11. THE ABBEY OF MALLING
Gundulf, bishop of Rochester (1077-1108),
towards the end of the twelfth century founded
this monastery in the manor of Mailing, which
had been in the possession of the bishopric before
the Conquest. William II confirmed the grant
by a charter which is witnessed by R. bishop of
Durham, and must therefore belong to the years
1099 of 1100; and it seems probable that the
foundation was not much earlier. Henry I confirmed the grant of the manor to the nuns by
charter early in his reign; and by another
charter, witnessed by Anselm, archbishop of
Canterbury (1093-1109), he confirmed to them
the manor of Cornard in Suffolk, which Robert
son of Hamo had granted to them. These three
charters were confirmed by Edward III in 1347. (fn. 3)
John on 12 April, 1206, confirmed the church
of East Mailing to the abbey; (fn. 4) and a vicarage
was ordained there in 1339. (fn. 5) The possessions
and rights of the abbey, which was dedicated to
St. Mary, were also confirmed by several bishops of
Rochester; (fn. 6) and the abbess paid ten pounds of
wax and a boar yearly to them. (fn. 7)
On 27 July, 1190, the monastery and nearly
all the town were consumed by fire. (fn. 8)
The Taxation of 1291 mentions temporalities
of the abbey valued at £45 yearly in the diocese of
Rochester, £3 0s. 10d. at West well, £33 19s. 11d.
at Cornard in Suffolk, and £1 2s;. 6d. at Wimbish
and 6s. 8d. at Sible Hedingham in Essex, making
a total of £83 9s. 11d.; besides spiritualities of
£5 6s. 8d. in Wouldham (fn. 9) and 10s. in Wimbish.
In 1318 the abbess and convent had licence (fn. 10) to
make an exchange of lands in Suffolk with
Thomas Grey, but the transaction does not appear
to have been finally settled until 1446. (fn. 11)
The abbess successfully claimed view of frankpledge and various other liberties at East Mailing
and Mailing in 1293 (fn. 12) and 1313; (fn. 13) and on the
latter occasion she also claimed and was allowed
to have markets at Mailing on Wednesdays and
Saturdays, and three fairs there yearly, viz. on the
vigils and the days of St. Peter, St. Martin, and
St. Leonard.
Archbishop Winchelsey issued long injunctions
after a visitation of the abbey in 1299, in which
he expressed his approval of the statutes made by
Thomas, bishop of Rochester. In addition he
ordered the profession of nuns after probation, regular attendance at divine service, the frequent
presence of the abbess in the cloister, and the exclusion of seculars from thence, arid forbade the
sale of bread and ale. Two of the seniors were
appointed to the office of treasurer, and four incontinent nuns were punished. (fn. 14)
William de Dene mentions Mailing several
times in his history of the church of Rochester.
In 1321 he narrates (fn. 15) how the king directed the
bishop to go to Mailing, which according to the
complaints of all the nuns had been ruined by the
abbess, a sister of the rebel Bartholomew de
Badlesmere, and to correct the defects and depose
her. The bishop made a visitation (fn. 16) in November and heard many complaints. All the officials
were made to give up their keys, and the abbess
was called upon to render an account, but could
not do so and was removed from administration.
The office of cellarer, which she had held, was
given to Alice de Gaunt, and the abbey was committed to the custody of the prioress and sacrist,
the rector of Off ham and a layman. Agnes de
Leyburne was elected abbess, though rather
informally, according to Dene; and he says that
on her death in 1324, about the time of the
feast of the Exaltation of the Cross, at the
unanimous desire of the nuns the bishop unwillingly appointed Lora de Retlyng abbess,
though knowing her to be unfit and ignorant, but
forbade her to give a corrody to her maid according to the bad old custom and sequestrated the
common seal. (fn. 17)
In 1336 the bishop inhibited the nuns from
receiving seculars in the abbey and from going
out of it themselves. (fn. 18) In 1349, the year of the
plague, two abbesses were appointed, both of
whom died, and there only remained four professed nuns, and four not professed; and the
bishop committed the temporalities to one, and
the spiritualities to another, as none was fit to be
abbess. (fn. 19) In the next year the monastery was
found at his visitation to be so ruined by bad
management, that it seemed unlikely that it could
be repaired by the Day of Judgement. (fn. 20)
Pope Boniface IX on 5 December, 1400,
ordered the abbess and convent to assign a -room
within the precincts of the monastery to Cecily
Batesford, one of the nuns, and a nun chosen by
her to be her companion for life; as a certain
infirmity prevented her from being present at the
canonical hours in choir and chapter without
great affliction. (fn. 21) Cecily appears to have recovered, for she died abbess in 1439; and in the
next year her sister Joan Brincheslee made grants
to the convent, who agreed in return that on
14 July, the day of Cecily's death, there should
be celebration for Cecily and Joan with a distribution of three flagons of wine, one to the
abbess if present and two to the convent. (fn. 22)
The bishop gave notice of visitation of the
abbey in August, 1441, (fn. 23) but the result is not
recorded.
In the Valor (fn. 24) of 1535 the possessions of the
abbey were valued at £245 10s. 2½d. yearly, from
which rents, pensions, and fees amounting to
£27 6s. had to be deducted, leaving the net
income £218 4s. 2½d.; and it was thus rich
enough to escape the first dissolution. Elizabeth
Rede was then abbess, and had trouble in the
early part of the year in connexion with the
stewardship of the abbey, which she had promised
to her brother-in-law Sir Thomas Willoughby
for his son, (fn. 25) and then granted to Sir Edward
Wotton, another brother-in-law. (fn. 26) Cromwell
wished it to be given to his nephew Richard, (fn. 27)
and Sir Thomas Neville was another applicant, (fn. 28)
but the king promised it to Thomas Wyatt.
Wotton wrote to Cromwell on 27 February to
protest against being deprived of it, (fn. 29) but soon
recognized the uselessness of this, and a week
later (fn. 30) wrote to say that he had returned his
patent to the abbess, who was not at all pleased.
This affair was probably one of the reasons
that brought about her resignation in the following year. The details are not known; but on
24 September she made application (fn. 31) through Sir
Thomas Willoughby to Cromwell that she might
have the lodging in the monastery which her
predecessors ' that have likewise resigned ' had
had, and also the plate which her father had
given her for her chamber. The new abbess
was Margaret Vernon, who had shown herself to
be a capable administrator when prioress of the
recently dissolved nunnery of Little Marlow, (fn. 32) but
whose principal recommendation was the fact that
she was an old personal friend of Cromwell. (fn. 33)
When the abbey was seen to be doomed,
attempts to secure possession of it were made by
Sir Thomas Neville and Sir Thomas Wyatt and
others, (fn. 34) but we know no more of its history until
it was formally surrendered (fn. 35) on 29 October,
1538. The abbess asked leave to sell the manor
of Cornard to make provision for the nuns instead
of pensions, pay off her servants and buy herself
a living with such of her friends as would take
her; (fn. 36) but this was not granted. In the next
year pensions were given, (fn. 37) of £40 yearly to herself and smaller sums to eleven other nuns, Felex
Cockes, Arminal Gere, Margaret Gyles, Joan
Randall, Lettice Bucke, Beatrice Wylliams,
Juliana Wheatnall, Joan Hull, Elizabeth Pympe,
Agnes West, and Rose Morton.
The site of the monastery and most of its
possessions, including the manors of West
Mailing, Ewell, East Mailing, Parrock, Leyton,
and Great Cornard and the rectories of West
Mailing, East Mailing, and Great Cornard were
granted on 28 April, 1540, to the archbishop of
Canterbury. (fn. 38)
Abbesses Of Malling
Avice, (fn. 39) the first abbess
Elizabeth de Badlesmere, deposed 1321 (fn. 40)
Agnes de Leyburne, elected 1321, (fn. 41) died
1324 (fn. 42)
Lora de Retlyng, elected 1324, (fn. 43) died 1345 (fn. 44)
Isabel de Pecham, elected 1345, (fn. 44) died 1349 (fn. 45)
Benedicta de Grey, elected and died 1349 (fn. 46)
Alice de Tendrihg, elected 1349 (fn. 47)
Marjory de Pateshull, died 1309 (fn. 48)
Isabel Ruton, occurs 1414 (fn. 48a)
Joan, occurs 1420 (fn. 49)
Cecily Batesford, died 1439 (fn. 50)
Katharine Weston, elected 1439, (fn. 51) occurs
1469 (fn. 51a)
Joan Mone or Moone, occurs circa 1484, (fn. 52)
died 1495 (fn. 53)
Elizabeth Hulle, elected 1495, (fn. 54) died 1524 (fn. 55)
Elizabeth Danyell, elected and died 1524 (fn. 56)
Elizabeth Rede, elected 1524, (fn. 57) resigned
1536 (fn. 58)
Margaret Vernon, appointed 1536, (fn. 59) the last
abbess (fn. 60)
The seal (fn. 61) of the abbey (fifteenth century) is
a pointed oval measuring 2⅝ by 1¼ inches,
representing the Virgin, with crown and nimbus,
seated in a canopied niche with tabernacle work
at the sides, holding the Child on the right knee
and a sceptre in the left hand. In base, under
a round-headed arch, an abbess with pastoral
staff. The inner border engrailed. Legend:—
SIGILLE COMMUNE MONA .... BEATE MARIE
DE MALLING.