RELIGIOUS HOUSES 



taneously with these irregularities it is evident 

 that the material condition of the abbey had 

 suffered, and in 1 303 the bishop granted an in- 

 dulgence for those who should assist the con- 

 struction and repairs of the conventual church of 

 St. Mary de Pratis without Northampton. ' In 

 131 6 Simon, vicar of Thorp, was appointed by 

 the bishop to be master of the abbess and con- 

 vent of Delapr^.^ During the rule of Bishop 

 Repingdon (i 405-1 41 9) an indenture was 

 entered into between the abbess of Delapr6 

 and the diocesan as to a pension from 

 the church of Great Doddington appropriated to 

 the abbey. 8 Bishop Gray visited the house in 

 the course of his episcopate (1431-1436), and 

 enjoined that certain nuns, who after many years 

 of probation had not been professed, should be 

 professed without further delay ; the rest of his 

 injunctions are purely formal and throw no light 

 on the condition of the house.* We may infer, 

 however, that its condition in the middle of the 

 fifteenth century was satisfactory from the fact 

 that the bishop in January, 1459—60, sanctioned 

 the appropriation to it of the priory of Sewards- 

 ley, the income of the latter house being in- 

 sufficient to maintain its inmates.* 



The last abbess of Delaprd, Clementina Stock, 

 elected in January, 1504-5,' managed to obtain 

 a respite for her house when the smaller monas- 

 teries were dissolved. At the cost of a sum of 

 ;^266 13J. 4^. and the reservation to the crown 

 of a close of pasture and a wood called Gorefeld 

 at Hanslope, Bucks, she obtained a re-grant of 

 her convent on 6th December, 1536, together 

 with her own reappointment as abbess.^ But 

 the respite was merely temporary, and the aged 

 abbess and her community were forced into a 



surrender on 15th December, 15; 



No 



signatures are appended to the deed of surrender 

 made out to ' John London, Clerk to the 

 King's use,' but it bears the common seal.^ On 

 23 December London wrote from Northamp- 

 ton to Sir R. Riche announcing that he and 

 Dr. Baskervyle had taken the surrender of 

 Delapr^, that the abbess was sickly and aged, and 

 that they had assigned her a pension of ;^40 

 which she could not long enjoy; the house, he 

 added, was so well endowed that the goods and 

 chattels sufficed to defray the debts notwithstand- 

 ing the great cost of obtaining the king's late 

 charter.* An extract from another letter of 

 London's is interesting as illustrating the aims 

 and motives of many or most of the officials 



' Line. Epis. Reg. Memo, of Dalderby, f. 6 id. 

 2 Ibid. f. 328d. 



' Ibid. Memo, of Repingdon, f. 121. 

 ' Ibid. Memo, of Gray, f. 200. 

 '"• Ibid. Memo, of Chadworth, f 53d. 

 6 Lansd. MS. 963, f. 56. 



' L. and P. Hen. Fill. xi. 141 7 (12), and xiii. 

 pt. I, 487(3). 



8 P. R. O. Deeds of Surrender, No. 70. 

 » L. and P. Hen. Fill, xiii, pt. 2, 1128. 



entrusted with the carrying-out of the plans of 

 Henry VIIL 'At Delapray I had ii chalyces and 

 a pyxe, and the house wasse grately storyd wt. 

 cattill and corn. Ye shall see me make you a 

 praty bank by that time I come next upp.' ^^ 



The aged abbess was treated liberally,'^ but 

 the prioress and seven other nuns received miser- 

 ably poor pensions. In 1553 five of these 

 pensioners were still on the list ; Elizabeth 

 Welsher, the late prioress, was receiving 

 £2 13J. 4a'., another lady £1 13J. 4^/., a third 

 £1 6s. Sd., and two more 20s. each. 



The site of the abbey and its demesne lands 

 was granted 12th February, 1542, by the crown 

 to John Marsh. ^^ In the reign of Elizabeth they 

 passed to the family of Tate. Bridges in 1720 

 says that the modern house stood on the site of 

 the old convent, ' of which there remain only 

 some battlements at the west end, and what is 

 supposed to have been a part of the chapel.' ^' 



It was the custom of the weavers' gild at 

 Northampton to make an annual procession on 

 Easter Monday to the conventual church of 

 Delapr6. The following is taken from the 

 ordinances of the gild, 1 43 1-2 : — 'First that all 

 the Maistres and journeymen of the seide crafts 

 that nowe ben and shall ben ev'ry yere the 

 Monedday in the Morowe after pasch day after 

 the good and comendable custom of her craft 

 goo honestly with her tapers of wex as it hath 

 been continued of olde Auncyen tyme to the 

 house of our lady seynt Mary de la pr^ besyde 

 Northampton there ofFeryng up here seide tapers 

 before the ymages of the Trynitie and our 

 Lady ther.' ^* 



Abbesses of Delapr£ 



Azelina'" 



Cecilia de Daventry,^® elected 1220 



Agatha,^^ died 1274 



Emma Malore,^^ elected 1274, died 1282 



Margery de Wolaston,^' elected 1282, died 



1296-7 

 Margery de Broke,-" elected 1297, resigned 



Agnes de Poveley,-' elected 131 9, died 1327 

 Margaret de Grey," elected 1327-8, died 

 1333-4 



10 Ibid. 1154. 



11 The commissioner speaks of this poor lady as ' a 

 good aged woman ' and it is evident that her rule of 

 the house, which lasted over thirty years, had been able 

 and beneficial. i^ Pat. 34 Hen. VUl. pt. 6. 



13 Hisf. ofNorthants, i. 365-6. 

 11 Northampton Borough Records, vol. I, p. 296. 

 15 She was constituted abbess at the foundation of 

 the house. Chart. R. 2 Edw. III. m. 15. 

 i« Pat. 5 Hen. III. 



1" Line. Epis. Reg. Roll of Gravesend. 

 18 Ibid. 19 Pat. 10 Edw. I. m. 14. 



20 Ibid. 25 Edw. I. pt. I, m. 8. 



21 Line. Epis. Reg. Inst, of Dalderby, f. 139. 



22 Pat. I Edw. III. pt. I, m. 2. 



115 



