No, she's not an Augustinian canon or canoness. I've just accidentally come across her in Birch.
Agnes, Anchoress of the Church 'de la Hethe', Colchester.
2987 [A.D.1284-5.] Discoloured white: a fragment. About 1 1/8” x 1” when perfect. [Harl. ch. 44 E. 17] Pointed oval: a fleur-de-lis, inverted. Legend reversed: + S’ AGN’T…
This church is St Leonard-at-the-Hythe. (The wonderful Simon Knott has visited it, so there are some nice photos.) VCH says that an anchoress was associated with the church in 1290-1. Clearly, her name was Agnes. (Agnes Dei? Groan.) Anchoresses lived in a cell next a church. They spent all their time in it. There's a nice article on anchoresses here, although it doesn't answer my ever-nagging questions - what did they do about going to the loo (or, rather, clearing it up) and what about washing (mainly that horrid female curse, the period)? The most famous anchoress was another East Anglian, Julian of Norwich, who was about 100 years Agnes' junior. There's a good cell (the vestiges of) at St Anne's Lewes, too.
About Agnes, however, we know nothing. Except that she had a seal. This is most peculiar. Why should an anchoress need a seal? I don't yet know what the seal is sealing, as Birch's reference doesn't seem to tally with the current BL catalogues... Another rabbit-hole to disappear down.......
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