The exact existence of a Priory in Boston is unconfirmed. Alan Rufus is believed to have granted the Church of St Botolph at Boston with lands and a mill dam to the Benedictines at St Mary’s Abbey, York. According to G.S.W. Jebb in ‘Memorials of Old Lincolnshire’ (1911, p.120), the grant was made shortly before Alan’s death in 1089 and a priory of Benedictine monks dependent on York was constituted, the church serving both the parish and priory. There seems to be no record of a priory at Boston in or after 1291, suggesting that if a formal priory did exist here, it had been dissolved before that time. The current Church of St Botolph is a later building, dating from 1309, but possibly built on the site of the earlier possible priory. and in 1851-53, when the church was being restored, foundations of what were claimed as priory buildings were exposed on the north side. {1}