HOUSE OF BENEDICTINE NUNS
5. THE PRIORY OF BROMHALL
Of the early foundation of the priory of
Benedictine nuns at Bromhall within the limits
of Windsor Forest, nothing is known. The
first mention of it occurs in the year 1200,
when King John bestowed on the priory of
St. Margaret the church of Sunningwell with
all its appurtenances. (fn. 1)
The consent of Bishop Simon de Gandavo to
the appropriation of the church of Aldworth to
the priory was obtained in May 1308. A
vicarage was at the same time ordained, whereby
a messuage with place adjoining and certain
crofts and virgates of land were assigned to the
vicar, together with mortuaries and oblations,
and tithes of mills, as well as various small
tithes, including those on apples, gardens, flax,
wool, milk and cheese. (fn. 2)
Licence was granted under privy seal, in 1391,
to the prioress and nuns of Bromhall, to appropriate, in consideration of their poverty, the
advowson of North Stoke, co. Oxford. (fn. 3) The
priory had to pay 3s. 4d. pension on Christmas
day to the dean and chapter of Lincoln in
recognition of their consent to this appropriation. (fn. 4)
In 1228 the king issued his mandate to Jordan,
the forester of Windsor, to give full access to
the prioress and nuns of Bromhall to the 100
acres of waste which the king had granted to
the convent, in accordance with the bonds and
divisions laid down by the king's courts. (fn. 5) In
1231 the king pardoned the nuns the pannage
fees due to the crown for 36 pigs, and ordered
the agisters of Windsor Forest henceforth to
permit the priory to have free pannage. Later
in the same year Henry ordered the constable of
Windsor to grant the prioress three beams of
timber in Windsor Forest, to make shingles for
the repair of their refectory, and also to give her
an oak. (fn. 6) The prioress and nuns of Bromhall
obtained licence from the king in 1283 to
inclose with a small dyke and a hedge sufficiently
low for the entry and exit of the deer, the 100
acres of land which they had of the king's gift
within the forest of Windsor, and which they
had brought into cultivation. (fn. 7)
In July 1285, an inspection and confirmation
of the charter of Henry de Lacy, earl of Lincoln,
and Margaret his wife to the nuns of Bromhall,
was granted by Edward I. By this charter the
priory obtained 100 acres of the waste of
'Asserigge' which lay between 'Pillingbere' and
the high road from Bracknell and Reading. (fn. 8)
On 8 April, 1310, Constance de Bluntesdon,
Maud de Burghton, and Dionisia de Horshulle,
three nuns of Bromhall, arrived at Windsor to
acquaint the king with the resignation of Isabel
de Sunnyng their prioress, and to obtain letters
of licence to elect her successor. (fn. 9)
On 22 May Edward II issued his mandate to
the escheator for the restitution of the temporalities of Bromhall to Claricia de Cotes, a nun
of that place, in consideration of the poverty of
the house, and being unwilling to cause loss to
the nuns by a prolonged voidance. He accepted
her preferment as prioress by the bishop of
Salisbury in place of Maud de Broughton, whose
election, though the king had assented thereto,
was found by the bishop to be canonically
void. (fn. 10)
Margery de Fouleston died in December,
1327, and on the 6th of that month the nuns
obtained licence to elect. After a little delay
Gunnilda de Bokham was elected prioress, and
the king, compassionating the poverty of the
house, empowered the constable of Windsor
Castle to grant royal assent to the election, and
upon canonical confirmation to receive the fealty
of the new prioress. (fn. 11)
Archbishop Arundel, on 6 November, 1404,
issued a commission to the archdeacon of
Berks., the dean of Windsor, and three others, to
hold an inquiry concerning a complaint made by
the nuns of Bromhall, who alleged that Juliana
Bromhall, one of their number, had for twenty
years led an evil life, having without their consent usurped the rule of the house, and had
appropriated to her own nefarious uses chalices,
books, jewels, and rents and property of the
convent. (fn. 12) The exact result of the commission
is not known, but Juliana resigned in 1405.
The early charters of this priory were burnt
by mishap in 1462. Thereupon Alice, the
prioress, and the nuns obtained inspection and
confirmation of letters patent of 14 Edward II,
whereby five charters of Henry III and letters
patent of Edward I had been inspected and
confirmed. The nuns were only charged the
small fee of half a mark, doubtless in consideration of their misfortune. (fn. 13)
There is another reference to this disastrous
fire. In this same year Walter de Cantilupe,
bishop of Worcester, issued his mandate to the
abbots, priors, and archdeacons of his diocese, to
collect alms for the nuns of St. Margaret of
Bromhall, in Sarum diocese, as their house had
recently been destroyed by fire. (fn. 14)
It seems impossible to ascertain the exact facts
that led to the early suppression of this small
nunnery. Henry VIII, writing to the bishop of
Salisbury on 13 December, 1521, thanked him
for the care he had taken in suppressing the
nunnery of Bromhall' for such enormities as was
by them used.' He concludes by ordering the
bishop to deliver to the bearer the evidences of
the house then in his hands. (fn. 15) In the following
March, at an inquisition held at Windsor, it was
found that a priory of Benedictine nuns, dedicated
to St. Margaret, was founded by the king's
progenitors at Bromhall, under the authority of
the bishop of Salisbury; that Joan Rawlyns, the
prioress, resigned on 12 September, 1521; that
the two nuns who were there with the prioress
left the priory as a profane place, and that it is
consequently dissolved; that the convent was
seised of the church of St. Margaret and of the
churchyard, and of the site and grange of the
nunnery, which last included the mansion, manor,
water-mill, gate-house, and gardens; that the
church and churchyard were of no value, being
set apart for divine service, and that the rest was
worth 4s. a year. They believed that the
convent was also seised of the manors of Bromhall and Wingfield, and that it held all its
possessions of the king, to whom they reverted. (fn. 16)
On 21 October, 1522, the various possessions
of the priory of Bromhall were transferred by
the crown to the master, fellows, and scholars of
St. John's College, Cambridge. (fn. 17)
Prioresses of Bromhall
Agnes de St. Edmund, occurs 1268 (fn. 18)
Margery de Wycombe, appointed 1281 (fn. 19)
Isabel, occurs 1295 (fn. 20)
Matilda de Berghton, appointed 1302 (fn. 21)
Isabel de Sunnyng, resigned 1310 (fn. 22)
Claricia de Cotes, appointed 1310 (fn. 22)
Matilda de Bourton, appointed 1315 (fn. 23)
Margery de Fouleston, appointed 1326, (fn. 24) died
1327 (fn. 25)
Gunnilda de Bokham, elected 1327 (fn. 26)
Isabel de Hautford, elected 1349 (fn. 27)
Alice de Falle, occurs 1358, 1363 (fn. 28)
Eleanor, occurs 1392 (fn. 29)
Juliana Bromhall alias Dunne, occurs 1404,
resigned 1405 (fn. 30)
Thomasine Bodyngton, appointed 1405 (fn. 31)
Alice Burton, 1437, 1445 (fn. 32)
Isabel Beale, resigned 1483 (fn. 33)
Anne Thomas, resigned 1498 (fn. 34)
Elizabeth Leukenor, appointed 1498 (fn. 35)
Joan Rawlyns, 1511-1521
There is an impression of the seal of this
priory attached to a deed of 16 Richard II, at
Westminster Abbey, whereby Eleanor the
prioress and the convent undertake to pay 3s. 4d.
yearly to the dean and chapter of Lincoln for
their consent to the appropriation of the church
of North Stoke. The seal, which is circa 1200
in style, represents St. Margaret trampling on the
dragon, and is exceptional in having two large
faces in profile protruding from the inner side of
the margin. Only a few letters of the legend
remain. (fn. 36)