[3] The publication of this information by the important Shropshire historian Robert William Eyton in 1856 directly contradicted his own conviction, published only a year earlier, of a date in the reigns of Richard I of England or John,[4] as well as casting into doubt older traditions linking the priory with Archbishop Hubert Walter.

No lay person claimed the right to nominate or approve the appointment of a prioress, or to exploit the estates during vacancies: only the Bishop of Coventry and Lichfield ever intervened.

[4] The dedication was to Leonard of Noblac, a French saint associated with the liberation of prisoners, who was extremely popular after a number of alleged miracles earlier in the 12th century.

The dedication is attested fairly early in the history of the priory: for example, a 1212 charter of King John says it is a confirmation monialibus Sancti Leonardi de Brewud – to the nuns of St Leonard at Brewood.

However, the register of Richard Swinefield, a 14th-century Bishop of Hereford, clearly refers to transferring rights to prioressse et conventui albarum monialium sancti Leonardi de Brewod, Coventrensis et Lichefeldensis diocesis, ordinis sancti Augustini:[15] "the prioress and convent of St Leonard of Brewood, (in the diocese of Coventry and Lichfield,) of the Order of St Augustine.

He visited Brewood on at least three occasions and it was possibly on one of these that he gave the priory a weir called Withlakeswere on the River Severn near Bridgnorth,[18] which would create fishing rights.

White Ladies must have held 12 bovates of land at Calverton in Nottinghamshire from early in its history but in 1212 a charter of King John removed all secular demands and obligations stemming from it.

Issued during the Interdict, this demonstration of the king's piety was witnessed by a group of notables, headed by a favourite, William d'Aubigny, 3rd Earl of Arundel.

On 8 December 1232, while visiting Shrewsbury, he granted the priory the right to assart, enclose and cultivate an acre and a half in the woods near Calverton.

Another relatively distant possession of White Ladies was the church at Tibshelf in Derbyshire, the advowson of which must have been granted early in the history of the priory.

In order to obtain a licence from Edward II to appropriate the church into mortmain, the prioress and convent had to part with a fine of £10, a very large sum for the priory at any stage in its history.

[22] Evidently the details of the transaction took some time to work out, as it was not until 7 July 1319 that Bishop Walter Langton was able to issue an ordinance defining the vicar's allotment of land and directing that he be paid 40 shillings annually, divided into equal payments at Easter and Michaelmas.

[27] Beside its holdings in the East Midlands, the priory held many very small pieces of property, mostly donated by local families, around Brewood and scattered across Shropshire to its south and west.

[30] Richard de Harley and his wife Burga went to considerable trouble and expense to donate property and rights to the priory, the most important being the advowson of Bold church, which was in southern Shropshire and part of the Diocese of Hereford.

Edward II's licence was issued on 6 August, permitting the transfer of a messuage and half a virgate of land at Bold, in addition to the advowson.

On 1 November, the day he licensed the appropriation of Tibshelf church, Edward II also permitted, for a fine of £5, the grant of 30 acres to the priory by Hugh de Beumeys.

For example, the expanding population and rising market of the 13th century meant that pasture land was brought under increasingly close management,[42] which posed dangers for small landholders and tenants, like White Ladies.

The priory must have acquired a small estate at Rudge, near Pattingham but within Shropshire, some time before 1292 as in that year Prioress Sarra (Sarah) sued William de Rugg, the lord of the manor for denying her use of common pasture.

The jury found that William had contravened his tenants' historic rights and deprived them of pasture they required for their animals through enclosures designed to improve his estate.

In 1305 the prioress of the time, possibly still Sarah, arraigned an assize of novel disseisin to assert her rights against William Wycher, who seems to have been particularly aggressive in enclosing commons after taking control through marriage of the manor of Blymhill, which neighboured the priory demesne.

[49] By the Dissolution, White Ladies had lands, property or rights at Brewood, Bridgnorth, Beckbury, Berrington, Chatwall (in Cardington), Donington, High Ercall, Clee St. Margaret, Humphreston (in Donington), Ingardine (in Stottesdon), Highley, Rudge, Haughton (probably in Shifnal), Sutton Maddock, Tong, Shrewsbury, Montford and other villages in the West Midlands.

He arranged for a notice to be read in churches, making clear that they should, when found, be admonished to return within ten days and threatening both them and their abettors with excommunication.

She was censured for expensae voluptariae, expenditure on pleasure, relating to her extravagant dress and the keeping of canes venatici, greyhounds or other hunting dogs, in the convent, and for a general laxity of discipline.

[58] Alice died in 1349, shortly after the initial onset of the Black Death, and the chapter agreed to submit the election of her successor, Beatrice de Dene, to Northburgh.

[54] When Prioress Alice Wood retired in 1498, she was assigned the income from Tibshelf, about a fifth of the total revenues, as a pension, but Bishop Arundel required that she pay for her own food if she stayed at Brewood.

In 1521 it was found that, although the priory was actually not in debt, the prioress, probably Margaret Sandford, did not know how to render account and two canonesses claimed they were still owed their monthly incomes.

A pension of £5 went to the prioress, Margaret Sandford (rendered as Stamford), while the site went to William Skeffington (also Skevington) of Wolverhampton and a number of the smaller estates were leased.

After Edward, White Ladies passed to his son, John, who extended the old farm buildings north of the priory site to create Boscobel House about 1630.

After failing to cross the River Severn, Charles returned to the estate on 6 September and spent the day in the grounds of Boscobel House hiding in the famous Royal Oak.

Part of the house was still standing in 1791, as shown in a sketch by Edward Williams, vicar of St Mary Magdalene's Church, Battlefield.