HEXHAM, MONASTERY OF

Former monastery of benedictines, then Austin canons, at Hexham, in Northumbria, England. The Benedictine abbey there was founded c. 673 by wilfrid, Archbishop of York, and grew rapidly in importance. Five years after the foundation of the abbey, the church of Hexham became the cathedral of the new Diocese of Bernicia, but c. 821 this bishopric was united to that of lindisfarne. Hexham was destroyed in the course of the Danish invasions in the following century, but was rebuilt, probably in 1113, as a priory of canons regular of st. augustine. The priory was dissolved in 1536 under King henry viii, when the last prior was hanged for his involvement in the pilgrimage of grace. Today the town of Hexham is famous for the priory church, now the parish church of St. Andrew, which is all that remains of the monastery.

Bibliography: w. dugdale, Monasticon Anglicanum (London 1655–73); best ed. by j. caley et al., 6 v. (1817–30) 6.1:179–185. j. raine, ed., The Priory of Hexham, Its Chroniclers, Endowments, and Annals, 2 v. (Surtees Society 44 and 46; Durham 1864–65). c. c. hodges, Ecclesia Hagustaldensis. The Abbey of St. Andrew, Hexham (privately printed; London 1888). d. knowles and r. n. hadcock, Medieval Religious Houses: England and Wales (New York 1953) 140. d. knowles, The Monastic Order in England, 943–1216 (2d ed. Cambridge, Eng. 1962), passim. d. knowles, The Religious Orders in England, 3 v. (Cambridge, Eng. 1948–60).

[j. brÜckmann]