RELIGIOUS HOUSES 



the Archdeacon of Carlisle to assign to the 

 said prioress her stall in the choir and place 

 in the chapter. 1 



When we come to the period when the 

 foundation charter was forged we get some 

 hint to account for its fabrication, and to ex- 

 plain why it was that the nuns were able to 

 impose on the authorities. From letters 

 patent of Edward IV., dated 9 April 1473, 

 we learn that it was represented to the king 

 by the prioress and convent of the house 

 or priory of ' Armythwayte,' situated near 

 the marches of Scotland, which was of the 

 foundation of his progenitors and of his 

 patronage, that the houses, enclosures and 

 other buildings of the said priory had been 

 destroyed by the Scots, and that the house 

 had been despoiled of its goods, relics, orna- 

 ments, books and jewels, and the charters 

 and other muniments burnt or carried off, 

 and in these circumstances the king confirmed 

 the nuns' estate in the priory and all its pos- 

 sessions, and especially in an ancient close 

 called 'the Noune close,' 2 that they might 

 pray for his good estate and the good estate 

 of Elizabeth his consort and of Edward his 

 son, and for their souls after death. 3 Seven 

 years after this date, that is on 20 June 1480, 

 Isabel the prioress and nuns, bereft of char- 

 ters and title-deeds, presented their compila- 

 tion, which they ascribed to William Rufus, 

 and had it inspected and confirmed as already 

 mentioned. 



From the fourteenth century wills on re- 

 cord in the diocesan registers, we learn that 

 this nunnery had some friends and received 

 bequests as well as the other religious institu- 

 tions in the county. In 1356 Dame Agnes, 

 the consort of Sir Richard de Denton, be- 

 queathed 10s. and in 1358 John de Salkeld 

 40*. to the prioress and her sisters of 

 ' Hermythwayt.' Richard de Ulnesby, rec- 

 tor of Ousby or Ulnesby, was good enough 

 in 1362 to bequeath them a cow which he 

 had in that parish, while a citizen of Carlisle, 

 William de London, in 1376, and a country 

 gentleman, Roger de Salkeld, in 1379, made 

 them bequests of money.* 



i Carl. Epis. Reg., Welton, ff. 98-9. 



1 It is very odd that in 1348 Edward III. 

 should have granted to Thomas le Eawer and 

 Robert de Meurose for their good service a certain 

 close near Ternwatheland called ' la Nouneclose ' 

 within the king's forest of Inglewode (Rot. Orig. 

 [Rec. Com.], ii. 193). From the name of the 

 place it must have had some previous connection 

 with the nunnery. 



3 Pat. 13 Edw. IV. pt. i. m. 13 ; Dugdale, 

 Mm. iii. 2712. 



Dioc. Reg. of Carl. MS. ii. ff. 29, 49, 86, 292, 

 304. 



In the valuation of 1291 the temporalities 

 of the prioress of ' Ermithwayt ' were assessed 

 at 10, but in 1318 they were not taxed as 

 they were totally destroyed 5 by the Scots. 

 The value of the priory in 1535* amounted 

 to the sum of 19 2s. id., which included 

 6 from the rectory of the church of ' Ayn- 

 stablie,' of which the prioress was patron. 

 The annual outgoings, amounting to I IOJ. 2d. y 

 were composed of a pension of I2d. to the 

 priory of Wetheral, 2s. 6d. for procurations 

 to the bishop, and io6s. 8d. for the stipend 

 of the chaplain of the nunnery. There is no 

 evidence to show by whom or at what date 

 the rectory of Ainstable was appropriated to 

 the nunnery, and, strange to say, there is no 

 record of any institution to the benefice in 

 the medizval registers of the see of Carlisle. 

 The real property of the house at the time of 

 the dissolution was scattered in small parcels 

 so far apart as Ainstable, Kirkoswald, Cum- 

 whitton, Blencarn, Kirkland, Glassonby, 

 Crofton and Carlisle. The most extensive 

 estate they possessed in one place was ' the 

 Nouneclose,' consisting of 216 acres, and 

 split up into several tenements. The 40;. 

 rent in Carlisle said to have been ' given 

 by William the Conqueror' was worth 

 nothing. 7 



The house seems to have been dis- 

 solved soon after 31 July 1537, when the in- 

 ventory of its possessions was made. It 

 consisted of a prioress and three nuns, against 

 none of whom did the commissioners bring an 

 accusation in their notorious Black Book. 

 Anne Derwentwater received a pension of 

 53*. ifd. a. year, and was still in receipt 

 thereof in 1555. 8 The priory and rec- 

 tory of Ainstable were leased to Leonard 

 Barowe of Armathwaite on 2O July 1538," 

 but the manor was afterwards sold by 

 Edward VI. 



In the neighbourhood of this house many re- 

 miniscences of the nuns still survive to tell of 

 their former occupation. The site of the priory 

 has been called Nunnery from the dissolution 

 to the present time, and the name of Nunclose 

 in the forest of Inglewood near Armathwaite 

 has not changed. When Mr. Samuel Jeffer- 

 son wrote in 1840, part of the wall of the 



Pope Nich. Tax. (Rec. Com.), 32ob, 333b. 

 <> Valor Eccl. (Rec. Com.), v. 291-2. 



1 Dugdale, Man. iii. 2724. 



8 Q. R. Misc. Bks. xxxii. 71. The list of the 

 pensioners in Cumberland and Westmorland, with 

 the amount of their pensions, has been extracted 

 by the present writer from this record and printed 

 in the Trans. Cumb. and Westmld. Arch. Sac. xiii. 



375-83- 



L. and P. Hen. 7111. xiv. (i.) 606. 



191 





