RELIGIOUS HOUSES 



Margaret de Ulram, resigned 1405 '° 

 Margaret, 1439" 

 Idonia, 1445 '* 



Isabella Heslerton,'' I457) clied 1499 

 Cecilia Dew, confirmed 27 March 1499^" 

 Joan Tonnstale, confirmed 1507*' 

 Elizabeth Whitehead,^ confirmed 1521 

 Agnes Bradrigge, confirmed 16 February 

 1525 (the last prioress)^' 



The circular 12th-century seal,^* if in. in 

 diameter, shows our Lady standing and crowned, 

 and holding a fleur de lis and a book : of the 

 legend only . . . . v sce m remains. 



20. THE PRIORY OF ST, CLEMENT, 

 YORK 



The priory of St. Clement was founded about 

 1130,^ by Archbishop Thurstan, whose grants 

 were confirmed by the dean and chapter.^ 



In 1 1 92' Archbishop GeoiFrey Plantagenet 

 granted the priory of St. Clement to the abbey 

 of Godstow, but the nuns appealed to the pope, 

 and Alice the prioress is said to have gone to 

 Rome to plead their cause in person. The 

 archbishop excommunicated the nuns, but by the 

 papal decision in their favour they regained their 

 independent position. 



Late one evening in the first year of the 14th 

 century certain men came to the priory gate 

 leading a saddled horse. Here Cecily, a nun, 

 met them, and, throwing olF her nun's habit, put 

 on another robe and rode off with them to Dar- 

 lington, where Gregory de Thornton was wait- 

 ing for her, and with him she lived for three 

 years or more.'^ 



Archbishop Greenfield, writing to the prioress 

 on 15 April 1 3 10,* dealt with the case of 

 Joan de Saxton, one of the nuns, on whom 



'' Burton, ut supra. '' Baildon, ut supra. 



^ Burton, ut supra. 



'' Was prioress 1457. Conventual Leases, Yorks. 

 no. 1088. 



" York Archiepis. Reg. Rotherham, fol. 165. 



" Burton, ut supra. She was prioress in 1512, 

 Conventual Leases, Yorks. no. 1093. 



" A nun of Yedingham. York Archiepis. Reg. 

 Wolscy, fol. 81, admitted to Corpus Christi Guild, 

 York, 1523, and here she is called Isabella: Reg. 

 Corpus Christi Guild (Surt. Soc), 201. 



*' A nun of Yedingham. York Archiepis. Reg. 

 Wolsey, fol. 81. 



" Cat. of Seals, B.M. 3607, Ixxv, 21. 



' Dugdale, Mon. Angl. iv, 323. Hugh, Dean of 

 York, one of the witnesses, died in 1 1 38. 



* Ibid. 325, no. iii. 



' Ibid. no. 3 ; Drake, Eboracum, 248. 

 '^ Assize R. 1 107, m. 21 d. 



* York Archiepis. Reg. Greenfield, fol. 77/^. 



at some time previously a severe penance had 

 been imposed for misbehaviour. The penance 

 itself the archbishop mitigated, but to avoid 

 scandal, Joan de Saxton was not to go out of 

 the cloister, but was to keep convent in all 

 respects, and hold no conventual office. For 

 recreation and solace she might go into the 

 orchards and gardens of the monastery, accom- 

 panied by the nuns. Twice a year, if necessary, 

 she might receive friends in the presence of the 

 prioress, or other discreet nuns, but she was to 

 have nothing to do with the Lady de Walleys, 

 and if the Lady de Walleys was then in their 

 house, she was to be sent away before Pentecost. 

 The archbishop further forbade the nuns to 

 have girls over twelve years of age as boarders, 

 and they were only to keep washerwomen and 

 other necessary servants in the house. 



On 2 November in the same year the arch- 

 bishop gave permission to the nuns to receive 

 Isabella of Studley Roger, near Ripen, ad velum 

 et hahitum.^ 



In 1316,° when the office of prioress became 

 vacant by the death or resignation of Custance 

 Basy, who had been elected in August of the 

 previous year, discord prevailed in the convent, 

 one party electing Agnes de Methelay and the 

 other Beatrice de Brandesby. The see being 

 vacant, the dean and chapter appointed Agnes de 

 Methelay. 



Archbishop Melton held a visitation of the 

 house in 131 7,' and on 25 January following 

 sent to the prioress and convent a list of in- 

 junctions. Many are exhortations in common 

 form, relating to the due observance of the 

 rule. The archbishop had found that the 

 Friars Minor of York, every alternate week during 

 the year, and the Friars Preachers of York, 

 in the same manner, for a long time had been 

 receiving fourteen conventual loaves. The nuns 

 were to show the friars the archbishop's order, 

 and were to cease from supplying them with 

 these loaves, so long as their house was burdened 

 by debt, and then they were not to give the 

 loaves to the friars without a special leave of the 

 archbishop or his successors. It also appeared 

 that on the death of any nun of the house, the 

 friars aforesaid received for a whole year the full 

 livery of the deceased nun. This also the arch- 

 bishop forbade. Secular women dwelling in the 

 house were not to hold colloquies with the nuns, 

 lest evil suspicion should arise. Little girls, or 

 males of any age whatever, or secular women 

 were not to be permitted to sleep in the dor- 

 mitory with the nuns. ^ 



The frequent access of men and women to 

 the house was not to be allowed, lest evil or 

 scandal should arise. 



In 1324* there is again evidence of internal 



' Ibid. fol. 84^. 

 ' Ibid, Melton. 



129 



° Ibid. sed. vac. fol. 85. 

 Ubid. fol. 162^. 



17 



