Sempringham Priory
Encyclopedia
Sempringham Priory was a priory
in Lincolnshire
, England
, located in the medieval hamlet
of Sempringham
, to the northwest of Pointon
. Today, all that remains of the priory is a marking on the ground where the walls stood and a square, which are identifiable only in aerial photos of the vicinity. However, the parish church
of St Andrew’s, built around 1100 AD, is witness to the priory standing alone in a field away from the main road. Princess Gwenllian
, the daughter of Llewellyn
, last true-born Prince of Wales
, was held captive at this priory for much of her life.
The priory was built by Saint Gilbert of Sempringham
, the only English Saint who ever founded a monastic order
. The priory's religious accentuation as an important religious pilgrimage site as St. Gilbert established the Gilbertine Order
in 1131 by inducting ‘seven maidens’ who were his pupils when young. Alexander, Bishop of Lincoln
, helped in establishing the religious buildings to the north of St. Andrews Church as a protected area. St. Gilbert died at Sempringham in 1189 and was buried in the priory church. He was canonized on 13 October 1202 for the many miracles noted at his tomb in the priory. His name is prefixed to the Sempringham Priori and is known as "St. Gilbert Sempringham Priory" and is thus a well-visited pilgrimage centre.
The Priory, which functioned as a dual community made up of canon
s and nuns, was disbanded in 1538. The Clinton family, who took possession of the priory, demolished it completely without leaving any trace of it on the ground; they built a mansion from the building material they extracted from the demolished structure.
.
, and returned to serve the parish church of Sempringham, of which he was rector
. He found there seven maidens, who had learned the way of holiness from him as children, and longed to live a strict religious life. Gilbert, having inherited from his father lands and possessions in Sempringham, resolved to give such wealth as he had for the use of those maidens. With the help and advice of Alexander, he set up buildings and a cloister for them against the north wall of the church, which stood on his own land at Sempringham. He gave them a rule of life, enjoining upon them chastity, humility, obedience, and charity. Their daily necessaries were passed to them through a window by some girls chosen by Gilbert from among his people. His friends warned him that his nuns ought not to speak with secular women, who by their gossip might rekindle in them an interest in the world which they had renounced. On the advice of William, Abbot of Rievaulx
, he decided to yield to the request of the serving maids, who begged that they too might have a dress and rule of life. Soon afterwards, he took men as lay brothers to work on the land, giving them too a uniform and rules.
The little community grew in numbers, and amongst its earliest benefactors was Brian of Pointon. In 1139, Gilbert accepted three carucate
s of land in Sempringham from Gilbert of Ghent
, his feudal lord. His first building had proved too small, and Sempringham Priory, with its double church, cloisters and buildings, was erected on the new site given by Gilbert of Ghent, not far from the parish church, and dedicated to the Virgin. Because of his gift, Gilbert of Ghent was held to be the founder. In 1147, Gilbert went to the general chapter at Citeaux to ask the abbots to bear rule over his nuns but they refused. However, at Citeaux he met Bernard of Clairvaux
, and Eugenius III
, the latter of whom conferred on him the care of the order. Bernard invited him to Clairvaux, and helped him to draw up the Institutes of the Order of Sempringham, which were afterwards confirmed by Eugenius III. Gilbert returned to England in 1148, and completed the order, by appointing canons to serve his community as priests, and to help him in administrative work.
Gilbert gave to the canons the rule of St. Augustine
, and added many statutes from the customs of Augustinian and Premonstratensian
canons. The chief officers were the prior, sub-prior, cellarer, precentor, and sacrist. In a double house, the number of canons varied from seven to thirty, but at Sempringham they were increased to forty. The lay brothers followed the rule of the Cistercian lay brothers. The nuns of the order kept the rule of St. Benedict
, and followed in every way the customs of the canons. Each house was under three prioresses who presided in the frater and visited the sick. The other officers were the sub-prioress, cellaress, subcellaress, sacrist, and precentrix. The lay sisters were bound to serve and obey the nuns. They cooked for the whole community under the supervision of a nun, who served for a week at a time. They also brewed ale, sewed, washed, made thread for the cobblers, and wove wool. All the clothes, except the shirts and breeches of the men, were cut out and made by the women.
The general administration of the property of the house was in the hands of a council of four proctors, consisting of the prior, cellarer, and two lay brothers. The expenditure was controlled by the nuns. The treasury was in their building, and the keepers were three mature and discreet nuns, who each had charge of a different key. Communications about business, food, and other matters were made at the window-house, which was so constructed that the speakers could not see each other. The supreme ruler of the order was the master, who, subject to good behaviour and health, was elected for life at a general chapter by representatives of nuns and canons from all the houses. The privilege of freedom of election was granted by Henry II
, and confirmed in 1189 by Richard I, and the custody of the order, its houses, granges, and churches, was legally vested in the priors during the vacancy, which, in fact, lasted only a few days. The master was not attached to any house, but continually went from one to the other on his visitation. He appointed the chief officers and admitted novices. According to the rule, his consent was necessary for all sales and purchases of lands, woods, and everything above the value of three marks, and his seal was affixed to all charters, but these provisions were later modified in practice. He had no benefices or other property set aside for the expenses of his visitations and other duties which might devolve on him. In the middle of the 13th century, the houses of the order were contributing to the communa magistri in proportion to their means, and in 1535, a fixed payment to the master 'of ancient custom' is mentioned in the outgoings of each house. The general chapter met each year at Sempringham on the Rogation Days
, and was attended by the prior, cellarer, and two prioresses from each house, the scrutators general, and the scrutators of the cloister.
While Gilbert was master, there were two serious crises in the history of Sempringham and the other houses of the order. Early in 1165, Gilbert and all the priors were summoned to Westminster to answer a charge of having sent money abroad to Thomas, archbishop of Canterbury
, and of having helped him to escape from England, the penalty for which was exile. The accusation, however, was false, though Gilbert scrupled to swear to his innocence. Meanwhile, messengers arrived from Henry II to say that he would judge the case on his return from Normandy, and that Gilbert and his priors could go in peace. In 1170, a rebellion took place among the lay brothers, who complained of the harshness of the rule, and insisted on more food and less work. Two of them went to Rome, with ill-gotten gains, and slandered Gilbert and the canons to Alexander III, who intervened on their behalf. As Gilbert's cause was warmly espoused by Henry II and several of the bishops, the pope was convinced that he had been deceived. When the lay brothers found that they had failed to move Gilbert by violence, they asked for pardon and humbly entreated him to relax the rule for them. Accordingly, certain changes in their food and dress were solemnly made about 1187, in the presence of Hugh, bishop of Lincoln, with the consent of the general chapter of Sempringham.
On 4 February 1189, Gilbert died at Sempringham, and was buried on the 7th in the presence of a large group of people. His tomb was placed between the altars of St. Mary and St. Andrew, in the priory church, and could be seen on either side of the wall which divided the men from the women. Many miracles of healing were reported to have been worked at the tomb in the next few years, and in 1200, Hubert Walter, archbishop of Canterbury, set about obtaining his canonization. After an inquisition into the truth of the alleged miracles, canonization was decreed by Innocent III. The translation of St. Gilbert took place on 13 October 1202, in the presence of many, an indulgence of forty days to pilgrims to his shrine being granted by the archbishop of Canterbury, and 110 days by several other bishops.
The convent of Sempringham at first suffered poverty, but several benefactors had compassion on the nuns. In 1189, the possessions of the priory included the whole township of Sempringham, with the parish church and the chapel of Pointon, the granges of Kirkby, Marham, Cranwell, Fulbeck, Thorpe, Bramcote, Walcote, Thurstanton, the hermitage of Hoyland, a mill in Birthorpe, half a knight's fee in Laughton (Locton), the mills of Folkingham, and the churches of Billingborough, Stowe with the chapel of Birthorpe, Hanington, Aslackby, Buxton, Brunesthorp, Kirkby, Bradstow, and moieties of Trowell and Laughton. Probably in consideration of this endowment, Gilbert limited the number of nuns and lay sisters to 120, and of canons and lay brothers to 60.
Grants of pasturage were numerous, and the chief source of revenue of the Gilbertines, as of the Cistercians, was their wool. In some houses the wool was made into cloth, not only for the dress of the convent, but for sale. Cloth of Sempringham was noted in John's reign. In 1193, all the wool of the order of Sempringham for one year was taken for Richard I's ransom. The Gilbertines were tempted by their exemptions from all tolls and customs to act, like the Cistercians, as factors in the wool trade throughout the county; ecclesiastical and royal prohibitions alike failed to check them from disobeying their own rule. The jealousy of other traders stirred Henry III and Edward I to threaten correction in 1262 and 1302, but in 1342 and 1344 the same complaints reached Edward III, who also bade the Gilbertines desist utterly from such trading.
granted to the master the right to appropriate the church of Horbling, because there were 200 women in the priory who often lacked the necessaries of life. The legal expenses of the order at the papal curia perhaps accounted for their poverty. The annual payment of forty marks was felt as a grievous burden by the abbot and convent of Paisley, and seems to have been ignored in several years, for in 1246, the prior and convent of Sempringham appealed to Innocent IV to right them. They were obliged to pay the whole of the expenses of the suit and remit half the arrears of the debt on condition that the abbot and convent of Paisley should make regular payments from that time onwards.
In 1254, the spiritualities of Sempringham were assessed at £170, the temporalities at £196 9s. 1d. In 1253, the prior and convent obtained a grant of free warren in all their demesne lands, and in 1268, the right of holding a fair in the manor of Stow. The order was under the special protection of the papacy, and was exempt entirely from episcopal visitation. Accordingly, evidence of its internal history must be sought in papal bulls and registers. It would appear that on or before 1220, the general chapter petitioned that the sole power of making changes in the rule might be confirmed to them, and that the master and priors should not alter their liberties and constitutions. Complaints were also made of the extravagance of priors who travelled with servants and baggage horses, and used silver cups, and other pompous vessels. In 1223, a visitation of the order was conducted by the abbot of Warden by order of the legate Otho. The injunctions of the abbot of Warden showed that there was a tendency to relax the rule in somewhat unimportant matters. He directed that the cowl of the nuns should not be cut too long, that fine furs should not be used for the cloaks of canons and nuns, that the canons' copes should be made minime curiose. Variety of pictures and superfluity of sculpture were forbidden. The rule of silence was to be more strictly observed. The proctors were bidden to provide the same food and drink for the nuns as for the canons, and not in future to buy beer for the canons when the nuns had only water to drink. A very important papal visitation was undertaken when Ottoboni was legate in England from 1265 to 1268. He went to Sempringham in person, but delegated the duty of visiting other houses of the order to members of his household. In 1268, after a careful study of the reports of the visitors, a series of injunctions was drawn up by Ralph of Huntingdon, a Dominican chaplain in the service of the legate, with the aid of Richard, chief scrutator of the order. The democratic principles of the order had obviously been violated, and the master and heads of houses had shown arbitrary tendencies. It was necessary to insist that the master should strive to rule by love rather than fear, and to threaten priors and sub-priors who were stern to the verge of cruelty with deposition. The master was forbidden to receive men and women into the order without the advice of its members. The priors were warned against conducting business and manumitting servile lands and serfs without consulting their fellow proctors and seeking the consent of their chapters. The lucrative practice of collecting wool and selling it with the produce of their own flocks, was strictly, though in vain, forbidden. It was ordered that discipline should be firmly maintained among the regular servants of the priory and granges, and servants and labourers were forbidden to go off the monastery lands without special leave. Lay brothers who were skilled in surgery might only practise their art by the prior's leave, and if the patients were men. A tendency to treat the nuns with less consideration than the rule required was sternly repressed. They were to have all their rights and privileges, and no plea of urgent business might avail to deprive them of their assent to all transactions. Pittances provided for the nuns were not to be assigned to other purposes for any reason, and money given on the admission of a nun was to be devoted to their needs. The master was to see that they were not stinted in clothes and food.
In 1291, the assessment of the temporalities had risen to £219 17s. 11½d. The property continued to increase, as several licences were obtained subsequently to appropriate numerous small grants of land in mortmain. The right of holding a fair in the manor of Wrightbald was conceded in 1293. At the beginning, of the fourteenth century the annual sales of wool amounted to twenty-five sacks a year, and, whatever the net profits may have been, added largely to the income of the convent. It was doubtless on account of the important share of the order in the wool trade that Edward II asked in 1313 for a loan of 1,000 marks, and in 1315 for £2,000, for the assessment of all its spiritualities and temporalities scarcely exceeded £3,000.
, one-sixteenth in Osbournby
, one-twentieth in Bitchfield
. In 1346 he held also a knight's fee in Stragglethorpe, one-sixth in Walcote, and one-thirty-second in Aunsley, and in 1428 in Leicester one-quarter of a fee in Thrussington.
At the general chapter in 1304, it was decided, 'on account of frequent and continuous royal and papal tenths, contributions and exactions,' that in each house a grange, church, or fixed rent should be set aside to meet those demands. The Gilbertines had been exempted by Henry II from all gelds and taxes, (fn. 60) and John especially mentioned, in his charter of confirmation, the aids of the sheriffs, tallage, and scutage. However, in the reigns of Henry III and Edward I the popes taxed both spiritualities and temporalities, and sometimes handed over the proceeds to the crown. In this way the order lost its privileges, and afterwards voted grants with the rest of the clergy in convocation. At this time, the interests of farming and trading did not predominate to the exclusion of all else. In 1290, Nicholas IV
granted a licence to the prior and canons of Sempringham to have within their house a discreet and learned doctor of theology to teach those of their brethren who desired to study that science. For some years the master had sent certain canons of the order to study at Cambridge, and in 1290, a house of residence was secured in the town, and contributions were afterwards levied from all the houses of the order for the support of canons as scholars. Two years later Robert Lutterel, rector of Irnham, gave a house and lands at Stamford that canons from Sempringham Priory might study divinity and philosophy at the university which was then flourishing in that town. In 1303, a canon named Robert Manning of Bourne began to write, in the cloister at Sempringham, his book called Handlyng Sinne, which was an English version of Waddington's Manual des Péchés, a satire on the failings and vices of English men and women of all classes of society. He had then lived fifteen years in the monastery, and had previously studied at Cambridge. The annals of the house were recorded in French from 1290 to 1326.
In 1301, Prior John de Hamilton began to build a new church for the priory, as the earlier one had fallen into disrepair. Ten years before Nicholas IV had granted lavish indulgences to penitents who visited the priory church and chapels of St. John, St. Stephen, and St. Catherine, so the proceeds from their offerings were available. The rebuilding of other parts of the monastery was also in contemplation, for in 1306 the prior and convent obtained a papal bull enabling them to appropriate the churches of Thurstanton and Norton Disney for that purpose. However, the church was still unfinished in 1342, when Bishop Bek granted an indulgence for the fabric, 'which had been begun anew at great cost.' There were a number of reasons for the delay. The price of corn was very high in the years of famine from 1315 to 1321. Owing to the Scotch wars the payment of forty marks from the abbey of Paisley ceased altogether, probably before 1305, and it was not until 1319 that the prior and convent were able by way of compensation for their loss to appropriate the church of Whissendine, worth fifty-five marks, for the expenses of clothing forty canons and 200 women.
Probably by reason of its position as the head house of a purely English order, Sempringham was in high favour with the three Edwards, who sent thither wives and daughters of their chief enemies. Wencilian, daughter of Llewellyn, prince of Wales, was sent to Sempringham as a little child, after her father's death in 1283, and died a nun of the house fifty-four years later. Edward I allowed the acquisition of certain lands in mortmain because he had charged the priory with her maintenance, and in 1327 Edward III granted £20 a year for her life. In 1322, by order of the Parliament at York, Margaret, Countess of Cornwall, was sent to live at Sempringham among the nuns. In 1324 Joan, daughter of Roger Mortimer, was received at the priory. Two daughters of the elder Hugh Despenser were also sent to take the veil at Sempringham, and in 1337 an allowance of £20 a year was made for their lives.
The unsettled state of the country in the reign of Edward II and the earlier years of Edward III was very unfavourable to many monasteries. In 1312, Sempringham Priory was attacked by Roger of Birthorpe, Geoffrey Lutterel of Irnham, Edmund of Colville, and other knights; they broke into the monastery, assaulted the canons and their men and servants, and carried away their goods. However, Prior John and some of his canons and servants raided the park at Birthorpe to recover their animals which had been impounded. In 1330, the priors of Sempringham and Haverholme, accompanied by several of their canons and other persons, were charged by William of Querington and Brian of Herdeby with raiding a close at Evedon, cutting down the trees, carrying away timber, and depasturing and destroying corn with plough cattle. The next year the prior lodged a complaint against Brian of Herdeby and others who had assaulted a canon and a lay brother at Evedon, consumed his crops and grass at Burton, hunted in his free warren there, and carried off hares and partridges.
In 1320, the priory was in money difficulties and owed £1,000 to Geoffrey of Bramton, a clerk. Speculations in wool with Italian merchants followed. Inability to pay the king's taxes marked a financial crisis in 1337, and again in 1345. Consequent probably upon the poverty of the house, the Master of Sempringham, in 1341, obtained exemption from future attendance at Parliament. He had been regularly summoned from the great Parliament of 1295, until 1332, but, as in the case of other abbots and priors, attendance was doubtless found to be a great burden and expense.
No record remains of the ravages of the Black Death at Sempringham or any other house of the Gilbertine Order
, although there is some evidence of distress in the priory in 1349. On the eve of Trinity Sunday in that year there was a great storm and flood, the water in the church rose as high as the capitals of the pillars, and in the cloister and other buildings it was six feet deep. Many of the books were destroyed and eighteen sacks of wool were damaged. On 9 November the king granted a license to the nuns to appropriate Hacconby church, which was valued at twenty-four marks a year, for their clothing. There is little doubt that none of the Gilbertine houses ever recovered from the effects of the Black Death. They were constrained to abandon almost entirely the cultivation of their own lands, and to let their numerous granges on leases.
In 1399, Boniface IX gave permission to the master, priors, canons, lay brothers, nuns and sisters of the order of Sempringham to farm, to fit laymen or clerks for a fixed time, their manors, churches, chapels, pensions, stipends and possessions, without requiring the licence of the ordinary. Thus, they lost their profits from the wool trade, which had probably exceeded their revenues from all other sources. The sheep everywhere died in thousands from the pestilence, and it was in fact impossible for the Gilbertines to carry on their former occupations of farming and trading with any success.
There are indications of a decline in discipline and morals, as well as in numbers. In 1363, the master, Robert of Navenby, was seeking to obtain from Urban V the rights of a mitred abbot that he might himself give benediction to his nuns. The bishop of Lincoln however protested. In 1366, many nuns of Sempringham had hot received benediction, and as the master, William of Prestwold, refused to listen to the prioress, they petitioned Bishop Bokyngham
, who came to Sempringham, to right them. The number of nuns had then fallen to sixty-seven. In 1382, Richard II granted a licence for the master and priors of the order to seize and detain all vagabond canons and lay brothers, and in 1383 and 1390 mandates were issued to the sheriffs and others to arrest an apostate canon. In 1397, Boniface IX sent a mandate to the archbishops of Canterbury and York and the bishop of Ely, to investigate the charges against William of Beverley, who was elected master in 1393. It was reported that on his visitation he took immoderate procurations, burdened the houses by the excessive number of the members of his household and of his horses, and committed many grievances and enormities against the statutes of the order. The bishops were to punish him if guilty, to visit the houses, correct and reform what was amiss, to revise the statutes of the order, and frame others if expedient.
In 1405. the pope issued another mandate, stating that William of Beverley, master of the order, had dilapidated divers goods, movable and immovable, had enormously damaged it, reduced it to great poverty, and continued in the same course. If found guilty he was to be deprived. However, whether the order obtained any redress is not known; the next master was not elected until 1407.
A 14th century flyleaf inscription of an ancient manuscript of a Pre-Wyclif Version of the Lord's Prayer in Middle English credited to St. Augustine (354–430), Alexander Nequam (1157–1217), and others was a collection which was in the possession of Gilbertine Priory at Sempringham. The last leaf of this volume of the book has the Lord’s Prayer which reads:
granted to Nicholas Resby, master of the order, that the houses of Sempringham, Haverholme, Catley, Bullington, Sixhills, North Ormsby, and Alvingham should be free and exempt from all aids, subsidies, and tallages, and should never contribute to any payments of tenths or fifteenths made by the whole body of the clergy or of the provinces of Canterbury and York separately. However, the prior and convent of Sempringham were compelled to pay £40 in 1522 as their share of a grant from the spirituality towards Henry VIII's personal expenses in France for the recovery of that crown. With the abandonment of farming, except on the immediate demesne, the need of the order for lay brothers disappeared. They probably died out altogether early in the fifteenth century, and there is no record of any at the dissolution. Servants, too, probably very largely took the place of the lay sisters.
Robert Holgate, chaplain to Cromwell, who became master of the order in 1536, exerted his influence to prevent the surrender of the Gilbertine houses under the Act for the Suppression of the Smaller Monasteries in 1536, for only four out of twenty-six houses had revenues over £200 a year. No resistance was offered in 1538, when Dr. William Petre came down to take the surrenders. On 18 September, Robert the master, Roger the prior, and sixteen canons surrendered Sempringham Priory. The prior received Fordham rectory and £30 a year, the canons and prioresses and sixteen nuns were also pensioned.
In 1535, the clear yearly value of the house was £317 4s. 1d. Of this sum £128 16s. 7d. was drawn from the rectories of Sempringham with the chapel of Pointon, Stow with the chapel of Birthorpe, Billingborough, Horbling, Walcote, Loughton, Cranwell, Norton Disney, Kirkby Laythorpe, and Hacconby, in Lincolnshire; Whissendine in Rutlandshire; Fordham in Cambridgeshire; Thurstanton in Leicestershire; and Buxton in Norfolk. The remainder of the property included granges or lands and tenements at Sempringham, Threckingham, Stow, Pointon, Dowsby, Ringesdon Dyke, Billingborough, Horbling, Walcote, Newton, Pykworth, Osburnby, Kysby, Folkingham, Aslackby, Woodgrange, Kirkby, Bulby, Morton, Wrightbald, Brothertoft, Wilton, Kirton Holme, Wrangle, Cranwell, Stragglethorpe, Carlton and Fulbeck, and a few other places in Lincolnshire; Ketton, Cottesmore, and Pickwell in Rutland; Thurstanton and Willoughby in Leicestershire; Bramcote, Trowell, and Chinwell in Nottinghamshire; and Walton in Derbyshire. Six granges appear to have been farmed by bailiffs for the monastery and the rest were let on lease. The demesnes of Sempringham were worth £26 13s. 4d. a year. In the hands of the crown bailiff four years later, the property brought in £383 5s. 5d.
technique, a non-destructive geophysical tool to locate buried objects. The investigations carried out in the Priori area, at 5 metres (16.4 ft) grid has revealed not only artifacts of the priory but also 47,000 objects dated prehistoric to post medieval periods. The survey has enabled identification of the outline of the building including the gatehouse. The foundation walls are reportedly in good condition.
Priory
A priory is a house of men or women under religious vows that is headed by a prior or prioress. Priories may be houses of mendicant friars or religious sisters , or monasteries of monks or nuns .The Benedictines and their offshoots , the Premonstratensians, and the...
in Lincolnshire
Lincolnshire
Lincolnshire is a county in the east of England. It borders Norfolk to the south east, Cambridgeshire to the south, Rutland to the south west, Leicestershire and Nottinghamshire to the west, South Yorkshire to the north west, and the East Riding of Yorkshire to the north. It also borders...
, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
, located in the medieval hamlet
Hamlet (place)
A hamlet is usually a rural settlement which is too small to be considered a village, though sometimes the word is used for a different sort of community. Historically, when a hamlet became large enough to justify building a church, it was then classified as a village...
of Sempringham
Sempringham
Sempringham is a hamlet in Lincolnshire, England that is located north of Bourne, on the Lincolnshire fen edge. Sempringham is now a very small hamlet consisting of a church, a house and a well, giving little clue to the history embodied within its parish boundary. Most of its houses are a...
, to the northwest of Pointon
Pointon
Pointon is a small village situated near Bourne, in the South Kesteven district of Lincolnshire, England. It forms part of the civil parish of Pointon and Sempringham, and the population of the civil parish in 2001 was 507....
. Today, all that remains of the priory is a marking on the ground where the walls stood and a square, which are identifiable only in aerial photos of the vicinity. However, the parish church
Parish church
A parish church , in Christianity, is the church which acts as the religious centre of a parish, the basic administrative unit of episcopal churches....
of St Andrew’s, built around 1100 AD, is witness to the priory standing alone in a field away from the main road. Princess Gwenllian
Gwenllian of Wales
Gwenllian ferch Llywelyn was the only child of Llywelyn ap Gruffudd, the last native Tywysog Cymru . She is sometimes confused with Gwenllian ferch Gruffudd, who lived two centuries earlier.- Lineage :...
, the daughter of Llewellyn
Llywelyn the Last
Llywelyn ap Gruffydd or Llywelyn Ein Llyw Olaf , sometimes rendered as Llywelyn II, was the last prince of an independent Wales before its conquest by Edward I of England....
, last true-born Prince of Wales
Prince of Wales
Prince of Wales is a title traditionally granted to the heir apparent to the reigning monarch of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and the 15 other independent Commonwealth realms...
, was held captive at this priory for much of her life.
The priory was built by Saint Gilbert of Sempringham
Gilbert of Sempringham
Saint Gilbert of Sempringham became the only Englishman to found a conventual order, mainly because the abbot of Cîteaux declined his request to assist him in helping a group of women living with lay brothers and sisters, in 1148...
, the only English Saint who ever founded a monastic order
Monasticism
Monasticism is a religious way of life characterized by the practice of renouncing worldly pursuits to fully devote one's self to spiritual work...
. The priory's religious accentuation as an important religious pilgrimage site as St. Gilbert established the Gilbertine Order
Gilbertine Order
The Gilbertine Order of Canons Regular was founded around 1130 by Saint Gilbert in Sempringham, Lincolnshire, where Gilbert was the parish priest...
in 1131 by inducting ‘seven maidens’ who were his pupils when young. Alexander, Bishop of Lincoln
Bishop of Lincoln
The Bishop of Lincoln is the Ordinary of the Church of England Diocese of Lincoln in the Province of Canterbury.The present diocese covers the county of Lincolnshire and the unitary authority areas of North Lincolnshire and North East Lincolnshire. The Bishop's seat is located in the Cathedral...
, helped in establishing the religious buildings to the north of St. Andrews Church as a protected area. St. Gilbert died at Sempringham in 1189 and was buried in the priory church. He was canonized on 13 October 1202 for the many miracles noted at his tomb in the priory. His name is prefixed to the Sempringham Priori and is known as "St. Gilbert Sempringham Priory" and is thus a well-visited pilgrimage centre.
The Priory, which functioned as a dual community made up of canon
Canon (priest)
A canon is a priest or minister who is a member of certain bodies of the Christian clergy subject to an ecclesiastical rule ....
s and nuns, was disbanded in 1538. The Clinton family, who took possession of the priory, demolished it completely without leaving any trace of it on the ground; they built a mansion from the building material they extracted from the demolished structure.
Geography
Sempringham Priory spread over an area of 80 acres (32.4 ha) of undulating topography is located below the ruins of a major Tudor house skirting the Lincolnshire Fens, which is a limestone country. The land of the priory was used for cultivation. It was not known as a former monastery till some archaeological excavations conducted in 1939 by the Heritage Trust of Lincolnshire revealed a layout of the buried presence of the medieval monastery and the housing complex surrounded by gardens. The Priory measured 350 feet (106.7 m) lengthwise, inferred to have within its space buildings for monks and nuns built around the 12th century. At the time of its demolition during the reign of Henry VIII it was said to be of the size of Westminster AbbeyWestminster Abbey
The Collegiate Church of St Peter at Westminster, popularly known as Westminster Abbey, is a large, mainly Gothic church, in the City of Westminster, London, United Kingdom, located just to the west of the Palace of Westminster. It is the traditional place of coronation and burial site for English,...
.
12th century
The Order of Sempringham had its origin in 1131. In or about that year Gilbert of Sempringham left the household of Alexander, bishop of LincolnAlexander of Lincoln
Alexander of Lincoln was a medieval English Bishop of Lincoln, a member of an important administrative and ecclesiastical family. He was the nephew of Roger of Salisbury, a Bishop of Salisbury and Chancellor of England under King Henry I, and he was also related to Nigel, Bishop of Ely...
, and returned to serve the parish church of Sempringham, of which he was rector
Rector
The word rector has a number of different meanings; it is widely used to refer to an academic, religious or political administrator...
. He found there seven maidens, who had learned the way of holiness from him as children, and longed to live a strict religious life. Gilbert, having inherited from his father lands and possessions in Sempringham, resolved to give such wealth as he had for the use of those maidens. With the help and advice of Alexander, he set up buildings and a cloister for them against the north wall of the church, which stood on his own land at Sempringham. He gave them a rule of life, enjoining upon them chastity, humility, obedience, and charity. Their daily necessaries were passed to them through a window by some girls chosen by Gilbert from among his people. His friends warned him that his nuns ought not to speak with secular women, who by their gossip might rekindle in them an interest in the world which they had renounced. On the advice of William, Abbot of Rievaulx
Abbot of Rievaulx
The Abbot of Rievaulx was the head of the Cistercian monastic community of Rievaulx Abbey, founded in 1131 by Walter l'Espec in North Yorkshire, northern England...
, he decided to yield to the request of the serving maids, who begged that they too might have a dress and rule of life. Soon afterwards, he took men as lay brothers to work on the land, giving them too a uniform and rules.
The little community grew in numbers, and amongst its earliest benefactors was Brian of Pointon. In 1139, Gilbert accepted three carucate
Carucate
The carucate or ploughland was a unit of assessment for tax used in most Danelaw counties of England, and is found for example in Domesday Book. The carucate was based on the area a plough team of eight oxen could till in a single annual season...
s of land in Sempringham from Gilbert of Ghent
Ghent
Ghent is a city and a municipality located in the Flemish region of Belgium. It is the capital and biggest city of the East Flanders province. The city started as a settlement at the confluence of the Rivers Scheldt and Lys and in the Middle Ages became one of the largest and richest cities of...
, his feudal lord. His first building had proved too small, and Sempringham Priory, with its double church, cloisters and buildings, was erected on the new site given by Gilbert of Ghent, not far from the parish church, and dedicated to the Virgin. Because of his gift, Gilbert of Ghent was held to be the founder. In 1147, Gilbert went to the general chapter at Citeaux to ask the abbots to bear rule over his nuns but they refused. However, at Citeaux he met Bernard of Clairvaux
Bernard of Clairvaux
Bernard of Clairvaux, O.Cist was a French abbot and the primary builder of the reforming Cistercian order.After the death of his mother, Bernard sought admission into the Cistercian order. Three years later, he was sent to found a new abbey at an isolated clearing in a glen known as the Val...
, and Eugenius III
Pope Eugene III
Pope Blessed Eugene III , born Bernardo da Pisa, was Pope from 1145 to 1153. He was the first Cistercian to become Pope.-Early life:...
, the latter of whom conferred on him the care of the order. Bernard invited him to Clairvaux, and helped him to draw up the Institutes of the Order of Sempringham, which were afterwards confirmed by Eugenius III. Gilbert returned to England in 1148, and completed the order, by appointing canons to serve his community as priests, and to help him in administrative work.
Gilbert gave to the canons the rule of St. Augustine
Augustine of Hippo
Augustine of Hippo , also known as Augustine, St. Augustine, St. Austin, St. Augoustinos, Blessed Augustine, or St. Augustine the Blessed, was Bishop of Hippo Regius . He was a Latin-speaking philosopher and theologian who lived in the Roman Africa Province...
, and added many statutes from the customs of Augustinian and Premonstratensian
Premonstratensian
The Order of Canons Regular of Prémontré, also known as the Premonstratensians, the Norbertines, or in Britain and Ireland as the White Canons , are a Catholic religious order of canons regular founded at Prémontré near Laon in 1120 by Saint Norbert, who later became Archbishop of Magdeburg...
canons. The chief officers were the prior, sub-prior, cellarer, precentor, and sacrist. In a double house, the number of canons varied from seven to thirty, but at Sempringham they were increased to forty. The lay brothers followed the rule of the Cistercian lay brothers. The nuns of the order kept the rule of St. Benedict
Benedict of Nursia
Saint Benedict of Nursia is a Christian saint, honored by the Roman Catholic Church as the patron saint of Europe and students.Benedict founded twelve communities for monks at Subiaco, about to the east of Rome, before moving to Monte Cassino in the mountains of southern Italy. There is no...
, and followed in every way the customs of the canons. Each house was under three prioresses who presided in the frater and visited the sick. The other officers were the sub-prioress, cellaress, subcellaress, sacrist, and precentrix. The lay sisters were bound to serve and obey the nuns. They cooked for the whole community under the supervision of a nun, who served for a week at a time. They also brewed ale, sewed, washed, made thread for the cobblers, and wove wool. All the clothes, except the shirts and breeches of the men, were cut out and made by the women.
The general administration of the property of the house was in the hands of a council of four proctors, consisting of the prior, cellarer, and two lay brothers. The expenditure was controlled by the nuns. The treasury was in their building, and the keepers were three mature and discreet nuns, who each had charge of a different key. Communications about business, food, and other matters were made at the window-house, which was so constructed that the speakers could not see each other. The supreme ruler of the order was the master, who, subject to good behaviour and health, was elected for life at a general chapter by representatives of nuns and canons from all the houses. The privilege of freedom of election was granted by Henry II
Henry II of England
Henry II ruled as King of England , Count of Anjou, Count of Maine, Duke of Normandy, Duke of Aquitaine, Duke of Gascony, Count of Nantes, Lord of Ireland and, at various times, controlled parts of Wales, Scotland and western France. Henry, the great-grandson of William the Conqueror, was the...
, and confirmed in 1189 by Richard I, and the custody of the order, its houses, granges, and churches, was legally vested in the priors during the vacancy, which, in fact, lasted only a few days. The master was not attached to any house, but continually went from one to the other on his visitation. He appointed the chief officers and admitted novices. According to the rule, his consent was necessary for all sales and purchases of lands, woods, and everything above the value of three marks, and his seal was affixed to all charters, but these provisions were later modified in practice. He had no benefices or other property set aside for the expenses of his visitations and other duties which might devolve on him. In the middle of the 13th century, the houses of the order were contributing to the communa magistri in proportion to their means, and in 1535, a fixed payment to the master 'of ancient custom' is mentioned in the outgoings of each house. The general chapter met each year at Sempringham on the Rogation Days
Rogation days
Rogation days are, in the calendar of the Western Church, four days traditionally set apart for solemn processions to invoke God's mercy. They are April 25, the Major Rogation, coinciding with St...
, and was attended by the prior, cellarer, and two prioresses from each house, the scrutators general, and the scrutators of the cloister.
While Gilbert was master, there were two serious crises in the history of Sempringham and the other houses of the order. Early in 1165, Gilbert and all the priors were summoned to Westminster to answer a charge of having sent money abroad to Thomas, archbishop of Canterbury
Thomas Becket
Thomas Becket was Archbishop of Canterbury from 1162 until his murder in 1170. He is venerated as a saint and martyr by both the Roman Catholic Church and the Anglican Communion...
, and of having helped him to escape from England, the penalty for which was exile. The accusation, however, was false, though Gilbert scrupled to swear to his innocence. Meanwhile, messengers arrived from Henry II to say that he would judge the case on his return from Normandy, and that Gilbert and his priors could go in peace. In 1170, a rebellion took place among the lay brothers, who complained of the harshness of the rule, and insisted on more food and less work. Two of them went to Rome, with ill-gotten gains, and slandered Gilbert and the canons to Alexander III, who intervened on their behalf. As Gilbert's cause was warmly espoused by Henry II and several of the bishops, the pope was convinced that he had been deceived. When the lay brothers found that they had failed to move Gilbert by violence, they asked for pardon and humbly entreated him to relax the rule for them. Accordingly, certain changes in their food and dress were solemnly made about 1187, in the presence of Hugh, bishop of Lincoln, with the consent of the general chapter of Sempringham.
On 4 February 1189, Gilbert died at Sempringham, and was buried on the 7th in the presence of a large group of people. His tomb was placed between the altars of St. Mary and St. Andrew, in the priory church, and could be seen on either side of the wall which divided the men from the women. Many miracles of healing were reported to have been worked at the tomb in the next few years, and in 1200, Hubert Walter, archbishop of Canterbury, set about obtaining his canonization. After an inquisition into the truth of the alleged miracles, canonization was decreed by Innocent III. The translation of St. Gilbert took place on 13 October 1202, in the presence of many, an indulgence of forty days to pilgrims to his shrine being granted by the archbishop of Canterbury, and 110 days by several other bishops.
The convent of Sempringham at first suffered poverty, but several benefactors had compassion on the nuns. In 1189, the possessions of the priory included the whole township of Sempringham, with the parish church and the chapel of Pointon, the granges of Kirkby, Marham, Cranwell, Fulbeck, Thorpe, Bramcote, Walcote, Thurstanton, the hermitage of Hoyland, a mill in Birthorpe, half a knight's fee in Laughton (Locton), the mills of Folkingham, and the churches of Billingborough, Stowe with the chapel of Birthorpe, Hanington, Aslackby, Buxton, Brunesthorp, Kirkby, Bradstow, and moieties of Trowell and Laughton. Probably in consideration of this endowment, Gilbert limited the number of nuns and lay sisters to 120, and of canons and lay brothers to 60.
Grants of pasturage were numerous, and the chief source of revenue of the Gilbertines, as of the Cistercians, was their wool. In some houses the wool was made into cloth, not only for the dress of the convent, but for sale. Cloth of Sempringham was noted in John's reign. In 1193, all the wool of the order of Sempringham for one year was taken for Richard I's ransom. The Gilbertines were tempted by their exemptions from all tolls and customs to act, like the Cistercians, as factors in the wool trade throughout the county; ecclesiastical and royal prohibitions alike failed to check them from disobeying their own rule. The jealousy of other traders stirred Henry III and Edward I to threaten correction in 1262 and 1302, but in 1342 and 1344 the same complaints reached Edward III, who also bade the Gilbertines desist utterly from such trading.
13th century
In spite of increasing possessions, the convent was at no time wealthy. Though the standard of life seems always to have been simple, the revenues were small for the number of inmates. The numbers fixed by St. Gilbert represented no ideal complement, indeed the tendency was to exceed them, as at Sempringham, and the burden of maintaining so large a number of nuns is mentioned in more than one papal privilege. In 1226, Henry III gave the master a present of 100 marks for their support. In 1228, he relieved the priory of the expense of providing food during the meeting of the general chapter at the mother-house on the Rogation Days by his gift of the church of Fordham, which was worth fifty-five marks a year. Ten years later, the revenues were materially increased. The Scotch house at Dalmulin on the north bank of the Ayr, which was founded and endowed by Walter FitzAlan about 1221, was abandoned, and its possessions were transferred to the abbot and convent of Paisley in consideration of a yearly payment of forty marks to Sempringham. The parish churches of Sempringham, Birthorpe, Billingborough, and Kirkby were already appropriated. Yet in 1247, Pope Innocent IVPope Innocent IV
Pope Innocent IV , born Sinibaldo Fieschi, was pope from June 25, 1243 until his death in 1254.-Early life:...
granted to the master the right to appropriate the church of Horbling, because there were 200 women in the priory who often lacked the necessaries of life. The legal expenses of the order at the papal curia perhaps accounted for their poverty. The annual payment of forty marks was felt as a grievous burden by the abbot and convent of Paisley, and seems to have been ignored in several years, for in 1246, the prior and convent of Sempringham appealed to Innocent IV to right them. They were obliged to pay the whole of the expenses of the suit and remit half the arrears of the debt on condition that the abbot and convent of Paisley should make regular payments from that time onwards.
In 1254, the spiritualities of Sempringham were assessed at £170, the temporalities at £196 9s. 1d. In 1253, the prior and convent obtained a grant of free warren in all their demesne lands, and in 1268, the right of holding a fair in the manor of Stow. The order was under the special protection of the papacy, and was exempt entirely from episcopal visitation. Accordingly, evidence of its internal history must be sought in papal bulls and registers. It would appear that on or before 1220, the general chapter petitioned that the sole power of making changes in the rule might be confirmed to them, and that the master and priors should not alter their liberties and constitutions. Complaints were also made of the extravagance of priors who travelled with servants and baggage horses, and used silver cups, and other pompous vessels. In 1223, a visitation of the order was conducted by the abbot of Warden by order of the legate Otho. The injunctions of the abbot of Warden showed that there was a tendency to relax the rule in somewhat unimportant matters. He directed that the cowl of the nuns should not be cut too long, that fine furs should not be used for the cloaks of canons and nuns, that the canons' copes should be made minime curiose. Variety of pictures and superfluity of sculpture were forbidden. The rule of silence was to be more strictly observed. The proctors were bidden to provide the same food and drink for the nuns as for the canons, and not in future to buy beer for the canons when the nuns had only water to drink. A very important papal visitation was undertaken when Ottoboni was legate in England from 1265 to 1268. He went to Sempringham in person, but delegated the duty of visiting other houses of the order to members of his household. In 1268, after a careful study of the reports of the visitors, a series of injunctions was drawn up by Ralph of Huntingdon, a Dominican chaplain in the service of the legate, with the aid of Richard, chief scrutator of the order. The democratic principles of the order had obviously been violated, and the master and heads of houses had shown arbitrary tendencies. It was necessary to insist that the master should strive to rule by love rather than fear, and to threaten priors and sub-priors who were stern to the verge of cruelty with deposition. The master was forbidden to receive men and women into the order without the advice of its members. The priors were warned against conducting business and manumitting servile lands and serfs without consulting their fellow proctors and seeking the consent of their chapters. The lucrative practice of collecting wool and selling it with the produce of their own flocks, was strictly, though in vain, forbidden. It was ordered that discipline should be firmly maintained among the regular servants of the priory and granges, and servants and labourers were forbidden to go off the monastery lands without special leave. Lay brothers who were skilled in surgery might only practise their art by the prior's leave, and if the patients were men. A tendency to treat the nuns with less consideration than the rule required was sternly repressed. They were to have all their rights and privileges, and no plea of urgent business might avail to deprive them of their assent to all transactions. Pittances provided for the nuns were not to be assigned to other purposes for any reason, and money given on the admission of a nun was to be devoted to their needs. The master was to see that they were not stinted in clothes and food.
In 1291, the assessment of the temporalities had risen to £219 17s. 11½d. The property continued to increase, as several licences were obtained subsequently to appropriate numerous small grants of land in mortmain. The right of holding a fair in the manor of Wrightbald was conceded in 1293. At the beginning, of the fourteenth century the annual sales of wool amounted to twenty-five sacks a year, and, whatever the net profits may have been, added largely to the income of the convent. It was doubtless on account of the important share of the order in the wool trade that Edward II asked in 1313 for a loan of 1,000 marks, and in 1315 for £2,000, for the assessment of all its spiritualities and temporalities scarcely exceeded £3,000.
14th century
In 1303, the prior held in Lincolnshire half a knight's fee in Horbling, half in Irnham, half less one-twelfth in Laughton and Aslackby, a quarter in Cranwell, a quarter in Bulby, one-fifth in Bulby and Southorpe, one-eighth in Fulbeck, one-eighth in ScredingtonScredington
Scredington is a village and civil parish located near the town of Sleaford, in the North Kesteven district, in the county of Lincolnshire, England...
, one-sixteenth in Osbournby
Osbournby
Osbournby is a small village and civil parish in North Kesteven in the English county of Lincolnshire.-Geography:It is located five miles south of Sleaford on the A15 road near the A52 roundabout. Adjacent villages include Spanby, Aunsby and Threekingham. The village has a population of roughly...
, one-twentieth in Bitchfield
Bitchfield
Bitchfield is a small village in Lincolnshire, England, consisting of two groups of buildings connected by Dark Lane, known as Bitchfield and Lower Bitchfield, collectively called Bitchfield. It lies on the B1176, running east and parallel to the A1 road, and south east of Grantham.Bitchfield is...
. In 1346 he held also a knight's fee in Stragglethorpe, one-sixth in Walcote, and one-thirty-second in Aunsley, and in 1428 in Leicester one-quarter of a fee in Thrussington.
At the general chapter in 1304, it was decided, 'on account of frequent and continuous royal and papal tenths, contributions and exactions,' that in each house a grange, church, or fixed rent should be set aside to meet those demands. The Gilbertines had been exempted by Henry II from all gelds and taxes, (fn. 60) and John especially mentioned, in his charter of confirmation, the aids of the sheriffs, tallage, and scutage. However, in the reigns of Henry III and Edward I the popes taxed both spiritualities and temporalities, and sometimes handed over the proceeds to the crown. In this way the order lost its privileges, and afterwards voted grants with the rest of the clergy in convocation. At this time, the interests of farming and trading did not predominate to the exclusion of all else. In 1290, Nicholas IV
Pope Nicholas IV
Pope Nicholas IV , born Girolamo Masci, was Pope from February 22, 1288 to April 4, 1292. A Franciscan friar, he had been legate to the Greeks under Pope Gregory X in 1272, succeeded Bonaventure as Minister General of his religious order in 1274, was made Cardinal Priest of Santa Prassede and...
granted a licence to the prior and canons of Sempringham to have within their house a discreet and learned doctor of theology to teach those of their brethren who desired to study that science. For some years the master had sent certain canons of the order to study at Cambridge, and in 1290, a house of residence was secured in the town, and contributions were afterwards levied from all the houses of the order for the support of canons as scholars. Two years later Robert Lutterel, rector of Irnham, gave a house and lands at Stamford that canons from Sempringham Priory might study divinity and philosophy at the university which was then flourishing in that town. In 1303, a canon named Robert Manning of Bourne began to write, in the cloister at Sempringham, his book called Handlyng Sinne, which was an English version of Waddington's Manual des Péchés, a satire on the failings and vices of English men and women of all classes of society. He had then lived fifteen years in the monastery, and had previously studied at Cambridge. The annals of the house were recorded in French from 1290 to 1326.
In 1301, Prior John de Hamilton began to build a new church for the priory, as the earlier one had fallen into disrepair. Ten years before Nicholas IV had granted lavish indulgences to penitents who visited the priory church and chapels of St. John, St. Stephen, and St. Catherine, so the proceeds from their offerings were available. The rebuilding of other parts of the monastery was also in contemplation, for in 1306 the prior and convent obtained a papal bull enabling them to appropriate the churches of Thurstanton and Norton Disney for that purpose. However, the church was still unfinished in 1342, when Bishop Bek granted an indulgence for the fabric, 'which had been begun anew at great cost.' There were a number of reasons for the delay. The price of corn was very high in the years of famine from 1315 to 1321. Owing to the Scotch wars the payment of forty marks from the abbey of Paisley ceased altogether, probably before 1305, and it was not until 1319 that the prior and convent were able by way of compensation for their loss to appropriate the church of Whissendine, worth fifty-five marks, for the expenses of clothing forty canons and 200 women.
Probably by reason of its position as the head house of a purely English order, Sempringham was in high favour with the three Edwards, who sent thither wives and daughters of their chief enemies. Wencilian, daughter of Llewellyn, prince of Wales, was sent to Sempringham as a little child, after her father's death in 1283, and died a nun of the house fifty-four years later. Edward I allowed the acquisition of certain lands in mortmain because he had charged the priory with her maintenance, and in 1327 Edward III granted £20 a year for her life. In 1322, by order of the Parliament at York, Margaret, Countess of Cornwall, was sent to live at Sempringham among the nuns. In 1324 Joan, daughter of Roger Mortimer, was received at the priory. Two daughters of the elder Hugh Despenser were also sent to take the veil at Sempringham, and in 1337 an allowance of £20 a year was made for their lives.
The unsettled state of the country in the reign of Edward II and the earlier years of Edward III was very unfavourable to many monasteries. In 1312, Sempringham Priory was attacked by Roger of Birthorpe, Geoffrey Lutterel of Irnham, Edmund of Colville, and other knights; they broke into the monastery, assaulted the canons and their men and servants, and carried away their goods. However, Prior John and some of his canons and servants raided the park at Birthorpe to recover their animals which had been impounded. In 1330, the priors of Sempringham and Haverholme, accompanied by several of their canons and other persons, were charged by William of Querington and Brian of Herdeby with raiding a close at Evedon, cutting down the trees, carrying away timber, and depasturing and destroying corn with plough cattle. The next year the prior lodged a complaint against Brian of Herdeby and others who had assaulted a canon and a lay brother at Evedon, consumed his crops and grass at Burton, hunted in his free warren there, and carried off hares and partridges.
In 1320, the priory was in money difficulties and owed £1,000 to Geoffrey of Bramton, a clerk. Speculations in wool with Italian merchants followed. Inability to pay the king's taxes marked a financial crisis in 1337, and again in 1345. Consequent probably upon the poverty of the house, the Master of Sempringham, in 1341, obtained exemption from future attendance at Parliament. He had been regularly summoned from the great Parliament of 1295, until 1332, but, as in the case of other abbots and priors, attendance was doubtless found to be a great burden and expense.
No record remains of the ravages of the Black Death at Sempringham or any other house of the Gilbertine Order
Gilbertine Order
The Gilbertine Order of Canons Regular was founded around 1130 by Saint Gilbert in Sempringham, Lincolnshire, where Gilbert was the parish priest...
, although there is some evidence of distress in the priory in 1349. On the eve of Trinity Sunday in that year there was a great storm and flood, the water in the church rose as high as the capitals of the pillars, and in the cloister and other buildings it was six feet deep. Many of the books were destroyed and eighteen sacks of wool were damaged. On 9 November the king granted a license to the nuns to appropriate Hacconby church, which was valued at twenty-four marks a year, for their clothing. There is little doubt that none of the Gilbertine houses ever recovered from the effects of the Black Death. They were constrained to abandon almost entirely the cultivation of their own lands, and to let their numerous granges on leases.
In 1399, Boniface IX gave permission to the master, priors, canons, lay brothers, nuns and sisters of the order of Sempringham to farm, to fit laymen or clerks for a fixed time, their manors, churches, chapels, pensions, stipends and possessions, without requiring the licence of the ordinary. Thus, they lost their profits from the wool trade, which had probably exceeded their revenues from all other sources. The sheep everywhere died in thousands from the pestilence, and it was in fact impossible for the Gilbertines to carry on their former occupations of farming and trading with any success.
There are indications of a decline in discipline and morals, as well as in numbers. In 1363, the master, Robert of Navenby, was seeking to obtain from Urban V the rights of a mitred abbot that he might himself give benediction to his nuns. The bishop of Lincoln however protested. In 1366, many nuns of Sempringham had hot received benediction, and as the master, William of Prestwold, refused to listen to the prioress, they petitioned Bishop Bokyngham
John Bokyngham
John Bokyngham was a medieval Bishop of Lincoln.Bokyngham was keeper of the seal of Thomas, regent in England from March through July 1360, and then Dean of Lichfield. He was appointed Lord Privy Seal in 1360 and held that office until 1363.Bokyngham was elected bishop between 20 August 1362 and 4...
, who came to Sempringham, to right them. The number of nuns had then fallen to sixty-seven. In 1382, Richard II granted a licence for the master and priors of the order to seize and detain all vagabond canons and lay brothers, and in 1383 and 1390 mandates were issued to the sheriffs and others to arrest an apostate canon. In 1397, Boniface IX sent a mandate to the archbishops of Canterbury and York and the bishop of Ely, to investigate the charges against William of Beverley, who was elected master in 1393. It was reported that on his visitation he took immoderate procurations, burdened the houses by the excessive number of the members of his household and of his horses, and committed many grievances and enormities against the statutes of the order. The bishops were to punish him if guilty, to visit the houses, correct and reform what was amiss, to revise the statutes of the order, and frame others if expedient.
In 1405. the pope issued another mandate, stating that William of Beverley, master of the order, had dilapidated divers goods, movable and immovable, had enormously damaged it, reduced it to great poverty, and continued in the same course. If found guilty he was to be deprived. However, whether the order obtained any redress is not known; the next master was not elected until 1407.
A 14th century flyleaf inscription of an ancient manuscript of a Pre-Wyclif Version of the Lord's Prayer in Middle English credited to St. Augustine (354–430), Alexander Nequam (1157–1217), and others was a collection which was in the possession of Gilbertine Priory at Sempringham. The last leaf of this volume of the book has the Lord’s Prayer which reads:
Our Father that art in heavens and in all holy men
Hallowed by thy name in us so that we be holy in thy name
. . .
Deliver us out of this wicked world and take us to thy self in heaven. Amen.
15th century
The history of Sempringham Priory in the 15th century is very obscure. In 1400, a papal indulgence was granted for the repair of the priory church, and in 1409 a legacy was left for the fabric of the bell tower. In 1445, Henry VIHenry VI of England
Henry VI was King of England from 1422 to 1461 and again from 1470 to 1471, and disputed King of France from 1422 to 1453. Until 1437, his realm was governed by regents. Contemporaneous accounts described him as peaceful and pious, not suited for the violent dynastic civil wars, known as the Wars...
granted to Nicholas Resby, master of the order, that the houses of Sempringham, Haverholme, Catley, Bullington, Sixhills, North Ormsby, and Alvingham should be free and exempt from all aids, subsidies, and tallages, and should never contribute to any payments of tenths or fifteenths made by the whole body of the clergy or of the provinces of Canterbury and York separately. However, the prior and convent of Sempringham were compelled to pay £40 in 1522 as their share of a grant from the spirituality towards Henry VIII's personal expenses in France for the recovery of that crown. With the abandonment of farming, except on the immediate demesne, the need of the order for lay brothers disappeared. They probably died out altogether early in the fifteenth century, and there is no record of any at the dissolution. Servants, too, probably very largely took the place of the lay sisters.
16th century
At a general chapter held at St. Catherine's, Lincoln, in 1501, it was resolved that the number of canons, which 'in those days was less than usual,' should be increased. The priors were to seek suitable persons, that with greater numbers religion might prosper. This attempt at revival was to some extent successful, for in several houses, as at Sempringham itself, the number of canons fixed at this chapter was reached before the dissolution. In all the houses of the order there were, in 1538, only 143 canons, 139 nuns, and 15 lay sisters. Nothing was alleged by the crown visitors against the Gilbertines in Lincolnshire, and they appear to have been living blameless lives, neither in poverty nor in wealth.Robert Holgate, chaplain to Cromwell, who became master of the order in 1536, exerted his influence to prevent the surrender of the Gilbertine houses under the Act for the Suppression of the Smaller Monasteries in 1536, for only four out of twenty-six houses had revenues over £200 a year. No resistance was offered in 1538, when Dr. William Petre came down to take the surrenders. On 18 September, Robert the master, Roger the prior, and sixteen canons surrendered Sempringham Priory. The prior received Fordham rectory and £30 a year, the canons and prioresses and sixteen nuns were also pensioned.
In 1535, the clear yearly value of the house was £317 4s. 1d. Of this sum £128 16s. 7d. was drawn from the rectories of Sempringham with the chapel of Pointon, Stow with the chapel of Birthorpe, Billingborough, Horbling, Walcote, Loughton, Cranwell, Norton Disney, Kirkby Laythorpe, and Hacconby, in Lincolnshire; Whissendine in Rutlandshire; Fordham in Cambridgeshire; Thurstanton in Leicestershire; and Buxton in Norfolk. The remainder of the property included granges or lands and tenements at Sempringham, Threckingham, Stow, Pointon, Dowsby, Ringesdon Dyke, Billingborough, Horbling, Walcote, Newton, Pykworth, Osburnby, Kysby, Folkingham, Aslackby, Woodgrange, Kirkby, Bulby, Morton, Wrightbald, Brothertoft, Wilton, Kirton Holme, Wrangle, Cranwell, Stragglethorpe, Carlton and Fulbeck, and a few other places in Lincolnshire; Ketton, Cottesmore, and Pickwell in Rutland; Thurstanton and Willoughby in Leicestershire; Bramcote, Trowell, and Chinwell in Nottinghamshire; and Walton in Derbyshire. Six granges appear to have been farmed by bailiffs for the monastery and the rest were let on lease. The demesnes of Sempringham were worth £26 13s. 4d. a year. In the hands of the crown bailiff four years later, the property brought in £383 5s. 5d.
Archaeological studies
Archaeological excavations have been carried out at the site using the ground-penetrating radarGround-penetrating radar
Ground-penetrating radar is a geophysical method that uses radar pulses to image the subsurface. This nondestructive method uses electromagnetic radiation in the microwave band of the radio spectrum, and detects the reflected signals from subsurface structures...
technique, a non-destructive geophysical tool to locate buried objects. The investigations carried out in the Priori area, at 5 metres (16.4 ft) grid has revealed not only artifacts of the priory but also 47,000 objects dated prehistoric to post medieval periods. The survey has enabled identification of the outline of the building including the gatehouse. The foundation walls are reportedly in good condition.