A HISTORY OF BEDFORDSHIRE 
Juliane* 
Amice,? occurs 1264 and 1268 
Margery of Hereford,® resigned 1304 
Cecily de Cantia,* elected 1304 
Petronilla of Radwell, elected 1335, re- 
signed 1354 
Christine Murdak,® elected 1354, resigned 
1357 
Maud de Tichemersh,’ elected 1357, oc- 
curs 1364 
Katherine of Tutbury,® elected 1369, oc- 
curs 1384 
Emma Drakelowe,® occurs 1405 and 1413 
Elizabeth Chiltern,’* resigned 1470 
Margaret Pycard,™ elected 1470 
Helen Crabbe,’® died 1501 
Eleanor Pygot,’® elected 1501, died 1509 
Agnes Gascoigne,’” elected 1509 
Elinor Warren,?® surrendered 1536 
_ The seal of the priory represented St. 
Peter, standing, in mitre and chasuble, two 
keys in the right hand and a crosier in the 
left. The legend is very indistinct, only the 
last two words being legible... PETRI 
CATENAS.!? 
HOUSE OF THE GILBERTINE ORDER 
11. THE PRIORY OF CHICKSAND 
The Gilbertine priory of Chicksand was 
founded about the year 1150 by Roais?° and 
her husband Payn de Beauchamp, baron of 
Bedford. ‘The foundress had been previously 
the wife of Geoffrey de Mandeville, Earl of 
Essex, who died in 1144, and was buried in 
the abbey of Walden, which he had founded 
some years before.* After the death of 
her second husband, the Countess Roais 
was frequently at Chicksand, and when her 
eldest son,!? Geoffrey de Mandeville, died in 
1 Occurs Lansd. MS. 391, f. 8, in an agreement 
with Ralf Morin, witnessed by W. de Beauchamp 
(i.e. before 1260, if this, as seems probable, was 
the elder William, whose charter to Chicksand Ralf 
Morin witnessed (Dugdale, Mon. vi. 950). 
2 Tbid. ff. 8, 13. 
8 Occurs ibid. f. 9b with Sir John de Grey ; and 
Linc. Epis. Reg., Inst. Dalderby, 261. 
4 Ibid. 261 (John de Grey, patron). 
6 Ibid. Inst. Burghersh, 320d. 
8 Ibid. Inst. Gynwell. 
7 Ibid. 397; Lansd. MS. 391, 44. 
8 Linc. Epis. Reg., Inst. Gynwell, 83; Lansd. 
MS. 391, 35, etc. 
® Lansd. MS. 391, ff. 13b, 34b, etc. 
10 It seems proper to put Countess Roais first, 
because the priory was always called her foundation, 
though it was endowed with lands of the Beau- 
champs. ‘The witnesses to the foundation charter 
are Henry Murdak, Archbishop of York 1146-53, 
and Nicholas, archdeacon 1145-81 (Dugdale, 
Mon. vi. 950). Also in it Payn de Beauchamp and 
his wife ask the prayers of the nuns for their son 
Simon; but Geoffrey de Mandeville did not die 
till 1144, and therefore Simon could not have been 
born much before 1146. 
11 Dugdale, Mfon. iv. 142-3 (Chronicle of Walden 
Abbey). 
12 The chronicler of Walden Abbey says that she 
1166, she endeavoured to secure his burial 
there ; but being defeated in this purpose by 
the monks of Walden Abbey (who naturally 
desired that the son of their founder should be 
buried in their church) she retaliated by carry- 
ing off the whole furniture and hangings of 
his private chapel for the adornment of her 
own priory.?° 
did her best to draw away the hearts of her sons 
from their own abbey to the priory of Chicksand, 
which she was then building (ibid.) 
13 Linc. Epis. Reg., Inst. Chedworth, 178. 
14 Tbid. 
16 Ibid. Inst. Smith, 443d. 
16 [bid. 
17 Thid. 457d. 
18 L, and P. Hen. VIII, xiii. (1), 1520. On the 
fly-leaf of Lansd. MS. 391 is written: ‘ Prioresses 
occurring in this book: Juliana abt. 1251, Agnes 
1257, Amicia 1260 and 1265, Matildis about 1280, 
Cecilia 1312, Margeria de Hereford 1340, Katherine 
Tutbury and Emma Drakelowe.’? The same list 
is given in Tanner, Not. Mon. ‘ from a MS. in the 
possession of Walter Clavel’ (probably the Lans- 
downe MS.), and in Dugdale, Mon. vi. 330. It 
has not been followed here, because it is very diffi- 
cult to make the dates on the fly-leaf correspond 
with those in the chartulary. ‘The only Agnes who 
occurs is certainly earlier than Basile; and the 
latter name, which is quite distinct in the chartu- 
lary, with the date 30 Henry III., is not found on 
the fly-leaf at all; and Margery of Hereford is 
plainly misdated 1340. 
19 The same seal, much defaced, is attached to 
Add. Ch. 15726. 
20 Dugdale, Mon. iv. 142-3. The story is rather 
an amusing one. As soon as Geoffrey died, his 
followers proceeded at once with his body to Saffron 
Walden, without sending any message to Countess 
Roais, whose masterful disposition they evidently 
knew well: but a certain clerk escaped from their 
company and carried the message to her at Chick- 
390 
