It
has not been ascertained when the Vicarage was created and endowed,
certainly however before the year 1291, when the taxation of the Pope
Nicholas the fourth was made, for in that record the Rectory and
Vicarage are thus respectively estimated-----Diocese of Norwich,
Deanery of Fordham, Soham £40, Vicarage thereof £16 13s. 4d. The former
being the estimated value of the Rectory, then appropriated to the
Priory of Pyne, in Normandy, the latter of the Vicarage.
It is probably the great antiquity of this Vicarage that is the cause
of the original dotation or endowment of it being no longer
discoverable, be that as it may it cannot be found in the Augmentation
Office nor in the Episcopal Registry, which is the genuine and
legitimate repository for such documents.
There is a record founded upon this taxation and bearing date 14 Edward
III, ( AD. 1341 )which, if it did not mix the Rectorial and the
Vicarial Tithes together, would probably be an instrument of great
value and importance. It is a return of the value of the Nona or ninth
part of the Corn, Fleeces, and Lambs in each parish of the county, and
the return for Soham is more ample than might be expected. It states
that the taxation of the Church with the Vicarage is £56 13s. 4d, but
that the same ninth does not amount to the taxation by £29 19s. 8d,
because the said taxation issues from the glebe and other things,
together with various tithes which it enumerates, and which amount to
£29 19s. 8d.
In 26 Henry VIII., the annual value of the Vicarage of Soham was £32
16s. 4 1/2 d.
There was a suit in the Exchequer in 1692 about certain tithes of the
Vicarage of Soham, in which the Vicarial Endowment was not produced, it
was declared that Soham Marsh paid 13/4 to the impropriator in lieu of
all tithes great and small.
The living of Soham was occupied by Ridley, from 1547 to 1552. The
advowson was presented to Pembroke College by Henry VI. 1451, but some
difficulties arose as to the legality of the conveyance, and the Bishop
of Norwich claimed the advowson.
The following is a copy of a document in the possession of Pembroke
College, Cambridge, referring to this dispute :----''Be it knowen to
all men, Andrew Bugge, of Soham, in the counte of Cambrygge, Thomas
Bestney, Edward Petchey, Thos. Calyngham, William Petche the elder,
Thos. Peche of the Thornfyeld, Edmond Wake, Thos. Thornton of the
Brok-street, (and others whose names are illegible) : We the names
above wreten cestifi and will depose upon a bok that all the Vicarres
of the paryshe of Sohm, hace taken the gyfte of all the ryghte and due
tytell containing (?) the gyfte of the advowson of the said Vicarage,
of Pembrok Hall, in Cambrygge, from the gyfte of the Parsonage there by
grant of King Henry VI. when the said Parsonage and Vicarage was fyrst
given unto them. Nor never we know nor herd that any other man
pretended any tytell conveying (?) to the said gyfte of the sayd
Vicarage unto this tyme, unto the witness of the whyche thynge we the
persons above named have sette our sealles, and for the * * * *
witnesseth the same wryten at Sohm, the 4th day of June, the 18th year
of King Henry VII. (1502).''
In 1502 the Master and Fellows presented Oliver Coren Coryne or Curwen,
a Fellow of Pembroke College.
In January, 1528. Richard Gauston, not a Fellow, was presented, and it
does not appear by whom : exchanging with Coren, the living of Stoke
Charity. On Nov. 4, 1541, the college appointed trustees to make the
next presentation in their behalf. But in 1542, the Bishop of Norwich (
in whose Diocese Soham was ) interfered, and granted the next
presentation to Myles Spenser, LL.D. In 1547 the living fell vacant,
and the presentation was claimed by Pembroke College, for Ridley, then
Master, and by the Bishop of Norwich, for Dr. Spenser. Ridley appeared
forthwith as plaintiff v. the Bishop of Norwich and Spenser, in the
Court of King's Bench, in a case of ''Quare impedit,'' and in Easter
Term, I. Edward VI., judgement was given in Ridley's favour. He was
himself at once presented by the trustees before alluded to, and
instituted on the 17th May, 1547.
