HOUSE OF THE GILBERTINE ORDER
11. THE PRIORY OF CHICKSAND
The Gilbertine priory of Chicksand was
founded about the year 1150 by Roais (fn. 1) and
her husband Payn de Beauchamp, baron of
Bedford. The foundress had been previously
the wife of Geoffrey de Mandeville, Earl of
Essex, who died in 1144, and was buried in
the abbey of Walden, which he had founded
some years before. (fn. 2) After the death of
her second husband, the Countess Roais
was frequently at Chicksand, and when her
eldest son, (fn. 3) Geoffrey de Mandeville, died in
1166, she endeavoured to secure his burial
there; but being defeated in this purpose by
the monks of Walden Abbey (who naturally
desired that the son of their founder should be
buried in their church) she retaliated by carrying off the whole furniture and hangings of
his private chapel for the adornment of her
own priory. (fn. 4)
The countess was herself buried at Chicksand; and the wife of Geoffrey Fitz Piers,
the heiress of the Mandevilles, was at first
laid in the same church, though she was
afterwards carried to Shouldham Priory. (fn. 5)
Simon de Beauchamp and his son William
confirmed the gifts of Payn and Roais. (fn. 6)
The priory was well endowed, and able at
first to support a large number of canons,
nuns and lay brothers—perhaps as many as a
hundred; but after a succession of bad
seasons (which were felt with almost equal
severity at Dunstable and other religious
houses of the neighbourhood) its resources
were so much diminished that in 1257 fifty
of the nuns and ten lay brothers had to be
dispersed among other houses of the order. (fn. 7)
The priory of Chicksand did not recover its
prosperity for a very long time. In 1307 (fn. 8)
the nuns received a grant of forty acres of
land in the neighbourhood, and the whole
manor of Chicksand was confirmed to them
ten years later; (fn. 9) but they were nevertheless in very heavy debt at the time and continued to be so for a good while after. In
1309 (fn. 10) the prior of Chicksand, William de
Hugate, borrowed 100 marks from the prior
of Newnham, but this was only a small item.
Another prior, John, in 1324 (fn. 11) acknowledged a
debt of 400 marks to a merchant of Florence;
and not long after he owned himself to be
under a bond for 3,300 gold florins, for which
he was obliged to demise to his creditor for
life the manor in Meppershall called 'the
chapel of St. Thomas,' with the grange of
Haynes, for £200 a year; besides selling two
woods, and granting the fruits of the church
of Haynes for seven years. (fn. 12) Simon his predecessor had demised to the same creditor, a
merchant of Genoa, the manor of Wolverton, Bucks. (fn. 13) An agreement was made by
which the alienation of the property in
Haynes and Meppershall was to be averted
by the payment of £1,200 (fn. 14) in instalments;
and it seems that this sum was finally paid, (fn. 15)
for the grange of Haynes and manor of
Meppershall were still a part of the property
of the priory at the dissolution. But the
whole convent was in sore straits for many
years. Four times (fn. 16) between 1340 and 1347
the prior was obliged to sue for a remission
of the tenths due to the king; on the first of
these occasions he pleaded that all his lands,
manors and churches were in the hands of
creditors, and that his brethren and sisters
knew not how to live, although many of
them had been sent away already to other
houses of the order; and the second pardon
was granted on the ground that the religious
were so poor that they were unable to give
alms or carry on any of their ordinary works
of charity. In the midst of this distress came
the great pestilence; its effects on this particular priory are not known, but it must in
one way or other have made matters worse,
and it is probable that the number of canons
and nuns at Chicksand was never again so
large as in the early part of the thirteenth
century. During the last hundred years of the
priory's existence its material prosperity seems
to have been restored in some measure; but
the deed of surrender gives the names of only
eight canons and eighteen nuns. (fn. 17)
Of the internal history of the convent
from 1150 to 1535 scarcely a trace remains.
In 1324, the time of their great poverty, the
king placed one of his wards under the charge
of the nuns of Chicksand; (fn. 18) from which we
may gather that they, like other religious of
less strict enclosure, took boarders from time
to time for the support of the house. At the
time of the dissolution it seems that there
were only two prioresses (fn. 19) instead of the
three prescribed by the rule; but there is no
means of finding out whether this was only
an accident or whether it was a change of
custom. The Gilbertines were exempt from
episcopal visitation; and beyond a few grants
of indulgences for their chapels and altars, no
mention is made of Chicksand in the Lincoln
registers. (fn. 20) The argument from silence is
not a very valuable one; but in the case of
such an order as this, it is certainly the evidence which the nuns themselves would have
preferred, if they were faithful to the spirit of
their rule. In passing from the rule of St.
Benedict to that of Sempringham, we enter a
wholly different atmosphere, and have to do
with quite another ideal in the religious life.
The rule of St. Benedict owes its great and
lasting influence mainly to the fact that its
author sought to define and organise the
normal religious life, to establish a 'school of
the service of the Lord' in which large
numbers of very varying disposition and
attainment might live together in unity. In
consequence of this aim his rule is as broad as
it is high, and has as much power to tranquillise as to inspire. But the ideal of
the Gilbertines was strictly an ascetic one,
for the few and not for the many; and their
rule is full of petty regulations and restrictions which would be intolerable to all but
those who sought after a 'strange and separate
perfection'; who desired not merely to be
free from the 'evil that is in the world,' but
to shut the world out utterly and for ever.
No doubt after a time their asceticism, like
that of the Cistercians to whom they were so
closely allied, became much modified; but so
long as the rule in its main outlines remained the
same, nuns of such strict enclosure, separated
alike from their brethren in the order and the
world outside, bound even to recite their office
in so low a tone that it could scarcely be
heard beyond the party wall of their choir, (fn. 21)
could wish no higher praise than that of being
quite unknown. The evil report which Layton gave them at the last is worth very little
consideration. He clearly testified that he
found them strictly enclosed; and also that
the charges which he laid against two of the
nuns on the evidence of 'an old beldame'
were absolutely denied by the accused, by
their two prioresses, and by all their sisters. (fn. 22)
If the character of the ladies of the convent
(we might add also, the ladies of the Hall)
were to stand or fall by the testimony of the
village gossips and their own dismissed servants, it would have a poor chance at any
period of history.
In spite of Layton's charges, the priory of
Chicksand was not surrendered till 22 October
1538, (fn. 23) and pensions were then assigned to all
the canons and probably all the nuns also;
the prioresses received £3 6s. 8d. each. (fn. 24)
Payn and Roais de Beauchamp endowed
the priory at its foundation with the church
of Chicksand and lands attached; the grange
of Haynes with 400 acres, and the church
there with its appurtenances; a mill and half
a virgate with a house in Willington; 20 acres
in Cople and 3 virgates in Campton, besides
half the demesne of another benefactress,
Adeliza, wife of Walter de Mareis, consisting
of wood, plain, meadow and pastures. (fn. 25) To
this Simon de Beauchamp added the churches
of Cople and Keysoe, Stotfold with the chapel
of Astwick, and Linslade, Bucks; confirming
a number of small gifts besides. (fn. 26) The income
of the priory in 1291 was £124 15s. 5¾d., (fn. 27)
besides the churches in Bedfordshire; but
this of course takes no account of its debts.
By this time some lands had been acquired in
the counties of Northampton, Buckingham,
Huntingdon, Norfolk and Suffolk, and portions of tithes in the three London churches
of St. Mary's Colechurch, St. Mildred's Wallbrook, and St. Stephen's Jewry (fn. 28) ; and shortly
afterwards the manor of Tadlow, Cambridgeshire, (fn. 29) and the manor of Chicksand. (fn. 30) The
priors of Chicksand held in 1284 two knight's
fees of the barony of Beauchamp, and a fraction of a fee in Warden (fn. 31) ; in 1302 a fraction
of a fee in Tadlow (which was still held in
1428 and had increased to a quarter of a fee (fn. 32) );
in 1316 half a fee in Campton and a quarter
in Southill and in Sandy, with a small fraction in Stanford (fn. 33) ; in 1346 one fee in Campton and half a fee in Chicksand, with onetenth in Houghton (fn. 34) ; in 1428 half a fee in
both Campton and Chicksand, and a fraction
in Stanford. (fn. 35) In 1535 the income of the
priory was stated at £212 3s. 5d. (fn. 36) ; and just
after the dissolution at £259 6s. 2d., including
the manors of Meppershall, Stotfold, Chippenham (Suffolk), Wolverton (Bucks) and Hargrave (Northants), and the rectories of Keysoe,
Cople, Stotfold, Haynes and Linslade. (fn. 37)
Priors of Chicksand
Walter, (fn. 38) occurs 1204-5 and 1209-10
Simon, (fn. 39) occurs 1224
Thomas (fn. 40) occurs 1240
Hugh, (fn. 41) occurs 1245
William de Hugate, (fn. 42) occurs 1309
Simon (fn. 43)
John de L'isle, (fn. 44) occurs 1316, 1324, 1325
John Bruton, (fn. 45) occurs 1388
Ralf, (fn. 46) occurs 1409
Stephen, (fn. 47) occurs 1473
John Atoun, (fn. 48) occurs 1481 and 1493
John Spencer, (fn. 49) occurs 1529 and 1535
John Plomer, (fn. 50) occurs 1538
Prioresses of Chicksand
Emma, (fn. 51) occurs 1482
Margaret Burton and Margaret Graynger (fn. 52)
were the two prioresses in 1538
Four different seals of this priory are extant. The one appended to the deed of surrender is bright red, and represents the Annunciation; the angel kneeling and holding
a cross, and our Lady standing, each under
a canopy, a figure kneeling below. Legend:
S. CONVE . . . CHIKESAND AD CAVSAS. (fn. 53)
Another seal also represents the Annunciation, and is similar to the above, but both
figures are standing. (fn. 54) Legend: s' CONVENTVS
SCE MARIE DE CHIKESAND AD CAVSAS.
A small round seal has our Lady with
the holy Child, and another figure on the
right. (fn. 55) Legend destroyed all but the letter E.
The fourth has our Lady crowned, holding
the Child on her left arm; to the right a
monk kneeling, and possibly St. Catherine on
the left, holding up her hands in prayer. (fn. 56)