THE ARMS AND SEALS OF THE PRIOR AND CONVENT OF ST. SAVIOUR AT BERMONDSEY
W. B. Grove.
Meetings of the Council were held at Bermondsey from time to time: in the reign of Henry the Third many of the nobility who had taken the Cross met here in deliberation. In 1213 the then Prior, Richard, founded the almonry in Southwark, which afterwards developed into St. Thomas’s Hospital.
In 1276 there was a dispute between the Bishop of Winchester, who claimed an annual procuration, an entertainment of one day during his Visitation, and the House.
In 1309, by a breach in the River Wall, the lands of the House were so much damaged that the brethren were exempted from the purveyance of hay and corn.
In 1324 Edward the Second issued letters patent for the arrest of the prior, John de Causancia, and certain monks for harbouring rebels. These were probably the adherents of Thomas, Earl of Lancaster, who, after his defeat at Boroughbridge, took sanctuary in the Abbey. In 1337 the Bishop of Ely excommunicated certain persons for stealing a hawk belonging to him from the cloisters of the Abbey. Many other associations gather round this House. Marmion, Lord of Fontenay, was a benefactor to Bermondsey; the monks sold their lands in Southwark in the reign of Richard the Second to Robert of Paris, from whom the place was called Paris Gardens; Cardinal Beaufort visited the Abbey, and was received in procession by the monks. The Prior Henry, afterwards Abbot of Glastonbury, took an active part in the release of King Richard.
In 1323 the greater church of St. Saviour of Bermondsey and the great altar were dedicated in honour of St. Saviour and the Blessed Virgin and All Saints. On the same day were dedicated three other altars in the church—one of the Cross, one in honour of the Virgin and St. Thomas the Martyr, and one in honour of St. Andrew and St. James and all the Apostles.
Among those buried here were Leofstan, Portreeve of London in 1115; William of Mortain, or Mortaigne, Earl of Cornwall; Mary, daughter of Malcolm the Third of Scotland, and sister to Queen Maud, who died April 18, 1115. The following is the inscription on her tomb:—
“Nobilis hic tumulata jacet Comitissa Maria: