RELIGIOUS HOUSES 



William Wynok ; rents at Broadholme, by 

 William Newbrid ; lands and rents in the parish 

 of Sir Edward Wigford (Lincoln), by Aubrea and 

 Ivo, children of Ralph son of Lambert ; rents at 

 CoUingham, by Ralph de Muscamp and Isabel 

 daughter of Alured de CoUingham ; lands in 

 North CoUingham, by Richard de Claypole ; lands 

 in Torksey (Lincolnshire), by Walter Faber ; 

 rents in Stow (Lincolnshire), by Peter de 

 Campania ; and lands, pastures, meadows, and 

 rents in Little Hale (Lincolnshire), by Simon de 

 Hale; 



A confirmation charter granted by the king in 

 the following year conjointly to the abbey of 

 Newhouse and the priory of Broadholme is evi- 

 dence of the close early alliance between these two 

 houses, and also makes mention several times of 

 the ' brethren and sisters of St. Mary's,Brodholme ' 

 in the earlier grants.' But such a title as this 

 does not appear to have long prevailed, and was 

 clearly out of date when this confirmation charter 

 was issued. In the very next year (1320) a 

 licence appears on the Patent Roll for the 

 ' prioress and nuns of Brodholme ' to acquire in 

 mortmain lands, tenements, and rents to the 

 value of ;^iO a year.* 



In 1326 Matthew Brown, escheator for the 

 counties of Lincolnshire, Northamptonshire, and 

 Rutland, was ordered by the Crown not to inter- 

 meddle further with a toft and 20 acres of 

 land of the prioress (Matilda) of Broadholme in 

 Saxilby, which had been mistakenly taken by the 

 escheator into the king's hands, on the death of 

 Margaret Warrok, who was the priory's tenant 

 for those lands.' 



Queen Isabel was a particular patroness of 

 the nuns of Broadholme. In February 1327, 

 ' for the special affection which she bore to them,' 

 the queen granted the prioress and nuns a yearly 

 rent of 8 marks out of certain lands in Great 

 Massingham, Norfolk, whereof one moiety was 

 to be applied for clothing, 2 marks for their 

 pittance, and the remaining 2 marks for the 

 repair of their buildings.* In October of that 

 year the priory, at the request of Queen Isabel, 

 obtained licence to acquire in mortmain land and 

 rent, not held in chief, to the yearly value of ;^ 10.' 



Two years later a mandate was issued to the 

 sheriff of Norfolk to aid the prioress and nuns in 

 recovering the rent of 8 marks granted them 

 in 1327 out of Great Massingham.^" 



The advowson or patronage of Broadholme, 

 which simply implied a formal approval of the 

 appointment of the elected prioress, usually went 

 with the manor of Saxilby. William Cressy of 

 Markham settled that manor with the advowson 



^ Pat. 1 3 Edw. II, m. 29. 

 * Pat. 14 Edw. II, pt. i, m. 10. 

 ' Close, 19 Edw. II, m. 6. 

 ' Pat. I Edw. Ill, pt. i, m. 24. 

 ' Ibid. pt. iii, m. 1 7. 

 '» Pat. 3 Edw. Ill, pt. i, m. 22. 



of Broadholme, in 1365, on James son of Sir 

 John de Lysers and Maud his wife ; it afterwards 

 frequently changed hands for lack of heirs male.^' 



A papal confirmation of a former ordinance of 

 the chapter-general of Prdmontr(5, granted by 

 Alexander V in 1409 at the petition of the 

 Prioress and Convent of St. Mary's, Broadholme, is 

 of much interest in connexion with the somewhat 

 meagre history of this house. The ordinance 

 hereby confirmed was passed in I354> when Joan 

 de Rield was prioress. Out of consideration for 

 Queen Isabel, and by the mediation of a number 

 of abbots of the order, and particularly of Alan, 

 then Abbot of Newhouse, the father abbot of the 

 priory, it was ordained, in the presence of the 

 Abbots of Barling, Langdon, Croston, and Wel- 

 beck, and of Sirs Richard Gray, John Lysyers, 

 John Pigot, and John Everingham, knights, that 

 (i) on voidance of the priory of Broadholme the 

 Abbot of Newhouse should repair there in person, 

 or send a fit member of the order, to investigate in 

 the chapter-house the wishes of each sister under 

 oath, and should appoint as prioress her on whom 

 falls the consent of all or the greater part ; (2) 

 that all the money arising from the fruits, &c., of 

 the priory, together with the common seal and 

 muniments, should be kept in a chest fitted with 

 two keys of different make, one to be kept by 

 the prioress and the other by the sister whom the 

 others shall choose ; that (3) in order to avoid the 

 impoverishment of the priory only one canon of 

 Newhouse should dwell there, to say daily mass 

 for the sisters and to overlook their temporalities, 

 but he is not to presume to dispose of aught 

 thereof against the will of the prioress ; that (4) 

 the prioress should have temporal jurisdiction over 

 all her servants, appointing and removing them 

 at pleasure ; that (5) in the event of paucity of 

 sisters, she may, with the counsel and leave of 

 the abbot, admit others ; and that (6) the father 

 abbot should have right to hear or cause to be 

 heard four times a year, without expense to the 

 priory, the confessions of the prioress and sisters, 

 and should also visit them for two days once a 

 year, with four or five carriages, and stay at their 

 expense.-"^ 



Among the Premonstratensian records is the 

 fragment of a visitation of Broadholme, probably 

 of the year 1478, from which it appears that all 

 the nuns, before reception, were to know how to 

 sing and read.^' 



In a list of the names of the order in the 

 English province, drawn up in 1 494, nine canon- 

 esses are entered as on the roll of Broadholme, 

 namely : — 



Dame Elizabeth Brerworth, priorissa 

 „ Johanna Stertone, suppriorissa 

 „ Johanna Uptone 

 „ Agnes Aschby 



" Thoroton, Noiis. i, 386. 



" CaJ. of Fapal Letters, vi, 159-60. 



" Coll. Angh-Tremon. ii, 104. 



139 



