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Rh hand she holds a sceptre fleur-de-lize, in her left hand a staff which is surmounted by a bird. Her feet are resting on an ornamental footboard. Legend : +SIGILLV SCE MARIE DE ME[SSENDEN]A.

A seal of similar description is attached to a charter of about 124O, the impression is less perfect, and much of the legend wanting. Attached to the same charter is the seal of Abbot Roger de Aylesbury, dark green, pointed oval, representing the abbot standing on a carved corbel, in his right hand a pastoral staff, in his left hand a book. In the field on the left an estoile, on the right a crescent. Legend: +SIGILL' ROGERI. A. . . DE. MESSENDENE.

A mottled green seal, the impression of which is very imperfect, but similar to the first seal, and the legend wanting, is attached by a woven cord of red silk strands to a deed of 1242 exhibited in the British Museum. To the same document is also attached by another cord of red silk strands the seal of Abbot Roger as described above.

A red pointed oval seal of the fifteenth cen- tury, attached to the Acknowledgment of Supremacy, 1534, represents the Blessed Virgin with crown seated in a canopied niche, in her right hand the Holy Child with nimbus, in her left hand a sceptre. In the field on each side, three trees, one above, two below. In base, under an arch, an abbot and three monks in adoration. Legend : s' COE. ABBIS. za. COUET' MONAST'. BEATE. MARIE. DE. MISSYNDEN.

An oval seal of Abbot William, taken from a cast in the British Museum, repre- sents the Blessed Virgin standing in a cano- pied niche with tabernacle work at the sides, the Child on her right arm, in her left hand a sceptre fleur-de-lizi or flowering branch. The legend is indistinct : ... DE ... ENDEN.

10. THE ABBEY OF MEDMENHAM

The little abbey of Medmenham was founded in 1204 upon lands granted to the abbey of Woburn, Bedfordshire, by Isabel de Bolebec, Countess of Oxford. Leave to build a monastery in this place was granted in 1202, but there seems to have been some mismanagement in connection with its first foundation. In 1204 the first colony of monks was sent there from the parent abbey, but it was recalled in the same year. The Abbot of Woburn was deposed on account of this failure. Other monks were sent appar- ently soon after, for the house was built and inhabited in 1213, and from this time it re- mained an independent abbey.

It has no history whatever, so far as can at present be discovered. Even the names of the abbots are difficult to find out. There are a few suits concerned with small parcels of land recorded in the Feet of Fines during the thirteenth century ; and the Close Rolls of the fourteenth contain one or two notices of debts incurred by the abbot and convent of Medmenham. The abbots are said to have held the office of Epistolar to the Order of the Garter.

In 1524 there was some thought of granting the revenues of this house to Wolsey for his college at Oxford, but the plan was not carried out. At the dissolution, which was before 8 July, 1536, it was made part of the endowment of the new abbey of Bisham. There was at this time only one monk left be- sides the abbot ; the latter received a pen- sion of 10 marks. So far as can be discovered, the property of the abbey consisted of little more than the vill of Medmenham and the parish church. There is no account of its value in the Tax- atio. The Valor Ecclesiasticus gives a total of £20 6s. 2d. {{c|{{sc|Abbots of Medmenam}} Roger, occurs 1256 and 1259 Peter, elected 1295, occurs 1303 John of Medmenham, occurs 1308 {{smallrefs}} {{c|376}}