Transcript of a suit about the church of All Saints, Hastings (Sussex). Elizabeth,...

Transcript of a suit about the church of All Saints, Hastings (Sussex).

Elizabeth, abbess of Syon (Middlesex) and John Penaunt, her clerk, answered the king in a plea that they might permit the king to present a suitable parson to the vacant church of All Saints, Hastings, by right of patronage. William Notyngham, prosecutor, claimed that King Henry V was seised as of fee of the advowson, and in right of his crown, on account of which he presented John Couper, his clerk. Following John's death, the advowson fell to King Henry VI as son and heir of the late king, but King Edward IV presented John Faukes, his clerk, after whose resignation that church fell to S[imon Sydenham], then bishop of Chichester, the ordinary, whereby the present king presented John Gautroun, his clerk. Successive presentations were then made to William Prestwyk and John Faukes, the latter of whom freely resigned the church to Richard [Praty], then bishop of Chichester, the ordinary. The church fell to the present king who presented John Morton, his clerk, upon whose death was presented Robert Mouter', his clerk, who freely resigned it to Richard [Praty], then bishop of Chichester, the ordinary. The king then presented William Normanton, his clerk. Now, the church is vacant by Normanton's death but the abbess and Penaunt prevent the king unjustly to his damage in £1000.

By their attorney, Thomas Lamberd, the abbess and John Penaunt respond that before the present king ever had seisin his father was seised thereof and of the manor of Brede (Sussex), to which the advowson was attached, in his demesne as of fee, and that by his letters patent he granted both to John Cornwaille, knight, and Elizabeth, his wife, to have to them for their lives with reversion to the king and his heirs. By letters which the abbess proferred in court, dated at Bayeux on 16 March 1418, Henry V granted to Thomas [Langley], then bishop of Durham, Edmund [Lacy], then bishop of Hereford, John duke of Bedford, Thomas, then duke of Exeter, Henry fitz Hugh, knight, Master Henry Ware, then keeper of the privy seal, Simon Gamistede, clerk, William Kynwolmersshe, clerk, and Roger Flore, the aforesaid manors, amongst other manors, lands and possessions of the alien abbey of Fécamp (Normandy) in Sussex and elsewhere, which John and Elizabeth held for their lives, to hold to them with all appurtenances etc. [...]

See also CP 40/796, rot. 330.

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