RELIGIOUS HOUSES 
Joan Wyrell,' elected 1448 
Agnes Stephens,? elected 
1508 
Joan Zouche,’ elected 1508, surrendered 
1536 
1508, died 
There is a very early seal of the priory at- 
tached to a charter of the first prioress,* of a 
light-brown colour, pointed oval, representing 
our Lord, with cruciform nimbus, seated on 
a throne, with rainbow behind it, the right 
hand raised in benediction, the left resting on 
a book on the left knee. The inscription is 
illegible, and very little of it remains. 
The ordinary chapter seal® was a repre- 
sentation of the Holy Trinity, pointed oval : 
a figure seated upon a throne, holding a cruci- 
fix ; a crescent on the left and a star on the 
MUNEC..... 
There is another ° similar to this, only the 
figure is under a triple canopy with pinnacles, 
and has a shield of arms below. Legend : 
SIGILL’ . . . ANCTE TRINITATIS DE... . 
HOUSES OF CISTERCIAN MONKS 
4. THE ABBEY OF WARDEN 
The abbey of Warden or Saint Mary de 
Sartis (so called from the ‘assarts’ or forest 
clearings which formed its first endowment) 
was the earliest house of the Cistercian order 
founded in Bedfordshire. Walter Espec, 
the founder of Rievaulx, one of the most 
famous houses of the order in England, had 
lands in Bedfordshire at Old Warden ;° and it 
was he who invited the monks to settle there. 
Warden was not however a cell to Rievaulx : 
the primitive Cistercian custom was to send 
out monks with an abbot at their head to 
form a new and independent house, as St. 
Bernard did when he left Ctteaux for Clair- 
vaux, and twelve were considered sufficient 
for this purpose. The foundation charter of 
Warden was confirmed by Stephen in the 
first year of his reign, and witnessed by 
Thurstan of York and Alexander of Lincoln.® 
There are several interesting names found 
amongst the benefactors of this abbey: 
Henry Braybrook (a very well known name 
in Bedfordshire) and his wife Christine,’ the 
lady of West Warden in Northamptonshire, 
1 Linc. Epis. Reg., Inst. Alnwick, 186d. There 
seems to have been no prioress after the resigna- 
tion of Denise; Joan Wyrell was elected, it is 
stated in her institution, ‘on the death of Denise.’ 
2 Ibid. Inst. Smith, 455. 
3 Ibid. 455d. 
4 B.M. Cott. Ch. xi. 36. 
5 See Domesday ‘Translation. ‘ Willelmus 
Spech’ had g hides in Warden and 3} virgates in 
Beeston. 
6 Exch. Trans. of Charters, 13 Edward I. No. 5. 
The charter is clearly dated 1135 (Dugdale, Mon. 
v. 280 [under Rievaulx] has 1136). 
7 Add. MS. 24465 (a modern and not very re- 
liable transcript of a chartulary formerly in the pos- 
session of B. H. Bright, Esq., of Lincoln’s Inn, 
from which some extracts are given in Dugdale, 
Mon. vi. 370), f. 27. 
I 361 
with their son Wischard Leydet;*° Simon, 
Hugh and William de Beauchamp," lords 
of Eaton, and benefactors also of Bush- 
mead, and Sir John Engayne,'? to whom 
their property passed in the fourteenth 
century ; Malcolm IV. of Scotland’® and 
Roger de Quincy, constable of Scotland." 
Like the majority of Cistercian houses, 
Warden depended mainly for its prosperity 
upon its pasture lands: among the earliest 
grants are ‘twenty acres in Warden, with 
pasturage for two hundred sheep, and for 
eight days in shearing time, eight hundred.’*® 
It had no churches except the parish church 
of Old Warden, and even to secure that the 
abbot had to go through one of the usual 
Curia Regis suits with the grandchildren of 
Walter Espec.'® His claim in 1225 to the 
8 B.M. seals, lviii. 38. 
® Ibid. lix. 79. 
to Add, MS. f.27b. Christine Leydet was an 
heiress and her son took her name, (From notes 
kindly furnished by Mr. Round.) 
11 Thid. ff. 37-9. 
12 Tbid. f. 28b. 
13 bid. 26b. 
14 Thid. 35. 
16 From Wischard Leydet and his wife Margery 
(ibid. f. 27, 27b). 
16 Palgrave, Rot. Cur. Reg. (1 John), i. 199; and 
Cur. Reg. R., 2 John, 22. The abbot com- 
plained in 1199 that the advowson of a moiety 
of the parish church had been wrested from him, 
though it had been granted by Walter Espec in 
pure alms: he produced Walter’s charter and also 
the charter of William de Bussey, heir of Walter. 
The two daughters of William de Bussey, Cecily and 
Maud, now claimed the advowson, in the person 
of their respective husbands, on the ground that 
the last parson, Nicholas de Trailly, granted it to 
them. ‘The result of the suit is not given, but the 
church remained finally with the abbot, to whom 
the foundation charter certainly assigned it: though 
it seems that the de Busseys had made the last 
presentation. 
46 
