24 - Afterword – The Deaths of Abbots Simon and John

Summary

The death of Abbot Simon and of Prior Robert Russel

Simon died on 9 April 1279 on the abbot’s manor of Long Melford. He was buried on 4 May in the beautiful Lady Chapel which he had built. Nothing seems to be known about his funeral. In fact, he remains a shadowy figure. However, the entry about him in the Benefactors’ List gives some idea of how he was remembered by the monks. The List survives in the kitchener’s register which, though compiled soon after 1425, is obviously based on earlier sources. The List was included in the register because the latter records the sum of money with which the kitchener was provided to pay for the pittance on the anniversary of each individual, and records the source of the money. In some cases the List records little besides this essential information, but fortunately the entry for Simon is fuller. His anniversary was marked by a ‘great ringing of the bells’, an honour reserved for the most important benefactors. The monks’ pittance on that day was paid for by revenue from the property Simon had acquired in Whepstead. The entry continues:

Simon, having destroyed the prior’s round chapel where St Edmund lay before his translation, built the chapel of the blessed Mary in the same place: his relatives (parentes) and friends bore the cost. In place [of the round chapel], the chapel of St Stephen was assigned to the prior and the relics from the prior’s [former] chapel devoutly stored there. He relinquished to the convent the 40s which his predecessors had received annually from the manor of Cockfield. He also ordained, when he was almoner of St Edmunds, that the clerks of the almonry should eat wheaten bread, not, as formerly, barley bread, [to be paid for] from rents which he had acquired. This same abbot bequeathed £100 to the convent.

Robert Russel, who had been prior throughout Simon’s abbatiate, probably did not survive him long. He resigned from office voluntarily on 25 January, early in John of Northwold’s abbatiate because of infirmity. The date of his death is unknown.