Wintney was founded before 1200 by Richard Holte and his wife, Christine, daughter of Thomas Cobreth (Medieval English Cistercian Nunneries: Their Art and Physical Remains, 176). It was reorganized in 1316 when impoverished nuns went elsewhere temporarily for sustenance. The probable founder of Wintney is Geoffrey fitz Peter (Thompson, 230). The charter of Geoffrey fitz Peter claimed that the convent was founded by Waverley (Women Religious: The Founding of English Nunneries After the Norman Conquest, 108). [see contributors' notes]
In 1367 Bishop Wykeham gave the nuns a special license to admit Beatrice Paynell as a paying guest.
There were 15 nuns in 1420. At the time of suppression there were 17 nuns besides the prioress; but the commissioners recorded 10 nuns, 2 priests, 2 "corediers," and a number of indoor and outdoor servants (Medieval Religious Houses in England and Wales, 226).
In 1302 Bishop Pontoise made a visitation and in 1308 there was a visitation by Bishop Woodlock, during neither visit were injunctions issued. However in 1315 Bishop Woodlock came again and issued a set of injunctions which pertained to a stricter observance of the nuns rule. A year later the archbishop of Canterbury sent a letter to Bishop Woodlock detailing the various problems that had been observed at the nunnery including the nuns being "dispersed" into the secular world because they did not have enough food provisions. Bishop Woodlock died before he was able to correct these abuses and the archbishop of Canterbury was so concerned that he arranged for corrections himself. This sad state of affairs might have been cuased by the famine that afflicted England in 1315. Later on the nuns seem to have be doing better financially. In 1501 the nunnery was again visited by Dr. Hede, a commissionary of the prior of Canterbury, finding that the annual income was £50 and that the house was 20 marks in debt, 15 of which had already been paid.
Richard de Heriard, who lived in the early 13th century, is described as benefactor and founder of the stone church.
In 1535 the convent's net annual income was valued at 43 pounds, 3 shillings, and 3 pence.
No physical remains exist at the site and no documents are extant which tell of the convent's architectural features.
No physical remains exist at the site.
In the Cotton MSS. Claudius B. iii. there is a twelfth century manuscript that belonged to the nuns.
Medieval English Cistercian Nunneries: Their Art and Physical Remains, 176.
Medieval Religious Houses in England and Wales, 226.
Women Religious: The Founding of English Nunneries After the Norman Conquest
Hampshire Nunneries
The Victoria history of the county of Hampshire and the Isle of Wight2:149-51 available online at ">http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=38102&strquery=wintn... [Victoria County History]
The suppression commission recorded a number of indoor and outdoor servants.
The obituary list for the priory of Wintney lists 3 different people, all of whom lived at different times, as fundator. The first, Geoffrey fitz Peter, lived in the second half of the 12th century, and was probably the original founder in the sense that he granted the site and some of the initial endowments. Richard de Heriard, who lived in the early 13th century, is described as benefactor and founder of the stone church. Richard Holte and his wife Christine, who apparently lived in the 15th century, are also called founders (Women Religious: The Founding of English Nunneries After the Norman Conquest, 163).
