A HISTORY OF DURHAM 



HOUSE OF BENEDICTINE NUNS 



9. THE PRIORY' OF ST. MARY, 

 NEASHAM 



The nunnery of Neasham was the only 

 religious house within the limits of the county 

 that stood independent of the powerful church 

 of Durham.^ Situated on the River Tees, two 

 miles from Sockburn, in the parish of Hurworth,^ 

 it was founded for eight nuns * of the Benedictine 

 Order, and was dedicated to the Blessed Virgin.' 

 The founder's name is unknown ; probably he 

 was one of the early barons of Greystoke.' 



In February, 1 156-7, Pope Adrian IV con- 

 firmed the privileges of the monastery by a bull 

 in which he spoke of it as already well estab- 

 lished.' Amongst its possessions he expressly 

 mentioned the place in which the church is 

 situated, called Mahaldecroft,' given by Emma, 

 daughter of Waldef, and a carucate of land of 

 the lordship of the same Emma in Neasham, 

 together with common of pasture, the cultivated 

 ground called Sadelflat, the mill upon the Kent, 

 and the ground between the mill and the church ; 

 one carucate of land in Hurworth given by 

 Engelais, sister to Emma ; all the tithes of the 

 convent's lordship in Neasham ; and a carucate 

 of land in Thornton given by Alan son of 

 Torphin. The pope exempted the nuns from 

 payment of tithes, and granted them free right 

 of sepulture.' 



This grant of Emma (then described as 

 widow of Ralph de Teisa,) was confirmed by a 

 charter of Henry 11,*" and again by her son, 

 Ralph Fitz-Ralph." 



Bishop Hugh gave to the convent 2 acres 

 of land at ' Wayngate-Letch,' '^ and during his 

 pontificate Roger de Conyers gave 17 acres 

 in Bishopton.*' 



' The house at Neasham is occasionally spoken of 

 as an abbey, as by Leland {Coll. iv, 275), but there 

 does not appear to be any warrant for this, though 

 the modern house built on the site of the convent is 

 called Neasham Abbey. (Boyle's GuiJe to Co. Dur. 

 658.) In all formal ecclesiastical documents the house 

 is spoken of as a priory. 



'Surtees, Hist. Dur. iii, 258. 



'Dugd.ile, Mon. Angl. (ed. 1846), iv, 548-50. 



'Tanner, i^otit. Monas. Northumb. xxii. 



' Dugdale, ut supra. 



^Surt. Hist. Dur. iii, 258. So Dugd.-ile. 



'Dur. Epis. Reg. Langley, fol. 86. 



* Possibly ' Madencroft,' mentioned in Hen. VIII's 

 grant to Lawson. See below. 



'Dur. Epis. Reg. Langley, fol. 86. [This bull is 

 printed, with a translation, in Jrci. Aeliana, xvi, 

 268-73.] 



'"Printed by Surt. Hist. Dur. iii, 258. 



"Ibid. "Ibid. 259. 



'Mbid. 258. 



William Fitz-Ralph granted the nuns per- 

 mission to grind their corn at the manor mill 

 without multure ; and Ralph Fitz-William, lord 

 of Neasham, confirmed this grant, ordering the 

 miller to grind the nuns' corn well and take 

 nothing, but providing that when they ground 

 their hard corn they should pay the miller one 

 such small white loaf as a nun hath for her 

 daily allowance, and one small ' pain grossier ' ; 

 and when they ground their barley, two flagons 

 of ale." 



Before 1248 Nicholas, bishop of Durham, 

 bestowed upon the nuns a portion in the church 

 of Whitburn amounting to 20 marks per 

 annum.** 



Besides the above the convent acquired from 

 time to time the tithes of Little Burdon ; " a 

 pension of 10 marks out of Washington rectory,*' 

 with regard to the payment of which difficulties 

 seem sometimes to have arisen ; ** one acre of 

 land at Lakelands ; *' rents in Hartlepool, North 

 Auckland, and Hurworth ; and small parcels of 

 land in Little Burdon, Ellingstring, Nether 

 Coniscliffe, and Hutton [Hoton].^" The latest 

 gift, by which the house cannot have greatly bene- 

 fited, was a tenement in Windlestone, granted in 

 1524 by R. Wensley, clerk, on condition that 

 he received the rents thereof during his life.^* 



At no time does the convent appear to have 

 been wealthy. In the Taxatio of Pope Nicholas 

 IV (1292) the temporalities were rated at 

 ^19;^^ in the ' Nova Taxatio '(11 Edw. II) at 

 jf 8 1 3J. \d. only ; ^^ and at the dissolution the 

 gross income is given as £2^ gs. gd., and the clear 

 value as _^20 ijs. jd.^* The nuns however 

 seem sometimes to have had a little money to 

 invest. In 1325 they bought an oxgang in 

 Little Burdon from Amabill, daughter of 

 William of Hartlepool ; ^^ and in 1451 or 1452 

 the prioress had licence to purchase houses in 

 Darlington.^'' 



The history of Neasham Priory appears to 

 have been singularly uneventful. It was to the 



" Ibid. 



" Cart. Antiq. Aug. Off. D. 48. 



''Confirmed, Orig. Bull, Gregory VIII d;'t. 

 apud Viterbo. 



" Ratified, Cart. dat. apud Wodestock, 24 May, 

 1276. 



^^Rcg. Palat. Dun. (Rolls Ser.), iii, 336-7 ; Dur. 

 Epis. Reg. Hatfield, fol. i 5 i </. 



"Surt. Hist. Dur. iii, 259. 



^» Ibid. " Ibid. 



"'Printed by Dugdale, A/ds. Angl. (ed. 1846), iv, 



318- 



'•■Ibid. nob. 



"Transcript of Return, 26 Hen. VIII, First 

 Fruits Office. 



^'Surt. Hist. Dur. iii, 259. *« Rud's MSS. 



106 



