King Edgar gave 17 hides of land to a community in Cheshire in 958. It is not clear whether or not women religious lived at this community.
St. Werburg, a seventh century Mercian saint, was was translated to Chester between 907 and 958.
Veiled Women,vol. 1, and vol. 2 63-64;
The Monastic Topography of Chester
William of Malmesbury states that Werburg professed her vows at Chester and that the minister of women there survived until 1093 when Hugh, the earl of Chester, replaced the women with monks (De gestis pontificum Anglorum libri quinque, 308). However, information about the life of St. Werburg does not support this. The Domesday book refers to land belonging to St. Mary's monastery but the gender of the monastery is not clear (Domesday Book: a survey of the counties of England, vol. 1, fo 263ra; see also Veiled Women, vol. 2, 64, n. 5).
For the later foundation of a female religious house at Chester see S. Mary's Chester.
