Page:VCH Buckinghamshire 1.djvu/452

Rh ever to adopt the use of Sarum instead of the original office of St. Augustine.

Bishop Longland visited the house in 1530, but the report of his visitation is incomplete. The abbess, the chantress, the sub-chantress, and seven other nuns assembled in the chapter house to meet him. The abbess reported Omnia bene ; the chantress drew attention to the fact that there was no prioress. None of the other speeches are legible, but the proceedings do not seem to have been lengthy ; there was probably little to remark upon, and it seems that Bishop Atwater's injunctions had been more effectual than Bishop Grey's. The request of the local commissioners that the house might be continued, in spite of its small value, is sufficient evidence of the good reputation which it had at the last in its own neighbourhood. The report of the commissioners states that there were nine nuns in the house, all of whom desired to go into another religious house. The household consisted of thirty-seven servants, of whom two were priests, twenty-one hinds, and fourteen women servants.

The original endowment of the abbey included the manor of Burnham with the advowson of the parish church ; and land appurtenant to the manor of Cippenham with a mill, fishery and other rights. To these was added later the church of Dorney.

In 1291 the temporalities of the abbey amounted to £18 16s. 11d. ; the spiritualities to £44 13s. 4d. out of which two vicars' portions had to be paid. Between 1284 and 1346 the abbess held half the vill of Burnham and half the hamlet of Beaconsfield. The Valor Ecclesiasticus gives a clear value of £50 2s. 4¼d., including the churches of Burnham and Dor- ney, and the manors of Stoke Poges and Hol- mer ; the Ministers' Accounts amount to £126 5s. 1¾d.

Margery of Aston, first abbess, elected, resigned 1274 Maud of Dorchester, elected 1274, resigned 1274 Joan of Rideware, elected 1274, died 1314 Idonea de Audley, elected 1316, died 1334 Joan de Somerville, elected 1334 Margery de Louches, elected 1334, resigned 1339 Joan of Dorney, elected 1339 Agnes Frankleyn, elected 1367, resigned Elizabeth Warde, elected 1393 Alice Golafre, elected 1403 Agnes Gower, elected 1457 Agnes Sturdy, occurs 1459 Joan Radcliffe, resigned 1507 Margaret Gibson, elected 1507, resigned Alice Baldwin, last abbess, elected 1536 Red, pointed oval seal of the fourteenth century attached to the Deed of Surrender, dated 19 September, 1539, represents the Coronation of the Blessed Virgin in a double arcaded canopied niche pinnacled and crocketed. In base a shield of arms, on a chief three lozenges between two initial letters S and perhaps T. Legend : SIGILLVM CONVENTVS [MONIJALIVM DE BVRNUAM.

The abbey of St. Mary and St. John Bap- tist at Lavendon was founded, probably during the reign of Henry II., by John de Bidun, who was sheriff of the county in 1 154. The abbey was much troubled by law suits during the first century of its existence, and lost nearly all the churches with which the founder had endowed it. The charters of John de Bidun and other benefactors, as Sibyl de Aungerville, Ralf Earl of Chester, Ralf de Bray, Richard de Beauchamp, were confirmed by Henry III. in 1227: but the church of