St Mary de Pre was originally founded in 1194 as a leper hospital for women, but the number of lepers dwindled and by the late fourteenth century it was simply a convent for a prioress and about ten nuns. It was founded by Warin, abbot of St Albans, and it maintained a very close relationship with St Albans Abbey, following the same Benedictine rule. Its exact location is not known, but it may have been about a mile northwest of the abbey along the River Ver. By the time of the Dissolution all the nuns had left, and Henry VIII granted the priory and the abbey to Cardinal Wolsey.
“Houses of Benedictine nuns: St Mary de Pre priory, St Albans.” A History of the County of Hertford: Volume 4. Ed. William Page. London: Victoria County History, 1971. 428-432. British History Online. Web. 14 October 2019. http://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/herts/vol4/pp428-432.
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