Campsey Priory, (Campesse, Kampessie, etc.), was a religious house of Augustinian canonesses at Campsea Ashe, Suffolk, about 1.5 miles (2.5 km) south east of Wickham Market. It was founded shortly before 1195 on behalf of two of his sisters by Theobald de Valoines (died 1209), who, with his wife Avice, had previously founded Hickling Priory in Norfolk for male canons in 1185. Both houses were suppressed in 1536.
Campsey Priory was one of a group of monasteries in south-east Suffolk with interconnected histories, associated with the family of the elder Theobald de Valoines (Valognes, Valeines etc.), Lord of Parham (fl. 1135). These include Butley Priory (founded 1171) and Leiston Abbey (1182–83), both founded by his son-in-law Ranulf de Glanville, Chief Justiciar of England, husband of his daughter Bertha. Her sister Matilda was mother of Hubert Walter, Theobald Walter and Osbert fitzHervey. The founder of Campsey Priory was the son of Robert de Valoines and heir to the estate of Parham. During the 14th century the priory enjoyed the special patronage of the de Ufford Earls of Suffolk and their family. Maud of Lancaster, Countess of Ulster was a commanding presence, by whose efforts Bruisyard Abbey was established from Campsey.
Much of the fabric of the priory was plundered after the suppression or incorporated into later buildings, but some remains were recorded during the 18th century. The site is now a private residence and not accessible to the public. Occasional excavations have been conducted. A very extensive list of documentary sources is given by Bishop Tanner; additional grants and other documents are held in the Suffolk Records, and some early books associated with the priory survive.
Foundation
The founder succeeded to his father Robert de Valoines in 1178. Before 1195 he gave all his land at Campsey to his sisters Joan and Agnes de Valoines to build there a house for themselves and other religious women, to be dedicated to Mary the mother of God. Gilbert Pecche, who succeeded his father Hamon as a fee-lord in Suffolk after 1191, confirmed the grant. These (lost) grants were confirmed by King John in January 1203/04 to Joan and Agnes and their successors. Theobald died in c. 1209 leaving an heir Thomas, who joined the Barons against King John and briefly had his lands confiscated.
The site chosen was a secluded spot with direct river and road access to important centres nearby, and plentiful natural resources. Skirting between Wickham Market and Lower Hacheston, where the Rivers Deben and Ore (a tributary of the Alde, passing Parham) are barely a mile apart, the freshwater channel of the Deben turns south and meanders through a broad valley of water-meadows past Rendlesham and Pettistree to the lower crossing at Ufford. The priory was located at a higher crossing, on the east bank of the river, at the foot of the land sloping down through Ash and Loudham on the Campsea side. To its north the river flowed into a meare before issuing past the priory and its adjacent watermill.
Prioress Joan de Valoines
Theobald's sisters built the priory at Campsey and established the community there with Joan de Valoines as the first prioress. The priory was in existence by November 1195 when John Lestrange, in a final concord with Robert de Mortimer, noted that with Robert's approval he had already given the church of Tottington, Norfolk, in free and perpetual alms to the church of the Blessed Mary at Campsey and to the nuns serving God there. At Tottington, birthplace of Samson, Abbot of Bury St Edmunds (1182–1211), the Priory always held some title: the advowson was quitclaimed to Prioress Joan in 1211, and she asserted her title further in 1219. Thomas de Valoines granted various lands at Parham to Joan for the priory in 1221, and an All Hallows fair at Hacheston, beside Parham, was granted to Hickling Priory in 1226. In 1228 Joan released the priory's manor of Helmingham to Bartholomew de Creke, whose sister Isabel was the mother of Thomas's heir, Robert de Valoines. Thomas was apparently living in 1230.