A HISTORY OF NOTTINGHAMSHIRE 



corn, hay, hemp, flax, goosegrass, wool and 

 lambs, together with mortuaries and oblations, 

 and all other profits, for the term of both their 

 lives, at ^^3 a year. It was also agreed and 

 provided that the township of Fenwick was to 

 make due oblation unto the mother church 

 of Campsall at the four principal feasts, and 

 further covenanted that the inhabitants 'shall 

 well and trulye content and paye the Lenton 

 bokes and the profetts thereof unto the saide 

 Dame Isabell prioresse, or ellus unto hir deputs.' * 



This small nunnery was visited in 1536 by 

 Legh and Layton. Wonderful to relate, they 

 had no slander nor scandal to report of this 

 house, whose annual value they returned at ;^6o. 

 Under the head of Superstiiio they recorded the 

 comb of St. Edmund, and an image of the 

 Virgin said to have been discovered at the found- 

 ing of the house.' 



In April of this year Sir John Nevill, in a 

 letter to Cromwell, wrote: — 'I beseech you 

 have me in remembrance for Wallyng Wellys, 

 as I wrote to Mr. Richard, your nephew or for 

 something else.' ^^ 



Wallingwells, however, though so small a 

 house, was one of those religious foundations 

 which managed to procure a respite by a heavy 

 bribe or fine. More than a year's income, 

 namely ;^66 13X. 4c/., was paid to the Crown 

 officials to secure exemption from the schedule 

 of the condemned smaller monasteries." 



On 2 June 1537 Margaret Goldsmith, the 

 prioress of the ' Monasterye of ower Ladye of 

 Wallyngwells, in the countye of Nottingham,' 

 entered into a covenant with Richard Oglethorp 

 demising to him the entire monastery and all 

 its possessions for the term of twenty-one years, 

 lying in Wallingwells, Carlton in Lindrick, 

 Gildingwells, Handsworth, Brinsworth,Todwick, 

 Wales, Throapham, Dalton, Rawmarsh, Gring- 

 ley, Woodsetts, Harthill, ' Rownbromen,' Wel- 

 ham, and Mattersey, in the counties of York and 

 Nottingham, together with the parsonage of 

 Campsall. The actual church of Wallingwells, 

 and the prioress's chambers, the dormitory, the 

 infirmary, and all other houses and dwellings 

 pertaining to the monastery, were alone excepted, 

 and these were reserved for the prioress and con- 

 vent. Oglethorp, or his executors or assigns, 

 was also to be entitled to cut down and carry 

 away all timber and underwood. He was, how- 



* Dugdale, Mon. iv, 297. 



' L. and P. Hen. Fill. J., 36+. 



"Ibid. 633. "Ibid, xiii (2), 43'- 



ever, to provide at his own cost an able priest to 

 sing and read in the monastery, and to pay 

 yearly during the terms of the lease £1 6s. Bd, 

 to the prioress, 6s. 8d. to every lady or sister of 

 the monastery there abiding, in. to the prioress's 

 maid for her wages, to the convent maid 6s. id., 

 and to the cook and butler yearly for their wages 

 £1 6s. 8d. Further he was to supply to the 

 convent every week ' one mett of whete and one 

 mete and one pek of rye for ther brede corn, to 

 be grounde molter free,' and three bushels of 

 blended malt, half barley and half oats, for the 

 'dryncke corn.' He was also to deliver yearly 

 six fat kine, four fat pigs, six calves, twenty 

 sheep, six stone of cheese, a quarter and a 

 half of salt, and a quarter of oatmeal for the 

 kitchen, and 40/. in money for them to buy 

 fish with at their pleasure. The final clause 

 of the indenture bound Oglethorp to supply 

 the prioress yearly with one load of coals, 

 ten loads of wood, and twelve pounds of candles ; 

 and twelve loads of coal, twenty loads of wood, 

 and twelve pounds of candles for the convent ; 

 and also to find them, summer and winter, two 

 milk kine and two * suez.' '^ 



The priory was surrendered on 14 December 

 1539, when a pension of £6 was assigned to 

 Margaret Goldsmith the prioress, of 53J. ^.d. 

 each to Anne Roden the sub-prioress and to 

 Elizabeth Kyrkeby, and of 40;. each to six other 

 nuns." 



Prioresses of Wallingwells 



Emmade Stockwell, 1295 ''' 

 Dionysia, resigned 1325 " 

 Alice de Sheffield, resigned 1353" 

 Helen de Bolsover, resigned 1402 " 

 Isabel de Durham, 1402" 

 Joan Hewet, died 1465 " 

 Elizabeth Wilcocks, 1465 '» 

 Elizabeth Kirkby, 1504" 

 Isabel Croft, 1 508-11''' 

 Anne Goldsmith, 1516^' 

 Margaret Goldsmith, 1521 ^ 



" Dugdale, Mon. iv, 298-9. 



" L. and P. Hen. Fill, xiv (2), 651. 



" Harl. MS. 6972, fol. c,b. 



'Mbid. fol. 16. 



'Mbid fol. 19^. 



" Ibid. 6969, fol. 88, 



"Ibid. 6972, fol. 33*. 



'' Ibid. fol. 43. 



" Ibid. fol. 45. 



" Ibid. 



» Ibid. 



" Ibid. fol. 433, 44. 



" Ibid. fol. 46. 



90 



