The Lost Abbot

Historical Note

The abbey at Peterborough was founded by Mercian royalty in the 650s. The first church was destroyed in Viking raids, and was not rebuilt until the tenth century when the Benedictines arrived. They remained at Peterborough for almost six hundred years, raising the splendid church (started in 1116 when fire destroyed the old one) that still exists today. After the Dissolution, it was redesignated a cathedral, and visitors threading their way through the modern city are rewarded with the sight of one of the best Norman buildings in the world.

By the mid-fourteenth century, the monastery was one of the richest foundations in the country, although the Black Death hit it hard, reducing its sixty-four monks to thirty-two, even after laymen had been hastily tonsured in an effort to boost numbers. Its Abbot in 1358 was Robert de Ramseye, and a curious incident occurred during his tenure. It was in 1353, when John Gynewell, Bishop of Lincoln, absolved Hugh de Spalling from excommunication. According to the records, Spalling broke the locks on the abbey’s doors and gates, fished in its river without a licence, hunted in its woods and felled its trees.

Eight years later, Abbot Robert set off to visit the Papal Court in Avignon, and nothing more was ever heard of him. The monks lived in uncertainty until he was declared dead, which left them free to appoint a successor. This was Henry de Overton, who ruled the community for the next thirty years. Other Peterborough monks in the 1350s included John de Trentham, Thomas Appletre and Richard de Nonton; John de Welbyrn was appointed treasurer in 1351; and Walter was the cook. There was a cellarer in the 1400s named William de Ramseye, whom fellow monks did not like. He part-donated the eagle lectern that still stands in the cathedral, and he was buried in Peterborough after an ecclesiastical career spanning more than fifty years. There was a prior named Yvo in the thirteenth century.

As Peterborough Abbey had been founded by royalty, the King had the right to foist his old retainers on the community, and demand that they be kept for the rest of their lives, sometimes in considerable luxury. These were called corrodians, and one such man was John Lullington. He and his wife lived in style at abbey expense in the 1300s, and he had the right to dine with the abbey’s senior officers (obedientiaries).

The abbey had two hospitals. St Leonard’s was a foundation for lepers, although leprosy was all but gone from England by the 1350s, and it seems likely that it then became home to bedesmen, perhaps retired abbey servants. In return for bed and board, they recited prayers for the souls of benefactors. Its chapel was said to have had a healing well. In 1362, it had a ‘prior’ and eight residents. Bedesmen included John Inges, Roger Botilbrig, Philip Kirwell and Simon the cowherd. It was located on the outskirts of the town, on the road named Westgate.

The second hospital, dedicated to St Thomas Becket, was near the Abbey Gate. It is said that in 1176 a monk named Benedict was in a position to grab himself a few relics from Canterbury before travelling north to take up an appointment as Peterborough’s Abbot. These included flagstones from near where Becket was murdered, some of his clothes and vases of his blood. Benedict installed these in the chapel, where pilgrims visited them regularly. It seems that this community was run by women; inmates included Joan Sylle, Hagar Balfowre, Elene Bolton and Marion Raunsfeld.

A market was established outside the Abbey Gate, and not far away was the Swan Inn, mentioned in records dating back to 1338. The original Church of St John the Baptist lay to the east of the monastery, but the market probably caused some resettlement, and in the early 1400s a second church was built in the marketplace – one that still serves Peterborough today. Prominent townsmen in the fourteenth century included Hugh Pyk, Nicholas Piel, Ralph Aurifabro the goldsmith, and Reginald the cutler.

In the early 1300s, a criminal named Lawrence of Oxforde was hanged and buried in St Thomas’s churchyard. The authorities were appalled when miracles were said to have occurred at his grave, and quickly sought to suppress the tales. Several monks were excommunicated for encouraging people to visit the site, but the cult was clearly popular. Records show it took three visitations by the Bishop before the business was finally stamped out.