Everdon Priory
52°12′42″N 1°07′31″W / 52.2116°N 1.1254°W Everdon Priory was a priory in Northamptonshire, England. The village of Everdon is located about 6 km (4 miles) south-east of the town of Daventry.
Some time shortly after the
The abbot of Bernay became lord of the manor of Everdon and held a considerable amount of land around the village. The priory was built so that a small community of monks could administer these lands, acting as agents for the abbot. The abbot held advowson of the parish church, i.e. the right to present a priest to the living - a right that could be lucrative, as incumbents generally paid to be inducted, although this was technically the sin of simony.
Another responsibility and source of profit was the manorial court. Evidently the monks primarily regarded it as a source of income. In 1329
Everdon Priory was an alien priory, a subsidiary community to an abbey abroad, in this case in Normandy. This created great difficulties for the priory after John, King of England lost Normandy to the French in 1204. In times of war between England and France, the Crown took over the alien priories and their estates, granting them to prominent supporters to secure their loyalty: the coming of peace provided an opportunity to extort large fines for returning priories to their orders.
This cyclical process was ended by
The priory buildings themselves slowly decayed. Remains of the priory were still visible close to Eton's lordship house in the 18th century, but have since disappeared completely.[1]