RELIGIOUS HOUSES 



precincts and that they underwent canonical 

 penance. He must have succeeded in restoring 

 order for some years, as when Courtenay, arch- 

 bishop of Canterbury, came to Cirencester on 

 metropolitical visitation in 1384 he apparently 

 found no cause for censure. 1 Yet in 1389 the 

 abbots of Lanthony Sccunda and Oseney received 

 a special commission from the general chapter of 

 Augustinian canons to visit the monastery of 

 Cirencester on account of disorders therein.* 



In 1385 some of the townsfolk attacked the 

 abbey. Richard II issued a commission to the 

 keepers of the peace in Gloucestershire upon 

 information that divers of the king's lieges of 

 Cirencester had assembled and gone to the abbey 

 and done unheard-of things to the abbot and 

 convent and threatened to do all the damage 

 they could.' The townsfolk were kept in check 

 for a few years, but in 1 400, when they rendered 

 Henry IV a signal service by crushing the rebel- 

 lion of the earls of Salisbury and Kent, whom 

 they beheaded in the market-place, 4 they seized 

 the opportunity to put forward their complaints 

 against the abbot and his predecessors.* At the 

 king's command an inquisition was held by the 

 sheriff. Five juries from the town and the 

 neighbourhood testified against the abbot, and it 

 was claimed that the town of Cirencester had 

 not been parcel of the manor until 1208, when 

 the abbot compelled the townsmen to perform 

 villein service. The king's decision was post- 

 poned, and there is no record of it. In 1 403 

 the townsmen petitioned Henry IV to allow 

 them to have a gild merchant. 4 The sheriff 

 held an inquisition at Gloucester in 1403, and 

 twelve knights of the county set forth the abbot's 

 franchises. Nevertheless, the king gave a 

 charter to the men of Cirencester granting their 

 petition, so that the abbot and convent were 

 obliged to submit. The townsmen established 

 their gild merchant, and entirely controlled the 

 trade of the town ; but they had no justification 

 for withholding their services and absenting 

 themselves from the manorial courts. In 1409 

 Abbot John Leckhampton obtained a further 

 confirmation of Richard IPs confirmation of the 

 charters concerning the lands, manors, and liber- 

 ties of the abbey. 7 In 1410 Henry IV ratified 

 the charters of John and Henry III, granting 

 the right of holding the two yearly fairs to the 

 abbot. In 1413 the abbot attempted to distrain 

 for services due to him ; a riot followed, and his 

 officers were beaten and wounded. Henry IV 

 died on 20 March, and on 5 June the abbot 

 secured another exemplification of the record of 

 1225, defining the services of the tenants of the 

 manor.* The townsmen saw that further 



1 Cant. Archiepis. Reg. Courtenay, fol. 127. 



' M. S. Top. Glouc. C. 5, fol. 65 1 (Bodl. Lib.). 



' Cal. of Pat. 8 Ric. II, p. ii, m. 26 d. 



' Briit. and Glouc. Arch. Sue. Tram, ix, 330. 



1 Ibid. 330-4. * Ibid. 334^6. 



' Ibid. 336. ' Ibid. 337-8. 



resistance was useless. The abbot impleaded a 

 number of them for withdrawing their services 

 for thirteen years, and heavy damages were 

 awarded. In 1414, with the abbot's consent, 

 Henry V granted them a general pardon. In 

 1418 the abbot petitioned that the charter grant- 

 ing the gild merchant might be made void. 

 The Court of Chancery found that Henry IV's 

 charter was contrary to the previous rights of 

 the abbot, and annulled it. The strife thus 

 ended in the complete triumph of the monastery 

 over the town. 



The history of the monastery during the last 

 hundred years of its existence is quite obscure. 

 At a visitation during the voidance of the see of 

 Worcester in 1428, there were twenty-four 

 canons, of whom one was a scholar at Oxford.* 



In 1534 the abbot and twenty canons sub- 

 scribed to the royal supremacy. 10 Five years 

 later, 19 December, 1539, they surrendered 

 their house to the royal commissioners. 11 The 

 abbot received a pension of 200 a year, the 

 prior 13 61. SJ., the cellarer 8, twelve canons 

 6 131. ifd. each, and another 5 6s. 8d., while 

 William Phelps became vicar of the parish 

 church. 11 Wages were paid to 1 10 officers and 

 servants of the household." 



In 1535 the clear yearly value of the property 

 of the monastery was 1,051 js. i^</. 14 The 

 abbot also held the office of cellarer, and had 

 control over 859 ijs. 6d. of the revenues. 

 These were drawn from the bailiwicks of the 

 town and seven hundreds of Cirencester, the 

 manors of Cirencester, Minety, Driffield, Preston, 

 Ampney St. Mary, Nutbeme, Walle, Salperton, 

 Througham, and lands at Cheltenham, Dagling- 

 worth, Shipton Moyne, and Weston Birt, in 

 Gloucestershire ; the manors of Frome and 

 Milborne Port, in Somerset ; Pulham, in Dor- 

 setshire ; Latton, in Wiltshire ; Shrivenham, 

 Hagbourne, and Eston, in Berkshire ; Bradwell 

 and Abberbury in Oxfordshire ; Brigstock and 

 Rowell in Northamptonshire ; rents in London, 

 Bristol, Cirencester ; and the rectories of Ciren- 

 cester, Cheltenham, Frome, Milborne Port, 

 Latton, Wellow, Milton, Avebury, Eton in Wilt- 

 shire, Cookham, Bray, Hagbourne, Stanyarn, 

 Brigstock, Rowell, besides tithes in other places. 



ABBOTS OF CIRENCESTER " 



Serlo, 1131 " 

 Andrew, 1147 

 Adam, 1 176 



Cant. Archiepis. Reg. Morton, fol. 171. 



10 Off. Kief/n't Ref. vii, App. ii, 283. 



" Dugdale, Mm. vi, 178. " Ibid. 



u Aug. Off. Bk. 494, fol. 59-60. 



" Valor Ecclts. (Rec. Com.), ii, 463-71. 



" Dugdale, op. cit, vi, 1 76. The list has been 

 carefully checked. Only corrections are marked in 

 the footnotes. 



" Briit. and Gkuc. Arch. See. Trans, xvii, 47. 



