HOUSES OF CISTERCIAN NUNS
23. THE PRIORY OF STIXWOULD
The seven Cistercian nunneries (fn. 1) of Lincolnshire were all founded in the twelfth century,
and all but one during the first half of it; but it
is hard to say which was actually the earliest, as
none can be exactly dated. Perhaps the priory
of Stixwould has as good a claim as any; it was
founded by Lucy countess of Chester, (fn. 2) who
could not possibly have lived far into the reign of
Stephen, and may have endowed this house even
under Henry I. Her son Ranulf, who died
1153, was also a benefactor of Stixwould, and so
was Ralf FitzGilbert, the founder of Markby.
The revenue of this house from the first shows
that it was never intended to contain a very large
number of nuns; in the fifteenth century there
were usually from twelve to sixteen, but at the
foundation there may have been perhaps twenty
or thirty. The priory was involved in several
lawsuits during the thirteenth century. As
early as 1194 there was a suit concerning a
knight's fee in Bucknall with Ralf de Lindsey, (fn. 3)
another about the same time as to advowson of
the church of Willoughby. (fn. 4) A dispute with the
abbot of Kirkstead as to common of pasture was
settled in 1202 (fn. 5) ; Guy son of Simon quit-claimed
to the priory in 1205 the advowson of Wainfleet
church. (fn. 6) From 1207 to 1209 a suit was going
forward as to the church of Lavington and its
chapels, which had been granted originally by
Ralf FitzGilbert, and were now reclaimed by his
grandson. The charters, when produced, confirmed the claim of the nuns, and Hugh FitzRalf was ordered not to vex them further. (fn. 7)
In 1308 the prioress complained that in the
time of the late king certain men had impounded
some of her cattle, and committed other trespasses
on her property, assaulting a canon and a lay
brother of her house and several of her servants. (fn. 8)
The offenders were imprisoned for a time. (fn. 9)
There were similar complaints of trespass in
1317, (fn. 10) 1327, (fn. 11) 1328, (fn. 12) and 1365. (fn. 13) In 1419 the
nuns were released from payment of a subsidy on
account of their poverty. (fn. 14)
As the revenue of the priory was less than
£200, it was dissolved under the first Act of
Suppression before Michaelmas, 1536 (fn. 15) ; but
the king ordered that after the nuns had been
dismissed the house should remain standing, to
provide a refuge for the nuns of Stainfield, who
had been promised a licence to continue, and for
others besides. (fn. 16) It was apparently on this account
that the ' rewards' of the dismissed nuns of
Stixwould, twelve in number, were paid out of
the proceeds of the dissolved priory of Stainfield;
each received the usual sum of 20s. (fn. 17) The
nuns of Stainfield then took their places, but
with a much diminished revenue, for the king
had ordered Sir Richard Rich to take a fine of
900 marks from the property of Stixwould, and to
reserve for him besides a pension of £34. 10s. 7d., (fn. 18)
and the collection of this sum seems to have
involved the sale of nearly all the stock of the
priory. (fn. 19) The result was that in January, 1537, (fn. 20)
the new occupants of Stixwould were obliged to
write to John Heneage and beg him to intercede
for them with the king, (fn. 21) at least to remit the
pension; for they were so much impoverished
that unless they had some such help they would
have to give up the priory, ' which were great
pity, if it pleased God and the king other wise.'
The letter is signed, ' Your poor bedeswomen,
the whole convent of Stixwould,' and has been
printed in full more than once, (fn. 22) though the circumstances under which it was written have not
been clearly understood. No answer to the
letter is preserved, but six months later, 9 July,
1537, the king issued letters patent for the refoundation of the house under the Premonstratensian rule, (fn. 23) with Mary Missenden (probably
one of the Benedictine nuns of Stainfield) (fn. 24) as
prioress. They were to hold the site and all
the original possessions of Stixwould as the late:
prioress held them before the suppression, at a
yearly rent of £15 5s. 1d., payable to the king.
From this charter of re-foundation one of two
conclusions may be drawn. Either the king was
deaf to the entreaties of the nuns, and they were
compelled to surrender soon after their letter of
January, whereupon Henry founded his new
monastery at Stixwould, now for the second time
emptied of its inhabitants; or, as seems far more
probable, the new foundation was his answer to
their petition, (fn. 25) involving only a change in the
tenure of the house, which was to be held by the
nuns (i.e. those originally of Stainfield), under
new conditions, and for a lower rent. (fn. 26) The king's
reason for placing the house under the Premonstratensian rule is hard even to guess at; it
cannot be that he had a number of dismissed
nuns of that order to provide for, as they were
extremely rare at all times in England, and their
only house in Lincolnshire (Irford) was still
standing.
The ' new monastery of King Henry VIII'
was of short duration. On 29 September, 1539,
Mary Missenden and her sisters surrendered
their priory with all its possessions; the prioress
receiving in compensation a pension of £15, and
fourteen nuns annuities varying from 66s. to
40s. (fn. 27) Eleven of these were still living in 1553,
of whom only one, Agnes Bonner, had married. (fn. 28)
The constitution of the smaller Cistercian
nunneries is difficult to understand without a
more special study than is possible within the
limits of such an article as this. Three, at least,
of those in Lincolnshire—Stixwould, Heynings,
and Legbourne—appear to have been double
foundations; they had not merely the usual lay
brethren, who were often attached to nunneries
for the sake of the field work and other labours
which women could not well undertake or
superintend, (fn. 29) but also a few monks or canons
who held the temporalities jointly with the nuns. (fn. 30)
They had in early days a prior who ruled jointly
with the prioress. A similar arrangement may
be occasionally found in Augustinian (fn. 31) and Premonstratensian houses (fn. 32) ; it seems, indeed, that
several experiments were made in double foundations during the twelfth century, the most
notable being, of course, the order of Sempringham. These small Cistercian nunneries of
Lincolnshire were all founded about the same
time as the Gilbertines; but it is hard to say
whether they followed the model of the Gilbertines, or whether St. Gilbert adopted and made
general in his order an institution he had observed
amongst the Cistercians, to whom we know he
looked very largely for inspiration.
The priory of Stixwould had canons and a
prior all through the thirteenth century. The
last mention we find of them is in 1308. (fn. 33) It
was liable to episcopal visitation throughout
its history; indeed, none of the small Cistercian
priories shared the exemption which all abbeys
of the order claimed and kept until the dissolution. As will be seen later, St. Hugh, or Bishop
Hugh of Wells, arranged the constitution of
Nuncotham; and a commission for the visitation
of Stixwould is found in the Memoranda of
Bishop Dalderby, under the year 1311. (fn. 34) A
mandate of Bishop Burghersh, issued in 1322,
was disregarded by certain of the nuns here, who
were excommunicated in consequence; after
salutary penance, they received absolution. (fn. 35)
When Bishop Flemyng visited the house
between 1420 and 1431 it was noticed that the
annual allowances of 6s. 8d. due to the nuns for
clothing had not been regularly paid (fn. 36) ; and at
Bishop Alnwick's visitation of 1440 this was still
a cause of complaint. The bishop had to note a
good many irregularities at this time, similar to
those which he had observed at Nuncotham just
before. The nuns (about sixteen in number)
had in many cases separate households, and some
of them kept secular boarders on their own
account, and when they ate together in the refectory they did not all fare alike. (fn. 37) The children
of the convent school and the servants of the
nuns slept in the dormitory. The boarders
kept by the cellaress were said to be of suspicious
character, especially one Janet Barton. The
house was eighty marks in debt. One old sister
who could not walk complained that she scarcely
ever heard mass except on the principal feasts, as
she could find no one to carry her.
The bishop ordered that the sums due for
clothing should be paid regularly; all seculars
were to be removed from the house within three
months, and none were to spend the night within
the cloister except honest and necessary servants.
Janet Barton was to be at once dismissed, and no
boarders received in future without special licence
from the bishop, save two widows, Elizabeth
Dymoke and Margaret Tylney, ' by whose abiding as we trust no grief but rather avail' was procured to the monastery. Certain irregularities
of ritual were to be corrected. (fn. 38)
In 1519 Bishop Atwater found about the same
number of nuns in the priory. The sick were not
well provided for, and the prioress was accused
of spending the night outside the cloister too often
with secular friends. He ordered that in future
she should sleep in the monastery, but might keep
a private house within the cloister for her greater
refreshment and for receiving her friends. The
nuns were to be redistributed in the different
houses of the priory, so that some should board
with the prioress and some with the sub-prioress. (fn. 39)
No other complaint was brought against any of
them, either at this time or just before the dissolution of the house in 1536. The nuns of the
new foundation clung to the religious life as long
as they possibly could, and were ready to endure
poverty and distress rather than forsake it.
The original endowment probably included
the demesne land at Stixwould with other lands
in Honington, Barkston, and Bassingthorpe, (fn. 40) and
the rectories of Wainfleet, Hundleby, Honington, and Lavington. (fn. 41) The temporalities of the
nuns in 1291 were assessed at £12. (fn. 42) In 1303
they held a quarter of a knight's fee in Honington, half a fee in Stoke, and one-third in Bassingthorpe, with a small fraction beside (fn. 43) ; the same
return was made in 1346. (fn. 44) In 1534 the revenue
of the priory was valued at £114 5s. 2½d.
clear; (fn. 45) at the new foundation it was placed at
£152 10s. 7d., and included the profits of the
four rectories of Wainfleet, Honington, Hundleby, and Lavington, and the manors of Stixwould, Horsington, Hundleby, Hallmat and
Hundleby-Grange, and Bassingthorpe. (fn. 46) The
Ministers' Accounts give a total of £165 7s. 3½ d. (fn. 47)
Priors Of Stixwould
Hugh, (fn. 48) occurs 1202 and 1205
Geoffrey, (fn. 49) occurs 1227 and 1228
Gilbert of Eton, (fn. 50) occurs 1308
Prioresses Of Stixwould
Margaret Gobaud, (fn. 51) elected 1274
Eva, (fn. 52) died 1304
Isabel de Dugby, (fn. 53) elected 1304, occurs 1317
Elizabeth, (fn. 54) occurs 1327and 1328
Elizabeth de Swylington, (fn. 55) elected 1346
Isabel Mallet, (fn. 56) died 1376
Eustace Ravenser, (fn. 57) occurs 1393, died 1403
Katharine Roose, (fn. 58) elected 1403
Eleanor Welby, (fn. 59) occurs 1440
Helen Key, (fn. 60) before 1536
Mary Missenden, (fn. 61) last prioress, appointed
1537