A HISTORY OF NOTTINGHAMSHIRE 



An inspeximus and confirmation charter of 

 1316 recites, inter alia, a grant of Henry III in 

 1268 to the priory to take two cart-loads daily 

 of heather in Sherwood Forest, not to exceed 

 the annual value of 60*., in consideration of the 

 loss sustained in their wood of Grove, which 

 Edward the king's eldest son had caused to be 

 felled in the time of trouble in the realm to 

 make engines and other necessaries to invade the 

 Isle of Axholme, then resisting the king. 22 The 

 cart-loads were only to be taken in two places, 

 namely in Rumwood and ' Cuthesland.' At 

 the same time the appropriation of the church of 

 Sutton on Trent, originally granted in 1302, 

 was confirmed. 23 



In 1316 licence was granted for the appropria- 

 tion of the church of Car Colston. 24 



Edward I had granted the Prior and Convent 

 of Worksop 60 acres in the east part of his wood 

 of Rumwood at a rental of I Os., and to inclose and 

 bring it into cultivation if they thought fit. But 

 in 1335 they complained to Edward III that 

 after they had inclosed it Ralph de Nevill and 

 his fellow justices of the forest took the whole 

 site into the king's hands on a presentment by 

 the forest ministers, alleging that they had in- 

 closed more than the 60 acres, and demanding a 

 further rental of 2s. ^d. for an additional 13 acres. 

 The king, willing to show the canons a special 

 favour, in return for the manifold charges they 

 had frequently incurred when he visited their 

 priory, granted them the whole space they had 

 inclosed free of all rent for ever. 26 



In 1338 there was an inspeximus and confir- 

 mation of the charter to the priory executed by 

 Thomas de Furnival III, the great man of that 

 great family, who was summoned as a baron to 

 Parliament from 1294 till his death in 1332. 

 Almost the only addition that this baron made 

 to the grants of his ancestors was that he gave 

 permission to the convent to have free ingress 

 and egress to his park to look after the forty 

 cattle of the priory feeding there between Easter 

 and Michaelmas. 26 



In 1384 the priory paid the heavy sum of 

 40 to William de Nevill, keeper of the king's 

 manor house of Clipston in Sherwood Forest, 

 for its repair, in return for which they obtained 

 the Crown licence to appropriate the church of 

 Willoughby. 27 



In the following year 25 marks were paid to 

 the king by the priory to secure the alienation 

 to them of five messuages and a moiety of three 

 more messuages in East Retford, the joint gift of 



" This refers to the defence of Axholme by the 

 remnants of Simon de Montfort's party at the close of 

 the Barons' War. 



13 Pat. 9 Edw. II, pt. ii, m. 36. 



" Pat. 10 Edw. II, pt. i, m. 31. 



15 Pat. 9 Edw. Ill, pt. i, m. 25. 



" Pat. 1 1 Edw. Ill, pt. i, m. 25. 



" Pat. 7 Ric. H, pt. ii, m. 3. 



Richard de Rawclyf, rector of Clowne, William 

 de Burgh, rector of Babworth, and Peter Cook, 

 chaplain, towards finding a chaplain to celebrate 

 daily in the priory for their good estate and for 

 their souls after death. 28 



This priory was subjected in 1536 to a visit 

 from the notorious commissioners, Legh and 

 Layton. They affected to have discovered four 

 canons guilty of unnatural sin ; one desired re- 

 lease from his vows. The annual income was 

 declared to be ^240 and the debts 200 marks. 29 



Sir John Hercy, writing to Cromwell on 31 

 October 1538, remarked that 'the prior and con-, 

 vent of Worksop are so covetous, they sell flocks 

 of sheep, kye, corn, woods, etc.' 30 And who 

 can blame them ? They clearly foresaw their 

 overthrow. On 15 November of the same year 

 came the surrender of the priory with sixteen 

 signatures. We give the names of those who 

 signed, adding the amount of pensions they ob- 

 tained on 25 March 1539 S 31 a ^ tne f ur accused 

 by Legh and Layton obtained their pensions. 



Thomas Stokkes, prior . . . . 50 



William Nutte, sub-prior . . . 6 



Thomas Richardson .... $ 6s. 8</. 



William Inghame 



George Copley 6 



'Richard Astley 6 



Laurence Starkebone .... 5 6s. 8</. 



'Alexander Boothe 



'Thomas Bedall ft 



'George Barnsley 



Edmund Robinson 



James Windebank 4. 



Robert Armstead 



John Hayles 40^. 



Christopher Haslam .... 



William White , 



The four canons to whose names an asterisk 

 is prefixed are those so foully branded in the 

 Comperta. 



In November 1541 Henry VIII granted the 

 priory of Worksop and divers parcels of demesne 

 lands, &c., to Francis, fifth Earl of Shrewsbury, 

 in exchange for the manor of Farnham Royal, 

 Buckinghamshire. 32 



There is in the British Museum a cast from 

 a damaged impression of the seal of Henry, prior 

 temp. John. It is a pointed oval, and bears the 

 prior standing on a platform, lifting the right 

 hand in benediction, and holding in the left a 

 scroll inscribed . . . CIA DEI. The legend 

 is : 



HENRICI . PRIORIS . DE . WIR 



K Pat. 8 Ric. II, pt. ii, m. 5. 

 " L. and P. Hen. fill, x, 364. 

 ""Ibid, xiii (2), 726. 



31 Dep. Keeper's Rep. viii, App. ii, 50 ; L. and P. 

 Hen. rill,xiv (i), 185; Aug. Off. Bks. ccxxxiii, 



163-5- 

 " Pat. 33 Hen. VIII, pt. iv, m. 6. 



128 





