RELIGIOUS HOUSES 



Elizabeth Lasynby,'" elected 1475 



Joan Ward,'^ occurs 1480, 1487,'' 1493>" 



resigned 1497 '* 

 Elizabeth Lasynby,'' elected 1497 

 Agnes Firth,'* elected 1505 

 Margaret Roche," elected 1507, resigned 



1 5 1 2 '* 

 Elizabeth Pudsey,'' elected 1 5 1 2 

 Joan Jenkinson,*" occurs c, 1536 



32. THE PRIORY OF HAMPOLE 



The priory of Hampole, or Hanepole, was 

 founded about 1170^ by William de Clarefai and 

 Avice de Tany, his wife,^ whose gift and that of 

 the churches of Adwick and Melton were con- 

 firmed by Archbishop Roger (1154-81), which 

 gives a limit to the date of the foundation. 



Roger, the son of Ralph de Tilli and Sibilla de 

 Clarefai, confirmed to tbe nuns all the grants and 

 concessions of his grandmother, Avice de Tany, 

 and his mother Sibilla, as his brother Ralph had 

 also by his charter confirmed them to the nuns. 



In 1 331' William son of William, lord of 

 Sprotbrough, confirmed in detail the gifts of his 

 ancestors and other benefactors to the nuns of 

 Hampole in Yorkshire and Nottinghamshire. 

 The nunnery, according to Burton,* who has 

 given a short and imperfect list of the places 

 where the nuns had property, stood in a pleasant 

 vale lying east and west, in a fine country on the 

 high road leading from Wakefield to Doncaster. 

 In his time there were some slight remains of the 

 monastic buildings. 



According to the Valor Ecclesiasticus ^ the gross 

 annual revenue was jCS^ 6s. ild.y and the clear 

 value £62 5^. 8d. 



In 1267 * Archbishop Giffard wrote to the 

 prioress to receive no one as nun or sister with- 

 out his special leave, as the number then in the 

 house exceeded its means. 



In the following year ' a custos of the house is 

 mentioned, but no name given. 



In February 1275-6* the archbishop directed 

 the nuns with those of the other Cistercian houses 

 to choose their confessors from the Friars Minor, 



'° York Archiepis. Reg. Geo. Nevill, fol. 172^. 



" Burton, Man. Ebor. 140. 



" Dugdale, Mm. Angl. v, 471, no. xvi. 



" Ibid. no. iii. 



" York Archiepis. Reg. Rotherham, i, fol. 133. 



" Ibid. '« Ibid. Savage, fol. 43. 



" Ibid. sed. vac. fol. 522. 



^' Ibid. Bainbridge, fol. 39^. 



" Ibid. *» Suppression P. ii, 25. 



' Dugdale, Mon. Angl. v, 486. 



' Ibid. 487, no. ii. ' Ibid. no. iii. 



* Burton, Mon. Ebor. 264. 



' Vahr Eccl. (Rec. Com.), v, 43. 



• Archbp. Giffard' s Reg. 20. 



'Ibid. 160. » Ibid. 295. 



in spite of an inhibition of the abbots of the order. 

 His successor. Archbishop Wickwane, in 1280 ' 

 appointed Richard, vicar of Wath, to the charge 

 and custody of the house in spiritual and tem- 

 poral affairs, and in 1283^" commissioned the 

 Prior of Nostell to visit Hampole, but there is 

 no record of the visitation itself. 



The custody of the house was committed in 

 1308'^ by Archbishop Greenfield to Roger, vicar 

 of Arksey, and on 14 June ^^ in the same year 

 he issued injunctions to the prioress and nuns, in 

 general terms. No nun, except the hostilaria, 

 was to eat or drink in the guest-house, unless with 

 worthy people, no secular persons were to sleep 

 in the dormitory, and nobody was to be admitted 

 to the habit of nun, sister or conversm, without the 

 archbishop's special licence. In July 131 1 '^ he 

 wrote to the prioress and convent that he had 

 lately heard, from certain trustworthy persons, 

 that the nuns did not eat in common in their 

 refectory, but separately in divers chambers and 

 other places; he therefore ordered that they were 

 to have their meals together, unless perchance any 

 one was ill, or otherwise legitimately hindered. 

 In 1312^* the archbishop, having at a recent 

 visitation found that Hampole was heavily bur- 

 dened by debts, had ordered that no liveries or 

 corrodies were to be granted without leave. He 

 had, however, learnt that the prioress had received 

 a certain little girl [puellulam)^^ by name Maud 

 de DrifFeld, niece of the Abbot of Roche, and an- 

 other named Jonetta, her own niece, at the instance 

 of Dominus Hugh de Cressy her brother, that after 

 a time they might be admitted to the habit and 

 profession of nuns of the house, and moreover had 

 sold or granted corrodies very burdensome to the 

 house ; the archbishop ordered diligent inquiry as 

 to these matters. If they were found as stated, 

 then the nuns were to be forbidden to receive 

 Maud and Jonetta to the habit of nuns in any 

 manner whatever, until they heard otherwise. 



On 28 February 1312-13^* Agnes de Ponte- 

 fracto, a nun of the house, was elected prioress, 

 and on 7 March " following Custance de Cressy, 

 nun of the house, was transferred to Swine, 

 propter varias inobediencias. It seems pretty clear, 

 from what had occurred, that Custance de Cressy 



' York Archiepis. Reg. Wickwane, fol. 28. 



■» Ibid. fol. 172. " Ibid. Greenfield, fol. 70^. 



" Ibid. fol. loU. " Ibid, ii, fol. 54. 



" Ibid. fol. 58. ] 



" The reception of girls of tender age as future nuns 

 is indicated in a licence from Archbishop Greenfield 

 in 1 3 10 to the Prioress and convent of Hampole to 

 receive Elena daughter of the late Reyner Sperri, 

 citizen of York, eight years of age and ' bone conver- 

 sacionis et vite,' as a prospective nun (ibid. fol. 30). 

 A licence to take a young girl, Agnes de Langthwayt, 

 as a boarder was granted to Hampole by Archbishop 

 Greenfield in 1 3 1 3 at the instance ' nobilis viri Ade de 

 Everyngham.' (Ibid. fol. 730.) 



" Ibid, ii, fol. 62. " Ibid. fol. 63^. 



163 



