Coggeshall Abbey
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 The Abbey gate chapel belonging to Coggeshall Abbey, capella ante portas, now serving as St. Nicholas Chapel | |
 Interactive map of St. Nicholas Chapel | |
| Monastery information | |
|---|---|
| Order | Cistercian |
| Established | 1137-1142 |
| Disestablished | 1538 |
| Dedicated to | St. John the Baptist |
| People | |
| Founders | Gilbert Foliot and Simon de Toni |
| Architecture | |
| Status | Dissolved |
| Site | |
| Location | Coggeshall, Essex, United Kingdom |
| Visible remains | Incorporated into St Nicholas' Church and Abbey Farm |
| Public access | yes |
Coggeshall Abbey, situated south of the town of Coggeshall in Essex, England was founded in 1140 by King Stephen and Queen Matilda, as a Savigniac house but became Cistercian in 1147 upon the absorption of the order.
The abbey was founded in 1140 as the last of the seventeen Savigniac houses in England. Queen Matilda had inherited the land on which the abbey would be built from her father, Count Eustace III of Boulogne.[1] From 1152 to 1160 the abbey was embroiled in a lawsuit arising from its attempts to remove a settlement from one of its estates.[1] This practice of forced depopulation was associated with the Cistercian order, as they used it create open tracts of pasture and farmland. The case eventually went to the papal court. At this time the abbey buildings were under construction, with the church being dedicated in 1167.[1] In 1216 an incident was recorded that "King John's army violently entered the abbey and carried off twenty-two horses of the bishop of London and others." It is also known that the reigning abbot in 1260 was travelling abroad as the envoy of the King. In the 13th century, like other Cistercian houses, the abbey grew wealthy from the wool trade.[2] By 1370, however, the monastery was reported to be very poor, partly due to excessive spending and other mismanagement. Furthermore, during the so-called Peasants’ Revolt of 1381, the abbey was broken into and raided. The abbey's financial woes were compounded by the royal imposition of corrodians, favoured subjects who received pensions and lived in some style in the abbey precinct.[2] The will of John Sharpe (courtier), dated 1518, indicates that he held a lease of "mansion and lodgings at Coggeshall Abbey".[2] A similar later lease survives for Clement Harleston, granted in 1528, and shows that these buildings were next to the infirmary.[2]
On the eve of the suppression of the monastery many, possibly false, charges were made against the abbot, William Love. In 1536 he was relieved of his duties and replaced by the more amenable Henry More, who offered little resistance to the impending Dissolution. The abbey was heavily in debt by the time of its closure in 1538, following which the site was sold to Sir Thomas Seymour. The abbey church was rapidly ransacked and demolished – it had gone by 1541, when Seymour exchanged the site for other lands. A house was built in 1581 on part of the monastery site by Anne Paycocke and her husband Richard Benton, and still stands.[2] The surviving monastic buildings were converted for agricultural use, with the gate chapel and guest house serving as barns.
