The Abbey of Bruisyard was a house of

Minoress The Poor Clares, officially the Order of Saint Clare ( la, Ordo sanctae Clarae) – originally referred to as the Order of Poor Ladies, and later the Clarisses, the Minoresses, the Franciscan Clarist Order, and the Second Order of Saint Francis ...

es (Poor Clares) at

Bruisyard Bruisyard is a village in the valley of the River Alde in the county of Suffolk, England. The village had a population of around 175 at the 2011 census.

in Suffolk. It was founded from

Campsey Priory Campsey Priory, (''Campesse'', ''Kampessie'', etc.), was a religious house of Augustinian canonesses at Campsea Ashe, Suffolk, about 1.5 miles (2.5 km) south east of Wickham Market. It was founded shortly before 1195 on behalf of two of h ...

in Suffolk on the initiative of

Maud of Lancaster, Countess of Ulster Maud of Lancaster, Countess of Ulster (c. 1310 – 5 May 1377) was an English noblewoman and the wife of William Donn de Burgh, 3rd Earl of Ulster. She was the mother of Elizabeth de Burgh, ''suo jure'' Countess of Ulster. Her second husband w ...

, assisted by her son-in-law

Lionel of Antwerp Lionel of Antwerp, Duke of Clarence, (; 29 November 133817 October 1368) was the third son, but the second son to survive infancy, of the English king Edward III and Philippa of Hainault. He was named after his birthplace, at Antwerp in the Duc ...

, in 1364–1366. The foundation of a religious house at Rokes Hall in Bruisyard began a little earlier, when a small college of secular priests (four chaplains and a master, or warden) attached to Campsey Priory for the purposes of a

chantry A chantry is an ecclesiastical term that may have either of two related meanings: # a chantry service, a Christian liturgy of prayers for the dead, which historically was an obiit, or # a chantry chapel, a building on private land, or an area i ...

, established in 1346–1347, was moved to Bruisyard in 1354 to celebrate there in a new chapel of the Annunciation to the Virgin. At that time a full set of statutes was promulgated by Maud of Lancaster. It was following the death of her daughter

Elizabeth de Burgh, 4th Countess of Ulster Elizabeth de Burgh, Duchess of Clarence, ''suo jure'' 4th Countess of Ulster and 5th Baroness of Connaught (; ; 6 July 1332 – 10 December 1363) was a Norman-Irish noblewoman who married Lionel of Antwerp, 1st Duke of Clarence. Family Elizab ...

in 1363 that Lionel of Antwerp assisted in the refoundation of the house as a nunnery under the order of St Clare, and at that time Maud of Lancaster, who had become a canoness at Campsey, transferred to the Poor Clares and spent her last years at Bruisyard. She and her daughter Maud de Ufford were buried there.'House of minoresses: Abbey of Bruisyard', in W. Page (ed.), ''A History of the County of Suffolk'', Vol. 2, (London, 1975)
pp. 131-32
(British History Online, accessed 19 June 2018). The house was suppressed on 17 February 1539, as part of the Dissolution of the Monasteries.

References

Monasteries in Suffolk Poor Clare monasteries in England {{UK-Christian-monastery-stub