Austrey
King Eadred, probably in 948, gave to his thegn Wulfric 5 hides (mansas) at Austrey (æt Alduluestreop). Wulfric Spot, the founder of Burton Abbey, by his will left Austrey to the wife of a certain Morcar, in 1004. Part of the vill was subsequently given or confirmed by Earl Leofric to the abbey, who held it in 1086 as 2˝ hides.
There is an interesting legendary account of the founding of this abbey, copied by Dugdale in 1640 from an old roll in the possession of John Ferrers of Tamworth Castle. According to this story King Egbert had an only son, Arnulph, who was a leper. Hearing from an Irish bishop that a king of Connaught had a daughter Modwen, a nun, who possessed marvellous powers of healing, he sent his son into Ireland, where he was cured by that holy woman. Thereupon Egbert invited St. Modwen to come to England, promising to found a monastery for her and her convent. At that time one of the petty Irish wars had brought about the burning of her religious house in Ireland, so that the saint was glad to accept of the offer, and brought over with her two of her fellow nuns. Thereupon the king assigned her a dwelling called Trensall, in the Forest of Arden, and recommended his daughter Edith to join her so as to be instructed in religion after the rule of St. Benedict. Thence they moved together with St. Lyne and St. Osyth to a monastery founded for them at Polesworth, on the bank of the Anker, of which house the king's daughter Edith shortly became abbess. According to Matthew Paris this nunnery would seem to have been honoured by the residence of another saintly lady of royal birth about 925, the sister of Æthelstan, and repudiated wife of Sihtric, king of Northumbria,- Danish King of Dublin who ended her days here. Another account, that of John of Tynemouth, ascribes the foundation of Polesworth to Ettenwolf, son of King Edgar, whose son Alfred was healed of some incurable complaint.
At the time of the Conquest, according to Dugdale's account, Sir Robert Marmion of Combe expelled the nuns from Polesworth, when they retired to Oldbury, a cell of their house, but within a twelvemonth, after feasting at Tamworth Castle, Sir Robert had a vision of St. Edith, who reproached him for the wrong done to her nuns, whereupon they were restored to Polesworth. Whatever may be the truth of the vision of St. Edith, which took a most detailed form, there seems no doubt that Sir Robert Marmion and Millicent his wife did bring the prioress, Osanna, and her nuns from Oldbury and established them at Polesworth under the patronage of St. Edith; for Dugdale cites a charter to that effect, and their donation of the town of Polesworth and their whole demesne in Waverton.
Among their numerous early benefactors were Walter de Hastings, who gave them Oldbury; Robert Marmion, son of Robert and Millicent, the church of Quinton, Gloucestershire; Robert Fitzwalter, a mill at Kingsbury, with meadows and lands; Alice de Harcourt, a mill at Hurley; Picot Archer (temp. Henry II), land at Drayton, Leicestershire; William de Hardreshull, the church of Ansley (temp. John); Erneburga, the mother of William de Hastings, the church of Barwell, Leicestershire; William Savage, his ground in Pooley Wood, where the chapel above St. Edith's Well was built; Ralph, Lord Basset, an annual rent of a mark of silver, for augmenting their diet on the day of St. John Baptist; and Robert de Grendon, the chapel of Hoo and lands there, on condition of the nuns finding two priests to celebrate there for his soul and those of his family.
At the time of the Domesday Survey, Niel d'Aubigny also held AUSTREY, partly (5˝ hides, 1 virgate) in chief and partly (2˝ hides) of Henry de Ferrars. The manor appears to have been held of the Aubignys in the reign of Henry I by Hugh son of Richard of Hatton. His grandson Richard son of William in 1214 granted to Hawise de Tracy, widow of his elder brother Hugh, the vill of Austrey, as dower. Richard died without issue and his widow Maud held the manor in dower. After her death the manor was divided between Richard's heirs, his sister Maud, who had married for her first husband Stephen de Nerbone, and her great-nephew Thomas de Clinton, grandson of her sister Margery, who had married Osbert de Clinton. After Maud's death her two daughters Margery de Nerbone and Margery, daughter of Walter de Roleya, Maud's third husband, divided their mother's moiety between them; and after the death of Margery de Roleya, who married Geoffrey de Cauz and died without issue, the half of the manor was reunited in the hands of Margery de Nerbone, who had married Robert de Stivichale. She granted her share to the abbey of Burton; which grant was confirmed by William d'Aubigny of Caynhoe, overlord of the whole manor. The land remained in the possession of the abbey of Burton until its dissolution in 1538, when for a short time it belonged to the Collegiate Church founded in the place of the abbey; but this did not long survive and the land, having come into the king's hands, was granted by him to Sir William Paget in 1546. In January 1555 Sir William conveyed the manor of Austrey to Lady Eleanor Brereton, widow of Sir William Brereton, and her son Richard Brereton. Richard died 20 August 1559 and was succeeded by his son George, who died seised of the manor in 1587, leaving a son William, but its further descent cannot be traced.
Aubigny. Gules a lion or.
Burton Abbey. Or a cross engrailed azure with five molets or thereon.Henry III granted the Abbey of POLESWORTH in 1242 a weekly market at Polesworth, and a three days' fair at the festival of St Margaret. According to the Taxatio of 1291 the temporalities of the abbey in the deanery of Arden were of the annual value of £20 2s. 11d., and they also held temporalities in the archdeaconry of Leicester of the annual value of £9 6s. 11d. The church of Polesworth, appropriated to the convent, was of the yearly value of £14 13s. 4d., and that of Ansley, similarly appropriated, £4. There was also a pension from the church of Quinton, Gloucestershire, of 40s., which church was subsequently appropriated, in 1398.
Pope John XXII, in September, 1327, issued his mandate to the bishop of Hereford, to do justice between the rector of Eyton and the abbess and convent of Polesworth. Roger, bishop of Coventry and Lichfield, had unreasonably ordered the rector to pay two-thirds of his small income to the abbess, by way of pension, although the convent was already well provided, and the rector was obliged to take an oath to do this. But when Thomas the rector took possession of his rectory he found that a third portion did not suffice for his support, whereupon the pope ordered the archdeacon of Salop and two other members of the Lichfield chapter to absolve him from his oath. Pending the cause, the convent were ordered to do nothing, but they brought the matter before the secular courts, on the ground that the pension was a charge on the rectory, and that Bishop Walter de Langton had sequestrated the funds. The rector had recourse to the archdeacon and his colleagues, but they refused to take further cognizance of the dispute. The rector then appealed to the pope, whereupon the abbess and convent deprived him of the rectory, and presented it to William de Ippeston. The rector prayed the pope for a remedy, declaring that he feared to summon the convent within the diocese of Lichfield.
The Ferrers land in AUSTREY became annexed to the Honour of Tutbury. Earl Ferrers was the overlord of a half-fee in Austrey in the first half of the 13th century, and the sub-tenant in 1242 appears to have been a certain Walter Ottel'. Although Osbert son of Thomas de Clinton granted a messuage in Austrey with the advowson of the church to the Abbot of Burton, the Clinton family seem to have retained some land at Austrey throughout the 14th century. It also seems that at that time the Ferrers lands, now a parcel of the Duchy of Lancaster, had come into the hands of the Clintons as under-tenants. The manor was held jointly by Sir John Clinton and his wife Elizabeth, and after his death she and her second husband Sir John Russel continued to hold it, but it evidently reverted to the heir, William Clinton, and from that time it followed the descent of the chief manor of the Clintons of Maxstoke until 1540, when Sir Edward Clinton, Lord Clinton and Say, conveyed the manor of Austrey to Jane Fynes, Lady Clinton, for life with reversion to James Leveson of Wolverhampton, who gave it with his daughter Elizabeth to Walter, son and heir of Sir Edward Aston; from Sir Walter Aston, who died 2 April 1589, it descended to his son Edward, who died on 1 February 1597, leaving a son Walter aged 13. Dugdale states that Sir Walter Aston, K.B., sold the manor of Austrey to the tenants, 'about the reign of Charles'.
Margery de Nerbone, daughter of Maud, daughter of William son of Hugh, in 1252 granted to Richard, Prior of St. Sepulchre, Warwick, 50s. of rent from land and a windmill in Austrey. At the time of the Dissolution St. Sepulchre, Warwick, held land and a mill in Austrey in the occupation of William Warwick. The land later came into the hands of the Robinson family, where it remained until 1635, at least. In the 17th century, and perhaps in the 16th, land was held there by the Crispe family. Henry Crispe, who died 15 December 1632, held a messuage in Austrey; his son William Crispe was aged 22 at the time of his death and may perhaps be the defendant in a Chancery suit concerning lands in Austrey at some date later than 1649, brought by Grace Crispe, widow, mother of William Crispe, heir to lands in Austrey.
The first seal was a pointed oval: the abbess, or perhaps St. Edith, standing, with a long cloak, holding up in the left hand an object, probably a pastoral staff. Legend:—. . . . VM SANC . . . .
The second seal, of the fourteenth century, is a pointed oval: the Virgin with crown, standing in a heavily canopied niche, on the right arm the Child, in the left hand a sceptre. On each side a smaller but similar niche, containing on the left St. John the Evangelist holding a cup; on the right St. Edith, in the right hand a book, in the left hand a pastoral staff. In base, under a round-headed arch, carved and trefoiled, a shield of arms: a fesse double cotised, between six crosslets. Legend:—SIGILLU[M] : COIE : ABBISSE : ET: . . . VET': MONI[Z] : DE : POLLESWORTH.