Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Gondibour, Thomas
GONDIBOUR or GOUDIBOUR, THOMAS (fl. 1484), prior of Carlisle—the only episcopal chapter belonging to the order of St. Austin in England—was prior (the twenty-eighth) from 1484 to 1507. During that time he made considerable additions to the monastery, erecting the refectory and other monastic buildings, only the foundations of which now remain, and was perhaps the most skilled architect ever in the priory. In the cathedral proofs of his great skill are still to be seen in the screen of St. Catherine's chapel, where his initials are on the scroll work. The screen which separated the choir from the aisles before 1764 was also his work. On an old chest in the vestry is the following Latin verse: ‘En domus hæc floruit Goudibour sub tegmine Thomæ.’ He and Castell, prior of Durham from 1494 to 1519, ‘are thoroughly identified with the use of an elegant and peculiar school of art,’ but it is impossible to say which of them had the priority (meeting of Society of Antiquaries at Newcastle-on-Tyne, 1863; Gent. Mag. 1864, i. 213).
[Dugdale, vi. 141; Burn and Nicolson's Hist. of Westmoreland and Cumberland, ii. 303; R. W. Billing's Hist. of Carlisle Cathedral, pp. 4, 27.]