DAVENTRY, PRIORY OF

Former Cluniac monastery dedicated to St. Augustine, in Daventry, Northamptonshire, England, ancient See of lincoln. It was founded before 1109 by Hugh of Leicester, first at Preston Capes and then near the parish church of Daventry. An earlier endowment of four canons was appropriated for the foundation, and four bene dictine monks—as at nearby Saint Andrews, Northampton—were brought from the Abbey of La charitÉ-sur-loire. In 1221 the bishop, acting under papal instructions, took charge of the priory, and from that time La Charité exercised no control over it. The founder's family continued to act as patrons and allowed free election of priors after 1331. Daventry was well endowed with churches and continued to add to its possessions in the 14th century, when there were regularly 18 monks there. The priory was dissolved by papal authority in 1525 to form part of Wolsey's college at Oxford, subsequently Christ Church.

Bibliography: Victoria History of the County of Northampton, ed. w. r. d. adkins et al., v. 2 (London 1906). n. denholm-young, ed., Cartulary of the Medieval Archives of Christ Church (Oxford 1931). h. dauphin, Dictionnaire d'histoire et de géographie ecclésiastiques, ed. a. baudrillart et al. (Paris 1912–) 14:111–113. d. knowles, The Monastic Order in England, 943–1216 (2d ed. Cambridge, Eng. 1962) 155. d. knowles, The Religious Orders in England, 3 v. (Cambridge, Eng. 1948–60) 210–211. d. knowles and r. n. hadcock, Medieval Religious Houses: England and Wales (New York 1953) 96.

[d. j. a. matthew]