HOUSE OF CISTERCIAN MONKS
15. THE ABBEY OF BOXLEY
The abbey of St. Mary, Boxley, was founded,
according to Manrique, (fn. 1) on 28 October, 1146,
by William of Ypres, son of the count of Flanders, and colonized from Clairvaux in France,
one of the four principal daughter-houses of
Clteaux. The founder was the ruler of practically the whole of Kent under Stephen, and a
man of evil reputation; and it is said that the
Cistercians promised him absolution from his
sins if he would give them the manor of Boxley,
which the king had given him, for the foundation
of a monastery. (fn. 2)
The abbey is mentioned occasionally in the
early chronicles. In 1171 the abbot was one of
those who hastily buried Thomas Becket, the
murdered archbishop of Canterbury. (fn. 3) In 1175
he attended the council held at Westminster on
18 May. (fn. 4) In 1193 the abbots of Boxley and
Robertsbridge were sent abroad to search for
Richard I, whom they found in Bavaria on Palm
Sunday. (fn. 5) In 1233 the abbot was appointed
with two colleagues by the pope to make a
visitation of some exempt Benedictine monasteries; but this was strongly resented, especially
by St. Augustine's, Canterbury, and in consequence the commission was superseded. (fn. 6)
In the general Cistercian chapter in 1198 the
abbot was sentenced to three days' punishment,
one of them on bread and water, for having
received gifts from houses where he had made
visitations. (fn. 6a)
The abbot was summoned to Parliament
several times under Edward I, but not afterwards. (fn. 7)
Richard I on 7 December, 1189, granted to
the monks a charter confirming their possessions,
which was renewed by him on 10 November,
1198, and confirmed by Henry III on 24 April,
1253. (fn. 8) The latter king also in the same year
granted to them free warren in their demesne
lands in the counties of Kent and Sussex, (fn. 9)
These charters were also confirmed by Edward I
in 1290, (fn. 10) and Edward IV in 1473. (fn. 11) In 1279,
before the justices in eyre at Canterbury, the
abbot claimed (fn. 12) various liberties, some of which
were allowed, citing the charters of Richard I
and Henry III. The jury found, however, that
he had no user of free warren except in the
manor of Boxley. Edward III on 24 September,
1359, at the request of Richard de Cherteseye,
a lay-brother of the abbey, granted to the abbot
and convent free warren in certain of their
demesne lands. (fn. 13)
In the Taxation of 1291 the temporalities
of the abbey in the diocese of Canterbury,
including the manor of Boxley, were valued at
£62 14s. 7d. yearly; and it also owned temporalities worth £9 4s. 10d. in Hoo, £1 18s. 8d.
in London, £1 4s;. in Chessington in Surrey, and
13s. 4d. in Yarmouth, making a total of
£,75 15s. 5d. The church of Stoke was
appropriated to it by Richard, bishop of Rochester,
in 1244, and confirmed by Pope Clement IV and
Boniface, archbishop of Canterbury. (fn. 14) The
abbot and convent had licence in 1314 to acquire
from the Cistercian abbey of Dunes in Flanders
land and the advowson of the church of Eastchurch in Sheppey, and to appropriate the
church. (fn. 15) They were also pardoned for acquiring
lands in mortmain without licence in Boxley,
Hoo, and Chingley in 1309, (fn. 16) and in Upchurch,
Hoo, Chessington, Ticehurst, Goudhurst, Staplehurst, Wrotham, Maidstone, and Eastchurch in
1329. (fn. 17) The parish church of Boxley belonged
to the cathedral priory of Rochester before the
foundation of the abbey. The Cistercians
claimed exemption from payment of tithes, but
Pope Alexander III ordered the monks to pay
the tithes due to the church, (fn. 18) and an agreement
between the two houses was made in 1180, and
confirmed by Richard, archbishop of Canterbury. (fn. 19)
A number of accounts (fn. 19a) are preserved of
obedientiaries of the abbey in the fourteenth and
fifteenth centuries, including the bursar, cellarer,
sub-cellarer, sacristan and keepers of the bakery,
granary, infirmary, and mills; and in these the
expenses are set out in considerable detail.
The crown claimed corrodies in the abbey.
In 1331, when summoned before the King's
Bench to answer for their refusal to admit John
Maunsel to a corrody in their house, such as
Andrew Trayour, deceased, had, the abbot and
convent produced charters of the king's progenitors proving that they held their lands in
frankalmoign discharged of all secular charges
and demands. (fn. 20) But, nevertheless, in 1432
Thomas Barton was sent to the abbey for such
maintenance as Richard Durant, deceased, had. (fn. 21)
In 1395 the abbots of Stratford, Boxley, and
St. Mary Graces held a chapter of the order at
London, and visited the other houses in England,
Wales, and Ireland by authority of Pope
Boniface IX, the abbot of Citeaux being a
schismatic. (fn. 22)
In 1411 a chantry was founded at the altar of
St. Stephen in the abbey for the souls of John
Freningham, Alice his wife, Ralph his father,
and Katharine his mother, buried there. (fn. 22a)
In 1422 a commission was appointed to
inquire whether the abbot and convent had been
ejected from any lands belonging to them. (fn. 23)
There appear to have been dissensions in the
abbey in 1512-13, for Abbot John appealed then
to the crown for the arrest of four monks,
William Milton, William Sandwich, Robert
Blechenden, and John Farham, as rebellious and
apostate. (fn. 24)
Boxley is best known through its celebrated
Rood of Grace, a cross with an image supposed
to be miraculously gifted with movement and
speech. More than a century before the Dissolution the abbey is spoken (fn. 25) of as 'called the
abbey of the Holy Cross of Grace.' Archbishop
Warham, writing (fn. 26) to Wolsey in connexion
with claims against the abbey, says that it was
much sought after by visitors to the Rood from
all parts of the realm, and so he would be sorry
to put it under an interdict. He calls it 'so holy
a place where so many miracles be showed.' But
the image proved to be a gross imposture. Geoffrey Chamber, employed in defacing the monastery and plucking it down, wrote (fn. 27) to Cromwell
on 7 February, 1538, that he found in it certain
engines and old wire, with old rotten sticks in
the back, which caused the eyes to move and
stir in the head thereof, 'like unto a lively
thing,' and also, the nether lip likewise to move
as though it should speak, ' which was not a little
strange to him and others present.' He examined the abbot and old monks, who declared
themselves ignorant of it; and considering that
the people of Kent had in time past a great
devotion to the image and used continual
pilgrimages there, he conveyed it to Maidstone
that day, a market day, and showed it to the
people, ' who had the matter in wondrous
detestation and hatred so that if the monastery
had to be defaced again they would pluck it
down or burn it.' The image was afterwards
taken to London and exhibited during a sermon
by the bishop of Rochester at St. Paul's Cross,
arid then cut to pieces and burnt. (fn. 28) The news
of the exposure appears to have been widely
spread, and probably nothing was more damaging
to the case for the monasteries.
Cardinal Campeggio passed the night of
Monday, 26 July, 1518, at the abbey on his
way to London. (fn. 29) Three years later we hear of
a priest sent to prison at Maidstone for pulling
down writings and seals set up at the abbey
against the ill opinions of Martin Luther. (fn. 30)
Thomas, abbot of Ford, was commissioned (fn. 31)
to visit Boxley among other Cistercian houses in
1535, but nothing is known of the result of his
visitation. In the Valor (fn. 32) of that year the gross
value of all the possessions of the abbey, including
the manors of Hoo, Ham in Upchurch, Chingley in Goudhurst, and Friern in Chessington, and
the parsonages of Eastchurch and Stoke, amounted
to £218 19s. 10d. yearly, besides 25 quarters of
barley; from which deductions of £14. 14s. 11d.
were made for rents and fees, leaving the net
value £208 4s. 11d. besides the barley. The
abbey thus just passed the limit of wealth drawn
for the first dissolution. But it did not survive
long; on 29 January, 1538, it was formally
surrendered (fn. 33) by John Dobbes, abbot, and the
convent. A pension of £50 yearly was assigned (fn. 34)
to the abbot on 12 February and, smaller sums
to nine others. The site of the monastery and
other possessions, including the manors of Boxley,
Hoo and Newnham Court, were granted (fn. 35) to
Sir Thomas Wyatt on 10 July, 1540.
Abbots of Boxley
Lambert (fn. 36)
Thomas, (fn. 37) elected 1152-3
Walter (fn. 38)
John (fn. 39)
Denis (fn. 40)
Robert, occurs 1197, (fn. 41) died 1214 (fn. 42)
John, elected 1216, (fn. 43) resigned 1236 (fn. 44)
Simon, occurs 1243 (fn. 45)
Alexander, occurs 1248 (fn. 45a)
Henry, occurs 1279 (fn. 46)
Gilbert, elected 1289 (fn. 46a)
Robeit, occurs 1303 (fn. 47)
William de Romenee, occurs 1345 (fn. 48)
John de Heriettisham, occurs 1368 (fn. 49)
Richard Shepey, elected 1415 (fn. 50)
John, occurs 1446 (fn. 51)
John, Wormsell, occurs 1474, 1481 (fn. 52)
Thomas Essex, occurs 1489 (fn. 52a)
Robert Rayfelde or Reyfeld, occurs 1494, (fn. 53)
1498 (fn. 54)
John, occurs 1513, (fn. 55) 1516, 1527 (fn. 55a)
John Dobbes, occurs 1533, (fn. 56) the last abbot (fn. 57)
The seal (fn. 58) of the abbey (1336) is of red wax
measuring 2½ in.
Obverse,—The Virgin, crowned; in the
right hand a cinquefoiled rose, in the left the
Child, wearing nimbus and lifting up his right
hand in benediction, in his left hand an orb.
She is seated on a carved throne under a canopy
or arcade of three pointed arches, trefoiled,
pinnacled, and crocketed, supported with a
column of tabernacle work on: either side, in
each arch a small quatrefoiled opening containing
a saint's head. In base, under a trefoiled arch,
with arcading in the spandrels, three monks
half-length, in profile to the right in prayer. In
the field at the side two box trees. Above the
crocketings of the canopy two small birds.
Legend in two rings:—
Outer:—SIGILLF [COMM]UNE ECcE B[E MARIE
DE BOXEL]E.
Inner:—SIT BUXUS . . . TIBI [CORDI VIRGO
BEATA],
Reverse.—Two abbots standing in two niches
with trefoiled arches, each holding a book in the
outer and a pastoral staff in the inner hand.
Over them a church-like canopy, supported by
a slender column in the centre, and at the sides
by carved buttresses, pinnacled and crocketed.
In the field at the sides two box trees. Legend
in two rings:—
Outer:—[QUI LAVDANT HIC TE] DEFENCE
[TUOS B]ENEpCE.
Inner:— .... [PCICIA FACITO] B[ERNARDE]
MARIAM.
Illegible legend on the rim.