2HYXC11IX DUCKLAKD riilOUY. G5 



The minuteness with which these and previous (letalis 

 have been presented to the reader will not be considei'cd 

 out of place or Avitliout value by any who desire to be 

 acquainted with the State, habits and customs of eccle- 

 siastical and civil England, as well as with the vicissitudes 

 of this particular House, during the interesting period of 

 the middle ages. They know that with this very minute- 

 ness rauch of the value aud interest of researches like the 

 present are necessarily associated. And for such students, 

 I may add, my labours are intended. 



It would appear that the family of Popham was bene- 

 fitted in no ordinary degree by its connexion with the 

 Prioiy. By a deed dated in their Chapter House, the 

 18th of Januaiy, 1539, Katherina Bourcher, Prioress, and 

 Convent granted to Marmaduke Popham the office of 

 Receiver of all and singular the rents of their Eectories of 

 Kyrton and Denendon, in the County of Lincoln, the duties 

 to be perfonned either by himself or by a sufficient deputy, 

 with an annuity of forty Shillings issuing from their lands 

 and tenements at Premsleye, in the County of Dorset, to 

 be paid at Michaelmas. On non-payment for a month 

 after date, he was empowered to enter and distrain on their 

 lands in Premsleye. The Court of Augmentation ordered 

 the continuance of this annuity, with arrears from tlie 

 Dissolution, on the 8th of November, 1539.* 



This was the last official act that tlie Prioress and her 

 Sisters performed previous to that involuntary one which 

 placcd all similar transactions at once and for ever beyond 

 their power. The final blow was just about to fall, and 

 but a brief rcspite yet awaited them. A short month 

 clapsed and all was over. 



* Orders and Decrces, vol. vi., f. 1. 

 VOL. X., 1860, r.vitT II. I 



