(3) A confirmation by Friar Richard of another grant by Sir J. Balliol’s executors of debts due to Sir John: the confirmatory deed is dated Coventry, 1287.
William of Exeter was summoned in 1289 from Oxford by Deodatus, Warden of the Friars Minors of Exeter[1400], to assist him in choosing a new site for the convent[1401].
William of Leominster is placed among the Franciscans by Pits, but it is not certain that he belonged to this Order[1402]. He was a friar and master of Oxford in 1290; in this year his name appears as one of the masters who gave their consent on behalf of the University to the compromise, effected by the intervention of the King and his council, concerning the right of the bishop of Lincoln to confirm the Chancellor-elect[1403]. Bale states that he had seen this friar’s Collationes Sententiarum and Quaestiones Theologiae, at London, ‘in quadam officina’[1404].
John Bekinkham appears to have been an Oxford Minorite; he was one of the friars to whom the royal alms of 25 marks was paid by the exchequer in 1289 or 1290[1405].
John de Clara was executor of Hugh de Cantilupe, Archdeacon of Gloucester, in 1285; he was at this time at Oxford[1406]. In 1289 or 1290 he appears, in conjunction with John Bekinkham, as receiving the royal grant of 25 marks in the name of the Oxford Convent[1407]. In 1299 he was entrusted with 10 marks out of the royal exchequer for the expenses of Hugh of Hertepol and William of Gainsborough, who were going to the General Chapter at Lyons[1408]. In 1301 he was sent with instructions to find the Provincial Minister with all speed, and received of the royal bounty 24s. 3d. for his expenses[1409].
John Russell was private chaplain to Edmund, Earl of Cornwall, in 1293. In a letter to Raymund, General Minister of the Friars Minors, dated Aug. 29, 1293[1410], the Earl thanks the Minister
‘pro vestris muneribus preciosis, cultellis vestris videlicet nobilibus de corallo atque insigni vase tiriaco, que in octavis virginis gloriose per manus dilecti et domestici nostri fratris Johannis Rossel ... recepimus.... Dat’ in manerio nostro de B. (Beckley?)[1411] prope Oxon’,’ &c.
Russell wrote about the same time to dominus R. de M. (Roger de Merlawe):
‘Veni ad capitulum fratrum nostrorum Oxon’, proponens vos personaliter visitasse; sed jam istud iter impedivit debilitas corporalis[1412].’
This John Russell was contemporary, and probably identical, with the twenty-second master of the Franciscans at Cambridge[1413].