Barnwell Prior's Accounts

Record title: Barnwell Prior's Accounts
Repository: TNA
Shelfmark: SC6/HENVIII/252
Repository location: Kew

The Augustinian priory of Barnwell was founded around 1092 by Picot, lord of Bourn and Madingley, and sheriff of Cambridgeshire at the time of Domesday. From 1534 to 1538 the prior was Jonas Badcock. The priory's inventory was taken for the Dissolution in 1538 under Thomas Legh and William Cavendish, the king's commissioners, and the majority of the church furniture was sold by them. By 1578 the priory was used as a quarry, and though substantial ruins of the structures existed until 1810, the nineteenth century was marked by a 'deliberate and thorough destruction' such that today 'hardly anything remains but the building known as the cellarer's checker' (VCH: Cambridgeshire, pp 234–49, British History Online, https://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/cambs/vol2/pp234-249, accessed 18 September 2021). See the Introduction, ‘Historical Background: Barnwell Priory’ for further details on the history of the priory and its performance spaces.

The accounting year varies across the records, with no fixed order.

1534–6; English and Latin; paper; 86 leaves, some blank; 410mm x 270mm; unfoliated; flourished capitals at beginning of each year of accounts; good condition; contemporary vellum binding with leather thongs.