Rusper Priory was a

priory A priory is a monastery of men or women under religious vows that is headed by a prior or prioress. Priories may be houses of mendicant friars or nuns (such as the Dominicans, Augustinians, Franciscans, and Carmelites), or monasteries of ...

Benedictine , image = Medalla San Benito.PNG , caption = Design on the obverse side of the Saint Benedict Medal , abbreviation = OSB , formation = , motto = (English: 'Pray and Work') , found ...

nuns A nun is a woman who vows to dedicate her life to religious service, typically living under vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience in the enclosure of a monastery or convent.''The Oxford English Dictionary'', vol. X, page 599. The term is o ...

West Sussex West Sussex is a county in South East England on the English Channel coast. The ceremonial county comprises the shire districts of Adur, Arun, Chichester, Horsham, and Mid Sussex, and the boroughs of Crawley and Worthing. Covering an a ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe ...

History

William de Braose was the

patron Patronage is the support, encouragement, privilege, or financial aid that an organization or individual bestows on another. In the history of art, arts patronage refers to the support that kings, popes, and the wealthy have provided to artists su ...

when the foundation was confirmed c.1200 by Seffrid II,

Bishop of Chichester The Bishop of Chichester is the ordinary of the Church of England Diocese of Chichester in the Province of Canterbury. The diocese covers the counties of East and West Sussex. The see is based in the City of Chichester where the bishop's s ...

. The priory was probably for twelve nuns under a prioress. The priory received income from the churches of Warnham, Ifield, and Selham, to which

John de Braose John de Braose (born 1197 or 1198 – 18 July 1232), known as ''Tadody'' to the Welsh, was the Lord of Bramber and Gower. Re-establishment of the de Braose dynasty John re-established the senior branch of the de Braose dynasty. His father w ...

added that of

Horsham Horsham is a market town on the upper reaches of the River Arun on the fringe of the Weald in West Sussex, England. The town is south south-west of London, north-west of Brighton and north-east of the county town of Chichester. Nearby ...

in or before 1231. The total income in 1291 was over £44. After the Black Death the priory declined. There were eight nuns in 1442, but only five in 1478. There were four nuns in 1521 and three in 1527. In 1535, the annual value of the priory was estimated by the Valor Ecclesiasticus at £39. It was dissolved in 1537. At that time there were only one nun and the prioress, both very aged. They had two women servants. The last prioress, Elizabeth Sydney, received a pension of 100s, and the one remaining sister a gift of 60s. (They were two of the three nuns who had professed on 8 August 1484.) The reversion of the priory's

demesne A demesne ( ) or domain was all the land retained and managed by a lord of the manor under the feudal system for his own use, occupation, or support. This distinguished it from land sub-enfeoffed by him to others as sub-tenants. The concept or ...

estate was granted to Sir Robert Southwell and his wife Margaret. The medieval priory buildings were replaced by a building called ''The Nunnery'', which was much altered in later centuries. The present house occupying the site, although still called ''The Nunnery'', was built in the nineteenth century.Nairn & Pevsner, p.316.

Notes

References

* ''A History of the County of Sussex: Volume 2'', The Victoria County History, 1973 * ''A History of the County of Sussex: Volume 6, Part 3'', The Victoria County History, 1987 * ''The Buildings of England: Sussex'', Ian Nairn and

Nikolaus Pevsner Sir Nikolaus Bernhard Leon Pevsner (30 January 1902 – 18 August 1983) was a German-British art historian and architectural historian best known for his monumental 46-volume series of county-by-county guides, '' The Buildings of England'' ...

, Penguin, 1965 * ''Medieval Religious Houses: England and Wales'', David Knowles and R. Neville Hadcock, Longman, 1971 Monasteries in West Sussex 1537 disestablishments in England {{England-hist-stub