Hedingham Priory was a Benedictine

Benedictine

Benedictine refers to the spirituality and consecrated life in accordance with the Rule of St Benedict, written by Benedict of Nursia in the sixth century for the cenobitic communities he founded in central Italy. The most notable of these is Monte Cassino, the first monastery founded by Benedict...

 nunnery in Castle Hedingham

Castle Hedingham

Castle Hedingham is a small village in northeast Essex, England, located four miles west of Halstead and is situated in the Colne Valley on the ancient road from Colchester, Essex, to Cambridge....

, Essex

Essex

Essex is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the East region of England, and one of the home counties. It is located to the northeast of Greater London. It borders with Cambridgeshire and Suffolk to the north, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent to the South and London to the south west...

, founded in or before 1190 by Aubrey de Vere, 1st Earl of Oxford, perhaps in partnership with his third wife, Agnes of Essex

Agnes of Essex

Agnes of Essex, countess of Oxford was the daughter of Henry of Essex and his second wife. She was betrothed at age three to Geoffrey de Vere, brother of the first earl of Oxford, and turned over to the Veres soon thereafter...

. It was dedicated to the Virgin Mary, St. James, and the Holy Cross.

History

The convent's first prioress was Lucy (or Lucia), named in a well-preserved, early thirteenth-century bede in which she is called the foundress of the priory, leading to much confusion, as it was assumed that she was a wife of the founder or a member of the Vere family. The convent was torched by the men of the founder's son and heir late in 1190 or early in 1191, and in punishment Aubrey IV was fined 100 marcs by the king and in atonement donated additional property to the priory in February 1191.

The small priory was one of 16 nunneries exclusively for women founded between 1165 and 1215 in southern England. By 1535, at the time of its dissolution, it was valued at only £29 12s. 10d, with a little over 250 acres (1 km²) in small parcels in 23 manors, two churches and three advowson

Advowson

Advowson is the right in English law of a patron to present or appoint a nominee to a vacant ecclesiastical benefice or church living, a process known as presentation. In effect this means the right to nominate a person to hold a church office in a parish...

s. It was granted in that year to John de Vere, 15th Earl of Oxford

John de Vere, 15th Earl of Oxford

John de Vere, 15th Earl of Oxford was an English peer and courtier.-Biography:John de Vere was the son of John de Vere and Alice Kilrington , and the great-grandson of Richard de Vere, 11th Earl of Oxford, succeeding his second cousin, John de Vere, 14th Earl of Oxford.Oxford was Esquire of the...

, with all its possessions.