191 



^t €avlie$t C|avtm of % g^fekg of f acock. 



By Bev. W. G. Clark-Maxwell, F.S.A. 



The earliest charters of the Abbey of Lacock fall into two well- 

 marked groups, those providing for the first foundation of the 

 house, and those which were intended to secure for it a permanent 

 endowment. 



It seems not unreasonable to suppose that the Countess Ela of 

 Salisbury had, at any rate since her husband's death on March 7th, 

 1226, entertained the purpose of founding a convent, to which she 

 intended to retire. But the execution of the project was deferred 

 for over three years, partly from the necessity of providing another 

 home for her husband's foundation of Carthusians at Hatherop, 

 which was moved to Hinton in 1228, partly too, we may guess, in 

 order that her eldest son might be of age to confirm her dispositions. 

 He must have been born about 1211, since he is mentioned as a 

 minor in 1231, and was presumably of full age in 1233, when he 

 was knighted, and thus in 1229 would be eighteen or thereabouts. 

 In this year, then, Ela executed her first charter, by which, having 

 ■previously obtained the consent of the Eector, she gave the Manor 

 of Lacock, with the advowson thereof, for the purpose of founding 

 an abbey there, which she wished to be called the Place of Blessed 

 Mary. This was confirmed by her son at the same time and place 

 (since the witnesses are the same), received the King's con- 

 firmation at Westminster, on January 31st, 1230, and that of 

 the Bishop of Salisbury on the 20th of April following. These 

 preliminaries having been satisfactorily arranged, preparations for 

 building would doubtless be made, and a temporary shelter provided 

 for the first inmates of the new house, of which one at least seems 

 to have come from the sister-house of Goring. In 1232, according 

 to the Book of Lacock,^ Ela founded the two Monasteries of Lacock 



' See note on " Book of Lacock," App. A. 



