A HISTORY OF NORTHAMPTONSHIRE 



An imperfect example of the first seal is 

 attached to a charter of William, prior of 

 Daventry, and the convent, dated 1392.' 



A sulphur cast with fine impression of the 

 pointed oval seal of Prior Nicholas of Ely' repre- 



sents a chalice covered with a napkin upon an 

 altar slab resting on two cylindrical columns with 

 a marble entablature between them, ornamented 

 with a diapered lozengy pattern. Legend : — 



+ s' NICOLAI • PRIORIS • DE • DAVINTRE. 



HOUSE OF CLUNIAC NUNS 



7. THE ABBEY OF DELAPR£ 



The religious house of Delaprd or abbey of 

 St. Mary de Pratis, near Northampton, according 

 to the confirmation charter of Edward III. was 

 founded by Simon de St. Liz the younger in the 

 reign of Stephen.' The nuns followed the rule of 

 Cluny. Leland states that they were in the first 

 instance placed at Fotheringhay, but afterwards 

 removed to Delapr^.* The sisters retained the 

 church of Fotheringhay, theiroriginal endowment, 

 until the founding of the college at that place. 



The founder endowed the abbey with large 

 possessions in Hardingstone and with the churches 

 of Barton, Great Doddington, and Fother- 

 inghay. Edward IlL confirmed to the nuns 

 also the churches of Wollaston and Filgrave 

 and the advowson of the church of Fyfield.^ 

 Among innumerable smaller gifts may be men- 

 tioned the grant by the founder of a ' tun ' 

 of wine yearly at Pentecost for celebration of the 

 mass, of 2s. rent and two days' work the gift of 

 Ingelram Fitz-Henry and Alice his wife, and 

 a donation by Richard, warden of the hospital of 

 St. John, Northampton, and the brethren of y. 

 annual rent to be received by the abbess by the 

 hands of the cellarer of the hospital from the 

 said warden and brethren in perpetuity.^ Mal- 

 colm and William, kings of Scotland, confirmed 

 to the nuns the church of Fotheringhay, and John 

 de Balliol acquitted them and their tenants from 

 suit of his court of Fotheringhay ; David, brother 

 of the king of Scotland, bestowed on them the 

 liberty of having a cart to pick up firewood in 

 the wood of Yardley for the necessities of the 

 house.7 Notwithstanding the long list of bene- 

 fectors the gross annual value of the abbey, 

 according to the Valor of 1535, only amounted 

 to £,12(> i6s. ^d., its clear value being 

 ^119 9i. 7^.8 



Little is recorded of the history of the nunnery 

 beyond entries relating to the election or appoint- 

 ment of superiors. These, notwithstanding the 

 custom of the order, which ordained that the 

 superiors of all cells and dependent houses should 

 he nominated by the abbot of Cluny as supreme 



1 Harl. Chart. 83 A. 30. 



2 B. M. D.C. E. 193. 



3 Chart. R. 2 Edw. III. m. 15. 



* Leland, Itin. (Hearne ed.), i. 55. 



5 Chart. R. 2 Edw. III. m. 15. 



6 Ibid. ■^ Ibid. 

 8 raJor Eccl. (Rec. Com.), iv. 321. 



head, were elected by the community itself, a 

 royal licence having been previously obtained, 

 the king subsequently signifying his assent to the 

 diocesan and issuing instructions to his escheator 

 to restore the temporalities. In 1294 the abbess 

 received a grant of royal protection from 

 Edward I. together with abbots and priors of the 

 Benedictine order.' John de Feriby, clerk, was 

 sent with letters to the abbess and convent in 

 February, 1327—8, entitling him to receive the 

 pension due from them to one of the king's 

 clerks by reason of the new creation of the 

 abbess.'" 



No mention occurs of the visitation of this 

 Cluniac house by delegates appointed by the 

 general chapter for the purpose of visiting 

 English houses of the order ; the subjection of 

 the nunnery to the diocesan, on the other hand, 

 seems never to have been disputed. He con- 

 firmed the election of the abbess, on two occasions 

 annulled the choice of the convent on the ground 

 of a defect in the process of election, but sub- 

 sequently confirmed the appointment on con- 

 sideration of the merits of the abbess-elect. In 

 January, 1333-4, Isabel de Cotesbrok on the 

 death of Margaret de Grey was chosen by the 

 community and obtained the royal assent to her 

 promotion; the bishop, however, formally quashed 

 the election and appointed Katherine Knyvet." 

 She was one of the many heads of religious 

 foundations who fell a victim to the terrible 

 visitation of the plague in 1349,'^ and the bishop, 

 again on the ground of a defect in election, 

 appointed her successor Isabel de Thorp.'^ 



The condition of the house appears in a some- 

 what unsatisfactory state at the commencement 

 of the fourteenth century. The bishop in 1300 

 issued a mandate to the archdeacon of North- 

 ampton to denounce Isabel de Clouville, Maud 

 Rychemers, and Ermentrude de Newark, professed 

 nuns of Delapr6, who had discarded the habit of 

 religion and notoriously lived a secular life, as 

 apostate nuns, also to inquire as to who had aided 

 them in their apostasy.'* In 131 1 another sister, 

 Agnes de Landwath, was denounced for apostasy 

 and for forsaking the habit of religion.'^ Simul- 



» Pat. 22 Edw. I. m. 5. 



10 Close, 2 Edw. III. m. 36d. 



11 Pat. 8 Edw. III. pt. 3, m. 36. 



12 Gasquet, The Great Pestilence, p. 137. 



13 Line. Epis. Reg. Inst, of Gynwell, f. 142. 

 1* Ibid. Memo, of Dalderby, f. 16. 



15 Ibid. p. I99d. 



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