Plympton Priory was a priory in

Devon Devon ( , historically known as Devonshire , ) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South West England. The most populous settlement in Devon is the city of Plymouth, followed by Devon's county town, the city of Exeter. Devon is ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

. Its history is recorded in the Annales Plymptonienses.

History

The site of an Anglo-Saxon minster, Plympton Priory was re-founded as an Augustinian house by Bishop

William Warelwast William Warelwast (died 1137) was a medieval Norman cleric and Bishop of Exeter in England. Warelwast was a native of Normandy, but little is known about his background before 1087, when he appears as a royal clerk for King William II. Most o ...

in 1121. The foundation was confirmed by King

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 No ...

sometime around then. Warelwast was apparently scandalised by the loose living of the existing canons of Plympton, and he closed the house, sending them to a new house in

Bosham Bosham is a coastal village and civil parish in the Chichester District of West Sussex, England, centred about west of Chichester with its clustered developed part west of this. Its land forms a broad peninsula projecting into natural Chiche ...

West Sussex West Sussex is a county in South East England on the English Channel coast. The ceremonial county comprises the shire districts of Adur, Arun, Chichester, Horsham, and Mid Sussex, and the boroughs of Crawley and Worthing. Covering an ar ...

. He then re-founded Plympton, with brethren from

Holy Trinity Priory, Aldgate The Holy Trinity Priory, also known as Christchurch Aldgate, was a priory of Austin canons ( Black Canons) founded around 1108 by the English queen Matilda of Scotland near Aldgate in London.Merton Priory Merton Priory was an English Augustinian priory founded in 1114 by Gilbert Norman, Sheriff of Surrey under King Henry I (1100–1135). It was situated within the manor of Merton in the county of Surrey, in what is today the Colliers Wood area ...

. The Priory supplied various local clergy (not always without controversy), and continued to be an important local establishment until its dissolution in 1539. It was the richest monastic house in Devon, and the fourth wealthiest Augustinian house in England and Wales. The

Valor Ecclesiasticus The ''Valor Ecclesiasticus'' (Latin: "church valuation") was a survey of the finances of the church in England, Wales and English controlled parts of Ireland made in 1535 on the orders of Henry VIII. It was colloquially called the Kings books, a s ...

gave its value as £898 0s 8 1/8d.Fizzard, op.cit., p.57; Sir John Maclean, The Parochial and Family History of the Deanery of Trigg Minor, Volume 2, p.89.

References

Monasteries in Devon {{UK-Christian-monastery-stub