Goldclyffe

Goldcliff Priory - The Abbey of Bec was the mother house, located in Le Bec Hellouin, Normandy, France, formerly themost influential abbey of the Anglo-Norman kingdom.

Goldcliff, Newport, South Wales  had as Prior, Lawrence de Bonneville, from 1418–1441. The Abbey of Bec  also owned and managed St Neots Priory as well as a number of other English foundations. Tooting Bec, now a London suburb, is so named because the abbey owned the land.

The mother house is a coastal location, like Goldcliff, and  these monks also have had special skills in sea defences and fishing. Which is maybe why Robert de Chandos offered it to Bec. Wool was an important commodity as were fruit farms and arable land.

In 1442, with the full approval of Pope Eugene IV, the Goldcliff priory was made a cell of Tewkesbury Abbey in Gloucestershire. The revenues of the monastery did not then exceed 2,000 marks, and the priory was worth £200 a year. The abbot and convent were bound to maintain a prior and two monks in priests' orders. In 1445 the three monks of Tewkesbury were expelled from Goldcliff by the Welsh, although in 1447 they again took possession but in 1450 the priory was granted by Henry VI to Eton College who together with the valuable salmon fishing rights, passed to Eton College. The Provost and Fellows of Eton were still the lords of the manor and the largest landowners in 1901....interesting to note that Goldcliff's 'Mother House' in Normandy

 Image -Goldcliff Priory on the Bristol Channel at Newport in Wales. Taken by researchers from Cambridge University this aerial shot shows very clearly the field patterns of the lands cultivated by the monks.It was dissolved as an alien priory in 1467 - more here

Robert Pomeroy who in 1330 held Membury manor .Early in 1406 ,with Thomas & William and a chaplain of Membury, surrendered Membury to the prior of Goldclyve in Newport in Monmouth
( Patent Rolls 1405 & Close Rolls )
( Membury on east Devon 4 miles north west of Axminster and 7 miles south west of Chard.)

William Pomeroy of Membury dead by 1431 close friend and companion of Sir Thomas Pomeroy, who held the barony from 1416- to 1426
William was a Queen's Esquire 1417 to Queen Joan of Navarre, wife of Henry IV of England (m. 1403–1413),widow of John IV, Duke of Brittany (m. 1386)  Joan and Henry had no children  it was her stepson who was king Henry V.(1413-1422)

William Pomeroy presented in 1421 letters patent, dated 1416, to Joan of Navarre, who granted to her esquire 20 marks annually for life, from yearly gate of Oxford . He was recorded as dead circa 1431

Sir Thomas waged quite a campaign against the nominated male heir to the barony Sir Edward Pomeroy & his wife Margaret Beville.
The King  set aside Sir John Pomeroy's preference in favour of the highly ambitious, and ruthless, Thomas Pomeroy Esq.

1423: Dec. 4. At Westminster. ( after the 1422 death of Joanna Chudleigh wife of Sir Thomas Pomeroy )

To the treasurer and the barons of the exchequer. Order not to trouble John Cole esquire for his homage; as upon the finding of an inquisition, taken before William Cheyne and John Martyn by virtue of a commission of the late king to them and to William Pawlet and John Sparowe addressed, that John Pomeray knight at his death held the manor of Stokkeleghe Pomeray and moieties of the manors of Huberton and Brixham Devon in chief by knight service, and that Joan (Chudleigh) wife of Thomas Pomeray knight, & daughter of Joan one of his sisters, and John Cole esquire son of Margaret his other sister ) are his cousins and next heirs and of full age, for a fine paid in the hanaper the late king respited the homage and fealty of John Cole until a day now past, on 1 May 5 Henry V commanded livery to be given him of his purparty; 

and upon the finding of another inquisition, taken before the late king's escheator, that John Pomeray was seised of the manor of Byry Pomeray, holding the same of King Richard II in chief by knight service, and by name of John de la Pomeray son and heir of Henry de la Pomeray gave the same to William de Horbury parson of Ipplepen, Richard Holrygge vicar of Brixham, John Papylwyke parson of Lookessore, Reynold vicar of Biry Pomeray, John Hille, John Wadham, Thomas de la Pomeray, William Caunton and Richard Aysshe and to their heirs, that those feoffees were thereof seised, that William Caunton after died, that the survivors with licence of the king gave the said manor to the said John Pomeray and Joan then his wife and to the heirs of their bodies, with remainder to the right heirs of John Pomeray, that John Pomeray and Joan were thereof seised by the form of that gift, and continued their estate all the life of John Pomeray, that he died seised jointly with her without issue by her, that she overlived him,

and continued her estate until Ascension day 8 Henry V, on which date without licence of the king she made a surrender of the said manor, and grant of her estate therein, to Thomas de la Pomeray, Joan his wife and John Cole, being the right heirs of John Pomeray (as aforesaid), and to their heirs, and that by virtue of her surrender they were thereof seised; and for a fine paid in the hanaper on 20 November 8 Henry V the late king pardoned the trespasses herein committed, and on 20 July following for a fine therein paid respited the homage of John Cole until a day now past, and commanded livery to be given him of the said manor; and the king has taken his homage. By p.s. [986.]

Memorandum of acknowledgment, 26 January.

Joan Bithewater to Thomas Bithewater chaplain, Master John Stokes clerk of the chancery, William Norton esquire and Robert Forster 'gentilman,' both of Westminster (London). Middlesex, their heirs and assigns.

Gift during her life of a yearly rent of 10l. 13s. 4d., reciting a writing, dated Meynbury (Membury) 20 March 9 Henry VI, ( 1431) whereby Lawrence late prior of Goldeclyve and the convent gave to her and William Pomerey now deceased the manor of Meynbury otherwise Membury in Devon for their lives and the life of the longest liver, a writing indented, dated Meynbury 24 March 9 Henry VI,

whereby the said Joan and William made a grant of their whole estate in the said manor to the prior and convent and to their successors,
subject to a yearly rent of £10. 13s. 4d. payable to them for their lives and the life of the longest liver, the death of the said William, and that she is sole surviving.

Witnesses: Richard Walsshe 'gentilman,' John Savage, Simon Croulonde, Robert Hough, John Faw . . . Dated Monday after Midsummer 18 Henry VI.

(The Aldermen of the City of London, 1422 circa Oct was John atte Water (Bithewater), Goldsmith – in Farringdon Within ward - 1422-8. Sheriff 1424-5.)

Membury is three miles north west of Axminster in East Devon and  Goldcliff owned lands at Membury and most of the surrounding area.   

The Manor of Membury appears in the Doomsday Book, 1086, valued at 10 SHILLINGS (50P).
Lord of the manor in 1086 was Tenant-in-chief: William the goat ( Cheivre ) half brother of Ralph de Pomeray who also had  Smallridge which is close by as  Lord of the manor & tenant in chief .

In the middle ages the parish began to be settled sheep farming country and by 1635 was  “Famous for it’s cheese”. A document of 1550 records Membury Court as the Manor House.

It is interesting to note that the History of Parliament site tell us.. by February 1400, Sir Thomas Pomeroy had become a farmer of Oakford, Devon, by Exchequer lease, and four years later he was granted a share in the custody of lands at Membury, which, however, he surrendered in 1406.
His annuity was to be confirmed by Henry V and by Henry VI’s council. Such liberality depended upon loyal service, and his standing may also be gauged by the willingness of the Lancastrian kings to exonerate him from the debts he owed as sheriff of Devon. 

The fact that William Pomeroy, his companion & friend, later had income from Membury suggested that these two  could have been closely related-i.e brothers