A HISTORY OF HERTFORDSHIRE 



Isabella Benyngton, occurs 1446 •'; Isabella, 

 occurs 1460-1 •' 



Isabella or Elizabeth Baron," occurs Septem- 

 ber 1468-71,** retired 4 April 1480 '' 



Alice Wafer, appointed April 1480,™ occurs 

 1 48 2-5 '^ 



Christiana Basset, occurs March 1487 to 

 December 1488^2 



Helen Germyn, occurs July 1490'' 



Amy Goden, occurs 29 September 1490-3 '* 



Margaret Vernon, occurs 29 September 1513- 

 1575 



Eleanor Barnard, the last prioress, died 

 4 June 1527 ^* 



The seal of the house attached to a 13th- 

 century charter " is a pointed oval. On it 

 is represented a three-quarter length figure of 

 the Virgin, crowned and enthroned, vath. a 

 sceptre in her right hand ; she holds on 

 her left knee the Child, who has a cruciform 

 nimbus. At the sides are two hly branches. 

 Below, under the words ave maria, which the 

 cutter has reversed, is a leper-woman praying, 

 and behind her a star. The only letters re- 

 maining of the legend are : s' . . . 6 . . . to. 



8. ST. GILES IN THE WOOD PRIORY, 

 FLAMSTEAD 



About the middle of the 12th century Roger 

 de Todeni or Tony * founded at Flamstead a 

 priory in honour of St. Giles for Benedicrine 

 nuns and endowed it with land and certain small 

 tithes in the parish.' He ordained that the 

 assent of himself and of his heirs must be 

 obtained at the election of the prioress, and 

 that without their consent there should never 

 be more than thirteen nuns in the house. 



The priory, to which a pension of 5 marks out 



" Dugdale, Man. iii, 357. 



*' Mins. Accts. bdle. 867, no. 30. Possibly 

 Isabella Baron. 



'' She is in the Book of Benefactors of St. Albans, 

 as giving 2 marics for the ornaments of the church 

 and decoration of various altars (Cott. MS. Nero, 

 vii, fol. I 1 5). 



^ Mins. Accts. bdle. 867, no. 32, 33. 



'' Reg. of St. Albam, ii, 209. She died in 1491 

 (Mins. Accts. Hen. VII, no. 275). 



'" Reg. of St. J Wans, ii, 209. 



" Mins. Accts. bdle. 867, no. 35-6. She either 

 resigned or was removed, for she was living at Pre in 

 1487-8. " Mins. Accts. Hen. VII, no. 274. 



'^ WilJcins, Concilia, iii, 632. 



^•^ Mins. Accts. Hen. VII, no. 275. 



" L. and P. Hen. Fill, ii, 959. 



'« Cardinal's Bdles. I. '" Add. Chart. 19279. 



^ This family held Flamstead from the time of the 

 Domesday Survey until the 14th century (F.C.H. 

 Herts, ii, 194). 



2 Dugdale, Mon. iv, 299, no. i. This is evidently 

 the charter shown by the prioress at a visitation in 

 1530. 



of Dallington rectory was assigned in 1220,* 

 received from Agatha de Gatesden in 1228 some 

 land in Hemel Hempstead * and acquired before 

 1244* land and 30j-. rent in Edlesborough (co. 

 Bucks.) from Nicholas son of Bernard, whose 

 granddaughter Isabella afterwards sold to the 

 nuns all that she owned in that place ' ; pro- 

 perty in Potsgrove (co. Bedford) was made over 

 in 1257 to the convent,' who in 1270 held 

 20 virgates of land in Wingrave given to them 

 by William de la Hyde.* 



The statute of Pope Boniface VIII for the 

 stricter cloistering of nuns, obedience to which 

 was enjoined upon them in 1300,' added re- 

 strictions to a Ufe already sufficiently hard, for 

 there is no doubt that the nuns were very poor. 

 William Dalderby, Bishop of Lincoln, in ap- 

 pointing delegates in July 1308 to examine a 

 recent election at St. Giles's, commissioned them 

 to act for him in choosing a prioress if necessary, 

 evidently from a desire to save the nuns 

 expense,'" and on 17 June 1 3 16" he granted 

 an indulgence of thirty days to all who gave 

 alms to the priory. 



Careful administration was of paramount im- 

 portance, and it was at the earnest supplication 

 of the prioress and convent that the Bishop of 

 Lincoln on 17 March 1336-7 appointed as 

 master of the house a priest called Roger de 

 Croule, of whose prudence and industry he was 

 assured.^ 



Pestilence with its agricultural consequences 

 must have aggravated the nuns' difficulties'^ 

 in the latter part of the 14th century. The 

 petition of the convent to Pope Urban VI '* 



' Bridges, Hiit. ofNorthants, i, 494. 



" Dugdale, Mon. iv, 300, no. ii. 



' In that year Margery widow of Nicholas 

 renounced her claims in dower in return for a life 

 grant of a messuage, a mark of silver, 3J qrs. of 

 wheat and i 2 cartloads of wood a year (Feet of F. 

 Bucks. 28 Hen. Ill, no. 47). 



' Dugdale, Mon. iv, 301, no. iii. Confirmation by 

 Henry III in 1267-8. 



' Feet of F. Bucks. 40 & 41 Hen. Ill, no. 147. 



* Ibid. 55 Hen. Ill, no. 134. William was the 

 grandfather of the tenant of 1270. 



' Line. Epis. Reg. Dalderby, Memo. fol. 10 d. 



'" Ibid. fol. 1 1 2 d. " Ibid. fol. 327. 



" Ibid. Burghersh, Memo. fol. 3 5 5 d. On the same 

 day he gave them as confessor a Dominican friar. 



" The extreme poverty of the house may have 

 been the reason why Helen Lovell, a novice there, 

 decided in 1352 not to take vows (ibid. Gynwell, 

 Memo. fol. 7). 



" I^ as Dugdale says, the bull to the Bishop of 

 Lincoln for inquiry was issued by Pope Urban IV 

 {Mm. iv, 301), its date must be March 1263, and in 

 this case the nuns over a century later presented a 

 petition conuining precisely the same details (Line. 

 Epis. Reg. Buckingham, Memo. pt. ii, fol. 232 d.). 

 But it seems most unlikely that history repeated itself 

 so exacdy, and the bull should probably be dated 

 March, the second year of Urban VI, i.e., 1380. 



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