321 
she became broken-hearted and died the year following, while Richard, 
her husband, was killed at Bosworth Field. The Manor of Fairford 
eventually became vested in Henry VII, who appointed Sir Roger 
Torott as his Steward of the Manor. 
The wool trade under the management of Tame seems to have 
flourished, and he at length, on retiring from active work, took up his 
residence in the Old Manor House at Fairford by an arrangement with 
Sir Roger, about the year 1491, and he seems to have lived there in 
1495. 
The founding of the Church at Fairford has been ascribed to this 
John Tame, at least if we may credit a statement in Hearne’s version 
ot Leland. There seems however some doubts if this statement is 
correct, and the probability is rather that he embellished zt. (See Mr. 
Holt’s paper on the Tames of Fairford, Journal of Arch. Ass., 
vol, xxvii. p. 123, 1871.) It is asserted in Sir Robert Atkins’ 
Gloucestershire, that John Tame, in 1492. took as a prize a ship 
bound for Rome, in which was certain painted glass ; that he brought 
the glass and workmen into England, and founded Fairford Church for 
the sake of the glass, and dedicated it to the Virgin Mary in 1493. 
That » Church existed at Fairford long before this date there can be 
no doubt, and that it was dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary. There 
exists a record that the Advowson of Fairford Church was granted to 
Matthew de Winter, born in A.D. 1218, and it is known to have been 
under the Mother Church of Worcester, in which diocese the county 
of Gloucester was included, prior to the Reformation. Under the 
authority of Mother Church a peculiar right was conferred upon the 
Abbots of Tewkesbury as Visitors of Fairford Church, which is known 
from the registry at Worcester. The Church was, therefore, built and 
consecrated long before the time of John Tame. It appears, however, 
to have been rebuilt some time between A.D. 1490 and a.D. 1495, 
not by John Tame but by the wealthy ecclesiastical communities of 
the Cathedral Church at Worcester, and the Abbey of Tewkesbury, 
with which it was connected. 
This subject has been well sifted by Mr. Holt in his papers on the 
Tames of Fairford, and he gives his reasons why John Tame was not 
at all a likely person to have built or endowed a Church at Fairford ; 
but that he founded and endowed a chantry in the north chapel of 
E 
