Financial mismanagement and fraud

As holders of the 'livings' of the parishes of Harrold, Stevington and Brayfield, as well as other properties further afield, Harrold should have been well provided for materially. But as we have noted in an earlier blog, by the 15th century at least, poverty was a fact at the Priory.  In about 1402 they made their case for additional funds: not only was the cost of providing hospitality prohibitive, but "on account of the flooding of a certain great river called the Owse they very often suffered great losses; that its houses, buildings and inclosures were in a ruinous state, and that its fruits, &c were insufficient for such hospitality, for rebuilding and for other burdens..." (cited in the Victoria County History 1912).

How can this have happened?  Where did the money go?  There are three possible explanations: firstly the costs associated with these estates, particularly the churches; secondly financial mismanagement by successive Prioresses; and thirdly fraudulent or deceptive transactions carried out by the Priory's lay patrons.  At times the problems could have been a combination of all three.

St Mary's, Stevington. The various additions of the middle
ages are clearly seen, including chapels which were later
abandoned.  Harrold Priory would have paid for these changes

The 'livings' of the parishes listed above brought income, certainly, but they also brought costs.  The Priory would be responsible for the stipends (salaries) of the cannons (priests) at Harrold, Stevington and Brayfield, and they would also have had to pay for building and maintenance.  The 12th,13th and early 14th centuries saw a more than doubling of the population in Bedfordshire, particularly in rural areas.  The churches were forced to adapt their buildings, and Harrold and Stevington in particular added new aisles, chapels and windows to accommodate the increased numbers of worshipers.  Each of the churches added or enlarged towers during this period, with St Peter's at Harrold building the elegant spire we still see today.

There were other costs associated with the Priory's role: for example the bridge and causeway across the Great Ouse at Harrold was built and maintained jointly by the manors of  Odell, Carlton and Chellington and Harrold Priory.   It may be that in more experienced hands these costs and transactions would have been managed well, but Harrold Priory, it seems, did not always have capable leaders.  Things would certainly have been much more difficult after the arrival of the Black Death in 1348: the revenues of all landowners including the communities at Harrold and Lavendon, were squeezed as labourers died and the survivors demanded better pay for their services.  Many tenant farms lay uncultivated for generations: rentals dropped or dried up altogether and it was another 400 years before the population levels had recovered.

In 1442-1443 Bishop Alnwick of Lincoln complained that the Prioress of Harrold non reddidit compotum, meaning that she had not submitted annual accounts.  Indeed it seemed that she kept no records at all of transactions and had therefore been compromised when tradespeople demanded double the payment for goods or services than had been agreed.  As well as other shortcomings, the Bishop noted that the Prioress had sold a corrody (a lifetime's allowance of shelter, food and drink) for 20 marks, presumably far less than it cost to provide.  She was also rebuked for allowing woodland belonging to the Priory to be cut down, timber being a highly valued resource for building and for firewood.

At the time of the Bishop's visit, Harrold was in debt to the tune of 20 marks (13 pounds 12 shillings and 8 pence), a substantial amount equivalent to several months of rental income, but by no means the highest level of debt in the diocese.  But the Bishop singled out Harrold and stipulated in detail the type of agreements for which the Prioress was required to gain prior approval from Lincoln - contracts, grants of land, pensions, annuities, etc.  To make it clear, he told her that she and her successors must agree to this arrangement "vnder the payne of priouacyone" (Power, 2010, p.226).  All of this suggests that there was little attention being paid to these things and that the Priory's estates were being whittled away.

There was also the suggestion that some of the Priory's patrons were advising the nuns, not in the interests of the community but to the patrons' benefit.  This included the Priory selling or making grants of land or other property to local landowners at below market rates.  The Bishop's representatives also believed that the nuns had been fraudulently deceived in some cases and had signed documents written in latin without having any idea what they were giving assent to.

Interestingly, the same accusations were made in 1536 by the King's commissioner Dr Layton when he reported to Thomas Cromwell prior to the closure of Harrold Priory. Layton describes how "Lord Mordaunt had induced the prioress and her 'foolish young flock' to break open the coffer containing the charters of the priory, and to seal a writing in Latin of which they did not understand a word, but were told it was merely the lease of an impropriate benefice. 'All say they durst not say him nay,' he adds; 'and the prioress saith plainly that she would never consent thereto.'" (taken from A History of the County of Bedford, Volume 1).   Lord Mordaunt's ancestral seat was in nearby Turvey.  As the History's author notes, there is no actual evidence against the patron, "But unhappily there is nothing at all improbable in the story of Lord Mordaunt and the charters. The patron of a house so small and so poor would be in a position to take a very high hand with the little convent, especially as one or two of the nuns would very likely be members of his own family."

It is sad to reflect that Harrold Priory, for all its lands and buildings, should have been reduced to a state of poverty by a combination of misfortunes and mismanagement. Proper care and attention would have allowed it to continue its work in the Harrold community, providing for travelers, feeding the poor and caring for the sick.  At least there is a legacy in the fine church buildings at Stevington, Cold Brayfield and Harrold.


Sources

• Power, Eileen (2010), Medieval English Nunneries: C1275 to 1535, Cambridge University Press
• Spear, Valerie (2005), Leadership in Medieval English Nunneries, Boydell Press.
• 'House of Austin nuns: The priory of Harrold', A History of the County of Bedford: Volume 1 (1904), pp. 387-390.  http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=40042
• 'Parishes: Harrold', A History of the County of Bedford: Volume 3 (1912), pp. 63-68. URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=42384 
• 'House of Premonstratensian canons: The abbey of Lavendon', A History of the County of Buckingham: Volume 1 (1905), pp. 384-386. URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=40317

Daily life for the nuns of Harrold

Harrold Priory was a small community of nuns, probably never numbering more than 12 plus the prioress.  We know very little about them, as the few surviving records tend to be legal documents and rarely concern themselves with individuals and the everyday work of the Priory.  However, most orders of nuns, whether following the Rules of Benedict (as nearby Elstow did) or Augustine (as Harrold did), followed a similar routine.  Richard Chipchase has written the following general description of daily life, which would probably have applied to Harrold Priory in most respects:

"[The nuns] would rise at 2am for Matins Laud, the first service of the day. After this they would return to bed and rise again with the sun. At this point [they] would wash and have breakfast. Nuns usually drank beer with their meals due to it being cleaner than the water. At 7am they would go to Prime, the second service of the day. After this the nuns would meet in the chapter house where readings from the Bible would be heard [and the business of the day discussed]. The third service was Tierce at 9am and following this the nuns would occupy themselves with work in the convent until midday and the fourth service, Sext None. After this, they would eat before returning to their work until Vespers, the fifth service of the day which started at 5pm. This would be followed by a light supper and later the final service of the day, Compline, which took place at 7pm. The nuns went to bed after this, ready for the process to start again at two the next morning. This format varied through the different orders with some splitting Matins and Lauds, having an extra service at 5am. Others would split Sext None with a service at noon and another at 3pm."

Modern-day nuns at prayer: source Augustiniannuns.org

All of these services would be marked with the ringing of bells, and Harrold folk would in turn be measuring the day by reference to these.  The reports of local courts contain references to the time of day related to the hours of the office.  In a flat landscape like north Bedfordshire the sounds of the bells would carry great distances.  Today in Harrold the bells of St Peter's church still ring the hours and the quarter hours - but not the offices of the day.

Chipchase goes on:

"The nuns did various types of work while in the convent, they also received an education with many learning to read and write. Often, the convent was the only source of education for women during the middle ages. The nuns had also various tasks to do including washing and cooking, farming, brewing, bee-keeping, medical care, teaching, spinning, weaving and embroidery and illuminating manuscripts. It was usual for nuns from wealthy families to be given the lighter tasks and very often the convent had its own lay sisters who carried out a lot of the manual work. These were members of the convent who were not bound to the various services of the day. The nuns themselves had various roles within the convent, the head of which was the Abbess, a position which was for life. Other titles were the Almoner, any nun who dispensed alms to the sick and needy. Other roles were the Cellarer, who was basically the convent housekeeper and the Infirmarian who looked after the infirmary."

This latter point is important in Harrold, as the nuns cited the needs of the poor and travelers in appeals for charity right up to the late middle ages, stating that providing these was stretching the community's resources. But as Chipchase notes, the life of the nuns centred on the spiritual.  At Harrold the nuns would take part in the main sacraments (for example holy mass) through St Peter's church where they may have had an adjoining chapel, separated from the main congregation.  They also had their own chaplain who may have provided other sacraments (for example confession) in the Priory itself.  The daily services would probably have been held in the Priory, and nuns were put in charge of this, as Chipchase goes on to say:

The Sacrist was an educated nun who would be in charge of all books, vestments and vessels and was also a medieval property manager being responsible for maintenance. Finally, there was the Prioress. This role was taken by a senior nun and in an Abbey she was the Abbess’ deputy and in a convent without the status of an abbey, she would be in charge... "The most important part of the nun’s day were the services, the day was entirely structured around these and any work ceased immediately at times of prayer."


Sources

• Richard Chipchase, The Daily Life of a Nun in Medieval England, published: June 14, 2011 on Humanities360.com
• Hull, Robert – Nun (Medieval Lives) – Franklin Watts (2008)
• Goldberg, P.J.P. – Medieval England: A Social History 1250-1550 – Bloomsbury (2004)
• Kerr, Julie – Life in the Medieval Cloister – Hambledon (2009)

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

Chastity, celibacy and virginity

A woman joining the religious community at Harrold in the middle ages would have had to have made vows of celibacy and chastity.  While the first meant that she would renounce marriage (a nun was considered to be 'the bride of Christ' and wore a ring to mark this fact), the second meant in practice a life of sexual abstinence.

Virginity was a more complex virtue, as many women joining the community would not have been virgins in the strict sense.   There were many widows, as well as younger women who were unmarried mothers.  Indeed in the history of the medieval church, some of the most successful and well known nuns have been figures such as Petronille de Chemillé and Héloïse d'Argenteuil who were in this category, and yet went on to become abbesses of important communities.  As Martyn Whittock has noted, though, in this period virginity was seen as something which could be 'recovered', in a sense, through a life of repentance, prayer, celibacy and chastity.

Bishop Grosseteste: Harrold Priory was
governed by the bishops of Lincoln

Given the varied motivations of women joining a community like Harrold, it is perhaps unsurprising that here and elsewhere there would be occasional transgressions.  In 1298, for example, one of Harrold's nuns was found to have breached her vows of chastity (Power 1010).  Her lover was sentenced by a church court, to be beaten in the market place, but refused to submit to the punishment and so was excommunicated (excluded from the rites of the church).  In 1311 the bishop of Lincoln, who had oversight over the Harrold community, appointed a commission to investigate and correct wrongdoing here and at other unspecified communities.  It is not know what these alleged misdeeds were as no record of the 'visitation' remains.

However, this was by no means unusual.  In a celebrated case a century before, in about 1166, it was reported that a nun from the Gilbertine house at Watton in East Yorkshire had become pregnant by one of the lay brothers of the house: in this case he was apprehended and was said to have been castrated by the nuns.  This and other alleged scandals led to the whole order coming under the scrutiny of the church under the direction of Pope Alexander III.  While the problem was said to be sexual licence within the order, the investigation focused more on dissatisfaction among the lay brothers about working conditions.

Similarly, in 1177 Henry II of England expelled the Anglo-Saxon nuns of Amesbury and replaced them with 24 nuns from Fontevraud.  He cited instances of moral laxity on the part of the English sisters, whom he claimed were debauched (the abbess was said to have been the mother of three children).    And some time in the 1190s Gerald of Wales wrote of the lust of a Gilbertine for her aged master.  These reported happenings were commonplace in fiction at the time: Giovanni Bocaccio's Decameron (1353) contains tales of sexual licence set in nunneries.

Elstow Abbey, less than a day away from Harrold on foot, was frequently the subject of the Bishops' scrutiny, Lincoln's Bishop Gravesend referring in 1260 to "disgraceful acts" which he said were "'from that house more frequently than from any other".  In 1369 the bishop complained that the nuns of Elstow were "wandering" out of the community far too much.  Moreover, many of Elstow's nuns were from artistocratic families and had regular visitors of family and friends (noble ladies and even queens) from their previous lives.  By 1379 Bishop Buckingham was having to instruct the nuns of Elstow not to talk to men at all, not to leave the house without permission and to be back before sunset.  The fact that he had to remind them that they should not be wearing fur or jewelry suggests that the nuns were interpreting the rules of dress rather too liberally for the church's liking.  

In 14th century Harrold, though, the problems did not seem to want to go away, and in 1369 Bishop Glynwell of Lincoln appointed Dame Katherine of Tutbury to reform the excesses of the Priory during a period when there was no prioress. As the County History notes, from the cartularly records little more is said until the priory was visited in 1535 by Thomas Cromwell's agent Dr Layton.  He reported that there were just four or five nuns and a prioress, two of whom had children.  Once again, though, this kind of allegation was commonly being made at the time, and as with Henry II they may have been motivated by a desire to discredit the community for other purposes.

Sources

• Elkins, Sharon (1988), Holy women of 12th century England, Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina
• Venarde, Bruce L. (1997), Women's monasticism and medieval society: nunneries in France and England, 890-1215, Ithaca: Cornell University Press
• Brewer, J.S. (ed), (1862), Gerald of Wales Gemma Ecclesiastica
• Whittock, Martyn (2009), A brief history of life in the middle ages, London: Constable & Robinson
• 'Houses of Benedictine nuns: The abbey of Elstow', A History of the County of Bedford: Volume 1 (1904), pp. 353-358. 
• Power, Eileen (2010), Medieval English Nunneries: C1275 to 1535, Cambridge University Press

Men or women? Priests, nuns and monks at Harrold

At the time of the forced closure of Harrold Priory (1536), it was was an all-woman community headed by a prioress. However, this was not the case in its early days. The documents relating to the foundation mention only 'canons', lay priests rather than monks and make no reference to women.  These men would have been responsible for the religious life of Harrold, centering on St Peter's Church.  According to the chronicles it was Hilbert Pelice, one of founder Samson le Fort's kinsmen, who persuaded him to found the priory, and who was early on given care of the church and new community.

A Gilbertine nun
Source: www.historyfish.net

The first prior, Guy, may have been brother to Abbot Gervase of Arrouaise, and he seems to have set up house with a monk referred to as 'B' in the chronicles.  The burgeoning community appears several times in historical documents in its first 30 years or so, where there are references to lay priests (canons), to brothers and to sisters (monks and nuns).  The names of two French nuns in Harrold, Jelita and Gila, appear early on, although it is made clear that the women's role is subservient to the men in the community.  It is not known if they were nuns (ordained) or lay sisters, although both went on in later years to become prioress at Harrold, so presumably would have become ordained.

By about 1188, though, when Harrold was fighting Arrouaise for its independence, the references are to the nuns of the community: canons and monks are no longer in the picture.  A mixed community would have been unusual, but by no means unique.  Indeed, Chicksands Priory which was both close by and a contemporary of Harrold, housed monks and nuns right up to the dissolution.  Chicksands was part of the Gilbertine order with many houses across England and Wales, mostly mixed sex.

The Arrouasian order, by contrast, all but disappeared in the later middle ages, and seems to have tolerated mixed houses at the time of Gervase.  The norm in religious life, though, was for strict segregation: it was felt that by having men and women together it created distractions which would impact poorly on contemplation and prayer.  Mixed sex communities also had the potential for scandal: it was reported that a Gilbertine nun at Watton in East Yorkshire in the mid 12th century was made pregnant by one of the community's lay brothers.

Porch at nearby Oakley church: the priest(s)
would originally live in the room above

In Harrold, meanwhile, the canons serving the churches of St Peters and the smaller church at Brayfield, seem to have moved out some time before 1188.  Often the priests would have been housed in a room over the church porch, but in Harrold there is no evidence of this as no porch survives.  There was a small thatched house which in the later middle ages came to be known as the vicarage, and which remains to this day in Church Walk.  This only starts to appear in the records in the 17th century, after the Priory had been dissolved.


Sources

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