HOUSE OF AUGUSTINIAN CANONESSES
13. THE PRIORY OF ST. LEONARD, BREWOOD
Nothing is known of the foundation of St.
Leonard's priory, Brewood, commonly called
'White Ladies', but a community of Augustinian
canonesses was certainly fully established there
before the end of Henry II's reign. Surviving ruins
of the church are characteristic of the late 12th
century; (fn. 1) and a charter granted to Haughmond
Abbey by Emma, daughter of Reynold of Pulverbatch, not later than 1186, mentions a previous grant
of a virgate in Beobridge to the white nuns of
Brewood. (fn. 2) The site of the priory in the forest of
Brewood was extra-parochial and extra-manorial and
gives no clue to the identity of the founder. It was
not in the royal patronage, (fn. 3) though King John
showed some interest in the priory: he granted the
nuns a weir in the River Severn near Bridgnorth (fn. 4)
and in 1212 he exempted six bovates of land which
they already held in Calverton (Notts.) from all
secular obligations. (fn. 5) Some local property may have
come from the family of la Zouche; certainly
Elizabeth la Zouche became a nun there a little
before 1314. (fn. 6) Either the Lacy family, who held the
manor of Montford with Forton, or the FitzAlans,
who later acquired it by marriage, (fn. 7) may have taken
a share in the establishment of the priory,
for the nuns received the church of Montford
and some demesne tithes there before 1216. (fn. 8)
No lay lord, however, ever claimed a patron's rights
during the vacancies: only the bishop's licence to
elect was sought and he may have had the patronage. (fn. 9)
Most of the nuns' property came to them as small
gifts from local families of modest wealth: half a
virgate, a mill or a fishery, pasture rights, or scattered
rents. (fn. 10) Some of the properties were the dowries of
nuns; thus Bartholomew Terret gave a virgate in
Lawley with his sister Gundred, (fn. 11) while Sir
Richard of Harley and Burga his wife, who gave
half a virgate and the advowson of the church of
Bold in 1309, (fn. 12) were probably the parents of Alice
of Harley, who became prioress in 1332. (fn. 13) Apart
from the demesne of Calverton and the church of
Tibshelf (Derb.) (fn. 14) most of the properties lay
scattered to the south and west of Brewood, extending as far as High Ercall and the lower slopes of
Brown Clee Hill. By 1535-6 revenue was derived
from small properties in Beckbury, Berrington,
Chatwall (in Cardington), Donington, High Ercall,
Humphreston (in Donington), Ingardine (in
Stottesdon), Highley, Rudge, Haughton (probably in
Shifnal), Sutton Maddock, and Tong (fn. 15) and from the
appropriated rectories of Montford (fn. 16) and Tibshelf. (fn. 17)
The church of Bold, which had been appropriated
in 1310, (fn. 18) was united with Aston Botterell in 1481
and the nuns thereafter received only a small pension
from it. (fn. 19) The demesnes at Brewood and Calverton
were enlarged by assarting and grant or purchase in
the 13th and early 14th centuries. (fn. 20)
The house normally supported about five nuns
with the prioress. Here, as in a small number of
other Augustinian communities, a white habit was
worn, which led Leland and many subsequent
writers to describe it as Cistercian. (fn. 21) It was under the
routine supervision of the bishops of Lichfield, who
confirmed elections, licensed nuns of proved devotion to transfer to a stricter order, (fn. 22) arranged for the
return of apostate nuns, (fn. 23) and regularly visited the
priory. Records of visitations in the episcopal registers illustrate the normal problems of a small,
poor house, but there were no grave charges. In
1338 Bishop Northburgh reprimanded the prioress
for financial mismanagement and forbade her to
admit more nuns than the revenues could support,
requiring her to be less extravagant in dress and to
give up hunting and keeping hounds. (fn. 24) In 1498 Bishop
Arundel assigned a pension to a prioress on her
retirement. She was to receive the profits of Tibshelf rectory but if she remained at Brewood she was
to pay for her food, (fn. 25) a reasonable stipulation since
her pension represented over 20 per cent. of the
income of the house. In 1521 (fn. 26) the convent was free
of debt but the prioress did not know how to render
account and two nuns complained that their salaries
were in arrears. (fn. 27) Three years later the dormitory was
in bad repair. (fn. 28) Possibly the property continued to
run down for at the Dissolution it was reported to be
'in great decay'. (fn. 29) In 1535 revenues amounted to only
£31 1s. 4d. and expenses, including £5 for the
nuns' chaplain, totalled £13 10s. 8d. (fn. 30) The accounts
of 1536 agree almost exactly with the 1535 figures; (fn. 31)
there can have been little margin for repairs in a
time of rising prices, when most of the property was
let out on long leases at fixed rents. (fn. 32)
The priory was suppressed with the smaller houses
in 1536 and the prioress received a pension of £5. (fn. 33)
After an unsuccessful attempt by Lord Stafford to
purchase the property, (fn. 34) it was leased to William
Skeffington of Wolverhampton in 1538. (fn. 35) In 1540
the reversion was sold to William Whorwood (fn. 36)
and the estate later passed to the Giffard family. (fn. 37)
The greater part of the stone of the church was
on the site in 1587 and substantial ruins still remain. (fn. 38)
The late-12th-century building, which appears to
have had few subsequent alterations, was a simple
cruciform church with a nave of five bays, a chancel
of three bays, and north and south transepts without
chapels. Most of the north wall is standing, rising to
eaves level in the chancel. A fine round-headed arch
with scalloped and foliage-carved capitals, leading to
the north transept, is still intact. There is a plain
round-headed window to each bay of nave and
chancel. Parts of the west wall, the south wall of
the nave, and the south wall of the south transept
also survive. At the west end of the nave are doorways
with attached shafts in both north and south walls;
the former has an unusual lobed roll-moulding
applied to the arch. In the later Middle Ages a sacristy
was added north of the chancel: a corresponding
building on the south, probably a chapel, was built
about the same time. The church continued until
1844 to be used as a Roman Catholic burial ground
and a 19th-century graveyard wall stands on the
foundations of the east wall of chapel and chancel.
Nothing remains of the conventual buildings,
which stood to the north of the church, though
there is evidence that the lean-to roof of the cloister
ran alongside the north wall of the nave. A large
timber-framed house which was built at White
Ladies in the later 16th century and has since
disappeared was said to contain 18 bays in 1587. (fn. 39)
Charles II, who had spent a day in hiding at White
Ladies immediately after his defeat at the battle of
Worcester, commissioned a painting c. 1670 showing the house in some detail. (fn. 40) It may have incorporated part of the prioress's lodging if, as has been
suggested, it stood west of the former cloister, a
favoured position for such a lodging. (fn. 41) The conventual buildings themselves, like the later house,
were probably timber-framed, for excavation has
failed to reveal any foundations.
Prioresses of St. Leonard's, Brewood
Aldith, occurs c. 1225. (fn. 42)
Cecily, occurs 1225 × 33. (fn. 43)
Agnes, occurs 1254 (fn. 44) and 1256. (fn. 45)
Sarah, occurs 1292. (fn. 46)
Joan, occurs, 1315. (fn. 47)
Joan of Hugford, occurs 1331, (fn. 48) resigned 1332. (fn. 49)
Alice of Harley, elected 1332, died 1349. (fn. 50)
Beatrice de Dene, elected 1349. (fn. 51)
Margaret Corbet, occurs 1377 and 1381. (fn. 52)
Joan Fillilode, occurs 1409. (fn. 53)
Isabel Creghton, died 1463. (fn. 54)
Joan Shirley, elected 1463, (fn. 55) occurs 1484. (fn. 56)
Elizabeth Horde, elected 1485, (fn. 57) occurs 1490–1. (fn. 58)
Alice Wood, elected 1491, (fn. 59) resigned 1498. (fn. 60)
Margaret Cowper, elected 1498. (fn. 61)
Margaret Sandford, occurs from 1510 (fn. 62) to 1536. (fn. 63)
No seal known.