Castle Hedingham Priory

Hedingham Priory was a monastery in Castle Hedingham, Essex, founded in or before 1190 for Benedictine nuns by Aubrey de Vere III, first earl of Oxford, perhaps in partnership with his third wife, Agnes of Essex. It was dedicated to the Virgin Mary, St. James, and the Holy Cross.

History

The convent's first prioress was Lucy/Lucia, named in a well-preserved, early thirteenth-century bede or mortuary roll. She is therein called the foundress of Hedingham Priory, leading to much confusion, as it was assumed that she was a wife of the founder or a member of the Vere family. ["Victoria County History, Essex", II, 122.] The convent was torched by the men of the founder's son and heir late in 1190 or early in 1191, and in punishment Aubrey IV was fined 100 marcs by the king and in atonement donated additional property to the priory in Feb. 1191. [William Dugdale, 'Monasticon Anglicanum", IV, 437-8, num. I.]

The small priory was one of 16 nunneries exclusively for women founded between 1165 and 1215 in southern England. [Elkins, "Holy Women", 123.] By 1535, at the time of its dissolution, it was valued at only £29 12s. 10d, with a little over 250 acres in small parcels in 23 manors, two churches and three advowsons. It was granted in that year to John de Vere, 15th Earl of Oxford, with all its possessions. ["VCH, Essex", 123.]

References