v 



3 OS The Fall of the Wiltshire Monasteries. 



agayne, and yesterday had aunswo 1 ' from thens that thabbatt as yet yi 

 at London, we trust to fynish the reste of the buysynes by yo r Lordishipp(|j 

 eoraytted unto us before Easter, and soo w* as moche spede as we may to waytt j 11 

 uppon yowe and declare the full of all o r procedyngs herein. Thus prayer^! §; 

 Allmyghtie god to have yo r Lordishippe in his moste bless} d kepyng froir 

 Ambresbury the xxx th of March. 



Yo r Lordships most bownden 



" John Teegonwell. ijj 

 Yo r Lordyshipps most bownden 



beadsman and servaunt | * 



" William Petee. 

 Yo 1 ' Lordschipps allewayes most bounden ; | 



" John Smyth. : [| t 



mm 



At the end of four months, however, their pressure so far pre- \ \ 

 vailed that the prioress announced her resignation " at the King's. I 

 bidding." 1 A successor was appointed — in all probability a merei J 

 figure-head to cany out the royal will — and on the 4th of December 1 

 1539, the house was suppressed, the then prioress, Johan Darroll, [ 1 

 receiving a pension of £100 a year, and thirty-three of her sisters! i 

 being also pensioned. }| 



On December 15th Malmesbury surrendered, Eobert Frampton, 

 alias Selwin, the abbot, receiving 200 marks a year, and twenty-four 

 monks sums varying from £13 6s. M. to £6. 



Thus on December 15th, 1539, fell the last, the richest, and -I 

 perhaps the greatest of the Wiltshire monasteries. It only remains 

 to glance briefly at the way in which the immense mass of wealth, 

 whether in land or yearly revenue of all kinds, which had be- 

 longed to the dissolved monasteries, was dealt with. In the first I 

 instance, all monastic property surrendered to the King, came as 

 a matter of course into the Court of Augmentations, and was 

 administered so long as the estates actually remained in the King's 

 hands, by royal officials, whose accounts are still preserved in the 

 Augmentation Office. But one by one they were granted either 

 altogether or piecemeal to courtiers or speculators. Thus, we find 

 that the possessions of the abbey of Lacock were administered by the 

 King's officials during the year or so between January 21st, 1539, 

 the date of the surrender, and (probably) July 16th, 1540, the date 



Cromwell Correspondence, i., 90. 



