RELIGIOUS HOUSES 



of his heirs.^' From the survey in the Augmen- 

 tation Office, the total revenue from all sources, 

 temporal and spiritual, was £2 1 i <)s. '^d}'^ 



The priory was visited in 1536 by Layton and 

 Legh," who returned the * founders ' or patrons 

 at that time as William Aselby, William 

 Thuresby, and Ralph Spence. It was sur- 

 rendered in 1537 by Joan, the last prioress. 



Prioresses of Ellerton 



Alice, occurs 1227 " 



Petronilla, occurs 1251 " 



Ellen, occurs 1268™ 



Sibil, occurs 1299" 



Margaret, occurs 1347 *^ 



Mary Gray, date uncertain " 



Alice Sherwood, occurs 6 August 1429^* 



Joan, occurs 1535, last prioress " 



31. THE PRIORY OF ESHOLT 



The small Cistercian nunnery of St. Mary and 

 St. Leonard at Esholt, in the parish of Guiseley, 

 is said to have been founded at the latter part of 

 the reign of Henry II or the beginning of that of 

 Richard I by Geoffrey Haget or Simon Ward.^ 

 There is, however, much uncertainty both as to 

 the real date of the foundation, and as to the 

 original founder. The Wards were afterwards 

 the patrons, and at the Dissolution it was said 

 that the founders were the ancestors of Christo- 

 pher Ward.' 



The nuns of Sinningthwaite received a grant 

 of the whole of Esholt from the members of the 

 family of Ward,' but there is no indication that 

 Esholt was ever subject to Sinningthwaite, though 

 perhaps Esholt may have been an independent 

 offshoot from Sinningthwaite and originally 

 peopled with nuns from the latter place. 



A large number of grants of land and con- 

 firmations are printed in the Monasticon^ and 

 there are several others in the British Museum, 

 which have not been printed, relating to Esholt. 



By the gift of Margaret Clifford, widow, the 

 house of Esholt became possessed of the church 



"Clarkson, K'ut. of Richmond, 321. 



'^Ibid. 



" L. and P. Hen. Fill, x, p. 142. 



''Pat. 12 Hen. Ill, m. 7 d. 



" Baildon, Man. Notes, 56. '" Ibid. 



^'De Banco R. 27 Edw. I, m. 142. 



^'Clarkson, Hist, of Richmond, 325. 



"Man. Ehor. 263. 



"Dean and Chap, of York, Parchment Bk. E, 

 fol. 44. 



"Gale, Reg. Hon. de Richmond, App. 91. 



' Yorks. Arch. Journ. ix, 321 n. See also Burton, 

 Mon. Ebor. 139, for grant of site, &c., at Esholt. 



' Dugdale, Mon. Angl. v, 469. 



' Ibid. ; Burton, Mon. Ebor. 139. 



* Dugdale, Mon. Angl. v, 470-4. 



of Belton, in the Isle of Axholme, and this gift 

 was confirmed by Richard II on i June 1379.° 



In 1303 ° Juliana de la Wodehall, who had 

 been elected prioress in December 1300, tendered 

 her resignation to the archbishop, who refused to 

 accept it, and wrote that he had not been certi- 

 fied of the state of the house, nor of the reason 

 which made her desire to resign ; he therefore 

 commanded her to retain the care of the house as 

 prioress, until he had discussed the state of the 

 house with the patron, Simon le Ward, or until 

 he was able to visit those parts. Possibly the 

 prioress's desire to resign was due to a recent 

 scandal which is the subject of a letter addressed 

 to her and her convent by the archbishop in the 

 preceding March ' regarding Beatrice de Houkes- 

 ward, a nun, who had left the house pregnant, 

 and whom they were not to re-admit without the 

 archbishop's special licence. On 22 September 

 1315' Archbishop Greenfield wrote to the 

 Prioress of Esholt peremptorily ordering her to 

 remove within six days all the secular women 

 boarders over the age of twelve years, and to 

 admit no more without special licence. On the 

 previous day he had confirmed the election of 

 Isabella de Calverley as prioress.' 



In 1318 ^^ Archbishop Melton held a visitation 

 and issued injunctions to the prioress and nuns. 

 The house was heavily in debt, and all were 

 ordered to use moderation. The prioress was 

 forbidden, under pain of removal, to grant pen- 

 sions, or to alienate or lease for long periods any 

 of the granges, nor was she to receive any 

 person to the habit of the nuns or sisters or 

 brothers convent, or to retain as boarders any 

 women or girls over twelve years of age without 

 the archhishop's special licence. There is a long 

 silence in the Registers till 1445,^-^ when Arch- 

 bishop Kemp granted an indulgence of 100 days, 

 valid for two years, to all who should help towards 

 the reparation or new construction of the cam- 

 panile of the house or priory of the poor nuns of 

 ' Asshold,' which recently fell to ruin, or who 

 should assist in the maintenance and the relief of 

 the nuns themselves, whose lands near the River 

 Ayre, which had been cultivated at much cost 

 and which maintained the nuns, had been flooded. 



A dispensation, dated i October 1472,^^ super 

 defectu natalium, was granted to Joan Ward, nun 

 of Esholt ; she was afterwards prioress, and was 

 no doubt connected in some way with the family 

 of the patron. On 28 November in the same 

 year^' another Joan Ward made her will, in 

 which she bequeathed her best gown {togarri^ 



' Ibid. 471, no. viii. 



' York Archiepis. Reg. Corbridge, fol. 18. 



' Ibid. fol. 206. 



» Ibid. Greenfield, ii, fol. 89. » Ibid. 



" Ibid. Melton, fol. 231*5. 



" Ibid. Kemp, fol. 98. 



"Ibid. Geo. NeviU, fol. 148 



" York Reg. of Wills, iv, fol. 7. 



161 



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