further half acre in Burlegh at Millfield (Maylefield) in 1316 which also bordered the lands of the abbey.214 Richard de Burle granted one virgate of land at Millfield (Maylefield) to the abbey in 1316 which bordered the lands of the abbey on two sides.215 Laurence, Peter and William de Burle were witnesses to another deed in which a messuage and land at Sandling, half an acre of land at Stoke and five acres and one virgate of land at Millfield (Meilfield) were granted by Simon Birch to the monks in 1244.216 The 1252 confirmation charter of Henry III referred to the agreement made between John de Horpol and his sons and the monks of Boxley, concerning land above and below the hill at Boxley.217 The present day hamlet of Harpole lies just below Boxley to the east of the parish and may represent the place where this family lived.218 In 1219 Arnulf (Arnaldo, 207 J. Cave-Browne, The History of Boxley Parish, Maidstone, 1892. 208 TNA, C 53/45. 209 For witnesses to land acquired around Boxley see Appendix 2:2, p. 186. 210 TNA, E 326/8618. 211 TNA, E 326/778. 212 TNA, E 326/645. 213 TNA, E 326/ 457. 214 TNA, E 326/444. 215 TNA, E 326/446. 216 TNA, E 326/6511. 217 TNA, C 53/45. 218 TNA, SC 11/333 lists women who held land in Boxley and names Serburge as wife of 49 Ernaldo) de Horpol (1219 X 1277), son of John de Horpol, quitclaimed from himself and his successors, 20 acres of land in Boxley in recognizance of mort d’ancestor in return for half a mark (6s.8d.).219 Vitalis de Horpol (1238 X 1277), another son of John, was one of the witnesses to the confirmation charter of Geoffrey Gurden of a marsh in Sharpness which had been given to the monks of Boxley by Alfred of Gore. Both brothers witnessed two deeds granting the monks of Boxley land in Boxley from Odo and Agnes de Burle220 and land with a mill in Boxley from Alexander de Kumba.221 In addition to this, Alexander (1219 X 1277), son of Vitalis de Horpol, sold the monks a rent in Barknolle in return for 6s. 5d.222 Cumba was an area above Boxley which was named in the 1317 rental of Boxley Abbey alongside the land above the hill.223 The area was also named in a 1314 deed as Cumba in Boxley.224 Geoffrey de Kumba (1238 X 1277) was a witness in four of the thirteenth-century Boxley deeds alongside Odo de Burle and Vitalis and Arnulf de Horpole. Gilbert de Kumba (1238 X 1277) perhaps a brother of Geoffrey, witnessed two deeds of the same period. Alexander (1238 X 1277) son of William de Kumba granted the monks a tenement, a mill and 10 acres of land at Boxley in return for 5 marks (£3 6s. 8d.) in gersuma (entry fine) and annual rent of 6d.225 In 1478, the monks of Boxley leased a house in Boxley to John Kymber (Cumba) and his wife Catherine.226 In 1489, a John Kember husband of Catherine requested burial in his will in the monastery church at Boxley close to the statue of the blessed Mary of Pity.227 The value and size of the land acquired close to the monastery did not necessarily bear any relation to the money paid for it. For example the gersuma paid for the grant of half an acre with appurtenances in Boxley from William, son of Peter Burle, was 2s. with an annual rent of one costard apple.228 A similar grant of half an acre of land in Boxley with John of Horpol, along with their sons Vitalis and Arnulfi. Bella is named as the widow of Vitalis. 219 CKFF, p. 61. 220 TNA, E 326/8518. 221 TNA, E 326/646. 222 TNA, E 210 /2227. 223 TNA, SC 11/335. 224 TNA, E 326/456. 225 TNA, E 326/646. 226 TNA, E 210/2756. 227 TNA, PROB/11/8/514. 228 TNA, E 326/645. 50 appurtenances by Roger, son of John Anger, cost the monks 6s. in gersuma with an annual rent of 3d.229 For a tenement with appurtenances in Boxley from Gilbert, son of Reginald son of Ralph, the monks paid 20 marks (£13 3s. 8d.) 8d. in gersuma,230 while a tenement and mill with 10 acres of land from Alexander son of William, son of Robert, cost just five marks (£3 6s. 8d).231 For the grant of two and a half acres of land in Burleghe and two virgates of land in Maylefield from Margery Burle in 1314 the monks paid 100s. in gersuma,232 another 8s. in gersuma for the half an acre added by her sister in 1316,233 and 5s. for one acre in the same field granted by Richard de Burle in the same year.234 The more costly land was clearly considered to be a worthwhile, long-term investment by the monks, in terms of its location and potential as a future source of revenue. The advantages of acquisition outweighed the short-term expense. The type of tenure was also important to the monks. In 1331, when summoned before the justices of the King’s Bench for refusing to admit John Maunsel, a king’s yeoman to a corrody in the abbey, the monks produced evidence to prove that they held their lands ‘in frankalmoin discharged of all kinds of demands and secular charges.’235 The monks of Boxley paid an unspecified fine for a pardon from Edward II in 1309 for acquiring ‘divers parcels of land in Boxley’ without a licence in mortmain during the reign of Edward I, from Hugh de Cuttenvelle, Godwin Wodegrome,236 John Agace, John Unredy, John Farenthe, Simon le Fevre, Juliana le Carpenter, John Scot, Nicholas ate Cherche, and Henry Wodegrome.237 A fine of 10 marks (£6 13s. 4d.) was paid for a similar pardon in 1329 for land that had been acquired during the reign of Edward II.238 On this occasion the acquisitions in Boxley were grouped into land, messuages, and rents. There were 13 instances of land acquisition, four relating to messuages and two relating to rents. Land was, once again, the most common type of acquisition. A licence in mortmain was granted, for a fine of 100s. in 1392 for the abbey to acquire a grant of 20 acres, 1 rood of land, 15 acres of pasture, 4 acres 1 rood of wood, and ¼ of 14 acres of marsh in Boxley, Upchurch, 229 TNA, E 210/5725. 230 TNA, E 326/8765. 231 TNA, E 326/646. 232 TNA, E 326/457. 233 TNA, E 326/444. 234 TNA, E 326/446. 235 CPR 1330-34, p. 190. 236 Charter has survived for Godwin Waidegrun: TNA, E 326/642. 237 CPR 1307-13, p. 153. 238 CPR 1327-30, p. 367. 51 and Hoo St Werburgh from John de Frenyngham and William Makenade, in exchange for certain works of piety.239 The royal pardons and licences in mortmain supplement the evidence of the surviving charters, which indicate that there was a deliberate gradual build up of land ownership around the direct vicinity of the monastery. This enabled the monks to build upon their original endowment of the manor of Boxley. The location of the land was crucial. The exchange made between Henry Welles and the abbey is one illustration of this, where the monks exchanged a piece of land in Boxley for another smaller piece of land because the land they were acquiring lay near to the abbey.240 In an undated twelfthcentury grant by Reginald de Boxley to Abbot Denis (1184-1190)241 and the monks of Boxley, Reginald granted all of his land above and below the hill to the monks for an annual rent of 1d. while the monks granted him a field called Wluriches to hold rent free for the duration of his life.242 A number of small rents, and land in excess of 20 acres in Wavering close to Boxley was granted to the monks by Robert Haltegode (1238 X 1246) in exchange for a corrody of two loaves of conventual bread and two measures of conventual ale each day.243 This willingness to acquire land by any means in order to consolidate estates is mirrored at the Cistercian abbeys at Sibton in Suffolk ( f.1150) and at Quarr on the Isle of Wight (f. 1131). At Sibton Abbey, Brown found that the ‘piecemeal construction’ of granges continued for a long time and many of the granges there were not named as granges until the beginning of the fourteenth century.244 At Quarr abbey there are over 400 surviving deeds recording the purchase of lands to consolidate existing land holdings. As at Boxley, the surviving deeds record sales, exchanges , confirmations and quitclaims with the acquisition of one or two acres of land being the most common transaction.245 239 CPR 1391-96, p. 108. 240 TNA, E 326/5422. 241 D. Knowles, C.N.L. Brooke and V.C.M. London, The Heads of Religious Houses, England and Wales, 920 – 1216, I, Cambridge, 1972, p. 128. 242 TNA, E 210/224. 243 TNA, E 326/650. 244 P. Brown, ed. Sibton Abbey Cartularies, vol. 1, Suffolk Record Society, 17, 1985, p. 119. 245 Ibid, pp. 120-21: S. F. Hockey, Quarr Abbey and its lands 1132-1631, Leicester, 1970, pp. 67-102. 52 In 1332, the monks of Boxley were granted a licence by Edward II to acquire in mortmain land and rents not held in chief, to the value of £10.246 They achieved this in three stages. In 1335, rents and land valued at 20s. were acquired from John Coppyng and Roger Mool, that included 20 acres of land, 11 acres of meadow, 25 acres of pasture, a rood of wood, 2s. in rent, and a third part of a mill in Aylesford close to Boxley.247 In 1365 land and rents at Boxley, Maidstone, Aylesford and Staplehurst worth £7 were acquired from John Fletcher, Robert Vynter, Simon Halle, John Westerham, Bartholemew ate Wode, John Stoil, Alan Deghere, John Harteangre, and Simon Posselyng.248 Finally, in 1373 the monks paid 30s. for a licence to acquire a rent of barley, from the land of the late Robert Vinter, granted to them by William Reade, Bishop of Chichester (1369-85) from land at Boxley that was valued at £2 10s.249 The land was granted for them to hold at the lower value of £2 to fulfil the licence held by the monks to acquire land to the total value of £10. They had achieved this over a period of 41 years. Many arrangements, which included grants, exchanges, leases, and purchases, were successfully employed to acquire desirable pieces of land. This is an indication of an early overall plan, part of which was the purposeful acquisition of land in Boxley around the location of the monastery. Eighteen deeds at The National Archives record leases of land at Boxley made by the monks of Boxley during the thirteenth, fourteenth and fifteenth centuries.250 One early badly damaged lease was made between the monks and Richard Birch (1238X1246) and his wife Isobel, of four acres of land at Boxley in exchange for a rent of 4s. 6d.251 Another damaged deed was an agreement by the monks to lease John Holme an acre and a half of land at Maylefield Boxley.252 Most of the deeds which have survived were long-term leases. In 1360 a house with curtilage at Boxley Street was leased to Robert Grene of Horton for a period of 20 years for 4s. annual rent.253 John Degher and his wife Alice were granted a 50 year lease for a house with curtilage at Cuttemelle in Boxley in 1370 for annual rent of 6s. which was to be paid to the office of the bakery at the abbey.254 In 1378 the monks leased 246 CPR 1330-34, p. 335. 247 TNA, C 143/234/6: CPR 1334-38, pp. 184-5. 248 TNA, C 143/355/9: CPR 1364-67, p. 185. 249 TNA, C 143/381/1: CPR 1370-74, pp. 321-2. 250 Appendix 2:5, p. 190. 251 TNA, E 210/2269. 252 TNA, E 210/4051. 253 TNA, E 210/9396. 254 TNA, E 210/6505. See Footnote 195, p. 46. 53 land at Boxley to John Swayn of Boxley for 20 years for annual rent of 20 bushels of beer barley.255 A century later in 1478 John Munden, vicar of the parish church at Boxley, agreed to pay the monks rent of 15 bushels of good quality barley each year for a period of seven years on a lease of five acres of land with appurtenances in the place called Carterrsereste in Boxley.256 Also in 1478 John Kymber and his wife Catherine leased a house at Boxley for a period of 60 years.257 Another fifteenth-century deed recorded a lease of land to John Lusdun in 1452 for a period of 60 years.258 A series of badly damaged deeds record the lease of Monkdown wood at Boxley, a wood which is still visible on modern day maps, to John Heyton of Wouldham in 1351 and 1360.259 Land acquired in North Kent To the north of Boxley the possessions of Boxley Abbey were gradually being built up on the Hoo Peninsula, at Upchurch on the Medway and at Eastchurch on the Isle of Sheppey.260 The church of Stoke at Hoo had been granted to the abbey in 1244 by Richard Wendene, Bishop of Rochester.261 Tithes from the church provided wheat, rye barley and pulses worth £14 8d. in 1360262 while the parsonage of Stoke and glebe lands at Hoo were valued at just £3 6s.8d. in 1535.263 Valor also referred to marshland in the parish of All Hallows Hoo belonging to Boxley Abbey which was called the abbot’s marsh, and to parcels of salt marsh in Hoo.264 Although the monks had originally been granted the right to hold a market at Hoo by Matilda de Canvill, no further reference to this has been found. The monks held the manor of Little Hoo at Abbot’s Court and this was valued at £21 in 1535.265 Although the exact date of acquisition of the manor of Little Hoo is uncertain, the manor of Hoo was already recorded as belonging to Boxley Abbey in the placita de quo warranto of 1278-9,266 and temporalities of the abbot of Boxley in Hoo were assessed at £9 4s.10d. by 255 TNA, E 210/563. 256 TNA, E 210/2738. 257 TNA, E 210/2756. The deed is too badly damaged to read the rent for this lease. 258 TNA, E 210/385. The deed is too badly damaged to read the rent for this lease. 259 TNA, E 210/5240; TNA, E 210/5385; TNA. E 210/5386; TNA, E 210/5387. 260 See Appendix 11, p. 211. 261 Registrum Roffense, p. 620. 262 TNA, SC 6/1253/11. 263 Valor, pp. 79-80. 264 Ibid. 265 Ibid. 266 Placita de quo warranto, p. 344. 54 Taxatio in 1291.267 In addition, records of the abbot of Boxley’s courts in Hoo have survived from 1315 onwards which may provide further evidence of the activities of the monastery in this area.268 The abbot of Boxley received a grant of free warren for his manor of Hoo in 1359.269 The abbot of Boxley was in dispute with Reading Abbey in 1246, when the monks of Boxley were accused of entering the land and fee of the abbot of Reading in Hoo. Henry II had granted Reading Abbey the manor of Windhill at Hoo. At this time, the abbot of Boxley acknowledged that the land belonged to the abbot of Reading and quitclaimed all rights and claims in the land from himself and his successors.270 Only three original deeds have survived that relate to the donation of land at Hoo to Boxley Abbey.271 In an undated charter Geoffrey son of John the smith (faber) (1307 X 1327) and his wife Edith, granted the monks one virgate of land in a field called Elyottfield at Hoo for an annual rent of 1 ½ d.272 This was close to the church at Hoo and bordered a field already belonging to the abbot and convent of Boxley. For this land the monks paid 10s. in gersuma. William Tribeley and Maud his wife granted the abbey two acres of their land at Hoo in exchange for 3 ½d. annual rent.273 The monks of Boxley paid 10s. 6d. in gersuma for this grant. The deed is also undated but referred to Adam Faber who was son of Geoffrey, which implies that they are contemporary with each other. A later deed was from John de Frenyngham and William de Makenade who, in 1392, granted the monks land at Hoo in exchange for certain works of piety.274 In 1248 Geoffrey de Percy, his wife Maud, and Gilbert de Kyrkeby and his wife Lora granted the monks of Boxley 10 marks (£6. 13s. 4d.) of rent in Hoo along with a further 20s. of rent in frankalmoign.275 In return Geoffrey, Maud, Gilbert and Lora were to be included in the benefits and prayers of the abbey. Maud and Lora were the daughters of Richard de Ros. 267 Taxatio, p. 8. 268 TNA, SC 2. 269 Hasted, The History and Topographical Survey of the County of Kent, vol.4, p. 10. 270 CKFF, p. 406; CCR, 1246, p. 404. 271 Appendix 2:3, pp. 187-188. 272 TNA, E 326/1680. The deed is undated but probably occurs prior to 1329 as land granted by Geoffrey son of John the smith was included in both royal pardons granted 1309 and 1329 by Edward II and Edward III. 273 TNA, E 210/3338. 274 CPR 1391-96, p. 108. 275 CKFF, p. 214. 55 Maud was married to Geoffrey de Percy in 1246.276 This grant and the 1392 grant of land at Hoo from John de Frenyngham and William Makenade are two of a small number of surviving documents which specify spiritual benefits being granted to the grantor in exchange for the gift of land to Boxley Abbey.277 It is of note that any mention of spiritual benefits being granted by the monks in exchange for land is absent from almost all of the Boxley deeds. This is in contrast to the evidence of many other Cistercian houses. At Fountains Abbey in Yorkshire, for example, almost all grants were made specifically to God and to the monks.278 The same is true of the surviving charters for Sibton Abbey in Suffolk.279 Despite the poor survival rate of the deeds, the pardons of Edward II and Edward III offer evidence that land in this area was being acquired steadily throughout late thirteenth and early fourteenth centuries. In 1309 a pardon was granted for land in Hoo which had been acquired by the monks, from Thomas le White, William de Aumbesbury, Ralph le Fevre, Richard Cumpernage, Stephen son of Adam le Fevre, Geoffrey Clitersmyth, Geoffrey son of John le Fevre, Geoffrey Berfot and Alice his wife, Sabina daughter of Henry Eve, Adam son of Geoffrey le Fevre, Richard ate Bergh and from Godelina late the wife of Adam le Pestur.280 Some of the same people were named in the later pardon of 1329, when land in Hoo had been acquired from Hugh le Roter, Richard son of Richard de la Bergh and William his brother, Geoffrey son of John le Fevre, Adam Bishop, and Agnes daughter of Stephen Roter. This was in addition to land at High Halstow (Hoo) from William Peyfrer and a messuage and lands there from Nicholas Rysemound.281 The pardons did not specify the nature of acquisition so it is unclear whether the lands were sold, granted or exchanged. However, the surviving account of revenue for 1360 offers evidence that the monks had established a successful grange at Hoo. This provided the abbey with wheat, oats, rye, barley, haras, sheep, pigs, and capons, to the value of £40 during that year which also included a cash payment to the bursars of 73s.282 276 CPR 1232-47, p. 473, Notification that Henry III had consented to the marriage. 277 The others include a grant of 150 acres of land at Chingley in the Weald, CKFF, p. 177. 278 Wardrop, Fountains Abbey p. 237. 279 Brown, Sibton Abbey Cartularies, 1985-88. 280 CPR 1307-13, p. 153. 281 CPR 1327-30, p. 367. 282 TNA, SC 6/1253/11. 56 In 1315 the monks of Boxley had claimed, as appropriators of the church of Stoke, exemption from paying tithes for herbage at their new mill in the parish of Halstow that was used for lambs at their marsh at Horsemershe.283 Exemption was granted in 1315 by Archbishop Walter Reynolds (1313-1327).284 In 1379 John, Abbot of Boxley, leased to three brothers, Thomas, Robert and John ate Lee, a marsh called Horsmedd at La Lee in the parish of Halstow in Hoo with a house, two pieces of land and 40 sheep for stocking the marsh.285 This was for a period of 10 years, evidence perhaps, of a change in land use at the end of the fourteenth century. In 1360 Abbot John had also leased five parcels of land in Werburgh in Hoo to Thomas Cole for 6d. per acre annual rent and a rent of two hens at Christmas with two seams (eight bushels) and four bushels of palm barley at the feast of All Hallows.286 A further deed recorded that the monks had leased to John Lusdun of Hoo land and tithes which they held at Hoo and Higham for a period of seven years for annual rent of £14 7s. 6d.287 Ten ministers’ accounts, dating from the fourteenth and fifteenth century, relating to the Grange at Hoo have survived, and are a source of further information about land management and land use in this area throughout this period. These are examined in more detail in Chapter 3. North of Boxley the monks had acquired land at Halsted and in the Upchurch area. Emma, widow of Osbert Husier quitclaimed to the monks a yoke of her land in Halsted, for which the monks paid her 20s. and also paid 20s. to her son Alexander who quitclaimed all rights from himself and his heirs in the same piece of land.288 Boxley Abbey held the manor of Ham, or West Court, at Upchurch, which, according to Hasted, they had acquired during the reign of King John.289 The abbot of Boxley was granted free warren there in 1359 by Edward III.290 The manor of Ham was valued at just £5 in 1535.291 Three accounts dated 1393, 1395 and 1397, are preserved at The National Archives at Kew for the grange named Ham, which was located on the Medway. This is apparently the same land covered by the Sharpness accounts, which end in 1392, and so the two sets of accounts are treated as if 283 Registrum Roffense, p. 623. 284 Ibid. 285 TNA, E 210/923. Appendix 2:5, p. 190. 286 H. C.Maxwell Lyte, ed. A Descriptive Catalogue of Ancient Deeds, vol. 5, London, 1906, A 11500, p. 155. Appendix 2:5, p. 190. 287 TNA, E 118/1/142. Appendix 2:5, p. 190. 288 CKFF, p. 22. 289 Hasted, The History and Topographical Survey of the County of Kent, vol. 6, p. 30. 290 Ibid. 291 Valor, p. 79. 57 they are one and the same grange by this study.292 The grange nearby at Sharpness, which lay just above Upchurch, was mentioned frequently in the surviving bursars’ accounts throughout the fourteenth century as a source of monetary income, and provided the monastery with sheep and pigs, wool and rents, revenues that were valued at £29 3s. 4d. in The Assessment of Revenue for 1360.293 This included a cash payment of £21 to the bursars. The grange of Sharpness concentrated primarily on sheep farming because the land consisted mainly of marshland. The area also provided the abbey with fish.294 While the land below the Medway may not have been the most desirable and fertile land in the area, it was clearly land which was available to the monks of Boxley, who successfully acquired and exploited it to their advantage. The surviving estate records for Sharpness provide evidence of land use and land management during the mid and late fourteenth century and, in conjunction with the records for the marsh held in Romney, also offer information about the reclamation of marshland and the maintenance of embankments for these areas.295 Although the area on which the grange of Sharpness was located, that, according to Hasted covered about 500 acres,296 has disappeared underwater in more recent years, its location, lying just above Upchurch is still recorded on present day maps.297 There are two main sources for the land around Upchurch which was acquired by the monks of Boxley Abbey. The pardon of 1329 listed lands and rents at Upchurch and Lower Halstow along with the names of the grantor.298 These had been acquired prior to 1327 without a licence in mortmain. There were 29 acquisitions specified in the pardon, of which 25 referred solely to the acquisition of land, and the remaining four specified land with rents. While it is regrettable that the pardon does not elaborate upon the method of acquisition, it does provide evidence that the abbey had a significant interest in this area in the late thirteenth and early fourteenth century. The second source of evidence for the early acquisition of land in this area is a surviving list of lands at Upchurch and Halstow, in 292 TNA, SC 6/889/1; TNA, SC 6/889/2; TNA, SC 6/1256/1. The account for 1395 was written by the cellarer John Ealding after the manorial sergeant John Mellor had died. 293 TNA, SC 6/1253/11. 294 The account of 1360 included revenues of £4 10s. from the Medway fishery. TNA, SC 6/ 1253/11. 295 There are 27 surviving estate records for the grange at Sharpness at The National Archives. Appendix 4, p. 199. 296 Hasted, The History and Topographical Survey of the County of Kent, vol. 6, p.31. 297 Appendix 11, p. 211. 298 CPR 1327-30, p. 367. 58 which the landholdings were numbered from 1- 153 in Arabic letters.299 The list may have been an index to another book, perhaps a cartulary which has not survived. It does not record the value of the land, but is an itemised list of places, rents, and charters, along with the names of the grantor, relating to lands around Upchurch and Halstow that had been acquired by the abbey. Although the list is undated, 24 of the 29 names recorded in the pardon of 1329 are repeated in the first half of the list which is an indication that this first part of the list was written prior to 1327. The second half of the list, written in a different, perhaps later hand, is a record of charters pertaining to land, largely marshland, which the abbey had acquired around the area. The main types of holding listed here are small parcels of marshland measuring an acre or half an acre, or measured in virgates (20-30 acres) and dayworks (one tenth of a rood). It is possible to cross-reference the two sources. For example, in the pardon of 1329, it was recorded that Thomas son of David de Sloyhull gave land and rent in Upchurch to the abbot and convent of Boxley. In the surviving list of lands for Boxley item No. 90 recorded: Thomas son of David de Sloyhull of half an acre which lies in the parish of Upchurch, while item No. 95 recorded: Thomas son of David de Sloyhull of one measure of barley of one acre of land lying in the parish of Upchurch.300 Although the names and the exact nature of land involved are difficult to trace in the historical record, with 153 entries the list provides clear evidence that the monks had significant landholdings in this area. The grange at Sharpness, in the parish of Upchurch on the Medway marshes, is well documented in the surviving mid fourteenth century estate accounts and accounts of the bursars. However, the origin of this estate may be traced to the beginning of the thirteenth century through early deeds. In 1204 King John confirmed a number of grants made to Boxley Abbey. Alfred of Gore had granted the monks a marsh with a fishery at Sharpness, William son of Jocelin gave the monks a marsh with 60 sheep that was adjacent to the marsh given by Alfred, William Waiser gave the monks another marsh at Sharpness complete with livestock, and Warin son of Warin also granted the monks of Boxley a marsh at Sharpness complete with livestock.301 In the same year the abbot of Boxley paid the King 60 marks (£40) and a horse for land purchased in the hundred of Middleton, which includes the area around Sharpness, on condition that he would not buy land in that area 299 TNA, E 328/433. 300 The name Sloyhill in connection with Upchurch is similar to the present day area of marshland called Slayhills marsh located at Upchurch. Appendix 11, p. 211. 301 Rotuli chartarum, John, 1204, p. 130. 59 again without a licence from the King.302 The nature of the land purchased is not specified, but the individuals from whom land was bought are named. These were Alfred de Gare, William de Gare,303 Warin son of Fulc304 and William Waiser. Although the names are slightly altered, these are evidently the same four men recorded in the charter roll. The implication of this is that Abbot Robert, who was abbot of Boxley in 1204, had purposely bought up these marshes complete with fishing rights and livestock in order to farm there. This was perhaps the early thirteenth-century origin of the grange at Sharpness. Alfred of Gore (de la Gare) a tenant of the monks of Canterbury at Gore near Ickham, was an active benefactor to Christ Church Canterbury during the early and mid thirteenth century. A number of records record how Alfred and his family, including his brother William, granted money, land, a mill and rents to the monks at Canterbury. In 1268 his widow Godelef quitclaimed to the monks of Canterbury all of her rights to land granted to them by Alfred during his lifetime.305 In an undated deed, Alfred’s daughter Sarah and his grandson Henry confirmed to the monks of Canterbury the grant of an annual payment of 20s. rent paid to them by the monks of Boxley for the marsh at Sharpness which Alfred had granted (or sold) to Boxley.306 The grant of a marsh in Sharpness from Alfred to the monks of Boxley was also confirmed by Geoffrey de Gurden.307 The land acquired from Alfred and his brother William and the confirmation grant of Geoffrey de Gurden were all recorded in the surviving list of charters and rents for this area.308 The grant of Warin son of Warin may have been confirmation of an earlier grant by Warin the elder, who was the son of Fulc. In the Curia Regis roll of 1202 there was an assize of mort d’ancestor between David of Rochester and his wife Amabilia and Warin son of Warin relating to a marsh in Sharpness. The assize was held over because it was found that Warin 302 Red Book, p. 768. 303 William de Gare was named as brother of Alfred in surviving deeds at Canterbury Cathedral Archives. CCA-DCc-ChAnt/A/94; CCA-DCc-ChAnt/A/92. 304 See pp. 59-60. Warin son of Warin may have been confirming an existing grant which had previously been made by his father Warin son of Fulc. The same land was later confirmed by Leonis son of Warin. Both grants were listed in the surviving list of grants for this area TNA, E 328/433. 305 CCA-DCc-ChAnt/A/74. 306 CCA-DCc-ChAnt/M/334. 307 H. C. Maxwell Lyte, ed. A Descriptive Catalogue of Ancient Deeds, vol. 4, London, 1902, A 7230, p. 137. 308 TNA, E 328/433. 60 no longer held the marsh, which had been held by the abbot of Boxley since before the assize was summoned.309 The four marshes at Sharpness, along with the names of the grantors, are also listed in the surviving, undated, numbered index of customary rents of Boxley Abbey on lands at Upchurch, which appears to be an index to a collection of documents held by the monks.310 This included the original grant made by Warin son of Fulc, a grant by Warin son of Warin and a confirmation and quitclaim by Leonis son of Warin relating to the same marsh. Also included in this list of rents at Upchurch was half a marsh called Werkeworth which was granted to the monks by Roger Canvil – perhaps a relative of Matilda de Canvill who had granted the monks the right to a market at Hoo prior to 1189. The grant at Werkeworth was confirmed by royal charter by King John in 1206.311 In 1375, however, Nicholas Heryng was appointed to take possession of the marsh of Werkworth on behalf of the King; this had been granted back to the King by deed by John, then abbot of Boxley.312 In the fourteenth century the monks of Boxley were able to expand their landholdings on the Isle of Sheppey. A single twelfth-century record has survived of the monks acquiring land in this area. In 1197 William de Plumpton granted the abbey all of his lands at Sherenden in Elmley, Sheppey in frankalmoign. In return he received a gold besant from Abbot Robert.313 In 1314, a licence in mortmain was granted by Edward II to William, abbot of the Cistercian abbey at Dunes Abbey Flanders, to grant the advowson of the church of All Saints at Eastchurch on the Isle of Sheppey, to the monks of Boxley Abbey.314 Eastchurch had been granted to Dunes Abbey in 1194 by Richard I. At the same time in 1314 a licence was also granted for the monks to appropriate the church.315 The grant stated that Eastchurch was granted to the monks of Boxley with the agreement of the prior of Clairvaux Abbey and the consent of general chapter of the order. Hasted wrote that Eastchurch was granted to the monks of Boxley abbey because of the expenses they incurred in entertaining and providing hospitality to monks of the order who stayed at the abbey when travelling abroad; also that the monks of Dunes had previously made little or 309 CRR. John, 3-5, p. 123. 310 TNA, E 328/433. 311 Rotuli chartarum. John, 1206, p. 163. 312 CPR 1374-77, p. 206. 313 CKFF, p. 4. 314 The grant of Eastchurch has survived at TNA, E 211/336 and TNA, E 210/8894. Record of licence for this grant in CPR 1313-18, p. 97. 315 Hasted, The History and Topographical Survey of the County of Kent, vol. 6, p. 254. 61 no profit from this possession because of their great distance from it.316 The grant included all of the land owned by Dunes Abbey in the area. In addition to the church of All Saints, the monks gained 36 acres of land at Eastchurch, 23 acres of land on the Isle of Sheppey and a messuage in Dover.317 This presumably could also be used by overseas travellers. A house and messuage in Dover had previously been granted to the monks prior to 1189 by Anselm deacon of Sandwich.318 In 1329, a pardon was granted to the monks by Edward III for acquiring land in Eastchurch from John Underdoun during the reign of Edward II.319 A further 12 acres of land at Eastchurch was granted to the monks by Roger Mool in 1335.320 The tithes of the church were valued at £34 3s. 8d. in 1360 in wheat, oats, barley, haras, pigs, geese, capons and poultry,321 while Eastchurch was valued at just 20 marks (£13 7s.8d.) in 1535.322 In 1431 a licence in mortmain was granted to William Cheyne to give three roods of his own land in Eastchurch, land that was not held in chief, to the monks of Boxley Abbey.323 The reason given for this grant was so that the monks could rebuild the church at Eastchurch, which had suddenly fallen down ‘on account of the rottenness of the ground which formed its site’.324 William Cheyne had led the commissions that were sent by the crown in 1414 and twice in 1422 to enquire into patronage of Boxley Abbey. He had held the office of sheriff of Kent in 1412, 1413 and 1423.325 He also was involved with the execution of the will of John Farningham and funding of the chantry at Boxley which was set up on behalf of John Farningham, his wife and his parents.326 William Cheyne’s son, Sir Thomas Cheyne, sheriff of Kent in 1515, and Knight of the Garter during the reign of Henry 316 Ibid. 317 Ibid. 318 TNA, E 210/6715. The deed is badly damaged but the reverse names the grantor as Anselm, deacon and the text refers to land being granted at Dover to the monks of Boxley. The confirmation charter of Richard I records the grant of a house and messuage in Dover to the monks of Boxley by Anselm deacon of Sandwich. 319 CPR 1327-30, p. 367. 320 TNA, C 143/234/6. 321 TNA, SC 6/1253/11. 322 Valor, p. 79. 323 CPR 1429-36, p. 147. 324 Ibid. 325 Hasted, The History and Topographical Survey of the County of Kent, vol. 6, p. 255. 326 A. Hussey, ed. Kent Chantries, Kent Archaeological Society, 12, 1936, pp. 125-6. 62 VIII, held the vicarage and parsonage and land worth 20 marks (£13 7s.8d.) at Eastchurch at the time of the Dissolution and these were granted back to him by Henry VIII in 1543.327 Land acquired in South Kent South of Boxley the abbey acquired land in the parish of Goudhurst, at Marden and Staplehurst. In addition they possessed the grange at Chingley in the Kent Weald. Hasted stated that the monks of Boxley were in possession of the manor of Chingley early in the reign of Edward I.328 The placita de quo warranto (1278-9) referred to lands at Chingley and Cranbrook, but did not mention a manor.329 The abbot of Boxley was granted free warren at his lands in Chingley by Edward III in 1359.330 Although no early deeds have survived in the Boxley archive for land given to the monks in this area, it is possible to trace a pattern of acquisition. A record has survived in the Kent feet of fines of a grant made by Nicholas Lingedraper, his wife Gunnora, Robert Wavering and his wife Christina to Boxley Abbey in 1242, of 150 acres of land at Chingley. For this the grantors and their heirs were received into the prayers of the church.331 In 1258 Nicholas and John, sons of Ralph, quitclaimed to the monks of Boxley all of their rights in rents in Staplehurst valued at 16s. 1 ½ d. and all of their rights to 40 acres of woodland for which the abbey paid 25 marks (£16 7s. 1d.).332 There were a small number of references to the abbey in the Kent Hundred Rolls 1274-75. These referred to the tenants of the abbot of Boxley in the hundred of Marden at Pettehurst, Dokeshurst, Sendenn Soutland, Standen and Smugley in the parish of Goudhurst,333 to five tenants in five tenements at Cetthamesle in the hundred of Cranbrook334 and to the tenants of Boxley Abbey in the tithing of Chingley also in Goudhurst.335 The pardon of 1309 recorded that the abbey had received 30 acres of heath in Chingley from Henry de Sharnfold.336 The pardon of 1329 recorded that 327 Hasted, The History and Topographical Survey of the County of Kent, vol. 6, p. 255. 328 Ibid. vol. 7, pp. 73-88. 329 Placita de quo warranto, p. 344. 330 CChR, Edward III, 33, p.164 331 CKFF, p. 177. 332 CKFF, p. 293. 333 W. Illingworth, J. Caley, eds. Rotuli Hundredorum, 2 vols. Record Commission, London 1812-18: Online version by Kent Archaeological Society, Kent Hundred Rolls Project, http://www.kentarchaeology.ac/khrp/khrpa.html, accessed 29th May 2008, p. 69, p. 82. 334 Ibid. p. 66. 335 Ibid. p. 76. 336 CPR 1307-13, p. 153. 63 the abbey had acquired land at Ticehurst from Robert de Groshurst,337 a wood in Goudhurst from Thomas ate Stone of Chingley, a rent in the same town from Henry de Sharnfold, and a wood there from Richard de Sharnfold and Roger Thurbarn.338 All of these names recurred under the heading of Chingley in the surviving list of common rents for 1317.339 Pardon was also granted in 1329 for land in Goudhurst acquired from Robert Spryngeth and land in Staplehurst acquired from Edmund son of William de Pethurst.340 A later deed of 1373, a contract between the abbey and a stonemason for work to be completed on the cloisters of the abbey, referred to the sandstone that was to come from the quarry of the abbot and convent of Boxley in Chingley.341 This provides evidence of a more lucrative asset in this area for the monks of Boxley, evidence that the monks owned and operated a stone quarry there. In addition, excavation of the abbey land at Chingley has uncovered evidence of a substantial forge dating from the early fourteenth century.342 In The Assessment of Revenue of 1360, the grange of Chingley provided the abbey with £5 in rent, indicating that it was not being exploited by the monks but was rented out at this time. A badly damaged surviving indenture from 1370, documented that the manor of Chingley was leased to four men, John Verby of London, John Dene of East Malling, Ralph Partrich of Derlyngge, and one other, for a period of one year for a bond of £60.343 This sum was to be paid on the feast of All Saints to the monks of Boxley Abbey. This is evidence of a change in land use at the end of the fourteenth century. Three further leases record the sale or lease of land at Chingley.344 In 1319 the monks of Boxley sold all of their woods called Bereworthesgrove, a wood at Chingley called Voxes Hole and the remains of a wood which they had previously sold to John Grykelot in the same wood, to John Walshe for 32 marks (£21 6s. 8d.).345 In 1322, in a badly damaged deed, they sold off a further four acres of Chingley woods,346 and then in 1413 a further badly mutilated deed recorded the lease 337 CPR 1348-1350, p. 469. Robert Groshurst founded a chantry at the church of Horsmonden which received an annual payment of £4 from the abbey of Boxley. In 1350 a licence was granted retrospectively. 338 CPR 1327-30, p. 367. 339 TNA, SC 11/335. 340 CPR 1327-30, p. 367. 341 TNA, E 210/1299; TNA, E 101/622/47. 342 D. W. Crossley, The Bewl Valley Ironworks Kent, 1300-1730, Royal Archaeological Institute Monograph, 1975, pp. 16-17. 343 TNA, E 210/5227. 344 Appendix 2:5, p. 190. 345 TNA, E 210/8936. 346 TNA, E 210/8036. 64 of a house and garden at Chingley to Simon Wyg and Joan his wife for a 60 year term.347 Later acquisitions of land at Chingley included 30 acres of heath land from Henry Sharnfold and a number of other unspecified rents.348 By 1535 the profits of the abbot’s court at Chingley were valued at 40s. while the manor was valued at just £5.349 In the same area, Valor Ecclesiasticus also recorded a barn and lands called Monketon at Staplehurst and Marden (Goudhurst) which were valued at 26s. 8d.350 Seven ministers’ accounts have survived which relate to the grange at Chingley. These provide further evidence of land management during the fourteenth century.351 Land acquired in East Kent At Romney Marsh, the abbey held land which was simply described by Valor as land held at Romney, and was grouped together with lands held at Boxley and Aylesford, collectively valued at £27 13s. 4d.352 However, references can be found to land held by the abbey in this area. One was the marsh of La Chene. The other was Silwell, apparently located at Newchurch of which the monks of Boxley owned a proportion.353 La Chene was mentioned in the surviving account of revenue for 1360 where it was listed under the heading of Farm from which the bursars’ office received a cash sum of £6.354 A list of the grants which made up the marsh at La Chene prior to 1205 provides evidence that at this time Boxley Abbey held more than 1000 acres of marshland in this area.355 The largest grant, made by their founder William of Ypres, presumably prior to 1157, consisted of 355 acres of land. Archbishop Hubert Walter granted them 205 acres of salt marsh near Newland in 1202 in exchange for the house of Paris in London. William Garpunvilla and Albricia his wife gave another 250 acres of marsh along the sea wall, and one Adam Cherring and his daughters Gunnora and Isobel granted the abbey more than 250 acres of salt marsh. There are five 347 TNA, E 210/764. 348 See Appendix 2:3, pp. 187-8. 349 Valor, pp. 79-80. 350 Ibid. p. 80. 351 Appendix 4, p. 199. 352 Valor. p. 79. 353 Kent Hundred Rolls states that the abbot of Boxley and the prioress of St Stephens owned a fourth part of half a knights fee of the manor of Silwell in Newchurch parish. 354 TNA, SC 6/1253/11. 355 Lambeth MS 1212, f. 128. Appendix 1, p. 183. 65 surviving fourteenth-century ministers’ accounts for La Chene. These offer more information on the revenues and land use of this area.356 No reference to a manor at Silwell on Romney Marsh has been found in the Boxley archive although a late fourteenth-century rental of Silwell manor in Rainham on the Medway named the principal tenants to be the Abbot of Boxley, the prior of Leeds, Sir John Northborne and Sir William Leybourne.357 However, there is evidence that the monks held land at Bilsington. A surviving charter of William de Sylopesbrug, confirmed to the monks a grant of woods in Bilsington which Master Adam, rector of Bilsington church had granted to them, after he had bought the land from William de Sylopesbrug.358 Although undated the charter can be securely dated to the early thirteenth century because it was witnessed by monks of the abbey. One witness to the document was the Boxley monk William de St Neots, who had become abbot at Boxley’s daughter house at Robertsbridge in Sussex by 1222.359 Other witnesses included the abbot, John, and sub prior, Simon. This may refer to Abbot John who was elected 1216.360 According to Hasted the manor of Silwell held by the abbot of Boxley was the manor of Sillowsbregg in Newchurch that had been held by William of Sylopesbrug.361 The Book of Fees recorded that in 1242 the abbey of Boxley along with Bertram Croille, Richard Grellee and John Snave held half a knight’s fee at Silesbreg.’ The Hundred Rolls for Kent 1274-75 recorded for Newchurch that ‘the abbot of Boxley and the prioress of St Sepulchure’s owned a fourth part of half a knight’s fee at Silwell.’362 The entry for Newchurch also recorded that ‘William de Sylnebr’ held half a fee of the lord king in chief and sold it to many people and now the abbot of Boxley, the prioress of St Sepulchure’s (Canterbury), John de Gredle, Hugh de Kyrfingeham, Hamo le Bret, William Chapel (and) John le Berledindenn hold that’.363 In 1364 the monks of Boxley leased land, rent, and two houses at Bilsington and Rucking to Simon le Tur for a five year 356 TNA, SC 6/886/7. 357 B.L Add MS 37086 A. 358 TNA, E 210/6720. 359 D. Smith, V. London, eds. The Heads of Religious Houses in England and Wales, II, 1216- 1377, Cambridge, 2001, p. 303. 360 Ibid. p. 265. Abbot John resigned in 1236 to become abbot of Cîteaux. 361 Hasted, The History and Topographical Survey of the County of Kent, pp. 338-344. 362 Liber feodorum. The book of fees commonly called Testa de Nevill, reformed from the earliest mss. by the Deputy Keeper of the Records, 2 vols. in 3, 1920-31. ii, p. 657. 363 http://www.kentarchaeology.ac/khrp/hrproject.pdf. Newchurch Hundred. Accessed 7.7.09. 66 term at a place called Syloppesbregg for annual rent of 4 marks (£2 13s. 4d.).364 The fifteenth-century cartulary of Bilsington Priory recorded that the abbot of Boxley held land on Romney marsh called Frerenland de Boxle and was located next to Sylobregge.365 In 1378 the abbey leased land, part of which was called Frerencroft, to John Swayn of Boxley for a rent of 20 bushels of beer barley annually.366 This may refer to the same place. One final reference to Romney Marsh came in a late lease, written in English on 2nd January 1538, just 4 weeks before the abbey was dissolved. John Dobbes, the last abbot of Boxley, leased 50 acres of marshland in Bilsington and Rucking at Romney Marsh, to Philip Chowt of Town Malling for a period of 99 years, for an annual rent of £5.367 It is the only lease in the Boxley archive written in English rather than Latin. Land acquired in Surrey Outside Kent, the monks of Boxley had been endowed with land at Chessington in Surrey from the time of their foundation. The abbey held land at Chessington by charter of Robert Chessington in 1189.368 This was valued at £1 4s. in 1291.369 Valor recorded the manor of Friern at Chessington as a possession of Boxley Abbey, valued at £6 in 1535.370 The date of acquisition of the manor of Friern is not recorded and the reference in Valor is the only reference found in which the land at Chessington was described as a manor. However, there are documented references to land at Chessington that was owned by the abbey of Boxley. Liberties for lands in Surrey were claimed by the abbot of Boxley in the placita de quo warranto, although not for a manor.371 The monks of Boxley had acquired further land at Chessington prior to 1329, when a pardon was granted to them for land in Chessington acquired from Clement le Taillour and Nicholas son of Osbert ate Wodehall.372 The abbot of Boxley had a grant of free warren for his lands in Chessington in 1359,373 and the abbey rented fields at Chessington to Richard Byrd in 1369 for a period of 8 years for an annual 364 TNA, E 210/9216. 365 N. Neilson, ed. The cartulary and terrier of the priory of Bilsington, Kent, Records of the Social and Economic History of England and Wales, British Academy, Oxford University Press, London, 1928, p. 170, p. 176. 366 TNA, E 210/563. Appendix 2:5, p. 190 367 TNA, E 326/8141. Appendix 2:5, p. 190. 368 TNA, C 53/45. 369 Taxatio, p. 206. 370 Valor, p. 79. 371 Placita de quo warranto, p. 344. 372 CPR 1327-1330, p. 367. 373 Ibid. 67 rent of 8s.374 In 1405 land and a tenement at Chessington were leased to Alexander Herrietsham, his wife Ellen and John their son by the monks of Boxley.375 The abbot of Boxley was assessed for half a knight’s fee in 1428, for land at Chessington formerly held by Roger Apperle.376 One fourteenth-century manuscript relating to the lands of Boxley Abbey at Chessington has survived at the National Archives.377 Later Benefactors of Boxley Abbey In the later fourteenth century the local benefactors of Boxley Abbey are more easily visible in the historical record. John Farningham (Frenyngham) was sheriff of Kent in 1378 and 1393, and listed as a knight of the shire for Kent in 1399. His grandfather, also called John,378 was sheriff of Kent 1317, 1324, 1325, and in 1348, and was pardoned by Edward III for acquiring the manor of West Barmelyng (Barming) and the advowson of the church of West Barmelyng (Barming) without a licence in 1332.379 Along with William Makenade,380 John Farningham granted the monks of Boxley pasture, woodland and marsh in Boxley, Upchurch and Hoo in 1392, in return for certain works of piety.381 His will has not survived but in it he requested that the manor of East Barmelyng (Barming) should be used by his heirs to maintain two chaplains. One chaplain was to serve at the church of East Farleigh where his grandfather was buried. The other should serve at the monastery of Boxley, at the altar of St Stephen before which his parents, Sir Ralph Farningham (Frenyngham), who had been sheriff of Kent in 1358, and his wife lady Katherine, were buried, and where John and his wife Alice were also to be buried.382 This chantry was founded in 1411.383 No earlier reference for the burial at Boxley of Sir Ralph and Lady Katherine has been located but a 1365 Boxley bursars’ account recorded a payment from the executors of Ralph Farningham 374 TNA, E 210/11201. Appendix 2:5, p. 190. 375 TNA, E 210/11071. Appendix 2:5, p. 190. 376 VCH, Surrey, vol.3, pp.264-5. 377 TNA, SC 6/1011/25. 378 F.R.H. Du Boulay, ed. ‘The Kent lay subsidy roll 1334-5’, in Medieval Kentish Society, Kent Archaeological Society, Vol. 18, 1964, p. 118, John Freningham was assessed at 10s. 379 CPR 1330-34, p. 327. 380 William Makenade and John Farningham were keepers of the peace for Kent in 1378. William Makenade granted land to the Dominican nuns of Dartford in 1404 and 1406. He was one of the attorneys of the prioress. See CPR 1385-89, p. 377; CPR 1389-92, p. 371; CPR 1405-8, p. 328. William Makenade died in 1407 and left the abbot of Boxley 20s.8d in his will along with 40s to various other monks of Boxley. 381 TNA, C 143/ 413/ 27. 382 Hussey, Kent Chantries, p. 125-6. 383 Ibid. 68 for pittances on his anniversary.384 In 1421 the executors of John Farningham granted a yearly rent of 20 marks (£13 3s. 8d.) for 70 years to the prior of Christ Church Canterbury and the abbot of Boxley for the maintenance of two chaplains to celebrate divine office during that term, one at the abbey of Boxley, the other at the church of East Farleigh. They were to pray for the souls of John Farningham, his parents and ancestors, and each had an annual salary of £6 13s. 4d.385 This is evidence that the chantry was established after his death. It is also evidence that the family were using the abbey church as a family mausoleum in return for their benefaction something which is also found in the records of Sibton Abbey.386 A number of surviving wills document requests for burial at Boxley Abbey. In 1406 John Gold, priest of Longsole Allington, left all of his goods to the monks of Boxley in return for burial in the abbey church.387 In 1405 Reginald Cobham, son of Sir Thomas Cobham requested to be buried in the abbey church next to his father and left the rent of lands at Brokrede to the monks to pay for masses.388 No record of his father being buried at Boxley has been located yet. In 1463 Robert Hereford, Bachelor of Laws, rector of the church of Newchurch at Romney Marsh requested burial in the chapel of St Martin at Boxley Abbey.389 The 1489 will of John Kember, in which he requested burial within the monastic church at Boxley, has already been mentioned.390 In 1499 Edward Baynbridge requested burial in the abbey church and asked that his lands at Reyhurst should be sold and the money granted to the abbey for masses.391 The 1512 will of Thomas Bougchier, nephew of Cardinal Thomas Bourchier requested that he be buried at Boxley Abbey and he left money to make a chapel and fund his own priest there to sing for ever for his soul.392 Another fourteenth-century benefactor to Boxley Abbey was Robert Vinter,393 keeper of the peace in 1360 at the same time as Sir Ralph Farningham, who was also buried at Boxley.394 His will stated that he wished to be buried at the abbey of Boxley wherever the 384 TNA, SC 6/1253/16. 385 Calendar of Inquisitions Miscellaneous, vol. 7, London, 1916, pp. 259-60. 386 Brown, Sibton Abbey Cartularies, 1, p. 126. 387 Lambeth, Reg. Arundel, vol. 1, f. 231 388 Lambeth, Reg. Arundel, vol. 1, f. 226. 389 Prerogative Court of Canterbury Wills. Will of Robert Hereford ,TNA, PROB 11/5/1 390 Footnote 227. 391 Prerogative Court of Canterbury Wills. Will of Edward Baynbrigg, TNA, PROB 11/12/75 392 Prerogative Court of Canterbury Wills. Will of Thomas Bougchier, PROB/11/17/313. 393 Du Boulay, ed. ‘The Kent lay subsidy roll 1334-5’ p. 119, Robert Vinter was assessed at 10s. 394 Ibid. assessed at 10s. He was keeper of the peace, 1360. 69 abbot may assign.395 His son, John Vinter396 is said to have sold the Vinters’ estate at Boxley to John Farningham.397 Robert Vinter, along with John Fletcher, granted land in Boxley and Aylesford to the abbey in 1365.398 He was a frequent visitor to abbey, received gifts from the abbot of Boxley and also afforded the abbey loans on a number of occasions. These visits, gifts and loans are documented in the accounts of the bursars during the fourteenth century.399 He acted on behalf of abbey in legal matters, such as in 1364 when he acted on behalf of abbey in a plea against a mariner John Burgeys concerning the profit and loss of a farcost carrying herrings to the abbey from Yarmouth.400 Another chantry was established for him at Maidstone, the largest that existed at the Dissolution in that church. This was valued at £12 5s. 0½d. in 1548. The chantry, known as Vinters or Goulds chantry because it was maintained by the manor of Goulds in Shoford, Maidstone, which had belonged to Robert Vinter, was re-founded in 1395 when the church was rebuilt as the collegiate church of All Saints.401 The executor of Robert Vinter’s will was an ecclesiastic named Robert Bourne. The will was proved on 12 September 1368.402 A further chantry at St Sepulchre’s Priory Canterbury was founded by Robert Bourne on behalf of Robert Vinter and his family in November 1369. It stated that the foundation was made to help support the priory because their possessions were not enough to support a chaplain.403 The priory was granted the manor of Shoford called the Mote in Maidstone and a copy of this deed was kept at Boxley Abbey.404 This emphasises the close relationship which clearly existed between Robert Vinter, Robert Bourne and the monks of Boxley abbey. Robert Bourne, the executor of Robert Vinter’s will, was first presented by the Crown as rector of St Matthew’s, Ipswich in 1342. He was instituted to Wouldham in 1349, and then became vicar general of Rochester, commissary general of Canterbury in 1366, auditor of 395 The Register of Simon Langham, ed. A.C. Wood, Canterbury and York Society, 53, 1956, pp. 346-7. 396 Du Boulay, ed. ‘The Kent lay subsidy roll 1334-5’, p. 119. John Vinter was assessed at 1s. 397 The estate forms part of the present day Vinters Valley Nature Reserve. For the location see Appendix 10, p. 210. 398 TNA, C 143 /355/9. 399 TNA, SC 6/1253/4; TNA, SC 6/1253/12. 400 Thomas, Cal of the plea and memoranda rolls, pp. 9-10. 401 Hussey, Kent Chantries, pp. 193-4. 402 See above footnote 395, p. 69. 403 J. Brigstocke Sheppard, ed. Literae Cantuarienses, The letter books of the monastery of Christ Church Canterbury, 3 vols, Cambridge Library Collection – Rolls, Cambridge 2012 pp. 493-497. 404 Ibid. 70 causes sede vacante on behalf of the monks of Christchurch Canterbury in January 1368, rector of Freckenham and Southfleet 1368, vicar general of Rochester sede vacante 1372, and commissary general in 1375.405 He was a frequent visitor to Boxley Abbey, and was named in many of the fourteenth-century bursars’ accounts as a recipient of gifts of money and wine, and cloth for his staff.406 Robert Bourne died in 1385. In his will he requested to be buried at Boxley Abbey.407 He left £10 to construct an altar in the abbey church, in honour of the three virgins or the three confessors, with precise instructions on the exact location of the altar - in the middle of the church between the altar of the apostles and the altar of the martyrs in the north part of the church. He also left £20 to glaze the great window in front of the choir, 20s. a silver cup and personal gifts to the abbot of Boxley, a cup and half a mark (6s. 8d.) to Brother Richard of Dover, monk of Boxley, and 10s. to be divided between three other named monks of Boxley. He left 13s. 4d. for pittances to be distributed at Boxley on the day of his burial, and a girdle of ‘the better sort’ for the image of Mary that stood in the conventual church. After other personal bequests to his family and friends, the residue of his estate was left to the Abbey to provide a memorial for his soul. Among his executors were John (Herrietsham) Abbot of Boxley and other named monks of Boxley. Although the surviving documentary evidence for land acquisition by Boxley Abbey is incomplete, it is possible to discern a change in the type of benefactor and type of benefaction that took place in the period prior to c1350, and the later benefactions of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. The early benefactors were very local people and local families who are difficult to trace in the historical record. Known later grants to the abbey were made by local justices, conservators of the peace for Kent, or sheriffs of Kent. This group of men who appear in the surviving deeds all appear to have had connections to each other. Ralph Farningham was a conservator of the peace with Robert Vinter. John Vinter sold the Vinters estate at Boxley to John Farningham. Robert Bourne and Robert Vinter were closely connected to the abbey and to the monks during the same period and Robert Bourne was the executor of Robert Vinter's will, a role that he carried out to the letter. They all requested burial at Boxley Abbey. William Cheyne, 405 A. L. Browne, ‘The Medieval Officials- Principal of Rochester’, Arch. Cant. vol. 53, 1940, pp. 29-62. 406 TNA, SC 6/1253/15. 407 Prerogative Court of Canterbury Wills. Will of Master Robert Burne, TNA, PROB/11/1/6. 71 also sheriff of Kent and associate of John Farningham, was not buried at Boxley, but provided the monks of Boxley with land on which they could rebuild the church at Eastchurch in Sheppey when the old church fell down in 1431.408 William Makenade of Preston, who granted land along with John Farningham, was also a conservator of the peace for Kent in 1378.409 It is interesting that this group of men should choose to support the only Cistercian house in Kent. They were not all from the area immediately around Boxley, but originated from different areas of west and north-west Kent. Robert Vinter was from Maidstone, John Farningham was from Loose, William Cheyne was from Sheppey, and William Makenade was from Preston near Faversham. Their common link was that they all shared public office in the county. In contrast to the earlier transactions there is no evidence that money changed hands for the later grants at the time of the transaction, but spiritual benefits were clearly requested by these men in the form of prayers, and in some cases burial within the abbey church. In return this provided an ongoing income for the abbey after the death of these individuals. Conclusion A religious house did not stand in isolation, and had to compete for land with neighbouring religious foundations. Boxley was located between the two large Cathedral Priories of Rochester and Canterbury, both of which pre-dated Boxley and both were already major landholders in Kent by the mid twelfth century. Some of the smaller houses nearby were also founded before Boxley and so also had a prior claim on sources of revenue, such as the nearby house of Austin canons at Leeds, that had been founded in 1119. It was advantageous for a religious house to have a strong patron, ideally the founder in the early years. Boxley Abbey had a basic endowment in 1146 at the time of its foundation as well as a founder who had gone back to his homeland in Flanders by 1157 and did not return to England. There is no evidence, after the initial foundation of Boxley that William of Ypres or any of his family ever acted as benefactors to the abbey. In lieu of this, it was the task of the abbot and monks to build up their estates in whatever manner was available to them, and to encourage generous benefactors, perhaps even re-inventing the history of their foundation in order to secure royal patronage for their future. While the monastic grange 408 CPR 1429-36, p. 147. 409 TNA, C 143/413/27. 72 in medieval England was not exclusive to the Cistercian order, it has come to be associated with them because the Cistercian ideology was founded upon the principle of a self sufficient economy. The successful acquisition of land, and its efficient exploitation was therefore fundamental to the survival of the monastery. The survival of the grange itself was also dependent upon its own success as a means of revenue, either in produce or in cash. This theme of survival is exemplified by the surviving deeds in the Boxley archive. The records are limited in number when compared with some other Cistercian houses, such as Beaulieu Abbey in Hampshire, and Sibton Abbey in Suffolk, for which there are surviving cartularies. Abundant records have also survived for the estates of Quarr Abbey on the Isle of Wight. However, though limited in number, the Boxley deeds may, nonetheless, be interpreted so as to reveal similarities with other houses as well as a pattern of acquisition during the thirteenth and early fourteenth centuries that was not uncommon at other Cistercian houses. The documents reveal that the monks at Boxley were proactive in strengthening and enriching their basic endowment, particularly in the thirteenth and early fourteenth centuries. In the Boxley area fields, messuages, rents and quitclaims to land close to existing abbey lands were sought after and acquired through a number of means, which included pious benefaction. More commonly land was bought or exchanged. Particular pieces of land were purposely targeted even if this meant that the monks had to give up more land then they received. 410 Benefactors as family groups were a key factor. For example land above the hill at Boxley was recorded as being acquired from the Burle family from 1189 through to 1316. Small pieces of land which lay next to the abbey lands were obtained piece by piece to consolidate existing estates, and this is demonstrated by the grants of Odo Burle, William Burle, Margery Burle, Margery Loth and Richard Burle.411 These piecemeal acquisitions clearly lay close to or alongside the land that was included in the original endowment of the manor of Boxley. It is often difficult to distinguish a grant given with a purely pious motivation from a sale, as the surviving deeds are sometimes confusing in their detail. For example the charter roll entry for the grants of marsh at Sharpness refers to these as ‘grants’ while the Red Book refers to these lands as having 410 CKFF, p. 51. In 1212 Robert Abbot of Boxley gave up 95 acres of land at Nettlested to Simon son of Michael Wahull, (land which Michael had previously granted to the abbey), in exchange for 5 marks (£3 6s.8d.) and 1 meadow also in Nettlested, which the abbey was to hold for just 6 years. 411 Appendix 2:1, pp. 184-5. 73 been bought by the Abbot of Boxley. This clearly implies a sale rather than a series of purely benevolent grants. In a number of the Boxley deeds land is described as being sold to the monks but other than the entry fine there is no reference to money changing hands. The exact manner of acquisition is not clear. This ambiguity is also found at Sibton and Quarr where the deeds frequently referred to the sale of land as a grant of land even though money had changed hands.412 What is clear is that throughout the thirteenth century particular parcels of land close to existing landholdings were deliberately acquired by successive abbots, in order to build up the estates of the abbey.413 Bearing in mind that the lay men and women in the area had a wide ranging choice for their benefaction, it is not surprising that the monks of Boxley had to acquire land by whatever means possible to ensure the survival of the house. They were successful in this. Including the names listed in the pardons in the patent rolls, the total number of people known to have made land transactions with the abbey through grants of land, sales of land, or land exchanges prior to 1350 exceeds 130 individual transactions. This figure is naturally conservative, given that there is no surviving cartulary and only a limited number of deeds. At Sibton Abbey in Suffolk more than 300 individuals are known to have made property transactions with the abbey.414 At Quarr there are over 400 surviving deeds. There is little evidence that they planned to expand the scope of the territories far beyond the areas of initial endowment. Instead, the monks of Boxley concentrated upon strengthening landholdings close to Boxley, Hoo, Romney and Chessington, all areas which were included in their original endowment. An exception to this is the 150 acres of land acquired at Chingley in the Weald in 1243 from Nicholas and Gunnora Lingedraper.415 The monks were known to have had property at Chingley in 1253, an iron forge which was active by the early thirteenth century, and to have had a working stone quarry at Chingley by 1373. Industrial premises and a stone quarry would have been a valuable asset to the house in the same way that the fishing rights on the Medway were valuable, and worth acquiring for the future of the house, which may explain the acquisition of this land. 412 Brown, Sibton Abbey Cartularies, vol. 1, p. 126-7: Hockey, Quarr Abbey and its lands 1132-1631, p. 70. 413 Smith and London, eds. The Heads of Religious Houses in England and Wales, II, 1216- 1377, p. 265. There were at least nine abbots during the thirteenth century. 414 Brown, Sibton Abbey Cartularies, 1, p. 25. 415 CKFF, p. 177. 74 It is clear that the deliberate land acquisitions of Boxley Abbey, throughout its history, were largely rural or semi-rural, in the form of fields, meadowland, pastureland, heathland woods and marshland. Although located close to a number of large towns, urban properties were few in number and were not actively sought after. It may be that the abbey had little use for urban properties. Located in rural Kent the most useful land was that which augmented its existing estates while more distant urban properties may have been viewed as of little practical use and more problematic in terms of day to day management. In contrast, during the thirteenth can fourteenth centuries Quarr abbey had acquired properties in a number of local towns and cities including Portsmouth, Winchester and Southampton and these provided it with rents that Hockey concluded must have brought in a ‘fair income’ for the monks of Quarr.416 However, as Quarr was located on the Isle of Wight there were also practical reasons for them wishing to own properties in these nearby cities and ports in terms of accessibility, and accommodation when travelling away from the island. Additionally there was a limit to how much land could be acquired close to the monastery on the island whereas properties in these nearby cities would have been more readily available. Local circumstances dictated the opportunities open to a particular religious house but the grange economy at the heart of the Cistercian ideology meant that consolidation of estates was the primary objective, something that is clear in the surviving deeds at Sibton, Quarr and Boxley Abbey. Boxley had been granted possessions in London,417 Dover418 and Dartford,419 but there is no evidence of a deliberate expansion into any urban areas. In fact the opposite can be seen in the exchange of the London property granted by Paris, Archdeacon of Rochester, for 205 acres of marshland on Romney Marsh. Perhaps this was due in part to the Cistercian statutes which directed that Cistercian houses should be ‘far from the habitation of men’,420 but it was undoubtedly also due to the dominance of the existing religious houses in urban areas around Boxley Abbey. The following study of surviving estate records for the upper and lower granges and the estates at Newenham Court, La Chene, Chingley, Hoo, Ham, Sharpness and Chessington sheds light upon the changes in land use over time. It will reveal the impact of external forces upon the 416 Hockey, Quarr Abbey and its Lands 1132-1631, p. 99 417 At St Mary Axe and St Michael Cornhill, Taxatio, p. 12. 418 12th century grant of a house and messuage in Dover from Anselm deacon of Sandwich, TNA, E 210/6715. Messuage in Dover granted by Dunes Abbey in 1314, TNA, E 210/8894. 419 13th century grant of rents in Dartford from Alexander Walensis, TNA, E 326/1304. 420 Burton, Monastic and Religious Orders in Britain, p. 65. 75 exploitation of land assets and the business acumen demonstrated by the monks of Boxley throughout the period. 76 CHAPTER 3. THE OPERATION OF THE BOXLEY ABBEY ESTATE Introduction The Cistercian ideology was founded upon the principle of a self sufficient economy. The acquisition of land, and its efficient exploitation, was therefore fundamental to the survival of the monastery. The surviving deeds, which have been studied already, revealed how the monks at Boxley were successful in strengthening and enriching their basic endowment. By 1158, when the abbey founder William of Ypres had almost certainly returned to Flanders, the acquisition of land for Boxley Abbey through further major grants was unlikely. Instead fields, messuages, rents and quitclaims to land close to existing abbey lands were directly sought after and acquired by the monks through a number of means. This included pious benefaction but more commonly land was bought or exchanged. There is little evidence that there were ever plans to expand the scope of the territories far beyond the areas of initial endowment. Instead, the monks of Boxley concentrated upon strengthening and developing their landholdings close to Boxley, Hoo, Romney and Chessington, all areas which were included in their original endowment. An exception to this is the 150 acres of land acquired at Chingley in the Weald by 1243.421 Boxley’s finances were based upon a mixture of rents, and land exploitation through farming. The balance of these two was dictated by local and national forces, the nature of which will become clearer through the following study of the estate records, of which one hundred have survived at the National Archives at Kew.422 At least nine estates had been established by the beginning of the fourteenth century, some of which were potentially within a day’s ride of the abbey, as stipulated by Cistercian statutes, while others were not.423 The monastery stood at the base of a steep hill. In the immediate vicinity granges were established above and below the hill, with another close by at Newenham. Water sources, necessary for animals and for cultivation of crops, were also harnessed and utilised through the three mills owned by the abbey in the Boxley area. Further afield on Romney marsh the abbey held in excess of one thousand acres which made up their estate of La Chene, while on the Medway they held estates at Ham and Sharpness. Boxley also 421 CKFF, p. 177. 422 Appendix 4, p. 199. 423 This figure includes the two appropriated churches at Stoke in Hoo and at Eastchurch on Sheppey. 77 had the manor of Little Hoo at Hoo as well as two churches, one at Stoke on the Hoo peninsula and the other at Eastchurch on Sheppey. More distant properties included an estate at Chingley in the Weald of Kent and land at Chessington in Surrey. The 1360 Assessment of Revenues One of the most significant surviving sources for the estates of Boxley abbey is a surviving Assessment of Revenues which was ordered to be made in 1360 by Abbot John Herrietsham.424 The Assessment of Revenues for 1360 was a record of the annual obligations due from all of the manors of Boxley abbey. These were to be paid in produce or in its equivalent value in cash. The assessment stated that produce from the estates, in grain and livestock, was to be used for the maintenance of the abbot, convent and guesthouse. While this document was clearly intended as a forecast of revenues, it also set out a spending budget. In addition to listing the revenues coming in to the abbey from the estates, the assessment also included the receipts and expenses in produce and in money, of the four main obedientiaries of Boxley Abbey. These were the granator, the bursars, the sub cellarer and the refector. Annual revenues from the henhouse and dovecote, warren, mills and the fishery on the Medway were all included as were fixed sums of cash revenues from leased manors. The financial detail is very specific and is explored at greater detail in Chapter 4. The Assessment of Revenues allows an insight into the interaction between Boxley Abbey and its estates in the middle of the fourteenth century, which concurs with the date of many of the surviving estate records for the abbey lands. It is therefore a useful point of reference in the following analysis of the manorial records because it described in detail the revenues in both money and produce, which the abbey expected to be handed over from the two churches and seven granges belonging to it at that time. The date of the assessment was an important moment in the economic history of this abbey, because it presented a view of the economic state of the house twelve years after the Black Death and at a point just less than 200 years before its dissolution. Significantly, in his study of agriculture in Kent Campbell found that the twenty-five years following the Black Death were the most difficult of all for Kent farmers because the of lack of labour, made worse by 424 TNA, SC 6/1253/11. 78 a succession of bad harvests.425 The Assessment of Revenues at Boxley was undoubtedly a response by Abbot John to this series of catastrophes. It is also a mid point for the surviving accounts of the Boxley estates. The dates of the financial accounts which have survived at The National Archives in Kew for the estates of Boxley Abbey fall between 1286 and 1442. Taken in conjunction with the Assessment of Revenues for 1360 these allow an assessment of the economy of the Boxley Abbey estates throughout the fourteenth century. In addition to the 1360 Assessment of Revenues, there are two other, less detailed assessments of revenues for Boxley abbey, for 1317 and 1371.426 The Boxley Estate Accounts The formulaic manner of the Boxley estate accounts is misleading to the modern eye although they followed the standard conventions of the medieval accounting system. On the surface they appear to be a straightforward list of profit and loss. Each account was preceded by a title listing the name of the grange/church, the name and title of the accountant and the period of accounting covered by the account. This was followed by the charge on the account, (recepta) including any arrears (money owed to the lord from the accounting official) from the previous account, after that the discharge, (expensa) which included any debt owed from the lord to the accounting official from the previous account (superplusagium) and then a balance at the end of the account. The balance was the difference between the recepta and the expensa. According to the balance the accountant was either in debt to the abbey or the abbey in debt to the accountant. In many of the Boxley accounts the accountant petitioned for money to be allowed to him for expenses not listed in the account, such as money owed to creditors, which he had paid out. This could mean a resulting excessus balance in the account whereby the accounting official was owed money by the monastery because the discharge had exceeded the charge. In the balance of the accounts the real purpose of the written account as described by Denholm-Young may be discerned. The account was intended not as a list of profit and loss but to render the accountant answerable to the abbey for the finances of the estate, and to make sure he was acting in an honest manner.427 Audits were carried out to ensure that the 425 B. Campbell, ‘Agriculture in Kent in the High Middle Ages’, Later Medieval Kent: 1220- 1540, ed. S. Sweetinburgh, Kent History Project, 9, Woodbridge, 2010, p. 46. 426 TNA, SC 6/1253/11; TNA, SC 6/1251/3; TNA, SC 6/1253/18. 427 N. Denholm-Young, Seignoral Administration in England, Oxford, 1937, p. 127. 79 monastery was not being cheated. The job of the auditor was to reduce the amount of money which was allowed to the sergeant. An example of this can be seen in the three petitions which were attached to the Chingley account for 1351 in which the sergeant Roger Godwin asked for many more allowances than he was given.428 In this account the hand of the auditor can clearly be seen. Fig. 1: TNA SC 6/889/5. Extract of petitions of sergeant at Chingley showing hand of auditors in 1351 Backdated petitions were attached to this account for 1349 and 1350 as well as 1351. The sergeant Roger Godwin was charged with a total debt to the abbey of £10. 19s. He petitioned for £16 19s. 7 ¾d. and was initially allowed £5 10s. 3 ¾d. by the abbot and a further £1 10s. 3 ¼d. by the abbot at the request of the prior and convent. His final debt was £3 for which the account stated he was seized by the auditors. Similarly at the Lower Grange in 1355 the sergeant John Marker was charged with a debt of £2 9s. 10 ¾d. He was allowed £1 13s. 3 ¾d. then was seized by the auditors. The account then stated that he paid up to the satisfaction of the abbot.429 At Newenham all of the accounts showed the hand of the auditor, not only in the lists of petitions by the sergeant but particularly in the stock accounts where the total numbers of animals were amended and adjusted throughout. Every detail for every animal was 428 TNA, SC 6/889/5. 429 TNA, SC 6/886/22. 80 incorporated, even including the chickens and hens that were eaten by a fox in 1354.430 In this way an accurate account of numbers of animals remaining on the estate at the beginning and end of the accounting period could be established to ensure that the abbey was not being cheated. Fig. 2: TNA SC 6/893/25. Extract from 1354 Newenham stock account recording loss of chickens to fox In 1355 the initial balance of the Newenham account showed a credit of £26 12s. 8 ¼d. which the sergeant was bound to pay back to the abbey.431 The sergeant John Ford was then allowed expenses of £15 18s. 5 ¾d. which reduced his debt to £10 14s. 2 ½d. He was allowed another £2 14s. 2 ½d. by special grace of the abbot. The abbot, with special consent of the brethren then allowed to him an additional £4 which reduced his debt to £4 and for which the account recorded he was seized, presumably by the auditor. Finally an agreement was then reached by which the sergeant would pay the remaining debt in instalments. The Role of the Boxley Estates The term grange was used in the Boxley accounts to describe both the ecclesiastical and non-ecclesiastical land holdings of the abbey. This corresponds with Platt’s definition of a grange as an ‘economic unit designed to yield a surplus for the use and enjoyment of the monastic community that owned it.’432 The survival of the grange depended upon its own success as a means of revenue, either in produce or in cash. The original Cistercian grange as envisioned by St Bernard in the twelfth century was located at less than a day’s ride from the abbey and managed by a group of lay brethren or conversi who ‘acted as a buffer between the monks and the outside world…. in business and commercial affairs.’433 430 TNA, SC 6/893/25: Figure 2, p. 80 431 TNA, SC 6/893/26. 432 Platt, The Monastic Grange, p. 14. 433 Burton, Monastic and Religious Orders in Britain, p. 77. 81 Presumably, there had originally been many lay brothers at Boxley. By the middle of the fourteenth century although this was no longer the case, there were still references to them.434 In the 1348 account of Hoo which has been badly damaged, is almost completely illegible and only covers a period of seven weeks, the title clearly stated that brother Peter, conversus of Boxley, was the warden of the manor at this time. Fig. 3: TNA SC 6/892/8. Extract from Hoo 1348 naming Brother Peter as a conversus In the subsequent account for Hoo, that of 1349, the warden was a lay sergeant named Adam Man. In the 1323 account for the manor of La Chene on Romney Marsh payment of 6d. was made as a gift for the brethren (fratribus) on the manor which may be a reference to the conversi.435 It is likely that prior to the Black Death the conversi at Boxley were already dwindling in numbers. Certainly after 1348 paid staff had completely taken over their role. The estates were managed either by lay sergeants or by monks in all but this single account. During this time the primary purpose of the Boxley granges was always to provide the abbey with produce. There was diversity in the type of farming on individual estates. Rather than specialising in either arable farming or animal husbandry both types of farming went on alongside each other where possible, as occurred elsewhere in Kent.436 Details relating to profits from the estates were listed at the end of some, but not all of the accounts. Profits were calculated in terms of the value of the produce which had been sent from each grange/manor/church to the abbey or elsewhere during the period of accounting. The value of the profits bore no relation to the balance documented at the end of the account. This echoes the above definition of the grange by Platt as a unit designed to yield a surplus for the enjoyment of 434 The Assessment of Revenue for 1360 refers in the past tense to an allowance of grain which used to be given to the conversi. 435 TNA, SC 6/ 886/2. 436 Campbell, ‘Agriculture in Kent in the High Middle Ages’, pp. 25-55 discusses the preference for mixed husbandry farming on the estates of Christ Church Priory in detail. 82 the community, thus the survival of the monastic grange always depended upon its ability to produce an income (profit) in the form of produce or cash for the monastery. Produce (profit) could be either consumed by the monks or sold to generate cash. Consumable produce was sent from all of the Boxley estates directly to specific obedientiaries within the monastery, most commonly to the granator, the bursars, the sub-cellarer and the refector, the same four obedientiaries named as recipients of produce in the Assessment of Revenues for 1360. On occasions the physical destination of the produce was given as the larder, refectory or the kitchen and the name and title of the obedientiary receiving it was also commonly given. Brother Walter de Melle was consistently the named granator at Boxley in the estate accounts between 1332 and 1358. For example in 1344 the warden of the upper grange, Brother Peter ate Stoke sent 22 quarters of wheat and 66 quarters of oats to Walter ate Melle the granator of Boxley, 10 pigs, 2 piglets, 17 geese and 10 gallons of butter to the Boxley sub cellarer, 2 weys of cheese to the refector and an additional 1 wey of cheese to the porter at the gatehouse.437 Non consumable profits such as cash and cash crops from the estates were sent either to the bursars or to the abbot. In the same account from the upper grange £10 in cash from the sales of wheat, 1 sack and 26lb of wool worth £5 5s. and lamb’s wool valued at 5s. 5d. was handed over directly to the abbot. The total value of the profits for this year from the upper grange was listed as £33 3s. 1d. The difference between the recepta and expensa in this year had resulted in an excessus balance of £8 16s. 3 ¾d. but this bore no relation to the perceived profits of the estate which was calculated according to the value of the produce which had been generated for the abbey. 437 TNA, SC 6/886/15. 83 Fig. 4: TNA SC 6/886/10. Extract from upper grange account 1337 showing profits of the estate It made practical and economic sense for an abbey to seek those necessities which were most difficult to transport from its closest and most convenient sources.438 This is evident in all of the Boxley accounts. The accounts record the type and quantities of food which was transported to the monastery each year. The lower grange, which was closest to the monastery, was the home farm. Mixed farming was practised at the lower grange. The estate produced large quantities of grain which were sent to the monastery throughout the period of the accounts and it provided a constant supply of livestock, particularly pigs, to the abbey in addition to wool. The upper grange at Boxley, sited at the top of the hill, provided the abbey with both grain and livestock until the account of 1344. After this period the production of arable produce ceased at this estate. However the upper grange still continued to send livestock to the abbey throughout the fourteenth century. Grain and small quantities of livestock were also sent to the monastery from the nearby farm at Newenham throughout the fourteenth century. Further afield, produce in the form of tithes from Stoke parsonage was carried to Boxley by boat to either be consumed by the monks or sent directly to its closest granges above and below the hill at Boxley rather than being sold for cash. In 1362 over 75 quarters of grain was taken from Stoke to the granary 438 E. Miller, J. Hatcher., Medieval England. Rural Society and Economic Change 1086-1348, London, 1978, p. 40. 84 at Boxley at a cost of 10s. 1d. while in 1378 41 quarters and 4 bushels was transported by boat at cost of 6s. 6d. and in 1391 expenses of 12s. were claimed for 64 quarters of grain to be transported from Stoke to Boxley by boat.439 Livestock at Stoke consisted of just a few pigs and a few geese, the issues of which were either sold or sent to the sub cellarer at Boxley for consumption by the monks. In The Assessment of Revenue for 1360 the parsonage at Stoke was charged with a yearly debt to the granary at Boxley abbey of £14 8d.440 This was accounted for entirely in grain revenues in the form of 16 quarters of wheat, 20 quarters of rye, 10 quarters of palm barley (spring barley), and 8 quarters of haras/peas. The surviving fourteenth-century accounts for the parsonage at Stoke demonstrate that the predetermined quantities of grain set by the Assessment of Revenues for 1360 were indeed transported directly to the granary at Boxley during the period of the accounts. Tithes from the church at Eastchurch on Sheppey also provided the abbey with large quantities of grain which was carried by boat to Boxley throughout the fourteenth century. In the Assessment of Revenues for 1360, this was valued at £40.441 Large quantities of grain were also transported by boat from the manor of Hoo which also provided a variety of livestock, including rabbits from the warren there, to the Boxley sub cellarers. There is less evidence of this in the six surviving accounts from the grange at Chingley. Its location, in the Kent Weald, was less convenient for the easy carriage of goods to Boxley. Few details of the produce sent to Boxley from Chingley were documented in the accounts other than a small amount of poultry but a cash value of the profits was listed which varied between £4 and £10. The profits may have been handed over in cash. However, the accounts show that the abbot and other monks spent time visiting the manor and consumed profits from Chingley on site on a regular basis. The accounts of 1342, 1343 and 1346 stated repeatedly that livestock, particularly poultry, had been used up in the expenses of the abbot and of his friends in exp(e)ns(is) d(o)m(inu)s et amicor(um) suum on different occasions throughout the year.442 This phrase was not found in the records for any of the other Boxley estates. 439 TNA, SC 6/898/10. 440 TNA, SC 6/1253/11. 441 Ibid. 442 TNA, SC 6/889/2; TNA, SC 6/889/3; TNA, SC 6/889/4. 85 Fig. 5: TNA SC 6/889/3. Extract from Chingley 1343 recording expenses for the abbot and his friends At Sharpness, on the Medway marshes, no grain was sent from Sharpness to the abbey. Grain produced on the estate was only ever used for household liveries and sustenance of the animals on the estate. Any small amount of excess grain was sold or used for seed. This concurs with the expectations of the 1360 account of revenue, in which there was no demand for grain supplies to be sent from Sharpness to the abbey. In terms of consumable produce, Sharpness was ideally located for sheep farming and fishing and the estate was a reliable source of fresh meat and fish for the abbey larder. The Assessment of Revenue for 1360 stated that each year Sharpness should provide the sub cellarer at Boxley with 40 ewes valued at 60s. 24 lambs valued at 8s. and 10 pigs valued at 33s. in addition to eels and oysters valued at 20s.443 In reality the quantities of meat sent from Sharpness to Boxley were variable but a regular supply of sheep, lambs and pigs was sent off to the sub cellarer throughout the period. From 1374 swans and geese were also regularly sent to the abbey kitchen. Eels were caught and farmed on the marsh and were sent from Sharpness to the abbey from 1355 in large quantities, which ranged each year from 400 to over 1200.444 443 TNA, SC 6/1253/11. 444 B. Harvey, Living and Dying in Medieval England 1100-1540, Oxford 1993, p. 226. Barbara Harvey calculated that one small eel would have constituted one mess for one monk at Westminster Abbey 1495-1525. Appendix 9 records numbers of eels sent from 86 Although eels were not recorded in accounts prior to 1355, the account of 1354 recorded that 1000 eels had been bought for stocking a fishery in the marshes.445 In the following year the account of 1355 recorded that 326 eels worth 3s. 4d. per 100 had been sent from the fishery at the marsh to the abbey with a total value of 10s. 10d.446 After this the number of eels sent to the abbey appeared in all of the accounts along with other stock, but without a value. Traps for catching eels were bought in 1359, 1375 and 1393.447 Oysters and mussels were bought and sent to the abbey from Sharpness in addition to those which came from the fishery. The estate provided the monastery with livestock, poultry which included swans, and dairy produce throughout the period of the accounts which spanned the end of the thirteenth century to the beginning of the fifteenth century. The most valuable commodity that the abbey received from its estates was wool. Wool was produced from flocks of sheep at Hoo, La Chene, Newenham, Sharpness and at the upper and lower granges. The stock accounts for the lower grange recorded that wool was sent to the abbey each year. The accounts of 1355,1356 and 1383 specified that it was sent to the wardrobe, or office, of the lord (abbot) before it was weighed, an indication that the sale of wool was frequently dealt with by the abbot.448 Unsurprisingly for a Cistercian grange sited on a marsh, the income at Sharpness on the Medway marshes was derived largely from sheep farming and the by-products of sheep farming. During the period under study the grange accounted for in excess of a thousand sheep each year at Sharpness with the exception of the two years where flooding had inundated the land and animals were lost, namely in 1375 and in 1393.449 There are detailed lists of costs for the sheep and dairy in all of the Sharpness accounts. These include costs of shearing the sheep and lambs, expenses for maintaining the sheep houses and folds, the costs involved in milking the ewes, the costs of marking the sheep with red or blue dye and the costs of tar and butter, which were used to make sheep salve for treating disease. For example in 1352, 3 gallons of tar and 24 ½ gallons of pork fat were bought for sheep salve.450 In other years butter from the stores of the estate was mixed with tar for the same purpose. Sharpness fishery to Boxley Abbey, p. 209. 445 TNA, SC 6/896/20. 446 TNA, SC 6/896/21. 447 TNA, SC 6/896/25; TNA, SC 6/897/5; TNA, SC 6/892/1. 448 TNA, SC 6/886/22; TNA, SC 6/886/23; TNA, SC 6/887/9. 449 TNA, SC 6/897/5; TNA, SC 6/892/1. 450 TNA, SC 6/896/18. 87 Fig. 6: TNA SC 6/ 897/4. Costs of sheep at Sharpness 1374 There was no record in these accounts of the costs incurred in cleaning or treating the fleeces at Sharpness. The fleeces were folded, collected into sacks and were either sold and accounted for in the document, or, more commonly, sent to Boxley presumably to be sold by the abbot or bursars. There is evidence of this in the bursars’ accounts: for example, in 1353 the abbot sold 2½ sacks and 20 large lb451 of wool to one Richard Ireland for £9 10s. 8d.452 Almost certainly Boxley was the central collection point for wool from all of the manors where fleeces were cleaned and treated prior to being sold and the accounts for the upper and lower granges and the farm at Newenham all recorded costs for cleaning fleeces there. In 1362 the bursars John Chatham and Thomas Thanet sold 1 sack and 44 large lb of wool from the upper grange and 1 ½ sacks of wool from the lower grange and Newenham for £12 3s. 10d. while in 1364 bursars John Chatham and Hamo Stoke sold 32 large lb of wool from the lower grange and 48 large lb of wool from the grange at Newenham for £7 16d.453 In 1365 the same bursars John Chatham and Hamo Stoke sold wool to the value of £15 2s. 11d. from Sharpness, the lower grange and Hoo.454 Costs for running the dairy were commonly included alongside the expenses of the sheep. This was because the dairymen were often also the shepherds. Cheese was produced for consumption by the abbey and it was also sold. Individual estate storerooms supplied their own workers with weys of cheese during the harvest. At all the granges cheese was made largely from the milk of ewes because there were more sheep than cows. Only Chingley was exclusively a cow dairy. Dairy produce included cheese, milk and butter. All of the 451 The term large lb was used in reference to wool throughout the Boxley accounts but the weight of the large lb is unknown. 452 TNA, SC 6/1253/4. 453 TNA, SC 6/1253/12; TNA, SC 6/1253/15. 454 TNA, SC 6/1253/15. 88 expenses for the dairy included rennet, canvas for cheesecloth called cheesingcloths, and most importantly salt for making the cheese. Utensils bought for the dairy were also included in this section such as hoops and barrels and cooking pans. In 1354 at Sharpness two locks were bought for securing the dairy and pantry doors.455 Costs of the sheep also included maintaining the sheepfolds. Lay and Monastic Personnel on the Boxley Estates A single reference to monks performing manual labour on the estates was recorded in 1332 at the lower grange when the expenses of two monks helping with the harvest were included under the expenses of the harvest. Although there was no record in the accounts of monks routinely working on the estates on a day to day basis it is possible that this was not uncommon but this information may not have been recorded in the accounts. The abbey maintained close contact with all of their estates through the chain of command which existed. The estate was run on a day to day basis by the sergeant, a waged lay officer who answered to the abbey through his annual account. On most of the Boxley estates monk wardens also acted as supervisors at times, and in this capacity they rendered annual accounts to the abbey. For example brother Peter of Boxley was the warden at Chessington in 1289, while at La Chene on Romney marsh brother Stephen was warden in 1323 and brother John Otford was warden there in 1332. John Chatham held the office of warden at the upper grange in 1372, was the warden at Stoke in 1376, 1378 and 1379, at Sharpness in 1382, at Eastchurch in 1385, and at Hoo in 1393. He was joint warden with John Ealding at the upper grange in 1397. John Herrietsham and Roger Godmersham both rendered accounts from the granges at Chingley and Sharpness during the 1350s. The most constant interaction between the abbey and its estates, however, was maintained by the Boxley cellarer. Unlike his counterparts in other Cistercian houses, where the role of the cellarer was, for the most part, an internal one, the Boxley cellarer had a more external administrative role and, as part of this, he acted as a general overseer of the monastic estates. In the earliest surviving accounts there were just a few single references to the cellarer. In 1323 at La Chene the warden claimed for expenses incurred by the cellarer in selling produce for the manor.456 At Chingley the cellarer visited with the abbot in 1340, and expenses were claimed for their food.457 In 1349 at Hoo the cellarer Roger 455 TNA, SC 6/896/20. 456 TNA, SC 6/886/2. 457 TNA, SC 6/889/1. 89 Godmersham held the manorial court on two occasions and his expenses were accounted for by the warden of the manor.458 In the later accounts the developing administrative role of the cellarer was more visible. In 1351 expenses were claimed at Eastchurch for the costs of a visit from cellarer John Herrietsham and oats allowed from the store for his horse.459 He also sold two of the cows and this was documented in the stock account. In 1358 the cellarer John Chatham handed over £1 10s. 8d. from the abbey to the warden at Eastchurch.460 It was at Sharpness and Ham, however, that the external role of the cellarer was most evident. The accounts at these estates also demonstrate direct intervention by the abbot during times of crisis. John Chatham, who was mentioned frequently in the accounts as cellarer and as bursar of the abbey during the period 1358-1393, appears to have taken the role of the cellarer to new levels. In the 1375 account for Sharpness detailed expenses were recorded for extensive work to re-enclose the marshlands at Sharpness.461 The work, which was supervised by John Chatham, followed severe flooding in the previous year on the day of St Denis (9 Oct) when land at Werkworth and Sharpness had been inundated by the sea after a storm. All of the accounts for Sharpness show that the abbey spent money every year to maintain the defences and reinforce the boundary walls by building up and repairing damaged or vulnerable places along the walls and embankments. Despite this in 1374, it was recorded that after the feast of St Denis the marsh of Sharpness was ruined by a huge flood tide.462 In the recepta section of the account for that year, £6 9s. 9d. was handed over to the estate by the abbot towards the repairs required for the marsh walls. In a separate section attached to the main account, over £9 was accounted for in costs of repairs that took place in that year and were paid for by the abbot. Workers were employed from the upper and lower granges and Newenham court as well as from the estate at Sharpness to help with the repairs. A ship was hired to carry wood used for the repairs from Boxley to Sharpness at a cost of 16s. The largest expenses were the wages and food for the workers. 458 TNA, SC 6/892/9. 459 TNA, SC 6/890/12. 460 TNA, SC 6/890/14. 461 TNA, SC 6/897/5. 462 TNA, SC 6/897/4. 90 The following year, in this time of crisis for the estate personal intervention by the abbot was again evident. A huge £76 18s. 9d. was handed over by him in 1375 towards the re-enclosure of Sharpness.463 The account recorded that 288 yards and 231 ½ perches of walls were made, repaired or built up at Sharpness, Crayesmarsh, Elworth, Coketone, Entemarsh and Fylingswerth which were all either marshlands or arable areas mentioned within the accounts for this period. The costs included £29 paid for one new cutting made at Elworth consisting of 55 perches of wall which cost 10s. 6d. per yard plus an extra 2s. 6d. which was added to the total.464 The making of a new cutting indicates that the marsh territories of the abbey were not just being repaired but were also possibly being extended at this time. In all a total of £85 11s. 2 ½d. was spent on re-enclosing the marsh at Sharpness in this year, a very large sum of money that represented a significant investment by the abbey in this area. Costs incurred by the cellarer (who was also the monk warden) after that flooding at Sharpness were retrospectively included as a separate section within the 1375 Sharpness account. John Chatham accounted for £2 4s. 10 ½d. in expenses for felling wood and making hurdles in 1374, 1375, and 1376, along with expenses for the ongoing costs of keeping the walls in good condition, and carriage of the wood to Sharpness. The flooding had a knock on effect on the livestock at the grange. Over 350 lambs died in this year, in addition to more than 35 ewes and 5 rams. Many of the remaining ewes were feeble due to the poor quality of grazing after the flooding. As a result, the cheese and wool produced in that year was scarce. The abbot made a visit to the estate after the flood. Curious items claimed for by the sergeant in the 1374 account for the visit of the abbot included the cost of five curlews bought for him at Hoo and Boxley at a cost of 2s. 6d. six mallards at a cost of 16d. and one pheasant which cost 16d.465 In 1393 the account for the manor of Ham recorded the effects of further flooding around the Medway which had a considerable impact on the abbey land in this area.466 The Boxley 463 TNA, SC 6/897/5. 464 This entry makes it clear that the words perch and virga were interchangeable. 465 TNA, SC 6/897/4. 466 TNA, SC 6/892/1. 91 cellarer John Chatham was sent to supervise the repairs to the walls around Fylingsworth, Elworth, Boyworth, Coketon, and Crayesmarsh, all areas of marshland documented in the earlier Sharpness accounts. More than 220 perches of wall were repaired in this year at a cost of just over £29. All of the work was undertaken under the direct view of John Chatham who was described as the supervisor of the work. To each entry for wages or materials under the section for marsh repairs was added per visum Johannis Chatham Cellarer, an indication that the cellarer took an active and personal role in supervising the repairs.467 It is clear that the land was contaminated by the salt water from this flooding as men were hired to mend the ponds in Boyworth, so that there would be fresh water for the animals there. The stock account for 1393 recorded the devastating effects of this flooding on the animals in the marsh. Total stock Deaths Rams 35 17 Ewes 761 315 2 year old sheep 731 318 Lambs 1012 357 Table 1: Numbers of dead sheep after flooding at Ham in 1393. More than a thousand sheep died at Ham in 1393 which was far higher than the average loss. The stock account recorded that more than 400 of these sheep were carried away by the flood waters – the remainder died because of the disease that followed. Fig. 7: TNA SC 6/892/1. Ham Account 1393. Descriptions of flooding and subsequent disease there It was also recorded that there were fewer lambs because the ewes that survived were feeble. The wool count was reduced on account of the deaths. There was no butter this 467 See figure 15. Page 147. 92 year and the poor quality of the milk from the feeble ewes meant that less cheese was produced. Even the swans were affected by the floods with seven deaths recorded as a result of the lack of fresh water. The stock account documented that the numbers of dead animals were witnessed and counted by the Boxley cellarer John Chatham, presumably as proof that the warden was not trying to cheat the abbey out of any stock under the pretext of death by drowning or subsequent disease. Labour on the Boxley estates was provided by permanent workers or famuli and these were paid a stipend of money, grain or both in return for some sort of continuous service on the estate. In effect the famuli were the backbone of the workforce on the Cistercian grange. The number of famuli at each estate varied. At the upper grange prior to the Black Death there were between 20-30 famuli. At the lower grange there were between 18-20 famuli throughout the fourteenth century, while at Newenham there were between 7-9 famuli. Listed by their job title and sometimes named under the stipends section of the expensa the famuli incorporated people who performed jobs which were ongoing throughout the year. Commonly these were the carters, ploughmen, plough drivers, shepherds, cowherds, swineherds, and often the cheese maker. The expensa section of all of the accounts at each estate recorded the costs of the carts and ploughs - evidence that each estate had its own carts and ploughs. These had to be maintained throughout the year by the smiths and carters, while the plough teams required ox herds and the sheep required shepherds. Although carting, ploughing and harrowing were provided by labour services owed to the abbey these were clearly not enough to maintain the day to day running of the estate all year round and so a core group of salaried workers was required. Stipends in cash and grain were paid by the term and payments were graded according to rank. For example at Sharpness in 1359 the carter received 2s. per term and 5s. for the harvest period while his assistant received 18d. per term and 4s. for the harvest.468 Both received 1b of mixed grain per week. Small extra payments were given at Easter and Christmas which comprised 2d. per feast day. These payments were reserved for the famuli and the numbers of these payments made are an indication of the number of famuli present at each grange in a particular year. At Sharpness for example offerings were made 468 TNA, SC 6/896/25. 93 for ten famuli in 1359, plus two boys for Easter day, nine men and one thresher in 1374, seven in 1375, nine in 1389, seven in 1390, eight in 1395 and eight in 1397.469 The famuli were supplemented by extra workers who were hired to help during busy periods such as threshing sowing and harvesting. Part-timers were paid for one or two terms or for a fixed number of weeks while the permanent workers were paid for all three terms or on an annual basis. The criteria for being categorized as famuli on the Boxley estates appeared to be that the famuli performed tasks relating to the agricultural activities of the estate. Stipends were paid for the harvest period and frequently gloves were given to each member of the famuli at harvest time. For example in 1333 at the Upper Grange five ploughmen received 1s. 6d. each between Michaelmas and Easter, 1s. each between Easter and June 24th and a further 5s. each for the harvest period in addition to a pair of gloves and one bushel of mixed grain each per week throughout the year.470 In 1359 the carter at Sharpness received 2s. per term for the three terms of the year with an extra 5s. for the harvest period in addition to one bushel of mixed grain each week for the year and a new pair of gloves during the harvest.471 At Sharpness in 1388 two temporary shepherds who helped with milking for 13 weeks received a stipend of 3q 2b grain for that time and 18d. each in cash.472 The extra payments at the harvest time are an indication that the famuli had to undertake duties at this time of year which were above and beyond what was expected of them. At Newenham in 1388 William Page who was a shepherd was paid an additional 18d. for helping with the hoeing.473 The accounts show that that members of the famuli were called upon to multi-task throughout the year. In 1333 for example at the upper grange, one harrower who also helped with haymaking took half a bushel of mixed grain per week while in 1344 four quarters of grain were paid to one driver who drove the plough during crop time then looked after the animals afterwards.474 In 1372 John Spilburgh looked after the pigs during the summer and helped with the harvest afterwards and received one quarter of grain for 16 weeks.475 469 TNA, SC 6/896/25; TNA, SC 6/897/4; TNA, SC 6/897/5; TNA, SC 6/897/11; TNA, SC 6/1256/1; TNA, SC 6/892/2. 470 TNA, SC 6/886/6. 471 TNA, SC 6/896/25. 472 TNA, SC 6/897/11. 473 TNA, SC 6/893/27. 474 TNA, SC 6/886/8; TNA, SC 6/886/15. 475 TNA, SC 6/887/2. 94 It is clear that tenants were called upon to perform carrying and ploughing services on the Boxley estates although the evidence for this is limited due to a lack of fourteenth-century rent rolls. Between 1327 and 1388 at Chingley, Ham, Hoo, Sharpness, the Upper Grange and the Lower Grange labour services were commuted for cash to the value of 20s.-30s. These appeared as entries in the manorial profits section of the recepta as ploughing service sold or carrying service sold but there was no record of the total amount of service due from tenants. At Newenham the same evidence was recorded in the recepta section. However, here on two occasions the stock account documented the total number of days owed and used up in labour services alongside the account of grain, livestock and dairy produce. Here in 1354 and 1355 the days of service which had been commuted for cash in the recepta section were subtracted from the total number of days due to the abbey and the balance was recorded in the stock account.476 The total recorded number of working days due to the abbey from tenants at Newenham was in excess of three hundred days. At Eastchurch four of the accounts recorded the sale of ploughing service in the recepta section but in the account of 1355 the stock account also recorded that out of a total 267 days service owed there, 141 days had been used up in ploughing and harrowing while the remainder had been allowed for carrying services during the summer.477 In all probability, although it was not routinely documented in all of the stock accounts, large numbers of days were also owed by tenants at the other estates owned by the abbey. The date of the accounts in which the labour services were totalled in the stock accounts at Newenham and Eastchurch is significant. At Canterbury R. A. L. Smith found that labour services which had been commuted for cash prior to the Black Death were re-instated almost in full in the years following it due to the high cost of wages for the famuli and the shortage of paid labour available.478 At Newenham and Eastchurch the labour services due in 1354 and 1355 were documented in more detail than had been recorded in previous accounts. Presumably this reflected the need for labour at this particular time. The labour services named were ploughing, harrowing and carrying services which were essential to keep the land fit for use and also to transport goods to and from the abbey which, as has been said already was the primary purpose of a monastic grange. 476 TNA, SC 6/893/25; TNA, SC 6/893/26. 477 TNA, SC 6/890/13. 478 Smith, Canterbury Cathedral Priory, p. 126. 95 In addition to the work of the famuli and the tasks performed by people who owed labour services other workers were hired by the abbey and were paid a daily rate. Included in this group of workers were craftsmen employed to carry out running repairs on the domestic and functional buildings of the granges which required ongoing maintenance. At Chingley in 1346 a roofer and his servant were paid 4d. per day for 7 days for thatching above the oxhouse.479 In 1344 at the upper grange a carpenter and his servant were paid 10s. for 10 weeks with meals included for repairing the roof of the house.480 When the roof of the grange at Sharpness was damaged by a storm in 1375 a roofer worked for two days to repair it and was paid 2s. 11d.481 At Newenham day wages were paid to workers who were employed to upkeep the hedges of the estate and dig drainage channels in 1355 and for other workers who helped with mowing the fields and collecting the hay.482 In 1340 at Chingley 15d. was paid to a boy hired to drive the doves from the peas for five weeks from the Sunday after the feast of the translation of St Thomas (29 Dec) until the feast of St Laurence (3 Feb). 483 Repairs were made to the mill called Doverlope in 1354 and 1355 by unnamed but skilled craftsmen who were paid by the day.484 At Chingley repairs to the house included regular maintenance of domestic areas including the porch, dormitory, garderobe, hall, kitchen and bakehouse. In addition there were running repairs to external areas including the dairy, cowshed, oxhouse, granary, cider press, dovecote and stables. Threshing and winnowing costs imply that there was a threshing barn on site, and the purchase of faggots to burn to make tiles indicates that tiles were also being made on site. The estate was being extended and improved during the period. In 1342 a new marsh of two acres and three roods was bought and cultivated at a cost of 7s. per acre.485 Wages paid to the men who carried out this manual work came to another 6s. 3d. In 1343 the 479 TNA, SC 6/889/4. 480 TNA, SC 6/886/15. 481 TNA, SC 6/897/5. 482 TNA, SC 6/893/26. 483 TNA, SC 6/889/1. 484 The abbey owned two mills at Boxley which the fourteenth-century documents named as Pollmill and Doverlope Mill. The latter was renamed Turkey Mill by 1640 when it was sold. Boxley was situated upon a large vein of fullers earth and both were in use as fulling mills by the seventeenth century: Goodsall, ‘Watermills’, pp. 106-130. Doverlope was named as a fulling mill in two of the accounts of the Boxley cellarer John Northbourne 1337 and 1338 TNA, SC 6/ 1251/8. Valor described Pollmill as a fulling mill and referred to Overlott mill at Boxley (which must be the same Doverlope) as a corn mill in 1535. Presumably Overlott originated from the term overshot, an indication of the type of water wheel involved. 485 TNA, SC 6/889/2. 96 account recorded costs of £2 7s. in marling the same land to make it ready for cultivation which included the cost of digging and carting the marl.486 There were two references to the stone quarry at Chingley in the list of petitions made by Roger Godwin for 1349 in which he asked for grain allowances for one John Baker and for the horses who were working in the quarry in that year.487 The quarry at Chingley was later named as the source for stone to build the new cloisters at Boxley in an indenture of 1373.488 Other hired workers included men brought in to shear the sheep. In 1356 at the lower grange 333 ewes and rams were shorn at a cost of 2s. 3 ¾d. or 1d. for 12 sheep.489 At Sharpness 1036 sheep were shorn in 1357 for 8s. 7d. or 1d. for 10 sheep.490 Women were also hired as casual labourers. At the upper grange in 1344 day wages of 5s. were paid to the wives (mulier) who helped with collecting the hay used for thatching.491 At Sharpness in 1352 wages of 2s. 6d. were paid to 12 wives (mulier) who were hired to collect the straw for two days.492 There is no evidence in any of the accounts that the famuli were resident at any of the Boxley granges. All of the accounts recorded regular purchases of flour and salt to make pottage for the famuli and for making their bread which indicates that these staples were given as part of the working day all year round. There were no regular expenses for their daily meals. At Sharpness in 1359 a stipend of 8d. per term was paid to the boy who made potage during the winter and summer and looked after the pigs during the harvest.493 He also received an extra 2s. for the harvest period and ½ bushel of mixed grain per week. Extra food was purchased for the harvest period indicating that harvest workers were given meals. A wage of 1s. was paid to the wife of the warden of Stoke parsonage for baking bread for the harvesters in 1362.494 Ale and fish were purchased from outside for the harvesters while cheese, eggs and meat were used from the stores of each estate to feed them. These expenses were accounted for under the costs of the harvest. It is clear that at each estate a household was maintained, with regular wages being paid for cooks and evidence that the abbot and other monastic officials came to stay on site but not that the 486 TNA, SC 6/889/3. 487 TNA, SC 6/889/5. 488 TNA, E 210/1299; TNA, E 101/622/47. 489 TNA, SC 6/886/23. 490 TNA, SC 6/896/23. 491 TNA, SC 6/886/15. 492 TNA, SC 6/896/20. 493 TNA, SC 6/896/25. 494 TNA, SC 6/898/10. 97 famuli resided there in the same way that the conversi of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries would have done. The costs of the house, which were documented in each account, recorded maintenance to grange buildings but none of them made reference to living quarters other than a single reference to repairs to the roof of the dormitory at Chingley in 1340.495 At the upper grange in 1333 a tiler and his assistant were paid 2s. 6d. for tiling above the chamber of the abbot’s chapel for 6 days which indicates that the abbot had his own accommodation at the upper grange and this included a chapel.496 The Response of Boxley Abbey to the Black Death The accounts for the Boxley estates which show evidence of auditing all date to the immediate years following the Black Death during which time there was a tightening of control by the abbey in relation to the economic and physical administration of their estates. Kent had been through two major occurrences of plague in 1348 and 1361. At each estate this can be discerned in the surviving accounts. At the upper grange, between the account of 1344 and the next surviving account which was in 1363, changes took place in the way that income was generated by the grange. Up until and including 1344, income was received from sales of stock, sales of grain, and sales of other produce of the land such as madder, hemp, wood and animal hides but between the account of 1344 and that of 1363 the sources of income for the estate altered. In particular the production of grain at the upper grange slowed down significantly. The accounts show a fall in the income being received from sales of grain in conjunction with a simultaneous increase in income that was received from the leasing of land for pasture. This was substantiated by the stock accounts on the reverse of the manuscripts which recorded a pattern of extensive mixed farming up until 1344. Although there are only five surviving accounts after 1348, and only three of these accounts are for a full year, it can be seen that after this time the land use was almost exclusively pastoral. This was also evident in the pattern of grain liveries being paid to the household at the upper grange. Grain liveries were paid as stipends to the famuli at the upper grange throughout the period but grain was not being produced in any quantity at the estate after 1344. Instead supplies of grain were received from the granary of the abbey or from the lower grange to provide the grain liveries for the staff at the upper grange in contrast to the earlier accounts in which grain was supplied from within the estate. Additional grain was also purchased from outside of the estate throughout the 495 TNA, SC 6/889/1. 496 TNA, SC 6/886/8. 98 period of the accounts to make up the household liveries and for use as seed. Although the evidence is restricted by the scarcity of accounts the indication is that after 1348 much of the land belonging to the upper grange was being leased. The annual profit was reduced as a result of this but the income was stable and the overheads were reduced. Significantly in the Assessment of Revenues for 1360 the upper grange was obligated to supply grain and livestock to the value of £13 6s. 8d. each year to the abbey but in the Assessment of Revenues due in 1371 produce from the upper grange was not included at all. The lower grange which was situated closest to the monastery, served as the home farm for Boxley abbey throughout the fourteenth century. During this period it provided the abbey with liveries in the form of grain and produce and these remained constant throughout the period of time covered by the accounts 1332-1397, as did the number and composition of the famuli. In contrast to the upper grange the amount and nature of the expected revenues of the lower grange did not radically alter between The Assessment of Revenue of 1360 and a less detailed review of the abbey’s revenues in 1371. At the farm of Newenham which was also located close to Boxley, the grain and stock accounts documented that up until and including the account of 1355 grain was received into the estate from the issues of the grange. These included wheat, barley, beans, peas, vetch, haras and oats. The later accounts of 1375, 1388 and 1389 documented that grain was still being received into the estate but the source was from individuals, much of it from two men named as Nicholas and Adam Vaus and that the grain was threshed at the estate. Nicholas Vaus also paid rent in 1388 of 2s. 8d. for pasturing 25 sheep on the land during the summer.497 In the same year Adam Vaus paid 12d. in lieu of carrying service. This may indicate that a significant portion of the land at Newenham was leased or managed by this time by tenant farmers who paid their rent in grain. The grain was utilised in the same way – to pay grain stipends for the famuli, to pay grain liveries to the abbey, to feed the animals and to provide seed for the land. Although fixed rent payments in cash of more than £6 were recorded in the account of 1375 there were no recorded cash rents for the later accounts. The grange at Sharpness had always provided the abbey with large quantities of fresh fish and meat but by 1393 this grange had clearly undergone changes in administration. The 497 TNA, SC 6/893/27. 99 account for the grange at Ham in 1397 included much of the land previously known as the grange at Sharpness but the estate of Sharpness as it was had ceased to exist. However there is a single account for a collector of rents at the manor of Sharpness in 1392, at which time the revenue from fixed rents totalled more than £39.498 Regrettably it is the only account of this rent collector so it is not clear whether this was the beginning of long term leasing there. No rental income of this nature is present in any of the earlier accounts for Sharpness. The 1397 account for Ham shows that this area was still providing the abbey with more than 800 sheep fleeces, more than 400 lambs’ fleeces, fresh meat and large quantities of fish from the Medway fishery. 499 It was clearly still extremely valuable to the monks in terms of the produce it yielded and they invested large sums of money and labour in it when it flooded. Further afield at Chingley in the Kent Weald, the estate was being farmed directly by the monastery during the period of the surviving accounts 1340-1352. Mixed farming took place on the estate but the main income was largely derived from arable farming. Roger Godwin was the lay sergeant at the Chingley estate between the years 1340-1350, during which time the expensa of the estate consistently exceeded the recepta. The final surviving account, that of 1352, was produced by two Boxley monks Roger Godmersham and John Herrietsham and is evidence that by this time the abbey had brought the estate under more direct control by sending out experienced monk wardens from the monastery. (In this year, John Herrietsham was also named as Bursar for Boxley and, along with Roger Godmersham was also the warden at the Grange of Sharpness on the Medway.) It is of note that 1352 was the only year in which the recepta exceeded the expensa of the estate, perhaps a direct result of this tightening of control by the monastery by reducing the overheads required to run the estate. At the end of the account for 1350 a second smaller manuscript was attached at a later date.500 This was a list of petitions from Roger Godwin of expenses he claimed for the years 1349, 1350 and 1351.501 The hand of the auditor denoted the claims that were allowed. It is likely that the 1350 account was audited by Roger Godmersham and John Herrietsham, the monks who subsequently took over the 498 TNA, SC 6/ 499 TNA, SC 6/892/2. 500 TNA, SC 6/889/5. 501 Evidence that he was also the sergeant in 1351 although no account has survived for this year. 100 economic management at Chingley in 1352.502 Although the evidence is limited, a significant fall in income from fixed rents can clearly be seen between the account of 1346 and that of 1350, the period of the Black Death. The 1350 account opened by listing arrears of £13 7s. 6 ¾d. from the previous account but the source of these arrears was not specified – one can only speculate that they may have been a consequence of the effects of the Black Death.503 At the same time the expenses of the manor showed a significant increase in the amount of money paid out in wages after the Black Death – the same period for which there was a sharp decline in fixed rents. In 1350 the cost of wages at Chingley had more than tripled when compared to those recorded in 1343 and 1346. A small increase in stipends for the same period was also documented in the accounts. By 1360 Chingley was being leased for cash rather than being farmed directly by the abbey. The Assessment of Revenues recorded that the sum of £5 was to be paid to the bursars at Michaelmas. In later bursars’ accounts for 1362, 1364 and 1365 Chingley was recorded as bringing in £5 in fixed rent for each year.504 In 1370 a badly damaged surviving indenture documented that the grange at Chingley was then leased to four men, John Verby of London, John Dene of East Malling, Radulphus Partrich of Derlyngge, and one other, for a period of one year.505 The rent was unspecified but the indenture was for a security bond of £60 that was to be paid on the feast of All Saints to the monks of Boxley Abbey, presumably if the rent was unpaid. This is evidence that there was a change in land use in the late fourteenth century as the land was being rented for cash rent in contrast to the evidence of the surviving accounts for the period between 1340 and 1352, when the estate was being directly exploited by the monks. Further evidence for a restructuring of the Boxley estates’ economic management emerges from the Chingley accounts. Prior to 1350 the Boxley abbot was a frequent visitor at Chingley. This may have afforded him a convenient stop on his way to visit Robertsbridge Abbey in Sussex which was the only daughter house of Boxley abbey.506 On the other hand 502 In 1352 John Herrietsham was also bursar at Boxley Abbey along with an unnamed second Bursar whilst he and Roger Godmersham were simultaneously joint wardens of the grange at Sharpness. John Herrietsham had become abbot of Boxley by 1357. 503 TNA, SC 6/889/5. 504 TNA, SC 6/1253/15; TNA, SC 6/1253/12. 505 TNA, E 210/5227. 506 TNA, SC 6/889/2: the account of 1342 stated that the Abbot and Prior of Boxley were en 101 the records show that he stopped long enough to enjoy the hospitality of the manor in the earliest three accounts when he was credited with the consumption of large amounts of poultry and pork. The records for 1340, 1342, 1343 and 1346 illustrate that during this period the Boxley abbot was a regular visitor who enjoyed the hospitality available to him at Chingley. The visits of the abbot to Chingley were listed under the costs of the lord and officials in these accounts. The list format used to itemize the expenses of the abbot was not used in other records of the Boxley estates but the abbot certainly spent more time at Chingley prior to 1350 than is evident anywhere else in the records of other Boxley estates. He spent at least 14 days at Chingley in 1340, 16 days in 1342 and 30 days there in 1343 but was only listed as visiting Chingley on one occasion in 1350 and twice in 1352.507 The abbot during the early period was William of Romney, first recorded as abbot 8 Nov 1336 and last recorded on 4 June 1348.508 The next known abbot was John Herrietsham who was first recorded as abbot on 4 June 1357 509 but had been active in the accounts in holding a range of important offices in the years prior to this. It is possible that there was a change of abbot between the account of 1346 and the account of 1350, the period of the Black Death which might explain the change in routine of the abbot, or that William of Romney had become too old or infirm to travel. Income received from sales of stock increased in 1350 and 1352 when compared to the earlier accounts. However in 1340, 1342, 1343 and 1346 Roger Godwin recorded that the abbot had sold large numbers of pigs and cows from the Chingley stock and had received the money himself - this money was not included in the recepta of the estate in these early years and this may account for the increase documented in later years. In the earlier accounts prior to 1350, listed under the section for external expenses and gifts, sums of money were recorded as being handed over directly to the abbot or specific Boxley monks. In 1342 the abbot was given £6, in 1343 the abbot received £7 13s. 4d. in 1346 he was given £1 while £2 was handed over to Brother Stephen of Hethe.510 Such payments were not recorded in the accounts of 1350 or 1352 when John Herrietsham and Roger Godmersham were at Chingley. In the account of 1352 livestock route to Robertsbridge when they stayed at Chingley. TNA, SC 6/889/1: The account for 1340 stated that the abbot of Robertsbridge also stayed at Chingley in this year. Expenses were claimed in 1342 for a visit by Lord John Wysdem of Boxley abbey. He had become abbot at Robertsbridge Abbey by 1352: Smith, London (eds) The Heads of Religious Houses: England and Wales, II, p. 304. 507 TNA, SC 6/889/1; TNA, SC 6/889/2; TNA, SC 6/889/3; TNA, SC 6/889/5; TNA, SC 6/889/6. 508 Smith, London, (eds) The Heads of Religious Houses: England and Wales, II, p. 265. 509 Ibid. 510 TNA, SC 6/889/2; TNA, SC 6/889/3; TNA, SC 6/889/4. 102 was handed over directly to named (and therefore accountable) sub cellarers at Boxley for the larder.511 Prior to this the accounts had simply recorded that animals were sent to Boxley. It is clear is that a change took place in the period between 1346 and 1351-2 in the relationship of the abbot to the manor and in the economic management of the estate by Boxley Abbey as the implementation of a more accountable regime emerges from the limited evidence of these accounts. Prior to 1205 the monks already held more than 1000 acres on Romney marsh which formed their manor of La Chene.512 Hubert Walter Archbishop of Canterbury (1193-1205) granted the monks 205 acres of salt marsh at Newland in Romney marsh in exchange for property on the Thames in London that had been granted to them by Paris archdeacon of Rochester before 1189. The surviving final concord for this agreement recorded that the monks had enclosed the 205 acres of salt marsh by their own labours during a vacancy of the see of Canterbury.513 Most likely this was during the vacancy of 1191-93 immediately before Hubert Walter was appointed. It is evidence that the monks of Boxley were actively reclaiming and enclosing marshland during the twelfth century to expand the endowment of 300 acres given to them by their founder William of Ypres.514 Some negotiations had clearly taken place during the consultation process. While the initial agreement had stated that the monks would pay £5 per year to the archbishop of Canterbury, the final concord agreed that an annual rent of £2 10s. would be paid and there would be a sitting tenant called Hamo de Mora on the land.515 It was also agreed that if the land became flooded again by no fault of the abbey the rent would decrease by 6d. for every acre lost. There are seven surviving accounts at the National Archives catalogued for La Chene. However while one was undated, only three of the other accounts actually specified in their title that they belonged to the estate of La Chene. These were the accounts for 1323, 1332 and 1351.516 The subsequent accounts for 1352, 1353 and 1354517 named the 511 TNA, SC 6/889/6. 512 Appendix 1, p. 183: Lambeth MS 1212, f. 128. 513 Lambeth MS 1212, ff. 207, and 209. 514 Appendix 1, p. 183: Lambeth MS 1212, f. 128. 515 Fourteenth-century bursars’ accounts, however, record that the abbey was paying out 100s each year to the archbishop of Canterbury for land at La Chene in 1362, 1364 and 1365. 516 TNA, SC 6/886/2; TNA, SC 6/886/7; TNA, SC 6/886/19. 517 TNA, SC 6/886/21. 103 accountant Thomas Ford as the sergeant for the lord archbishop of Abbotschene. In the earlier account of 1351 the same Thomas Ford had named himself as sergeant at the marsh of the abbot of Boxley at La Chene. This clearly was the same estate but appeared to have had a change of administration during this time with no clear explanation for this in the documents. The answer almost certainly lies in the spartan account of 1351 in which the only receipt was a cash sum of £25 received from the abbot of Boxley while the principal expense was a huge £66 19s. 6 ¼d. to be spent on repairing the walls and embankments in this year.518 The embankments had evidently been badly damaged. This may have been due to severe storms but was more likely a more general consequence of the decline in the labour force and increase in wages after the Black Death of 1348 which may have led to a failure to maintain the embankments and sea defences. This trend has been suggested by Galloway in his work on flooding around the Thames estuary.519 In 1351 no grain was produced on the estate. All of the grain in the stock account was purchased from outside but by 1352 the estate was producing grain again. All the evidence points to a great disaster for the abbey at this estate in the year or years leading up to 1351 with walls being breached by the sea and inundation of the land. A single account of the supervisor of works (the same Thomas Ford) has survived.520 This details costs of more than £75 for repairing and re-enclosing the marsh at La Chene in 1351. Exactly what happened to the land interests of the abbey in this area after this time is less clear but in the 1360 account of revenue for the abbey a fixed rent of £6 had been assigned to La Chene. The bursars’ accounts for the 1360s documented income from La Chene but this was never more than £3 3d. while the same accounts documented that the abbey were still paying out £5 in rent to the Archbishop of Canterbury for the land at the same time.521 No surviving deeds have been located for the lands acquired by Boxley Abbey at Chessington in Surrey. A single estate account has survived at The National Archives.522 This is dated from Michaelmas 1289 until Michaelmas 1290 for a full year. The accountant in this year was brother Peter of Boxley. At this time the receipts of the grange totalled £7 518 TNA, SC 6/886/19. 519 J. A. Galloway, ‘Storm flooding. Coastal defence and land use around the Thames estuary and tidal river c1250-1450,’ Journal of Medieval History 35, 2009, p. 180. 520 TNA, SC 6/1253/1. 521 The estate at La Chene was not named in the Valor of 1535. 522 TNA, SC 6/1011/25. 104 13s. 5d. and the expenses were £10 6s. 8 ½d. The expenses included a debt of 30s. which was owed from the previous year. The account is straightforward. Receipts were derived largely from manorial produce which included sales of wool, sales of excess wheat and oats that had been produced on the grange, and sales of live and dead stock. Rents contributed just over 10s. to the income of the estate. The expenses consisted of costs for maintaining the buildings of the grange the outbuildings and sheepfolds, wages for the staff, the costs of the carter, and the costs of the harvest. The stock account revealed that the estate produced enough grain to meet almost all of its own needs. Wheat, oats, barley dredge, vetch and peas were produced and used for seed, the household allowances and allowances of the shepherds, and in potage and flour for the household. Barley, dredge and vetch were used to make bread for the dogs while oats were used for the allowances of the cart oxen and horses and the horses of the abbot. The only expense in grain purchases was nine bushels of rye which was bought for just 3s. Just 85 sheep and 31 lambs were accounted for at Chessington and between them they produced wool worth 20s. in the account. Oxen and draught horses were kept as working beasts. Pigs were the only animal food source accounted for and all of the 20 pigs were sent to the larder; presumably this was the larder at Boxley. There was no mention of either a manor of Friern, or any land of the abbey at Chessington in the 1360 account of revenue for Boxley Abbey. It is likely that by this time the land was being leased. It was a small estate in terms of produce and the potential for profit and was located at some distance from Boxley. For these reasons leasing would have been a more attractive proposition. A list of common rents recorded that rent of 13s. 2d. was paid to the abbey for land at Chessington in 1317.523 It was valued at £6 in 1535. Conclusion The Boxley estate accounts show the interaction between Boxley abbey and its estates throughout the fourteenth century and the methods employed by the abbey to adapt to the challenges it was presented with. It is clear that the monks attempted to continue directly farming as much of their land as possible for as long as it was profitable. At Boxley, as elsewhere, the provision of a varied diet for the monks and their household was the prime purpose of an estate, thus the estates that were most productive and most readily 523 TNA, SC 11/335. 105 accessible were maintained by the abbey and survived while others did not. The upper grange became largely pastoral by 1363, while the farm at Newenham was partially leased by 1375. The more distant estates at Chingley, Chessington and La Chene were all leased by 1360 and this provided the security of a regular income with fewer overheads for the abbey. At the same time, large sums of money were invested into the highly productive estate at Sharpness/Ham on the Medway to maintain repair and extend the embankments there. The lower grange, Newenham and the estate at Sharpness continued to supply the Boxley household and convent with a constant and steady source of fresh meat, fish and dairy produce although some part of the Sharpness estate was leased by 1392. Grain produced on the estates supplemented the tithes from Eastchurch and Stoke so that the abbey was almost self-sufficient in grain. By the 1380s the cellarer was overseeing the production of large quantities of tiles, lime and stone from the quarry at Chingley. These building materials were used for repairing and maintaining the abbey buildings and any excess was sold.524 The abbey always attempted to farm as much of their land in demesne as was practical and never leased the granges en masse. Landowners in Kent and elsewhere faced the same challenges as the monks of Boxley in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. In the aftermath of the Black Death there are a number of parallels that can be seen in the way that the relatively small house at Boxley and the much larger Cathedral priory at Christ Church Canterbury, reorganised their estates. Mavis Mate has identified a number of changes that took place at Canterbury.525 Initially there were problems brought about by the lack of tenants available to take up mills, fisheries and rental properties and this resulted in a reduced income. However, this was accompanied by rising prices for commodities and therefore a partial solution was found in exploiting the land rather than leasing it, at least up until 1377. As at Boxley, on a number of the Canterbury manors there was an increase in the production of building materials, such as tiles, and lime and an increase in the exploitation of stone quarries. The cost of building materials had increased after 1348 so it was worthwhile to be self sufficient in these, and excess produce was sold for profit. Mavis Mate concluded that at Canterbury rather than immediately leasing the manors after 1348 when faced with falling rents and 524 This is discussed in more detail in Chapter 4, pp. 139-140. 525 M. Mate, ‘Agrarian Economy after The Black Death: The Manors of Canterbury Cathedral Priory 1348-91’, The Economic History Review, New Series, vol. 37, No. 3, 1984, pp. 341-354. 106 fewer tenants, the monks found that it was more worthwhile to continue to manage their estates themselves by adapting their farming methods. It was only after c1377 when the faced with falling prices for produce, that the Canterbury manors were leased, although they were taken back in hand in the early 1380s. This tendency towards ‘continuity rather than change’ between c1280 and c1380 is echoed by Campbell in his studies of agriculture in Kent during this period.526 It is interesting that a hundred years later, when the Cistercian monks at Merevale in Warwickshire faced changes in population and falling income from their manors, that they too chose to adapt their farming methods, exploit their lands and make the most of the mixed resources available to them rather than leasing them all at once.527 At Merevale the most distant manors were leased while those closer to home were exploited either for food or resources such as building materials. 528 During the second half of the fourteenth century, the estate accounts show a number of significant changes in the way that the external holdings of the abbey were managed. This also had an impact upon the internal administration of Boxley abbey. The abbacy of John Herrietsham was a time of a stricter financial regime for the monastery after the changes in the workforce as well as the local and national economy brought about by the Black Death of 1348. The Assessment of Revenues of 1360, was a strategic document when it was produced because it was designed to allowed the abbey to budget and to curb spending on food. In this it was unsuccessful, but with the forecasted revenues due from each estate the two main internal offices of the abbey, the sub cellarer and the granator were supplied with produce. The allocation of specific produce to specific offices or to obedientiaries within the monastery, who were named, rather than being sent to a central receiving office at the abbey meant that people were accountable for the produce they received. The analysis of their accounts in Chapter 4 further illuminates this interaction between estate and monastery, and analyses the internal administration of the abbey. 526 Campbell, ‘Agriculture in Kent in the High Middle Ages’, pp. 25-55. 527 A. Watkins, ‘Merevale Abbey in the Late 1490s’, Warwickshire History, vol. 9, No. 3, 1994, p. 87. 528 Ibid, pp. 87-103. 107 CHAPTER 4. THE INTERNAL ECONOMY OF BOXLEY ABBEY Introduction By the end of the thirteenth century, like many other monastic houses, Boxley was administered through the monk obedientiary system, whereby the affairs of the abbey were divided into departments (obediences) and managed on a day-to-day basis by monk officials called obedientiaries. Each obedientiary was responsible for a specific obedience within the house. At the end of each term of accounting, some offices produced accounts that detailed any money received and spent by the office during that time. Not all offices carried with them accounting responsibilities: for example, those who administered the liturgical life of the abbey such as the precentor and succentor. At Boxley, the principal financial officers were the bursars, cellarers and sub cellarers. Numbers of obedientiaries at Boxley fluctuated throughout the fourteenth century, dependent perhaps upon the necessity for a particular office at any time and the number of available men capable of handling an office that carried financial and administrative responsibilities. Additionally the same man often held more than one office simultaneously. Analysis of the surviving accounts has shown that there was always a small group of senior monks, who circulated the main offices between themselves so that financial control was concentrated into the hands of a few.529 The surviving archive for Boxley Abbey includes more than 100 obedientiary accounts of the fourteenth century, far distant from those immediately preceding the Dissolution that more commonly survive.530 All accounts deal with financially measurable activities, not therefore discipline, or worship or the liturgy, and therefore they offer little insight about the primary purpose of monastic life, which was to facilitate intercession between this world and the next through prayer. Aside from the limited numbers of monks given in the few records of clothing, the monks who carried out the continual round of services in the church remain largely invisible in the Boxley archive. While there are no accounts for the Prior or Precentor and there are no records of abbatial elections, instead, the surviving accounts present the economic administration of the abbey throughout the fourteenth century by a relatively small number of monks. Successful economic administration was necessary for the continuity of the monastery. These few monks had to ensure the financial 529 Tables of Boxley Obedientiaries 1349-1406. Appendix 3:1, 3:2, and 3:3, pp. 196-8. 530 Appendix 5, pp. 200-201. 108 health of the house to enable the rest continue their life of prayer. The fourteenth century was a challenging period for the finances of this abbey. These accounts show above all that the Boxley monks employed a number of successful strategies to deal with this. Obediences represented by the surviving Boxley accounts include the bursars, cellarers, sub cellarers, wardens of the granary, bakery and mills, sacrists, wardens of the infirmary and of clothing. The collection is incomplete and the accounts vary in size and in quality. Some document the receipts and expenses for a full year, but, typically, they offer a view for a single term. Regrettably, some accounts have also suffered damage from damp and this has affected their legibility in places. Written in an abbreviated medieval Latin, the general format of the accounts remained the same throughout the period. The title listed the name of the obedientiary, his job and the term covered by the account. This was followed by a list of monies received during that term of accounting and a list of the expenses his office had incurred. The surviving obedientiary accounts for Boxley embrace three general areas of monastic life: the overall financial health of the house; administration of what may be termed ‘works’ departments outside of the convent, including overseeing the abbey estates and lands; and the management of the domestic affairs of the abbey. They offer a significant opportunity to study in detail the Boxley economy. One fundamental difference between Boxley and the other greater monasteries, whose internal finances have been studied, such as Benedictine cathedral priories, is that Boxley perhaps in common with other lesser houses, never instituted a distinct estate for the abbot. The advantage of such arrangements until at least mid fourteenth century was that the convent itself escaped the oppressive custody of the crown during vacancies. It follows that provision for the abbot features prominently in the bursars’ accounts. Luxurious though the abbot’s lifestyle was, he never withdrew wholly from the convent, and continued to oversee and indeed direct conventual affairs. The Abbot of Boxley A successful bursars’ office ensured that day-to-day life at Boxley could continue. A thriving economy was fundamental to the survival of the house. As there was no separation of revenues between the abbot and monks at Boxley, the bursars allocated the abbot a cash sum, and paid expenses of his office, such as stipends for his staff and his travel costs, 109 directly from the bursary. This made it easier for the abbot to have a guiding hand in the economic administration of the abbey. The period covered by the Boxley accounts was a time when a strong abbot was required to direct the internal and external affairs of the abbey because the consequences of weak leadership could be disastrous. At Meaux Abbey in Yorkshire the chronicler Thomas Burton recorded that after the Black Death the abbot rushed to lease manors, sold off corrodies, and sold wool and grain in advance in order to raise money when faced with a lack of labour and falling rents. The abbey was more than £1000 in debt within a few years of the plague. Consequently there was unrest amongst the monks of Meaux, and the cellarer plotted to depose the abbot. In fact at Meaux, between 1349 and 1400 five different monks held the post of abbot: it was a time of great instability and internal discord.531 In contrast to Meaux, just one abbot was instrumental in guiding the monks of Boxley through the second half of the fourteenth century. The steadfast presence of Abbot John Herrietsham was a major factor to the overall financial health and survival of the abbey, and his career progression is traceable through the surviving archive. He was ordained sub deacon at Boxley in 1345.532 From 1347 until 1351, John Herrietsham was warden of the bakery.533 Alongside his fellow monk Roger Godmersham, he also acted as monk warden on the abbey estates in 1351, 1352, 1353 and 1354 whilst simultaneously holding the post of bursar in 1352 and cellarer in 1353. After 1354, none of the accounts named him in any capacity, which indicates that he probably became abbot in either 1354 or 1355 as the documents usually named the abbot of Boxley by his title of Abbot, rather than by the use of his name. The first time he occurs in the documentary record as abbot was in 1357 and he remained in that post until 1403, possibly 1414, or 1416.534 531 E. A. Bond, ed. Chronica Monasterii de Melsa, 3 vols, Rolls Series, London 1887. vol. 3, pp. 77-87. 532 C. Johnson, ed. Diocesis Roffensis Registrum Hamonis Hethe, 1319-52, II, Canterbury and York, 49, 1948. 533 TNA, SC 6 1252/8. The bakery accounts survive for 1348, 1349 and 1350 and John Herrietsham was named as warden of the bakery in the bakery inventory: TNA, SC 6/896/20. 534 TNA, E 326/8725; agreement in 1403 with monks of Rochester concerning the tithes of Boxley named in full John Sheppey as prior and John Herrietsham as abbot. In CCR 1414, p. 311 there is a reference to John abbot of Boxley. In D. M. Smith The Heads of Religious Houses: England and Wales, III 1377-1540, Cambridge, 2008, p. 271, the next abbot Richard Shepey was abbot by 1416 with no reason given for the vacancy. 110 A close link between Abbot John and the small group of monks who held the most responsible offices at Boxley is evident throughout the period under study. Tables 2 and 3 show that at different phases of his abbacy he consistently appointed the same few senior fellow monks in charge of the key posts of bursar, cellarer and sub cellarer. This is understandable in the years after the Black Death when there was not a large choice of office holders. For example when the bursars bought shoes for eight monks and three lay brothers in 1353, the accounts show that there were at least eight monks holding office in that year.535 However by 1383, there were at least 18 monks, and yet the economy of Boxley remained in the hands of a relatively small number of them, led by Abbot John.536 It was common for one man to hold more than one post at the same time, and frequently to stay in the same post for successive years. The monks who maintained the continual round of services in the abbey church remain, for the most part, anonymous in the financial records of the house. However, numerous named references to the ‘working’ monks of Boxley throughout the fourteenth-century documents reinforce the connection between Abbot John and his obedientiaries. In the account of Thomas Thanet, bursar in 1373, expenses for the abbey infirmary included spices, electuaries and ointments bought for named monks who had been instrumental in ensuring the survival of the abbey during and after 1348.537 Named alongside Abbot John, were his contemporaries through the Black Death years, Thomas London, John Schoulden, Roger Godmersham and Stephen Hethe.538 The bursars bought medicine for Thomas Thanet in 1390 and again in 1404: they recorded his death the following year in 1405.539 535 TNA, SC 6/1253/4. 536 TNA, SC 6/1255/5. 537 TNA, SC 6/1254/1. 538 Appendix 3:1, p. 196. 539 TNA, SC 6/1255/14; TNA, SC 6/1256/10. 111 Source page no Name of monk Acolyte Sub Deacon Deacon Priest Hamo Hethe 1319-1352 1948, Vol.II p.1114 Stephen Hethe 4 April 1332 18 Dec 1333 p. 1105 Roger Godmersham 18 April 1332 p. 1127 Thomas Leeds 10 June 1335 5 April 1337 p. 1130 Thomas London 21 Sept 1336 5 April 1337 20 Sept 1337 17 Sept 1339 p. 1111 John Herrietsham 24 Sept 1345 p. 1141 Simon Newenton 24 Sept 1345 p. 1164 John Scholdon 14 June 1348 7 March 1349 19 Sept 1349 p. 1188 William Wilston 7 March 1349 19 Sept 1349 Table 2: Ordination Records for Boxley Monks 1351 1352 1353 1354 1355 William Wilston John Scholdon John Herrietsham Thomas London Simon Newenton Thomas London Simon Newenton Thomas London Table 3: Boxley Bursars 1351-5 112 1349 1350 1351 1352 1353 Porter Thomas London William Wilston Sacrist Thomas London Thomas Leeds Infirmarer Thomas Scholdon Thomas Thanet Bakery John Herrietsham Thomas Thanet Refector Thomas Thanet Thomas Thanet Cellarer Roger Godmersham Roger Godmersham Sub cellarer Thomas London John Scholdon Tailor Simon Newenton Simon Newenton Guesthouse Roger Godmersham John Scholdon Table 4: Obedientiaries named in the inventory lists TNA SC 6/896/20 Throughout his career at Boxley Abbey John Herrietsham was a leading figure in the implementation of a stricter and more centralised obedientiary system there. This conformed to many of the statutes laid down for the Cistercian order by Benedict XII in his papal bull of 1335, fulgens sicut stella, a document John Herrietsham would certainly have been familiar with.540 Peter King concluded that through this bull Benedict XII, himself a Cistercian, ‘wanted all Cistercians to shoulder the Order’s financial burdens and he insisted on efficiency in financial organisation’.541 The influence of fulgens can be discerned at Boxley in the fourteenth century. It required a monastery to have two bursars, one of whom was the principal one, to receive all money and then redistribute it. It also stipulated 540 Magnum Bullarium Romanum, a Beato Leone Magno, usque ad S. D. N. Benedictum XIII. Tome primus, ed. L and A. Cherubini et al. Luxemburg, 1727, pp. 209-217. 541 P. King, The Finances of the Cistercian Order in the Fourteenth Century, Cistercian Studies Series, 85, Kalamazoo, 1999, p. 99. 113 that there should be an annual audit, and that the abbot must be accountable to the bursars for his own income and expenditure. Fulgens also tried to regulate standards for Cistercian lifestyle in areas that had become blurred over time such as the eating of meat only within designated rooms of the monastery, sleeping arrangements including the introduction of single cells for obedientiaries, and how to manage and cater for the material and spiritual wellbeing of monk students who were absent from the monastery. As monk and abbot, John Herrietsham was instrumental in the execution of auditing the estate accounts, and establishing the cellarer as monk warden for the abbey estates. His election as abbot coincided with the period when the Boxley economy became increasingly centralised, as the majority of revenues were channelled through the bursars’ office, as fulgens had ordered in 1335. This indicates that perhaps major change had not been possible until the previous abbot was incapable or had died. The first reference to the auditor in the surviving accounts is in the 1351 account for Chingley in the Weald.542 Fig. 8: TNA SC/6/889/5. Earliest reference in the accounts to the auditor in the 1351 Account for Chingley in the Weald The account of 1351 had a list of petitions from the lay sergeant backdated to 1348 appended to it. The hand of the auditor is clearly visible.543 At Boxley, the same person usually held the roles of cellarer and monk warden and an account from Eastchurch referred to John Herrietsham as cellarer in 1351.544 The Chingley account for the following year named him as monk warden along with Roger Godmersham.545 The estate accounts named him as monk warden from then every year until 1354 but at the same time, he simultaneously held the post of bursar, cellarer and warden of the bakery. He was 542 TNA, SC 6/889/5. 543 Figure 1. p. 79 544 TNA, SC 6/890; Account of Eastchurch for 1351 names John Herrietsham as cellarer. 545 TNA, SC 6/889/6. 114 therefore well acquainted with the financial state of the abbey and its economic administration prior to his election as abbot. At the same time as auditing began to emerge in the Boxley estate accounts, written inventories were made of goods that belonged to offices within the abbey. On the reverse of an account for the estate at Sharpness in 1354, a collection of inventories for some of the obedientiary offices, written in the form of an indenture has survived.546 The indentures list the goods belonging to the offices of porter, cellarer, sub cellarer, refector, infirmarer, sacrist, warden of the bakery, warden of the guesthouse and warden tailor, and include the name of the outgoing and incoming officer.547 Most of the named obedientiaries in the inventories had entered Boxley prior to 1348548 and had compiled their inventories for a single year between 1349 and 1352, a time when they had lived through the Black Death and the aftermath of the pestilence. Although there is no surviving inventory for the office of bursar, the obedientiaries named on the inventories included all of the known bursars between 1350 and 1355. One further inventory, written by Thomas London for the grange at Newenham Court has survived, attached to the 1354 estate account, although the year of the inventory is illegible.549 Combined with evidence from the household accounts, it is further evidence that an inner circle of monks were the significant office holders at Boxley throughout the 1350s and 1360s and that they rotated the main offices between them.550 If John Herrietsham became abbot in 1354, it is likely that the inventories of all the main obedientiary offices were compiled at his request. As abbot, John Herrietsham ordered an assessment of all of the revenues of the abbey in 1360.551 This was stated in the last line of the title of the document. 546 TNA, SC 6/896/20. 547 Table 4, p. 112. 548 Table 2, p. 111. 549 TNA, SC 6/893/25. 550 Table 4, p. 112. 551 TNA, SC 6/1253/11. 115 Fig. 9: TNA SC 6 /1253/11. Title of 1360 Assessment of Revenues states that Abbot John ordered the document to be compiled This unique document set out the obligations of all of the Boxley estates to the monastery and sought to establish a reduced spending budget in terms of cash and produce for the internal obedientiaries in order to maintain the monks and their household. The attempt to implement a stricter regime in terms of assessing income and setting a limit on spending by obedientiaries implies that the abbey was struggling financially by 1360, as does the stern warning to the bursars that the expenses should be carried out according to the abbot’s wishes ‘under pain of disallowance and dilapidation. Fig. 10: TNA SC 6 /1253/11. Extract from the Assessment of Revenues 1360 warning the Bursars to abide by the budget. The financial health of the house was clearly under threat in the early 1360s. In a letter to Edward III in 1363, Simon Islip, Archbishop of Canterbury asked that Boxley be excused from paying their tenths as they were too poor to pay.552 On the other hand, the assessment of 1360 is also evidence that by 1360 the abbey had at least succeeded in evaluating its revenues, and in re-organising its estates after the Black Death. It listed the obligations in grain, livestock and money that were due from each of the manors term by term and their departmental destination within the abbey to the granator, the sub cellarer, refector, or the bursars. The assessment included a further breakdown of the annual receipts and expenses for each office of the granator, sub cellarer, refector and bursars. 552 TNA, SC 8/235/11706. 116 Significantly, for the granator and sub cellarer, who between them were responsible for provisioning the house with bread, food and ale, it also set daily, weekly and annual limits for their expenses. The assessment provided a model for the relationship between the estates and abbey and declared the obligation of the estates to support the abbey with either produce or money. It also set out the duties, responsibilities and personal accountability of the internal obedientiaries as well as the expectations of interaction between them. The Assessment of Revenues shows an attempt to take the economy in hand by 1360 under the direction of John Herrietsham. There is no recorded link in the accounts to Abbot John and the shrine of the rood of grace, but he was certainly abbot when it appeared in the bursars’ accounts and, as it flourished under his abbacy, the financial health of the abbey prospered. As the income from the shrine increased so too did the living standards of the abbot and convent. This change is visible in the bursars’ accounts that identified staff specifically as abbot’s staff from 1373 onwards. Clothing purchased for them was more expensive and luxurious than that purchased for the conventual staff. In 1373 clothing for the abbot’s staff and household cost more than £19.553 Fig. 11: TNA, SC 6/1254/1. Bursar’s account of 1373 listing clothing bought for the abbot’s household. 553 TNA, SC 6/1254/1. 117 The granary accounts introduced abbot’s bread from 1373 alongside the conventual bread, both of them made with pure wheat.554 There are indications that the abbot had bread for his household baked separately in his own kitchen with a number of references to the abbot’s kitchen and to wages paid by the bursars to the abbot’s cook in the later fourteenth-century accounts.555 The abbot of Boxley or his representatives in the form of monks and lay staff made regular trips to conduct business outside the house on behalf of the abbey and the bursars funded these expenses. The Assessment of Revenues allowed £5 for this purpose in 1360. The abbot made regular visits to the manors and farms of the abbey at Sharpness, Eastchurch and Hoo, taking staff and horses with him. He regularly went to London, Canterbury and Rochester for business purposes and to meet with the archbishops on occasions, which necessitated him being away from the abbey for days at times with his horses and staff. He had close connections with the Cistercian abbeys of Stratford Langthorne and of St Mary Graces by the Tower of London. These were the two closest Cistercian houses to Boxley. Along with them between 1395 and 1400 the abbot of Boxley led provincial chapters of the Cistercian order at St Mary Graces in London during the Great Schism. The abbot made annual visits to Robertsbridge Abbey in Sussex, the daughter house of Boxley. He always returned with 20s. from Robertsbridge Abbey, which he handed over to the bursars. The rule of St Benedict specified that religious houses had a duty of hospitality for guests, and that the abbot should dine with guests and travellers.556 Increasingly at Boxley, the abbot was also responsible for entertaining visitors to the monastery. This type of entertainment functioned at both a social and political level.557 Hospitality for local church and secular dignitaries had to be appropriate to their status, and was designed to impress them enough to gain favour and influence for the house. All of the bursars’ accounts included a record of gifts given by the abbot during the term of the account. This could be a small cash sum or goods such as cloth, clothing, furs, gloves and even boots on occasions. Visitors to the abbey brought staff and frequently the staff received some small cash sum, typically 2d. or 3d. Clerks such as the clerk of Robert Vinter, who was visiting in 1364, 554 This is discussed in more detail below. 555 TNA, SC 6/1255/14. 556 RSB, 56. 557 Burton, Monastic and Religious Orders, p.168. 118 usually received a shilling.558 People who ferried around gifts and letters on behalf of the abbot received approximately 6d. When the abbot and senior monks were out visiting their estates, they handed out gifts to staff there. In 1376 John Turner, a shepherd from the household at Sharpness, was given 2s. while John Vaus, shepherd at Newenham, received 4d. in 1385.559 Visiting monks and staff from the abbeys of Stratford Langthorne and St Mary Graces by the Tower received gifts from the abbot of Boxley when they visited.560 In 1404 the sum of 20d was given to the household of the abbot of Stratford, while the Prior of the Carmelites at Aylesford received 6s. 8d.561 Craftsmen and day workers were frequently rewarded with a small cash gift. Workers mending the abbot’s pond were given 12d. in 1385.562 Small cash sums were given to minstrels who played at the abbot’s chamber in 1377, 1385 and 1408 and to a group of 6 players who played the miracles of the life of St Mary in 1408.563 The Boxley Bursars Twenty-five bursars’ accounts have been analysed for this study. These date 1330-1408. Regrettably, the earliest account of 1330 is in such a poor condition that it was not possible to translate it fully for this study. However, in that account the named bursar was Boxley Abbot William Romney. None of the later accounts names an abbot as bursar. Another single unnamed bursar occurs in the short account of 1345, but in all of the subsequent accounts, there were always at least two monk bursars. Commonly the accounts named both bursars in the title, but in nine accounts of 1372-85, the accounts were either those of the first or second bursar.564 The existence of two bursars meant that no single official could wield excessive financial power and allowed less experienced obedientiaries to learn the job from a more senior monk. It also conformed to the requirements of the papal bull fulgens sicut stella of 1335 in which Benedict XII had ordered each house to be under the care of two bursars. 558 TNA, SC 6/1253/15. 559 TNA, SC 6/1254/5; TNA, SC 6/1255/9. 560 TNA, SC 6/1255/14. 561 TNA, SC 6/1256/10. 562 TNA, SC 6/1255/9. 563 TNA, SC 6/1254/5; TNA, SC 6/1255/9; TNA, SC 6/1256/13. 564 Where the account is clearly that of the first or second bursar, this study must assume that the surviving account does not represent the entire income of the bursars for this year. This places some restrictions on conclusions about the overall state of finances in the Boxley bursary at that time. 119 The bursars’ accounts do not reveal a single policy for economic administration at Boxley. Instead, they show that strategic changes in managing the economy occurred at specific points in time, most notably immediately after 1348, around 1360 and again around 1371. Immediately after 1348, there was a tightening of control of money coming into the house, so that by the middle of the 1350s the bursars at Boxley received the bulk of the cash revenues generated by the lands of the abbey. The bursars then re-allocated those revenues to other obedientiaries. For example, the Boxley sub cellarer always received some income from rents paid directly to his office from the collector of rents and some small pittance rents. He also received money from the bursars throughout the period. However, the balance of these payments altered during the period under study. Two changes are notable in the income of the sub cellarers. The first is that the money he received directly from the rent collector decreased significantly after 1348, while that received by him from the bursars increased. The implication of this is that after 1348 money from the rent collector came to the sub cellarer’s office via the bursars, with the implementation of a tighter regime. A general Assessment of Revenues for 1360 stipulated that the bursars received all rents including those previously allocated to the sub cellarer, estimated at a value of £5.565 The second change is that in the two earliest accounts, that of 1347 and 1348, the sub cellarer also received a number of cross payments from other obedientiaries. The wardens of the bakery, the guesthouse, the monastic infirmary, the secular infirmary and the warden at the estate of Chingley in the Weald all paid cash directly to the sub cellarer in 1347 and 1348.566 In all of the later accounts of the sub cellarer, these cross payments had ceased. In the accounts of the bakery the warden of the bakery handed the sub cellarer 20s. in 1348 and 10s. in 1349 but made no cash payment to him thereafter.567 The implication of this is that after 1348 the Boxley bursary was acting as a partially centralised treasury. At the same time, there is further evidence for consolidation of the Boxley economy immediately after the Black Death with the introduction of auditing of the Boxley estate accounts. Formal auditing of estate accounts is only visible after 1348, initially at Chingley in 1350 and subsequently at other Boxley estates. The two bursars’ accounts that pre-date 1348 recorded that money from the manors and granges came to 565 TNA, SC 6/1253/11. 566 TNA, SC 6/1252/6; TNA SC 6/1252/7. 567 TNA, SC 6/1252/8. 120 the bursar from the manor or from an unnamed warden. In all of the post Black Death bursars’ accounts, a named monk warden handed over money and produce. At Canterbury, there were monk wardens at the manors by the late thirteenth century, but it is only in the period after 1348 that the monk warden becomes visible in the Boxley accounts. It is evidence of a much more personal accountability at this time. As at Canterbury, where R.A.L. Smith identified monk wardens such as Geoffrey of Chilham and John of Gore as capable men with a proven record in administrative duties, the same is true of the Boxley monk wardens. However, at Boxley the role was usually also combined with that of cellarer and so the two roles are interchangeable in this study. Receipts of the Bursars The Boxley economy was never fully centralised i.e. the sub cellarer and cellarer received small sums of money directly into their offices throughout the period under study. However, by the mid 1350s the bursars received the greater part of the abbey cash revenues. Until the 1370s the largest part of the bursars’ income came from land. This was in the form of common rents, fixed rents obtained from the granges, and sales of produce derived from land belonging to the abbey. The rent collector, a monk obedientiary, collected rents at each of the accounting terms of the year at Easter, the feast of St John the Baptist, Michaelmas and Christmas. After the 1361 recurrence of plague, income from rents fell. Two accounts of the rent collector John Chatham for 1372 and 1373 recorded rents from common rents, pittance rents, and from fixed rents for land held by the abbey in the surrounding area around Boxley, Maidstone and Aylesford.568 They record long lists of rent arrears going back at least four years, an indication that the abbey was having trouble in the late 1360s and early 1370s in realising rents. Most likely this was due to a lack of rent-paying tenants after the Black Death and subsequent outbreaks of plague.569 In the few documents that name the rent collector it is clear that he, like the cellarer, was always a senior and trusted monk. In fact, in the 1360s and 1370s the rent collector John Chatham was simultaneously holding the posts of cellarer, monk warden and was one of the bursars. Monk wardens collected money from the granges and handed it to the bursars. This frequently incorporated income derived from produce, for example, sales of wool and 568 TNA, SC 6/1252/3. 569 There were no recorded payments from the rent collector in the accounts of the second Bursar between 1376 and 1379 but it is probable that the first bursar, whose accounts have not survived, would have recorded these rents in his accounts. 121 livestock but sometimes it was included in a separate section. There were no recorded payments from grange officials to the bursars after 1365, but the estate accounts, which survive in good numbers for the later period, are evidence that money was still coming in to the abbey from the granges to the bursars. The explanation may be that the bursars’ accounts in the intervening period that survive are largely from the second bursar, whereas revenues from the granges were probably contained in those of the first bursar, unfortunately missing. Monk wardens Roger Godmersham and John Herrietsham were assessing and auditing the Boxley estates in the period after 1348. Following this, there is evidence that the abbey attempted to realise its available capital as a quick supply of cash was generated through sales of available resources and disposable assets. The estate at La Chene on Romney Marsh was leased for £5 annually after the estate had suffered severe inundation from the sea in 1351. At Chingley, sales of large areas of woodland and wood generated more than £6 in 1353 and more than £23 in 1354.570 By 1360, the estate was leased for an annual cash sum of £6. Sales of woodland and wood were particularly high in the 15 years after 1348. This source generated over £49 in the bursars’ accounts in 1354 while in 1360 the total was in excess of £50. An example of this was that of John Heyton, who bought 12 acres of woodland from the abbey at Monkdownwood in Boxley for £42: he paid £30 in 1361 and paid the final instalment of £12 in 1362.571 Four surviving deeds recorded parcels of woodland at Monkdownwood sold to John Heyton between 1351 and 1362.572 In the years following the Black Death, cash in hand was an often in short supply, necessitating a number of short-term loans to cover immediate expenses from one year to the next. Regular loans made to the abbey from a number of sources during this time, included money borrowed from friends and from staff. Roger Mool, attorney for the abbey in legal affairs, lent them 20s. in 1353.573 In the same account, he received 40s. back from them for an old debt. Robert Vinter, a patron of the abbey, loaned £11 in 1361, and £8 26s. in 1362.574 Andrew Pybaker, a corrodian of the abbey between 1353 and 1376, received 66s. back in 1361 from a previous loan, and then lent 30s. and another 40s. the following 570 TNA, SC 6/1253/4. 571 TNA, SC 6/1252/12. 572 TNA, E 210/5240; TNA, E 210/5385; TNA, E 210/5386; TNA, E 210/5387. 573 TNA, SC 6/1253/4. 574 TNA, SC 6/1253/12. 122 year.575 Robert Bourne loaned the abbey £9 13s. 4d. in 1361.576 Other sources of loans included the rector of Boxley, the rector of Hoo and the vicar of Preston. The accounts show that until 1371 the bursars were constantly juggling loans and debts from friends and patrons in order to run the abbey. Loans were recorded on the credit side of the accounts, a system of accounting that is mirrored in many other monastic accounts, including those at Christ Church Canterbury.577 Although there is little written detail in the Boxley accounts about the recurrence of plague in 1361, there is evidence for it in the form of legacies to the abbey. There were a number of small legacies in many of the earlier accounts. Prior to 1361, these were included under the heading of small receipts, but the account of 1361 had a separate heading for legacies, that most likely is a reflection of the severity of plague in that year. In 1361 there were fourteen individual bequests amounting to £45.578 People sometimes gave money for specific purposes. Robert Crowcol gave 7s. towards one pittance for the convent in 1361 while Robert Bourne gave £20 for a window above the high altar.579 A certain Master William gave 20s. for a pittance at Pentecost in 1365.580 Most bequests throughout the period were simply given as a gift in alms to the abbey. William Butcher gave £10 as a gift in 1361 while Thomas Hawkins gave 20s.581 £5 was given by Lady Lora ate Lose in 1372.582 In 1405 John Farningham gave 20s. as a gift on the anniversary of his wife.583 The financial crisis experienced by the monks of Boxley in the 1360s, characterised by falling rents and increase in loans, may be the very reason Abbot John ordered the 1360 Assessment of Revenues and sought to curb spending and make the best use of available revenues. However, from 1365, a new source of income for the abbey emerges in the accounts – one that became the dominant source of income towards the end of the fourteenth century in the bursars’ receipts. From 1365 the bursars receipts recorded money initially from the sacrist and then from an obedientiary named as the warden of 575 Ibid. 576 Ibid. 577 Smith, ‘The Central Financial System of Christ Church’, p. 356. 578 Ibid. 579 Ibid. In the same account the abbey paid Robert Bourne £20 for an old debt. 580 TNA, SC 6/1253/15. 581 TNA, SC 6/1253/12. 582 TNA, SC 6/1253/20. 583 TNA, SC 6/1256/10. 123 offerings to the holy cross. This income was derived from the shrine of the rood of grace at Boxley, which emerged as a miraculous remedy at an uncertain time after 1361 just when the monks of Boxley were faced with serious economic challenges.584 A popular site of pilgrimage to which people came and gave money, it became infamous at the Dissolution, when it was exposed as a trick with wires and sticks and it was burned in London in full public view.585 The date of origin for the shrine is not clear in any existing works, but in 1576 William Lambarde in his Perambulation of Kent documented a version of the origin of the Boxley Rood of Grace, which he said had been circulated by the monks orally and in writing.586 Lambarde wrote that a prisoner of the French Wars constructed the cross in order to help him gain his freedom. With the aid of hidden wires and sticks, the figure of Jesus on the cross had moveable joints and could move its head with such precision that even the eyes could roll and the figure could display displeasure or contentment according to the cash donations received. Once the prisoner was free, and was on his way back home, he took a break at a tavern in Rochester, where his horse ran away with the cross and brought it straight to the abbey at Boxley, refusing to move until the cross was unloaded inside the nave of the church. Once it was unloaded, the cross still could not be moved. The monks had to pay the carpenter to leave the cross with them and there it remained in the nave of the church at Boxley. According to Lambarde, this was the story circulated by the monks of Boxley to explain the origin of the Boxley Rood of Grace. The cross allegedly became the source of many miracles.587 There are just three surviving accounts for the sacrist at Boxley and all pre-date the appearance of the shrine in the bursars’ accounts. They are for 1351, 1361 and 1362.588 None of these makes any mention of offerings to the holy cross, although each accounted for a few shillings listed under the general heading of offerings. These may have come from offerings to alternative shrines in the church: the abbey had a relic of a finger reputed to 584 The term shrine is used throughout this study because the cross was an image that was the subject of veneration by pilgrims. However, none of the Boxley accounts use the word shrine to describe the cross. 585 J. Gardiner, ed., Letters and Papers, Foreign and Domestic, on the reign of Henry VIII, vol. 13, part 2, London, 1893, pp. 117, 120, 283, 284. 586 J. Cave Brown, The History of Boxley Parish, 1892, pp. 48-9. 587 Letters and Papers, Henry VIII, vol. 4, part 1, p.299. 588 TNA, SC 6/1252/12; TNA SC 6/1253/14. 124 have belonged to St Andrew and possessed a ‘miraculous’ statue of St Rumwold. An inventory for the office of sacrist for 1352 did not mention anything related to the rood of grace.589 In 1364, the bursars accounted for the casting and installation of four new bells at a cost of more than £50.590 This may be associated with the archaeological evidence found by P.J. Tester in 1971 of a tower at the west end of the church dated late fourteenth or early fifteenth century.591 Tester suggested that the tower was built to make a more impressive entrance for pilgrims to the rood of grace. The addition of four new bells, which are documented in the bursars’ accounts, would have enhanced this. In the bursars’ accounts, payments from the sacrist first appeared the following year, in 1365, but the origin of the income from the sacrist was not specified as offerings to the holy cross in the bursars’ accounts until 1371.592 By 1378, the bursars’ accounts listed offerings from the cross under a new heading - the office of warden of the holy cross.593 This office continued to hand over money to the bursars’ office until 1408, which was the last surviving account for the bursars at Boxley. Presumably, this income continued until the Dissolution. The implication is that the office of warden of offerings to the holy cross was created when the income from the cross began to increase significantly in the late fourteenth century. This is supported by the total amounts of money recorded in the bursars account from the shrine. By 1404, a layman, Laurence Vaus, named as warden of offerings at the front of the church 1404-8, was in receipt of a stipend.594 Presumably, he assisted the warden of the cross as its success grew. The high point in offerings to the cross of Boxley in the surviving accounts was in Oct 1378- Oct 1379 during which time the warden John Maidstone handed over more than £224 to the bursars.595 The shrine was still bringing in significant revenues into the fifteenth century – for example from February to the end of December 1404 the warden of the cross John 589 TNA, SC 6/896/20. 590 TNA, SC 6/1253/15. 591 P. J. Tester, ‘Excavations at Boxley Abbey’, p. 135. 592 TNA, SC 6/1253/19. 593 TNA, SC 6/1254/5. 594 TNA, SC 6/1256/10. 595 TNA, SC 6/1254/16. 125 Hall handed over more than £78. In the following year, for a 39-week period, offerings amounted to more than £52.596 Year account commences 1365 1371 1372 1372 1376 1378 1380 1385 1390 1404 1405 1408 Duration 34 wks 21wks 3 days 23wks 3 days 1 year 25 wks 1 year 13 wks 43 wks 39 wks 8 wks From Sacrist £3 11s 6d £13 13s 4d offerings to holy cross £54 16s £75 12s offerings to holy cross From Warden of Cross £23 10s £224 10s £120 £30 £59 13s £78 22d £52 9s £6 13s 4d Total income in account £102 15s 8d £30 11s 10d £160 4s 3d £272 16s 1d £41 6s 8d £243 11s 4d illeg illeg £70 8s 8d £110 2s 3d £85 18s 8d £11 2s 1d Table 5: Offerings to the Holy Cross at Boxley Abbey In 1390 an entry in the gifts section of the bursars’ accounts recorded that the abbot of Boxley gave 8d. to a certain man who was the son of him who had sold to this place the holy cross. This places the origin of the rood of Boxley within a generation of 1390 in the late fourteenth century.597 There are a number of reasons why the rood of grace may have emerged at this time as the shrine of choice at Boxley. In Kent, following the Black Death there had been a series of poor harvests in the 1350s and 1360s.598 The belief that saints offered a supernatural aid to their home churches and districts meant that the presence of a shrine to a saint such as that of St Oswald at Worcester, or St Alban at St Albans offered a strong protective force and so these were a focal point for patronage at times of crisis.599 However it clearly would have been impractical for a small house like Boxley to try and compete with the very successful local shrine of St Thomas at Canterbury. Additionally Boxley lacked a saint. Such a shrine could also be very costly to adorn and upkeep,600 whereas a mechanised wooden 596 TNA, SC 6/1256/10. 597 TNA, SC 6/1255/14. 598 Campbell, ‘Agriculture in Kent in the High Middle Ages’ p. 47. 599 B. Nilson, Cathedral Shrines of Medieval England, Woodbridge, 1998, p. 38-39. 600 Ibid. 126 crucifix was a much more practical solution, was much less financially demanding and offered pilgrims an alternative experience to the shine of a saint. The rood of grace had a very positive effect on the wellbeing of the Boxley economy. There were no new loans recorded in the accounts after 1364. However long lists of debts owed by and to the abbey were settled from 1365 onwards. In 1372, the bursars repaid more than £70 of debt and a further £45 the following year.601 Additionally in 1372 and in the accounts for 1404-8 large debts were paid to creditors, such as named fishmongers in London and elsewhere who had supplied the abbey with produce.602 This suggests that the abbey had acquired a certain amount of credit by this time, credit that may not have been available to them previously. The appearance of credit coincided with the appearance of the warden of the cross after 1372 and the rise of the successful shrine in the Boxley records. Expenses of the bursars The bursary acted largely as a central treasury. The bursars’ received the larger part of the revenues of the abbey and then re-distributed it to other offices or paid expenses that came under their own remit. These included expenses incurred by the abbot and his household. They paid allowances to the obedientiaries who ran essential departments of the abbey. They also paid for the maintenance of buildings within the abbey precinct, paid wages for household staff, and dealt with costs incurred while conducting the external business of the house as well as the costs of providing hospitality to visitors within the abbey. The 1360 Assessment of Revenues allowed them £85 3s. 4d. each year to cover all of these expenses – an indication that the abbot was attempting to curb spending at this time. The surviving accounts show that this was not successful. 601 TNA, SC 6/1253/20; TNA, SC 6/1254/1. 602 TNA, SC 6/11253/20; SC 6/1256/13. 127 Fig. 12 TNA: SC 6/1253/1. Expenses of the Bursars in the 1360 Assessment of Revenues. The most consistent payment to other monastic officials from the bursary was to the sub cellarer, the obedientiary who provided the abbey with fresh and preserved food and dairy produce. The general Assessment of Revenues produced in 1360, had set the annual amount due to the sub cellarer from the bursar at £20, payable at the four terms of the accounting year. The accounts show that in reality, the amount of money paid to him was variable, but after 1360 it never fell as low as the yearly sum of £20, which had been set. This may indicate that the sub cellarer blatantly overspent on the budget he had been given, but perhaps it is also a reflection of the changes over time in both numbers of monks and the prosperity of the house. In 1371, the bursars paid the sub cellarer £16 for just 21 weeks, in 1373, he received £52 for a year, between Oct 1387 and July 1388 he received £70 7s. 2d. and in 1390 he was allocated over £19 for a 13-week period.603 603 TNA, SC 6/1253/19; TNA, SC 6/1254/1; TNA, SC 6/1255/10; TNA, SC 6/1255/14. 128 1351 1353 1354 1360 1361 1362 1362 1364 1365 1365 1371 1372 1373 35 wks 36 wks 50 wks 1 yr and 7 wks 26 wks 13 wks 13 wks 25 wks 21 wks 34 wks 21 wks 23 wks 1 yr £5 11s 8d £19 12s 4d £10 11s 5d £37 3s 4d £16 2s 3d 25s £11 8s £24 17s 3d £20 10s 6d £32 17s 2d £16 6s 8d £30 5s 6d £52 6s 3d Table 6: Payments to the sub cellarer from the bursars. The abbot’s chaplain, the title of the abbot’s treasurer, only appears in the accounts of the bursars after the 1360 Assessment of Revenues when his allocated annual sum was £6 13s. 4d.604 The assessment stated that this payment was to buy necessities for the abbot and his chamber for the four terms. The following year the chaplain received £10.605 Amounts paid to him varied but never fell as low as the allocated amount. On the contrary, they increased significantly after the emergence of the shrine to as much as £43 8s. 7½d. in 1379 and £33 11s. 6d. in 1381.606 Regrettably, there are few details about the duties of this obedientiary, because only one very badly damaged account for the abbot’s chaplain has survived.607 Costs of clothing for the abbot and the abbot’s staff were included in the accounts of the bursars. The 1360 Assessment of Revenues only nominated these two obedientiaries, the sub cellarer and abbot’s chaplain, to receive allowances directly from the bursars, but it also allocated £5 10s. for the clothes and shoes of the monks each year. There is no evidence that the Boxley monks ever received a clothing allowance in lieu of clothing. Although only two accounts of a warden tailor at Boxley survive for the 1380s, the accounts of the bursars regularly allocated money to a warden tailor for cloth and shoes and the costs of cutting the clothes. Clothes for monks and lay staff were also commonly included in the bursars’ accounts. Clothing records are a useful guide for approximating the number of monks. In 1353, the bursars bought 29 pairs of shoes for eight monks and three lay brothers not including the abbot.608 In 1383, 64 pairs of shoes were purchased for approximately 18 monks.609 Apparently, numbers of monks had declined after the Black Death, but they 604 TNA, SC 6/1253/11. 605 TNA, SC 6/1253/12. 606 TNA, SC 6/1254/16; TNA, SC 6/1255/1. 607 TNA, SC 6/1255/1. 608 TNA, SC 6/1253/4. 609 TNA, SC 6/1255/5 129 recovered in the second half of the fourteenth century. In 1384, the bursars gave alms to the poor on behalf of the abbot and 22 monks,610while in 1389 alms were given to the poor by the cellarer John Maidstone, on behalf of the abbot and 16 monks.611 Clothing records offer only an approximation of numbers of monks because throughout the period some obedientiaries were clearly buying their own clothing. The bursars accounted for items of their own clothing throughout the period, as well as for extra items bought for the abbot. The sacrist and warden of the bakery bought their own clothes in the 1350s and 1360s. The cellarer accounted for cloth bought to clothe himself and his staff throughout the period, mainly blanket and linen cloth. The sub cellarer accounted for his clothing in some of his accounts. The cloth bought by the bursars may therefore be more representative of that bought to clothe those monks who did not hold offices rather than of all the monks. Someone after all had to be in the church conducting the continual round of services. The type of cloth worn denoted the seniority of the monks. Although many of the accounts simply recorded the bulk amounts of cloth bought, others offer more detail. Sandlyn cloth was bought for the abbot and prior in 1353 at a cost of 3s. per ell, whereas the white cloth bought for the conventual monks was 18d. per ell.612 In addition to the bulk purchases of cloth, a cowl, two tunics and a scapular were purchased for the abbot in 1355 along with gloves, shoes and a fur.613 Two new cowls of seggle worsted cloth purchased for senior monks Hamo Stoke and Gilbert Maidstone in 1362 cost 10s. each.614 The surviving two accounts of the warden tailor for 1382 and 1383 are regrettably badly decayed, but they show that the materials bought for clothing the monks did not change.615 The main two types of cloth bought for the monks were blanket and worsted, whilst russet cloth was purchased for the tunics of the lay brothers, of whom mention was still made at Boxley up until the 1380s. The Assessment of Revenues had allowed £5 10s. for monks clothing needs. The actual amount spent on clothing for the monks did not significantly exceed this until 1383, when the bursars handed over £11 to the warden tailor for clothing for monks and lay brothers.616 Numbers had definitely increased, so the greater expenditure on clothing need not indicate clothing that is more expensive. 610 TNA, SC 6/1255/4. 611 TNA, SC 6/1255/13. 612 TNA, SC /1253/4. 613 Ibid. 614 TNA, SC 6/1253/12. 615 TNA, SC 6/1255/3; TNA, SC 6/1255/5. 616 TNA, SC 6/1255/5. 130 On the other hand, clothing the household staff became increasingly costly and more elaborate. The total cost of clothing the lay staff in 1353 was £5 13s. 3d. Although the 1360 assessment of revenue had allowed £8 for this purpose, by 1365 the cost had already risen to £11 8s. 8d. and increased to over £19 in 1373, over £24 in 1376 and to more than £27 in 1385.617 The abbey required an assortment of lay staff. These fall into two main categories, those who served the household of the abbot and those who served the monastic household. Within these groups, they can be further sub divided into clerical staff, squires, those who worked in a particular department such as cooks and bakers, servants, the tailor and barber, pages and grooms, and occasional skilled staff such as masons and carpenters. In addition, the abbey employed professional staff who offered their services in legal affairs for a fee. Not all staff were confined to the monastic precinct all of the time. Squires grooms and pages travelled far and wide for the business of the house, taking letters for the abbot to Canterbury or Rochester, or accompanying the abbot and monks on their trips. They needed to be dressed appropriately when representing the abbey in secular society. The livery of staff at Boxley denoted their rank, something that is also apparent at Durham where Miranda Threlfall-Holmes found that there were five grades of wearer differentiated by the type and cost of cloth worn.618 In the Boxley livery account for 1365 a robe of coloured cloth for one clerk cost 20s. and was matched with a high-grade lambskin cap for 5s. 8d.619 In the same account, six squires received clothing made of cloth that cost the same amount per ell, 3s. 2d. but made with less fabric per robe. The abbot’s chamberlain and the master carpenter along with three estate bailiffs received robes worth 10s. each, while a servant in the abbot’s chamber and his groom received tunics that cost 5s. each. Further down the livery chain, two pages in the abbot’s stables were given tunics worth 3s. 4d. each. Cloth described as stragulati, or striped, was also purchased for the livery of lay household staff at Boxley, as it was at Durham and Peterborough.620 In 1373 coloured and striped cloth was bought for two clerks and two squires at a cost of £8 12d. or 3s. 6d. per ell.621 In the same account, six additional squires received clothing made of nine ells of coloured cloth and six ells of striped cloth at a cost of 18d. per ell, while two of the abbot’s stable pages received tunics of striped cloth that cost 16d. per ell. The number of staff who received clothing increased over time, but, in particular, a greater amount of 617 TNA, SC 6/1253/15; TNA, SC 6/1254/1; TNA, SC 6/1254/5; TNA, SC 6/1255/9. 618 Threlfall-Holmes, Monks and Markets, p. 124-126. 619 TNA, SC 6/1253/15. 620 Threlfall-Holmes, Monks and Markets, p. 123. 621 TNA, SC 6/1254/1. 131 coloured and striped cloth was purchased for staff who were described as the abbot’s staff from 1373 onwards, an indication that the abbot’s personal retinue was greater in number after the emergence of the rood of grace. It also indicates that the abbot’s personal retinue became more discernible. Professional staff, whom the abbey retained for legal and business advice, received fur caps, furs or hoods in the livery section. Occasionally estate lay sergeants received robes. Craftsmen engaged by the abbey to carry out long term projects in the abbey precinct also received robes. In 1365 the master carpenter Richard ate Dore was given a robe that cost 10s. while the two tilers Adam Marshall and John Vannere received tunics costing 6s. each.622 All had been working at the abbey for a 16- week period during the time of that account. In the Assessment of Revenues for 1360, the granator had identified a shortfall in grain supplies of 80 quarters of palm barley valued at £20. While the granator received grain directly from the monastic estates and allocated it to the bakery and brewery, the bursars also bought grain to make up for deficiencies in the supply. These purchases of grain appeared in the bursars’ accounts after 1348 and until 1365. After this date, the abbey appears to have become self-sufficient from the estates in its supplies of grain and neither the bursar nor the granary account recorded any major purchases. This is in contrast to an earlier more rudimentary assessment of manorial revenues for 1317 at which time there was a significant shortfall for grain produced by the estates.623 The two assessments of manorial revenues were produced immediately after disastrous weather had resulted in poor harvests across the country. On the other hand, whilst the 1360 Assessment of Revenues had made no allowance for the bursars to cover expenses of the infirmary, from 1372 expenses for the monks’ infirmary were included in all of the bursars’ accounts. The reason for this is not clear. Purchases made for the infirmary included various spices, ointments, wine and mead. It was the responsibility of the bursars to maintain the physical structure of the abbey. After they had paid allowances to the main offices of the house, the Assessment of Revenues stipulated that the bursars were responsible for funding repairs within the abbey, including the gatehouse and chapel there, the mills within the abbey precinct and the 622 TNA, SC 6/1253/15. 623 TNA, SC 6/1251/3. 132 warrener’s lodge. The sum of £10 was allowed for this purpose. The abbey buildings required continual maintenance and work was carried out on the church and cloisters throughout the 1350s and 1360s. Some of the accounts listed the costs of these running repairs while others just listed day wages for carpenters, tilers and thatchers. The allocated £10 was sufficient for this purpose, but, in addition, the bursars funded larger building projects on occasions. Work was carried out to rebuild the infirmary in 1361.624 Inside the Church, the windows over the high altar at the east end of the church were re-glazed in 1361 after a £20 bequest from Robert Bourne.625 New bells were installed in the church tower in 1364. This was a major project that cost more than £50.626 Three bells in all were made, the great bell named IHC (Jesus) cost £9 6s. two high bells named Mary and John the Evangelist cost £8 12s. 2d. and £15 14s. respectively. Additionally a quarter bell named Katherine was purchased at a cost of £14 5s. 5d. Fig. 13: TNA SC/6/1253/15. The cost of new Bells in the 1364 Bursars’ Account. Two carpenters and a smith employed to make the hanging chains and hang the bells received £2 17s. 4d. In this year and the following year, the carpenter and stonemason were included in the stipends section of the accounts, an indication that further work was in progress. Long-term work was initiated on the buildings of the abbey around the time that the shrine income begins to appear in the documents. The rebuilding of the cloisters, initiated in 1373 is recorded in a contract between the abbot and a stonemason called Stephen 624 TNA, SC 6, 1253/12. 625 Ibid. 626 TNA, SC 6/1253/15. In the recepta section of this 1364 account, £5 from bequests was recorded for the new bells. 133 Lomberhurst.627 The agreement was that Stephen would re-build the cloisters of the abbey on all sides with four new windows on the south side of the church for total payment of £120 to be staggered over a four-year period. He was to use stone from the quarry belonging to the abbey at Chingley, which he rented from them at the time. Excavation at Boxley Abbey in 1971 by P.J Tester concluded that the work to rebuild the cloisters was never finished.628 However, bursars’ accounts reveal that a considerable part of this work was carried out as planned. In 1379 William Clamp stonemason was allowed £13 10s. for his work on the cloisters and for making four stone windows in the church on the cloister side.629 In the same year, Stephen Lomberhurst received £4 towards his work on the church and dormitory while John Shingler received 19s. 4d. and an extra 4s. for replacing the old tiles on the north side of the church. Richard King and his staff, working on the new cloisters paid the bursars 6s. 8d. towards their food and ale and paid another 22d. for seventy conventual loaves.630 In 1401, in a very badly damaged deed between the monks and Stephen Lomberhurst and another mason Richard Swan, mention was made of Stephen being impeded by illness.631 Another deed between the monks and these two masons was mentioned in the bursars’ account of 1404 but has not survived.632 In 1406, the bursar Richard Sheppey, who went on to become abbot by 1416,633 allowed the sub cellarer 13s. to provide food for Richard Swan and his staff. In that year, they were working in the quarry at Chingley and they re-built the north gable of the monastic church.634 In 1373, the same year that work on the cloisters was initiated, more than £22 was spent on making elaborate altar cloths and on beautiful vestments. These included embroidered gold cloth, red cloth green muslin, blue spangling for the vestments, lace and gold fringing cloth.635 These were clearly not for everyday wear – possibly, they were for the abbot, or for use during processions. They were clearly vestments intended to impress onlookers. Again, this coincides with the emergence of the Boxley rood of grace in the bursars’ accounts. 627 TNA, SC 6/210/1299. 628 P. J. Tester, ‘Excavations at Boxley Abbey’, Arch. Cant, p. 135. 629 TNA, SC 6/1254/16. 630 Ibid. 631 TNA, E 210/1299. 632 TNA, SC 6/1256/10. 633 Smith, The Heads of Religious Houses: England and Wales, III, p. 271. 634 TNA, SC 6/1256/10. 635 TNA, SC 6 /1254/1. 134 The bursars also made payments for repairs outside of the abbey on their estates on occasions. Estate accounts show that such payments frequently occurred in exceptional circumstances when maintenance was required to the estate buildings or at times of disaster such as flooding. For example, in 1385, the bursars gave the sum of 72s. to the warden at Eastchurch, given in part for repairs to the chancel; both the bursars’ account for that year and the surviving account for Eastchurch documented the payment.636 The repairs were in vain as in 1430 the church had to be completely re-built after it had apparently fallen down due to ‘the rottenness of the ground.’637 A diverse group of staff were employed to keep the abbey running from day to day and the bursary funded their wages. The Assessment of Revenues of 1360 allocated an annual sum of £3 towards stipends and companagium (extra food/relish) for the chamberlain, grooms and household staff. Given that stipends paid in 1353, 1354 and 1355 amounted to between £4 and £6 this was an inadequate sum. It may explain the long lists of debt and arrears in stipends for household staff found in the 1365 accounts. The earlier bursars’ accounts either named the stipendiary without giving any job title, or described them as servants, grooms and pages without naming them. From 1365 the name of the stipendiary was recorded alongside their job title. At Boxley up until 1364 kitchen staff, grooms, pages and servants received a food allowance with their stipends. After 1364, there were no recorded food allowances in the stipends section of the accounts, but wages had increased to compensate for this. In 1354, a groom could expect 18d. per term with a food allowance. In 1390, he had no food allowance, but his stipend was 2s. Although the overall cost of stipends did not increase significantly over time, the composition of the people who were considered household staff altered. After 1372, a new category emerged in the form of staff who dealt with the increasing number of visitors to the abbey to visit the rood of grace. There were regular payments to the warden and servants of the guesthouse and, from 1376, a stipend was paid to the staff at the front of the church, while from 1404 until 1408 a stipend was paid to Laurence Vaus, named as the lay warden of the offerings to the cross. The early accounts made no distinction between abbot’s staff and household staff, but from 1372, the accounts specified those stipendiaries who were abbot’s staff along with their job title. The bursars paid stipends to the abbot’s squires, grooms, pages, gardener, chamberlain and servant. Thomas Cowden, squire to the abbot of Boxley, 636 TNA, SC 6/890/17. 637 CPR, 1429-1436, p. 147. 135 received a regular stipend between 1372 and 1390.638 In 1372, 1373 and 1376 he was paid 3s. 4d. per term. This had doubled by 1390, when he received 6s. 8d. per term. John Weapes, a page in the abbot’s stable, had a less successful career. Shoes and clothing to the value of 3s. 4d. were purchased for him in February 1404 and he received a stipend of 20d for one term in 1406.639 Unfortunately, he was the subject of a coroner’s inquest later that year after he drowned in the tile pond.640 After 1390, the accounts did not include abbot’s clerks or squires. Presumably, the abbot funded these from his own allowance. However, the abbot’s chamberlain, gardener and stable pages were still included in the bursars’ accounts. A number of professional staff were also employed to give advice and sometimes represent the abbey and abbot in business dealings. Robert Vinter and Robert Bourne were two such men. Robert Vinter of Maidstone had been a conservator of the peace for Kent in 1360 and had granted land to the abbey in 1365.641 A frequent visitor to abbey, he received gifts from the abbot of Boxley and afforded the abbey loans on a number of occasions.642 He acted on behalf of abbot in a number of legal matters.643 Robert Bourne, described in the accounts as procurator for the abbey, was an ecclesiastic with a long and well-documented career spanning over 40 years.644 He was a frequent visitor to Boxley abbey, named in many of the fourteenth-century bursars’ accounts as a recipient of gifts of money, wine and clothes for his staff.645 Both men regularly appeared in the expenses of the bursars under the section of travel expenses on behalf of the abbot. For example, in 1355 they spent 4 days in London for the abbot.646 Items of clothing purchased for them included a fur with a hood bought for Robert Bourne in 1353, while Robert Vinter received a fur without a hood.647 The total cost was over 16s. Both received small sums of money. They clearly had a close relationship with the abbey. Robert Vinter gave the abbey land. Robert Bourne gave money for a new window in the church. Both lent money to the abbey on occasions. 638 TNA, SC 6/1254/1; TNA, SC 6/1254/5; TNA, SC 6/1255/14. 639 TNA, SC 6/1256/10. 640 Ibid. 641 TNA, C 143/355/9. 642 TNA, SC 6/1253/4; TNA SC 6/ 1253/12. 643 A. H Thomas, ed, Calendar of the plea and memoranda rolls of the city of London: vol 2: 1364- 1381, 1929, pp. 1-28. 644 For a discussion of Robert Vinter and Robert Bourne see Chapter 2, pp. 68-71. 645 TNA, SC 6/1253/15. 646 TNA, SC 6/1253/4 647 Ibid. 136 Both frequently received small gifts from the abbot and were entertained at the abbey. In their wills, both men requested burial within the church at Boxley and bequeathed land and money to the abbey. In later accounts, professional staff recorded under the section headed impensiones received a regular payment indicating that the abbey employed them in a more formal capacity for services in business and legal affairs. John Solas, for example, named as the abbey attorney in the court of common pleas in a number of accounts, received a payment in 1364, 1365, 1371 and 1373. The most regular expenses consisted of payment for the services of a doctor. In five of the accounts from 1372 to 1390, the doctor Master John Palmer was paid a yearly sum of 20s. He was also included in the livery section of the bursars’ accounts when he received high grade lambskins bugetum and lamb skin caps.648 There were no earlier regular payments for a doctor, so it appears that as the abbey became more affluent it was possible to pay a fee to retain one man in their service and his payments were included in the impensiones section. In the travel expenses section of the accounts servants went frequently to London and Canterbury to look for Master John Palmer at Canterbury and bring him back to the abbey or to buy medicine for sick monks. Also included in the impensiones section of the bursars’ accounts, yearly payments were made to a chantry priest at the church of Horsmonden. In 1338 Robert de Groshurst, founder of the chantry chapel, had handed over the sum of £100 to the abbey.649 In return, the monks of Boxley had to pay an annual sum of £4 forever to the chaplain there to maintain the chapel. With this longstanding obligation, it is clear that the annual sum of £4 set aside in the Assessment of Revenues in 1360 to cover all impensiones payments was never adequate to cover the payments due. This is curious because between 1340 and 1350 the £4 payment for the Horsmonden chaplain was paid in full each year by the estate at Chingley in the Weald.650 Chingley had been leased by 1360 for an annual fee of £5 and these payments subsequently appeared under the impensiones section of the bursars’ accounts from 1353, but no allowance for this or any payments for retained professional staff was made in 1360 when the Assessment of Revenues was produced. 648 TNA, SC 6/1254/1. 649 Hussey, Kent Chantries, pp. 159-60. 650 TNA, SC 6/889/1; TNA, SC 6/889/2; TNA, SC 6/889/3; TNA, SC 6/889/4; TNA, SC 6/889/5. 137 The 1360 Assessment of Revenues limit of £4 for impensiones had included only three recipients at that time. They were Andrew Pybaker, Denis Wilston and Adam Prior. Under the general heading of impensiones, the bursars’ accounts identified these three men all as corrodians. Barbara Harvey has described the corrody as a ‘bundle of privileges’ granted to both residents and non-residents which could include the receipt by the corrodian of food, housing, fuel, light, clothing and money.651 At Boxley none of the corrodians were named in any of the sub cellarer accounts in relation to food. Instead, the bursars’ accounts recorded that Andrew Pybaker received a yearly corrody of 60s. between 1353 and 1377. Denis Wilston received money to the value of 8s. 8d. between 1351 and 1354. Robert Green of Horton received 13s. 4d. in five accounts between 1364 and 1405,652 while John Smythorne, also described as a corrodian, received 7s. 6d. per annum between 1372 and 1377. An agreement for a corrody sold to a Simon Wilston has survived although badly damaged. He was to receive weekly six loaves of conventual bread (panes conventuale), four loaves of dark bread (panes nigros), and 2d. in silver for his allowance paid each week.653 Expenses were also recorded for repairs made to a house at Sandling for Andrew Pybaker in 1353.654 Senior monks made regular trips out on behalf of the abbey and the abbot and their travel expenses are documented in the bursars’ accounts. The Boxley cellarer was frequently in London and Rochester and as far as Oxford on the business of the house with expenses paid for trips of up to four or five days at a time. Only occasionally did the accounts specifiy the purpose of the trip. In 1355 Stephen ate Hethe was in London to obtain writs for the abbot.655 In 1361 Thomas Thanet, a senior Boxley monk, was at Pipewell Abbey to meet with the abbot there on behalf of the abbot of Boxley.656 More frequently, the accounts just stated that the monks were out on the business of the house or the abbot. Lay staff accompanied the abbot and monks on their business trips or conveyed letters from the abbot to a range of recipients. 651 Harvey, Living and Dying in Medieval England 1100-1540, p 181. 652 TNA, E 210/9396. In 1360 Robert Green of Horton had agreed to rent a curtilage with a house from the monks on a 20 year lease. The lease made no mention of his corrody. 653 TNA, E 210/3856. 654 TNA, SC 6/1253/4. 655 TNA, SC 6/1253/4. 656 TNA, SC 6/1253/12 138 One source of expenditure for the bursars that had not been anticipated in the 1360 Assessment of Revenues involved extra personal expenses pertaining to the abbot. The assessment of 1360 had allowed a yearly sum of £5 for the bursars to purchase wine and spices - presumably, these were for the abbot’s use as throughout the period. The accounts record spices purchased in small quantities for the abbot but these occur alongside other costs incurred by him. In addition to the payments made to his chaplain, a number of costs for the abbot were also included in all of the bursars’ accounts. A more standardized written format for these expenses evolved over time. In the earlier accounts, personal expenses of the abbot were absorbed under the small expenses sections. From 1390 his costs came under more formal headings of costs for the abbot’s chamber, costs of the abbot’s stables and costs of the abbot’s garden, indicating a greater distinction between the expenses of his office and his personal expenses. Expenses for the abbot included 65lb candles purchased in 1390, candles and a quire of paper in 1406, 48lb candles and silk for mending his clothing in 1405, and 98lb candles in 1404 along with various purchases of medicine specifically for him in that year, among them vinegar for his gout.657 The account of 1408 recorded that spices were purchased for the abbot and other sick monks in that year.658 Some expenses of the abbot such as wax for seals always came under the small expenses section rather than under his personal costs, presumably because they pertained to abbey business rather than the abbot himself. In 1405, expenses for the abbot’s garden included costs for sowing beans and hemp in the curtilage by the stable.659 Costs incurred by the bursars for the abbot’s stable included a number of riding accessories such as new saddles, bridles for his horses, horseshoes and medicine for his horses in addition to various ointments made of pork fat. The bursars did not record any purchases of horses for the abbot. Until 1355, purchases of wine appear in the accounts on specific occasions and for specific people. Wine was generally purchased for the abbot and his guests. For example in 1353 Robert Vinter consumed a gallon of wine on 4 November, two gallons of wine with other guests on 1 January, one gallon along with his brother on the night before Palm Sunday and 657 TNA, SC 6/1255/14; TNA, SC 6/1256/10. 658 TNA, SC 6/1256/13. 659 TNA, SC 6/1256/10. 139 another gallon in Pentecost week.660 The wine cost 8d. per gallon. Increasingly from 1355, the accounts recorded bulk purchases of wine for visitors bought at Maidstone and London or sometimes at the gate of the monastery. Bulk purchases varied in quantity from year to year. For example, in addition to purchases for specified guests in 1355, the bursars purchased 57 gallons of wine for the abbot and various guests.661 In 1360, they bought 59 gallons and 1390 they bought 2 pipes of wine and 45 gallons.662 A pipe was 126 gallons.663 In 1408, greater detail was recorded about the wine. In addition to three quarts of white wine bought for 7d. the bursars bought one quart of vernage wine from Italy for 8d. one gallon of white wine from Rochelle in France purchased for 11d. and a gallon of bastard sweet wine bought for 17d.664 Ale, brewed on site for the monks and for the household, was the main beverage and is analysed in more detail below. The Boxley bursars had overall responsibility for the economy and for the smooth operation of the abbey from day to day and year to year. The perpetual round of church services and prayer, which does not appear in these financial accounts, but which was after all the main spiritual function of a monastery, continued alongside the business concerns that made up the other side of life in the medieval monastery. Monks and staff needed to be fed and clothed, wages had to be paid, and buildings had to be maintained. These areas of administration at Boxley were the responsibility of the bursars and their ongoing success ensured the financial health of the house. The domestic economy however was the domain of the sub cellarer and granator. The Office of Cellarer The rule of St Benedict, written in sixth century Italy allowed for the appointment of a number of offices within the monastery. These included an abbot, prior, cellarer and porter. The cellarer was to ‘have charge of everything’, ‘be like a father to the community’ and be responsible not only for provisioning food within the monastery but also for allocating it to each monk each day.665 This diverse and challenging job description encompassed a wide range of duties for which the rule allowed the cellarer to have 660 TNA, SC 6/1253/4. 661 Ibid. 662 TNA, SC 6/1253/12; TNA, SC 6/1255/14. 663 Searle and Ross, Accounts of the Cellarers of Battle Abbey, p. 170. 664 TNA, SC 6/1256/13. 665 RSB, 31. 140 assistants to help him. Many separate offices emerged from this role as the obedientiary system developed from the twelfth century onwards. The duties of individual cellarers varied considerably from house to house as subsidiary offices emerged from the cellarers’ office. At Westminster Abbey, the cellarer supplied the house with bread and ale in addition to managing the gardens, meadows, piggery and oxhall.666 At Battle Abbey in Sussex, from the late thirteenth to the late fifteenth century the cellarer provided the house with food and fish but not ale or bread.667 At nearby Canterbury Cathedral by the late thirteenth century the cellarer, assisted by a sub cellarer was responsible for the provision of food and drink and ran a guesthouse for pilgrims.668 In the 1269-70 account of Cistercian house at Beaulieu, the cellarer ran the malt house, brewery, provided ale, and wine for the house while his deputy the sub cellarer provided fish cheese eggs and butter.669 The sixteenth century cellarer at another Cistercian house at Sibton in Suffolk was responsible for the provision of bread in addition to overseeing the kitchen and dairy.670 At Boxley, far from being a ‘universal provider of foodstuffs,’671 ale, or bread for his community, the fourteenth-century cellarer had assumed a diverse range of duties that involved overseeing some of the more functional aspects of monastic life. The sub cellarer, who must once have been his deputy, had taken over the role of providing food for the house. Surviving accounts for the Boxley cellarers run from 1336 until 1459 but many are badly damaged and partially illegible.672 Nine of them have been analysed for this study. They show that the cellarer dealt with the administration of what may be termed ‘works’ departments both in and outside of the convent, including overseeing the abbey estates and lands. It is unsurprising given the range of duties involved that sometimes there was more than one cellarer in office at one time. While the details of this are unclear, the bursars’ accounts of 1365 and the cellarer’s account of 1384 both named a middle cellarer, 666 B. Harvey, The Obedientiaries of Westminster Abbey and their Financial Records c 1275- 1540, Westminster Abbey Record Series, III, Woodbridge, 2002, p. 34. 667 Searle, and Ross, Accounts of the Cellarers of Battle Abbey, pp. 14-17. 668 Smith, Canterbury Cathedral Priory, p. 39. 669 S. F. Hockey, ed, Account Book of Beaulieu Abbey, Camden Fourth Series, 16, London 1975, p. 36. 670 Denny, The Sibton Abbey Estates, p. 39. 671 Knowles, MO, p. 436. 672 Appendix 5, pp. 200-201. 141 perhaps an assistant to deputise for the cellarer when he was out of the abbey on external duties. In a 1349 inventory for the office of the Boxley cellarer, the goods and chattels of his office reflect the duties assigned to him by this time.673 The inventory listed; one horse for the cellarer, three for the carts with all their equipment, one cart without wheels, one wagon with wheels, seven axes, four of which were for felling trees while two were for carpentry, three saws, pitchforks and spades for digging clay. This demonstrates that by this time the cellarer had completely handed over his domestic duties to the sub cellarer while he took on the complex role of ensuring that all of the mechanisms required to keep the abbey running smoothly were operating effectively. Fig. 14: TNA SC/6/896/20. Inventory for Office of the Cellarer 1349 The cellarers’ accounts of 1378, 1384, 1387 and 1389 all included allowances from the bursars. Prior to this, the office was self-funded. Income came from a number of sources, most of which related to the responsibilities of the office. Up until and inclusive of the account of 1361, the cellarer received rents from the fulling mill at Doverlope.674 He received rent from two mills at Sandwich in 1336 and 1337 and from the fulling mill at Pollmill in 1339 and 1349 but the Pollmill rent diverted to the sub cellarer in the 1350s, presumably when cash was short, and it then appeared in the bursars’ accounts in 1385. The accounts of the cellarer for 1339 and 1349 recorded that the cellarer’s office paid for repairs to the mill buildings in those years. 673 TNA, SC 6/896/20. 674 Footnote 485. 142 The cellarer received rent from land and pasture throughout the period. One of his duties was to supervise the mowing of meadows and collection of hay in the meadows around Aylesford and Newhythe, after which the meadows were leased for pasture. In this way, they provided an all year round income. In 1336, mowers received a wage of 5d. per acre and a potel of ale per day for mowing large meadows at Aylesford and Newhythe.675 The same people received 4d. per acre for mowing the meadow called Rowan at Bridgemead (location not known) and 1d. per day with food for mowing the gardens for 14 days. In 1384, the cost of mowing meadows including those at Aylesford and Newhythe was 6d. per acre plus food.676 The cellarer managed the woodland around the upper and lower granges at Boxley, and sales of wood provided his office with a steady income throughout the period. Costs incurred by the cellarer in managing the wood included wages, food and ale for workers employed to make hedges, and dig ditches. The accounts recorded the cost of implements for this such as spades, picks, mattocks and hoes in 1361, and gloves purchased for workers making the kydes in 1384.677 Bundles of fuel or fagots were sold at 4s. per hundred in 1336.678 In 1361 the cost had gone up to 6s. per hundred but returned again to 4s. per hundred in 1384 and 1387.679 They cost between 10d. and 1s. to make so offered a good profit margin providing the cellarer’s office with an income of more than £2 in 1336 and 1337 and £3 in 1384.680 Other sales from woodland management included logs, branches and tree trunks. In 1361 seven thousand logs were sold at a cost of £2 6s. 8d.681 Regrettably, the earliest accounts recorded the amount of fuel sold and costs for making fuel, but did not include a stock account, so it is not possible to analyse the proportion of fuel produced in relation to fuel sold. After 1380, stock accounts were appended. In 1384 1,700 fuel bundles kydes were made of which 1500 were sold and 200 used by the tile house.682 The account of 1387 recorded that 12,800 fuel bundles kydes were made of which the abbey used 9,800 for unspecified purposes. In the same year, 200 fagots were 675 TNA, SC 6/1251/8. 676 TNA, SC 6/1255/7. 677 TNA, SC 6/1253/13; TNA, SC 6/1255/7. 678 TNA, SC 6/1251/8. 679 TNA, SC 6/1253/13; TNA, SC 6/1255/8. 680 TNA, SC 6/1251/8; TNA, SC 6/1251/9; TNA, SC 6/1255/7. 681 TNA, SC 6/1253/13. 682 TNA, SC 6/1255/7. 143 made of which 100 were used at the tile house and 100 were sold. Of 8,000 logs made, the abbot’s chamber received 4,000, the infirmary received 1,000, the guesthouse received 2,000 and 1,000 were sent to the warming room calefactory.683 The cellarer administered the works departments attached to the abbey. These included the tile house, the lime house and the quarry. The tile house at Boxley made large quantities of tiles, used by the abbey for various running repairs to the abbey buildings. The abbey also sold large numbers of tiles. P.J. Tester found tile mosaic at Boxley and concluded that the Boxley tilery was the source of tile mosaics at Canterbury, Rochester and Leeds.684 The accounts of the Boxley cellarers included costs of buying and making tiles. In the earliest accounts, up until 1361 tilers received a wage for making tiles. In 1337 the tiler received 16s. 6d. for making 18,000 tiles.685 In 1349 Walter the tiler received 3s. 4d. for the Michaelmas term and 3s. for his food while his servant received 3s. for his wages and 13d. for his food. Another tiler received 6s. 9d.686 In that year, 23,000 tiles were sold for £5 4s. 10d. at 4s. per thousand tiles. In 1361 two tilers were hired to make tiles for twelve weeks. In the same year, unnamed members of the famulia assisted three hired men, who were for a total of 43 days to dig brick earth limosa terra used for making tiles.687 There are no cellarer accounts for the rest of the 1360s but in an almoner’s account for 1369 a tiler was hired to repair the dolhous at the almonry and the almoner Thomas London purchased tiles and nails for the purpose.688 By 1384, the tile house at Boxley was leased to John Mott tiler, for a yearly fixed rent of 40s. In that year the cellarer bought 28,000 tiles from him for 46s. 8d. He sold 12,000 of them for 48s. and accounted for using 14000 in building work at a house by the abbey gate.689 In 1387 the cellarer paid 46s. 8d. for another 28,000 tiles from John Mott and sold 4,000 for 16s. He accounted for 1,000 in repairs within the abbey precinct, and another 1,000 for the house in the park, while the sub cellarer received 300 683 TNA, SC 6/1255/8. 684 Tester, ‘Excavations,’ Arch.Cant. p. 146. TNA, SC 6/1252/9: The cellarer’s account for 1349 allowed 10,000 tiles to the Prior of Rochester. 685 TNA, SC 6/1251/9. 686 TNA, SC 6/1252/9. 687 TNA, SC 6/1253/13. 688 TNA, SC 6/1253/17. 689 TNA, SC 6/1255/7. 144 tiles for repairs to the fish house.690 Newenham received a further 7,000. John Mott still had the lease of the tile house in 1389.691 Lime was an essential ingredient for building repairs and upkeep. The cellarer purchased lime by the quarter in the earliest accounts of 1336, 1337 and 1339 at a cost of 3 ½d per quarter and there was no mention of a limekiln.692 However, in 1361 the limekiln received 700 logs for fuel.693 From 1383, all the cellarer’s accounts recorded costs of the limekiln. These included costs for fuel, mending the kiln, wages for the workers at the kiln and running totals of lime made and sold during the term of the account. It was a profitable commodity. The limekiln produced 600q of lime in 1384.694 Of this, the sale of 400q produced £10 for the cellarer’s office. Repairs within the abbey accounted for the remaining 200q. In 1389, the kiln produced 450q of lime.695 Again, repairs accounted for 200q while the remaining 250q generated more than £7 for the office in sales. The most essential constituent for repairing abbey buildings was a ready supply of stone. In 1384 and 1387, the accounts of the cellarer included issues of a quarry. The abbey had a stone quarry at Chingley in the Weald. In 1384 the cellarer recorded 800 stones from the quarry.696 Five hundred were sold for more than £6 and more than 200 were sent to the abbey. Two men were paid for extracting 354 of the stones and their expenses in mending two picks and purchasing a new fork were included in the account. The community at the quarry received five bushels of barley in that year. In 1387, two men were paid 15s. for hewing and breaking 100 pieces of stone, which were sold for 25s.697 Two men with two wagons transported the stones for ten working days, an indication that the stone may indeed have originated from the Chingley quarry rather than a nearer source. The cellarer supervised workers who carried out day-to-day repairs to the buildings of the abbey. As well as overseeing the tilers, he paid wages to carpenters throughout the period for work that included maintenance of the mills and millponds, repairs to the stable 690 TNA, SC 6/1255/8. 691 TNA, SC 6/1255/13. 692 TNA, SC 6/1251/8; TNA, SC 6/1251/9; TNA, SC 6/1252/2. 693 TNA, SC 6/1253/13. 694 TNA, SC 6/1255/7. 695 TNA, SC 6/1255/13. 696 TNA, SC 6/1255/7. 697 TNA, SC 6/1255/8. 145 buildings and repairing the dovecote in the abbot’s gardens in 1384.698 He supervised work on the chancel roof in 1336 and repairs to the cloisters in 1337.699 In 1365 the bursars accounted for sea coal, tile nails and thatch nails, which they handed to the middle cellarer Thomas Thanet for house repairs.700 Transport of goods such as grain, building materials and fuel was a basic requirement for the abbey and the Boxley cellarer administered the carts, carthorses and carters, all of which were essential for bringing goods to and from the monastery. This involved regular purchases of ironwork for the carts such as wheels, cart hooks and plates for the wheel axles known as cartcluts as well as nails for the cart repairs and horseshoes for the carthorses. The horses required accessories such as harnesses, halters and collars in addition to a variety of ropes for different tasks. Grease was purchased for oiling the leather and metalwork. The cellarer accounted for purchases of carthorses on occasions. The abbot purchased one horse for 30s. in 1349.701 In 1384 the cellarer bought three new carthorses for £4 16d. and this increased the total number to six.702 The cellarer also had his own horses and bought medicine for them in 1336 and 1384.703 All of the accounts included purchases of fodder and oats for the horses. There were also purchases of Spanish and Wealden iron, iron blooms and steel worked on site by the smith. No details were included on where it was bought. Sea coal purchased in large quantities by the quarter for approximately a shilling per quarter in 1336-7 suffered a price fall in 1349, when the price fell to just 7d. per quarter.704 This increased to 2s. per quarter in 1384 and by 1389 sea coal cost between 15d. and 21d. per quarter depending on the quantity bought.705 Coal, purchased from various places including New Hythe and Maidstone, was used by the smith as well as at the tile kiln and limekiln. The stipends and day wages paid by the bursars are further indication of his diverse responsibilities. In addition to paying a stipend for the tilers, the carters, carpenters and 698 TNA, SC 6/1255/7. 699 TNA, SC 6/1251/8; TNA, SC 6/1251/9. 700 TNA, SC 6/1253/15. 701 TNA, SC 6/1252/9. 702 TNA, SC 6/1255/7. 703 TNA, SC 6/1251/8; TNA, SC 6/1255/7. 704 TNA, SC 6/1251/8; TNA, SC 6/1251/9; TNA, SC 6/1252/9. 705 TNA, SC 6/1255/7; TNA, SC 6/1255/13. 146 their staff the cellarer paid a stipend for the warreners at the upper and lower granges and occasionally paid stipends for the millers, bakers and smith. He had his own staff to assist him in his work and accounted for stipends and clothing for them in 1384 when two assistants received tunics, hose and shoes.706 He needed to have reliable assistants to take charge of the office in his absence because in addition to all of the above, he also acted as an overseer of the monastic estates and represented the abbey on business affairs outside of the house. This required him to be absent from the abbey on occasions. The chapter on estate accounts has discussed the role of the Boxley cellarer as monk warden. The household accounts support this with occasional references of visits to estates. More evidence of it is found in the estate and bursar’s accounts, however, because they financed the expenses for his visits to the estates. Under travel expenses of the house and business, the bursars’ accounts routinely recorded that the cellarers went out on official business on behalf of the abbot. For example in 1362, the cellarer went to London with the abbey proctor Robert Bourne to meet with the abbot of Pipewell Abbey, while in 1365 he accompanied the abbey attorney John Solas to Canterbury on abbey business and in 1404 he held the abbot’s court at Romney Marsh.707 The Boxley cellarer was always a trusted senior monk, an essential link between the internal and external threads of the house who was responsible for the management of what may be termed ‘works’ departments inside and outside of the convent. This included his role as monk warden on the Boxley estates. The duties of the cellarer as monk warden required him to undertake practical and administrative responsibilities. In this extended role, he was required to oversee the abbey estates and lands, and ensure the best interests of the house during any crises there. As well as visiting the manors he had to produce a record of monetary income and expenditure for each manor for each term. A number of the estate accounts include payments made to the clerk who accompanied him for writing these accounts. He had to ensure that each property produced the required liveries for the abbey or the cash equivalent and supervise the logistics of transporting it to the abbey either by boat or by carts. He handed over money from the bursars to the sergeant of the manor. The estate accounts also included a running total of produce and livestock. These made frequent references to the cellarers witnessing the sale or death of animals – presumably, this was to demonstrate that the manorial sergeant was not stealing from or 706 TNA, SC 6/1255/7. 707 TNA, SC 6/1252/12; TNA, SC 6/1253/15. 147 trying to cheat the abbey. This is especially evident in the 1393 account at Ham. After catastrophic flooding had led to the death of many animals in that year the stock account listed the dead animals and added that this was witnessed by the cellarer/monk warden of that year John Chatham.708 As a general overseer of all the estates, the cellarers also acted as a link between them. In 1378, the cellarer ordered the sergeant at Stoke to send eight quarters of seed from Haras produced there to Sharpness for use as seed there.709 As monk warden, he frequently was required to supervise general maintenance on the estates. He was required to deal with people on one level as the official representative of the abbot, and on another, as the supervisor of carters, tilers and woodsmen, thus the role required him to be adaptable and able as well as physically robust. In 1359, the cellarer hired three carters with carts to transport wood for repairing the marsh embankments at Sharpness.710 Twice in the accounts, the sea completely inundated land at Sharpness in 1375 and at Ham in 1393 after severe storms. On both occasions, the cellarer John Chatham personally supervised workers repairing the walls of the marsh. All repairs took place ‘per visum Johannis Chatham.’711 Fig. 15: TNA SC 6/892/1. Extract from 1393 Account of Ham recording that all repairs took place ‘per visum’ of the cellarer Johannis Chatham 708 TNA, SC 6/892/1. Figure 7. p. 91. 709 TNA, SC 6/898/12. 710 TNA, SC 6 /896/25. 711 TNA, SC 6/892/1. 148 The Office of Sub Cellarer The surviving accounts show that within the monastic precinct, the domestic economy at Boxley was largely the domain of two obedientiaries: the sub cellarer and the warden of the granary.712 Between them, these two offices provisioned the monks, the conventual household, the abbot and abbot’s household with fresh and preserved food, bread and ale. The earliest account for the cellarer of 1330, which pre-dates the earliest account for the sub cellarer, is evidence that the role of the Boxley cellarer was already concentrated on matters other than overseeing the provision of food within the abbey. This task had been entrusted to his deputy the sub cellarer. The exact date of this transition is not clear but had clearly begun some time earlier. The sub cellarer was buying and selling livestock at the upper grange in 1331 and was first recorded as receiving livestock for the abbey kitchen in an estate account for the lower grange in 1332.713 A small number of estate accounts, which pre-date this, recorded that produce and livestock were sent either to the abbey or to the abbey larder, but after 1332, all of the estate accounts specified that supplies were sent directly to the sub cellarer for the larder. It is evidence of the introduction of a more accountable regime after 1330, making this office holder personally answerable for the supplies that came to the kitchen. By the 1330s the sub cellarer, who once must originally have been an assistant to the cellarer, had sole responsibility for provisioning the abbey kitchen with fresh and preserved food as well as dairy produce. A 1351 inventory for the office of sub cellarer at Boxley listed the goods attached to the office.714 These included goods for the kitchen, the larder, the fishery and the curtilage. In addition to some large brass pots that held volumes of between two and fifteen gallons, the inventory listed graters, salt cellars, mortars and querns for grinding mustard seed, as well as various knives for sawing and chopping meat. The inventory also included dragnets, hook nets and ropes for the fishery, and spades and pitchforks and hoes for the curtilage. The inventory reflects the range of duties allocated to the sub cellarer. 712 Regrettably there are no records for the pittances or day books of the kitchener as there are at Westminster Abbey. 713 TNA, SC 6/886/5; TNA, SC 6/886/6. 714 TNA, SC 6/896/20. 149 Fig. 16: TNA SC 6/896/20. Inventory for the office of sub cellarer Surviving accounts of the Boxley sub cellarer run from 1347 until 1460. This study has considered thirty of them. From 1352, the bursars’ accounts frequently name more than one sub cellarer in office at a time, most notably in 1404 when four named sub cellarers received allowances for the office.715 The surviving accounts, however only ever name only one officer in the title. While some run for a full year, others only record the receipts and expenses of the office for a single term or a few weeks. During this period, the largest source of income for the Boxley sub cellarers was money handed over to them by the bursars – an indication of the centralisation of finances at Boxley during the fourteenth century. In 1356 and 1376, the sub cellarer received some money directly from the rent collector but these transactions were always between senior, experienced obedientiaries. The rent collector in 1356 was William Wilston who had served as bursar in 1351, been rent collector in 1353 and 1355 and was handing the money over to Thomas London, who had previously (1353, 1354 and 1355) been bursar. The rent collector in 1376 was John Chatham, a senior monk, who was also one of the bursars in that year. On those occasions when the sub cellarer received money directly from the rent collector he received a reduced sum from the bursars. 715 TNA, SC 6/1256/10. 150 The office generated some independent income. Like the cellarer, warden of the mills, warden of the infirmary and sacrist, the sub cellarer had an area of curtilage garden, on which he raised and sold a few animals and their by-products or cultivated cash crops, mainly hemp. Hemp was a versatile plant used for making rope, sackcloth, nets and generating more seed, which was either utilised, or sold by the office. There are similar references to small gardens attached to obedientiary offices in surviving accounts at Merevale Abbey and Maxstoke Priory.716 Regrettably the extent to which they contributed to the vegetables consumed by the monks is not clear because only the produce that was sold was fully documented. The sub cellarers’ office at Boxley also regularly received the revenues from sales of waste products of the abbey kitchens. This included entrails, lard, tallow blood and the skins of cows, rabbits and sheep, slaughtered on site for the kitchens.717 There was a lot of unpleasant waste from the by products of slaughtered animals but nothing was wasted. 1347 1348 1356 1357 1359 1372 1373 1376 1377 1377 1378 1378 1378 Kitchen waste £4 9s 10 ½ d 26s 3d 10s 7 ½ d 13s 9d 62s 7 ½ d 46s 6d 68s 10d 97s 10 ¼d 28s 10d 45s 5d 41s 2d 26s 9 ½ d 66s Table 7: Revenues from Sales of Kitchen and Animal by products 1347-8. 1379 1379 1379 1384 1387 1387 1395 1400 1405 1460 Kitchen waste 28s 8½d 33s 7½d 13s 11½d 24s 10½d 39s 11½d 56s 8d 21s 2d £7 8s 8½ d £5 13s £5 10s Table 8: Revenues from Sales of Kitchen and Animal by products 1379-1460 The primary role of the sub cellarer was to provide the monastery with fish, meat and dairy produce. He sent staff out to procure both fresh and preserved foodstuffs for the monastic storerooms, paid stipends for the kitchen staff and servants, and purchased essential utensils for the kitchen. At Boxley the same storerooms supplied both the household of the abbot and that of the convent (and possibly also the guesthouse), but the accounts of the 716 A. Watkins, ‘Landowners and their Estates in the Forest of Arden in the Fifteenth Century’, Agricultural History Review, vol. 45. No. 1. 1997, p. 24. 717 Table 7, p. 150. 151 sub cellarer rarely made any distinction between food for the abbot’s kitchen and that of the convent. This makes it difficult to calculate the numbers of monks catered for. However, other sources give some ideas about numbers of monks during the fourteenth century.718 There was clearly a budget for provisions. The accounts show that the sub cellarer was aware of this. The 1360 general Assessment of Revenues for the abbey set him a yearly budget of £57 4s. for the office, namely 22s. per week, or 3s. per day and 4s. on Sundays.719 Fig. 17: TNA/SC/6/1253/11. Extract from the Assessment of Revenues 1360 recording the weekly and daily budget allowed to the sub cellarer However, both before and after this date there is evidence that the obedientiary in charge of this office was conscious of his weekly expenditure because a number of accounts recorded these details at the end of the account. The earliest account of the sub cellarer survives for 1347. There are two versions of this.720 One recorded the weekly expenses of the office, while the other recorded the yearly costs summarised under overall headings. The subsequent account for 1348 also recorded expenses in a weekly format, while two of the three accounts for 1356 recorded daily expenses for the sub cellarer.721 From 1372 until the end of 1378, all of the accounts included a weekly breakdown of costs at the end of the account for provisions bought during the period of the account.722 There are ten accounts during this time. Four of them are titled as accounts of the kitchener rather than sub cellarer. However, they appear to be consecutive accounts to the preceding and subsequent accounts by the sub cellarer. In addition, the stock account totals follow on. This study has deduced that the office of kitchener at Boxley was created as an offshoot of the sub cellarer just as the sub cellarer was once a deputy of the cellarer. There was clearly more than one sub cellarer throughout the period, especially as the needs of the house became more elaborate over time and the office of kitchener must have emerged in order to divide some of the growing responsibilities. After 1378, there was no further mention of 718 See p. 128-9. 719 TNA, SC 6/1253/11. 720 TNA, SC 6/1252/6. 721 TNA, SC 6/1252/7; TNA, SC 6/1253/7. 722 Table 9 and Table 10, p. 152. 152 the kitchener. Although the weekly and daily spending was recorded in the earliest accounts, it was only in the Assessment of Revenues in 1360 that there is any indication of a specific budget being set. Subsequent accounts show that this budget was never followed at all after 1360, presumably due in part to rising numbers of monks. An additional factor is that with the success of the shrine of the holy cross came a more comfortable standard of living, and this came at a cost with an income that was able to sustain a higher level of affluence. Within twenty years of the Assessment of Revenues, the weekly cost of provisioning the house had more than doubled. Year of Account 1347 1348 1356 June 1356 Sept-Dec 1357 Sept- Sept 1359 1360 budget 1372 Sept- April Duration of account 1 year 1 year 19 days 12 weeks 3 days 1 year 39 weeks 6 days 1 year 28 weeks Total Expenses c£39 13s 8d c£41 17s 9d 47s £10 18s 11 ¼ d £23 1s 3d £25 2s 6d £57 4s £51 5s 1 ½ d Weekly budget c15s 5d c16s c18s c9s c12s 22s 36s 1d Daily budget 3s/per day 4s/Sunday 5s 3d Table 9: Boxley sub cellarer weekly and daily expenses 1347-72 1373 April- June 1373 June-Sept 1376 Sept-May 1377 June-Oct 1377 Oct-Jan 1378 April-June 1378 July-Oct Duration of account 10 weeks 5 days 14 weeks 35 weeks 17 weeks 2 days 13 weeks 5 days 12 weeks 6 days 13 weeks Total Expenses £21 16s 4 ¾ d £23 2s 3d £77 16s 9 ½ d £33 9s 7d £33 15s 6d £28 11s 4 ½ d £28 6s Weekly budget 40s 33s 44s 6d 39s 6d 50s 44s 43s 6 ½ d Daily budget 6s 5d 4s 8d Table 10: Boxley sub cellarer weekly and daily expenses 1373-78 153 The sub cellarer had his premises in the monastic precinct close to the kitchen. The office included a garden and meadow. He paid day wages for people employed to mow his meadow in 1377, 1378 and 1400.723 The office paid regular stipends throughout the period to various staff described as gardeners, assistant gardeners, curtillarians and servants at the curtilage. For example, an unnamed gardener was paid 6s. for a year in 1347.724 William Halden, gardener, received 6s. 6d. per year between 1348 and 1359 while Robert Freyer, gardener, was paid 9s. 6d. in 1400 for his yearly stipend.725 Only occasionally was there any mention of fruit and vegetables but these were most likely grown by the gardeners on site in the curtilage and gardens of the sub cellarer and so would not have appeared in financial records. At Westminster Abbey fruit was served mainly at the abbot’s table and Harvey concluded that it was generally regarded as a treat.726 This is supported by the few references in the Boxley accounts to the abbot’s pear crop. In 1406 payments were made to members of the household who had carried pears given as gifts by the abbot of Boxley from his garden to various recipients.727 Edible crops of the curtilage named in the accounts and used in making potage, included beans, peas, onions leeks and garlic. A small amount of grain was handed over from the granator to the sub cellarer for making potage. This was added to the vegetables produced within the abbey, but little detail survives for this in the accounts of the Boxley sub cellarer.728 At other monastic houses including Durham, Westminster, Selby and Norwich, many of the offices, particulary those of Cellarer and kitchener included small gardens, but regrettably there is a lack of detail on them in surviving accounts.729 The curtilage also produced large quantities of hemp, used for fishing nets, rope, and to make nets for snaring rabbits throughout the period. The office employed workers, paid in many of the accounts by the day, to prepare the hemp fibre and make the nets; among these are named hoknets and dragnets presumably for use in the fishponds, and hayis nets for snaring rabbits. Excess hemp fibre and seed was sold. 723 TNA, SC 6/1254/15; TNA, SC 6/1254/17; TNA, SC 6/1256/9. 724 TNA, SC 6/1252/6. 725 TNA, SC 6/1252/7; TNA, SC 6/1253/2; TNA, SC 6/11253/7; TNA, SC 6/1253/9; TNA, SC 6/11256/9. 726 Harvey, Living and Dying in Medieval England 1100-1540, p. 61. 727 TNA, SC 6/1256/10. 728 Table 11, p. 154. 729 Threlfall-Holmes, Monks and Markets, pp. 54-57. 154 1334 1336 1338 1339 1352 1358 1361 1387 1389 Potage oat flour/beans /peas 15q 9b 38q 44q 4b 47q 14q 4b oat flour 4q 7.5b 6q 5b flour 1q 2b peas 2q 5b peas/beans 10q oat flour 5q wheat 8q 2b oats Table 11: Grain allowed to the sub cellarer by the granator for potage Fish was a large part of the monastic diet. The list of daily provisions purchased in the two short accounts for 1356 show that the monks of Boxley ate meat on Sunday, Monday, Tuesday and Thursday. On Wednesdays Fridays and Saturdays, the diet of the monks consisted only of fish and eggs.730 Along with his curtilage and meadow, the sub cellarer was responsible for the monastic fishponds and for a fish house, where supplies of preserved fish were stored. There are few details in the accounts about the Boxley fishponds. The only reference was in 1356 when the sub cellarer Thomas London recorded the purchase of twenty-six small pike and 12 small tench bought for stocking the fishpond.731 On the other hand, the accounts make frequent references to the fish house, where preserved fish was stored in large quantities. Attached to it was a small croft, which provided barley and beans in addition to hemp. The five bushels of barley seed sown at the fish house croft in 1357 indicates that the area sown there was between one and two acres of land.732 The account of the granator for 1358 accounted for a quarter of barley costing 5s. sown at the fish house. The same account recorded that 16s. was received for two quarters of malt wheat sold from the issues of the croft at the fish house in that year.733 Throughout the period of the accounts, large quantities of fish purchased in London were carried by boat and overland to the Boxley fish house. For example in 1357 a half a last of red herring, two casks of red herring, and two barrels of white herring were brought by boat at a cost of 18d.734 In 1384 carriage by boat from London to the fish house of 20 cases of red herring and 12 barrels of white herring cost 3s. 8d.735 In 1387, one last of red herring, six barrels of white herring, three barrels of salmon and unspecified other fish were 730 TNA, SC 6/1253/2. 731 TNA, SC 6/1253/7. 732 Bond, Monastic Landscapes, pp. 49-50. Bond calculates that average sowing was between 2 and 3 bushels of grain for each acre of land. 733 TNA, SC 6/1253/8. 734 TNA, SC 6/1253/7: A last of white herring was approx 12 barrels and a last of red herring was approx 10,000-13,000 fish: Searle and Ross, Accounts of the Cellarers at Battle Abbey, p. 169. 735 TNA, SC 6/1255/6. 155 brought by boat from London to the fish house for 20d.736 The expenses of fishing included mending and making nets and the purchase of pitch and tar for repairing a boat on occasions. In nine short accounts that cover the period 1376 to 1379, a named warden of the fish house, Henry Vyscher, received a stipend by the term at 1s. for the simple terms and 3s. for the Michaelmas term.737 An additional 1s. per term was paid to a page of the fishery in 1379 for each term. During that time, the accounts recorded that along with other procurers of foodstuffs Henry Vyscher went out on behalf of the sub cellarer to buy fresh and preserved fish in London, Malling, Sandwich and Romney. The sub cellarer covered his expenses on such trips including the cost of taking servants and horses with him. Other lay staff from the monastic household also acquired fish for the storerooms. For example Robert Heyton, lay warden of the cellar, who was paid a stipend of 2s. 6d .per term by the bursars between 1395 and 1408, bought 56 cod at a cost of 77s. 1d. and 117 stockfish for 34s. 3d. in 1405.738 From the surviving accounts, it is possible to learn where the sub cellarer and his agents shopped for food. The office sourced food from two main places, from nearby Maidstone and from London. The cellarer, cooks, warden of the fishery, other monks and some of the abbot’s staff shopped on behalf of the sub cellarer, mainly in Maidstone and London, for bulk buys of fish and spices. Other places mentioned occasionally included Rochester, Malling and New Hythe. The accounts of the sub cellarer listed the expenses of their trips. Earlier accounts gave little detail on the people who shopped, or where they bought food. Later accounts from 1372 onwards were more specific. These named three London fishmongers Peter Grubbe, William Grubbe and William Beybrook, all of whom supplied large quantities of fish to the abbey. The bursars paid off a debt of just over £6 to Peter Grubbe fishmonger of London in 1372.739 The sub cellarers’ accounts first named him as a supplier of fish from 1384.740 The sub cellarers named William Grubbe fishmonger of London as a supplier of cod, and red and white herring to them in 1387, while William Beybrook, fishmonger of London supplied the sub cellars with salmon, herring, cod and mackerel between 1395 and 1400.741 The Boxley bursars paid instalments to William 736 TNA, SC 6/1255/10. 737 TNA, SC 6/1254/6; TNA, SC 6/1254/15; TNA, SC 6/1254/17. 738 TNA, SC 6/1256/11. 739 TNA, SC 6/1253/20. 740 TNA, SC 6/1255/6. 741 TNA, SC 6/1255/10; TNA, SC 6/1255/20; TNA, SC 6/1256/3; TNA, SC 6/1256/9. 156 Beybrook on an old debt of £30 between 1404 and 1406.742 This indicates that the abbey had acquired a certain amount of credit from London fishmongers in the latter part of the fourteenth century after they had begun to receive a steady income from the shrine. John Hoke of Maidstone supplied the abbey with mackerel, cod, salmon and herring in addition to a variety of spices between 1387 and 1400.743 Expenses for purchasing fish included porterage and wainage as well as carriage by boat from London. It was not unusual for a monastery to have credit arrangements and credit agreements are found in the bursar’s accounts at Durham Cathedral priory and in the accounts of the cellarers of Battle Abbey.744 Regrettably there is no detail in the Boxley accounts on over what period of time credit was extended or what amount of interest was paid. A diverse assortment of fresh and preserved fish was purchased.745 Herring, bought by the last, cask or barrel, was the most consistent of the preserved fish and was described as either red (smoked) or white (salted or pickled). Salmon were bought individually in the earliest accounts but later by the barrel. While fresh and salted cod and ling were purchased in all of the accounts, mackerel only appeared after 1387. As at Westminster Abbey the Boxley accounts refer to large and small fish, indicating that the fish were supplied by the fishmongers in consistent sizes.746 The 1360 account of revenue for the abbey obliged the Medway fishery at Sharpness to provide the abbey with fresh fish to the value of £4 10s. in addition to 20s. worth of eels and oysters. Boxley received large quantities of eels from the fishery at Sharpness throughout the fourteenth century, in addition to oysters and mussels and unspecified sea fish. These did not always appear in the accounts of the sub cellarer, but they appear in the estate accounts where on occasions Sharpness sent more than 1000 eels to the abbey kitchen during the course of a year.747 What is not clear is whether the eels from the Medway fishery were brought to the monastic fishery and fishponds alive, or were preserved by salting or pickling before being brought to Boxley. Occasional purchases of other fish recorded by the sub cellarers included merlin, gurnard, and lampreys and on one occasion in 1400 a piece of porpoise 742 TNA, SC 6/1256/10. 743 TNA, SC 6/1255/10; TNA, SC 6/1255/20; TNA, SC 6/1256/2; TNA, SC 6/1256/3; TNA, SC 6/1256/9. 744 Threlfall-Holmes, Monks and Markets, pp. 180; Searle, and Ross, Accounts of the Cellarers of Battle Abbey, p. 25. 745 Appendix 6, p. 202. 746 Harvey, Living and Dying in Medieval England 1100-1540, p. 50. 747 Appendix 9, p. 209. Fish sent from the medway fishery in the sub cellarer and Sharpness accounts. 157 bought in London for 9d.748 Presumably, this was for the abbot. Simple analysis of the weekly account of 1348 shows that the monks observed the Lenten fast in that year and did not purchase meat or eggs at all for a period of eight weeks. The account shows that a more diverse assortment of fish was purchased during lent with over 1000 herring per week, cod, salmon and a variety of unspecified sea fish.749 Three of the sub cellarer accounts refer to a park close to the monastery. In the account of 1348, repairs were made to the enclosures within the park.750 Unfortunately, no records have survived for the park but it seems likely that animals, brought to the park from the estates, were stored and fattened up there for use in the monastic kitchens. It served essentially as a living larder. This is in contrast to the findings of Harvey at Westminster Abbey where the abbey had no permanent facilities for slaughtering beasts on site: she concluded that most of the meat was purchased as dead stock.751 In 1400, the sub cellarer at Boxley purchased an iron hook for catching sheep and swans, while in 1405 he paid wages to two men who went to Eastchurch on two occasions during the year to fetch pigs for the abbey.752 In many of the estate accounts from Sharpness, the source of large numbers of sheep for the abbey kitchen, it was recorded that some sheep were sent to the abbey before shearing, Others were sent after shearing, some were sent before lambing, others after lambing, while some lambs were sent to the kitchen before they were weaned. This indicates that the animals destined for the kitchen came to the park close to the abbey in batches at significant points throughout the farming year, for use as required. Meat was preserved for use throughout the year where possible. The accounts recorded a running total of hams, from slaughtered pigs. The account of 1405 recorded that 36 pigs made 72 hams and so a single ham was approximately one-half side of a pig.753 The sixtynine hams eaten in that year represented the largest number consumed in any of the accounts. The account of 1372 stated that pigs for hams were slaughtered around the feast of St Martin (11 Nov)754 and these larger instances of pig slaughtering are consistently found in all of the small single term accounts that cover that period in the farming year. 748 TNA, SC 6/1256/9. 749 TNA, SC 6/1252/7: Appendix 8, pp. 206-8. Fish purchased in the sub cellarer accounts. 750 TNA, SC 6/1252/7. 751 Harvey, Living and Dying in Medieval England 1100-1540, p.52. 752 TNA, SC 6/1256/9; TNA, SC 6/1256/11. 753 Ibid. 754 TNA, SC 6/1254/2. 158 The Assessment of Revenues 1360 recorded all of the obligations on each estate to provide livestock for the abbey or cash in lieu. This included the number of animals that each estate had to send term by term.755 Produce Eastchurch Hoo Lower Grange Upper Grange Newenham Sharpness Total Sheep 40 40 sheep Lambs 24 24 lambs Pigs 10 12 20 10 10 10 72 pigs Piglets 6 6 6 to 18 piglets Boar 1 1 2 boars Geese 24 12 12 12 12 72 geese Capons 24 24 18 to 18 12 96 capons Hens 12 12 to 12 to 12 48 hens Eels and Oysters 20s worth 20s oysters and eels Lamb skins 16 to Abbot 16 skins Dairy produce Butter 6 gallons to sub cell 4 gallons to sub cell 10 gallons butter to sub cell Cheese 2 weys to refector 1 wey to refector 3 weys in May 6 weys cheese to Refector Table 12: Produce due to Boxley Abbey from its manors as specified in the 1360 Assessment of Revenues. The upper and lower granges and the farm at Newenham Court were the home farms for Boxley. Throughout the period of the surviving accounts, they provided the abbey with a steady and varied stream of meat and poultry. The accounts demonstrate that mixed farming took place at the granges, but some specialisation is evident. Sharpness, the estate that was primarily concerned with sheep husbandry, supplied the kitchen with large numbers of old sheep (cronardus) and excess or weak lambs throughout the period of the accounts. Although tithes from Eastchurch and Stoke came mainly in the form of grain, both also sent pigs and poultry to the abbey. The farm at Newenham in Boxley provided the kitchen with doves in addition to those received from three dovecots within the abbey precinct. The upper and lower granges provided large numbers of rabbits from each of the 755 TNA, SC 6/1253/11. 159 rabbit warrens located there.756 In the small expenses section of the 1357 account the sub cellarer included 10d paid for a ferret (fyret); presumably this was used by the warrener to catch the rabbits.757 Fig. 18: TNA SC 6/1253/7. Extract from the sub cellarer account of 1357 recording the purchase of a ferret for 10d Purchases of meat and livestock supplemented supplies of livestock received from the granges. After 1357, the sub cellarers recorded meat and livestock purchases in separate sections within each account and listed the numbers of animals slaughtered in that year alongside the record of meat purchased so that there is a clear record of the quantity consumed during the period of any account after this time.758 In addition, from 1359, stock accounts were appended to all of the sub cellarer accounts. These recorded all livestock and other produce received from the granges alongside the amount consumed by the house during the time of that account. As with purchases of fish, the sub cellarer had a number of agents who journeyed to different locations most regularly to London, Maidstone and Malling to procure meat and livestock. These were largely unnamed. Regular meat purchases included beef, pork, mutton and veal throughout the period. It is notable that there was a significant increase in cows, bulls and calves eaten from 1372 onwards. This may be as much a reflection of agricultural changes as it is of a preference for beef in the monastic diet – the estate accounts show an increase in dairy and pastoral farming in the second half of the fourteenth century. Threlfall-Holmes concluded that the monks at Durham ate a greater proportion of beef than their counterparts at Westminster Abbey in the fifteenth century and that this was most likely due to their very different locations.759 Fresh meat was more readily available to the monks of Durham as it was at Boxley due to the rural location of the house. The increase in beef consumption at Boxley also coincided with the prosperity brought by the shrine of the holy cross and so a rise in the standard of living is not 756 Table 13 and Table 14, pp. 160-161. 757 TNA, SC 6/1253/7. 758 Table 13 and Table 14, pp. 160-161. 759 Threlfall-Holmes, Monks and Markets, pp. 73-4. 160 surprising.760 A significant escalation in the number of cows, bulls and calves slaughtered for food occurs in the accounts of 1398, 1400, 1405 and 1460 with no concurrent reduction in any other aspect of diet. At Westminster Abbey there were three rooms used for dining by the end of the fourteenth century, the refectory, the cawavagium and the misericord. The type of meat consumed dictated where it was eaten and a distinction was made between flesh meat, such as a joint of meat and a meaty dish such as salted, cooked or chopped meat.761 Regrettably there are no such details about how or where the meat was consumed in the accounts of the Boxley sub cellarers. Totals 1372 1373 1377 1378 1379 1400 24 weeks 24 weeks 31 weeks 40 weeks 29 weeks 1 year Cows/Bulls/Oxen 6 1 7 4 4 Bullocks/Calves 2 2 1 7 Wethers 5 72 21 36 23 117 Lambs 38 45 33 47 Boars 2 4 4 1 4 Sows 2 1 2 Pigs 63 6 60 89 37 12 Piglets 4 9 34 7 65 Suckling pigs 12 Geese 50 16 26 48 24 76 Capons 54 6 43 124 53 93 Chickens 29 99 46 Rabbits 138 36 475 839 197 1308 Doves 306 261 150 601 Swans 12 27 Table 13: Total numbers of Livestock sent from the Granges to the sub cellarer 1372-1400. 760 Tables 13 and 14 record livestock sent to abbey from the granges 1372-1400 and total numbers of animals slaughtered. Appendix 6, p. 202, shows food consumed 1400. 761 Harvey, Living and Dying in Medieval England 1100-1540, pp. 40-42. 161 1372 1373 1377 1378 1379 1400 24 weeks 24 weeks 31 weeks 40 weeks 29 weeks 1 year Cows/Bulls/Oxen 6 7 10 15 9 16 Bullocks/Calves 2 4 15 2 12 13 Wethers 37 46 66 36 25 122 Lambs 38 36 33 47 Pigs 57 8 54 86 34 12 Piglets 9 17 91 18 89 Goslings 31 12 Geese/Ganders 62 30 33 37 11 105 Capons 78 30 35 205 157 120 Chickens/Hens 52 54 65 127 33 235 Rabbits 138 36 416 630 247 1165 Doves 306 261 150 150 601 Swans 1 4 Table 14: Total numbers of Livestock consumed according the sub cellarer accounts 1372-1400. Birds commonly recorded in the monastic diet at Boxley included chickens, capons, geese and doves. There are also references to ducks and swans from 1372 onwards. It is unlikely that the monks were dining on swans and so this is an indication of the abbot’s expenses in entertaining guests to the abbey just at the time when the shrine of the holy rood of grace became increasingly popular. In 1400 nine swans were sent to the sub cellarer from the lower grange and 18 from Sharpness.762 Not all of the swans were consumed by the abbey; the abbot also gave them away as gifts. Chickens and capons were the most frequently recorded birds in the accounts and these came from all of the estates to the abbey. Purchases supplemented the stock birds. The stock accounts of the sub cellarer regularly included grain used for feeding and fattening up the birds in the curtilage. 762 TNA, SC 6/1256/9. 162 1373 1374 1378 1382 1387 1389 1390 1393 1395 1397 1398 1400 1405 Consumed 2 8 2 9 1 12 14 6 1 11 2 4 2 Given away 4 14 4 12 10 6 Table 15: Number of swans in sub cellarer accounts Dairy produce was included in all of the accounts in the form of eggs, cheese, milk, cream and butter. Eggs for the abbey and abbot’s kitchen came from the upper and lower granges, from Newenham Court, and from the sub cellarer’s curtilage. Purchases, however, accounted for the majority of eggs used in the kitchens due to the sheer volume of eggs required. On average the number of eggs used each week was 250-350 but there were exceptions, for example more than 800 eggs per week were used between May and July 1388.763 Throughout the period under study, eggs cost approximately 1d. for 18-20 eggs so they were an economical foodstuff used in many dishes including flawns (flans).764 The abbey bought and ate 33292 eggs in the account of 1405-6 which was more than in any other year but the reason for this is not clear.765 Eggs were a common feature of the monastic diet. At Durham Cathedral priory Threlfall-Holmes calculated that the monks consumed an average of 20 eggs each per week.766 The monks at Westminster Abbey consumed approximately five eggs per day each.767 Fig. 19: TNA/SC/6 1254/6. Account of kitchener 1377 listing ingredients for making flawns (flans) 763 TNA, SC 6/1255/10. 764 Fig. 19. Although regrettably there are few details about how food was cooked, the kitchener recorded in 1377 that four cheeses were bought for making flawns: TNA, SC 6/1254/6. Harvey, Living and Dying in Medieval England 1100-1540, p.61. At Westminster Abbey in May 1351 the monks ate an excess of rich dairy flans and were all given digestive syrup by the apothecary. 765TNA, SC 6/1256/11. 766 Threlfall-Holmes, Monks and Markets, p. 53. 767 Harvey, Living and Dying in Medieval England 1100-1540, p. 61. 163 The estate stock accounts recorded the production of large numbers of cheeses made from both cow and ewe milk sent to not only the sub cellarer but also to the refector and to the guesthouse from the upper and lower Granges and from Sharpness. Unfortunately, the accounts for these offices do not survive. The weight of each cheese is unclear in the sub cellarer accounts but they record the numbers of cheeses received, frequently measured in weys. The estate accounts occasionally recorded an estimated weight of each cheese sent to the abbey. The lower grange stock account for 1356 recorded that one wey consisted of 20 large formula cheeses or 25 small formula cheeses.768 At Sharpness in 1359 the milk from 650 ewes made 21 ½ weys of cheese – 18 weys of cheese were sold for £20 while one wey was sent to the refector at Boxley. The 1360 Assessment of Revenues stipulated that the refector receive a total of five weys of cheese each year to be used for the abbot’s chamber, the refectory, the guesthouse, infirmary and household.769 Fresh milk from the lower grange came to the kitchen presumably for use in custards and flans. The accounts did not specify whether the milk was from cows or ewes but as the lower grange had a dairy and a high proportion of cows, cow’s milk is more probable as sheep’s milk was used for making cheese. Most of the milk from the outlying granges came to the sub cellarer as cheese and butter due to the short shelf life of fresh milk. This meant that the monks and household could enjoy dairy produce throughout the year even at times when milk production was low. While many accounts from the upper grange and lower grange recorded that butter was sent to the sub cellarer, cream only appeared in one account- that of 1400 when six gallons of cream were sent from the lower grange.770 An important section of all the accounts from the sub cellarer recorded the spices bought. The amounts of spices bought and amount spent on them were moderate compared with nearby Battle Abbey but the range was constant throughout the period.771 They appear in every account and so although used sparingly they must have been an important ingredient of the monastic kitchen. Presumably, these spices were stored under lock and key in the kitchen area -the sub cellarer purchased locks for the kitchen in 1347 and in 1378.772 The term spices included a variety of products not associated with that term today in addition 768 TNA, SC 6/886/23. 769 TNA, SC 6/1253/11. 770 TNA, SC 6/1256/9. 771 Table 16a, and 16b, pp. 165-66. These list spices bought during the period of the accounts. For detail of quantities purchased see Appendix 7, pp. 203-5. 772 TNA, SC 6/1252/6; TNA, SC 6/1254/17. 164 to many that are recognizable as spices to a modern consumer. These included small purchases of saffron, salt, pepper, ginger, galangal, cinnamon, cumin, cloves, sanders and mace. Up to 1lb sugar was purchased per year to supplement the supplies of honey produced by the monks. (The bee hives are recorded in the few surviving accounts of the bakery). The warden of the bakery harvested honey produced within the abbey and this was used in the production of mead. Almonds and rice were bought in larger quantities – the largest purchase of almonds was in 1398 when 115lb were bought.773 Another 97lb of almonds were purchased in 1400.774 Rice was a regular feature of the accounts throughout the period. In 1385 the sub cellarer bought over 30 lb rice and in 1405 over 21lb was recorded.775 The spices section also included dried fruits and olive oil. Figs, dates and raisons were purchased in small quantities. Olive oil was bought by the barrel at between 14-16d. per gallon. In 1400 a barrel of olive oil contained 20 ½ gallons and cost 22s. 2d.776 In the account of 1348, the bulk spices were listed at the end of the account, and were not included under the weekly expenses, except for the additional spices bought for four consecutive weeks during the period of Advent. Extra spices bought for this period each week from 29 November until 27 December included olive oil, almonds, lard and rice. 773 TNA, SC 6/1256/3. 774 TNA, SC 6/1256/9. 775 TNA, SC 6/1255/6. TNA, SC 6/1256/11. 776 TNA, SC 6/1256/9. 165 1347 1348 1351 1356 June- Sept 1356 Sept - Dec 1357 1359 1372 1373 1376 1377 K June- Oct 1377 K Oct – Jan 1378 Jan- April SC Saffron x x x x x x x x X X X X Ginger x x x x x x X X X Galangal x x x x X Salt X X X X Pepper x x x x x x x X X X Sugar x x x Cumin x x x x X X X Cloves x x x x x X X Mace x x X X Cinnamon x x X X Sanders x x x X X X X Almonds x x x x x x x x x X X X Rice x x x x x x x x x X Figs x x x x X X Dates x x X X X Raisons x X Oil x x x X X X Olive oil x x Mustard Seed x x x Honey x x x x Vinegar x Garlic x x Table 16a: Spices purchased in the sub cellarer/kitchener accounts 1347-1378. 166 1378 K April- July 1378 K July- Oct 1378 Sept 1 term 1379 April- July 1379 July- Oct 1385- 5 Dec- April 1387 Oct- Dec 1387 8 Dec- May 1388 May- July 1395 July- Dec 1398 Sept- Sept 1 year 1400 Sept 1 yr 4wks 5 days 1405 Oct for 1 year Saffron X X X X X X X X X X X X X Ginger X X X X X X X X X Galangal X Pepper X X X X X X X X X X X X Sugar X X X X X X X Cumin X X X X X X X Cloves X X X X X X Mace X X X X X Cinnamon X X X X Sanders X X X X Almonds X X X X X X X X X X X X X Rice X X X X X X Figs X X X X X Dates X X Raisons/Currants X X X X Oil X X X X X Mustard Seed X X Honey X x x x x x Olives x White Salt X X X X X X X Grey Salt X X X X Table 16b: Spices purchased in the sub cellarer/kitchener accounts 1378-1405. The sub cellarer paid a stipend for a conventual cook and kitchen staff throughout the period of the accounts. Concurrently the bursars paid also occasional stipends to kitchen staff including a cook. This indicates that the abbot may have had his own kitchen and that the food for the abbot’s household was prepared separately. However, the two households appear to have shared the cooks. There were two main named cooks. William Cook was first mentioned as cook in the sub cellarers’ accounts in 1359 when he received a stipend of 4s. 6d. for the Michaelmas and Nativity terms.777 He was the second cook in the accounts of the sub cellarer in 1378 and 1384 when he was paid 12d. per term.778 However, by 1398 he was named as the principal cook and in 1400 his wages had increased to 18d. per term with 4s. for the Michaelmas term.779 He was still recorded in the sub cellarers’ accounts in 777 TNA, SC 6/1253/9. 778 TNA, SC 6/1254/17; TNA, SC 6/1255/6. 779 TNA, SC 6/1256/3; TNA, SC 6/1256/9. 167 1405 but at the same time a William Cook was also receiving a stipend from the bursars.780 In 1372 this William Cook received 5s. for two terms and in 1373 he received a significant payment of 26s. 8d. for the year.781 He continued to receive a stipend as cook until 1408. The second main cook of the accounts was Thomas Cook. The sub cellarers’ accounts first paid a stipend to Thomas Cook in 1372 and they named him as the principal cook in 1377 and 1378.782 Thomas Cook also appeared in the bursars’ accounts as the abbot’s cook in 1390.783 The travel expense section of the sub cellarers’ accounts regularly named both men as they travelled out to procure various fresh and preserved foodstuffs for the storerooms. In 1404, the bursars gave 3s. for bread for the son of Thomas Cook in the kitchen and by 1405 the sub cellarers were paying a yearly stipend for a Richard Cook of 3s. 4d.an indication that the next generation of Boxley Cooks had commenced employment.784 Other kitchen staff included the kitchen pages. Named as Edmund in 1376, John Dunmow in 1395 and John Golde in 1398 and 1400, the kitchen page received 12d. per term and 2s. at the Michaelmas terms throughout the period.785 However although only one page was ever paid a stipend at any time, the account of 1378 stated that offerings were made for four kitchen pages.786 The implication of this is that there were minor kitchen boys who were not paid a regular wage or a stipend but perhaps received food in lieu of wages. In 1372 there was no stipend for a kitchen page but in the small expenses section of the account the small sum of 5d. was given to a kitchen page with a tunic to the value of 6d. a reminder that not all household staff were recorded in accounts.787 By the early fourteenth century, the role of sub cellarer at Boxley Abbey had broken away from the role of the cellarer and he was the main provider of food for all to the exclusion of bread and ale. The sub cellarer was at the centre of the monastic household and he was constantly required to monitor the transit of food from his stores so that he could account for every item of food that had come in to the abbey. In this way as little as possible could be misplaced. The job was always held by one of the most senior and trusted monks. The role encompassed a range of responsibilities. He clearly was involved in the slaughter of the 780 TNA, SC 6/1256/11; TNA, SC 6/1256/10. 781 TNA, SC 6/1253/20; TNA, SC 6/1254/1. 782 TNA, SC 6/1254/2; TNA, SC 6/1254/15; TNA, SC 6/1254/17. 783 TNA, SC 6/1255/14. 784 TNA, SC 6/1256/10; TNA, SC 6/1256/11. 785 TNA, SC 6/1254/6; TNA, SC 6/1255/20; TNA, SC 6/1256/3; TNA, SC 6/1256/9. 786 TNA, SC 6/1254/17. 787 TNA, SC 6/1254/2. 168 livestock from the park because he purchased slayingknives and regularly sold by-products of the process. He had to oversee the gardens and production of vegetables. In addition, he had to be able to plan so that there was always sufficient food available for the abbot’s household, the monks, the lay household and guests throughout the year, moving livestock from outlying granges into the park, arranging the logistics of transporting and storing preserved fish and meats and ensuring nothing went missing en route. After the Assessment of Revenues in 1360, a system was in place whereby each estate was obligated to send a certain amount of livestock each term to the sub cellarer. This made it easier to plan ahead. However, the abbey was far from self-sufficient, especially as after the introduction of the shrine there was a greater demand for more and higher quality food. The sub cellarer had a number of agents who shopped regularly on his behalf for the best bulk deals in the surrounding towns and in London. By the 1370s he was able to buy on credit from London fishmongers for which bills the bursars were accountable. Food had to be preserved and stored for use as needed and the sub cellarer had a variety of staff in his care. To some such as the warden of the fishery, he was able to delegate a certain amount of accountability and responsibility for food stores. Although the archive lacks some of the resources, found at other houses such as the Kitchen books at Westminster Abbey, it is clear that the monks of Boxley had a varied diet throughout the period, and that they purchased goods on a large scale both from the local area and further afield. The Offices of the Warden of the Bakery and the Granator This study has considered eighteen accounts of the granator at Boxley 1331-1394. The Boxley granator was also warden of the mills and their curtilage gardens, and he included their receipts and expenses in his accounts. In addition, from 1361, his accounts also included the office of warden of the bakery and its curtilage. Prior to this, the warden of the bakery produced separate accounts and the four surviving accounts of the bakery dating 1348-1360 are included in this study. In a 1352 inventory for goods attached to the office of warden of the bakery there was no mention of any apparatus appertaining to the granary. The short inventory listed only a number of measures and large pots, some tools for the curtilage, two vessels for collecting honey and eight beehives with bees.788 788 TNA, SC 6/896/20. 169 The three earliest accounts of the bakery are similar in content and layout. They include small receipts from a few rents, and sales of garden produce from the curtilage attached to the office as well as sales of issues from the beehives and small sums of money from the bursars. Although the bakery accounts never included any details on bread, stipends for the baker were recorded in the expensa section of the accounts, in addition to the costs of obtaining fuel for the ovens and clothes for the warden. The annual sum of money received into the office in these three accounts was always less than £6. In 1360, however, the revenues of the bakery amounted to more than £19.789 Regrettably, there are no accounts for the bakery for the intervening period 1350 to 1360. A comparison of the 1360 bakery account and a 1361 document that combined accounts for the granary, bakery and cellarer, shows that the diverse assortment of revenues and expenses assigned to the office of bakery by 1360 were subsequently divided between the cellarer and the re-named warden of the granary/bakery.790 Revenues re-assigned to the cellarer included sales of stones from the quarry and from sales of wood and fagots. The costs of the carts and carters, and the costs of wages for workers managing the woods around the abbey fell to his office. The cellarers of Boxley had long been responsible for costs of carts and carters, and for managing the Boxley woods but it seems that the bakery had shared this role. The changes of 1361 defined the duties of each obedientiary so that there were fewer areas of overlap. It is not clear why this change occurred when it did but longstanding warden of the granary, Brother Walter ate Melle who was granator from at least 1331 until 1358, had ceased to be mentioned in accounts after 1358 and so it is likely that the re-organisation took place after he had finally resigned the office. The warden of the granary/bakery, whose accounts had previously only ever accounted for grain, subsequently began to record monetary income and expenditure for the office after it had merged with that of the bakery. In the 1360 Assessment of Revenues, the granator had no monetary income assigned to his office. There were at least three mills in the custody of the granator. The lower mill, the outer mill and the mill called Gerbonysmill were all within close proximity to the abbey precinct. One account located the outer mill by the abbey guesthouse.791 A number of the accounts refer to a mill at the lower grange; most likely, this was the location of the mill called lower mill. 789 TNA, SC 6/1253/10. 790 TNA, SC 6/1253/10; TNA, SC 6/1253/13. 791 TNA, SC 6/1253/8. 170 There was also a mill at the malt house. At least one was a horse mill. From 1387, both the granator and cellarers’ accounts recorded expenses for a horse mill. These included mending the horse mill, oil, and grease, accessories for horses such as collars and horseshoes and various medicines for treating a sick mill horse in 1394.792 John Wychard was given 2s. for eventually curing the horse. Fig. 20: TNA SC 6/1255/17. Extract from 1394 Granary Account recording the purchase of medicine for a sick horse The granator at Boxley received and administered all of the grain that came to the monastic granary from the Boxley estates. He then redistributed it to the bakery and brewery for conversion into bread and ale for the households of the abbot and convent. As warden of the granary/bakery he also paid stipends of staff who dealt with the grain. These included the millers, their servants and staff who made various grains into malt for the ale, and he paid wages for the baker and brewer and their staff. The warden of the granary was always a monk. From 1331 until 1358 Brother Walter ate Melle was named as granator in all of the corresponding estate accounts. It was an important role because grain was valuable and needed to be stored and processed carefully in order to keep it from spoiling. It was a fundamental resource for the most basic foodstuffs on the monastic table, bread and ale. There is little evidence in the accounts about the carriage and storage of the grain at Boxley, or the Boxley granaries but all of the accounts of the cellarers’ included general expenses of the carts and carters. It appears that the cellarer managed the logistics of bringing the grain from the outlying estates to the granaries at Boxley and the granator dealt with it once it had arrived. 792 TNA, SC 6/1255/17. 171 In the 1360 Assessment of Revenues, grain obligations due to the granator from each estate were sent to the abbey over eight terms of the year.793 The granator accounted for a weekly total of the amount of each grain that was required to feed the household at this time. This implies that grain was stored at each of the granges and sent in batches throughout the year. Grain needed to be threshed and winnowed to ensure it did not spoil. By sending the grain out in batches in this way, the responsibility for storing grain was shared. By not keeping it all in the same place the chance of spoiling large quantities was reduced. It also ensured that there was enough grain available to supply the abbey throughout the whole year. Fig. 21: TNA SC 6/1253/11. Weekly allowance of grain for various breads in the 1360 Assessment of Revenues The granary accounts recorded that grain was sent to the monk at the bakery but the bakery accounts never recorded any specifics of bread or ale production. Instead, the ingredients and types of bread made at Boxley occur in the granary accounts. Staff required for processing the grain and converting it into bread and ale included millers, bakers, malters and brewers. Until 1361, the millers and their staff were paid grain stipends. They received a cash stipend in the later accounts. This is reflected in the decrease in total amounts of bread produced over time as there was a general reduction in grain stipends at the abbey. In contrast to the accounts of the sub cellarer, those of the granary made some distinction between the food provided for the monks, the lay staff and the abbot. The table below shows that at Boxley, there were six types of bread in the period under study, graded according to their content. 793 TNA, SC 6/1254/11: grain was due at Michaelmas, (29 Sept) the feast of All Saints, (1 Nov) the feast of St Andrew, (30 Nov) the Epiphany, (6 Jan) the Purification of Mary, (2 Feb) the Annunciation, (25 March) Easter (var) and Pentecost (7th Sunday after Easter). 172 Conventual bread Bast Bread Bygge Bread Horse Bread Abbot’s Bread Second Bread 1331 150q wheat 63q wheat 8q 6b rye 9q peas/beans 30q 1b wheat 40q 7b rye 9q peas/beans 27q 3b tolcorn 1334 269 wheat 186q mixed for bast and bygge 186q mixed for bast and bygge 1336 168q wheat 135q 2b wheat for bast and bygge 12q rye 4q 9b peas 2q 2b beans 135q 2b wheat for bast and bygge 25q 1b rye 35q 4b peas 3q beans 1338 176q wheat 107q 7b wheat 7q rye 5q peas/vetch 78q 4b wheat 14q 2b 14q 6.5b barley 26q 3b peas/vetch 6.5b beans 1339 164q 4b wheat 96q 4b wheat 6q 1.5b rye 6b barley 9q peas 5q 4b beans Tolcorn 63q 4b wheat 13q rye 9q barley 2q 6b winter barley 30q 7b peas 5q 7b beans Tolcorn 1352 116q 2b wheat 176q 3b mixed grains for bastbygge and horse bread 176q 3b mixed grains for bastbygge and horse bread 176q 3b mixed grains for bastbygge and horse bread 1358 illegible 79q 3b mixed grains for bast 39q mixed grains for bygge 23q 4b mixed grains for horse bread 1361 157q 6b wheat 25q 7b rye 46q 5b wheat Mixed grain c25q 13q 6b wheat 18q 7b rye Mixed grain c9q 26q 3b rye Mixed grain c10q 1379 140q 4b wheat 55q wheat 13q 3b rye 9q wheat 4q 2b rye 14q 2b wheat 5q 5b rye 15q 7b chaff barley 42q 7b peas/beans 80q 1b wheat 32q wheat 6q 3b rye 1381 (38wks) 119q 4b wheat 33q 3b wheat 13q rye 7q 6.5b wheat 4q 2b rye 1q 5b chaff wheat 5q 7b rye 19q 5b chaff barley 72q 1b wheat 20q 1b wheat 6q 4b rye 1382 124q 4b wheat 13q 1b wheat 4q 7b rye 1q 5b wheat 1q 5b rye 28q 7b wheat 10q barley 31q 7b peas/beans 91q 4b wheat 55q 6b wheat 14q 6b rye 1387 141q wheat 6q chaff wheat 19q 3b rye 27q barley 37q 7b peas/beans 83q 6b wheat 33q wheat 7q rye 1389 127q wheat 111q 6b mixed grain 67q pure wheat 40q wheat 1395 (31 wks) 57q 4b wheat 4q wheat 2q chaff wheat 13q 4b rye 3q 6b winter barley 4b beans 11q 2b peas 58q 6b wheat 9q 4b wheat 1q chaff wheat 8q 2b rye Table 17: Types of bread and ingredients in the accounts of the granator 1331-1395. 173 Throughout the period, the monks ate conventual bread, made of pure wheat. Until 1382, members of the lay household at the abbey ate bast and bygge bread, made from a mixed grain that included wheat but also combined rye, peas and vetch with the occasional addition of barley or Tollcorn. Bast bread had a higher percentage of wheat than bygge bread. The account of 1361 stated that the bast and bygg breads were for the liveries of the famuli at the abbey and these two breads were in use until 1382 by which time they comprised just wheat and rye.794 Horse bread, made of a small amount of wheat combined with rye chaff barley and legumes such as peas, beans and vetch, appears in the accounts from 1352 and was exclusively for the horses at Boxley as it was at Durham Cathedral Priory, although Slavin concluded that at Ely Cathedral priory it was also given to workers.795 From 1379 two more types of bread, called abbot’s bread and second bread appear in the accounts. Abbot’s bread, presumably for the household of the abbot, was made from pure wheat while second bread was made from wheat and a small amount of rye. The amount of grain other than wheat incorporated into bread for the convent and household at Boxley declined at the end of the fourteenth century by which time the main use of rye and legumes was solely used for horse bread, presumably used to feed horses over the winter period. The quality of all grades of bread for human consumption had improved. The timing of this improvement coincided with the increasing prosperity of the house due to the successful shrine of the holy cross. Ale was the main drink available to all but visitors at Boxley. It was brewed from grain malted in the malt house. The accounts of the granator recorded the type and amounts of malt made but there is little detail on the different grades of ale. At Boxley, ale was produced predominantly from barley, but wheat and oats were also used throughout the period in significant quantities. The only occasion that a type of ale was named in the accounts was in 1361 when 24q 6b wheat was converted into conventual ale.796 It has been calculated that 1q malt barley made approximately 50 gallons of strong ale or 95.6 gallons weak ale.797 Assuming that this equation is applicable to all grain the table below has calculated the potential approximate number of gallons of ale produced at Boxley during the period under study. The frequency with which the Boxley baker brewed ale is evidence 794 TNA, SC 6/1253/13. 795 P. Slavin, Bread and Ale for the Brethren, Hertfordshire, 2012, p. 158. 796 TNA, SC 6/1253/13. 797 Slavin, Bread and Ale, pp. 163-4. 174 of its short shelf life. Staff employed to make the grain into malted grain, were paid in grain. The servants making malt received 5b mixed grain every 10 weeks in 1334, 8b every 10 weeks in 1338 and 1q 2b every 10 weeks in 1358.798 After this period, it appears that the famuli made the malt as part of their duties as although no more regular stipends were paid to malters, one man was paid 3d. for winnowing the malt for two days in 1387 when two of the famuli were ill.799 Sales of malt barley generated over £40 in 1393 and more than £8 in 1394.800 The granator handed this money to the bursars. Ale 1334 1336 1338 1339 1352 1358 1361 1379 1382 1387 1389 1394 Wheat 44q 262q 70q 39q 4b 23q 6b conv ale 21q 2b 25q 3b 101q 4b 24q 14q Barley 112q 180q 3b 57q 247q 167q 7b 131q 115q 307q 304q 5b 300q 273q 5b 186q Oats 128q 240q 199q 4b 32q 36q 2b 48q 3b 68q 4b 120q 41q 14q Total 276q 420q 518q 4b 279q 237q 7b 206q 6b 187q 1b 328q 2b 398q 4b 521q 4b 338q 5b 214q 55 brews for 47 weeks 69 brews for 52 weeks 48 brews in 52 weeks 28 brews in 31 weeks Strong ale/gall/yr 13800 21000 25925 13950 11900 10350 9350 16400 19925 26050 16900 10700 Weak ale/gall/yr 26386 40152 49568 26672 22752 19789 17877 31356 38096 49855 32312 20458 Table 18: Type and quantity of grain used in making ale and potential volume made 1331-1394 (gallons). Over the period of the surviving accounts, the role of the granator evolved as his office managed the mills, gardens and merged with the bakery. Primarily he was an administrator of produce. He was responsible for ensuring that the bakery received a regular and adequate supply of grain to produce bread and ale throughout the year. He had to make certain that his staff were competent in their main duties to look after the grain to keep it free of rodents or disease, and process the grain so that it was fit for purpose – either for conversion into malt or flour. 798 TNA, SC 6/1251/7; TNA, SC 6/1252/1; TNA, SC 6/1253/8. 799 TNA, SC 6/1255/11. 800 TNA, SC 6/1255/16; TNA, SC 6/1255/17. 175 Conclusion At Boxley, the obedientiary system had developed from the system envisioned in the Rule of St Benedict by the middle of the fourteenth century. The impact of the Black Death and subsequent challenges enabled a small group of capable monks to reform the household and economic administration of the abbey using the same economic model as larger and wealthier houses. Offices essential to the day-to-day and long-term survival of the monastery were created. However, the limited resources and fewer numbers of capable office holders meant that the resulting structure was very much a small-scale local interpretation of this universal system. After the Black Death, the greater part of the revenues of the house came to the bursars’ office. The bursars then assigned the revenues to a small number of offices, the most essential of these being the sub cellarer and the cellarer. In contrast to larger houses, the Boxley obedientiaries held more than one office at a time and often held the same office for many years. The abbot of Boxley always remained close to the convent and maintained a close hand in the administration of the Boxley economy throughout the period under study here. 176 CONCLUSION REDRESSING THE BALANCE: AN ASSESSMENT This thesis places the history of Boxley Abbey, a moderate Cistercian monastery, in the context of current monastic studies, utilising surviving deeds, estate accounts and internal household accounts. The accounts by their nature cast little light on spiritual life at Boxley, on the continual round of religious services, or on the constraints of monastic life, which are therefore notably absent from this study. What they do reveal is the strategies used in the evolution and survival of a lesser house through the environmental and economic challenges it faced in the fourteenth century, in particular its response to the Black Death and the aftermath of the Black Death. They highlight the key role played by one abbot in facing and overcoming these challenges, and they reveal the lives and careers of a small number of working monks who were responsible for the day-to-day household and financial administration of this abbey and its estates. By revealing the history of the abbey through its surviving archive, this study sought to redress the balance in current monastic studies that favours histories of larger houses. As a small, non-Benedictine, rural monastery, it was anticipated that the history of Boxley Abbey would be representative of small houses in general, the most typical medieval foundations, and that as such it would offer a contrast to its larger counterparts. In reality, the evidence shows that in its early history, Boxley was indeed representative of lesser houses but as the abbey prospered, increasingly it took on a number of characteristics that were more associated with greater houses. The deeds revealed that the early history of Boxley was shaped by the foundation and endowment of the abbey. As at other smaller houses, a number of factors, including the physical absence of their founder William of Ypres, and only a relatively modest endowment required the abbey to attract local benefactors in order to build up their lands and be self-sufficient. In this, they were relatively successful. There was a deliberate strategy by successive thirteenth-century abbots to acquire land piece-by-piece and this enabled them to build up significant estates and make local connections around the Boxley area and along the Medway coast by the end of the thirteenth century. In this way productive home farms had been founded above and below the monastery in Boxley in addition to large estates on the marshes at Sharpness and on Romney Marsh. Important 177 fishing rights on the Medway deliberately acquired in 1196, enabled the abbey to establish their Medway fishery at this early date, and this continued to be a significant source of fresh fish throughout the period under study. They sought land rather than property and acquired it by any method including sale, exchange or grant. In common with other Cistercian houses, Boxley Abbey acquired and developed land that was not valued by others, such as marshes and land on outlying islands where they could establish successful granges. The surviving archive preserves only a small proportion of the land deals transacted between Boxley and local people but they offer a view of some of the people associated with the abbey. They demonstrate that the early benefactors were local Boxley families, with evidence of local family ties that lasted through the generations. Although not absent from the Boxley historical record, only a few of the deeds recorded spiritual benefits in exchange for land. These occur more commonly in the later deeds where the grantors were more likely to be notable county office holders some of whom used the abbey church as a mausoleum. The foresight of early abbots in building up the estates of Boxley Abbey and establishing bonds with local people were important factors in sustaining Boxley through some of the later challenging periods of its history. Regrettably the exact nature of these transactions is often unclear in the surviving deeds but a variety of methods were used to acquire land. The obedientiary system was a universal arrangement of monastic administration but it was adapted by individual houses to meet their specific needs. As at many larger houses such as at Christ Church Canterbury, there was a partially centralised treasury. At Boxley, this took the form of the bursars’ office. Similarly, the system of monk wardens travelling out to audit estates resembled that employed by the Canterbury monks to administer their estates but it was adapted to make it work for a smaller house with more limited means and fewer capable staff. In contrast to larger institutions, at Boxley competent staff frequently held more than one office at a time and stayed in post for successive years. The title of cellarer, as identified by St Benedict in Chapter 31 of the rule of St Benedict, clearly always carried with it some status at Boxley long after the everyday tasks of the office there had altered considerably from their original depiction. Even though the Boxley cellarer had given up any duties appertaining to the cellar long before the Black Death he was always called the cellarer throughout the period under study. At Boxley, the cellarer 178 supervised the outdoor workplaces that were so essential to the monastery, the carts and carters, the smith, the forge, the quarry, the tile house and management of the woods that provided vital fuel for the internal and external areas of the abbey. In addition, he also took on the role of travelling monk warden, responsible for supervising the monastic estates, stepping in when needed during times of crisis to oversee repairs. The Boxley cellarer was an essential link between the estates and the abbey and it was part of his role to oversee the many logistical aspects of getting the manorial profits from their source to the abbey kitchen. He was an accomplished multitasker. The estate and household accounts reveal the Black Death as the catalyst for changes in the economic management of the abbey at Boxley. A tighter and more accountable system emerged after 1348. Although John Herrietsham was not elected as abbot until at least 1354, even as a young obedientiary he took a lead role in implementing change. A monk in the abbey from 1345, he held office from 1347 and was certainly abbot by 1357, a post he held for at least fifty years. The Black Death was a defining moment for the economies of many monastic foundations and it required an effective response from within the monastery in order for it to survive. John Herrietsham was one of the key people who initiated that response at Boxley, around the time of the Black Death, and in the years immediately following it. The influence of Benedict XII’s fulgens sicut stella can be seen in the changes that Abbot John introduced. Around the period that he became abbot, the main offices produced written inventories again reinforcing the personal accountability of the obedientiaries. He was a driving force in establishing the system of monk wardens auditing estate accounts. This demonstrates his intent to create a more accountable financial system by ensuring that the estate managers were acting honestly. At the same time, the estate records began to name the obedientiary within the monastery to whom they were sending produce, rather than simply listing the office within the monastery. There was no wholesale leasing of the Boxley estates during the period under study. By 1360,the abbey had leased its more remote properties for a cash sum, and the upper grange was given over to pastoral farming thus providing a steady income from these properties whilst maximising revenues from the remaining estates. By the turn of the fifteenth century part of the Sharpness estate was being leased. On balance, however, the evidence of the surviving accounts shows overwhelmingly that the monks of Boxley continued to exploit their estates with the primary purpose of providing their households with grain, meat, dairy produce, fish, fuel and building materials, throughout the 179 fourteenth century. The varied landscape of each grange guided exploitation methods and the kind of mixed farming that resulted is very akin to the response of the monks at Merevale Abbey when faced with similar challenges a hundred years later. In contrast to larger foundations, there was never any separation of the revenues of the house between the abbot and convent at Boxley. This meant that the abbot maintained a close connection with the abbey, the monastic economy and the monks, especially the senior obedientiaries. John Herrietsham clearly maintained a guiding hand in the household and economic administration of Boxley Abbey. Within the household accounts, there is a perceived familiarity between the Boxley obedientiaries of the late fourteenth century. This informality is not discernible in the histories of larger houses. A small but close group of men of comparable age, who had lived through a number of challenges, most significantly the Black Death, took charge of the monastery, and subsequently worked closely alongside each other, alternating the main offices of the house, often simultaneously holding more than one office or sharing the more senior offices. The 1360 Assessment of Revenues was produced at a point in time just before the emergence of the shrine of the Holy Cross in the bursars’ accounts at a time when the abbey was truly representative of a small house struggling to stretch their resources. It is clear that the there were substantial cash flow problems. The bursars’ accounts recorded loans and debts, and the leasing of estates at Chingley, Chessington and La Chene between 1350 and 1360. The Assessment was a review of all of the manorial revenues due to the abbey but it was also an attempt to set a spending budget for the sub cellarer. This indicates that despite his earlier attempts to tighten control on the Boxley economy Abbot John still felt it was necessary to legislate for it by setting a spending limit. However, the Assessment also shows that the abbey had become almost self sufficient in grain supplies, in contrast to an earlier assessment of 1317. It stipulated in writing, a destination within the abbey for all manorial produce, again re-enforcing the point that individual obedientiaries were accountable for all of the produce that came into the abbey. Ultimately, the attempt to set a budget failed but it highlights the personal intervention of John Herrietsham in the economic administration of the abbey. A significant and unexpected finding of this thesis in the household accounts was the record of income for the shrine to the Holy Cross at Boxley. The rood of grace was a well- 180 timed solution to an economic crisis that had never really left the monks at Boxley after the changes brought about by the impact of the Black Death. Despite the 1360 Assessment of Revenues, which had been an attempt to make the best use of their revenues and resources and reduce their spending, the abbey was clearly struggling financially during the 1360s. The shrine appeared in the documentary record after the 1361 recurrence of plague, at a time when rents were in arrears, attempts to place limitations on spending had failed, and a succession of loans over a number of years meant that there was a continuous cycle of debt, recorded in the 1365 bursars’ accounts. The bell tower, dated archaeologically to the late fourteenth century, coincided with the expenses for new bells, recorded in the 1365 bursars’ accounts, immediately prior to the appearance in the bursars’ accounts of the shrine income. This indicates that the bell tower was constructed in preparation for the introduction of the shrine. The shrine, identified in the bursars’ accounts as the Holy Cross by 1371, was extremely successful and the income from it shows that it became a lucrative source of revenue for the abbey throughout the later fourteenth century. While the monastic estates continued to provide the household and convent with manorial produce, (profits) the revenues from the shrine allowed the monks of Boxley a cash income that they had not previously known. The accounts of the bursars and sub cellarers reveal the positive impact of this through the commencement of building programmes and a more affluent lifestyle and diet that was more akin to the standard of living found in the larger monasteries. It is clear that prior to the introduction of the shrine the monks of Boxley, like other Cistercian houses, had accepted adaptations to the ideals embedded in the original Cistercian rule. Indeed, Cistercian legislation had relaxed many of their original prohibitions to allow for this. The bursars’ accounts recorded the presence of corrodians in the abbey throughout the period. There is also evidence of lay people requesting burial inside the monastic church. The abbey had the advowson of the parish churches at Hoo in Stoke by 1244 and Eastchurch on Sheppey by 1314. These departures from the austerity of early Cistercian legislation were not uncommon. Indeed even the shrine itself, as a site of pilgrimage to a Cistercian house, was not unique to Boxley. The holy blood of Hailes Abbey in Gloucestershire and the miraculous crucifix of Meaux Abbey in Yorkshire, to name just two examples, both pre-dated the Boxley rood of grace. However, the success of the Boxley shrine moved the monks of Boxley Abbey even further away from the Cistercian ideal in terms of their everyday lifestyle and diet. It enabled them to be less cautious in their 181 spending, a factor that may make the late medieval Boxley experience atypical if compared to other small houses. The accounts of the sub cellarers and kitchener at Boxley stand apart as a valuable source of information on fourteenth-century monastic diet but they are not necessarily representative of the diet within a typical moderately sized medieval monastery. After the revenues from the shrine appeared in the bursars’ accounts spending on food rapidly doubled. There was also a concurrent rise in the quantities of all meat consumed particularly of beef. The accounts of the sub cellarer included expenses for the conventual household and some if not all of the expenses for the abbot’s household and so this places restrictions on the conclusions drawn from the accounts about the monastic diet. However while the monks did not consume all of the food, some of it certainly reached their tables. The sub cellarer sourced fish from London in larger quantities and purchased it using credit. Bread for human consumption, much of which had until that time, used mixed grains including legumes and peas, comprised only wheat and rye after the emergence of the shrine and the accounts recorded a new pure wheat loaf called abbot’s bread, presumably, made exclusively for the household of the abbot. The abbot’s household increased in numbers and he clothed his personal staff in more costly fabrics than those bought for the conventual staff so that they reflected his status not only as a Cistercian abbot but also as the head of a large medieval household. The 1971 excavation of Boxley abbey concluded that an ambitious building programme to re-build the cloisters of the abbey over a four-year period, initiated by John Herrietsham in 1373, was never completed and that in contrast to other Cistercian houses Boxley never re-built its refectory on a north-west alignment. In the archive, there are no records of any major fourteenth-century building works on the abbey buildings other than the proposed rebuilding of the cloisters. However, there is evidence of continual maintenance and the accounts show that in fact the stonemasons did complete much of the work on the cloister but over a longer period than was initially agreed. There are glimpses of spending on the fabric of the church. In 1373 the bursars spent more than £22 on beautiful altar cloths, adorned with elaborate gold fringing and lace, and vestments of red cloth lined with green muslin, ornate items for a moderate Cistercian foundation and in contrast to the more simple fabrics and vestments recorded in the 1352 inventory of the sacrist. Overall however the accounts indicate that the significant revenues from the holy cross were spent 182 on enhancing lifestyle at the time rather than long term improvements or developments that invested in the future of the abbey. This is in contrast to St Leonard’s Norwich where the monks spent the income from the shrine of St Leonard on improving the priory church and buildings. Perhaps the close proximity of St Leonard’s to its mother house at Norwich Cathedral allowed it less freedom than Boxley Abbey whose own mother house was located across the English channel at Clairvaux Abbey in France. The increase in income brought about by the emergence of the shrine of the holy cross at Boxley allowed the monks a more affluent lifestyle in comparison to similar size religious foundations in the later fourteenth century. Although this makes some parts of the Boxley monastic experience atypical, there are also many areas of common ground. The obedientiary system was a common system of administration in medieval monasteries but at Boxley in contrast to their contemporaries at larger monasteries, the partially centralised office of the bursars funded significantly fewer offices. Ultimately, the late fourteenth-century household accounts of Boxley reflect the aspirations of the abbot and monks there to live a lifestyle that gave them more in common with their contemporaries in larger, more prosperous houses than with the ascetic ideals of the Cistercian tradition. The success of the shrine provided them with the income to live at the level of comfort they aspired to. After the challenges they had faced as young monks, especially the Black Death, the shrine was about looking ahead to the future rather than to the past. It was essential for this religious house to adapt in order to survive the challenges of the fourteenth century but perhaps there is a particular irony in the finding that the shrine of the holy cross that was the salvation of the abbey in the fourteenth century went on to become so infamous in the history of its downfall. 212 BIBLIOGRAPHY Primary Sources (Manuscript) British Library, London Add MS 37086 A. Rental of Silwell Manor (fourteenth century) Egerton Charter 396 William Winchelsea to Boxley and Robertsbridge Abbey (date unknown) Cott. MS Domitian AX f. 123 Cartulary of Rochester Cathedral Priory Cott. MS Vespasian A XXII Rochester Chronicle (thirteenth century) Lambeth Palace Library, London MS 1212 f. 128 Copy of list of lands held by Boxley Abbey on Romney Marsh (1202) ff. 208;209 Copy of grant to Boxley Abbey of property in London from Paris archdeacon of Rochester (original prior to 1189) f. 207 Boxley Abbey to Hubert Archbishop of Canterbury. Copy of grant, and copy of confirmation of grant of property of Paris to him from Boxley Abbey in exchange for 205 acres of land on Romney Marsh Register Thomas Arundel, Vol. 1 f. 226 Will of Reginald Cobham (1405) f. 231 Will of John Gold (1406) f. 242 Will of William Makenade (1407) Medway Archives and Local Studies Centre DRc_T333_1 Avelina Longo Campo to Rochester Priory. Grant of land close to Stisted Mill The National Archives, Kew Chancery Records TNA, C 53/45 Charter roll 37 Henry III (1253) Inquisitions Ad Quod Damnum TNA, C 143/234/6 John Coppyng and Roger Mool to Boxley Abbey (1335) TNA, C 143/355/9 John Fletcher, Robert Vinter and others to Boxley Abbey (1365) TNA, C 143/381/1 William Reade Bp of Chichester to Boxley Abbey (1373) TNA, C 143/414/27 John Freningham and William Makenade to Boxley Abbey Exchequer Records Records of the King’s Remembrancer: Accounts Various TNA, E 101/622/47 Contract between Boxley Abbey and Stonemason (1373) Records of the King’s Remembrancer: Conventual Leases TNA, E 118/1/142 Lease between Boxley Abbey and John Lusden (1538) 213 Records of the King’s Remembrancer: Ancient Deeds, Series D TNA, E 210/224 Reginald of Boxley to Boxley Abbey (twelfth century) TNA, E 210/385 Lease between Boxley Abbey and John Leston (1452) TNA, E 210/563 Lease between Boxley Abbey and John Swayn (1383) TNA, E 210/764 Lease between Boxley Abbey and Simon Wyg (1413) TNA, E 210/923 Lease between Boxley Abbey and Thomas, John and Robert ate Lee (1379) TNA, E 210/11071 Boxley Abbey to Alexander Herrietsham (1405) TNA, E 210/1299 Contract between Boxley Abbey and Stonemason (1400) TNA, E 210/2227 Alexander Horepole to Boxley Abbey (thirteenth century) TNA, E 210/2269 Lease between Boxley Abbey and Richard Birch (thirteenth century) TNA, E 210/2738 Lease between Boxley Abbey and John Munden (1478) TNA, E 210/2756 Lease between Boxley Abbey and John Kymbar (1478) TNA, E 210/3338 William Tribley and Maud his wife to Boxley Abbey (twelfth century) TNA, E 210/3856 Corrody of Simon Wilston (fourteenth century) TNA, E 210/4051 Lease between Boxley Abbey and John Holme (date unknown) TNA, E 210/5227 Bond for Chingley Manor (1370) TNA, E 210/5240 Sale of wood from Boxley Abbey to John Heyton (1351) TNA, E 210/5385 Sale of wood from Boxley Abbey to John Heyton (1362) TNA, E 210/5386 Sale of wood from Boxley Abbey to John Heyton (1360) TNA, E 210/5387 Sale of wood from Boxley Abbey to John Heyton (1362) TNA, E 210/5725 Roger son of John Anger to Boxley Abbey (thirteenth century) TNA, E 210/6505 Lease from Boxley Abbey to John Degher and Alice his wife (1370) TNA, E 210/6715 Anselm deacon of Sandwich to Boxley Abbey (twelfth century) TNA, E 210/6720 William Sylopesbrug to Boxley Abbey (thirteenth century) TNA, E 210/8036 Lease from Boxley Abbey to James…. in Chingley (1322) TNA, E 210/8853 Grant of land to Boxley Abbey from Peter Horewase (thirteenth century) TNA, E 210/8894 Dunes Abbey to Boxley Abbey (1314) TNA, E 210/8936 Lease from Boxley Abbey to John Walshe (1319) TNA, E 210/9216 Lease from Boxley Abbey to Simon le Tur (1364) TNA, E 210/9396 Lease from Boxley Abbey to Robert Greene (1360) TNA, E 210/11201 Lease from Boxley Abbey to Richard Byrd (1369) Records of the King’s Remembrancer: Ancient Deeds, Series DD TNA, E 211/336 Dunes Abbey to Boxley Abbey (1314) Records of the Court of Augmentations and the Augmentations Office: Ancient Deeds, Series B TNA, E 326/6511 Simon Birch to Boxley Abbey (1244) TNA, E 326/6161 William Ferting and Mabel to Boxley Abbey (1277) 214 TNA, E 326/444 Margery daughter of Laurence Burle to Boxley Abbey (1316) TNA, E 326/446 Richard son of Reginald Burle to Boxley Abbey (1316) TNA, E 326/456 William de Costadele concerning lands in Cumba, Boxley (1343) TNA, E 326/457 Margery Loth to Boxley Abbey (1314) TNA, E 326/642 Godwyn Waidegrun to Boxley Abbey (thirteenth century) TNA, E 326/644 Thomas Marys and Margery to Boxley Abbey (thirteenth century) TNA, E 326/645 William son of Peter Burle to Boxley Abbey (thirteenth century) TNA, E 326/646 Alexander Cumba to Boxley Abbey (thirteenth century) TNA, E 326/650 Roger Haltgode to Boxley Abbey (thirteenth century) TNA, E 326/778 Adam Essebi and Juliana Burle to Boxley Abbey (1246) TNA, E 326/8764 Geoffrey de Sharimolde to Boxley Abbey (fourteenth century) TNA, E 326/1304 Alexander Walensis to Boxley Abbey (thirteenth century) TNA, E 326/1680 Geoffrey son of John the smith to Boxley Abbey (fourteenth century) TNA, E 326/2912 William Wych to Boxley Abbey (fourteenth century) TNA, E 326/5422 Henry Welles to Boxley Abbey (1238) TNA, E 326/8141 Lease between Boxley Abbey and Philip Chowt (1537) TNA, E 326/8518 Odo Burle and Emma his wife to Boxley Abbey (thirteenth century) TNA, E 326/8765 Gilbert son of Reginald Wavering to Boxley Abbey (1241) Records of the Court of Augmentations and the Augmentations Office: Ancient Deeds, Series BB TNA, E 328/433 List of deeds concerning lands of Boxley Abbey in Upchurch area (commenced prior to 1327) Probate Records, Prerogative Court of Canterbury TNA, PROB 11/8/514 Will of John Kembar (1491) TNA, PROB 11/17/313 Will of Sir Thomas Bougchier (1513) TNA, PROB 11/17/187 Will of William Valley (1512) TNA, PROB 11/1/6 Will of Robert de Burne (1384) TNA, PROB 11/5/1 Will of Robert Hereford (1463) TNA, PROB 11/12/75 Will of Edward Baynbrigg (1499) Special Collections: Ancient Petitions TNA, SC 8/235/11706 Letter to Edward III from Simon Islip, Archbishop of Canterbury (1363) 215 Special Collections: Ministers’ and Receivers’ Accounts Obedientiary Accounts for Boxley Abbey (SC 6) Bursar TNA, SC 6/1251/5 Account of bursars (1330-31) TNA, SC 6/1252/5 Account of bursars (1345) TNA, SC 6/1252/12 Account of bursars and sacrist (1351) TNA, SC 6/1253/4 Account of bursars (1353-55) TNA, SC 6/1253/12 Account of bursars (1360-62) TNA, SC 6/1253/15 Account of bursars (1363-65) TNA, SC 6/1253/16 Account of bursars (1365-66) TNA, SC 6/1253/19 Account of bursars (1371-72) TNA, SC 6/1253/20 Account of bursars (1372) TNA, SC 6/1254/1 Account of bursars (1372-73) TNA, SC 6/1254/5 Account of bursars (1376-77) TNA, SC 6/1254/16 Account of bursars (1378-79) TNA, SC 6/1254/19 Account of bursars (1379-80) TNA, SC 6/1255/4 Account of bursars (1383-84) TNA, SC 6/1255/9 Account of bursars (1384-86) TNA, SC 6/1255/14 Account of bursars (1390-91) TNA, SC 6/1256/10 Account of bursars (1403-05) TNA, SC 6/1256/13 Account of bursars (1408-10) Cellarer TNA, SC 6/1251/8 Account of cellarer, granary and mills (1336-37) TNA, SC 6/1251/9 Account of cellarer (1337-38) TNA, SC 6/1252/2 Account of cellarer (1339-40) TNA, SC 6/1252/9 Account of cellarer (1349) TNA, SC 6/1253/13 Account of cellarer and granator (1361) TNA, SC 6/1254/7 Account of cellarer (1377-79) TNA, SC 6/1255/7 Account of cellarer (1384-86) TNA/SC 6/1255/8 Account of cellarer (1387) TNA, SC 6/1255/13 Account of cellarer (1389-91) Sub Cellarer/Kitchen TNA, SC 6/1252/6 Account of sub cellarer (1347-48) TNA, SC 6/1252/7 Account of sub cellarer (1348-49) TNA, SC 6/1253/2 Account of sub cellarer (1351 and 1356) TNA, SC 6/1253/3 Account of sub cellarer (1353) TNA, SC 6/1253/7 Account of sub cellarer (1357-58) TNA, SC 6/1253/9 Account of sub cellarer (1359-60) TNA, SC 6/1254/2 Account of sub cellarer (1372-73) TNA, SC 6/1254/6 Account of kitchener (1376-77) TNA, SC 6/1254/15 Account of kitchener (1377-78) TNA, SC 6/1254/17 Account of sub cellarer (1378-79) TNA, SC 6/1254/18 Account of sub cellarer (1379-80) TNA, SC 6/1255/6 Account of sub cellarer (1384) 216 TNA, SC 6/1255/10 Account of sub cellarer (1387-89) TNA, SC 6/1255/20 Account of sub cellarer (1395-96) TNA, SC 6/1256/3 Account of sub cellarer (1398-99) TNA, SC 6/1256/9 Account of sub cellarer (1399-1402) TNA, SC 6/1256/11 Account of sub cellarer (1405-07) TNA, SC 6/12/56/24 Account of sub cellarer (1464-66) Mills Bakery and Granary TNA, SC 6/1251/6 Account of mills (1331-32) TNA, SC 6/1251/7 Account of mills (1333-35) TNA, SC 6/1251/8 Account of mills, granary and cellarer (1336-37) TNA, SC 6/1253/8 Account of mills (1358-59) TNA, SC 6/1252/8 Account of bakery (1348-49) TNA, SC 6/1253/10 Account of bakery (1360) TNA, SC 6/1252/1 Account of granary (1338-39) TNA, SC 6/1252/3 Account of granary (1339-40) TNA, SC 6/1252/4 Account of granary (1342-43) TNA, SC 6/1252/11 Account of granary (1350-55) TNA, SC 6/1254/20 Account of granary (1379-83) TNA, SC 6/1255/2 Account of granary (1380-81) TNA, SC 6/1255/11 Account of granary/bakery (1387-89) TNA, SC 6/1255/12 Account of granary/bakery (1389-91) TNA, SC 6/1255/16 Account of granary/bakery (1393-95) TNA, SC 6/1255/17 Account of granary/bakery (1394-95) Clothing TNA, SC 6/1255/3 Account of clothing (1382-83) TNA, SC 6/1255/5 Account of clothing (1383-85) Sacrist TNA, SC 6 1252/12 Account of sacrist and bursar (1351) TNA, SC 6/1253/14 Account of sacrist (1361-62) Revenues and Rents TNA, SC 6/1251/3 List of grange revenues (1316-18) TNA, SC 6/1253/11 Boxley Assessment of Revenues (1360) TNA, SC 6/1253/18 List of grange revenues (1371) TNA, SC 6/1254/3 Account of rent collector (1372-73) Boxley Abbey Estate Records (SC 6) TNA, SC 6/1011/25 Account of Chessington (1289-1290) TNA, SC 6/892/8 Account of Hoo (1348) TNA, SC 6/892/9 Account of Hoo (1349) TNA, SC 6/892/10 Account of Hoo (1353) TNA, SC 6/892/11 Account of Hoo (1355) TNA, SC 6/892/12 Account of Hoo (1392) 217 TNA, SC 6/892/13 Account of Hoo (1393) TNA, SC 6/892/14 Account of Hoo (1395) TNA, SC 6/892/15 Account of Hoo (1402) TNA, SC 6/890/10 Account of Eastchurch (1324) TNA, SC 6/890/11 Account of Eastchurch (1331) TNA, SC 6/890/12 Account of Eastchurch (1351) TNA, SC 6/890/13 Account of Eastchurch (1355) TNA, SC 6/890/14 Account of Eastchurch (1358-60) TNA, SC 6/890/15 Account of Eastchurch (1359-61) TNA, SC 6/890/16 Account of Eastchurch (1360-61) TNA, SC 6/890/17 Account of Eastchurch (1385-86) TNA, SC 6/890/18 Account of Eastchurch (1399-1400) TNA, SC 6/889/1 Account of Chingley (1340) TNA, SC 6/889/2 Account of Chingley (1342) TNA, SC 6/889/3 Account of Chingley (1343) TNA, SC 6/889/4 Account of Chingley (1346) TNA, SC 6/889/5 Account of Chingley (1350) TNA, SC 6/889/6 Account of Chingley (1352) TNA, SC 6/886/2 Account of La Chene (1323) TNA, SC 6/886/7 Account of La Chene (1332) TNA, SC 6/886/19 Account of La Chene (1351) TNA, SC 6/886/21 Account of Abbotschene (1352-54) TNA, SC 6/893/24 Account of Newenham (1334) TNA, SC 6/893/25 Account of Newenham (1354) TNA, SC 6/893/26 Account of Newenham (1355) TNA, SC 6/893/27 Account of Newenham (1375) TNA, SC 6/893/27 Account of Newenham (1388) TNA, SC 6/898/10 Account of Stoke (1362) TNA, SC 6/898/11 Account of Stoke (1376) TNA, SC 6/898/12 Account of Stoke (1378) TNA, SC 6/898/13 Account of Stoke (1391) TNA, SC 6/886/4 Account of Upper Grange (1329) TNA, SC 6/886/5 Account of Upper Grange (1331) TNA, SC 6/886/8 Account of Upper Grange (1333) TNA, SC 6/886/9 Account of Upper Grange (1334) TNA, SC 6/886/10 Account of Upper Grange (1337) TNA, SC 6/886/13 Account of Upper Grange (1339) TNA, SC 6/886/14 Account of Upper Grange (1340) TNA, SC 6/886/15 Account of Upper Grange (1344) TNA, SC 6/886/24 Account of Upper Grange (1363) TNA, SC 6/887/2 Account of Upper Grange (1373) TNA, SC 6/887/10 Account of Upper Grange (1388) TNA, SC 6/887/14 Account of Upper Grange (1397) TNA, SC 6/887/16 Account of Upper Grange (1431) 218 TNA, SC 6/886/6 Account of Lower Grange (1332) TNA, SC 6/886/16 Account of Lower Grange (1347) TNA, SC 6/886/17 Account of Lower Grange (1349) TNA, SC 6/886/22 Account of Lower Grange (1355) TNA, SC 6/886/23 Account of Lower Grange (1357) TNA, SC 6/887/1 Account of Lower Grange (1370) TNA, SC 6/887/4 Account of Lower Grange (1375) TNA, SC 6/887/5 Account of Lower Grange (1377) TNA, SC 6/887/9 Account of Lower Grange (1383) TNA, SC 6/887/13 Account of Lower Grange (1397) TNA, SC 6/896/16 Account of Sharpness (1286) TNA, SC 6/896/18 Account of Sharpness (1352) TNA, SC 6/896/19 Account of Sharpness (1353) TNA, SC 6/896/20 Account of Sharpness (1354) TNA, SC 6/896/23 Account of Sharpness (1357) TNA, SC 6/896/25 Account of Sharpness (1359) TNA, SC 6/897/4 Account of Sharpness (1374) TNA, SC 6/897/5 Account of Sharpness (1375) TNA, SC 6/897/8 Account Sharpness (1382) TNA, SC 6/897/11 Account of Sharpness (1388) TNA, SC 6/897/12 Account of Sharpness (1390) TNA, SC 6/897/13 Account of Sharpness (1392) TNA, SC 6/892/1 Account of Ham (1393) TNA, SC 6/1256/1 Account of Ham (1395) written by cellarer TNA, SC 6/892/2 Account of Ham (1397) Special collections: Rentals and Surveys, Rolls (SC 11) TNA, SC 11/331 List of rents at the Boxley gatehouse (unknown date) TNA, SC 11/333 List of women holding lands within the manor of Boxley (no date) TNA, SC 11/335 List of common rents (1317) Printed Primary Sources: Calendars of Chancery Rolls London and HMSO Calendar of Charter Rolls, Henry III, 1: 1226-57 (1903) Calendar of Charter Rolls, Edward III, Henry V, 5: (1916) Calendar of Close Rolls Richard II, 3, 1385-89 (1921) Calendar of Close Rolls Henry VI, 2: 1429-35 (1907) Calendar of inquisitions miscellaneous. vol. 7, 1399-1422, (London, 1916) 219 Calendar of Patent Rolls, Henry III, 1: 1216-25 (1901) Calendar of Patent Rolls, Henry III, 3: 1232-47 (1906) Calendar of Patent Rolls, Edward II, 1: 1307-13 (1894) Calendar of Patent Rolls, Edward III, 1: 1327-30 (1891) Calendar of Patent Rolls, Edward III, 2: 1330-34 (1893) Calendar of Patent Rolls, Edward III, 3: 1334-38 (1895) Calendar of Patent Rolls, Edward III, 8: 1348-50 (1906) Calendar of Patent Rolls, Edward III, 13: 1364-67 (1312) Calendar of Patent Rolls, Edward III, 15: 1370-74 (1914) Calendar of Patent Rolls, Richard II, 3: 1385-89 (1914) Calendar of Patent Rolls, Richard II, 4: 1389-92 (1902) Calendar of Patent Rolls, Richard II, 5: 1391-96 (1905) Calendar of Patent Rolls, Henry IV, 3: 1405-08 (1907) Calendar of Patent Rolls, Henry V, 1: 1413-16 (1910) Calendar of Patent Rolls, Henry V, 2: 1416-22 (1911) Calendar of Patent Rolls, Henry VI, 1: 1422-29 (1901) Calendar of Patent Rolls, Henry VI, 2: 1429-36 (1907) Printed Primary Sources Account Book of Beaulieu Abbey, Hockey, S. 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M., ed, Household Accounts from Medieval England, Part 1 (Oxford 1992) Unpublished Theses Eastlake, E., The Obedientiaries of Boxley Abbey 1336-1389 (Unpublished MA Thesis, University of Winchester, 2006) Pike, A., The Obedientiaries of Abingdon Abbey 1322-1479 (Unpublished MA Thesis, University of Winchester, 2011) 223 Online Resources Canterbury Cathedral Archives, http://www.canterbury-cathedral.org/conservation/archives/ Kent Archaeological Society, http://www.kentarchaeology.org.uk/ Medway Council Archives Service, http://cityark.medway.gov.uk/ The National Archives, http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/ 183 Appendix 1: Lambeth MS 1212 f. 128, Evidence for lands of Boxley Abbey at La Chene on Romney Marsh. The list names Hubert Walter as Archbishop of Canterbury so must date before 1205. The list identifies William of Ypres as the founder of Boxley Abbey. Reproduced with permission from Lambeth Palace. Appendix 2:1 Deeds relating to land acquired close to Boxley 184 Reference Date Type of Deed Grantor Nature of Grant Other Information Red Book 1157 Record of Grant William of Ypres Land in Boxley to value of £55 Probably the Manor of Boxley Reg.Roff, p. 179 1189 Confirmation Charter Richard I Confirmed manor of Boxley, land above and below the hill and at Wavering and Tattlemelle from John Horepole and his sons, Edward de Burleghe and the sons of John de Capella, and land at huvenelle (Ovenhill) bought from William Allington TNA E 210 /224 1184 X 90 Exchange Reginald of Boxley All his land above the hill in exchange for a field called Wluriches Monks to pay 1d annual rent Kent FF 1195 Quitclaim Osbert and Avelina Longchamp 2s rent at Cuiddelmill, 2s rent at Oxfrith, rights of tenement at Boxley park and fishing rights on the Medway at Allington and rights to house of Paris in London Avelina was the daughter of W of Allington, and was also the niece of Paris archdeacon of Rochester. Abbey gave up land at Ovenhill at Allington Kent FF 1219 Quitclaim Arnulf Horepole 20 acres of land in Boxley 1189 confirmation charter of Richard I refers to land at Boxley granted to the abbey from William Horepole TNA E 326 /5422 1238 Exchange Henry Welles rector of Boxley 5 acres of land at Wavering in exchange for various lands in excess of 5 acres The land he gave to Boxley was next to the monastery TNA E 210/ 2227 1238 X 1246 Sale Alexander Horepole Quitrent of 6d and half a ploughshare at Barknolle Grandson of William Horepole Entry fine 6s 9d TNA E 210/ 8853 1238 X 1246 Grant Peter Horwesse Land and rents in Boxley Annual pension 7s for Peter TNA E 326/650 1238 X 1246 Sale Robert Haltegode Land and dayworks at Barknoll, Wavering in Boxley – long list of rents and field names In exchange for a corrody of 2 loaves of bread and 2 measures of ale daily TNA E 210/ 5725 1238 X 1246 Grant Roger son of John Anger Half acre with appurtenances Next to the land of the abbey Monks paid 6s entry fine TNA E 326/ 644 1238 X 1246 Grant Thomas Mareys and Margery Messuage and half acre of woods at Boxley Next to the land of the abbey 8s entry fine TNA E 326/ 8518 1238 X 1277 Quitclaim Odo Burle and Agnes his wife Land at Boxley Quitclaim of land above and below the hill, perhaps relates to same in 1189 confirmation charter of land from Edward de Burleghe. 20s entry fine and 6d rent TNA E 326/ 645 1238 X 1277 Grant William son of Peter Burle Half acre with appurtenances in Boxley 2s entry fine and a costard apple each year TNA E 326/ 646 1238 X 1277 Grant Alexander Cumba Tenement and mill at Boxley and 10 acres of Warland 5 marc entry fine TNA E 326/ 8765 1241 Sale Gilbert Wavering Tenement and appurtenances in Wavering 20 marc entry fine. Annual rent 1d TNA E 326/ 6511 1244 Exchange Simon Birch Messuage and land at Sandling Stoke and Meilfield Appendix 2:1 Deeds relating to land acquired close to Boxley 185 TNA E 326 /778 1246 Quitclaim Adam Essebi and Juliana Burle 4d rent at Boxley 32d paid TNA E 326/ 6161 1277 Sale William Ferting and Mabel his wife 2d rent at Boxley 20d entry fine TNA E 326/2912 1279 X 1307 Sale William Wych 1 virgate of wood at Pinnenden Next to the land of the abbey. 4s entry fine and annual costard apple TNA E 326/ 642 1279 X 1307 Sale Godwyn Waidegran 1 acre of land with appurtenances in Boxley Next to the land of the abbey. 6s entry fine and annual costard apple CPR 1307-13, p. 153 1309 Pardon for land acquired prior to 1307 King pardoned Hugh Cuttenville, Godwin Waidegran, John Agace, John Unredy, John Farenth, Simon le Fevre, Juliana Carpenter, John Scot, Nicholas ate Church and Henry Wodegrome Diverse parcels of land at Boxley Unspecified method of acquisition. TNA E 326/876 1307 X 1329 Grant Geoffrey Sharimolde Woodland at Boxley called Sultingmarlinge Next to the land of the abbey, above the hill. Entry fine 5s 6d TNA E 326/ 457 1314 Grant Margery Burle 4 acres at Burleghfield and Maylefield in Boxley Next to the land of the abbey. 100s entry fine TNA E 326/ 446 1316 Grant Richard son of Reginald Burle 1 virgate of land at Boxley at Maylefield in Boxley Next to the land of the abbey. 5s entry fine TNA E 326 /444 1316 Grant Margery Loth ½ acre at Burleghfield and Maylefield in Boxley Next to the land of the abbey. 8s entry fine CPR 1327-30, p. 367 1329 Pardon for land acquired prior to 1327 John Shymming, Joceus Wodegron, Peter le Coupere, Margery Loth, Clement le Taillour, Odo de Erle, Richard de Hegham, John de sancto Edmundo, Bartholemew de Aylesford, William Patyn, Nicholas Lacy, Avice Haldan, Anselm Mopel, John Thomas, Robert Loth, Thomas Agace, John and Simon Melton, William, Bartholemew, Thomas, Adam and John Birch. Land, rents, messuages in Boxley More than one acquisition from same person. Unspecified method of acquisition. TNA C 143/234/ 6 1335 Grant John Copping and Roger Mool Land, rent and 1/3 of a mill at Aylesford TNA C 143/355/ 9 1365 Grant John Fletcher, Robert Vinter, and others Land and rent at Boxley, Maidstone, Staplehurst and Aylesford Robert Vinter buried at Boxley TNA C 143/381/ 1 1373 Grant William Reed bishop of Chichester 25 quarters of barley from lands of Robert Vinter worth 50s TNA C 143/413/ 27 1391 Grant John Frenyngham and William Makenade Land at Boxley Upchurch and Hoo In return for spiritual benefits – John Frenyngham buried at Boxley with his wife and parents 189 Reference Date Type of Deed Grantor Witnesses TNA E 210/6715 prior to 1189 Grant Anselm, deacon Odo, Simon Deacon, Godfrey Salomonis, Ralph Beleve, William de Alberville , Nicholas Clerico B.L Egerton Charter 369 No date Grant William Winchelsea TNA E 210/6720 1219 X 1236 Grant William Sylopesbrug John Abbot. Brothers: Simon, Prior, William Sub Prior: William Sub ? Cellarer William de St Neots: William Sanford, monk of Boxley: William de Browne William le Sige: John de Snave TNA E 326/1304 1238 X 1277 Grant Alexander Walensis Costantine de Lund: Henry de Ripa Robert de Castello: Albrico Fullone Richard Reginald: Odo de Burle William Cunseil TNA E 210/3338 1279 X 1307 Grant William Tribley/Maud Richard Renham: Robert Bencheshom and William his son: Hugo Cole: Adam --- TNA E 326/1680 1307 X 1327 Grant Geoffrey son of John Faber William Comptone, Alfred le Rok, Geoffrey Scalarius, Adam Faber and others Appendix 2:4 Witnesses in deeds of lands acquired outside of Boxley Appendix 2:6 Chronological list of deeds relating to land acquired by Boxley Abbey 191 Reference Date Type of Deed Grantor Nature of Grant Other Information Red Book 1157 Record of Grant William of Ypres Land in Boxley to value of £55 Probably the Manor of Boxley B.L Egerton Charter 369 No Date Grant William Winchelsea All his land at Little Yarmouth Suffolk Granted jointly to Boxley and Robertsbridge TNA E 210/6715 prior to 1189 Grant Anselm Deacon Land at Dover Badly damaged but 1189 confirmation charter of Richard I refers to land and a house and messuage in Dover granted by Anselm deacon of Sandwich Reg.Roff, p. 179 1189 Confirmation Charter Richard I Confirmed manor of Boxley, land above and below the hill and at Wavering and Tattlemelle from John Horepole and his sons, Edward de Burleghe and the sons of John de Capella, and land at huvenelle (Ovenhill) bought from William Allington Reg. Roff, p. 179 1189 Confirmation Charter Richard I Land at Chessington from Robert Chessington, land at Hoo and Dover, house of Paris in London and marshland at Romney and a market at Hoo TNA E 210 /224 1184 X 90 Exchange Reginald of Boxley All his land above the hill in exchange for a field called Wluriches Monks to pay 1d annual rent Kent FF 1195 Quitclaim Osbert and Avelina Longchamp 2s rent at Cuiddelmill, 2s rent at Oxfrith, rights of tenement at Boxley park and fishing rights on the Medway at Allington and rights to house of Paris in London Avelina was the daughter of W of Allington, and was also the niece of Paris archdeacon of Rochester. Abbey gave up land at Ovenhill at Allington CKFF, p. 4 1197 Quitclaim/frankalmoign William de Plumpton All his lands at Sherenden in Elmley, Sheppey Abbot Robert gave William a gold besant. CKFF, p. 22 1201 Quitclaim Emma widow of Osbert Husier, and Alexander her son 1 yoke of land at Halsted Abbey paid 20s to Emma and 20s to Alexander Rotuli chartarum, John, p. 130 1204 Confirmation Alfred Gore, William Waiser, Warin son of Fulc, William Gore Marshland at Sharpness Also occurs in Red Book Lambeth MS 12 12, p. 128 Prior to 1205 List of lands held as la Chene William of Ypres, Adam Chering and his daughters Gunnora and Isobel, Archbishop Hubert Walter, William Garpunvilla and his wife Albricia In excess of 1000 acres of marshland on Romney marsh Names William of Ypres as founder of Boxley. Lambeth MS 1212 also documents the exchange of the house of Paris in London made by the monks with archbp. Hubert Walter for marshland. Appendix 2:6 Chronological list of deeds relating to land acquired by Boxley Abbey 192 CKFF, p. 50 1211 Quitclaim/grant Simon son of Michael Wahull Abbey returned 95 acres of land at Nettlestead which Michael had given them. Simon paid them 5 marks and gave them all of his meadow at Langmede in Nettlestead for 6 year term Monks were paid 5 marks but agreed to return the land to Simon after 6 years Kent FF 1219 Quitclaim Arnulf Horepole 20 acres of land in Boxley 1189 confirmation charter of Richard I refers to land at Boxley granted to the abbey from William Horepole TNA E 210/6720 1219 X 1236 Grant William Sylopesbrug Woods at Bilsington Given in free alms TNA E 326 /5422 1238 Exchange Henry Welles rector of Boxley 5 acres of land at Wavering in exchange for various lands in excess of 5 acres The land he gave to Boxley was next to the monastery TNA E 210/ 2227 1238 X 1246 Sale Alexander Horepole Quitrent of 6d and half a ploughshare at Barknolle Grandson of William Horepole Entry fine of 6s 5d. TNA E 210/ 8853 1238 X 1246 Grant Peter Horwesse Land and rents in Boxley Annual pension of 7s for Peter Horwesse TNA E 326/650 1238 X 1246 Grant Robert Haltegode Land and dayworks at Barknoll, Wavering in Boxley – long list of rents and field names In exchange for a corrody of 2 loaves of bread and 2 measures of ale daily TNA E 210/ 5725 1238 X 1246 Grant Roger son of John Anger Half acre with appurtenances Next to the land of the abbey 3d annual rent Monks paid 6s entry fine TNA E 326/ 644 1238 X 1246 Grant Thomas Mareys and Margery Messuage and half acre of woods at Boxley Next to the land of the abbey 8s entry fine TNA E 326/1304 1238 X 1277 Grant Alexander Walensis Rents at Dartford and Fuleswichesden Annual rent of 17d. Dated by witnesses 3s entry fine TNA E 326/ 8518 1238 X 1277 Quitclaim Odo Burle and Agnes his wife Land at Boxley Quitclaim of land above and below the hill, perhaps relates to same in 1189 confirmation charter of land from Edward de Burleghe 20s entry fine and 6d annual rent paid by monks TNA E 326/ 645 1238 X 1277 Grant William son of Peter Burle Half acre with appurtenances in Boxley 1 costard apple each year 2s entry fine Appendix 2:6 Chronological list of deeds relating to land acquired by Boxley Abbey 193 TNA E 326/ 646 1238 X 1277 Grant Alexander Cumba Tenement and mill at Boxley and 10 acres of Warland 5 marcs entry fine TNA E 326/ 8765 1241 Sale Gilbert Wavering Tenement and appurtenances in Wavering Entry fine 20 marcs Monks to pay 1d each year CKFF, p. 177 1242 Grant Nicholas Lingedraper, his wife Gunnora, Robert Waverings, his wife Cristina. 150 acres of land in Chingley. Received into the prayers and benefits of the church. 2d rent at Michaelmas for all services TNA E 326/ 6511 1244 Exchange Simon Birch Messuage and land at Sandling Stoke and Meilfield Registrum Roffense, p. 620 1244 Grant Richard Wendene bp Rochester Church of Stoke in Hoo with appurtenances TNA E 326 /778 1246 Quitclaim Adam Essebi and Juliana Burle 4d rent at Boxley 32d paid CKFF, p. 214 1248 Grant Geoffrey de Percy, his wife Maud, Gilbert de Kyrkeby, his wife Lora 10 marks (£6. 13s. 4d.) of rent in Hoo along with a further 20s of rent. Inclusion in the prayers of the abbey CKFF, p. 293 1258 Quitclaim Nicholas and John sons of Ralph 40 acres of wood along with rents of 16s. 1 ½ d. in Staplehurst Abbey paid 25 marks represented by br William Blockley, monk TNA E 326/ 6161 1277 Sale William Ferting and Mabel his wife 2d rent at Boxley 20d entry fine Quo Warranto, p. 344 1278 Records abbey as having manor of Hoo, land at Cranbrook and Chingley TNA E 210/3338 1279 X 1307 Grant William Tribley/Maud 2 acres at Hoo near the land of Adam Faber Annual rent of 3 ½ d to be paid 4 terms of the year TNA E 326/2912 1279 X 1307 Sale William Wych 1 virgate of wood at Pinnenden Next to the land of the abbey 1 costard apple each year and 4s entry fine TNA E 326/ 642 1279 X 1307 Sale Godwyn Waidegran 1 acre of land with appurtenances in Boxley Next to the land of the abbey 1 costard apple each year 6s entry fine Taxatio Ecclesiastica, p. 4 1291 Record of Taxation 2 houses at St Mary Axe and St Michael Cornhill in London and a fishery at Little Yarmouth in Suffolk Appendix 2:6 Chronological list of deeds relating to land acquired by Boxley Abbey 194 CPR 1307-13 Ed II, p. 153 1309 Pardon for land acquired prior to 1307 Thomas White, William Aumbesbury, Ralph le Fevre, Richard Cumpernage, Stephen son of Adam le Fevre, Geoffrey Clitersmyth, Geoffrey son of John le Fevre, Geoffrey Berfot and Alice, Sabrina daughter of Henry Eve, Adam son of Geoffrey, Richard ate Bergh, Godelina late wife of Adam Pestur, and Henry Sharnfold Diverse parcels of land at Hoo and 30 acres of heath in Chingley (from Henry Sharnfold) Fine unspecified CPR 1307-13 Ed II, p. 153 1309 Pardon for land acquired prior to 1307 King pardoned Hugh Cuttenville, Godwin Waidegran, John Agace, John Unredy, John Farenth, Simon le Fevre, Juliana Carpenter, John Scot, Nicholas ate Church and Henry Wodegrome Diverse parcels of land at Boxley Unspecified method of acquisition. TNA E 326/1680 1307 X 1322 Grant Geoffrey son of John Faber 1 virgate of land in the field called Elyottfield Annual rent of 3 ½ d TNA E 326/8764 1307 X 1329 Grant Geoffrey Sharimolde Woodland at Boxley called Sultingmarlinge Next to the land of the abbey, above the hill Entry fine 5s 6d TNA, E 211/336 : TNA E 210/8894 1314 Grant Cistercian abbey of Dunes in Flanders Church of Eastchurch, Isle of Sheppey Included 36 acres of land at Eastchurch, a further 23 acres on Sheppey, and a house at Dover TNA E 326/ 457 1314 Grant Margery Burle 4 acres at Burleghfield and Maylefield in Boxley Next to the land of the abbey 100s entry fine TNA E 326/ 446 1316 Grant Richard son of Reginald Burle 1 virgate of land at Boxley at Maylefield in Boxley Next to the land of the abbey 5s entry fine TNA E 326 /444 1316 Grant Margery Loth ½ acre at Burleghfield and Maylefield in Boxley Next to the land of the abbey entry fine of 8s CPR 1327-30, p. 367 1329 Pardon for land acquired prior to 1327 John Shymming, Joceus Wodegron, Peter le Coupere, Margery Loth, Clement le Taillour, Odo de Erle, Richard de Hegham, John de sancto Edmundo, Bartholemew de Aylesford, William Patyn, Nicholas Lacy, Avice Haldan, Anselm Mopel, John Thomas, Robert Loth, Thomas Agace, John and Simon Melton, William, Bartholemew, Thomas, Adam and John Birch. Land, rents, messuages in Boxley More than one acquisition from same person. Unspecified method of acquisition. Fine of 10 marks (£6 13s. 4d.) as below Appendix 2:6 Chronological list of deeds relating to land acquired by Boxley Abbey 195 CPR 1327-30, pp. 367-8 1329 Pardon for land acquired prior to 1327 Henry Ferman, Walter Colyn, William Vaus, John Underdown, John Boykyn, Roger Silhamme, John Potteworth, Thomas/John Badecok, Geoffrey Catelot, Thomas/Richard Berch, John Elys, Thomas Hamme, John son of Peter ate Weylete, Constance del Brok, Teophania Hamme, John Warin, William del Brok, Roger Clement, Thomas son of David Sloyhull, John Payn, William del Hamme, John Fisshebon, Robert Longmore, Richard Indeben, Adam Hethe, Thomas Edward, Henry Motteneye, William Dangeys, John Godfrey, William Payfrer, Nicholas Rysemund, Hugh Roter, Richard and William sons of Richard Bergh, Adam Bishop, Geoffrey son of John le Fevre, Agnes daughter of Stephen Roter, Clement Taillour, Nicholas son of Osbert ate Wodehall, Robert Groshurst, Thomas ate Stone, Henry Sharnfield, Roger Thurbarn, Robert Spryngeth, Edmund son of William Pethurst Lands and rents at Upchurch, Hoo, Chessington, Ticehurst, Goudhurst, Chingley and Staplehurst Fine of 10 marks (£6 13s. 4d.) TNA C 143/234/ 6 1335 Grant John Copping and Roger Mool Land, rent and 1/3 of a mill at Aylesford TNA C 143/355/ 9 1365 Grant John Fletcher, Robert Vinter, and others Land and rent at Boxley, Maidstone, Staplehurst and Aylesford Robert Vinter buried at Boxley TNA C 143/381/ 1 1373 Grant William Reed bishop of Chichester 25 quarters of barley from lands of Robert Vinter worth 50s TNA C 143/413/ 27 1391 Grant John Frenyngham and William Makenade Land at Boxley Upchurch and Hoo In return for spiritual benefits – John Frenyngham buried at Boxley with his wife and parents CPR 1429-36, p. 147. 1431 Grant William Cheyne 3 roods of land at Eastchurch Given for rebuilding of church at Eastchurch 186 Appendix 2:2. Lands Acquired in Boxley – Witnesses to Deeds Reference Date Deed Grantor Witnesses TNA E 210 /224 1184 X 90 Exchange Reginald of Boxley Abbot Denis: Robert Clerico TNA E 326 /5422 1238 Exchange Henry Welles rector of Boxley William Balistario : Henry Belland : Dyonisis de Borland John de Wilston: William son of Agatha: Richard Birch: Laurence Richard Odo de Burle Andrew Bedello Herwin de la Hoke TNA E 210/ 2227 1238 X 1246 Sale Alexander Horepole John de Wilston: William de Wilston: William Lokiere de Sandling: James and John sons of Peter de Wilstan: William Bacheler: Martin Textore: Nicholas de Monastery: Walter de Brava: Robert son of Jocei: Reginald Harang: Richard Birch TNA E 210/ 8853 1238 X 1246 Grant Peter Horwesse William of London TNA E 326/650 1238 X 1246 Sale Robert Haltegode John Hamme: Walter his brother: Richard Birch: Robert Coe: Robert Whateman: Peter Horwesse: Martin Haltgood: Walter Cemetario: Jocei Horewesse: Nicholas de Ecclesia: Gilbert son of Reginald Wavering TNA E 210/ 5725 1238 X 1246 Grant Roger son of John Anger Richard Birch: Nicholas de Ecclesia: Laurence de Burle: Peter de Burle: William Fabio de Sandling: William Stabularius: Richard Carpentarius: Richard le Frere: John de Pech: Adam Ferting: Henry Belland TNA E 326/ 644 1238 X 1246 Grant Thomas Mareys and Margery Richard le Birch: Galfrido de Cumba: John de Evenhelle: John Neat: William le Ropere: Walter Lott: William Franceys: Richard le Stabler: William de Ecclesia: Richard Pik: Walter de Cutesham: John Unnredi: Jocio Cunsayl TNA E 326/ 8518 1238 X 1277 Quitclaim Odo Burle and Agnes his wife Alexander Diacono: Gilbert de Burle: Laurence de Burle: William Cunseil: Gilberto de Cumba: Vitali de Horepol and Arnaldo his brother: John son of Angeri de Boxley TNA E 326/ 645 1238 X 1277 Grant William son of Peter Burle Alexander de Burle: John Lohc: Alexander his brother: Simon de Scaccarii: Galfredo de la Cumba: Odo de Burle: Henry de Waldeslade: Hugo de Bosco: Hugo de Cuttemelne: William Patyn TNA E 326/ 646 1238 X 1277 Grant Alexander Cumba Alexander son of Robert de Kumba : Vitalis and Ernaldo de Horepole: Angero de Boxley: Absalone : Wilfred Aldcorn: Walter and Hugone Aldcorn: Reginald and Gilbert de Burle: Geoffrey and Gilbert de Kumba TNA E 326/ 8765 1241 Sale Gilbert Wavering John de Hame: Walter his brother: William son of Agatha: John de Wilston: Robert de Wavering: Reginald Scot de Wavering: Richard Birch: Laurence de Burle: William and Gilbert Loc: Andrew Bedellus TNA E 326/ 6511 1244 Exchange Simon Birch Laurence de Burle: Richard Birch: William son of Odo: Richard Cunseil: Peter and William de Burle: John and William de Wilstan: Reginald Scot: William Wekerild: Johnoket: John de Wardhetthe,: William de Wikes TNA E 326 /778 1246 Quitclaim Adam Essebi and Juliana Burle Richard Birch: Laurence and William sons of Odo: Alex the clerk: Peter de Burle: Joceo Cunseil: William Pik: Walter Loch: Adam Ferting TNA E 326/ 6161 1277 Sale William Ferting and Mabel his wife Walter Lot: Jocio Cunseyl: William Cunseyl: Odo de Burlelie: Gilberto de Burrlehe: Alexandro de Burle: John Martin: Hugone de Bosca: William Patin: John Uniredi: Jacobo Fabro: John Prat TNA E 326/2912 1279 X 1307 Sale William Wych Alexander de Ecclesia: John Page: John Scoth: Walter and Andrew by Eastbrook: Angero de Boxley: William Bardrnolle TNA E 326/ 642 1279 X 1307 Sale Godwyn Waidegran Thomas Schimer: Gilbert le Bon: Walter Prior: Walter Aldcorn: Simon: John Longe: Thomas: John Scot: Geoffrey de Cumba: William de Ecclesia Adam Anger: Nicholas Dore TNA E 326/8764 1307 X 1329 Grant Geoffrey Sharimolde Henry de Sharimold: Peter his brother : Thomas de la Stone : Adam le Bakere : John Fabris : Peter Fabris : Gilberto Richard: Osbert his brother TNA E 326/ 457 1314 Grant Margery Burle Bartholemew ate Wode: John Schymming: John Gardiner: John ate Hale senior:John ate Hale junior: Walter Conseyl: William his brother: John Conseyl: John Joce: Robert Loth: Robert ----: John Clerico: TNA E 326/ 446 1316 Grant Richard son of Reginald Burle John Gardiner: Henry de Wavering: John Joce: Walter and William Counseyl: John ate Hale: Robert Loth: Adam and William Birch: John Clerico TNA E 326 /444 1316 Grant Margery Loth John Gardiner: Henry de Wavering Junior: John ate Hale: Adam Birch: Walter and William Counsail: Brother Robert ate Steghale 187 Appendix 2:3. Land acquired outside of Boxley Reference Date Type of Deed Grantor Nature of land acquired Other Information TNA E 210/6715 prior to 1189 Grant Anselm, deacon Land at Dover Badly damaged but 1189 confirmation charter of Richard I refers to land and a house and messuage in Dover granted t by Anselm deacon of Sandwich Reg. Roff, p. 179 1189 Confirmation Charter Richard I Land at Chessington from Robert Chessington, land at Hoo and Dover, house of Paris in London and marshland at Romney and a market at Hoo CKFF, p. 4 1197 Quitclaim/frankalmoign William de Plumpton All his lands at Sherenden in Elmley, Sheppey Abbot Robert gave William a gold besant. CKFF, p. 22 1201 Quitclaim Emma widow of Osbert Husier, and Alexander her son 1 yoke of land at Halsted Abbey paid 20s to Emma and 20s to Alexander Rotuli chartarum, John, p. 130 1204 Confirmation Alfred Gore, William Waiser, Warin son of Fulc, William Gore Marshland at Sharpness Also occurs in Red Book Lambeth MS 1212, p. 128 Prior to 1205 List of lands held as la Chene William of Ypres, Adam Chering and his daughters Gunnora and Isobel, Archbishop Hubert Walter, William Garpunvilla and his wife Albricia In excess of 1000 acres of marshland on Romney marsh Names William of Ypres as founder of Boxley. Lambeth MS 1212 also documents the exchange of the house of Paris in London made by the monks with archbp. Hubert Walter for marshland. CKFF, p. 50 1211 Quitclaim/grant Simon son of Michael Wahull Abbey returned 95 acres of land at Nettlestead which Michael had given them. Simon paid them 5 marks and gave them all of his meadow at Langmede in Nettlestead for 6 year term Abbey were paid 5 marks but agreed to return the land to Simon after 6 years CKFF, p. 177 1242 Grant Nicholas Lingedraper, his wife Gunnora, Robert Waverings, his wife Cristina. 150 acres of land in Chingley. Received into the prayers and benefits of the church. 2d rent at Michaelmas for all services CKFF, p. 214 1248 Grant Geoffrey de Percy, his wife Maud, Gilbert de Kyrkeby, his wife Lora 10 marks (£6. 13s. 4d.) of rent in Hoo along with a further 20s of rent. Inclusion in the prayers of the abbey CKFF, p. 293 1258 Quitclaim Nicholas and John sons of Ralph 40 acres of wood along with rents of 16s. 1 ½ d. in Staplehurst. Abbey paid 25 marks represented by br William Blockley, monk Quo Warranto, p. 344 1278-9 Records abbey as having manor of Hoo, land at Cranbrook and Chingley B.L Egerton Charter 369 No date Grant William Winchelsea All his land at Little Yarmouth Suffolk Granted jointly to Boxley and Robertsbridge 188 Appendix 2:3. Land acquired outside of Boxley Taxatio Ecclesiastica, p. 4 1291 Record of Taxation 2 houses at St Mary Axe and St Michael Cornhill in London and a fishery at Little Yarmouth in Suffolk TNA E 210/6720 1219 X 1236 Grant William Sylopesbrug Woods at Bilsington Given in free alms TNA E 326/1304 1238 X 1277 Grant Alexander Walensis Rents at Dartford and Fuleswichesden Annual rent of 17d. Dated by witnesses. 3s entry fine TNA E 210/3338 1279 X 1307 Grant William Tribley/Maud 2 acres at Hoo near the land of Adam Faber Annual rent of 3 ½ d CPR 2 Ed III 1309 Pardon for land acquired prior to 1307 Thomas White, William Aumbesbury, Ralph le Fevre, Richard Cumpernage, Stephen son of Adam le Fevre, Geoffrey Clitersmyth, Geoffrey son of John le Fevre, Geoffrey Berfot and Alice, Sabrina daughter of Henry Eve, Adam son of Geoffrey, Richard ate Bergh, Godelina late wife of Adam Pestur, and Henry Sharnfold Diverse parcels of land at Hoo and 30 acres of heath in Chingley (from Henry Sharnfold) Fine unspecified TNA E 326/1680 1307 X 1327 Grant Geoffrey son of John Faber 1 virgate of land in the field called Elyottfield Annual rent of 3 ½ d CPR 1327-30, pp. 367-8 1329 Pardon for land acquired prior to 1327 Henry Ferman, Walter Colyn, William Vaus, John Underdown, John Boykyn, Roger Silhamme, John Potteworth, Thomas/John Badecok, Geoffrey Catelot, Thomas/Richard Berch, John Elys, Thomas Hamme, John son of Peter ate Weylete, Constance del Brok, Teophania Hamme, John Warin, William del Brok, Roger Clement, Thomas son of David Sloyhull, John Payn, William del Hamme, John Fisshebon, Robert Longmore, Richard Indeben, Adam Hethe, Thomas Edward, Henry Motteneye, William Dangeys, John Godfrey, William Payfrer, Nicholas Rysemund, Hugh Roter, Richard and William sons of Richard Bergh, Adam Bishop, Geoffrey son of John le Fevre, Agnes daughter of Stephen Roter, Clement Taillour, Nicholas son of Osbert ate Wodehall, Robert Groshurst, Thomas ate Stone, Henry Sharnfield, Roger Thurbarn, Robert Spryngeth, Edmund son of William Pethurst Lands and rents at Upchurch, Hoo, Chessington, Ticehurst, Goudhurst, Chingley and Staplehurst Fine of 10 marks (£6 13s. 4d.) Registrum Roffense, p. 620 1244 Grant Richard Wendene bp Rochester Church of Stoke in Hoo with appurtenances TNA, E 211/336 : TNA E 210/8894 1314 Grant Cistercian abbey of Dunes in Flanders Church of Eastchurch, Isle of Sheppey Included 36 acres of land at Eastchurch, a further 23 acres on Sheppey, and a house at Dover CPR 1429-36, p. 147. 1431 Grant William Cheyne 3 roods of land at Eastchurch Given for rebuilding of church at Eastchurch Appendix 2:5 Leases and Sales of land by Boxley Abbey 190 Ref Date Type of Deed Recipient Details of lease Length Rent/other info TNA E 210/2269 1238 X 1246 Lease Richard/Isobel Birch 4 acres of land at Boxley Undated but Richard Birch was a witness in grants made to the abbey TNA E 210/4051 Lease John Holme 1 ½ acres of land at Maylefield, Boxley TNA E 118/1/142 Lease John Lusdun Land, rent and tithes at Hoo and Higham 7 years £14 7s.6d. TNA E 210/4269 Hen IV Lease Thomas ate Furthe Land at Staplehurst TNA E 210/8936 1319 Sale John Walshe Sale of woods at Chingley 32 marks (£21 6s. 8d.) TNA E 210/8036 1322 Lease James ------- 4 acres at Chingley wood TNA E 210/5240:5385:5386:5387 1351-60 Sale/ lease/bond John Heyton Monkdown wood at Boxley TNA E 210/9396 1360 Lease Robert Grene House and curtilage at Boxley 20 years 4s annual rent Catalogue of ancient deeds 1360 Lease Thomas Cole 5 parcels of land at Hoo 6d per acre/rent of 2 hens at Christmas and 2 seams (8 bushels) and 4 bushels of palm barley at all hallows TNA E 210/9216 1364 Lease Simon le Tur Land rent and 2 houses at Bilsington/Rucking 5 years TNA E 210/11201 1369 Lease Richard Byrd Field at Chessington 8s annual rent TNA E 210 1370 Lease John Degher/Alice House, curtilage and enclosure at Cuttemelle Boxley 50 years 6s annual rent to the bakery TNA E 210/4739 1371 Thomas Wylekn Land at Hoo TNA E 210/563 1378 Lease John Swayn Land called Frerynland -? on Romney marsh 20 years 20 bushels barley TNA E 210/923 1379 Lease Thomas Robert and John ate Lee Marsh called Horsmedde at la lee in Halstow, Hoo 10 years Included a House and 40 sheep with 2 pieces of land TNA E 210/764 1399 Lease Simon Wyg/Joan Messuage and garden at Chingley 60 years TNA E 210/11071 1405 Lease Alexander Herrietsham /Ellen/John Land at Chessington Surrey TNA E 210/4971 1424 Grant indented Lawrence Stronset ‘manor of lew’ Relates to lands and rents formerly held by Thomas Lew TNA E 210/385 1452 Lease John Leston Land at Boxley 60 years TNA E 210/5227 1470 Bond indented Richard Dene and others Manor of Chingley 1 year Bond of £60 TNA E 210/2756 1478 Lease John Kymber/Catherine Messuage in Boxley 60 years TNA E 210/2738 1478 Lease John Munden vicar of Boxley 5 acres of land at Boxley 7 years 15 bushels of barley TNA E 326/8141 1538 Lease Philip Chowt 50 acres of marsh at Bilsington and Rucking 99 years £5 annual rent – lease made just 4 weeks before the abbey was dissolved 196 Appendix 3 Obedientiaries at Boxley 1349-55 1349 1350 1351 1352 1353 1354 1355 Bursar William Wilston John Scholdon John Herrietsham Abb by 1357 Thomas London Simon Newenton Thomas London Simon Newenton Thomas London Subcell Thomas London Thomas London John Scholdon Thomas Thanet Thomas Thanet Thomas Thanet John Scholdon Thomas Thanet John Scholdon Refector Thomas Thanet Thomas Thanet Thomas Thanet Cell Roger Godmersham Roger Godmersham John Herrietsham Abb by 1357 John Herrietsham Abb by 1357 Stephen Hethe Rent coll William Wilston William Wilston Sacrist William Wilston Thomas London Thomas Leeds Infirmarer John Scholdon John Scholdon John Scholdon Thomas Thanet Guest house Roger Godmersham John Scholdon Tailor Simon Newenton Simon Newenton Bakery John Herrietsham Abb by 1357 John Herrietsham Abb by 1357 John Herrietsham Abb by 1357 John Herrietsham Abb by 1357 Thomas Thanet Mills Granary Walter ate Melle Walter ate Melle Walter ate Melle Walter ate Melle Walter ate Melle Walter ate Melle Walter ate Melle Porter Thomas London William Wilston- Warden Sharpness Roger Godmersham Roger Godmersham John Herrietsham Abb by 1357 John Herrietsham Abb by 1357 Warden U/Grange Roger Godmersham Warden L/Grange John Herrietsham Abb by 1357 Warden Hoo John Herrietsham Abb by 1357 John Herrietsham Abb by 1357 John Herrietsham Abb by 1357 Warden Stoke John Herrietsham Abb by 1357 Warden Chingley Roger Godmersham John Herrietsham Abb by 1357 Roger Godmersham John Herrietsham Abb by 1357 197 Appendix 3.2: Obedientiaries at Boxley 1360-85 1360 1361 1362 1364 1365 Abbot John Herrietsham John Herrietsham John Herrietsham John Herrietsham John Herrietsham Abb/chaplain Thomas Thanet William Maidstone Bursar Thomas Thanet John Chatham Thomas Thanet John Chatham Thomas Thanet John Chatham John Chatham Hamo Stoke John Chatham Hamo Stoke Rent coll Subcell Thomas London Thomas London Thomas London Thomas London Roger Herrietsham Roger Herrietsham Middle Cell Thomas Thanet Sacrist Robert Maidstone Robert Maidstone Robert Maidstone Bakery Roger Herrietsham Granary Roger Herrietsham L/Grange John Scholdon Hoo Roger Godmersham Roger Godmersham Roger Godmersham 1376 1377 1378 1379 1384 1385 Abbot John Herrietsham John Herrietsham John Herrietsham John Herrietsham John Herrietsham John Herrietsham Abb/chaplain William Maidstone Bursar John Chatham William Maidstone William Maidstone Robert Sittingbourne William Maidstone Thomas Thanet John Chatham Robert Herrietsham William Maidstone Subcell Hamo Stoke Hamo Stoke John Wye John Wye Hamo Stoke John Wye Robert Sittingbourne John Wye John Maidstone Kitchener John Chatham John Chatham Cell John Chatham John Chatham John Chatham John Chatham John Chatham Middle Cell Adam Stoke Rent coll John Chatham Sacrist Adam Stoke Adam Stoke Adam Stoke John Maidstone Warden of Cross John Maidstone John Maidstone John Maidstone John Maidstone Granary Hamo Stoke U/Grange John Chatham John Chatham John Chatham L/Grange John Chatham Stoke John Chatham John Chatham John Chatham Newenham John Chatham Eastchurch John Chatham 198 Appendix 3:3. Boxley Obedientiaries 1400-1408 1400 1402 1404 1405 1406 1408 Abbot Prior Richard Sheppey (Abb by 1415) Richard Sheppey (Abb by 1415) Richard Sheppey (Abb by 1415) Abb/chaplain Richard Sheppey William Sittingbourne Bursar John Sheppey John Sheppey William Sittingbourne John Sheppey William Sittingbourne John Sheppey William Sittingbourne John Sheppey John Sheppey Subcellarer Richard Broke Thomas Southgate Richard Bourne, Thomas Elyn, William Sittingbourne, Robert Rowe Richard Bourne Richard Bourne Robert Rowe Robert Rowe Cell Richard Bourne William Sittingbourne John Sheppey John Sheppey John Sheppey William Sittingbourne Middle Cell Rent coll William Ward William Sittingbourne Sacrist William Chatham William Chatham, Thomas Elyn Thomas Elyn William Chatham Warden of Cross John Hall John Hall John Hall Richard Bourne Infirmarer Bakery Mills Granary Richard Bourne William Sittingbourne 199 Appendix 4. Boxley Abbey: surviving estate accounts at The National Archives N/A Ref Date Estate SC 6/1011/25 1288-1290 Chessington SC 6/892/7 Ed I Hoo SC 6/892/8 1348 Hoo SC 6/892/9 1349-50 Hoo SC 6/892/10 1353-54 Hoo SC 6/892/11 1355-56 Hoo SC 6/892/12 1392-94 Hoo SC 6/892/13 1393-94 Hoo SC 6/892/14 1395-97 Hoo SC 6/892/15 1402-3 Hoo SC 6/892/16 1404-5 Hoo SC 6/890/10 1324-26 Eastchurch SC 6/890/11 1327-29 Eastchurch SC 6/890/12 1351-53 Eastchurch SC 6/890/13 1355-57 Eastchurch SC 6/890/14 1358-60 Eastchurch SC 6/890/15 1359-61 Eastchurch SC 6/890/16 1360-62 Eastchurch SC 6/890/17 1385-86 Eastchurch SC 6/890/18 1399-1400 Eastchurch SC 6/1089/1 1461-62 SC 6/886/3 Ed II Chingley SC 6/889/1 1339-41 Chingley SC 6/889/2 1342-43 Chingley SC 6/889/3 1343-4 Chingley SC 6/889/4 1346-47 Chingley SC 6/889/5 1350-51 Chingley SC 6/889/6 1352-53 Chingley SC 6/886/2 1323-24 La Chene SC 6/886/7 1332-33 La Chene SC 6/887/6 Ed III La Chene SC 6/886/19 1351-52 La Chene SC 6/886/21 1352-6 Abbotschene SC 6/893/24 1334-35 Newenham SC 6/893/25 1354-55 Newenham SC 6/893/26 1355-56 Newenham SC 6/893/27 1375-76 Newenham SC 6/893/28 1387-91 Newenham SC 6/898/10 1362-63 Stoke SC 6/898/11 1376-77 Stoke SC 6/898/12 1378-80 Stoke SC 6/898/13 1391-92 Stoke SC 6/898/14 1394-95 Stoke SC 6/892/1 1393-94 Ham SC 6/892/2 1397-99 Ham SC 6/886/4 1329-30 Upper Grange SC 6/886/5 1331-32 Upper Grange SC 6/886/8 1333-35 Upper Grange SC 6/886/9 1334-35 Upper Grange SC 6/886/10 1337-38 Upper Grange SC 6/886/11 1338-39 Upper Grange SC 6/886/13 1339-1340 Upper Grange SC 6/886/14 1340-41 Upper Grange SC 6/886/15 1344-45 Upper Grange SC 6/886/24 1363-64 Upper Grange SC 6/887/2 1373 Upper Grange SC 6/887/10 1389 Upper Grange SC 6/887/11 1388-89 Upper Grange SC 6/887/12 1389 Upper Grange SC 6/887/14 1397-98 Upper Grange SC 6/887/16 1432-33 Upper Grange SC 6/886/6 1332-33 Lower Grange SC 6/886/16 1347 Lower Grange SC 6/886/17 1349 Lower Grange SC 6/886/22 1355-56 Lower Grange SC 6/886/23 1356-57 Lower Grange SC 6/887/1 1370-71 Lower Grange SC 6/887/4 1375-76 Lower Grange SC 6/887/5 1376-77 Lower Grange SC 6/887/9 1383-84 Lower Grange SC 6/887/13 1397-98 Lower Grange SC 6/887/15 Hen IV Lower Grange SC 6/887/17 1442-44 Lower Grange SC 6/896/16 1286-87 Sharpness SC 6/897/6 Ed III Sharpness SC 6/3479/25 1314-15 Sharpness SC 6/896/17 1332-34 Sharpness SC 6/896/18 1352-53 Sharpness SC 6/896/19 1353-54 Sharpness SC 6/896/20 1354-55 Sharpness SC 6/896/21 1355-56 Sharpness SC 6/896/22 1356-57 Sharpness SC 6/896/23 1357-58 Sharpness SC 6/896/24 1358-59 Sharpness SC 6/896/25 1359-60 Sharpness SC 6/896/26 1365-66 Sharpness SC 6/896/27 1365-66 Sharpness SC 6/897/1 1367-68 Sharpness SC 6/897/2 1369-70 Sharpness SC 6/897/3 1371-72 Sharpness SC 6/897/4 1374-75 Sharpness SC 6/897/5 1375-76 Sharpness SC 6/897/7 1377-78 Sharpness SC 6/897/8 1382 Sharpness SC 6/897/9 1383-84 Sharpness SC 6/897/10 1386-87 Sharpness SC 6/897/11 1388-89 Sharpness SC 6/897/12 1390-91 Sharpness SC 6/897/13 1392-93 Sharpness SC 6/897/14 ?1411-12 Sharpness 200 Appendix 5. Boxley Abbey: surviving obedientiary accounts at The National Archives N/A Ref Date Account SC 6 / 1251/2 Ed I Diverse receipts SC 6 / 1251/3 1315-1318 Diverse receipts SC 6 / 1253/11 1360-61 Account of Revenue SC 6 / 1253/ 13 1361-62 Diverse officers SC 6/1253/18 1371 Apportionment of Revenue SC 6/1254/3 1372-73 Diverse Officers SC 6 /1254/13 Ed III Bursar SC 6 / 1251/5 1330-31 Bursar SC 6/1252/5 1345 Bursar SC 6 / 1252/12 1351 Bursar SC 6 / 1253/4 1353-1355 Bursar SC 6 / 1253/12 1360-62 Bursar SC 6/ 1253/15 1363-65 Bursar SC 6 /1253/16 1365-66 Bursar SC 6/1253/19 1371-72 Bursar SC 6/1253/20 1372 Bursar SC 6/1254/1 1372-73 Bursar SC 6/1254/5 1376-77 Bursar SC 6 /1254/16 1378-79 Bursar SC 6 /1254/19 1379-80 Bursar SC 6 /1255/4 1383-84 Bursar/Cellarer SC 6/1255/9 1384-86 Bursar SC 6/1255/14 1390-91 Bursar SC 6/1256/10 1403-05 Bursar SC 6/1256/13 1408-10 Bursar SC 6/1256/19 1427-1435 Bursar SC 6 / 1251/6 1331-32 Mills SC 6 / 1251/7 1333-35 Mills SC 6/1251/8 1336-37 Mills/Cellarer SC 6 /1253/ 8 1358-59 Mills SC 6 / 1254/8 Ed III Sub-Cellarer SC 6 / 1254/10 Ed III Sub-Cellarer SC 6/1252/6 1347-8 Sub-Cellerar SC 6 / 1252/7 1348-1349 Sub-Cellarer SC 6 / 1253/2 1351 and 1356 Sub-Cellarer SC 6 / 1253/3 1353 Sub-Cellarer SC6 /1253/ 7 1357-58 Sub-Cellarer SC 6 /1253/9 1359-60 Sub-Cellarer SC 6/1254/2 1372-73 Sub-Cellarer SC 6 / 1254/6 1376-77 Kitchen/Sub-cellarer SC 6 /1254/15 1377-78 Kitchen SC 6 /1254/17 1378-79 Sub-Cellarer SC 6 /1254/18 1379-80 Sub-Cellarer SC 6/1255/6 1384 Sub-Cellarer SC 6/1255/10 1387-89 Sub-Cellarer SC 6/1255/20 1395-96 Sub-Cellarer SC 6/1256/2 1397-99 Sub-Cellarer SC 6/1256/3 1398-99 Sub-Cellarer SC 6/1256/9 1399-1402 Sub-Cellarer SC 6/1256/11 1405-07 Sub-Cellarer SC 6/1256/24 1464-66 Sub-Cellarer SC 6 /1254/11 Ed III Bakery SC 6 / 1252/8 1348-51 Bakery 201 Appendix 5. Boxley Abbey: surviving obedientiary accounts at The National Archives SC 6 / 1253/10 1360 Bakery SC 6 / 1254/9 Ed III Cellarer SC 6/1251/8 1336-37 Cellarer SC 6/1251/9 1337-38 Cellarer SC 6/1252/2 1339-40 Cellarer SC 6 /1252/9 1349 Cellarer SC 6 / 1254/7 1377-79 Cellarer SC 6/1255/7 1384-86 Cellarer SC 6/1255/8 1387 Cellarer SC 6/1255/13 1389-91 Cellarer SC 6/1255/19 1394-96 Cellarer SC 6/1256/1 1395-97 Cellarer SC 6/1256/5 1399-1402 Cellarer SC 6/1256/17 1424-26 Cellarer SC 6/1256/18 Hen VI Cellarer SC 6/1256/22 Hen VI Cellarer SC 6/1256/21 1459-61 Cellarer SC 6 / 1252/10 1349-50 Infirmary SC 6 /1253/ 6 1356-57 Infirmarian and Almoner SC 6/ 1253/17 1369 Almoner SC 6 /1254/12 Ed III Granary SC 6/1252/1 1338-39 Granary SC 6/1252/3 1339-40 Granary SC 6/1252/4 1342-3 Granary SC 6 / 1252/11 1350-55 Granary SC 6 /1254/20 1379-83 Granary SC 6 /1255/2 1380-1381 Granary SC 6/1255/11 1387-89 Granary/Bakery SC 6/1255/12 1389-91 Granary/Bakery SC 6/1255/16 1393-95 Granary/Bakery SC 6/1255/17 1394-96 Granary/Bakery SC 6/1255/18 1394-96 Granary/Bakery SC 6 /1253/1 1351-52 Works SC 6 / 1253/5 1355-56 Provisions SC 6 /1255/1 1380-81 Chaplain SC 6 /1255/ 3 1382-83 Clothing SC 6 /1255/5 1383-5 Clothing SC 6 / 1253/ 1361-62 Sacristan SC 6/1256/12 1405-07 Collector SC 6/1256/20 1432-34 Collector SC 6/1256/25 1470 Collector SC 6/1255/15 1390-92 Pittance 202 Item carried over From granges/gifts From purchases Total Consumed Left over Oxen 2 4 6 5 1 (sold) Young oxen 5 5 5 0 Bullocks 1 1 1 0 Cows 4 8 plus £6 16s spent on beef 11 11 0 Calves 7 33s 7d spent on veal 7 7 0 Sheep 8 118 13s 4d spent on mutton 126 122 4 (died) Lambs 47 47 47 0 Sows 2 2 4 3 1 (died) Boars 4 3 3 1 Pigs 11 11s 2d spent on pork 11 6 5 Piglets 65 65 49 16 (2 died) Suckling pigs 12 28 40 38 2 (died) Swans 4 27 31 4 27 (7 died, 10 given away) 10 left Ganders 1 1 1 Marioles 2 2 2 Geese 108 108 105 3 Cockerel 1 1 1 0 Hens 35 35 35 0 Capons 143 143 120 23 Chickens 41 162 203 199 4 Rabbits 1308 1308 1165 143 (52 given away, 91 sold) 0 left Doves 601 601 601 0 Eels 492 50 542 542 0 Salmon 48 48 48 0 Stockfish 66 66 66 0 Cod 8 157 165 165 0 Mackerel 600 Sea fish various £4 17s 9 ½ d Red herring 31 casks and 1250 fish 31 casks and 1250 fish 30 casks and 1250 fish 1 cask White herring 16 barrels and 2000 fish 16 barrels and 2000 fish 16 barrels and 1700 fish 300 fish Oysters and mussels 26 barrels (14s 8d spent) 26 barrels 26 barrels 0 Eggs 2010 13350 15360 15360 0 Milk 109 galls 14 galls 123 galls 123 galls 0 Butter 26 galls 26 galls 26 galls 0 Cream 6 galls 6 galls 6 galls 0 Cheese 18 18 18 0 Appendix 6: Sub cellarers account -Food consumed at Boxley 1400 SC 6/1256/9 (discrepancy in number of eggs purchased in account (17350) and in stock account(13350) Appendix 7: Quantities of spices bought 203 1347 1348 1351 1356 June- Sept 1356 Sept -Dec 1357 1359 1372 1373 Saffron 1lb for 4s 1lb for 4s ½ ounce for 10d 1 ½ ounces for 16 ½ d 1 ounce for 11d ¼ lb for 3s 7d ¼ and half ¼ lb (6 oz) for 3s 9d ½ lb for 5s 6d Other 4s 3d 2 ½ q (10 oz) 10s 6d Ginger 2lb for 3s 8d at 22d/lb 1lb for 2s 8d 1 ounce 1 ½ d ½ lb for 8d 1 lb for 13d 2 ½ lb for 3s 9d Galangal 1lb for 22d ½ lb for 2s 3d 1 ounce for 2 ¼ d ¼ lb for 9d Salt Pepper 1lb for 22d 1lb for 2s 2 ounces for 3d ½ lb for 17d ¼ and half ¼ lb for 8d (6oz) 1 ¼ lb for 2s 1d 3 ½ lb for 4s 11d at 16 ½ d/lb plus 1 ½ d Sugar 1lb for 14d 1 ounce 3d ¼ lb for 4d Cumin 6lb for 8d 3lb for 9d 1lb for 5 ½ d 8lb for 16d at 2d/lb Cloves 2 ounces for 11d 1 ounce for 5d ½ lb cloves and mace 2s ¾ lb cloves and mace for 19 ½ d 1lb and ½ q for 6s 4d Mace 1 ounce for 4d 1 ounce for 5d Cinnamon ¼ and 1 ½ ounces (5) for 8 ½ d ¾ lb for 19 ½ d Sanders ½ lb 8d ½ lb for 8d ¼ lb for 3d Almonds 26lb for 3s 10 ½ d at 1 ¾ -2 ½ d/lb 66lb for 14s 9d at 2 ¾ d/lb 2lb for 7d 11lb for 2s 5d at 2 ½ d /lb 15lb for 2s 10d at 2d-3d/lb 39lb for 10s 4d at 2 ½ -3d/lb 30lb for 8s 80lb at 19s 4 ½ d at 3d/lb plus 4 ½ d 3s 6d at London Rice 18 ½ lb for 18 ½ d 30lb for 6s 8d 1lb for 2d 7lb for 13d at 1 ½ -2d/lb 5lb rice for 9d 9lb for 20d at 2 ½ d/lb 14lb for 22d 29lb at 4s 8d at 2d/lb minus 2d 6lb at London for 9d Figs 1 coupla figs and raisons 7s 1d 32lb figs 2s 70lb for 7s 3d at 1 ¼ d /lb 5lb for 7 ½ d 8lb for 12d 24lb for 2s 2d Dates 14lb for 2s ½ d 10lb for 15d at 1 ½ d/lb Raisons 1 ½ lb for 7 ½ d Oil 2 potels for 14d 1 gallon 1q and ½ for 2s 3d 2 ½ g at Maidstone for 4s 8d and 2g at London for 2s 8d Olive oil 5 gallons for 5s 17 gallons for 14s 2d at 10d/gall Mustard Seed 2 ½ b for 4s 3 ½ d at 20 ½ d /b and 4d on more` 1b for 18 ½ d 2b for 2s 4d Honey 24d 2 gallons for 2s 2d 5 gallons for 5s 10d 2 gallons in London 3s 6d at 14d/gallon Vinegar 8 gallons 12d Garlic 22 ½ d 21d Appendix 7: Quantities of spices bought 204 1376 1377 K June- Oct 1377 K Oct – Jan 1378 Jan- April SC 1378 K April-July 1378 K July-Oct 1378 Sept 1 term 1379 April-July 1379 July-Oct 1385-5 Dec-April Saffron 1lb for 17s ¼ for 4s 6d ¼ for 5s 6d ¼ for 4s 2d Saffron and Pepper from Maidstone 22 ½ d Saffron from London ½ q (2 oz) for 2s 6d ¼ for 4s 3d ½ q for 2s 3d ¼ for 4s ¼ for 4s 2d ¼ for 4s 2d 1q for 3s 4d Ginger 1lb 18d 1lb for 17d ½ lb for 13d ½ lb for 11d 1lb for 22d ½ lb for 11d 1lb for 2s 4d 1lb for 2s 2d Galangal 1 ounce for 16d Salt Pepper 2 ½ lb for 2s 7d 1lb for 13d 2lb for 2s 8 ½ d 1 ½ lb for 16d 1lb for 16d 1lb for 17d 1lb for 16d 1lb for 14d 2lb for 2s 5d 2lb for 2s Sugar 2lb for 3s 4d ½ lb for 11d 2s 1lb for 20d 1lb for 2s 1d 1lb for 2s 1d Cumin 1lb for 6d Cloves ¼ and 1 oz for 4s 6d ½ q (2 oz) for 23d Cloves and mace 4s 6d ½ lb for 4s 6d Mace ¼ lb for 22d ¼ for 20d ½ lb for 4s Cinnamon 1 ½ lb for 2s 11d (ground) ¼ lb for 6d 2lb for 12d ½ q (2oz) 4d Sanders 2lb for 2s 5d 1lb for 2s 1lb for 20d ½ lb for 14d Almonds 50lb for 15s 1d ¼ for 8s (25lb) ¼ for 6s 3lb for 12d 1q 14lb for 10s 2d 14lb in London for 2s 10d 1q (25lb) 5s 10d 6lb for 15d ¼ for 6s 4d ¼ for 6s 3d 2q for 12s 9d 14lb for 2s 11d price per lb 2 ½ d 1q for 5s 6d Rice 6lb for 12d 4lb for 6d ½ q for 21d 1q for 6s 7lb for 7d 6lb for 9d 30lb for 7s 6d Figs 10lb for 20d 2 frayells at Milton for 10s 1 frayel at London 5s Dates 3lb for 10 ½ d 1lb for 3d Raisons/Currants 2lb currants 7d 1lb currants 3d 2lb raisons for 9d 1lb for 6 ½ d Oil 11 ¾ gallons for 14s ½ d 15 ½ gallons with barrelling and carriage for 25s 10d Honey 6 gallons for 7s 8d at 14d/gall minus 6d 1 gallon for 12d 4 ½ gallons for 4s 6d 1 gallon for 18d Appendix 7: Quantities of spices bought 205 1387 Oct-Dec 1387-8 Dec-May 1388 May-July 1395 July-Dec 1398 Sept-Sept 1 year 1400 Sept for 1 yr 4wks 5 days 1405 Oct for 1 year Saffron 2q for 8s ½ for 6s 8d 2q for 7s 2d 1q and 2oz for 3s 4d 2 q for 11s 4d, ½ lb for 8s 2 oz for 2s 4d 2q 2oz for 12s 4d 9oz for 8s 6d Ginger ½ lb for 8d 1lb for 15d, 1lb for 18d 1lb for 15d 5lb for 5s 10d at 14d/lb 3d Galangal 2d Salt Pepper 2lb for 22d 1lb for 11d 2lb for 2s 4d 3lb for 3s 2d 2 ¼ lb for 2s 4d 5lb for 5s 1d on 3 occ 7lb for 7s 5 ½ lb for 5s 9 ½ d Sugar 1lb for 19d 1lb for 19d ¼ lb for 4d ½ lb for 9d Cumin 1lb for 6d 1lb for 9d 2lb for 10d 2lb for 6d 12lb for 2s 12lb for 2s 5lb for 12d Cloves ¼ for 12d ¼ for 12d ½ q (2oz) for 9d 6oz for 20d 5oz for 20d Mace ½ q for 10d ½ q (2oz)for 10d 6oz for 22 ½ d 3oz for 12d Cinnamon 1q for 3d 1lb for 2s 1d on 2 occ, 2 oz for 5d Sanders ¼ lb for 16d 12d Almonds 2q for 14s 26lb from Maidstone for 7s 28lb for 7s ½ q for 3s 9d 20lb for 5s at 3d/lb 2 ½ q for 13s 9d on 2 occ 15lb at Maidstone for 3s 7d 100lb at London for 25s 8d on 2 occ 3q at London for 21s 2d 23lb for 6s 8 ½ d at 3 ½ d/lb 97lb for 24s 11d Rice 10lb 2 oz for 20d 8lb for 8d in London 24lb at 3s at 1 ½ d/lb 21lb for 22d Figs 4lb for 4d 2 freyells for 6d 2 copula and 2 freyells figs and raisons for 17s 3 copula for 20s 1 frayel from gate of monastery for 3s 6d 2 pecks for 9s Dates 3lb for 9d 12lb for 2s 6d 22lb for 5s 9d at 3d/lb Raisons/ Currants 1lb raisons 4d 1 copula figs and raisons for 6s 5lb for 15d 1 frayel raisons for 3s 4d 10lb figs and raisons for 19d Oil 1 ½ gallons for 21d 3 gallons olive oil for 3s 6d 1 barrel olive oil which contained 7 gallons and 1 quart 8s 5d at 14d/gallon 1 barrel olive oil with 20 ½ gallons 22s 2d Olive oil from Maidstone 2 gallons 2s 8d 16 gallons olive oil for 19s 4d Olives 10 gallons for 21s 4d from Maidstone 2 ½ gallons 2s White salt 3b for 3s 4d 3b for 2s 6d 1b for 10d 1 ½ b for 12d 1b for 8d 1q for 5s 4d 2b for 2s 8d Grey salt 8b for 6s 2q 10s 8d 10q coarse salt for 30s 10q lump salt £4 7s 8d Mustard seed 3 pecks for 21d 4 pecks and ½ b for 5s Honey 1 gallon for12d 1 gallon for 12d 2 gallons for 2s 4d 2 gallons for 2s 2d, 1 gallon at Maidstone for 18d 6 gallons for 7s t 14d/gallon 2 ½ gallons 3s 2d 2d on spices bought at the gate 206 1347 – 1 year 1351- 15 days 1356 – 15weeks 1357 – 1 year 1359- 39 weeks 1372 – 28 weeks 1373 – 10 weeks 1373 – 14 weeks Red Herring 1 ½ last 550 and 32 ½ last 4 casks 8 casks 2 barrels 1 barrel geest herring for 17d 29 casks and some for 18d 20d White Herring 4068 2 barrels 6 barrels and 400 1180 Barrels of unspecified Cask of 3153 Fresh Herring 3640 Cod 253 5 9 295 144 93 102 Ling 2 ¾ 5s 3 ½ d salted Salmon 36 ¼ 2 ½ 23 Stockfish 4 36 Haddock 373 Whiting 200 Mackerel 221 salted 84 fresh Oysters/whelks/ shellfish 4s 11d 7s 4 ½ d 8s 6d Lamprey/eels 3s 6d Unspecified fresh and sea fish Sea fish £12 8s 6 ¼ d 8s 8 ½ d £3 17s 6 ½ d £6 3s 7 ¼ d sea and fresh Gurnard/ling/.marlin/co dling haddock and plaice Fresh fish £7 7s 11 ½ d Fresh fish 26s 8 ½ d 28s 2d Stock 2000 fish from the Medway 16 salmon 757 eels 363 eels Appendix 8: Numbers of Fish Purchased in Boxley Sub Cellarer Accounts 207 1376 – 35 weeks Kitchen 1377 June-Oct 17 weeks Kitchen 1377 Oct for 13 weeks 1378 Jan-April – 12 weeks Kitchen 1378 April-June 12 weeks Kitchen 1378 July-Oct 13 weeks 1378 Sept 1379 April-July 13 weeks 1379 July-Oct 1379 Oct for 3 weeks Red Herring 21 casks 4 casks 7 casks at London 20 casks 2 casks more for 14d 14 casks 1 cask 5 casks White Herring 5 barrels and 3180 salted c1600 salt and white 1 barrel 6 barrels 1450 salt and white 2200 and 3 barrels salted 850 salted Fresh Herring 2s Cod 100 141 30 52 59 110 111 146 149 24 Ling Salmon 1 barrel and 1 pipe salmon 1 barrel at London 2 salmon 1 barrel salmon 2 1 barrel 1 salmon 1 barrel 12 Stockfish 75 3 25 25 60 Haddock Whiting Mackerel Oysters/whelks/ mussels 14s 2d 20s 4 ½ d 10s 7s 10d 4s 4s 2s Lamprey/eels Unspecified fresh and sea fish £3 18s 32s 10d Sea fish £4 18d 8 ½ d 42s 10 ½ d Fresh sea fish £4 12s 6 ½ d £3 6s 3 ½ d £2 11s 11 ½ d Sea fish £3 7s 7d 12s Stock 517 eels 175 eels 240 eels 386 eels 175 eels 260 eels 160 eels 320 fish 9 salmon various fish valued 24s 103 eels Appendix 8: Numbers of Fish Purchased in Boxley Sub Cellarer Accounts 208 1384 Dec-April 13 weeks 1387 Oct – Dec 11 weeks 1387 Dec-May for 20 weeks 1388 May-July 8 weeks 1395 July-Dec 20 weeks 1398 Sept 1 year 1400 1405 Oct 1 year 1460 Sept 1 year Red Herring 20 casks 1 last and 4 casks 3 casks 2 casks 6 casks 33 casks 31 casks and 1250 fish 9 casks 4 casks White Herring 12 barrels 6 barrels 9 barrels 800 and 2 barrels 12 barrels 14 barrels and 3000 fish 4 barrels 3 barrels Fresh Herring 550 harvest herring 800 white salted harvest herring Cod 14 21 40 149 170 small codd 252 157 70 200 Ling 14 26 65 Salmon 1 barrel 3 26 1 ½ barrels 10 salmon 67s 4d 48 2 6 Stockfish 60 at 13s 4d 60 23 175 66 117 100 Haddock 2 barrels and 5 fish Mackerel 1 cask (100 fish) 400 600 975 Sprats 4000 red and white 10000 Oysters/whelks/ mussels 14s 6d 1 basket Oysters 9s ½ d 13b oysters 13b mussels from Sharpness and 14s 8d spent on more 7q 4b oysters 1q 6b mussels 1600 welks Lamprey/eels 2 Unspecified fresh and sea fish Sea fish 34s 4 ½ d Sea fish £2 6s 9d Fresh fish £3 18s 4d Fresh fish £5 10s 5d £3 8s 9 ½ d Sea fish £6 10s 9d 1 piece of porpoise bought for 8d Sea fish £4 17s 9 ½ d Sea fish £4 4s 9d From Stock 132 eels 285 eels 782 eels 111 fish 200 eels 280 eels 50 salted eels bought in London for 4s 682 eels from stock 50 salted eels purchased 492 eels from Sharpness Appendix 8: Numbers of Fish Purchased in Boxley Sub Cellarer Accounts 209 Appendix 9: Boxley: Fish sent to the abbey from the Medway fishery Source of data 1353 1357 1359 1372 1373 1374 1377 1378 1379 1382 1384 1388 1389 1390 1393 1395 1397 1398 1400 Sub cellarer and Kitchen accounts 2000 Medway fish and 16 salmon 757 eels 363 eels 692 eels 626 eels 698 eels 320 Medway fish 9 salmon Other fish valued at 24s 132 eels 982 eels 111 fish from the Medway 280 eels 682 eels 492 eels 13b oysters 13b mussels Sharpness Accounts 1q oysters 429 eels 13b oysters 460 eels 9b oysters 756 eels 321 eels 1620 eels 623 eels 4q 4b mussels 800 eels 3q mussels 2q 4b oysters 1238 eels 3q 5b mussels 3q 4b oysters Appendix 10. Map 1 Boxley Area 210 Appendix 11. Map 2 North of Boxley/Medway 211