According to Elkins (1988) Catesby was founded in 1175 by the Canons of the male Augustinian monastery of Ashby in Northamptonshire. According to J.A. Nichols (1982), Catesby was founded circa 1175 by Robert de Esseby in the valley of Lower Catesby.
Archbishop Edmund Rich placed his sisters at Catesby and sent bequests to them (Women Religious: The Founding of English Nunneries After the Norman Conquest, 209).
There were 10 nuns including the prioress in 1536.
Catesby is described in the Mappa Mundi as a community of nuns of Sempringham, but there is no corroborative evidence that Catesby was ever a member of the Gilbertine order, although it had a resident community of brothers and canons (Women Religious: The Founding of English Nunneries After the Norman Conquest, 78).
In 1535 its annual income was valued at 132 pounds, 1 shilling, 11 1/4 pence.
An isolated charter hints at links between Swine and Catesby when it records the prioress and convent of the Yorkshire house quitclaiming any right they might have in the churches of Ashby and Basford to their sisters, the nuns of Catesby, who are described as belonging to their order Women Religious: The Founding of English Nunneries After the Norman Conquest, 70).
An Early English Gothic doorway and window fragment can be found from the nunnery in a house two miles away in Upper Catesby (The Buildings of England, 145, quoted in Medieval English Cistercian Nunneries: Their Art and Physical Remains, 169)
As late as the early nineteenth century a section of the nun's church was still standing, as illustrated by an india ink drawing done on July 6, 1811 by Gilbert Flesher of Towcester (London: British Museum, Add.37416, f.66). The physical remains of the convent can still be examined in the immediate area. In Catesby House, a dwelling originally built on the site and currently located one-half mile northeast of the site, can be found wood linenfold panelling and a staircase which probably came from the priory (
Public Records Office, E326/694.
Until 1310 lay brothers were also subservient to the master. An isolated charter hints at links between Swine and Catesby when it records the prioress and convent of the Yorkshire house quitclaiming any right they might have in the churches of Ashby and Basford to their sisters, the nuns of Catesby, who are described as belonging to their order (Women Religious: The Founding of English Nunneries After the Norman Conquest, 70).
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