38. THE PRIORY OF SINNINGTHWAITE
Sinningthwaite Priory, in Bilton-in-Ainsty,
was founded about 1160 by Bertram Haget, who
gave the site, (fn. 1) and the gift was confirmed by his
overlord, Roger de Mowbray, (fn. 2) who at the same
time confirmed other gifts made to the nuns by
Geoffrey Haget the founder's son, when they
received his sister. (fn. 3)
From Gundreda Haget, another daughter of
the founder, the nuns received the advowson of
the church of Bilton. (fn. 4) In 1293, however, the
prioress and convent made over the church of
Bilton (fn. 5) to Archbishop Romanus, who founded
the prebend of Bilton in St. Peter's, York, out
ot it, and in 1295 (fn. 6) ordained a perpetual vicarage
of Bilton, in the patronage of the prioress and
convent.
All the different gifts are recorded by Burton
in his usual manner. (fn. 7) The most important, as
raising a difficult question, was the gift of
Esholt in Guiseley by Simon Ward, Maud
his wife, and William Ward his son, which is
dealt with in the account of Esholt Priory.
Probably some of the nuns from Sinningthwaite
afterwards formed a separate nunnery there.
As a Cistercian house the convent of Sinningthwaite contested the right of the archbishop to
visit them and appealed to the pope in 1276 (fn. 8)
against a visitation of Archbishop Giffard, but
the decision, though not recorded, was evidently
against them, although echoes of a claim by
Cistercian abbots of authority over nunneries of
their order are to be met with here and there
in the Archbishops' Registers, but only to be
repudiated. In 1276 (fn. 9) Archbishop Giffard ordered the nuns to have Friars. Minor as confessors
in spite of the inhibition of the Cistercian
abbots, who had no jurisdiction over them.
Among the privileges granted in 1172 (fn. 10) by
Pope Alexander III to Sinningthwaite was that
of receiving clerks or laymen fleeing from the
world (a seculo fugientes), as conversi (ad conversionem
vestram), coupled with a prohibition of the
brethren or sisters of Sinningthwaite leaving their
monastery without licence.
Archbishop Romanus wrote on 12 June 1286 (fn. 11)
to the nuns to receive back Agnes de Bedal,
one of their number who had apostatized, and on
22 January following (fn. 12) sent another letter in
favour of a certain Margaret de la Batayle, who
desired to enter their house as a nun. Rather
more than two years later (12 April 1289) (fn. 13) he
committed the custody of the monastery of
Sinningthwaite to Robert de Muschamp, rector
of the church of 'Dichton' (Kirk Deighton)
and on 18 August 1294 (fn. 14) he issued a commission
to Magr Thomas de Wakefield, Chancellor of
York, and Magr Robert Nassington to receive
the cession of the Prioress of Sinningthwaite
and to confirm the election of her successor.
Archbishop Corbridge had to interfere in 1300
on behalf of a certain Maud de Grymston, (fn. 15)
who, having undergone her year of probation,
was to have received the black veil and been
admitted a nun. This the prioress and conven
had refused for some reason, to the scandal of
their order, and the archbishop, writing from
Scrooby on 21 December, ordered them to
admit her.
On Tuesday after the Conversion of St. Paul
1314-15, (fn. 16) Archbishop Greenfield visited the
house and issued a series of injunctions. Due care
was to be taken of the nuns who were ill, and
sick nuns in the infirmary should be attended to
according to their state and the nature of their
illness, so far as the means of the house allowed.
The prioress and sub-prioress were not to
permit boys or girls to eat flesh meat in Advent
or Sexagesima, or, during Lent, eggs or cheese, in
the refectory, contrary to the honesty of religion,
but at those seasons when they ought to eat
such things they should be assigned other places
in which to eat them.
Mendicant friars were not to enter the private
places of the house, but were to be received outside the cloister and inner cloister of the nuns,
in the hall of the hospitium, or some other
exterior building appointed for the purpose.
However, they might hear the confessions of the
nuns in the church. No one admitted as a
sister was to wear the black veil, and the prioress
was not to place sisters above nuns, contrary to
the rules and the honesty of religion.
The prioress and all the nuns were ordered
not to allow William de Tymberland, or any
other man, to sleep in the wool-house under the
dormitory of the nuns, or elsewhere within the
inner cloister, whence it would be possible to
have access to the nuns, or for the nuns to have
access to that building.
The archbishop concluded with the usual
prohibition as to giving exeats for longer periods
than fifteen days, or without good cause, as well
as selling corrodies, granting long leases, and
taking boarders, &c.
Archbishop Melton in 1319 (fn. 17) strictly forbade
frequent goings to and fro in the cloister, either
by the priests who held corrodies (per presbyteros
corredianos), or their servants who were in the
habit of fetching their food and liveries through
the middle of the cloister. Such were to be
delivered in outside places appointed for the
purpose. Those offending were each time to
fast on bread and water on Wednesday.
It would seem as if the nuns had hitherto been
dependent on the good offices of their relatives
and friends for their clothing, as the archbishop
directed that as it had appeared at his visitation
that those nuns who had no elders, relatives, and
friends (senes, parentes et amicos) lacked necessary
clothes, and so were afflicted by the cold contrary to the honesty of religion, such nuns so
lacking the assistance of friends should have the
necessary clothes as the means of the house
allowed.
The prioress was enjoined to take counsel
with the older nuns, and in all writings under
the common seal a faithful clerk was to be employed, and the deed was to be sealed in the
presence of the whole convent, the clerk reading
the deed plainly in the mother tongue and
explaining it, and those who spoke against it on
reasonable grounds were to be heard, and if
necessary the deed was to be corrected. The
prioress and convent were to provide themselves
with a competent gardener for their curtilage, so
that they might have an abundance of vegetables.
No nuns or sisters, &c., were to be taken, or
girls over twelve retained without special licence.
Archbishop Zouch on I February 1343 (fn. 18)
wrote to the Prioress and convent of Sinningthwaite concerning Margaret de Fonten, one of
their nuns who had left the house pregnant, but
as she had only done so once, her penance was
mitigated and she was not to be locked up,
but not allowed to go out of the cloister and
church.
On 25 May 1482 (fn. 19) Alice Etton, nun of
Sinningthwaite of the Cistercian order, received
a dispensation super defectu natalium, and on
29 May (fn. 20) her election as prioress was confirmed
by Archbishop Rotherham. At a later period
the house had fallen heavily into debt, and
Archbishop Lee (13 February 1534) (fn. 21) granted
the nuns licence to pledge jewels to the value of
£15 in consequence of the reduced state of the
nunnery. At the end of the same year (fn. 22)
Anne Goldesburgh resigned the office of prioress,
and the convent deputed the choice of her
successor to the archbishop. He appointed
Katherine Foster, who is described as a nun of
the order of St. Benedict, and a yearly pension
of £10 was assigned to Anne Goldesburgh,
which she was receiving at the Dissolution.
In September 1534 Archbishop Lee visited
Sinningthwaite, and issued injunctions in English
which have been printed in full by Mr. W.
Brown (fn. 23) ; an outline must suffice here. The
prioress was to provide that the doors of the
cloister were locked every night 'incontinent as
compleyn is done,' and not unlocked in winter
till 7 o'clock the next morning, or in summer
not till 6 o'clock. Every night the prioress was
to provide that the door 'of the dortore be surely
and fast lockyd, that none of the susters may gett
ou3 tt vntill service tyme, ne yet any parsone gett
in to the dortore to them.' No secular women
of any kind were to sleep in the dorter. Henceforth no secular or religious persons were to have
any resort to any of the sisters 'onles it be their
fathers or moders or other ther nere kynsefolkes
in whom no suspicion of any yll can be thought.'
The prioress was to admit no one to her own
company 'suspectly or be in familier communication with her in her chamber or any odre
secret place.'
The sisters and nuns were to keep no secular
women to serve them, unless sickness demanded it.
The 'firmaresse' (infirmarian), if there were one,
was to see that the sick were in want of nothing.
Silence was enjoined 'in the quere, in the cloyster
frater and dorter according to their rule under
payne of cursyng.' All the sisters were to eat
and drink 'both dynner and sooper in oon
housse at oon table,' &c., unless ill, and all the
sisters were to sleep in the dorter. The granting
of 'corrodies, pensions, or lyveres,' and leases, &c.,
was placed under the restriction of the archbishop's licence being required.
The prioress was not to admit anyone 'to the
professid habite of a nune, or a suster, or a converse,' (fn. 24) or allow anyone to sojourn within the
precinct of the monastery, without the archbishop's special licence.
The prioress and convent were not to take any
person, secular or religious, to hear her or the
nuns' confessions without the archbishop's licence.
No money was to be received for admitting a
nun, or converse (fn. 25) by reason of a previous compact,
'for such admissions be dampnable and be plane
simonye'; free gifts need not be refused. The
nuns were to be present at divine service, and the
prioress was to provide them with 'sufficient
meatt and drinke at convenient hoores, that is to
sey, that their dynner be ready at xj of the clock
or sone after, and their sooper at v of the cloke
or sone after.'
The priory of Sinningthwaite was supervised by
the commissioners on 10 June 1535, (fn. 26) and suppressed on 3 August following. Anne Goldesburgh, quondam priorissa, received £4 10s. as her
half year's pension, 10s. apparently being meanly
deducted from the full sum. Richard Huley
and Thomas Holme are mentioned as the chaplains, and Katherine Foster as 'nuper priorissa.'
There were nine nuns besides the prioress, and
eight servants and other labourers. A chalice,
wholly gilt, with its paten, weighing together
11 oz., was all the plate belonging to the priory.
Prioresses of Sinningthwaite
Christiana, occurs 1172 (fn. 27)
Agnes, occurs 1184 (fn. 28)
Euphemia, occurs 1219 (fn. 29)
Isabella, occurs 1276 (fn. 30)
Margaret, resigned 1314-15 (fn. 31)
Elizabeth le Waleys, resigned 1320 (fn. 32)
Sybil de Ripon, confirmed 1323, (fn. 33) occurs
1327 (fn. 33a)
Margaret Fitz Simon, occurs 1344 (fn. 34)
Margaret Hewit, died 1428 (fn. 35)
Agnes Sheffield, confirmed 1428 (fn. 36)
. . . de Etton, (fn. 37) occurs 1444
Alina, occurs 1444 (fn. 38)
Margaret Banke, (fn. 39) died 1482
Alice Etton, confirmed 1482, (fn. 40) died 1488 (fn. 41)
Elizabeth Squier, confirmed 1488 (fn. 42)
Anne Goldesburgh, confirmed 1526, (fn. 43) resigned
1534 (fn. 44)
Katherine Foster, appointed 1534 (fn. 45)