A HISTORY OF NOTTINGHAMSHIRE 



properties of the priory to Michael Stanhope for 

 sixty years, at a rental of 20. The property is 

 described as 'late of Henry Norres, attainted.' 28 



In November 1537 Michael Stanhope and 

 Anne his wife obtained grant in tail male of the 

 house and site of the suppressed priory of Shel- 

 ford, with church, belfry, churchyard, 174 acres 

 of arable land, 30 of meadow and 60 of pasture 

 in Shelford, together with the common fishery. 29 

 Michael Stanhope was the second son of Sir 

 Edward Stanhope of Rampton. 



There is a cast from a 1 3th-century impression 

 of the seal of Shelford Priory at the British 

 Museum. 30 It is a pointed oval, displaying the 

 Blessed Virgin, crowned and seated on a carved 

 throne, beneath a canopy supported on slender 

 shafts and with the Holy Child on her left knee. 

 Remains of legend : 



SIGILLUM . . HELFORDIE 



PRIORS OF SHELFORD 



Alexander, occurs 1204'' 

 William, occurs c. 1225 32 

 John de Nottingham, occurs 127 1, 33 resigned 



1289 34 



Robert de Tithby, 1289 35 

 Laurence, died c. 1310 

 Thomas de Lexinton, c. I3io 36 

 Robert de Mannesfield, 1315 3r 

 William de Breton, 1320 S8 

 William de Leicester, I34O 3S 

 Stephen de Bassyngborn, I349 40 

 Thomas de Chilwell, I349 41 

 (Alexander de Insula, elected I358) 42 

 Roger de Graystock, appointed 1358 43 

 William de Kynalton, 1365 44 

 Robert Lyndby, I4O4 45 

 William de Righton, I4o8 46 

 Walter Cutwolfe, died 1459^ 

 John Bottesford, I459 48 



L. and P. Hen. YI1I, x, 364. 

 19 Pat. 29 Hen. VIII, pt. i, m. 33. 



30 Seal Casts, Ixx, 36. 



31 See account of Welbeck Abbey below. 

 " Thoroton, Notts. \, 288. 



33 Nott. Bar. Rec. i, 50. 



34 Harl. MS 6970, fol. 106. Ibid. 



36 Thomas de Lexinton, elected by the canons on 

 the death of Prior Laurence, was approved by 

 Edward II and instituted by Archb;:hop William 

 (died 1315) ; Coram Rege, Mich. ^Edw. il, m. 153. 



37 Harl. MS. 6970, fol. 243. 



38 Harl. MS. 6972, fol. 16. 



39 Ibid. fol. 13. 



40 Ibid. fol. 1 8. 4I Ibid. 



" Ibid. fol. 20. The arckbishop appointed Roger 

 de Graystock, quashing the election of Alexander as a 

 persona inepta. 



43 Ibid. " Ibid. 



45 Ibid. fol. 20. 



Ibid. fol. 24. 



" Ibid. fol. 30. Ibid. fol. 37. 



Richard Stokes, 1479 49 

 Robert Helmsley, 1491 w 

 Henry Sharp, 1498 61 

 Robert Dickson 82 



9. THE PRIORY OF THURGARTON 



The name D'Aincourt or Deincourt had its 

 origin in the village of Aincourt in Normandy, 

 not far from Mantes on the Seine. The first 

 English baron of this name was Walter, con- 

 nected by marriage with the Conqueror, and 

 himself a kinsman of Bishop Remigius. This 

 Walter Deincourt was richly rewarded by his 

 leader, obtaining the grant of one manor in 

 Northamptonshire, four in the West Riding, 

 eleven in Derbyshire, seventeen in Lincolnshire, 

 and thirty-four in Nottinghamshire, including 

 that of Thurgarton. 1 



Walter had two sons, William and Ralph. 

 The firstborn died young, and was buried before 

 the western door of Lincoln Cathedral. Ralph 

 became his father's heir and the second Baron 

 Deincourt. 



This Ralph Deincourt, for the health of his 

 soul and of those of his sons and daughters, his 

 parents and all his progenitors, founded a house 

 of Austin Canons at Thurgarton in honour of 

 St. Peter. The baron was moved to do this, 

 as he states in the foundation charter, by the 

 advice and prayers of Thurstan, Archbishop of 

 York, of pious memory. He bestowed on the 

 house the whole of Thurgarton and Fiskerton and 

 all the churches of his demesnes, namely those of 

 Granby and Coates, Nottinghamshire, Swayfield, 

 (Cold) Hanworth, Scopwick, Kirkby, Branston, 

 Timberland, and Blankney, Lincolnshire, and 

 Langwith, Derbyshire, with all manner of appur- 

 tenances. 2 The reference to Archbishop Thurstan 

 shows that the house was not founded until 

 after 1140, which was the year of that prelate's 

 decease. 3 



Two registers or chartularies of this house 

 survived its dissolution, both named by Tanner ; 

 one of these was in the possession of the Earl of 

 Chesterfield, and the other in the hands of Mr. 



13 Ibid. 



61 Ibid. fol. 39. 



Ibid. fol. 37. 



68 Harl. MS. 6969, fol. 136. 'Last prior.' 



1 He must, however, have been enfeoffed by his 

 father, upon a portion of the latter's fee, for he 

 granted the tithes of Granby and Knapthorpe to the 

 abbey of St. Mary York ; see below. 



* It deserves notice that tithes from a number of 

 manors in the d'Aincourt fee had been granted 

 before the foundation of Thurgarton Priory to the 

 abbey of St. Mary York. Walter d'Aincourt, 

 the founder of the family, had given the tithes of 

 Thurgarton itself to the latter house (Man. iii, 

 537). It does not appear, however, that any dispute 

 arose on this question between Thurgarton and St. 

 Mary's. 



1 Dugdale, Man. vi, 191. 



1 20 



