HOUSE OF CISTERCIAN MONKS
8. THE ABBEY OF ROBERTSBRIDGE (fn. 1)
The Cistercian abbey of St. Mary was founded
in the vill of Robertsbridge within the parish of
Salehurst in or about 1176 by Alvred de St.
Martin, sheriff of the rape of Hastings and
'dapifer' to Richard I, who married Alice widow
of John count of Eu. Besides the site of the
abbey and the adjoining lands he bestowed upon
the monks estates in Ewhurst and Sedlescombe, and
land lying between Winchelsea and 'Cliveshend,'
and other lands belonging to the Ewhurst prebend
of Hastings college. These gifts Seffrid II, bishop
of Chichester (1180-1204), confirmed so far as
was in his power, taking the abbey and its possessions under his protection. (fn. 2) The Countess Alice
associated herself with her husband in his foundation, and her son Henry count of Eu so
liberally followed in her steps that the abbots of
Cîteaux and Clairvaux, by the advice of Denis
abbot of Robertsbridge, conferred upon him and
upon his mother's soul the benefits of the Order. (fn. 3)
Other benefactors added their gifts of lands and
rents, the most prominent being the families of
Bodiam and Echingham. It would seem that as
a consequence of their increased wealth the monks
removed to another site, as a charter (fn. 4) of 1314
refers to 'the chapel in the said vill (of Salehurst) on the spot where the abbey was originally
founded.'
Besides grants and purchases from laymen the
abbey was frequently brought into contact with
other religious houses, several agreements being
made with the canons of Hastings, the abbot of
Battle, the prior of Leeds in Kent, and the
abbot of Tréport in Normandy, from whom the
Sussex abbey purchased lands in Playden and
Bexhill. Though their lands were thus increasing there was the drawback that many of them
lay exposed to the ravages of the sea, entailing
heavy expenditure for the maintenance of seawalls—towards which the earl of Arundel left
a sum of £20 in 1396 (fn. 5) —and even then not
always proving productive, so that in 1257
Pope Alexander IV, considering the sterility
caused by influx of the sea, excused the monks
from payment of tithes upon those lands which
they had 'inned' and brought under cultivation. (fn. 6)
But in spite of losses the abbey at the time of
the Taxation of 1291 held property worth nearly
£110.
The ravages of the sea, however, during the
great storm of 1287 and in subsequent years so
reduced the monks' revenues that in 1309 they
obtained the royal licence to acquire lands to no
less a value than £100, (fn. 7) and in the same year
their patron, Sir William de Echingham, obtained
licence to grant them the advowsons of the
churches of Salehurst, Udimore, and Mountfield
with their appurtenances, valued at 50 marks. (fn. 8)
This valuable gift, however, proved for some
time a source of expense rather than profit, as
it involved twenty years' litigation, (fn. 9) and necessitated journeys to the papal court, where the
abbot had to make a longer stay than he had intended, as money gave out and he had to send
to England for further funds, and to the royal
court at London, Waltham, York and elsewhere—
one abbot dying suddenly while engaged upon the
business. At last, after they had gained the consent
of the bishop of Chichester, the dean of Hastings
College—of which the three churches formed a
prebend—and Sir Simon de Echingham as patron
of the churches and prebend, the king, whose
claims as patron of the college of Hastings had
been the cause of all the difficulty, allowed the
abbey to appropriate the three churches in 1333.
In the course of the negotiations the monks had
incurred in addition to monetary losses, considerable obligations of a spiritual nature. In 1314
Sir William de Echingham bargained that in return for his benefactions they should maintain
two chaplains, monks or seculars, to perform service for the souls of himself, his wife Eva and
his heirs in the chapel in Salehurst where the
monastery was first founded, providing vestments
and other necessaries. (fn. 10) These privileges were
extended in 1325, when the abbot undertook to
find two chaplains to celebrate daily—except on
Good Friday and Easter Eve—for the souls of
Sir William and Lady Eva, the one at the altar
of the Holy Cross the other at that of St. Giles,
and a third in the chapel of St. Mary at the
abbey gate, besides two others to do service in
the abbey church at the altar of the Holy
Martyrs on the right side of the choir where the
bodies of Lady Eva and of Sir William's daughter
Joan lay; all these chaplains were further to say
before the said altar of the Holy Martyrs
'Placebo' and 'Dirige' with the commendation
on the days customary in the Cistercian order. (fn. 11)
By a further agreement in 1356 the monks were
relieved of the maintenance of the two chaplains
for the original chapel of Robertsbridge, but continued bound to provide the other five. (fn. 12) Moreover, the abbot, in return for the privilege of
being a non-resident canon of Hastings, was
bound to provide a fit secular priest to serve the
prebend, (fn. 13) and in 1501 the abbot agreed to pay
the dean of Hastings 4 marks yearly for the celebration of services and in discharge of all claims. (fn. 14)
Another obligation had been incurred in 1304,
when the abbot had secured the bishop of Chichester's favour by a gift of a yearly rent of 100s.
for the support of two clerks in the cathedral
church to cense the host at the time of its elevation during high mass. (fn. 15)
During the early years of its existence the
abbey of Robertsbridge plays some considerable
part in history, its head being sent with the abbot
of Boxley in 1192 to search for King Richard,
whom they found in Bavaria, and by whom they
were sent back to England with the news of his
treaty with the emperor. (fn. 16) The same two
abbots in 1198 acted as the archbishop's agents to
the pope on the occasion of his quarrel with the
monks of Canterbury over the church of Lambeth. (fn. 17) In 1212 the abbot of Robertsbridge was
dispatched abroad as the king's messenger, and
was given 2 marks with which to buy a palfrey, (fn. 18)
and he was selected for the same purpose in
1222, (fn. 19) and again in 1225, (fn. 20) in which latter
year the king paid a visit to the abbey. (fn. 21)
Henry III was again at Robertsbridge in 1264,
when at the head of his troops marching
to the disastrous battle of Lewes, he extorted
large sums of money from the unfortunate
monks. (fn. 22) A later royal visitor was Edward II,
who was there on 27 August, 1394. (fn. 23) By this
time, however, the fame of the house seems to
have dwindled, as when John, bishop of Exeter,
purchased a book (now in the Bodleian
Library), whose flyleaf contained an anathema
upon anyone alienating it from the house of
St. Mary of Robertsbridge, he relieved his conscience by noting that he did not know where
that house was. (fn. 24)
Of the inner history of this house little is
known. It appears to have had a good reputation, as it was frequently selected by pious monks
of Canterbury who wished to leave the Benedictine for the stricter Cistercian order. (fn. 25) On
the other hand Giraldus Cambrensis in his article
'on the secret luxury of the Cistercians' tells
the following story (fn. 26) :—John who succeeded Odo
as abbot of Battle (in 1200) happening to pass
an abbey of that order in Sussex called in to see
the abbot, whom he knew. While passing
through the cloisters he insisted upon going into
the refectory, although the abbot tried to dissuade him, saying that they would disturb the
servers who were having their meal after having
waited upon the other members of the convent.
Going in the visitor saw the tables laden with
fine fat joints, and turning to the abbot completed
his confusion by asking of what saint those bones
were the relics, further pointing his humorous
rebuke by at once leaving the abbey. A case of
apostasy is mentioned in 1344, when the pope
gave orders for the reconciling of Robert Coumber, who had left the monastery but now desired
to return; (fn. 27) and in 1351 another monk, John
Crompe, was permitted to return to the abbey,
which he had left without leave in order to go
to Rome for the general indulgence which had
been in operation the previous October; (fn. 28) and in
1363 another apostate monk was reconciled. (fn. 29)
That these instances do not point to any laxity
of discipline is suggested by a record of 1403
which tells that John Holmborn, a monk of
Robertsbridge, having been found in a wood
with an unmarried woman was beaten to the
effusion of blood and then sent by his abbot to
Coggeshall Abbey, in Essex, where he long lived
a miserable life; now he was old and longed to
return to Robertsbridge, he had therefore gone
to Rome, where he had obtained absolution from
the pope, who further ordered that he should be
restored to his former stall and place in chapter
and to have the room, books, clothes and other
things formerly his.
The income of the abbey being £248 10s. 6d. (fn. 30)
it escaped the first suppression and survived until
16 April, 1538, when it was surrendered by the
abbot, Thomas Taylor, and his brethren, who
were then eight in number, the same number of
monks as were resident in 1418. (fn. 31)
Abbots Of Robertsbridge
Denis (fn. 32)
William, occurs 1197 (fn. 33) -1219 (fn. 34)
William de St. Noet, occurs 1222 (fn. 35)
John, occurs 1223-30 (fn. 36)
William, occurs 1236, (fn. 37) 1252 (fn. 38)
Roger, occurs 1258, (fn. 39) 1278 (fn. 40)
Mainard, occurs 1280 (fn. 41)
Walter, occurs 1288 (fn. 42)
Thomas, occurs 1293 (fn. 43)
Robert, c. 1300 (fn. 44)
Lawrence, occurs 1302, (fn. 45) resigned 1311 (fn. 46)
John de Wallyngfelde, elected 1311 (fn. 47)
Alan, occurs 1315 (fn. 48) -17 (fn. 49)
Nicholas, occurs 1320 (fn. 50)
John, occurs 1324 (fn. 51)
John de Lamberhurst, died 1333 (fn. 52)
John de Wormedale, elected 1333 (fn. 53)
John Wysdon, occurs 1340 (fn. 54)
John, occurs 1345 (fn. 55)
Simon, occurs 1349 (fn. 56)
Adam, occurs 1357 (fn. 57)
Giles (fn. 58)
William Lewes, elected 1397, (fn. 59) occurs 1399 (fn. 60)
John Lonsford, elected 1409, (fn. 61) occurs 1419 (fn. 62)
Thomas, occurs 1427 (fn. 63)
John, occurs 1435 (fn. 64)
John Whitton, died 1442 (fn. 65)
William Batayle, elected 1442, (fn. 66) occurs 1458 (fn. 67)
Thomas, occurs 1474-78 (fn. 68)
William, occurs 1483-6 (fn. 69)
John Goodwin, elected 1491, (fn. 70) occurs 1511 (fn. 71)
William, occurs 1513, (fn. 72) 1523 (fn. 73)
Thomas Taylor, occurs 1529, (fn. 74) last abbot
The interesting thirteenth-century circular
seal shows the church, with tall central spire
and each gable topped with a cross: standing on
a bridge of three arches pointed and trefoiled,
and with round tower embattled at each end;
over water. In the field the letters P.R. for
'Pons Roberti.' Legend:—
HEC: PRESENS : CELLA : DOMVS : EST : DE :
MATRE : PVELLA
Reverse: The Coronation of the Virgin, in a
carved and canopied niche with tabernacle work
at the sides. In base, under an arcade of three
round-headed arches, the abbot, half-length, with
pastoral staff, to the right between two monks'
heads. (fn. 75) Legend:—
S' CŌE : ABBATIS : ET : CONVENTVS : DE : PONTE :
ROB'TI
The early thirteenth-century seal used by the
abbot was a pointed oval: the abbot, standing
on a corbel, holding up the right hand in benediction, in the left hand a pastoral staff. (fn. 76)
Legend:—
+ SIGNUM : ABBATIS : DE : PONTEROBERTI :
This occurs among the Penshurst charters
with a counterseal (fn. 77) :— a hand, cuffed at the
wrist, issuing from the left, holding between
finger and thumb an ornamental cross. Legend:—
SIGNUM SECRETI.