Katherine, which was equivalent to a further sum of money, unfortunately not specified.
Any collection of wills provides ample evidence of this dowry system. Not only do they frequently contain legacies for the support of some particular nun during the term of her life, but bequests also occur for the specific purpose of paying for the admission of a girl to a nunnery, in exactly the same way as other girls are provided with dowries for their marriage. The Countess of Warwick, in 1439, left a will directing "that Iane Newmarch have cc mark in gold. And I to bere all Costes as for her bryngynge yn-to seynt Katrens, or where-ever she woll be elles"[1]. Even the clergy, who should have been the last to recognise a system so flagrantly contrary to canon law, followed the general custom; Wilham Peke, rector of Scrivelsby, left one Isabella ten marks to make her a nun in the Gilbertine house of Catley[2] and Robert de Playce, rector of the church of Bromp-ton, made the following bequest:
she was to have none of this bequest (1345)[3]. Sometimes, as has already been noted, the money is left alternatively to marry the girl or to make her a nun, which brings out very clearly the dower-like nature of such bequests[4]. The accounts of great folk
- ↑ Nicolas, Testamenta Vetusta, i, p. 118.
- ↑ Gibbons, Early Lincoln Wills, p. 113.
- ↑ Testamenta Eboracensia, i, p. 11
- ↑ See above, p. 6. See also the interesting deed (1429—30) in which Richard Fairfax "scwyer," made arrangements for the entrance of his daughter "Elan," to Nunmonkton, always patronised by the Fairfaxes. He left an annual rent of five marks in trust for her "yat my doghtir Elan be made nun in ye house of Nun Monkton, and yat my saydes feffis graunt a nanuel rent of fourty schilyngs...terme of ye lyfie of ye sayd Elan to ye tym be at sche be a nun." His feoffees were to pay nineteen marks "for ye makyng ye sayd Elan nun." And "if sche will be no nun" his wife and feoffees were to marry her at their discretion. V.C.H. Yorks. iii, p. 123. Cf. an interesting case in which Matilda Toky, the orphan of a citizen of London, is allowed by the mayor and aldermen to become a nun of Kilburn in 1393, taking with her her share {£18. 5s. 4½d.) of her father's estate, after which the prioress of the house comes in person to receive the money from the chamberlain of the city. Riley, Memorials of London, p. 535. The father's will is in Sharpe, op. cit. ii, pp. 288-9; he had three sons and a daughter besides Matilda.
