Holywell Priory or Haliwell, Halliwell, or Halywell (various spellings), was a religious house in Shoreditch, formerly in the historical county of Middlesex and now in the London Borough of Hackney. Its formal name was the Priory of St John the Baptist.
The Priory stood at Holywell Lane on the west side of Shoreditch towards Hoxton, its precinct lying within the area now bounded by Batemans Row, Shoreditch High Street, Holywell Lane, and Curtain Road.The Augustinian Priory of St. John the Baptist, Holywell, in James Bird (ed.), Survey of London: Volume 8, Shoreditch, London, 1922, pp. 153-184 and pls. 1 and 183. British History Online http://www.british-history.ac.uk/survey-london/vol8/pp153-187 [accessed 26 September 2017]; Religious Houses: Houses of Augustinian canonesses: 5. The Priory of Haliwell, in J.S. Cockburn, H.P.F. King and K.G.T. McDonnell, A History of the County of Middlesex, Volume 1, London, 1969, pp. 170-182. British History Online http://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/middx/vol1/pp170-182 [accessed 26 September 2017].
Foundation
It is sometimes said in secondary literature to be a Benedictine foundation, made by a Bishop of London, but it was certainly a house of Augustinian women, established in the twelfth century by Robert FitzGeneran (or Gelran), the second known holder of the prebend of Holywell or Finsbury in St. Paul's Cathedral (the prebend also passed to the Priory), his name occurring from 1133 to 1150. The founder made an endowment gift of three acres across the moor on which the Halliwell, or Holywell spring had its source.The Augustinian Priory of St. John the Baptist, Holywell, in James Bird (ed.), Survey of London: Volume 8, Shoreditch, London, 1922, pp. 153-187. British History Online http://www.british-history.ac.uk/survey-london/vol8/pp153-187 [accessed 26 September 2017]; Religious Houses: Houses of Augustinian canonesses: 5. The Priory of Haliwell, in J.S. Cockburn, H.P.F. King and K.G.T. McDonnell, A History of the County of Middlesex, Volume 1, London, 1969, pp. 170-182. British History Online http://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/middx/vol1/pp170-182 [accessed 26 September 2017].
In 1318 came a gift of six oaks from the forest of Essex from Edward II. However, the crown paid little attention to the priory, at least as far as royal patronage was concerned. More generally, there were few benefactions from magnates before the reign of Henry VII when as almost the last great benefactor, Sir Thomas Lovell, Chancellor of the Exchequer appeared on the scene and virtually refounded the house. He caused extensive building work at the priory, including the construction of a chapel in which he was buried in 1524.Cf. Religious Houses: Houses of Augustinian canonesses: 5. The Priory of Haliwell, in J.S. Cockburn, H.P.F. King and K.G.T. McDonnell, A History of the County of Middlesex, Volume 1, London, 1969, pp. 170-182. British History Online http://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/middx/vol1/pp170-182 [accessed 26 September 2017].
The size of the community doubtless varied over the years. In 1379 there were eleven professed nuns in the priory. At the election of the Prioress Elizabeth Prudde in 1472, it is recorded that seven nuns and ten novices were present.Cf. Caroline Barron & Anne F. Sutton (edd.), Medieval London Widows, 1300-1500, Hambledon Press, London, 1994, p. 178; Religious Houses: Houses of Augustinian canonesses: 5. The Priory of Haliwell, in J.S. Cockburn, H.P.F. King and K.G.T. McDonnell, A History of the County of Middlesex, Volume 1, London, 1969, pp. 170-182. British History Online http://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/middx/vol1/pp170-182 [accessed 26 September 2017]. At the election in 1534 of the last prioress, Sybil Newdigate, there were 13 professed nuns and 4 novices present.
Apart from paid lay employees, there were also lay brothers attached to the priory. They may never have been very numerous. In 1314 a complaint was lodged about two brothers misappropriating property at Shoreditch. From an earlier period, we know the name of one of the brothers, Peter, whose father was Odo, a smith who in 1275 gave rents in London to the priory for his son.
Known prioresses
The list given here is incomplete. The dates given refer to mentions in the historical record as prioress or to the period covered by several mentions, presuming continuity of office.The Augustinian Priory of St. John the Baptist, Holywell, in James Bird (ed.), Survey of London: Volume 8, Shoreditch, London, 1922, pp. 160–164. British History Online http://www.british-history.ac.uk/survey-london/vol8/pp153-187 [accessed 24 September 2017].
Magdalena (about 1185 or 1210) Clementia (1193–1204) Maud (1224) Agnes (1239–1240) Juliana or Gillian (1248–1261) Benigna (reign of Henry III) Isabel (1261) Christina or Christine of Kent (1269–1284) Alice (1293) Christine (1314) Albreda or Aubrey (about 1320) Lucy of Colney (1328–1330) Mary of Stortford (1330–1334) Theophania (1335–1336) Elizabeth Montacute (1337–1357) Ellen or Elena Gosham (1362–1363, mentioned as the "late prioress" in 1375) Isabella Norton (1387–1392) Edith Griffith (1400–1409) Elizabeth Arundel (1428–1432) Clementia or Clemence Freeman (1432–1444) Joan Sevenok or Sevenoak (1462–1472) Elizabeth Prudde (1472–1474) Joan Lynde (1515–1534) Sybil Newdigate (1534–1539), the last Prioress.
A particular case: Prioress Elizabeth Montacute
Elizabeth Montacute also Montagu, originally de Mont Aigu (of the sharp mountain) and Latinised to de Monte Acuto,Winnifred M. Sturman, Barking Abbey: A Study in its External and Internal Administration from the Conquest to the Dissolution, PhD thesis, University of London, 1961, pp. 375, 382, 400-401, 404. seems to have served as Prioress of Holywell at least in the years 1340–1357.
Dame Elizabeth was particularly well connected.Douglas Richardson, Plantagenet Ancestry: A Study in Colonial and Medieval Families, Salt Lake City, 2nd edition 2011, vol. II, pp. 96-97. She was the third daughter of William Montagu, 2nd Baron Montagu of the first creation (died 1319) and Elizabeth Montfort (died 1354), daughter of the knight Sir Peter de Montfort, who survived her first husband and married Sir Thomas Furnivall of Sheffield, without royal licence, for which the groom was fined £200. On her death in 1354, the now widowed Lady Furnivall was buried in the Priory of St Frideswide, Oxford (now Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford), where her tomb still exists in the Latin chapel.George Edward Cokayne, The Complete Peerage, St. Catherine Press, London, 1936, vol. IX, p. 82
The four brothers and six sisters of the nun, Dame Elizabeth, included William (1301–1344), who succeeded his father as 3rd Baron Montagu, and later became 1st Earl of Salisbury, and who was the "most intimate personal friend"May McKisack, The Fourteenth Century: 1307-1399, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1959, p. 152. of King Edward III, and Edward de Montacute, 1st Baron Montacute of the second creation (died 1361), who married Alice of Norfolk, a granddaughter of Edward I.George Edward Cokayne, The Complete Peerage, St. Catherine Press, London, 1936, vol. IX, pp. 82, 84; Douglas Richardson, Plantagenet Ancestry: A Study in Colonial and Medieval Families, Salt Lake City, 2nd edition 2011, vol. II, pp. 634-635. A third brother, Simon (died 1345), was successively Bishop of Worcester and Bishop of Ely. Dame Elizabeth's sisters were Alice, Katherine, Mary and Hawise, all of whom married at least once; and Maud and Isabel, who both became successively Abbess of Barking Abbey from 1341 to 1352.Winnifred M. Sturman, Barking Abbey: A Study in its External and Internal Administration from the Conquest to the Dissolution, PhD thesis, University of London, 1961, p. 9.
Apart from these family connections, the historical record mentions two incidents connected with Elizabeth de Montagu's life as a nun. The first is more personal. When exactly Elizabeth entered the priory of Holywell as a nun, is not clear. In 1334 a Westminster Abbey made a grant to Holywell Priory of a yearly pension of 100 shillings to cover Elizabeth's food and clothing, alleging four considerations: that Elizabeth had no personal means from which to provide for her own sustenance; that Holywell Priory had insufficient funds to cover the expense; that the abbey had received many benefactions from her family, especially from her brother Simon, Bishop of Worcester, and that the abbey had formerly paid the same amount to the bishop. Odd as this sounds,The Augustinian Priory of St. John the Baptist, Holywell, in James Bird (ed.), Survey of London: Volume 8, Shoreditch, London, 1922, pp. 153-187. British History Online http://www.british-history.ac.uk/survey-london/vol8/pp153-187 [accessed 24 September 2017]. it is true that Elizabeth's father had died in 1319, her mother had married again before 8 June 1322 and was widowed a second time before 18 April 1332. It is possible that there may have been a technical requirement for the payment of a dowry for a nun entering the Priory community, which her brother, as a churchman, arranged to be paid in some roundabout fashion. It sounds likely that at this juncture she had only recently entered the monastery. The prioress and nuns gave permission for Elizabeth to receive the pension and dispose of it herself. Moreover, the following year it was confirmed by both the Bishop of London and the King, and records show it being paid not only in 1335 but also in 1351.
In any case, Elizabeth's situation was not so precarious as the matter of the pension might make it sound, for by Michaelmas 1340 she is mentioned as Prioress of Holywell in a lawsuit. It is as Prioress, too, that she was present at the blessing of her sister, Maud, as Abbess of Barking, on 29 April 1341, along with her brother Bishop Simon.
Finally, perhaps the intricate interconnections between social and economic status, dynastic marriages and convent life explain why, in response to a complain lodged by "Elizabeth, prioress of Halewell", King Edward III on 26 January 1357 ordered an investigation into an incident when a group of men broke violently into the Priory and abducted Joan, the daughter of John of Coggeshall (or Coggeshale), who had been committed to the Prioress's safekeeping by Henry Galeys, Elizabeth having pledged to restore Joan unmarried. It appears that the intruders had caused the woman to undergo a form of marriage. The case may not be concerned so much with romantic elopement as with sordid exploitation of a woman in order to secure economic gain.Cf. Gwen Seabourne, Imprisoning Medieval Women: The Non-Judicial Confinement and Abduction of Women in England, c. 1170-1509, Ashgate, Farnham, 2011, pp. 125-127. The names John of Coggeshall (or Coggeshale) and Henry Galeys (or Waleys) seems to lead us into the trade and financial dealings of the medieval city of London. Anyhow, this appears to be the last mention of Elizabeth in the surviving historical records.
Elizabeth Prudde We know some details of the priory from an agreement made between Alice Hampton and the prioress Elizabeth Prudde in 1492. Alice was the only known unmarried vowess; she was rich and had influence in London. She had inherited her uncle's riches but also his influence. She paid the prioress eight pounds of pepper a year. In exchange for this she was allowed to use her well and washing facilities and to make changes to the building's structures. She arranged for her living area to have a view of the church altar and for a locked entrance to her garden. She had her own exit and a dedicated pew in the Lady Chapel, however she lived in two rooms that were just over 18 feet by ten feet.
The last prioress, Sybil Newdigate