RELIGIOUS HOUSES 



special licence. These salutary regulations were 

 to be read at least once a month in chapter 

 distinctly in lingua materna. 



In 1319" we hear again of Margaret de 

 Tang who in 13 12 had left the house with the 

 prioress, Isabella de Berghby. On 7 April 

 Archbishop Melton sent her to Nunkeeling to 

 undergo penance for her ' demerits ' at Arthing- 

 ton. Her penance was the usual type prescribed 

 for immorality : she was to fast on certain days, 

 be last in quire, &c., and receive the usual 

 disciplines. Again in 1321 ^^ she was in trouble, 

 and it seems probable that if she ever reached 

 Nunkeeling she had again broken loose and 

 apostatized, for on 5 May the archbishop wrote 

 to the Prioress and convent of Arthington about 

 her. He says that, forgetful of her habit and vow 

 taken in their house, she had apostatized, and 

 committed grave and serious excesses, contrary to 

 the honesty of religion. He had, however, 

 absolved her, and sent her back to Arthington to 

 perform her appointed penance. The prioress 

 and convent were to put her in some secure 

 place, and the access of secular persons to her 

 was forbidden. She was to say the whole of the 

 service as a nun, and two nocturns of the psalter, 

 and if her case needed it she was to be bound by 

 the foot with a shackle {ad modum compedis\ but 

 without hurting her limbs or body. When the 

 prioress was assured of her contrition, the prioress 

 was to inform the archbishop. Afterwards, 

 when restored to the convent, she was to be the 

 last in church and refectory, and was not to 

 enter the chapter to hear the secrets, but every 

 day was to receive a discipline, and a beating 

 (fustigationem) up to the cloister, all secular 

 persons being excluded. The prioress was also 

 to inform the archbishop how Margaret behaved 

 from the day of her return. Next year''' the 

 archbishop appointed the Prior of Bolton to 

 supervise the state of the house, and on 

 22 February 1327,''* with consent of the prioress, 

 appointed Robert de Tang custos of the house. 



The next information about Arthington in the 

 Registers is that in 1349 ^' Isabella de Berughby, 

 a nun of the house, was elected prioress. She was, 

 no doubt, the prioress, Isabella de Berghby, who 

 apostatized in 1312. If she was, for instance, 

 thirty years old in 131 2 (and the appointment of 

 Isabella Couvel to assist her in the care of the 

 conventual property may have been due to her 

 youth and inexperience), she would only have 

 been sixty-seven in 1349. It may be assumed 

 therefore that in spite of her misbehaviour in the 

 interval this was her second term of office. 



"York Archiepis. Reg. Melton fol. 276. 



"Ibid. fol. 146. «Ibid. fol. 1533. 



"Ibid. fol. 172^. 



"Ibid. Zoach, fol. 37. The Monasticon (iv, 519) 

 and other lists give the name here as 'Beningley,' 

 but in Zouch's Register the spelling is quite clearly 

 'Berughby.' 



In the Register of Archbishop G. Ncvill a very 

 curious error occurs regarding the election on 

 19 August 1475 2« of Katherine Willesthorp as 

 prioress. Both in the margin and in the text, 

 mcluding the prioress's vow of obedience, the 

 priory is spoken of as that of ' Arneclyff,' a 

 name which cannot ever have belonged to it, and 

 the mistake must be a clerical error, curiously 

 consistent throughout. On 17 May 1492^' 

 Elizabeth Popeley was confirmed in office as 

 prioress, and little more than two years after- 

 wards, on 26 August 1494,^^ she was deprived for 

 incontinence and having given birth to a child, 

 and for wasting the goods of the house. Owing 

 to her contumacy and disobedience she was 

 deprived of a vote in the election of her successor, 

 Margaret Turton. 



At the time of the Suppression ^' there were 

 nine nuns in the house, including the prioress, 

 Elizabeth Hall, aged forty-five, and against each 

 name, except that of the prioress, is written 

 ' continue,' meaning that they desired to con- 

 tinue in their vows, and there is a note, <A11 

 these persons (including the prioress) be of good 

 religious lifFying and not slanderid.' Their ages 

 ranged from seventy-two to twenty-five years. 

 The list is headed '■ Domm monialium Arthyngton 

 clunienc^ ordinis Sci Benedicti.' 



The house was surrendered by Elizabeth Hall, 

 the prioress, and the convent on 26 November 

 1540.'° The clear annual value, according to the 

 Fa/or Ecclesiasticus, was only j^ 1 1 8i. 4-d.,^'- and at 

 the date of the surrender'^ the demesne lands 

 were valued at ^5 8s. 4^., the site of the priory, 

 with its storehouses, orchards, gardens, and other 

 things within the precincts, being only valued at 

 5^. a year. 



Drs. Layton and Legh reported '^ that the 

 nuns had the Girdle of the Blessed Mary, as was 

 believed. 



In 1543 the site was granted to Archbishop 

 Cranmer.'^ 



''York Archiepis. Reg. G. Nevill, fol. 1723. The 

 vow of obedience is as follows : ' In Dei nomine. 

 Amen. I dame Kateryn Willesthorpe Prioresse 

 chossen of the house of Arneclyff swere and faithfully 

 promyttis obedience vnto my most Reu'nt fader in 

 God George be the mercy of God Tharchebisshop of 

 York, prymate of England and legate off the courte of 

 Rome and to all his successors lawfully enteryng and 

 too all y" officers and mynistres in all maner of 

 commaundmentes. So God help and thles holy 

 Euangelistez.' Ibid. fol. 1723. 



" Ibid. Rotherham i, fol. 78,5. ''Ibid. fol. 82. 



"P.R.O. Suppression P. ii, 227. 



'"Dagdale, Mot. Jng/. iv, 519. 



'' Fa/or Eccl. v, 1 6. There was a chantry founded 

 in the conventual church by Richard de Clifford 

 dominus de Westmorland, valued at £() annually, and 

 then held by Parcival Wharton, chaplain. 



"Dugdale, Mon. Jngl. iv, 522, no. x. 



''I. and P. Hen. nil,T., 363. 



'* Dugdale, Mon. Jngl. iv, 5 1 9. 



189 



