tainly a sinister suggestiveness about it: for indeed it might seem worthy of remark that one who had so lightly broken her ancient vows should have stability enough to keep a new one.
The original endowment of the priory comprised the demesne called Ankerwick in Wyrardisbury parish, with small parcels of land in the same neighbourhood, as well as in Egham (Surrey), Greenford and Stanwell (Middlesex), Henley, Windsor, etc. [1] King Henry III. in 1242 granted the nuns licence to pasture sixty pigs every year in the king's forest of Windsor, quit of herbage and pannage.[2] The temporalities mentioned in the Taxatio were only worth 10s.,[3] and they had no spiritualities at all. The Valor Ecclesiasticus reports the value of the revenue of this monastery as £22 0s. 2d. clear [4]; the ministers' accounts give a total of 4£4 12s. 6d., including the demesne land and the manors of Alderbourne, Bucks, Greenford and Stanwell Park, Middlesex, and a manor in Egham, Surrey.[5]
The revenues of this priory were granted by the king for the foundation of the new abbey of Bisham, which was destined to be so shortlived.[6]
Prioresses of Ankerwick
Lettice,[7] occurs 1194
Emma, [8] occurs 1236, died 1238
Celeste,[9] elected 1238
Julian,[10] elected 1244
Joan of Rouen,[11] elected 1251
Margery of Hedsor,[12] occurs 1270, resigned
Alice de Sandford,[13] elected 1305
Emma of Kimberley, [14] elected 1316, died
Joan of Oxford, [15] elected 1327, died 1349
Joan Godman, [16] elected 1384, died 1390
Maud Booth,[17] elected 1390, resigned 1401
Elizabeth Golaffre, [18] elected 1401
Clemence Medford, [19] occurs 1441
Margery Kirby, [20] elected 1443
Margaret Peart, [21] died 1478
Eleanor Spendlow, [22] elected 1478
Alice Worcester, [23] occurs 1526 and 1535
Magdalen Downes, [24]last prioress
A round seal attached to a charter [25] of Letia or Lettice, Prioress of Ankerwick, dated 5 Richard I. The colour is mottled green, the edge of the seal is chipped. It represents the priory church with half timbered walls, round-headed doorway, thatched roof, bell turret topped with a cross, and a cross at each gable end. Legend: +SIGILL' ECCL' E SCE M[A]RIE MAG DE ANK'WIC.
A similar seal, dark brown in colour, the sides much broken and the edge chipped away, may be found attached to a charter of the Prioress Margery and the convent, [26] dated Conversion of St. Paul. Legend: SIG . . . E . . DE. ANK'WIC.
6. THE PRIORY OF LITTLE MARLOW
The origin of this priory is quite unknown: neither the date of foundation nor the name of the founder can as yet be recovered. Leland indeed gives as the traditional founder one ' Geoffrey, Lord Spencer,' a personage unknown to history.[27] The patronage of the monastery and the parish church was in the family of d'Anvers early in the thirteenth century; the earls of Gloucester also gave their
- ↑ Cal. of Chart. R., i. 472.
- ↑ Ibid. 269.
- ↑ Pope Nich. Tax. (Rec. Com.), 206b.
- ↑ Valor Eccl. (Rec. Com.), iv. 222.
- ↑ Dugdale, Mon. iv. 232.
- ↑ L. and P. Henry VIII. xii. (2) 1311.
- ↑ ' Letia '; Campbell Cb. x.
- ↑ Dugdale, Mon. iv. 230. The name of the prioress who died 1238 is not given in the episcopal register; but it was probably the same who was living in 1236.
- ↑ Line. Epis. Reg. Rolls of Grosstete.
- ↑ Ibid.
- ↑ Ibid.
- ↑ Cal. of Anct. D., A. 1590; called Margery of Hedsor in Close, 8 Edw. I. m. 6d.
- ↑ Linc. Epis. Reg. Inst. Dalderby, 178. Probably of the family which had the advowson of Missenden Abbey a little earlier.
- ↑ Linc. Epis. Reg. Memo. Dalderby, 336.
- ↑ Ibid. Inst. Burghersh, 333d.
- ↑ Ibid. Inst. Bokyngham, 376d.
- ↑ Ibid. 400.
- ↑ Ibid. Inst. Beaufort, 180. This is another well-known name in Bucks.
- ↑ Visitations of Bishop Alnwick.
- ↑ Dugdale, Mon. iv. 230.
- ↑ Linc. Epis. Reg. Inst. Rotherham, 101d.
- ↑ Ibid. Collated by the bishop, as there were not enough nuns to elect, and confirmed by letters patent. Pat. 18 Edw. IV. pt. 2, m. 10.
- ↑ Valor Ecll. (Rec. Com.), iv. 222.
- ↑ Linc. Epis. Reg. Inst. Longland, 190. The date of her election is certainly 1526, when Alice Worcester is said to have resigned; but Alice Worcester is named still as prioress in the Valor Ecll.
- ↑ B. M. Campbell Chart., x. 7.
- ↑ P.R.O. Doc. with seals attached, Ser. S. B. 12.
- ↑ Dugdale, Mon. iv. 419.
of these fourteen belonged to Lincolnshire (eight of them Gilbertine). It is a remarkably small proportion, when we remember the numbers turned adrift between 1536 and 1538, and the change in public opinion in the reign of Edward VI.
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