ryA(Z(A'^^^'nd. The Priory was actually dissolved in 1536. Hurley owes its historic existence to the persuasion and example of the pious Leceline, second wife of Geoffrey de Mandeville. He had buried his first wife, Athelais, the mother of his sons, in the cloisters of Westminster, and had given commandment concerning the resting-place of his own remains beside her. In a grant to Eye, he writes : " Ego Goisfridus de Magna villa pro anima mea et pro anima Athelays conjugis mese in claustro Sancti Petri sepultse, qui etiam juxta eam sepeliendus sum (see Cotton. MS., Faustina, A. Ill, 281 verso)"; and, although a rough warrior of the period, he loved dearly the burial-place of her whom he had lost. Leceline, his second wife, showing no jealousy of Athelais, and with a pious feeling that, out of the hundred manors or so which her husband had received from the King, he was bound to make some offering to God from the good gifts that had 12 ST. MARYS CHURCH. been bestowed upon him, moved him to do honour to our village Sanctuary ; and so he caused it to be dedicated afresh to God, founded here a Benedictine cell to West- minster, and endowed it with tithes and lands from all parts of his vast possessions. All this strikes me as one of the prettiest little episodes, in connection with our church and parish, that one can well imagine. We notice in his charter how our founder took pains to connect all classes of his friends and supporters with the good work towards which his wife had prompted him. He wished his offerings to be associated with his home at Walden, and that they should be handed down as a mighty effort of his family to do honour to God and to the memory of his loved dead at Westminster. Turold, his steward, with his right hand on our altar ; his son Ralph — both of Ockendon in Essex — and ^dric, his bailiff, con- tributed their gifts. His eldest son William ; Richard, clearly another son of Athelais ; Agamund, the parson of Ockendon ; Engeram, the family butler ; ^Ifric, the mason who was to build the Priory, were amongst those met together in the church at Hurley. Solemn service was held to invoke the Divine blessing on the work. Hurstelega, " the place of the wood," once known as Esgareston, was from that day forward to be reckoned in the annals of Berkshire as " Percelebris locus," which a late fifteenth- century brass (still riveted on to the floor of the church) assigns as an epithet of Hurley. At that very moment the remains of Edith, sister of the Confessor, lay buried at their feet ; or, at any rate, soon afterwards were laid to rest on the spot (see p. 43). A perusal of the Charters and Deeds of Hurley — which I print in brief — will be suffi- cient evidence of the importance and dignity which was in store for our Priory. The incident connected with Edith is of such great ST. MARYS CHURCH. 1 3 interest that I will let my readers have a sight of the Liber Niger Quaternus of Westminster with regard to her. This volume contains a register of charters from William I to the time of the compiler, Abbot Esteney (1474-1498). The following is an exact translation of the passage re- ferred to : — " Fifteenth year of Richard II (June 1391-92) : 'At the same time the Prior and Convent of Hurley besought my Lord the King that out of reverence due to Lady Edith, sister of the holy King Edward the Confessor, there buried [ibidem sepultae], and inasmuch as they are troubled in many particulars, that is to say by Thames floods, their houses laid in ruins, the death of their occupants, and inasmuch as they are modestly endowed — it might please the said Lord King to appropriate to them the Church of Warefeld in the Salisbury Diocese of which they from a distant date have been the patrons.' " However, it is clear that at any rate up to December 12th, 1397, the Priory had not obtained the favour asked (No. 507). When Hardicanute died in 1042, the English saw their chance of shaking themselves free of Danish rule. The children of Edmund Ironside were the true heirs to the throne ; but inasmuch as they were at the time abroad, and as the powerful Godwin favoured the accession of Edward, son of Ethelred the Unready, the latter became King of England. Godwin, however, had made one sole condition of his aid — that Edward should marry his daughter Edith, and the marriage service was performed between them, although they lived as brother and sister together, rather than as man and wife. The Queen died on December 1 8th, 107s, and was buried at Westminster. The Con- fessor had a sister named Edith, of half-blood relation- ship. His mother, Emma of Normandy, had been married to Canute the Dane before she allied herself with Ethelred, 14 ST. MARY'S CHURCH. and this fact gives a clue as to who the Princess of Royal blood buried at Huriey really was. Ulster King has told us that the eldest daughter of Canute and Emma was an Edgiva, who (Speed says) was married to Ethelstan, " a general slaine by the Danes in the year loio". Or else it may be that the Edith referred to was Eadgith, daughter of Ethelred the Unready himself. She married Eadric Streon, and this is all we know. I am quite convinced that there is no confusion between Edith, the Confessor's Queen, and the " Lady Edith" to whose burial at Hurley the chronicler of Richard II refers as a well-known fact. It is incredible that a writer of only 350 years later could have blundered between the virgin queen and the half- sister of the great King Edward. Edith, his queen, was unquestionably buried at Westminster, whilst Edith, his sister, is buried at Hurley. It is not without interest to inquire as to the origin of our founder's name, and to give a brief account of the pedigree and history of that portion of his family which is connected in any way with Hurley. " On ne sait auquel des nombreaux Magneville, Mandeville, Manneville de Normandie rapporter le berceau de cette illustre maison." This plea of general ignorance on the subject has not yet been anywhere responded to. It is alleged by some that his name of " de Magna Villa" was acquired by his prowess in battle. This, however, has as little real authority as the statement that he received his manors from the Conqueror on account of his having fought in the battle near Hastings, in 1066. De Lisle imagines that the family originated from Mandeville, a village near Trevieres. There is another Mandeville, near St. Vallery- en-Caux, from whence the name of our founder may have been derived. That he had more than one son is evident from his Charter (No i), which founded Huriey Priory. ST. MARY'S CHURCH. IS One of these was William, the first Constable of the Tower of London. Mr. Round, in his learned work, entitled Geoffrey de Mandeville {i.e., our founder's grandson), exposes an error into which Dugdale has fallen in his Monasticon, whereby he makes out (misquoting his own authority) that the first Constable of the Tower was our founder himself This is not so. He was Sheriff of Middlesex, but never Constable of the Tower. This William de Mandeville was not, so far as I know, in any way a benefactor to Hurley. He had, however, the dis- tinction of being the immediate progenitor of one of the most remarkable men who ever blotched the escutcheon of a lordly race. A more inveterate scoundrel than his first-born, Geoffrey, never drew rein on battlefield or dis- graced the honour of a distinguished name. This Geoffrey did something for Hurley. He had married Roesia, daughter of Alberic de Vere and sister to Alberic the first Earl of Oxford ; and conjointly Geoffrey and Roesia made a grant to Hurley Church (No. 6) of part of the tithe which their chaplain, William, had been in the habit of receiving " de dominica curia monachorum ejusdem ecclesise", i.e., of Hurley ; and, further, he confirmed the grants of his grandfather to Hurley Church. One feels sorry, in the retrospect, that such a scoundrel should have set his seal to any charter in our favour. Coquetting first with Stephen and then with the Empress Matilda, Geoffrey eventually sold himself to the highest bidder. The charter which he secured from Stephen, making him Earl of Essex, is the oldest-known creation of an Earl by charter. In 1 136 Geoffrey founded Walden Abbey, and the Chronicle states that he was at that time an Earl, and in his foundation charter he so styles himself But neither of these documents are trustworthy in this respect, as Mr. Round clearly shows ; and it is certain l6 ST. MARY'S CHURCH. that Stephen's creation charter was sealed at some date between June and December, 1140. Geoffrey was a dangerous man to reckon with, and the King's hand was practically forced. The charter was a short one. Mr. Round has supplied us, in his book, with a photograph of the original, which is preserved in the Cottonian Collection at the British Museum (vii-4). The triumph of the Empress was brought to a head on April 7th and 8th, 1141, when in the presence of the Archbishop of Canterbury and all the English Bishops- first of all in private and then publicly — she was elected and declared as " Domina Angliae Normanniasque." Her triumph, however, did not last for more than a few months ; but meanwhile the crafty Geoffrey had made the most of his opportunities. As Keeper of the Tower, his allegiance to the cause of Matilda was an important factor for the Empress herself, and Geoffrey was nothing loth to profit by the fact. Not only would it be highly advantageous for him to secure the confirmation of his Earldom from both rivals for the crown, but he saw his opportunity for increas- ing his wealth. By her charter of Midsummer, 1 141, Matilda had granted him not only the Earldom of Essex, but also " the third penny of the Sheriff's Court, as an Earl ought to receive of his county in all things." She put into words what Stephen's charter of the previous year had in no way expressed to be conveyed by himself The Empress's charter is much longer than Stephen's. Her license to fortify and her grants of land mainly distinguish it from that of her rival. The Tower of London had done much for Geoffrey, and for the nonce he was a great man. Then followed, on the expulsion of the Empress from London, her siege of Winchester, and her flight from Winchester after having been routed by the Queen ; and then the once haughty combatant, in terrible plight, retired on ST. MARYS CHURCH. 1 7 Gloucester. The King himself was set free. Soon after, the King granted a second, charter in favour of Geoffrey. Matilda's grant to him of ;^iOO a year on security in Essex was raised threefold, and the manors of Writtle and Hat- field were superadded by Stephen. Escheats to the Crown were charged with ;£'ioo in his favour, annually ; and Arnulf, Geoffrey's son, likewise received an annual grant. But, even yet, Geoffrey was not satisfied. Yet another charter was petitioned from the Empress by this great chameleon of the Middle Ages, which in the decline of all her hopes was, in fact, accorded to him. And then, at last, the end came. Geoffrey, more dominant than ever, was arrested at St. Alban's by the King. The surrender of the Tower and all his castles, or else the gallows, were the conditions offered him. Preferring the former to the latter alternative, he surrendered to the King ; and Saffron Walden, the stronghold of his family, as well as Fleshy, were forfeited in addition to the Tower. The Empress was powerless to help her fallen favourite. William de Say, who had married Beatrice, Geoffrey's sister, espoused the cause of his brother-in-law. Geoffrey retired on the Fenland, and Cambridge fell a victim to his schemes. Nothing was safe. Churches, religious houses, everything, were ransacked. It seemed that the Devil himself had been unloosed from hell. Ramsey Abbey was desecrated ; at Ely dead bodies festered in the field. Such a reign of terror as this made men wonder whether God's arm itself were shortened. There had never before, in England, been anything like it. At last the bolt was shot, and Geoffrey fell. At the siege of Burwell (in 1 144), whilst this terrible man was wiping sweat from his brow — having taken off his helmet on a hot July day — an archer, seizing his chance, shot an arrow at Geoffrey's front, and, fatally wounded, he wallowed in the dust. C 1 8 ST. MARY'S CHURCH. He did not die immediately, but breathed liis last in Suffolk. It is said— and let us believe it— that he was penitent on his death-bed. Thus perished one of the most excitable daredevils who ever lived. According to the Chronicles of Ramsey, his brother-in-law, William de Say, was also killed at Burwell. Geoffrey's death closed a career which in after-history has never been forgotten. Cursed by the Church, the Knights Templar might fling over him the red cross of their Order, but his excommuni- cated body was denied the sanctuary of Christian burial. Suspended (in lead) to a fruit tree, or else thrown into a ditch outside a churchyard, it remained above ground for nineteen years. At last, however. Pope Alexander (the third) released the ban, and his bones now rest in the Temple Church, after a dispute between the Templars and the Prior of Walden, each of whom laid claim to his body. This is as strange and weird a history as was ever chronicled in connection with this country. So great was the abhorrence in which the memory of this lawless man was held, more especially by the Church, that Arnulf, his eldest son (who had also much to answer for on his own account) was deprived of his succession to the Earldom and driven into exile. Curiously enough, he was the only male of his own generation of the De Mandeville family who had issue. Arnulf made a grant to Hurley Priory (No. 9) of one hide of land at Kingham, in Oxfordshire, for the salvation of his father's and his mother's (Adeliza's) souls, as well as of his own, which was witnessed by his wife and his three sons (Geoffrey, Arnulf, and William), as well as by two of his daughters. Ralph de Mandeville, also a son of Arnulf, granted land in King- ham to Hurley Church (No. 10). Geoffrey, second son of the first Earl, had not been with his father at the siege of Burwell, and in him the Empress recognised the successor ST. MARY'S CHURCH. I9 to his father's Earldom. It required, however, an entirely new creation to revive the lapsed title ; and this was not effected until the January of 1156, twelve years after the first Earl's death, when Henry II conferred it on Arnulf's younger brother, Geoffrey, who made grants to Hurley Church (Nos. 11 and 12). Though married to Eustachia, he died without male issue in 1169, and was succeeded by his younger brother, William. Of this man, the third Earl, it has been well said : " The son was as loyal as his father was faithless"; but, although selected by Richard I for the post of Lord Chief Justice of England during the absence of that King in the East, he did not live long enough to represent Richard in his absence, as he died in November 1 1 89, without issue; and, during the lifetime of Arnulf the outlaw, for the second time since the creation of the title, in 1 140, the Earldom of Essex became extinct. Even yet, however, it was to rise once more from its ashes in connection with De Mandeville blood. Beatrice, William's aunt, who had been married, in succession, to Hugh Talebot and William de Say, had issue by her second marriage — a son, William, who himself had a daughter, Beatrice, and another son, Geoffrey, who con- firms a grant of Earl William de Mandeville's to Hurley (No. 38). The last-named Beatrice was married to Geoffrey Fitz Piers, and for him it was reserved, once again, to renew the family honour of the De Mandevilles. Beatrice, his wife, claimed the title ; and eventually it was sold to her husband for 3,000 marks by Richard I. This man, likewise, was Lord Chief Justice of England. But, although the Earldom was thus conferred on Fitz Piers, the heirship of William (third Earl) reverted to Beatrice (de Say), his aunt, who was alive at the time of William's death in 11 89. I dwell upon this because Earl William's name appears frequently amongst Hurley Charters and C 2 20 ST. MARY'S CHURCH. Deeds, whilst Beatrice, his aunt, confirmed one of his grants (No. 31). Geoffrey Fitz Piers confirmed two grants of Earl William de Mandeville (Nos. 32, 39). The following pedigree gives a sketch of this remarkable family, so far as it is likely to be of interest in this memoir. I have compiled it, specially. A De Mandeville Pedigree. (See Hurley Charters and Deeds.) 2. Leceline, = Geofifrey de Mandeville.; Founded Hurley Priory ; died early Hen. I. I. Athelais, buried in West- minster Cloisters. William, ist Constable of=Margaret, d. of Eudo de Brie, Steward the Tower. to William the Conqueror, and Roesia Fitz Gilbert {nee Giffard), the heiress of Shiplake, Oxon. Geoffrey,: 1st Earl of Essex 1 140; died 1 144. -Roesia, dau. of Al- beric de Vere, Cham- berlain of Eng., sister of Alberic de Vere, 1st Earl of Oxford. I. Hagh = Talebot. : Beatrice.==2. Wm. Say. de I William. = I Geoffrey. I Beatrice. = Geoffrey Fitz Piers, 4th Earl of Essex, Justiciar, 1199- 1213. I Arnulf(dis- ==Aaliz. inherited and exiled). Geoffrey, = Eustachia. 2nd Earl of Essex, 1156 ; died 1169, sine prole. William, 3rd Earl of Essex, 1 169, Justiciar ; died 1 1 89, sine prole. I I I I i I Geoffrey. Arnulf. William. Ralph. Matilda (de Port). Beatrice. The document which is of the greatest interest to Hurley, amongst the long list of " Charters and Deeds," (no fewer than five hundred and sixty-two of which I am enabled to reproduce in epitome form) is, of course, the Foundation ST. MARY'S CHURCH. 21 Charter of Geoffrey de Mandeville the first, to which I have already referred. When he executed this grant to Hurley, {c. 1086-87), he distinctly stated at the end of it : " Three brief Instruments recording this my Gift and Foundation have been made ; one I have deposited at Westminster, another at the Church at Hurley, and a third for myself and my heirs who will succeed me." The '' Hurley" original is in the custody of the Dean and Chapter of Westminster, and is the earliest, of course, of all the Westminster col- lection of Hurley parchments. When Hurley Priory was dissolved, in 1536, the unhappy monks took all the parch- ments and papers which had hitherto been in their custody at Hurley to the Mother Abbey for safe keeping. A large number of the deeds, it will be noticed, have absolutely nothing at all to do with either Hurley Priory or Westminster Abbey. The fact is that, whereas in the Middle Ages town halls w^ere the common " record offices" in which the towns- people deposited the parchments upon which their deeds of sale, or covenants, or agreements, were inscribed, the monas- teries were the sanctuaries in country places to which the rustic population naturally turned, when they had any valuables to deposit ; and this fact alone can account for the immense number of Hurley parchments and papers which the Dean and Chapter of Westminster have lately allowed me for examination. Such an opportunity has rarely, if ever, before, been accorded to a country parish. Having already given a sketch of the De Mandevilles and their history, a fewr words as to Bishop Osmund and Gilbert, Abbot of Westminster, who assisted our founder in his pious enterprise, will not be out of place. Osmund appears as the first subscribing witness to Geoffrey's charter. This would be natural, as he was the diocesan of Hurley. His father was Henry, Count of Seez ; his mother was Isabella, daughter of Robert, Duke 22 ST. MARY'S CHURCH. of Normandy. Thus, Osmund was nephew to William the Conqueror : all this is stated in the Liber Eviden- tiarum, in the Episcopal Registry of Salisbury.^ Besides being Count of Seez, Osmund was afterwards Earl of Dorset and Lord High Chancellor of England. His name will be for ever memorable in church history as the com- piler (about the year 1085) of the famous Use of Sarum, by far the best-known of all those Uses in England which took the place of the old Saxon Liturgy. We have still records of seven such Uses in England, Scotland and Wales. Osmund was consecrated Bishop of old Sarum by Lanfranc in 1078, and died on December 3rd, 1099, after a remarkably good episcopate ; indeed, he was known as " Osmund the Good". This holy man was not canonised until three hundred and fifty-eight years after his death, on which occasion his remains were re-interred with great respect, and the 4th of December was assigned to his memory.^ The second witness to the charter was Gilbert Crispin, Abbot of Westminster, likewise of Norman blood. His family, which was large, had produced several great men. He was educated at the monastery of Bee, in Normandy, under Lanfranc, afterwards Archbishop of Canterbury ; he was also, as a monk, under Archbishop — then Abbot — Anselm. After an abbacy of thirty-two years at Westminster, he died on December 6th, 11 17, and was buried in the great cloisters. In the earlier portion of the charter, reference is made to "the lands of the Ceorls at Little Waltham". (The Ceorls were of two sorts : one that hired the lord's tene- mentary estate, like our farmers ; the other that tilled and manured the demesne, yielding work and not rent, and were therefore called his sochnen, or ploughmen.) It is ' Uncorroborated. 2 Feast of the Translation of St. Osmund, July i6th. ST. MARY'S CHURCH. 23 plain that this place cannot be the Little Waltham in Essex. Great Waltham and Little Waltham (Essex) both lie north of Chelmsford. It is therefore clear that in charter No. 2 our founder could not have referred to Waltham in Essex, when he forbade ^dric and "all his men of Waltham" to intermeddle with the water and wood of the Priory at Hurley. It is no less clear that when, in No. 218, reference is made to " Lutelwaltham", at Knowl Hill, or to the village of " Hurnlye" at Little Waltham (No. 270), or to Little Waltham in the Parish of Hurley (Nos. 288, 290), the Waltham referred to must be close to Hurley. A study of the Ordnance Map shows that imme- diately behind and to the south of the Knowl Hill Farm, a rectangular slice of Waltham St. L aurence juts in towards Hurley parish, enclosed towards the east and west respec- tively by the parishes of White Waltham and Wargrave. And, it is — as already shown — equally clear on studying the Deeds, that so dependent was Waltham St. Laurence on Hurley that the former parish — or rather a portion of it — is referred to as being actually in the parish of Hurley. On turning to No. 30 of the Hurley Grants, we notice that Herbert (Poor) Bishop of Salisbury (1194-1214), of which diocese Hurley and the Walthams near it were constituent parts, made a gift to Hurley Priory " of all tithes of sheaves at Waltham, and the oblations made on St. Laurence's Day," etc.; which gift was confirmed by his successor. Bishop Richard (Poor) shortly afterwards (1220) ; and on reference to No. 465, we find the end of a squabble between William Bromele, Prior, and the Convent of Hurley and the perpetual Vicar of Waltham St. Laurence, as to the increase of the portion of his vicarage. These instances are amply sufficient to indicate the vassalage of Waltham St. Laurence to Hurley Monastery. In Domesday no distinc- tion is made between the Berkshire Walthams, Both White 24 ST. MARY'S CHURCH. Waltham and Waltham St. Laurence are simply styled as Waltham. Their ownership is divided between the King, the Bishop of Durham, and the Abbot of Chertsey. At the time of Domesday, Geoffrey de Mandeville owned nothing in either of the parishes known as White and Laurence Waltham. But, inasmuch as he was one of the Conqueror's highest favourites, it is not difficult to understand that, between the completion of Domesday and the execution of Geoffrey's charter (No. i), he secured from the Crown a portion of Waltham St. Laurence as tenens in capite. Nothing more likely. The charter itself is in good preservation. It is dark in colour, and appears to have suffered from damp, but every word of it is legible. The seal is described in the chapter on "Hurley Seals", later on. The charter \c. 1086-87] was engrossed in triplicate upon a stretch of vellum, 28J ins. long and 13 ins. wide [tria acta sunt brevid\, and the scribe wrote in large Roman characters the word CYROGRAPHUM (twice repeated) across the face of the parchment, so as to separate the three copies distinctly from one another, and these were afterwards severed by cutting through the letters horizontally, so that the top of each letter remains upon the bottom of the upper copy ; and the bottom of each appears upon the top of the second copy — and so on vicissim. It can thus be ascertained for certain that the copy which is now at the head of the series of our "Hurley Charters," is the very one left with Hurley Priory at the time of its foundation, inasmuch as it is the middle of the three, which exactly corresponds with the order given in the instrument itself, viz. : " unum apud Westmonasterium, aliud apud eandem Ecclesiam de Herleia, tertium mihi et heredibus meis succedentibus." The endorsement is still in good preservation. It runs as follows : " Carta (primi) Gaufridi de Ma'villa et fundatoris Ecclesie de Herleia pro ST. MARY'S CHURCH. 25 quo Beneficio ejus anima gratuletur in celo. Amen." — " Fundatoris" here refers, not to the fabric of Hurley Church, which had long before been in existence, but to its endowment with lands and tithes. The terrible curse denounced on all those who should infringe upon the founder's gift, consigning them to the fate which befell the traitor Judas and those upstarts of the wilderness, Dathan and Korah, strikes harshly enough upon modern ears ; but, after all, like the threatening clauses of the Athanasian creed, their " intents" are " charitable" rather than the reverse, even though we may pronounce this part of the charter to be expressed in " questionable shape". The curse was right piously denounced by Geoffrey. One is tempted to wonder whether Geoffrey's ghost ever haunted Henry Tudor, when he robbed the monasteries in after years. I have had the charter photographed, and the result is very good. Madox prints it in his Formulare Angli- canum. No. CCCXCVII, and there is a copy of it in the Walden Register compiled in 1397 for Abbot Pentelow. Dugdale used the Walden transcript of the charter when he wrote his Monasticon. The Walden Register now forms part of the Harleian MSS. in the British Museum, No. 3,697. The translation which follows was taken in [891 from a transcript which the Dean and Chapter of Westminster allowed me to have made by a Record agent from the (Hurley) original at the Abbey: it hangs in Hurley Church. A Translation of the Original Hurley Foundation Charter (No. i) in the Custody of the Dean and Chapter of Westminster. By Geoffrey de Mandeville (