HOUSES OF BENEDICTINE NUNS
4. THE PRIORY OF IVINGHOE
The date of the foundation of this priory
is very uncertain, but it seems on the whole
most probable that it was in existence before
Ankerwyke or Little Marlow. It was most
commonly called the priory of St. Margaret's
in the Wood. Leland gives the tradition that
it was founded by Henry de Blois, Bishop of
Winchester, about the year 1160: but a
charter of St. Thomas of Canterbury given
in Dugdale confirms the grants of William,
Bishop of Winchester, who died in 1129, confirmed by Henry de Blois his successor. (fn. 1) The
manor of Ivinghoe had for a long time been
part of the endowment of the see of Winchester, even before the Conquest. (fn. 2)
The benefactors of the priory were not
numerous, either in its earlier or later days: (fn. 3)
in the thirteenth century King Henry III.
granted to the nuns the church of Merrow in
Surrey, (fn. 4) with other smaller gifts, such as an
annual fair on the feast of St. Margaret, and
ten acres of assart in Hemel Hempstead. (fn. 5)
There are several allusions in the episcopal
registers to the poverty of this house, and in
1277 the prioress seems to have been thankful
to be acquitted even of so small a fine as two
marks, which she had incurred by privately
settling a dispute which ought to have come
before the king's justices. (fn. 6)
The priory was dissolved under the first
Act of Suppression, and contained at that
time only five nuns, of whom three were
novices. The prioress, Margery Hardwick,
received a pension of £4. (fn. 7)
Bishop Dalderby granted indulgences on
three different occasions (fn. 8) to those who should
give alms for the maintenance of the 'poor
nuns of St. Margaret's priory'; from which
we may surely infer that he had visited the
house and was satisfied with its condition in
other respects. (fn. 9) Poverty and obscurity are
indeed in no sense a reproach to a convent of
nuns. Again in the fifteenth century (during
which only two names of prioresses can at
present be recovered) there is indirect evidence of the faithful observance of the Benedictine rule in this house. During the episcopate of Bishop Alnwick a nun of some
years' standing at the Augustinian priory of
Grace Dieu sought and obtained permission
to leave her own monastery and retire to St.
Margaret's, Ivinghoe. After she had actually
gone there, her original superior sent and
fetched her back again; whereupon she appealed to the bishop. He examined the
matter, and finding that she had made the
change not from levity of mind, but from a
motive always sanctioned by the Church—
the desire, namely, of passing a minore religione ad majorem, causa arctioris aut durioris
vitae—ordered that she should be allowed to
remain at St. Margaret's. (fn. 10) Bishop Alnwick
was an energetic visitor of the monasteries in
his diocese, (fn. 11) and would soon have discovered
if the priory of Ivinghoe did not really offer
to the nun in question the stricter life which
she desired.
Bishop Longland visited the house in 1530 (fn. 12)
and found there a prioress with three or four
nuns. The house was said to be in debt, but
under no other reproach, except that one of
the ladies had visited her friends without permission, and stayed away from her monastery
from the Feast of St. Michael till Passion
Sunday in the next year. She was enjoined
not to go out again without permission from
the prioress: and for a penance she was to
say the seven penitential psalms every Tuesday, Wednesday, and Saturday, with an additional Pater, Ave and Credo every day. (fn. 13)
In 1535 the local commissioners found five
nuns here, of whom two were professed and
three only novices: three of these were sufficiently attached to their religious life to
decline the opportunity of returning to the
world, and asked permission to enter another
house of the order. There were four servants living in the monastery, which was said
to be of competent estate and no longer in
debt. (fn. 14)
The house was originally endowed with
only a small portion of land in the wood of
Ivinghoe: to which was added later the
church of Merrow in Surrey with lands
attached, and ten acres of assart at Hemel
Hempstead. (fn. 15) The priory is not mentioned
in the Taxation of Pope Nicholas: its revenue is given in the Valor Ecclesiasticus as
£14 3s. 1d. clear. (fn. 16) The survey of the local
commissioners returned it first as worth
£13 3s. 4d. and later as £19 8s. 9d.; the bells,
lead, etc., were valued at £8 10s. 6d., and the
moveable goods at £1 13s. 4d. The Ministers' Accounts only give a total of £10 4s. 1½d. (fn. 17)
Prioresses of Ivinghoe
Alice, (fn. 18) occurs 1237
Isolt, (fn. 19) died 1262
Cicely, (fn. 20) elected 1262, resigned 1275
Maud de Hockliffe, (fn. 21) elected 1275, died 1296
Isolt de Beauchamp, (fn. 22) elected 1296
Sibyl de Hampstead, (fn. 23) resigned 1340
Maud de Cheyney, (fn. 24) elected 1340
Eleanor Cross, (fn. 25) died 1467
Eleanor Symmes, (fn. 26) elected 1467
Elizabeth Wyvill, (fn. 27) occurs 1530, died 1534
Margaret Hardwick, (fn. 28) last prioress, elected
1534
A pointed oval seal of Prioress Isolt de
Beauchamp, attached to a charter (fn. 29) dated
Feast of St. Valentine, 1325-6, represents the
Virgin Mary, full length, the Holy Child with
nimbus on her left arm. The legend, which
is defaced, runs: . . . P. . . . DICAT. VGO
MAR[IA].