A HISTORY OF SUSSEX 



prioress and seven sisters, two not yet professed. 

 The only fault found was that the prioress did not 

 render account of her administration, which she 

 was ordered to do in future. 287 In 1478 also the 

 report was excellent, the only blemish being in 

 the observance of the rule of silence. The 

 prioress, Agnes Snokeshall, who had held office 

 since I436, 228 must have been a splendid manager, 

 for the income of the house was slender for the 

 support of even the five ladies who now consti- 

 tuted the community, yet no defects in the 

 buildings are recorded, and more was due to the 

 nuns than was owed by them. 229 On 8 August, 

 1484, Bishop Story came to the priory and 

 received the profession of three nuns, Elizabeth 

 Lewknor, Elizabeth Sydney, and Elizabeth 

 Hays. 230 By 1521 the community had shrunk to a 

 prioress and three sisters, two not being professed, 

 although one of them had been there three years 

 and the other twelve, so that evidently the bishop 

 had been negligent of visiting the priory. The 

 house was now in bad repair, and the constant 

 visits of the prioress's friends and kinsfolk were 

 a cause of great expense ; otherwise all was 

 well. 231 In 1524 the only complaint was that a 

 certain William Tychenor came frequently and 



stirred up discord between the prioress and her 

 sisters. 232 Finally, in 1527, when there were only 

 two nuns besides the prioress, the only present- 

 ment made was that the house was somewhat 

 ruinous. 233 At last in 1537 the poor old prioress, 

 Elizabeth Sydney, and her one remaining com- 

 panion, Elizabeth Hays, who had knelt by her 

 side and taken the monastic vows with her fifty- 

 three years before, were turned out of their 

 house into that world which they had shunned 

 so long, the prioress receiving a pension of I oo*, 234 

 and her aged sister a gift of 6o*. 238 



PRIORESSES OF RUSPER 

 Katherine, occurs 1232 236 

 Alice de Bissopeston, occurs 1247 237 

 Alice, occurs I256 238 

 Isabel, occurs 1326 239 

 Agnes, occurs I343 240 

 Juliana Young, appointed 1353 241 

 Joan de Kingesfold, nominated 1353 341 

 Agnes Baret, occurs 1403-8 242 

 Elizabeth, occurs 141 8 243 

 Agnes Snokeshall, occurs I43&, 244 1455 246 

 Elizabeth Lewkenore, occurs 1487 246 

 Elizabeth Sydney, occurs I52I, 247 last prioress 



HOUSE OF CLUNIAC MONKS 



7. THE PRIORY OF LEWES 1 



William de Warenne and Gundrada his wife 

 within ten years of the Conquest, to which they 

 owed their possession of the rape and town of 

 Lewes, determined to found a monastery in that 

 town, and while the idea was still in their minds 

 set out on a pilgrimage to Rome, but when they 

 came into Burgundy they found that travelling 

 was unsafe on account of the war between the 

 pope and the emperor. They therefore turned 

 aside to the great abbey of St. Peter and St. Paul 

 at Cluny, and were so struck with the high stan- 

 dard of religious life maintained there that -they 

 determined to put their proposed foundation 

 under Cluny, and accordingly desired the abbot 

 to send three or four of his monks to begin the 



O 



monastery. He, however, would not at first 

 consent fearing that at so great a distance from 

 their mother-house they would become undis- 

 ciplined. At last, after the king himself had 

 added his entreaties to the founder's, the abbot sent 

 Lanzo and three other monks to England in 

 1076. To the small community thus introduced 

 William de Warenne gave the church of St. Pan- 

 eras in, or rather outside, Lewes, which he had 



m Chich Epis. Reg. Praty, fol. 80. 



m Court R. (P.R.O.), bdk. 206, No. 30. 



"> Chich. Epis. Reg. Story, fol. 26. 



" Ibid. fol. 10 1. 



m Ibid. Sherborn, fol. 71. 



64 



lately rebuilt in stone, with the land surrounding 

 it called 'the island,' and land at Falmer and 

 Balmer and his Norfolk manor of Walton, and 

 other gifts sufficient to support twelve monks. 

 Prior Lanzo, however, was recalled to Cluny and 

 remained there so long that William had serious 

 thoughts of transferring his Lewes foundation to 



38 Ibid. pt. 2, fol. 93. !33 Ibid. fol. 102^. 



834 L. and P. Hen. nil, xii (2), 1311 (17). 

 235 Suss. Arch. Coll. xliv, 63. 

 83C Magd. Coll. D. ' Crokehurst,' 4. 

 837 Suss. Arch. Coll. ix, 24.9. 

 3S Feet of F. Suss, file 19, No. 5. 

 239 Assize R. 938, m. 20. 



840 Ibid. 631, m. 71. 



841 See above. 



848 Court R. (P.R.O.), bdle. 206, No. 30. 



8)3 Cant. Archiepis. Reg. Chicheley, fol. ^\\b. 



844 Court R. (P.R.O.), bdle. 206, No. 30. 



845 De Bane. R. 36 Hen. VI. 



M Court R. (P.R.O ), bdle. 206, No. 30. 



847 Chich. Epis. Reg. Sherborn, fol. 101. 



1 Dugdale, Mon.v,l-2 1 ; Suss. Arch. Coll. ii, iii, xxxv ; 

 Duckett, Chart, and Rec. ofCluni, and Visitations of Order 

 ofCluni; Cott. MSS. Vesp. F. xv, is a fine chartulary 

 of great interest and importance. A large collection of 

 original charters relating to the priory once formed 

 Chapter House Book j$ 5, but has now been broken 

 up, and scattered amongst the Anct. D., Ser. A, in the 

 P.R.O. ; fortunately a large part of this collection 

 was abstracted in Suss. Arch. Coll. xxxv, before its 

 dispersal. 



