RELIGIOUS HOUSES 



repairs, which they had no money to do, and 

 begging him to grant them a patent for a 

 proctor to go about the country to collect alms 

 on their behalf. The convent at some time 

 must have received such a licence, for a letter 

 dated August 143 1 authorizes a proctor''* 

 to solicit for them the charity of the faithful, 

 since through misfortune they had come to 

 such want that they could not live on their 

 own resources. 



They seem to have suffered, too, from the 

 encroachments of unscrupulous neighbours. 

 Margaret Lyle, the prioress, complained to the 

 chancellor, c. 1431-43,** that one Thomas 

 Howard had deprived them for years of Langhoe 

 Wood, in Great Munden, which had long been 

 theirs, and owing to a technical flaw in her 

 evidence and her fear of him she had no remedy 

 in common law. 



The nuns in 1448 ** found it difficult even 

 to pay for a chaplain, and begged the king that 

 they might have as priest John Tyvnham, an 

 old Franciscan, who preached well and was 

 of good reputation, because unless they had a 

 young man, and that was not fitting, they were 

 asked a larger salary than they could afiord. 



The continuance of a community there was 

 at length found impossible. Through the 

 neglect and bad management of the prioress, it 

 was said, the property had so diminished that 

 it was insufficient to maintain any nuns, support 

 the necessary charges and rebuild the church 

 and house, then in ruins.^^ The prioress and 

 convent, therefore, on 11 September 1457 made 

 over the place with all its possessions to John 

 Fray, chief baron of the Exchequer,^* who ten 

 years before had bought the manor of Great 

 Munden and the advowson of the priory.^* 



Fray, unwilling that the reUgious services 

 should lapse, estabhshed in the priory church 

 and endowed with the conventual property a per- 

 petual chantry of one chaplain to celebrate for 

 the good estate of the king and himself, and for 

 the souls of the founder and benefactors of the 

 late nunnery.'" The convent c. 1336 had land 

 in Great and Little Munden, Standon,*i West- 



^ Cart. Misc. (Aug. Off), vol. xxi, no. 196. The 

 proctor's name is represented by the letters A. B. 



"^ Early Chan. Proc. bdle. 11, no. 308. 



^ The answer was given 28 Feb. 1449 (_Ji:(s of 

 P.C. 1443-60, p. 67). 



^' Pat. 37 Hen. VI, pt. i, m. 15, printed in 

 Dugdale, Mofi. iv, 343, no. ii. 



^* Dugdale, Mon. iv, 343, no. i. Ill-luck dogged 

 the nuns to the end. An order was given on 24 Oct. 

 1457 for the arrest of John Vale a/ias Parys to 

 answer concerning riots and offences done to Agnes 

 Prioress of Rowney (Cal. Pat. 1452-66, p. 402). 



^ Feet of F. Herts. 26 Hen. VI, no. 138. 



'" Dugdale, Mon. iv, 343, no. ii. 



'^ They received 8 acres here in exchange for land 

 in Little Munden from William de Munden in 1339 

 (Ctf/. Pat. 1338-40, p. *42). 



mill,*" Alswick in Layston, Sandon, Wyddial and 

 Welwyn.8» The net annual value of the 

 chantry's property was estimated in 1535 at 

 £13 loj. 9(i.»« and in 1548 at ^18 15^. \d?^ 



Prioresses of Rowney 

 Rose, resigned 1256-7 '' 

 Nicholaa, elected 1256-7 '' 

 Agnes de London, resigned August 1291 ^s 

 Alice de Chingford, elected 1291,39 died 1318*" 

 Joan dc London, elected 1318 " 

 Joan Spenser, elected December 1327 *^ 

 Joan de London, occurs 1338 (?) ^ 

 Margaret Costance, died 1 37 1 ** 

 Catherine de Hemsted, elected 1371^^; 



Catherine occurs 1 397 and 1 399 *' 

 Catherine Grenefeld, removed 1418 *' 

 Alice Lyle (?) " 

 Margaret Lyle, occurs c. 1431-43,*' resigned 



or died before February 1449 ^^ 

 Elizabeth Brandon, appointed 16 January 



1450,^1 resigned 20 May 1455 ^^ 

 Agnes Selby, surrendered the priory October 



1457 



63 



The circular seal attached to a 13th-cen- 

 tury charter ** in the British Museum shows 

 a right hand between two sprays of conventional 

 foliage issuing from the base of the design 

 supporting a dish on which lies the head of 

 St. John Baptist. The legend is : sigill' 



OVENT . SCIMONIALIV DE RVGNH' 



'^ They had land here in the 13th century (Anct. 

 D. [P.R.O.], C 2035). 



'^ Rentals and Surv. R. 293. 



3* Valor Eccl. (Rec. Com.), iv, 278. 



^' Including 6s. %d., the farm of the priest's 

 lodging (Chant. Cert. 27, no. 7). 



^^ Line. Epis. Reg. Lexington Rolls (Huntingdon 

 Archd. Anno 4). 



" Ibid. 38 Ibid. Sutton, Inst. fol. 85 d. 



39 Ibid. ■»" Ibid. Dalderby, Inst. fol. 253. 



*1 Ibid. ^^ Ibid. Burghersh, Memo. fol. 1 74. 



*3 Confirmation l o Sept. 1338 of a lease by her 

 {flat. Pat. 1338-40, p. 154). 



** Line. Epis. Reg. Buclcingham, Inst. fol. 301. 



« Ibid. 



« Ct. R. (Gen. Ser.), portf. 178, no. II. She 

 may have been Catherine Grenefeld. 



*' Line. Epis. Reg. Repingdon, Memo. fol. 18;. 



** In 1466 there is mention of a lease granted by 

 Alice L)le, late Prioress of Rowney, but nothing is 

 known of the date of the deed except that it was 

 previous to July 1454 (Ct. R. [Gen. Ser.], portf 178, 

 no. 16). 



*9 Early Chan. Proc. bdle. 11, no. 308. 



•0 Acts of P.C. 1443-60, p. 67. 



"Cant. Archiepis. Reg. Stafford, fol. 33. The 

 nuns omitted to elect within the proper time, so the 

 ArchbishopofCanterbury appointed, the see of Lincoln 



being vacant. 



^2 On becoming Prioress of Hinchinbrook (Add. 

 Chart. 33621). " Dugdale, Mon. iv, 343, no. i. 



5* B.M. Chart. L. F. C. iv, z. 



435 



