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Adam Elmeley

prior of Colpe and canon of Llanthony Prima

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General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionAug 29, 2026
Entity authorityQ140660985
Source-derived summary

Adam Elmeley was prior of Colpe, an Irish cell of Llanthony Prima. He frequently served as Llanthony's attorney and representative in Ireland.

Early life

Little is known about Elmeley's early life. Arlene Hogan speculated that he may have been from Colpe, where a John Elmeley held a cottage in 1408 and where people from Elmley in Worcestershire had settled. Hogan stated that if he were local he would have been sent to England for his education, as Llanthony Priory did not have the facilities to educate him in Ireland.

Llanthony Priory

Elmeley was ordained an acolyte with two other canons of Llanthony Prima at Lydney Church in Gloucestershire on 23 September 1363. He was ordained a deacon in 1364 and a priest the following year.

Between 1378 and 1413 he served as Llanthony Prima's procurator in Ireland and as the prior of its dependent cell at Colpe. In 1378 Elmeley was recorded as proctor in a case regarding the restoration of the church of Ardcath in the diocese of Meath. He was subsequently recorded several times as Llanthony's attorney and representative in Ireland, conducting litigation on the priory's behalf.

Editorial summary

Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Adam Elmeley” is prior of Colpe and canon of Llanthony Prima. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Adam, Elmeley and prior, not as a finished interpretation.

Editorial reviewA practical starting point whose main value is the path it opens into stronger specialist and primary sources. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1408, 1363, 1364, 1378—that can be checked directly. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. For this dossier, Adam, Elmeley and prior is the immediate research focus.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The phrase “prior of Colpe and canon of Llanthony Prima” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.

Evidence profile

Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 29, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q140660985. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1408, 1363, 1364 and 1378.

Critical limits

The absence of detail may reflect summary conventions rather than a lack of surviving documentation. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

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Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from Adam Elmeley” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.