A HISTORY OF NORFOLK 



HOUSE OF AUSTIN NUNS 



39. THE PRIORY OF CRABHOUSE 



In 1765 there was presented to the British 

 Museum an interesting fourteenth-century MS. 

 Register of Crabhouse Nunnery in French,' 

 which escaped the attention of monastic and 

 topographical writers until 1892, when it 

 received full and competent treatment in 

 the publication of the Norfolk and Norwich 

 Archaeological Society .- 



From this register and that of Castle Acre,' it 

 is established that Lena, the daughter of Godric 

 de Lynne, 'a maiden whose heart the Holy 

 Spirit moved to seek a desert place where she 

 might serve God without disturbance of any 

 earthly thing, found the place called Crabhouse 

 (in Wiggenhall parish) all wild, and far around 

 on every side was no human habitation.' This 

 site was granted about 1 1 8 1 to the maiden by 

 Roger, the prior of Ranham and his canons, 

 with the consent of William de Lesewis, lord of 

 the site and founder of Normansburgh Priory. 

 ' In this place,' continues the register, ' there 

 assembled along with Lena other maidens, and 

 there they caused a chapel to be reared in honour 

 of God, and of His dear Mother the Virgin 

 Mary, and of St. John the Evangelist, in which 

 place for many a day they served God.' 



Godfrey de Lesewis (William's son) granted 

 the cell in Normansburgh to the monks of 

 Castle Acre, and included amongst its lands the 

 hermitage of Wiggenhall used by the hermit 

 Joan.* This hermit Joan is mentioned, though 

 not by name, in the Crabhouse register, wherein 

 the overwhelming of the nuns' original habita- 

 tion by a flood is described, and all save one, 

 ' who made herself a. recluse in the cemetery of 

 Mary Magdalene of Wigenhall,' departed. It is 

 difficult, however, to reconcile the picturesque 

 narrative of the French register with the docu- 

 ments of the Castle Acre chartulary,' but it was 

 definitely established as an Austin nunnery early 

 in the thirteenth century. 



The register contains particulars of a great 

 variety of small undated bequests made to the 

 priory in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, 

 and similar entries are to be found from time to 

 time in the patent rolls. Incidental mention is 

 made of the building of the church, frater, 

 dorter, and farmery ; and there are frequent 



' Add. MS. 4731. 



" Sorf. Arch, xi, 1-71. The original MS. has been 

 carefully consulted for the purposes of this sketch, but 

 the descriptive article and excerpts by Miss Mary 

 Bateson hive proved most helpful. 



^ Dugdale, Mon. v, 69-70. 



' Ibid. 69. 



^ See Dr. Jessopp's explanation in Miss Bateson's 

 article, t<orf. Arch, xi, 5. 



references to the conventual mill. Most of its 

 property was in the same marshy situation as the 

 actual site of the house, which was on the banks 

 of the tidal Ouse ; the boundaries named are fre- 

 quently dykes, and it is evident that the priory 

 took its full share in the draining of the fens." 

 There is no record of this house in the taxation 

 roll of 1291. 



Licence was obtained in 1328 by the priory, 

 at the request of John de Ros, steward of the 

 household, to appropriate that moiety of the 

 church of St. Peter, Wiggenhall, which was of 

 their advowson.'' This appropriation was chiefly 

 brought about, as we learn from the register, by 

 Robert Welle, a great benefactor of the nuns. 

 He pardoned them a debt of p^ioo in return 

 for a field in Setchey ; but he eventually restored 

 the land to provide the habits of the ten nuns of 

 the house who had been the longest professed. 



Agnes de Methelwold, prioress from 1315 

 until her death in 1344, seems to have been a 

 good administrator, as well as a bringer of com- 

 parative wealth to the convent. We are told 

 that she spent over one hundred pounds of silver 

 in building a hall, a grange, a stable, a bakery, 

 and a noble room {une chambre nobeles). Under 

 her rule particular rents were assigned for pro- 

 viding the house with bread, ale, flesh, fish, and 

 red herrings ; others for iron and nails for re- 

 pairs ; and others for dress and shoes, and for 

 towels and linen. Further sums were set aside 

 for the repairs of the house and church, the sea 

 and marsh dykes, the wages of the household 

 servants, the feeding of the cattle, and for fuel. 



Margaret de Hattisle and Cicely de Beauprey, 

 nuns of Crabhouse, obtained indults in 1352, to 

 choose confessors for plenary remission at the 

 hour of death.* 



Joan Wiggenhall, a famous prioress, was elected 

 on 28 October, 1420, and confirmed and in- 

 stalled on 25 November.^ In the year of her 

 election Prioress Joan took down the great barn 

 by the convent gatehouse, and rebuilt it in time 

 for the next harvest, at a cost of £if^ 9;. 6d., 

 exclusive of the timber that was felled on their 

 own lands, and of the tiles that were re-used 

 from the old barn. To this barn-making Sir 

 John Inglethorpe, the convent's patron, be- 

 queathed ;£20, and the archdeacon of Lincoln 

 gave ten marks. In 1421 Joan extended the 

 prioress's lodgings at a cost of ten marks, 

 and spent twenty marks for the rebuilding 

 of the convent's moiety of the chancel of 



' Hund. R. (Rec. Com.), i, 459. 

 ' Cul. of Pat. 2 Edw. Ill, pt. i, m. 25. 

 * Cal. Papal Reg. iii, 474. 



' Reg. p. 151. The account of the worjts of this 

 prioress are added to the register in English. 



408 



