By J. E. Nightingale, F.S.A. 347 



The four great monastic establishments presided over by abbesses, 

 which are found constantly referred to in medieval tiines, occur in 

 the following order :— Wilton, S. Mary's Winchester, Shaftesbury, 

 and Barking. Tliese abbesses were, at least on one occasion, sum- 

 moned to sit in Parliament, although Fuller, in his CJmrch History, 

 states the contrary, (book vi.) The Abbess of Wilton was sum- 

 moned to Parliament at Westminster, 34th Edw. I.'— 1306, on 

 the morrow of the Holy Trinity, for the purpose of treating upon 

 an aid for making the King's eldest son a knight. The presentation 

 of a nun to this monastery appears to have been a royal preroo-ative 

 upon every coronation, according to charters printed by Dugdale. 



Hawise, Abbess of Wilton, occurs twice in Pem. MSS. of about 

 the middle of the twelfth century. To one of these charters is 

 attached an impression of her seal in a fragmentary condition ; it 

 IS a large pointed-oval seal of green wax, having a standing female 

 figure with arms extended and holding what seems to be a key in 

 her left hand. In these documents, which are apparently early in 

 the reign of Henry II., the Church of S. Olave, as well as that of 

 S. Edith, is mentioned, also a grant of land to R. Salvage at Fovant. 

 Leland, in his Itinerary (vol. 6, p. 74, second ed., 1774), says that 

 Robert Fitz-Hamond, in the time of Rufus was much connected 

 with Tewkesbury Abbey— that of his four daughters, Hawisia was 

 made Abbess of Wilton, and Cecilia Abbess of Shaftesbury. In 

 Dugdale's list Cecilia is duly entered as having been made Abbess 

 of Shaftesbury by Henry I. in 1107, and her name occurs again in 

 11 3 5, but a curious mistake has been made as regards Hawisia. 

 Leland was no doubt right in saying that she was made Abbess of 

 Wilton, but Dugdale, both in his first and subsequent editions of 

 the Monasticon, in the account of Tewkesbury Abbey, states that 

 the two daughters of Fitz-Hamon were made Abbesses of Shaftes- 

 bury and WiNTON— instead of Wiltojt. From this confusion of 

 the two places, Hawisia has hitherto been included amongst the 

 Abbesses of S. JNIary's, Winchester, and is so appropriated by all 

 subsequent authorities as "Hawysia, about 1120.'' Fitz-Hamon, a 



* Palgrave's Parliamentary Writs, vol. i., p. 164 

 VOL. XIX. NO. LVII. 2 D 



