A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE 



The commission laid down the proportions of the pensions to be allowed 

 as follows : 



,_ , r ,- ■ -J Peniion to be 

 V«lue of liTing leized „ j 



. . • allowed 



to the king , . 



£ •■ '• 



Below £S ■ ■ • 



Between £s and £(> 13*. 4'^- 

 Between £b 1 31. ^d. and j|f 10 

 Between ^f 10 and ;^20 



500 

 500 

 600 

 6 13 4 



In accordance with their powers the commissioners on 28 August returned a 

 list of the pensions which they recommended to the chantry priests and 

 schoolmasters of the duchy;"" 



whereupon letters patent are to be made out in due form under the seal of the county 

 Palatine of Lancaster and this warrant subscribed by the said Mildmay and Keylway to 

 be a suflBcient warrant to the Chancellor etc. of the Duchy to make forth the said letters 

 patent. 



Before leaving these pensions there is one question calling for elucida- 

 tion. A pension would in no case be granted before the endowments of 

 the particular chantry had been seized into the king's hands, and had either 

 been sold or let on lease. Thus the Lancashire chantries had been sold 

 or leased before the date of the above-named return, and in all probability 

 before the preceding Easter. A more explicit date cannot, unfortunately, 

 be given."" 



The net result of an examination of the leases and pensions is as follows : — 

 The return as to pensions accounts for sixty-six out of the full total of the 

 sixty-nine chantries within the county. For these sixty-six confiscations 

 there are forty-eight existing leases. Outside these chantries the county con- 

 tained ninety-four chapelries, and there is no existing record of their having 

 been touched at all. The present transaction was intended only as a first 

 instalment. As a commencement the Privy Council had ordered ^5,000 per 

 annum of the chantry rents to be sold, and further instalments followed at 

 later points in the reign ; but there is no record of any further general sale 

 transaction in the county of Lancaster on the lines of that just recorded.'" 

 There is not the slightest proof that chapelries had been touched by 

 Henry VIII, for the only distinctive reference to proceedings on this head in 

 Henry's reign mentions only chantries."' The inevitable conclusion is that 

 the chapelries remained untouched. There are few subjects on which greater 

 confusion of view and error of statement abound than this subject of the 

 chantries. The view ordinarily put forth is as follows : — (i) Henry VIII's 

 suppression of them was prevented by his death ; (2) The suppression was 

 undertaken de novo by Edward VI, and completed within the first and second 

 years of his reign ; (3) Mary restored them ; (4) Elizabeth again suppressed 

 them and seized their revenues ; (5) The pensioned chantry priests became 



uni'" Ji'J''] '^'' °"'° ^"° '^t"""^- '°' r'"^^ '' '''°°^ ^^°<^- A" >ncomplete abstract of it is given in 

 '"' ;,^f' <^:^r'' "' '.°' ■ . ^^^ °"8'°^' " contained in the Duchy Rec. Accts. Var M ^ 



The draft leases still exist (Duchy Rec. Draft Leases, bdles. C & 6) but fhe.^ ^^L j j 



They generally end with the formula, 'Make a lease of the prem ses to A Bfor tw.nT T ^'^^^ 



at Eas^ter, i 5 + 8, paying yearly at terms usual X Y Z rent.' twenty-one years, beginning 



"' There were many separate subsequent commissions relating to individual rha^trl.. , J . l l 



other u.e • " ' '' ' "'"^ "^"^ ^"""^'^ ^= ^'>^°'""' ' '^^ ^id well change divers of them to 



4^ 



