RELIGIOUS HOUSES 



in the Court of Arches and was reinstated. 

 Upon this two monks of St. Albans, sent by 

 Rothbury, came to the nunnery, broke down 

 Elizabeth's door with an iron bar, beat her and 

 put her in prison.'* She then appealed to the 

 Archbishop of Canterbury as chancellor,*^ and 

 it can hardly be doubted that she was the 

 authority for some of Morton's charges against 

 St. Albans. In his letter to the abbot, 5 July 

 1490,'° he accused him of changing the 

 prioresses not only at Pr^ but at Sopwell as he 

 pleased, and deposing the good and religious 

 for the benefit of the evil and vicious, so that 

 religion was cast down and needless expense 

 caused. He also said that the monks put in 

 as wardens used their opportunities to dissipate 

 the goods of these houses, and he no doubt had 

 grounds for his statement. In 1500-1 Elizabeth 

 Prioress of Sopwell, probably the same Elizabeth 

 Webbe, complained to the chancellor*' that a 

 deed of lease by the convent had been secretly 

 altered to their disadvantage by Thomas 

 Holgrave, keeper of the priory, and his clerk, 

 who had been bribed by the tenant. 



The house was dissolved in March or April 

 1537'' under the Art of 1536. Very different 

 reports of Sopwell were given by John ap Rice 

 in October 1535,*° and the commissioners sent 

 to receive the surrender in March 1537,*" the 

 first telling Cromwell that, as he would see by 

 the ' comperta,' it would be well to suppress 

 the priory, the others declaring that the five 

 nuns composing the convent were of good 

 character. 



There were then two children living at 

 the priory, probably for instruction by the 

 nuns.*"- 



A pension of ff) a year was assigned to the 

 prioress, Joan Pygot *^ ; the other nuns, a 

 priest and four servants received ^10 55. 8i. 

 among them.** The buildings, which were in 



^ Early Chan. Proc. bdle. 181, no. 4. 

 '* The petition is not dated, but the archbishop 

 addressed is obviously Morton (chancellor 1486-93), 

 and not Warham (chancellor 1504-15), because 

 Rothbury predeceased Abbot William de Wallingford 

 (see Early Chan. Proc. bdle. 97, no. 6), i.e., he died 

 before 1492. 



^^ Wilkins, Concilia, iii, 632. 

 ^' Early Chan. Proc. bdle. 245, no. 28. 

 ^ The date is given in Mins. Accts. Hen. VIII, 

 no. 1 606, as 14 April, but the surrender appears 

 from L. and P. Hen. Fill, xii (i), 571 (l), to have 

 taken place in March. 



2' L. and P. Hen. Fill, ix, 661. 

 *" Transcript of Land Rev. Rec. bdle. 66, no. 3. 

 *' In the Warden's Accounts of 1446 there is 

 entered the payment of 22/. 6d. from Lady Anne 

 Norbery for commons of her daughter, apparently a 

 boarder here (Rentals and Surv. R. 294). 



*^ Mins. Accts. Hen. VIII, no. 1 606. It was still 

 paid in 1555 (Add. MS. 8102, m. 9). 

 *' Mins. Accts. Hen. VIII, no. 1 606. 



a fair state of repair, contained little of much 

 value beyond the lead on the roofs, priced at 

 1^0, and the four bells, reckoned at ^18.** The 

 plate consisted of a silver-gilt chalice and 

 paten weighing 14 oz.« The furniture of the 

 church,^" including an alabaster table, the 

 hanging of the quire, two altar frontals,^' and 

 a copper cross, was sold for ,^1 15^-. 6d.; the 

 timber-work of the quire for ^os. ; the stone in 

 the church with the vestry staff for 60s. ; and the 

 stuff in the parlour for loj-.*^ 



The net income of the priory was reckoned 

 in the Valor of 1535 at ^40 js. iO(/.,*» at the 

 suppression at ^46.*" 



Prioresses of Sopwell 



E., occurs 1233 ^1 



Philippa, occurs September 1310,^'' 1324,°* 



and 1327 " 

 Alice de Pekesden, appointed c. 1330 ^^ 

 Margaret Fermeland, occurs February 1341 ^^ 

 Joan, occurs 6 January 1 370-1 " and March 



1383-4" 

 Matilda de Flamstead, occurs 28 September 



1388,*' resigned or was removed before 



20 September 141 2 *" 



** Mins. Accts. Hen. VIII, no. 1606. 

 *5 Aug. OIF. Misc. Bks. ccclxi, fol. 63. 



The sum 

 total of goods and plate came to j£ 1 1 8/. t)d. ; in the 

 inventory of the commissioners made just before the 

 suppression (K.R. Church Goods, ^) it was esti- 

 mated at only •]6s. ild., but the list of goods 

 included neither timber nor stone. 



*^ The vestments were of the poorest kind : a cope 

 valued at 1 2d., a vestment of old black velvet priced 

 at 2/. 4^., two tunicles of baudekin, two others 

 very old, a vestment of black cloth, and another for 

 Lent valued at l6d., zs., izd. and 6d. respectively 

 (ibid.). 



^' The frontal of an altar, zod., the front of another 

 altar, izd. (Aug. Off. Misc. Bks. ccclxi, fol. 63). 

 The second altar was probably that of St. Katharine 

 mentioned in 1 445 {Herts. Gen. and Antiq. iii, 140). 



^^ Aug. Off. Misc. Bks. ccclxi, fol. 63. 



*^ Falor Eccl. (Rec. Com.), i, 45 1. The sum only 

 is given and not the sources from which it was 

 derived ; possibly the difference of nearly £6 is 

 caused by the annuities being reckoned in one case 

 and not in the other. 



^^ Transcript of Land Rev. Rec. bdle. 66, no. 3. 



" Anct. D. (P.R.O.), D 285. 



'2 Ibid. D 611. 



" Cart. Misc. (Aug. Off.), vol. xi, no. 1 19. 



" Plac. de Banco R. 269, m. 12 d. 



'5 At the death of Philippa {Gesta Abbot, ii, 212). 



"Anct. D. (P.R.O.), D 1286. 



" Ibid. A 5443. 



58 Ibid. D 419. 



sMbid. D463. 



^ Alice Charleton then bequeathed 6s. %d. to 

 Matilda Flamstead, late Prioress of Sopwell {Herts. 

 Gen. and Antiq. i, 47). She died in Feb. 143 1-2, 

 aged eighty-one years, having been in religion 

 seventy-one years (Amundesham, Annales, i, 61). 



425 54 



