Dean and chapter of the church of St Buryan. King and council. The Dean and chapter...

Petitioners

Dean and chapter of the church of St Buryan.

Addressees

King and council.

Nature of request

The Dean and chapter of the church of St Buryan, which is the King's free chapel, complain that Richard de Beaupree has made himself a canon and prebendary of their church of the prebend of Trethyn, claiming that he was presented to it by Walter de Stapelton, Bishop of Exeter, although the right of presentation to all the prebends belongs to the Dean and to the King in times of vacancy; and he has entered the prebend with force and arms, and carried off the tithes and rents, and distrained the tenants to transfer their allegiance to him. The Dean has sequestered the goods of the prebend, but Richard has indicted the Dean and the guardians of the sequestration of robbery, imprisoned some of them, and broken the sequestration. They ask the King, as he has cognisance of such disinheritances to his free chapels, to assign certain justices or visitors to inquire into, hear and determine these matters, so that if they find that Richard has entered as they claim, he might be expelled and punished for the trespass and contempt to the King, or that he might be attached to answer to the King and to the Dean and chapter, and to show by what title he has entered; or that the King might ordain some other suitable remedy.

Nature of endorsement

A writ of ita quod eum habeas is to be sent to the Sheriff to attach the said Richard to be before the King on a certain day to answer concerning the trespass and contempts contained in the petition, and in the same writ it is to be ordered that he is to be before the King on the same day to show what evidence he has for his title to hold the said prebend and further to receive justice; and with regard to those who are indicted and imprisoned, the Sheriff is to be ordered to have their bodies before the King on the same day by a certain mainprise, with their indictments.

Places mentioned

St Buryan, Cornwall

Trethyn (Tirthney, Trithing) prebend, [Cornwall]

Maunte [unidentified].

People mentioned

Richard de Beaupree, clerk

Walter de Stapelton (Stapledon), Bishop of Exeter

John Janoit of Maunte

Benedict le Bray

Roger de Penros.

For a petition by the bishop of Exeter on the same matter, see SC 8/8/361

For a petition by the dean and chapter on the same matter, see SC 8/91/4528

For a petition by the dean and canons on the same matter, see SC 8/318/E351

For a petition by the dean and canons of St Buryan on the same matter, see SC 8/205/10205

For a petition of the dean on the same matter, see SC 8/33/1629

For a related letter advising Queen Isabella on this matter, see SC 8/33/1628

• Calendar of Close Rolls, Edw III, vol. I, 1327-1330, (Public Record Office, 1896), pp.525-6 (order to the sheriff of Cornwall to release the prisoners on mainprise to be before the King fifteen days after Easter, and to have those not yet taken appear there then on similar mainprise)
• Calendar of Patent Rolls, Edw III, vol. I, 1327-1330, (Public Record Office, 1891), p.215 (commission of oyer et terminer on an earlier complaint by the Dean) & p.425 (commission of oyer et terminer into the breaking of the sequestration) & p.426 (another commission of oyer et terminer)
• Rotuli Parliamentorum; ut et Petitiones, et Placita in Parliamento, vol. II, Edw III, (Record Commission, 1783), p.19a (no.16) (full edition of later copy of original petition)
• The Parliament Rolls of Medieval England, Ed. Paul Brand, Anne Curry, Chris Given-Wilson, Rosemary Horrox, W.M. Ormrod and J.R.S. Phillips, (Cambridge University Press, 2005), Appendix of Unedited Petitions, 1307-1337, Rotuli Parliamentorum II, pp.13-30, no.16 (summary of references)