NORTH-EAST VIEW
Londina Illustrata, published 1825 by R. Wilkinson, No. 125 Fenchurch Street.
“By virtue of this agreement the bishop for the time being was to have access to the cell of Kilburn, to be received with procession, to preach, hear confessions, and enjoin penances; but without being entitled to any claim for procurations. It was also conceded that the secular priest, or warden, who was set over the house by the abbat, should, upon his appointment, be presented to the Bishop and pay canonical obedience to him, but to be removable by the abbat alone. That the prioress of the house, though appointed by the abbat and his successors, should be under obedience to the bishop, saving in all things the canonical reverence and subjection which she owed of old to the abbat. That, however, the entire ordering or regulation of the house, concerning matters and persons within its precinct, with the correction of excesses and reformation of its abuses, and the institution or destitution of the prioress and nuns, should belong to the abbat and his successors for ever; provided, that in case any matters requiring persons abiding there, should be neglected by him for the space of a month after warning having been given to him (or in his absence to the Prior) by the bishop, then, upon clear evidence of such neglect of reformation, it should be lawful for the bishop himself to proceed toward correcting and reforming them in such manner as ‘prout secundum Deum viderit expedire.’ It was further ordained that no monk but the abbat (or in vacancy, absence, or illness, the prior) should go near the nuns to hear their confessions and enjoin penance. That the bishop should, when requested by the abbat, perform the office of blessing or consecrating the nuns, but that no other bishop should be in future introduced or admitted at Kilburn to perform any episcopal ceremony. Finally, that neither the bishop nor his chapter should, by reason of this composition, challenge any jurisdiction or subjection over the abbat and monks of Westminster, nor in anything derogate from the rights of the aforesaid nuns, or their cell.” (London and Middlesex Notes, pp. 422-423.)
The House received a good many benefactions, but always remained a small Foundation. The revenues, when it was dissolved, amounted to sums variously stated between £74: 7: 11 and £121: 14s. The inventory of all the goods belonging to the nunnery of Kilburn, the 11th day of May, 28th of Henry the Eighth, seems to show that the House was well and completely furnished. It contained a Hall; five chambers for the ladies of the House: Kitchen, Buttery, Pantry, Larder, Brew-house, Bake-house, Cellar; three chambers for the Chaplain and the Husbandmen; the Confession chamber; and the church.
No remains are now to be seen of this House. The last Prioress was Anne Browne.
The Nunnery of Stratford-le-Bow
This Priory was in the Parish of Bromley, but so near to the hamlet of Stratford-le-Bow that it was commonly called after it. The House has been sometimes confused with a Convent of White Monks in the Parish of West Ham, called the Abbey of Stratford Langthorne.
The nunnery, dedicated to St. Leonard, is said to have been founded by William, Bishop of London, in the reign of William the Conqueror. It was always a small house. We read of certain donations and benefactions—lands at Haseling field; the Church of Northim, afterwards called Norton Mandeville; gifts by Henry the Second; the Manor of Bromley; lands held by Idonea Cricket in the reign of Edward the First, by the service of holding the King’s napkin at the Coronation.
Here was buried Elizabeth, sister of Queen Philippa, and daughter of William, Earl of Hainault.
At the Dissolution there were a Prioress and nine nuns. The revenues of the House were estimated, according to Dugdale, at £108: 1: 11-1/2, and according to Speed at £121: 16s. At this time the maintenance of a chantry priest being £5 or £6 a year, the ten nuns would require about £50 for their maintenance, leaving £70 for the House and the service. Sibilla Kirke, the last prioress, received a pension of £15 a year. She was still living in 1553.