Ellerton Priory (Swaledale)

Ellerton Priory was a priory of Cistercian nuns in Swaledale in North Yorkshire, England.[1] Its ruins lie in the civil parish of Ellerton Abbey.[2]

Not to be confused with Ellerton-on-Swale.

The Priory ruins.

There is some confusion over the establishment of the priory. It was probably founded in the late 12th century, either by the Egglescliffe family, or by Warnerus, chief steward to the Earl of Richmond, or by Wymerus of the Aske family.[3] In 1342 it suffered badly at the hands of marauding Scots, who are described as having razed and despoiled the Priory.[4] The priory was formally surrendered to the Crown in August 1536 and dissolved in the following year. The site is a scheduled Ancient Monument and parts of the priory are grade II listed.[5]

The Priory ruins stand close to the Richmond to Reeth road, just a mile downstream from the former Benedictine Priory of Marrick.[3] The ruins include the remains of the priory church built in the 15th century. The church tower appears to have been rebuilt as a romantic ruin in the 19th century. There is no public access to the ruins.[6]

Ellerton Abbey House
Ellerton Abbey House

Following the Dissolution of the Monasteries the Priory became the property of a series of people until it was purchased in the 1690s by Col. Henry Drax, a wealthy sugar planter, of Drax Hall in Barbados, who was looking for an English estate which would produce £10,000 per annum.[7] His heir was his nephew Thomas Shatterden, of Pope's Common, Hertfordshire, son of his sister, who in accordance with the bequest adopted the surname Drax in lieu of his patronymic. His eldest son and heir was Henry Drax (c.1693–1755), a Member of Parliament[8] and a favourite of the Prince of Wales, who married Elizabeth Ernle, heiress of Charborough House in Dorset, which today remains the residence of his descendant Richard Drax, MP.

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References
  1. 'Houses of Cistercians nuns: Ellerton in Swaledale', in W. Page (ed.), A History of the County of York, Vol. 3 (V.C.H., London 1974), pp. 160-61 (British History Online).
  2. Historic England. "ELLERTON PRIORY (48742)". PastScape. Retrieved 28 November 2018.
  3. Watson, Emma (2014). Ellerton Priory; a study of a monastic landscape (1 ed.). Swaledale and Arkengarthdale Archaeology Group. p. 9. ISBN 978-1-291-77259-3.
  4. Jonathon Bailey, A History of Marrick Priory, 1975.
  5. Historic England. "Ellerton Priory: a Cistercian nunnery including fishponds, water management system, mill, field systems and Ellerton medieval settlement (1019154)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 22 October 2017.
  6. Kingsbury, Hannah (2017). "Ellerton Priory". Yorkshire Dales National Park. Retrieved 29 April 2020.
  7. John Habakkuk, Marriage, Debt and the Estate System (Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1994), p. 455.
  8. R.S. Lea, 'Drax, Henry (?1693-1755), of Ellerton Abbey, Yorks. and Charborough, nr. Wareham, Dorset', in R. Sedgwick (ed.), The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1715-1754 (from Boydell and Brewer, 1970), History of Parliament online.


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