Religious house — Augustinian canons in Anneville or Clonard Old

St Mary’s convent at Clonard (ME047-021----) had been founded by c. 1144 for Arrouaisian nuns (Gwynn and Hadcock 1970, 314). St Peter’s abbey of Augustinian canons may have been established at the same time (ibid. 163) to provide religious services for the nuns, perhaps by converting St Finnian’s old foundation (ME047-007----) to a new purpose. Marianus was abbot of St Peter’s 1190-1200, and St Peter’s continued independently of St John’s Augustinian abbey at Clonard, which was founded by Hugh de Lacy between 1183 and 1186 (ibid). St John’s was probably a priory of St Thomas’ (DU018-020051-), as the prior of St John’s witnessed grants of land made by de Lacy to St Thomas’ and St John’s is described as the chapter of the diocese of Meath. The two male houses were united by Bishop Rochford c. 1200 when he was establishing the new Augustinian abbey of SS Peter and Paul at Newtown Trim (ME036-0490003-) to serve as the chapter of the Cathedral (ME036-049002-) he was setting up there, and perhaps some Anglo-Norman canons from Clonard migrated to Newtown. The combined Augustinian abbey of SS Peter and John remained at Clonard, and it may have been an Irish house for a time after it was established. However, English names appear amongst its abbots in the 14th century, and its poverty is recorded frequently from the middle of the 15th century onwards (ibid. 163-4). It was described as ‘insufficient for burdens’ in the ecclesiastical taxation (1302-06) of Pope Nicholas IV (Cal. doc. Ire., 5, 258). At its suppression in 1540 it was described as a church and cemetery, a belfry and a decayed hall with a garden. It had 32 acres in demesne and about 240 acres were leased out in counties Kildare and Meath at the unidentified Kylronay (60), Kylclasse (60), Ballynilug (Ballinlig, Co. Kildare) (20), Kyltaloyn (30), Ballyenfaga (10), and Toboyn (60). The abbey also held the churches of Kyllaghan (Killyon ME041-006----), Tyenan (Inan (?) – Croboy (?) (ME041-024----)), and Kilrainey, Co. Kildare (White 1943, 309-10). Some remains of this abbey may have survived into the early 19th century, but the description by Archdall quoted by Wilde (1850, 54-5) is of Newtown Trim (ME036-049----). The precise location of the Augustinian abbey is not known but it may have been close to the original church of St Finnian (ME047-007----), and it could be associated with the stone structure (dims c. 15m E-W; c. 7m N-S) identified in a remote sensing survey (Gibson 2011, 76) close to the burials (ME047-015----) that were exposed but not removed in 1976 (Sweetman 1978, 15). Compiled by: Michael Moore Date of upload: 8 April, 2015