The Mystery Lady of Romsey Abbey

 Set into one of the walls of Romsey Abbey is a beautifully preserved medieval effigy of a woman in long flowing robes. Details still survive on her face and on her clothing, and it’s a remarkable example of a high-status monument. The only problem is, no one really knows who she is. The plaque where you’d expect to see her name simply states ‘unknown effigy’, although offers the idea that she was probably an early benefactress of the building.

The effigy, which is made from Purbeck marble, dates from the thirteenth century. Therefore, this woman, presuming she was commemorated soon after her death, lived through the reigns of John, Henry III or Edward I. Depending on where in the century she was born, she would have known the religious friction of John and his arguments with the Pope, and perhaps the hope felt on Henry III’s accession, his regency headed by the famous knight Sir William Marshall. She may even have heard of Edward I’s protracted wars with Scotland. This woman, who is depicted grasping the material of her gown with one hand and the cord of her cloak with another was clearly a woman of high status, shown by her clothing and the position of her tomb.

In fact, we may owe the marble effigy’s incredible condition to the fact that it is not in its original position, having been hidden during the religious unrest of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries when effigies ran the risk of being broken up or mutilated. According to one manuscript, the figure was discovered in the early eighteenth century while workmen were digging a grave in the west end of the nave. It was later moved to the south transept where it lies today. And it is just possible that we might be able to give her a name.

 

Henry George Downing Liveing, a Winchester Vicar, edited and compiled the Records of Romsey Abbey in the early twentieth century. These manuscripts and historical sources revealed the history of Romsey Abbey from its foundation in 907 AD to his own times. He suggested that the woman portrayed in the effigy was Joan de Nevill, a Hampshire noblewoman.

Joan de Nevill certainly fits the bill. Her grandparents were wealthy, prominent and known to royalty. Walter Walerand, Joan’s grandfather, was a Sergeant of the Forests in Hampshire who reported directly to the king. Her grandmother Isabel was descended from the powerful Earls of Salisbury, among whom were Countess Ela, the wife of William Longspée (a son of Henry II). He goes further to state that Walter’s half-sister Matilda had a link to the abbey, serving as Abbess of Romsey between 1199-1218. Walter and Isabel went on to have three daughters – Cecily, Albreda and Isabel. This Isabel is believed to be Joan’s mother, who married William de Nevill.

 

In another twist, Isabel (Joan’s mother) is believed by Liveing to have been the Abbess Isabel de Nevill who served at Romsey between 1237-38, suggesting that she held the position during her widowhood. If the Abbess Isabel is Joan’s mother, it does help explain the preferential treatment she received from Henry III in 1237. On 21 May of that year, to mark her appointment, the king gifted the abbey five New Forest bucks to be provided for her feast. According to Liveing’s research, Isabel would have been related to the royal family through Henry II, her father known to the king. She also had a history of local ties to Romsey and the wider New Forest area. There is also evidence of the family providing financial support for other religious institutions: Countess Ela founded Laycock Abbey, while Joan’s grand-uncle John de Ingeham founded Grace Dieu.

As for Joan herself, in 1244 Joan de Nevill made an agreement with the Abbess Cecilia, who was in charge of the abbey at the time, and gifted a caracute (around 100 acres) of land, that would belong to the abbey on her death. In return, the abbess promised to instruct ‘a suitable chaplain, who shall celebrate divine service for the soul of Joan and of her ancestors and heirs forever’. An effigy would be a perfect reminder of Joan’s patronage and she would have certainly been permitted to have had hers installed inside the abbey walls. Joan also gave a gift of £13 6s 8d, equivalent to a modern spending worth of around £9,000. A significant sum, this underlines Joan’s personal wealth and high status.

 

Joan is known to have died in 1263, and she had married twice: to Robert de Shorewell and William de St. Martin. With her second husband she had a son, named William after his father.

A prominent noblewoman with famous and illustrious figures in her family history, Joan de Nevill possessed wealth. She chose to spend large amounts of this in securing the future of the abbey, along with safeguarding her own spiritual salvation after her death. She lived in the mid-thirteenth century, the period the effigy is dated to, and we know that she had dealings with the abbess, who allocated prayers to be said for her soul. There is also evidence that her mother held the position of abbess, after the death of Joan's father. All this makes her a good candidate, I think, for the mystery lady of Romsey Abbey.

 

What do you think? Do you have any research that supports this, or do you have something that opposes it? Let me know in the comments below and we'll figure it out together!

Liked this? You might also like: Elizabeth Ryprose, The Last Abbess of Romsey, King John's House, Romsey, or Southampton's Lost Castle.

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Notes: Henry George Downing Liveing, Records of Romsey Abbey, Winchester, 1906.