HOUSE OF BENEDICTINE NUNS
2. THE PRIORY OF WALLINGWELLS
Ralph de Chevrolcourt (or Caprecuria) in the
time of Stephen granted, with the consent of
his heirs, to Almighty God and the Blessed
Virgin a place in his park of Carlton in Lindrick
by the Wells (juxta fontes et rivum fontium),
whose name was to be St. Mary of the Park, to
make and build there a dwelling for religious,
independent of any other house, in honour of
the Blessed Virgin, for the remission of his sins
and for the good estate and the soul's health of
himself and his heirs and progenitors and of all
who should help and maintain the house. By
way of endowment the founder granted the
house, the water for mill use, pasture in the
park for all their beasts, pannage in the same
for ninety swine, a right of way through the
midst of the park for carting their crops, all the
lands held of his fee by Gunwat, Thori, William
son of Lefwin, Rushtoch and Ernwi, with
various other small plots, common rights in the
field of Carlton, common of pasture on all his
demesnes, and the whole underwood (arbustum)
of Sicam to inclose. The charter concludes
with an unusually solemn blessing upon his heirs
who should cherish and maintain his gifts to this
house, and a malediction on all who should
attempt to disturb, diminish, or straiten the
benefactions. (fn. 1)
The church of Cantley, Yorkshire, was appropriated to the nuns of Wallingwells in 1273.
Archbishop Giffard gave his assent, on account
of their penury, in terms of warm eulogy as to
their devout life. The appropriation was to
come into operation on the death or resignation
of John Clarell, the then rector, and meanwhile
the rector was to assign to the priory the yearly
pension of a mark. (fn. 2)
At the end of Giffard's register, the ordinance
of Archbishop Godfrey, in 1262, concerning certain rights of this nunnery in the churches of
Carlton in Lindrick, Cantley, and Mattersey is
cited. On account of their great poverty, the
archbishop, with the express consent of Warin de
Dyson, rector of Carlton, assigned to them the
corn tithes of eighteen bovates of land in that
parish, and the nuns were to be held clear of all
tithes, small and great, on their lands in Carlton.
Moreover the rector of Carlton was to sustain
all burdens of the church, save the extraordinary
ones of a fourth part. The advowsons of the
rectory of Carlton (saving this fourth part) and of
the rectory of Cantley were reserved to the
Archbishop of York, but a pension was to be
paid of 20s. out of Carlton rectory and of two
marks out of Cantley rectory to the prioress and
nuns of Wallingwells. It was at the same time
agreed that the presentation to the rectory of
Mattersey was reserved to the priory. (fn. 3)
The Taxation Roll of 1291 enters that the
prioress held in spiritualities in Carlton in
Lindrick £10 13s. 4d., and in temporalities
£4 18s. 4d.; also £2 13s. 4d. in temporalities
at Handsworth Woodhouses. (fn. 4)
The Valor Ecclesiasticus of Henry VIII gives
the total annual value of the house as £87 11s. 6d.,
but heavy reprises reduced the clear annual
value to £58 9s. 10d. The demesne lands produced £6 a year, and other Nottinghamshire lands
in Carlton, Gildingwells, Gringley, 'Willourne,'
together with Yorkshire lands in Handsworth
and its members, brought the total of the temporalities to £21 11s. 10d. Campsall rectory
(Yorks) produced the large annual income of
£51 14s.; Cantley rectory and a pension out
of Carlton rectory brought the total of the spiritualities to £65 19s. 8d. The chief outgoing
was from Campsall rectory, which included
£16 13s. 4d. to the vicar as his pension,
£1 6s. 8d. to the deacon of the same church,
£5 to a chantry priest in Pontefract Castle, £1
to the Archbishop of York, and 10s. to the York
chapter. There was also a distribution of alms
to the poor four times a year, amounting to
£2 6s. 8d., in commemoration of the founder. (fn. 5)
The Prioress of Wallingwells took action in
1247 against Thomas de Lyncoln and Juliana
his wife for obstructing a certain highway in
Carlton, so that she could not use it for her
carts to the granges; but the action failed, as the
jury found that the priory never had any right of
way, and only used it on sufferance. (fn. 6)
In November 1295 Archbishop Romayne
appointed Lady Emma de Stocwelle prioress of
Wallingwells, and issued his mandate to the
archdeacon to induct her. A memorandum in
the register states that the diocesan appointed in
this manner because there was no exhibition of
the election in writing; but it would appear
that Lady Emma was the choice of the nuns. (fn. 7)
Dame Isabel Crofte, Prioress of Wallingwells,
by indenture dated 30 June 1507 covenanted
with George Hastings to farm to him all manner
of tithes of the town and manor of Fenwick
pertaining to the priory and including tithes of
corn, hay, hemp, flax, goosegrass, wool and
lambs, together with mortuaries and oblations,
and all other profits, for the term of both their
lives, at £3 a year. It was also agreed and
provided that the township of Fenwick was to
make due oblation unto the mother church
of Campsall at the four principal feasts, and
further covenanted that the inhabitants 'shall
well and trulye content and paye the Lenton
bokes and the profetts thereof unto the saide
Dame Isabell prioresse, or ellus unto hir deputs.' (fn. 8)
This small nunnery was visited in 1536 by
Legh and Layton. Wonderful to relate, they
had no slander nor scandal to report of this
house, whose annual value they returned at £60.
Under the head of Superstitio they recorded the
comb of St. Edmund, and an image of the
Virgin said to have been discovered at the founding of the house. (fn. 9)
In April of this year Sir John Nevill, in a
letter to Cromwell, wrote:—'I beseech you
have me in remembrance for Wallyng Wellys,
as I wrote to Mr. Richard, your nephew or for
something else.' (fn. 10)
Wallingwells, however, though so small a
house, was one of those religious foundations
which managed to procure a respite by a heavy
bribe or fine. More than a year's income,
namely £66 13s. 4d., was paid to the Crown
officials to secure exemption from the schedule
of the condemned smaller monasteries. (fn. 11)
On 2 June 1537 Margaret Goldsmith, the
prioress of the 'Monasterye of ower Ladye of
Wallyngwells, in the countye of Nottingham,'
entered into a covenant with Richard Oglethorp
demising to him the entire monastery and all
its possessions for the term of twenty-one years,
lying in Wallingwells, Carlton in Lindrick,
Gildingwells, Handsworth, Brinsworth, Todwick,
Wales, Throapham, Dalton, Rawmarsh, Gringley, Woodsetts, Harthill, 'Rownbromen,' Welham, and Mattersey, in the counties of York and
Nottingham, together with the parsonage of
Campsall. The actual church of Wallingwells,
and the prioress's chambers, the dormitory, the
infirmary, and all other houses and dwellings
pertaining to the monastery, were alone excepted,
and these were reserved for the prioress and convent. Oglethorp, or his executors or assigns,
was also to be entitled to cut down and carry
away all timber and underwood. He was, however, to provide at his own cost an able priest to
sing and read in the monastery, and to pay
yearly during the terms of the lease £3 6s. 8d.
to the prioress, 6s. 8d. to every lady or sister of
the monastery there abiding, 11s. to the prioress's
maid for her wages, to the convent maid 6s. 8d.,
and to the cook and butler yearly for their wages
£1 6s. 8d. Further he was to supply to the
convent every week 'one mett of whete and one
mete and one pek of rye for ther brede corn, to
be grounde molter free,' and three bushels of
blended malt, half barley and half oats, for the
'dryncke corn.' He was also to deliver yearly
six fat kine, four fat pigs, six calves, twenty
sheep, six stone of cheese, a quarter and a
half of salt, and a quarter of oatmeal for the
kitchen, and 40s. in money for them to buy
fish with at their pleasure. The final clause
of the indenture bound Oglethorp to supply
the prioress yearly with one load of coals,
ten loads of wood, and twelve pounds of candles;
and twelve loads of coal, twenty loads of wood,
and twelve pounds of candles for the convent;
and also to find them, summer and winter, two
milk kine and two 'suez.' (fn. 12)
The priory was surrendered on 14 December
1539, when a pension of £6 was assigned to
Margaret Goldsmith the prioress, of 53s. 4d.
each to Anne Roden the sub-prioress and to
Elizabeth Kyrkeby, and of 40s. each to six other
nuns. (fn. 13)
Prioresses of Wallingwells
Emma de Stockwell, 1295 (fn. 14)
Dionysia, resigned 1325 (fn. 15)
Alice de Sheffield, resigned 1353 (fn. 16)
Helen de Bolsover, resigned 1402 (fn. 17)
Isabel de Durham, 1402 (fn. 18)
Joan Hewet, died 1465 (fn. 19)
Elizabeth Wilcocks, 1465 (fn. 20)
Elizabeth Kirkby, 1504 (fn. 21)
Isabel Croft, 1508-11 (fn. 22)
Anne Goldsmith, 1516 (fn. 23)
Margaret Goldsmith, 1521 (fn. 24)