CATHERINE BULKELEY (d. 1560)

Catherine Bulkeley was the daughter of Rowland Bulkeley of Beaumaris (c.1461-1537) and Alice Beconsall. She was a nun and on April 16, 1535 became the last abbess of Godstow in Oxfordshire. She wrote to Lord Cromwell in hopes of saving the abbey from dissolution. On March 7, 1538, she offered him the stewardship of the abbey, which he accepted. She sent his fee, and apples, on October 6. On another occasion she sent him a couple of Banbury cheeses. On November 26, however, Dr. London had been sent to suppress the abbey and she wrote to protest, while still trying to sound submissive. She was granted a pension of £40 for life. Following the abbey’s surrender, she conformed to the New Religion and leased the parsonage of Cheadle church in Cheshire from her brother, John, who was (absentee) rector there from 1525-1545. She apparently lived in the rectory until her death. She was buried at Cheadle on February 13, 1560.