This abbey (more correctly friary) of the Franciscans was founded between 1231 and 1234 by Richard Marshall, Third Earl of Pembroke. In 1331 Dame lsabelia Pairner extended the Chancel and erected the high altar and present east window, which ex- tends almost the entire height and width of the church and consists of a seven-light window. In 1347 a confraternity was established to raise funds for a bell tower, but in the following year the Black Death devastated the country and was chronicled by one of the friars, John Clyn. It was probably not completed until much later in the century. In I540 the friary was suppressed and its properties granted to the Corporation. The subsequent ruin of the monastery was accelerated by the seemingly inevitable building of a barracks in the grounds Only the chancel and bell tower of the church were spared together with the sacristy, recently restored as the oratory of Smithwicks Brewery.