Snape Parish

Snape
Snapes or Snapys

In the year 1099, William Martel, Albreda his wife, and Jeffrey their son and heir, gave the manor of Snape, with the benefit of wrecks of the sea, from Thorp to Orford Ness, to the Abbot and Convent of St. John, at Colchester, for the purpose of founding in this parish, a Priory, which should be a cell to that Abbey.

By this deed of gift it appears evident that the founder intended to have this design immediately put in execution, which the monies of Colchester delayed until 1155; at which period a Prior, and some Benedictine monks from that house, settled here.

Isabel, Countess of Suffolk, and patroness of this Priory, preferred a complaint to Pope Boniface IX., which stated that the Abbot and Convent of Colchester did not maintain a sufficient number of religious here, according to the intention of the founders;. when this house was made conventual, and exempt from subjection to Colchester.

In 1508, it was in the Crown, but by what means is not known, and was granted to Butley Abbey; but the Prior and Canons re-signed all claim to the same in the following year. It was one of those small Monasteries that were suppressed in 1524, and given towards the endowment of Ipswich College.

It was dedicated to the blessed Virgin Mary; and its valuation, in Taxatio Ecclesiastica, in thirteen parishes, is  32 12s. 7½d., but in 1534, £99 1s. 11½d. In 1532, Thomas, Duke of Norfolk, obtained a grant of this Monastery: it subsequently became the estate of Sir Henry Johnson, and passed as the Friston property, to the Earl of Strafford. It was recently the possession of Richard William Howard Vyse, Esq.

ARMS. The same as Colchester Abbey. Gules; a cross, or; on a border of the second, eight mullets of six points, of the first.

CHARITIES. The Rev. John Lambert, by a codicil, dated in 1802, bequeathed to this parish £200; the interest thereof to be distributed by the churchwardens, at Christmas, to poor housekeepers who do not receive pay of the parish. This legacy is invested in stock, being £250 three per cent, Consols.

County of Suffolk

Topographical and Genealogical, The County of Suffolk, 1844, Augustine Page

British Isles Genealogy

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