John of Wallingford (d. 1214)

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John of Wallingford (died 1214), also known as John de Cella, was Abbot of St Albans Abbey in the English county of Hertfordshire from 1195 to his death in 1214. He was previously prior of Holy Trinity Priory at Wallingford in Berkshire (now Oxfordshire), a cell of St Albans.

He should not be confused with another John of Wallingford (died 1258), who was a friend of the famous chronicler Matthew Paris; nor with the unknown author of the so-called "Chronicle of John of Wallingford" (ca. 1225–1250), that is included in a manuscript of the papers of the later John of Wallingford.

Stone marking the 1978 reburial of the remains of Wallingford and other Abbots of St Albans at St Albans Cathedral Stone making the 1978 reburial of Medieval monks at St Albans Cathedral, December 2021.jpg
Stone marking the 1978 reburial of the remains of Wallingford and other Abbots of St Albans at St Albans Cathedral

Life

According to Matthew Paris's Gesta Abbatum ("Actions of the Abbots"), John came from a moderate family not far from a place called Stodham, [1] presumably today's Stadhampton about five miles north of Wallingford. A tradition that he was from the family of John de la Hyde de Southcote, ancestor of the Hyde family of Denchworth, is apparently mentioned by some editions of Burke's Landed Gentry [ better source needed ] but it is not clear what the basis for this may be.

The Gesta records that John studied in Paris. He gained an excellent reputation and "in grammar he was considered a very Priscian, in poetry a perfect Ovid, and in physic esteemed equal to Galen". [2] After taking Benedictine vows, he was sent to Wallingford Priory, where he became prior in 1191. From this he gained his St Albans by-names "de Wallingford" and "de Cella", having been superior of this important cell of the abbey. [3] Four years later, on 20 July 1195, he was elected Abbot of St. Albans, where he presided with "sanctity and success". [3] He rebuilt the refectory and the dormitory, and extended the west front of the abbey church, though not without difficulty: the work "swallowed up the revenues as the sea the rivers, and made no progress", until a simplifed design was eventually completed. [4]

He was regarded by the 19th-century scholar Henry Richards Luard as the originator of the core of Roger of Wendover's Flores Historiarum , which became the first part of Matthew Paris's Chronica Majora , but this has since been questioned. [5] No source of the time makes any mention of him as a historian.

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This is a list of abbots of St Albans Abbey up to its Dissolution in 1539.

  1. Willegod (793–796)
  2. Eadric
  3. Wulsig
  4. Wulnoth (Walworth)
  5. Eadfrith
  6. Wulsin
  7. Aelfric
  8. Ealdred
  9. Eadmer
  10. Leofric
  11. Ælfric of Abingdon
  12. Leofstan
  13. Frithric (Frederic)
  14. Paul of Caen (1077–1093)
  15. Richard d'Aubeney (1097–1119)
  16. Geoffrey of Dunstable (1119–1146)
  17. Ralph Gubion (1146–1151)
  18. Robert de Gorron (1151–1166)
  19. Symon (1167–1183)
  20. Warin (1183–1195)
  21. John de Cella (1195–1214)
  22. William of Trumpington (1214–1235)
  23. John of Hertford (1235–1263)
  24. Roger de Norton (1263–1291)
  25. John of Berkhamsted (1291-1302)
  26. John de Maryns (1302–1308)
  27. Hugh of Eversden (1308–1327)
  28. Richard of Wallingford (1326–1335)
  29. Michael of Mentmore (1335–1349)
  30. Thomas de la Mare (1349–1396)
  31. John de la Moote (1396–1401)
  32. William Heyworth (1401–1420)
  33. John of Wheathampstead (1420–1440)
  34. John Stoke (1440–1451)
  35. John of Wheathampstead (1451–1465)
  36. William Albon (1465–1475)
  37. William of Wallingford (1476–1492)
  38. Thomas Ramryge (1492–1520)
  39. Thomas Wolsey (1521-1529/1530), Commendatory abbot
  40. Robert Catton (1529–1538)
  41. Richard Boreman alias Stevenage (1538–1539), last abbot
<span class="mw-page-title-main">Geoffrey de Gorham</span>

Geoffrey de Gorham, sometimes called Geoffrey of Dunstable or of Le Mans, was a Norman scholar who became Abbot of St Albans Abbey, 1119 to 1146.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John of Wallingford (d. 1258)</span> Benedictine monk

John of Wallingford was a Benedictine monk at the Abbey of St Albans, who served as the abbey's infirmarer at some time between c.1246-7 and his death in 1258. He is now mostly known through a manuscript containing a miscellaneous collection of material, mostly written up by Wallingford from various works by his contemporary at the abbey Matthew Paris, which survives as British Library Cotton MS Julius D VII. This manuscript includes the so-called Chronica Joannis Wallingford or Chronicle of John of Wallingford.

William Binham was an English theologian and Benedictine prior of Wallingford in Berkshire. He took the degree of D.D. at Oxford, where he was for a time intimate with Wycliffe, against whom he afterwards wrote Contra Positiones Wiclevi.

Simon Binham or Bynham was an English chronicler and Benedictine monk of the priory of Binham, Norfolk. He assisted the prior of Binham in opposing the exactions of Hugh, abbot of St. Albans, and was imprisoned for some time with the other rebellious monks. He is said to have contributed to the continuation of the Chronicle of Rishanger, but his other writings are largely lost.

References

  1. ↑ Matthew Paris, Gesta Abbatum, vol i., p. 217: non procul a vinculo qui "Stodham" dicitur, ex mediocri prosapia oriundus.
    A partial translation/summary is given by Henry Chauncy in his Historical Antiquities of Hertfordshire (1700), p.263
    See also William Page, ed. (1914), A History of the County of Hertford: volume 4, Religious Houses (Victoria County History series), pp. 372-416.
  2. ↑ Matthew Paris, Gesta Abbatum, vol i., p. 217. Apparently, the abbot was a judex urinarum incomparabilis (vol i., p. 246.)
  3. 1 2 P.H. Ditchfield and William Page, eds. (1907), A History of the County of Berkshire: Volume 2 (Victoria County History series), pp. 77-79.
  4. ↑ William Page, ed. (1908), A History of the County of Hertford: volume 2 (Victoria County History series), pp. 483-488.
  5. ↑ See Flores Historiarum for details.
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