RELIGIOUS HOUSES 



conventual church for the soul of Hugh de 

 Sandford, in whose family the patronage of 

 the house had been for some years. 1 It was 

 probably soon after this that the second Wil- 

 liam of Missenden became a benefactor of the 

 abbey. 



The abbots of the fourteenth century were 

 generally of families well known in the county : 

 two of the Marshalls of Missenden held this 

 office, and in 1340 a brother of Thomas De la 

 Mare, afterwards Abbot of St. Albans, ruled 

 the abbey of Missenden for a short time. In 

 1361 Ralf Marshall earned for his house a 

 most undesirable notoriety : he was convicted 

 of falsifying the coinage of the realm in his 

 manor at Lee, and condemned to be drawn, 

 hanged and quartered. He was afterwards 

 pardoned, 2 and the sentence commuted to a 

 term of imprisonment, first in the castle of 

 Nottingham, and afterwards in the monastery 

 of Bourne. 3 About 1369 however he re- 

 turned again to Missenden, 4 which had been 

 ruled by the prior in the meanwhile, 5 and 

 died in his London house in 1374. 



There was another abbot, Robert Ris- 

 borough, who brought much discredit and 

 trouble upon the house during the reign of 

 Edward IV. His name occurs in connection 

 with leases and other transactions of a formal 

 character as early as 1448 8 ; but at the be- 

 ginning of the new reign, in June 1462, he 

 appealed to the king for protection against 

 the prior and canons of his monastery, who 

 were summoned to appear in Chancery and 

 give sureties that they would not injure him 

 or set fire to his house. 7 It is evident how- 

 ever that this order was given hastily and with- 

 out sufficient inquiry, for in July of the same 

 year Robert Risborough was deprived of his 

 office by the vote of the whole convent for 

 simony and other crimes of which he had been 

 convicted, and Henry Honor of Missenden 

 was elected in his place. 8 The process of 

 deprivation and election was duly and for- 

 mally reported by the prior to the Bishop of 



i Close 4 Edw. I. m. 8d. 

 = Pat. 35 Edw. III. pt. 2. 



3 Line. Epis. Reg. Memo. Gynwell, 116. 



4 Ibid. Memo. Bokyngham, 90. 



s Ibid. Memo. Gynwell, ood. In 1361 the 

 abbot and convent of Missenden petitioned to the 

 pope for permission to appropriate the churches of 

 Glatton and Missenden, as their revenues were 

 diminished by pestilence and other causes : the 

 matter was entrusted to the Bishop of London 

 for further investigation. Cal. of Pet. to the Pope, 



i. 364-5- 



Sloane MS. 747, f. 4d. 



' Pat. 2 Edw. IV. pt. i, m. I4d. 



Sloane MS. 747, if. 15-18. 



Lincoln, and both were confirmed by the 

 Archbishop of Canterbury, 9 so for a while 

 Henry Honor was able to maintain his position 

 quietly. But about the year 1469 Robert 

 appealed to Thomas Rotherham, then Bishop 

 of Rochester and Chancellor of the kingdom, 

 and managed so to present his case that the 

 Chancellor, though he had really no jurisdic- 

 tion in the matter, reinstated him and im- 

 prisoned Henry Honor for three years in the 

 Fleet. In 1471, when Rotherham became 

 Bishop of Lincoln, and seemed likely to go 

 into the matter more carefully, Robert thought 

 it wiser to resign, on condition that the canons 

 would allow him the manor and church of 

 Great Kimble for his maintenance. So 

 Henry Honor again became abbot : but after 

 five years Robert made another attempt to 

 regain his old place. He complained to the 

 king that he had been wrongfully deposed by 

 George Neville, late Archbishop of York, for 

 no other cause than sympathy with the Lan- 

 castrian party, and a writ was issued to the 

 sheriff for his restoration. But in a very short 

 time the king, probably through Rotherham, 

 who had now become Archbishop of York, 

 found out the true facts of the case and or- 

 dered Henry to be confirmed in his office and 

 protected him from further molestation. 10 

 Mandates were issued to the Bishop of Lin- 

 coln and the rector of Ashridge to see this 

 final sentence carried into effect. 11 



Henry Honor was abbot from this time 

 almost until the beginning of the reign of 

 Henry VIII. During the last few years be- 

 fore the dissolution the number of canons 

 diminished, and the monastic buildings were 

 allowed to fall out of repair. 12 In 1530 besides 

 the abbot there was a prior, a vicar, a chanter 

 and sub-chanter, a kitchener, a refectorian, 

 and a sacrist, besides another canon and five 

 novices. 13 The Acknowledgment of Suprem- 

 acy was signed by John Fox and thirteen 



Sloane MS. 747, ff. 15-18 ; and also f. 57d. 



10 Ibid. ff. 57d-58. 



11 Ibid. 5gd. The various stages of this affair 

 can only be approximately dated. It is summed 

 up, mentioning Henry Honor's three years in 

 prison and five years of subsequent peace, in the 

 royal writ on f. 57d, which refers to Rotherham as 

 Archbishop of York and cannot be earlier than 

 1480. The mandate to the rector of Ashridge is 

 dated 1482. There are two points an order to 

 the Bishop of Lincoln to let Henry remain in pos- 

 session till Robert prove a better title (f. 56d) ; and 

 an order for the arrest of Robert in Pat. 1 1 Edw. IV. 

 which are not easy to fit into their proper place 

 in the story. 



12 Visitations of Longland (Lincoln), 

 is Ibid. 



371 



