FOURTEENTH AND FIFTEENTH CENTURIES. 39 
This lasted but for a year or two, for in 1548 Catford was granted 
to Henry Polstede, of Chileworth, and William More, of Loseley, 
both in Surrey, for the sum of £2,034 14s. 10d.; in 1550 Lewis- 
ham Manor was granted to John, Earl of Warwick ; and in 1554 
Bellingham was conferred on Richard Whetely, to whom a lease 
had already been granted by the last Abbot of Stratford. 
The Earl of Warwick did not long retain Lewisham but 
exchanged it with the king for other property, and it was then, in 
1547, given to the king’s uncle, Thomas Lord Seymour of 
Sudeley, k.G., Great Admiral of England, in support of his 
dignities. Two years later Lord Seymour was beheaded by order 
of his brother, the Protector Somerset, on a charge of designing 
' to seize the king’s person, and the Manor of Lewisham then 
reverted to the Crown. 
Queen Mary granted it to Cardinal Pole and the clergy of 
England, but on the accession of Queen Elizabeth it again became 
Crown property, and was leased to Henry Knolles, Esq., who had 
successive leases which came to Sir Francis Knolles, a man much 
esteemed by the Queen, who made him Captain of her Guard, 
Treasurer of the Household and a Knight of the Garter. 
CHAPTER TI. 
FROM THE 16TH CENTURY TO THE PRESENT TIME. 
HAVE referred in the previous chapter to the 
religious changes which, by the dissolution of the 
monasteries, altered so greatly the tenure of 
much of the land in Lewisham as elsewhere. It 
will be fitting that a brief account should be given 
of these changes which affected the everyday 
outlook of our predecessors. And here we should express our 
satisfaction that the same man was Vicar of Lewisham during the 
whole period of change, a man of moderate views, full of pity 
for the poor, large-hearted and generous if we may judge from his 
will. Mr. John Glynn was appointed vicar by Henry VIII in 1546, 
and he continued vicar through the reigns of Edward VI, Queen 
Mary, and until Elizabeth had been ten years firmly seated on the 
throne. Whether we agree with the changes which were made, 
or think they went too far or not far enough, changes were 
ordered by law, and it must have been greatly to the advantage 
of Lewisham that its spiritual head at the time was a man whose 
views permitted him to carry them out with as little dislocation 
of thought as possible. When he came to Lewisham there were 
two endowed chantry priests to assist him. These were sup- 
