RELIGIOUS HOUSES 



The nuns were excused in November 1340^' 

 from payment of the ninth of sheaves on 

 pleading the insufficiency of their property for 

 their maintenance and their previous exemption 

 in consequence from all such contributions ; 

 and in October 1346*' the king ordered that the 

 tenth and fifteenth should not be demanded of 

 them. The convent escaped payment only by 

 reiterated complaints,^' so that it was a great 

 point gained when the king on 13 January 1352 

 granted*" them a perpetual acquittance of 

 all tenths, fifteenths, aids and charges what- 

 soever. 



Edward III was apparently kindly disposed 

 to them. On 8 September of that year he gave 

 them licence to acquire in mortmain land and 

 rent to the annual value of j^io,*^ and on 3 July 

 1358 granted them free warren in all their lands 

 in Cheshunt.^ Moreover, when the nuns repre- 

 sented their extreme want to him again in 1367, 

 saying that they had often had to beg in the 

 highways, he ratified their property to them as 

 desired,^ and in 1370 made them a present of 



When Queen Isabella was on her way to 

 Hertford in May 1358 the nuns came out to meet 

 her, as they did every time she subsequently 

 passed the priory.^ 



There seems always to have been a close 

 connexion between Cheshunt Nunnery and 

 London. The value of its possessions in the 

 city and suburbs in 1367 far exceeded that of 

 its property elsewhere,** and it is mentioned 

 frequently in wills of London citizens during 

 the 14th and 15th centuries.*' The bequests 

 were often small, but not always. In 1392 Maud 

 Holbech left 10 marks,** and in 143 1 Thomas 

 Elsyng, rents in St. Lawrence Lane*' to the 

 house, which must have derived substantial 



"Ca/. Close, 1339-41, p. 585. 



" Ibid. 1346-9, p. 104. 



" Ibid. 1 341-3, pp. 221, 616 ; I 346-9, pp. 299, 



427- 



^^ Cal. Pat. 1350-4, p. 195. 



'^ Ibid. p. 319. 



'i* Chart. R. 32 Edw. Ill, m. 3, no. ;. 



*' Pat. 41 Edw. Ill, pt. ii, m. 1 1. 



** Devon, Issue Roll of Thomas de Brantingham, 

 ^\Edtu. Ill, 1 01. 



^' E. A. Bond, ' Notices of the last days of Isabella 

 Queen of Edward II,' Jrch. xxxv, 461, 464. In 

 acknowledgement of their attention, Isabella gave 

 them a noble. 



*' Its income from tenements in London was 

 X18 10/. id., from those in Hertfordshire £,% 14J. 

 (Chan. Inq. Misc. 41 Edw. Ill [2nd nos.], no. 40, 

 file 192). 



" Lond. Epis. Reg. Bray brook, fol. 389 d.; 

 Sharpe, Cal. Wills proved in Ct. of Rusting, London, i, 

 445,460 ; 650, 697 ; ii, 20, 37, 41, 61, 152, 170, 

 185,220, 225, 313, 341. 



** Sharpe, op. cit. ii, 303. 



^ Ibid. 456. 



benefit from the legacies of Agnes Gyffard'" 

 and Richard Jepe, rector of All Hallows, Honey 

 Lane.31 Agnes Gyflard's daughter Cecilia was 

 a nun at Cheshunt,^* and personal ties may 

 account in other instances for the interest of 

 Londoners in the priory. 



There is httle information about the house 

 except on the financial side. Tiphania Chaum- 

 berleyn, the prioress, obtained a papal indult 

 on 30 May 1352** to choose a confessor to give 

 her plenary remission at the hour of death. 

 When she died many years afterwards an 

 irregularity of form made void the election of 

 her successor, Agnes Amys, but the bishop, 

 Robert Braybrook (1382-1405), finding her very 

 suitable for the office, provided her to the 

 priory by his authority.^* Agnes Amys paid 

 zos. in 1415 for a confirmation of the Letters 

 Patent exempting the convent from payment 

 of aids,'^ which were again confirmed in 1429'' 

 and 1470.*' Prioress Margaret Chawry had 

 some litigation with Nicholas Cowper, vicar of 

 Cheshunt. Sir Thomas Lovell, who had leased a 

 farm of her in 1508, refused to pay tithes ; 

 Cowper therefore demanded them from her and 

 took proceedings in the Consistory Court of the 

 Bishop of London, Richard Fitz James.'* The 

 prioress won her case, whereupon Cowper 

 appealed to the archbishop's court'' and in 

 1520 to Rome.*" Lovell died in May 1524 and 

 Margaret wrote to Bishop Tunstall begging him 

 to make Cowper drop the suit and pay her 

 expenses and to induce Lovell's executors to 

 make some recompense. She evidently felt that 

 she had suffered because Lovell was too power- 

 ful to be coerced.*^ 



The dissolution of the priory under the Act of 

 1536 occurred before 9 September of that year, 

 the house and all its possessions being then 

 granted by the king to Anthony Denny.** 



'" Sharpe, op. cit. ii, 450. By will dated June 

 1 42 3 she left a tenement in the parish of St. Nicholas 

 Cole Abbey to her daughter Joan for life, the re- 

 mainder in trust for sale and part of the proceeds to 

 Cheshunt Priory. 



'1 Ibid. 482. By will proved Oct. 1437 he 

 bequeathed a tenement to his sister for life, with 

 remainder to the Prioress and convent of Cheshunt. 



^* Sharpe, op. cit. ii, 556. 



'5 Cal. Papal Letters, iii, 472. 



5* Lond. Epis. Reg. Braybrook, fol. 3 1 2 d. The 

 letters are undated. 



8^ Cal. Pat. 141 3-16, p. 374. 



3« Ibid. 1429-36,?. 78. "Ibid. 1467-77,?. 188. 



38 L. and P. Hen. Fill, iv, 368. ^9 ibid. 



*" Citation in Oct. 1 520 by the auditor of the Papal 

 Court of Cowper and the prioress (ibid, iii, 1026). 



*i She said that Lovell being a great man refused 

 to pay tithes (i. and P. Hen. Fill, iv, 368). 



*2 Pat. 28 Hen. VIII, pt. ii, m. 25. The inden- 

 ture about the goods was made between the commis- 

 sioners and Denny, not the prioress, on 28 May 

 1536 (K.R. Church Goods, ^). 



427 



