Agricultural History Review, Volume 62 Part 1 (2014), p. 172

Records for small nunneries are not thick on the ground, and so this volume represents a valuable addition to the canon of printed original sources. The volume is especially valuable as it is a parallel Latin transcription/English translation. The erudite notes on editorial conventions and the Latin by Lesley Boatwright (to whose memory the volume is dedicated) are a testament to the care that has gone into the production of this book. The seven-page glossary of both English and Latin terms is very useful and will save readers the trouble of searching through their own reference works! The list of dates for saints’ days and festivals is also a handy quick guide to the dates that appear in the text. The indices of persons and places appear to be comprehensive, but the subject index is a little simple in its composition.

The introduction (by Kenneth Hillier) to the volume provides a short history of the priory up to the period of the account book and a description of the priory and its buildings. Given the depth of material about the buildings, a plan of the site might have been of benefit to this section. Although the volume has a photograph and historic drawing of the priory on its front and back covers, a site plan would have provided further context for the reader.

The introductory section about the nuns of Grace Dieu Priory brings the personalities of these religious women to life and is an excellent illustration of the way in which financial records can paint a picture of the lives of those who are recorded in them. Excellent use is made of supplementary sources to further fill in the details of the nuns and their (not always harmonious) relationships. The contributions to priory life of the chaplains, boarders and secular personnel of the priory are also examined in the introduction – a reminder of the diversity of people, both internal and external, who made up the day-to-day life of a religious house. The final section of the introduction provides an overview of the priory’s economy that emerges from the account book. As Chris Dyer writes in his preface, ‘The account book is of course about money’, and the discussion of the priory’s economy offers many pointers to the interesting and detailed information contained in the text.

Much of the material in the text is spatial in nature. The text describes the work done on the nunnery’s estate, and again it would have been helpful for those without a detailed knowledge of the local area to have had a map of the estate and its surrounding area. Even if it is not possible to identify the field names mentioned in the text, a map would have helped to put the priory, its activities and economy into a geographical context.

The wealth of information contained in the account book is indeed impressive and includes details of rent receipts, nuns’ salaries and clothing allowances, and the cost of building works and repairs. The costs of gathering in the harvest are listed in detail along with the names of those employed; long lists of female and male workers employed in weeding, reaping, threshing of crops and mowing of hay testify to the frantic activity of harvest-time. The payments to the men and women are also interesting. In the third week of harvest in 1314, Adam Baxter and the (unnamed) wife of John Standwych were paid the same amount (1s. 8d.) for 5 days work. Helen Herthyll and the villein (unnamed) of Henry Foster were also paid the same rate for their work on the harvest that year. Also of interest are the debts owed by the nuns to various people. Great efforts have been taken by the editors to identify the wide range of materials bought for the nunnery; these include a variety of building supplies and the minute but necessary bits of iron, leather and wood required to keep a cart or plough in good repair. The range of foodstuffs bought for the house is also impressive; such foodstuffs are dominated by pork and, unsurprisingly, fish (from herring to mussels). The cost of entertaining visitors is evident on 16 January 1415 when cheeses for visitors are purchased especially. All in all there is plenty of information both for those interested in the local area of the nunnery and for those interested in the economic and social circumstances of such religious houses. The editors have provided not only a useful resource for historians to mine, but the quality of the transcription and the parallel translation will be helpful as a guide for those who want to use similar sources. As the editor says, the account book is a ‘valuable snapshot of the economic standing of a small nunnery’.