Catesby Priory facts for kids
 Location in Northamptonshire
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| Monastery information | |
|---|---|
| Order | Cistercian |
| Established | 1175 |
| Disestablished | 1536 |
| Diocese | Lincoln |
| Controlled churches | Basford, Canons Ashby, Catesby, Hellidon |
| People | |
| Founder(s) | Robert de Esseby |
| Important associated figures | Margaret and Edmund Rich |
| Site | |
| Location | Lower Catesby, Northamptonshire, England |
| Coordinates | 52°13′54″N 1°14′51″W / 52.2316°N 1.2474°W |
| Visible remains | earthworks |
Catesby Priory was a priory (a type of religious house) for Cistercian nuns. It was located in Lower Catesby, Northamptonshire, England. The priory was started around 1175 and closed down in 1536.
Contents
The Priory's Story
How Catesby Priory Began
Catesby Priory was founded by a man named Robert de Esseby around the year 1175. He gave the priory many gifts, including the local church, land in places like Lower Catesby, Upper Catesby, and Newbold, and other properties. Even the chapel of Hellidon and the parishes of Canons Ashby and Basford, Nottinghamshire, were given to the priory.
In 1229, King Henry III helped the priory. He ordered that the prioress (the head nun) could have timber (wood) from the Silverstone forest to help build their church.
Saint Edmund Rich and the Priory
In the 1230s, Edmund Rich, who was the Archbishop of Canterbury, sent his two sisters, Margaret and Alice, to become nuns at Catesby Priory. When Edmund died in 1240, he left special items to his elder sister Margaret. These included his archbishop's pall (a special woolen band) and a silver tablet with a picture of Christ.
People believed that miracles happened because of Edmund's items. This helped him become a saint in 1247. An altar in the priory church was dedicated to Saint Edmund. It became a popular place for people to visit on pilgrimages. Margaret Rich became the prioress in 1245 and led the priory until she died in 1257. A writer from that time, Matthew Paris, said that Margaret was "a woman of great holiness, through whose distinguished merits miracles have been made gloriously manifest".
Later Years and Changes
In 1267, William Maudit, 8th Earl of Warwick died. His body was buried in Westminster Abbey, but his heart was buried at Catesby Priory.
In 1279, a man named Henry de Erdington tried to give the priory control over the church in Yardley. However, this was argued about, and soon after, the Yardley church was given to another monastery called Merevale Abbey. By 1290–91, Catesby Priory also owned a deer park in Westbury, Buckinghamshire. There was a dispute over this, but the priory won the case.
Building and Challenges
In the early 1300s, there was a lot of building work happening at the priory. In 1301, the Bishop of Lincoln, John Dalderby, offered special blessings to people who helped rebuild the priory church. In 1312, he offered blessings to those who helped repave the cloister (a covered walkway) and the priory house.
In 1310, religious houses in Northamptonshire, including Catesby, had to give food to King Edward II for his military campaigns against Scotland. However, from 1315 to 1322, the king gave the priory several tax breaks.
In the early 1400s, the priory made a lot of money from selling wool. But later, in 1491, the prioress caused about 60 people to be evicted from their homes in "Catesby." Their 14 houses were torn down, and their land was enclosed (fenced off) and changed from growing crops to raising sheep. It's not clear if this happened in Lower Catesby, Upper Catesby, or Newbold. In 1517–18, about 60 more people were said to have been evicted from "Catesby."
The Priory's Closure
King Henry VIII and the Dissolution
In September 1535, the English Parliament passed a law to close down many religious houses. Sir John Tregonwell, who worked for King Henry VIII's chief minister, Thomas Cromwell, visited Catesby Priory. He reported that "The prioress and sisters are free from suspicion", meaning they were not doing anything wrong.
In May 1536, the local officials sent to close down religious houses gave an even stronger report about Catesby Priory. They said the priory was in "very perfect order." They described the prioress as "wise, discrete, and very religious," and the nine nuns under her as "religious and devoute." They also said the priory helped many poor people in the area. The officials felt that if the king wanted to keep any religious house open, Catesby would be the best choice. They also praised the prioress for how well she treated them.
The last prioress, Joyce Bekeley, tried to save the priory. She offered King Henry VIII 2,000 marks (a type of money) to buy the priory. She even offered Thomas Cromwell 100 marks to buy a horse. But the King did not change his mind. He ordered the officials to close the priory, which they did before the end of 1536.
Joyce Bekeley was given a pension of £20 a year. Her nine nuns and 26 other people who lived there were forced to leave. All the priory's furniture was taken, two hand-bells were broken up for metal, and the lead from the roofs of the church and other buildings was removed and sold.
Part of the priory's land was later sold by the Crown on March 10, 1539, to Lawrence Washington. He was a wool merchant from Northamptonshire. His family later included George Washington, who became the first American president.
Catesby House
In 1537, the Crown sold the remains of the priory to John Onley. He turned at least part of the old priory buildings into his family home. In the early 1600s, the property passed from the Onley family to the Parkhurst family.
Drawings from the 1700s and 1800s show a 16th-century house built around a central courtyard. It had a formal garden around it. This central courtyard might have been part of the original priory courtyard. In 1863, the old house was torn down, and a new Catesby House and parish church were built.
Today, one of the formal ponds from the garden still exists. There are also earthworks (shapes in the ground) that show where old walls and other formal ponds used to be. It's not always clear which of these remains are from the old house and which are from the original priory.
