Thomas Mundy alias Wandsworth, Prior of Bodmin

Children of Sir John Munday (died 1537):

Thomas Munday. According to Maclean and other sources, he was the Thomas Munday alias Wandsworth who was confirmed prior of Bodmin on 10 May 1534. See Maclean, John, ‘The Last Will and Testament of Thomas Wandsworth, Last Prior of Bodmin’, Journal of the Royal Institution of Cornwall, Vol. V, 11 May 1877, pp. 349-57 at:
https://books.google.ca/books?id=7zsBAAAAYAAJ&pg=RA2-PA349

See also the will of Thomas Munday alias Wandsworth, dated 17 February 1549, and proved 6 February 1555 by his ‘cousin’, Richard Munday, TNA PROB 11/37/253.

However quare whether this identification is correct. In both the testator’s will and that of his widow, Julian, TNA PROB 11/27/117, he is merely referred to as ‘my son, Thomas Munday’, and appears to be one of their five children who were either unmarried or underage.

THE ACQUISITION OF PLACE, PADSTOW, CORNWALL. Now Known as Prideaux Place. < link >

The family of Prideaux alias de Pridias - during the middle ages was distinctly Cornish in origin and residence. By 1410, however, the leading branches of the family were flourishing on Devonian soil. Fulke Prideaux of Theuborough who died in 1530 had among other children two sons Humphry and Nicholas. Nicholas was bred to the law and became a distinguished exponent of his profession amassing it may be noticed considerable wealth.

In some way or other he came into connection with the Priory of St Petroc at Bodmin the most opulent religious establishment in Cornwall. At about the same time his brother Humphry became an inhabitant of Bodmin Town. In 1535 his name appears as one of the Town Council, in a business transaction with the Prior.

The last Prior of Bodmin was instituted in 1534, his name was Thomas Munday and his father had been Sir John Munday Lord Mayor of London. Prior Thomas adopted the surname of Wandsworth, having been at one time an inmate of Wandsworth Priory. This Prior seems to have been able to read the signs of the times. He anticipated the coming storm of the Reformation and decided to do as quickly as possible anything that might benefit him in the bad time coming. Like the unjust Steward of the Parable, he decided to make friends of the Mammon of unrighteousness and be received into their houses. He communicated to his Canons his views on the coming ecclesiastical revolution and they being persuaded, set about alienating all the conventual estates which were of considerable extent.

These matters had been discussed by the Prior and Canons in the Chapter House in September 1537. The Prior now set about carrying them out. He had two objects in view - one to benefit his family and the other to make friends. These birds could both be killed with one stone. His brother John Munday of London was given a 99 years lease of the pleasant manor of Rialton and each of his children received substantial grants. It must of course be remembered that the Prior had no power to sell the freehold of estates of which he was only tenant while in office. The most he could do was to grant 99 years leases at nominal rents.

Meanwhile, the brothers Nicholas and Humphry were awaiting the golden benefits. To make things more certain Humphry purchased for his younger son William the hand of Joan Munday, the Prior's niece. The old Prior behaved most handsomely. On 20 October 1537 he presented Joan and her affianced husband with a lease for 99 years of the whole of the Manor of Padstow with Tithes - offerings and other perquisites, Customs Tolls, Fisheries and the advowson of the Vicarage there.

A nominal rent of £10 was to be paid yearly and no consideration other than "natural love and affection" changed hands.

William Prideaux having thus obtained a very valuable estate (at the trifling cost of a possibly unpleasant wife) resided at Trevose in St. Merryn, because no mansion existed at Padstow, as yet.

Notes

https://johnblythedobson.org/genealogy/ff/Mainwaring/Munday.cfm

3. Katherine Munday. About 1540, in expectation of her marriage, her uncle, Thomas Mundy alias Wandsworth, Prior of Bodmin, arranged for her and her future husband to be granted the manor of Withiel, with the advowson of the church, for ninety-nine years. This was obtained through a promise to the brethren of a large sum of money, which they never received. The prior, in his 1549 will, was so shameless as to bequeath “all suche debts as my preste and farmer owe me to Lawrence Kendall my nevewe and to Kathrin his wife.”[12] She married shortly before 20 September 1537, Lawrence Kendall, lord of the manor of Withiel, near Bodmin, Cornwall, living 1555 but died by 1580 (when he is called defunctus in a release of property by his son Nicholas), a younger son of Walter Kendall, J.P. for Cornwall during the reign of Henry VIII, by Jane, daughter of John Rous, of Medbury. Their impending marriage is mentioned in a document dated 20 September 1537, which (as summarized by a nineteenth-century historian) states: “The prior and convent by deed indented, under the conventual seal, dated 20th September anno regni Regis 29 Hen. VIII. granted the whole manor of Withiel and the advowson of the church, together with the common fishing throughout the whole water of Aleyn and Eyle, with all the appurtenances, to Lawrence Kendall and Katheryn Monday, which the same Lawrence should marry, their heirs and assigns, for the term of 99 years.”[13] See KENDALL for the continuation of the line.

References

1. SUMMARY: The document below is the Prerogative Court of Canterbury copy of the will, dated 12 July 1537 and proved 26 September 1537, of Sir John Munday, goldsmith and Lord Mayor of London. http://www.oxford-shakespeare.com/Probate/PROB_11-27_ff_72-3.pdf
2. https://johnblythedobson.org/genealogy/ff/Mainwaring/Munday.cfm
3. http://homepages.rootsweb.com/~merklee/WHM/at01/at01_031.htm#P69423