20. THE PRIORY OF ST. CLEMENT, YORK
The priory of St. Clement was founded about
1130, (fn. 1) by Archbishop Thurstan, whose grants
were confirmed by the dean and chapter. (fn. 2)
In 1192 (fn. 3) Archbishop Geoffrey Plantagenet
granted the priory of St. Clement to the abbey
of Godstow, but the nuns appealed to the pope,
and Alice the prioress is said to have gone to
Rome to plead their cause in person. The
archbishop excommunicated the nuns, but by the
papal decision in their favour they regained their
independent position.
Late one evening in the first year of the 14th
century certain men came to the priory gate
leading a saddled horse. Here Cecily, a nun,
met them, and, throwing off her nun's habit, put
on another robe and rode off with them to Darlington, where Gregory de Thornton was waiting for her, and with him she lived for three
years or more. (fn. 3a)
Archbishop Greenfield, writing to the prioress
on 15 April 1310, (fn. 4) dealt with the case of
Joan de Saxton, one of the nuns, on whom
at some time previously a severe penance had
been imposed for misbehaviour. The penance
itself the archbishop mitigated, but to avoid
scandal, Joan de Saxton was not to go out of
the cloister, but was to keep convent in all
respects, and hold no conventual office. For
recreation and solace she might go into the
orchards and gardens of the monastery, accompanied by the nuns. Twice a year, if necessary,
she might receive friends in the presence of the
prioress, or other discreet nuns, but she was to
have nothing to do with the Lady de Walleys,
and if the Lady de Walleys was then in their
house, she was to be sent away before Pentecost.
The archbishop further forbade the nuns to
have girls over twelve years of age as boarders,
and they were only to keep washerwomen and
other necessary servants in the house.
On 2 November in the same year the archbishop gave permission to the nuns to receive
Isabella of Studley Roger, near Ripon, ad velum
et habitum. (fn. 5)
In 1316, (fn. 6) when the office of prioress became
vacant by the death or resignation of Custance
Basy, who had been elected in August of the
previous year, discord prevailed in the convent,
one party electing Agnes de Methelay and the
other Beatrice de Brandesby. The see being
vacant, the dean and chapter appointed Agnes de
Methelay.
Archbishop Melton held a visitation of the
house in 1317, (fn. 7) and on 25 January following
sent to the prioress and convent a list of injunctions. Many are exhortations in common
form, relating to the due observance of the
rule. The archbishop had found that the
Friars' Minor of York, every alternate week during
the year, and the Friars Preachers of York,
in the same manner, for a long time had been
receiving fourteen conventual loaves. The nuns
were to show the friars the archbishop's order,
and were to cease from supplying them with
these loaves, so long as their house was burdened
by debt, and then they were not to give the
loaves to the friars without a special leave of the
archbishop or his successors. It also appeared
that oh the death of any nun of the house, the
friars aforesaid received for a whole year the full
livery of the deceased nun. This also the archbishop forbade. Secular women dwelling in the
house were not to hold colloquies with the nuns,
lest evil suspicion should arise. Little girls, or
males of any age whatever, or secular women
were not to be permitted to sleep in the dormitory with the nuns.
The frequent access of men and women to
the house was not to be allowed, lest evil or
scandal should arise.
In 1324 (fn. 8) there is again evidence of internal
trouble (fn. 9) in the house, for the archbishop issued
a commission to inquire into the defects alleged
in St. Clement's, and the prioress resigned.
Isabella de Stodley, who had been admitted a
nun on 2 November 1315, by permission of
Archbishop Greenfield, had been guilty of
apostasy and super lapsu carnis, besides other
excesses. She had been sent by Archbishop
Melton to Yedingham, to undergo a penance
imposed upon her, and on 30 August 1331 (fn. 10)
he directed that she was to return to St. Clement's,
adding that if she were disobedient to the prioress
or quarrelsome with her sisters, or indulged in
blasphemy, he would transfer her to some other
house to remain there permanently.
St. Clement's Church, which served for the
nuns, was also the church of the parish, and
on 12 July 1464 (fn. 11) Archbishop William Booth
transferred the feast of the dedication, which
fell on St. William's day (when the church was
deserted on account of the parishioners attending
the metropolitical church, where St. William's
body and relics were preserved), to the Sunday
after the festival of St. Peter and St. Paul each
year. It seems from the frequent allusions to
the anchorite of St. Clement's that it was a
permanent position formerly attached to the
church. In 1467 it was held by Alice Derby. (fn. 12)
In 1391 (fn. 13) Pope Boniface IX granted a relaxation of enjoined penance to penitents who on
the feast of St. Clement visited and gave alms
for the conservation of the Benedictine priory of
St. Clement without the walls of York. The
will of a lady, who was probably a boarder in the
house in the middle of the next century, contains
a little information of interest. Elizabeth Medlay, of the house of St. Clement's in Clementhorpe,
in the suburbs of York, directed in her will dated
6 January 1470 (fn. 14) that her body was to be buried
in the conventual church of St. Clement before
the altar of St. Katherine. To the high altar
she bequeathed her best coat, to the prioress 16d.,
and to each nun 12d., and appointed the Lady
Margaret Delaryver, the prioress, an executor.
St. Clement's does not appear at any time to
have had more than ten or a dozen nuns, and its
revenues when the Valor Ecclesiasticus was compiled only show a clear annual value of
£55 11s. 9d. (fn. 15)
The nunnery was supervised by the commissioners on 13 June 1536, (fn. 16) and suppressed on
31 August following. There were eight nuns
and nine servants. In the account of Leonard
Beckwith three bells in the campanile are valued
at 17s.; there was also a chalice (12 oz.) valued
at 44s.; a silver cup (5 oz.) valued at 16s. 8d. and
'ij birral glasses cum reliquijs inclus' in argento,'
valued at 5s. Drs. Layton and Legh reported
that the nuns had at St. Clement's, as it was believed, some of the milk of the Blessed Virgin in
veneration, and that pilgrimages were made there
ad sanctam Sytham.
The report as to the payment of pensions in
6 Edward VI for the city of York is as follows:
Clementhorpe. (fn. 17) —Isabell Warde [the late prioress]
£6 13s. 4d. (56 years old), alive and paid; Agnes
Snaynton 60s. (56 years), alive; Agnes Ardyngton
46s. 8d. (60 years), alive; Agnes Symson 46s. 6d.
(60 years), paid; Jane Gower 40s. (50 years),
alive; Jane Watson 405. (three score years), behind
for one year; Margaret Carter 40s., died 6 August
4 Edward VI; Matild' Kilborn 40s. (60 years),
alive; Agnes Archer 40s. (38 years) behind for
one whole year; Dorothe Mawe 40s. (46 years),
alive, behind for a year; Margaret Elton, ' not
herde of; Agnes Johnson 40s. (40 years), alive;
Jane Fairfax 34s. 4d. (40 years), alive; Elizabeth
Parker 34s. 4d., ' dyed three yeres agone '; Elene
Bayne 34s. 4d. (30 years), alive; Agnes Asleby
34s 4d. (40 years), alive.
Prioresses of St. Clement, York
Alice, occurs 1192 (fn. 18)
Alcelina, occurs 1221 (fn. 19)
Agnes, occurs 1235, (fn. 20) 1245 (fn. 20a)
Margaret, occurs 1268 (fn. 21)
Agnes de Wyten, occurs 1279, (fn. 22) 1280 (fn. 23)
Alice, occurs 1299 (fn. 24)
Custance Basy, confirmed 28 August 1315 (fn. 25)
Agnes de Methelay, appointed 1316, (fn. 26) resigned 1324 (fn. 27)
Alice de Pakenham, died 1396 (fn. 28)
Beatrice de Remington, confirmed 1396 (fn. 29)
Margaret Holtby, resigned 1456 (fn. 30)
Margaret Delaryver, occurs 1470, (fn. 31) died
1489 (fn. 32)
Christabella Longcastre, confirmed 1489 (fn. 33)
Margaret Carre, elected November 1515, (fn. 34)
died 1516 (fn. 35)
Margaret Frankelayne, appointed (lapse)
2 December 1516, (fn. 36) died 1518 (fn. 37)
Isabella Warde appointed (lapse) 8 November
1518. (fn. 38)
The 12th-century seal, (fn. 39) a large vesica 3 in.
by 2 in., has a full-length figure of St. Clement
the patron saint, blessing and holding a book.
The legend is:
SIGILLVM SANCTI CLEMENTIS PAPE DE EBOR.
A 13th-century seal, (fn. 40) a vesica 2¼ in. by 1¾ in.
has a figure of the patron saint. All that remains
of the legend is:
SIGILL . . . GNWHNO . . .