Kington St. Michael Priory facts for kids
St Mary's Priory was a special kind of religious house for Benedictine nuns. It was located in Kington St Michael, a village in Wiltshire, England. This priory was started a very long time ago, even before the year 1155. It was closed down in 1536 during a time known as the Dissolution of the Monasteries.
Today, some parts of the original priory buildings from the 1200s and 1400s are still standing. They are now part of a place called Priory Farm. There are also newer buildings on top of the old foundations.
The Last Prioress: Marie Denys
The last leader of Kington Priory was a woman named Dame Marie Denys. She was the daughter of Sir William Denys (who lived from 1470 to 1533) from Dyrham, Gloucestershire. Her mother was Lady Ann Berkeley.
Before coming to Kington, Marie Denys was a nun at Lacock Abbey. She had just become the Prioress of Kington when the Dissolution of the Monasteries began. This was a time when King Henry VIII decided to close down many monasteries and priories across England.
In the summer of 1535, the King's visitors came to Lacock Abbey. They wrote a good report about it. A man named John ap Rice said he found "no notable compertes there," meaning nothing bad or unusual. He praised the nuns of Lacock for knowing their rules well. He also told Thomas Cromwell that Dame Marie Denys, who he described as "a faire young woman of Laycock," had been made Prioress of Kington. The visitors had found some issues at Kington at first, but the report from the Commissioners in 1536 about Kington was positive.
Marie Denys lived for many more years after the priory closed. She was still alive in 1571. In that year, her brother, Sir Walter Denys, left her his "second best bed" in his will. This bed was at the home of his second wife in Codrington, which was near Dyrham.
Images for kids
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This is a ground plan of the priory, showing how the buildings were laid out. It's from a study by Brakspear in 1923.
