Boston No. 3

No individual entry for Boston found in the Domesday survey. The Victoria County History (Lincoln, vol. 2, 1906) reports four friaries in Boston, each belonging to a different order; the Austin [Augustinian] friars were licensed 1316-1317 by the king, and their friary had twenty friars in 1328; "The dominicans had settled in Boston before 1288 [...] By 1309 they had rebuilt their church and were licensed by Bishop Dalderby to have their altars dedicated by any Catholic bishop", and the VCH entry reports that in "1376, the body of Sir William, lord of Hunyngfeld, or Huntingfield, was being buried in the church of the Black Friars [Dominican] of Boston". The VCH entry further notes that the Grey Friars' [Franciscan] "house was built before 1268" and "was situated in the southeast part of the town". Lastly, the White Friars: "In 1293 the Carmelites obtained a licence from Bishop Sutton to have a chantry in the oratory at Boston, and in the same year Master Giffred de Vezano, papal nuncio and rector of the parish church of Boston, consented that the friars might have a church, houses, and churchyard in his parish, might celebrate divine service, and bury their brethren in the churchyard, provision being made as to the rector's rights to offerings." All four friaries in Boston were disbanded at the Dissolution: "The bishop of Dover received the surrender of the four houses in February, 1539". [NB: each friary here had its own church and therefore would have had a baptismal font in it, as was the practice in medieval churches].