HOUSE OF BENEDICTINE NUNS
3. ST. HELEN'S, BISHOPSGATE
The nunnery of St. Helen was founded in
the early part of the thirteenth century (fn. 1) by
William son of William the goldsmith, in the
place where a church of St. Helen had already
existed in the reign of Henry II. The church
had been granted to the dean and canons of
St. Paul's by a certain Ranulf and Robert his
son, who with a third person to be named by
them were to hold it for their lives. (fn. 2) After
the dean and canons gained possession they gave
the patronage to William son of William, and
not only allowed him to found the nunnery, but
also to bestow on it the advowson of the church
on condition that the prioress after election by
the nuns should be presented to the dean and
chapter and swear fealty to them, (fn. 3) and should
promise to pay a pension of ½ mark from the
church, the obventions of which the convent
might for the rest convert to their own use, and
neither to alienate the right of patronage nor
become subject to any other body.
Though there is evidence that the claim of
the nuns to some land was disputed, and was
renounced by them before 1216, (fn. 4) there is nothing to show what the endowment of the
nunnery was at its foundation. Among its
earliest possessions, however, may be reckoned
a quit-rent of 4s. in the parish of All Hallows
Lombard Street, sold by the prioress probably
before 1230, (fn. 5) a rent of 26s. 8d. from land in the
parish of St. Mildred, Canterbury, alienated by
the convent in 1247, (fn. 6) and 6½ acres of land
which they held in Stepney in 1248. (fn. 7) The
earliest notices of the house occur in the will of
William Longespee, earl of Salisbury, who left
five cows to the nuns in 1225, (fn. 8) and in the gift
of two oaks made by Henry III in 1224 to the
master of St. Helen's, (fn. 9) an officer of whom there
is no other mention.
The nuns figure in the inquisition of 1274–5 (fn. 10)
as having about sixteen years before closed with
an earthen wall a lane called St. Helen's Lane
running from Bishopsgate Street to St. Mary
Axe, down which men had been used to ride
and take carts. This is probably the lane crossing their ground which Henry III in 1248 had
licensed them to inclose. (fn. 11)
Edward I gave to the priory in 1285 a piece
of the True Cross (fn. 12) which he had brought from
Wales, and went on foot accompanied by earls,
barons, and bishops to present the relic. The
nuns about this time seem to have been in
need of financial help. They petitioned the
king to examine their charters and allow them
to hold in frankalmoign henceforth, (fn. 13) and it was
no doubt in consequence of the inquiry he had
ordered that he gave them in 1306 the right to
hold a market and fair at Brentford. (fn. 14) Archbishop Peckham, in May, 1290, gave the prioress
and nuns leave to celebrate the Festival of the
Invention of the Cross notwithstanding the interdict placed on the City by his authority. (fn. 15) In
October of the same year the pope offered relaxation of penance for a year and forty days to
penitents visiting the convent church on the
festivals of St. Helen and of Holy Cross, (fn. 16) and
an indulgence of forty days was given by Ralph,
bishop of London, in 1306, to those visiting the
church and making contributions to the fabric. (fn. 17)
These grants were in all probability made in aid
of the rebuilding of the church, the expense of
which had largely been defrayed by two brothers,
Salomon and Thomas Basing, the latter bequeathing also to its maintenance by will enrolled in
1300 (fn. 18) some rents in the parish of St. Bartholomew the Little and elsewhere. Several of the
Basings became nuns of St. Helen's, (fn. 19) one indeed
was elected prioress in 1269; (fn. 20) this may account
in part for the benefactions of the family, which
altogether must have been extensive: William,
the sheriff of 1308, is said by Stow to have been
reputed a founder, (fn. 21) and Henry de Gloucestre,
grandson of Thomas, by will dated 1332 (fn. 22)
established there a chantry of two chaplains
which he endowed with an income of 11 marks
of silver.
During the next few years the endowments
of the nunnery received further additions: in
1344 the prioress and convent undertook to
found a chantry in their church and one in
St. Mary le Bow for the soul of Walter Dieuboneye of Bletchingley, cheesemonger of London, in consideration of his gifts to them; (fn. 23) in
1346 John de Etton, rector of Great Massingham,
left them his dwelling-house and fourteen adjacent shops near Cripplegate for the maintenance
of chantries; (fn. 24) and for the same purpose Walter
de Bilynham bequeathed to the priory in 1349
tenements in the parishes of St. Mary Magdalen
Old Fish Street, and St. Mary Axe, at Holborn
Cross and 'Cokkeslane'; (fn. 25) the church of Eyworth, co. Bedford, was also appropriated to
them in 1331 by the pope at the king's request. (fn. 26)
The nunnery, either through misfortune or mismanagement, could not have been very prosperous for some years before the Black Death, or
the church would not have been reported in 1350
as in danger of going to ruin, a state of things
which the pope tried to remedy by the grant
of another indulgence. (fn. 27) Its need at this time
may give a clue to the date of the attempt to
recover the market and fair of Brentford, rights
which the nuns considered they had lost because,
being an inclosed order, they were unable to
follow them up. (fn. 28) In 1374 the priory received
an important bequest of lands and tenements in
the parishes of St. Martin Outwich, St. Helen,
St. Ethelburga, and St. Peter Broad Street, from
another London citizen, Adam Fraunceys,
mercer, charged with the maintenance of two
chantries in the chapels of St. Mary and of the
Holy Ghost (fn. 29) in the church.
A curious case occurred in 1385. Joan
Heyronne, one of the nuns, on the plea that
she was so crippled with gout that she was
unable to perform her canonical duties, secretly
appealed to the pope, and obtained from him
an order that an allowance of £10 a year
should be paid to her from the goods of the
monastery. Constance, the prioress, seems to
have resented this action, and with the help
of the sub-prioress and one of the nuns kept
Joan shut up in a room, it was alleged without
food suitable to her state of health, until the
dean and chapter of St. Paul's commanded that
she should be set at liberty and permitted to go
where she would in the priory. (fn. 30) On which
side right lay is doubtful: the prioress may have
been exasperated by intrigues against her authority, but she appears to have been unduly severe,
and this view of her rule is perhaps confirmed
by the flight and marriage of another of her
nuns in 1388. (fn. 31)
Too much discipline was certainly not the
characteristic of the house in the next century,
judging from two sets of injunctions, one issued
by Dean Kentwode in 1432, (fn. 32) and the other
believed to be also of that period. (fn. 33)
From the latter (fn. 34) it appears that the nuns
hurried through the services, for they were
ordered to say them fully and distinctly and not
so fast as they had been doing, and that they
were addicted to vanity in dress, (fn. 35) perhaps a
result of the entertainment of guests by the
prioress, which was forbidden in future. The
prioress seems not to have taken her position
seriously enough: she was told to content herself with one or two dogs, and one of her maids
was to be removed for certain causes moving the
dean and chapter, 'et hoc propter majorem
honestatem dicte priorisse.' The dean was
probably not satisfied about the administration
of the house, since he required the holder of
a corrody to show the grant, that it might be
known whether he had fulfilled the services due
from him, and ordered an inquiry to be made of
the prioress and each nun whether there were
other burdens on the nunnery; the prioress
was also to show who had the custody of the
missals, books, and ornaments, and how they
were kept; and the number of seals was to be
reported.
Dean Kentwode in 1432, after providing
that divine service should be performed night
and day, that the rule of silence was to be
duly observed, and full confessions made to the
confessor appointed by him, proceeded to order
that secular women were not to sleep in the
dorter; nor were secular persons to be admitted
after compline or locked within the bounds of
the cloister; a discreet nun was to be appointed
to lock the convent doors so that nobody could
get in or out, that the place be not slandered in
future, and the prioress herself was to keep the
keys of the postern door between the cloister
and churchyard, 'for there is much coming in
and out at unlawful times'; the nuns were not
to look out into the street, not to speak to secular persons, nor receive gifts or letters from them
without leave of the prioress, and the letters
were to be such as could cause no ill report;
measures were to be taken that strangers should
not see the nuns nor the nuns them at service
in the church; sisters appointed to office must
be of good character; a suitable sister was to be
chosen to teach the rule to those who did not
know it; a proper infirmary was to be established where the sisters could be tended in illness;
no dancing or revelling except at Christmas and
other suitable times, and then in absence of
seculars, was to be allowed. As was not unnatural amid so much laxity the business of the
house was mismanaged, and fees, liveries, and
perpetual corrodies were given to various persons,
officers of the house and others, 'to . . . the dilapidation of the house's goods.' The impression
gathered from the injunctions is that the priory
was regarded as a kind of boarding-house. It is
not unlikely that the rich City families found
it a convenient place in which they could dispose of their unmarried daughters with an allowance, (fn. 36) and did not much consider whether they
had a religious vocation.
The convent in 1458 paid £76 16s. 8d. in
part payment of a larger sum, (fn. 37) and this borrowing of money may be a sign that they
had begun the alterations to the church to
which Sir John Crosby is said to have contributed 500 marks. (fn. 38) Crosby would have been
interested as a parishioner of St. Helen's, for
he built his magnificent house close to the
priory upon land rented to him by the convent
in 1466. (fn. 39)
The satisfactory state of the house in the
early sixteenth century is shown by the bishop
of London's choice of one of the sisters to
be prioress of Holy Cross at Castle Hedingham; (fn. 40) but the spirit of unrest roused by
the religious changes under Henry VIII seems
soon to have affected the priory, since in 1532
some nuns ran away. (fn. 41) A proof of the importance of the house at this time is furnished
by the intrigues over the election of the last
prioress in 1529. (fn. 42) A certain Margaret Vernon,
who was not a member of the convent, solicited
the support of Wolsey and of Cromwell in turn.
According to her, the king's saddler had offered
200 marks to secure the appointment of his
sister, and Margaret herself owned that she had
been willing to pay Wolsey £100 for the post,
which she however never obtained, Mary Rollesley, a sister of the house, (fn. 43) being made
prioress.
There is some excuse for the nuns in the
grants of annuities made by them in 1534–8,
although they were forbidden by the Kentwode
Injunctions: one was to Cromwell, (fn. 44) and the
others to various persons 'for good counsel,' (fn. 45)
of which they certainly stood in need. But
these were as useless in averting the fate of the
house as was the denial by the nuns of the
papal supremacy, (fn. 46) though they may have obtained better conditions for the inmates. The
priory was surrendered 25 November, 1538, (fn. 47)
but there are no signatures to the deed.
In January, 1539, the king granted to the
prioress, Mary Rollesley, a life pension of £30;
to Mary Shelton one of £4; to five other nuns
pensions of £3 6s. 8d. each; and to the remaining eight pensions of four marks each. (fn. 48) The
number of nuns appears to have been about
stationary since 1466, when eleven besides the
prioress witness a deed. (fn. 49) The convent was
probably much larger in the fourteenth century,
for in 1372 seven nuns took the vows at one
time. (fn. 50)
The only official mentioned besides the
prioress is the sub-prioress. The business of
the nunnery was managed by a steward, (fn. 51) who
collected the rents of the lands owned by the
priory, and had an annual salary of £12 with
20s. for his livery, eatables and drinkables,
two cart-loads of fuel, 10 qrs. of charcoal,
and the use of a chamber within the priory
precinct. (fn. 52)
From a document apparently of the sixteenth
century (fn. 53) the household expenses of the priory
for a year were £134 1s. 6d.; of this the sum
of £22 was spent on corn, £60 13s. 4d. on
meat and other victuals, £10 on thirty pittances.
The debts of the house at the same time
amounted to £90 4s. 4d., and included £15
owing to Robert 'at ye Cokke,' brewer,
£6 13s. 4d. to a 'cornman,' £4 to a fishmonger, and 56s. 2d. to another, £9 12s. 4d.
to a butcher, £6 13s. 4d. to a draper, and 20s.
to John, the servant of the prioress.
The income of the house amounted in 1535
to £376 6s. gross and £320 15s. 8½d. net, (fn. 54)
and was chiefly derived from possessions in
London, (fn. 55) where the nuns held nearly the
whole of St. Helen's parish and lands and rent
in sixteen other parishes. (fn. 56) The convent also
owned at this time the manor of Bordeston or
Burston in Brentford, (fn. 57) which they had held in
1290, and woods in Edmonton, co. Middlesex;
rents in Eyworth, co. Bedford, where they had
land in 1316; (fn. 58) land in East Barming, co.
Kent; (fn. 59) the manor of Marks (fn. 60) and land at
Walthamstow, (fn. 61) co. Essex; rents in Ware, co.
Herts., where they had a holding in 1392; (fn. 62)
the manor of Datchet, (fn. 63) co. Bucks.; since
1303 and earlier they had held the advowsons
of St. Mary Axe, St. John Walbrook, St. Mary
Woolnoth and St. Ethelburga, with pensions of
4 marks and 2s. respectively from the last two; (fn. 64)
to them also belonged the rectory of St. Helen's (fn. 65)
and the church of Eyworth, (fn. 66) appropriated to
them in 1331. (fn. 67) The prioress in 1346 held a
fraction of a knight's fee in East Barming, (fn. 68)
and in conjunction with Anna le Despenser
half a knight's fee in Eyworth. (fn. 69)
Prioresses of St. Helen's, Bishopsgate
D. occurs c. 1210 (fn. 70)
Matilda (fn. 71)
Helen, occurs 1229–30, 1235–6, 1243–4, (fn. 72)
1247, (fn. 73) 1248, (fn. 74) died 1255 (fn. 75)
Scholastica, died 1269 (fn. 76)
Felicia de Basinges, elected 1269 (fn. 77)
Joan de Wynton, died 1324 (fn. 78)
Beatrix le Boteler, died 1332 (fn. 79)
Eleanor de Wynton, elected 1332, (fn. 80) occurs
1344 (fn. 81)
Margery de Honilane, occurs 1354 (fn. 82)
Constance Somersete, occurs 1385, (fn. 83) died
1398 (fn. 84)
Joan, occurs 1399 (fn. 85)
Alice Wodehouse, occurs 1458 (fn. 86)
Alice Ashfield, occurs 1466 (fn. 87)
Alice Trewethall, occurs 1488 (fn. 88) and 1497–8 (fn. 89)
Elizabeth Stamp, occurs 1512 (fn. 90) and 1518, (fn. 90a)
resigned 1528 (fn. 91)
Mary Rollesley, elected 1529, (fn. 92) surrendered
1538 (fn. 93)
A seal in the Augmentation Office represents
St. Helen standing under the Cross, which she
embraces with her left arm, and holding in her
left hand the three nails of the Passion. On
the right, opposite to the empress, is a multitude of women with extended arms and upraised
countenances. Beneath is a trefoiled niche,
and under it a woman's (?) head and left arm
in the same attitude as that of the figures above.
The legend is:—
SIGILL. MONIALIVM. SANCTE. HELENE
LONDONIARVM. (fn. 94)