A HISTORY OF NORTHAMPTONSHIRE 



Robert Kirton, a monk of Peterborough, was 

 elected abbot in 1496. Three years later the 

 church of North CoUingham was appropriated 

 to the monastery. On 8 July, 1515, the 

 Bishop of Lincoln visited the abbey, when 

 various irregularities were brought to light and 

 punished. The most serious offender was brother 

 John Walpole, who had stolen certain jewels 

 from the shrine containing St. Oswald's arm, and 

 given them to women in the town. Some of 

 the monks haunted a tavern near the abbey, 

 and sang and danced in the dormitory till ten or 

 eleven o'clock at night, to the disturbance of the 

 rest.i 



While Wolsey was busy about his new 

 college at Oxford in 1526, he deputed the 

 Bishop of Lincoln to obtain the fulfilment of 

 an alleged promise of a contribution from this 

 abbey. The abbot was visited by his diocesan 

 on 30 July, and the bishop forwarded a long 

 account of their interview. From this letter it 

 would seem that Kirton had rashly promised a 

 contribution of 2,000 marks, which he did not 

 see his way to fulfil. The bishop wrote that if 

 he thus ' swerve and warble ' in his words, he 

 should be made to resign before Michaelmas on 

 a reasonable pension. Writing again a few 

 days later, the bishop said that no dependence 

 could be placed on the abbot, that his poor offer 

 of ;/^400 was now reduced to one of 400 or 

 500 marks.- At last, in March, 1528, Kirton 

 yielded to the strong pressure brought on him to 

 resign, on the understanding that either brother 

 Francis or one Boston, monks of the abbey, 

 would succeed him. He wrote to Wolsey to 

 that effect, saying that if the election were left 

 to the convent they would undoubtedly choose 

 brother Francis, who was a good religious man, 

 and of gentle birth. s The imperious Wolsey 

 had, however, succeeded in enforcing his will on 

 the convent, who granted him the right of nomi- 

 nating the next abbot ; whereupon he withdrew 

 from the promises made by his agents, and im- 

 mediately nominated John Browne [alias 

 Chambers) as superior of the monastery. The 

 royal assent to this decision was given on 23 

 March, 1528.* 



On 27 July, 1534, Abbot John Chambers, 

 Prior John Walpole, and forty of the monks 

 signed the declaration as to Henry VIIL's 

 supremacy.^ 



The Valor of 1535 gives the clear annual value 

 of this wealthy monastery as £i,(>j() i^s. 8fi.' 

 Certain rents and estates pertained, as in 

 all large monasteries, to particular officials or 

 obedientaries. Among them, the cellarer, sacrist, 

 sub-sacrist, almoner, treasurer, chamberlain, 



1 Gunton, Hist. ofPeterb. pp. 56-6. 



2 L. and P. Hen. Fill. iv. pt. ii. 2378, 2391. 



3 Ibid. 4056. * Ibid. 4092, 4097, 



5 Rymer, Foedcra, xiv. 502. 



6 Valor Eccl. fRec. Com.), iv. 279-284. 



pittancer, guestmaster, master of the works, 

 refectorian, precentor, as well as the warden of 

 the cell of Oxney are particularized. The 

 various wind, water, and horse mills brought in 

 an income of £^^0 16s. 8d. ; tolls and market dues 

 at Peterborough, Thorpe, and Oundle, £^ \gs. ; 

 certain fines, with le pype iilver ct virida cera, in 

 different lordships and manors, £"] 2s. "j^d. \f and 

 manorial court fees, £\<^ 19J. l\d. A consider- 

 able share of the income came from the 

 appropriated rectories of Oundle, Warmington, 

 Gunthorpe,and Peterborough, Northamptonshire; 

 Eston, Leicestershire ; and North CoUingham, 

 Nottinghamshire. The amount that was bound 

 to be spent in alms yearly, apart from all general 

 distribution and hospitality, was ^^57 16;. 



Katherine of Arragon, Henry's first wife, was 

 buried in the quire of the church, with much 

 pomp, in January, 1535.* 



An accusation of papistry was made against 

 one of the monks in June, 1538, and the par- 

 ticulars forwarded to the council. Ambrose 

 Caster was charged with saying Domine salvum 

 [sic) fac ecclesiam^ instead of Domine salvum 

 fac Regem^ and for saying in the canon of high 

 mass pro Papa nostra, although erased from 

 the book. The charge was made by brother 

 Richard Deeping to Prior Walpole, and the 

 parties were examined by the abbot in the 

 presence of three servants of the king and seven 

 officials of the convent. Caster denied the 

 charge, saying it was pure malice. Deeping 

 could produce no witnesses, but the abbot com- 

 mitted Caster to ward until the king's pleasure 

 was known. 9 The accused monk must eventu- 

 ally have been discharged, for he is found among 

 the pensioners of the following year. 



In March, 1538, William Parre, one of the 

 monastic visitors under Cromwell, was at Peter- 

 borough, and set forth at length the conversation 

 he had with Abbot Chambers in a letter to his 

 master. The abbot offered, if his house might 

 stand, to give the king a whole year's rent of 

 all their lands, amounting to about 2,500 marks, 

 and beyond that ' to gratifie your lordship 

 (Cromwell) to bee good lorde to liym with the 

 some as I suppose of three hundred pounds.'^" 

 Eventually this ancient monastery was surrendered 

 to the crown agents on 29 November, 1539. 

 The inmates were divided into two lists, those 

 appointed to remain, to form part of the staff of 

 the projected cathedral staff, and those who were 

 at once to depart. The first list was headed by 

 the abbot, to whom was assigned the large 

 pension of ;^266 13J. 4^., in addition to a yearly 

 allowance of a hundred loads of wood ; ^^14 a 

 year was assigned to Prior Walpole ; a pension 



7 i.e. various estreats and amercements 

 Exchequer. 



8 1. and P. Hen. Fill. x. 284. 



9 Ibid. xiii. pt. I, 1 159. 



1" Con. MS. Cleop. E. iv. f. 20;. 



the 



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