HOUSE OF CISTERCIAN NUNS
10. THE ABBEY OF TARRANT KAINES (fn. 1)
The Cistercian nunnery of Tarrant Kaines,
commonly said to be of the foundation of
Richard le Poor of Salisbury, owed its early
origin to the 'ancient and renowned familie
of Keines,' a member of which—Ralph de
Kahaynes—according to Coker, 'in Richard the
first's time built neare his mansion house a little
monasterie for nunnes which his son William de
Kahaynes much encreased.' (fn. 2)
Accepting the tradition which identifies these
nuns with the sisters to whom was addressed
that famous treatise, the 'Ancren Riwle,' that
modern authority has attributed to Bishop Poor, (fn. 3)
and assuming that the 'Riwle' was written
about the commencement of the thirteenth
century, we find that the community at that
time consisted of three ladies with their domestic
servants, and that they are described as being
'for your goodness and nobleness of mind
beloved of many, sisters of one father and of
one mother, having in the bloom of your youth
forsaken all the pleasures of the world and
become anchoresses.' (fn. 4) It also appears that the
sisters, though they had renounced the world to
apply themselves to pious exercises and devout
meditations, had not as yet joined any existing
order, for the bishop advises them 'if any
ignorant person ask you of what order you are,
say that you are of the order of St. James,'
which indeed had no existence in actual fact, but
whose rule (Epist. i, 27), and especially the latter
part of it, 'to keep unspotted from the world,'
was specially to be observed by them. It was
probably by the counsel and consent of their
benefactor that the community finally adopted
the Cistercian rule, and it may account for the
tradition soon after prevailing that the bishop was
their actual founder. The step must have been
taken before his translation to Durham in 1228,
for the profession of Clarice, abbess of Tarrant Kaines, to Bishop Richard le Poor as
ordinary can still be seen at Salisbury. (fn. 5)
The earliest of a series of charters granted to
the abbess and convent during the reign of
Henry III is dated 24 July, 1235, and confirms
to God, the church of All Saints, and the nuns
serving God there all previous gifts, including
those of the original founder and his son. Of
the gift of Ralph de Kahaynes: the church of
All Saints, the manse before the church and the
croft near it, the mill before the manse, all the
downs called 'Thorendon,' 'Holdeley,' and
'Bushenden,' 4½ acres of land in Goldecroft,
the land called Medgare, and 2 acres of meadow
at the hedge of Crawford, 2 acres of wood at
Fordham Serlon, (fn. 6) 2 acres of wood in Chetred,
and pasture for a plough-team of oxen with the
oxen of the grantor, a virgate of land in Spettisbury. William de Kahaynes added to his
father's benefactions a tithe of all the bread made
in his household wherever he should be in any
part of his demesne 'saving the bread of Renges,'
a tithe of all salt meat whether of pigs, sheep, or
cows killed in his household each year, one barrel
of his prime and good ale for Christmas with
another barrel of second ale, or malt to make as
much, yearly; the prior and convent of Christchurch, Twyneham, among other gifts gave two
mills in Tarrant and pasturage for sheep and
cattle, &c.; the manor of Woodyates was the
gift of William de Woodyates; Richard, bishop
of Durham, bestowed all the right which John de
Reygate gave to him in the third part of a hide
and in a messuage and garden in Pimperne. (fn. 7)
Bishop Poor's interest in the house he had
practically re-founded did not diminish on his
translation to Durham; he made over to the
sisters the custody of the manor of Tarrant
Kaines granted to him by Henry III during
the minority of William, son and heir of
William de Kahaynes, the king sanctioning
the transfer on 7 February, 1237, and at the
same time granting letters of protection to the
abbess of the 'Blessed place upon the Tarrant.' (fn. 8)
Two months later the bishop turned his
steps homeward to die in his native place. (fn. 9)
Matthew Paris describes the scene at Tarrant
on 13 April, 1237, when, surrounded by the
household, at the hour of compline, devoutly
following the prayers, Richard le Poor at the
words, 'I will lay me down in peace and sleep'
passed peacefully away. (fn. 10) Before his death he
had sought to secure the welfare of this loved
community by placing the house under the patronage of Queen Eleanor, wife of Henry III, who
is afterwards occasionally termed the founder,
the house becoming popularly known as Benedictus Locus Regine super Tarant. In October
following the death of their benefactor Henry III
confirmed to the sisters the grants set out in
his previous charter of 1235 with fresh additions, including the gift by William de la
Prentice of all his right in the hermitage of
Mannington, at the same time notifying that he
had taken under his protection the abbey of
Tarrant 'which Richard, sometime bishop of
Durham, founded.' In 1265 the king bestowed
on the abbess and convent—styled 'of the Cistercian order'—for the good of his soul and
the soul of Eleanor, queen of England, 'our
consort,' his manor of Hurstbourne Tarrant
in Hants for the service of half a knight's
fee. (fn. 11)
The year following the bishop's death the
abbey was called on to give burial to a sister of
Henry III, Joan the wife of Alexander II of
Scotland, who fell ill while on a visit south to
her brother, and dying 4 March, 1238,
bequeathed her body to the nuns for burial; (fn. 12)
the king in the same month testified that he
was bound to assign to the abbess and convent,
within fifteen days of Easter next, land to the
value of £20 a year according to a bequest
made to them by his sister Joan, sometime
queen of Scotland. (fn. 13) A few years later, in
1246, a grant was made to the Abbess Maud
that the sheriff of Dorset should henceforth be
charged with the provision of two wax lights to
burn day and night in the abbey, one before the
host and the other before the place where the
body of the late queen lay buried. (fn. 14)
It would be impossible to enumerate all the
gifts made to this favoured house in the course of
the thirteenth century. A charter dated 21 April,
1242, sets out at considerable length all previous
grants, many of which had been included
in the charters of 1235 and 1237 already
mentioned. (fn. 15) On 5 December, 1252, Henry III
granted to the nuns for the soul of his sister
Joan that they and their men should be quit
of suits of the county and hundred court
and of sheriff's tourn, that they might claim the
amercements of their men before the king's
justices whether in eyre or on the bench; the
right of free election 'as fully as obtains in
the Cistercian order,' and the right of free
warren in all their demesne lands in Dorset,
Wilts., and Sussex, provided they should not be
within the king's forest. (fn. 16) Edward I exhibited
the same regard shown by his father, and at the
instance of his wife, Eleanor of Castille, restored
to the nuns the wood of Beer which John de
Bohun had formerly bestowed on them without
licence of the king, with the result that it had
escheated to the crown. (fn. 17) The manor of Binderton, the gift of Bernard de Sauve, was
included in a charter of confirmation granted in
the eighth year of the king. (fn. 18)
According to the Taxatio of 1291 the yearly
income of the convent came to £126 16s. 4½d.,
including spiritualities from the churches of
Tarrant Kaines, Little Crawford, and Woodyates amounting to £12 6s. 8d. (fn. 19) Their temporalities were assessed at £13 in the deanery of
Dorchester, £33 10s. 8½d. in the deanery of
Whitchurch, £19 9s. 7d. in the deanery of
Pimperne, £22 16s. 5d. in the manor of Hanford within the Shaftesbury deanery. (fn. 20) The
total value of their possessions within this county
came to £101 3s. 4½d., and they had £15 from
the manor of Binderton in the diocese of
Chichester, (fn. 21) and £10 3s. from the manor
of Hurstbourne Tarrant in the Winchester
diocese. (fn. 22) In spite of the respectable rent-roll
represented by these figures we read that in
1292 the abbess obtained leave from the
king to sell forty oaks from her manor of
Hurstbourne to whomsoever she would in order
to pay her debts. (fn. 23)
Save for the record of their temporal possessions the community rarely emerge from the
obscurity that veils their history. It is evident
that the name by which they continued to be
known, 'the poor nuns of Tarrant,' (fn. 24) was
something of a misnomer if it should be read to
imply absolute poverty. The time had long
gone by since the days when the sisters were
warned by the bishop to avoid the holding of
personal property: 'Ye shall not possess any
beast, my dear sisters, except only a cat,' or, when
seeking their pittance in the hall of their early
founder, were bidden 'be glad in your heart if
ye suffer insolence from Slurry the cook's boy
who washeth dishes in the kitchen.' (fn. 25) As
belonging to the Cistercian order the house was
technically 'exempt,' and beyond forwarding a
copy of the Constitutions of Pope Boniface for
enforcing the stricter inclosure of nuns in 1301
the bishop, so far as we can gather from the
registers, made no attempt to impose his authority
therein. (fn. 26) At all events history does not deprive
us of the hope that these ladies remained true
to the ideal of the Christian life pointed out to
them by their early friend.
In the fourteenth century certain chantries
were founded in the conventual church that
prayers might continually be offered for the souls
of royal and distinguished benefactors. In 1347
in consideration of the sum of 46s. 8d., Thomas
Baret obtained a licence to bestow certain messuages and lands in Charlton and Little Crawford
for the provision of a chaplain to celebrate every
Monday in the abbey church at the altar of St.
Mary for the good estate of the king, for his soul
when dead, the souls of his progenitors, the
grantor and his heirs. (fn. 27) Thirty years later, by
an indenture dated 'Nuns Tarent, Saturday, St.
Mark,' the nuns granted to 'Sir' Thomas Gilden,
chaplain, a weekly corrody for life from their
abbey, with a chamber in the houses lately built
by Thomas Baret to be kept in repair by the
abbess, and assigned to him the office of chaplain
of the parish church of All Saints, Little Crawford,
'otherwise called St. Margaret's Chapel,' in return
for £20 paid by him to the abbess and for other
benefits. (fn. 28) In 1383 Sir Robert Rous, whom
Leland mentions as a great benefactor of the
sisters, (fn. 29) desired by his will to be buried in the
abbey, 'the place of St. Richard the Bishop;'
among other legacies bequeathing to every nun
at Tarrant 40d., to every sister 2s., and an annual
rent of 8 marks for the provision of four priests to
celebrate at the altar 'near the body of St. Richard
in St. Michael's church in Tarrant Kaines,' and
two priests in the church of St. Mary at Tarrant
Crawford; to the abbess he left a pair of gold
beads with other plate engraved with his own
and his wife's arms. (fn. 30) On 23 February, 1389, a
licence was granted for the alienation of the
manor of Tarrant Keynston by Robert, bishop
of London, Walter Clopton, William Gascoigne,
and John, parson of Keynston, to the abbess and
convent for the ordination of a chantry of two
chaplains in the abbey to celebrate daily for the
souls of Robert Rous, knt., Joan his wife, his
parents and friends, and to perpetuate various acts
of piety for the benefit of their souls and the
souls of the father and mother of Joan, according
to the ordinance of the bishop. (fn. 31)
The fifteenth century is almost bare of records
relating to this house. Henry IV on 3 March,
1403, inspected and confirmed letters patent of
Richard II in 1394, confirming the charter of
Henry III for the right of free warren within all
the demesne lands of the abbey. (fn. 32) The grant
may have been specially made in consequence of
a complaint lodged by the Abbess Joan in May,
1402, that Robert Turbulville, 'chevalier,' and
others had transgressed her right of free warren
at Beer, hunted and fished her preserves, felled
her trees, and assaulted her servants. (fn. 33) The episcopal registers record that a dispensation was
granted to the abbess on 9 September, 1406,
allowing her to have divine service celebrated for
herself and her household wherever she might be
within the city and diocese of Salisbury. (fn. 34)
'Terenta of the Nuns' was included among
religious houses of the Cistercian order to be
visited by the abbot of Ford in virtue of the
royal commission, January, 1535, (fn. 35) but no report
is recorded of its condition.
The Valor of the same year gives the abbey a
clear annual income of £214 7s. 9d., the abbess
claiming to be discharged of a yearly allowance
of £3 for an annual distribution of bread to the
poor on Maundy Thursday in commemoration of
'Eleanor, sometime queen of England, the
foundress.' (fn. 36) The convent held the parsonages of Little Crawford, Woodyates, and
Hanford, with a portion out of the church of
Tarrant Keynston. (fn. 37) The abbey was at that
time void, congé d'èlire on the death of Edith, last
abbess, being granted in August of the same year. (fn. 38)
The names of the principal officers are given as
follows:—Margaret Lynde, prioress; Anna
Cheverell, sub-prioress; Joan More, cellarer;
Alicia Hart, sacrist. (fn. 39)
Margaret Russell, who succeeded, held office
till 13 March, 1539, when with the sub-prioress
and eighteen of her nuns she surrendered the
abbey into the hands of the royal commissioner,
John Smyth. A pension of £40 was assigned to
the abbess, to the prioress £6 13s. 4d., to the subprioress 100s., and to the seventeen remaining
sisters sums ranging from £4 to 66s. 8d. each. (fn. 40)
William Joliffe, chaplain, later received a pension
of 53s. 4d. (fn. 41)
After the Dissolution the abbey, with the
manor of Preston or Tarrant Crawford, was
granted in reversion to Sir Thomas Wyatt; (fn. 42)
a few years later it came into the hands of
Richard Savage and W. Strangways. (fn. 43)
Abbesses of Tarrant Kaines
Claricia, elected about 1228 (fn. 44)
Emelina (fn. 45)
Maud, occurs 1240 (fn. 46)
Isolda, occurs 1280 (fn. 47)
Elena, elected 1298 (fn. 48)
Anne, occurs 1351 (fn. 49)
Clemence de Cernyngton, occurs 1377 (fn. 50)
Joan, occurs 1402 (fn. 51)
Avice, occurs 1404 (fn. 52)
Edith Coker, died in 1535 (fn. 53)
Margaret Russell, elected 1535, (fn. 54) surrendered
March, 1539 (fn. 55)
The thirteenth-century pointed oval seal
attached to the surrender deed of the abbey
represents on a corbel the Virgin with crown,
standing, the Holy Child on the left arm. Before her the abbess kneeling holds up a flowering
branch. In the field two trees. (fn. 56)
The legend runs:—
✠ SIGILLVM . CONVENTVS . DE . TARENT