RELIGIOUS HOUSES 



HOUSE OF CISTERCIAN NUNS 



10. THE ABBEY OF TARRANT 



KAINES ' 



The Cistercian nunnery of Tarrant Kaines, 

 commonly said to be of the foundation of 

 Richard le Poor of Salisbury, owed its early 

 origin to the ' ancient and renowned familie 

 of Keines,' a member of which — Ralph de 

 Kahaynes — according to Coker, ' in Richard the 

 first's time built neare his mansion house a little 

 monasterie for nunnes which his son William de 

 Kahaynes much encreased.'^ 



Accepting the tradition which identifies these 

 nuns with the sisters to whom was addressed 

 that famous treatise, the ' Ancren Riwle,' that 

 modern authority has attributed to Bishop Poor,' 

 and assuming that the ' Riwle ' was written 

 about the commencement of the thirteenth 

 century, we find that the community at that 

 time consisted of three ladies with their domestic 

 servants, and that they are described as being 

 ' for your goodness and nobleness of mind 

 beloved of many, sisters of one father and of 

 one mother, having in the bloom of your youth 

 forsaken all the pleasures of the world and 

 become anchoresses.'^ It also appears that the 

 sisters, though they had renounced the world to 

 apply themselves to pious exercises and devout 

 meditations, had not as yet joined any existing 

 order, for the bishop advises them ' if any 

 ignorant person ask you of what order you are, 

 say that you are of the order of St. James,' 

 which indeed had no existence in actual fact, but 

 whose rule {Epist. i, 27), and especially the latter 

 part of it, * to keep unspotted from the world,' 

 was specially to be observed by them. It was 

 probably by the counsel and consent of their 

 benefactor that the community finally adopted 

 the Cistercian rule, and it may account for the 

 tradition soon after prevailing that the bishop was 

 their actual founder. The step must have been 

 taken before his translation to Durham in 1228, 

 for the profession of Clarice, abbess of Tar- 

 rant Kaines, to Bishop Richard le Poor as 

 ordinary can still be seen at Salisbury.^ 



' In the modern parish of Tarrant Crawford. 



^Particular Surv. of Dorset (1732), 106. As 

 Ralph de Kahaignes is returned in the Great Roll 

 of the Pipe of 1 167-8 for the knights' fees at 

 which he was assessed in the county, and William 

 de Chahaygnes in the Roll of 1 186-7, 't seems 

 more than probable that this ' little monasterie ' was 

 founded during the reign of Henry II. Red Bk. of the 

 Ex('h. (Rolls Ser.), i, 44.-64. 



^ The '■Ancren Riivle' (The King's Classics), 1905. 

 Preface. * Ibid, p. 145. 



' Among a number of professions' kept in the muni- 

 ment room of the cathedral. The nuns are described 

 as belonging to that order in a royal mand.ite 



The earliest of a series of charters granted to 

 the abbess and convent during the reiijn of 

 Henry III is dated 24 July, 1235, and confirms 

 to God, the church of All Saints, and the nuns 

 serving God there all previous gifts, including 

 those of the original founder and his son. Of 

 the gift of Ralph de Kahaynes : the church of 

 All Saints, the manse before the church and the 

 croft near it, the mill before the manse, all the 

 downs called ' Thorendon,' ' Holdeley,' and 

 ' Bushenden,' \\ acres of land in Goldecroft, 

 the land called Medgare, and 2 acres of meadow 

 at the hedge of Crawford, 2 acres of wood at 

 Fordham Serlon,' 2 acres of wood in Chetred, 

 and pasture for a plough-team of oxen with the 

 oxen of the grantor, a virgate of land in Spettis- 

 bury. William de Kahaynes added to his 

 father's benefactions a tithe of all the bread made 

 in his household wherever he should be in any 

 part of his demesne 'saving the bread ofRenges,' 

 a tithe of all salt meat whether of pigs, sheep, or 

 cows killed in his household each year, one barrel 

 of his prime and good ale for Christmas with 

 another barrel of second ale, or malt to make as 

 much, yearly ; the prior and convent of Christ- 

 church, Twyneham, among other gifts gave two 

 mills in Tarrant and pasturage for sheep and 

 cattle, &c. ; the manor of Woodyates was the 

 gift of William de Woodyates ; Richard, bishop 

 of Durham, bestowed all the right which John de 

 Reygate gave to him in the third part of a hide 

 and in a messuage and garden in Pimperne.' 



Bishop Poor's interest in the house he had 

 practically re-founded did not diminish on his 

 translation to Durham ; he made over to the 

 sisters the custody of the manor of Tarrant 

 Kaines granted to him by Henry III during 

 the minority of William, son and heir of 

 William de Kahaynes, the king sanctioning 

 the transfer on 7 February, 1237, ^"'^ ^^ ''^^ 

 same time granting letters of protection to the 

 abbess of the ' Blessed place upon the Tarrant.' * 

 Two months later the bishop turned his 

 steps homeward to die in his native place.' 



of 1233 prohibiting the exaction of any subsidy 

 from the Cistercians. Close, 17 Hen. Ill, m. 



' The church appears originally under the dedica- 

 tion of All Saints, but as all abbey churches of the 

 Cistercian order were ipso facto dedicated in honour 

 of the Blessed Virgin the church of Tarrant Craw- 

 ford subsequently appears under the double dedication 

 of St. Mary and All Saints (See Tanner, Notitia, Dor- 

 set, xxviii), though it is also given as the church of 

 St. Mary only. Valor Eccl. (Rec. Com.), i, 265. 



' Chart. R. 19 Hen. Ill, m. 4. 



' Pat. 21 Hen. Ill, m. lo. 



' Tarrant is generally assumed to be his birthpKice. 

 Leland, Itin. iii, 62. 



87 



