Excerpt from Devon Notes and Queries, Vol. 3: A Quarterly Journal Devoted to the Local History, Biography and Antiquities of the County of Devon; Part V January, 1905 The Benedictine Priory of St. Nicholas was the most important of all the religious houses of Exeter. Gytha, the Lady of Exeter, widow of Earl Godwin, and mother of Harold, had endowed the church of St. Olaf as an offering for the repose of the soul of her husband: she was in Exeter when William the Conqueror besieged the city, but succeeded in escaping before it was taken. William, with grim irony, gave the church to the monks of Battle, with Harold's fee in the city and vicinity. Freeman thinks the gift was intended to con ciliate the monks, who disliked the situation of Battle. Gunther was sent from Battle Abbey to make arrange ments, but Cono was the first prior; he renounced St. Olaf, and received from the king a charter under which the priory was founded, and another church was built dedicated to St. Nicholas. The house remained a cell of Battle, and it paid sixty shillings a year to that abbey. In 1249 the contribution was reduced to twenty shillings, but at the time of the suppression it had reached GBP7. The priors were invariably presented by the abbots of Battle. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.