Stogursey Priory, also called Stoke Courcy Priory or The Priory of St Andrew de Stoke, was a

Benedictine , image = Medalla San Benito.PNG , caption = Design on the obverse side of the Saint Benedict Medal , abbreviation = OSB , formation = , motto = (English: 'Pray and Work') , foun ...

alien priory dedicated to St Andrew at Stogursey in

Somerset ( en, All The People of Somerset) , locator_map = , coordinates = , region = South West England , established_date = Ancient , established_by = , preceded_by = , origin = , lord_lieutenant_office =Lord Lieutenant of Somerset , lord_ ...

, England.C. Gathercole, ''An Archaeological Assessment of Stogursey'', Somerset Urban Archaeology Surveys (English Heritage Extensive Urban Surveys/Somerset County Council 2003), with link to full report
SW South-West Heritage Trust
. It was founded by William de Falaise, around 1100, to become a cell of

Lonlay-l'Abbaye Lonlay-l'Abbaye () is a commune in the Orne department in north-western France, situated midway between the towns of Domfront and Flers. It has a beautiful abbey and town square and is surrounded by walks and scenery, including the local viewpoin ...

in Normandy. In around 1185

John de Courcy {{Infobox noble , image = Sir John de Courcy (1150-1219).jpg , caption = , alt = , more = no , succession = , reign = , predecessor = , successor = , ...

, its hereditary patron, founded the Priory of the Ards (Blackabbey) in County Down, Ireland, making an endowment of that estate to Stogursey Priory.T.D. Tremlett and N. Blakiston (eds), ''Stogursey Charters. Charters and other Documents relating to the property of the Alien Priory of Stogursey, Somerset'', Somerset Record Society LXI (1949), pp. 50-51. The priory church survives as the parish church, and contains some of the original Norman architecture. Many of the priory's muniments are held in the archives of

Eton College Eton College () is a public school in Eton, Berkshire, England. It was founded in 1440 by Henry VI under the name ''Kynge's College of Our Ladye of Eton besyde Windesore'',Nevill, p. 3 ff. intended as a sister institution to King's College, ...

, which King Henry VI endowed with the

appurtenance An appurtenance is something subordinate to or belonging to another larger, principal entity, that is, an adjunct, satellite or accessory that generally accompanies something else.Bridgwater and about 4 miles west of the lower estuary of the river Parrett.W.H.P. Greswell, 'The alien Priory of Stoke Courcy', ''Proceedings of the Somerset Archaeological and Natural History Society'', Vol. XLIII (1897), no 2
pp. 62-83
(Society's pdf). In late Anglo-Saxon times the place was known as Stoke, and was owned by Beorhtsige: by 1086, following the

Norman Conquest The Norman Conquest (or the Conquest) was the 11th-century invasion and occupation of England by an army made up of thousands of Norman, Breton, Flemish, and French troops, all led by the Duke of Normandy, later styled William the Con ...

, it was owned by

William de Falaise William de Falaise (11th century), also called William of Falaise, was a Norman from Falaise, Duchy of Normandy, today in the Calvados department in the Lower Normandy region of north-western France. He became feudal baron of Stogursey in Somer ...

, a Norman. There is some question whether he, or rather a son of the same name, had recently married Geva, daughter of

Serlo de Burci Serlon de Burci was a Norman of the eleventh century. After the Norman conquest of England, he became a feudal baron and major landowner in south-west England. His feudal barony had as its ''caput'' the manor of Blagdon in Somerset. He is recor ...

, and widow of Martin "de Wallis". William's and Geva's daughter, Emma de Falaise, was betrothed to William de Courcy (died c. 1114), ''

dapifer A steward is an official who is appointed by the legal ruling monarch to represent them in a country and who may have a mandate to govern it in their name; in the latter case, it is synonymous with the position of regent, vicegerent, viceroy, king ...

'' to Henry I of England from 1100, and son of

Richard de Courcy Richard de Courcy (sometimes Richard of Courcy;Barlow ''William Rufus'' p. 69 died around 1098) was a Norman nobleman and landholder in England. Richard was probably the son of Robert de Courcy, but his mother was named Herleva.Keats-Rohan ''Dome ...

. King Henry's rise to power had begun in Domfront (Orne), 4 miles from Lonlay (Orne), where the Benedictine Abbey of St Mary at Lonlay had been founded around 1020 by William 'Princeps' de Bellême, representative of the powerful

House of Bellême House of Bellême also referred to as the Family of Bellême was an important seigneurial family during the 10th through the 12th centuries. Members of this family held the important castles of Bellême, Alençon, Domfront and Sées as well a ...

. Richard de Courcy had two sons, William (who inherited his English lands) and Robert, who inherited his father's lands in Normandy. Robert married Rohais, one of the daughters of

Hugh de Grandmesnil Hugh de Grandmesnil (1032 – 22 February 1098), (known in French as ''Hugues'' and Latinised as ''Hugo de Grentmesnil'', aliter ''Grentemesnil'', etc.), is one of the proven companions of William the Conqueror known to have fought at the Battle ...

.Keats-Rohan, ''Domesday People'', I. Domesday Book (Boydell Press, Ipswich 1999)
pp. 262-63
an
p. 359
(Google). In 1090, in Normandy, Robert de Courcy and Hugh de Grandmesnil came into conflict with

Robert of Bellême, 3rd Earl of Shrewsbury Robert de Bellême ( – after 1130), seigneur de Bellême (or Belèsme), seigneur de Montgomery, viscount of the Hiémois, 3rd Earl of Shrewsbury and Count of Ponthieu, was an Anglo-Norman nobleman, and one of the most prominent figures in ...

(great-grandson of William 'Princeps'), who sought to extend his power both in England and in Normandy. Winning the support of

Robert Curthose Robert Curthose, or Robert II of Normandy ( 1051 – 3 February 1134, french: Robert Courteheuse / Robert II de Normandie), was the eldest son of William the Conqueror and succeeded his father as Duke of Normandy in 1087, reigning until 1106. ...

in 1090, Robert de Bellême and the duke laid siege to de Courcy's castle at Courcy (in Calvados, Normandy). Robert and Hugh, for their part, appealed for help to King

William Rufus William II ( xno, Williame; – 2 August 1100) was King of England from 26 September 1087 until his death in 1100, with powers over Normandy and influence in Scotland. He was less successful in extending control into Wales. The third so ...

, Duke Robert's brother, and on William's arrival in Normandy in February 1091 the siege was lifted.

Manor, castle, church and priory

At their marriage, William de Courcy and Emma de Falaise received the manor of Stoke, which thus acquired the name of Stoke Courcy. Stogursey Castle, a motte and bailey castle, was built of stone a little to the south of the settlement in the late 11th or early 12th century, and was the headmanor of the de Courcy barony in this neighbourhood. The foundation of the priory at Stogursey began with the grant, datable to c. 1100-1107,M. Baylé, 'Les chapiteaux de Stogursey (Somerset), ancien prieuré de Lonlay-l'Abbaye', ''Bulletin Monumental'', Vol 138 Part 4 (1980)
pp. 405-16
(Persée). In French. of St Andrew's church by William de Falaise and Geva his wife to the church of St Mary at Lonlay. By the early 12th century Lonlay was acquiring many endowments, while William de Bellême was in confrontation with Henry I of England both in his English and his French domains. "In consequence of this grant," (wrote John Collinson), "although inconsiderable in itself, a prior and convent were sent over to settle here as a cell of that house." The church of St Andrew, which now serves as the church of the borough of Stogursey, is at its core an edifice of distinction built around A.D. 1100. It was a cruciform structure with

transept A transept (with two semitransepts) is a transverse part of any building, which lies across the main body of the building. In cruciform churches, a transept is an area set crosswise to the nave in a cruciform ("cross-shaped") building wi ...

s converging at a high crossing with tower above, supported by four great columns and arches. These incorporate a series of ornately carved capitals directly comparable to examples in Normandy of the last decade of the 11th century, while also showing elements of late Anglo-Saxon style more typical of the English Romanesque. They therefore belong to, or slightly antedate, the foundation phase of c. 1100–07, made by sculptors experienced in those converging artistic idioms. There was no precise artistic connection with the sculpture workshops of Lonlay, suggesting (as may seem self-evident) that the impressive original structure was built before William de Falaise presented it to Lonlay. Its various subsequent endowments and their strategic meaning were discussed by Greswell. The borough itself appears to have grown up some decades later.

Foundation of Blackabbey, County Down

A famous descendant of William's and Emma's,

John de Courcy {{Infobox noble , image = Sir John de Courcy (1150-1219).jpg , caption = , alt = , more = no , succession = , reign = , predecessor = , successor = , ...

, made himself virtual Prince of

Ulster Ulster (; ga, Ulaidh or ''Cúige Uladh'' ; sco, label= Ulster Scots, Ulstèr or ''Ulster'') is one of the four traditional Irish provinces. It is made up of nine counties: six of these constitute Northern Ireland (a part of the United Kin ...

after conquering it in 1177. He captured the Counties of Antrim and Down, and held them until he was disgraced in 1204. Around 1183–84, he granted to the Priory of St. Andrews in Stogursey "ten

carucate The carucate or carrucate ( lat-med, carrūcāta or ) was a medieval unit of land area approximating the land a plough team of eight oxen could till in a single annual season. It was known by different regional names and fell under different forms ...

s of land and all its appurtenances in the Country of Lart or The Ardes", in County Down, Ireland.G.E. Hamilton `Black Abbey', ''Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland'', Series 6, vol. XI (1921)
pp. 166-78
(Internet Archive). Before 1204 the Benedictine

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 ...

of St. Andrew's in the Ards was built at a location two miles north of

Ballyhalbert Ballyhalbert (formerly known as Talbotston and Halbertston) is a small village and townland in County Down, Northern Ireland. It is on the east (Irish Sea) coast of the Ards Peninsula between Ballywalter and Portavogie. It is largely residential ...

in the

Ards Peninsula The Ards Peninsula () is a peninsula in County Down, Northern Ireland, on the north-east coast of Ireland. It separates Strangford Lough from the North Channel of the Irish Sea. Towns and villages on the peninsula include Donaghadee, Milli ...

. Over the years this priory came to be known as Black Abbey, the colour of the clothes worn by the monks, so distinguishing it from the Cistercian house of Grey Abbey nearby (which stands on the northeastern shores of

Strangford Lough Strangford Lough (from Old Norse ''Strangr Fjörðr'', meaning "strong sea-inlet"PlaceNames N ...

). Blackabbey was therefore initially founded as a cell of Stogursey Priory which was itself a cell of Lonlay. Hamilton distinguished the adoption of Blackabbey directly as a cell of Lonlay to the time of de Courcy's successor, Hugh de Lacy: it was, at any rate, referred to as "a certain priory or cell named 'Prioratus S. Andreae en le Arde, in Ultonia'" when, in around 1350, the Priory of St Mary of Lonlay effectively dissolved it and assigned it with all its lands to

Richard FitzRalph Richard FitzRalph (also Fitz Ralph; c. 1300 – 16 December 1360) was a scholastic philosopher, theologian, and Norman Irish Archbishop of Armagh during the 14th century. His thought exerted a significant influence on John Wycliffe's. Life F ...

, Archbishop of Armagh, and his successors.

Dwindling fortunes

The priory of Stogursey dwindled over the years and was repeatedly taken into the king's hands, at one time let to one of the burgesses, Johannes Bakeler (the town's MP). It was appropriated by the Crown around 1441 and Henry VI presented the endowments of Stogursey to "the College of the Blessed Mary of Eton beside

Windsor Windsor may refer to: Places Australia * Windsor, New South Wales ** Municipality of Windsor, a former local government area * Windsor, Queensland, a suburb of Brisbane, Queensland **Shire of Windsor, a former local government authority around Wi ...

" (

) which he had founded in 1440.

Remains

Today virtually nothing remains of the abbey, apart from the Church of St Andrew itself (a splendid if somewhat over-restored survival, which also serves the village), and the dovecote. The church has been designated by

English Heritage English Heritage (officially the English Heritage Trust) is a charity that manages over 400 historic monuments, buildings and places. These include prehistoric sites, medieval castles, Roman forts and country houses. The charity states that i ...

as a grade I

listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...

. The site may overlie an earlier Saxon establishment, and is one of the largest in West Somerset. The church retains elements of the Norman architecture (notably in the tower and

transepts A transept (with two semitransepts) is a transverse part of any building, which lies across the main body of the building. In cruciform churches, a transept is an area set crosswise to the nave in a cruciform ("cross-shaped") building withi ...

): the footings of the original

apsidal In architecture, an apse (plural apses; from Latin 'arch, vault' from Ancient Greek 'arch'; sometimes written apsis, plural apsides) is a semicircular recess covered with a hemispherical vault or semi-dome, also known as an ''exedra''. In ...

ends to the transepts and chancels have been investigated. The round medieval thatched dovecote was rebuilt in 1925, though the steps are still original.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Stogursey Priory 1440 disestablishments Benedictine monasteries in England Monasteries in Somerset 15th-century disestablishments in England