RELIGIOUS HOUSES 
Gregory of St. Alban’s, elected 1302 * 
Richard of Northampton, elected 1305? 
William of Kirkby, elected 1310,° trans- 
ferred 1312 
Richard of Hertford, elected 13124 
Henry of St. Neot’s, elected 13165 
HOUSES 
2. THE ABBEY OF ELSTOW 
The Benedictine abbey of Elstow was 
founded near the end of the eleventh cen- 
tury by Judith, the widow of Earl Waltheof 
and niece of the Conqueror :® tradition said 
that it was her act of reparation for the be- 
trayal of her husband to death.” She endowed 
it with the vills of Elstow and Wilshamp- 
stead and a part of Maulden,® the conventual 
church being identical with the parish church 
of Elstow; it was dedicated to the honour of 
St. Mary and St. Helen.® From the thirteenth 
century at any rate the house was reckoned 
as a royal foundation, and the patronage re- 
mained with the Crown until the dissolution. 
The confirmation charter of Henry I., granted 
about 1126,'° names amongst the benefactors 
Nicholas and Richard Basset, Nigel de Stafford, 
and Countess Maud, daughter of Judith and 
wife of Simon de Senliz. The property of 
the abbey was considerable, and very widely 
scattered ; the mandates for restitution of the 
temporalities were addressed to the escheators 
in twelve counties. 
1 Linc, Epis. Reg., Inst. Dalderby, 260d. 
2 Ibid. 261d. 
3 Ibid. 265d. Prior of Hertford, 1312-6. 
* Ibid. f. 270. Previously prior of Hertford. 
5 Tbid. 274d. 
® Dugdale, Mon. ii. 412, from Leland. 
7 Airy, Digest of the Domesday of Beds (Introduc- 
tion), and S. R. Wigram, Chronicles of the Abbey of 
Elstow. From the latter book many of the refer- 
ences to the external history of the abbey have 
been taken: but it does not give any account of 
the episcopal visitations, except Longland’s. 
8 Domesday. 
® Leland (quoted by Dugdale) says the Holy 
Trinity, St. Mary and St. Helen. The name of 
Elstow is said to be a corruption of Helenstowe, 
which Leland explains as Helene Statio: but 
there is no doubt that the usual name of the 
church was ‘the Church of St. Mary Elstow 
(Elnestowe or Alnestowe),’ though ‘the Church 
of St. Helen’ is found in Feet of Fines, Bucks, 
7 Edw. II. In Domesday, ‘ the nuns of St. Mary’ 
held ‘ Elnestou ’ of Countess Judith. 
10 It was witnessed by Thurstan of York 1119- 
46, Roger of Salisbury 1107-42. There was an 
earlier charter confirmed by the Conqueror, 
alluded to in Palgrave’s Rot. Cur. Reg. i. 391. 
I 353 
OF BENEDICTINE 
Adam of Newark, elected 1340,0cc. 1349" 
John of Caldwell, elected 1351 ?? 
William of Winslow, elected 1374 
John Warham, occurs 1396 and 1401** 
Richard Smyth of Missenden, occ. c. 
1405 15 
NUNS 
The list of abbesses serves to show that the 
daughters of baronial families were frequently 
received at Elstow; the later names are 
those of the neighbouring gentry. The ex- 
ternal history of the house is chiefly gathered 
from the numerous lawsuits in which it was 
involved. In the twelfth century there was 
a long dispute with the monks of Newhouse, 
concerning the church of Halton-super-Hum- 
ber ; the terms of the award, and of the papal 
mandate which afterwards became necessary, 
suggest that the nuns had been behaving in a 
somewhat aggressive manner.!® A papal 
mandate was also required to settle a dispute 
between the nuns of Elstow and the canons 
of Dunstable ;'” it is probable that the same 
abbess, Cecily, was concerned in both these 
11 Linc. Epis. Reg., Inst. Burghersh, 321; Cal. 
of Pap. Letters (P.R.O.), iii. 339. 
12 Linc. Epis. Reg., Inst. Gynwell, 388d. 
13 Ibid. Inst. Buckingham. 
14 Matth. Paris, Gesta Abbatum (Rolls Series), 
iii. 425, 480. 
15 Cott. MS. Nero, D vii. f. 135b; his father 
died 1405, leaving legacies to St. Alban’s. 
There was a titular prior of Beaulieu who sent 
his proctor to Convocation in 1529 (L. and P. 
Hen. VIII. [P.R.O.] iv. 6047). Cole (from MS. 
notes of Browne Willis) gives the name of ‘ Thomas 
Kingsbury, monk of St. Alban’s, prior of Beaulieu, 
and archdeacon of St. Alban’s,’ under the date 
1531. Add. MS. 5827, f. 174b. 
16 The first award (Harl. Ch. 44, i. 3) given by 
Sylvan, abbot of Rievaulx, and Geoffrey, prior of 
Bridlington, decided that the church belonged to 
the monks, and imposed silence on the nuns for 
ever. The next (Harl. Ch. 43, A 24) was a man- 
date from Richard, Archbishop of Canterbury, 
rehearsing a papal bull of Alexander III., in 
which it is said that the nuns shall not presume 
to vex the monks further on this matter. It is 
followed (ibid. 43, G 23) by the quitclaim of the 
nuns. The reasons for placing these charters in 
this order are given by Wigram, Chronicles of the 
Abbey of Elstow, 45-6. 
17 Harl. MS. 1885, f. 23b. Cecily, who appears 
in this charter and in the next reference, was abbess 
between 1170 and 1180, being contemporary with 
Alexander III., Thomas, prior of Dunstable, etc., 
and therefore most probably at the time when the 
suit with Newhouse was going forward. 
45 
