At the period of the Dissolution, its inmates were a Prior, eleven Canons, and thirty-four servants; and its annual revenues were valued at 1871. 13s. 8d. according to Dugdale; or, according to Speed, at 2321. 7s. Od. Soon afterwards, in 1542, the dissolved Monastery was granted, by Henry the Eighth, to Sir Richard Cromwell, alias Williams, great grandfather to the Protector Oliver Cromwell, and at that time one of the King's chief favorites. His son, Sir Henry Cromwell, bequeathed it to his second son, Robert Cromwell, Esq. the father of the Protector Cromwell, by the latter of whom it was sold, with other estates, in and near Huntingdon, to two of his own family, who soon afterwards conveyed the whole to Sir Sidney Montagu, ancestor to the present Earl of Sandwich. The buildings have long been demolished; but the lanes which sever the closes from each other, still retain their ancient appellation. In the Priory Close, two stone coffins were dug up in the course of the last century.' In this Priory, David Bruce, the Scotch Earl of Huntingdon, and brother to King William, was buried; and "there was also an elegant monument, with the figure of a knight on horseback (eques) in his hunting dress, ascribed by the town's-people to another Earl of Huntingdon."+ The next foundation in order of time, was an HOSPITAL dedicated to St. Margaret, for a Master and Brethren, and several leprous and infirm People,' to which Malcolm the Fourth, King of Scotland, and Earl of Huntingdon, was a great benefactor, and most probably the founder. Its possessions were afterwards increased by several of the Bruces, and various privileges were conferred also by them upon the Brethren; all which were confirmed by Edward the Third in the twelfth of his reign. In the twenty-fourth of Henry the Sixth, either by the death or cession of the master,' this Hospital was annexed to Trinity Hall, in Cambridge, and confirmed to that foundation by Edward the Fourth 6 in + Gough's Cam. Vol. II. p. 158. MS. Inform. penes me. Tanner's Notitia. n his first year. Another HOSPITAL, for leprous and poor people, was founded in the north part of the town, by David, Earl of Huntingdon, in the time of Henry the Second, and dedicated to St. John Baptist. On its dissolution, among the Lesser Monasteries, in the twenty-sixth of Henry the Eighth, its annual revenues were estimated at 91. 4s. in the gross, or at the nett sum of 61. 7s. 8d. Almost the only vestiges of this Hospital now standing, are some fragments of the garden wall. The Mastership was in the gift of the Bailiffs and Commonalty of Huntingdon. At the north end of the town, also, was a House of AUGUSTINE FRIARS, established before the nineteenth of Edward the First ; probably about 1285, as "Johannes Romanus, Archbishop of York, granted an indulgence in that year to such as should contribute toward the fabric."§ This Friary was suppressed in the thirty-second of Henry the Eighth, and granted to Thomas Ardern. Huntingdon is generally stated to have been once much larger than at present; and Sir Robert Cotton, as quoted by Speed, ascribes its decay to some alterations made in the river by one Grey, a minion of the time,' which impeded its navigation. Leland says, that 'some ages before it had fifteen Churches, though in his time reduced to four; the rest fallen through time and neglect, but traces of their walls and yards remaining.'¶ Twelve of these Churches, as appears from Cole's Manuscripts in the British Museum, were dedicated to St. Botolph, St. Martin, St. Edmund, St. John, St. Benet, All Saints, St. Mary, St. Andrew, St. NichoJas, St, George, and St. German. The first seven are mentioned in *Sancroft's MS. Valor. For additional particulars, see in the account of the Cromwells, in the Monasticon,* to have been granted to St. Mary's Priory, in the time of Henry the Third: St. Andrew's belonged to Ramsey Abbey:+ St. John's was pulled down between the years 1651 and 1660, by one Silvester Bedell, whose family is extinct, and come to poverty;' and St. Benet's has been since entirely demolished, the tower, which alone remained standing during the last century, having been taken down about four years ago, to prevent the danger of its expected fall. The only churches that now remain, are those of St. Mary and All Saints. St. Mary's, which is the Corporation Church, was rebuilt in the reign of James the First, between the years 1608 and 1620, as appears from those dates over the north door-way: on the tower is the date 1613. It consists of a nave, chancel, and aisles, with an handsome embattled tower at the west end, having strong buttresses with ornamental niches at the angles: the nave is separated from the chancel by a high pointed arch, and from the aisles by pointed arches rising from round and octagonal columns. The area is well pewed; and across the west end runs a large gallery, in which is a good organ. On the north side of the chancel are seveal monuments of the Sayers; one of whom, George Sayer, Gent. contributed largely towards the internal repairs of this edifice, and, besides several other donations, gave 5001. to purchase lands, the rents to be appropriated to the ministers of the two Parishes, for reading prayers alternately in their respective churches. Against the south wall, within the altar-rails, is a neat tablet in commemoration of Mary Elizabeth, wife of Rear Admiral Montagu, who was born August, 13, 1774; married April 24, 1792; and died May 29, 1805. Another monument against the south wall records the memory of NICHOLAS PEDLEY, Knt. and is thus inscribed: Proxime hoc Marmor est Nichlaus Pedley, Miles. Juris et * Vol. II. p. 27. sanctior + Sprotti Chron. Hern. p. 191. |