There was
2 different Thomas 's in different periods that were the Priors of Coldingham
They were both monks and also were to live in celibacy and so there is little chance they were an ancestor of any NN line
I will get back to them in another posting
As I have seen one of these as an ancestor on NN lines-I am posting the following information about the monks of Coldingham/Durham
Coldingham Priory was a house of
Benedictine monks. It lies on the south-east coast of Scotland, in the village of Coldingham, Berwickshire. Coldingham Priory was founded in the reign of David I of Scotland, although his older brother and predecessor King Edgar of Scotland had granted the land of Coldingham to the Church of Durham in 1098, and a church was constructed by him and presented in 1100 Coldingham was controlled by the Mother house was Durham Cathedral.
The Order of Saint Benedict (Latin name: Ordo Sancti Benedicti) is a
Roman Catholic religious order of independent monastic communities that observe the Rule of St. Benedict. Within the order,
each individual community (which may be a monastery, a priory or abbey) maintains its own autonomy, while the organization as a whole exists to represent their mutual interests
The Benedictine Order comprises monks living under the Rule of St. Benedict, and commonly known as "black monks".
The word monk (monos) means single, and both celibacy and poverty went without saying.
The Benedictine rule specified that monks should own nothing
each monastery should form an independent, self-supporting community whose Benedictine monks had no need of going beyond its limits for anything.
In course of time, as a monastery increased in wealth and number of inmates, it might come to form an enormous establishment, covering many acres and presenting within its massive walls the appearance of a fortified town
They occupied themselves with a regular round of worship, reading, and manual labor.
Each day was divided into seven sacred offices, beginning and ending with services in the monastery church. The first service came usually about two o'clock in the morning; the last, just as evening set in, before the Benedictine monks retired to rest. In addition to their attendance at church, the monks spent several hours in reading from the Bible, private prayer, and meditation. For most of the day, however, they worked hard with their hands, doing the necessary washing and cooking for the monastery, raising the necessary supplies of vegetables and grain, and performing all the other tasks required to maintain a large establishment.
The civilizing influence of the Benedictine monks during the early Middle Ages can scarcely be over-emphasized.
The role of the monasteries and the Benedictine monks was as follows:
received pilgrims and travellers, at a period when western Europe was almost destitute of inns
performed many works of charity, feeding the hungry, healing the sick who were brought to their doors, and distributing their medicines freely to those who needed them
provided education for boys who wished to become priests and those who intended to lead active lives in the world
copied the manuscripts of classical authors, they preserved valuable books that would otherwise have been lost
were the only scholars of the age
kept records of the most striking events of their time and acted as chroniclers of the medieval history of the Middle Ages
(from them we have the earliest records to be found about the lands of Nisbet)
If you want to read more http://www.middle-ages.org.uk/benedictine-monks.htm