HOUSE OF BENEDICTINE NUNS
THE PRIORY OF CHESTER
In the middle 12th century Ranulph II, earl of Chester,
granted some crofts from his demesne to the nuns of
Chester. On the site, to the north west of the castle,
were to be built the conventual buildings and a church
dedicated to St. Mary. (fn. 1) It has been pointed out that
the earl was dealing with a body of nuns already in
existence and the original founder was possibly Hugh,
son of Oliver, a citizen of Chester, who held the crofts
from the earl. (fn. 2) The community is, however, unlikely
to have been in being for long before the site was
granted and Ranulph II was traditionally regarded by
the nuns as their founder. (fn. 3) In its very early days the
community was connected in some way with the
nunnery founded c. 1145 at Clerkenwell in Middlesex. (fn. 4) In 1186 Urban III confirmed to St. Mary,
Clerkenwell, the grant by Ranulph, Earl of Chester, of
the conventual church of the nuns of Chester, and in a
confirmation by Richard I in 1190 the grant was said
to have been of the place where the nuns of Chester
dwelt. (fn. 5) Any connexion between the two houses had
lapsed by the early 13th century. (fn. 6) Ranulph II was not
a very generous benefactor to the nuns of Chester.
When granting the site of the church and convent he
freed the nuns of all tolls and secular exactions and
gave them the privilege of their own court; he also
gave them the right to fish from a boat on the Dee and
annual rents of 40s. in 'Wic' and one mark in the
earldom of Chester. (fn. 7) His son, Hugh II, gave them the
church of Over, and their right to the advowson of its
dependent chapel of Budworth was confirmed by
Hugh's son, Ranulph III. (fn. 8) In addition Ranulph III
gave them the manor of Wallerscote in Delamere
forest and the right to grind corn for their table free in
the mills of Chester. (fn. 9)
Members of the circle of the earls of Chester
increased the house's possessions by giving land, usually in Chester or its suburbs and often on the occasion
of members of their families joining the community.
Richard the Butler, who witnessed the 'foundation'
charter, gave the nuns three tenements in Lorimers'
Row when his mother Gunmore took the veil (fn. 10) and a
few years later Matilda de Roges brought with her to
the convent land in Christleton granted by her son
Robert. Richard, son of Alfred, gave the nuns land in
Handbridge with his daughters Beatrice and Juette and
this grant was confirmed by Simon his brother-in-law
who was probably a member of the Boydell family.
Simon himself, his brother William, and his son Ralph
made further grants to the house of land in Chester,
Claverton, and Golborne. Brice Panton and Margery
his wife gave some land in Nantwich in the early
1180s; their grant was witnessed by Nicholas and
Lewis, sons of William the reeve, whose mother
Eddusa granted the nuns a salt-pit in Nantwich when
her daughter Agatha joined the community. (fn. 11) The
latter grant was witnessed by Peter, the clerk of the
earl of Chester, who himself gave them land on the
walls of Chester close to their buildings. (fn. 12) In the 1230s
and 1240s the house acquired land in Waverton and
c. 1269 William Tabley granted all his demesne in
Old Waverton in return for burial in the nuns'
graveyard and other spiritual benefits. (fn. 13) Many of the
grants during the 13th century were not of land but of
rents, which were evidently worth more to the nuns as
many of the early grants of lands in Chester and
elsewhere were converted into rent-charges during the
century. (fn. 14) The nuns acquired only one new church
during the 13th century. In 1219 Hugh of Wells,
bishop of Lincoln, granted them the church of
Sutterby in Lincolnshire; they were presenting to it
at the end of the century but had lost it by the
dissolution. (fn. 15)
Little is known about the size or state of the house in
its first 150 years. It was evidently regarded as an
attractive place for burials and in an agreement with
the monks of St. Werburgh's and the canons of St.
John's the nuns promised not to entice any of the
inhabitants of Chester to be buried with them and to
share the offerings of those who chose to be buried
within their precinct. (fn. 16) The nuns were partially supported by alms of 40s. a year from the earls of Chester
in the 12th and early 13th centuries and those alms,
together with a quarter of the tithes of the expenses of
the royal household whenever the king was in Chester,
continued to be paid by the Crown after 1237. (fn. 17) Henry
III also remitted a rent of 10 marks a year due from
two carucates of the royal demesne held by the nuns;
in 1244 the remission was said to be on account of
their poverty and the losses they had sustained by
Welsh raids. (fn. 18) The house was certainly in financial
difficulties by the middle of the century. In 1246 the
justice of Chester was empowered to give the royal
assent to the election of a new prioress to save expense
to the nuns and in 1253, at the time of another
election, the nuns complained to Queen Eleanor that
they were reduced to begging daily for their food. (fn. 19) A
few years later the house was under the wardenship of
the prior of Denhall hospital; (fn. 20) that guardianship and
a handful of new grants of lands and rents made in the
later 13th century may have been in response to the
poverty of the house. One provided a lamp in the nuns'
dormitory. (fn. 21) It was at that time that John Noble,
citizen of Chester, and his wife, Eve Doubleday, later
remembered as a principal benefactor, gave the nuns
property in Chester the rents from which were to be
used by the warden or prioress to maintain the church
fabric and provide 12d. for each nun on her
anniversary. (fn. 22) By 1277 the nuns had converted their
various royal alms into a fixed annual payment of
24 marks and by 1300 the sum had been increased to
£26 12s. 2d. by the addition of compensation for the
loss of tithes in Over caused by the surrender of land to
the king to endow Vale Royal abbey, and by the
exchange of land in Wallerscote for a rent of 10s. from
Middlewich. (fn. 23) At the dissolution that payment of alms
was the largest single item in the revenues of the house
and the fact that arrears of £93 16s. 6d. were owing in
1297 must have added considerably to the nuns'
financial hardship, although payment was regular in
the earlier 14th century. (fn. 24)
There were few new grants of land or rents during
the earlier 14th century, except for a plot of land
acquired in exchange for a plot of a similar size next to
the Franciscan friary and for two tenements in Northgate Street granted by Cecily Crompton who was
named first in a chantry for benefactors set up in
1343. (fn. 25) In 1318 the prioress sold the half of Over
rectory. (fn. 26) When Bishop Roger Northburgh visited the
house in 1331 he found that its revenues were hardly
sufficient to support its members and he forbade the
prioress to admit any more nuns without his permission; he also forbade corrodies and fees for admitting
novices. The prioress and other officers were to present
their accounts once or twice a year to the whole
convent or to a committee of the more senior nuns and
the convent seal was to be kept in a coffer whose keys
were to be held by the prioress, the subprioress, and a
nun chosen by the convent. Apart from lax financial
administration Northburgh found little wrong with
the state of the house and the rest of his injunctions
dealt with the problems commonly found in nunneries
at that period. (fn. 27) The number of laywomen in the house
caused concern to the farmer of the royal mills of the
Dee. He demanded tolls for the corn and malt ground
for the sustenance of the 'divers ladies, damsels and
children' kept at the prioress's table but was ordered in
1358 to extend freedom from toll to all the inmates. (fn. 28)
The Black Prince also supported the nuns when their
freedom from toll and exemption from local taxation for their tenants was attacked by the Chester
authorities. In May 1354 the mayor and sheriffs were
ordered to stop distraining the nuns' tenants for a
contribution towards a fine of 500 marks, but later in
the year those tenants who engaged in trade and
benefited from the franchises of the city were excluded
from the exemption. (fn. 29) The privileges enjoyed by
the nuns' tenants caused considerable concern and
jealousy in the city; when the Black Prince issued a
charter in 1358 defining the extent of the privileges
those tenants who were freemen were excluded and
the nuns were warned that they must not allow their
tenants to exercise any craft or trade injurious to the
citizens. (fn. 30) In 1383 the prioress and convent complained to the king that their tenants were prevented
from enjoying the privileges granted by the Black
Prince and it was confirmed that their tenants who
were not members of the gild merchant were to be quit
of tolls. (fn. 31) In 1391-2, however, under an agreement
with the city authorities the prioress was obliged to
give a bond of £1,000 that her tenants would appear at
courts and pay dues like other citizens. (fn. 32) That attack
on the nuns' privileges does not appear to have been
successful for long, as the prioress asserted the full
privileges of the house at the quo warranto inquiries in
1499 and in the 16th century the nuns were paying the
city an annual gable rent of 20s. 'for liberties given
unto them'. (fn. 33)
In addition to the annual payment of alms (fn. 34) the nuns
were occasionally helped by members of the royal
family. (fn. 35) That help often took the form of timber from
the forests of the earldom: in 1362 they were given six
oaks from Peckforton park and in 1394 two oaks from
Shotwick park to repair the church and other buildings. (fn. 36) Between 1400 and 1417 they were regularly
allowed ten loads of fuel. (fn. 37) More substantial help,
however, came from additional endowments. In 1362
the Black Prince granted them the advowson of the
church of Llangathen (Carms.) and in 1365 the
advowson of the chapel of Llanharan (Glam.); in 1373
they were released from the penalties of the Statute of
Mortmain for neglecting to obtain a royal licence to
appropriate their new church and chapel. (fn. 38) In 1388
they were released, because of their poverty, from the
obligation as rectors of Llangathen to maintain a
chaplain to say mass in Dryslwyn castle. (fn. 39) In the same
year the king, who had learnt that the nuns had 'but a
half-penny a day each for their pittance, besides bread
and ale', granted them the advowson, with licence to
appropriate, of the church of Lanbeblig and its chapel
of Carnarvon. (fn. 40) The house already had a connexion
with Carnarvon since in 1379 a chantry had been
established for Robert Parys of Carnarvon (d. by
1377) and his wife at the altar dedicated to St. John the
Baptist. (fn. 41) The Welsh churches added much to the
income of the house: in 1535 they yielded £18 out of a
total income of £25 10s. from spiritualities. (fn. 42) When the
churches were temporarily lost as a result of the Welsh
revolt in the early 15th century the nuns were granted
compensation of 10 marks a year out of the fee farm of
Shrewsbury and the payment was continued until
1447 on account of the poverty of the house. (fn. 43) In 1381
the prioress and convent were licensed to acquire in
mortmain lands worth 20 marks a year again allegedly
because of the poverty of the house; (fn. 44) it took ten years
for the nuns to amass lands and rents of the permitted
value. (fn. 45) The new property was concentrated in Chester, Claverton, and Lache and was added to other
property in the same area which the nuns had acquired
by purchase or exchange; in 1352 they bought two
houses and 40 a. of land in Lache and in 1360 they
exchanged their manor of Wallerscote for a house and
87 a. of land also in Lache. (fn. 46)
The additional endowments seem to have alleviated
the financial problems of the house although payment
of alms became irregular in the 15th century. (fn. 47) The
house was regularly exempted from taxation in view
of its poverty, (fn. 48) but difficulties in the 15th century
were caused rather by incompetence. Numbers were
limited according to the income: in 1379 and 1381
there were 13 nuns; 8 nuns (not including novices)
petitioned the bishop at an election in 1473; from
1496 to the dissolution in 1540 the number of professed nuns and novices fluctuated between 12 and 14. (fn. 49)
The names of nuns which have survived suggest that
many of the inmates in the later middle ages were the
daughters of Cheshire gentlemen and Chester citizens. (fn. 50) Ties of kinship and friendship probably explain
the occasional bequest to members of the house at that
period: in 1415 Adam de Mottrum, precentor of
Salisbury cathedral, left ten marks to the prioress and
nuns and three years later Thomas of Crewe left 100
marks to his sister Elizabeth, the prioress. (fn. 51) If some of
the nuns were of good family, they were not, in
general, very competent. In the middle years of the
15th century they could not conduct valid elections of
prioresses: in 1441 the bishop collated after a threemonth vacancy, in 1449 and 1479 elections were
declared void because of incorrect procedure, and in
1453 the nuns asked for help from the bishop as they
were not skilful enough to elect by themselves and
could not afford legal advice. (fn. 52) Mismanagement was
probably at its worst in 1455 when Bishop Reginald
Boulers ordered a visitation to remedy certain flagrant
abuses. He had heard that the church and other
buildings needed repair urgently and that the goods of
the house were being dissipated by the prioress's
negligence. (fn. 53) The injunctions issued in 1456 after the
visitation dealt with various aspects of this financial
mismanagement. The prioress had pawned the ornaments of the house and had mortgaged unnecessarily
three pastures belonging to it; in future she was to
alienate none of its goods or property without the
consent of the whole convent and the permission of the
bishop. She was also ordered to present the convent
with accounts for her period in office and to prepare
annual accounts in future. The arrangements made in
1331 to guard the convent seal were reiterated and it
was ordered that no nun should hold more than one
office unless the majority of the convent thought it
necessary. The latter injunction was directed against
Joan Brett who was cellarer, kitchener, and sacristan
and had failed to present her accounts. The rest of the
injunctions dealt with the regular observance of services, the maintenance of silence, and the exclusion of
lay people from the convent; one nun was accused of
incontinence and spreading disorder in the community
and the prioress was ordered to report any other
offenders. (fn. 54)
The state of the house improved at the beginning of
the 16th century under the rule of Margery Pasmyche
who was prioress from 1491 until her death in 1525. (fn. 55)
When Bishop Geoffrey Blythe first visited the house in
1519 the prioress reported that it was free from debt
and in good order; she was supported by the subprioress and other nuns, one of whom expressed a
desire to become a minoress. (fn. 56) The position had not
changed in 1521 when the subprioress expressed great
admiration for her superior. (fn. 57) At Blythe's third visitation in 1524 religious observance was still being
properly maintained but some problems emerged,
possibly as a result of heavy taxation and the senility
of the prioress. There were debts, though not large or
intolerable, (fn. 58) and one of the nuns was accused of bad
temper and malicious gossip. (fn. 59) She was reported by the
royal visitors in 1536 to have borne a child by a
priest. (fn. 60) The nuns still seem to have been popular in
Chester in the years before the dissolution. They
distributed a tenth of their gross income in alms on
Maundy Thursday (fn. 61) and were still occasionally
remembered in the wills of local people in preference
to the Dominicans and Franciscans. (fn. 62) Margaret
Hawarden, by her will proved in 1521, left £10 for the
'making of the cloister', £1 to be distributed among the
nuns, and individual gifts to the prioress and several of
the nuns. (fn. 63) Hugh Chamber, who had been steward of
the nunnery, asked in 1535 to be buried in the church
in front of the image of Our Lady of Pity and left
3s 4d. to each professed nun, 12d. to each novice and
12s. to each of the two chantry priests as well as a
silver standing cup to the house. (fn. 64)
In the 15th century the policy of exchanging scattered and isolated pieces of property for lands and
tenements in and immediately around Chester continued. (fn. 65) The nuns probably cultivated some of the
land around their house but by the end of the Middle
Ages their property in Chester, Handbridge, and Lache
was let to many small tenants: in 1526 they had 48
tenants in Handbridge and tenants in most streets in
the city, including 24 in Nuns Lane. (fn. 66) Rents from the
property, which seems at that period to have been
efficiently administered, amounted to more than
three-quarters of the total income of the house from
temporalities of £74 14s. in 1535. (fn. 67) The income
from spiritualities was £25 10s. and the gross income
£99 16s. 2d., rather below the average annual income
of £130 for English nunneries at that period. (fn. 68) The net
income was £66 18s. 4d. out of which annual fees
were paid to the chief steward, the earl of Derby, a
receiver or steward, an auditor, and bailiffs in Chester,
Waverton, and Saughall. (fn. 69) In the year following the
dissolution the nunnery's estates, valued £136 1s. 2d.
gross, were, apart from the Welsh churches and a rent
from Lathom in Lancashire, entirely in Cheshire.
Besides the property in Chester, Lache, and Handbridge, there were rents from salt houses in Middlewich and Nantwich and from small holdings of property in Eccleston, Thornton Hough, Davenham, Willaston, Neston, Rowton, Christleton, Bidston, Over,
Heswall, Waverton, Saughall, Nantwich, Northwich,
and Middlewich; spiritualities in Cheshire consisted of
the rectory of Over and pensions from Budworth
chapel and Handley church. (fn. 70)
As a priory worth less than £200 the house should
have been suppressed under the Act of 1536, but in the
following year the prioress paid £160 for exemption. (fn. 71)
On 21 January 1540 Elizabeth Grosvenor and the
convent surrendered the house and all its possessions
to the Crown. (fn. 72) The prioress was assigned a pension of
£20, three of the senior nuns pensions of £4, seven
other nuns and one of the novices pensions of between
£2 13s. 4d. and £2, and the two other novices pensions
of £1 6s. 8d.; 12 of those pensions were still paid in
1556 and Elizabeth Grosvenor, 'sometime lady of the
nuns', was still alive in the early 1570s. (fn. 73) After the
dissolution the lands of the nunnery were used to
endow the new bishopric of Chester but the site was
reserved to the Crown in the grant made to Bishop
Bird in 1541. (fn. 74) In 1542 it was granted to Urian
Brereton, a groom of the royal chamber, and the
Breretons of Handforth occasionally resided at 'The
Nunnes'. (fn. 75) The site was immediately to the north-west
of the castle and a late 16th-century plan shows
extensive buildings, some of which may have been
added after the dissolution. To the north and west of
the church, whose dimensions are given as 66 by 45 ft.,
were buildings arranged round a courtyard; the cloisters (90 by 60 feet) lay on the south side of the church
and there were further buildings to the west and east of
the cloisters and a chapel (27 by 14 feet) on the
south-east side of the cloisters. (fn. 76) The buildings were
damaged during the siege of Chester in 1645 by the
owner, Sir William Brereton, and only a few ruins
remained by the beginning of the 18th century. (fn. 77) A
hundred years later the ruins were removed to improve
the approach to the new shire hall and several stone
coffins and fragments of windows and doorways were
unearthed; the arched doorway, still standing in 1816,
was removed c. 1840 to the house called St. John's
Priory and later re-erected in Grosvenor Park. (fn. 78) The
site was excavated in 1964 before the County Police
Headquarters was built and the exact dimensions of
the church (58 by 43 feet) and the cloisters (55 by 62
feet) were established. Inside the church the foundations of four piers, indicating three central arches,
were discovered and, on the evidence of some decorative floor tiles and other sherds, a 13th- or 14thcentury date assigned to the remains. (fn. 79)
Prioresses
M[ary], occurs about 1200. (fn. 80)
Lucy, occurs at some time between 1199 and
1216. (fn. 81)
Alice, occurs at some time between 1202 and 1229. (fn. 82)
Alice of Stockport, died 1253. (fn. 83)
Alice de la Haye, elected 1253, died 1283. (fn. 84)
Alice de Pierrepont, occurs 1289-90 and about
1292 or about 1297. (fn. 85)
Agatha of Dutton, elected 1306, died 1312. (fn. 86)
Alice de Alderslegh, elected 1312. (fn. 87)
Emma de Vernon, elected 1316, occurs 1318. (fn. 88)
Mary of Chester, occurs 1328, died 1349. (fn. 89)
Helewise de Mottershead, elected 1349, occurs until
1355-6. (fn. 90)
Mary, occurs 1373. (fn. 91)
Agnes of Dutton, occurs 1374, died 1386. (fn. 92)
Alice of Doncaster, elected 1386, died 1408. (fn. 93)
Elizabeth of Crewe, elected 1408, died 1441. (fn. 94)
Alice Leyot, collated 1441, resigned 1449. (fn. 95)
Beatrice Le Heyre, appointed 1449, occurs 1458. (fn. 96)
Ellen Blundell, occurs 1459, died 1473. (fn. 97)
Joan Brett, appointed 1473, died 1476. (fn. 98)
Elizabeth Rixton, appointed 1476, died 1490. (fn. 99)
Margery Pasmyche, elected 1491, died 1525. (fn. 100)
Margery Tayllour, elected 1525, occurs until
1533. (fn. 101)
Elizabeth Grosvenor, occurs from 1534, surrendered the priory in 1540. (fn. 102)
Three seals of the house are known. The first, (fn. 103)
which was in use at the beginning of the 13th century,
is a pointed oval depicting what was possibly the west
end of the church with a doorway under a central
tower and two small flanking towers. Legend, lombardic: SIGILLUM ECCLESIE MONIALIS CESTRIE.
The second, (fn. 104) in use in the second half of the 12th
century, is a pointed oval about 3 by 2 in. It depicts the
Virgin crowned and seated on a throne, with feet on a
projecting foot board, with the Child on her left knee
and a sceptre in her right hand. Legend, lombardic:
SIGILLUM CONVEN . . . MONIALIUM CESTRIE.
The third, (fn. 105) a common seal in use at the dissolution,
is a pointed oval 2½ by 1½ in. It depicts the Virgin
crowned and seated in a canopied niche with tabernacle work at the sides, with the Child, with crown and
nimbus, standing on her left knee; she holds a sceptre
in her right hand and in the base, under a roundheaded arch, is a prioress kneeling in prayer. Legend,
lombardic: SIGILLUM COMMUNE PRIORISSE ET
CONVENTUS MONIALIUM SANCTE MARIE
CESTRIE.