A HISTORY OF SURREY 



of assize amounted to eighty marks ; that the 

 seal was kept in the treasury under four keys, 

 which were in the respective custody of the 

 abbot, the prior, the sub-prior, and one of the 

 senior monks ; and that the monastery was 

 not in debt, nor had it any valuables pledged. 

 Robert Pendu, the prior, stated that silence 

 was observed by the monks in the proper 

 places and times, and that the officials rendered 

 annual accounts of their respective offices. 

 Thomas Grey, the almoner, said that the 

 constitutions of the order of St. Benedict 

 were not read in the chapter house, and 

 that he had heard it said that the house was 

 ;^i,ooo in debt. John Parker, the sub-prior, 

 testified that the house was in debt, but to 

 what extent he knew not, as the abbot during 

 the preceding years had omitted to render his 

 accounts. Thomas Marshall, a monk, re- 

 turned omne bene, save that there was a debt of 

 100 marks for the bull permitting the abbot 

 to be bishop of Bangor. William London, 

 sub-chanter, had heard it said that the house 

 was in debt, but he knew not to what extent. 

 John Batyn, a professed monk in acolite's 

 orders, considered that omne bene save that the 

 constitutions were not read in chapter. Other 

 monks had either nothing to depose or re- 

 turned omne bene} 



The Valor of 1535 gives the clear annual 

 value of the abbey as £659 \$s. 8|(/. 



Dr. Legh was Cromwell's agent in the 

 visitation of this abbey during the rule of 

 John Cordrey, who was elected on the resig- 

 nation of John Parker in 1529.^ Writing 

 on 29 September 1535, he takes exception to 

 the report made at a recent visitation of the 

 Bishop of Winchester and Sir William Fitz- 

 william, undertaken by the king's orders, 

 stating that all was well. He forwarded his 

 ' compertes ' in which he alleged that seven 

 were incontinent, four guilty of unnatural 

 ofiFences, and two apostates.^ It is difficult to 



reconcile this account with the report of the 

 Bishop of Winchester, an experienced mon- 

 astic visitor, reinforced by Sir W. Fitzwilliam, 

 the treasurer of the king's household, little 

 likely to err on the side of indulgence towards 

 such gross irregularities in a religious house, 

 nor did succeeding events bear out the proba- 

 bility of the existence of such immorality. 

 It is impossible to believe that the king would 

 have translated the abbot and convent of 

 Chertsey to so important a new foundation 

 as he eventually did, if he had given general 

 credence to the report of Cromwell's agent.* 

 Moreover Cordrey was placed on the com- 

 mission of the peace for Berks in 1537, so 

 soon as he had removed to Bisham. 



On 5 July 1537, a charter was granted for 

 a new foundation of the late priory of Bisham.^ 

 It was to consist of an abbot and thirteen 

 monks of the Benedictine order, who were to 

 pray for the good estate of the king, and of 

 his consort. Queen Jane, and its style was to 

 be ' King Henry the Eighth's new monastery 

 of Holy Trinity of Bustelesham.' Of this 

 foundation John Cordrey was to be the first 

 abbot with the privilege of wearing a mitre.* 



The following day, 6 July, Chertsey Abbey 

 was surrendered by John Cordrey, the abbot, 

 William the prior, and thirteen of the 

 brethren. Their deed of surrender^ recites 

 unmistakably that they did so on the under- 

 standing that the king intended to re-establish 

 them at Bisham. 



On 18 December 1537 the late com- 

 munity of Chertsey entered their new home, 

 endowed with the lands of their late abbey as 

 well as those of the dissolved priories of 

 Cardigan, Beddgelert, etc. Six months later 

 Richard Layton, writing to Cromwell, de- 

 scribes the state of poverty in which he found 

 the house of Bisham. It had not existed long 

 enough to receive the new revenues. ' Plate and 

 household stuff very little, I had to borrow a 



' Canterbury Sede Vacante Register. 



2 In the same year of his resignation John Parker 

 granted the manor of Mylton or Middleton, with 

 100 acres of land, 200 acres of pasture, and a vpater- 

 mill in Egham and Thorpe to the Bishop of Win- 

 chester at his request for the benefit of Corpus 

 Christi College, Oxford, and its scholars. Exch. 

 K. R. Misc. Bks. 25, f. 245. 



3 Dr. Legh's report goes on to state that among 

 the abbey relics was the arm-bone of St. Blasius, 

 through which they gave wine in cases of illness ; 

 there was also an image of St. Faith before which 

 they placed a candle on behalf of sick persons, and 

 maintained that if the candle remained lighted 

 till it was consumed the sick person would recover, 

 but if it went out he would die (L. and P. Hen. 

 nil., Lx. 472). 



* Probably there was a lack of agreement among 

 the brethren, and on i November of the same year 

 six of the monks sent a joint letter to complain of 

 the abbot's ' mis-doings,' and to beg that Crom- 

 well would consider their case. They stated that 

 since the visitation he had sold wood, and was 

 bargaining away Chobham Park, had conveyed 

 away the plate, and whereas he had stated in his 

 letter that the portership had been given away, 

 which ' you requested,' it had not been granted 

 under the common seal (ibid. ix. 736). 



= An old house of Austin Canons in Berkshire 

 which had been dissolved and granted to the king 

 by William Barlow, Bishop of St. David's, the late 

 commendatory prior, on 5 June 1536. 



• Ibid. xii. (2) 1311 (22). 



' Court of Aug. Surrenders, No. 54. 



62 



