284 INGRAM CHURCH 



pronouncing that this has been a chantry chapel, and the 

 closeness with which it has been found packed with human 

 remains, when the heating apparatus was placed beneath the 

 floor there, strengthens this view. Moreover, this may account 

 for the alienation from the Rectory of half the tithes of 

 Reaveley Manor, — that they had been appropriated to the 

 benefit of the chantry priest. 



This living had never been given to any Religious House, 

 as its neighbours North and South, Ilderton and Alnham, had 

 to Kirkham Priory, and Eglingham to St. Alban's, of which 

 parishes almost all the tithes, confiscated together with those 

 houses by Henry VIII., were sold by King James I. This 

 continued all along a Rectory, and as such was successively 

 valued : — " Temp: Hen: III. Innocent's Valor 20 Marc: " i.e. 

 in 1254. "Temp: Edw^ III. Nonaram Inquisitions £53 6s. 8d." 

 i.e. in 1340.^ "The Rectory paid to Cardinal Talairand at 

 4d. per mark £1 6s. 8d. in 1357." "Valor Eccles: 1534 

 Temp: Hen: VIII. Yngrame Rectoria valor per ann: clar: £24 

 16s. 5d. C?) X^^- inde 49s. 8d." ^ This latter valuation has continued 

 in force ever since, each successive Rector having had to pay the 

 former amount as first-fruits upon his induction, and the latter 

 annually as tenths to Queen Anne's Bounty. The great 

 reduction in value, being more than half of the whole, that took 

 place in the interim between the last two valuations, cannot 

 fail to be observed, and call for explanation. All property near 

 the Border fell very much in value at that period in consequence 

 of the frequent marauding incursions that de\'astated it more or 

 less ; and if, besides this, part of the tithes were in the latter 

 half of the 14th century, as I imagine they were, alienated for 

 the endowment of a chantry, which was a practice still continuing, 

 the reduction is accounted for. 



The suppression of the chantries began in the third year of 

 Edward VI., and commissions were issued forthwith to carry 

 this out, and take inventories of their goods and endowments ; 



* Cf. Rev. John Hodgson's History of Northumberland, Part ui., Vol. 

 ni., p, xi. — Ed. 



9 Ibid. Part ni., Vol. ni., p. xliv.— Ed. 



