Katharine de Audley

Primary Sources

CP 25/1/81/20, number 99.
Link: Image of document at AALT
County: Herefordshire.
Place: Westminster.
Date: The day after the Purification of the Blessed Mary, 17 Edward I [3 February 1289].
Parties: John Giffard' of Brymesfeld', querent, and Richard de Emneberwe, deforciant.
Property: The manors of Monynton' and Dylewe.
Action: Plea of covenant.
Agreement: John has acknowledged the manors to be the right of Richard.
For this: Richard has granted to John the manors and the advowson of the church of Monynton', to hold to John, of the chief lords for the life of John. And after the decease of John the manors and advowson shall remain to Nicholas de Audeleye and Katherine, his wife, and the heirs begotten by Nicholas on the body of Katherine, to hold of the chief lords for ever. In default of such heirs, remainder to the right heirs of John.
Source: Abstracts of Feet of Fines

Katharine Giffard

• b. circa 1267, d. after 1322
• Father John, Lord Giffard of Brimsfield1 b. 19 January 1241, d. 29 May 1299
• Mother Maud de Clifford1 b. circa 1234, d. after December 1282

Her name has also been seen as Catherine.

Catherine Giffard was born circa 1267. She was the daughter of John, Lord Giffard of Brimsfield and Maud de Clifford.1 Catherine Giffard married Nicholas de Aldithley, son of James de Aldithley, Justiciar of Ireland and Ela Longespre, before 1287.1 Catherine Giffard died after 1322.

Married

1. Nicholas de Aldithley b. before 1258, d. 28 August 1299

Children

• Thomas de Aldithley b. c 1288, d. 13072
• Nicholas, 1st Lord Audley+ b. 11 Nov 1289, d. 1319
• ida, married 1) Owen de la Pole 2) James de Perers 3) Peter Corbet

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http://fmg.ac/Projects/MedLands/ENGLISHNOBILITYMEDIEVAL3D-K.htm#_To...

1. JOHN Giffard . Lord Giffard of Brimpsfield. m firstly MATILDA de Clifford, daughter of ---. John & his wife had children:

a) CATHERINE Giffard (1272-after 1322). The Book of Lacock names Catharinam filiam Johannis Giffard as wife of Nichum de Audele, son of Jacobus de Audele 1248]. She became a nun at Ledbury[1249]. m (1299 or before) NICHOLAS de Audley, son of JAMES de Audley of Heleigh, Staffordshire & his wife Ela Longespee (before 1258-28 Aug 1299).

biographical notes

From http://www.medievalhistories.com/myths-of-medieval-anchoritism-and-...

Katharine de Audley, a wealthy Marcher heiress, was the daughter of a baron, John Giffard, who had been a leading campaigner against the Welsh 1264 5. In 1299 her husband Nicholas of Audley died and she withdrew to an anchorhold at Ledbury. In this way she avoided to be forcefully married to another Marcher lord or which was customary to Welsh lords. Such dynastic exchanges of women were often part of the prevalent colonial strategy of forceful enculturation or assimilation of the Welsh into the world of the Marcher Lords.
However, Katharine of Audley, avoided this fate by refusing to remarry. Instead she presumably spent the next decade raising her three children and not least securing their wealth and inheritance. However, in 1308 her eldest son died and after that a series of grants and entries in the Close Rolls testify to her attempts to secure the future of her daughter and second son. Finally in 1313 her inheritance was as witnessed by a series of senior clerics secured for her children; at the same time she was ensured a substantial sum for her life as a future anchorite in Ledbury, whereto she according to legend was drawn by the peeling of the bells of the church of St. Martin and All saints. ...
Here she lived the life of a living saint, the so-called death-within-life in a liminal sacred space, the anchorhold, which may still be seen at the North of the Church. Unfortunately the 100 pounds she was due each year gradually dried up, while her children died and shifting managers either mismanaged her estates or simply defrauded the woman. In the end, we hear about her on two final occasions: first when she inherits responsibility for an orphaned grandson, in spite of her enclosure; the second probably a last attempt to win back her lost inheritance, whether for the child or for her own future sustenance. Probably she died around 1326 27.

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From http://ldysinger.stjohnsem.edu/@texts2/1230_ancren_rule/01_introd-a... from Rotha Mary Clay's The Hermits and Anchorites of England page 75 in chapter seven

No more is heard of the Lady Audley until 1312, when she gave away into lay hands a portion of her maternal inheritance. Since the deed is witnessed at Ledbury by the bishop and the vicar, it may be presumed that she had already taken up her abode there, or was about to be enclosed by the bishop  In 1323, Katherine de Audele, recluse of Ledbury, was receiving 30 pounds a year through the sheriff, and as the sum was paid out of lands which were in the custody of her husband executor, it seems probable that she had made some arrangement about her property in order to obtain a pension
Around these prosaic facts the following poetic legend grew up. In obedience to a vision which bade her not to rest until she came to a town where the bells should ring untouched by man, Katherine and her maid Mabel wandered from place to place, following out of Worcestershire into Herefordshire the hoof-marks of the lady's mare which had been stolen prints still shown in the sandstone at Whelpley Brook The expected miracle was manifested at Ledbury, and there, it may be under the shadow of the bell-tower, the Lady Katherine determined to remain. The story is familiar through Wordsworth's sonnet ....
The title Saint Catherine of Ledbury is a late addition to the tale, suggested, doubtless, by the dedication-name of the hospital of St. Katharine, a house founded years before the birth of Katherine de Audley

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From postem

John Giffard m2 Margaret, wdw of Sir John de Neville of Hallingbury etc., [no parents given but] to whom he appears to be related as papal dispensation was applied for, being related in the 3rd-4th degree. The bishop found there was no impediment to the marriage.
By this m2 he left John s&h, and his heirs were his four half sisters (therefore by Maud de Clifford) were:

• 1)Katherine m Sir Nicholas Daudeleye who seems to be son of James d'Audley/Alditheley by Ela dau of William Longespee II
• 2)Alianore m Sir Fulk Lestraunge of Whitchurch (Lord Lestrange)
• 3)Maud m William son of Geoffrey de Joinville/Geneville, dsp
• 4)Elizabeth dvp

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Citations

• [S215] Revised by others later George Edward Cokayne CP, I:338.
• [S235] Paternal Ancestry of H. B. James, online, I Copyright (c) Homer Beers James 1996 - In web form by P. McBride (mailto:e-mail address).
• page 176 of Appendix to the Report "16. Grant from Katherine Audley to Sir James de Perrers [sic] and Ela his wife, her daughter, of the castle and town of Thlanundavery in Wales, 6 Edw. II., f. 9."
• page 148 of Plantagenet Ancestry: A Study In Colonial And Medieval Families, 2nd Edition ... "Katherine became a nun at Ledbury Priory, Herefordshire ..."
• page 121 of Ancestral Roots of Certain American Colonists who Came to America Before ... By Frederick Lewis Weis, Walter Lee Sheppard, William Ryland Beall, Kaleen E. Beall
• http://wc.rootsweb.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=GET&db=jweber&id...
  • Complete Peerage of England Scotland Ireland Great Britain and the United Kingdom, by G. E Cokayne, Sutton Publishing Ltd, 2000 Page: I:338-9
• http://https://www.stirnet.com/genie/data/british/aa/audley1.php (subscription to view)
  • (4) Nicholas of Alditheley (Audley) (b before 1258, d 28.08.1299) m. Catherine Giffard (b 1272, a 1322, dau of John Giffard, 1st Lord of Brimsfield)
    • (A) Thomas Alditheley or Audley (b 1288, dsp 1307) m. Eve Clavering (dau of John de Clavering, 2nd Lord)
    • (B) Nicholas Audley, 1st Lord (b 11.11.1289, d c11.1316) m. (1312) Joan Martin (d by 1322, dau of William Martin, Lord)
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anchorite

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