Wombridge Priory was a small Augustinian monastery in Wombridge, in Shropshire, England. Established in the early 12th century, it was supported by a network of minor nobility and was never a large community. Despite generally good financial management, it fell within the scope of the Suppression of Religious Houses Act 1535 and was dissolved in the following year.
Foundation
William Dugdale, the pioneering historian of Britain's monasteries, thought that Wombridge Priory was founded by William FitzAlan,Dugdale, p.157-8 who dominated Shropshire and large tracts of the Welsh Marches in the early to mid 12th century. It is now known that it was founded by or for William of Hadley, a much less powerful landowner, and a vassal of William FitzAlan, who was tenant-in-chief of the manor of Hadley. William of Hadley was the terre tenant or lord of the manor. William was married to Seburga, an illegitimate daughter of a much wealthier and more powerful baron, Hamo Peveril,Eyton, Volume 7, p.353 whose seat was High Ercall Hall. The earliest grant of lands to the Priory, consisting of the site in Hadley Wood and a half virgate at High Hatton, must date from 1136 or a little earlier and was made by William of Hadley, Seburga and their son, Alan of Hadley. The only record of it is in a document confirming William FitzAlan's approval of his tenants' actions. FitzAlan's confirmation quite explicitly recognises that the gift comes from William, Seburga and Alan but says it is pro salute animae suae – for the salvation of his soul, in the singular:Eyton, Volume 7, p.363 perhaps simply a mistake. However it seems that William died around 1136, perhaps between the gift and its confirmation. The document refers to Canonicis de Wombrug, implying that the community envisaged in the grant was composed of Augustinian Canons Regular.
FitzAlan's confirmation seems to be the origin of the idea that he was the founder, although he appears only as William of Hadley's feudal lord. A much later document of 1319 mentions FitzAlan's confirmation while omitting the original founders. FitzAlan had his own monastic foundation to tend, Haughmond Abbey, and was a great benefactor to Shrewsbury Abbey, as were his dynasty for centuries.
Location
The foundation document describes Wombridge Priory's location as Latin English locum illum in silva de Hedlega qui ex uno latere rivulo uno terminatur qui silvam de Hedlega et silvam Regis discriminat secundo vero latere, alio rivulo finitur qui dicitur Sprungewallabroc, tercioque latere sui terminum facit Watlingestret. "That place in Hadley Wood, defined on one side by a stream that divides Hadley Wood and the king's wood, on the second side by a stream called Springwell Brook, and with the third side reaching its limit at Watling Street." The Priory was built in a clearing in Hadley Wood, less than one kilometre north of Watling Street. The royal wood from which it was separated by a stream was properly called Mount Gilbert Forest, more commonly known as the Wrekin, and this neighbouring part of it subsequently became known as Wrockwardine Wood. The village of Wombridge grew up adjacent the priory, on its demesne lands, with Oakengates as a small hamlet nearby. During the Industrial Revolution, Oakengates grew rapidly, dwarfing and absorbing Wombridge itself. In the 1960s it became a constituent part of the new town of Telford, which is now part of the borough of Telford and Wrekin, a unitary authority, and so not under Shropshire Council. The priory site is now occupied by the Church of St Mary and St Leonard.
Dedication
The priory was dedicated to St Leonard. The seal in use in the early 13th century bore the inscription SIGILLUM SANCTI LEONARDI DE WOMBRUG and showed the saint holding a pastoral staff, the symbol of a bishop, and a book. St Leonard was particularly popular in the 12th century following the release of Bohemond I of Antioch, a captured crusader – a circumstance which he seems to have attributed to the saint's intercession. White Ladies Priory, another Shropshire Augustinian house, was also dedicated to St Leonard, as was the parish church at Bridgnorth.
Endowments
The priory built up a small but fairly compact portfolio of property, mainly in the first century of its existence. The benefactors were mostly middle-ranking, ranging from FitzAlan vassals making formal grants to newly wealthy landowners showing gratitude and generosity.
Seburga and her sons continued to endow the priory, usually from property they had inherited from Hamo de Peveril. Alan donated land at Cherrington and a ninth of all his tithable property, as well confirming the grant at High Hatton,Eyton, Volume 7, p.354Morris, Transactions Series 2, Volume 10, p.192, no. 493 although the Cherrington land may also have been a joint gift from Alan and his father.Eyton, Volume 8, p.195 His brother, William of Ercall (sometimes called William of Hadley), also gave a ninth of his tithable property, land at High Ercall that became the monastic grange of Shirlowe, and pasturage rights over the whole manor.Eyton, Volume 9, p.79 Alan died about 1194, leaving his daughter Cecilia as sole heiress. She married Sir Roger Corbet and the estates remained with various branches of the Corbet family for nearly five centuries, breaking the close link with the founders.
However, endowments still continued to be made from the former Peveril estates, even though they had been granted to new tenants by Henry II – often to people who had aided him in his Welsh campaigns. Their gratitude seems to have been directed towards the priory. This was the case at Sutton Maddock, acquired by Gervase Goch as a reward for acting as an intermediary for the king.Eyton, Volume 2, 108-9 There was apparently some ambiguity about the church, which Madoc, son of Gervase, cleared up by granting the advowson to Wombridge PrioryMorris, Transactions Series 2, Volume 9, p.101, no. 411 in 1186-7 – a grant confirmed by the king himself.Eyton, Volume 2, p.137Morris, Transactions Series 2, Volume 9, p.104, no. 423 Roger Mussun, who made his fortune as a horse trader on behalf of the king, was granted the manor of Uppington after it escheated to the king, on a serjeanty tenure, for annual service of one sparrowhawk,Eyton, Volume 8, p.153Morris, Transactions Series 1, Volume 9, p.374, no. 244 and acquired Harrington in Sutton Maddock on similar terms.Eyton, Volume 2, p.132 He was sufficiently grateful to include the king's soul with those of himself and his wife when he gave Wombridge Priory the advowson and tithes of the chapel at Uppington.Eyton, Volume 8, p.154-5 Perhaps around the same time, in 1189, he also gave the priory a large area of waste and woodland at Wichley, part of Uppington.Morris, Transactions Series 1, Volume 9, p.363, no. 206 This gave the canons a secure foothold from which they sought to expand to a substantial grange. Roger was dead within two years, apparently in disgrace with Richard I, but Galiena, his widow, continued his beneficence to the priory, giving half a virgate of land at Harrington.Eyton, Volume 2, p.133 Griffin of Sutton, Madoc's son and heir, gave a substantial area of woodland and made numerous small grants to the priory, including rents paid in cocks and hens,Morris, Transactions Series 2, Volume 1, p.303-4, no. 361 receiving from the canons in recognition of his constant generosity two horses: a destrier and a palfrey.Eyton, Volume 2, p.114-5Morris, Transactions Series 2, Volume 9, p.102, no. 412
Griffin's wife was Matilda LeStrange and her family also made small grants to the priory. John LeStrange II, lord of Wrockwardine, conceded rights to exploit parts of Wrockwardine Wood.Eyton, Volume 9, p.23 However, the LeStranges did not show a sustained interest.
The Dunstanville family of Shifnal became substantial and consistent benefactors. Robert and Alan Dunstanville were brothers, thought by Eyton to be sons of Reginald de Dunstanville, 1st Earl of Cornwall, an illegitimate son of Henry I.Eyton, Volume 2, p.269 who, like William FitzAlan, were close supporters of Empress Matilda during the Anarchy, in her struggle against Stephen of Blois. They were with her at Oxford and elsewhere during her near-successful bid for power in 1141.Eyton, Volume 2, p.271-3 Both had or acquired interests in Sussex, close to the FitzAlan's other strongholds, and Alan, the younger brother, acquired the manor of Idsall or Shifnal in Shropshire. He then made a range of gifts to monasteries, including two to Wombridge: half a virgate, then farmed by a man called Eilric, followed by a further nine acres - all at Lee, a settlement that thus became known as Priorslee.
Alan predeceased his brother, but as Robert died sine prole, it was Alans's eldest son, Walter, who inherited the now-substantial family estates. He confirmed his father's grants and added fourteen more acres at Lee.Eyton, Volume 2, p.278-9 Then came a grant of Aynulf's Lee, apparently a further substantial accession of land at Priorslee. Walter directed that, if he should die in England, his body should be taken to Wombridge for burial.Morris, Transactions Series 1, Volume 9, p.378-9, no. 254 Further, he gave the priory two mills on his estates, with the direction that the income from them should support a perpetual chantry at Wombridge for the souls of himself and Hawise, his wife. This came with a further gift of twenty acres of woodland. After Walter's death in the 1190s,Eyton, Volume 2, p.282 his nephew Thomas Basset gave some land at Wich Malbank or Nantwich to the priory for the good of Walter's soul.Eyton, Volume 2, p.284 In the 1260s, Walter III, grandson of the original Walter, gave Wombridge Priory a mill at Grindle,Morris, Transactions Series 1, Volume 11, p.343, no. 311 near Ryton, various small patches of land, river banks and woodland, and rights in his woods, including housebote and haybote and pannage.Eyton, Volume 2, p.298Morris, Transactions Series 1, Volume 9, p.379, nos. 256-7 Grindle Mill originally belonged to Richard, the lord of Grindle, and was bought by WalterMorris, Transactions Series 1, Volume 11, p.342, no. 310 for the specific purpose of presenting it to Wombridge Priory. The canons thus became liable to pay a token annual rent of half a penny to Richard. However Richard himself also made a series of gifts to the priory:Eyton, Volume 2, p.91-2 two half virgates of land, several areas of meadow and the right to pasture 200 sheep and the animals of any tenants they installed on the land. He also gave the canons permission to take their carts across his land to obtain stone from his quarries and released them from any requirement to attend his manorial court.Morris, Transactions Series 1, Volume 11, p.346-7, no. 321 His son and heir, John, quit-claimed even the half penny rent for the mill.
Another benefactor was Alexander of Loppington, who, around 1190, gave advowson of the church at Loppington, in north Shropshire, to Wombridge Priory.Eyton, Volume 10, p.224Morris, Transactions Series 2, Volume 10, p.184, no. 438 In the 1190s John de Cambrai gave a virgate and eight acres of land, as well as a meadow, at Wappenshall in his manor of Lee Cumbray (now Leegomery), north-west of Hadley.Eyton, Volume 7, p.341 The witnesses included Robert of Shrewsbury, dean of St Mary's, Shrewsbury, who witnessed a number of charters for the priory, William of Hadley or Ercall, Roger Corbet, Richard of Idshall (Shifnal) and many others. There seems to have been a network of middle-ranking landowners, friends of the Hadleys and mostly vassals of the FitzAlans, who ensured that the priory was well, if not lavishly, funded in its early decades. Their benefactions were a form of social solidarity in this life, and in many cases afforded them a family chantry and mausoleum that would have been beyond their reach in the great abbeys.
Charters