By the Rev. W. Gilchrist Clark, M.A. 307 



Snow, with £60 per annum, to three probahly recently professed 

 brethren, who receive £2 apiece. At Lacock seventeen ladies re- 

 ceived sums varying from £40 to Johan Temmes, the abbess, and 

 £5 to Elenor Monmorthe, prioress, to a like minimum of £2. 



This was the beginning of the end. The inmates of the Wiltshire 

 religious houses seem to have become convinced, like the rest of 

 their brethren, of the inutility of further resistance, and surrender 

 became only a question of time, delayed for a longer or shorter 

 period according to the temper and courage of the head in each 

 instance. 



The nature of the instructions, indeed, issued to those who were 

 commissioned to receive these so-called "voluntary" surrenders 

 leaves little doubt of the result which must have followed.^ 



In addition to the knowledge of this we must remember that the 

 episcopal jurisdiction over all religious houses had been suspended 

 since October, 1535 ; so that everything combined to render the 

 situation intolerable. 



Wilton surrenders on the 25th of March, and Edington on the 

 30th of the same month. When, however, the Eoyal Commissioners 

 arrived at Amesbury, imagining that they would easUy there too 

 accomplish their errand, they met with an unexpected resistance. 

 Florence Bonnerman, the prioress, absolutely declined to surrender.^ 



" Pleasith it your goode Lordishippe to be advertised yesterday the surrenders 

 of the monasteries of Shaftisbury and Wilton being before us taken, we came to 

 Ambresbury and there communyd w* thabbasse for tbaccomplishmente of the 

 Kings highnes commyssion in lyke sorte, And albeit we have used as many wayes 

 with her as o'' poore witts cowde atteyne, yet in theende we cowde not by any 

 persuasions bringe her to any conformytie but at all tymes she restid and soo 

 remayneth in thies termes, yf the kings highnes commaunde me to goo from this 

 howse, I will gladlye goo, though I begge my breade, and as for pension I care 

 for none, in thies termes she was in all her conversacion praying us many tymes 

 to trouble her no furth^ herein for she had declared her full mynde in the whiche 

 we might playnlie gather of her words she was fully fixed befor 0"" comyng. 

 This we have thought goode according to our most bounden dueties to signifie 

 unto yo^ lordishippe redye w* all our powers to accomplishe that yo' 

 lordishippe shall further commaunde us herein. We have sente to Winton 



* See Gasquet, Henry VIII. and the Monasteries, ii., 226. 

 3 Letters and Papers, ziv. (i.) 629. 



