By Sir Charles Hobhouse, Bart. 87 



properties are not above the clere yerely value of two hundredth 

 poundes/' passed the Houses of Parliament, and that the properties 

 of the said monasteries were " gy ven to the King's Highnes, his 

 heires and successores.'' * 



And it was not until St. Bartholomew's Day, 15S5, that Dr. 

 Layton, Cromwell's Commissary, held his enquiry at our Priory. 

 Therefore at that time the Priory and all its buildings were still 

 standing in their integrity. But five years later Leland speaks of 

 it in the past tense. Here, he says, " by the village there was a 

 priorie, stand inge on a little hille, sumtyme having blak monkes, 

 a pi'ior and a convent of 13," and further on he adds that '^Monke- 

 ton Farley was a late gyven to the Erie of Hertford." ^ 



So the Priory and all its buildings were in existence in the lattCT 

 end of the year 1535, but in 1540 the Priory itself was gone. 



It does not follow, however, that all its buildings, secular as well 

 as ecclesiastical, were gone, for the custom of the king's commission- 

 ers was only to destroy the ecclesiastical or so-called useless buildings, 

 and to sell or give away the estates with the secular part of the 

 buildings intact. 



Thus, in the case of the mother Priory of St. Pancras, John 

 Portinari writes to Cromwell, 24th March, 1537, describing how he 

 took with him from London no less than thirty-four artizans of 

 various trades, and in a few days utterly pulled down and destroyed 

 all the ecclesiastical buildings, leaving the secular buildings standing.' 



Obviously too, the objects being on the one hand ostensibly the 

 suppression of useless and corrupt religious bodies, and on the other 

 hand lust of property, the ecclesiastical buildings would go, as no 

 longer wanted, and the secular buildings would stand to maintain 

 the value of the secular property. 



Thus, amongst the records " of the manner of suppressing the 

 monasteries after they were surrendered," I find in the list of 

 " Houses and Buildings assigned to remain undefaced," " the abbots 



' 27, Henry VIII., cap. 28. The clear value of our Priory was £153, and the 

 number of monks twelve and a prior. — Monastican and Leland. 



^ Leland' s Itinerary. Jackson, p. 14. 

 ^ Letters relating to the Suppression of the Monasteries. Camden Society, 184i3. 



