User:Pillpriory

Pill Priory is a Tironian house founded near Milford Haven, Pembrokeshire, South West Wales in the late 12th century.

Pill Priory was founded as a daughter house of St Dogmaels, near Cardigan, itself a priory of the Tironian order of reformed Benedictine monks. The other daughter houses were Caldey (Caldey Island, Pembrokeshire, Wales) and Glascarrig, Co. Wexford in Ireland.

Pill Priory was established by the Roche family of the Barony and Roch Castle, Pembrokeshire and was founded within a few years of St Dogmaels Abbey, the founder was Adam de la Roche, who would of necessity be a descendant of Godebert de Fleming. Pritchard thought it to be around 1180-90, while the Pembrokeshire antiquarian Richard Fenton considered the earlier date of 1160-70 to be possible.

The priory was jointly dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary and to St Budoc, a dedication of it was the former chapel of St Budoc (now 'St Botolph') which lay 1.3 km north-east of Pill Priory.

In 1536 St Dogmaels Abbey and its daughters at Pill and Caldey were dissolved in the suppression of those monastic houses with values of less than £200 and fell to the crown. The Valor Ecclesiasticus recorded that Pill Priory was worth annually £67 15s. 3d. gross, £52 2S. 5d. net after charges. The manor of Pill, including the priory site and associated holdings, was sold in June 1546 to the aspiring local landowners Roger Barlow of Slebech and his brother Thomas.

The full history ranging from the 12th century to the present can be accessed from the website, see external links below.