Archives and Special Collections: Subject guides - Religious Archives

Marrick Priory

Marrick Priory was one of 25 nunneries in medieval Yorkshire. It housed about a dozen nuns and was dissolved in 1539. The records are in the Stapleton family (Barons Beaumont) archive at DDCA(2)/29. They include the 1154 founding gift of Roger de Aske [DDCA(2)/29/1] and a number of confirmation charters, pledges and gifts. These include a gift of Robert de Brus of a toft in Hartlepool in the mid-12th century [DDCA(2)/29/8] (many published in John Gough Nichols [ed.], Collectanea Topographica et Genealogica, v [1838]). There is also an account roll of the bursar (Cicely de Blakeston), the sacrist (Agnes Gower) and the granger (Agnes de Wenslaw), covering the period Michaelmas 1415 to Michaelmas 1416 (printed in John Tillotson, Marrick Priory: a nunnery in late medieval Yorkshire [1989]). Some rentals also survive for 1457, 1497 and 1511 [DDCA(2)/29/111-113]. Post-Reformation material includes letters patent exempting the Priory from dissolution in 1536 [DDCA(2)/29/119] and the later crown lease of priory land in 1542 [DDCA(2)/29/122]. Title deeds, leases and bonds exist through to 1684.