Corner, Alicia (Avicia) de la
Contributed by
Mac Shamhráin, Ailbhe
Corner, Alicia (Avicia) de la (fl. 1240), founder and prioress of Lismullin, belonged to the de Angulo family of Meath and was a sister of Bishop Richard de la Corner (qv). Alicia (or Avicia) was apparently a widow when, around 1240, she founded a priory for Augustinian nuns some two miles from Tara and placed it under the patronage of the Holy Trinity. She endowed the foundation with the manor of Lismullin, and her brother Bishop Richard considerably augmented the possessions of the convent, his grants including the manors of Dunsink and Ballygodman, along with the temporalities of the church of Ardmulchan. Alicia was apparently dead by 1260, when Pope Alexander IV granted an indult which permitted the community to retain offerings made to the convent and revenues paid to the church of Lismullin (Pontificia, §493). The convent survived until the dissolution in 1539, the office of prioress remaining an Anglo-Norman preserve throughout.
Sources
A. Cogan, The diocese of Meath: ancient and modern (3 vols, 1862–70), i, 73, 213; M. P. Sheehy (ed.), ‘Unpublished medieval notitiae and epistolae, I: The foundation charters of Lismullin convent’, Collect. Hib., vi (1963), 8 ff; J. P. Kelly, ‘The parish of Lismullin’, Ríocht na Midhe, ii, no. 3 (1961), 53 ff; M. P. Sheehy (ed.), Pontificia Hibernica: medieval papal chancery documents concerning Ireland, 640–1261 (2 vols, 1962–5), ii, 317; Aubrey Gwynn and R. N. Hadcock, Medieval religious houses (1970), 322; Elizabeth Hickey, Skryne and the early Normans (1994), 111, 112; Dianne Hall, Women and the church in medieval Ireland, c.1140–1540 (2003), 86–7
My Research as follows.-The de la Corners were part of the De Angulo aka Nangle Clan, Barons of Navan and redificators of St Marys in Navan Town, and founded the town as well. The home base of this clan was called Angle, in Wales, so Corner is a form of this word it would seem. Gilbert De Angulo was Baron of Morgallion and Ratoath, built his Castle at Nobber, named for the Irsh Obbir, The Works, and the mound created is still visible there. Jocelyn De Angulo was Baron Navan, this baronial title lasted until 1793, uninterrupted. Alicia was Prioress of Lismullin as mentioned, and this Abbey was 2 miles from Tara. First Augustinian Priory iIreland, very famous in its day, and it existed until the dissalution of the Monasteries 1540's, then taken over by the Cusack Family.
