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Archiver > DUTTON > 2000-08 > 0966796402


From: "Phyllis Ryerse" <>
Subject: Amazing new early DUTTON info!
Date: Sun, 20 Aug 2000 14:33:22 -0400


Well, I'm back. I can't leave this stuff alone! It's a disease! But this
is great stuff and I just had to share it with you asap!

I recently joined the Cheshire-L list and have had great help from the
folks on that list on a number of questions. They're a fun bunch! A recent
query I sent to them was about Norton Priory.....if anyone there could give
me an eye-witness look at what's there today.....and if there exist any
pictures of the Abbey and Priory before they were torn down during the
dissolution of the Catholic Church. Almost immediately I received a reply
from a lady who lives a very short distance from Norton....and whose
daughter Katy is studying archaeology and works at the Norton Museum part
time. (Durham Univ. graduate with a B.A. in archaeology...doing masters work
at York in October.) They were very curious about the old door that Sir
Piers salvaged and installed in his Hall. I sent them a .jpg picture of the
door and Katy is now off on an indepth search to see if she can find a
picture or painting or line drawing of the old Priory....and if we're
lucky....it will show the old door in it's original home!!

Katy has just begun looking.....but today found her copy of a book entitled
"Norton Priory: the archaeology of a medieval religious house," by J.
Patrick Green, published by Cambridge University Press in 1989. (The
archaeological "dig" has been going on for some time....not yet finished
yet. As I understand it, this booklet is one of the 'site reports.' I don't
know if it was published and widely distributed or not. Maybe we should see
if we can track a copy over here somewhere??)

She has scanned seven pages from this book that concern the Duttons and
sent them to me today as attachments. And what amazing new Dutton family
info it contains! Those in charge of "the dig" have focused one part of
their search on what was the north transept.....which was the Dutton 'lady
chapel' where various members of the Duttons were buried! They have exhumed
at least 40 bodies and traces of a fine tiled floor, the tiles much
destroyed by later gardening activities. Pieces of the tile show the 'frets'
from the Dutton coat of arms and a life-sized figure of a knight in armor!
Amazing stuff! Some of the coffins were wooden....others solid blocks of
sandstone, with shapes of the corpse carved out in them ! Yes, there are
pictures.....you can see BONES with several archaeologists working around
them!! No doubt bones of our very earliest ancestors!! It also gives a
brief descendancy chart.....and look....ODARD had another son named GILBERT!
Do we know about him??? That gives us THREE sons for him now!

Katy hand copied some text from one of the display panels at Norton Museum.
I will cut and paste that text here:
***********************
"The Dutton Chapel

The north east chapel of the priory church was built for the Dutton family.
It went through four phases of expansion and contained many burials. This
and its large size - 182 square metres by AD 1320 - show the continuing
financial support the priory attracted. It also shows changes in burial
practice and the ambitious tastes of the donors. The pressure on space is
indicated by the close packed rows of both stone and wooden coffins.

Three wills are known in which Norton Priory is specified as the intended
burial place for members of the Dutton family. In 1392 Lawrence de Dutton
asked for 16 torches and 5 tapers to be placed around his body and for 16
poor men to carry the lights on his burial day. Among other bequests he
left his black horse to the canons.

Sir Geoffrey de Warburton in 1448 ordered his body to be buried between the
high chancel and the chapel of the Blessed Mary of Norton. He left 100
shillings to a priest to celebrate mass for him for a year. The abbot was
given his best horse.

In his will dated 1527 Sir Lawrence de Dutton stated 'And I wish that my
body shall be buried and interred amongst my ancestors in the chapel of the
Blessed Lady within the monastery at Norton. And I will that every priest
that shall be at my burying shall have, to pray for my soul, twelve pence,
and every clerk, four pence, and every poor man and woman one penny.'"
*********************************
And if you have the time.....go look at these web pages. They show the
gardens and what's at Norton Priory today.

http://www.gardenvisit.com/g/nort.htm

http://www.ukstay.com/cheshire/nortonpriory/

http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~jrossb/index.html

The last page listed is very interesting.....and I'm in contact with Ross
Bullock who put it together. I'll cut and paste an interesting comment from
his latest e-mail: (by the way...he mentioned that he'd had an interesting
conversation lately with our cousin, the Viscount Ashbrook from Arley Hall!)
********************
We know that Sir Piers Dutton was one of the main players in the suppression
of
Norton Abbey. He was one of the 'valuers' who valued the Abbey at <200,
which was below the value set by the King (Henry VIII) for the first wave of
monastic suppressions. Whether this was deliberate on the part of Piers,
because he wanted the Abbey lands for himself, we can only conjecture upon!
However since the Dutton family had always been benefactors of the
Priory/Abbey since its founding, maybe he thought it was only right that his
family should be first in the queue for buying the Norton estate when it was
sold off by the King. The North transept of Norton Abbey was the burial
place of many of the Dutton family and some 40 bodies were exhumed from
there.
************************
....and finally, if you have Duttons of Dutton.....read section V - where it
talks about Sir Piers and his involvement in the dissolution of the
church.....and see copies of letters to him from Henry VIII thanking him for
his services in that effort.......and a discussion of whether Sir Piers
derived any great financial gain in that process. I'm inclined to believe
that all he got for his efforts ----was lots of grief and --- a DOOR!
At any rate.....it makes for great reading on a hot August Sunday afternoon.

IF YOU WANT TO SEE THESE PICTURES AND TEXT......YOU NEED TO RESPOND TO ME
AND I'LL FORWARD THESE 7 JPGS ALONG TO YOU. Then you need to save them to
your hard disk and......insert them into a document file..........and then
print them off. You'll be able to read them quite clearly - thanks to the
wonders of electronic mail......something that Odard and the gang would
probably find beyond belief!

phyllis - still out there digging around!




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