FRAGMENTS OF THE HISTORY OF ACONBURY PRIORY AND CHURCH.

By DR. BULL.

THE Priory of Acornbury, Cornebury, Accornebury, Akernebury, or Akarnebury,* as it is variously spelt in old Deeds, has lost in modern times the "r" from its name, and the place is now called Aconbury. The Priory was founded by Lady Margery, wife of William de Lacy, during the reign of King John (1199-1216). The precise date is not known, but the period is certain from an Inquisition held at Ledbury, by precept of the King, 49 Henry III. (1264). The Inquisitors were G. de Leukenoure, Galfridus de Morton, Hen. de Munemue (Monmouth), Rog. Tirel, Will. de Bray, Rog. Walensis, and John de Sudelegh, &c. King John at first gave three carucates of land to be "assarted," that is, grubbed up, for the making or creating a certain Religious House. This grant was afterwards confirmed and much extended by his son, Henry III., who released and freed the said nuns from all wast, regards, and jurisdiction of the ministers, or officers of the Forest, 17 Henry III. (1232).

In the account of the Commission, it is stated that King John granted the whole of the Forest of Acornbury, with the exception of Adelstone, or Elstanewod Wood, which belonged to William de Cantilupe and Hugo de Kilpec, the Forester, in fee, and then to Hubert de Burg, at that time Lord Justiciar of England, to Margery, wife of William de Lacy, in order that she might found there a nunnery, which she did on a spot about three miles south of Hereford, and dedicated it to the Holy Cross, and her husband confirmed the same. The Priory was founded for the good of the souls of William de Braos, father of Margery de Lacy, and Matilda his wife, and William their son, the brother of the foundress; and dedicated to St. John the Baptist (MS. St. Michael's Priory).

Hubert de Burg was removed from his office, and Ayleston Wood, thus falling into the hands of King Henry, was also handed over to the Priory. It was then worth 6 marcs and 5 shillings annually.

Dugdale states it to have been an Austin Nunnery; Speed terms it a House for White Nuns dedicated to St. Catherine; but according to Prynne, Papal Usurpations, Vol. III., the inhabitants were first of the Order of St. John of Jerusalem, but were absolved from that Order, and reduced to that of St. Austin, by Otho, the Pope's Legate, about A.D. 1237. In the List of the Possessions of the Knights' Hospitallers of St. John in Herefordshire, there is no mention made of Aconbury, and it is therefore extremely doubtful whether there was ever any relation between them.

* In the deed whereby King Pebiau (grandfather of St. Dubricius) gives to the See of Llandaff the mansion of Junabui (Llandinabo), distant about four miles, amongst the witnesses to the deed there appears the name of a layman, Aircon. (Liber Landavensis, p. 317). Airconbury may have been the original form of the word. (Edit.)

Catherine de Lacy, daughter of the foundress, gave land to the Priory to find a Chaplain to say Mass daily for the souls of her ancestors, and if they failed to perform this the Bishop of Hereford was to compel them to do it.

William de Braos gave to the Priory ten houses (naming their occupants) and land, in his village of Tetbury, in Gloucestershire. Catherine de Lacy gave a grant of land in Corsham, with Vernhale Wood, held by Walter de Clifford in service of her, who afterwards confirmed this grant, and further added to the same. In 1260, Margaret, widow of Walter de Clifford, left her heart to the Priory of Aconbury, with fifteen marks sterling for the proper burial thereof. Sybella de Ewyas gave tithes from Ethon to the Priory, and it was afterwards enriched by many other donations, as will presently appear.

Many documents and deeds relating to Aconbury Priory are still extant. Many conventual leases and grants, with the ledger book of the house, are now in the Augmentation Office. The Episcopal Registers give incidental notices relating to it. The Bodleian Library at Oxford contains the charter of Walter de Clifford, with some other papers. The Harleian MSS. contain many original papers and transcriptions, the former probably requisitioned by Colonel Taylor, the real founder of the collection, during his residence in Herefordshire. The Close and Patent Rolls in the Record Office also contain many deeds relating to Aconbury Priory; amongst them is one of the 9th Edward I. (1280), in which the Church of Bridge Solars (called Brugge Solars) is given to the Priory; another, dated the following year (1281), gives the Church of Wolferlow; and in a third, 1st Edward III. (1327), the Church of Malmeshall Lacy is similarly given. There are also scattered MSS. in the Hereford Free Library, the library at St. Michael's Priory, at Whitfield, and possibly at other places in the county.

Dugdale's Monasticon mentions only two of the Prioresses of the Foundation, viz., Agnes King and Joan Ledebury; but in the Episcopal Registers, and from the MS. abstract of the Leases and Grants to the several religious houses in the county of Hereford, dated 1763, now in the Free Library, several others are mentioned. The dates of appointment, or of the deeds executed by the Prioresses, with their names, are as follows:

1280.-BEATRICE DE GAMAGES.-(Reg. Thom. Cantilupe.)

1288 and 1326.-CATHERINE DE GENEVYLE or GEYNVILL.-Reg. Ric. Swin and Deed.

1346-48-53 and 58.-MATILDA DE GRANDISON.-(On five Deeds.) 1415-17-21-22-25-26-37 and 46.—Ann BarrY.-(On eight Deeds.)

1452-65.-AGNES KING.-(On two Deeds.)

1474.-JOAN DRAPER.-(On one Deed.)

1481.-CECILY MASON.-(On one Deed).

1489-91 to 1534.-ISABELLA GARDINER. -(Chart Antique I. 26 and on twelve Deeds.)

And the last Prioress was JOANNA SCUDAMORE, who was allowed a pension of £9 at the dissolution of the Priory.

Very little is known of these several Mother Prioresses. Bishop Cantilupe confirms Beatrice de Gamage, 16th January, 1280, in her appointment as Prioress.

Her family may have given the name to Mansel Gamage.* Bishop Swinfield confirms the appointment of Catherine de Genevyle at Bosbury, 5th October, 1288. This lady held office for at least 38 years. A dispute arose between this Prioress and others against John de Gamel and others, about a right of common in Bishopstone, 19 Ed. II., 1325 (MSS. at St. Michael's), and it is stated there also that Matilda and Beatrice, daughters of Peter de Genevyle, probably her nieces, died in the nunnery. Matilda de Grandison was sister of Sir Otto de Grandison. The family held estates at Ashperton, and other places in the county, and gave the distinctive name to Stretton Grandison. Isabella Gardiner, who presided for at least 45 years over the community, was confirmed as Prioress by Bishop Milling, at Wytborne, 20th March, 1489. (Chart Antiqua I., 26.)

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The Rev. C. Hartshorn's "Illustrations of Domestic Manners," British Archaological Journal, Vol. xviii., gives the following notes:--"Saturday, February, 1297. Feast of the Purification. The Lady Joanna de Valentia, Countess of Pembroke, entertained guests at Goodrich Castle. The Lady of Bicknor, the Lady of Raglan, the Prioress of Aconbury, with many others." This Prioress was Catherine de Genevyle.+ "On Monday," the notes go on, Gilbert, Earl of Clare, and others of his family came; others came to breakfast on Tuesday; on Wednesday came the Earl and Countess of Gloucester, &c., and February 25th the Prioress took her departure." On the Sunday after Easter, John de Hastings, the Prioress of Aconbury, and Dominus John de Barry were there. The Prioress of Acornbie was again on a visit to the Countess two days after the Feast of the Invention of the Holy Cross.

In 1354 the Bishop of Hereford gives a dispensation to Joanna Blount, nun of the Priory of Aconbury, respecting her defect of birth, she being illegitimate, which would otherwise have interfered with her religious profession. (Ex Reg. Trellec.)

The MS. abstract in the Hereford Free Library of the Deeds in the Augmentation Office, extracted in 1763, points out much of the property which belonged to Aconbury Priory, and the full list is given in Dugdale's Monasticon for the Computation Rolls 28, Henry VIII. (1536). It was principally situated in the county of Hereford. Besides the demesne and lands immediately surrounding the Priory, the churches of Brugge Solars, Wolfrelow, and Malmeshull Lacy,‡ already mentioned, with adjoining lands and mill, the following properties are named :

*Godfry de Gamaches (from Gamaches in Normandy) held, under Lacy, two Knight's Fees in the Barony of de Lacy (1165), hence the distinction between Mansel Lacy and Mansel Gamage. After the separation of England and Normandy, the head of the family (eldest son of above Godfry) lost his English possessions, and returned to Normandy. William, the younger brother, got Mansel Gamage, and died before 1240; and was probably the father of the Princess Beatrice de Gamage. Godfry succeeded him, and left three daughters, who married three Pembrigges (see Robinson's Manors.) John de Gamachus, Prior of Hereford, was made Abbot of Gloucester (1284), a contemporary of Beatrice, "the most noble man in the elegance of his manners and splendour of his birth (Annals of Worcester). "He died in 1307, on the Sunday on which is 'sung 'Misericordia Domini' in the morning. Dominical letter, B." (THOS. BLASHILL.) Godfry de Geneville, or Joinville, was one of the French favourites of Henry III., and married the heiress of the De Lacy's. Catherine may possibly have been their daughter. (THOS. BLASHILL.)

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The grants of livings and of land in the parishes of Bridge Sollars, Mansel Lacy, Bishopstone and Bunshill, point to the association of the Priory with the family of the foundress, with whom the Gamaches family was closely connected. (THOS. BLASHILL.)

The Manor of Bunshill, or Bonshill, and appurtenances; lands at Caldycote; tenements and parcells of land in the city of Hereford and its suburbs; land at Myryvale Hill; land, buildings, and mill, at Rolveston, or Rolston; the Acre Meadow at Stoke Edyth, and lands at Weston-juxta-Stoke Edith; a close at Shokenhill, with other properties at Much Byrche, Pembridge, Peterchurch, Stokeblys, and Vowchurch, within the county. Beyond Herefordshire the Priory was possessed of the church and tythes of Penalley, or Pennalee, in Pembrokeshire; land and Manor of Bourley, and at Ludlow, Salop; tenements at Monmouth, land at Kempsey, and tenements and garden at Tettebury, in Gloucestershire.

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The Deeds with reference to property in the city of Hereford have a local interest from the names in use in olden times. In 1399, the Mother Prioress, Joan Ledbury, leases a curtilage, with appurtenances, in the suburbs of Hereford, in a street called "Aboveyeyne." In 1425, Dame Ann Barry, the Prioress, signs a lease of a house in le Vyshams Rowe; in 1437, a lease from Elizabeth (surname not given), the Prioress, gives to John Herbert, mercer, a certain third part of a house lying in the city of Hereford, in le Gebyn Rowe, opposite Good Knaves Inn, for 41 years; in 1474, Joan Draper, the Prioress, assigns, for 80 years, a messuage situate in Rangia Piscator," between the house of John Barre, Knight, and the house of Henry Chippenham ; in 1517 an arbitrement is given relating to certain tenements lying within the city of Hereford, by St. Owen's Gate, in a street there, called "Hungrei-street," some time "Moneywards," otherwise called "Wilton's Ynne"; in 1506, and again in 1528, the Prioress, Isabella Gardiner, leases a garden at Blackmason "well set with saforne." In 1530, Thomas Gebons, mercer, very politely leases to Isabella Gardiner, Prioress, a stabull set and lying in the street called 'Wroughthale,' ,"" for 99 years, under the annual rent of a red rose on the Feast of St. John Baptist, if the said rose be lawfully demanded; and forasmuch as the seal of the said Thomas Gebons to divers persons is unknown, therefore the seal of the Mairaltie of the city of Hereford is fixed thereunto. The same Prioress leases a close at Shokenhull, under the annual rent of four shillings, a rose, and a potill of Wynne, to be paid on the feast of All Saints only. The saffron grown at Blackmarston was the Saffron crocus, Crocus sativus, of which the pistil and part of the style from the centre of the flower only was used, so that it took six crocus blossoms to produce a single grain of dried saffron. It is a cordial, and aromatic both to smell and taste, and gives a rich yellow or orange colour to sweetmeats and cakes. It was used very much formerly; and to this day the saffron cake always forms part of family festivities throughout Cornwall, and is even used very frequently to give its yellow colour to ordinary buns.

An impression in red wax of the Common Seal of Aconbury Priory of the date of 1447 is extant in the Augmentation Office, and a copy privately printed (1768) is now in St. Michael's Priory with Mr. R. B. Phillips' MS. notes. It represents a Prioress with a cross* in her hand. The legend is "SIGILL: CONVENTUS DE CORNEBURIA" (Dugdale).

*The Cross may be accounted for by the fact of the Priory having been originally dedicated to The Holy Cross. (EDIT.)

At the General Dissolution of the Religious Houses (1534-9) the total value of Aconbury Priory and its estates was £75 7s. 6d., but deducting the reprise of £7 14s. 3d., the net annual value was made to be £67 13s. 3d.

Gibson, in his "Churches of Dore, Holme Lacy, and Hempstead," says "Joanna Scudamore was the last Prioress of this House; and Aylston Wood was granted to John Scudamore, of Holme Lacy, Esq., when the said Nunnery was dissolved. The Property and Right to the Tithe of this wood descending together with the wood itself to John Lord Viscount Scudamcre, his Lordship by Act of Parliament gave to the Parson of Little Birch, the Tithe of all the Wood and Wood-ground in Aylston or Adelston Wood, containing by estimation one hundred and twenty acres." (p.p. 133-4).

From letters of this John Scudamore, it also appears that in 1541, the repair of the chancel of Wolferlow Church was charged upon the confiscated revenues of Aconbury Priory. The Rev. C. J. Robinson, who notices this fact in the "Mansions and Manors of Herefordshire," gives the following account of the descent of the property of the Priory :-" By Letters Patent, 34 Henry VIII. (1542) the site with the tithes and other property " (the Manor, Rectory, Tithes, and Land, &c., in Aconbury, with the Manor of Rolston, (MS. at St. Michael's Priory,) but doubtless excluding Aylston Wood) "was sold to the Mayor and Burgesses of Gloucester, but it does not appear that they held the property long, as within a few years it was in the hands of Hugh ap Harry, or Parry (a younger son of Thomas Parry, of Poston). His grand-daughter and heiress, Elizabeth Parry, married John Pearle-1600, 8th January-(Par. Reg. Dewsall), a member of a family long connected with Aconbury and Dewsall. Mary Pearle, the daughter and heiress, married in 1627 Sir John Brydges, Bart. (son of Sir Giles Brydges, of Wilton Castle, and ancestor of the Duke of Chandos), who about the year 1730 sold Aconbury to the trustees of Thomas Guy, the founder of Guy's Hospital. It was probably by James Pearle that the Conventual Buildings were converted into a Mansion House, which was sufficiently commodious to form the occasional residence of the Lords of Chandos " (p. 4.) "The said John Brydges was father of James Lord Chandos, by whose death the manor came to James Earl of Carnarvon " (MS. of Mr. Biddulph Phillips, at St. Michael's Priory).

In Mr. Gilbert's return of the poor rates (1776), the estate of Aconbury Priory rendered £6 13s. The property still belongs to Guy's Hospital. A note on the MS. at St. Michael's Priory says:

The Priory, Church, Buildings, and Grounds, are said to have been moated, and this probably was so on three sides, but could scarcely have been so towards the west; for the site is formed by a projecting shoulder from the hill above. There are the traces of three fish-ponds up the valley, and these, with the water near the priory buildings on three sides, would provide an ample supply of fish for the weekly and other fast days of the Church.