Stoke-by-Clare is a small village and civil parish in Suffolk located in the valley of the River Stour, about two miles west of Clare. In 1124 Richard de Clare, 1st Earl of Hertford, moved the Benedictine Priory that had been established at his castle in Clare to Stoke-by-Clare. The Priory, which was controlled by the monastery of Bec in Normandy, enjoyed by 1291 rents from 17 parishes in Suffolk. During the Hundred Years' War the Prior's revenues were in part diverted to the English crown and in 1415 the Priory was replaced by Stoke College, intended to support a small community of priests and choristers under the patronage of Edmund Mortimer, 5th Earl of March, who was also buried here.