Alice Baldwin (abbess)

Alice Baldwin (died 1546) was the last Abbess of Burnham Abbey near Burnham, Buckinghamshire. She was the daughter of Sir John Baldwin, Chief Justice of the Common Pleas.

Alice Baldwin
Died1546
Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire
Parent(s)Sir John Baldwin, Agnes Dormer

Family

Alice Baldwin was the daughter of Sir John Baldwin (d.1545), Chief Justice of the Common Pleas, by his first wife Agnes Dormer, the daughter of William Dormer (d.1506) and sister of Sir Robert Dormer (d.1552).[1]

She had a brother and two sisters, all of whom predeceased her:

Ruins of Burnham Abbey depicted in The English Traveller, 1819

Career

Alice Baldwin was elected the last Abbess of Burnham Abbey in Buckinghamshire in 1536. The Abbey had been founded in 1265 by Richard, 1st Earl of Cornwall, styled King of the Romans,[8] the brother of King Edward III, who endowed it with several manors, including the manors of Burnham and Cippenham. The Abbey, of which only some old walls and a fishpond remained in the mid-1800s, was situated about a half-mile from Burnham.[9]

At the dissolution of the monasteries in the reign of Henry VIII, Burnham Abbey's revenues were valued at £51 2s 4-1/2d.[9] The document of surrender, dated 19 September 1539, was signed by Alice Baldwin, as Abbess, and the nine remaining nuns who were still living there at the time. In return, it is said, for her readiness to surrender the Abbey to the Crown,[10] Alice Baldwin was granted a small pension.[11] After the surrender she appears to have spent her remaining years at Aylesbury at the home of her father, Sir John Baldwin, who both by deed and in his will left her well provided for with a life estate in his lands.[12]

Sir John Baldwin died on 24 October 1545, and Alice survived him by only a few months; her will was proved on 2 March 1546. After Alice's death Sir John Baldwin's heirs at law, Sir Thomas Pakington and John Borlase (c.1528 – 6 May 1593) inherited the Baldwin estates.[13][2] Sir John Baldwin had been buried in Aylesbury Church,[2] and in her will Alice requested that her executor erect a tomb of marble over his grave with figures depicting her father and mother and their children. It appears that Alice's executor, Richard Cupper (d.1584), carried out this request, although no trace of the monument now remains in Aylesbury Church.[14]

In 1518 Sir John Baldwin had married for a second time, and Alice Baldwin was survived by her stepmother, Anne (née Norris), widow of William Wroughton (d. before 1515), and daughter of Sir William Norris (d.1507) of Yattendon, Berkshire,[2] by his third wife, Anne Horne.[15] Anne had become insane before Baldwin's death,[2] and shortly afterwards was placed in the care of her kinswoman, Mary (née Norris) Carew (d.1570), widow of Vice-Admiral Sir George Carew (c.1504 – 19 July 1545), and daughter of Henry Norris (b. before 1500, d. 1536) of Bray, Berkshire, and his wife, Mary.[16][17][18][19] The date of Anne's death is not known.

In 1544 a grant of the site of the abbey surrendered by Alice Baldwin was made to William Tyldesley, a Groom of the Chamber, and in 1574 Queen Elizabeth granted a lease of the property to Paul Wentworth, who had married Tyldesley's widow, Helen. In 1569, during Wentworth's tenure, Thomas Howard, 4th Duke of Norfolk, was detained there before being sent to the Tower of London.[20][21] After passing through various hands, the former Abbey was sold in 1916 to a contemplative religious order, and four centuries after its surrender again became the home of a community of nuns.[22]

Notes
  1. Baldwin 1881, pp. 13–15.
  2. Baker 2004.
  3. Brydges states that his name was John; Brydges & Shaw 1789, p. 498.
  4. Lipscomb IV 1847, p. 374.
  5. Richardson 2011, p. 4611.
  6. Phillimore 1888, p. 103.
  7. Gibbs 1888, pp. 309–10.
  8. 'Parishes: Burnham with Lower Boveney', A History of the County of Buckingham: Volume 3 (1925), pp. 165-184 Retrieved 12 May 2013.
  9. Sheahan 1862, p. 816.
  10. Stevens 1722, p. 521.
  11. Gasquet 1889, p. 213.
  12. Lipscomb II 1847, p. 209.
  13. Lipscomb II 1847, p. 8.
  14. Cupper (Couper), Richard (by 1519-83/84), of London, Powick and Worcester, History of Parliament Retrieved 12 May 2013.
  15. Richardson 2011, p. 106.
  16. Ives 2004.
  17. Cooper 2004.
  18. Wroughton, Sir William (1509/10-59), of Broad Hinton, Wiltshire, History of Parliament Retrieved 13 May 2013.
  19. Baldwin, John (1468/69-1545), of Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, History of Parliament Retrieved 13 May 2013.
  20. Dean 2004.
  21. Sheahan 1862, pp. 816–17.
  22. Burnham Abbey: History of the Abbey and Community Retrieved 17 May 2013.

References
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