A HISTORY OF HERTFORDSHIRE 



Stoke by Clare. Between 1173 and 11781 

 Richard de Clare Earl of Hertford granted to 

 his monks of Stoke the hermitage of Standon 

 which William the Anchorite built, that they 

 might celebrate service there to the honour of 

 St. Michael, St. John Baptist and St. John the 

 Evangelist for him and his relatives, saving, 

 however, the right, peace and quiet of William 

 the Anchorite.^ 



It was apparently the earl's intention to 

 establish a community of religious there, and the 

 hermitage was probably for a time a cell of 

 Stoke, for in the 13th century it was known as 

 the house of St. Michael of Salburn,' and several 

 grants * were made by various persons to the 

 ' brothers of Salburn.' ^ 



From the beginning of the 14th century 

 there is no sign of any community here. In 

 1306 Roger de Castone, chaplain, was made 

 brother of the Chapel of Salburn,* but as the 

 expression ' house ' never occurs again in this 

 connexion the place had no doubt already 

 become a free chapel,' and is so named in 1384 * 

 when the king presented owing to the minority 

 of the patron. The anchorite William had 

 successors : Richard le Hermit * of Salburn 



obtained papal confirmation for certain gifts 

 made to him " ; Brother John the hermit is 

 mentioned in the Standon Court Rolls in 

 I357,u and John Benwell, hermit chaplain, 

 received the hermitage of Salburn in 1398." 



The chapel was leased to different people 

 by Stoke College i» from 1471 to 1516," at first 

 for 30J. a year, later for 26s. and finally for 20s, 



Wardens or Chaplains of Salburn 



John de Salburn, chaplain, appointed 27 May 



1269 1^ 

 Roger de Castone, chaplain, appointed 



II June 1306^* 

 Andrew, chaplain, occurs 1351" 

 Robert de Lincoln, king's clerk, appointed 



1384" 



Simon Bynham, chaplain, appointed 1392 •• 

 John Benwell, hermit chaplain, appointed 

 1398 »» 



A seal of the 13th century,^ in shape a 

 pointed oval, shows St. Michael trampling on 

 the dragon and piercing its head with a long 

 cross. Legend : s'. domvs sEi micaelis 

 d'salebvrne. 



HOUSES OF BENEDICTINE NUNS 



5. SOP WELL PRIORY 



The Benedictine nunnery of St. Mary of 

 Sopwell, near St. Albans, is said by Matthew 

 Paris to have owed its foundation to the build- 

 ing by Geoffrey, sixteenth Abbot of St. Albans 

 (11 19-46), of a cell and houses for two holy 

 women who had settled near Eywood about 

 I140 in rough shelters made of branches of 

 trees wattled together.* His account cannot be 



1 Richard succeeded his father Roger in the earldom 

 in I 173 or 1 1 74 (Diet. Nat. Biog. x, 397), and 

 Gilbert Bishop of London, to whom the charter is 

 addressed, died in 1178. 



^ Extract from the register of Stoke by Clare, 

 printed in Dugdale, Man. vi, 1658. 



^ B.M. Seals, xliii, 13 ; appointment of a warden 

 of the house of Salburn 27 May 1269 (List of Muni- 

 ments of Edmund Earl of March in Add. MS. 6041, 

 fol. 73). 



^ These cannot be dated. 



' Add. MS. 6041, fol. 73, no. 5-9, 11-14, 16-18. 



* Ibid. no. 20. 



' On 3 May 1325 the warden of the Chapel of 

 Salburn asked to be relieved of his charge (ibid. no. 21), 

 and on 16 May 1334 Elizabeth de Burgh, Lady of 

 Clare, appointed a warden of the Chapel of Salburn 

 (ibid. no. 22). 



8 Cal Pat. 1 38 1-5, p. 488. 



' A hermit of course was not the same as an 

 anchorite, but the word is often used in the sense of 

 anchorite. 



1 Gcsta Abbot, i, 80-2. 



altogether correct, for the cell first occupied by 

 the convent was an ankerhold repaired or 

 rebuilt by a recluse named Roger.* Still, the 



10 Add. MS. 6041, fol. 73, no. 7. 



" Ct. R. portf. 178, no. 44. 



1* Cal. Pat. 1396-9, p. 416. But in this case the 

 free chapel was apparently granted to a man who 

 happened to be a hermit or anchorite. There was 

 probably no longer a hermit in addition to the 

 chaplain at Salburn. 



'^^ In 141 5 the priory had been changed into a 

 college of secular priests. 



" Harl. Chart. 44 I 30-50. 



" Add. MS. 6041, fol. 73, no. 19. 



1^ He became ' brother in the chapel of Salburn ' 

 (ibid. no. 20). 



^' He is called chaplain of the chapel of Salburn 

 (Ct. R. [Gen. Ser.], portf. 178, no. 42, m. 2d.). 



18 Cal. Pat. I 381-5, p. 488. 



1^ Ibid. 1391-6, p. 241. He was granted the 

 chapel or hermitage of St. Michael, Salburn, on condi- 

 tion that he stayed there and celebrated service. 



20 Ibid. 1396-9, p. 416. 21 B.M. Seals, xliii, 13. 



^ Grant of Henry de Albini (Dugdale, Mm. iii, 365, 

 no. ii). It would almost seem that in the Gesta 

 Abbat. the origins of Markyate and Sopwell have 

 been confused. There Markyate Priory (op. cit. i, 

 98-193) is said to have arisen through the occupation 

 of the hermitage of Roger, a former monk of St. 

 Albans, by a saintly recluse called Christina, for whom 

 Abbot Geoffrey built a house. But in reality Mark- 

 yate was not dependent on St. Albans, as it would 

 iiave been if founded by the abbot, and as Sopwell was. 



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