HOUSES OF CISTERCIAN NUNS
29. THE PRIORY OF BASEDALE
Licence was granted 'about the year 1162' (fn. 1)
by Adam de Brus, as chier lord, to Ralph de
Nevill, to found ' an abbey of nuns' at Hutton,
near Guisborough. (fn. 2) Ernald de Percy (fn. 3) also
granted to Ralph de Nevill the gift which he
had made to the nuns of Hutton of land and a
mill in ' Torp.'
Nothing is known of the house at Hutton,
where it cannot have long remained, and the
allusion to the grant of land at ' Torp ' indicates,
perhaps, its actual removal, thus early in its
career, to Thorp, afterward and yet known as
Nunthorpe.
According to the Monasticon, ' toward the
latter part of the reign of King Henry the second
by the benefaction of Guido de Bovingcourt they
settled at Basedale, in the parish of Stokesley.' (fn. 4)
It must have been quite at the end of the reign
of Henry II, or even at the beginning of that of
Richard I, that the move was made to Basedale,
for among the witnesses to Guy de Bovingcourt's
charter are Peter, Abbot of Whitby, and Raold,
Prior of Guisborough. (fn. 5) Though the nuns
removed from Nunthorpe they still retained their
property there until the Dissolution.
In Guy de Bovingcourt's gift to the nuns, for
the souls of Robert Bovingcourt, Bernard de
Baliol, and his own, &c., is no mention of
Basedale, but only of Stokesley and Westerdale,
within whose bounds Basedale lies. (fn. 6)
Burton (fn. 7) has compiled an alphabetical list of
the property of the nuns, a great portion of
which had been confirmed to them by Henry III
in 1245-6. (fn. 8)
Basedale nunnery was situated about 8 miles
from the parish church of Stokesley, and
Isabella the prioress (fn. 9) obtained from the abbot
(Robert de Longchamp) and the monks of
St. Mary's, York, the patrons of Stokesley Church,
with consent of Gerald the parson of Stokesley,
the right to have a cemetery at Basedale, in
which the nuns, sisters and conversi who had
assumed their habit at Basedale might be buried,
but all their servants and men were to be
buried at Stokesley, and were to receive the
sacraments at the mother church.
In the Taxatio of 1291 Basedale was valued
at only £5 6s. 6d., (fn. 10) by far the least of any
house in Cleveland. In the Valor Ecclesiasticus
the clear annual value was only £20 1s. 4d. (fn. 11)
On 17 May 1304 (fn. 12) Archbishop Corbridge
committed the custody of the goods of the nuns
of Basedale to Roger de Kelleshay, rector of
Crathorne. Troubles soon afterwards arose in
the house, which culminated in an order (dated
15 May 1307) (fn. 13) for the deprivation of the
prioress (Joan de Percy) on account of her
dilapidation of the goods of the house, and her
excesses and perpetual and notorious misdeeds
(crimina). The name of her successor is unknown, but on 13 September (fn. 14) in the same year
the archbishop granted her licence to have her
meals in her own chamber on Sundays and the
third and fourth ferias in each week. Joan
de Percy then had left the house, taking with
her some of the nuns, and on 21 September (fn. 15)
the archbishop wrote to the official of York to
warn Joan and the others that they were
to return without delay, and not to go outside
the precincts (septa) of the monastery, but serving God in the cloister under the yoke of obedience, were in humility to take heed to the salutary monitions of their prioress. In July in the
year following (fn. 16) the archbishop wrote to the
Prioress and convent of Sinningth waite, sending Joan de Percy to them, as she had been
guilty of disobedience at Basedale. (fn. 17) On
13 October 1308 (fn. 18) the archbishop wrote to the
prioress and convent regarding the miserable
state of Agnes de Thormondby, one of their
nuns, concerning whom he had heard that, on
three separate occasions, she had yielded carnis
decepta blandiciis, and left her order. They were
to take her back, as she returned humbly and
in a contrite spirit, and to impose on her the
salutary penance of their rule.
On Wednesday after the feast of St. Michael
1315, (fn. 19) Archbishop Greenfield held a visitation
of Basedale, when he issued a series of injunctions which are practically the same as others
directed at the same time to Handale, the two
being almost word for word the same, from
which it may be inferred that they throw little
or no light on the internal affairs of either house,
being couched very much in what, in legal
language, is known as ' common form.' From
the general character of the injunctions it may
be assumed that the little nunnery had resumed
its normal state of peace, and that nothing was
then seriously amiss.
Troubles, however, again arose, and on
18 March 1343 (fn. 20) Archbishop Zouch issued a
commission to inquire into the truth of the
articles urged against Katherine Moubray, the
prioress, and if her demerits exacted it, to depose
her, unless she resigned. It does not appear
what took place, but only two years later the
archbishop appointed other commissioners, on
3 May 1345, (fn. 21) to inquire into abuses there, and
if necessary depose the prioress, and see to the
election of a successor. The two commissions
following one another so rapidly point to anything but a happy state of affairs.
In June 1359 (fn. 22) the prioress desired to resign
owing to her age and debility, and on 9 June
1378 (fn. 23) Archbishop Alexander Nevill ordered
John, Prior of Guisborough, to receive the
resignation of Alice Page, probably the prioress
elected in 1359, who from infirmity of age and
weakness of body could no longer govern the
house.
On 13 August 1524 (fn. 24) Joan Fletcher, a
nun of Rosedale, was confirmed as Prioress of
Basedale. Her record in her office of prioress is
a bad one, and from fear of deposition she
resigned and also cast aside her habit and left the
house. There are two letters respecting her,
written by Archbishop Lee on 1 September 1534, (fn. 25)
one addressed to the Prioress and convent of
Rosedale, to which after her apostasy she had
been sent back to do penance, and the other
addressed to Basedale. She had set a bad example at Rosedale, and shown no sign of true
repentance, so the archbishop transferred her to
Basedale, which she had once ruled as prioress,
that where she had not been ashamed to sin,
there she might lament her sins. He exhorted
the nuns of Basedale to receive her with affection, but not to permit her to go outside the
precincts of their monastery without the archbishop's special licence. Joan Fletcher was
alive at the Suppression, (fn. 26) when there were,
including her, eleven nuns in the house, which is
described as 'Prioratus monasterii de Basedale
ordinis Sancti Bernardi Cisterciensis.' Drs.
Layton and Legh (fn. 27) reported that the nuns had
as it was supposed (ut putatur) the milk of the
Blessed Mary in veneration.
Prioresses Of Basedale
Isabella, (fn. 28) occurs between 1189 and 1230
Susanna, (fn. 29) occurs c. 1230
Elena, (fn. 30) occurs 1283
Joan de Percy, (fn. 31) elected 1301
Katherine Moubray, (fn. 32) occurs 18 March
1343-4
Alice Page, (fn. 33) resigned June 1377
Elizabeth Cothom, (fn. 34) confirmed 1460, resigned
1481-2 (fn. 35)
Elizabeth Davell, (fn. 36) elected March 1481-2,
resigned 1497 (fn. 37)
Agnes Thomlynson, (fn. 38) elected August 1497
Margaret Bukton, (fn. 39) elected November 1523
Joan Fletcher, (fn. 40) elected August 1524
Elizabeth Raighton, (fn. 41) elected 1527