Founded by Rayner de Evermue very early in the reign of Stephen. This community was mistakenly thought to be a double house, probably because of the presence of conversi.
Margery Pocklington, resigned 1300/Margery of Marton, elected 1300/Margaret Swalecliffe, resigned 1315/Joan of Cottingham, elected 1315, resigned 1319/Margaret Cause, elected 1319, resigned 1347/Eleanor Joyce, elected 1347, resigned 1352/Alice of Cuxwold, elected 1352/Joan Humberstone, occurs 1419/Joan Stanford, last prioress, surrendered 1539
There were 17 nuns in 1377 and 15 in 1440, and 12 nuns besides the prioress in 1539.
In 1331 Heyninges was discharged from paying part of tithe because of poverty.
Lords of Knaith
It only paid part of the knights' fee.
The comunity's assets were valued at 49 pounds, 5 shillings, and 2 pence at dissolution (1535).
Income came from the Church at Upton, Womersley, the Yorks, and Knaith.
It only payed part of knights' fee.
SC 8/322/E513 letter from Prioress of Heynings to the King requesting his help in a dispute over lands given by her predecessor, (c.) 1315.
There are three aerial views of the site taken on April 3, 1973 (Cambridge Univ.: Dept. of Aerial Photo RC8-AI 134-136).
Nothing of the convent exists today. A late sixteenth-century house was built over the site (Pevser, Buildings: Lincolnshire, 290).
Calendar of the Patent Rolls preserved in the PRO (1232-1509), 1257-1300: 106.
Dugdale's Monasticon Volume 5, 723.
Heyninges, or Hevenynge Nunnery, in Lincolnshire
Women Religious: The Founding of English Nunneries After the Norman Conquest
Medieval Religious Houses in England and Wales 223.
The Victoria History of the County of Lincoln2: 149-51 available online at ">http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.asp?compid=38010&strquery=heynin... [Victoria County History]
The site of Heynings Priory
Foundation date: 1180, according to Dugdale and Oliva.
Knowles and Hadcock believe there were Cistercian lay-brothers who did the farm work.
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