[3] Between 1072 and 1076, Waltheof, Earl of Huntingdon and Northumbria gave the chapel to the Benedictine monks of Bermondsey Abbey, who quickly developed it into a priory.

[6][4] Around 1230, the priory is recorded in a Patent Roll of King Henry III as being "protected as a poor hospital".

[1][3] In 1279 Yves de Chassant, Abbot of Cluny, ordered that all the English Cluniac houses should be visited and inspected.

[5][7] Two years later, Prior Peter brought another case against the same two men, and another three chaplains, accusing them of having "broken the doors of his monastery, beaten him and stolen some of his property".

[5] Bermondsey had avoided confiscation, as its head, John de Cusancia, claimed to be Burgundian rather than French.

[5] Later in that month (28 August 1337) the sheriff was dispatched to collect immediate payment of the 50s or, if he failed, to confiscate "the goods and chattles of the monks, and to take the prior to London to answer for his contempt".

[5] In 1400 Bermondsey Abbey was granted "a charter of Denization" (a form of naturalisation), meaning they were no longer considered alien but did not have all the rights of a native citizen or establishment.

[5] Thus St. James Priory was not suppressed as an alien establishment and no longer sent tribute to the French House at Cluny Abbey.

[5] O God, by whose grace thy servants, the Holy Abbots of Cluny, enkindled with the fire of thy love, became burning and shining lights in thy Church, grant that we also may be aflame with the spirit of love and discipline, and may ever walk before thee as children of light; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who with thee, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, liveth and reigneth, one God, now and for ever.The prior at the time of the dissolution, Thomas Gainsbury, was awarded a pension of £7 per year.