14 THE RELIGIOUS PENSION ROLL OF DERBYSHIRE. 



There was also a definite reduction made of 4d. on each 

 quarterly payment, by the officials of the Augmentation Office 

 in London, or by the royal receiver of monastic properties 

 appointed in different parts of the country. In the earlier days 

 after the dissolution but few of the pensioners had to visit 

 London to obtain their instalments, as there were official 

 " receivers of augmentations " in almost every county or group 

 of counties ; but as time went on and the monastic spoils became 

 absorbed, the numbers of those who were obliged to go to 

 headquarters or to send authorised agents materially increased, 

 with the effect of still further reducing the amounts. 



After a few years' experience of the pension system, it was 

 found that pressing necessity or the cajoling of unprincipled 

 speculators had caused various of the disbanded religious to 

 part with their pension-securing patents or certificates for small 

 sums of ready money, " supplanting them to their utter undoing." 

 To prevent this evil an Act was passed in the third year of 

 Edward VI., entitled, " An Act against the crafty and deceitful 

 buying of pensions from the late monasteries."* By this 

 statute it was provided that all persons who had obtained 

 pension patents, to which they were not entitled, were to restore 

 them within six months, when they were to receive back what 

 they had originally paid; but if they failed to restore it the 

 grant was to be forfeited, and future payment made to the 

 original holder. By the same statute all officials and receivers 

 were ordered to pay all pensions on request under a penalty of 

 ^^5, and if they demanded more than the legal fee, they were 

 to forfeit ten times the amount taken. 



To secure the due working of this Act, and to check all kinds 

 of pension frauds, commissions were appointed to hold full 

 inquiries in each county. Most of the reports of these county 

 pension commissioners are extant, but some of those are 

 imperfect. Among them is the interesting and full report 

 for Derbyshire, to which, so far as I am aware, no one has 



2 and 3 Edward VI., cap. 7. 



