RELIGIOUS HOUSES 



Hugh, Prior of Bridlington, reciting an earlier 

 one by Bernard (prior c. 1150), addressed to the 

 Archbishop of York, which records that Wlmar, 

 priest of Wykeham, and two other persons * Urea 

 iilius Karli,' and Gamellus, of whom Wlmar 

 held a portion of the church, had together 

 appeared, and oflfered at the altar of Bridlington 

 all the right they possessed in the church of 

 Wykeham, and as a sign of their gift Wlmar 

 had offered three candles in the presence of 

 many witnesses. This right, which Bridlington 

 had so obtained in the church of Wykeham, 

 Prior Hugh (occurs 1189-92) and his convent 

 conceded to the nuns of Wykeham. 



The priory, church, cloisters, and twenty-four 

 other houses or buildings having been accident- 

 ally burnt down at Wykeham, and the nuns 

 losing all their books, vestments, chalice, &c., 

 Edward III relieved them for twenty years of an 

 annual payment of ^^3 i2s. yd. for lands held 

 by them in the honour of Pickering, part of the 

 duchy of Lancaster.* It seems possible that the 

 fire had really taken place some years previously, 

 for in 1321' the church of All Saints was 

 spoken of as ruinous, and was pulled down, and 

 a chapel erected on or near the site by John 

 de Wycham, in honour of St, Mary and St. 

 Helen. This by the king's licence was granted 

 to Isabel, the prioress, and the convent, and was 

 endowed by him with 12 marks annually, for 

 the finding of two chaplains to celebrate in it 

 for the soul of John de Wycham and others.^ 

 The ordination of the chapel was confirmed by 

 Archbishop Melton in 1323.' 



In 1314^° Archbishop Greenfield held a visi- 

 tation of the priory of Wykeham, when he 

 issued a set of injunctions, almost identical with 

 others sent to Yedingham at the same time. 

 No nun was to absent herself from divine ser- 

 vice by reason of her occupation operis de serico. 

 Goings to and fro of seculars, men or women, 

 through the cloister to the kitchen, or other 

 places inside the house, were not in future to be 

 permitted. The parlour was not to be used 

 by the lay folk of the house. The prioress was 

 to take care that the nuns did not make them- 

 selves conspicuous as to their girdles, or any 

 other part of their habit, or wear anything except 

 what was conformable with religion. 



Rebellious nuns were to be punished in the 

 presence of the convent and not secretly, as such 

 open treatment was in accordance with divine 

 and human law. 



Something was probably wrong in 1 3 5 1 >^^ 

 for Archbishop Zouch issued a commission for 

 the visitation of the houses of Wykeham and 



' Burton, Mon. Ebor. 257. 



' Ibid. ' Ibid. 



' York Archiepis. Reg. Melton, fol. 242. 



" Ibid. Greenfield, ii, fol. 101,5. 



" Ibid. Zouch, fol. 172. 



Yedingham, the commissioners being instructed 

 to correct abuses, but there is no record of 

 what took place in consequence of the visita- 

 tion. 



In the early part of 1444 ^^ Archbishop Kemp 

 stated that recently at a visitation of the priory 

 of Wykeham very grave defects and crimes were 

 detected against the person of Isabella Westir- 

 dale, prioress of the said priory, who after she 

 had been raised to that ofBce had been guilty of 

 incest with many men, both within and outside 

 the monastery. He therefore deprived her, and 

 immediately upon her deprivation sent her to 

 the house of the nuns of Appleton, there to 

 remain for a season. 



The next time the archbishop had to deal 

 with Wykeham is scarcely more creditable to 

 the reputation of the house. It is a curious 

 story. The archbishop writing on the last day 

 of February 1450" to Elizabeth, the prioress, 

 called upon her to re-admit an apostate nun, 

 Katherine Thornyf, who, seduced by the Angel 

 of Darkness, under the false colour of a pil- 

 grimage in the time of the Jubilee, without leave 

 of the archbishop or his officials, or even of the 

 prioress, set out on a journey to the court of 

 Rome, in company of another nun of the house, 

 who, as it was reported, had gone the way of all 

 flesh, and on whose soul the archbishop prayed 

 for mercy. After the death of this nun, Kathe- 

 rine Thornyf had lived in sin with a married 

 man in London. She had come to the arch- 

 bishop, humbly seeking absolution. This he had 

 granted her, and as she was penitent, he sent her 

 back for re-admission. Whether the original 

 intention of the two nuns was genuine, or 

 whether the Jubilee was made an excuse for 

 leaving their monastery, is doubtful. 



In the Taxation of 1 29 1 the temporalities 

 were rated at j^22 15J." In 1527 the clear 

 annual value was returned as only ;^20," but 

 in the Valor Ecclesiasticus at £2$ 17 s. 6i." 



Among the Suppression Papers^' there is a 

 list of the nuns, twelve in number, besides their 

 prioress^* and their pensions. As in the case 

 of other houses the ages are entered, and have 

 been changed three years later. In the margin 

 is written 'Religious,' probably meaning they 

 desired to abide by their vows, and it is said 

 ' All of good lyffing.' Katherine Nendyk heads 

 the list as prioress, and among the names of the 

 nuns is that of Isabella Nendyk, evidently a 



" Ibid. Kemp, fol. 89,5. 



" Ibid. fol. 72. 



" Dugdale, Mon. Angl. v, 67 1 . 



" Subs. R. 64, 303. (A return made by Brian 

 Higdon, Dean of York.) 



'« Valor Eccl. (Rec. Com.), v, 145. 



" Suppression P. ii, fol. 95. 



" According to Tanner there were only nine, but 

 the list gives the names, ages, and pensions of thirteen, 

 including the prioress. 



183 



