112 CROXDEN ABBEY. 



Canterbury down to 1333 ; and occasional mention of other 

 bishops, &c. 4th The foundation of several Cistercian 

 monasteries. The erection and destruction of various 

 churches, &c. 5th Records of eclipses, earthquakes, comets 

 and stars, storms, years of famine and plenty, and seasons 

 of drought and of wet. 6th A complete series of notices 

 of abbots of Croxden for the first 200 years of the existence 

 of the Abbey, in which the date of the erection of its 

 buildings is accurately defined, and a genealogy of the 

 family of de Verdun, the founders of the Monastery, is given. 

 7th Some account of the author of the Chronicle and of 

 some members of his family. 



William de Schepished took his first vow in A.D. 1288, 

 and was ordained priest of Walsall, by the Bishop of St. 

 Asaph, on the 26th February, 1294, so the annals after 

 this date could not have been compiled by this monk. 

 Some of his relatives were monks, and some of them in 

 his own Abbey. 



We learn from the Chronicle that in 1176 Bertram de 

 Verdun, from pious motives, gave to the monks of Alnet, 

 or Aulney, the land of Chotes to found an abbey to Saint 

 Mary, but, says the Chronicle, it was ordained they should 

 praise the name of the Lord in another place. Chotes 

 is supposed to be the place now called Cawton or Cotton, 

 not far from Croxden. In 1178 the first monks of the 

 monastery must have been brought together. They were 

 all from abroad, but one Thomas, an Englishman, was 

 elected first abbot. In the next year the removal from 

 Chotes to Croxden took place, and in 1181 the place of 

 the Abbey was dedicated. Thomas, the first abbot, elected 

 on the day of Pentecost, 1178, being yet a deacon, presided 

 over the house for fifty-one and a-half years, and although 



