[408] A Joan Key or Kay votes at the election of Joan Lancaster as prioress of St Radegund’s in 1457 and is receiver-general, keeping the account in 1481-2. Gray, op. cit. pp. 38, 176.
[409] See, for instance, an item in the accounts of St Radegund’s Cambridge: “Paid in a pittance for the convent ... at the month’s mind of John Brown, lately bailiff there ... in accordance with his last will.” Gray, op. cit. p. 151.
[410] The Ministry of Women, loc. cit. pp. 162-3. So in 1492 it is complained at Carrow “quod mali servientes Priorissae fecerunt magnum dampnum in bonis prioratus.” Jessopp, Visit. of Dioc. of Norwich, p. 16.
[411] Chaucer, Cant. Tales, Prologue, ll. 597 ff.
[412] See, for instance, the Prioress of Marrick v. Simon Wayt, to give an account for the time when he was her bailiff in Fletham (1332); the Prioress of Molseby (Moxby) v. Lawrence de Dysceford, chaplain, to give an account of the time when he was bailiff of Joan de Barton, late Prioress of Molseby at Molseby (1330)—an interesting case of a chaplain acting as bailiff for a small and poor house; Idonia, Prioress of Appleton v. John Boston of Leven for an account as bailiff and receiver in Holme (1413). Notes on Relig. and Secular Houses of York, ed. W. P. Baildon (Yorks. Arch. Soc. 1895), I, pp. 127, 139, 161. Visitation injunctions sometimes regulate the presentation of accounts by bailiffs and receivers, e.g. Exeter Reg. Stapeldon, p. 318, V.C.H. Beds. I, p. 356.
[413] Linc. Visit. I, p. 67.
[414] Linc. Visit. II, p. 185. An illustration may be found in the Gracedieu rolls where on one occasion the nuns paid wages to the bailiff John de Northton, to his wife Joan, to his daughter Joan, to Philip de Northton (doubtless his son) and to Philip’s wife Constance. P.R.O. Mins. Accts. 1257/10, ff. 203-5.
[415] V.C.H. Suffolk, II, p. 84.
[416] Reg. Epis. J. Peckham (Rolls Ser.), II, pp. 658-9. Compare p. 662. The injunction that the head of the house should not appoint stewards, bailiffs or receivers without the consent of the major part of the convent was a common one; cf. ib. II, p. 652; Dugdale, Mon. II, p. 619.
[417] Liveing, Records of Romsey Abbey, pp. 218-22 passim.