THE ABBOTS OF DALE. 99 
in accordance with the instructions of the “ Visitors.” It isa 
suspicious circumstance that both the persons charged with 
immorality should be given assumed names. 
The last public act of Abbot John Bebe was in 1538, when he 
appended his name, as did also sixteen Canons, to the so-called 
Deed of Surrender. The original, which is dated Oct. 24, 30 
Henry VIII., is now in the Public Record Office. 
The last notice of this Abbot is in the Inventory of the Abbey, 
taken on the day of the Surrender.* 
Rewardes gyven ffyrst to John bede (sic) 
to the Abbot & late Abbott. vj/ xiijs iiijd 
Convent ther at 
their departure 
and further on in the same document, among the 
Pencions and Stypends appoynted and 
allottyd to the late abbot & Convent 
of the said late Monastery by the 
foreseid Commissiono's 
ffyrst to John Bebe late Abbott xxvj/z xiijs iiijd 
The chronology of the Dale Abbots is somewhat difficult to 
work out satisfactorily. ‘To begin with, the date of the foundation 
is given by the Canons of the Abbey in {their returns to Bishop 
Redman, as 1204, but the actual year seems to be 1199-1200. 
For the second Abbot was translated to Prémontre in Oct., 1233, 
and working back with the recorded lengths of rule, we get to 
January, 1199-1200, as fhe time when Walter de Senteney 
became Abbot. 
Two dates of election have come down to us, of Abbots 
William Horsley and Richard Nottingham, but the intermediate 
years from 1332 to 1491 cannot be fixed with certainty ; for, 
assuming that no greater interval than a few days intervened 
between the death of an Abbot and the election of his predecessor, 
the recorded lengths of rule exceed the actual time by two years. 
_ The following is a full list of the Abbots of Dale, showing the 
dates when they ruled, as far as can be made out with any degree 
of certainty :—-- 
* Public Record Office. Augmentation Office Misc. Book, 172. 
