A Herefordshire nunnery : a calendar, with introduction, of the Aconbury Cartulary

Abstract

This is the story of a mediaeval nunnery, Aconbury priory, founded at the beginning of the thirteenth century by the wife of a powerful Marcher lord. This containing nearly 100 grants to the nuns of land and property. Most of the parcels of land were within a reasonable distance of the priory enabling the nuns' bailiffs to use the roads and rivers to travel around administering these properties. After the Dissolution the cartulary remained among the records of the Augmentation Office, and then in 1843 it was transferred to the Public Record Office where it has remained to this day. When the nunnery was originally founded it was attached to the Hospitallers of the Order of St John of Jerusalem, but in 1237 it transferred to the Augustinian order. Apart from the rents that were generated by the grants, the nuns appear to have increased their income by brewing and sheep rearing (albeit on a small scale), and the home farm would have provided food for the convent. Appropriated churches often provided monasteries with a large part of their income, and contemporary bishops' registers provide information about four churches that were appropriated to Aconbury priory at the beginning of the fourteenth century. Between 1216, when the priory was first founded, and the middle of the fourteenth century most of the prioresses belonged to aristocratic families, many of whom had been generous donors to Aconbury. However, after about 1377 the prioresses nearly always came from merchant and landowning families. The demonstrate that a close relationship must have existed between Aconbury priory and the local community.

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