But the two thousand chantries founded between the thirteenth and sixteenth centuries were not all of this exclusively personal kind. Many included objects of general utility, which under the name of a chantry could be founded and endowed in a legal way, evading many legal difficulties. Some of the chantries were really chapels-of-ease for an outlying population; some were additions to the working clerical staff of a town; some were grammar schools, the chantry priest being really the schoolmaster.
Chantries began to be founded late in the thirteenth century. The “Taxatio” records only two: one of Hugh of Wells, Bishop of Lincoln, who died 1225, the other at Hatherton, in the Archdeaconry of Coventry.[499] The number of them increased more and more, and the greater proportion were founded in the fifteenth century.[500] They were distributed very unequally over the country. Some of the cathedrals served by canons had a considerable number, perhaps because founders of chantries who were great noblemen and ecclesiastics preferred to be commemorated in the mother church of their diocese. Thus, St. Paul’s, London,[501] had 37; York, 3; Lichfield, 87; Lincoln, 36; Chichester, 12; Exeter, 11; Hereford, 11; Sarum, 11; none in Wells; none in Bath Abbey Church, but 18 in the adjoining college of Delamond Roy. The cathedrals served by monks seem not to have encouraged the founding of chantries; thus there are none in Durham, Ely, Norwich, Worcester, Winchester, and only, exceptionally, 4 in Canterbury, 2 in Rochester; 4 in the Church of Austin Canons, which was the Cathedral of Carlisle. They were numerous in the great town churches, founded by the wealthy citizens; there were over 180 in the city and suburbs of London; 42 in the city of York; 23 in Newcastle; 4 in the city of Lincoln; 10 in the city of Hereford; 13 in the town of Newark; 7 in Doncaster; 5 in Rotherham, etc. They were unequally distributed over the country parishes; in Norwich diocese, there are very few outside the towns; in Yorkshire they are very numerous; in Wales there are almost none.
We give at length the history of a chantry at Ipswich, as an illustration of these personal chantries.
Edmund Daundy, merchant of Ipswich, in 1514, founded a perpetual chantry for a chantry priest at the altar of St. Thomas the Martyr, in the parish church of St. Lawrence, in Ipswich, for the prosperous state of King Henry VIII. and Katharine his queen, of himself, Edmund Daundy, Thomas Wulcy (Cardinal Wolsey), clarke, dean of the cathedral church of Lincoln, and of Wm. Daundy, his son, for the term of their life, and for their souls after their decease; and also for the souls of Anne, his late wife, Robert Wulcy and Jane, his wife, father and mother of the same Thomas Wulcy, etc.
The presentation is to be in the hands of the wardens of the parish and six men nominated by the bailiffs, who shall elect and nominate a man to the Prior of Holy Trinity, who shall present him to the Ordinary for admittance; and if the parish priest refuse to induct him, he may induct himself. He is to take oath to keep the statutes of the foundation, perform the duties personally, not be absent for more than twenty days, except from infirmity, not take any other benefice, office, stipend, trental, nor yearly service, but the £11 6s. 8d.[502] granted by the founder; he shall abstain from all unlawful games and sports.
His duties are, to say twice in the week dirge and commendations, and once in the week mass of requiem, with the collect, Almighty and Everlasting God, who governest both the quick and dead, etc., with its ... and post communion thereto pertaining; and each day the same priest, singing his mass, and going to the altar’s end before he washes his hands at the lavatory, shall say this psalm, De profundis, with the collect Fidelium, etc., at the end whereof he shall say, “May the soul of Edmund Daundy, founder of this chantry, and the souls of his parents and kinsfolk and benefactors, and all Christian souls, rest in peace and quietness. Amen.”
Also the priest is to be present in the choir of the parish church of St. Lawrence, having on his surplice, at mattins, processions, mass, and evensong, singing the psalmodies with the other priests and clarks every Sunday and Doublefeast and other convenient times, in augmenting of the Divine service, except any lawful case do let him.
Further on, he orders that the names of the persons to be prayed for, viz. the king and queen, Edmund Daundy, Thomas Wulcy, and Wm. Daundy, among the quick during their lives, and also the names of Anne, Robert, and Jane among the dead, shall be written on a table, and the said table by the said priest shall be set openly upon the altar of St. Thomas the Martyr, etc., to the intent that every day the said priest, in his mass, shall pray for the prosperity of our said sovereign lord the king, and the said Edmund the founder, etc., etc.
He assigns for the residence of the priest his messuage lately built, with a garden and a certain lane, and all its appurtenances, lately built in the parish of St. Lawrence.