Black Ladies Priory

Coordinates: 52°40′53″N 2°13′38″W / 52.6815°N 2.2271°W / 52.6815; -2.2271

Black Ladies today: a large private residence incorporating 16th and 17th century structures erected by the Giffard family after the dissolution of the priory.

Black Ladies Priory was a house of Benedictine nuns, located about 4 km west of Brewood in Staffordshire, on the northern edge of the hamlet of Kiddemore Green. Founded in the mid-12th century, it was a small, often struggling, house. It was dissolved in 1538, and a large house was built on the site in Tudor and Jacobean styles by the Giffard family of Chillington Hall. Much of this is incorporated in the present Black Ladies, a large, Grade II*-listed, private residence.

Tudor Barn, a Grade II-listed private house that originally formed the stable block for Black Ladies.

Name

The priory was actually dedicated to St. Mary. However, it was often simply referred to as Black Ladies[1] and the elided form, Blackladies, is also often used. The Benedictine nuns resident in the priory wore black habits, but this was so elsewhere too. The use of the term Black Ladies for the Brewood priory is in contradistinction to another priory in the neighbourhood - an Augustinian convent dedicated to St. Leonard and known as White Ladies Priory. The two priories were founded at about the same time and were of about the same size and importance. Medieval documents, particularly in the reign of Henry III frequently refer to the nuns or the priory of Brewood without indicating which community is meant. It would have made sense for local people to distinguish the communities by the colour of their habits.

The precise formula used to refer to the convent officially evidently varied through time. The 14th century seal of the priory bore the words: SIGILLUM CONVENTUS SANCTE MARIE NIGRARUM DOMINARUM - Seal of the Convent of St. Mary of the Black Ladies. A partial seal surviving from 1538 shows a Madonna and Child, with the inscription: [S]IGILLUM COMMUNE NIGRARUM MONIALIUM DE BRE. . . - presumably meaning Seal of the Community of the Black Nuns at Brewood.

Foundation

Black Ladies was situated within the manor of Brewood, which belonged to the Bishop of Coventry and Lichfield.[2] This has led to the suggestion that it was founded by one of the bishops, and the best candidate seems to be Roger de Clinton,[3] a powerful magnate who was a mainstay of King Stephen's regime during the Anarchy of the mid-12th century and who died in 1148. Clinton not only had the power and resources but is known to have founded Farewell Priory[4] - not far away in Cannock Chase and another small house dedicated to St. Mary. Although there is no positive evidence for the founder, its existence is attested mid-century in a deed by which Ralph Bassett, a local landowner, grants the nuns small areas of land at Pattingham and Hardwick.

Estates and endowments

The priory was never wealthy and most of its income came from small, scattered estates, close by in Staffordshire or in neighbouring counties. A deed of 1170 has the nuns of Brewood and Blithbury, at Mavesyn Ridware, giving land they held at Ridware to the lord of the manor, in return for an annual rent of two shillings and confirmation of meadowland they already had there. This shows the nuns busily trying to make the most of a small holding. It also shows that there was already some sort of special relationship between Black Ladies and Blithbury.[5] The latter obtained lands at Gailey in Penkridge around 1160, but these were held by Black Ladies in 1189.

The priory had its demesne - its own site and small areas in the manor of Brewood. These latter were exchanged in the 13th century for a small, enclosed area close to the priory. Similarly, the nuns exchanged the Pattingham lands for an assart at Chillington, paying Ralph Bassett's widow, Isabel de Pattingham, £1 for the transaction. At some time in the late 12th century they acquired lands at Rudge, Shropshire. In 1204, William de Rudge charged them 4 marks and an annual rent of three pence to consolidate and extend their holding, exchanging land he had given them earlier. He also handed over lands previously held by one of his tenants for a payment of a palfrey and four marks, and an annual rent of 12 pence. In every case, the nuns seem to be consolidating scattered and unremunerative holdings to try to obtain a better and more secure income.

At times, prospects seemed to improve. Henry II confiscated the lands at Gailey, a major blow, but his son, John, compensated the nuns in 1200 with the manor of Broome, then part of Staffordshire. Three years later, the prioress successfully claimed advowson of the church at Broome, a potentially valuable asset. Another such profitable asset was a mill at Chetton, given by the lady of the manor, Sybil de Broc, in 1225. In 1272 the nuns received lands at Broomhill, just east of the prory, from the heirs of Ralph de Coven.

Kings and popes were often generous. Pope Gregory IX (1227-41 took the priory under his protection and confirmed it in its property holdings, both present and future. He explicitly recognised the right of the sisters to elect their own prioress, although the bishop was to ordain their chaplain. Henry III sent a mark in 1241 so that the sisters could redeem their chalice, which was in pledge - a sign of just how poor the community actually was. Henry also confirmed his father's charter of 1200 in 1267.

In 1275 Mabel and Alice, the prioresses respectively of Black Ladies and Blithbury, made a recorded land deal with one Robert de Pipe. Thereafter, definite references to the priory at Blithbury cease. Long associated with Black Ladies, it seems to have been absorbed into it in the late 13th century.[6] Certainly most of its lands appear in later records as endowments of Blackladies. By the 16th century the Blithbury demesne lands were second only to those at Brewood in generating revenue for Black Ladies.[7]

In 1291 Pope Nicholas IV granted an indulgence to all who would travel to Black Ladies to celebrate four Marian festivals and the church's anniversary there - potentially a source of considerable income from offerings. However, in the first decades of the 14th century the nuns were still poor enough to pursue a convoluted dispute with the vicar of Brewood over who should receive tithes on the wool of animals not owned by them but grazed on their land. In 1394 the nuns received £100 to establish prayers for Thomas de Brinton, lord of Church Eaton, and his forebears - the largest recorded gift to the priory.

In 1535, just before the Dissolution of the Monasteries the priory drew an income from lands and rents in Chillington and Horsebrook, both in Brewood parish, and in Bradley, Broom, Kidderminster, Albrighton, Dawley, and Tong: these were worth £11 1s. 6d. annually. However, documents from a few years later add Blithbury, Shredicote, Stretton, and Hampton Lovett and Hunnington in Halesowen. The total net income in 1537 was £17 2s. 11d. As the visitation of 1521 had found no debts, the priory must have become more financially stable in its last decades, although this was probably the result of better financial management as much as increased revenue. The amounts involved are still paltry - far below the threshold of £200 net set for dissolution of the lesser monasteries under the Act of 1536. So the dissolution of the priory was a foregone conclusion.

The monastic life

The community of Benedictine nuns at Black Ladies was very small. At dissolution in 1538, there were only three nuns and the prioress to receive pensions.[8] Similarly, a canonical visitation in 1521 had found four nuns living in the priory. It seems that the community never numbered more than a handful. They were, however, supported by a number of lay servants and officials. As well as the financial problems associated with small and scattered endowments, the community seems to have struggled with management and governance.

Black Ladies is still edged to the north-east by a pond, fed by a former tributary stream of the River Penk that now runs into the Belvide Reservoir

The conviction of the nuns for poaching in 1286 illustrates both problems. The incident concerned seems to have happened about a decade earlier, so justice, while certain, was not swift. After a stag had escaped from the royal huntsman in Gailey Hay, part of the royal forest of Cank or Cannock Chase, it had somehow drowned in the priory fishpond. The nuns had divided the carcass with John Giffard of Chillington, a short distance to the south. Under Henry III's Charter of the Forest, this was no longer a capital offence, although it remained very serious. When the matter came to trial, Giffard was imprisoned and fined. The nuns, however, were pardoned by the king on account of their poverty.

The zealous Bishop Roger Northburgh found numerous shortcomings - minor and more serious, moral and financial - when he carried out a canonical visitation in 1323. Northburgh was clearly a stickler for transparent management and that of the priory fell far short of the best 14th century practice. He demanded that the prioress and other office holders be prepared to present the accounts. The two most senior lay staff were sacked: Annabel de de Hervill, the cellaress or purveyor of food and drink, and Robert de Herst, the keeper of the temporalities or estate manager. Northburgh froze admissions to the priory and forbade the prioress taking bribes from prospective members of the community - which presumably had happened to this point. He also froze disbursements of pensions, liveries and corrodies - that is incomes paid in cash, clothing or food and lodging - unless his express permission was first sought.

Northburgh was also forced to reiterate many details of the basic monastic disciplines of poverty, chastity and obedience. One of the nuns was receiving a rental income for personal use and was ordered to share it with the whole house. The prioress was instructed to take her meals in the refectory and to sleep in the dormitory, like the others. Lay people were not to sleep in the convent, and this included the prioress's maid. The nuns were not to converse with outsiders, and nuns were not to leave the cloister without good reason: one Emma of Bromsgrove was named as falling short in this regard. A Franciscan friar was appointed as a confessor to the nuns.

Evidently there were problems in maintaining even a semblance of leadership. Bishops were forced to intervene three times in the 15th century - in 1442, 1452 and 1485 - to appoint a prioress because of prolonged vacancies, although the nuns were supposed to elect their own head. However, the visitation of 1521 found the priory in good order, with no debts, although one nun commented that young girls slept in the dormitory with the nuns.

Dissolution and after

Tomb of Sir Edward Littleton (died 1558) and his wives, Helen Swynnerton and Isabel Wood, in St. Michael's church, Penkridge. Attributed to the Royley workshop in Burton on Trent. Littleton was initially the major contender to buy the Black Ladies site.
Tomb of Sir Thomas Giffard, who died in 1560, and his wives, Dorothy and Ursula, in the church of St. Mary and St. Chad, Brewood. Thomas bought the Black Ladies site and integrated it into the Giffard family estates, so that it descended with Chillington Hall.
The Brewood Madonna, an image moved from Black Ladies to the new church of St. Mary in 1846. It is thought to have been damaged during the Civil War and was long considered thaumaturgic.

Black Ladies, Brewood, was dissolved with the rest of the lesser monasteries. The prioress at the time of dissolution was Isabel Lawnder, who had been in office at the visitation of 1521.[9] The notorious Thomas Legh, who had earned a reputation for insolence and mistreatment of monks and nuns, took over from the prioress on 16 October 1538.[10] She received a lump sum of £2 for her cooperation and an annual pension of £3 6s. 8d. thereafter. The other three sisters each received only half these amounts. £3 18s. 2d. went to the eight priory servants of the priory, including £1 10s. for the chaplain.

The goods and chattels were valued at £7 6s. 1d. and included three bells in the church tower, a silver chalice, three spoons, one horse, a wain and a dung cart, together with the furnishings and fittings.[11] There was considerable interest in the site from local landowners - especially from Edward Littleton of Pillaton Hall, near Penkridge, who was already building his family's fortune by exploiting leases on ecclesiastical lands.[12] However, after some negotiation, the site, mill and demesne lands, worth £7 9s. 1d. a year, went to Thomas Giffard (died 1560) of Stretton (in Penkridge) for £134 1s. 8d.

Thomas Giffard (died 1560), later to be knighted himself, was the son of Sir John Giffard (died 1556) of Chillington Hall. With his brief succession to his father's lands, Black Ladies became part of the main Giffard estate, descending with Chillington itself. According to the Victoria County History, "No part of the priory buildings has survived." However, the Brewood parish council website asserts: "Much of the structure pre-dates the Dissolution".[13] This is not supported by the building's English Heritage listing, which describes it as: "Country house. Late C16 or early C17 with C20 renovations."[14] The present house visibly incorporates considerable portions of the Tudor and Jacobean structures erected by the Giffards over the century and so after the Dissolution. The building included a family chapel, a requisite for Catholic gentry families. There was also a complex of service and agricultural buildings. The stables, known as the Tudor Barn, now form a separate house, fronted by the priory pond.

When England returned decisively to a Protestant path, early in the reign of Elizabeth I, Sir Thomas Giffard made a commitment to Catholicism that was to prove decisive for his family's history. His successors and most member of the Giffard family were to remain Catholic for more than three centuries. The Giffards became leaders of Catholic Recusancy in the region and stayed true to their faith throughout the vicissitudes of the Reformation, the English Civil War and the Penal Laws. The Giffards protected the large Catholic community in the Brewood area, many of whom were their tenants, and their chapel at Chillington was used for worship by the local Catholic community. When the chapel at Chillington was closed, due to building work, in 1791, worship was transferred to the chapel Black Ladies, and it continued there for over fifty years.[15]

In 1844, fifteen years after Catholic Emancipation, the chapel was replaced by a purpose-built Catholic church at Brewood, dedicated, like the priory, to St. Mary. The church contains a Madonna and child, described by the church website as "ancient". It is thought to have sustained leg damage from a sword stroke during a search of Black Ladies' by Parliamentary soldiers during the escape of Charles II.[16] The "wound" was said to weep continually and the liquid was used to effect cures. The statue appears to be in a baroque style typical of the early to mid-17th century, making it likely it was part of the Giffards' chapel at Black Ladies, rather than of the priory: there is no record of such an image at the latter.

References

  1. ↑ Victoria County History: Staffordshire, Volume 3, chapter 6, s.1
  2. ↑ Victoria County History: Staffordshire, Volume 5, chapter 8, s.3
  3. ↑ Victoria County History: Staffordshire, Volume 3, chapter 6, s.1
  4. ↑ Victoria County History: Staffordshire, Volume 3, chapter 7, s.1
  5. ↑ Victoria County History: Staffordshire, Volume 3, chapter 6, s.1
  6. ↑ Victoria County History: Staffordshire, Volume 3, chapter 5, s.1
  7. ↑ Victoria County History: Staffordshire, Volume 3, chapter 6, s.1
  8. ↑ Victoria County History: Staffordshire, Volume 3, chapter 6, s.1
  9. ↑ Victoria County History: Staffordshire, Volume 3, chapter 6, s.2
  10. ↑ Victoria County History: Staffordshire, Volume 3, chapter 6, s.1
  11. ↑ Monastikon Entry for Black Ladies in William Dugdale's Monastikon - PDF download.
  12. ↑ Victoria County History: Staffordshire, Volume 3, chapter 34, s.1
  13. ↑ Brewood Village Web Site
  14. ↑ English Heritage Listing
  15. ↑ Victoria County History: Staffordshire, Volume 5, chapter 9, s.2
  16. ↑ History page, St Mary's church website

External links

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