A HISTORY OF YORKSHIRE 



The 'firmaresse' (infirmarian), if there were one, 

 was to see that the sick were in want of nothing. 

 Silence was enjoined ' in the quere, in the cloyster 

 frater and dorter according to their rule under 

 payne of cursyng.' All the sisters were to eat 

 and drink ' both dynner and sooper in oon 

 housse at oon table,' &c., unless ill, and all the 

 sisters were to sleep in the dorter. The granting 

 of ' corrodies, pensions, or lyveres,' and leases, &c., 

 was placed under the restriction of the arch- 

 bishop's licence being required. 



The prioress was not to admit anyone ' to the 

 professid habite of a nune, or a suster, or a con- 

 verse,' ^ or allow anyone to sojourn within the 

 precinct of the monastery, without the arch- 

 bishop's special licence. 



The prioress and convent were not to take any 

 person, secular or religious, to hear her or the 

 nuns' confessions without the archbishop's licence. 

 No money was to be received for admitting a 

 nun, or converse " by reason of a previous compact, 

 • for such admissions be dampnable and be plane 

 simonye ' ; free gifts need not be refused. The 

 nuns were to be present at divine service, and the 

 prioress was to provide them with ' sufficient 

 meatt and drinke at convenient hoores, that is to 

 sey, that their dynner be ready at xj of the clock 

 or sone after, and their sooper at v of the cloke 

 or sone after.' 



The priory of Sinningthwaite was supervised by 

 the commissioners on lo June 1535,^' and sup- 

 pressed on 3 August following. Anne Goldes- 

 burgh, quondam priorissa, received £4. 10s. as her 

 half year's pension, ioj. apparently being meanly 

 deducted from the full sum. Richard Huley 

 and Thomas Holme are mentioned as the chap- 

 lains, and Katherine Foster as ' nuper priorissa.' 

 There were nine nuns besides the prioress, and 

 eight servants and other labourers. A chalice, 

 wholly gilt, with its paten, weighing together 

 1 1 oz., was all the plate belonging to the priory. 



Prioresses of Sinningthwaite 



Christiana, occurs 1 172 ^ 

 Agnes, occurs 1 184 ^ 



" This indicates three classes of persons admitted to 

 the habit of a nunnery : (i) the nuns, (2) the lay- 

 sisters, and (3) the converses. The first were distin- 

 guished in habit by vifearing the black veil (and, as a 

 penance, its disuse veas often enjoined), the lay-sisters 

 wore a white veil. The conversi were clearly men, 

 as shovTn by the names of 'conversi' attached to 

 nunneries. Hence the allusion to the ' fratres ' of 

 several nunneries (Sinningthwaite among them). 



" Here in the fourteenth paragraph of the Injunc- 

 tions the word is evidently used in an extended sense, 

 covering both the lay sisters and the ' conversi ' or lay 

 brothers. 



" K.R. Aug. Views of Accts. bdle. 17. 



" Dugdale, Min. Angl. v, 465, no. vi. 



" Ibid. 466, no. viii. 



Euphemia, occurs 1219 ^^ 



Isabella, occurs 1276^° 



Margaret, resigned 1 3 14-15 " 



Elizabeth le Waleys, resigned 1320" 



Sybil de Ripon, confirmed 1323," occurs 



1327''^ 

 Margaret Fitz Simon, occurs 1344 

 Margaret Hewit, died 1428 " 

 Agnes Sheffield, confirmed 1428 " 

 . . . de Etton,'' occurs 1444 

 Alina, occurs 1 444 '' 

 Margaret Banke,'' died 1482 

 Alice Etton, confirmed 1482,^° died 1488 " 

 Elizabeth Squier, confirmed 1488" 

 Anne Goldesburgh, confirmed 1526,*' resigned 



1534" 

 Katherine Foster, appointed 1534*' 



39. THE PRIORY OF SWINE 



The priory of Swine was founded by Robert 

 de Verli,^ at some period prior to the death of 

 King Stephen, for his gift of the church of 

 St. Mary of Swine was confirmed to the nuns 

 there by Hugh Pudsey, Archdeacon of the East 

 Riding and Treasurer of York, which offices he 

 vacated in 1 1 54, when he became Bishop of 

 Durham. 



At first there is evidence that the house was in 

 some form a double monastery of men and women. 



In a charter of Erenburgh, wife of Ulbert 

 Constable,^ the brothers and sisters serving God 

 at Swine are alluded to, and in a charter of 

 Edward I in 1 305 ' is an inspeximus of an undated 

 charter of Henry II to the brethren and nuns 

 of the house of Swine, taking their house, lands, 

 and possessions under his protection, and granting 

 them certain liberties. There is also, in the 

 same charter of Edward I, an inspeximus of a 

 charter of confirmation by Henry II to the 

 ' brethren and nuns ' of Swine of their lands in 



" Burton, Mon. Ebor. 327 ; see also Yorks. Inj. 

 \, 276. 



" Dugdale, Mon. Angl. v, 464, no. v. 



" Yoric Archiepis. Reg. Greenfield, ii, fol. 6oi. 



" Ibid. Melton, fol. 141. 



" Ibid. fol. 158, a prioress (name unknown) inter- 

 vened between her and Eliz. de Waleys. 



"' Plac. de Banco, Mich. 2 Edw. Ill, m. 213. 



" Baildon, Mon. Notes, i, 203. 



•' York Archiepis. Reg. Kemp, fol. 322. 



" Ibid. " Burton, Mon. Ebor. 327. 



" Ibid., where the name is printed Aliva, an 

 obvious error for Alina. 



" Ibid. 



*" York Archiepis. Reg. Rotherham, i, fol. 20. 



" Ibid. fol. 124. " Ibid. 



" Ibid. Wolsey, fol. 98. 



<* Ibid. Lee, fol. 10^. " Ibid. 



' Dugdale, Mon. Angl. v, 493. 



' Ibid. 494, no. i. 

 Chart. R. 98 (7 Nov. 33 Edw. I). 



.78 



