Sempringham No. 2 / Semperingham / Sepingeham / Spingeham / Stepingeham

There are three entries for Semprinham in the Domesday survey [https://opendomesday.org/place/TF1032/sempringham/] [accessed 3 May 2019], two of which report "0.7 churches" and "0.3 churches" respectively. The entry for this Gilbertine priory in the Victoria County History (Lincoln, vol. 2, 1906) notes: "The Order of Sempringham had its origin in 1131. [...]In or about that year Gilbert of Sempringham left the household of Alexander, bishop of Lincoln, and returned to serve the parish church of Sempringham, of which he was rector. [...] He found there seven maidens, who had learnt the way of holiness from him as children, and longed to live a strict religious life. Gilbert, having inherited from his father lands and possessions in Sempringham, resolved to give such wealth as he had for the use of those maidens. With the help and advice of Alexander, he set up buildings and a cloister for them against the north wall of the church, which stood on his own land at Sempringham. [...] In 1301 Prior John de Hamilton began to build a new church for the priory, [...] as the earlier one had fallen into disrepair. Ten years before Nicholas IV had granted lavish indulgences to penitents who visited the priory church and chapels of St. John, St. Stephen, and St. Catherine, [...] so the proceeds from their offerings were available. 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. [...] However, the church was still unfinished in 1342"; the VCH entry further notes that soon after that date, in 1349, a huge flood affected the church here, "a great storm and flood, the water in the church rose as high as the capitals of the pillars, and in the cloister and other buildings it was six feet deep. Many of the books were destroyed", which must have been compounded with the ravages of the Black Death at the time; "In 1400 a papal indulgence was granted for the repair of the priory church". [NB: we have no information on the font of the disappeared priory church here].