Lenton Priory was a Cluniac monastic house in Nottinghamshire, founded by William Peverel circa 1102-8. The priory was granted a large endowment of property in Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire by its founder, which became the cause of violent disagreement following its seizure by the crown and its reassignment to Lichfield Cathedral. The priory was home mostly to French monks until the late 14th century when the priory was freed from the control of its foreign mother-house. From the 13th-century the priory struggled financially and was noted for "its poverty and indebtedness". The priory was dissolved as part of King Henry VIII's Dissolution of the Monasteries. History Foundation The priory was founded by William Peverel circa 1102-8 in the manor of Lenton, Nottingham, about 1½ miles south-west of the town of Nottingham and was dedicated to the Holy Trinity. The foundation charter states that Peverel founded it "out of love of divine worship and for the good of the souls of his lord King William (i.e. William the Conqueror), of his wife Queen Matlida, of their son King William and of all their and his ancestors". The priory was an "alien establishment" and thus owed allegiance to a foreign mother house. Lenton's mother-house was Cluny Abbey in France. Usually a priory would pay a proportion of its income to its mother-house; however, Peverel established in the foundation charter that Lenton Priory would be free from the obligation to pay tribute to Cluny, "save the annual payment of a mark of silver as an acknowledgement". William Peverel gave Lenton Priory a substantial endowment which included: the townships of Lenton, Keighton, Morton and Radford (all in Nottingham), Courteenhall, Northamptonshire, and all of their appurtenances and seven mills; land and woodland in Newthorpe and Papplewick; control of the churches of St Mary, St Peter and St Nicholas, all in the town of Nottingham; the churches at Langar, Linby and Radford; the tithes raised from Peverel's fisheries throughout Nottingham; portions of the tithes from his lands throughout the Peak District including those from Ashford, Bakewell, Bradwell, Buxton, Callow, Chelmorton, Cowdale, Darnall, Dunningestede, Fernilee, Holme, Hucklow, Newbold, Quatford, Shallcross, Stanton, Sterndale, Tideswell and Wormhill; all the tithes raised from his colts and fillies in his stud-farms in the Peak District; the tithes from the lead and venison from his lands in Derbyshire; part of the tithes from Blisworth and Duston and the churches of Courteenhall, Harlestone, Irchester