308 The Fall of the Wiltshire Monasteries. 



agayne, and yesterday had aunswe"^ from thens that thabbatt as yet ys 

 at London, we trust to fynish the reste of the buysynes by yo'' Lordishippe 

 comytted unto us before Easter, and soo w' as moche spede as we may to wayte 

 uppon yowe and declare the full of all o"" procedyngs herein. Thus prayeng 

 Allmyghtie god to have yo'^ Lordishippe in his moste blessjd kepyngfrom 

 Ambresbury the xyx"> of March. 



Yo"" Lordships most bownden 



" John Tbkgonwell. 

 Yo"^ Lordyshipps most bownden 

 beadsman and servaunt 



" William Petee. 

 Yo'' Lordschipps allewayes most bounden 

 " John Smyth. 



At the end of four months, however, their pressure so far pre- 

 vailed that the prioress announced her resignation " at the King's 

 bidding." ^ A successor was appointed — in all probability a mere 

 figure-head to carry out the royal will — and on the 4th of December 

 1539, the house was suppressed, the then prioress, Johan DarroU, 

 receiving a pension of £100 a year, and thirty- three of her sisters 

 being also pensioned. 



On December 15th Malmesbury surrendered, Eobert Frampton, 

 alias Selwin, the abbot, receiving 200 marks a year, and twenty-four 

 monks sxmis varying from £13 6.s. 8d. to £6. 



Thus on December 15th, 1539, fell the last, the richest, and 

 perhaps the greatest of the Wiltshire monasteries. It only remains 

 to glance briefly at the way in which the immense mass of wealth, 

 whether in land or yearly revenue of all kinds, which had be- 

 longed to the dissolved monasteries, was dealt with. In the first 

 instance, all monastic property surrendered to the King, came as 

 a matter of course into the Coui-t of Augmentations, and was 

 administered so long as the estates actually remained in the King's 

 hands, by royal officials, whose accounts are still preserved in the 

 Augmentation Office. But one by one they were granted either 

 altogether or piecemeal to courtiers or speculators. Thus, we find 

 that the possessions of the abbey of Lacock were administered by the 

 King's ofl&cials during the year or so between January 21st, 1539, 

 the date of the surrender, and (probably) July 16th, 1540, the date 



' Cromwell Correspondence, i., 90. 



