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 RELIGIOUS HOUSES St. Edward and St. John. Of the legend only 8IGILV ioh'is. . . remains. There are several fragments of seals of cham- berlains of the abbey in the British Museum collection, all belonging to the first half of the sixteenth century. The most perfect are those of William of Westminster (1511)^'' and William Overton (1537).''" The earlier seal is a small vesica if in. by ijin., with counterseal ^ in. by /^ in. The seal has two standing figures under a double canopy of St. Peter and St. Edward, with shields of the keys and the Confessor below. Of the broken legend the words : — . . . CAMERARII MONASTERII SCI PETRI WE ., . alone remain. The little counterseal has the head of a monk, with the legend : — EGO SVM QVI PECCAVI Overton's seal and counterseal are of similar type, but coarser in execution. HOUSE OF BENEDICTINE NUNS 3. ST. HELEN'S, BISHOPSGATE The nunnery of St. Helen was founded in the early part of the thirteenth century ^ by William son of William the goldsmith, in the place where a church of St. Helen had already existed in the reign of Henry II. The church had been granted to the dean and canons of St. Paul's by a certain Ranulf and Robert his son, who with a third person to be named by them were to hold it for their lives.^ After the dean and canons gained possession they gave the patronage to William son of William, and not only allowed him to found the nunnery, but also to bestow on it the advowson of the church on condition that the prioress after election by the nuns should be presented to the dean and chapter and swear fealty to them,' and should promise to pay a pension of ^ mark from the church, the obventions of which the convent might for the rest convert to their own use, and neither to alienate the right of patronage nor become subject to any other body. Though there is evidence that the claim of the nuns to some land was disputed, and was renounced by them before 12 16,* there is no- thing to show what the endowment of the nunnery was at its foundation. Among its earliest possessions, however, may be reckoned a quit-rent of 4.S. in the parish of All Hallows Lombard Street, sold by the prioress probably before 1230,' a rent of 265. 8^. from land in the parish of St. Mildred, Canterbury, alienated by the convent in 1247,^ ^'^'^ ^h acres of land '* Add. Chart. 22448. '" Ibid. 6065. ' Before 1 2 1 6, as Alard, the dean of St. Paul's who gave permission for the foundation, died in that year. Newcourt, Repert. Eccl. Lond., 363. ' Dugdale, Mon. Angl. iv, 551. ' The dean and chapter were careful to guard their rights from any episcopal encroachment which might result from the bishop's receiving the profession of nuns there. Lond. Epis. Reg. Sudbury, fol. 139. • Cott. Chart, v, 6 (2). 'Guildhall MS. 122, fol. 263. • Cal. of Chart. R. ij 318. which they held in Stepney in 1248.' The earliest notices of the house occur in the will of William Longespee, earl of Salisbury, who left five cows to the nuns in 1225,* and in the gift of two oaks made by Henry III in 1224 to the master of St. Helen's,^ an officer of whom there is no other mention. The nuns figure in the inquisition of 1274-5 ^^ as having about sixteen years before closed with an earthen wall a lane called St. Helen's Lane running from Bishopsgate Street to St. Mary Axe, down which men had been used to ride and take carts. This is probably the lane cross- ing their ground which Henry III in 1248 had licensed them to inclose.^^ Edward I gave to the priory in 1285 a piece of the True Cross ^^ which he had brought from Wales, and went on foot accompanied by earls, barons, and bishops to present the relic. The nuns about this time seem to have been in need of financial help. They petitioned the king to examine their charters and allow them to hold in frankalmoign henceforth, '^ and it was no doubt in consequence of the inquiry he had ordered that he gave them in 1306 the right to hold a market and fair at Brentford.^* Arch- bishop Peckham, in May, 1290, gave the prioress and nuns leave to celebrate the Festival of the Invention of the Cross notwithstanding the in- terdict placed on the City by his authority.^* In ' Doc. of D. and C. of St. Paul's, Liber A. fol. 44. ' Ro(. Lit. Claus. (Rec. Com.), ii, 71. 'Ibid, i, 6oi3, 618, 643. '° Hund. R. (Rec. Com.), i, 413, 409, 420. " Cox, Ann. of St. Helen's, Bishopsgate, 1 1. " Chron. of Reigns of Edtv. I and Edw. II (Rolls Ser.), i, 93. The chronicler says the Holy Cross called 'Neit.' " Par/. R. (Rec. Com.), i, 475. Annis incertis Edw. I and Edw. II. The petition must have been after Nov. 1290, as they ask the favour 'for the sake of the soul of the late Queen.' " Chart. R. 35 Edw. I, m. 18, No. 49. " Reg. Epist. fohan. Peckham (Rolls Ser.), iii, 970 and 971. 457 58