The story of the first foundation is entirely legendary; one Mary, daughter of Awdry, ferryman, is said to have founded on the site a small House for nuns before the Conquest. It was converted, according to tradition, by one Swithina into a College of Priests. It was, however, refounded in 1106 by two Norman knights, William Pont de l’Arche, who had a mansion in Dowgate, and William Dauncey, as a House for Canons Regular. William Gifford, Bishop of Winchester, joined in the foundation, and built the nave of the church. Henry the First, another benefactor, gave to the House the Church of St. Margaret in Southwark; King Stephen gave the Canons the House of their founder, Pont de l’Arche. In 1212 the Priory was destroyed by fire. Then Peter de Rupibus took the foundation, still very poor, in hand, and rebuilt the church; he also founded the chapel of St. Mary Magdalen, afterwards made into a Parish Church. A hundred years later the unhappy monks sent a petition to Edward the First, stating that the House had fallen into the deepest poverty; that they had not enough to provide the barest necessaries, but were dependent on charity; that their church was ruinous, but that they could not rebuild it; and that they had even suffered the embankment to be carried away, and were in daily terror of an inundation. They managed, however, to get along somehow during the fourteenth century. Early in the fifteenth the House found two more benefactors—Henry Beaufort, Bishop of Winchester, and Gower the poet. The latter was buried in the church after residing for some years in the House. His monument may still be seen. A list of the Priors from 1130 to 1540 has been preserved. The House, on the Dissolution, was valued at £624: 6: 8. The Prior received, on the surrender, a pension of £100 a year. [Illustration: GOWER’S MONUMENT, ST. MARY OVERIES] The position of the Priory, close to the Palace of the Bishop of Winchester, made it convenient for many functions. In this church were married, in 1406, Edward Holland, Earl of Kent, and Lucia, daughter of the Lord of Milan. Here also, in 1424, was married James the First, King of Scotland, a poet and scholar, of whom Drummond of Hawthornden wrote that “of former kings it might be said that the nation made the kings, but of this king, that he made the people a nation.” His bride was Joan, daughter of the Earl of Somerset, and niece to Cardinal Beaufort. “The fairest and the freshest yonge flower That e’er I saw, methought, before that hour.” In 1539 the House was suppressed and given to Sir Anthony Brown, whose son became Lord Montague, giving his name to the ancient cloister of the Monastery. In the following year the church was made parochial, including the Church of St. Mary Magdalen, which stood beside it, as St. Gregory stood beside St. Paul’s, or St. Margaret by Westminster Abbey, or St. Peter-le-Poor beside the Church of the Austin Friars.