Consecration of Nuns at Ambresbury A.D. 1327. 287 



in our Diooese having besought us that certain Nuns of the said Priory being 

 Virgins & haying made profession, being of suitable age and otherwise qualified 

 aooording to canonical regulations, may be consecrated by you on the next ensuing 

 Feast of the Ascension of our Lord, We, yielding to their request, do of our 

 special power grant permission unto you to bestow on the said Nuns the gift of 

 consecration, and unto them to receive the same. As witness these present letters 

 confirmed by the impression of our seal and addressed to your reverend Father- 

 ship. And may the Supreme guardian of Virgins of his mercy preserve you in 

 all desirable prosperity for the government of his Church. Given at Nonesle 5 th 

 May. A.D. 1327." 



Names of the Nuns consecrated at Ambresbury on Ascension Bay. 



" Doinina Isabella de Lancaster * Domina Johanna le Rous 



„ Margareta Florack „ Johanna Pauncefot 



„ Alicia Groucet „ Elyzabeth de Wyncester 



„ Agnes de Horncastel „ Umania [?] de Sombourne 



„ Johanna Aucher „ Alicia Baudich 



„ Elena de Babynton „ Margeria de Burton 



„ Margeria de Pyrebroke f „ Maria Mautravers 



„ Editha Bisshop „ Hawysia le Veel 



„ Agnes de Wynkenholte „ Alicia de Sombourne 



„ Amisia Knouel „ Margareta de Cranle 



„ Johanna de Wrotham „ Katharina de Oxenford 



„ Margareta de Bottenham. „ Margareta Archur 



„ Mary Fitz Gautier [Walter]. „ Claricia Sylveyn 



„ Agnes de Kyngesle „ Agnes de la Folye 



„ Katharina Galruge „ Christina De la More 



„ Margeria de Donestaple. „ Alicia Kytewyne 



„ Lucia de Oxenford „ Alicia de Depeford 



„ Agnes de Seynte Lieger. „ Sibilla Pycot " 



This list of ladies' names (though little or nothing may be known 

 about the greatest part of them) suggests one or two remarks : — 



1. The first on the list, Isabella de Lancaster, was daughter of 

 Henry Plantagenet, Earl of Lancaster, son of Edmund Crouchback, 

 son of King Henry III. She being of blood royal, some at least of 

 her associates may be presumed to have belonged to an upper, rather 

 than to any lower rank in society. So that we probably have here 

 a fair illustration of J ohn Aubrey's account of female education in 

 old times. 



" The young mayds were brought up (not at Hackney, Sarum Schools, &c, to 

 learne pride and wantonnesse but) at the Nunneries where they had example of 



* By some said to have been Prioress : but see Wilts Arch, Mag., vol. x., 67, note, 

 i Prioress in 1349 (Wilts Institutions). 



