Medieval English Nunneries c. 1275 to 1535

by Eileen Power

Another class of gifts which deserves some notice consists of gratuities to friends, well-wishers or dependents of the house, for benefits solicited or received. No one in the middle ages was too dignified to receive a tip. The nuns of St Michael’s, Stamford, regularly give what they euphemistically term “gifts” or “courtesies” to a large number of persons, ranging from their own servants at Christmas to men of law, engaged in the various suits in which they were involved. To the high and mighty they present wine, or a capon, or money discreetly jingling in the depths of a silken purse. To the lowly they present a plain unvarnished tip. The nuns of St Radegund’s, Cambridge, pay 12d. “for a crane bought and given to the chancellor of the university of Cambridge, for his good friendship in divers of my lady’s affairs in the interest of the convent”; and “the four waits of the Mayor of Cambridge” receive a Christmas box of 2s. 3d. “for their services to the lady Prioress and convent.” Dono Data is a regular heading in their accounts, and in 1450-1 there is a long list of small gifts to dependents, ranging from 1d. to 10d., and a sum of 2s. for linen garments bought for gifts at Christmas[344]. Similarly the cellaress of Syon in 1536-7 gave her servants at Christmas a reward of 20s. “with their aprons”[345]. Whether to ensure that a lawsuit should go in favour of the convent, or merely to reward faithful service or to celebrate a feast, such payments were well laid out and no careful housekeeper could afford to neglect them.

(2) Divers expenses include payments for various fines, amercements and legal expenses and also for the numerous journeys undertaken by the prioress or by their servants on convent business. The legal expenses which fell upon the nuns of St Michael’s, Stamford, ranged from a big suit in London and various cases over disputed tithes at the court of the bishop of Lincoln, to divers small amercements, when the convent pigs “trespassed in Castle meadow”[346]. The payments for journeys often give a vivid picture of nuns inspecting their manors and visiting their bishop[347]. Under this heading is also included a payment for ink and parchment and for the fee of the clerk who wrote out the account.

(3) Repairs were a very serious item in the balance sheet of every monastic house, and in spite of the amount of money, which account rolls show to have been spent upon them, visitation reports have much to say about crumbling walls and leaking roofs. It was seldom that a year passed without several visits from the plumbers, the slaters and the thatchers, to the precincts of a nunnery; and once arrived they were not easy to dislodge. If perchance the nunnery buildings themselves stood firm, then the houses of the tenants would be falling about their ears; and once more the distracted treasuress must summon workmen. Usually the nuns purchased the materials used for repairs and hired the labour separately, and the workers were sometimes fed in the nunnery kitchen; for it was customary at this time to include board with the wages of many hired workmen.

The accounts of St Radegund’s, Cambridge, in 1449-50 will serve as an example of the expenditure under this heading[348]. It was a heavy year, for the nuns were having two tenements built in “Nunneslane” adjoining their house, and the accounts give an interesting picture of the building of a little medieval house of clay and wattle, with stone foundations, whitewashed walls and thatched roof. First of all Henry Denesson, carpenter, a most important person, was hired to set up all the woodwork at a wage of 23s. 4d. for the whole piece of work; he had an assistant John Cokke, who was paid 14d. for ten days’ work; Simon Maydewell was kept hard at work sawing timber for his use for ten days at 14d. and over a cart load and a half of “splentes” (small pieces of wood laid horizontally in a stud wall) were purchased at a cost of 6s. 2d. Henry and John spent ten days setting up the framework of the two cottages, but they were not the only workers. The “gruncill” (or beam laid along the ground for the rest to stand on) had to be laid firmly on a stone foundation; the walls had to be filled between the beams with clay, strengthened with a mixture of reeds and sedge and bound with hemp nailed firmly to the beams. The account tells us all about these operations:

and in hemp with nails bought for binding the walls 16d., and in stone bought from Thomas Janes of Hynton to support the gruncill 6s. 8d., and in one measure of quicklime bought for the same work 3s., and in six cartloads of clay bought of Richard Poket of Barnwell 18d., and in the hire of Geoffrey Sconyng and William Brann, to lay the gruncill of the aforesaid tenements and to daub the walls thereof (i.e. to make them of clay), for the whole work 17s. 3d. And in reeds bought of John Bere, “reder,” for the aforesaid tenements 2s. 4d., and in “1000 de les segh” (sedge) for the same work 5s. And in 22 bunches of wattles 22d., and in boards bought at the fair of St John the Baptist to make the door and windows 2s. 10d., and in 1000 nails for the said work, together with 1000 more nails bought afterwards 2s. 8½d.

Finally the houses had to be roofed with a thatch of straw and a fresh set of workmen were called in:

and for the hire of John Scot, thatcher, hired to roof with straw the two aforesaid tenements, for 12 days, taking 4d. a day, at the board of the Lady (Prioress) 4s. And for the hire of Thomas Clerk for 8½ days and of Nicholaus Burnefygge for 10 days, carrying straw and serving the said thatcher 3s. 1d.; and in the hire of Katherine Rolf for the same work (women often acted as thatchers’ assistants) for 12 days at 1½d. a day, 18d.

And behold two very nice little cottages.

But let not the ignorant suppose that this completed the expenditure of the nuns on building and repairs. Henry Denesson, the indispensable, soon had to be hired again to set up some woodwork in a tenement in Precherch Street, and to build a gable there. A kitchen had to be built next to these tenements, and the business of hiring carpenters, daubers and thatchers was repeated; John Scot and John Cokke once more scaled the roofs. Then a house in Nun’s Lane was burnt and sedge had to be bought to thatch it. Then three labourers had to be hired for four days to mend the roofs of the hall, kitchen and other parts of the nunnery itself, taking 5d. a day and their board. Then the roofs of the frater and the granary began to leak and the same labourers had to be hired for four more days. Then, just as the treasuress thought that she had got rid of the ubiquitous Henry Denesson for good, back he had to be called with a servant to help him, to set up the falling granary again. Then a lock had to be made for the guests’ kitchen and for three other rooms in the nunnery; and when John Egate, tiler, and John Tommesson, tenants of the nuns, got wind that locks were being made, they must needs have some for their tenements. Then a defect in the church had to be repaired by John Corry and a cover made for the font. There was more purchase of reeds and sedge, boards and “300 nails (12d.) and 100 nails (2d.) bought at Stourbridge Fair” for 14d. Last came the inevitable plumber:

And for a certain plumber hired to mend a gutter between the tenement wherein Walter Ferror dwells and a tenement of the Prior of Barnwell, with lead found by the said Prior, together with the mending of a defect in the church of St Radegund 14d. And in the hire of the aforesaid plumber to mend a lead pipe extending from the font to the copper in the brewhouse, together with the solder of the said plumber 8d.