A HISTORY OF HAMPSHIRE 



tury date, of which an illustration is given, 

 represents St. Elfleda, the abbess and patron 

 saint, in full length with crozier in right hand 

 and book in left. Legend : SIGIL'S MARIE 

 . . . ROMES' ECL'K. 



ABBESSES OF ROMSEY 



Elfleda, died in 959 



Merwenna, 974 



Elwina, 993 



Elfleda, 996 



Christine, 1086 



Hadewis or Avice, 1130-55 



Maud, 1 155-60 



Mary, 1 1 60 



Juliana, 1 died in 1199 



Maud Walerand,* 1199-1219 



Maud Paria or Paricia, 1 2 1 9-6 1 



Amice, 1263 



Alice Walrand, 1290-8. 



Philippa de Stokes, 3 1298-1307 



dementia de Gildeford, 4 1307-14 



Alice de Wyntereshulle, 1315 



Sibil Carbonel, 1315-33 



Joan Icthe, 5 1333 



Isabel de Camoys, 6 1352-96 



Lucy Everard, 7 1396 



Felicia Aas, 8 died in 1419 



Maud Lovell, 1419-62 



Joan Brygges, 1462-72 



Elizabeth Brooke, 9 1472-1502 



Joyce Rowse, 1502-15 



Anne Westbrook, 1515 



Elizabeth Ryprose, 1523-39 



5. THE ABBEY OF WHERWELL 



The Benedictine nunnery of Wherwell was 

 founded about 986 by Elfrida, the widow of 

 King Edgar, in expiation for her part in the 

 murders of her first husband Ethelwolf and 

 of her son-in-law King Edward. Here she 

 spent the latter part of her life in penitence, 

 and here she was buried. 



Elfrida died on 17 November, 1002, and 

 the nuns ever after observed her obit on that 



1 Wharton's Anglia Sacra, i. 304. 

 Ibid. 



3 Pat. 26 Edw. I. m. 17. 



4 Ibid. I Edw. II. pt. i, m. 1 8, 14 ; Winton. 

 Epis. Reg., Woodlock, f. 69^ 



5 Winton. Epis. Reg., Stratford, ff. 8lb, I34b ; 

 Pat. 7 Edw. III. pt. 2, mm. 30, 25. 



6 Winton. Epis. Reg., Edingdon, i. f. 75. 

 1 Wykeham's Registers, i. ff. 260,261. 



8 Harl. MS. 6962, f. 148. She was cousin of 

 Bishop Wykeham. 



Pat. 12 Edw. IV. pt. I,m. 13, 10, 5 ; Win- 

 ton. Epis. Reg., Courtenay, f. 20. 



day. An account of the founding of this 

 abbey and its various obits, as well as an 

 elaborate transcript of its evidences, is pre- 

 served in a stoutly bound chartulary, pur- 

 chased by the British Museum in 1869, 

 which has hitherto escaped attention. 10 



This chartulary of the abbey of Benedictine 

 nuns of St. Cross, Wherwell, was compiled in 

 the fourteenth century, and contains copies of 

 463 charters, records of suits and other docu- 

 ments, in Latin and French, from the con- 

 firmation by Henry III. of the foundation 

 charter to 1364. There are also thirty-two 

 charters of later insertion, and a few documents 

 from the reign of Richard II. to that of 

 Henry V. are copied at the end. 



In the year of Elfrida's death, and appar- 

 ently immediately after its occurrence, King 

 Ethelred granted a charter of confirmation of 

 all his mother's gifts to the abbey, which was 

 then under the rule of the Abbess Heanfled. 

 This grant included exemption from all earthly 

 service, and the gift of land and houses at 

 ' Edelingdene,' Winchester and Bullington. u 



According to the Annals of Winchester and 

 Florence of Worcester, Emma the mother, 

 and Edith the wife, of Edward the Confessor 

 were both for a time under confinement in 

 the monastery of Wherwell, but there is some 

 confusion between the king's wife and mother, 

 and it seems doubtful whether Emma ever 

 was sent to Wherwell. 18 



The Domesday returns of the abbey pro- 

 perty, which lay entirely in Hampshire, com- 

 prised the vills of Wherwell, Tufton Good- 

 worth, Little Anne, Middleton, Bullington, 

 and houses in Winchester. 13 The annual 

 revenue then amounted to 14 I Of. 



About 1 1 86 the Abbess Maud 'of sweet 

 memory,' and of ' good and noble birth,' 

 began her rule over the abbey, which she 

 maintained for forty years, dying at the age 

 of eighty. She was succeeded in 1226 by 

 her friend and fellow worker Euphemia, in 

 whose time a large number of undated charters 

 relative to small gifts or grants was made. 



She died on 26 April, 1257. Her bene- 

 factions to the abbey and her kindly rule 

 are gratefully acknowledged by the compiler 

 of the chartulary at considerable length. The 

 following is a free English rendering of this 

 important and interesting entry : 



On the 6th of the Kalends of May, in the year 

 of grace, 1257, died the blessed mother abbess 



10 Egerton MS. 2104. The account of the 

 founding is on f. 43. 



1 Ibid. ff. 15, 1 6. 



2 Freeman's Norman Conquest, ii. note H. 

 13 y.C.H. Hants, i. 475. 



132 



