St Mary Magdalen Nunnery () was a

priory A priory is a monastery of men or women under religious vows that is headed by a prior or prioress. Priories may be houses of mendicant friars or nuns (such as the Dominicans, Augustinians, Franciscans, and Carmelites), or monasteries of ...

Augustinian Augustinian may refer to: *Augustinians, members of religious orders following the Rule of St Augustine *Augustinianism, the teachings of Augustine of Hippo and his intellectual heirs *Someone who follows Augustine of Hippo * Canons Regular of Sain ...

canoness 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 ...

es in Kingsdown,

Bristol Bristol () is a city, ceremonial county and unitary authority in England. Situated on the River Avon, it is bordered by the ceremonial counties of Gloucestershire to the north and Somerset to the south. Bristol is the most populous city in ...

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 ...

. It was founded c. 1173 and dissolved in 1536. St Mary Magdalen is remembered in the name of Maudlin Street; the nunnery was located near to the corner of Maudlin Street and St Michael's Hill, which was later the site of the King David Inn.

Foundation

The nunnery was founded by Eva Fitzharding, who endowed it with lands in

Southmead Southmead is a northern suburb and council ward of Bristol, in the south west of England, bordered by Filton in South Gloucestershire and Monks Park, Horfield, Henleaze and Westbury on Trym. The River Trym rises in Southmead and flows south ...

and became its first prioress. Her ancestry is not known. She was the widow of

Robert Fitzharding Robert Fitzharding (c. 1095–1170) was an Anglo-Saxon nobleman from Bristol who was granted the feudal barony of Berkeley in Gloucestershire. He rebuilt Berkeley Castle, and founded the Berkeley family which still occupies it today. He was a w ...

, a wealthy

burgess __NOTOC__ Burgess may refer to: People and fictional characters * Burgess (surname), a list of people and fictional characters * Burgess (given name), a list of people Places * Burgess, Michigan, an unincorporated community * Burgess, Missouri, U ...

of Bristol who had risen to become the Lord of

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. He had founded St Augustine's Abbey, which later became

Bristol Cathedral Bristol Cathedral, the Cathedral Church of the Holy and Undivided Trinity, is the Church of England cathedral in the city of Bristol, England. Founded in 1140 and consecrated in 1148, it was originally St Augustine's Abbey but after the Dissolu ...

, and he too ended his days as a canon of the religious house he had founded.

Later history

From the 13th century onwards the nunnery was very poor, and for that reason exempt from taxation and procuration payments to the Bishop of Worcester, within whose

diocese In church governance, a diocese or bishopric is the ecclesiastical district under the jurisdiction of a bishop. History In the later organization of the Roman Empire, the increasingly subdivided provinces were administratively associa ...

the nunnery was. In 1480 when

William Worcester William Worcester, also called William of Worcester, William Worcestre or William Botoner (1415) was an English topographer, antiquary and chronicler. Life He was a son of another William of Worcester, a Bristol whittawer (worker in white leather ...

was measuring out Bristol's religious buildings, there were only three nuns. He paced out their church as being just 27 steps long. His steps have been estimated at around 21 inches (53 cm) on average. Some remains of the nunnery,

Perpendicular In elementary geometry, two geometric objects are perpendicular if they intersect at a right angle (90 degrees or π/2 radians). The condition of perpendicularity may be represented graphically using the ''perpendicular symbol'', ⟂. It ca ...

in style, have been found on the site of the King David Inn. In 1535 when the net annual incomes of the Bristol religious houses were assessed in 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 ...

, St Mary Magdalen had a complement of 2 nuns and an income of £21, compared to the figures of 19 and £670 for St Augustine's Abbey.

Dissolution

In the Dissolution of the Monasteries, St Mary Magdalen was the only "lesser" religious house in Bristol to be seized by

the Crown The Crown is the state in all its aspects within the jurisprudence of the Commonwealth realms and their subdivisions (such as the Crown Dependencies, overseas territories, provinces, or states). Legally ill-defined, the term has different ...

's commissioners under the Act for the Dissolution of the Lesser Monasteries, which was passed in 1536. They found the nunnery to be without debt and the building in good condition, but its possessions to be worth only a few pounds. The two dispossessed nuns were Eleanor Graunt, an old woman who had been prioress since around 1521, and a young novice. They were not given pensions and what happened to them afterwards is not known. The house then became a private residence.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Saint Mary Magdalen Nunnery Bristol Augustinian nunneries in England Christian monasteries established in the 12th century 1173 establishments in England 1536 disestablishments in England Former buildings and structures in Bristol Monasteries in Bristol