28 March 2022 - History Evening
Hello everyone,
At the History Evening on Friday 11 March a near capacity Mission Hall audience enjoyed a most interesting talk by ffiona Perigrinor about Lady Alice de Bryene and Margery Kempe. These two ladies were both born in East Anglia in the 1370s and died in the 1430s. The former had the more local connections for she owned the manor of Sutton Poyntz from 1385 until 1434. Lady Alice, nee de Bures, married the eldest son of Lord Guy de Bryene, a very influential soldier, courtier, administrator, and landowner. She was gifted the manor as part of the marriage settlement and on the deaths of her husband and Lord de Bryene she became the effective owner of all the de Bryene properties. On the death of her mother, she also inherited her father's East Anglian properties and became an extremely wealthy lady, with estates of about six thousand acres. ffiona has seen documents suggesting that before moving back to East Anglia, Alice might have actually lived at Sutton Poyntz. If so there should be the remains of a significant manor house, probably somewhere beneath the Waterworks buildings and the old Upper Mill. ffiona has written a book about Alice based on a year's detailed household records for her East Anglia home which provide a fascinating account of life in this household. Her talk moved on to Margery Kempe, who lived in the important trade centre of King's (then Bishop's) Lynn. Towards the end of her life Margery dictated what has been described as the first English language autobiography, "The Book of Margery Kempe”. This was thought lost for many centuries until a single copy was found in a Derbyshire manor house in the 1930s. Sadly the book majors on Margery's inner religious turmoil and her extensive pilgrimages but says little about how people really lived in the early 15th Century. ffiona's talk was much enjoyed, and several people bought copies of her book. The audience stayed on afterwards for lively and pleasant discussion over a glass of wine. Thanks are due to Bill and John for organising this most interesting event.
Stay safe and smiling