[1] Sempringham Priory was spread over an area of 80 acres (0.32 km2) of undulating topography located below the ruins of a major Tudor house skirting the Lincolnshire Fens, which is limestone country.

The supreme ruler of the order was the master, who, subject to good behaviour and health, was elected for life at a general chapter by representatives of nuns and canons from all the houses.

According to the rule, his consent was necessary for all sales and purchases of lands, woods, and everything above the value of three marks, and his seal was affixed to all charters, but these provisions were later modified in practice.

Early in 1165, Gilbert and all the priors were summoned to Westminster to answer a charge of having sent money abroad to Thomas Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury, and of having helped him to escape from England, the penalty for which was exile.

In 1189, the possessions of the priory included the whole township of Sempringham, with the parish church and the chapel of Pointon, the granges of Kirkby, Marham, Cranwell, Fulbeck, Thorpe, Bramcote, Walcote, Thurstanton, the hermitage of Hoyland, a mill in Birthorpe, half a knight's fee in Laughton (Locton), the mills of Folkingham, and the churches of Billingborough, Stowe with the chapel of Birthorpe, Hanington, Aslackby, Buxton, Brunesthorp, Kirkby, Bradstow, and moieties of Trowell and Laughton.

The Gilbertines were tempted by their exemptions from all tolls and customs to act, like the Cistercians, as factors in the wool trade throughout the county; ecclesiastical and royal prohibitions alike failed to check them from disobeying their own rule.

In 1228, he relieved the priory of the expense of providing food during the meeting of the general chapter at the motherhouse on the Rogation days by his gift of the church of Fordham, which was worth 55 marks a year.

The Scottish house at Dalmulin on the north bank of the River Ayr, which was founded and endowed by Walter FitzAlan about 1221, was abandoned, and its possessions were transferred to the abbot and convent of Paisley Abbey in consideration of a yearly payment of 40 marks to Sempringham.

The annual payment of 40 marks was felt as a grievous burden by Paisley Abbey, and seems to have been ignored in several years for, in 1246, the prior and convent of Sempringham appealed to Innocent IV to right them.

[7] They were obliged to pay the whole of the expenses of the suit and remit half the arrears of the debt on condition that Paisley should make regular payments from that time onwards.

In 1268, after a careful study of the reports of the visitors, a series of injunctions was drawn up by Ralph of Huntingdon, a Dominican chaplain in the service of the legate, with the aid of Richard, chief scrutator of the order.

The priors were warned against conducting business and manumitting servile lands and serfs without consulting their fellow proctors and seeking the consent of their chapters.

It was doubtless on account of the important share of the order in the wool trade that Edward II asked in 1313 for a loan of 1,000 marks, and in 1315 for £2,000, for the assessment of all its spiritualities and temporalities scarcely exceeded £3,000.

At the general chapter in 1304, it was decided, "on account of frequent and continuous royal and papal tenths, contributions and exactions," that in each house a grange, church, or fixed rent should be set aside to meet those demands.

In 1290, Nicholas IV granted a licence to the prior and canons of Sempringham to have within their house a discreet and learned doctor of theology to teach those of their brethren who desired to study that science.

Two years later, Robert Luttrell, rector of Irnham, gave a house and lands at Stamford that canons from Sempringham Priory might study divinity and philosophy at the university which was then flourishing in that town.

The rebuilding of other parts of the monastery was also in contemplation, for in 1306, the prior and convent obtained a papal bull enabling them to appropriate the churches of Thurstanton and Norton Disney for that purpose.

[7] Probably by reason of its position as the head house of a purely English order, Sempringham was in high favour with the three Edwards, who sent there wives and daughters of their chief enemies.

Gwenllian, the daughter of Llywelyn ap Gruffudd, the last Welsh-born Prince of Wales, was sent to Sempringham as a little child, after her father's death in 1283, and died a nun of the house 54 years later.

[8] In 1330, the priors of Sempringham and Haverholme, accompanied by several of their canons and other persons, were charged by William of Querington and Brian of Herdeby with raiding a close at Evedon, cutting down the trees, carrying away timber, and depasturing and destroying corn with plough cattle.

The next year the prior lodged a complaint against Brian of Herdeby and others who had assaulted a canon and a lay brother at Evedon, consumed his crops and grass at Burton, hunted in his free warren there, and carried off hares and partridges.

In 1399, Boniface IX gave permission to the master, priors, canons, lay brothers, nuns and sisters of the order of Sempringham to farm, to fit laymen or clerks for a fixed time, their manors, churches, chapels, pensions, stipends and possessions, without requiring the licence of the ordinary.

In 1397, Boniface IX sent a mandate to the archbishops of Canterbury and York and the bishop of Ely, to investigate the charges against William of Beverley, who was elected master in 1393.

It was reported that on his visitation, he took immoderate procurations, burdened the houses by the excessive number of the members of his household and of his horses, and committed many grievances and enormities against the statutes of the order.

In 1405, the pope issued another mandate, stating that William of Beverley, master of the order, had dilapidated diverse goods, movable and immovable, had enormously damaged it, reduced it to great poverty, and continued in the same course.

A 14th-century flyleaf inscription of an ancient manuscript of a pre-Wycliffe version of the Lord's Prayer in Middle English credited to Augustine of Hippo (354–430), Alexander Neckam (1157–1217), and others was a collection which was in the possession of Gilbertine Priory at Sempringham.

Amen.The fake religious Order of Brothelyngham, which rampaged through Exeter in 1348 kidnapping people and extorting money from them probably named itself thus as a satirical nod towards Sempringham, which at the time was also known humorously as Simplingham.

In 1445, Henry VI granted to Nicholas Resby, master of the order, that the houses of Sempringham, Haverholme, Catley, Bullington, Sixhills, North Ormsby, and Alvingham should be free and exempt from all aids, subsidies, and tallages, and should never contribute to any payments of tenths or fifteenths made by the whole body of the clergy or of the provinces of Canterbury and York separately.

[7] However, the prior and convent of Sempringham were compelled to pay £40 in 1522 as their share of a grant from the spirituality towards Henry VIII's personal expenses in France for the recovery of that crown.

The remainder of the property included granges or lands and tenements at Sempringham, Threckingham, Stow, Pointon, Dowsby, Ringesdon Dyke, Billingborough, Horbling, Walcote, Newton, Pickworth, Osburnby, Kysby, Folkingham, Aslackby, Woodgrange, Kirkby, Bulby, Morton, Wrightbald, Brothertoft, Wilton, Kirton Holme, Wrangle, Cranwell, Stragglethorpe, Carlton and Fulbeck, and a few other places in Lincolnshire; Ketton and Cottesmore in Rutland; Pickwell, Thurstanton and Willoughby in Leicestershire; Bramcote, Trowell, and Chinwell in Nottinghamshire; and Walton in Derbyshire.