Now Hist. or arch. Also 6 voiesse, woys(s)e, vowes, wowes; 6–7 vowesse. [Cf. VOWER1 and -ESS.]
1. A woman, esp. a widow, who has taken a vow of chastity for the remainder of her life.
1506. Lincoln Wills (1914), I. 44. I Jane Harby of Lincoln, Wowes, mak my testament, [etc.].
1512. Nottingham Rec., III. 453. Agnes Mellars, wydowe and vowesse.
1546. Bale, Eng. Votaries, I. 13. And at hys departure in the mornynge, he neyther commaunded Peter to breake vp howsholde, nor yet to forsake hys wyfe and make her a vowesse.
1865. Test. Ebor. (Surtees), III. 312. A lady, after her husband’s death, was allowed to take the vow of chastity, and she was then called a vowess.
1875. Henderson, Liber Pontificalis Chr. Bainbridge, Pref. p. xl. At the Benedictio Viduæ, the Vowess in a blue dress with white hood … is kneeling before the Bishop.
2. A woman who makes a vow of devotion to a religious life; a nun.
1533. More, Answ. Poysoned Bk., Wks. 1060/1. Some vowesses peraduenture ther are, which as yet neuer intend to breake their vow.
1553. Becon, Reliques Rome (1563), 37 b. A certayne vowesse or professed nunne.
1587. Holinshed, Chron., III. 1080/2. Vpon which toome there laie a stone image of Edith in the habit of a vowesse holding a hart in hir right hand.
1611. Speed, Hist. Gt. Brit., VII. vii. 227. She abandoned her Regencie, and built a house of deuotion in the Ile of Shepey, wherein herselfe became a Vowesse.
1695. Kennett, Par. Antiq., ix. 660. A rich Tomb … with her image thereon, in the habit of a Vowess Crown’d.
