A HISTORY OF BUCKINGHAMSHIRE 



hand she holds a sceptre fleur-de-lize, in her 

 left hand a staff which is surmounted by a 

 bird. Her feet are resting on an ornamental 

 footboard. Legend : +SIGILLV SCE MARIE 

 DE ME[SSENDEN]A. 



A seal of similar description is attached to 

 a charter of about I24O, 1 the impression is less 

 perfect, and much of the legend wanting. 

 Attached to the same charter is the seal of 

 Abbot Roger de Aylesbury, 2 dark green, 

 pointed oval, representing the abbot standing 

 on a carved corbel, in his right hand a pastoral 

 staff, in his left hand a book. In the field on 

 the left an estoile, on the right a crescent. 

 Legend: +SIGILL' ROGERI . A . . . DE . 



MESSENDENE. 



A mottled green seal, the impression of 

 which is very imperfect, but similar to the 

 first seal, and the legend wanting, is attached 

 by a woven cord of red silk strands to a deed 

 of 1242 exhibited in the British Museum. 3 

 To the same document is also attached by 

 another cord of red silk strands the seal of 

 Abbot Roger as described above.* 



A red pointed oval seal of the fifteenth cen- 

 tury, 5 attached to the Acknowledgment of 

 Supremacy, 1534, represents the Blessed Virgin 

 with crown seated in a canopied niche, in her 

 right hand the Holy Child with nimbus, in her 

 left hand a sceptre. In the field on each side, 

 three trees, one above, two below. In base, 

 under an arch, an abbot and three monks in 

 adoration. Legend : s' COE. ABBIS. za. COUET' 

 MONAST' . BEATE . MARIE . DE . MISSYNDEN. 



An oval seal of Abbot William, taken 

 from a cast in the British Museum, 6 repre- 

 sents the Blessed Virgin standing in a cano- 

 pied niche with tabernacle work at the sides, 

 the Child on her right arm, in her left hand a 

 sceptre fleur-de-lizi or flowering branch. 

 The legend is indistinct : ... DE ... 

 ENDEN. 



10. THE ABBEY OF MEDMENHAM 



The little abbey of Medmenham was 

 founded in 1204 upon lands granted to the 

 abbey of Woburn, Bedfordshire, by Isabel de 

 Bolebec, Countess of Oxford. Leave to build 

 a monastery in this place was granted in 

 I202, 7 but there seems to have been some 

 mismanagement in connection with its first 

 foundation. In 1204 the first colony of 

 monks was sent there from the parent abbey, 



i Add. Chart. 20,370. * Ibid. 



8 Ibid. 20,372. * Ibid. 



P.R.O. Acknowl. of Supremacy, No. 87. 

 B. M. Seals, lix. 91. 

 ' Chart R. 2 John, m. 17. 



but it was recalled in the same year. The 

 Abbot of Woburn was deposed on account of 

 this failure. 8 Other monks were sent appar- 

 ently soon after, for the house was built and 

 inhabited in 1213,' and from this time it re- 

 mained an independent abbey. 10 



It has no history whatever, so far as can at 

 present be discovered. Even the names of 

 the abbots are difficult to find out. There 

 are a few suits concerned with small parcels of 

 land recorded in the Feet of Fines during the 

 thirteenth century "; and the Close Rolls of 

 the fourteenth contain one or two notices of 

 debts incurred by the abbot and convent of 

 Medmenham. 12 The abbots are said to have 

 held the office of Epistolar to the Order of 

 the Garter." 



In 1524 there was some thought of granting 

 the revenues of this house to Wolsey for his 

 college at Oxford, 14 but the plan was not 

 carried out. At the dissolution, which was 

 before 8 July, 1536, it was made part of the 

 endowment of the new abbey of Bisham. 15 

 There was at this time only one monk left be- 

 sides the abbot lfl ; the latter received a pen- 

 sion of 10 marks. 17 



So far as can be discovered, the property of 

 the abbey consisted of little more than the vill 

 of Medmenham and the parish church. 18 

 There is no account of its value in the Tax- 

 atio. The Valor Ecclesiasticus gives a total of 

 20 6s. 2d. 



ABBOTS OF MEDMENHAM 

 Roger, occurs 1256 and 1259 

 Peter, 21 elected 1295, occurs 1303 

 John of Medmenham, 22 occurs 1308 



8 Dugdale, Man. v. 



9 Assize R. 13 John 480, n. 4 in dorso. 



10 The foundation charters of the house were 

 still kept at Woburn in 1538, but cannot now be 

 traced. L. and P. Henry VIII. xiii. (i) 981. 



n Feet of F. 41 Hen. III. n. 4; ibid. 44 

 Hen. III. n. 8 ; ibid. 31 Edw. I. n. 3. 



" Close, 9 Edw. III. m. I 4 d ; ibid. 15 Edw. II. 

 m. 25d. 



13 Records of Bucks, iv. 62. 



" L. and P. Henry VIII. iv. (i), No. 989. 



16 Ibid. xii. (2) 1311. 



18 Records of Sucks, iii. 62. 



" Aug. Off. Misc. Bks. 232, f. 2od. 



18 The parish church had a vicarage ordained 

 under the abbots in the time of Hugh of Wells. 

 A. Gibbons, Liber Antiquus, 17. 



Valor Eccl. (Rec. Com.), iv. 251. 



20 Feet of F. 41 Hen. III. n. 4: ibid. 44 

 Hen. III. n. 8. 



2 < Line. Epis. Reg. Memo. Sutton, 132 ; Feet 

 of F. 31 Edw. III. n. 3. 



" Langley, History of the Desborough Hundred, 

 34- 



376 



