The fearful pestilence of the fourteenth century, called the Black Death, 

 which devastated the whole of Europe, reached Derbyshire in May, 1349, 

 This county suffered severely from it. Seventy-seven beneficed clergymen 

 of Derbyshire died in that one dread period, and three successive vicars of 

 Pentrich all died in the same fatal year. 



It is mentioned in Dugdale's " Monasticon," that on the foundation of Darley 

 Abbey, 1175, this church, with a considerable number of other Derbyshire 

 churches, was bestowed upon that establishment. 



The gift consisted of the advowson of the rectory of Pentrich only, but before 

 long the Abbey of Darley had appropriated the great tithes, which to this day 

 the church has never regained. At that early date the Parish of Pentrich 

 consisted mostly of forest. The pannage of the forest for 40 pigs was given to 

 Darley Abbey and confirmed by the Archbishop of Canterbury. The Lord of 

 the Manor had also granted a portion of the lands of Pentrich to the Knights 

 Hospitallers of St. John of Jerusalem, who possessed a chapel at Waingriff in 

 this parish. Disagreements very soon arose between the Knights and the 

 Abbey about the number of swine to be turned into the woods, and a lawsuit 

 decided that the Knights' claim should be limited to 20 swine and no goats. 

 In connection with this affair, the wood in question is described as being 

 bounded on the one side by the Camp of Pentrich, referring doubtless to the 

 Roman Camp that used to be at Pentrich ; the half-way station on the Icknield 

 Street between Little Chester and Chesterfield. 



" Abbots and monks," says Fuller in his Church History, " were notoriously 

 covetous ; not only did they appropriate to their convents glebes and tithes of 

 churches, leaving but a poor pittance to the parish vicar, but they engrossed 

 trade, and became brewers, farmers, tanners, and kept these trades and others 

 besides in their own hands." It appears that at Pentrich they were ironmasters 

 in the thirteenth century, for in one of the Darley Abbey documents it is stated 

 that Hugh Fitzpiers, of Ulkerthorp, releases the Abbey from all damage from 

 burning the wood of Pentrich, and for making of iron mines within the same 

 wood. At the dissolution of monasteries, the lands held by Darley at Pentrich 

 and Ripley fell to the Crown, and were granted to a family of the name of 

 Zouch of Codnor, from whence they passed to the Cavendishes. 



In the year 1552, in the sixth year of the reign of Edward VI., the Com- 

 missioners appointed to take inventories of Church goods found in Pentrich 

 Church the following : — 



I Chalyce parcell gylte. 



3 Corporas cases. 



3 Parcells for albs. 



I Cope of red silk of colour with flowers. * 



I Vestement of the same. 



I Vestement of red sattyn. 



