page_title: Halesowen Abbey
section_title: Rowley
hierarchical_section_title: Halesowen Abbey / Lands and endowments / Rowley
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context_page_description: Halesowen Abbey was a Premonstratensian abbey in Halesowen, England of which only ruins remain. Founded by Peter des Roches with a grant of land from King John, the abbey's official year of inauguration was 1218. It acquired two daughter abbeys and a dependent priory. It also acquired a considerable range of estates, mostly concentrated within the region, and a number of churches, which it appropriated after being granted the advowsons. It's manorial court records have survived in large part, portraying a discontented community, driven to many acts of resistance and at one point to challenge the abbey's very existence. The abbey played no great part in the affairs of its order, although it was represented at all levels. At least one abbot attracted serious criticism from within the order, which attempted to remove him. Its canons observed the Rule of St Augustine to a varying degree, with some serious lapses, at least in the late 15th century, when the order's visitor uncovered widespread sexual exploitation of local women. The abbey was moderately prosperous and survived the suppression of the lesser monasteries. It was dissolved in 1538.
context_section_description: On Easter Tuesday 1331 John de Hampton granted the manor of Rowley to Halesowen Abbey. For this a canon would offer the full service for the dead daily for his soul and that of his wife Eleanor, his brother Richard, and for all their family, past, present and future. A charter of the same year, known from an inspeximus and confirmation of 28 May 1391, asserted that Edward III granted the manor of Rowley to the abbot and convent at an annual rent of £10 6s. 8d. The point of the king's charter was not simply to confirm the grant of the estate but to assert and clarify his residual interest in it. The estate was to be held under a fee farm grant, not the usual frankalmoin, which meant that the abbey would always have to find the annual rent for it. Equally, on 20 September 1332, the king licensed the abbey to sublet the estate to tenants. The rent paid by the abbot was available for the king to grant to whomever he pleased, and in 1337 he gave it to Alice Plomton, a lady in waiting to his own sister, Eleanor, Countess of Guelders, as an allowance, pending a fuller provision which he promised he would arrange later. On 4 December the king issued a writ de intendendo, a formal notification to the abbot of Halesowen that he owed homage to Alice for the manor of Rowley. In 1486 the rent was one of a large number granted by Henry VIII to his wife, Elizabeth of York.
caption: Elizabeth of York, 16th century copy of a contemporary portrait.
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