Sempringham

Located north of Bourne, on the Lincolnshire fen edge, Sempringham is now a very small hamlet consisting of a church, a house and a well, giving little clue to the history embodied within its parish boundary. Most of its houses are a kilometre from the church, scattered along the B1177 road, between Pointon and Billingborough. The church stands at an altitude of about sixteen metres, on land gently rising out of the flat fenland and the road turning to it is easily missed. Its civil parish is Pointon and Sempringham of which the main township is Pointon. It includes also, Millthorpe and the fens of Pointon, Neslam and Aslackby and a part of the Hundred Fen at Gosberton Clough. Formerly, Birthorpe, now part of Billingborough, was included in Sempringham parish.

It is the site of St Mary's Priory, a priory of the Abbey of Peterborough that was founded by Saint Gilbert (also known as Gilbert of Sempringham); it became the enforced residence of Gwenllian of Wales, the daughter of Llywelyn ap Gruffudd, Tywysog Cymru, the Leader of Wales, Prince of Wales, and the only granddaughter of Simon de Montfort. Gwenllian had been born at the royal Welsh home Garth Celyn, Aber Garth Celyn, on the north coast of Gwynedd, on or about 19 June 1282, and was therefore the last true born Princess of Wales, and a danger to Edward I. Her mother Eleanor de Montfort, Lady of Wales, died in childbirth. In 1282, Edward I, king of England, had moved a massive army into north Wales. On 11 December 1282, Gwenllian's father Tywysog Llywelyn had been lured into a trap, and put to death (letters in Lambeth Palace Archives, November / December 1282). In 1283 Gwenllian and her cousins had been captured by Edward's troops. Edward sent Gwenllian 'in her cradle', to be held there in secure confinement, since it appears he could not bring himself to have her killed, which would have been the sensible thing to do in the circumstances.

In 1327, Edward III stayed at the Priory and granted Gwenllian a lifelong yearly pension of £20, necessary to pay her board and lodgings as she never became a nun, but was regarded as a 'paying guest' who was not permitted to leave. Gwenllian died at the Priory after being held there for 54 years, on June 7, 1337. A memorial stone has been erected in her honour, close to the site of the priory.

At the Dissolution of the Monasteries, Sempringham Priory came to the Clintons, who demolished it and reused the stone to build their residence on the site. Today little remains of priory or residence.

In the early 17th Century, Sempringham was a center of the Puritan movement in Lincolnshire. Samuel Skelton, Sempringham's vicar at the time, sailed to Massachusetts Bay in 1628 with the first group of Puritan settlers, who landed in Salem. Another member of the Sempringham congregation at the time was the young Anne Dudley, later Anne Bradstreet, the colony's first published poet.

References

* [http://homepages.which.net/~rex/bourne/sempringham.htm Sempringham]
* http://www.llywelyn.co.uk
* Ordnance Survey map, 1:25 000 First Series. Sheet TF13 (1955)
* [http://boar.org.uk/ariwxo3PGSempringham.htm Parliamentary Gazetteer of England and Wales (1843-4)]