A HISTORY OF NOTTINGHAMSHIRE 



in executions for high treason. The cords used 

 for the preliminary hanging were especially stout 

 and heavy, in order to avoid the possibility of 

 fatal strangling before the subsequent butchery 

 could be achieved. Whilst life was still in them, 

 they were ripped up in each other's presence, 

 their bodies obscenely mutilated, their hearts 

 ' cut out and rubbed into their mouths and faces,' 

 and all this before the process of quartering was 

 begun.^^ 



Meanwhile the Carthusians of the mother 

 house were treated with either blandishments or 

 terrible threats in order to secure by any possible 

 means their yielding to acknowledgement of the 

 supremacy. The more obstinate of them were 

 placed in prison, either in the Tower or in New- 

 gate, heavily chained upright to posts under cir- 

 cumstances of diabolical cruelty. No wonder 

 that under such a punishment several of them 

 died. We need not be surprised that the general 

 determination of the Carthusians to be true to 

 their original vows gave way in not a few cases. 

 A new prior was required to take the place in 

 London of the martyred Houghton, who, it will 

 be remembered, came from Beauvale. It was 

 another monk of Beauvale, William TrafFord, 

 who was selected by Cromwell to fill the place. 

 How he came to give way and submit to be thus 

 cajoled cannot now be explained. The truer- 

 hearted of the London Carthusians quietly re- 

 sented his intrusion. Chauncey (being himself, 

 as he acknowledges, one of the partial time- 

 servers) says of TrafFord's brief period of adminis- 

 tration that ' being deprived of a prior exterior to 

 ourselves, every man's conscience was his prior.' 

 Trafford's submission is the more remarkable 

 as he had been singularly bold in proclaiming his 

 refusal to acknowledge the supremacy when 

 Sir John Markham and other special commis- 

 sioners visited Beauvale to ' take the value.' 

 TraiFord, as proctor of the convent, was then in 

 charge, for the prior was in safe custody in the 

 Tower, awaiting his trial. Addressing Markham 

 on this occasion the proctor said, 'I believe 

 firmly that the Pope of Rome is supreme head 

 of the Church Catholic' On the commissioners 

 asking him if he would abide by his words, he 

 replied ' Usque ad mortem.' He also went so far 

 as to commit his words to writing, and Markham 

 carried the paper away and left the monk to the 

 special custody of the sheriff of the county.'" 



The clear annual value of this Carthusian 

 monastery was just under the ;f 200 which was 

 the limit for the suppression of the lesser monas- 

 teries ; but by paying the heavy fine of 

 fi66 jy. 4.d. the monks of Beauvale obtained 

 the doubtful privilege of deferring the evil day 

 of their dissolution. This bargain was effected 

 on 2 January 1537-8.'^ Thomas Woodcock 



" S.P. Spanish, v, 452-3, 474, 517, 521, 539. 

 '" L. and P. Hen. VIII, viii, 560. 

 " Ibid, xiii (3), 457- 



had been appointed prior by the Crown on 

 16 December 1537.'^ 



The surrender of this house, and of all its 

 possessions in the counties of Nottingham, Lin- 

 coln, and Derby, took place on 18 July 1539. 

 It received the signatures of Thomas Woodcock, 

 prior, and of seven other monks, John Langdale, 

 William Welles, Alexander Lowthe, Edmund 

 Garner, Robert Gowton (proctor), Thomas 

 Leyghton, and Thomas Wallis. The surrendei 

 was delivered to Dr. London, the king's commis- 

 sioner, in the chapter-house.'' 



London, writing from Nottingham on 24 July, 

 certified that he had granted the following pen- 

 sions to the ' Charterhouse of Bew Vale ' : — 

 Thomas Woodcock, prior, ^26 13J. 4^. ; John 

 Langford, ^^6 ; W. Welles, A. Lowthe, E. 

 Garnett, and R. Gowton, £^ 6s. 8d. each ; 

 Nicholas Dookmer, T. Leyghton, and Thomas 

 Wallis, £5 each. In addition to these, 401. 

 each was assigned to two lay brothers, Richard 

 Wakefield and Richard Bynde, described as 

 ' converse and aged men.' '* 



In another letter from London, dated 27 July 

 and addressed to Cromwell, he tells the Lord 

 Privy Seal that on visiting Beauvale for the sur- 

 render he found the prior in short gown and 

 velvet cap ready for their coming, and the 

 proctor of the house in like apparel next day." 

 Woodcock was evidently one of those time- 

 serving monks chosen by Cromwell to be prior, 

 to serve his own ends. 



With regard to the eventual fete of the sur- 

 viving Carthusians of Beauvale, we know of the 

 survival of one till old age. Nicholas Dugmer 

 (or Dookmer), a Beauvale monk, who eventually 

 followed Prior Chauncey across the seas, died on 

 10 December 1575.'° 



The manor of Etwall was granted by the 

 Crown to Sir John Porte in 1540;'^ but the 

 site of the priory and the rest of its possessions 

 in 1 54 1 to Sir William Huse of London.'* 



There is a sulphur cast of an impression of 

 the original seal of this priory at the British 

 Museum." It represents Our Lord seated in a 

 canopied niche, with cruciform nimbus, lifting 

 up the right hand in benediction, and holding 

 in the left hand an orb surmounted by a long 

 cross. At the base a monk kneels in prayer 

 under a round-headed arch. Legend : — 



s : COMUNE : domus : belle : vall' : 



ORD' : CAR. . 



" Pat. 28 Hen. VIII, pt. iv, m. 17. 

 " Rymer, loedera, xiv, 660 ; Dep. Keeper's Rep. 

 viii, App. ii, 9. 



" L. and P. Hen. VIII, xiv (i), 131 3. 



" Ibid. 1323. 



" Gasquet, Hen. VIII and the Engl. Mm. ii, 486. 



" Pat. 31 Hen. VIII, pt. v, m. 17. 



** Pat. 33 Hen. VIII, pt. viii, m. 25-7. 



" Casts of Seals, Ixx, 33. 



108 



