Catesby Priory

Catesby Priory

Location within Northamptonshire
Monastery information
Order	Cistercian
Established	1175
Disestablished	1536
Diocese	Lincoln
Controlled churches	Basford, Canons Ashby, Catesby, Hellidon
People
Founder(s)	Robert de Esseby
Important associated figures	Margaret and Edmund Rich
Site
Location	Lower Catesby, Northamptonshire, England
Coordinates	52°13′54″N 1°14′51″W / 52.2316°N 1.2474°W / 52.2316; -1.2474Coordinates: 52°13′54″N 1°14′51″W / 52.2316°N 1.2474°W / 52.2316; -1.2474
Grid reference	SP515595
Visible remains	earthworks

Catesby Priory was a priory of Cistercian nuns at Lower Catesby, Northamptonshire, England. It was founded in about 1175 and dissolved in 1536.

Robert de Esseby founded Catesby Priory in about 1175. He endowed it with Catesby parish church, land in the parish at Lower Catesby, Upper Catesby and Newbold, the chapelry of Hellidon, the parish of Canons Ashby and that of Basford, Nottinghamshire, and lands and other properties in each parish. In 1229 Henry III mandated Hugh de Neville to allow the prioress timber from the forest of Silverstone in the Royal park to build her church.

In the 1230s Edmund Rich, Archbishop of Canterbury, committed his sisters Margaret and Alice to be nuns at the priory. On his death in 1240 Rich left to his elder sister Margaret his archiepiscopal pall and a silver tablet bearing a figure of Christ. Miracles were attributed to her brother's relics, and this contributed to his canonization in 1247. An altar in the priory church was dedicated to Edmund and became a place of pilgrimage. Margaret Rich was elected prioress in 1245 and served until her death in 1257. The contemporary chronicler Matthew Paris wrote that Margaret was "a woman of great holiness, through whose distinguished merits miracles have been made gloriously manifest".

In 1267 William Maudit, 8th Earl of Warwick died and was buried in Westminster Abbey, but his heart was buried at Catesby Priory. In 1279 a Henry de Erdington granted Catesby priory the advowson of Yardley, which was then in Worcestershire. However, this was disputed and shortly afterwards Yardley church was granted to Merevale Abbey in Warwickshire. By 1290–91 Catesby Priory held the park at Westbury, Buckinghamshire. The claim was disputed but the case was ruled in the priory's favour.