Licence to Construct Buildings in the Churchyard for the use of the Rector of St George's Church, Stamford in 1295

O. etc. in Christo filio Magistro Johanni de Ferybi rectori ecclesie sancti Georgii Staunford nostre diocesis salute etc. Cum domos seu aream ecclesie tue non habeas assignatis, ejusdemque ecclesiecimiterium tantum in se spatium continere noscatur quod domus tibi et successoribus tuis necessarie in eo edificari non possunt absque prejudicio seu gravamina alieno, prout per inquisitionem auctoritate nostra super his factam accepimus evidenter, tuis supplicationibus favorabiliter inclinati ut in eodem cimiterio pro te et successoribus tuis domos necessaries construere et inhabitare valeas tibique hoc facere possint similiter succedentes, concurrente ad hoc consunsu procuratoris sancti Fromundi patronum dicte ecclesie et parocianorum, liberam faculttatemquantum in nobis est tibi concedimus per presents, ita tamen quod in eodem cimiterio locus sepulture nequaquam artetur, quodque per inhabitationem per hujusmodi edificial aut futuris temporibus locus ipse humationi relictus minime conculcetur, et ecclesie ambitus non claudatur, nec aliud dedecus pretext edificationis seu habitationis hujusmodi sequitur vel attempetur ibidem. Datum apud Theyden IX kalendas Augusti anno domini M.CC. nonagesimo quinto.

SOURCE

Lincoln Record Society Volume 60.

The Rolls and Registers of Bishop Oliver Sutton 1280-1299 Edited by Rosalind M. T. Hill

Volume V Memoranda, May 1294 – MAY 18TH 1296 p100-101.

TRANSLATION by Google

O. etc. in Christ, to his son Master John de Ferybus, rector of the church of St. George, Stamford, in our diocese, health etc. Since you do not have houses or the area of ​​your church assigned to you, and the cemetery of the same church is known to contain only such a space that houses cannot be built for you and your successors in it without prejudice or encumbrance to another, as we have clearly received through an inquiry made by our authority on these matters, favourably inclined by your supplications that you may be able to construct and inhabit necessary houses for you and your successors in the same cemetery and that your successors may do this in the same cemetery, with the consent of the procurator of Saint Fromund, patron of the said church and parishioners, we grant you free authority as far as is in our power by means of presents, so that in the same cemetery no burial place is ever encroached upon, and that by inhabitation by such a building or in future times the place itself left for burial is in no way trampled upon, and the church grounds are not closed, nor is any other disgraceful pretext for such a building or habitation followed or attempted there. Given at Theydon on the 9th of the Kalends of August in the year of our Lord 1295.

 NOTES.

Clearly from the requested Licence, St George’s Parish did not have what we would now call a Rectory otherwise there would have been no need for Bishop Sutton’s permission for its construction. In 1295, St Fromond Priory in Normandy held the advowson of St George’s, and which they held until the French wars during the reign of Edward 3rd. The Licence was endorsed at Theydon Mount in Essex. Bishop Sutton stayed at the Old Temple in London during July and August 1295, there are however a few documents which were issued at Theydon Mount in Essex during this period. Bishop Sutton presence would have been required in London at this time for a Parliament, which sat on August 16th 1295 and the subsequent ‘Model Parliament’ from November 27th to December 4th 1295.

Chris Hunt

September 2025

A Print version can be downloaded HERE