The Middleton Accounts of 1526: #41

The next two entries in the Middleton household accounts for Sir Henry Willoughby in 1526 were both dated 20th July. The first was described as costs incurred at Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, and the amount was 6 shillings 11 pence, which was the equivalent of about £152.61 today. The second was described as payment to Sir Henry’s brotherhood of Our Lady at Aylesbury and the amount was 6 shillings 8 pence, which was the equivalent of about £147.09 today.

Sir Henry was a member of many fraternities, brotherhoods or guilds, the terms being interchangeable, and this was just one of them. Fraternities were private lay-led religious guilds created by charter.

The Fraternity of Our Lady has also been known as the Fraternity of the Virgin Mary or the Guild of Our Lady and it was founded at Aylesbury in 1450 by John Kemp, Archbishop of York. It was a highly influential civic and religious institution and a meeting place for many dignitaries and nobles. The Fraternity carried out extensive charitable work and owned almshouses and hospitals. It also employed priests whose sole duty was to give prayers and perform masses for departed guild members. Despite being an independent organisation separate from the church, the Fraternity’s spiritual activities took place inside the parish church of St Mary the Virgin at Aylesbury. The Fraternity was dissolved in 1547, during the Reformation, and its possessions were seized by the Crown.

In about 1473, the Fraternity constructed a timber-framed guildhall for their meetings and ceremonies. After the Fraternity was dissolved, the building became a private house. This building has survived and is now part of the Discover Bucks Museum.

Aylesbury, Church Street, Buckinghamshire County Museum, 2008. Photograph taken by Nigel Cox, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

Further Reading:

W. H. Stevenson, Report on the Manuscripts of Lord Middleton, Historical Manuscripts Commission, 1911. pp.383-384.

“The Tudor House”, Discover Bucks Museum, https://www.discoverbucksmuseum.org/discover-bucks-museum/

Author - Debbie Jordan, Middleton Hall Volunteer.

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