Hildelith

Abbess of Barking Earconwald is said to have engaged Hildelith to instruct his sister Æthelburh, abbess of the monastery which he had founded at Barking.

It is not known who replaced her as the next known abbess is Wulfhild (c940-1000), three centuries later and just prior to the Norman Invasion. She was unique in that under her control the abbey acted as a double monastery.

Death and burial The date of Hildilid's death is uncertain, but Bede speaks of her long rule and says she lived to a great age and historian Katie Bugyis states that Hildelith died sometime after 686. A letter dated to 716 from Saint Boniface to Eadburga, Abbess of Minster mentions Hildilid She was abbess until about 700 AD and she may have died about 725 AD, being buried in Barking. On the other hand, an excavation of Hartlepool Abbey in 1833 found human burials and Anglo-Saxon artefacts, several of which, in consultation with the British Archaeological Association, were identified, including Hildelith, along with two other nuns of Barking Abbey, Eadgyd and Torchtgyd. However, this later 'identification' has been more recently discredited by Tees Archaeology, who hold the Historic Environment Records for all known archaeological sites in Hartlepool and Stockton-on-Tees. See the Corpus Record of Anglo Saxon Stone Sculpture for further details.