Chalton Chantries

In 1246 William de Riston was presented by Paulinus Peyvre to a chantry either in the chapel of Saint Bartholomew at Chalton or in the chapel of Saint John the Baptist in the court of Paulinus at Toddington. He was to receive the tithes of Chalton, which had been granted to Paulinus by the Abbot of La Couture who held the advowson of Toddington. An entry in the registers of the diocese of Lincoln includes the institution of a subsequent chaplain for the chantry of St. Bartholomew at Chalton in 1349. The date suggests that his predecessor may have died of plague during the Black Death.

In a letter written in 1800 and preserved in the manuscripts of Oliver Saint John Cooper at the British Museum the author mentions that the chapel of Chalton had been taken down but that he did not know when this was done.

The chantry of Saint James was part of the Manor of Chalton, as detailed in the Victoria County History, and was founded before 1392 when it is first mentioned. On the dissolution of the monasteries by Henry VIII (1509-1547) the chantry was granted to William, James and John Grey in 1572 and no further mention of it occurs in the historical record.

The following have been identified as chantry priests of Saint Bartholomew

• Aleser de Brackel', chaplain: 1244;
• William de Riston, chaplain: 1244;
• John;
• William, priest, son of Peter de Todyngton, on the death of John: 8th July 1349;
• William Winter;
• William Mustell, priest; on the death of William Winter: 18th December 1361.