Orthodox Parish Religion and Chapels of Ease in late mediaeval England: the case of St George's chapel in Gravesend

ORTHODOX PARISH RELIGION AND CHAPELS OF EASE IN LATE MEDIEVAL ENGLAND: THE CASE OF ST GEORGE'S CHAPEL IN GRAVESEND PAUL LEE Pre-Reformation England abounded in chapels separate from parish churches.1 In Kent it is estimated that there were three hundred chapels in five hundred parishes before the Black Death.2 The origins and history of most of them is obscure, but they included chantries, manorial chapels and parochial chapels of ease.3 Everitt lists three main reasons for the proliferation of outlying chapels in Kent up to the fourteenth century: dispersal of settlement in the post-Conquest period; the emergence of the independent manorial gentry who founded chapels as a matter of pride; and what he calls a 'wayward individualism' in the religious temperament of the County of those who sought their own oratories.4 In practice, chapels of all types often provided more convenient places of worship for settlements in large parishes distant from the parish church, and in other parishes where settlement had shifted away from the church altogether.5 In such instances they proved effective mission bases, maintaining church attendance, especially when far from the parish centre.6 From the late thirteenth century a significant proportion of chapels were founded by the communal action of lay parishioners themselves as they sought additional facilities for religious services. This is one indication of the vitality of religion in late medieval England.7 Mercantile and professional laity, in towns especially, took initiatives in religious matters from the fifteenth century as they benefited from increasing wealth and better education. In certain places this new lay religiosity was not entirely orthodox. A recent study of the pre-Reformation chapel of Smallhythe, near Tenterden, shows that it was rebuilt early in Henry VIII's reign by local communal action as a physical expression of the wealth and non-conformist piety of the inhabitants.8 Countrywide, many late fifteenth and sixteenth-century chapel foundations were associated with reformist religion as examples from south-east Lancashire show.9 55 PAUL LEE This article sets out to describe a different situation, in which the foundation of a chapel of ease by lay parishioners was a manifestation of their robustly orthodox Catholic piety, and achieved with the assistance of their parish clergy. The old St George's parish church in Gravesend which was destroyed by fire and replaced by the present building in the eighteenth century, had its origins as a chapel of ease built by communal action in the mid-fifteenth century. The developing use of St George's over the following ninety years culminated in it replacing the older church of St Mary as parish church in the 1540s. The main source utilised in this study are the wills made by inhabitants of pre-Reformation Gravesend which survive in registers of the Rochester Consistory Court, beginning in 1438, and (in limited numbers) in the registers of the Prerogative Court of Canterbury.10 This evidence is supplemented by reference to ecclesiastical court records, archdeaconry visitation material (surviving only for certain years in the sixteenth century), the Rochester bishops' registers, and miscellaneous documents such as the licence for the celebration of mass in Gravesend's chapel dated 1497 which was issued by the vicar-general of the bishop of Rochester. There were good practical reasons for building a chapel of ease in the riverside settlement of the parish of Gravesend, called the 'town' in wills and other documents, in that it was some distance from the parish church of St Mary further inland (Map 1). In his licence of 1497, the Vicar-General Thomas Tutfold acknowledged that it was arduous for parishioners to go to their parish church in magnam distanciam, and stated that it was on account of this that the bishop had decided 'mercifully' to provide a proper remedy (...nos inducunt ut remedium circa hoc vobis oportunum misericorditer provideamus). u The bishop thus claimed credit for what, it will be seen, had essentially been a lay initiative. The separation of town and parish church in Gravesend had not come about as a result of the tendency of medieval settlements to drift, noted elsewhere.12 Since at least the Saxon era, Gravesham/ Gravesend had possessed both a riverside settlement associated with fishing and river trade (the Domesday book mentions hithes both in Gravesend and Milton-next-Gravesend), and also scattered agricultural settlements.13 The largest single centre of population was the riverside settlement, straddling the parish boundary with Milton. The economic importance of the River Thames is suggested by Henry IV'S confirmation to the men of the town of Gravesend, in 1401, of the right to ferry passengers up the river to London, which they had been accustomed to do from time out of mind.14 Fifteenth-century wills suggest that settlement was concentrated on West Street, running 56 ST GEORGE'S CHAPEL IN GRAVESEND R i v e r T h a m es To Northfleet ^ ^ \ \ Chapel \ N Lane George's To London Milton church To Dover Half Mile Map. 1. Location of Sites mentioned in Text 57 PAUL LEE alongside the river, which existed before the eleventh century and was the routeway into the town from London.15 No Gravesend wills up to the 1550s specifically mention property near to the parish church of St Mary. This church, mentioned in the Domesday Book, was probably an old manorial chapel located at the manorial centre.16 Indeed, the lord of the manor of Gravesend held the advowson; in 1376, Edward III granted this manor and advowson to the abbot of St Mary Graces, by the Tower of London.17 This monastery continued to exercise patronage over the parish church, and thus an influence in parish religion, up to the Reformation, directly or through its grantees.18 The construction of St George's chapel in the town of Gravesend was begun by 1452 and completed by 1475, with the exception of minor tasks such as the glazing of some windows.19 It consisted of a nave and a north aisle containing a side altar.20 It was presumably built in Perpendicular Gothic style. Access to the north was by Chapel Lane, which connected with West Street. The new chapel was a project for which the lay townspeople were themselves largely responsible. Wills indicate that a number of inhabitants of Gravesend and Milton of yeoman and merchant ranks enjoyed better education and rising wealth (generated particularly by activities associated with the river) in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. This is suggested by various references to books and boats.21 The consequent increasing lay confidence in parish affairs eventually culminated in the procurement of a charter of incorporation for the town of Gravesend, in 1562.22 The chapel was paid for out of the parishioners' wealth; when it was eventually licensed for the celebration of mass, in 1497, Thomas Tutfold acknowledged that the people of Gravesend had built the 'oratory or basilica' at great expense to themselves.23 Legacies to the building work confirm this.24 Parishioners also oversaw the construction themselves, with diocesan assistance; a petition sent to Chancery by the supervisors in 1476 named them as Roger Rotheram, the Archdeacon of Rochester; Thomas Burston, gentleman of Gravesend; Thomas Clerke, a butcher of Gravesend; and John Elys, yeoman of Gravesend.25 The dedication of the chapel to St George, to which the first surviving reference dates from 1475, reflected the growing popularity of St George in the diocese of Rochester and the whole of England in this period, as exemplified not least by the dedication of the new chapel at Windsor Castle commissioned by Edward IV in 1475 to Our Lady, St George and St Edward.26 This parallel suggests the sense of pride the parishioners of Gravesend felt in their chapel. 58 ST GEORGE'S CHAPEL IN GRAVESEND In addition, having been built close to the river, it was highly visible to all vessels sailing up the Thames to London, as a drawing of the town made in 1662 demonstrates,27 and it was perhaps felt to be expressive of their communal identity, of their wealth and piety. This was enhanced by the addition of battlements, which were completed as funds became available over the following decades.28 Furthermore, in the sixteenth century it was hoped to build a tower, which would have contributed significantly to the town's profile had the project succeeded.29 Once the chapel was complete and in use, the parish elected wardens to govern its affairs, presumably in consultation with the clergy.30 Its maintenance was funded, at least in part, by a levy on the parish, called 'St George money' or 'the Church Money', which was probably administered by the chapel wardens.31 The long delay which occurred between the completion of the chapel, around 1475, and its licensing by the diocese for the celebration of mass, in 1497, has been noted in passing. Following its initial co-operation with the project, implied by the inclusion of the archdeacon of Rochester among the supervisors of the work, the diocese then hesitated to give official approval for its use. The reason for this was probably a perceived threat to the status and revenues of the old parish church, and the diocese was perhaps lobbied in this matter by its patron, the monastery of St Mary Graces. The 1497 licence suggests that the diocese had never intended that the new chapel should have any status other than that of a chapel of ease, but this ignored its earlier co-operation with the parishioners' more ambitious ideas. Indeed, from 1458, wills including legacies to the chapel used a standard formula: 'Item lego novo operi incepte in gravishend quod deo dante erit ecclesia parochiale'.32 This intention was also stated in English in the petition to Chancery of 1476 from the supervisors of the work, including the archdeacon, that it 'in tyme to come shalbe a parysche churche of the towne'.33 Nevertheless, the parishioners of Gravesend did not explicitly state any desire to abandon their old church; the standard formula stated that the chapel would be 'a' parish church of Gravesend, and many of its benefactors also made bequests to St Mary's. Rosser argues that the inhabitants of settlements at some distance from their parish church founded chapels not in opposition to it, but to supplement its facilities.34 A few cases are recorded of late medieval parishes with dual worship centres which shared the role of parish church, such as Combe (Oxfordshire) and Withernsea (Holderness).35 Indeed, Thomas Tutfold acknowledged that Gravesend inhabitants had been moved by religious devotion to seek an 'increase' in divine worship.36 The lay townspeople evidently had the full co-operation and 59 PAUL LEE encouragement of their parish clergy in this matter. Use of the formula was probably encouraged by the rector of Gravesend, Master John Thorpe, who was named in many of these wills as a witness, in the 1460s and 1470s. The parish clergy may have preferred to carry out the cura pastoralis of the parish from within its main centre of population, and they celebrated mass in the chapel before it was officially licensed.37 Those pre-Reformation priests who actually carried out the bulk of parish work often came from local families, and this must have helped them to identify with local aspirations.38 Thus, when St George's was finally licensed, in 1497, it may already have been in use for over thirty years, and had certainly been so since the early 1470s. Thomas Ballyng of Gravesend, in his will of 28 July 1464, left money to the building work, and 20 marks for a 'suitable priest' to celebrate for his soul for two years in the parish church or 'in the chapel edified in the parish', some years before the structure was complete.39 The bequest by Johanna Purke of Southwark to St George's chapel in Gravesend of a torch, in January 1474-5, indicates that it was certainly in regular use for mass by then.40 Amongst other bequests from pious parishioners for masses, priests or the fitting-out of their chapel, made before 1497, was one from William London of a mass book, in 1494.41 Indeed, the issuing of a licence for the celebration of mass may be seen as an attempt by the diocese to limit the chapel's use and protect the rights of St Mary's parish church. Tutfold stipulated that no prejudice was to arise to the rights of the latter, and permitted no more than the celebration of mass and other daily divine services in the chapel.42 In the late Middle Ages, parishioners with local chapels were not relieved of their obligations to their parish churches, but were expected to attend them on important feast days, and for Easter communion, for baptism, marriage and burial. Nevertheless, chapels tended to build up a church life of their own, especially if access to the parish church was difficult or the chaplain was conscientious, and those who used them often sought baptism and burial rights there.43 The diocese of Rochester and abbot of St Mary Graces were aware of this danger. Wills made after 1497 suggest that parishioners, no longer the generation that built the chapel, accepted this state of affairs and continued to practise their orthodox Catholic piety in the parish church as well as in the chapel, leaving legacies to fraternities and saints' cults in St Mary's. In 1500, Thomas Coll of Gravesend bequeathed 3s. Ad. to the fraternity of St Barbara there, and a pound of wax to its light, as well as 20s. worth of gravel to be expended on 'the comen cause ledyng the waye fro the towne unto the parisch church of Gravisende' if all his heirs died.44 When the old parish 60 ST GEORGE'S CHAPEL IN GRAVESEND church burnt down, at some point between March 1506 and August 1508, parishioners gave their support to its rebuilding.45 John a Foldes of Gravesend, dating his will on 5 August 1508, bequeathed a processional and 3s. Ad. to the re-edification of the parish church nuper combuste (formerly burned), but left 6s. Sd. for the edification of St George's chapel if the parish decided to make it the parish church instead.46 This implies that the parishioners now had the authority to make this decision themselves. The old church was rebuilt, perhaps because of pressure from the diocese and St Mary Graces, but the episcopal register records the consecration of both church and chapel by Bishop John Fisher, on consecutive days in April 1510.47 St George's chapel must have been used as the parish church since the fire, a period of at least two years, and its consecration was, perhaps, an acknowledgement of this as well as indicating Bishop Fisher's pastoral concern. However, the consecration of St George's chapel had no real significance for its status or use, for it was specifically stated at the time that it was licensed only for the celebration of mass, and that the parish church retained exclusive rights of baptism and burial.48 St Mary's thus continued to function as the parish church of Gravesend, and a new high altar table was consecrated with all solemnity. Parishioners gave support to both church and chapel for the next three decades, maintaining the parish church's fabric and furnishings, and seeking masses in both buildings. For example, John Goldehauke left 12c?. to the regilding of the rood loft in St Mary's, in 1517, and asked for burial by the south door.49 In 1519, Harry Litle willed a book or vestment to be bought for use there, as well as contributing to the work on the battlement of St George's.50 Bishop Fisher's visitation of Gravesend in 1522 was focused on the parish church. His excommunication of the whole parish for failing to greet him by ringing the bells, at no fault of the parishioners as it turned out, was a further manifestation of insensitivity shown to parishioners by the diocesean hierarchy.51 The affair reveals, however, that St Mary's church tower, bells and ringing mechanism were still maintained and in use at that time. Several wills in the 1520s asked for masses to be said in both the church and chapel. Some testators, such as a former churchwarden Christopher Westegarth in 1526, asked for masses to be said or sung in Milton or Gravesend parish church on Sundays and feast days, and on ferial weekdays in St George's chapel. This paid recognition to the status of the parish church but indicated the day-to-day use of the chapel. Westegarth also left four marks to the building of an enclosure around the chapel, and £10 to repair a silver cross in the parish 61 PAUL LEE church.52 At a visitation in 1529, it was found that the walls of the chancel of St Mary's were in great decay 'in default of the Rector' so that it rained upon the altar.53 Parishioners did not neglect the church, however. Alice Herd, a wealthy widow of Gravesend who owned at least £63 worth of property, lands and wharves in Gravesend and Milton, in her will of 1533 made bequests to both the church and chapel, to the 'churche waye' from trie town to St Mary's, and 20 marks for an honest priest to celebrate for her and all Christian souls, for two years, in the chapel, as the parson or his curate allowed, stipulating that this priest was to help to maintain God's services in the parish church as well as in the chapel.54 Nevertheless, St George's chapel gradually grew in status in the sixteenth century. The archdeacon of Rochester conducted visitations of several local parishes there from at least 1504, and probate registers demonstrate that the Consistory Court regularly sat there, rather than at St Mary's, from at least 1513.55 This probably reflected the chapel's use as a public building in the town. As mentioned above, there was also a scheme for the building of a tower in the 1530s and 40s. Saints' cults and liturgical display also flourished in the chapel as it continued to provide facilities for the vibrant Catholic religion of the parish. The Gravesend fraternity of St Barbara transferred its home to St George's at some point after 1500; most likely it left when St Mary's was destroyed by fire, in 1507-8, and never went back.56 The fraternity flourished in its new home, attracting the support of pious parishioners, and reflecting the widespread popularity of St Barbara in late medieval England, and Europe.57 At the Consistory Court held on 18 November 1517, Bishop John Fisher gave to Nicholas Codd and John Farmer, the wardens of this fraternity, the grant of a forty day indulgence to all benefactors doing honour to God and St Barbara in the said confraternity.58 Codd left a complete vestment of blue satin, a chalice of silver parcel gilt, a corporal and a maser with a band of silver to 'St. Barbara's chancel' in Gravesend chapel, in his will of 15 September 1531,59 He was evidently a man of long-standing devotion to this saint and parish fraternity, and this led him to make lavish provision for celebrations at his death, and most probably also during life. The 'chancel' of St Barbara, containing the altar and light, thus constituting the 'home' of the fraternity, was probably in the north aisle of the chapel. Also, the chapel's cult of St George received devotion there from the fifteenth century, with a light, image and altar.60 The other cult in the chapel, of which there is evidence, was that of Our Lady, whose light there was mentioned by Robert Baltman, in 1532.61 62 ST GEORGE'S CHAPEL IN GRAVESEND The liturgy of the chapel in the early sixteenth century also reflected new trends in late medieval Catholic devotion, such as the cults of the Name of Jesus and the Five Wounds.62 This was sought by the laity and again implies the co-operation and encouragement of the parish clergy. For example, Richard Asheley, who lived in the part of the 'towne of Gravesynde' which fell in the parish of Milton, made detailed requests in his will dated 13 September 1508 for masses of the Five Wounds, requiem, Name of Jesus and Our Lady, to be said in the chapel.63 Further, trentals were increasingly popular amongst Gravesend will-makers in this period, as consistory court wills suggest was generally the case in the diocese of Rochester, and were requested in the chapel.64 There were instances of heterodoxy in pre-Reformation Gravesend, as in other towns in north Kent and the Medway valley. In September 1532, Peter Durr, a priest of Gravesend, was brought before the bishop and accused of being in possession of a book of Lutheran heresy. Amongst other doctrines, the book stated that the sale of indulgences was the working of papal pride, that Luther's doctrine was of great comfort to the people, that God was the sole source of aid in trouble, that all sin was pardoned through faith, and that to believe all this was more beneficial to the soul than praying to the Virgin Mary.65 This case confirms that heterodox ideas were being read and discussed in this part of north-west Kent, in the early sixteenth century, but probably only a very small minority took them up. Wills indicate that the religion of the parish of Gravesend was predominantly and actively orthodox, and the chapel's use manifested this. Inevitably, the parish church was eventually superseded by St George's chapel. The end began in the late 1530s, when the chapel was apparently finally licensed for burials. The earliest surviving indication of this is the request made by Marcel Clarke, a wealthy bachelor of Gravesend, who owned lands and tenements in West Street, to be buried in the chapel nearby, in his will dated 30 March 1537.66 His life and wealth were associated with the town and he wished, perhaps, to be buried where fellow townspeople would see his grave and remember him in their prayers when attending the weekday services.67 Five more testators asked for burial in the chapel (never outside) before it finally became the parish church in 1544.68 Adam Everyngham's request to be buried next to the pew of Mistress Davye, in 1541, suggests that there was a seating plan for the chapel, something normally associated with parish churches.69 Seeking burial in the chapel did not necessarily imply that a parishioner did not also value the parish church. Thomas Swaynsland, who had property 'in the town end' of Gravesend, sought this in 1540, but 63 PAUL LEE also bequeathed 6s. Sd. every year for thirty years (a total of £10) from his property to repairs at St Mary's.70 However, when the monastery of St Mary Graces was dissolved, in 1538,71 the parish no doubt saw it as an opportunity to rid itself of the burden of maintaining two church buildings, the older of which was possibly revealing serious structural problems. Letters patent enrolled 22 May 1544 indicate that they had petitioned the king, stating that the distance of the parish church from their habitations was inconvenient to them in their desire to hear divine services and receive the sacraments at 'fitting times'. They supported their case by hyperbole, saying that the infirm, pregnant, and impotent of the town suffered great toil and danger to their bodies in getting there. The king ordered the closure of St Mary's, instructed that St George's chapel was to be called the parish church, and ordered that all sacraments and sacramentals were to be administered there.72 St George's chapel in Gravesend was built because of the laity's own concern for sufficient ecclesiastical provision in their town, and was funded, governed and used by them long before it was officially licensed. The diocesan authorities and monastic manorial lord became reluctant to encourage its use because they sought to maintain the customary rights of the parish church. The parish clergy, however, co-operated with and encouraged the laity in their religious devotions in the chapel so that it became an important focus of the vibrant orthodox parish religion in Gravesend, in the late fifteenth century and pre-Reformation period. The chapel thus eventually achieved its originally intended status of parish church. This case provides further evidence of the increasing activity of educated laity within parish religion from the fifteenth century in England. It reveals that the lay religious fervour which led to the foundation of such chapels in the pre-Reformation period was in some places strongly orthodox. NOTES 1 C. Kitching, 'Church and chapelry in sixteenth-century England' in The Church in Town and Countryside: Studies in Church History, 16 (1979), 279-90 (at 279). 2 G. Rosser, 'Parochial conformity and voluntary religion in late Medieval England', Transactions of the Royal Historical Society, 6th series, 1 (1991), 173-89 (at 175). 3 Kitching, op. cit. (note 1), 281. 4 A. Everitt, Continuity and Colonisation: the Evolution of Kentish Settlement (Leicester, 1986), 206-7, 219-222. 5 Kitching, op. cit. (note 1), 280. 6 Ibid., 289-90. 7 D. M. Owen, Church and Society in Medieval Lincolnshire (Lincoln, 1971), 6; 6A ST GEORGE'S CHAPEL IN GRAVESEND Rosser, op. cit. (note 2), 176; G. H. Tupling, 'The pre-Reformation parishes and chapelries of Lancashire', Transactions of the Lancashire and Cheshire Antiquarian Society, 67 (1957), 1-16 (at 8). 8 R. G. A. Lutton, 'Orthodox and heterodox piety in Tenterden, c. 1420 - c. 1540', unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, University of Kent, 1997, 85. 9 Tupling, op. cit. (note 7), 9. 10 These registers are respectively, Centre for Kentish Studies (CKS) DRb/Pwr vols. 1-, and PRO, PROB 11 vols. 1-. 1' The licence, dated and sealed on 22 September 1497, the original of which does not survive, is printed in Latin in J. Thorpe, Registrum Roffense (London, 1769), 377. This is quoted, with a translation, in R. Pocock, The History of the Incorporated Town and Parishes of Gravesend and Milton, in the County of Kent (Gravesend, 1797), 62-3. 12 On this tendency see Everitt, op. cit. (note 4), and also C.Taylor, Village andFarmland (1983) cited by Rosser, op. cit. (note 2), 179. 13 The author is grateful to Mr R. Hiscock, past president of the Gravesend Historical Society, for drawing his attention to this point. 14 Calendar of Patent Rolls, 1399-1401, 542. The ferry service was evidently a good source of income at the end of the fifteenth century; in 1487, Johanna Uscher of Milton made her will, calling herself 'ferryman', and bequeathing to various individuals her ferryboat, two other boats and a barge (CKS, DRb/Pwr5/85v). 15 A. J. Philip,/! History of Gravesend and its surroundings (Wraysbury, 1910, rev. 1954), 76, 124. 16 Gravesend and Milton chapels had probably earlier come under the ecclesiastical jurisdiction of the Saxon minster church at Northfleet, just to the west - see Everitt, op. cit. (note 4), 188. 17 Pocock, op. cit. (note 11), 91. 18 St Mary Graces granted the advowson to one Raphael Marisso, merchant of' Janna', on 28 March 1515 (the grant was copied into the Consistory Court act book: CKS, DRb/Pa7,fol. 112), and again in 1524 (bishop's register: CKS, DRb/Ar 1/13, fol. 97v). On 22 December 1527, Marisso presented Master Roger Wylde to be admitted as rector of Gravesend (CKS, DRb/Ar 1/13, fol. 143). 19 The building of the new church was first mentioned in three legacies of 1452, from Thomas Grene of Milton (CKS, DRb/Pwr l/134v), Thomas Sprever of Milton (CKS, DRb/Pwr 1/129) and Richard Smyth of Shorne, near Gravesend (L. L. Duncan abstract of wills in archbishops' registers, CKS TR 2952/3, 582). In his will of 1474, William Aston, alias Flowour, of Gravesend implied that the work was still in progress (CKS, DRb/Pwr 4/184v). However, the chapel was probably substantially complete by 1475, for a petition to Chancery from the overseers of the work, dated 1476, refers to the new work 'which is edified and bilded' in the town (PRO, C 1/66/5; see note 21). Alice Berd, a wealthy barge-owning widow of Gravesend, in her will dated 30 April 1476, left some of her goods to the glazing of a window in the new work formerly begun in the parish ('Item volo quod una fenestra sit vitreata in novo opere nuper incepte in parochiale de Graveshend', CKS, DRb/Pwr 4/205). Furthermore, the chapel was probably already in use by early 1475, of which more below. 20 William Walworth, the elder, of Gravesend, a yeoman who leased the parsonage of Denton, asked to be buried 'in the churche of Saynt George in Gravisend in the north He beside thaulter', in his will of 5 May 1548 (CKS, DRb/Pwr 11/36). A porch was completed in 1530, as archdeacon's visitations show (CKS, DRa/Vb4 ff. 146v, 157). 21 Boats are mentioned in numerous wills. Concerning education and piety, Thomas Grene of Milton, who dated his will on 21 July 1452 (CKS, DRb/Pwr l/134v), was an example of the small but increasing number of pious laity in late Medieval England 65 PAUL LEE who had the means and education to benefit from books. He was probably one of those locally prominent minor townsmen who needed a certain level of literacy to be able to take his turn in local government, taking part in court proceedings, collecting taxes and negotiating with various authorities - see N. Orme, English Schools in the Middle Ages (London, 1973), 44. Late medieval merchant laymen did not aspire to the Latin learning of certain members of the aristocracy but possessed mainly service books such as missals and breviaries (Orme, op. cit. above, 46). Grene's own education gave him a concern for the standards of the clergy and their pastoral care. Thus, he bequeathed to the chaplain with the cure of souls in Milton 3s. Ad. for a book called in English ('vulgariten') Le Parisshprest, which evidently belonged to that large genre of works also represented by John Mirk's popular Festial and a tract called Instructions for Parish Priests (F. A. Gasquet, 'The bibliography of some devotional books printed by the earliest English printers', Transactions of the Bibliographical Society, 7 (1902-4), 163-89 (at 171)). Grene's will also provides rare insight into the passing of books between moderately wealthy laity below gentry rank of the mid-fifteenth century; he bequeathed to Thomas Doget of Milton 'my book called Le Soulier', and my 'best book called Le Prymer' to John Doget of the same parish. The Dogets were a prominent family in local wills. 22 Philip, op. cit. (note 15), 86. 91. 23 Thorpe, op. cit. (note 11), 377; Pocock, op. cit. (note 11), 62-3. Thomas Burston was, no doubt, a kinsman of Laurence Burston of Gravesend who had left a substantial legacy to the building work in 1458 (see note 24). 24 In addition to the three bequests of 1452 and those of 1474 and 1476 (see note 19), a further eight testators in Gravesend and Milton parishes between these dates, and one from Dartford nearby, gave legacies of between 3s. Ad. and £10 (with one of 100 marks made dependent on other beneficiaries dying) to the building work, or bequeathed the proceeds from the sale of goods, lands and tenements, or barley: Laurence Burston of Gravesend left £10 and the 100 marks in his will dated 30 March 1458 (CKS, DRb/Pwr 2/100); Thomas Fowler, alias Forth, of Gravesend left 3*. Ad. in February 1462-3 (CKS, DRb/Pwr 2/266v); Thomas Ballyng in July 1464 (CKS, DRb/Pwr 2/284); Robert Halle in February 1464-5 (CKS, DRb/Pwr 2/302); Johanna Wyld, a wealthy widow of Gravesend owning property in the town valued at 42 marks, left 3s. Ad. in June 1466 (CKS, DRb/Pwr 2/350); the wealthy John Berbrucere of Gravesend, who was possibly involved in trade with aliens from the Low Countries, one of his executors being named John Utryght, left £10 in April 1468 (CKS, DRb/Pwr 3/2); in the same year Roger Rotheley, senior, a chandler of Dartford, bequeathed 5 marks to the work (CKS, DRb/Pwr 3/9v); William Wodstoke of West Street in Gravesend left 5 marks in May 1471 (CKS, DRb/Pwr 3/11 lv); and Wodstoke's neighbour, Thomas Hardy, also left 5 marks in his will of October that year (CKS, DRb/Pwr 4/30). 25 PROC 1/66/5. Roger Rotheram was archdeacon 1472-86. This petition, in English, dated 13 January 1475-6, represented an attempt by the overseers to recover forty marks owed to the chapel work and services by John Baker, the sole surviving executor of Thomas Bailey, yeoman of Gravesend, requesting that he be summoned to appear before the court. The author is grateful to Mr R. Hiscock for giving him the reference to this document. 26 The first reference to the dedication of Gravesend's chapel occurs in the will of Johanna Purke of Southwark who, in January 1474-5, bequeathed torches to the Carmelite friars of Aylesford and the chapel of St George in Gravesend (PRO, PROB 11/6/160). The petition to Chancery from the overseers of the building work, dated 1475-6, states that it was built to the honour of God, Our Lady and St George (PRO, Cl/66/5). The parallel with Windsor is noted in R. Hiscock et al, St George's Church: Pocahontas Memorial (Gravesend, 1990), 3. St George was generally a popular patron for fraternities, from the fifteenth century; in Cornwall he was second only to the Blessed 66 ST GEORGE'S CHAPEL IN GRAVESEND Virgin (J. Mattingley, 'The Medieval parish guilds of Cornwall', Journal of the Royal Institute of Cornwall, N.S. 10 (1989), 290-329 (at 305)). In Norwich the St George guild was prominent and became a part of city government in the fifteenth century (N. P. Tanner, The Church in late Medieval Norwich 1370-1532 (Toronto, 1984), 81). The growth of the cult in the diocese of Rochester, from the late fifteenth century, can be seen in the dedication of Gravesend's chapel; a wallpainting of St George and the dragon, dating from c. 1470, on the east wall of the Lady Chapel in the south choir aisle of Dartford parish church (J. Dunkin, The History and Antiquities of Dartford (Dartford, 1844), 32); and in a proliferation of images, altars, lights and pious fraternities: for example, Trottiscliffe parish church was given 6s. 8d. to a banner cloth called a 'stremer' bearing an image of the saint, in 1501 (CKS, DRb/Pwr 5/412v); an image of St George in Strood parish church was mentioned in a will of 1493 (CKS, DRb/Pwr 5/207, and, in 1529, John Arturbury of the parish was required by the Consistory Court to pay 40s. to a new image (CKS, DBr/Pa 9 pt.2 fol. 8); Peter Homey of Cobham, in his will of 24 December 1512, left his best gown of tawney, his harness and his crossbow to buy a new image of St George to be set in Cobham's collegiate parish church (CKS, DRb/Pwr 6/344v); John Bradforth of Cobham left Ad. to the light before this image, as well as to other lights in Cobham church, in September 1522 (CKS, DRb/Pwr 7/253v); and Henry Jerman left Ad. to the same light, in July 1523 (CKS, DRb/Pwr 7/282v); George Bowreg of Capel founded a new taper of one pound of wax before the image of this saint in his parish church, in his will dated 17 May 1513 (CKS, DRb/Pwr 6/352); the lights of St George in Strood church and St Nicholas parish church in Rochester received bequests from a number of testators, especially in the 1520s; a fraternity of Our Lady and St George in Lewisham parish church was referred to in two wills in 1527-8 (CKS, DRb/Pwr 8/129, DRb/Pwr 8/161 v); a fraternity of St George in Westerham parish church was mentioned in wills in 1531 and 1537 (CKS, DRb/Pwr 9/213v, DRb/Pwr 9/242); a light of St George was also mentioned for the first time in the parish church of St Margaret at Rochester by Eleanor Chamber, in 1533 (CKS, DRb/Pwr 9/75); and there was a fraternity of St Anne and St George in St Alphege's parish church in East Greenwich, in 1540 (CKS, DRb/Pwr 9/300, DRb/Pwr 9/315). 27 The drawing is referred to in Hiscock, op. cit. (note 26, paragraph 1), 3. 28 In his will of 10 July 1490, Richard Owldham, another boat-owner of Gravesend, left five marks from the sale of his lands and property in the parish of Meopham 'to helppe to ffynesshe the Batylment' of St George's chapel in Gravesend (which he named thus), as well as leaving 10 marks to the repair and maintenance of the parish church (CKS, DRb/Pwr 5/417v): this is a copy of the original will, is stuck into the back of the probate register, and is not registered. Almost thirty years later, Harry Litle of Gravesende left 5s. 'towarde the batilment of the chapell' in his will dated 12 July 1519 (DRb/Pwr 7/166). 29 The aspiration to build a tower was mentioned in three wills between 1532 and 1545. In 1532, before 2 October when his will was proved, Robert Baltman of Gravesend provided for a legacy of 6s. 8rf. to the building of a steeple (which signifies a tower in fifteenth and sixteenth century vernacular) at the chapel of Gravesend (CKS, DRb/Pwr 9/37). John Gybson left 6s. %d. to reparations of the chapel, in his will dated 20 March 1541/2, 'to be payed at the begynnyng of ye steeple' (CKS, DRb/Pwr 9/405). Such a beginning had not yet been made when Rafe Darbishire, of the town of Gravesend, came to make his will, on 1 April 1545; he left AOs. toward the building of the steeple, to be paid within three years of the commencement of the work (CKS, DRb/Pwr 10/98v). It is unlikely that the work was ever carried out; the drawing of Gravesend, of 1662, shows a steeple, but this may have been artistic licence, since the church was described, in 1710, as being 'old and without steeple', and an unsuccessful petition was raised to obtain a grant to rectify this lack (R. Hiscock et al., op. cit. (note 67 PAUL LEE 26, first paragraph), 3). Apparently, archaeological investigations, which indicate that the old St George extended west of the present building, confirm that there was no tower. 30 The wardens are referred to in two wills. In 1502, Johanna Floure, a pious bargeowning widow of Gravesend, mentioned the sum of £10 which she said she had promised to the wardens for the chapel (CKS, DRb/Pwr 6/285). Roger Austen, in his will of January 1526-7, instructed his executors to pay his bequests of eight marks for masses and repairs to the 'rulers of Saynt Georg chapell of Gravisend' (CKS, DRb/Pwr 8/77v). 31 Rafe Darbishire made his bequest for the building of a steeple onto St George's in 1545, on condition that the parson, or any other person dwelling in Gravesend, did not trouble his son, Edward, 'for the payment of any money used to be called Saynt George money, or the Churche Money' (CKS, DRb/Pwr 10/98v). 32 This was used in translation in Thomas Hardy's bequest of five marks in 1471: 'unto the new work begon ther in Graveshend that by the grace of Gode shal be a parich church' (CKS, DRb/Pwr 4/30). 33 PROC 1/66/5. 34 Rosser, op. cit. (note 2), 182. 35 Ibid., 179-80. 36 '...devotionis affectus quem adcultus divina augmentum habere'. 37 There may have been chaplains specifically attached to St George's in the fifteenth century, as there sometimes were in the early sixteenth; this might be implied by the permission given in the 1497 licence for masses to be celebrated by any chaplain positioned there. A list of clerical subsidy assessments of 1513 names Dominus Robert Huchynson as priest of the chapel of Gravesend, for which he received a stipend of nine marks -bound in the Consistory Court act book (CKS, DRb/Pa 5 fol. 100). Wills show he was curate of the parish in 1530. No other chaplains have been identified. Wills show that the rector and his assistant clergy celebrated in both the parish church and chapel. 38 P. Marshall, The Catholic Priesthood and the English Reformation (Oxford, 1994), 127, 194-6. 39 CKS, DRb/Pwr 2/284. 40 PRO, PROB 11/6/160. 41 PRO, PROB 1 l/10/98v. Also, Richard Owldham, a wealthy boat-owner of Gravesend, in his will of 10 July 1490, left 10 marks to the repair and maintenance of the parish church, and willed the sale of his half of a barge called 'The Anne', and its stuff, to pay 'a priest to synge in the chapell of Saynt George' for the health of his soul. He also left five marks from the sale of his lands and property in the parish of Meopham for the chapel (see note 28). Other bequests for masses in the chapel, in the 1490s, came from Giles Johnson in 1490 (CKS, DRb/Pwr 5/363v) and Robert Gilmyn of Milton in 1495 (CKS, DRb/Pwr 5/257v). 42 There was, perhaps, an implicit warning in the tribute Tutfold paid to the past and continuing support of the parishioners for the old parish church (quotidie sustinetis). 43 Tupling, op. cit. (note 7), 10. 44 CKS, DRb/Pwr 5/316v. 45 The contents of the will of Richard Borne, dated 1506, indicate that it predates the fire (CKS, DRb/Pwr 6/181). 46 CKS, DRb/Pwr 6/208v. 47 CKS, DRb/Ar 1/13 fol. 37: St George's chapel was consecrated on Tuesday 2 April and St Mary's on 3 April. 68 ST GEORGE'S CHAPEL IN GRAVESEND 48 '...et quod non licerit eisdem parochianis aut alicui alio nominibus eorum corpora mortuorum sepilire infantulos baptizare preterquam consecracionem corporis dominici' (CKS, DRb/Ar 1/13 fol. 37). 49 CKS, DRb/Pwr 7/147v. 50 CKS, DRb/Pwr 7/166. 5' When the people of Gravesend failed to greet the bishop by the ringing of these bel Is he placed an interdict on the whole parish, thus prohibiting the celebration of divine service there. There were extenuating circumstances, however, as the churchwardens and many of the parishioners had apparently been summoned to appear before the king's commissioners of array, on the day of the visitation, to hear about the preparation of an army to fight against the Scots and the French. The churchwardens, Christopher Westegerth and William at Wod, humbly petitioned Fisher and he removed the interdict on 27 March 1522-3. Fisher pointed out that the parish had, however, been similarly remiss at his last triennial visitation, and admonished them in future to be more attentive in their duties to him (Rochester Consistory Court act book: CKS, DRb/Pa 7 fol. 205v; also used by Pocock, op. cit. (note 11), 65, which further cites J. Thorpe, Antiquaries, 261. 52 CKS, DRb/Pwr 8/33v. 53 R. Hiscock, A History of the Parish Church, Gravesend (Gloucester, no date), 12. 54 CKS, DRb/Pwr 9/79v. 55 CKS, DRa/Vb4 ff. I3v, 14,14v, etc (archdeaconry visitation material). A Gravesend will registered at CKS, DRb/Pwr 6/365 was proved in the chapel in 1513. Over the next quarter of a century wills made by inhabitants of several local parishes were proved there. 56 Thus, Thomas Hudshon of Gravesend left \2d. to an image of St Barbara in the chapel, in 1513 (CKS, DRb/Pwr 6/365). John Hayton of Milton included a bequest in his will, dated 13 December 1517, to the 'brotherhood of St Barbara in the chapel of Gravesend* (PRO, PROB ll/19/34v). 57 St Barbara attracted new devotion in north-west Kent in the early sixteenth century; besides the fraternity, altar and light in Gravesend there was a new fraternity and altar of this saint in Dartford parish church, in 1504. Johanna Harte, alias Postwell, alias Lorkyn, of Dartford evidently paid particular devotion to this saint, for she left a diaper towell to Gravesend's altar of St Barbara as well as Ad. to the Dartford fraternity (CKS, DRbPwr 6/99). Johanna Harte's legacy can probably be explained by the fact that she had connections with Gravesend; her god-daughter, Johanna Wales lived in Gravesend, and wills indicate that the name Lorkyn was found widely in north-west Kent, including Gravesend. There was also a fraternity of St Anthony and St Barbara in St Nicholas's church, Rochester in 1481 (CKS, DRb/Pwr 3/224). 58 CKS, DRb/Pa 6 fol. 260v. 59 CKS, DRb/Pwr 8/300v. 60 St George must have received devotion in the chapel from the point when its dedication was chosen, by 1475. In 1491, Alice Flower, a boat-owning widow of Gravesend, bequeathed 6s. Sd. to the light of St George (CKS, DRb/Pwr 5/170v). Thomas Hudshon bequeathed \2d. to St George 'in the chapell', in 1513, as well as his bequest to the image of St Barbara (see note 56). The altar of St George in the chapel was mentioned, and left a white candlestick, in the will of William Wade, brewer of Gravesend, in 1528 (CKS, DRb/Pwr 8/202v). 61 CKS, DRb/Pwr 9/37. 62 R. W. Pfaff, New Liturgical Feasts in later Medieval England (Oxford, 1970). 63 Asheley asked for an honest priest' beyng of goode name and good fame' to sing and pray for his soul and those of his late wife, Isabel, his parents, Thomas Candor (a 69 PAUL LEE former master of Milton chantry hospital) and all souls 'that 1 have fare the better fore', for one year in the 'new chapel of Gravesend'. The priest, paid a salary of £6 13s. Ad., was to say mass every day 'when he is disposed', as follows: mass of the Five Wounds on Mondays; mass of requiem on Wednesdays; the Jesus mass on Fridays; and the mass of Our Lady on Saturdays. He was also to say dirige and commendations on Monday, Wednesday and Friday, every week. Asheley also asked for a twenty-year obit in the chapel, on All Souls Day, when five poor men were to pray for his soul and all Christian souls 'in the worship of the .v. wounds', receiving a penny each (PRO, PROB 11/16/210). 64 William Mores, alias Poole, a barge-owner of Milton, asked for an honest priest 'that can singe his playn songe singe thre trigintalles of masses' within one year of his death, in 1528, paying 10s. for each trental. These were to be sung in Milton parish church on Wednesdays, Fridays, Sundays and holydays, and on other days at St George's chapel (PRO, PROB 11/22/319). Joone Laurence, a barge-owning widow of Milton engaged in brewing, willed £6 13s. Ad. for an honest priest to celebrate for half a year in exactly the same pattern specified by Mores, in her will of 4 January 1529-30 (CKS, DRb/Pwr 8/268v). Joone Laurence was a strongly orthodox pious woman; she also asked for trentals in her parish church on her burial and month's days, left eight torches to Milton church and one torch each to the chapels in Gravesend and Milton (chantry), founded charitable doles, bequeathed Ad. to every nun at St Helen's nunnery in Bishopsgate (City of London), to pray for her soul and all Christian souls; and left £4 to her daughter, Godliff, who had been a nun at St Helen's since her transfer there from Higham Priory, near Gravesend, in 1521, shortly before it was closed by Bishop Fisher in 1522. (For details of Gofliffs transfer and the priory closure see Victoria County History, Kent, ii, 145-6; G. J. Gray, 'Letters of Bishop Fisher, 1521-3', The Library, 3rd series, 4 (1913), 133-45 (at 139-41).) 65 J.F. Davis, Heresy and Reformation in the South-East of England, 1520-59 (London, 1983), 43-4. 66 CKS, DRb/Pwr 9/235. 67 The importance to many late Medieval people of their graves being seen is indicated by the specifications for tombstones by those who could afford them. Thomas Ussher of Snodland, in 1472, provided for a tombstone to cover his and his father's grave, with their names written on 'for a perpetual! remembrance & memory that all men & women that rede or se it pray for us in way of charyte' (CKS, DRb/Pwr 4/30v). 68 CKS, DRb/Pwr 9 ff. 313, 337v, 279v 378v, 405. 69 CKS, DRb/Pwr 9/378v. On sixteenth century seating plans see S. Pittman, 'The social structure and parish community of St Andrew's church, Calstock, as reconstituted from its seating plan, c. 1587-8', Southern History, 20/21 (1998-9), 44-67. 70 CKS, DRb/Pwr 9/313. 71 Victoria County History, London, i, 463. 72 W.Hart (Ed.), Records of Gravesend, Milton, Denton, Cobham, Chalk, Northfleet, Nurstead, Southfleet, Shorne and Ifield (1878), 68. R. P. Cruden, The History of the town of Gravesend in the county of Kent and of the Port of London (London, 1843), 405. Cruden prints an inventory, dated 1595, of effects and muniments of the corporation of Gravesend in the town hall, which includes: 'A grant made by King Henry VIII for the Chapell to be made our Parish Church under the greete seale in grene waxe'. Burials continued to take place in St Mary's churchyard until the late sixteenth century, but the church gradually fell into ruin. 70