Abbey of St. Clare
The Abbey of St. Clare was an abbey of nuns of
the second order of St.
Francis set up in 1293 by Edmund, earl of Lancaster, who was King Edward I’s
brother (Stow). The abbey itself was
on the northeast side of the Minories. It occupied
five acres of land. Both the pope and the king gave the abbey special
privileges: the abbey and its inhabitants were exempt from paying tenths and
lived in a liberty outside the jurisdiction of the City of London, a liberty
that exists to the present day (Harben).
As for the building itself, Stow mentions that it
conteyned 15. perches, and seuen foote(Stow). In 1539, the Abbey was surrendered to King Henry VIII by Dame Elizabeth Salvage, the abbess (Stow). Thereafter, the parish church of Holy Trinity, Minories occupied the site of the abbey until 1899 (Harben).
Curiously, neither the old abbey buildings nor the church appear on the Agas map.
They should be drawn south of the houses on the corner of Aldgate Street and the Minories.
References
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Citation
Harben, Henry. A Dictionary of London. London: Henry Jenkins, 1918. British History Online. Reprint. Open.This item is cited in the following documents:
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Citation
Stow, John. A Survey of London. Reprinted from the Text of 1603. Ed. Charles Lethbridge Kingsford. 2 vols. Oxford: Clarendon, 1908. Reprint. British History Online. Subscription. [Kingsford edition, courtesy of The Centre for Metropolitan History. Articles written 2011 or later cite from this searchable transcription. In the in-text parenthetical reference (Stow; BHO), click on BHO to go directly to the page containing the quotation or source.]This item is cited in the following documents:
