24 The Fait of tin Friars' Houses and Alien Priories in Wilts. 



of tins the bowse in dete iiij 1 '. vij\ vij. d So resteythe iiij u . xviij*. viij a . yt was 

 tvmc to take yt for yt was to far iu abominaeyon 1 have not bard of snob, tbys 

 bowse mvyvotb yerly v 1 *. vj*. and payethe owte xxvj 8 . ob. here is no led but a 

 lytyll stepull I tbinke nott v hundreyd. master yorke earn to me In yo v . name 

 by that token y' I suyd to yowe for the delyverans of a fryer y* I sbold leve 

 bothe the bowse and the stuffe w l hyin and so I have by Indeture as yt ys p'seyd 

 both ebales & other, and he shall see the detts payd." 



He then goes on to say that lie is preparing a book giving a full 

 account of all the houses, and ends thus : — 



" And good tuy lorde yt ys pety to khowe the penury of y e howseys and I 

 thynke ther kowlde no better dede be don than to set ev'y man at lyberte y* wolde 

 goo / for they have no thynge to pinches ther capacytes w 1 / & leve in niysery / 

 All ys solde in more pte off the howseys & ther ebales chauuged into tyn or 

 cop' so y* ther ys no thynge lefte as god kuowy 1 he [who] eu r p's've voir 

 lordschype to bys hey honor 



" You r . oreter & servantt 



"EICHAED DOVEKEI^C^ ,, 



Again, in a letter of the 25th July — place of writing not specified 

 ■ — he uses much the same language. He wishes to know Cromwell's 

 pleasure : — 



*' What I may do w u - the freers that gyffe up their howseys for ther ys so 

 much penure that oder howseys be not abull to kepe them / and I se that almost 

 among x howseys be not ij abull to cotynew an yere / many that I am past be 

 redy to gyffe up in many howseys I am fayu to pay all my eostes & reeeyve 

 nev' a peny they be so pore y l war a eharytabuil dede y l capacytes 1 was cheper 

 so that freeres mvght make schyfte to have them for no eau gett them but p'iors 

 y' 1 sell y e covets goods or lemytors* y l w t:: ther lemytacious purches them." 



This tender-heartedness on Bishop Ingworth's part seems to have 

 convinced Cromwell that he was not the right man for visitor, and 

 so we hud him superseded by Dr. London, a man who did not first 

 visit, then report, then visit again, before suppression, but who 

 visited, suppressed, sold the lease, etc., and then reported, and who 

 did not continually ask questions of Cromwell, or make inconvenient 

 promises to friars. 



Still Bishop Ingworth received the surrender of ]Ma dehor ough. 



1 Capacytes. " Capacities " were permissions granted (for a consideration) to 

 <uch of the religious as were priests to serve as secular clergy. 



- Lemytors. Friars who had the sole right of begging within certain bounds 

 or limits from the house 



