RELIGIOUS HOUSES Joan Wyrell, 1 elected 1448 Agnes Stephens, 2 elected 1508, died 1508 Joan Zouche, 3 elected 1508, surrendered 1536 There is a very early seal of the priory at- tached to a charter of the first prioress, 4 of a light-brown colour, pointed oval, representing our Lord, with cruciform nimbus, seated on a throne, with rainbow behind it, the right hand raised in benediction, the left resting on a book on the left knee. The inscription is illegible, and very little of it remains. The ordinary chapter seal 8 was a repre- sentation of the Holy Trinity, pointed oval : a figure seated upon a throne, holding a cruci- fix ; a crescent on the left and a star on the right. Legend : mune c There is another 9 similar to this, only the figure is under a triple canopy with pinnacles, and has a shield of arms below. Legend : SIGILL' . . . ANCTE TRINITATIS DE . . . . HOUSES OF CISTERCIAN MONKS 4. THE ABBEY OF WARDEN The abbey of Warden or Saint Mary de Sartis (so called from the ' assarts ' or forest clearings which formed its first endowment) was the earliest house of the Cistercian order founded in Bedfordshire. Walter Espec, the founder of Rievaulx, one of the most famous houses of the order in England, had lands in Bedfordshire at Old Warden ; 6 and it was he who invited the monks to settle there. Warden was not however a cell to Rievaulx : the primitive Cistercian custom was to send out monks with an abbot at their head to form a new and independent house, as St. Bernard did when he left Citeaux for Clair- vaux, and twelve were considered sufficient for this purpose. The foundation charter of Warden was confirmed by Stephen in the first year of his reign, and witnessed by Thurstan of York and Alexander of Lincoln. 8 There are several interesting names found amongst the benefactors of this abbey : Henry Braybrook (a very well known name in Bedfordshire) and his wife Christine, 7 the lady of West Warden in Northamptonshire, » Line. Epis. Reg., Inst. Alnwick, i86d. There seems to have been no prioress after the resigna- tion of Denise ; Joan Wyrell was elected, it is stated in her institution, 'on the death of Denise.' a Ibid. Inst. Smith, 455. 3 Ibid. 455d.
- B.M. Cott. Ch. xi. 36.
e See Domesday Translation. ' Willelmus Spech ' had 9 hides in Warden and 3J virgates in Beeston. 6 Exch. Trans, of Charters, 13 Edward I. No. 5. The charter is clearly dated 1 135 (Dugdale, Mon. v. 280 [under Rievaulx] has 1 1 36). 7 Add. MS. 24465 (a modern and not very re- liable transcript of a chartulary formerly in the pos- session of B. H. Bright, Esq., of Lincoln's Inn, from which some extracts are given in Dugdale, Mon. vi. 370), f. 27. with their son Wischard Leydet; 10 Simon, Hugh and William de Beauchamp, 11 lords of Eaton, and benefactors also of Bush- mead, and Sir John Engayne, 12 to whom their property passed in the fourteenth century; Malcolm IV. of Scotland 13 and Roger de Quincy, constable of Scotland." Like the majority of Cistercian houses, Warden depended mainly for its prosperity upon its pasture lands : among the earliest grants are 'twenty acres in Warden, with pasturage for two hundred sheep, and for eight days in shearing time, eight hundred.' ls It had no churches except the parish church of Old Warden, and even to secure that the abbot had to go through one of the usual Curia Regis suits with the grandchildren of Walter Espec. ia His claim in 1225 to the 8 B.M. seals, lviii. 38. • Ibid. lix. 79. 10 Add. MS. f. 27b. Christine Leydet was an heiress and her son took her name. (From notes kindly furnished by Mr. Round.) » Ibid. ff. 37-9. » Ibid. f. 28b. « Ibid. 26b. " Ibid. 35. 16 From Wischard Leydet and his wife Margery (ibid. f. 27, 27b). 19 Palgrave, Rot. Cur. Reg. (1 John), i. 199 ; and Cur. Reg. R., 2 John, 22. The abbot com- plained in 1 199 that the advowson of a moiety of the parish church had been wrested from him, though it had been granted by Walter Espec in pure alms : he produced Walter's charter and also the charter of William de Bussey, heir of Walter. The two daughters of William de Bussey, Cecily and Maud, now claimed the advowson, in the person of their respective husbands, on the ground that the last parson, Nicholas de Trailly, granted it to them. The result of the suit is not given, but the church remained finally with the abbot, to whore the foundation charter certainly assigned it: though it seems that the de Busseys had made the last presentation. 361 46
