RELIGIOUS HOUSES 



There are two impressions as well as casts of and a flower in the right hand ; the background 



the fine thirteenth-century seal (3^ in. X 2 in.) is diapered. Legend : — 

 of this priory in the British Museum. The 



seated Virgin, with nimbus, holds the. Holy sigillum ; prioris ; et conventus : mona- 



Child, with cruciform nimbus, on the left knee, Chorum thetfordie.' 



HOUSE OF CISTERCIAN NUNS 



20. THE ABBEY OF MARHAM A papal mandate was granted in May, 1290, 



This abbey of Cistercian nuns was founded °" ^^^ petition of Queen Eleanor, to the abbot 



by Isabel, widow of Hugh de Albini, earl of (b'sliop) of Norwich to appropriate to the prioress 

 It was dedicated to the honour of the 



Arundel 



Blessed Virgin, St. Barbara, and St. Edmund, on 

 27 January, 1249, by Richard, bishop of 

 Chichester. The original endowment was the 

 lands of the foundress at Marham, together with 

 the manor and all its services ; they were granted 

 for the good of the souls of William Earl 

 Warenne and Surrey her father, of Maud her 

 mother, daughter of William Marshall, earl of 

 Pembroke, of Hugh her husband, and of all her 

 ancestors and successors. 



On St. Bartholomew's Day, 1252, this nunnery, 

 with the sanction of the pope and the bishop of 

 Norwich, was formally incorporated into the 

 abbey of Waverley, the firrt and mother-house 



and convent of Marham the church of Stow 

 Bedon, with the consent of the bishop and 

 dean and chapter.^ In March, 1 291, a further 

 mandate was received by the abbot to at once 

 proceed in this appropriation, notwithstanding 

 that in former letters the word ' prioress ' had 

 been written in error for that of ' abbess ' and 

 ' dean and chapter ' for ' prior and chapter ' in 

 the clause requiring their consent to the said 

 appropriation.' 



In consequence of the smallness of its endow- 

 ments, the abbey was excused payment of tenths 

 at the time of the taxation of 1291. 



In November, 



1302, licence was granted for 



the alienation in mortmain by John de Warenne, 



of the Cistercian order in England ; the nunnery ^^""^ °^ Surrey, to the abbess and nuns of Marham, 

 making an offering to Waverley of four marks °^ the advowson of the church of Dudlington," 

 and a cask of wine.' On 3 September of the 



same year the gifts of the foundress were con- 

 firmed by Henry III, and they received further 

 confirmation at the hands of Isabel's brother, 

 John, Earl Warenne.^ Walter, bishop of Norwich, 

 in 1^51, with the consent of the prior and con- 

 vent of West Acre, and of Nicholas, vicar of the 

 churches of the Holy Trinity and St. Andrew in 

 Marham, licensed this house to have free sepul- 

 ture in their own church by their own priests, 

 and right to say mass and perform divine service 

 there, on condition that none of the parishioners 

 of the two churches were admitted to any sacra- 

 ment or were buried in the conventual church. 

 There was also a special reservation of the rights 

 of the parochial churches in case of strangers 

 desiring burial in the abbey church. The prior 

 and convent of West Acre were rectors of the 

 two parish churches. 



The advowson of the church of Carleton St. 

 Peter was given to the convent by the foundress, 

 with an acre of land there ; the rectory was 

 appropriated and a vicarage ordained in 1274. 



' Annaks de IVaverleia (Rolls Ser.), ii, 34-5. 



* The found.ition and incorporation, &c., are de- 

 scribed and the charters transcribed in a chartulary or 

 register of the abbey, references to which are given 

 in Blomefield, vii, 384-93. This chartulary, of 

 seventy-four folios, is preserved at Stow Hall, Norfolk; 

 a short analysis of it is given in Hist. MSS. Com. 

 Rep. iii, 251. The subsequent information in this 

 sketch is taken from the chartulary, where no other 

 reference is given. 



2 369 



and the abbess and convent obtained leave m 

 1327 to appropriate the church of Hackford, 

 which was already in their patronage through 

 the gift of Sir Andrew Hengham. The church 

 was valued at {^\ 6j. %d'' The advowson of 

 the church of Rockland St. Peter was confirmed 

 to the abbey in 1 346 by Sir Constantine Mortimer, 

 and leave obtained by the bishop for its appro- 

 priation three years later. In the following year 

 they also received the appropriation of the church 

 of Rockland All Saints.* 



In 1385 the abbess and nuns received grants 

 from Richard Holdyche and John Clenche- 

 warton of the manor of ' Beleter,' in Marham, 

 and of 160 acres of land, forty of meadow, and 

 lOJ. in rent, of the yearly value of ten marks.^ 



The Valor of 1535 returned the gross annual 

 value of this small abbey as ^^42 45. ']\d. and 

 the clear value ^^39 o;. \\d. 



A papal indult was granted in 1354 toEgidia 

 Howard, nun of St. Mary's, Marham, to choose 

 a confessor who should give her, being penitent, 

 plenary remission at the hour of death.'" 



The chartulary contains a mortuary list from 

 14OI to 1453, with sixteen names of lay persons 



' Add. Ch. 26785 ; Cott. Ch. xxi, 40 ; B.M. 

 xix, 47. 



* Cal. Papal Reg. \, i\i. Mbid. 



' Pat. 31 Edw. I, m. 46. 



' Ibid. I Edw. Ill, pt. I, m. 16. 



' Ibid. 21 Edw III, pt. I, m. 32. 



' Cal. of Pat. 9 Ric. II, pt. i, m. 20. 



'" Cal. Papal Reg. iii, 533. 



', 530. 



47 



