A HISTORY OF NORTHAMPTONSHIRE 



Isabel de Cotesbrok,^ elected 1333-4, annulled 



by the bishop 

 Katherine Knyvet,^ appointed 1333-4, died 



1349 

 Isabel de Thorp,* appointed 1349, resignedi 366 



Joan Mallore,* elected 1366, died 1 394 



Margery Dayrell,^ elected 1394 



Gonora Downghton,' died 1 48 1 



Joan Doghty,^ elected 148 1 



Joan Chese,^ elected 1492 



Clementina Stock," elected 1504-5, surren- 

 dered 1538 



The oval seal of the abbey, of which there is 

 a poor impression in the P.R.O.,^^ represents the 

 coronation of the Blessed Virgin under a carved 

 canopy. Legend : — 



S COE ABBATHIE 



ee[ate marie de] pratis iux° 



NORHT 



HOUSE OF CISTERCIAN MONKS 



8. THE ABBEY OF PIPEWELL 



Pipewell is a hamlet or liberty within the old 

 bounds of Rockingham Forest, lying in the three 

 parishes of Rushton St. Peter's, Great Oakley, 

 and Wilbarston. Here in the year 1143 

 William Batevileyn founded an abbey for Cistercian 

 monks, dedicated like all houses of that order to the 

 honour of the Blessed Virgin.' It was a daughter 

 house of Newminster, Northumberland, which 

 was founded in 1137.1" The earliest charters 

 usually give the monastery the name of St. Mary 

 de Divisis from the exceptional nature of its 

 foundation. Not only did the demesne lands lie 

 on both sides of Harper's Brook, which was the 

 boundary between the hundreds of Rothwell and 

 Corby, but the very outbuildings within the pre- 

 cincts stood on two distinct fees, and were always 

 known as the east and west granges. The memo- 

 randa relative to the abbey in the first chartulary 



1 Pat. 8 Edw. III. pt. i. m. 42. * Ibid. m. 36. 



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



* Ibid. Inst, of Bokyngham, f. 170. 



6 Ibid. ii. f. I72d. 



6 Pat. 21 Edw. IV. pt. 2, m. 8. 7 ibid. 



« Cole MS. (B. M.) xxvi. f. 225b. 



« Cott. MS. Otho, B. xix. ff. 150-204, contains 

 memoranda of the abbey from 1 143 to 1323, the 

 latter date representing the time of their compilation. 

 Caligula A. xii. contains 159 folios, the first six of 

 which comprise a chronicle ' ab initio mundi ' to the 

 year 1246 ; the rest of the volume is a register of the 

 abbey evidences. Caligula A. xiii. begins with a brief 

 chronicle of the earliest days down to 1347 ; the re- 

 mainder of the volume is a chartulary up to that date, 

 but with a few insertions of a later period. Stowe 

 MS. 937 is another chartulary of late thirteenth 

 centur)' compilation with late additions. No. 3 3 of the 

 old catalogue of MS. Rolls and Charters of the Society 

 of Antiquaries was described as a ' Fragment of an old 

 chartulary of Pipewell Abbey, on vellum, much in- 

 jured.' These fragments were taken to the B.M. in 

 1904 to be repaired, and it was then found to be the 

 mi;sing portions of MS. Stowe 937, from which it 

 had been separated at some time prior to 1803. On 

 this discovery the missing portions were presented to 

 the museum, and have now been replaced in their 

 original order after a divorce of a century. 



10 Bodleian Digby MS. xi. p. 17. 



cited in the note give an excellent summary of the 

 numerous early benefactions to the monastery 

 quoted in the Monasticon.^^ The Taxation of 

 1 29 1 gives the abbey an income of ;^i2i oj. Z^d. 

 derived from temporalities in the diocese of 

 Lincoln, and ;^30 91. 8r/. in the diocese of 

 Coventry and Lichfield, 1* besides a rent of 45. 

 from the Norwich diocese, and a spirituality of 

 £\o from the church of Dunchurch in the 

 Coventry and Lichfield diocese. ^^ 



The most valuable part of the abbey's posses- 

 sions, next to the woods and meadows by which 

 the monastery was surrounded, lay in Warwick- 

 shire, in the parish and district of Dunchurch, 

 just over the county borders. Here the monks 

 had several granges, the most important being at 

 Causton, to the north-west of Dunchurch. The 

 gifts of a certain William de Causton, who after- 

 wards became a monk of Pipewell, formed the 

 nucleus of their Warwickshire estates, which 

 were afterwards considerably extended in the 

 reign of Stephen by Ingelram Clement, who 

 held of Sir Henry de Ardcrne, who also confirmed 

 the various grants. Turchil de Causton and 

 Winmare his wife were also large benefactors 

 in the same district ; eventually they released all 

 their property to the convent on condition that 

 the abbot and monks should provide them with 

 necessaries during their life and bury them at 

 Pipewell when they died, with the like cere- 

 monies as if they had been monks. In 1266 the 

 chief men of Thurlaston united to claim common 

 rights on Causton Common, but Abbot Gerard 

 de Lega stood firm against them, and obtained a 

 verdict in his favour at the Warwick assizes. 

 There were then at Causton Grange two large 

 ovens, where they baked weekly sixteen quarters 

 of corn for common bread, and six of better 

 quality for the monks and lay brethren and their 

 servants in their granges of Dunchurch, Thurlas- 

 ton, Rokeby, ' Lalleford,' Newbold, and ' Thirn- 

 milne,' in Warwickshire, and for their granges 



11 Lansd. MS. 963, f. 56. 



1- Deed of Surrender, No. 70. 1^ Mon. v. 434. 



1* Pope Nkh. Tax. (Rec. Com.), 257. 



15 Ibid. p. 241. 



116 



