Farewell Priory
Farewell Priory was a Benedictine nunnery near Lichfield in Staffordshire, England. Although it received considerable episcopal support, it was always small and poor. It was dissolved in 1527 as a by-product of Cardinal Wolsey's scheme to establish a college within Oxford University.
Foundation
A religious community was founded at Farewell by Roger de Clinton, Bishop of Lichfield and Coventry. It is clear that the house was originally described as an abbey and it was originally made up of male hermits. A charter of the bishop specifies that it is a grant to canonicis fratribus, suggesting the community were canons regular, probably Augustinian. The locality in which they held land and could assart in the woods was named as Chirstalleia, which seems to be Chestall, now a hamlet to the east of Castle Ring and north of Cannock Wood. The charter also conceded rights of pannage and pasturage. A further grant affirms that it is made in response to the requests of domini Rogeri et Gaufridi et Roberti, heremitarum et fratrum de Faurwelle: Masters Roger, Walter and Robert, hermits and brothers of Farewell. However, the purpose of the grant is to transfer the church and their lands, together with small estates at Pipe and Hammerwich, to a community of women. Hence it seems that both the initial grant to a male hermitage and its replacement as beneficiary by a nunnery were the work of the same bishop. It is unclear whether the male community simply disappeared or continued in one or more different forms. As late as 1167 an estate at Pipe Magna was recorded by the sheriff as terra trium canonici de Pipa, "the land of the three canons of Pipe." Moreover, Radmore Abbey, a Cistercian house, was established a short distance away during the same period as Farewell, incorporating hermits who already lived nearby and also with the involvement of Roger de Clinton.Order and patronage
Farewell was recorded as a Benedictine priory in diocesan records and it was to Benedictine houses that the remaining nuns were transferred at its dissolution. The commission for its dissolution names it explicitly as prioratum beatae Mariae de Farewell ordinis sancti Benedicti. However, it was described as Cistercian in the bishop's register in 1425. One factor in the confusion is that Langley Priory, its daughter house in the parish of Breedon on the Hill in Leicestershire, seems to have posed as Cistercian in the 12th century in order to secure the exemptions from tithes enjoyed by Cistercian houses. This was contested by Augustinian Breedon Priory, which had appropriated Breedon parish church and thus stood to lose tithes if Langley's claim was accepted. Pope Alexander III commissioned an investigation by the Cistercian abbot of Garendon Abbey and the Augustinian prior of Kenilworth Priory, which adjudicated in favour of the nuns. However, the nuns could not maintain their position for long and, in order to obtain exemption they were compelled in or about 1229 to hand over a toft, an acre of land and a payment of seven marks.When licensing Farewell to acquire property in 1398, Richard II described it as being "in the king's patronage." However, this was an isolated incident. It was an episcopal foundation and the bishop of the time was central to its final dissolution.
Relations with Langley Priory
Langley Priory was established with nuns drawn from Farewell, as was acknowledged in its charter of about 1180 from William de Ferrers, 3rd Earl of Derby. Farewell's claims over its daughter house became controversial and, under an agreement of about 1210 the prioress of Farewell was allowed to take part in the election of the prioress of Langley when a vacancy occurred. However, the election would go ahead even if she failed to attend or to send representatives. Other claims were withdrawn. It was also agreed that Alice de Hely, a Farewell nun at that time residing at Langley, would remain in place for five years and then return to the mother house. The dispute flared up again in subsequent decades and under a composition, embodied in a charter issued by Prioress Serena of Farewell in 1248, Langley was to pay 4 marks annually, with a penalty for non-payment of 40 shillings.Estates
As well as conferring the church of St Mary at Farewell, with a mill and wood, Roger de Clinton's charter to the nuns gave them the land between the banks of two streams, called Chistalea and Blachesiche. Included are the labour service, tenures and homes of six families of serfs. The bishop also confirmed donations from two others: assarts and lands at Pipe, given by the bishop's chaplain, Hugh, and half a hide given by Hamminch of Hammerwich. The donation of Hamminch was to be split in two, with half held by the convent in demesne and the other half held of the church by Hamminch's heir. Walter Durdent, Roger de Clinton's successor, appended a confirmation to the charter, adding the lands and service of Alurich de Quadraria and his sons, which were valued at six shillings per annum. The grant is explicitly stated to be monialibus de Faurwelle, to the nuns of Farewell.Henry II granted a charter to the nuns of Farewell when at Radmore, now Red Moor, south of Cannock Wood. There seem to be longer and shorter versions of the same document but both are recorded as witnessed apud Rademoram. Henry II is known to have stayed at Radmore in February 1155, and the charter was probably issued during this visit. The king listed a number of properties and rights he wished to confirm.
Around 1170 Geoffrey Peche granted land and a man to cultivate it at "Morhale" as the dowry of Sara, his daughter, when she entered Farewell – commonly a source of small endowments for nunneries. The Peche family were prominent in Warwickshire and the Bishop of Coventry and Lichfield at the time was Richard Peche, one of two to bear that surname in the 12th century. It was the bishop who had originally given Geoffrey the land that he conveyed to Farewell.
On 3 April 1200 King John confirmed the grants enumerated by his father, Henry II. Once again the nunnery was referred to as abbatia, an abbey. In the same year Farewell was listed as a nunnery receiving royal alms of 40 shillings, alongside its daughter house of Langley Priory and nearby Blithbury Priory. The pipe rolls for 1203–4 record alms of 6 marks, double the original amount, to the same houses and some others. These were useful windfalls but never developed into a regular income for Farewell or the other houses.
In 1251 Henry III recognised an important exemption of Farewell by mandating the seneschal of Cannock Forest to refrain from collecting pannage dues, as these were contrary to the liberties the nuns had from his royal predecessors. There is scattered evidence from the same century that Farewell held other small estates. The transfer of a serf at Chorley from the priory to a canon of Lichfield Cathedral shows that Chorley was held by Farewell Priory. In 1279 the prior of the Augustinian Llanthony Priory, then in Gloucestershire, sued the prioress of Farewell for rents and services he claimed were due for a holding of two carucates and a messuage in Longdon. These included two marks and the provision of a priest to celebrate Mass in the chapel at Radmore, which the prior claimed Prioress Julia had accepted in the reign of Henry III. The claim was contested. Farewell also acquired a house in Lichfield and land at Curborough.
In the 14th century, there is further evidence of small gains and patient defence of holdings. The original house in Lichfield, which was on Quonians Lane, off Dam Street, and in the priory's hands by 1283, had been joined by five further properties by 1399. On 28 February 1321 Philip de Somerville, king's clerk to Edward II, was licensed to alienate in mortmain to Farewell 20 acres of waste that he held as a tenant-in-chief at the royal manor of Alrewas. In 1353 Prioress Margaret attempted to regain control of land at Elmhurst. She sued Ralph de Wal and Adam Lewis, alleging that they had violently ejected her from custody of both the land and the heir of John West of Elmhurst. She claimed that John had held the land from her by military service and presumably she claimed wardship of his heir, who was a minor. An old issue arose again in 1360, when the prior of Llanthony demanded arrears of 100 marks, apparently in vain. In 1367 Prioress Agnes sued Humphrey, son of Simon de Rugeley, by writ of quare cessavit per biennium for ten acres of cultivated land and two of moor at Longdon. Humphrey succeeded in getting the case adjourned and by the time it again came to court, more than three years later, he was dead and the prioress was suing his son Thomas, this time successfully.
In 1375 Edward III issued an inspeximus confirming Henry II's comprehensive charter. On 30 January 1398 the priory obtained a licence to acquire in mortmain properties to the yearly value of 10 marks, although the lands in question were not specified. At the time of dissolution in 1527 the priory's holdings were recorded as:
The priory's estates formed a fairly compact group. In the early 14th century, before the onset of the agrarian crisis of 1315–22 and the still more devastating Black Death, there was demesne farming at Farewell, Curborough, and Hammerwich. Hammerwich by this time had 30 about 30 tenants who were legally free but owed labour service at harvest time as part of their rent. However, they had commuted the labour dues into payments of ½d. to 2d. During the course of the century the convent began sheep farming, while demesne farming at Hammerwich, at least, seems to have ceased by 1419: both common responses to a century of rising labour costs. The social status of tenants varied greatly, and could be high, as on the Abnalls estate, now in Burntwood, which seems to have evolved from the holdings at Pipe. This was held of the priory in the late 14th century by Aymer Taverner, whose surname is self-explanatory and suggests fairly humble origins. However, while changing his name to Lichfield, he made himself a major landholder and represented Staffordshire twice in the House of Commons, as well as serving two terms as sheriff of his own county and two as Sheriff of Warwickshire and Leicestershire. After Aymer the estate was held for about 17 years by Sir William Newport, who was MP for the county in three Parliaments and sheriff for three terms.