Monastic Wales.








Event detail for site: Chepstow

c. 1291: Wealth

According to the Taxatio Ecclesiastica the priory received £7 7s 2d annually in assized rents and 6s 8d from its courts.

Chepstow had at this time c 201 acres of arable land, 28 ½ acres of meadow, 82 acres of pasture and waste, forty sheep and seven cows.
However, these figures are not indicative of the house’s income but rather give ‘a relative index of monastic prosperity’ since the lands and churches were assessed at the lowest possible figure they could be let to farm.

Bibliographical sources

Printed sources

Cowley, F. G., The Monastic Order in South Wales 1066-1349 (Cardiff, 1977) pp. 57, 58, 94, 96

Graham, Rose, 'The taxation of Pope Nicholas IVth', Engish Historical Review, 23 (1908), pp. 434-454

Web links (open in new window)

The Taxatio Database (View website)

Other events in the history of this site

pre 1071: Foundation - Chepstow was founded by Earl William fitz Osbern, lord of Chepstow Castle, as an alien priory of his foundation of Cormeilles in Normandy. It was the first Norman house founded in Wales. [3 sources]
c.1291: Wealth - According to the Taxatio Ecclesiastica the priory received £7 7s 2d annually in assized rents and 6s 8d from its courts.
 [3 sources]
1387: Royal custody - The priory was seized and handed to royal commissioners until the prior of Chepstow paid a significant sum for having retained custody of the house since the start of the war.  [1 sources]
1391: Custody - On 13 October the king granted Chepstow Priory to Giles Wenlok, clerk, as farmer of the priory, during the French wars. [1 sources]
1394-1398: Custody - From 1394 until 1398 there were no monks at Chepstow; in June 1398 John Workman, a monk, was granted keepership of the farm of the priory and Benedict Cely, knight and royal marshal, was given custody of the house.  [2 sources]
1442: Independence - Chepstow became an independent priory with a community of English monks. [1 sources]
1458: Custody - On 25 July Chepstow was granted to God’s House, Cambridge.  [1 sources]
1534: Numbers - At this time the community comprised a prior (Roger Shrewsbury) and one monk who subscribed to the Act of Supremacy. [5 sources]
c.1535: Wealth - According to the Valor Ecclesiasticus the priory had an income of over £32.  [4 sources][1 archives]
1536: Dissolution - The house was surveyed on 30 May 1536 and dissolved 6-7 September that year. [4 sources]
 
Graphic.