Aldeby Priory

Content sourced from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

Aldeby Priory was a small Benedictine house in Aldeby, Norfolk. It began in the 12th century when Agnes de Beaupré (later the wife of Hubert de Rye) gave the church and manor of Aldeby to the monks of Norwich during Henry I’s reign. Bishop Herbert placed a prior and three Benedictine monks there, turning Aldeby into a priory cell of Norwich. When the conventual church was founded, Herbert laid the first foundation stone, and Hubert and Agnes laid the second. Henry I confirmed the priory’s endowments, including tithes from Swanton, Hockering, and Deepham, the church and manor of Aldeby, and other grants from Hubert’s son Henry de Rye. The temporalities were valued at £71 5s 6d in 1428.

In 1286 William Rosalyne bought the lordship of Aldeby from the Norwich priory, leaving the advowson and certain lands to the convent, which were then called the priory’s manor. In 1355 John de Bedingfield, prior of Aldeby, was appointed by Laurence, prior of Norwich, as vicar-general to hear the confessions of Bungay’s nuns. In 1376 Sir Thomas Savage was buried by the south porch of the priory church. In 1466 Lady Isabel Morley, heir to the founders, died and was the patroness. By 1481 there were three monks in the cell. The priors of Norwich cells had to present annual accounts to the Norwich prior, and several Aldeby account rolls survive in Norwich Cathedral’s treasury, from 1422–1426, 1440–1442, 1462, and later up to 1523. The 1514 visitation found the prior, John Lakenham, in poor financial shape and unable to deliver full accounts; the house was in debt, the gates and brewery were ruinous, and the injunctions required all cells to deposit annual accounts in the Norwich treasury at Michaelmas. In 1532 Edmund Norwich was prior at Aldeby, examined only about Norwich Priory. At dissolution the priory’s lands escheated to the crown and, with the founding of a dean and chapter at Norwich, were given to that body.