Kilburn Priory was a small monastic community of nuns established around 1130–1134 three miles north-west of the

City of London The City of London is a city, ceremonial county and local government district that contains the historic centre and constitutes, alongside Canary Wharf, the primary central business district (CBD) of London. It constituted most of London f ...

, where Watling Street (now Kilburn High Road) met the stream now known as the Westbourne, but variously known as ''Cuneburna'', ''Keneburna'', ''Keeleburne'', ''Coldburne'', or ''Caleburn'', meaning either the royal or cow's stream. cited in The priory gave its name to the area now known as Kilburn, and the local streets Priory Road, Kilburn Priory, Priory Terrace, and Abbey Road. The site was used until 1130 as a hermitage by Godwyn, a recluse, who subsequently gave the property to the conventual church of St. Peter, Westminster. The priory was established with the consent of Gilbert Universalis, bishop of London, before his death in August 1134. Though it was originally subordinate to

Westminster Abbey Westminster Abbey, formally titled the Collegiate Church of Saint Peter at Westminster, is an historic, mainly Gothic church in the City of Westminster, London, England, just to the west of the Palace of Westminster. It is one of the United ...

, whose monks followed the Benedictine rule, by 1377 it was described as being an order of

Augustinian canonesses Canoness is a member of a religious community of women living a simple life. Many communities observe the monastic Rule of St. Augustine. The name corresponds to the male equivalent, a canon. The origin and Rule are common to both. As with the ...

. It was once believed that the '' Ancrene Riwle'' was written for the first three nuns of Kilburn, but this is now thought unlikely. Agnes Strickland states that the priory was established in 1128 for the three pious and charitable ladies-in-waiting of Queen Matilda of Scotland, consort of

Henry I Henry I may refer to: 876–1366 * Henry I the Fowler, King of Germany (876–936) * Henry I, Duke of Bavaria (died 955) * Henry I of Austria, Margrave of Austria (died 1018) * Henry I of France (1008–1060) * Henry I the Long, Margrave of the N ...

, named Emma, Gunilda, and Cristina.

After the death of the queen n 1118these ladies retired to the hermitage of Kilburn near London, where there was a holy well, or medicinal spring. This was changed to a priory in 1128, as the deed says, for the reception of these . . . damsels who had belonged to the chamber of Matilda. Agnes Strickland, ''Lives of the Queens of England from the Norman Conquest,'' vol I. (Philadelphia: Lea & Blanchard, 1841), 2nd ed, p. 270.
Accessed 16 January 2013.

Kilburn Priory was dissolved by Henry VIII in 1537 and its site in Kilburn was given to the

Knights of St. John The Order of Knights of the Hospital of Saint John of Jerusalem ( la, Ordo Fratrum Hospitalis Sancti Ioannis Hierosolymitani), commonly known as the Knights Hospitaller (), was a medieval and early modern Catholic military order. It was headqu ...

in exchange for other property, and then seized back by the crown in 1540.

References

Further reading