A HISTORY OF NORTHAMPTONSHIRE 



500 marks from the knights and squires of 

 Northamptonshire, as it was not his intention 

 that anything should be levied from the prioress 

 or other religious who held in frankalmoign free 

 from aid or tallage with the community of the 

 county.^ 



There was considerable dispute from time to 

 time with regard to the patronage of the churches 

 of Catesby and Canons Ashby. On 21 March, 

 1389, Dr. Walter Gibbes, as commissary-general 

 of the archbishop of Canterbury, in the course of 

 his visitation of Lincoln diocese came to the 

 priory of Canons Ashby, and he then gave a 

 formal certificate that, having inspected their 

 instruments, he found that the prioress and con- 

 vent of Catesby did rightfully possess the parish 

 churches of Catesby and Ashby .- 



A full statement of the accounts of Catesby 

 Priory in the year 14 1 5 and during the rule of 

 Elizabeth Swynford possesses many points of 

 interest. There were no arrears of rent ; the 

 chief receipts were : From rents of lands, 

 ;^43 gs. bd. ; from farms and tolls of wind- and 

 water-mills, £2^) 2s. id., the payments being 

 made in kind, such as wheat, maslin, barley, 

 pigs, geese, and hens ; from oblations at the altar 

 of St. Edmund, js. ^d. ; from issues of the 

 manor of Catesby, chiefly wool and hides, 

 £^2^ 8i. 8^. ; and from court perquisites and 

 fines 245. 8(/., yielding a total of receipts of 

 ^^98 35. bd. The expenses, given in the greatest 

 detail, amounted to ;^94 is. j^d. Tallow for 

 candles cost 2s. ; pitchers, Sd. ; 2,000 slates 

 bought at Chorlton, 8j. 4^. ; 700 tiles bought 

 at Coventry, 4.S. bd. ; a tablecloth for the hall, 

 I J. 10^. ; a cow bought at Daventry, 6j. ^d. ; 

 four skins of parchment, is. 2d. ; 18 pounds of 

 wax, 10;. bd. ; 4 pounds of cotton, 45. 4^. A 

 man's wages for walling was 2d. a day, and 

 hired women were paid id. a day.^ 



On the death of Prioress Agnes Terry in 1431 

 the bishop gave leave for the election of a suc- 

 cessor.* Her name is not known, but in January, 

 1444—5, ^^^ w^s suspended from office and ad- 

 ministration by the diocesan, who granted a com- 

 mission for an inspection of the accounts of the 

 house to the abbot of St. James, Northampton. 

 The administration of the priory was committed 

 to Agnes Allesby and Isabel Benett, nuns of the 

 house ; ^ both eventually became superiors in suc- 

 cession. 



On 27 September, 1535, John Tregonnell 



1 Close, 15 Edw. II. m. 16. 



2 Cal. Anct. D. B. 3532. 



5 These accounts are given in extenso by Baker 

 {Hist. o/Northants, i. 278), from Misc. Rolls Aug. Off. 

 3 Hen. V. 



* Line. Epis. Reg. Inst, of Gray, f. 105. 



5 Ibid. Memo, of Alnwick, f. 59. Isabel Benet and 

 Agnes Allesby, as administrators of the priory ap- 

 pointed by the diocesan, rendered accounts to the 

 abbot of St. James, Northampton, for the year 22-3 

 Henrj' V'l. ; Mins. Accts. Bdle. 946, No. 20. 



wrote to Cromwell giving a rapid digest of his 

 recent monastic visits, in which the following 

 passage occurs : ' Catesby, a house of nuns of the 

 Cistercian order, has ^^90 lands yearly, and is 

 under the jurisdiction of the bishop of Lincoln, 

 by usurpation I suppose, as the order has always 

 been exempt. The prioress and sisters are free 

 from suspicion.' ^ The local commissioners, when 

 they visited Catesby on 12 May, 1536, on the 

 eve of the dissolution of the smaller houses, were 

 so struck with its admirable condition that they 

 felt constrained to anticipate their general report, 

 and forwarded a letter to the chancellor of the 

 Court of Augmentations direct from the priory, 

 wherein they stated, *The house of Catesby we 

 founde in very perfect order, the prioress a sure, 

 wyse, discrete, and very religious woman with 

 ix nunnys under her obedyencye, as religious and 

 devoute and as good obedyencye as we have in 

 tyme past seen or be lyke shall see. The seid 

 house standyth in suche a quarter muche to the 

 relefF of the kynges people and his graces pore 

 subjectes their lykewyse much relieved. Only the 

 reporte of dyvers worshyppfulles were thereunto 

 adjoining us ; of alle other yt ys to us openly de- 

 clared. Wherefore yf yt should please the kynges 

 highnesses to have remorse that any suche reli- 

 gious house shall stande, we thinke his grace 

 cannot appoynt any house more mete to share 

 his most gracious charitie and pity on than the 

 said house of Catesby. Further, ye shall under- 

 stand that as to her bounden dewtye towards 

 the kynges highness in this his afFayres, also for 

 discrete entertainment of us his commyssioners 

 and our company, we have not found nor belyke 

 shall fynde any such of more dyscrecion . . . 

 From Catesby the xii day off this present moneth 

 off May. Edmund Knyghtley, John Lane, 

 George GifFard, Robert Burgoyn.'^ 



This favourable notice in no way softened the 

 king's heart or turned him from his object. On 

 19 June, George GifFard, writing to Cromwell 

 from Garendon Abbey, complained that the king, 

 when he read their letter as to Catesby Priory, 

 remarked, ' It was like we had received rewards 

 which caused us to write as we did.' 8 The 

 commissioners were ordered to return to Catesby 

 and complete their task. George GifFard wrote 

 again to Cromwell from Catesby on 27 June, 

 saying they v/ere there ' to begin our suppression,' 

 but even then they seemed to regret the work of 

 ejection, and asked whether a letter from the 

 chancellor of the Augmentations Office was a 



6 L. and P. Hen. Fill. ix. 457. Dr. TregonneU 

 was a prominent law^'er on the king's side in the 

 affairs of More and Anne Boleyn (Dixon, Hist, of the 

 Church of England, i. I 54); he was one of the busiest 

 and most relentless of the monastic visitors, and his 

 testimony in favour of Catesby is all the more 

 remarkable. 



1 Cott. MS. Cleop. E. iv. 241. 



8 Wright, Suppression of Monasteries, 136. 



124 



