A HISTORY OF HAMPSHIRE 



days of enjoined penance to penitents who 

 visited the church of the Abbess and Convent 

 of Wherwell, on the four feasts of the Blessed 

 Virgin, and on that of the Holy Cross and its 

 octave. 1 



Bishop Pontoise visited this house in 1301, 

 and ordered that silence should be better ob- 

 served, and that there should be more dili- 

 gence in the care of temporal matters ; he 

 also rebuked two of the religious for being 

 quarrelsome.* In 1308 Bishop Woodlock 

 visited Wherwell, but the visitation did not 

 result in any injunctions. 3 In August, 1315, 

 Abbess Isabel, staying in perpetual seclusion 

 in her house like other abbesses and nuns of 

 that order, according to a new constitution, 

 nominated Robert de Cormailles and John de 

 Swyltenham her attorneys for one year.* 



Bishop Sandale, in March, 1317, directed 

 the Archdeacon of Surrey to make inquiries 

 respecting a poor clerk, John de Apola, in the 

 town of Guildford and the district, whence 

 he is said to have come, whether he was free- 

 born and legitimate, and of good life and 

 honest conversation, and whether there is any 

 papal or canonical obstacle to his holding a 

 benefice. The result was to be made known 

 to the Abbess and Convent of Wherwell, 

 whence it would seem probable that John 

 was a chaplain of that house, and about to 

 be presented to one of their benefices. 5 



The right of the Crown at each election 

 of an abbess to nominate a clerk to receive a 

 pension from the monastery until he should 

 be provided with a suitable benefice was 

 exercised from time to time. 8 



On 14 August, 1319, the Abbess and Con- 

 vent of Wherwell were cited by the bishop 

 to a visitation that he proposed to hold at 

 their house on the day after the feast of the 

 nativity of the Blessed Virgin. As this visi- 

 tation did not lead to any injunctions, it is 

 fair to assume that the result was omnia bene. 



In June, 1321, Bishop Asserio wrote letters 

 to the convent requesting that Isabel, the 

 daughter of Richard de Button, might be ad- 

 mitted as a nun. 7 In December, 1324, the 

 bishop appointed John Berman to hear the 

 nuns' confessions. 8 



1 Cat. of Papal Letters, i. 540 ; Egerton MSS. 

 2104, f. 33b. 



a Winton. Epis. Reg., Pontoise, f. 32. 

 3 Ibid. Woodlock, f. 1 59. 



* Pat. 33 Edw. I. m. 14. 



5 Winton Epis. Reg., Sandale, f. 9. 

 8 Close, 7 Edw. III. pt. 2, m. $d. and Letters 

 and Papers Hen. fill. ii. 4031. 



7 Winton. Epis. Reg., Asserio, f. 2b. 



Ibid. f. I2b. 



At the beginning of the year 1330 Abbess 

 Isabel Wyntreshull was probably seriously ill, 

 for on 1 1 January the convent obtained letters 

 patent granting that whenever her place be- 

 came void through death or otherwise, the 

 prioress and convent should have the custody 

 and full and free administration of the tempo- 

 ralities. 9 This grant was confirmed two 

 years later. 10 In March, 1331, the bishop 

 interfered, and appointed a nun to preside 

 over the convent in consequence of Isabel's 

 impotence. 11 



There is evidence at this time of the wide- 

 spread possessions of this convent (confined 

 entirely to Hampshire at the Domesday Sur- 

 vey), for mandates for the restitution of the 

 temporalities of Wherwell in 1333, to Abbess 

 Maud, were sent to the escheators of the 

 counties of Bedford, Berks, Bucks, Cornwall, 

 Devon, Dorset, Hants, Oxford, Somerset and 

 Wilts. 13 



In 1334 an indulgence was obtained for the 

 altar constructed in the conventual church of 

 Wherwell in honour of our Lord's resurrec- 

 tion. 13 On 23 May, 1337, the house was 

 visited by Bishop Orlton. 14 



In the time of the Abbess Maud (1333-40) 

 an inventory of the ' jewels ' in the custody of 

 the sacrist was drawn up. It comprised a 

 cup of silver gilt within and without, the gift 

 of Abbess Maud, with thirteen gold rings 

 affixed above, and precious stones affixed to 

 the foot, pro Corpore Christi ; a cup of silver 

 not gilt, the gift of Abbess Ellen de Percy ; 

 a gilt cup for a ciborium ; another gilt cup 

 in the shape of a tower for a ciborium ; 

 another cup well gilt within and without for 

 a ciborium ; a silver pyx pro Corpore Christi ; 

 a cup (ciphus) of silver, with a foot on which 

 was depicted St. Thomas of Canterbury ; a 

 gilt cup which bore the figure of St. Thomas 

 of Canterbury ; a lesser chalice gilt within 

 and without ; three small broken chalices ; 

 two small chalices for the high altar ; a small 

 chalice for the altar of St. Cross ; a chalice for 

 the altar of St. Catherine ; a chalice for the 

 altar of St. Mary Magdalene (the sum of the 

 chalices pertaining to the church of Wher- 

 well was eleven) ; two great crosses ; two silver 

 basins for the high altar ; four silver cruets 

 for wine and water for the altars ; two silver 

 cruets for daily use at the high altar ; two 

 silver candlesticks ; a good censer of silver, 



9 Pat. 3 Edw. III. pt. 2, m. 5. 



10 Ibid. pt. I, m. 34. 



11 Winton. Epis. Reg., Stratford, f. 66. 



12 Pat. 7 Edw. III. pt. 2, m. 5. 



18 Winton. Epis. Reg., Orlton, i. f. 5. 

 14 Ibid. f. 54b. 



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