42 
Alotes on Aacock Abbey. 
By C. H. Tatsor. 
(eecHE manor of Lacock anciently belonged to the Earls of 
sSicys Salisbury of a family which, in later times, appears to have 
been called Devereux, in error.2 Ela, daughter and heiress of 
William, Earl of Salisbury, who died April 17th, 1196, and was 
buried at Bradenstoke Priory, was born at Amesbury, 1188, and 
married® William Longespee, natural son of Henry II. and 
Rosamond Clifford, called Fair Rosamond. Longespee was Earl of 
Salisbury in right of his wife. After his death, March 6th, 1226, 
and in his memory, she founded this abbey, April 16th, 1232, in 
the 45th year of her age, for canonesses of the order of St. 
Augustin. The Countess Ela took the habit of the order here, 
December 25th, 1238, was elected the first abbess, August 15th, 
1240, and resigned her office, on account of age and infirmity, 
December 31st, 1257, nominating Beatrice of Kent as her successor. 
Ela died August 24th, 1261, in the 74th year of her age, and was 
buried in the choir * of the Abbey Church, 
The inscribed stone slab, which once covered her mortal remains, 
is preserved in the pavement of the cloisters. It is not, however, 
the original monument, but a second memorial, substituted for the 
1This paper is a development of some notes read by me to the members of 
the Clifton Antiquarian Club, on the occasion of their visit to the Abbey, 
September 27th, 1890, and since published by that society. Some of the facts, 
now given, were not then known to me. 
2 This appears to be the deliberate conclusion of the late John Gough Nichols, 
F.S.A. (See Annals and Antiquities of Lacock Abbey, Bowles and Nichols, 
chapter iii.) The mistake seems to have arisen from the accidental substitution 
of the words “de Ewrus”’ for ‘‘le Ewrus.” 
3 In 1198 (Bowles and Nichols, pedigree iv., p. 149). 
4This is given on the authority of Vincent’s extracts from the Liber de 
Lacock (Bovdes and Nichols, 7 oem No. I.), as are also most of the dates in 
the life of Ela. 
