St. Osyth's Abbey (or St Osyth's Priory) was a house of Augustinian canons in the parish of St. Osyth, Chich, in Essex, England. Founded by the Richard de Belmeis, Bishop of London, circa 1121, it became one of the largest monasteries in Essex and was dedicated to Saints Peter and Paul as well as St. Osyth.[1] Bishop Richard obtained the arm bone of St. Osyth from Aylesbury for the monastic church and granted the canons the parish church of St. Osyth.
The monastery began as a priory, possibly a daughter house of Holy Trinity, Aldgate. The first prior of St. Osyth's was William de Corbeil, who was elected archbishop of Canterbury in 1123 and who crowned King Stephen in 1135.[2] William of Malmesbury spoke in praise of the piety and learning of the canons at St. Osyth's in the twelfth century. [3] One of the second generation of canons there was William de Vere, later bishop of Hereford, who wrote a Latin life of St. Osyth in which he mentions that his mother Adeliza, daughter of Gilbert fitz Richard of Clare, had been a corodian at the abbey for twenty years of her widowhood.
A charter of King Henry II confirmed the right of the canons of St. Osyth's to elect their abbot and to hold a market every Sunday at Chich in the later 12th century.
The monastery was dissolved in 1539 by King Henry VIII, at which time there was a prior and sixteen canons. The king granted it to his minister Thomas Cromwell, but on his fall from favor the abbey and its estates were returned to crown possession. In the reign of King Edward VI they were sold to Sir Thomas Darcy for just under £400.[4] The gatehouse, dating from the late 15th century, is the most significant remnant of the original monastic structures still standing. The exterior is a fine example of decorative flint work.