A HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND 



told Cromwell that ' this man, in whos favor 

 ye writ to me of, hayth beyn prior at Lincoln 

 and at seynt Martin's, parcell of our monas- 

 terie, who alwey hayth beyn of such ordre, 

 condicions and liberalte that he thereby 

 brought our house to great dettes and other 

 cherges and vexacions.' On representations 

 from Cromwell, Matthew was transferred to 

 the priory of St. Martin near Richmond. 

 Sir George Lawson, in support of the abbot's 

 action, told the secretary that the prior was 

 ' a verey yll husband as hath bene well 

 proved at Lincoln, Saynt Martyn's and Seynt 

 Bees where he hathe bene prior. And now 

 of late gret complayntes cumyng of extorcion 

 and other gret urgent wronges done at Saynt 

 Bees to the tenauntes and inhabitantes ther. 

 Wherapon on Saynt Calixt daye last, at the 

 generall chapiter yerely holden at Saynt Mary 

 abbey, as the usuall custume is, when all the 

 priors of the celles and other hede officers of 

 the said Monasterie dothe assemble to see and 

 aview the state and accomptes of the same, 

 knowing the demeanor and yll husbandrye 

 of the said Dan John, exchanged and re- 

 voked hym from Saynt Bees. And yete when 

 he shuld have bene a conventuall, for your 

 sake and favour of your former letter, named 

 hym to be prior of Saynt Martynes, a propir 

 Celle nye unto Richemond and a reasonable 

 good liffing, whiche he cold never obtayne 

 but in your favour. And now it is reported 

 unto you that he shuld be otherwise entreated, 

 whiche of a suretie is not so, but my lord 

 abbott dothe and woll do at your complenta- 

 cion all that reasonably is to be done. And 

 yete his brethren and covent is sore sett 

 against the said dan John Mathew for his 

 mysdemeanour many wayes.' Sir George 

 urged Cromwell ' to give no credens to any 

 person that shall make suite or labour agaynst 

 my said lord abbott, for it hath not bene sene 

 that any perpetuite hath bene graunted undir 

 covent scale to such like person ' as ' Dan 

 John Mathew, late prior of Saynt Bees, with- 

 out a special and urgent cause and a man 

 proved of good demeanour and husbandrye 

 for the well of his house.' Robert Cokett, 

 a kinsman of the deposed prior, denied all the 

 charges made against him, and appealed ' to 

 ye gentyllmen and yomen in ye cowntre with 

 all ye honest men yerin ' in proof of John 

 Matthew's honesty and good behaviour. 1 At 



the dissolution of the religious houses John 

 Matthew was a cloister monk of St. Mary's, 

 York, and received a pension of 6 13*. $d. 2 

 It is evident that Prior Matthew was per- 

 manently deposed, for John Poule was in- 

 cumbent of St. Bees in 1535 when the 

 ecclesiastical survey was made. 3 



The clouds had burst over the religious 

 houses and the end was drawing near. Priors 

 were made or unmade as it suited the royal 

 will. The last prior of St. Bees was Robert 

 Paddy, who caused a memorandum to be 

 entered on the flyleaf of the chartulary of his 

 house that he had agreed with Christopher 

 Lyster for all manner of labour, debts, pay- 

 ments, wages and covenants from the begin- 

 ning of the world till Michaelmas Day 1538, 

 and that the said Christopher had undertaken 

 to pay at the following Martinmas his yearly 

 rent with all fines due to the said Prior 

 Robert from his entry or coming to the priory. 

 The prior of St. Bees was suspected of com- 

 plicity with the ' Pilgrimage of Grace.' Wil- 

 liam, Abbot of York, wrote to Cromwell early 

 in 1537 that he had sent Dan Robert Paddy 

 ' to his room,' but was afraid of what might 

 befall him on the journey. 'I sent him thither,' 

 he said, ' and as it is surmised he should be 

 lettyd by ye commons in these parts in his rid- 

 ing thither un knowledge or writing of me.' * 



The king's agents in 1536 were unable to 

 find cause of complaint against the prior, and 

 though efforts were made to connect him with 

 the northern rebellion, nothing seems to have 

 come of it. The only evil report made by 

 the commissioners was that two of the monks, 

 John Clyffton and John Fullscroft, were 

 accused of personal depravity. When the 

 priory was surrendered Robert Paddy, the 

 last prior, received an annual pension 6 of 

 40, the warrant being dated 3 June, 1538. 

 In his survey of the monastery at the time 

 of the dissolution James Rokeby, auditor of 

 the Court of Augmentations, thus described 8 

 the priory precincts : ' The scite of the late 

 house, with a towre koveryd w* lead called 

 the Yatehouse, and other edificez with garth- 

 ings lienge within the utter walls, contenyng 

 one acre and di. (a half) and is worth by the 

 yere over and above the reparacons, w' one 

 dufe cote w*in the same scite, v 8 .' 



On 21 November, 1541, Thomas Leighe 

 was granted a lease 7 for twenty-one years of 



1 These three letters from the L. and P. Hen. 

 Vlll. vi. 746, 1359, vii. 295, have been printed 

 as an appendix to a lecture given by the writer 

 before the Carlisle Literary and Scientific Society 

 in March, 1898, and will be found in the Society's 

 Transactions. 



182 



2 Dugdale, Man. iii. 569. 



3 Valor Eccl. (Rec. Com.), v. 1 1. 



* L. and P. Hen. Vlll. xii. (i.) 132, 133, 640. 

 s Ibid. xiv. (i.) 60 1. 

 6 Dugdale, Man. iii. 578-9. 

 L. and P. Hen. Vlll. xvi. 728. 



