# Geoffrey de Gorham > Mediated Wiki article. Canonical URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Geoffrey_de_Gorham > Markdown URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Geoffrey_de_Gorham.md > Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geoffrey_de_Gorham > Source revision: 1250565692 > License: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/) This article needs more citations. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Geoffrey de Gorham" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (November 2018) (Learn how and when to remove this message) Stone marking the 1978 reburial of the remains of Geoffrey de Gorham and other Abbots of St Albans at [St Albans Cathedral](/source/St_Albans_Cathedral) **Geoffrey de Gorham** (Goreham, [Gorron](/source/Gorron)), sometimes called Geoffrey of Dunstable or of Le Mans (died at [St Albans](/source/St_Albans), 26 February 1146), was a [Norman](/source/Normans) scholar who became [Abbot of St Albans Abbey](/source/Abbot_of_St_Albans_Abbey), 1119 to 1146.[1] ## Life Geoffrey, born in the [province of Maine](/source/Maine_(province)), then annexed to the [Dukedom of Normandy](/source/Dukedom_of_Normandy), was from a noble family of Caen, Normandy. He was invited by Richard d'Aubeney, Abbot of St Albans, to become master of the [Abbey school](/source/St_Albans_School_(Hertfordshire)). On his arrival, he found that, owing to his journey being delayed, another had been appointed, whereupon he opened a school at [Dunstable](/source/Dunstable).[1] According to the *Gesta Abbatum Monasterii Sancti Albani* ("The Deeds of the Abbots of the Monastery of St Alban"), Geoffrey staged a [miracle play](/source/Miracle_play) on [St. Katherine](/source/Catherine_of_Alexandria). A chronicle relates how he had borrowed some [copes](/source/Cope) from [St Albans Abbey](/source/St_Albans_Cathedral) for the performance, but had the misfortune to lose his books and the copes in a fire at his house in the night after the performance. To make up to God and the saint for the loss of the copes, he determined to become a monk of St Albans Abbey.[2] ### Abbot Here he rose to be prior, and finally was elected abbot on the death of Richard, in 1119. He ruled for twenty-six years, and the abbey prospered. He built a fine guests' hall, and an infirmary with a chapel. Although he spent large sums on a new shrine of [St Alban](/source/Saint_Alban), he did not hesitate during a year of famine to remove the silver plates and use them to relieve the poor. He translated the body of the saint to the completed shrine on 2 August 1129. He also founded the hospital of St. Julian for lepers, on the London road.[3] During the wars of King [Stephen](/source/Stephen_of_England)'s reign, he melted down other silver and gave it to [William of Ypres](/source/William_of_Ypres),[4] and the [Earl of Arundel](/source/William_d'Aubigny%2C_1st_Earl_of_Arundel), as ransom for the town of St. Albans, which they threatened to burn.[1][3] [St. Albans Psalter](/source/St._Albans_Psalter) Geoffrey endowed the nunnery at [Sopwell](/source/Sopwell_Priory).[5] [Markyate Priory](/source/Markyate_Priory), in [Hertfordshire](/source/Hertfordshire), was founded in 1145, in a wood which was then part of the parish of [Caddington](/source/Caddington), and belonged to the Dean and Chapter of [St Paul's Cathedral](/source/St_Paul's_Cathedral), London. The house was built under the patronage of Geoffrey, for his friend, the [recluse](/source/Recluse) [Christina of Markyate](/source/Christina_of_Markyate). It has been suggested by Janet Geddes and other scholars that Geoffrey's esteem for the prioress was such that he had a [psalter](/source/St._Albans_Psalter) made as a gift for her; and in celebration of their friendship had an illuminated "C" placed at the beginning of Psalm 105.[6] Geoffrey de Gorham died at St Albans 26 February 1146. His nephew Robert de Gorham became the eighteenth Abbot in 1151.[7] ## References 1. ^ [***a***](#cite_ref-Burton_1-0) [***b***](#cite_ref-Burton_1-1) [***c***](#cite_ref-Burton_1-2) [Burton, Edwin. "Geoffrey of Dunstable." The Catholic Encyclopedia](http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/06427b.htm) Vol. 6. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1909. 28 August 2022 This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the [public domain](/source/Public_domain). 1. **[^](#cite_ref-2)** Richard Axton, *European Drama of the Early Middle Ages* (1974), p. 161. 1. ^ [***a***](#cite_ref-Hunt_3-0) [***b***](#cite_ref-Hunt_3-1) ["Geoffrey of Gorham"](https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Dictionary_of_National_Biography,_1885-1900/Geoffrey_of_Gorham). *[Dictionary of National Biography](/source/Dictionary_of_National_Biography)*. London: [Smith, Elder & Co](/source/Smith%2C_Elder_%26_Co). 1885–1900. 1. **[^](#cite_ref-amt_4-0)** Amt, Emilie (1993). *The Accession of Henry II in England: Royal Government Restored, 1149-1159*. Boydell & Brewer. p. 88. [ISBN](/source/ISBN_(identifier)) [0851153488](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/0851153488). 1. **[^](#cite_ref-5)** [British History Online: Victoria County History, Hertfordshire - *A History of the County of Hertford: Volume 4*: Houses of Benedictine nuns: Sopwell Priory](https://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/herts/vol4/pp422-426) 1. **[^](#cite_ref-6)** Geddes, Jane. ["St Alban's Psalter translation and transcription"](https://www.abdn.ac.uk/stalbanspsalter/english/translation/trans285.shtml). 1. **[^](#cite_ref-7)** [Gorham, George Cornelius. *Genealogical accounts of the Breton and Anglo-Breton families De Gorram, in the Maine, Hertfordshire, Leicestershire and Northamptonshire, during the 12th, 13th, and 14th centuries.*, vol 1, J.B. Nichols and Son, 1837, p. 18](https://books.google.com/books?id=I2GFEIVDHwEC&dq=Geoffrey+de+Gorham&pg=PA18) **Attribution** - This article incorporates text from a publication now in the [public domain](/source/Public_domain): Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). "[Geoffrey of Dunstable](https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Catholic_Encyclopedia_(1913)/Geoffrey_of_Dunstable)". *[Catholic Encyclopedia](/source/Catholic_Encyclopedia)*. New York: Robert Appleton Company. - ["Geoffrey of Gorham"](https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Dictionary_of_National_Biography,_1885-1900/Geoffrey_of_Gorham). *[Dictionary of National Biography](/source/Dictionary_of_National_Biography)*. London: [Smith, Elder & Co](/source/Smith%2C_Elder_%26_Co). 1885–1900. --- Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Geoffrey de Gorham](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geoffrey_de_Gorham) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geoffrey_de_Gorham?action=history)). 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