wich Pope, Esq. of Wolstaston, sold it in 1712 to Thomas Powys, Esq. -Thomas Jelf Powys, Esq., his grandson, conveyed it in 1802 to Mr. Edward Hughes, its present possessor.

All that remains of this friary is the lower part of a square building of red stone, with two pointed door-ways. The upper part seems to have had a range of handsome windows, of which only the lower portion exists: this might be the refectory. When the premises were altered by Mr. Hughes, the ruins of a rich door-way were discovered, with the recessed mouldings of the pointed stile. There was also a painted tile bearing the figure of an armed knight.

FRANCISCAN, MINORITE, OR GRAY FRIARS.

2

"Lord Powis" (by whom must be meant Edward Grey, the last lord) told Leland, "that Hawis, wife to Chorleton lorde of Powis, was the causer that the Gray Frieres college in Shrobbesbyri was buildid; where she lyith buried under a flate marble by Chorleton's tumbe."1 The lady here mentioned was the heir of the ancient princes of Powis Gwenwynwyn; she who so stoutly withstood the attempts of her uncles to wrest that inheritance from her, and transmitted it to her posterity by Sir John de Charlton. But this house of religion certainly did not owe its original foundation to her; for she was not born till 1291: and there is pretty good authority that her grandfather, Griffith ap Gwenwynwyn, who was dead at least two years before her birth, as well as his son Owen de la Pole, this lady's father, both received interment in this church. Indeed, it is plain that this religious society had existed in Shrewsbury several years antecedent to 1267, for then Hen. III., being at Shrewsbury (Sept. 23), granted to his beloved the friars minors of Salop licence to widen their gate in the middle of the town wall, for the admission of carts into their precinct. Indeed, as Roger de Mortimer, of Wigmore, who succeeded his brother in 1227, and died himself in 1247, had a son, (John his third son,) a friar of this house, it must have been founded at an early period of this century. Lady Powis, however, may have been a great benefactress, and second foundress of this friary, and may have built its church and it has even been conjectured, that the fine

'Itin. VI. 14.

2 Notes of a record in the Tower of London, from a copy of Lloyd's Antiquities of Shropshire, among Gough's MSS. in Bibl. Bodl.

3 51 H. III. m. 6. Rot. Pat. in turri London. Rex omnibus &c. Sciatis qa de gr'a n'ra sp'ali concessimus dil'cis in xpo fr'bus minoribus Sallop q porta' suam p' medium muri ville n're Salop que

3

nimis arta est ad opus eor'. . . . . cepimus elargare possint. Ita quod carecte p' portam illam intrare possint et exire p'ut iidem fr'es magis ad opus suum vid'int expedire, et porta' illam sic elargatam tenere imp'p'm sine occ'one vel impedimento n'ri et bered. n'ror. In cui' &c. test. ut supra. [i. e. apud Sal. 23 Sep.]

glass at St. Mary's, which commemorates so many of her descendants, was originally set up in the church which she built here. It certainly did not fit the east window of St. Chad's, and cannot have been there at the time of the great fire; but we do not affirm that it ever decorated the church of the Gray Friars.

The sanctity of the friars minors induced many persons to select them for their confessors, and in their last moments to aspire after sepulture among such hallowed men; and the friars were not backward in laying hold of the hours of confession and declining life to procure from their penitents lucrative donations. On the other hand, the rest of the clergy did not approve of such interference with these gainful branches of spiritual commerce. In Shrewsbury the struggle between the two parties afforded materials for a lawsuit. The guardian of the friars, armed with a papal bull in their favour, libelled in the spiritual court against master Thomas de B. clerk, (no doubt Baddeby, dean of St. Mary's) and two other persons, designated by their initials W. and J., for hindering his brotherhood in the exercise of their function. The defendants obtained a prohibition from the courts of common law, forbidding the spiritual court to hold plea of the matter; but the suit at length terminated in favour of the friars of Shrewsbury: for on the 20th of August, 13 Edw. III. their guardian obtained from the king a writ of consultation, reciting the above proceedings, and permitting the ecclesiastical judge to proceed in the cause.

Though we cannot allow Lady Powis to have been the original founder of this friary, we may admit her to have contributed to its support. Respect for the memory of her ancestors, whose remains were here deposited, would operate as a powerful motive; and her attachment to this house descended to her son, Sir John de Cherleton, lord of Powis, who, in 45 Edw. III. (1371) obtained from John Perle, of Salop, and Eleanor his wife, the grant of a certain plat (placeam) of their land (being in length 34 woollen ells and a half, in breadth 19 ells in the middle, and 16 ells at each end) near Thomas Colle's late standelf, for the purpose of making in that plat a certain staindelfe for the behoof of the friars of the order of minors of Salop; the said plat reaching from Perle's land to `Colle's late standelf. To have and to hold the said plat to the said Sir John, his heirs and assigns, to the behoof of the said friars and their successors, as long as they can break, cut, and convert any stone to their use in the said plat: (dum ipsi fratres et successores sui aliquam petram in predicta placea, frangere, scindere, et quovismodo ad eorum usum lucrare poterint.) And there is a clause, that when there is no stone left, the land should revert to the grantor and his heirs. Sealed with the lion rampant, and circumscribed

SIGILLUM IOHIS DE CHERLETON DOM. POWISIE.

1

2

Registrum Brev. Lond. 1531, p. 52. tit. Consultation. 2 Corporation records.

A standelf1 is a stone-quarry, a place in which to delve for stones; and the grant proves that the native stone of the peninsula, on which our town. is situate, was not yet worked out. The deed further shews, that the friars were now very busy with their buildings, under the patronage of the family of Charlton.

Nothing more appears on our records concerning grants to this house; but the following spiritual grant from them may deserve the attention of the reader. It was copied by Mr. W. Mytton from the muniments of his family. There is probably an error of an x for a v in the last letter of the date for the year 1475 was a jubilee year at Rome.

2

To his dearest in Christ Thomas Mytton and Elizabet his wife, Brother Richard Guardian and servant of the friars minors of Salop, greeting and that they may earn the kingdom of heaven by the merits of the present life. WHEREAS our most holy father and lord, Sixtus IV. by divine providence pope, has, of his apostolical benignity, granted not only to the brethren and sisters of our order, but also to the co-brethren and co-sisters of the same who have suffragial letters, that every of them may chuse for him and her self a fit confessor, who may absolve them and every of them once in this year, reckoning from the 4th of April, and also once at the point of death, from all and singular excesses sins and crimes in all cases reserved to the apostolick see, enjoining wholsome pennance, but from all other excesses &c. toties quoties, as often as there shall be need; and has also benignantly indulged by his apostolical letters, that the same confessor, or any other, may grant plenary remission of all the same sins, at the real point of death: FOR THESE REASONS, Considering the affection of your devotion, which, for the reverence of charity, ye have to our order, and accepting you as a co-brother and co-sister, I receive you, by the tenour of these presents, to all and singular the suffrages of the brethren of the English administration, both in life and in death, that ye may enjoy the said apostolical privileges, and the benefits of all the spiritual goods, according to the form and effect of the same, to the health of your souls: adding moreover of special favour, that as soon as these present letters shall be exhibited in our provincial chapter after your decease, the same recommendation shall be made for you, as is commonly wont to be made there for our deceased brethren. Farewell in Christ Jesus, and pray for me.3

And these are corruptions for our deliverance from which it is bigotry to be thankful! and men are to be thought liberal and enlightened only in proportion as they are indifferent to their correction or continuance!

'The word does not occur in the glossaries, and was perhaps peculiar to Shrewsbury. In some extracts from deeds of the family of Scriven relating to lands in the Abbey Foregate, is this passage: In campo foriete versus Beckebury, altera versus le Whyte stanydelf terram spectantem capelle Be. Marie in Abbatia Salop..30 Ed. III. This white stone quarry seems to prove that some of our old buildings which are supposed to have been built of Grinsill stone, may, in reality, have derived the material from a nearer source.

Papa quartus non solu' fr'ibus et sororibus n'ri ordinis, set eciam confr'ibus et consororibus ejusdem, literas suffragiales h'entibus, de benignitate ap'lica graciose concessit, quod quilibet eor' possit sibi eligere ydoneum confessorem qui ipsos et ipsor' quemlibet ab oib's et singulis excessibus et peccatis et criminibus in singulis sedi ap'lice reservatis casibus semel duntaxat hoc anno a publicac'oe literar' papaliu' computando, viz. a iiijo die mensis aprilis, et semel in mortis articulo, ab aliis vero tociens quociens opus foret, absolvere et pen'iam salutarem injung'e possit, idemq vel alius confessor plenariam oiu' peccatorum eorundem remissionem in vero mortis articulo valeret elargiri, per literas suas ap'licas benigne indulserit; idcirco vestre devocio'is quam ob xpi reverenciam ad nostrum h'etis ordinem sincere considerans affectum et acceptans, vos in confr'em et consororem, et ad uni