A HISTORY OF NOTTINGHAMSHIRE 



The usual idea as to an obit is that it was simply a fee to a parochial or 

 chantry priest for an anniversary mass ; but this is a great mistake: the larger 

 portion of an obit endowment usually went to the indigent of the parish, so 

 that this Act of Suppression sometimes robbed God's poor far more than His 

 ministers. The following is a table showing the proportional distribution of 

 obit money in a variety of Nottinghamshire parishes : 



NOTTINGHAMSHIRE OBITS 



Parish Total Poor Priest 



i. d. i. d. i. d. 



Beckingham . . 34 2 10 O 6 



13 4 10 o 34 



34 o 20 o 20 



30 28 04 



16 o 14 o 20 



24 i 10 06 



07 06 o i 



23 4 16 4 70 



North Collingham . 



Bole . 



Girton . 



Button Bonnington 



Sutton on Trent . 



Treswell 



Tuxford 



Great Wheatley 



15 O 12 



It therefore follows that the mass priest received about a fifth of the en- 

 dowment, the rest was distributed on such occasions to the poor. Ten other 

 obits are entered by the commissioners, without the division being stated ; but 

 there is no reason to doubt that it would approximately follow a like proportion. 



This grievous ejection of so large a number of the assistant clergy of the 

 county, coupled with the spoiling of the chantry chapels, where they were 

 detached buildings, even to stripping them of their roofs, must have proved 

 a serious set-back to religion. Lound, for instance, at that date lost a chapel 

 and remained for more than three centuries without a place of worship ; 

 it was not till 1859 that a new chapel of the Church of England was there 

 erected. 



The pension commission of Edward VI towards the end of his reign, 

 which is largely cited in the subsequent introduction to the Religious 

 Houses, gives full lists of all the dispossessed chantry and stipendiary priests 

 of the county. 104 The pension list drawn up for Cardinal Pole in 1554 

 shows that the discharged chantry priests of Nottinghamshire then numbered 

 exactly fifty (they lost their pensions if they obtained preferment), in addition 

 to six stipendiary priests. 106 



In the last year of Henry VIII, the king, anxious to prevent embezzle- 

 ment, caused inventories to be taken of the goods of churches and parochial 

 chapels, but only a few of these returns are extant. Further inventories were 

 drawn up under Edward VI in 1 549, but no general confiscation resulted. 

 However, on 3 March 1551 the council, having used up the spoils gained 

 by the suppression of chantries, stipendiary priests and colleges, placed 

 on record their reason for taking further measures : ' That for as muche 

 as the Kings Majestic had neede presently of a masse of Money there- 

 fore Commissions should be addressed into all shires of Englande to take into 

 the Kinges handes such churche plate as remaigneth, to be emploied into his 

 Highness use.' 108 



104 Accts. Exch. K.R. ff " Add. MS. (B.M.) 8102. 



106 Acts ofP.C. (new ser.), iii, 228. 



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