Ellerton Priory (Swaledale) facts for kids
Ellerton Priory was a priory of Cistercian nuns in Swaledale in North Yorkshire, England. Its ruins lie in the civil parish of Ellerton Abbey.
History
There is some confusion over the establishment of the priory. It was probably founded in the late 12th century, either by the Egglescliffe family, or by Warnerus, chief steward to the Earl of Richmond, or by Wymerus of the Aske family. In 1342 it suffered badly at the hands of marauding Scots, who are described as having razed and despoiled the Priory.
In 1536 Cromwell's commissioners arrived to inspect the convent as part of the Dissolution of the Monasteries. The prioress Joan Harkey had to admit that one of her nuns, Cecily Swale, was asking to leave the convent. She wanted to leave after being released from her vows, but she had already given birth to a child. Not every monastery was to be closed in this phase, but the priory was formally surrendered to the Crown in August that year and dissolved in the following year. The site is a scheduled Ancient Monument and parts of the priory are grade II listed.
The Priory ruins stand close to the Richmond to Reeth road, just a mile downstream from the former Benedictine Priory of Marrick. The ruins include the remains of the priory church built in the 15th century. The church tower appears to have been rebuilt as a romantic ruin in the 19th century. There is no public access to the ruins.
Ellerton Abbey House
Following the Dissolution of the Monasteries the Priory became the property of a series of people until it was purchased in the 1690s by Col. Henry Drax, a wealthy sugar planter, of Drax Hall in Barbados, who was looking for an English estate which would produce £10,000 per annum. His heir was his nephew Thomas Shatterden, of Pope's Common, Hertfordshire, son of his sister, who in accordance with the bequest adopted the surname Drax in lieu of his patronymic. His eldest son and heir was Henry Drax (c.1693–1755), a Member of Parliament and a favourite of the Prince of Wales, who married Elizabeth Ernle, heiress of Charborough House in Dorset, which today remains the residence of his descendant Richard Drax, MP.
