Text Box: Lewes Priory: Monastic obedientiaries © Graham Mayhew 2007 Text Box: Lewes Priory monastic obedientiaries The daily running of the Priory administration was in the hands of a small group of monks usually referred to as obedientiaries who presided over their individual departments. Extraordinary expenditure, as for example 7s 7d on the rectory grange at Walpole by the procurator in 1535-6, or a 4s payment to three of the boys by the pittancer in 1534-5 was agreed by a committee comprising the sub-prior and seven “seniores” who, as in other large monasteries, had oversight of the individual obedientiaries’ accounts. These accounts survive for seven obedientiaries: the larderer, granator, procurator, master of works, hosteller, refectorer and pittancer. No accounts survive for the chamberlain, who also had a deputy and whose department was responsible for the overall income and expenditure of the priory, nor for the sacristan, almoner, cellarer, or precentor, all of whose offices are known to have existed according to 15C records. Nor are there any surviving accounts for the infirmarer, referred to in the 16C accounts. Some idea of the importance of the chamberlain can however be gained from the accounts which do survive. Most of the cash requirements of the other obedientiaries were funded by his department and any surplus at the end of the year was usually returned to him. Of the larderer’s income of £263 14s 3d in 1533-4 £223 6s 9d came from the chamberlain, the balance coming largely from the sale of the by-products of the kitchens, mainly animal hides and tallow, resulting in a £31 18s 11d surplus which was returned to the chamberlain. Similarly three-quarters of the granator’s income of just under £60 in 1532-3 came from the chamberlain, the residue from rents and the sale of surplus grain (£10 18s 3d) and beer (27s 6d). £4 13s 1d was returned to the chamberlain at the end of the year as a result. Text Box: However, since in both cases the majority of meat and grain came from the Priory’s manors and rectorial tithes without money-payment, the relative scale of the larderer’s and granator’s departments can easily be underestimated. Between them they accounted for most of the Priory’s expenditure in real terms. As part of their responsibilities they had to maintain the equipment used in their departments. Expenditure by the granator included repairs to the new horse mill and to the pumps in the bakery and making vats, presumably for the brewery, whilst the larderer’s expenses included maintenance of various cooking vessels in the kitchens including the “ledvats and stopvats”, the great vat and the maintenance of the fishponds, nets and lines. In comparison the other obedientiaries’ responsibilities were financially far more modest and, with the exception of the master of works, far less onerous. He had an income of £63 13s 5d in 1534-5 of which £36 13s 0½d came from the chamberlain. His responsibilities largely consisted of the maintenance of the domestic buildings of the priory, but not, apparently, the churches, which were presumably the responsibility of the sacristan. His stores, which he regularly maintained, included timber, floor tiles, roofing materials, bitumen, bricks, Caen stone, lime, white glass for repairs by the glasiers and iron for the forge, all of which feature in the accounts for 1533-4. Major items of work that year included Text Box: making two new windows in the malthouse and two new rooms within the “aula fratres” (refectory), re-roofing the chapter house with 10,600 shingles and the refectory in Horsham stone, presumably the source for the present roof at Southover Grange, built in 1572 almost entirely of materials from the Priory site. Lesser works included making a new folding bed, a great wardrobe and other furnishings for the prior’s chamber (1533-4), making a new oven for the bakehouse and various carpentry work in the old dormitory (1534-5). The procurator’s budget, £62 12s 9d in 1536-7, mainly on clothing the monks, came from rents and tithes specifically appropriated for the purpose, particularly from the rectories of East Grinstead, West Hoathly and Walpole. The pittancer’s receipts of £66 14s 4d in 1534-5 similarly came largely from a combination of rents and tithes including those of Ditchling and Patcham rectories and from the former de Warenne lands in Beddingham. A further £6 6s 8d came from pensions from the churches of Trumpington, St Olave's, Southwark and West Walton whilst £15 a year derived from fees for the use of the common seal of the Priory, presumably for sealing grants and leases to priory tenants. Out of his budget came the payments of the clerical tenth levied on the monks and a money allowance to the sub-prior of 65s, to each of the 20 priests and scholars 43s 4d, to each of the sub-deacons 21s 8d and 2s each to the 2 boys. The refectorer’s and hosteller’s incomes of £5 13s 6½d and £4 19s 3d respectively in 1534-5 reflected their limited responsibilities, the refectorer in maintaining and keeping clean the refectory tables and their cloths whilst the hosteller’s necessary expenditure that year was nil.

Left: Caen stone from Priory and Horsham stone roof at Southover Grange built 1572                                           Top: Oloron cathedral : Labours of months: preparing fish        Right:  Lewes Priory south wall of first floor refectory (frater) with undercrofts below