The nunnery was never prosperous, in common with other religious associations of women in the region, due to the unsettled nature of the area caused by the proximity to the Scottish border.

In 1227, Archbishop Walter Gray granted the appropriation of the church of St. Michael of Irton to the prioress and convent of Lekeley to alleviate their poverty.

In 1459, Thomas York, abbot of Holmcultram, leased all the lands the abbey possessed between the Rivers Esk and Duddon called Lekeley, to Elizabeth Croft, prioress, for 12 years at an annual rent of twenty shillings.

A fragment of what appears to have been the tombstone of a prioress was built into the wall of a barn at High Hyton not far from the nunnery.

From the charges made in 1536 by Layton and Legh, Joan Copland was the prioress at that date and that Susanna Rybton was an inmate of the house.