Everdon Priory
Coordinates: 52°12′42″N 1°07′31″W / 52.2116°N 1.1254°W Everdon Priory was a priory in Northamptonshire, England. The village of Everdon is located about 6 km (4 miles) south-east of the town of Daventry.
Some time shortly after the Norman Conquest, the manor of Everdon was granted to the abbey of St. Mary of Bernay, Eure, in Normandy. Bernay was a Benedictine abbey, which had founded in 1025 by Judith, wife of Richard II, Duke of Normandy.
The abbot of Bernay became lord of the manor of Everdon and held a considerable amount of land around the village. The priory was built so that a small community of monks could administer these lands, acting as agents for the abbot. The abbot held advowson of the parish church, i.e. the right to present a priest to the living - a right that could be lucrative, as incumbents generally paid to be inducted, although this was technically the sin of simony.
Another responsibility and source of profit was the manorial court. Evidently the monks primarily regarded it as a source of income. In 1329 Quo warranto proceedings, a way of legally testing claims of authority, were taken out against the abbey. It was found that the monks had been imposing fines instead of corporal punishment. They had been taking a mark (money) for offences against the Assize of Bread and Ale, which regulated quantities and prices of these basic commodities; the culprits should have been subjected to the tumbril and pillory, instead of which the monks had been using convictions as a source of profit for their order. They had also been impounding stray animals illegally.
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