History of the Building
This building originated in 1107 when Hugh de Leicester built a Priory here to the honour of St Mary of La Charite and St Augustine.
There were originally four canons but by the fourteenth century the number of monks had risen to eighteen and, prior to the dissolution, the Priory was well endowed with land and churches.
During a visitation by the Bishop in 1442, Prior Robert was accused of adultery with Agnes Mason of Daventry We do not know the outcome of the charges but he was still in office in 1446!
Two Kings have visited our Priory, Richard II was supping in the refectory when he had news of his forces in Flanders, he rose in haste and galloped out of the town.
Edward IV was in the Priory at Daventry on Palm Sunday 7th April 1471. This was during the Wars of the Roses and Edward was on his way to confront Warwick the Kingmaker. His soldiers gathered at the Market Cross and, soon afterwards, Edward defeated the Lancastrians at Barnet.
Cardinal Wolsey asked for a gift of land from the Priory to endow his proposed new college at Oxford, the Priory refused and Wolsey dissolved it in 1526, much earlier than most dissolutions.
Five men acted for the Cardinal and there is a tale that tells us:
Two fell at discord between themselves, one slew the other for which the survivor was hanged. The third drowned in a well. The fourth became so poor he begged to his dying day. The fifth became maimed in Ireland
After the dissolution, the Priory building was allowed to decay. A noted historian who visited Daventry in 1720 wrote Mr Palmer (the owner) let the Priory building to the landlord of The Swan Inn who has made it a woodhouse”
The remains of the Priory were converted to a workhouse, school and gaol lock-up with three large cells and was completed in 1826.
After 900 years, Daventry Priory is now known as Casey's Club