Nuns, priests and prioresses

Hall Close, Harrold today (source bedfordshire.gov.uk)

There are no visible archaeological remains of Harrold Priory.  After its successor Harrold Hall burned down in 1961 the estate was cleared and new exective homes were built in what is now Hall Close.  There appear to have been no archaeological excavations, although older local residents remember that what was called the dining hall had been used as stables and garaging.

It is likely that the old priory would have adjoined St Peter's church, or at least had a chamber attached where the nuns could take part in the services and receive communion from the canons, probably through a narrow window or other opening.  As a typical nunnery the community would consist of a head (in the case of Harrold the Prioress) and a maximum of 12 nuns (Venarde 1997).  The Gilbertines (such as those at nearby Chicksands) often had communities numbering into the hundreds, but these were exceptions.  Larger nunneries such as these would have had cloisters, but these are not mentioned in Harrold.

We have few traces of who lived and prayed at Harrold Priory, although in 1390 a Clerical Subsidy record was made which listed three chaplains to the house  - Robert Lary, William Yelden and Adam Seyyor.  They all had their own parishes (Lary is described as parson of both Stoke Goldington and Walton (a church now physically part of the Open University in Milton Keynes), and Seyyor of Great Brickhill (also adjoining modern Milton Keynes) in contemporary deeds.  Presumably they served as chaplain by rotation. At this time the women at the priory comprised the prioress and nine nuns, the latter being: Joan Causom; Joan Trokesforde; Elizabeth Bewmys; Leticia Tuttebyry; Margaret Wyks; Margaret Northwode; Emmota Drakelowe; Margaret Crouston; Emmota Wendylborogh.  Emmota (or Emma) Drakelowe went on to become prioress fourty years from 1394 and so must have been a relatively young woman at the time of the survey.  The other nuns and novices would have been from families of minor nobility, and the Clerical Subsidy would not have recorded the names of lay servants.

50 years later (1443) a visitation by the Bishop of Lincoln recorded a prioress and a sub-prioress and six nuns who were: Emma Welde; Alice Dekun; Agnes Grene; Agnes Tyringham; Thomasine Courteney; Grace Melton; Elizabeth Cotyngham.  Thomasine or Thomasina went on to become prioress.

Little more is said about the ordinary nuns until the end.  Thomas Cromwell's agent Dr. Layton reported in 1535 that there were at Harrold merely a prioress and four or five nuns, of whom one had 'two fair children' and another 'one child and no more'.

The Bedfordshire County History has extracted the names of many of the prioresses from the Harrold Cartulary in the British Museum. The list details where available the dates of election as Prioress, their resignation or merely the year when they are mentioned. Clearly the list is incomplete.  Further revision was made by Dr Herbert Fowler in 1935 as follows:

• 1188: Gila - she came from the Arrouaisian priory of Maroueil near Arras;
• c.1190-1210: Jelita or Julitta who came from the Arrouasian house in Boulogne;
• 1227-1245: Agnes - she died in 1245;
• 1245-1254: Basile Mauduit or Basile de la Lee or Legha, a nun from the priory instituted on the death of Agnes; daughter of Guntolda Mauduit, sister of Harrold landowner Ralph Morin;
• 1262-1268: Amice;
• c.1270: Juliana;
• c.1270-1304: Margery of Hereford; she resigned in 1304; a serious scandal occurred under her rule;
• 1304-1311: Cecily de Cancia; her election was at first declared void but was ultimately approved by the Bishop of Lincoln; she may have been daughter of Thomas de Kent or Cancia and Cecily de Birkin;
• 1335-1354: Petronilla de Rydeware; her institution and resignation dates are all that is known of her;
• 1354-1357: Cristiana Murdac or Murdak; a nun of the priory; she resigned in 1357;
• 1357-1362: Matilda de Tichmersh;
• 1367-1394: Katherine de Tutbury;
• 1394-1434: Emma Drakelowe; a nun of the priory noted in the 1390 Clerical Subsidy;
• 1440-1442: Alice Wautre or Wauter;
• 1452: Thomasina Courtney; a nun of the priory appointed a vicar (though not able to administer the sacraments) of Harrold church on 15 Dec 1452 under the title "administrator of the priory and convent there" - which probably means she was the prioress;
• 1464-1470: Elizabeth Chilteron or Chilton; she resigned in 1470;
• 1470-1474: Margaret Pycard; a nun of the priory;
• 1495-1501: Elena Crabbe; she died in 1501;
• 1501-1509: Eleanor Pygot or Paget; she died in 1509;
• 1509: Agnes Gascoigne or Gascony; a nun from "Shiphay" - if Sheppey is meant it is unusual as it was a Benedictine rather than an Augustinian house;
• 1536; Eleanor Warren: prioress on the dissolution of the priory.

Sources

• Venarde, Bruce L. (1997), Women's monasticism and medieval society: nunneries in France and England, 890-1215, Ithaca: Cornell University Press
• 'House of Austin nuns: The priory of Harrold', A History of the County of Bedford: Volume 1 (1904), pp. 387-390. URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=40042
• Dr.G.Herbert Fowler, Bedfordshire Historical Records Society volume 17 [1935]
• Power, Eileen (2010), Medieval English Nunneries: C1275 to 1535, Cambridge University Press

Harrold families

The original founder of Harrold Priory was Samson Fortis.  The name is associated with nearby Turvey village, rather than Harrold.  However, it is suggested by historians that Fortis was only able to grant the churches of Harrold and Brayfield to the new priory through his wife, Albreda de Blosseville.

Harrold Hall, originally Harrold Priory,
with St Peter's church: source: www.harrold.info

Albreda was born in 1113 in Harrold and would have been around 23 years old when the grant was made.

 She would likely have inherited the lands in her own right from her father William de Blosseville (born 1080), the lord of Harrold manor.  He in turn had inherited the village from his father, Gilbert de Blosseville (b 1050), who as a young solider or knight had served with William the Conqueror and been granted the village of Harrold.

Fast forward to 1170 and in the dispute between Harrold Priory and the abbey of Arouaise, Robert de Braose solemnly declares that he had inherited Harrold church and had granted it to Arrouaise.  Robert's mother was Albreda de Blosseville.  Is it possible, then, that Samson Fortis (or Samson le Fort) had died, and his young widow had married Payn de Braose (b 1112)?  Their son then inherited the manor of Harrold through his mother, which he then confirmed on the burgeoning priory of Harrold?

Robert was born in Bradwell, which is now a district of Milton Keynes in 1140.  This would suggest that Samson's decision to endow the new priory of Harrold in 1136 may have been one of his last, and that he died shortly after.  Such an endowment close to death would have represented, to him at least, a sound investment in his afterlife.

The de Braose family connection was maintained with Harrold in later generations, though.  Robert's daughter, also called Albreda, married Ralph de Morin from Harrold.  The income from St Peter's in Harrold and from Brayfield was by this time confirmed on Harrold Priory.


Sources:

The Cartulary of Missenden Abbey
Thompson, Sally (1991), Women religious: The founding of English nunneries after the Norman Conquest, Oxford: Clarendon Press
The Domesday Book entry for Harrold
Venarde, Bruce L. (1997), Women's monasticism and medieval society: nunneries in France and England, 890-1215, Ithaca: Cornell University Press

Altruism and self-interest

Why did Samson le Fort (or Samson Fortis as he is sometimes known) decide to establish a religious community in Harrold?  And why an Arouasian house?  As we know almost nothing about Samson we can only speculate.

There were many motivations for this type of  decision.   It cannot have been taken lightly: Samson gave up some significant personal wealth - enough to build a large house and to support a sizeable community of religious men and women, plus their servants.

Glastonbury Abbey as it might have been:
source www.photosofchurches.com

Probably the single most important reason would have been spiritual.   By establishing Harrold Priory Samson would have been investing in his afterlife.  As founder and benefactor the priests of Harrold (it was originally priests and nuns) would have been contracyed to pray for Samson's soul after his death: generally the founder would have a daily mass said for his benefit each day as well as having other prayers offered up for his soul. He may originally have had a special chapel built for this purpose in Harrold church.  Monasteries such as Glastonbury had packages available for benefactors: the more you gave, the more they prayed. It may be that Samson himself was buried in St Peter's, Harrold.

Another common reason for founding a religious community was as a result of a 'deal' with God. In this scenario the benefactor would be in a situation where he or she felt his life was in mortal danger. In this time of stress they would vow to do something amazing if only God (or a saint) would intervene and save their lives.  Common times for such vows were wars, sickness and travel.

Samson would have been required to provide military assistance to his king, Henry I, but in the years leading up to the foundation of Harrold Priory the realm was relatively peaceful.   After Henry's death,  by contrast,  the country descended into 20 years of civil war, but that's another story).  It  could simply have been a travelling drama: Samson would have had to move between his estates in England and those in Normandy: perhaps on one of these trips his ship got into difficulties and Samson 'did a deal' with God: save my life and I will found a monastery?  Some monasteries and nunneries were founded when their patrons set off for one of the Crusades: in this case, though, the First Crusade was over several years previously, and it would be another  few years before the next got underway.

Such a scenario is not so far fetched,  and this type of  vow was commonplace even at the end of the 19th century.   The endowment of Waterford church in Hertfordshire and its priceless collection of stained glass, was triggered by such a 'deal' when the wealthy benefactor was 'miraculously' cured of a terminal disease.  Medieval England, meanwhile,  was still affected by the White Ship tragedy of 1320 when 300 people,  including the heir to the throne and many leading nobles drowned in a simple accident off the coast of Normandy.

But why Arouaise?  The original 'mother' community seems to have been somewhere in the Pas de Calais region.  Perhaps Samson's ancestral lands were there?  Maybe he was merely seduced by the charms of Abbot Gervase?  The end result was that Harrold Priory was founded in 1336, as a daughter house of the Abbey of Arouaise.

Sources

Venarde, Bruce L. (1997), Women's monasticism and medieval society: nunneries in France and England, 890-1215, Ithaca: Cornell University Press

Foundation

Harrold Priory was founded sometime between 1136 and 1138.  There is no exact date available, and in any case it could often take years between a foundation being pledged and the community being give licence by the church and crown to open.

However, there were two key men involved in the foundation: Samson le Fort and Abbot Gervase.  Both of these men appear to be Norman French, part of the new ruling class in England in the 12th century.

We know little about Samson le Fort, although the likelihood is that he was a descendant of one of William I's retinue of knights who provided troops and support for his conquest of England in 1066.  He and his wife (Harrold's Albreda de Blosseville) were what historians such as Bruce Venarde would call 'minor nobility'. There is evidence of a le Fort family in Turvey at around this time - Turvey is just two villages away from Harrold, and connected by the old Roman road and the river Great Ouse.  Despite his 'minor' status, Samson le Fort appeared to be connected to Malcolm, king of Scotland, possibly via the Earl of Huntingdon, and Samson's grants were confirmed by these more powerful overlords.  There was a complex system of land holding at the time, and Malcolm's name crops up in the history of nearby Elstow Priory later in the middle ages.  Samson granted to the new monastic house the 'living' of St Peter's in Harrold and the living of the church at Brayfield, two villages upstream on the river Great Ouse.

The expectation at the time was that the people of a parish such as Harrold would donate 10% of their income to support the church - which could amount to a tidy sum.  In the case of a prosperous parish like St Peters this would grow and grow.  However, Brayfield never seemed to get past the early middle ages.

St Peter's church, Harrold

The other key figure in the foundation of Harrold was Abbot Gervase of Arouaise.  There is still some debate as to where Arouasise was: the consensus seems to be somewhere in northern France, in an area which was in the front lines during the Great War of 1914-18.  Gervase seems to have been a charismatic man, and traveled widely both in Normandy and England, founding religious houses under the Arouasian rule. Gervase seems to have persuaded Samson le Fort to finance Harrold Priory, as a 'daughter' house of Arouasie.  Gervase seems to have been able to put forward a relative, Guy de Arromanches, as the first prior.

In this way the priory was established in Harrold, linked spiritually and financially to the parish church of St Peter, a beautiful medieval church which remains to this day.

Sources

• Venarde, Bruce L. (1997), Women's monasticism and medieval society: nunneries in France and England, 890-1215, Ithaca: Cornell University Press
• Thompson, Sally (1991), Women religioius: The founding of English Nunneries after the Norman conquest, Oxford: Clarendon Press