Chertsey

According to Bede (HE iv. 6), Eorcenwold founded two monasteries before he became bishop of London (c. 675): one for his sister Æthelburh, at Barking in Essex, and one for himself, at Chertsey in Surrey.  <Earliest charter.  Later history.  Chertsey has the curious distinction of being the only religious house whose destruction in the ninth century is attested in a pre-Conquest written source (albeit of uncertain authority).  The tract on ‘Resting-Places of Saints’ (in Liber Vitae of the New Minster) notes that St Beocca the abbot, and Edor the mass-priest, rest at Chertsey, ‘and there heathen men killed 90 monks’.  William of Malmesbury (GP, p. 143) appears to have been aware of the same story, but does not enlarge upon it.  See also Chertsey cartulary, fols. 33-4.  Refounded in the tenth century.>  In 964 the secular canons were driven from Chertsey by King Edgar, and replaced with monks (ASC, MS. A, s.a. 964).  In 1077, at the instigation of Bishop Wulfstan II of Worcester, the community of Chertsey entered into association with the communities of Evesham, Bath, Pershore, Winchcombe, Gloucester and Worcester (P 78). 

<Connection with OMW, for Æthelstan forgery.>  <SS Beocca and Edor, feast 10 April.>

The earliest of the surviving cartularies of Chertsey abbey is BL Cotton Vitellius A. xiii, fols. 20-82 (Davis 222)), written in the second half of the thirteenth century.  For a description of the manuscript and its contents, see Chertsey Abbey Cartularies II, pt 1, pp. xiv-xvii.  The cartulary begins with a series of pre-Conquest (or purportedly pre-Conquest) charters, set in the context of a historical narrative (fols. 20-49).  The first in the series is the charter of Frithuwold, sub-king of Surrey, in favour of Abbot Eorcenwold (S 1165), which appears to be substantially authentic; at some stage in its transmission vernacular boundary clauses were added.  All of the other documents embedded in the narrative are in favour of the abbey, and are generally disreputable; interspersed with papal privileges.  The historical narrative is followed by a series of royal charters on fols. 50-69, beginning with four writs of Edward the Confessor (S 1093-6) and two other documents in the Confessor’s name (S 1477 and 1035), and continuing with a series of post-Conquest charters.  Also Chartæ Antiquæ rolls for S 1094-6.

<S 752 (King Edgar, 967) and S 1035 (King Edward, 1062) connected with S 453 and 1056, from St Paul’s.>

<The major Chertsey cartulary, in the PRO, does not contain any pre-Conquest texts.>

Select bibliography

WM, GP, pp. 143 and 174; Mon. Angl. i. 75-9; Mon. Angl. (rev. ed.) i. 422-35; VCH Surrey ii. 55-64; MRH, p. 62; HRH, pp. 38-9.

Chertsey Abbey Cartularies, 2 vols., Surrey Record Society 12 (1915-63); Harmer, Writs, pp. 201-11; R. Poulton, Archaeological Investigations on the Site of Chertsey Abbey, Research Volume of the Surrey Archaeological Society 11 (Guildford, 1988).

<Blair on Surrey, and in Origins of AS Kingdoms.  Wormald, Jarrow Lecture, on Eorcenwold.  Fleming, in EHR 1985, pp. 257-61.  DND, in WxEng, pp. 51-3. >

Charters of Chertsey Abbey, ed. S. E. Kelly (unpublished draft, October 2009)

Charters of Chertsey Abbey

Royal diplomas.  69; 127; 285; 353; 420; 752; 940; 1035; 1165; 1181.

Writs.  1093; 1094; 1095; 1096.  See also 1477.

Miscellaneous.  1247.