A HISTORY OF 
Nicholas of Arrouaise.’* The priory has some 
distinguished names amongst its earlier bene- 
factors. Sampson le Fort’s charter was 
probably confirmed first by David I. of Scot- 
land and his son Henry, Earl of Huntingdon,? 
and certainly afterwards by Malcolm IV.,? 
William the Lion,* Simon, Earl of Northamp- 
ton,® and Robert Bruce®; while Baldwin des 
Ardres, Count of Guisnes, granted to the nuns 
the church of Stevington before 1153,” and 
the name of Roger de Quincy,® constable of 
Scotland, appears later. Before the year 1181 
however the prior and canons had ceased to 
exist, and the nuns were making efforts to 
free themselves from immediate subjection to 
the abbot of Arrouaise ; and after appeals from 
both parties to Pope Alexander III. the matter 
was finally referred to the arbitration of St. 
Hugh of Lincoln. Robert of Bedford, the 
precentor of the cathedral, was sent to treat 
with the abbot of Missenden, who was acting 
as proctor to the abbot of Arrouaise; and the 
result of his negotiations was that Gervase set 
the nuns free for ever from subjection to the 
parent abbey, and yielded to them the two 
churches of Harrold and Brayfield, with all 
the other gifts of Sampson le Fort, on con- 
dition that they paid half a mark yearly to 
the abbot of Missenden.® Thenceforward 
until the dissolution the convent was ruled by 
a prioress,‘° having sometimes a warden or 
master,!! like other small houses of nuns, and 
at one time a few lay brothers.’? Of the 
1 The charter of Malcolm IV. (Lansd. MS. 391, 
f. 6) speaks of lands held in the time of his father 
and grandfather. 
2 Tbid. 3 Ibid. 
4 Ibid. f. 5. 5 Ibid. 5b. 
6 Ibid. f. 4. This was Robert de Bruce, son of 
Payn de Bruce, who held lands in Bedfordshire in 
1131 (Pipe R. [Rec. Com.], 103). 
7 Lansd. MS. 391, f. 11b; it was confirmed by 
‘Eustace the king’s son,’ which must be before 
1153. 8 Tbid. £. 13. 
® The whole of this transaction is found in 
Lansd. MS. 391, ff. 18b, 19; but it is dated quite 
clearly 1288: which is manifestly impossible. It 
may perhaps be a mistake for 1188, which would 
do quite well for St. Hugh and Robert of Bedford. 
At the same time it seems extraordinary that 
Gervase, who was made abbot of Arrouaise in 1124 
(Helyot and Bullot, Hist. de Ordres Mon. ii. 107), 
should still be abbot in 1188. Gervase’s name also 
appears on the foundation charter of Bourne, 1138. 
10. A prioress is first mentioned in connection with 
Harrold early in the thirteenth century (see list of 
prioresses). 
11 Linc. Epis. Reg., Memo. Sutton, 14. 
12 Ibid. Memo. Dalderby, 31, ‘To the prioress 
and convent of Harewold, to receive back a brother 
who being professed returned to secular life.’ 
BEDFORDSHIRE 
number of the nuns there is no indication 
until the very end, when there were only six 
at the outside. Nor is it easy to discover 
whether in giving up their direct connection 
with the abbey of Arrouaise, they ceased at 
once to observe the Arrouasian rule and to 
wear the habit of that order ; or whether, as 
seems more likely, the change was later.’* At 
the dissolution they were reckoned as ordinary 
Austin canonesses.‘* The house has very little 
history of any kind. ‘The chartulary in the 
British Museum,"® which contains an abstract 
of the charters in the possession of the priory 
in the reign of Henry V., shows various 
small grants of lands and tenements in Bed- 
fordshire,and a few suits concerning churches.'® 
The latest item of importance is an account 
of the impropriation of the church of Shaker- 
stone in 1416.'7 Early in the thirteenth cen- 
tury the advowson of the priory was probably 
held by Ralf Morin of Harrold and his son 
John,'® and in 1279 certainly by Sir John de 
13 Most of the other Arrouasian houses lost their 
distinctive features and became Augustinian be- 
fore the dissolution, except Nutley and St. Peter’s, 
Dorchester. There was probably never much 
distinction. The order of St. Nicholas of Arrouaise 
in Artois was founded by Heldemar of Tournay 
and his hermit companions in 10go (Helyot and 
Bullot, Hist. des Ordres Mon. ii. 107), about the 
same time that the Augustinian order was being 
reformed or re-organised on the basis of the rule 
taken from St. Augustine’s letter to certain reli- 
gious women (No. 211, ed. Migne), and quite 
independently ; but afterwards it was looked upon 
as merely a branch of the Augustinian order, so 
much so that the abbot of St. Peter’s, Dorchester, 
was fined for not appearing at the last great chapter 
of the order, though he pleaded that his house was 
Arrouasian, and that he was not therefore bound 
to come (Cott. MS. Vesp. D i. f. 64). The Arrou- 
asian canons originally wore a white habit and no 
linen ; they ate no meat, and kept a strict rule of 
silence (Hist. des Ordres Mon. ii. 107). 
14 Leland—quoted Dugdale, Mon. vi. 330. 
16 Lansd. MS. 391. 
16 Stevington was claimed by the son of Baldwin 
des Ardres, but finally quitclaimed (ibid. f. 12b), 
and confirmed by John to the nuns of Harrold 
(Chart. R. 7 John, m. 1). The same church was 
again claimed in 1405 by Philip de Cornewayle, 
lord of Stevington, by right of his wife Constance, 
Countess of Huntingdon; but awarded to the 
prtioress by Bishop Repingdon (Lansd. MS. 391, f. 
13b). The church of Brayfield was also disputed 
at one time (ibid. f. 15b). 
17 Tbid. £. 18 (dated 1416) and 58b; also Pat. 7 
Henry V. pt. 2, m. 39; and Linc. Epis. Reg. Mem. 
Repingdon, 128d, 129. 
1s There are several charters between Ralf and 
John Morin and the prioress (Lansd. MS. 391, 
ff. 7b, 8); and Ralf Morin in 1203 accused the 
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