Butley Priory, sometimes called Butley Abbey, was a religious house of Canons regular (Augustinians, Black canons) in Butley, Suffolk, dedicated to The Blessed Virgin Mary.R.J. Day, 'Butley Priory, in the Hundred of Loes', Proceedings of the Suffolk Institute of Archaeology and Natural History Vol. IV, Part 7 (1874), pp. 405-13 (Suffolk Institute pdf).'Houses of Austin canons: Priory of Butley', in W. Page (ed.), A History of the County of Suffolk, Vol. 2 (VCH, London 1975), pp. 95-98 (British History Online, accessed 20 May 2018). It was founded in 1171 by Ranulf de Glanville (c. 1112-1190), Chief Justiciar to King Henry II (1180-1189),E. Foss, The Judges of England: with sketches of their lives, Volume I (London, 1848), pp. 185-86. and was the sister foundation to Ranulf's house of White canons (Premonstratensians) at Leiston Abbey, a few miles to the north, founded c. 1183.'House of Premonstratensian canons: Abbey of Leiston', in W. Page (ed.), A History of the County of Suffolk Vol. 2, ed. William Page (V.C.H., London 1975), pp. 117-19 (British History Online accessed 12 May 2018). Butley Priory was suppressed in 1538.
Although only minor fragments of the priory church and some masonry of the convent survive at Abbey Farm, the underground archaeology was expertly investigated and interpreted in 1931-33, shedding much light on the lost buildings and their development.J.N.L. Myres, W.D. Caröe and J.B. Ward Perkins, ‘Butley Priory, Suffolk,’ Archaeological Journal XC (1933), pp. 177–281 (archaeology data service pdf). The remaining glory of the priory is its 14th-century Gatehouse, incorporating the former guest quarters. This exceptional building, largely intact, reflects the interests of the manorial patron Guy Ferre the younger (died 1323), Seneschal of Gascony to King Edward II 1308-1309,See 'The Gascon Rolls Project, 1317-1468', Research Tools, "Principal Office Holders in the Duchy: Seneschals of Gascony" (gasconrolls.org). and was probably built in the priorate of William de Geytone (1311–32). Having fallen into decay after 1538, it was restored to use as a private house about 280 years ago.
Near-complete lists of the priors survive from 1171 to 1538,Good lists of the Priors are given by Day, 'Butley Priory, in the Hundred of Loes', at pp. 412-13; Page, 'Houses of Augustinian Canons' (VCH); and (with fuller accounts) by Myres, 'I. The History of the Priory', in Myres et al., Archaeological Journal, at pp. 179-212 and p. 222. See also Bishop Tanner's list of priors in W. Bowyer, An History of the Mitred Parliamentary Abbies, and Conventual Cathedral Churches, 2 Vols (Robert Gosling, London 1719), II, pp. 221-22 (Google). together with foundation deeds, deeds of grant, and records pertaining to the priory's manors, holdings and visitations.For texts of charters, Bishop Tanner's evidences etc., see W. Dugdale, Monasticon Anglicanum New Edition (James Bohn, London 1846), Vol. VI Part 1, pp. 379-81 (Google). In addition there is a Register or Chronicle made in the last decades of the priory,A.G. Dickens (ed.), The Register or Chronicle of Butley Priory, Suffolk, 1510-1535 (Warren and Son, Winchester 1951). and there are sundry documents concerning its suppression. Its post-Dissolution history has also been investigated.V. Fenwick and V. Harrup, Untold Tales from the Suffolk Sandlings (Butley Research Group, Woodbridge, 2009). In private ownership in the area of the Suffolk Heritage Coast, the Gatehouse is now a Grade I listed building and is used as a venue for private functions, corporate events or retreats.Vogue feature (www.Vogue.com webpage)
Foundation The founders
Butley Priory was founded at the time when nearby Orford Castle was being built by King Henry II to consolidate his power in Suffolk, a region dominated by Hugh Bigod, 1st Earl of Norfolk (died c. 1176). Ranulf de Glanvill, born in Stratford St Andrew, Sheriff of Yorkshire from 1163 to 1170, was loyal to the king, and married Bertha, daughter of Theobald de Valoines, Lord of Parham (fl. 1135). He became mentor to the King's son, John, and to Hubert Walter,See Hubert's foundation charter of West Dereham, Norfolk: "pro animabus... domini Ranulphi de Glanvilla et dominae Berthae uxoris eius, qui nos nutrierunt." W. Dugdale, Monasticon Anglicanum new edition (James Bohn, London 1846), VI Part 2, p. 899. son of his wife's sister Maud de Valoines. A kinsman, Bartholomew de Glanvill, was Sheriff of Norfolk and Suffolk from 1169, and Constable of Orford Castle. Hugh Bigod's widowed countess, Gundred, was the founder of Bungay Priory, and remarried to Roger de Glanvill;J.H. Round, Geoffrey de Mandeville: A Study of the Anarchy (Longmans, Green & Co., London 1892), Appendix M, at pp. 317 (Internet Archive). Ranulf witnessed the royal confirmation.
The site of Butley Priory, on rising ground overlooking wetland levels fed by waters tributary to the tidal Butley River, was an estate called Brochous, granted as maritagium (marriage endowmentLand endowed on a marriage and its heirs in blood by a bride's family, which would revert to them (and not to the husband's issue) in default of the bride's issue. "Nota quod terra data in maritagium revertitur ad verum dominum donatorem quia nullum puerum habent simul" (Henry de Bracton). See, e.g., J. Biancalana, The Fee Tail and the Common Recovery in Medieval England, 1176-1502 (CUP, 2001), at pp. 6-14, chapters 2 & 3, & p. 142 ff.) to Bertha de Valoines by her father Theobald. This part of Butley lies in the Hundred of Plomesgate: at the Domesday Survey of 1086 it formed a manor (Carlton) held by one Hamo from Count Alan, presumably part of the de Valoines tenure which from Parham (in Plomesgate) owed service to the Honour of Richmond.'The Valognes Fee', in W. Farrer and C.T. Clay, Early Yorkshire Charters, Vol. 5: The Honour of Richmond, Part 2 (reprint), (Cambridge University Press, 2013), pp. 234-37.V.H. Fenwick, 'The mysterious mill and some Domesday anomalies resolved', Orford and District Local History Bulletin 22 (Spring 2014), pp. 1-9 (Butley Research Group pdf). See also V.H. Fenwick, 'Mapping Domesday', Orford and District Local History Bulletin, 28 (Spring 2017), pp. 5-10.
Ranulf founded the house in 1171 for 36 canons under a prior, for whom he selected Gilbert, formerly a precentor at Blythburgh Priory.W. Dugdale and C. Dodsworth, Monastici Anglicani, Volumen Alterum, De Canonicis Regularibus Augustinianis (Alicia Warren, London 1661), pp. 245 ff.. Ranulf endowed it with the churches of Butley, Capel St Andrew, Bawdsey, Benhall, Farnham, Wantisden, Leiston and Aldringham, and a fourth part of the church of Glemham, together with various lands in Butley.The scholarly edition of the Charters is R. Mortimer (ed.), Leiston Abbey Cartulary and Butley Priory Charters, Suffolk Records Society (Boydell Press, Ipswich 1979), see Introduction only. Ranulf and Bertha also founded a leper hospital at West Somerton in Norfolk, for three lepers, dedicated to St Leonard,F. Blomefield, ed. C. Parkin, An Essay Towards a Topographical History of the County of Norfolk, (William Miller, London 1810), XI, p. 189. and placed it under the governance of Butley Priory.'Hospitals: West Somerton', in W. Page (ed.), A History of the County of Norfolk, Vol. 2 (London, 1906), p. 450 (British History Online, accessed 11 October 2017).R. Mortimer, 'The Prior of Butley and the Lepers of West Somerton', Historical Research 53, issue 127 (May 1980), pp. 98-103.
Ranulf was Sheriff of Lancashire and Keeper of the Honour of Richmond at the time of the Revolt of 1173-74, and, following the defeat of Hugh Bigod at the Battle of Fornham in 1173, Glanvill surprised the Scots at the Battle of Alnwick in 1174 and made William the Lion the king's prisoner.S.J. Bailey, 'Ranulf de Glanvill in Yorkshire (with an Excursus on Little Abington, Cambridgeshire)', Cambridge Law Journal, XVI no. 2 (November 1958), pp. 178-98. Resuming office as Sheriff of Yorkshire in 1175, he became Chief Justiciar in 1180 (succeeding Richard de Luci). Butley seems to have held the advowson of St Olave Jewry with St Stephen Coleman Street, in London, from the Canons of St Paul's Cathedral by 1181. So it is shown in the accounts of Ralph de Diceto, who later made a grant of them to Butley, out of the fee of Ranulf's son-in-law Ralph de Ardern, acknowledged under the seal of Prior Gilbert.R. Newcourt, Repertorium Ecclesiasticum Parochiale Londinense (Benjamin Motte, for Baker, Tooke, Parker, Bowyer and Clements, London 1708), pp. 535-37 and pp. 512-13, citing Register of the Dean and Chapter of St Paul's, Book B, fol. 38, and Book A, fol. 24.
Being granted the manor of Leiston, a few miles north of Butley, Ranulf founded the Premonstratensian Abbey there c. 1183 under Prior Robert, on a marshland isle near the sea. Among its endowments was the church of Knodishall, which with the assent of Gilbert and Robert was transferred to Butley Priory in exchange for their churches of Leiston and Aldringham.(Introduction), in R. Mortimer (ed.), Leiston Abbey Cartulary and Butley Priory Charters Suffolk Records Society (The Boydell Press, London 1979), p. 2 (Google). Ranulf died at the Siege of Acre in 1190, having divided his estates between his three daughters. In the descent of Bertha's maritagium to her heirs in blood, the patronage of the two convents passed with the manor of Benhall (in Plomesgate) to Matilda, and to her husband William de Auberville of Westenhanger in Kent.See S.J. Bailey, 'Ranulf de Glanvill and His Children', The Cambridge Law Journal Vol. 15, No. 2 (November 1957), pp. 163-182; and R. Mortimer, 'The Family of Rannulf de Glanville', Bulletin of the Institute of Historical Research LIV no. 129, 1981, pp. 1–16.J.N.L. Myres, 'Notes on the History of Butley Priory, Suffolk', in Oxford Essays in Medieval History presented to Herbert Edward Salter (Clarendon Press, Oxford 1934), pp. 190-206.H.M. Colvin, The White Canons in England (Clarendon Press, Oxford 1951), pp. 34, 292.
The patronage, 1190-1300 William and Matilda de Auberville founded Langdon Abbey, With excavation plan. a Premonstratensian house near West Langdon, Kent, in 1192, as from Leiston Abbey: the foundation was given under the hand of Abbot Robert of Leiston and attested by Prior Gilbert of Butley.W. Dugdale, Monasticon Anglicanum new edition (James Bohn, London 1846), VI Part 2, p. 898, Langdon, Charter No. 1. (in Latin). In 1194 Matilda's nephews, Thomas de Ardene and Ranulf fitz Robert, brought suit against the de Aubervilles for their share of Glanville's inheritance: William de Auberville died c. 1195, and his heirs became wards of Hubert Walter.Bailey, 'Ranulf de Glanvill in Yorkshire', at p. 186 note 51. In c. 1195 Butley elected its second prior, William (c. 1195-1213), a choice confirmed by Pope Celestinus III (1191-1199) who granted them the perpetual right of free electionMyres, 'The History of the Priory', in Myres et al., Archaeological Journal, p. 179, citing Hawes, 'History or Memoirs of Framlingham and Loes Hundred' (1712), MS. Pembroke College, Cambridge, p. 366. (as also to Leiston).