BUSHMEAD PRIORY, BEDFORDSHIRE. THE Priory of Bismede, or Bushmead, in the parish of Eaton Socon, in the county of Bedford, was founded in the reign of Henry II. by Hugh the son of Oliver Beauchamp. It was inhabited by Austin canons, and dedicated to the Virgin Mary. Its revenues, at the dissolution of monasteries, were estimated at £71:13:91⁄2, clear yearly value. The site was granted, in 1537, to sir William Gascoigne, comptroller of the household to cardinal Wolsey. Sir John Gascoigne, in 1545, conveyed it to Anthony Cocket, from whom, in 1552, it passed to William Gery, esq. of Over, in the county of Cambridge, and continued to be the residence of his descendants in the male line, till the death of the late William Gery, esq. in 1802. It is now the property and seat of his son-in-law, the reverend Hugh Wade Gery, who has a cartulary of the Priory, very fairly written on vellum, and Buck's drawing of the conventual buildings, taken in 1730; about five years after which the front building was taken down, and a modern house erected in its place. BUSHMEAD PRIORY. The edifice on the left-hand side, which still remains, was the refectory, and is now converted into a stable and offices. Yet time has seen, that lifts the low, DYER. |