RELIGIOUS HOUSES 



to the canons of this abbey, that they might 

 adopt the Use of Sarum for the recitation of 

 the divine office, that of St. Augustine having 

 become ' too burdensome ' for them. 1 The 

 discipline of the order seems however to 

 have been in full force in this house towards 

 the end of the fifteenth century ; for in 1471 

 Henry Honor of Missenden asked permission 

 to send the disobedient among his own canons 

 to Nutley to be punished, ' for the preserva- 

 tion of order.' 2 A visitation of Bishop At- 

 water in 1519 reveals no laxity and very few 

 causes of complaint. It was alleged that the 

 abbot did not pay the accustomed annuities, 

 nor consult the senior canons as he ought to 

 do ; and a proper infirmary was not provided 

 for the sick. 3 No visitation of Bishop Long- 

 land is preserved. The abbot in 1525 was 

 accused of having falsified a lease of the par- 

 sonage of Hillesden ; but the accusation was 

 made in the course of a family quarrel, and 

 may have been without foundation. 4 There 

 is every reason to suppose that the house had 

 an honourable reputation during its last years. 

 The election of 1528 was made under the 

 approval of Cardinal Wolsey 5 ; and the king 

 himself stayed at Nutley in 1529 while he was 

 making progress through the Midlands. 8 Dr. 

 London accused the canons of nothing worse 

 than superstition, and that only by inference : 

 he tells us how the chaplain of Caversham 

 fled home to Nutley with the only ' relic ' he 

 had been able to save from destruction ' an 

 aungell with oon wyng that browght to 

 Caversham the spere hedde that percyd our 

 Saviour is syde upon the crosse ' and adds, 

 ' butt I sent my servant purposely for ytt.' 

 The surrender of the house followed in a few 

 days. 7 



The original endowment of Nutley Abbey 

 included the demesne land called Crendon 

 Park, the churches of Long Crendon, with the 

 chapels of Lower Winchendon and Chearsley, 

 Princes Risborough, Hillesden, Ashendon, 

 Chilton with the chapel of Dorton ; the 

 church and chapel of Caversham, and 

 Stokelyle in Oxfordshire ; Sherringham and 

 Choseley in Norfolk, Bottesham in Cam- 

 bridgeshire, Bradley in Wiltshire. 8 To these 



i Cat. of Pap. Letters, iv. 396. 



3 Sloane MS. 747, f. 53. 



3 Visitations of Atwater (Lincoln). 



L. and P. Henry nil. xiii. (2), 246. 



s Ibid. iv. 4187. Ibid. 5965. 



7 Wright, Suppression of Monasteries, 225. Dr. 

 London had been at Nutley in 1528 to examine 

 the election of Robert Brice. Line. Epis. Reg. 

 Inst. Longland, ig3d. 



s Dugdale, Man. vi. 279. The same gifts are 

 rehearsed in the charter of Pope Alexander IV., 



were added at a later date the churches of 

 Netherswell in Gloucestershire, Coleshill 

 and Blakeborough in Norfolk," Lillingstone 

 (Dayrell) in Buckinghamshire 10 ; and in 1461 

 the lands of the priory of Chetwode, with the 

 churches of Chetwode and Barton Hartshorn, 

 and the chapel of Brill. 11 In the time of 

 Bishop Lexington (1254-8) the whole value of 

 the abbey in spiritualities and temporalities 

 was stated as 80 js. 12 ; in 1291 its temporali- 

 ties amounted to 48 i6s. 6%d., 13 but the value 

 of its churches cannot be exactly given, as 

 they are not all mentioned in the Taxatio. 



In 1284 the abbot held one third of a 

 knight's fee in Hillesden u ; in 1302 the same, 

 with the whole manor of Lower Winchen- 

 don 15 ; in 1346 both of these, with the addi- 

 tion of a portion of a fee in Long Crendon. '" 



In the Valor Ecclesiasticus the clear value 

 of the house was given as 437 6s. S^d. " ; 

 the Ministers' Accounts amount only to 

 402 i<)s. 4|<, including the churches of 

 Long Crendon, Chilton, Chearsley, Caver- 

 sham, Princes Risborough, Ashendon, Hilles- 

 den, Lower Winchendon, Chetwode, Barton 

 Hartshorn, Stokelyle, Sherringham, Maiden 

 Bradley, Netherswell ; and the manors of 

 Long Crendon, Chilton, Lower Winchendon, 

 Chearsley, Canonend, Chetwode in Bucb ; 

 and Stragglethorpe, Lines. 18 



ABBOTS OF NUTLEY 

 Osbert, 19 occurs under Henry II. 

 Robert, 20 occurs 1189 

 Edward, 21 occurs 1203 and 1221 

 John, 22 occurs 1223, deposed 1236 

 Henry of St. Faith, 23 elected 1236 

 John of Crendon, 2 * elected 1252, died 1268 

 John of Gloucester, 25 elected 1 268, died 1 269 

 Richard of Dorchester, 26 elected 1269, re- 

 signed 1272 



1258, quoted and confirmed in Cal. of Pap. Letters, 

 v. 508-9. 



Pope Nich. Tax. (Rec. Com.). 



10 Line. Epis. Reg. Inst. Bokyngham, i. 412. 



11 Pat. I Edward IV. pt. iv. m. 23. 



12 Line. Epis. Reg. Rolls of Lexington. 



13 Pope Nich. Tax. (Rec. Com.). 



i* Feud. Aids, i. 77. 15 Ibid. 96, 107. 



i" Ibid. 120, 121, 124. 



" Valor Eccl. (Rec. Com.), iv. 234. 



is Dugdale, Man. vi. 280. 



19 Sracton's Note Book (ed. Maitland), iii. 416. 



20 Dugdale, Man. iv. 278. 



=1 Feet of F. (Rec. Com.), 229. 



22 Dugdale, Man. iv. 278, and Feet of F. 18 

 Hen. III. no. 4. 



23 Line. Epis. Reg Rolls of Grosstete. 



" Ibid. S6 Ibid. Rolls of Gravesend. 

 2<t Ibid. He entered the Cistercian order in 

 1272. 



379 



