RELIGIOUS HOUSES 



king in 1353 to receive such maintenance at 

 Welbeck as Richard del Almoignerie, deceased, 

 had there at the king's order. 36 But all this 

 was changed in the succeeding reign. By the 

 advice of the council Richard II in 1383 re- 

 leased the abbot and convent in respect of any 

 corrody at the request of the king and his heirs, 

 notwithstanding the enjoyment heretofore at 

 the special request of Edward III of such corrody 

 or maintenance by John atte Lane, by Richard 

 de Merton, by Agnes the late king's laun- 

 dress, and by others. This release was granted 

 on the petition of the abbey to the effect that 

 their house was founded by Thomas de Cuckney, 

 and was then in the patronage of his kinsman 

 and heir John de Cuckney ; that it was never in 

 the patronage of any of the king's progenitors, 

 and that it was always free of corrodies up to 

 the time of the special requests of the late king. 37 



At the general provincial chapter of the order 

 held at Northampton in July 1454 it is recorded 

 that Brother Robert Staveley, sub-prior of Wel- 

 beck, was allowed to be present as proctor of 

 that house. Abbot Greene of Welbeck was at that 

 time across the seas on business of the order. 38 



The servants of John Bankwell, Abbot of 

 Welbeck, were concerned in a singular and 

 serious affray in 1393 under the following cir- 

 cumstances : Robert Veel, keeper of the rolls 

 of the King's Bench, and John Wynchecombe, 

 appointed to take carts for the carriage of the 

 rolls, were directed on Saturday before the feast 

 of St. Katherine, by Walter Clopton, chief 

 justice, to take the rolls from York to Notting- 

 ham by the following Tuesday. The excessive 

 rainfall much impeded them, and they found 

 that they could not reach Nottingham without 

 additional horses. Whereupon, by virtue of 

 their commission and of the chief justice's 

 order, they took two horses of John Levet and 

 John Tumour of Norton by Welbeck, to be 

 paid for in due course. This action was so 

 fiercely resented that a number of the abbey 

 servants raised all the men of Norton in insur- 

 rection, and at dusk, armed with bows and 

 arrows and swords and clubs, set upon the said 

 Robert and John (instigated by one of the 

 canons of Welbeck and by the vicar of Cuck- 

 ney), assaulted them, shot at and pierced the 

 rolls in the carriage, took the horses and would 

 have carried them away ' but that by the grace 

 of God and help they made too good a defence.' 

 Eventually the delinquents in February 1392-3 

 obtained a royal pardon. 39 



The general Premonstratensian register con- 

 tains a full account of the exceptional method 

 of electing John Greene to the abbacy in 1450 

 on the death of John de Norton. The election 



86 Close, 27 Edw. Ill, m. 23 d. 

 " Pat. 12 Ric. II, pt. i, m. 8. 

 K Coll. Anglo-Premon. i, 129-30. 

 59 Pat. 1 6 Ric. II, pt. ii, m. 5. 



was held under the direction of Robert, Abbot 

 of Newhouse. Almost immediately after the 

 burial of the late abbot, namely on 13 April, 

 the absent brethren having been duly summoned, 

 the electoral proceedings began. The mass of 

 the Holy Spirit having been sung, all assembled 

 in the chapter-house, John, Abbot of Dale, 

 being present as the coadjutor of the Father 

 Abbot of Newhouse. The aid of the Holy 

 Spirit having been invoked and the statute of 

 their order relative to elections recited, the whole 

 of the brethren for certain reasonable causes, of 

 their own free motion, not under any compul- 

 sion or suggestion, but of their own absolute 

 free will, declined to exercise their franchise 

 personally, but besought the two Abbots of New- 

 house and Dale to select an abbot for them. 

 Thereupon the abbots, after much consideration, 

 chose John Greene, one of the Welbeck canons, 

 a prudent and discreet man, and much to be 

 commended in his life. The consent of the 

 elect having been humbly accorded, the election 

 was duly approved, ratified, and confirmed by 

 decree in chapter. The abbot was then con- 

 ducted by his brethren before the high altar, the 

 Te Deum being solemnly sung. He was in- 

 vested with corporal possession of the church, 

 installed in the abbot's seat, and brought back to 

 the chapter-house, where each of the brethren 

 made formal acknowledgement of obedience, 

 placing his hands, when on his knees, within 

 those of the abbot (pbedientiam manualeni), as his 

 father and pastor, without any objection from 

 anyone ; meanwhile the obedientiaries laid their 

 respective keys at his feet, in token of obedience 

 and subjection. So soon as the election was 

 complete, the abbot first of all made oath to 

 observe in all its articles the composition made 

 between the house of Welbeck and John Hotham, 

 Bishop of Ely, for the manor of Cuckney. 40 



A letter has been preserved addressed to 

 Abbot Greene by one Richard Clerk, of Coven- 

 try, touching the appointment of Harry the 

 abbot's nephew ; it is dated 28 September 1454. 

 The particular interest of this homely letter 

 lies in the writer's intended pilgrimage to Our 

 Lady of Doncaster, and to the cause which pre- 

 vented his making it. Welbeck lay on the 

 north-western confines of Sherwood, and was 

 approached from the south by a road through 

 the forest. 



' I hade proposede to a vysset you, and to hafe 

 soght that blessyd Virginne cure Lady of Don- 

 castre now this Flesch-Tyme ; but (os I was 

 enformid) ther was so grete wynde in Schirwod, 

 that hit hade bene no sesenabull tyme for me 

 (at that tyme made be the persones aboveseyde), 

 and I hade cummen with xl horses I schulde 

 hafe bene overthrowne, os it was sayde.' 41 



Shortly after the receipt of this letter, Abbot 

 Greene wrote a dimissorial letter on behalf of 



40 Coll. Anglo-Premon. iii, 169-71. " Ibid. 171-3. 



133 



