RELIGIOUS HOUSES 



HOUSE OF AUSTIN NUNS 



58. THE PRIORY OF MOXBY 



The nunnery of Molseby, or Moxby, to use 

 the modern form of the name, originated in the 

 foimdation by Bertram de Bulmer of a double 

 monastery for canons and nuns of the Augustinian 

 order at Marton, either at the end of the reign 

 of Stephen, or the beginningof that of Henry II.' 

 The canons and nuns did not long continue 

 under the same roof, and Henry II gave the 

 adjacent territory of Moxby to the nuns, whither 

 they removed before 1167.^ The nuns con- 

 tinued to follow the Augustinian rule,' and 

 their house and chapel were under the invocation 

 of St. John the Evangelist. 



The nuns obtained the church of Whenby, 

 which was formally appropriated to them by 

 Archbishop Wickwane in 1283.* 



On 16 March 1267-8" Archbishop GifFard 

 directed the Prior of Newburgh to visit the 

 prioress and nuns. Archbishop Wickwane ° in 

 like manner commissioned Magr. Thomas de 

 Grimeston, his clerk, to visit the nunnery in 

 December 1281. On 14 December 1289' 

 Archbishop Romanus appointed William, vicar 

 of Thirkleby, as master of the nuns of Molseby, 

 and on 8 May 1294* he committed the custody 

 of the nunnery to Master Adam Irnepurse, vicar 

 of Bossall. 



The next we hear is that Sabina de Apelgarth,' 

 one of the nuns, had apostatized. Robert Picker- 

 ing, acting as vicar-general of Archbishop Green- 

 field, wrote on 24 April 13 10 to the prioress and 

 convent instructing them to receive her back, as 

 she was returning in a state of penitence. 



On Tuesday before the feast of St. Nicholas 

 1310'° Euphemia the prioress, feeling no longer 

 capable of ruling the house, resigned, and on 1 2 

 December, Alice de Barton, a nun of the house, 

 was elected prioress. 



As a result of a visitation in 1 3 1 4,^' Archbishop 

 Greenfield ordered that before the feast of All 

 Saints each year a full account of the income 

 and expenditure should be made. No nuns in 

 good health were to be in the infirmary, while 

 the sick were to be tended as their illnesses 

 needed and means allowed. 



' Dugdale, Mon. Angl. iv, 566. 



' Burton, Mon. Ebor. z68. Moxby was about a 

 mile and a half south of Marton. After the separa- 

 tion of the two houses, they appear to have had very 

 little connexion with each other. 



• Ibid. • Ibid. 



' Archbishop Giffard's Reg. (Surt. Soc.), 54. 



• York Archiepis. Reg. Wickwane, fol. 350. 



' Ibid. fol. so. ' Ibid. fol. 57^ 



° Ibid. Greenfield, ii, fol. 92^. 



'» Ibid. fol. \o\b. " Ibid. fol. 100^. 



No corrodies, &c., were to be granted, or 

 boarders or girls over twelve taken without 

 special licence. In a subsequent letter of 12 

 August '^ the archbishop appointed Brothers 

 Benedict de Malton and Thomas de Hustwayt, 

 Friars minors, confessors to the nuns. Archbishop 

 Melton held a visitation of the house on 5 May 

 1 318,'' and the next day sent a decretum to 

 the nuns. No fresh debts were to be incurred, 

 especially large ones, without the consent of the 

 wiser portion of the convent and the archbishop's 

 special licence. As to the bread and ale called 

 " levedemete," which the Friars minors were 

 accustomed to receive from the house, if it was 

 owed to them, it was to be given as due ; if not, 

 it was not to be given without the will of the 

 president. 



Nuns who ought to keep convent were to do 

 so. They were to enter and leave the dormitory 

 together. The cloister doors were to be well 

 kept by day, and locked in good time at night, 

 the prioress or sub-prioress having secure charge 

 of the keys. The nuns were not to go out of 

 the precincts of the monastery often, and were 

 not at any time to wander about the woods, 

 nor eat or gossip with brothers or other se- 

 culars. 



The prioress was to take her meals in the 

 refectory, and be more frequently in the convent 

 than she had been, unless sickness hindered her. 

 She was to have a nun of honest conversation 

 associated with her, within and outside the 

 monastery, and a waiting-maid. She was to 

 conduct herself piously, without offensive rancour, 

 nor was she to follow her own will, but to make 

 use of the counsel of her sisters. 



Nuns and other circumspect servants and 

 guardians were to be appointed in granges and 

 offices, for the benefit of the house. Relatives 

 were not to visit the nuns for a longer period 

 than two days. Until the archbishop directed 

 otherwise, Sabina de Apelgarth was to be re- 

 moved from all offices she held, to keep convent 

 continuously, at divine service, and not to go 

 out of the monastery on any account. No one 

 convicted of incontinence, or de lapm carnis, was 

 to remain in office. 



In 1322'* came the dispersion ot the nuns, 

 owing to the raid of the Scots. On 1 7 Novem- 

 ber Sabina de Apelgarth and Margaret de Neusom 

 were sent by the archbishop to Nun Monk- 

 ton, Alice de Barton, the prioress, to Swine, 

 Joan de Barton and Joan de Toucotes to 

 Nun Appleton, Agnes de Ampleford and Agnes 

 de Jarkesmill to Nunkeeling, and Joan de 



" Ibid. 



" Ibid. fol. 240. 



" Ibid. Melton, fol. 226. 



239 



