Agnes Jordan (before 1520-29 January 1546) was the last pre-reformation Abbess of Syon Monastery.Syon Abbey, from: www.tudorplace.com.ar/Documents/SyonAbbey.htm It was she who had to sign the deed of surrender on 25 November 1539 which brought to an abrupt end the life of the abbey and granted all its property and wealth to

Henry VIII Henry VIII (28 June 149128 January 1547) was King of England from 22 April 1509 until his death in 1547. Henry is best known for his six marriages, and for his efforts to have his first marriage (to Catherine of Aragon) annulled. His disa ...

. She was the sister of Isabel Jordan, prioress and later abbess of

Wilton Abbey Wilton Abbey was a Benedictine convent in Wiltshire, England, three miles from Salisbury, probably on the site now occupied by Wilton House. It was active from the early tenth century until 1539. History Foundation Wilton Abbey is first reco ...

Biography

The exact birth year of Agnes Jordan is unknown, but it is known that she had a sister,

Isabel Jordayne Isabel Jordayne (died c.1534) was an English abbess of Wilton Abbey. She was the penultimate abbess whose election was debated by Cardinal Wolsey and Anne Boleyn before Henry VIII, the abbey's patron, chose her. Life Jordayne's birth and early li ...

, who also became a nun and abbess at

. Nothing is known about her life before 1520, when she was elected as the abbess, succeeding Constance Browne (1518-1520; ''d.''1520) who died during the same year. In 1530, Jordan commissioned a printing of '' The Mirror of Our Lady'', a commentary on the sisters’ office. Between November 1536 and 29 October 1537, Jordan was both host and jailer to

Lady Margaret Douglas Margaret Douglas, Countess of Lennox (8 October 1515 – 7 March 1578), was the daughter of the Scottish queen dowager Margaret Tudor and her second husband Archibald Douglas, 6th Earl of Angus. In her youth she was high in the favour of her unc ...

. Douglas was confined because of her unauthorized marriage to

Lord Thomas Howard Lord Thomas Howard (1511 – 31 October 1537) was an English courtier at the court of King Henry VIII. He is chiefly known for his marriage (later invalidated by Henry) to Lady Margaret Douglas (1515–1578), the daughter of Henry VIII's sis ...

. By the time she became abbess, the train of events leading to the Dissolution of the Monasteries and the demise of the abbey was already underway. Having assented to the Act of Supremacy in 1534, Jordan and the nuns at Syon were visited by two commissions of enquiry in the following year, looking at the wealth and morality of the abbey. Syon was at this time the richest nunnery in England. When the dissolution process began in 1536, as one of the larger abbeys, Syon was not immediately affected, but there was some impact as the abbess took in the prioress and two nuns displaced from a small Benedictine house in Somerset. Syon Abbey was suppressed and dissolved on 25 November 1539 by Henry VIII. Jordan was forced to sign a deed of surrender, which granted the property of the abbey to Henry VIII, who destroyed the building shortly after. Her will was written on 28 October 1545 and Jordan died on 29 January 1546. She was buried on 9 February 1546 at Denham,

Buckinghamshire Buckinghamshire (), abbreviated Bucks, is a ceremonial county in South East England that borders Greater London to the south-east, Berkshire to the south, Oxfordshire to the west, Northamptonshire to the north, Bedfordshire to the north-ea ...

. Her Funerary Brass is now held in Denham Church, Bucks and her tombstone has since been lost, probably sometime between 1840 and 1904. The tombstone read:All Souls Day –see Aungier, George James, The History and Antiquities of Syon Monastery, printed by and for J. B. Nichols and Son, London 1840, pp356 and 357 (Additions to the Rules, Chapters XLII to XLIV)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Jordan, Agnes 1546 deaths 16th-century English women English Reformation English Roman Catholic abbesses Year of birth uncertain