RELIGIOUS HOUSES Gregory of St. Alban's, elected 1302 1 Richard of Northampton, elected 1305 2 William of Kirkby, elected 1310, 3 trans- ferred 131 2 Richard of Hertford, elected 131 2 * Henry of St. Neot's, elected 1316 s Adam of Newark, elected I340,occ. 1349 1 John of Caldwell, elected 135 1 12 William of Winslow, elected 1374 13 John Warham, occurs 1396 and 1401 14 Richard Smyth of Missenden, occ. c 1405 " HOUSES OF BENEDICTINE NUNS 2. THE ABBEY OF ELSTOW The Benedictine abbey of Elstow was founded near the end of the eleventh cen- tury by Judith, the widow of Earl Waltheof and niece of the Conqueror : 8 tradition said that it was her act of reparation for the be- trayal of her husband to death. 7 She endowed The list of abbesses serves to show that the daughters of baronial families were frequently received at Elstow ; the later names are those of the neighbouring gentry. The ex- ternal history of the house is chiefly gathered from the numerous lawsuits in which it was involved. In the twelfth century there was t with the vills of Elstow and Wilshamp- a lon S dis P ute with thc monks of Newhouse, stead and a part of Maulden, 8 the conventual church being identical with the parish church of Elstow ; it was dedicated to the honour of St. Mary and St. Helen. 9 From the thirteenth century at any rate the house was reckoned as a royal foundation, and the patronage re- mained with the Crown until the dissolution. The confirmation charter of Henry I., granted about 1126, 10 names amongst the benefactors Nicholas and Richard Basset, Nigel de Stafford, and Countess Maud, daughter of Judith and wife of Simon de Senliz. The property of the abbey was considerable, and very widely scattered ; the mandates for restitution of the temporalities were addressed to the escheators in twelve counties. 1 Line. Epis. Reg., Inst. Dalderby, 26od. » Ibid. 26ld. 3 Ibid. 265d. Prior of Hertford, 1312-6. « Ibid. f. 270. Previously prior of Hertford. e Ibid. 274c!. 6 Dugdale, Man. ii. 412, from I.eland. 7 Airy, Digest of the Domesday of Beds (Introduc- tion), and S. R. Wigram, Chronicles of the Abbey of Elstow. From the latter book many of the refer- ences to the external history of the abbey have been taken : but it does not give any account of the episcopal visitations, except Longland's. 8 Domesday. » Leland (quoted by Dugdale) says the Holy Trinity, St. Mary and St. Helen. The name of Elstow is said to be a corruption of Helenstowe, which Leland explains as Helena Statio : but there is no doubt that the usual name of the church was ' the Church of St. Mary Elstow (Elnestowe or Alnestowe),' though ' the Church of St. Helen ' is found in Feet of Fines, Bucks, 7 Edw. II. In Domesday, ' the nuns of St. Mary ' held ' Elnestou ' of Countess Judith. 10 It was witnessed by Thurstan of York 1 119- 46, Roger of Salisbury 1107-42. There was an earlier charter confirmed by the Conqueror, alluded to in Palgrave's Rot. Cur. Reg. i. 391. concerning the church of Halton-super-Hum- ber ; the terms of the award, and of the papal mandate which afterwards became necessary, suggest that the nuns had been behaving in a somewhat aggressive manner. 1 " A papal mandate was also required to settle a dispute between the nuns of Elstow and the canons of Dunstable ; n it is probable that the same abbess, Cecily, was concerned in both these " Line. Epis. Reg., Inst. Burghersh, 321 ; Cal. of Pap. Letters (P.R.O.), iii. 339. " Line. Epis. Reg., Inst. Gynwell, 388c!. » Ibid. Inst. Buckingham. " Matth. Paris, Gesta Abbatum (Rolls Series), iii. 425, 480. »« Cott. MS. Nero, D vii. f. 135b; his father died 1405, leaving legacies to St. Alban's. There was a titular prior of Beaulicu who sent his proctor to Convocation in 1529 (L. and P. Hen. Fill. [P.R.O.] iv. 6047). Cole (from MS. notes of Browne Willis) gives the name of ' Thomas Kingsbury, monk of St. Alban's, prior of Beaulieu, and archdeacon of St. Alban's,' under the date 1531. Add. MS. 5827, f. 174b. 16 The first award (Harl. Ch. 44, i. 3) given by Sylvan, abbot of Rievaulx, and Geoffrey, prior of Bridlington, decided that the church belonged to the monks, and imposed silence on the nuns for ever. The next (Harl. Ch. 43, A 24) was a man- date from Richard, Archbishop of Canterbury, rehearsing a papal bull of Alexander III., in which it is said that the nuns shall not presume to vex the monks further on this matter. It is followed (ibid. 43, G 23) by the quitclaim of the nuns. The reasons for placing these charters in this order are given by Wigram, Chronicles of the Abbey of Elstow, 45-6. 17 Harl. MS. 1885, f. 23b. Cecily, who appears in this charter and in the next reference, was abbess between 1 1 70 and 1 1 80, being contemporary with Alexander III., Thomas, prior of Dunstable, etc., and therefore most probably at the time when the suit with Newhouse was going forward. 353 45
