Monastic Wales.








Event detail for site: Carmarthen

pre 1282: Foundation

The actual date of the foundation is not known; nor is the identity of the founder. However the friary had been established by 1282 when William Valence was buried there. William had been murdered in an ambush by the Welsh near Llandeilo.

There have been various suggestions as to who may have founded the friary. It was perhaps a royal foundation established by Henry III, Edward I or Edmund. Or it may have been an ecclesiastical foundation; Thomas Wallensis, bishop of St David's (1247-55) and a former Franciscan and master of the order in England is a strong contender; another is Thomas Beche, who was bishop of St David's from 1280.
The first friars came from the Franciscan friary in Bristol which was Carmarthen's mother-house.

Bibliographical sources

Printed sources

Jones, F., 'The Grey Friars of Carmarthen', Carmarthenshire Historian, 3 (1966) p. 8

Manning, A., 'Carmarthen Greyfriars: Carmarthen. The 1997 rescue excavations and watching brief on the site of the choir and area north of the friary. Unpublished report' (Unpublished Cambrian Archaeology Report: Llandeilo, 1998) p. 11

Other events in the history of this site

pre 1282: Foundation - The actual date of the foundation is not known; nor is the identity of the founder. However the friary had been established by 1282 when William Valence was buried there. William had been murdered in an ambush by the Welsh near Llandeilo. [2 sources]
1284: Rights - Edward I visited Carmarthen in 1284 and conceded that the monks might have certain rights over a watercourse that fed the castle moats and a royal mill. [1 sources]
1340: Sanctuary - Three felons on the run claimed sanctuary in the friary which lay outside the town walls and was thus outside the jurisdiction of ‘New Carmarthen’.
 [1 sources]
1391: Burial rights - The friary's popularity as a burial spot - and the donations and bequest that followed - brought it into conflict with the Augustinian Canons of the town whose prior controlled the old town. [3 sources]
1394: Acquisition of land - The friars purchase land just north of the friary, perhaps to use as a graveyard given the popularity of the house as a burial site. [1 sources]
1411: A hostage - The friars evidently held against his will an eleven-year old boy, Henry, whose father, John Witberi, had seemingly handed him over to the friars of Essex, to exclude him from his inheritance. [2 sources]
1456: Burial - Edmund Tudor, father of Henry VII and founder of the Tudor dynasty was buried in the friary. [3 sources]
1525: Burial - Sir Rhys ap Thomas was a benefactor of a number of religious houses in Wales and was buried in the Franciscan friary in Carmarthen. [4 sources]
c.1526: Burial - The Welsh bard, Tudor Aled, was buried at the friary. [1 sources]
1536: Proposed closure - Bishop Barlow of St David's proposed transferring his cathedral to the Franciscan friary in Carmarthen, to hurry along the reformation. [2 sources]
1538: Dissolution - The friary was surrendered in 1538. There were seemingly fourteen friars at that time.
 [1 sources]
 
Graphic.