the time being, and all other incomes, fruits, and profits of the said church, not hereafter allotted to the vicar. The vicar to have and to hold the house belonging to the said vicarage, with the garden thereunto adjoining, as also all, and all manner of oblations in the. said church of Croydon; likewise a moiety of the tithes of lambs, which are to be tithed per capita; and also the money arising by custom or right from those lambs that are not tithed per capita; also all tithes of wool, calves, pigs, geese, ducks, pigeons, cheese, milk, butter, herbage, apples, pears, and other fruits, as well those growing in gardens and orchards, as those that are dug out of the earth; as also tithes of flax, mustard, eggs, merchandize, and of mills built or to be built, within the bounds of the said parish; and all, and other small tithes which are not before allotted to the rector; as also all legacies left to the said church, which the rectors or vicars may receive, and have by right or custom; and also all dead mortuaries in any manner belonging to the said church. The said vicars are also by themselves and another priest to perform divine service in the said church, and to have the ministering of the bread, wine, candles, and all other, and singular necessaries belonging to the celebration of the divine of fice. They are also to find such books, sur K plices, vestments, and ornaments of the said church, as are usually found by rectors, or vicars by custom or right. They are also to pay the tenths and other impositions usually laid upon the church of England on any occasion, according to the known taxation of £10 sterling, at which the said vicarage is taxed. It is also decreed that the rector shall repair the chancel of the said church, viz. its roofs and walls within and without, and be at the expense of all ordinary and extraordinary charges happening to the said church; and it is also decreed that the vicar and his successors shall make oath upon the Holy Evangelists to the rector, that they will be guilty of no fraud or deceit by themselves or others, publicly or privately, in the portion due to the rector, nor usurp any thing to themselves. Lastly, the Archbishop reserving to himself and his successors, the power of augmenting or lessening the income of this vicarage, if he shall think proper so to do." In the archieves of the Bodleian Library is an ancient Valor Beneficiorum, compiled in the twentieth year of King Edward I. which formerly belonged to Sir Henry Spelman. Of this so much as relates to Surrey is printed in Aubrey's Perambulation of that County, in which amongst other particulars may be found "Decanatus de Croyndon. Ecclesiæ de Croyndon val. Ix. marc. It appears by a record preserved in the Tower, that in the eleventh year of the reign of King Edward II. there was an " Inquisitio ad quod damnum" previous to an exchange between Archbishop Reynolds and the Prior and Convent of Bermondsey, of the advowson of this church, then belonging to the Archbishop, for £28 12 11 in Wichesflete, containing one hide of land and two mills, with appertenances, in Southwark *. It should seem that subsequent to this inquisiton and the return upon it, is the instrument in the Register of Archbishop Reynolds, appropri ating the church of Croydon to the Convent of Bermondsey; of which instrument the short substance is, that "since the revenues of the Convent are greatly diminished by an inundation, and its income miserably reduced, to prevent the said Convent from being irrecoverably dissolved, the Archbishop appropriates to it this church †." * Inquisitio ad quod damnum, 11 Ed. II. M. 36. † Appropriatio Ecclesia de Croyndon. Walterus Archiepiscopus, cum prioratus de Bermondesey per It The document is cancelled in the Register, and probably this appropriation never took place; indeed, the instrument itself is not very intelligible, for it seems to import that the Archbishop had before granted the patronage of the rectory, and that by virtue of this deed he granted that of the vicarage also, which being the property of the rector, could not have been at the Archbishop's disposal. appears, moreover, that when vacancies occurred, the succeeding Archbishops continued to present to this rectory till the time of Archbishop Courtney, when an exchange of this advowson for the mannor of Waddon was made between him and the Prior and Convent of St. Saviour's, Bermondsey. After the King's licence and the Popes bull had been obtained, the matter was referred to Robert Bragbrooke, Bishop of London, the sole judge delegated by the Pope for that purpose; he aquarum inundationem et inopiam miserabiliter in temporalibus sit prolapsus, ne per facultatum inopiam Monasterium irrecuperabiliter dissolvatur, Ecclesiam de Croyndon in qua ex collatione sua dictus prioratus jus patronatus habet, cedente vel decedente Johanne Mansell, tunc Rectore cum presentatione ad vicaria ipsius Ecclesiæ cum vacaverit divine pietatis intuitu pro dictis necessitatibus relevandis dicto prioratui appropriat. Apud Lambeth (sans date) circa mens, Oct. 1320. fol. 98. b. having given a solemn hearing to the pleas on all sides in the church of Croydon, by his sentence bearing date Jan. 16, 1390, brought the exchange to a satisfactory conclusion. It was also agreed by an indenture dated on the Monday, in the first week of Lent, the fourteenth year of King Richard II. made between Archbishop Courtney and the Prior and Convent of Bermondsey, that the collation and patronage of the vicarage of Croydon should remain in the Archbishop and his successors, and that in the event of a vacancy, the Archbishop and his successors should name two proper persons to the prior and convent; one of whom they should choose and present to the said vicarage, to be admitted and instituted vicar of this church. The most probable account that can be given of this composition between the Archbishop and the Convent is, that the annual value of the church was a hundred, and that of the manor but eighty marks. In this state the matter continued till the dissolution of the convent of St. Saviour's Bermondesey, at which time the great tithes, as parcel of the possessions of that Convent, were granted * The instruments relating to this exchange are inserted at length in Archbishop Courteney's Register. Fol. 179. 6. |