192 The Earliest Charters of the Abbey of Lacock. 



and Hintoii, on the same day, one in the morning, the other in 

 the afternoon ; but this can liardly refer to the first beginning of 

 building (since the same sentence records the veiling of Alicia de 

 Garinges), but more probably to the ceremonial foundation stone 

 laying. In the Annalistic portion of the same MS. the entry " hoc 

 anno velantur prime moniales de Lakoc " occurs opposite 1232 : and 

 against 1233, " Isto anno primitus fundatur cenobium de Lakoc," 

 which seems to show that the " fundatio" cannot mean the first 

 inception of the work. The government of the house was com- 

 mitted to a prioress, Wymarca, the office of abbess being kept open 

 for the foundress, Ela. 



But before her project of retirement into religion could be carried 

 out, provision had to be made for the ampler endowment of the 

 house, which possessed at this period only the Manor of Lacock, 

 with that half of the advowson which belonged to the Earls of 

 Salisbury, and the Manor of Woodmancote, co. Gloucester, which 

 had been given by Constance de Leigh before the actual building 

 of the house. ^ 



The earliest addition which the foundress made to her first 

 endowment seems to have been the Manor of Hatherop, in Glou- 

 cestershire, about ten miles distant from Woodmancote, between 

 the years 1231 — 4.^ The charter will be found in the New Car- 

 tulary, 101a, and was duly confirmed by her son, who issued 

 directions to his knights here and at Lacock, to render their ser- 

 vices to the Prioress (fol 9fl, ii.). Both these manors of Lacock and 

 of Hatherop had, however, some hindrance to the full enjoyment of 

 them by the nuns ; for at Lacock the advowson of the manor was 

 in reality only half the advowson of the Parish Church, while at 

 Hatherop a considerable amount of land had been given by Ela 



' Appendix C. No. IV. The witnesses to her charter include the names of 

 some who attested the Countess' first charter — Sir John Dennis, Sir Henry 

 Daubeny, etc. 



- One of the witnesses to the donation is Richard Marshall, Earl of Pem- 

 broke, who only held that dignity from 1231 — 1234 : and as he was engaged 

 in constant warfare, first with Llewelyn and later with the King, from 

 the beginning of 1233 till his death, the charter should probably be dated 

 1231 or 1232. 



