Corrodies at the Carmelite Friary of Lynn

Abstract

The corrodies described in this article are the only corrodies granted by a house of mendicant friars in England that have yet come to light. It is natural to suppose that the mendicant friaries provided in this way for some of their regular lay servants, just as houses of the endowed Orders did. But the nearest approach to an example of this kind that I have noted is the lease of a house over the gateway at the Grey Friars of London in 1440 to William ‘conciliarius’ of the convent and Elizabeth his wife in return for services, rent free for their lives; but this did not involve provision of food and drink, which was an essential part of a full corrody. There is frequent mention of seculars living in friaries whose status is not specified. Thus at Oxford we find incidental references to William Kemp, tanner, ‘living within the Austin Friars’ in 1501, and ‘Katherine Newcome, widow, living within the house of the Carmelites’ in 1527. They were probably lodgers like John Martin, who lived with his wife and son at the Grey Friars of Canterbury till his death in 1496; he perhaps had special privileges through the influence of his brother, bishop Richard Martin, O.F.M., who lived at the friary in considerable state. A good many seculars were living in friaries at the time of the Dissolution, but these were tenants who had acquired leases of houses or chambers within the precincts, not corrodiers.