Ipswich Greyfriars

[1] This makes it the earliest house of mendicant friars in Suffolk,[2] and established no more than ten years after the death of St Francis himself.

[5] The locality is still referred to as "Greyfriars", but is associated more in popular imagination with a failed shopping complex of that name erected (and since demolished) there in 1965–66,[6] and with the Ipswich Tax Office nearby.

Sir Robert was appointed governor of Portchester Castle in 1266 by King Henry III: he became a trusted servant to Prince Edward and accompanied him on the Ninth Crusade to the Holy Land, receiving a grant from the King in 1270 that if he failed to return his executors should have the wardship and marriage of his heir, Payn de Tibetot.

Edward I made him governor of Nottingham Castle (1275), and in 1277 he was among the King's Commissioners to make peace with Owain Goch ap Gruffydd.

Granted wardship of the lands of William de Braose (of Gower) in 1291, he defeated the revolt of Rhys ap Maredudd (allegedly prompted by Tibetot's governance) and took its leader prisoner.

[18] One of these was from Sir William de Cleydon, knight: Weever recorded the monument of John, son of William Cleydon, in the Greyfriars church, who died in 1333 holding the manors of Claydon with Thurleston (Mortimer), Farnham (Montagu),[19] Orford, and Westleton (de Ufford), a rent held from the Beauchamps, and rents in Baylham, Little Blakenham and Great Blakenham.

Upon Sir Ralph's death in 1346 Maud buried him and established a chantry at the de Ufford house of Campsey Priory and retired into that convent.

The Countess Maud in 1356 expressed special love for the friars minor and provided for alms to be given to the Ipswich Greyfriars whenever one of her chaplains died.

[32] The last important burial at Greyfriars was that of the soldier and courtier Sir Robert, Lord Curson (c.1460-1535), a very prominent figure in early Tudor Ipswich.

Having married the widow of Sir George Hopton in 1498, he joined the Emperor Maximilian I to fight against the Turks in 1499 while in tenure of the post of captain of Hammes Castle in the approaches to Calais, taking time to visit Edmund de la Pole, 3rd Duke of Suffolk, at Guînes.

Describing himself as the "founder in blood" (referring to his hereditary patronage), he explains that the people of Ipswich have been giving their charity to better causes than to this "nest of drones".

The Warden had informed him that they had been compelled to sell their plate and jewellery to obtain a subsistence, and it was found that Archdeacon Thomas Sillesden had been buying it.

Wentworth states that he has purchased the house for himself and his heirs, consisting of the site merely, with enclosed gardens, holding the Franciscan order not to be a divinely-planted stock but a hypocritical weed planted by the Bishop of Rome.

[38] A week later Richard Yngworth, Visitor for the friaries at the suppression, made an inventory of the goods, most of which were old, and removed all but the barest necessities to the Ipswich Blackfriars.

He also recovered the church ornaments and utensils which had been sold, including a quantity of plate pledged to Lord Wentworth, to a total of nearly 260 ounces.