( 144 )
MINSTER IN SHEPPEY. *
BY REV. J. CAVE-BROWNE, M.A.
THE CHURCH.
VERY di:fferent is the history of Minster Church from that
of Cranbrook, where the Society met in 1895. As I then
endeavoured to shew, Oranbrook Church could only claim a
possible existence from the middle of the twelfth century
(say 750 years ago), whereas this Minster carries us back over
nearly twice that period. At the time when the Denes of
the Weald were still night by night echoing the growl of the
wolf and the grunt of the wild boar, a,s they roamed over
what then was a " desart and a wast0," here the walls of a
Nunnery choir were already resounding with the voices of
high-born ladies in cbn,nt and psalm.
The very name of its Royal Fonndress and Patron Saint
carries us back to the days of the Saxon Heptarchy. In that
rude age, when life and property were alike of precarious
tenure, when a royal or a noble widow became an object of
desire to any unscrupulous baron, their only security seemed
to lie in consigning themselves to the protection of the
Church, and dedicating themselves to the service of God.
Out of this state of society arose the prevailing custom of
religious endowment and self-dedication, in which that age
abounded. Thus it came that Ethelberga, the daughter of
Ethelbert and Bertha, Augustine's royal converts, on the
death of her husband Edwin of Northumbria, made for herself
a sanctuary at Lyminge, an example soon after followed
* Paper read during the Arohroologioal Congress of 1896.
MINSTER IN SHEPPEY. 145
by that goodly sisterhood, the three daughters of .Anna,
King of East Anglia; first of whom, Ethelfrida, and then
W yhtburga, giving preference in filial love to their father's
kingdom, founded monasteries; the one at Ely, with which
her name is indelibly connected, the other at Dereham, in
Norfolk; while Sexburga,* on the death of her husband
Ercombyrt, also King of Kent, and grandson of Etbelbert,
devoted her widowhood and her wealth to promote the glory
and the worship of God, by founding, on a site which her son
Egbert had given her, a Monastery, or Nunnery, where
devout ladies might find with her refuge from the snares
and the perils of that turbulent and licentious age.t The
date generally assigned to the pious dedication of this
building was about 675. Here Sexburga became the first
Prioress; but four years after, on the death of her sister
Ethelfrida, she moved from Sheppey to take her place at
* PEDIGREE OF SEXllURGA.
1. Bertha, da. of Charibert,,Ethelbert, King of Kent=2.
King of Paris.
I
A.D. 560; mar . .A..D. 560;
ob . .A..D. 616.
(unknown).
I I
Eadbald, King=pEmma, da. Ethelberga, mar. Edwin,
of Kent .A..D. of Theodo- King of Northumbria;
616; ob. .A..D. bert, King Foundress and first Ab-
Anna (or Annas),
King of East Anglia
A,D. 644 ; ob.
640, of France. bess of Lyminge.
Eadswyde,
first Abbess
of the
Nunnery
at Folkestone.
I I
Eroombyrt,-Sexburga, founded
King of Priory at Minster
Kent A.D. A.D. 675; removed
640 ; ob. to Ely A.D. 679 ;
A.D, 664. ob. A.D. 699.
I
654.
l.
Ethelfrida ( or
Elfritha),
founded the
Ely :Monastery
A.D. 673;
oh . .A..D. 679.
T
Wyhtburga,
founded Monastery
at
Dereham,
Norfolk.
Egbert (or Eobert), King of Kent .A..D. 664; ob. A,D. 675.
t The character of this royal widow is thus drawn by Johannes Bromton
(Decem Scriptores, p. 741) : "Ista insignis regina ita crebro instinctu virum
suum regem Ercombertum excitabat quod omnia idola quro sub prioribus
regibus adhuc erant residua ab universo regno suo cum omni ritu paganissimo
funditus exterminavit, et monasteria nmpliavit.'' Two lives of this eminent
Abbess are preserved among the Cottonian MSS. in the British Museum ( Caligula
A, viii., f. 98 and 104), from the former of which this short extract may
be taken: "Nemo illa inter delicias concinencior: nemo in Regis fastu humilior:
nee spiritu pauperior: unde tanto nee est in suprema arce sublimior quanto fuit
in terrena Deo subjeotior:' After which follows a further description of the
graces of her form being as conspicuous as those of her mind.
YOL, XXII, L
146 MINSTER IN SHEPPEY.
Ely, when her own daughter Erminelda succeeded her :first
at Minster,* and then on her death in 699, at Ely also.
The site she selected had peculiar advantages and attractions.
Its elevated position, insulated, delta-like, by the two
branches of the River Medway, called the East and West
Swale, with the expanded Thames flowing in front, made it
a conspicuous object to every voyager on this great highway
into the heart of England; and it also commanded the surrounding
flat of the Island itself (the lordship of which was
in her hands), the opposite coast of Essex in front, and the
North Downs of Kent in the rear.
It is not without interest to trace the changes through
which the name of this Island has passed. The fame of its
pasturage is preserved in its old Saxon name of " Schepeye"
(the Island of Sheep), which in the harder language of
the Norman was Latinized into "Scapeia "-while the
monastic writers seem anxious not to lose the origin of the
name, for they almost invariably add to it the explanation
"Insula Ovium." But St. Sexburga's religious house gave
to it a new name, "Monasterium Sr,apeirE ;" this in the
twelfth century was abridged into "Moynstre," and in a
little time into "Menstre," and eventually into its present
form of "Minster," retaining however the adjunct "in
Sheppey" to distinguish it from the other Minster in the
Isle of Thanet.
Here St. Sexburga planted her Abbey, and its Chapel, for
her seventy-seven nuns. In the course of time there rose up
by its side a Parish Church) for the use of the outside multitude,
who would soon be drawn into its vicinity for the
purpose of trade, or for security. Within that Chapel, with
the ruins of the Abbey close by, we are now assembled.
I would distinguish between the Nuns' Chapel, now the
north aisle, and the Parish Church. For many years it
would have remained the only Church in the Island. In
"Ermenilda filia S. Sexburgre nupsit Wlfero Regi Meroiorum, filio Pendro
eg1s ... : . Prrofato Wlfero -post xvii annos ad eterna regna migrante, Ermemlda,
Regma apud_ Cntam in Monsterio de Shepei!L confui; 1;-bi genitrix
sua Sexburga Chor1s v1rgrnum prrelux1t; et sub ea hab1tum rehg1oms susoepit."
(Thce Eliensis Histoi•ia; An9lia Sacra, vol. i., p. 596; Dugdale's Monasticon,
vol. 11., p. 49.)
MINSTER IN SHEPPEY. 147
process of time it planted other daughter chapelries, now
separate parish churches, east, and west, and south, Eastchurch,
Queen borough, Warden, Leysdown. The nomination
of the priest first lay with the Abbess, and eventually the
right of presentation was granted to the Abbot and Convent
of St. Augustine's, Canterbury; from whence came
the two monks, the one as chaplain and confessor for the
Abbey, the other as Vicar of the Parish Church. The
apartments they were said to have occupied are still pointed
out in the eastern gable of the "gatehouse" ail.joining.
The Abbey has had a cheque1·ed existence. For well nigh
two hundred years its inmates may have enjoyed a peaceful
period for the undisturbed exercise of daily prayer and
praise and good deeds, when in tbe ninth century came the
Danes, swooping down on the seaboard of Kent, ma.king
two attacks on the Abbey, and here as elsewhere desecrating
the sacred place. Then again in the elevent,h century it fell
a prey to the sacrilegious bands of the banished Earl Godwin,
whose. followers committed further devastation.* Thus it
came that William the Conqueror in the later part of that
century found the Abbey almost empty, and transferred to it
the sisters from Newington Abbey, who had lost their devoted
Prioress, murdered in her bed.t
After the Conquest the :first mention of "Menstre"
occurs in the reign of Henry I., when, in 1130: Archbishop
William Corboil, after having held his grand dedication of
Canterbury Oathedral,t rescued the Abbey Chapel from ruin,
and probably added to it the Parish Church; and what had
hitherto been known as the Monastery of Scapeia became by
the terms of its dedication, perpetuating thereby the name
* The first attack of the Danes was said to have been made in 851, and the
second in 855, while Earl Godwin's was in 1052.
t W. Thorn's Chronicle (Decem Scriptore8, p. 1931): "Apud Manerium de
Newyngton fuerunt quondam Moniales: .... contigebat quod Priorissa ejusdem
Manerii strangulata fuit de coco suo nocte in lecto suo ..... Quo comperto, oepit
dominus Rex (Willielmus) Manerium illud in manum suam, et tenuit illud in
custodfa sua, creteris Monialibus usque Scapeiam inde amotis."
t " Ecclesiam Ca?,!larie a Lnfranco fundatam et conrnmmatam, _sed per
Anselmum auctam, lllJ non Mau anno Moxx:x:. cum honore et mumficentia
ID!]-lta dedicavit. Huie dedicationi interfuit Rex .A.nglorum Renricus. . , .. Rex
etiam Scotie David .... et omnes Episcopi Anglie. Non est audita talis dedicatio
in terra post dedicationem temp li Salomonis." (Gervasii ActU8 Pontificum
Decem Scriptores, p. 1664.)
' '
L 2
148 MINSTER IN S HEPPEY.
of its founder, "the Minster Church of St. Mary and St.
Sexburga."
The next benefactor of the Abbey was a Northwode, a
descendant of J ordanus de Scapeia, and as such "Lord of
Sheppey," who took his name from his Manor of Northwode.
It is from a private history of this family, preserved among
the Surrenden MSS., that we learn that Sir Roger, who died
in 1286, had so " great affection for the Minster which
had fallen into ruin .... that with no sparing bounty he
relieved it from. great poverty, wherefore among the servants
of God there (the nuns) he was called the restorer of that
house;') and that "he was buried before the altar at
Menstre.n*
In the middle of the next century (1322) a sad event
befell the Minster. It is vaguely alluded to in an entry in
Archbishop Reynold's Register at Lambeth, where it is said
that both Church and cemetery suffered " pollution from
bloodshed,"t and the Archbishop wa,s entreated to grant a
Faculty for holding a specia,l " Service of Reconciliation"
there.
When we reflect that above twelve centuries have passed
since the pious Sexburga founded this Abbey-that the
invasions of the Danes and of Earl Godwin, the legalized
spoliation of the Tudor in the sixteenth century, and the
fanatic destructiveness of the Puritan in the seventeenth, and
(added to these) the ceaseless exposure to the elements on
this exposed height, have all had their share in demolishing
it-one can hardly hope to find a single vestige of the original
building.
Yet, high 11p in the south wall of this Chapel, above the
bays which separate it from the adjoining Parish Church,
may still be seen the rude circular arches of the old Saxon
cle1·estories composed of Roman tiles, springing from rough
stone jambs; while on the outside of the north wall may be
* The MS., of whioh Mr. Larkin has given a translation in Archa:ologia
Oantiana, Vol. II., pp. 9-42, seems to be no longer forthcoming. It is not
among the other portion of the Surrenden MSS. referring to Cumbwell Priory,
which ai-e preserved at the College of Arms.
t "Ecclesia v-estra sanguine, tit dicitur, polluta est cum Cimiterio," etc.
(Archbishop Reynold's Register, f. 128 b.)
MINSTER IN SHEPPEY. 14!)
also detected traces of corresponding openings, half a similar
arch cut in two by a Perpendicular window.*
Here, too, between the tower and the :first buttress,
are at intervals of about six feet apart pieces of ancient
pottery, which carry back the mind to a still earlier period.
These our able Secretary., Mr. George Payne, pronounces
to have been Roman flue-tiles, of a hypocaust, belonging to
a Roman balneum or bath, still retaining on their sides the
traces of the old maker's marks. On a recent restoration of
this building it was seen that these went through the wall,
with a wider mouth inside, which unhappily the contractor,
devoid of archmological taste, had plastered over, thus robbing
us, so far as he could, of any clue to the possible or
probable object of their insertion with such methodical
regularity in this wall. Yet the :fact remains, and the
regularity shews that it was no hap-hazard arrangement,
but that it had an object, and a use. Now, what was it?
Could it not have been for an acoustic purpose P Bearing
in mind that the "Garth" or garden of the Nunnery lay
on the north side of the Chapel, still retaining the traditional
name of "The Nuns' Walk," and the cloister ran under its
wall (of which some trace may still be detected), is it an
utterly ludicrous inference that these were used as soundconductors
placed here for · the benefit of the nuns, who,
spending much of their time in their daily avocations of
teaching or embroidery, sitting here under the cloister,
might the more easily hear, and in spirit join in, the services
of the Chapel within P
Other marks, too, of the whilome presence of Roman
buildings in this vicinity are to be found. Not only iu the
arch of the Saxon clerestory and in the flue-tiles, but in the
entire length of the north wall, especially near its eastern
end, are traces of Roman tiles inserted promiscuously, which
have ha,ppily escaped the contractor's plaster, and proclaim
that Roman buildings must at one time have stood in this
* In te A.r?hreolog}oal Jo}lrnal of the "Institute," vol. xii., p. 54, Mr.
Park-Harrison gives an mterestmg account and a sketch of the outer windows
similarly constructed of Roman tiles, before the over-zealous contractor had
hidden them under his layers of plaster.
150 :MINSTER IN SHEPPEY.
neighbourhood, from which the Saxon and subsequent
builders freely helped themselves.
It is at the east end of this Chapel (where under a lofty
Early English arch, spanned by a rood-screen of three or
four mullioned tracery, once stood the Sanctuary) we find
what may be called the chief enigma of the building; which
I would with much diffidence endeavour to solve. Here the
masonry of the north wall, both inside and out, differs from
the more western portions of the Chapel, and evidently belongs
to a later period. This Chancel must once have extended
some distance beyond the present east wall, for the two-seated
stone sedilia, are now close to that wall, and leave no space
for piscina and credence beyond ; and the piscina, having been
preserved, has been inserted into the east wall; where also
have been introduced other portions of carved stonework,
which most certainly were not here originally. In the
centre is a triplet of recessed niches, once surmounted by a
richly decorated canopy, crocketed and :6.nialed (now all
chiselled away), the middle one more deeply recessed and
containing the mutilated remains of an image ; while on the
outside have been built-in three ogee-pointed arches of stone,
sadly pulverized, which might once have formed parts of a
row of Decorated arches, or windows; and inside are the
jambs and arch of a doorway inserted in the north corner.
This Chancel, too, appears to have been originally flat-roofed,
for the east wall retains marks of the :resting-places of
massive beams, while the outside distinctly shews more
recent masonry in its upper portion.
Here we must digress a little from the details of the
Church to trace the changes which came over the Manor of
Shurland, with which the Abbey seems to have been so
closely connected, and to mark how these changes materially
affected the Chapel itself. Sil- Robert de Shurland,
whose monument in the south wall of the Church will be
not.iced hereafter, left an only daughter, who married Sir
William Cheyne of Patricksbourne, into whose family the
Shmland estates then passed; and with their descendants
they remained till the time of Henry VIII., when Sir Henry
Cheyney sold the Manor to Sir Humfrey Gilbert, who again
MINSTER IN SllEPP1ilY, 151
exchanged it to Elizabeth, who bestowed it on her kinsman
Sir Edward Roby. In this tmnsfer seems to have been
included the right to a certain family mortuary chapel of
the Cheyneys, :for the demolition of which, and the removal
of the tombs and coffins, a Licence was granted by .Archbishop
Grindal in 1581.*
The question then arises, Which Chapel was this ? and
where did it stand? In different Wills, and in the Inventory
of the goods of the Monastery, taken in 1536 (27 Henry
VIII.),t mention is made of three Chapels, one of St. Mary,
another of St. Katherine, and a third of St. John Baptist.
The latter is expressly stated in the "Inventory" as "standing
in the Churchyard." Now local tradition seems inclinecl
to place that of St. Katherine at the Chancel of the Parish
Church ; and at first sight this seems natural, as that of
St. Mary might be expected to be in the Nunnery Chapel;
but it must be borne in mind that the name of the Virgin
does not seem to appear in connection with the building until
.Archbishop Corboil restored the then ruinous chtJrcb, and
united the name of the Virgin with that, of Sexburga the
real foundress. Prior to that time it had always been
known. as the "Monastery of St. Sexburga."
On the other hand, the Chapel of St. Katherine is
distinctly connected with the Cheyney family as their burialplace.
Sir William Cheyney in his will, dated 1441, expresses
the wish to be buried in it, as being the place where
his ancestors lie, and leaves a legacy for its repair. The
* The record of the application ·for the removal is thus given in English
(Grindal's Register, f. 245) : "There is in a small Chappell nere unto the Parish
Church of Minster . ... buried the father and divers of the auncestors of the
Lorde Chayney, which Chappell is with other landes thereabout lately sold by
his Lordship unto Sir Humfrey Gilberte forasmuch as he is desirous to remove
the oophins and bodies of the said auncestors out of the said Chappell," eto.
'fhe licence granted by the Archbishop is worded as follows: " In pftrte
honorandi viri Renrici Domini Cheyney .... quod corpus tam pie memorie
nomini Thome Cheyney per nobilis Ordinis Garterii, Militia, etc., quam ecii1m
nonnullorum aliorum anteoessorum dicti honorandi viri in qttadam vicina sive
adjacenti pn;rva Capella Eoclesie Parochialis de Minster, inhumata et sepulta
exhumare et ab eadem Capella reverenter amovere et ad ecclesiam Parochialem
...• transferre et ibidem in loco idoneo inhumare liceat," etc. Datum Octob.
28, 1581.
t Mackenzie Walcott, in a Paper bearing on the "Inventories of Religious
Houses in Kent" (.tl.rcka:ologia Cantiana, Vol. VII., :pp. 292-3), expressly men•
tions as being at Minster Church, " S. Katherine's Ile, Our Lady Chapell, and
S, Jhons Chapell in the Ohurche yarde."
152 MINSTER IN SHEPPEY.
very wording of that will connects the Chapel with the
Nunnery, "within the .A.bbey of SS. Mary and Sexburga."
His son, Sir Thomas Cheyney, expresses a similar wisb,
in 1559,* and desfres "a tom be to be made nygh to the place
where my late wyef Frydeswytb do lye iu my chapel at
Minster." It is evident that the Chapel which was removed
by Sir Humphrey Gilbert under the licence from Archbishop
Grindal lay at the east of the Nunnery Chapel, now the
north aisle. Most unfortunately that licence only says
"a certain small chapel," giving no name, and describing it
as being "near or adjacent to" the Church of Minster. The
Abbey Chapel must have projected farther eastward, as
already noticed; and here, whether as a part of, or detached
from, the Chapel, must have lain the family mausoleum of
the Cheyneys. Is it not probable that, wh€'n this was
sold to Sir B:umfrey Gilbert (who, as we know, pulled it
down and sold the materials), the present east wall was
run up, cutting short the once goodly chapel beyond, and
that then, too, its miscellaneous fragments-the arches,
the triple niche, the doorway (which probably had been
the "Priest's Doorway" in the north wall, giving entrance
to the chaplain from the .Abbey grounds adjoining)-we1·e
built up as interesting relics on the inside, while the stone
tracery arch.work was inserted on the outside? Such a
suggestion certainly seems to f:ind some support in the presence
of Perpendicular tracery in the window which appears
n the north wal1 : this would palpably have been an insertion
of that period, and no doubt formed part of the
changes then introduced here.
But, as Mr. Park-Harrison says, in his Paper already
referred to, t there is another perplexing feature in this
Church, viz., the seven square recesses in tbe upper part
of the east wall. But whether they were the resting-places
of beams supporting a flat roof, or a gallery for the use of
the nuns, must, so fat· as I am· concerned, remain an open
question.
* The will of Sir Thomas Cheyney, 1559. Somerset Rouse, Chuyney, i.
t Page 149,
MINSTER IN SHEPPEY. 153
Let us now turn to the Parish Church portion of this
building. When it was added there is no direct record. .A.t
what exact time, beside this Chapel, reared for the private
devotions and the conventual services of the high-born
sisterhood, rose the Church in which the poor might have the
Gospel preached to them, is not known ; probably not earlier
than the beginning of the twelfth century, as already hinted.
The circular arch leading from the porch into the Church,
which from the depth of its hood-moulding was clearly once
an outer door, Norma,n in shape, but with :finer and lighter
shafts and dog-tooth ornament, points to the Transition
Period which connected the Norman with the Early English
style, and would belong to the .time of Henry II. It is possible
that (as has been conjectured from traces which were
discovered at the recent restoration of the foundations of a
massive doorway in the middle of the western bay of the
north aisle) it originally stood here as, the entrance door into
the Monastic Chapel, and was removed to its present site
when Archbishop Corboil entered on his great work of repair
in the year 1130. The goodly array of lofty lancet windows,
which must have ranged over the three sides of the Church,
certainly belong to that time. Of these one remaius on the
west gable, two others having been sacrificed to make room
for a three-light Perpendicular; three remain on the south; a
fourth having given way to a four-light square-headed late
Decorated one; while a graceful triplet, recently restored,
adorns the east end. But of any earlier work, if such
existed, not a vestige now remains in the Parish Church.
The next addition would apparently carry us over two
centuries, when the Decora,ted window in the south wall,
already mentioned, and the exquisitely graceful canopy of the
Shurland tomb (of which more presently), were introduced.
The massively based tower, which stands at the west end
of the Chapel, next demands notice. But before describing
this, it should be noted that the tower seems to replace two
campaniles or belfries which evidently existed here; one
belonging to the .A.bbey Chapel, and the other to the Parish
Church; both of which must have fallen iuto disrepair towards
the close of the fifteenth century, as we learn from
154 MINSTER IN SHEPP EY.
Wills in the Archdeacon's Court at Canterbury, in which are
frequent bequests for their repair. .Among oi.hers is that of
one Peter Cleve, who died in 1479, leaving among other
legacies a sum of money for the repair of the Chapel of
St. John Baptist, a,nd two of £40 each, one for "the campanile
on the priory side," and the other for that "on the
side of the parish church."* This may account for the two
spiral stairs, one on either side of the tower at iti; junction
with the nave; and may help to assign the date for the
addition of the tower to the Transition Period, as the
character of the building suggests. The loftiness of the
arch between it and the Chapel would point to the later
years of the Decorated, whil the capitals and bases indicate
the incoming of the Perpendicular; and the features of the
latter are still more pronounced in the square head, and the
label, and shields in the spandrils, of the western doorway.
Then, too, would have been added the buttresses with their
hollowed plinths along the face of the previously plinthless
north wall.
But the dark days for monasteries-for this Minster and
its Chapel-were drawing near. The time was at hand when
their reputed wealth, and also their reputed ahuses, were
becoming notorious, and helping to accelerate their downfall;
when their suppression, and the transfer of their ample and
too often misused revenues, were to seal their doom, and to
enrich needy and unscrupulous courtiers.
That massive base, supported by double buttresses at
each of the western angles, surmounted by a dwarf penthouse
or capping tower of wood, tells of a design to erect a
stately beacon tower, crowned it may be by a loftier spire, to
guide the seafarer up the Thames by day and night; but it
now stands as an unfinished monument of the practical munificence
of the "monks of old," or rather the "devoted
sisters" who had here made their home, and as one of the
very many similar evidences of the rapacity of Henry VIII.
and his Court.
* "Lego pro reparatione Capella Sancti Johannis Baptiste xl. d. pro reparatione
Campanille pro parte Priorisse xl. Ii. et pro reparatione Campanile Paroc:In
arum xl. li." (Will of Peter Cleve, iii., 12.)
MINSTER IN SHEPPEY. 155
Before leaviug the fabric of the Church, it will be interesting
to note some allusions made in divers Wills to sidealtars
and images which once existed in the Church and the
Chapel. There were the High Altar, the Altar of the Virgin
Mary, and also of St. Katherine; there were images of
"St. Mary le Pety," of the Holy Cross, and of St. James.
These it seems now impossible to localize. Besides the threefold
recesses already mentioned as now inserted in the east
wall of the Chapel, there are also_ two recesses in the east
wall of the Church, one on either side of the east window,
which no doubt were once :filled with frescoes ; that on the
north side has been oblitera,ted by plaster, while the one on
the south still retains traces of a figure, an
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