RELIGIOUS HOUSES 



Prioresses of Sewardsley 



Felicia ' 



Juliana,^ resigned 1260— I 



Florence,^ elected 1260— I 



Iveta de Paveley * 



Beatrice," occurs 1282 



Lucy of Wetamstede,^ occurs 1304 



Dionysia,^ occurs about 1343 



Margaret de Lodebrok,* elected 1349 



Maud,» occurs 137 1 



Alice Basynge,^" occurs 1432, resigned 1439 



Alice DrakeloWj^i elected 1439 



Eleanor Scaresbrig,'^ appointed 1526 

 Agnes Carter,** elected 1530 

 Elizabeth Campbell,*' occurs 1536 



A pointed oval seal of the priory, attached to 

 a charter dated 1325,'* represents the Virgin 

 with crown seated on a throne, her right hand 

 raised in benediction, in her left hand a sceptre. 

 The Holy Child with nimbus is on her lap. 



Legend : [ + s]igillum • sante • m[ari]e . 



DE • SAWARD SLEI . . . 



HOUSES OF AUSTIN CANONS 



II. THE ABBEY OF ST. JAMES, 

 NORTHAMPTON 



On the further side of the Nen, across the 

 west bridge, in the suburbs of Northampton, still 

 known as St. James's End, William Peverel 

 founded an abbey for black canons of the order 

 of St. Augustine at the commencement of the 

 twelfth century. He endowed it with 40 acres 

 in Duston, the church of Duston, and the mill 

 of the same parish. The grant is undated, but 

 was confirmed (probably in the same year) by 

 Henry 1, in the fifth year of his reign, 11 04-5.*- 



The endowments of this house were speedily 

 increased. Within a century of its foundation 

 the abbey of St. James, in addition to Duston, 

 was in possession of the Northamptonshire 

 churches of Bozeat, Cranford, Heyford, Horton, 

 Roade, Rothersthorpe, Wakerley, and Watford, 

 as well as of the church of Gaddesden Parva in 

 Hertfordshire. The whole of these rectories 

 became appropriated to the abbey, save Cranford 

 and Heyford, which had been either surrendered 

 or resumed by the heirs of the donors before the 

 end of the thirteenth century. The abbey also 

 held farms or received rents in about thirty dif- 



* Cited by Bridges, Hist, of Northants, i. 296, from 

 Reg. of Priory of Ashby, p. 10. 



'^ Line. Epis. Reg. Roll of Gravesend. ' Ibid. 



* Her name occurs in two charters of the thir- 

 teenth century (undated). Anct. D. B. 1191,2919. 



6 Ibid. B. 3761. 6 Ibid. B. 1577. 



' Ibid. 2690, 2748. 



•* Line. Epis. Reg. Inst, of Gynwell, f. 142. 

 » Anct. D. B. 3266. 10 Ibid. 3232. 



11 Line. Epis. Reg. Inst, of Alnwick, f I 24. 



12 Cart. Antiq. T. n. 30, and Cott. MS. Tib. E. v. 

 This last has been a fine chartular)' of the abbey, con- 

 taining 247 folios, but sadly damaged by the fire of 

 1 73 1. It was compiled in I 3 13, but contains many 

 later additions. The list of abbots is brought down 

 to 1430. Bishop Kennet's copy of the foundation 

 charter is to be found in Lansd. MS. 973, p. 107, and 

 a copy of the confirmation charter in Harleian MS. 

 .6748, f. 9b. There are a large number of extracts 

 from this chartulary in the Bodl. MSS. Top. North- 

 .ants E. V. fF. 277-497. 



ferent parishes of Northamptonshire. The Valor 

 of 1 29 1 gives an income of £(>$ 2s. Sd. derived 

 from temporalities. The only spirituality reckoned 

 is a pension of £2 65. 8d. from the church of 

 Roade. *^ On the forfeiture of Peverel the manor 

 of Duston was granted by Henry IL to Walkelin 

 de Duston, who afterwards adopted the religious 

 habit and entered the abbey of St. James, of 

 which he subsequently became abbot. He did 

 not bring his estate to the community, for by 

 charter of 10 February, 1206, the year of his 

 death, William de Duston, his son, obtained a 

 confirmation from king John of all the lands his 

 father possessed on the day when he became a 

 religious.** 



The canons, as was usually the case with 

 early monastic foundations, occupied in the first 

 instance temporary buildings, in all probability of 

 wood. On 16 April, 1 1 73, Abbot Ralf and 

 his canons first worshipped in their new stone 

 church, and found the new conventual buildings 

 sufficiently advanced for occupation.*^ In 1229 

 an order was sent by Henry IIL for the abbot of 

 St. James to be allowed two oaks towards build- 

 ing the tower of his church.-° The abbot and 

 convent obtained from the king in 1268 a grant 

 to hold an annual fair within the abbey precincts 

 on the vigil, day, and morrow of the feast of 

 St. James.-* This privilege was allowed during 

 the ' quo warranto ' proceedings at the commence- 

 ment of the reign of Edward IIL,^- and must at 

 one time have been a source of considerable 

 profit, but it was stated in 1538 that it yielded 

 no return beyond what was sufficient to pay 



" Line. Epis. Reg. Inst, of Longlands, f 93. 

 " Her election was annulled by the bishop. Line. 

 Reg. Longlands, cited by Bridges, op. cit. i. 



Epis 

 296. 



15 

 16 



17 



18 

 19 

 20 

 21 



Misc. Bks (Aug. Off.), 232, f. 42. 



Cott. Chart, xi. 41. 



Pope Nich. Tax. (Rec. Com.), f. 38b. 



Harl. MS. 84. 



Cott. MS. Tib. E. v. 234. 



Close, 14 Hen. III. m. 21. 



H.irl. Chart. 58. 



Pkc. de ^0 If'arr. (Rec. Com.), 570. 



127 



