A HISTORY OF NOTTINGHAMSHIRE 



John Lessbryke, a professed canon of Welbeck, 

 who had become a Trinitarian friar of Thels- 

 ford, \V'arwickshire. The abbot declared that 

 he left them to aim at the perfecting of a 

 better life, that he was free from any obligation 

 to their house and order, and they to him.*^ 



Another letter, addressed to the same abbot in 

 1458, affords proof of the possession of a most 

 tender conscience by one of the beneficed 

 secular clergy. Thomas Hill, rector of Chester- 

 ford, Essex, wrote to the abbot at some length, 

 about two books, the one a breviary [bihliam 

 portativam) and the other a book of the Arch- 

 bishop of Genoa on the Sunday Gospels.*' 

 These two books Hill had borrowed from 

 Richard Scott, formerly a chaplain of the 

 Archbishop of Canterbury, but (as he after- 

 wards heard) one William Danyell left them to 

 the monastery of Welbeck. Through the in- 

 fluence of Scott and other friends. Hill obtained 

 possession of these two volumes in 1420 from 

 the then Abbot and Convent of Welbeck by 

 purchase, paying for them dos. Hill writes to 

 say that he was at that time young and given to 

 worldly gain, but that since he has been led to 

 think that he did not give a sufficiently good 

 price for the books, and he is willing either to 

 return the books on receipt of £2 or to pay to 

 the convent another 20i. so that the books should 

 remain at his disposition. On receipt of a 

 message under their seal, the zos. would be for- 

 warded. If his proposals were not pleasing, he 

 would arrange to charge his executors after his 

 death to hand the books to an accredited 

 messenger on receipt of the 6of., but otherwise 

 to sell the books for the best price they could 

 obtain, and to forward the balance to Welbeck. 

 He was directing his executors to spend the bos. 

 for the good of his soul, that is in masses. The 

 old rector is careful to tell the abbot his exact 

 address ; he was 7 miles beyond Cambridge and 

 2 miles distant from Saffron Walden. He adds, 

 out of the kindness of his heart, that if there 

 was any scholar from their parts reading at Cam- 

 bridge, who was accustomed to pay occasional 

 visits to parents or friends in Nottinghamshire, 

 he would be glad to entertain him at Chesterford 

 Rectory, which would be a less expense.** 



The most interesting man who appears in 

 connexion with the Premonstratensian order in 

 England during the 15th century was the zealous 

 official, Richard Redman, abbot of the small 

 house of Shap in Westmorland. At an early 



" Coll. Angh-Premon. iii, 175. 



" Librum Jannevsis in suo Cathoricon. This was 

 a popular collection of 13th-century sermons by 

 Jacobus de V^oragine, Archbishop of Genoa (i.e. 

 Gennensis, usually corrupted into Jannensis). When 

 printing came in, this book passed through nine 

 editions before the end of the 15th century, it was 

 found so usefiil to preachers. 



" Coll. Anglo-Premon. iii, 176-7. 



age he was appointed commissary-general by 

 Simon Abbot of YxkmonvL We first meet 

 with him in connexion with Welbeck in 1458. 

 Writing on 1 1 September, Redman warns 

 Abbot Greene of Welbeck to present the sub- 

 sidies due from him for the past and present 

 years at the visitation which he proposed to hold 

 at that abbey on 9 December. He ordered that 

 dinner should be provided for him and his suite at 

 Papplewick, adding that he expected to be thence 

 safely conducted by the right road to Welbeck, 

 which he hoped to reach in time for supper.*' 

 Papplewick lies about 8 miles north of Notting- 

 ham. From thence to Welbeck is 13 miles as 

 the crow flies. At that period the abbot would 

 have to pass through the densest part of Sher- 

 wood Forest, leaving the Austin Priory of New- 

 stead on his left hand and the Cistercian Abbey 

 of Rufford on his right. The way could not 

 fail to be intricate, and we wonder at his courage 

 in undertaking it after dinner (probably at noon) 

 in the depth of winter. He naturally suggested 

 that he should be conducted from Papplewick, 

 for this was his first visitation, and in all proba- 

 bility he had not previously traversed the great 

 forest. 



It was not, however, until I October 1466 

 that Redman was formally appointed visitor of 

 all the houses of the order in the British Isles ; 

 at that date the commission as visitor granted to 

 the Abbot of Bayham was cancelled because he 

 had wholly neglected its duties.*' Redman was 

 consecrated Bishop of St. Asaph in 1471, trans- 

 lated to Exeter in 1496 and to Ely in 150 1, 

 dying in 1505. During all that period he was 

 allowed to be Abbot of Shap in commendam, and 

 he also acted with much zeal and diligence as 

 vicar-general to the Abbot of Prdmontr^. He 

 visited, as a rule, each house of the order every 

 three years. 



In Redman's register particulars are given of 

 eleven of his visits to Welbeck, which occurred 

 in the years 1462, 1472, 1475, 1478, 1480, 

 1482, 1488, 149 I, 1494, 1497, and 1500. 



On 6 May 1462 Bishop Redman, visitor of 

 the White Canons of England, Wales, Scotland, 

 and Ireland, on behalf of the Abbot of Pr^- 

 montr^, made his formal visitation of Welbeck. 

 He found nothing of which to complain save 

 slight breaches of the rule of silence. Con- 

 trariwise, he entered in his register unstinted 

 praise of the way in which the divine oflfices 

 were conducted {ad unguem perfectos) day and 

 night, under the most serene rule of their vener- 

 able abbot, who himself day by day observed the 

 rule with the most faithful minuteness, truly 

 bearing in all things the burden and heat of the 

 day. The visitor was so much struck with the 



** Coll. Anglo-Premon. i, 67-8. The levy expected to 

 be paid yearly to Premontr^ by Welbeck about this 

 time was 66s. %d. ; ibid, i, 76. 



« Ibid. 73-4. 



134 



