2/4 JANUARY 



from this parish, a fine property which he sold in 

 1415 to Thomas Chaucer, who is supposed to have 

 been a son of the poet, Geoffrey Chaucer. To this 

 Richard Abberbury, John of Gaunt, in 1397, be- 

 queathed a legacy of fifty marks, and a helmet 

 which is said to have belonged to him is now in 

 the Tower of London. 



When Henry VIII. dissolved the monasteries 

 the Abbot of Abingdon was one of the first to 

 yield to his Sovereign's command, and to give 

 up the Church property in his keeping. Henry 

 accordingly became possessed of a more consider- 

 able property in this parish. In 1561 Queen 

 Elizabeth granted the land which had been 

 formerly parcel of the monastery's possessions, and 

 which her " dearest father" had leased to Sir 

 Thomas Parry, Kt. (Councillor and Treasurer of 

 the Royal Household), to this Sir Thomas's son 

 Thomas, who was himself also knighted at some 

 subsequent date, and appointed Chancellor of 

 the Duchy of Lancaster, Sheriff of Berks, and 

 Ambassador to France. He was buried in West- 

 minster Abbey in 1616. Sir Thomas got into 

 pecuniary difficulties before he died, and in 1590 

 sold the reversion of his lands, after his wife's and 

 his own demises, to his brother-in-law, Sir Thomas 

 Knyvett, of Ashwellthorpe, Norfolk. In Chancery 

 Bills and Answers, 1616, there is a piteous appeal 

 for a provision from Sir Thomas's natural son, 

 Samuel Parry, who seems to have been a con- 

 siderable loser by his father's death : 



"Whereas the said Sir Thomas Parry did keepe your 

 Orator with all needful allowances of habitation, meate, 



