Rusper Priory 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 mon ...

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 ...

nuns A nun is a woman who vows to dedicate her life to religious service, typically living under vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience in the enclosure of a monastery or convent.''The Oxford English Dictionary'', vol. X, page 599. The term is o ...

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 ...

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 ...

History

William de Braose was the

patron Patronage is the support, encouragement, privilege, or financial aid that an organization or individual bestows on another. In the history of art, arts patronage refers to the support that kings, popes, and the wealthy have provided to artists su ...

when the foundation was confirmed c.1200 by

Seffrid II Seffrid II ( fl. 1172–1204) was an English cleric who served as a medieval Bishop of Chichester. Life Little is known of Seffrid's ancestry, but given the unusual name he shared with Seffrid I, bishop of Chichester from 1125 to 1145, the two ...

Bishop of Chichester The Bishop of Chichester is the ordinary of the Church of England Diocese of Chichester in the Province of Canterbury. The diocese covers the counties of East and West Sussex. The see is based in the City of Chichester where the bishop's sea ...

. The priory was probably for twelve nuns under a prioress. The priory received income from the churches of

Warnham Warnham is a village and civil parish in the Horsham district of West Sussex, England. The village is centred north-northwest of Horsham, from London, to the west of the A24 road. Other named settlements within the parish include the hamlets o ...

, Ifield, and

Selham Selham is a small village in the Chichester district of West Sussex, England. It lies south of the A272 road 3 miles (4.8 km) east of Midhurst. It is mainly in the civil parish of Graffham, but partly in that of Lodsworth to the north. His ...

, to which

John de Braose John de Braose (born 1197 or 1198 – 18 July 1232), known as ''Tadody'' to the Welsh, was the Lord of Bramber and Gower. Re-establishment of the de Braose dynasty John re-established the senior branch of the de Braose dynasty. His father w ...

added that of Horsham in or before 1231. The total income in 1291 was over £44. After the

Black Death The Black Death (also known as the Pestilence, the Great Mortality or the Plague) was a bubonic plague pandemic occurring in Western Eurasia and North Africa from 1346 to 1353. It is the most fatal pandemic recorded in human history, causi ...

the priory declined. There were eight nuns in 1442, but only five in 1478. There were four nuns in 1521 and three in 1527. In 1535, the annual value of the priory was estimated by 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 ...

at £39. It was dissolved in 1537. At that time there were only one nun and the prioress, both very aged. They had two women servants. The last prioress, Elizabeth Sydney, received a pension of 100s, and the one remaining sister a gift of 60s. (They were two of the three nuns who had

professed A vow ( Lat. ''votum'', vow, promise; see vote) is a promise or oath. A vow is used as a promise, a promise solemn rather than casual. Marriage vows Marriage vows are binding promises each partner in a couple makes to the other during a weddin ...

on 8 August 1484.) The reversion of the priory's

demesne A demesne ( ) or domain was all the land retained and managed by a lord of the manor under the feudal system for his own use, occupation, or support. This distinguished it from land sub-enfeoffed by him to others as sub-tenants. The concept or ...

estate was granted to

Sir Robert Southwell Sir Robert Southwell PRS (31 December 1635 – 11 September 1702) was a diplomat. He was Secretary of State for Ireland and President of the Royal Society from 1690. Background and education Robert Southwell was born near Kinsale in County ...

and his wife Margaret. The

medieval 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 monk ...

buildings were replaced by a building called ''The Nunnery'', which was much altered in later centuries. The present house occupying the site, although still called ''The Nunnery'', was built in the nineteenth century.Nairn & Pevsner, p.316.

Notes

References

* ''A History of the County of Sussex: Volume 2'', The Victoria County History, 1973 * ''A History of the County of Sussex: Volume 6, Part 3'', The Victoria County History, 1987 * ''The Buildings of England: Sussex'',

Ian Nairn Ian Douglas Nairn (24 August 1930 – 14 August 1983) was a British architectural critic who coined the word "Subtopia" to indicate drab suburbs that look identical through unimaginative town-planning. He published two strongly personalised criti ...

and

Nikolaus Pevsner Sir Nikolaus Bernhard Leon Pevsner (30 January 1902 – 18 August 1983) was a German-British art historian and architectural historian best known for his monumental 46-volume series of county-by-county guides, ''The Buildings of England'' (1 ...

, Penguin, 1965 * ''Medieval Religious Houses: England and Wales'', David Knowles and R. Neville Hadcock, Longman, 1971 Monasteries in West Sussex 1537 disestablishments in England {{England-hist-stub