Tresco Priory is a former monastic settlement on

Tresco, Isles of Scilly Tresco ( kw, Enys Skaw, meaning "island of Elder (tree), elder-trees") is the second-biggest island of the Isles of Scilly in Cornwall, England. It is in size, measuring about by . History In early times one group of islands was in the possess ...

founded in 946 AD. It was re-founded as the

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 mon ...

of St Nicholas by monks from Tavistock Abbey in 1114. A charter of King Henry I mentions a priory as belonging to Tavistock Abbey in the reign of

Edward the Confessor Edward the Confessor ; la, Eduardus Confessor , ; ( 1003 – 5 January 1066) was one of the last Anglo-Saxon English kings. Usually considered the last king of the House of Wessex, he ruled from 1042 to 1066. Edward was the son of Æth ...

Henry I, King of England, A.D. 1120, grants to William, Bishop of Exeter, and to Richard, son of Baldwin, and to his Justitiary of Devonshire and Cornwall in perpetual Alms to Osbert Abbat of Tavistock and Turold his monk, all the churches of Sully with the Appurtenances and the Land such as the Monks or Hermits held in the Time of King Edward and Burgal Bishop of Cornwall.

This was duly confirmed when

Pope Celestine III Pope Celestine III ( la, Caelestinus III; c. 1106 – 8 January 1198), was the head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 30 March or 10 April 1191 to his death in 1198. He had a tense relationship with several monarchs, ...

by his Bull (dated 4 cal. June A.D. 1193) confirms to

Herbert Abbat of Tavistock and his successors the Islands of St Nicholas (Tresco), St. Sampson, St Elidius (St. Helens), St. Theona (Tean) and the Island called Nutho (possibly Nut Rock and land surrounding, where remains of hedges etc. between it and Sampson are still to be seen underwater) with their Appurtenances and all Churches and Oratories built throughout the Islands of Sully, with the Tenths and Offerings, etc., and two pieces of digg’d ground in the Island of Agnes, and three pieces in the Isle of Ennor (St. Mary’s).

In 1367 King Edward III took the Priory under his special protection as the monks had complained that it was almost destroyed and impoverished by mariners, and in 1351 pirates had destroyed most of the Abbey property. The Priory did not survive the Dissolution of the Monasteries and may well have closed earlier. The remains of the priory are now incorporated into

Tresco Abbey Gardens Tresco Abbey Gardens are located on the island of Tresco in the Isles of Scilly, United Kingdom. The 17 acre gardens were established by the nineteenth-century proprietor of the islands, Augustus Smith, originally as a private garden within the ...

References

Monasteries in Cornwall Benedictine monasteries in England Ruins in the Isles of Scilly Grade II listed buildings in Cornwall Tresco, Isles of Scilly {{UK-Christian-monastery-stub