VIII. Some Account of an Abbey of Nuns formerly situated in the Street now called the Minories in the County of Middlesex, and Liberty of the Tower of London. Communicated by Henry Fly, D.D. F.R S and F.A.S. in a Letter to the Rev. John Brand Secretary

Henry Fly

doi:10.1017/S0261340900018257

VIII. Some Account of an Abbey of Nuns formerly situated in the Street now called the Minories in the County of Middlesex, and Liberty of the Tower of London. Communicated by Henry Fly, D.D. F.R S and F.A.S. in a Letter to the Rev. John Brand Secretary

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 24 July 2012

Henry Fly

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The parish of Trinity in the Minories is on the scite of a religious house, which became parochial on the suppression of the monastery in the reign of Henry VIII. It appears originally to have been a part of the parish of St. Botolph Aldgate, when Blanche, queen of Navarre, (the wife of Edmund duke of Lancaster, Leicester, and Derby, brother to king Edward I.) was desirous of signalizing her pious zeal according to the custom of the times by erecting an abbey. In the king's licence.

Type: Research Article
Information: Archaeologia , Volume 15 , 1806 , pp. 92 - 113

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0261340900018257 [Opens in a new window]
Copyright: Copyright © The Society of Antiquaries of London 1806

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^{page 92 note [a]} She was the daughter of Robert Count d'Artois, and Maud of Brabant, married A. D. 1269 to Henry le Gros, king of Navarre, by whom she had Jane, afterwards the wife of Philip le Bel. The King of Navarre dying A. D. 1274, Blanch married Edmund of England above mentioned. She founded, says Moreri, the abbey of Argensoles of the Cistertian order.—Vid. Art. Blanche.

^{page 93 note [b]} This is the only document given us by Dugdale in his Monasticon, and is intitled “Monialium ordinis Minorum domus apud Londinensis in agro Middlesexiæ.”

^{page 93 note [c]} Founded by Dyonisia de Monte Caniso, or Monchensey, a Lady of Ansty, at Waterbeach in Cambridgeshire; the other at Briseyard in Suffolk.—See Stevens's Abridgment and Continuation of Dugdale, Vol. II.

^{page 93 note [d]} From the few names recorded of their first abbesses, (lsabellade Lille, and Joanna de Nevers) and from the circumstance mentioned in the first Bull they obtained from Pope Boniface of their following the rule of a similar convent in the diocese of Paris, the nuns in question seem to have been, with their royal foundress, natives of France. They were also called Urbanists, from Pope Urban IV, who mitigated the rigour of their rules as originally drawn up by St. Francis; and which division of the order of Clares was begun by St. Isabel, sister of Lewis king of France, with the approbation of Pope Alexander IV.—Collect. Anglo Minoritica, Pref. to the Appendix.

^{page 94 note [e]} Survey Ports. Ward.

^{page 94 note [f]} Stevens, Vol. I. p. 159.

^{page 94 note [g]} In addition to the three monastic vows, common to every order, of poverty, celibacy, and obedience, they made (as I understand,) a fourth, that of inclosure; whence in the first Bull of Pope Boniface respecting them, they are styled Sorores Minores inclusæ, inclosed Minorite Nuns; and I was informed in Flanders by a nun of this order that they held themselves bound by that vow never to go without the walls of their monastery, but in the cases of war, fire, or pestilence.

^{page 94 note [h]} Or Downgate, from the descent to the river; the bottom of Walbrook. Vide Seymour's Survey of London, Vol. I. p. 491.

^{page 95 note [i]} Rymer, Vol. II. p. 699.—“One Simon Fitzmary, heretofore sheriff of London, is by Mr. Speed, (says Newcourt) reckoned a great benefactor to this house.” There was a sheriff of this name A. D. 1246, who founded the hospital or priory of St. Mary of Bethlehem for canons with brethren and sisters; which house being given by Hen. VIII. to the city, was converted into a house or hospital for the reception of lunatics; which hospital (the scite being unfavourable, and the house itself too small) was rebuilt where it now stands, and in its present form.—Vide Seymour's Survey, Vol. I. p. 186. But of Fitzmary's benefactions to the abbey in the Minories I find nothing.

^{page 96 note [k]} Newcourt, Vol. I. p. 562.

^{page 97 note [l]} Viz. the branch of the Clares called Urbanists; for of this sort were these of the humility of St. Mary.

^{page 98 note [m]} A. D. 1296, Prynne's Records.

^{page 99 note [n]} Orig. “Without his licence, or that of his father Edward, formerly king of England,” in whose reign the statute of Mortmain passed.

^{page 100 note [o]} Boniface died A. D. 1303, “ubi (scilicet Romæ) ex mærore animi Oct. 11, A. D. 1303, vitam finiit,” says Petavius, Pars I^ma. Lib. 9. Rat. Temp.

^{page 100 note [p]} The king's letter begins, “Edward by the grace of God king of England, Lord of Ireland, and Duke of Aquitain, to the honorable father in God, by the same grace, bishop of Winchester, our chaneellor, greeting.”

^{page 100 note [q]} “Chaplains” Capellani. We have had, (says Mr. Churton in his life of Bishop Smyth,) capellanus for a curate or officiating clergyman, page 258, n. It sometimes means Cantarista, a chantry priest.—It occurs perpetually in institutions, &c.” Might it not mean a priest who had as yet no other office than that of officiating in some of those chapels so numerous in cathedrals and other large churches.

^{page 101 note [r]} This queen dowager of Edward II. also called Elizabeth, is said, by Francis de Sancta Clara, to have died herself in this order, and to have been buried in the Franciscan church at London. She was daughter of Philip IV. or le Bel, of France, and Jane heiress of Henry I. king of Navarre, born 1282, betrothed in Jan. 1303, and married at Bologne 22 Jan. 1308, to our Edw. II. then Prince of Wales. She died at Rosseing, 31 Nov. 1357, aged 75. Vide Anglo Minor. append. p. I. compared with p. 4 of the Antiq. of the Engl. Franciscans in the same volume, where the author quotes Stow. Vide also the art. Elizabeth; ou, Isabeau de France in Moreri.

^{page 101 note [s]} A. D. 1316.

^{page 101 note [t]} Per laicos regne nostri Angliæ, i.e. I suppose granted by the parliament without any exception of the clergy, and to be levied therefore on his subjects in general.

^{page 102 note [u]} Or Elizabeth, mother to king Edward III.

^{page 102 note [v]} Terra in the original. I presume arable from the distinction; the half-acre being prati.

^{page 103 note [x]} In this grant only lands and messuages are given; but Newcourt, quoting the above-mentioned Francis a St. Clara in his Hist. Minorum, says “this house was endowed with the possession of the church of Hertingdon and all its revenues, which was an advowson belonging to and in the gift of their founder Edmund earl of Lancaster. See also Collect. Anglo Minoritica, append. p. I.

^{page 104 note [y]} Vid. Survey of London: B. 6. Chap. I. Vol. II. p. 707. St. Mary de Matselon (or White Chapel) a word (Seymour supposes) of Hebrew or Syriac extraction, q. quæ, nuper eniva est, fitly applied to St. Mary, so frequently represented with the infant Jesus. Possibly the founder (says he, was a crusader or pilgrim, who had dwelt in the holy land. A.D. 1398 Lady Ellen a minoress, and sister to John de Nevil lord of Raby, died and was interred in this abbey.

^{page 107 note [z]} The duke died A.D. 1524.

^{page 107 note [a]} Collins's Peerage, Vol. I.

^{page 108 note [b]} Sacræ Theol. Doctor, says Godwin, p. 387; but Wharton in Anglia Sacra, Vol. I. p. 577, legum doctor. The fact was he had his degree in divinity from Cambridge; that in law from Bologna in Italy.—Vide Godwyn, Ibidem, Not.

^{page 108 note [c]} Godwin de Præsul. p. 387.

^{page 108 note [d]} Wharton's Anglia Sacra.

^{page 108 note [f]} Burnet's History of the Reformation, Vol. I. p. 129, and Wharton ut supra, p. 577.

^{page 108 note [g]} Eighteenth edition in 8 vols. folio, Amsterd. 1740.

^{page 109 note [h]} 1529, Wolsey and Campegio. Vid. Burnet's Reform. Vol. I. p. 72.

^{page 109 note [i]} Wharton's Anglia Sacra, and Godwyn de Præsulibus.

^{page 109 note [k]} The book inscribed Bonnar in the registry of the diocese of London.

^{page 110 note [l]} Henry Grey created duke of Suffolk 1551, father of Lady Jane Grey, and beheaded 1553.

^{page 111 note [m]} “Free Soccage” in Seymour's Acc. Vol. I. p. 270.

^{page 113 note [m]} In one of these houses Sir W. Pritchard resided, and kept his mayoralty.

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VIII. Some Account of an Abbey of Nuns formerly situated in the Street now called the Minories in the County of Middlesex, and Liberty of the Tower of London. Communicated by Henry Fly, D.D. F.R S and F.A.S. in a Letter to the Rev. John Brand Secretary

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