ODSEY HUNDRED 



On 1 6 January 1 5 3 9-40 Abbot Boston and twenty- 

 four monks surrendered the 

 abbey of Westminster to 

 Henry VIII. 111 Eleven months 

 later that king erected the 

 short-lived bishopric of West- 

 minster, turning the abbey 

 into a cathedral, and in 

 January 1540-1 Ashwell was 

 included in the endowment of 

 the new bishop, 20 Thomas 

 Thirlby, formerly Dean of 

 the King's Chapel. But on 

 29 March 1550 Thirlby re- 

 signed the bishopric of West- 

 minster into the hands of 

 Edward VI, who dissolved it, translating Thirlby to 



30 acres, ' 



: held 



A b s s v. Gules she 

 trussed keys of Ss. Peter 

 ■wish the ring of St. Ed- 

 ward in the chief all or. 



and that there was a lime kiln 

 on the demesne lands valued 

 at £30 per annum. Court 

 leet and court baron were at 

 this time held at the parson- 

 age. 24 On 19 March 1648-9 

 the trustees sold the manor to 

 Thomas Challoner of Steeple 

 Claydon, Bucks., for £416 

 9/. zd. ib When the bishops 

 were reinstated at the Resto- 

 ration Ashwell was restored 

 to the see of London, and so 

 remained until 1868, when, 

 in accordance with the 

 Ecclesiastical Commissioners 



ASHWELL 

 1 lease by Jeremiah Whitacre, 



Gules the cms. 

 tfSu Paul. 



Act of i860, the 



Norwich. 81 Ashwell Manor was granted a fort- 

 night later by the king to his nominee Nicholas 

 Ridley, Bishop of London, 52 on his installation as 

 successor to Bishop Bonner. The accession of Queen 

 Mary brought about the deprivation of Ridley and 

 the reinstatement of Bonner (5 August 1553) and 

 in March 1554 a new grant of the manor of Ashwell 

 was made to Bishop Bonner and his successors in the 

 see of London. 23 At the time of the appropriation 

 of the bishops' lands by Parliament during the great 

 Civil War Ashwell was taken from Bishop Juxon and 

 a complete survey of the manor was made by order of 

 the trustees for the bishopric in June 1 647. It was 

 then reported that the demesne lands, consisting of 



voldanee of the see on the translation of the Rev. 

 Archibald Campbell Tait, D.D., Bishop of London, 

 to the see of Canterbury in 1868 was taken as the 

 opportunity for transferring the lands of the bishopric 

 to the Ecclesiastical Commissioners. 26 The latter 

 continue to be lords of this manor. 



Two mills were appurtenant to the abbot's manor 

 of Ashwell in 1086, one held by him in demesne and 

 one held of him by Peter de Valognes. 37 The 

 Ministers' Accounts of the 13th and 14th centuries 

 contain frequent references to a water mill and a horse 

 mill (or windmill) in Ashwell and the necessity for their 

 repair. 28 In 1198 we hear of a man and a woman 

 being ' drowned in the pool of the mill of Ashwell.' 2B 



19 Dugdale, Mots. 



a Ibid 



1 M:„ 



4 Edw. VI, pt. !v, . 



■ ■ *ry, Pt- '*> «>• »9- 

 "Add. MS. 3768a, fsl. xi. 

 !S Close, 164.9, P l - kIv 'i m - 3 6 i 

 MS. 9049, fol. ix. 



13 *> 



" Ret. Cur. Stg. (Rec. Com), i, 

 26 



