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The Last Days of Lenton Priory

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 February 2016

David Marcombe
David Marcombe*
Affiliation:
University of Nottingham
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Extract

Two miles west of Nottingham, where the road to Derby crossed the river Leen, stood Lenton Priory, its lofty spires easily viewed from the ramparts of Nottingham Castle. Indeed, the first constable of the royal castle, William Peveril, was also the founder of the priory, a fact which would not have escaped any visitor to the town in the twelfth century. Peveril, the archetypal Anglo-Norman grandee, was entrusted with the extensive Honour of Peveril as a reward for his services. Lenton was its liturgical showpiece. Founded between 1103 and 1114, it was a Benedictine house placed under the supervision of Cluny and dedicated to the Holy Trinity. It had the specific duty to pray for the souls of the first three Norman kings, along with those of Peveril and his family, an obligation still being carried out by five ‘needy men’ in the associated Hospital of St Anthony in 1535.

Type
Research Article
Information
Studies in Church History Subsidia , Volume 12: Life and Thought in the Northern Church , 1999 , pp. 295 - 313
Copyright
Copyright © Ecclesiastical History Society 1999 

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References

1 Godfrey, J. T., The History of the Parish and Priory of Lenton (London, 1884), pp. 61–3, 177–8Google Scholar; Beckett, John, ed., A Centenary History of Nottingham (Manchester, 1997), p. 63Google Scholar; Foulds, T., ‘The foundation of Lenton Priory and a reconstruction of its lost cartulary’, Transactions of the Thoroton Society [hereafter TTS], 92 (1988), pp. 34–42.Google Scholar

2 Godfrey, Lenton Priory, pp. 79-89.

3 Elliott, R. H. and Berbank, A. E., ‘Lenton Priory: excavations, 1943-1951’, TTS, 56 (1952), pp. 41–53Google Scholar; Swinnerton, H. H., Chalmers, W. R., and Posnansky, M., ‘The medieval tile works of Lenton Priory’, TTS, 59 (1955), pp. 84–97Google Scholar; Swinnerton, H. H. and Boulton, H., ‘Lenton Priory excavations in 1954’, TTS, 60 (1956), pp. 1–7Google Scholar; Beilby, B. W., ‘Excavations at the Cluniac Priory of the Holy Trinity, Lenton, 1962-64’, TTS, 70 (1966), pp. 55–62.Google Scholar

4 Lord Hastings was probably a guest in 1464, e.g., Godfrey, Lenton Priory, p. 159. Before that, in the fourteenth century, the Priory had received many royal guests. See Barnes, F. A., ‘Lenton Priory after the Dissolution; its buildings and fair grounds’, TTS, 91 (1987), p. 86.Google Scholar

5 Godfrey, Lenton Priory, pp. 62-6; Barnes, Frank, Priory Demesne to University Campus: a Topographic History of Nottingham University (Nottingham, 1993), p. 457.Google Scholar

6 Savine, A., English Monasteries on the Eve of the Dissolution, 1, Oxford Studies in Social and Legal History (Oxford, 1909), pp. 127, 129, 233, 236, 240Google Scholar; Caley, J., ed., Valor ecclesiasticus, 5 (London, 1825), pp. 147–9Google Scholar; Barnes, Priory Demesne, pp. 457-8. The comparison between 1291 and 1535 is slightly skewed because of the foundation of Beauvale in 1343.

7 Godfrey, Lenton Priory, pp. 68-71.

8 Ibid., pp. 147-8, 151.

9 For Crown appointments of priors in the sixteenth century see, e.g., LP, 4 pt 1, p. 537; 5, p. 36; 9, p. 367.

10 Godfrey, Lenton Priory, p. 78; Beckett, Centenary History, pp. 63-4.

11 Godfrey, Lenton Priory, pp. 123-4; Thomas, A. W., A History of Nottingham High School, 1513-1953 (Nottingham, 1957), p. 285.Google Scholar

12 LP, I, pt 2, p. 997.

13 Stevenson, W. et al., ed., Records of the Borough of Nottingham [hereafter RBN], 3 (Nottingham, 1885), pp. 316, 364.Google Scholar

14 Beckett, Centenary History, pp. 89-93.

15 RBN, 2 (Nottingham, 1883), pp. 337-9; RBN, 3, pp. 121-3, 183-5.

16 Ibid., pp. 77-9.

17 Raine, J., ed., Testamenta Eboracensia, 5, SS, 79 (1884), pp. 64–7.Google Scholar

18 Ibid., pp. 265-6, 278-80; Raine, J., ed., Testamenta Eboracensia, 3, SS, 45 (1864), pp. 184–6.Google Scholar

19 Godfrey, Lenton Priory, pp. 106-7; Beckett, Centenary History, p. 69.

20 Barnes, Priory Demesne, p. 457; LP, 15, p. 294.

21 RBN, 3, pp. 135-7, 345.

22 Beckett, Centenary History, p. 90.

23 RBN, p. 423.

24 Ibid, p. 172.

25 Ibid., pp. 345-8. See also Grieg, Pat, ‘The Layout of Lenton fairground, 1516’, TTS, 96 (1992)Google Scholar, which gives some impression of the considerable scale and organization of the fair at this time.

26 Beckett, Centenary History, p. 95.

27 Godfrey, Lenton Priory, p. 226.

28 LP, Addenda, 1, pt 1, p. 274.

29 LP, 7, pp. 238, 247, 636.

30 LP, 8, pp. 27, 30.

31 Ibid., p. 27.

32 LP, 7, p. 606.

33 LP, 9, p. 367.

34 LP, 10, p. 514.

35 LP, 3, pt 2, p. 1047; 9, p. 489.

36 LP, 9, p. 261. The same letter, incorrectly dated to 1532, is also in LP, 5, p. 440. See also Gasquet, F. A., Henry VIII and the English Monasteries (London, 1893), 2, pp. 189–90.Google Scholar

37 LP, 11, p. 507.

38 LP, 12 pt 1, p. 414.

39 Ibid., p. 398.

40 LP, 12 pt 1.

41 Ibid.

42 Ibid., p. 414.

43 Ibid., p. 567. Holcroft is described as ‘King’s Commissioner at Lenton’. Unfortunately the content of the letter sheds no further light on the matter.

44 LP, 12, pt 1, pp. 180, 371, 416, 564. He was also active in the surrender of Furness in the summer of 1537. Robert Southwell commended his diligence to Cromwell and also implied that he was a man with military skills. LP, 12, pt 2, p. 89.

45 Elton, G. R., Policy and Police (Cambridge, 1972), p. 359.Google Scholar

46 Knowles, D., The Religious Orders in England (Cambridge, 1961), 3, pp. 372–3.Google Scholar

47 Elton, Policy and Police, p. 360.

48 Gasquet, Henry VIII, 2, pp. 190-1. According to Gasquet, the monks indicted were Nicholas Heath, Ralph Swenson, Richard Bower, Richard Atkinson, Christopher Browne, John Trewnam, John Adelenton, William Bery, and William Gylham, Heath and Gylham being the ones marked for execution. This contradicts the statement of Sir John Markham, one of the commissioners at the trial, who says that Heath and Swenson were executed: LP, 13, pt 1, p. 294.

49 LP, 13, pt 1, pp. 294, 322, 478.

50 RBN, 3, pp. 376, 377.

51 Godfrey, Lenton Priory, p. 191.

52 LP, 13, pt 1, p. 152. The successful lessee was one John Woode, the eventual purchaser Baldwin Willoughby: ibid., p. 320.

53 Ibid., p. 320.

54 LP, Addenda, 1, pt 2, p. 450.

55 LP, 13, pt 2, p. 502; 14, pt 1, p. 402; 15, p. 465.

56 LP, 12, pt 1, p. 601.

57 LP, 14, pt 2, p. 323; Gasquet, Henry VIII, 2, p. 190.

58 Verbal information from Mr Alf Bowley, former police officer.

59 Godfrey, Lenton Priory, pp. 218-20; Barnes, ‘Lenton Priory after the Dissolution’, pp. 80-93.

60 LP, 15, p. 110; 14, pt 2, p. 345.

61 LP, 14, pt 1, pp. 76, 160, 161; 15, pp. 344, 294; 16, p. 326; 17, pp. 104-5.

62 Nottingham University Manuscripts Department, Middlcton MS 1/38/14; Barnes, Priory Demesne, pp. 74-6.

63 Bindoff, S. T., The House of Commons, 1509-1558 (London, 1982), 3, pp. 379–80.Google Scholar

64 Godfrey, Lenton Priory, p. 214.

65 Barnes, ‘Lenton Priory after the Dissolution’, p. 89.

66 Godfrey, Lenton Priory, pp. 222-34, 269-70.

67 This relationship is explored in Barnes, Priory Demesne, chs 2, 3.