Syon Abbey


Syon Abbey[Archibald Kennedy, 1st Marquess of Ailsa|], also called simply Syon, was a dual monastery of men and women of the Bridgettine Order, although it only ever had abbesses during its existence. It was founded in 1415 and stood, until its demolition in the 16th century, on the left bank of the River Thames within the parish of Isleworth, in the county of Middlesex, on or near the site of the present Georgian mansion of Syon House, today in the London Borough of Hounslow. It was named after the biblical holy "City of David which is Zion", built on the eponymous Mount Zion.
At the time of the dissolution, the abbey was the wealthiest religious house in England. Syon Abbey maintained a substantial library, with a collection for the monks and another for the nuns. When Catherine of Siena's Dialogue of Divine Revelation was translated into English for the abbey, it was given a new title, The Orchard of Syon, and included a separate prologue written to the nuns.

Background

Syon Abbey was built as part of King Henry V's "The King's Great Work" centred on Sheen Palace. The royal manor of Sheen lay on the right, Surrey, bank of the River Thames, opposite the parish of Twickenham and the royal manor of Isleworth on the left, Middlesex, bank. Sheen had been a favourite residence of the last Plantagenet king Richard II and his beloved wife Anne of Bohemia. When Anne died there of plague in 1394, Richard cursed the place where they had found great happiness and razed the palace to the ground. His throne was usurped by his cousin Henry Bolingbroke, Duke of Lancaster, who ruled as Henry IV, who was involved in the murder of Richard in 1400 – and in that of Richard le Scrope, Archbishop of York – and made a vow to expiate his guilt by founding 3 monasteries, which vow he died before fulfilling. The derelict palace was unfavoured by Henry IV but his son Henry V saw its reconstruction as a means of emphasising the dynastic link between his own House of Lancaster and that of Plantagenet, of unquestioned legitimacy, and decided at the same time to found the three monasteries pledged by his father in one great, multi-campus building scheme, known as "The King's Great Work". Thus the "Great Work" commenced in the winter of 1413–14, comprising a new Sheen Palace, and nearby the following three monasteries:
  • A monastery of the Celestine Order. Established probably in Isleworth Manor. This monastery was of French monks, who refused to pray for Henry V following his warring with France, probably at Agincourt in 1415, and was therefore dissolved by the King almost immediately after its foundation. This monastery probably occupied the site in Isleworth to which Syon Monastery moved in 1431.
  • The House of Jesus of Bethlehem of Sheen, of the Order of Carthusians Sheen Priory. Built within Sheen Manor, to the north of the new palace.
  • The Monastery of St Saviour and St Bridget of Syon, of the Order of St Augustine, or Syon Monastery. The first and original site of this monastery was probably almost due west of Sheen Palace, across the river, on the left bank of the Thames in Twickenham Parish.

    Foundation

The first stone of Syon Abbey was laid by King Henry V himself on 22 February 1415, in the presence of Richard Clifford, Bishop of London. It was not until 9 days later on 3 March 1415 that the King's founding charter was signed at Westminster. The exact location of this original plot is unknown, but it was certainly in the parish of Twickenham, the most northerly river frontage of which lies directly west across the Thames from Sheen Palace. Aungier states it is said to have been in the meadows which at the time of his publication in 1840 were the property of the
Marquis of Ailsa, "formerly called Isleworth Park or Twickenham Park". The dimensions of the plot were specified in the charter, and seem to comprise a trapezoid, the longest side of which fronted the river:

Nomenclature

The foundation charter states: "We will and decree that it shall be called 'The Monastery of St Saviour and St Bridget of Syon, of the Order of St Augustine' through all successive ages." This name was quoted slightly differently by the Abbess and Convent in their petition of 1431 as "The Monastery of St Saviour and the Saints Mary the Virgin and Bridget of Syon of the Order of St Augustine and of St Saviour". The funerary brass of Agnes Jordan, Syon's last pre-reformation abbess, describes her as "Sometyme abbesse of the monasterye of Syon".

Biblical Sion

There are numerous references to Sion in the Latin Bible, called Zion in the English Authorised Version, almost all of which are in the Old Testament. Mount Zion was the citadel of Jerusalem, which David captured from the Jebusites c. 1000 BC, as is clear from II Samuel, 5:7: "David took the stronghold of Zion: the same is the city of David". It was there that David, second King of Israel, established the capital of his kingdom of Israel, and upon which citadel it was that his son Solomon built the Temple, in which he was the dwelling place of God. It is thus the holiest site of Judaism and highly revered by Christians. Psalm 87:2 states "The Lord loveth the gates of Zion"; Joel 3:17 states "I am the Lord your God dwelling in Zion my holy mountain". The Romans razed the Jewish Temple to the ground in 70 AD and following the rise of Islam from 622, and the Muslim capture of the Holy Land in 636, the Muslims built on Mount Zion their Muslim shrine, the Dome of the Rock, which still stands today. The Crusaders recaptured Jerusalem for the Christians in 1099 and the Knights Templar built a round church near the site of the old Jewish Temple. Following the Muslim recapture of Jerusalem a century later, the site has been unavailable for formal Jewish or Christian prayer.

Order

The monastery was founded "of the order of St Augustine, called St Saviour... according to the regular institutes of the religious order by the aforesaid Bridget of Heaven inspired, founded and instituted". The charter previously stated the foundation to be "Especially in honour of the most holy St Bridget, who as is acknowledged by sufficient evidence, by divine inspiration founded a religious order under her name and obtained from Heaven that in whatsoever kingdom a monastery of the same religious order should be founded there peace and tranquility by the mediation of the same, should be perpetually established". St Bridget was a visionary, and is supposed to have seen the Risen Christ, displaying his wounds. The Bridgettine order was a modified order of St Augustine, with particular devotions to the Passion of Christ and the honour of the Virgin Mary. The Bridgettines had first been brought to England from Wastein in Sweden by Henry Lord FitzHugh, who suggested to Henry V that he should grant the order one of his planned three new monastic foundations.
The Bridgettine nuns sent by Abbess Gerdeka Hartlevsdotter from the mother house Vadstena Abbey in Sweden to England were Anna Karlsdotter, Christina Finwitsdotter, Christina Esbjörnsdotter and Anna Esbjörnsdotter.

Personnel

The king's original foundation followed Bridget's rule and consisted of 85 persons. The full complement was as follows:
Women :
  • 1 abbess
  • 59 nuns
Men :
  • 1 confessor general
  • 12 priests
  • 4 deacons
  • 8 lay brethren
The different sexes were "to dwell in separate habitations, to wit the said abbess and sisters within one court by themselves and the said confessor and brothers in a separate court by themselves, within the same monastery". The legal corporate entity was "The Abbess and Convent" which could transact business by affixing its single corporate seal. The Convent consisted of the Abbess and nuns together with the Confessor and all the religious men. Clearly the Abbess was the overall presiding officer.

Abbesses

Only eight abbesses were ever elected.
  • Matilda Newton 1418–1420
  • Joan North 1420–1433
  • Maud Muston 1433–1447
  • Margaret Ashby 1448–1456
  • Elizabeth Muston 1456–1497
  • Elizabeth Gibbs 1497–1518
  • Constance Browne 1518–1520
  • Agnes Jordan 1520–1539

    Burials

  • Thomas Stanley, 2nd Earl of Derby
  • Richard Sutton
  • William Stanley

    Expansion and relocation

Sometime before 1431 the Abbess and Convent received permission by letters patent from King Henry VI, the son of the founder and who was particularly favourable to Syon, having made it several grants and confirmations in rapid succession, to move the monastery to a new site of their own choosing some mile and a half downstream to a riverbank site within Isleworth parish. The land in question had been in the monastery's ownership since 1422, in which last year of the life of Henry V had by an act of Parliament separated the manor of Isleworth from the Duchy of Cornwall and given it to Syon. The reason for the move was to gain more space, as is made clear from the letters patent:
The danger of the situation referred to may have been due to proximity to the river, or possibly even spiritual danger to the inmates due to a too close intermingling of the sexes.

New building

The letters patent authorising the move, which were ratified by a grant by the king dated 1431, make clear that some of the new buildings had already been started and indeed completed:
It seems that this building, apparently living quarters or “mansion” must have been started several years before 1431 to have been described as “completed” in the letters of patent issued before 1431
There was however another building, possibly the new Church-building itself, which still had not been completed 11 years later, by 1442, when Henry VI issued further letters patent granting the Abbess and Convent special privileges for the transport of building materials from the king's warren in the royal manor of Sheen across the river to Isleworth:
The new site of the church building itself is now believed, after recent archaeological work, to lie partly underneath and to the east of the present Georgian mansion of Syon House.