Sempringham is a hamlet in the

South Kesteven South Kesteven is a local government district in Lincolnshire, England, forming part of the traditional Kesteven division of the county. It covers Bourne, Grantham, Market Deeping and Stamford. The 2011 census reports 133,788 people at 1.4 p ...

district of

Lincolnshire Lincolnshire (abbreviated Lincs.) is a Counties of England, county in the East Midlands of England, with a long coastline on the North Sea to the east. It borders Norfolk to the south-east, Cambridgeshire to the south, Rutland to the south-we ...

, England. It is situated south from the A52 road, east from

Grantham Grantham () is a market and industrial town in the South Kesteven district of Lincolnshire, England, situated on the banks of the River Witham and bounded to the west by the A1 road. It lies some 23 miles (37 km) south of the Lincoln a ...

and north from Bourne. The hamlet is in the

civil parish In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government below districts and counties, or their combined form, the unitary authorit ...

Pointon and Sempringham Pointon and Sempringham is a civil parish in the English county of Lincolnshire. Forming part of the non-metropolitan district of South Kesteven South Kesteven is a local government district in Lincolnshire, England, forming part of the trad ...

, and on the western edge of the Lincolnshire Fens, the closest village being

Billingborough Billingborough is a village and civil parish in the South Kesteven district of Lincolnshire, England. It is situated approximately north of Bourne and 10 miles south of Sleaford, and on the B1177 between Horbling and Pointon just south of ...

, to the north on the

B1177 road B roads are numbered routes in Great Britain of lesser importance than A roads. See the article Great Britain road numbering scheme The Great Britain road numbering scheme is a numbering scheme used to classify and identify all roads in G ...

. Sempringham is noted as the home of

Gilbert of Sempringham Gilbert of Sempringham (c. 1085 – 4 February 1189) the founder of the Gilbertine Order, was the only Medieval Englishman to found a conventual order, mainly because the Abbot of Cîteaux declined his request to assist him in organising a gro ...

, the son of the lord of the manor. Gilbert is the only English Saint to have founded a

monastic order Monasticism (from Ancient Greek , , from , , 'alone'), also referred to as monachism, or monkhood, is a religious way of life in which one renounces worldly pursuits to devote oneself fully to spiritual work. Monastic life plays an important ro ...

, the Gilbertines.Official site of Lincolnshire, p. 4 Sempringham consists of a church and a

holy well A holy well or sacred spring is a well, spring or small pool of water revered either in a Christian or pagan context, sometimes both. The water of holy wells is often thought to have healing qualities, through the numinous presence of its guar ...

, with other houses east from the church scattered along the B1177 between Pointon and

. The church stands at an altitude of about , on land rising out of flat fenland. Pointon is the chief township of the civil parish, which includes Millthorpe and the fens of Pointon, Neslam and Aslackby, and a part of Hundred Fen at

Gosberton Clough Gosberton Clough is a village in the civil parish of Gosberton and the South Holland district of Lincolnshire, England. It is south-east from the city and county town of Lincoln, north from the nearest large town of Spalding, and west-sou ...

. Formerly, Birthorpe, now part of Billingborough, was included in the parish. The parish church is a Grade I

listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern I ...

, dedicated to

Saint Andrew Andrew the Apostle ( grc-koi, Ἀνδρέᾱς, Andréās ; la, Andrēās ; , syc, ܐܰܢܕ݁ܪܶܐܘܳܣ, ʾAnd’reʾwās), also called Saint Andrew, was an apostle of Jesus according to the New Testament. He is the brother of Simon Pete ...

and dating from 1170. It was restored and the

chancel In church architecture, the chancel is the space around the altar, including the choir and the sanctuary (sometimes called the presbytery), at the liturgical east end of a traditional Christian church building. It may terminate in an apse. ...

rebuilt in 1868-69 by

Edward Browning Edward Browning (1816 – 1882) was an English architect working in Stamford. Life Edward Browning or Edward Bailey Browning was the son of the Stamford architect Bryan Browning (1773-1856). He was apprenticed to the London architect Ge ...

. Sempringham is noted in the ''

Domesday Domesday Book () – the Middle English spelling of "Doomsday Book" – is a manuscript record of the "Great Survey" of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086 by order of King William I, known as William the Conqueror. The manusc ...

'' account as "Stepingeham" in the

Aveland Aveland was a Wapentake of Kesteven from the time of the Danelaw until the Local Government Act 1888. Its meeting place was The Aveland at in the parish of Aslackby. Origins Aveland was probably established as an administrative unit soon af ...

Hundred 100 or one hundred (Roman numeral: C) is the natural number following 99 and preceding 101. In medieval contexts, it may be described as the short hundred or five score in order to differentiate the English and Germanic use of "hundred" to des ...

Kesteven The Parts of Kesteven ( or ) are a traditional division of Lincolnshire, England. This division had long had a separate county administration (quarter sessions), along with the two other Parts of Lincolnshire, Lindsey and Holland. Etymology T ...

. In 1086 the manor consisted of 35 households, 8 villagers, 2 smallholders and 14 freemen, with 4.3 ploughlands, a meadow of and woodland of . In 1066

Earl Morcar Morcar (or Morkere) ( ang, Mōrcǣr) (died after 1087) was the son of Ælfgār (earl of Mercia) and brother of Ēadwine. He was the earl of Northumbria from 1065 to 1066, when he was replaced by William the Conqueror with Copsi. Dispute with ...

was

Lord of the Manor Lord of the Manor is a title that, in Anglo-Saxon England, referred to the landholder of a rural estate. The lord enjoyed manorial rights (the rights to establish and occupy a residence, known as the manor house and demesne) as well as seig ...

, which was transferred to Jocelyn, son of Lambert in 1086, with

Tenant-in-chief In medieval and early modern Europe, the term ''tenant-in-chief'' (or ''vassal-in-chief'') denoted a person who held his lands under various forms of feudal land tenure directly from the king or territorial prince to whom he did homage, as opp ...

as Alfred of Lincoln. "Documents Online: Sempringham, Lincolnshire"
Folio: 356r, ''Great Domesday Book'';

The National Archives National archives are central archives maintained by countries. This article contains a list of national archives. Among its more important tasks are to ensure the accessibility and preservation of the information produced by governments, both ...

. Retrieved 22 May 2012 In the early 17th century, Sempringham was a centre of the

Puritan The Puritans were English Protestants in the 16th and 17th centuries who sought to purify the Church of England of Roman Catholic practices, maintaining that the Church of England had not been fully reformed and should become more Protestant. ...

movement in Lincolnshire.

Samuel Skelton Samuel Skelton (died August 2, 1634, Salem, Essex, Massachusetts Bay Colony, British Colonial America) was the first pastor of the First Church of Salem, Massachusetts, which is the original Puritan church in North America. Biography On February ...

, curate of Sempringham, sailed to

Massachusetts Bay Massachusetts Bay is a bay on the Gulf of Maine that forms part of the central coastline of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Description The bay extends from Cape Ann on the north to Plymouth Harbor on the south, a distance of about . Its ...

in 1628 with the first group of Puritan settlers, who landed in Salem. Another member of the Sempringham congregation at the time was the young Anne Dudley, later

Anne Bradstreet Anne Bradstreet (née Dudley; March 8, 1612 – September 16, 1672) was the most prominent of early English poets of North America and first writer in England's North American colonies to be published. She is the first Puritan figure in ...

, the colony's first published poet.

Sempringham Priory

Sempringham is the site of St Mary's Priory, a priory that was founded by Saint Gilbert (also known as

). The priory was built by

, the only English Saint to have founded a

. St Gilbert established the

Gilbertine Order The Gilbertine Order of Canons Regular was founded around 1130 by Saint Gilbert in Sempringham, Lincolnshire, where Gilbert was the parish priest. It was the only completely English religious order and came to an end in the 16th century at t ...

in 1131 by inducting ‘seven maidens’ who were his pupils when young. Alexander,

Bishop of Lincoln The Bishop of Lincoln is the ordinary (diocesan bishop) of the Church of England Diocese of Lincoln in the Province of Canterbury. The present diocese covers the county of Lincolnshire and the unitary authority areas of North Lincolnshire and ...

, helped in establishing the religious buildings to the north of the parish church. Gilbert died at Sempringham in 1189 and was buried in the priory church. He was canonized on 13 October 1202 for the many miracles noted at his tomb in the priory and Sempringham became a site of pilgrimage. Gwenllian monument 528634

It became the enforced residence of Gwenllian of Wales, the daughter of

Llywelyn ap Gruffudd Llywelyn ap Gruffudd (c. 1223 – 11 December 1282), sometimes written as Llywelyn ap Gruffydd, also known as Llywelyn the Last ( cy, Llywelyn Ein Llyw Olaf, lit=Llywelyn, Our Last Leader), was the native Prince of Wales ( la, Princeps Wall ...

, Prince of Wales, and the granddaughter of

Simon de Montfort Simon de Montfort, 6th Earl of Leicester ( – 4 August 1265), later sometimes referred to as Simon V de Montfort to distinguish him from his namesake relatives, was a nobleman of French origin and a member of the English peerage, who led the ...

. In 1283 Gwenllian had been captured by

King Edward I Edward I (17/18 June 1239 – 7 July 1307), also known as Edward Longshanks and the Hammer of the Scots, was King of England and Lord of Ireland from 1272 to 1307. Concurrently, he ruled the duchies of Aquitaine and Gascony as a vassal o ...

's troops. Edward sent Gwenllian 'in her cradle', to be held there in security. In 1327,

Edward III Edward III (13 November 1312 – 21 June 1377), also known as Edward of Windsor before his accession, was King of England and Lord of Ireland from January 1327 until his death in 1377. He is noted for his military success and for restoring r ...

stayed at the Priory and granted Gwenllian a lifelong yearly pension of £20, necessary to pay her board and lodgings as she never became a nun, but was regarded as a 'paying guest' who was not permitted to leave. Gwenllian died at the Priory after being held there for 54 years, on 7 June 1337. A memorial stone has been erected in her honour. At the Dissolution of the Monasteries, Sempringham Priory came to the

Clintons Clintons, previously branded as Clinton Cards, is a chain of stores in the UK founded in 1968 by Don Lewin and known for selling greeting cards, together with soft toys and related gift products. It was listed on the London Stock Exchange a ...

, who demolished it and reused the stone to build their residence on the site. Today little remains of priory or residence.

References

External links

*
National Monument record for the Shrunken Village
Pastscape.org.uk. Retrieved 22 May 2012

Homepages.which.net. Retrieved 22 May 2012
"Sempringham"
''

Genuki GENUKI is a genealogy web portal, run as a charitable trust. It "provides a virtual reference library of genealogical information of particular relevance to the UK and Ireland". It gives access to a large collection of information, with the emph ...

.org.uk''. Retrieved 22 May 2012
"Sempringham"
Parliamentary Gazetteer of England and Wales (1843-4), Retrieved 22 May 2012
"Sempringham"
Geograph.org.uk. Retrieved 22 May 2012 {{Authority control Hamlets in Lincolnshire South Kesteven District